The following are extracts from the public, well considered, authoritative and solemn document of the Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery Society for 1838:—“It is often said, that religion has nothing to do with our republican politics; and hence it is inferred, that a cause which is based upon and inseparable from religion, should not presume to meddle with political affairs. But to make the proposition true, we must read instead of religion, sectarianism.... The religious principles of Abolitionism have nothing to do with sects.... They are but the thoughts and opinions of all who truly love God.... Abolitionism must have much to do with politics.... Abolitionists have resolved, from the first, to act upon slavery politically.... During the year this principle has produced the happiest results. The candidates of the opposing parties have been questioned, and their answers published; and in cases too numerous to mention, the election has resulted in favour of those who most decidedly pledged themselves to Anti-Slavery measures.”
The religious character of Abolitionism, as here confessed, will be considered in a subsequent place. We do not dissent from the suggestion conveyed, that religion has its political rights, under the Constitution, as much as any other interest, feeling, or principle; but we do not see the force of the distinction drawn between religion and sectarianism for this particular purpose; although the distinction is in fact obvious. Are not Abolitionists a sect, and as strongly marked as any that can be named? They fall, therefore, under the ban of their own rule. But, although religion has its political rights, not excepting even sectarianism—and we have yet to learn that there is any religion in the country, which is not sectarian, both in its principles and modes of operation, not only in relation to other religious bodies, but to Christianity itself, the catholic standard—it must yet be very careful not to usurp political powers in this country—not to have too much “to do with our republican politics.” “Abolitionism must have much to do with politics.” The word “must,” is italicised in the Report, and may, therefore, be taken as intended to be emphatically significant. We agree with them perfectly. But, that “Abolitionists have resolved, from the first, to act upon slavery politically,” is a matter which they must settle among themselves, inasmuch as when they first set out, they disclaimed it, as would appear from the note of July 16th, 1834, above introduced.
Our object in these quotations, is not to inform the public generally in regard to facts of this kind, as they are sufficiently well known—but merely to throw out a few tangible materials, connected with volumes of the same class, which might easily be collected, for the purpose of justifying in our pages the conclusions we deduce from them. We will trouble our readers with but one more which is from a clerical Agent of the Society in the western part of New York, dated Aurora, Oct. 8, 1838. It is a letter to a fellow laborer in Chetauque County.
“Dear Sir,
“I have just had assigned to me, by the Executive Committee of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society, as my field of labor for several months to come, Niagara, Erie, Chetauque, and Cataraugus Counties. The first object to which I am bending all my energies, is the holding of County meetings before the coming election, with a view especially of preparing and exciting Abolitionists to carry their principles to the polls, and wield all their political, as well as moral and religious power for the redemption, &c. ... Can you not create a tremendous reaction at this time, &c.? ... The only way in which we can move the proslavery and dough-faced politicians, is by showing them our political strength, &c.... Now, will you call together your Executive Committee, and fix on a time and place for a Convention? Let me know immediately, and write letters all over the County,—have notices given out in the Churches, &c. ... and have town Abolition Meetings held before the County Convention.
“Yours for the crushed slave,
“T. M. Blakesley.”
These extracts may serve to indicate the zeal and activity of the Secretaries and numerous Agents of this society, clerical and other, previous to the New York elections, and the modes adopted to secure their ends. The interrogation of “candidates for the National and State Legislatures,” and for other civil and political stations, as resolved upon and recommended by the parent Society, has been scrupulously carried out. The correspondence between Messrs. Seward and Bradish on the one side, and the official organs of the Society on the other, while these two gentlemen stood before the people of the State of New York as candidates, the first for Governor, and the second for Lieutenant Governor, has been laid before the public—all tending to the same point. Not being exactly satisfied with the result of the election in New York, so far as it demonstrated the influence of the Anti-Slavery Society, it has been suggested by Gerritt Smith, Esq., who seems to be a sort of Dictator General in these matters, that the Abolition societies should undergo a new organization, with a view to the expurgation of the baser and unsound materials, by requiring the despotic test of binding the conscience in the use of the elective franchise. How this will go down, we are unable to say; though it seems to us to be carrying matters with a high hand. Doubtless, the business, in one form or another, will go ahead, in despite of the imprudence of individuals, until the people of this country can be made to see the real character and tendency of the movement. Suffice it to say, as is sufficiently evident, that the American Anti-Slavery Society is now a grand political organization, aiming, by the use of political agencies and powers, at a radical and great change in the American political fabric. We shall yet have occasion to show, that this change, urged in this mode and under present circumstances, unless the movement can be checked and suppressed, must necessarily and inevitably dissolve the Union, and consequently overthrow the Government, as it now exists. But our immediate object is to establish the proposition, as stated in Italics on [page 3], in order to prepare the way for the application of those principles of American Constitutional law, which will prove this Society to be a seditious organization.
The most essential point of the proposition now under consideration, is the fact, that the American Anti-Slavery Society is a political organization. That, we think, may be regarded as already established; but it may still be fortified by the consideration, that it is necessarily so from the object it has in view, apart from the position it has assumed before the public by its own avowals and measures, and by the agencies it has taken in hand. Slavery, as is well known, and as will hereafter be made apparent by the introduction of authorities, is a corporate part of the American political fabric, established by Constitutional law, and interwoven with the frame of the Federal Government. It is not only a thoroughly pervading element, and main pillar of political society in the slave-holding States, but it is made a part of the supreme law of the land in the Federal Constitution. It is impossible, therefore, from the nature of the case, to institute any action, private or public, individual or combined, in any form, or by any agency, to abolish or eradicate slavery from American society, which will not be of a political character. Consequently, the Abolition movement, which, as before remarked, originated in religious sentiment, which was prompted and is still sustained principally by religious men, and which borrowed the model of its organization from the action of the religious world, by instituting an exact copy, the moment it entered the field, was transformed into a political body from the very nature of the work it had undertaken, notwithstanding it was, and still is, actuated by religious sentiment. It is nevertheless political, and it is all the more dangerous, because religion is in it—not Christianity. We shall by and by attempt to show the difference between Christianity and that religion, which lies at the bottom, and is the instigator, of this movement. We have seen, that, in the first setting out, the leaders professed to disclaim political alliance; but, allowing they were sincere in that disclaimer, