FOURTH NIGHT—THURSDAY, JUNE 16.
Mr. THOMPSON said that before proceeding to the subject decided upon for that evening's discussion, he must, in justice to himself and his cause, offer a remark or two. He had on the previous evening been struck with surprise at the extraordinary injustice of charging him (Mr. T.) with quoting unfairly from the letter of Mr. Breckinridge in the New-York Evangelist. It must have been obvious to all, that in the first instance, he quoted from memory, but all would recollect with the avowed wish of avoiding misrepresentation, he had gone to his table—produced the letter, and read the passage entire without the omission or interpolation of a letter or a comma. He, therefore, emphatically denied the charge of garbling. Mr. Breckinridge did himself, immediately afterwards, read the passage, and read it precisely as he (Mr. Thompson) had read it. The imputation, therefore, was equally unfounded and unfair. He (Mr. T.) was thankful that his argument needed not such help. It would be as absurd as it would be wicked for him to attempt to support his cause by any garbled statement.
He begged also that it might be distinctly understood that he had by no means exhausted the evidence in his possession on the subject of Colonization. He could adduce a thousand times as much as that which had been already brought forward. He had much to say of the colony at Liberia; the means taken to establish it, the nature of the climate, the character of the emigrants, the mortality amongst the settlers, how much it had done towards the suppression of the slave trade, &c. In fact, he was prepared with overwhelming evidence upon every branch of the subject, and was willing to return to it at any moment, confident that the arguments he could produce, and the facts by which he could support them, would, in the estimation of the public, destroy forever the claim of the Colonization Society to be considered a pure, peaceful, or benevolent institution. I now, (said Mr. T.) come to the topic immediately before us.
It is my solemn and responsible duty to bring before you to-night the principles and measures of a large, respectable, and powerful body in the United States, known by the name of Immediate Abolitionists. A body of individuals embracing not fewer than fifteen hundred ministers of the gospel, and men of the highest station and largest attainments. A body of persons that have been charged upon this platform with being a handful, "so small that they could not obtain their object, and so erroneous (despicable was, I believe, the word used) as not to deserve success,"—charged with being the enemies of the slave-holder—taking him by the throat, and saying "you great thieving, man-stealing villain, unless you instantly give your slaves liberty, I will pitch you out of this third-story window,"—charged with carrying in their track a pestilence like a storm of fire and brimstone from hell; forcing ministers of religion to seek peaceful villages not yet blasted by it,—charged with saying that they were sent from God, when they possessed the fury of demons,—charged, finally, with having "thrown the cause" of emancipation "a hundred years farther back than it was five years ago." These are fearful indictments, and Mr. Breckinridge has a weighty duty to fulfil to-night, for he is bound to sustain them. They have been brought by himself, a Christian minister, the professed friend of the slave; and he must, therefore, abundantly support them by incontrovertible evidence, or stand branded before the world as the worst foe of human freedom—the foul calumniator of the friends and advocates of the oppressed, the suffering, and the dumb.
He would lay the principles of the American abolitionists before the audience in the words of their solemn and official documents. He would go back to the commencement of the five years mentioned by his opponent, and read from the "Constitution 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 constitution, 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 pass on to the formation of the National Anti-Slavery Society, in December, 1833, and submit all that was material in the "Constitution 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 Constitution 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 God; and that the duty, safety, and best interest of all concerned, require its immediate abandonment, without expatriation. The Society will also endeavor, in a constitutional 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 Constitution, who contributes to the funds of this Society, and is not a slave-holder, may be a member of this Society, and shall be entitled to a vote at its meetings."
He would next read the "Preamble" to the Constitution of the New-Hampshire State Anti-Slavery Society:
"The most high God 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 ungodly lust; 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 institutions into contempt among other nations, thus retarding 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 God, to do all we can to end this oppression, and to secure an immediate and entire emancipation 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 emancipation 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 "constitutions" 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 documents 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 unconstitutional."
"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 constitutions, laws, and institutions, 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 constitution 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 document 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. COX, M. D., Rec. Sec.
LEWIS TAPPAN, Member of the Executive Committee.
JOSHUA LEAVITT, Member of the Executive Committee.
SAMUEL E. CORNISH, Member of the Executive Committee.
SIMEON S. JOCELYN, Member of the Executive Committee.
THEODORE S. WRIGHT, Member of the Executive Committee.
New-York, September 3, 1835."
The other document to which he had referred, was an "Address" adopted at "A meeting of the Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts Society, and others concurring generally in its principles. He (Mr. T.) would only quote a few brief passages.
"We are charged with violating, or wishing to violate, the Constitution 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 God to every man. We know of no clause in the Constitution 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 Constitution 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 emancipate 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 God, 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 Constitution 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 Constitution 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 institutions, 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 illustration 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 emancipation principles of Massachusetts, and New-Hampshire and Maine. How came it to pass, 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 compassionate suffering wherever on the face of the earth they existed. This world belonged to God; 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 God'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 principal 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 classes, which now so lamentably prevails through all the States of America; and to regard as a principal 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 circumstances 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 documents 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 petition 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 petition, 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 institutions, 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 petition 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 emancipation 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 God's rational, accountable, and immortal creatures. He (Mr. T.) knew, however, that the Society could assume all colors, and preach all kinds of doctrines. At one time it was promoting emancipation, 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 pass, that they had the love and confidence of that entire class 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 gratitude 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 Massachusetts; 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.
To return to the Anti-Slavery Societies of the United States. He (Mr. T.) knew them to be composed of the finest and purest elements in the country. They were numerous and powerful. It would soon be proved that, with the blessing of God, they were omnipotent. Knowing the piety, intelligence, wealth, and energy of the abolitionists of America, it required some effort to be calm when Mr. Breckinridge stood before a British audience and compared them to Falstaff's ragged regiment. The Society of Kentucky might be small in regard to numbers. He believed, however, they were highly respectable. He referred to Mr. J. G. Birney on this point. Mr. Breckinridge might represent on the present occasion, if it pleased him, the abolitionists of his (Mr. B's) country as beggarly, odious, and despicable: but if he lived to revisit England (and he hoped he might) he believed he would then have to find some other illustration of their character, numbers and appearance, than the ragged regiment of Shakspeare's Falstaff.
Having stated the principles of the Anti-Slavery Societies in America, he would exhibit, in the words of the Philadelphia declaration of sentiments, their mode of operations. The National Society, formed during the convention, thus made known to the world its intended course of action:—
We shall organize Anti-Slavery Societies, if possible, in every city, town and village in our land.
We shall send forth Agents to lift up the voice of remonstrance, of warning, of entreaty and rebuke.
We shall circulate, unsparingly, and extensively, anti-slavery tracts and periodicals.
We shall enlist the "Pulpit" and the "Press" in the cause of the suffering and the dumb.
We shall aim at a purification of the churches from all participation in the guilt of slavery.
We shall encourage the labor of freemen rather than that of the slaves, by giving a preference to their productions: and
We shall spare no exertions nor means to bring the whole nation to speedy repentance.
Our trust for victory is solely in GOD. We may be personally defeated, but our principles never. Truth, Justice, Reason, Humanity, must and will gloriously triumph. Already a host is coming up to the help of the Lord against the mighty, and the prospect before us is full of encouragement.
Submitting this declaration to the candid examination of the people of this country, and of the friends of liberty throughout the world, we hereby affix our signatures to it; pledging ourselves that, under the guidance and by the help of Almighty God, we will do all that in us lies, consistently with this Declaration of our principles, to overthrow the most execrable system of slavery that has ever been witnessed upon earth; to deliver our land from its deadliest curse; to wipe out the foulest stain which rests upon our national escutcheon; and to secure to the colored population of the United States all the rights and privileges which belong to them as men and as Americans—come what may to our persons, our interests, or our reputations—whether we live to witness the triumph of Liberty, Justice, and Humanity, or perish untimely as martyrs in this great, benevolent and holy cause.
Signed in the Adelphi Hall, in the City of Philadelphia,
on the 6th day of December, A. D. 1833.
True to the pledges given in this declaration, the abolitionists had printed, preached, and prayed without ceasing. As a proof of what they were doing in one department of their work, he would exhibit a number of newspapers, tracts, pamphlets, and other periodicals, which were in circulation throughout the country. Mr. Thompson then produced copies of the "Slaves Friend," "Anti-Slavery Records," "Anti-Slavery Anecdotes," "Human Rights," "Emancipator," "Liberator," "New-York Evangelist," "Zion's Herald," "Zion's Watchman," "Philadelphia Independent Weekly Press," "Herald of Freedom," "Lynn Record," "New England Spectator," &c., and an "Anti-Slavery Quarterly," edited by Professor Wright, the Secretary of the National Society, and distinguished by considerable literary talent. These were amongst the means pursued by the Abolitionists. They were peaceful and honorable means, and under God, would prove effectual to bring the blood-cemented fabric of Slavery to the ground. Other than moral and constitutional means, the abolitionists sought not to employ. Their's would not be the glory reaped upon the crimson field amidst the carnage and the din of war. Their victory would not be a victory achieved by the use of carnal weapons, effecting the freedom of one man by the destruction of another. Their victory would be a victory won by the potency of principles drawn from the Gospel of the Prince of Peace—their glory the glory of those who had obtained a bloodless conquest over the consciences and hearts of men. In the full conviction that the principles he (Mr. Thompson) had that night maintained, were the principles of the word of God, he would still prosecute the work to which he had for some years devoted himself. He called upon those around him to be true to those principles, and to continue zealously to advocate them, and leave the consequences in the hands of God. Let the friends of human rights again rally under the banner which had aforetime led them to battle—under which they had together fought and together triumphed—and to remember that the motto inscribed upon its ample folds—a motto which, though oft abused, had oft sustained them in the hour of conflict—was, Fiat Justicia ruat Cœlum.
Mr. Breckinridge rose. Having taken a good many notes of what Mr. Thompson had said in the speech now delivered, he was prepared for replying, if an opportunity were presented after he should have finished saying what seemed to him more pertinent to the subject in hand. In the meantime, he would introduce what he had now to say by reading another version of the events which had been represented as one of Mr. Thompson's triumphs at Boston.
Mr. May introduced a resolution denouncing the Colonization Society as unworthy of patronage, because it disseminates opinions unfavorable to the interest of the colored people.
Mr. Gurley replied. He finished the consideration of Mr. May's objections, went into an exposition of the advantages of the Colonization Society, and contrasted its claims with those of the Anti-Slavery Society. In doing this, he exhibited a handbill, having a large cut of a negro in chains, with some inflammatory sentences under it. Here he was interrupted by hisses, which were answered by clapping. Mr. George Thompson rose and attempted to address the meeting. This increased the confusion, Cries of "sit down—shame—be silent—let Mr. May answer if he can—no foreign interference," &c., from all parts of the hall. Mr. Thompson persevered as few men would have done, but at last yielded to the evident determination of the audience, and took his seat. The hall then became still, and Mr. Gurley proceeded.
We do not know that any Anti-Colonizationist was convinced by these discussions; except men who are committed against the Society, we believe the very general opinion is, that their overthrow on the field of argument was as complete as any could desire. It is evident that the cause of the Colonization Society is gaining a hold on the convictions and affections of the people of New-England stronger than it ever had before. We say this in view of facts which are coming to our knowledge from various parts. The storm of abuse and misrepresentation with which it has been assailed, is beginning already to contribute to its strength.
Now he begged to remark that the paper from which he had read the foregoing extract, the New-York Observer, together with the one from which it was originally taken, the Boston Recorder, printed more matter weekly than all the avowed abolition newspapers, in America, put together, did in half a year. He would notice farther, in relation to the great display of abolition publications which had been made by Mr. Thompson on the platform, that one of the papers lying there on the table, had advocated his principles and cause when he was in Boston, and likely to be mobbed at the instigation, as he believed, of Mr. Garrison. Some of the remainder of the publications were, he believed, long ago dead; some could hardly be said ever to have lived; some were purely occasional; the greater part as limited in circulation as they were contemptible in point of merit. Not above two or three of the dozen or fifteen that had been produced before them—and the names of which he (Mr. B.) required to be recorded—were in fact, worthy to be called respectable and avowed abolition newspapers. But to come to the point immediately in hand. He would on the present occasion attempt to show that abolition was not worthy to supplant the colonization scheme in the affections of Americans or Britons, or of any other thinking people. He acknowledged that there were many respectable men in the ranks of the abolitionists; but these, almost without exception, had been at one time colonizationists; and had he time he might show that many of them had deserted the colonization society on some peculiar or personal grounds, not involving the principles of the cause. He was prepared to show, however, that by whomsoever supported, the principles of the abolitionists were essentially wrong, and that their practice was still worse. He had not access to the voluminous documents brought forward by Mr. Thompson. Mr. Thompson had, indeed, that evening, on this platform, publicly offered him access to them. Had that offer been made at the beginning of the discussion, instead of the end of it, or during the four or five days we spent in Glasgow before it commenced, it might have been turned to some advantage. But as it was, the audience would know how to appreciate it; and he must rely solely upon memory, when he stated the principles promulgated by abolitionists; though at the same time he pledged himself that his statements not only were intended to be, but were, substantially correct and entirely candid. The abolitionists held, then, in the first place, as a fundamental truth, that every human being had an instant right to be free, irrespective of consequences to himself and others; consequently that it was the duty of masters to set free their slaves instantly, and irrespective of all consequences; and of course, sinful to exercise the powers of a master for one moment, or for any purpose. This was, in substance, the great principle on which the abolitionists acted—a principle which he was now prepared to question. He had, on a former occasion, shown that there were only two parties responsible for the existence of slavery, namely, individual slave-holders, and slave-holding communities. He would now attempt to prove, that, as applied to either of these, this principle was not only false, but that it was a mere figment, and calculated to produce tremendous evil. Let them first attend to what the abolitionists say to the individual slave-holder. Perhaps the person addressed was an inhabitant of Louisiana; where, if it is not directly contrary to law, to manumit a slave—the law refuses to recognize the act. Was he to be told then that he should turn off his slaves, the young and helpless along with the old and the infirm, with the certain knowledge that so soon as they left his plantation, they would commence a career of trouble and sorrow most likely to end in their being seized, imprisoned, fined, and again enslaved. Mr. Thompson had mentioned, in nearly all his printed speeches, the case of a certain colored man, who had been thrown into prison at Washington city, and sold into eternal slavery to discharge the fees which had accrued by reason of his oppression. Now he (Mr. B.) took leave to say that this story was false, in toto. It was customary in some parts of America to sell vagabonds, in order to make up their jail fees; but they were bound for no longer a period than was necessary to do this. The system was this—they were taken up as vagrants. If they were able and willing to show that they had some regular and honest means of livelihood, they were of course acquitted and discharged; but when they were unable to do this, they were sold for as much as would pay the fees of detention, trial, &c. That any person, black or white, once recognized by the law as free, was ever sold into everlasting slavery, he positively denied, and demanded proof. In Louisiana, however, it being illegal to manumit a slave, those whom the abolitionists would set free, would not be considered free in the eye of the law. They might be harrassed, imprisoned as vagabonds, sold to pay expenses, as vagabonds, and so soon as set free again imprisoned. He admitted that such proceedings would be inexcusable; but what was a benevolent man, who had the welfare of his slave really at heart, to do with an eye to them? To act upon the abolitionist principle, would be to consign the slave to incalculable misery, for they had but one lesson to teach—turn loose the slaves, and leave consequences to God! The colonizationists, however, are provided with a better remedy. If Louisiana would not countenance manumission, nor suffer manumitted slaves to remain within her bounds, with the usual privileges of freemen, let them be taken to some other State, where such laws did not exist; or if this should not on the whole be desirable, let them be taken to Liberia. No, repeats Mr. Thompson; discharge your slaves at once, and leave the consequences to God. If, by the wicked laws of Louisiana, they are left to starve, or driven to desperation, or sold again into slavery, the responsibility is theirs; do you your duty in setting them immediately at liberty. It would require, however, that a humane individual should be very strongly impressed with the truth of this principle before he could persuade himself to do that which was evidently so cruel in its immediate effects, and so likely to be ruinous in those that are more remote. Yet that principle was, to say the least, extremely doubtful, and ought not at every hazard to be crammed down the throats of an entire nation. If the laws of the community were bad, as he admitted it to be the case, he supposed it was the duty of enlightened citizens to seek a change of that law by proper means, but not in the meantime to do that which would be totally insubordinate to the State—and injurious to all parties. Whether, moreover, it was either fair or candid to denounce, as had been done, the free States as being participators in slavery, because, though they did not themselves hold a property in slaves, they did not choose to swallow such nostrums even without chewing, could not be a question. If it was so doubtful whether duty to the slaves themselves rendered the immediate breaking up of all relations between them and their masters a proper or even a permitted thing, it was still more questionable whether our duties to the State may not imperiously forbid what our duties to the slave have already warned us against. I have omitted all considerations of a personal or selfish kind—all rules of conduct drawn from what is due to one's self, one's family, or one's condition, or engagements. Common benevolence forbids, as we have seen, and common loyalty prohibits, as we shall see—what a man must do, or lie under the curse of abolitionism. For though it be our duty to seek the amendment of bad laws, because they are bad, it is equally our duty to obey laws because they are laws, unless it is clear that greater ill will follow from obedience than from disobedience. Now all our slave States are perfectly willing that their citizens should emancipate their slaves; only many of them insist on their doing it elsewhere, than within their borders. As long as other lands exist, ready to receive the manumitted slave, and certain to be benefitted by his reception, it is to preach treason, as well as cruelty, and folly as well as either, to assert the bounden duty of the individual slave-holder, at all hazards, to attempt an impossibility on the instant, rather than accomplish a better result by foresight, preparation, and suitable delay. It may therefore be boldly said that instant surrender of the authority of the master, irrespective of all other considerations, must, in many cases, be a great crime in the individual slave-holder. He would now speak of this abolition principle to which he had adverted as a rule of conduct for slave-holding communities. In this respect, also, he considered that it was at best extremely questionable. Let us illustrate the principle by the oft-repeated case of the District of Columbia. Abolitionism asserts that it is the clear duty of Congress to abolish slavery instantly in that District, without regard to what may occur afterwards in consequence of that act. Let us admit that the dissolution of the Federal Union is a consequence not worthy of regard—even when distinctly foreseen; and that all the evils attendant on such a result, to human society, and to all the great interests of man throughout the earth, are as nothing, compared with the establishment of a doubtful definition, having an antiquity of at least four years, and a paternity disputed between Mr. Garrison and Mr. Thompson. As a principle concerning no other creature but the slaves of the District, and no interest but theirs, it can be shown to be false. If Congress were instantly to abolish slavery there, with a tolerable certainty that every slave in the District would be removed and continued with their issue in perpetual slavery; when by an arrangement with the owners, they might so prospectively abolish it as to secure the freedom of every slave in five or ten years, and of their issue as they successively arrived at twenty or twenty-five years of age; if Congress could do the latter, and were in preference to do the former, they would deserve the execrations of the world. The first plea is Mr. Thompson and abolitionism; the second express my principles and those of the despised gradualists. At all events, the truth of the principle involved in the former supposition was not so manifest as to justify Mr. Thompson in denouncing, as he had done, those who did not see proper to follow it. A wise man would hesitate—he would weigh well the resulting circumstances as one of the best tests of the truth and utility of his principles before he propagated, as indisputably and exclusively true, and that in despite of all results, such principles, with the violence which had been manifested—principles which, he repeated, were but four years old, and which he was still convinced, were but arrant quackery. There was another aspect of the subject. Reference had been made to the representation of the black population in the National Government. He would remark on this subject that it was the duty of every State to see that power was committed only to the hands of those qualified to exercise it properly, wisely, and beneficially. What would be said in this country, were Mr. Thompson to propose that the elective franchise should be made universal, and that the age at which it might be exercised should be fixed at fifteen years? He would venture to say that the ministry who would introduce such a scheme to Parliament, would not exist for three days. The proposal, as Mr. T. no doubt knew, would be considered altogether revolutionary and shocking. Yet it must be admitted that the average of the boys of Britain who are fifteen years old, are fully as well qualified for the exercise of the elected franchise, as the average of the slaves in the various parts of the United States are at the age of twenty-one years. But with us, as with you, twenty-one years is the age at which electors vote. As I have shown, in most of our States the elective franchise is extended to every white man, who has attained that age; while the qualifications of a property kind, anywhere required, are so extremely moderate, that in all our communities nine-tenths at least of the adult white males are entitled to vote. Now let it be borne in mind, that abolitionism requires not only instant freedom for the slave, but also instant treatment of him, in every civil and political, as well as every social and religious respect, as if he were white, that is, in plain terms—if we should follow the dogmas you sent Mr. T. to teach us, and in which we have been held up to the scorn of all good men, for declining to receive, a revolution far more terrible and revolting would immediately follow throughout all our slave States, than would follow in Britain by enfranchising in a day, every boy in it fifteen years old—even if your house of lords were substituted by an elective senate, and your parliaments made annual! And it is in the light of such results, that America has received with horror the enunciation of principles which lead directly to them, while their advocates declare "all consequences" indifferent as it regards their conduct! And can it be the duty of any commonwealth to bring upon itself "instantly,"—or at all—such a condition as this? The abolitionists themselves had evidently felt that their scheme was absurd; for they had never ventured to propose it to a slave State. Their papers were published and their efforts all made, and their organized agitation carried on, and a tremendous uproar raised in States where there existed no power whatever to put an end to slavery; but hardly a syllable had been uttered where, if anywhere, some effect might have been produced beneficial to the slaves, had abolition principles been practicable anywhere. The conduct of the abolitionists had been of a piece with what would have taken place in this country, had an agitation been got up for the direct abolition of idolatry in China, or of popery in Spain. Their principles had never yet been advocated in the South, but by means of the post-office, the effects of which, in the tearing up of mail bags, &c., Mr. Thompson well knew, and had declared. But the fact was, that such metaphysical propositions as those propounded by the abolitionists—even admitting them to be true—were altogether uncalled for. Thousands of slaves had been emancipated before the abolition principles were heard of, and all that was needed, was, that those who were engaged in the good work should have been let alone or aided on their own principles. What was the use of blazoning forth a doctrine which was in all likelihood false and ruinous, but which, were it true, could do no good? For if you could persuade a man that his duty required him to give freedom to his slaves, and he became suitably impressed with a sense thereof—he would do it just as certainly and effectually as though you had begun by saying to him—now as soon as I convince you, you must set them free immediately! He could indeed characterize such a mode of proceeding by no other term than that of gratuitous folly.
Again he might say that this principle of abolitionism was contrary to all the experience which America had acquired as a nation on this subject. Principles favorable to emancipation first took root where there were few slaves, and when the products of their labor were of little value. They had spread gradually towards the South, the border States being always first inoculated, till no fewer than eight States which tolerated slavery, adopted this principle, and successively abolished it. To these eight States were to be added four others, created since the formation of the Federal Constitution, which never tolerated slavery, thus making twelve States in which slavery was not permitted. By the influence of gradualism alone, had the cause of freedom advanced steadily to this point, and every day rendered its ultimate triumph throughout the whole empire more and more probable. At this time it might have been carried South by at least 5 degrees of latitude; and Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and Missouri, added to the free States; and the shackles of 1,000,000 slaves been in a process of gradual melting off. If fifty years had seen the rise of 12 free States, was it too much to hope that the next fifty years should enfranchise twelve more. For all the ruin brought on this glorious cause during the last four years by principles and practices of Mr. Thompson's friends, what have they to compensate suffering humanity? Have they or theirs released from his bonds a single slave? The abolition plan had in fact, been a signal, a total, absolute failure. Mr. Thompson himself did not pretend to say that a twentieth part of the population of America had embraced his views. The whole theory was as false as the whole practice was fatal; and just and pious men would hereafter hesitate before they sent out new missions to advocate them, or lent the influence of their just weight to denunciations levelled against all who did not think them worthy of their applause. The second great principle of the abolitionists, to which he would invite attention, was this—that it was the inherent and indestructible right of every man to abide in perfect freedom in whatever spot he was born; and that while it is a crime to deny him there all the rights of a man, a citizen and a Christian, it was not less so to persuade, to win, or to coerce him into what they called exile—this principle was levelled at the Colonization Society; and while instant abolition formed the first, and denunciation of what they call prejudice against color formed the last; hatred to colonization formed the middle and active principle of the band. Of this, it might be said, first, that it had the advantage of contradicting all the wisdom and practice of mankind. Whether it was meant to embrace women and minors—or at what age to establish the beginning of rights so extraordinary and unprecedented, whether at twenty-one, as here, or twenty-five, as in some countries, or twenty-eight, as in others, had not yet been defined. Thus much at least might be said—that if these rights resided in black men, they resided in no others, of whatever hue or race; and the philosophers who discovered their existence had found out something to compensate these unhappy men for their unparalleled sufferings. It certainly need not create surprise that we should listen with suspicion to such dogmas taught by an Englishman, when we remember that, from time immemorial, all the institutions of his own country were built upon dogmas precisely opposite; and all her practice the reverse of the preaching of the semi-national representative. Mr. Thompson says, a man is a citizen by inherent right, wherever he is born; the British monarchy, which Mr. Thompson says he prefers to all things else, says on the contrary, that let a man be born where he may he is a Briton, if born of British parents; and it both claims his allegiance, and will extend to him every right of a subject born at home! Then why is not a man an African if born of African parents in America, as well as a Briton, if born of British parents there? Or why are we to be attacked first with cannon on one side, and then with Billingsgate on the other side of this vexed question? Nor did our own notions, adverse as they were to those of Britain, conflict less with Mr. T. and abolitionism on another part of the principle. All our notions permit men to expatriate themselves, many of our constitutions guarantee it as a natural right, and America had actually gone to war with Britain in defence of that right in her unnaturalized citizens. Britain had insisted on searching American vessels for British sailors—America had refused to submit to the search; because, among other things the man sought was, by naturalization, an American. America did not oppose any of her citizens becoming Britons, if they thought fit, and was resolved to maintain the right of those who chose to become American citizens, from whatever country they might have emigrated, and therefore could hear only with contempt this dictum of abolitionism. Again he would say that, this principle is contrary to common sense. Rights of citizenship were not to be considered natural rights. They were given by the community—they might be withheld by the community; and, therefore, to talk of their being indestructible, was sheer nonsense. No man had a natural right to say, I will be a citizen of this or that State; and in point of fact, the great bulk of mankind were not citizens at all, but merely subjects. There were laws establishing the present form of government, giving a certain power to the king and to the Parliament, and regulating the mode in which Parliament was to be elected. These laws were altogether conventional; and as well might a man claim a natural right to be a king or a judge as to be a citizen. It might be as truly said that one is inherently a shark because he was born at sea, or a horse because he happened to have been born in a stable. So far is the theory of abolition from the truth; and so widely remote is their hatred to colonization, from being based in justice, or reason, that circumstances may occur in which it shall become imperative duty for men to emigrate. America presented a striking example of the truth of this. In this country it was customary to talk of America as a daughter of England. He had heard people talk as if America were about as large as one English shire, and settled principally from their own villages. But the fact was that America was an epitome of the whole world, peopled by colonies from almost all parts of it. It was an eclectic nation; and to talk to Americans, of the inherent right of a man to stay and be oppressed, where he happened to be born—or the guilt of seducing him to emigrate, is only to expose one's self to pity or scorn. To realize this, it is only necessary to take a map of our wide empire, washed by both oceans, and embracing all the climates of the earth, and get some American boy to tell you the migrations of his ancestors. To omit all mention of the red man, from Asia, and the poor black man, from Africa; there, he will say in New-England, are the children of the pilgrims, who were the fathers of your own Roundheads, driven out by the mean and vexatious tyranny of James I.; and there, in lower Virginia, three hundred leagues off, are the descendants of the Cavaliers and Malignants. There, in the back parts of the same ancient commonwealth, and in all western Pennsylvania, are the sturdy Scotch, whose fathers were hanged in the streets of your cities, by that perjured Charles II., who thus rewarded the loyalty that gave him back his crown. In the same key State, of the Union is a nation of industrious Germans; while in the empire state of New-York, are the children of those glorious United Provinces, that disputed with yourselves for ages, the empire of the seas; and between them both in New-Jersey the descendants of those ancient Danes who often ravaged your own coasts. The descendants of the Hugonauts, whose ancestors Louis XIV. expelled from France, and placed cordons on his frontiers to butcher as they went out, simply because they were Protestants, peopling parts of the south; in other parts of which, are colonies of Swiss, of Spaniards, and of Catholic French. The Irishmen is everywhere; and everywhere better treated than at home. Amongst such a people, it must needs be an instinctive sentiment, that he who loves country more than liberty, is unworthy to have either; that he who inculcates or affects the love of place above the possession of precious privileges, must have a sinister object. But he might proceed much farther; and having shown that it might be the duty of men to emigrate under various circumstances, prove that such a duty never was more imperative than on the free colored population of America. Possessing few motives to remain in America that were not base or insignificant compared with those that ought to urge their return, every attempt to explain and defend their conduct revealed a selfishness on their part a thousand times greater than that they charge upon the whites; and a cruelty on the part of their advisers towards the dying millions of heathen in Africa, more atrocious than that charged, even by them, on the master against his slave. The love of country, of kindred, of liberty, of the souls of men, and of God himself, impels them to depart, and do a work which none but they can do; and which they forego through the love of ease, the lack of energy, vanity gratified by the caresses of abolitionists, and deadness to the great motives detailed above. But there was another, and most obvious truth, which shows the utter futility of the principle of abolition now contested. So far was the fact from being so, that anybody, black or white, held an inherent right of citizenship in the place of his birth; that it is most certain, no man had even a right of bare residence, which the state might not justly and properly deprive him of—upon sufficient reason. The state has the indisputable right to coerce emigration, whenever the public good required it; and when that public good coincided with the interest of the emigrating party—and that also of the land to which they went—to coerce such emigration might become a most sacred duty. It was indeed true, that the friends of colonization had not contemplated nor proposed any other than a purely voluntary emigration; for even the traduced State of Maryland not only made the fact of removal voluntary, but, going a step further than any other, gave a choice of place to the emigrant. I recommend Africa, says she, but I will aid you to go wherever you prefer to go. It should, however, be borne in mind that this power is inherent in all communities, and has been exercised in all time. And it were well for the advocates of abolition principles to remember that the final, and, if necessary, forcible separation of the parties is surely preferable to the annihilation, or the eternal slavery of either; while it is infinitely more probable than the instant emancipation—the universal levelling—or the general mixture for which they contend. He had still left a third principle advanced by the abolitionists on which to comment, but as only two or three minutes of his allotted time remained, he would not enter on the subject; but would read, for the information of the audience a speech delivered by Mr. Thompson at Andover, in Massachusetts, the seat of one of our largest theological seminaries, as reported by a student who was present. He wished this speech to be put on record for the information of the British public.
Students—I shall first speak of the natural and inalienable rights to discuss slavery. It is not a question; you ought to do it; you sin against God and conscience, and are traitors to human nature and truth, if you neglect it. Whoever attempts to stop you from the exercise of this right, snatches the trident from the Almighty, and whoever dares to put manacles upon mind must answer for it to the bar of God. It belongs to God, and to God exclusively. You are not at liberty to give respect to any entreaty or suggestion or to take into consideration the feelings of any man or body of men on the subject. The wicked spirit of expediency is the spirit of hell, the infamous doctrines of the demons of hell; and whoever attempts to preach it to the rising youth of the land, preaches the doctrine of the damned spirits. It is the spirit of the flame and faggot, revealing itself as it dares, and corrupting the atmosphere so as to prevent the free breathing of a free soul. Where are the students of the Lane seminary? Where they ought to be;—from Georgia to Maine, and from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains—far from a prison-house where fetters are forged and rivetted. They could not stay in a place where a thermometer was hung up to graduate the state of their feelings. It was not till Dr. Beecher consulted the faculty at New-Haven and Andover, to see if they would sustain him, that he ventured to put the screws on. But, perhaps you may say, we must bid farewell to promotion if we do as you desire. The faculty have the power, in a degree, to fix our future settlements by the recommendation, and, therefore, we must desist. What if you do have to leave the seminary? Far better to be away than to breathe the tainted air of tyranny. I proclaim it here, that the only reason why abolition is not countenanced at Andover is, because it is unpopular; when it is popular it will be received. In 1823, the Colonization Society was the pet child of the churches, the seminaries, and the colleges of the land; but now, forsooth, because it is unpopular, it is cast off. Aye, once the eloquent tongues voiced its praise, and the gold and silver were its tributaries—where is it now? Cast off because it is not popular. This is rather hard; in its old age, too. But I forbear, it is a touching theme. I return to the Lane seminary. Never were nobler spirits and finer minds congregated together; never in all time and place a more heroic and generous band. Dr. Beecher himself has pronounced the eulogy. In what condition is the seminary now. Lying in ruins, irretrievably gone! Dr. Beecher then sacrificed honor and reputation.
Mr. Thompson read extracts from an article in the Liberator, which went to show that the faculty at Andover advised the students to be uncommitted on the dividing topic of slavery. Yes, added Mr. Thompson, go out uncommitted; wait till you get into a pulpit and have it cushioned and a settee in it, and then you may commit yourself. The speaker observed that very ill effects had resulted from the failure of the students at Andover to form themselves into an Anti-Slavery Society—the evil example had extended to Philip's Academy, Amherst College, &c. He had been twitted about it wherever he had been, but you may recover yourselves, he added, condescendingly; there is some apology for you, only let a Society be formed instantly. Those who attempted to show from the Bible that slavery was justifiable, were paving the slave-holders' paths to hell with texts of Scripture. Mr. Thompson enlarged upon the merits of the refractory students at Lane Seminary, with a most abundant supply of adjectives; and the mean-spirited students of Andover, although not expressly designated as such, were understood by the manner of expression to be placed in contrast. Mr. Thompson remarked that such conduct would not be tolerated by the students of any college in England, Scotland, or Ireland. This abuse, of the faculty at Andover was more personal and pointed than I have described; one of the faculty was called by name, but the severe expressions I have forgotten. He would probably have outrun himself, and exhausted the vocabulary of opprobrious epithets, had he not been interrupted. At the conclusion of the lecture, with the strange inconsistency which belongs to the man, he remarked that he had a high respect for the members of the faculty, and that he would willingly sit at their feet as a learner.
He had only one remark before he sat down. It had been publicly stated by a student of this seminary, that Mr. Thompson, in a conversation with him, had said, that every slave-holder deserved to have his throat cut, and that his slaves ought to do it. He could not, of course, vouch for the truth of this; but Mr. Thompson was there to explain. One thing, however, he could state as an indisputable fact, namely, that the professors of the seminaries had signed a document in which it was asserted that the young man had been in the college for three years, and that his veracity was unimpeached and unimpeachable. If the story were true—it was well that it was timely made public. If the young man misunderstood Mr. Thompson, he (Mr. B.) believed he formed one of a very large class in America, who had fallen into similar mistakes, and drawn similar conclusions from the general drift of his doings and sayings in that country.
Mr. THOMPSON, on rising, observed that no one could be more ready than himself to commend the gentleman who had just resumed his seat for the courage which he had shewn in dealing so frankly and faithfully with him, (Mr. T.) in the presence of those to whom he (Mr. B.) was comparatively a stranger, and whose favorable opinion he (Mr. T.) had had many opportunities of conciliating. He rejoiced that his opponent had, towards the end of his speech, attempted to state facts and specify charges, and had thus afforded him an opportunity of showing how completely and triumphantly he could meet the charges brought against himself personally, and support the statements he had made in reference to America. He would commence with the Andover story about cutting throats. The truth of the matter was this. A student in the Theological Seminary of the name of A. F. Kaufman, Jr., charged him, George Thompson, with having said, in a private conversation, that every slave-holder ought to have his throat cut, and that if the abolitionists preached what they ought to preach, they would tell every slave to cut his master's throat. Mr. Kaufman was from Virginia, the son of a slave-holder, and heir to slave property. The story was first circulated in Andover, and was afterwards published in the New-York Commercial Advertiser, in a communication dated from the Saratoga Springs. In reply to the printed version, I (said Mr. T.) printed a letter denying the charge in the most solemn manner, and referring to my numerous public addresses, and innumerable private conversations, in proof of the perfectly pacific character of my views. Then came forth a long statement from Mr. Kaufman, with a certificate to his veracity and general good character, signed by professors Woods, Stuart, and Emerson, of Andover. Here the matter must have rested—Mr. Kaufman's charge on one side, and my denial on the other—had the conversation been strictly private; but, fortunately for me, there were witnesses of every word; and this brings me to notice other circumstances connected with the affair, constituting a most complete contradiction of the charge. I was staying at the time under the roof of the Rev. Shipley W. Willson, the minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Andover, and when I had the conversation with Mr. Kaufman, in which the language imputed to me is alleged to have been uttered, there were present, besides ourselves, my host the Rev. S. W. Willson; the Rev. Amos A. Phelps, congregational clergyman, and one of the agents of the American Anti-Slavery Society; the Rev. La Roy Sunderland Methodist Episcopal clergyman, and at present the editor of Zion's Watchman, New-York; and the Rev. Jarvis Gregg, now a Professor in Western Reserve College, Ohio. In consequence of the use made of the statement put forth by Mr. Kaufman, I wrote to Professor Gregg, and Mr. Phelps, requesting them to give their version of the conversation in writing; and their letters in reply, which, together with one written without solicitation by Mr. Sunderland, have been published. They not only flatly contradict the account given by Mr. Kaufman, but prove that I advocated in the strongest language the doctrine of non-resistance on the part of the slaves. These letters, however, never appeared in the columns of the papers which brought the charge and defied me to the proof of my innocence.
It may be well to give some idea of the conversation out of which the charge grew. Mr. Kaufman complained of the harsh language of the abolitionists, and challenged me to quote a passage of scripture justifying our conduct in that respect. I quoted the passage "Whoso stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death;" and observed, that in this text we had a proof of the awful demerit of the slaveholder; that he was considered worthy of death; and that the modern slaveholder, under the Christian dispensation, was not less guilty than the slaveholder under the Jewish law. I then reminded him of the political principles of the Americans, and cited the words of the declaration of Independence, "RESISTANCE to tyrants is obedience to God." I then contrasted the injuries inflicted on the slave with the grievances complained of in the Declaration of Independence, and argued, that, if the Americans deemed themselves justified in resisting to blood the payment of a threepenny tea tax and a stamp duty, how much more, upon the same principles, would the slave be justified in cutting his masters' throat, to obtain deliverance from personal thraldom. Nay more, that every American, true to the principles of the revolution, ought to teach the slaves to cut their master's throats—but that while these were fair deductions from their own revolutionary principles, I held the doctrine that it was invariably wrong to do evil that good might come, and that I dared not purchase the freedom of the slaves by consenting to the death of one master.
He (Mr. T.) had thus disposed of one of the most tangible portions of his opponent's speech. He regretted there had not been more of matter-of-fact statement in the speech of one hour in length, to which they had just listened; a speech, which, however creditable to the intellect of his opponent on account of its ingenuity, was by no means creditable to his heart. Instead of dealing fairly with the documents he (Mr. T.) had produced, and which contained a true and ample statement of the views, feelings, principles, purposes and plans of the abolitionists, Mr. Breckinridge had manufactured a series of dextrous sophisms, calculated to keep out of sight the real merits of the question. Was it not strange, that, covered as that platform was with the documents of the abolitionists, his opponent had not quoted one word from their writings, but had based all he had said upon a statement of their principles made out by himself; and had then given to that statement an interpretation of his own, utterly at variance with all the views and doctrines entertained by the abolitionists. The gentleman had most ably played the part of Tom Thumb, who made the giants he so valiantly demolished. He would not attempt to grapple with that which rested altogether upon a gross misstatement of the principles and views of the Abolitionists. He had a right to expect that Mr. B. would go to the many sources of official information touching the principles he professed to denounce; but instead, he had put forth a creed, as the creed of the Abolitionists of America, which was nowhere to be found in their writings, and he (Mr. T.) should therefore wait until an objection had been taken to something they (the abolitionists) had really said or done.
Mr. Breckinridge had amused them with another Andover story. He had read an extract from a speech said to have been delivered by him (Mr. T.) during the protracted meeting he had held there. He would just take the liberty of assuring the audience that he had never uttered the speech which had that night been put into his mouth. It had been said that the speech was reported by a student. Had Mr. B. given the name of the student?—No. He (Mr. B.) knew that it was an anonymous communication, written by a vile enemy of a righteous cause, who was too much ashamed of his own productions to sign his name, but put the initial C. at the end of his libellous productions, which were greedily copied into the pro-slavery papers of the United States. The reports furnished by that scribbler were known in Andover to be false, and laughed at by the students as monstrous and ludicrous perversions of the truth. Upon this point also, he (Mr. T.) had ample documentary evidence. He did not wonder that Mr. Breckinridge had so frequently twitted him respecting the multitude of documents which he (Mr. T.) was in the habit of producing. It must be peculiarly unpleasant to find that he (Mr. T.) had always the document at hand necessary to annihilate the pretended proof of his opponent. He would now read from a report of the proceedings at Andover—but a very different report compared with that they had just heard—not an anonymous one, but signed by a respectable and pious student in the Theological Seminary, R. Reed, Corresponding Secretary of the Andover Anti-Slavery Society. As reference was made, in the extract he was going to read, to a former visit, he would just state, that about three months after his arrival in the United States, he visited Andover, and delivered three lectures, besides undergoing a long examination into his principles in the College Chapel; and that on his return to Boston, where he was then residing, he received from the Institution a series of resolutions signed by upwards of fifty of the students, expressive of their entire concurrence in the sentiments he had advanced, and their high approbation of the temper in which he had advocated those sentiments, and commending him to the blessing and protection of Heaven. He (Mr. T.) need not say that such a testimonial from theological students, unasked and unexpected, was peculiarly gratifying.
The account of his second visit in July, 1835, was thus given in a letter addressed to the editor of the Liberator.
"It had been previously announced that Mr. Thompson would address us on Tuesday evening. The hour arrived, and a large and respectable audience were convened in the expectation of again listening to the—(Mr. Thompson here omitted some complimentary expressions.) After the introductory prayer, Mr. Phelps arose, and said he regretted that he was obliged to state that Mr. Thompson had not yet arrived in town, but he thought it probable he would soon be with us. He then resumed the subject of American Slavery. He had, however, uttered but a few sentences before Mr. T. came in. His arrival was immediately announced from the desk, and the expression of satisfaction, manifested by the audience, told, more eloquently than words, the estimation in which they held this beloved brother, and the pleasure they felt on again enjoying the opportunity of listening to his appeals. Mr. Thompson took his seat in the desk, and Mr. Phelps then proceeded at some length. When he closed his remarks, Mr. Thompson arose, and after some introductory remarks, answered, in a powerful and eloquent manner, the inquiry, 'Why don't you go to the South.'
"The first part of the three succeeding evenings was occupied by Mr. Phelps, in exposing the janus-faced monster, the American Colonization Society, which he did in so masterly a manner, that we are quite sure none of his auditors, save those who are willfully blinded, will hereafter doubt of its being 'a fraud upon the ignorance, and an outrage upon the intelligence of the community.'"
"Thursday evening Mr. Thompson vindicated himself against the aspersions heaped upon him for denouncing Dr. Cox. I would that all Mr. Thompson's friends had been present, and his enemies too, for I am sure that unless encased in a shield of prejudice more impenetrable than steel, they would have been compelled to acknowledge that his denunciation of Dr. Cox was just, and not such an instance of tiger-like malice as some have represented it to be." "Friday evening (the evening to which the extract read by Mr. Breckinridge referred) he spoke of the 'armed neutrality' of the seminary and the course which had been taken in the Academical Institutions of Andover. He is accused of wantonly abusing our Professors and Teachers—of making personal attacks upon them. No personal attacks however were made; no man's motives were impeached. He attacked PRINCIPLES and not MEN for while he would render to the guardians of the seminary and academies all that respect which their station and learning and piety demands, he would at the same time condemn the course that had been pursued, as having a tendency to retard the progress of emancipation. Let the public judge as to the propriety of his remarks.
It would be recollected that the same question had been put to him here in Glasgow, as that which he had answered at Andover. "Why don't you go to the South?" He would tell his opponent on the present occasion, that even he could not advocate abolition sentiments in the South, purely and openly, without endangering his life. The reason he was able to express his views on slavery and remain unmolested, was because it was known that he denounced the abolitionists, and advocated colonization. The experience of Mr. Birney was in point. That gentleman hated slavery before he joined the abolitionists, and was in the habit of speaking against it, in connection with the colonization cause, and was permitted to do so without hindrance; but when he emancipated his slaves, and called upon others to do likewise, upon true anti-slavery principles, he was forced to fly from his residence and family, and was now in the city of Cincinnati.
It had been tauntingly Said, "show us the fruits of your principles." "Where are the slaves you have liberated?" He would reply, that in Kentucky, very recently, nineteen slaves had been liberated upon anti-slavery principles:—enough to answer Mr. B's demand, "point us to one slave your Society has been the means of liberating." But the question was not to be so tested. The abolitionists of Britain were often called upon in the same way; and their answer was, our principles are extending, and when they are sufficiently impressed upon the public mind, there will be a general emancipation of the slaves. On the 31st of July, 1834, they could not point to any actually free in consequence of their efforts; but the night came and passed away, and the morrow dawned upon 800,000 human beings, lifted by the power of anti-slavery principles, out of the legal condition of chattels, into the position of free British subjects. So in the United States. The principles of abolition would necessarily be some time extending, but ultimately they would effect a change in public opinion, and a corresponding change in the treatment of the black man.
Mr. Breckinridge had disputed the truth of the fact he (Mr. T.) had stated relative to the imprisonment and sale into bondage for life, in the city of Washington, of a black man, justly entitled to his freedom. He (Mr. T.) trusted that in this matter also he should be able most satisfactorily to establish his own veracity. The evidence he would produce to support the statement he had made, was, "A memorial of the inhabitants of the District of Columbia, U. S., signed by one thousand of the most respectable citizens of the District, and presented to Congress, March 24, 1828, then referred to the Committee on the District, and on the motion of Mr. Hubbard, of New-Hampshire, Feb. 9, 1835, ordered to be printed." He (Mr. T.) held in his hand the genuine document printed by Congress, "22d Congress, 2d Session, House of Representatives, Doc. No. 140." The following was the part containing the fact he had mentioned.
"A colored man, who stated that he was entitled to freedom was taken up as a runaway slave, and lodged in the jail of Washington City. He was advertised, but no one appearing to claim him, he was according to law, put up at public auction for the payment of his jail fees, and SOLD as a SLAVE for LIFE. He was purchased by a slave trader, who was not required to give security for his remaining in the District and he was soon shipped at Alexandria for one of the southern States. An attempt was made by some benevolent individual to have the sale postponed until his claim to freedom could be investigated; but their efforts were unavailing; and thus was a human being SOLD into PERPETUAL BONDAGE at the capital of the freest government on earth, without even a pretence of trial, or an allegation of crime."
He should be glad to find that Mr. B. had a satisfactory explanation of this most revolting case. Such things were enough to make any man speak hardly of America. If he (Mr. T.) said severe things of that country, it was not, Heaven knew, because he did not love that country, for his heart's desire and prayer was, that she might soon be free from every drawback upon her prosperity and usefulness. He told these things because they ought to be known and branded as they deserved, that the nation guilty of them might repent and abandon them. He was not the enemy of America that faithfully pointed out her follies and crimes. No. He was the man that loved America, that seeing her, like some lofty tree, spreading abroad her branches, and furnishing at once shelter and sustenance to all who sought refuge under her shade, observed with sorrow and dismay, a canker-worm at the root, threatening to consume her beauty and her strength, and could not rest day or night in his efforts to bring so great and glorious a nation to a sense of her danger, and an apprehension of her duty. Let others do the pleasant work of flattery and panegyric, and be it his more ungracious, but not less salutary work, of proclaiming her errors, and denouncing her sins, until she learns to do justice and love mercy.
(He (Mr. T.) thought he might with some justice complain of the manner in which he had been treated by his opponent. He (Mr. T.) had made every concession which truth and justice would warrant to Mr. B.; had honored his motives, and studiously separated him from those upon whom his heaviest censures had fallen—the lovers and abettors of the slave system. But a similar course had not been pursued towards him. In many ways his motives had been impeached and his statements so denied as to throw discredit upon his intentions in making them. In a word, Mr. B's. whole course had been wanting in that courtesy which he had a right to expect would be exhibited by one disputant towards another. At the same time, he earnestly desired Mr. B. to state freely all he thought of his motives and conduct.
A few moments yet remaining, he would say a word or two in reference to the designs attributed to the abolitionists, in respect of the privileges to which the colored people were entitled. He denied that the abolitionists had ever asked for the blacks, either in regard to political rights or social privileges, anything unreasonable. They asked for their immediate release from personal bondage, and a subsequent participation of civil rights; according to the amount in which they possessed the qualifications demanded of others. Where, in the documents of abolitionists, was the doctrine of instant and universal enfranchisement, of which so much had been heard? He knew not the abolitionist who had contended for such a thing. He asked nothing for him over and above what would be freely bestowed on him if he were white. Oh! it was an awful crime to have a black skin! There lay all the disqualification.
The great fault which Mr. B. seemed to find with the principles of the abolitionists was that they were too lofty; too grand; too little accommodated to the spirit of the age; that, in the adoption of their views and principles, they had not consulted the manners and habits and prejudices of their country; and the whole of his (Mr. Breckinridge's) argument had been in favor of expediency. He hated that word "expediency," as ordinarily used. It contained, as he had often said, the doctrine of devils. It was so congenial with our depraved nature to make ourselves a little wiser than God—to believe that we understood better than God's servants of old the best way of reforming mankind. Oh! that men would take the Almighty at his word, and simply doing their duty, leaving him to take care of consequences. Doubtless, the dauntless Hebrew, Daniel, was deemed, in his day, a rash man. He might so very easily have escaped the snare laid for him. Why did he not go to the back of the house? Why not shut the window? Why could he not pray silently to the searcher of hearts? Daniel scorned compromise. He prayed as he had ever prayed—aloud—with his window open, and his face to Jerusalem. He boldly met the consequences. He walked to the lion's den—he entered, he remained: but lo! on the third day he came forth unhurt, to tell mankind to the end of time that, if they will do their duty and trust in Daniel's God, no weapon formed against them shall prosper, but they shall in His strength stop the mouths of lions, and put to flight the armies of the aliens.
Mr. BRECKINRIDGE said that, so far as the present respectable audience was concerned, he would make but a single remark. Mr. Thompson and he had already trespassed on their patience, but they would probably do so no longer than to-morrow night; at least so far as he was concerned, he thought it unnecessary, if not improper. The chief reason of his (Mr. B's.) coming here was to defend the churches, ministers and Christians of America, from the false and dreadful charges which had been proclaimed over Britain against them by Mr. Thompson, and which he had challenged all the world to give him an opportunity to prove. Upon this topic that gentleman had, as yet, fought shy. He could wait on him no longer. They might expect, therefore, that next evening he would take up that subject, whether Mr. Thompson should follow him or not. If the audience considered that the general subject had been sufficiently discussed already—as from some manifestations he was inclined to suppose—he would at once retire. (Slight hissing.) Was he to consider that as an answer in the affirmative? (Renewed hissing.) Why, then, he had erred in laying any of the blame of trying their patience on Mr. Thompson, and it was his duty to take it all to himself; and, when he returned home, to tell his countrymen that no charges were too gross or caluminous to be entertained against them—nor any length of time, a weariness in hearing them—but that the hearing of defence and proof of innocence was an insupportable weariness. (Increased hissing, with cries of 'no'.) The only remaining supposition was, that Mr. T's. partizans had become convinced he needed succor, and therefore gave it most naturally in the form of organized violence. (The hissing was again attempted, but was put down by the general voice of the meeting.) Mr. T., he said, had at length brought accusations against him, and had complained that although he (Mr. T.) had repeatedly and cordially expressed good feelings towards him, (Mr. B.) he had in no instance returned this kindness or justice; nor said a word favorable to him throughout the debate. He would appeal to the Chairman, to know distinctly, if Mr. Thompson had any right to demand, or if he (Mr. B.) were bound to express his opinion of that individual. Because, continued Mr. B., as I have in the beginning said that Mr. T. as an individual could be nothing to me or my countrymen, I have preferred to be silent as to him individually. If he is right, however, in bringing such things as charges against me, and continues to demand my opinion, I will give it fearlessly. But let him beware—for I will call no man friend who gains his bread by calumniating my country. Nor can he who traduces my bretheren—my kindred—my home—all that I most venerate and revere—honor me so much as by traducing me. They had been told that Mr. J. G. Birney had fled from Kentucky, and left his wife and children behind him in great danger, he being obliged to flee for his life. It was true, he believed, that Mr. Birney, excellent and beloved as he was, had found it best to emigrate from that State. But that he had fled, rested, he believed, on Mr. T's. naked assertion. That he had left his wife and children behind, believing them to be in personal danger, was a thing which it would require amazingly clear proof to establish against the gentleman in question. But he would show to the meeting that there was one individual who could do such an act. (Mr. B. then read the following extract from a speech, delivered at a meeting in Edinburgh, on the 28th of January, 1836:)
"He stood there not to defame America. It was true they had persecuted him; but that was a small matter. It was true they had hunted him like a partridge on the mountains; that he had to lecture with the assassin's knife glancing before his eyes; AND HIS WIFE AND HIS LITTLE ONES WERE IN DANGER OF FALLING BY THE RUTHLESS HANDS OF MURDERERS."
And again, from the preface to the same pamphlet in which the above cited speech is found, a pamphlet intended perhaps for America, and called, "A Voice to her from the Metropolis of Scotland," the following paragraph occurs:——
"Mr. Thompson having proceeded by way of St. John's, New Brunswick, embarked on board of a British vessel for Liverpool, where he arrived on the 4th of January, and on the 12th was happily joined by his family who had left New-York on the 16th December.
So that it appeared from these statements that Mr. Thompson, believing that the Americans meant to take away the lives of his wife and children, left them to their fate while he prudently consulted his own safety by flight. In regard to the alleged case of the sale of a free man of color, at Washington city, the proof stood thus: Mr. T. broadly asserted, again and again, that a free man had been sold, without trial, into eternal slavery. He, (Mr. B.) without knowing the especial facts relied on, but knowing America, and knowing abolitionism, had flatly and emphatically denied that such a thing ever did or could happen in the District of Columbia. Mr. Thompson re-asserts, and triumphantly proves it, as he says. His first step in the proof is, a printed scrap, which, he says, is the identical memorial laid on the table of the Senate of the United States, who, as they received and printed it, he insinuates, thereby avouched its truth. Upon which principle I also avouch all Mr. T.'s charges, as I hear them and consent to their publication. But, he adds, there were once one thousand signatures to this document, all witnesses of the truth of its contents. To which I reply—I see no name to it at all now; and secondly, if there were a million, the paper does not assert, much less prove, what Mr. T. produces it to sustain. It merely declares that the man said he was free; without even expressing the opinion of the writer or any signer of the paper. Now, upon this case, and this proof, it is nearly certain that the man was not free, and extremely probable that the whole case is fictitious. For the glorious writ of habeas corpus, one of the main pillars of your liberty—a privileged writ which no English judge, for his right hand, would dare illegally refuse; that writ is one of the great heirlooms we got with our Anglo-Saxon blood, and is dearer to us than that blood itself. Here, by act of Parliament, you do sometimes suspend this writ; with us the tyrant does not breathe who would dare to whisper a wish for its suspension. Now, if this man was, or believed himself to be free, what hindered him, from the moment of his arrest to that of his sale, from demanding and receiving a fair trial? Will it be said he did not know his rights? But will it be pretended that the one thousand signers of the memorial, the many abolitionists at Washington of whom Mr. T. boasts, did not know his rights—in a land where every man knows and is ready to defend his rights? If they did not, they were thrice sodden asses, fit only to be tools in gulling mankind into the belief of a tale that had not feasibility enough to gull a child. Upon the face of his own proof Mr. Thompson had shown that he had not the slightest authority for the assertions he had so often made in arguing this case; by all of which he intended to make men believe that in America it was not uncommon to sell free men into slavery! Mr. Breckinridge then resumed the consideration of abolition principles; the third of which was, that all prejudice against color is sinful, and that everything which induces us to refuse any social, personal, religious, civil, or political right to a black man, which is allowed to a white one, not superior to him in moral or intellectual qualifications, is a prejudice, and therefore sinful. He believed this to be a fair statement of their principles on that head. And he would, in the first place, remark concerning them, that even if they were true, which he denied, the discussion of them was worse than useless. It could not advance the cause of emancipation, nor improve the condition of the free blacks. And whatever the abolitionists might say, the slaves when freed would follow their own course and inclinations; nor could the declaration of an abstract principle alter either their conduct or that of the whites, in any material degree. If, as Mr. Thompson asserted, prejudice against color was the national sin of America, the plague-spot of the nation, it had just as often been asserted by others that the prejudice itself originated at first out of the relation of slavery. The latter was the disease, the former a mere symptom. If there were no black slaves on earth there would no longer be any aversion against that color, which went beyond the invariable and mutual restraints of nature, or was tolerated by a proper Christian liberty. They know little of human prejudices who do not know that they are more invincible in the bulk of mankind than the dictates of reason, or the impulses of virtue itself. The case of the abolitionists must therefore be pronounced foolish on their own showing. For they undertook to break down the strongest of all prejudices, as they themselves say, as a condition precedent to the doing of acts which, to do at all, required great pecuniary sacrifices and a high tone of moral feeling. But if, as I shall try to show, their doctrines are contrary to all the course of nature and all the teachings of Providence—their behavior is to be considered little else than sheer madness. Again: even if it did not prejudice the case of the slave—as none can deny it did—to agitate this question of color, and mix it up inseparably with the question of freedom, of what use was it to him? If the whites treat him with scorn, give him his liberty—and he may pity, forgive, or return the scorn. What advantage was he to gain as a slave, by the discussion, even if no harm came from it? What advantage was he to obtain as a freeman even if its agitation did not forever prevent him from being free? It is, in all its aspects, the most remarkable illustration of a weak, heady, and ignorant fanaticism which this age has produced, and has been, of them all, the most fruitful of evil. The truth was, that many of the rights and privileges of free persons of color were better secured to them in America than corresponding rights and privileges were to the white peasantry of any other country on the globe. With regard to the religious rights of colored persons, he could only say that he had sat in Presbyteries with them, that he had dispensed the Sacrament to them together with white persons; and that he and multitudes of others had sat in the same class with them at our Theological Seminaries. As for all the stories which Mr. T. was accustomed to tell about Dr. Sprague having part of his church curtained round for persons of color, he knew personally nothing, and noticed it only because it was told as a specimen story. He merely knew that Dr. Sprague was accounted a benevolent man, and common charity required him not readily to believe anything of him in a bad sense which could be justified in a good one. But if there was anything so very exclusive and revolting in these marks of superiority or inferiority in a church, let them not look to America alone; nor limit their sympathies exclusively to the blacks. In almost every church in England in which he had been, from the cathedral of St. Paul's at London, to the curate's village church, he had seen seats railed off, or curtained, or cushioned, or elevated, and some how distinguished from the rest. And when he inquired why these things were so, and for whose accommodation, the answer was ready. "O, that is for My Lord this; or Sir Harry that; or Mr. Prebend so and so; or the Lord Bishop of what not." And very often, even in dissenting chapels, he had seen part of the seats of an inferior description in particular parts of the house, which he had as often been told were free seats for the poor; an arrangement which has struck him as favorably as the similar one in Dr. Sprague's church did Mr. T. the reverse. This preparation of free and separate seats for the poor is, if he is rightly informed, nearly universal, in both the Scotch and English establishments, whenever the poor have seats in their churches. Now, if Mr. Thompson wished to begin a system of levelling—if he meant to preach universal equality, why did he not begin here? Why did he not try to convert Earl Grey and Lord Melbourne, instead of going across the Atlantic in order to try his experiments on the despised Americans? As to the civil rights of the free blacks in America, the most erroneous notions were entertained in both countries, but especially here. The truth was, they enjoyed greater civil rights than the peasantry of Britain herself; and those rights were fully as well protected in their exercise. Their right to acquire property of any kind, anywhere, without being hedged about with exclusive privileges and ancient corporations; their right to enjoy that property, unencumbered with poor rates, and church rates, and tithes and tiends, and untold taxes and vexations; their right to pursue trades, callings, or business, without regard to monopolies, and innumerable vexatious and worrying preliminaries; their right to be free in person—subject neither to forcible impressment, nor to the serveilance of an innumerable police: their right to be cared for in sickness and destitution, without questions of domicile previously settled; their right to the speedy and cheap administration of justice without "sale, denial or delay"—and unattended with ruinous expenses; these, with whatever may truly be considered civil rights, are enjoyed by the free colored people in nearly every part of America, to a degree utterly unknown by millions of British subjects, not only in the East and West-Indies, but in Ireland, and even in England itself. If any rights had been denied them, as the following of certain professions, as that of a minister of the gospel, for example, as Virginia had lately done, he could point their attention to the time when these laws were passed, and show that it was not till after the era of abolition; and that would never have been, but for its fury. It was not till after they had learned with bell book and candle to curse the white man, and teach sedition and murder to the slaves. The nature of political rights claimed by Mr. Thompson for the blacks, in his sweeping claim to have them put on a footing of perfect equality with the whites, seemed to be utterly unknown to him, both as to their origin and character. Whilst he advocated a scheme in America which demanded the most extensive political changes, and claimed political rights as the birthright of certain parties, he still persisted in assuring the British nation that he had never touched the subject in a political aspect! Now what political rights does he claim for the free blacks—and denounce all America for refusing, on account of this prejudice against color? Is it right of suffrage? is it right of office? is it perfect, personal, and political equality? If not, what does he mean? But if he means that it already exists in all the free States and in several of the slave States, in behalf of the free blacks, to a far greater extent than the same exists in England, as between the privileged classes and the bulk of the nation, though all are white,—I boldly assert, that a greater part of the free men of color in America did enjoy perfect political privileges at the rise of abolitionism, than of the white men of Britain at this day. There were more free black voters in North America, in proportion to the free black race, than there are white voters in all Britain, in proportion to the white inhabitants of the British empire. And this, even leaving out the red millions of the East, and the black thousands of the West-Indies; and making the Reform Bill the basis of calculation! If some have been deprived of these privileges, let abolitionists blame themselves. If in most places these privileges have been dormant, it only proves that their exercise was a very secondary advantage—that the present outcry is but the more wicked and absurd. As to the social rights which were demanded for the slaves and free blacks both, there seemed to be a complete confusion of ideas in the minds of the abolitionists. Did they mean to say that all distinctions and gradations of rank were iniquitous, or did they mean that men ought to enjoy rights because they were black, which were justly denied to the whites? Who had ever heard of a nobleman marrying a gipsy? or, of a king of England marrying a laborer's daughter? But the fact was, everything tended to prove that in preaching against the alleged prejudice against color, the abolitionists were really advocating general amalgamation. There were three opinions on the the subject: 1st. That in a State situated like most of those in America, public policy required the mixture of the races to be prohibited; so that, in nearly all the States, intermarriages were prohibited, and in many States they were punishable as a felony with fine or imprisonment. 2d. That the practice was inexpedient, but so far innocent as to be left to the discretion of the parties, which he believed was the opinion of sober-minded people generally in this country. 3d. That, as the chief practical objection to it is a sinful prejudice against color, that prejudice is to be broken down, and the contrary right upheld, as neither improper nor inexpedient, when voluntarily exercised. This last, or even a much stronger advocacy of amalgamation, is the doctrine of abolitionism; facts deducible from their declaration of independence, and found in the whole scope of their writings and speeches. Mr. Breckinridge then went on to show the utter folly, and, as he believed, wickedness of advocating amalgamation; or so acting or talking as to create the universal impression that was what was meant. In the first place, the result after which the abolitionists seemed to strive, was impossible; in the most strict sense of the terms, naturally or physically impossible. He by no means meant to contend with some freethinkers, who, to upset the Mosaic cosmogony, asserted that the different races of men were not fruitful if intermixed beyond a given and very near point. But what he meant was this: all who believe the Mosaic account of the origin of the human race, must, of course, believe that they were once all of one complexion. Now, if they could all be amalgamated and made of one complexion again, those causes, whatever they are, which have produced so great diversities, would, after a time, reproduce them. And having gratified Mr. Thompson and his friends, by universal levelling and mixing the world, would soon find that they had done a work which nature did not permit to stand; and would again behold, in one belt upon the earth's surface, the black, in another the red, and in a third the white man. And to whatever degree they carried their principles into practice, they would find proportionately great counteracting causes—continually fighting against them, and continually requiring the reproduction of their amalgamated breed, from the original stocks. This, then, is a fatal objection to their scheme; the course of nature is against it. But again, he would say, as a second fundamental objection against all such schemes, that wherever, in the past history of the world, the various races of men had been allowed freely to amalgamate, one of two concomitants had universally attended the process, namely, polygamy or prostitution. If either of these be permitted, as innocent, amalgamation can easily be pushed through its first stage; without one at least of these two engines, no progress has ever yet been made in this work of fighting against the overwhelming course of events. He regretted he had not time to go over these branches of the argument with that pains which he could wish. If he had, he believed, notwithstanding all that Mr. Thompson had said, or might say, about sophistry, they could each of them be demonstrated as clearly as that gentleman could demonstrate any proposition in geometry. Again, in the third place, he believed, from what was contained in the Bible, that in preserving distinct from each other the three families of mankind, as descended from the three sons of Noah, God had great and yet undeveloped purposes to accomplish. How far the whole history of his providence led to the same conclusion, he must leave to their own reflections to determine. But on the admission of such a truth as even possible—it was surely natural to look for something in the structure of nature that would effectually prevent the obliteration of either race. One may find this in those general considerations which make intermarriages, in his view, inexpedient; or another in the innate and absolute instincts of the creature. But both will receive with suspicion, as an undoubted and fundamental rule of Christian morals, a dogma which requires us to contend against the clear leadings of providence, and the good and merciful intentions of our Creator. We tax our faith but slightly when we believe that as soon as these purposes of mercy and glory are accomplished, and the signal revolution in the social condition of man now contended for shall be required by the Almighty, we may look for a channel of communication between him and the world more in accordance with the Spirit of his Son than any which has yet brought us messages on the subject. The fourth objection which struck him against this whole procedure was, that in point of fact the world has need of every race that now exists on its surface. It has taken forty centuries to adjust the nicely-balanced and adapted relations and proportions of a vast and complicated structure,—which the finger of all-pervading wisdom has itself guided in all the steps of its development. And now, a stroke of the pen is to subvert it all, and one dictum, of the world knows not whom, accomplish the most stupendous revolution which all these forty centuries have witnessed. Suppose the end gained. If any one race now existing was obliterated, or very materially altered in its physical condition, how large a proportion of the world's surface would become speedily depopulated, and so remain until the present condition of things were restored! If this could happen as to every race but one, what a wreck would the earth exhibit! He who will look with a Christian's eye abroad upon the families of men, must feel that to accomplish the great hopes that his heart has conceived for this ruined world, he needs every race that now peoples it; and must see the hand of God in arresting so speedily and so signally this pernicious heresy. In the fifth place, he suggested an argument against amalgamation, which at once showed the injustice of the outcry against America, and the total inconsiderateness of Mr. Thompson and his party. The fact was that this prejudice of color, as it was called, was in all respects mutual; and so far from being the peculiar sin of America, was the common instinct of the human race, and existed as really, if not as strongly on the side of the colored population as on that of the whites. In proof of this, Mr. Breckinridge cited the case of Hayti, where no man is allowed the rights of citizenship, unless a certain portion of black blood runs in his veins; and that of Richard Lander, who, while travelling in the interior of Africa, as the servant of Park, was looked upon with comparative favor by the natives on account of his dark complexion, while his master, who was of a very fair complexion, was far less a favorite on that account. The North American Indians and the blacks more readily intermixed than the Indians and the whites, while the latter connexion, which is not indeed uncommon, is formed by the marriage of a white man with a squaw; never, or most rarely, of an Indian and a white woman, the slight, and most exaggerated number of mulattoes, are nearly without exception, the offspring of white men and colored women. These facts seemed to show the reality and nature or the mutual aversion of which I have spoken; an aversion never overcome but in gross minds. And the whole current of remark proves that those who attempted to promote amalgamation are fighting equally against the purposes of providence, the convictions of reason, and the best impulses of nature. He had much to say, which time failed him to say, on the spirit in which the abolition had been advocated in America. He would therefore merely remark whether it might be taken as a compliment, or the reverse, that the spirit of all Mr. Thomson's speeches, which he had heard or read—might give them a tolerable idea of the spirit of abolitionism everywhere: a spirit which many seemed to consider as from above, but for himself he prayed to be preserved from any such spirit. He had much also to say upon the malignant feeling and spirit of insubordination which had been produced by the discussion of these questions in the breasts of multitudes of free colored people. The riots, of which so much had been said in this country, were as often produced by the imprudence and insolence of these deluded people, as by the wanton violence and prejudices of the lowest classes of the whites. In consequence of the influence of the Jacobinical principles of the abolitionists, many free colored servants left employments they had held for years; because the claim then first set up, of perfect domestic equality with their masters, was refused; while many cases of insult to females, in the streets of our cities, signalized the same season and spirit. He had also much to say of the wide-spread feeling, looking towards immediate deliverance, from a distance, and by force, which suddenly, and, if the abolitionists are innocent as they pretend, miraculously got possession of the minds of the slaves over all the southern country; and which led to such stern, and but the more unhappy, if necessary, consequences. It had been said, in justification of his conduct by Mr. Thompson, that persuasion had never yet induced any one to relax his hold on slaves—and that as for America, in particular, she would never be made to feel ought on the subject, till her pride and fears were awakened. To that he would reply that, as regarded pride, perhaps America had her share of it; but if abolition was not to be looked for till her fears granted it, he apprehended they would have sufficient time yet left to send Mr. Thompson on several new voyages before the whole country was frightened into his terms.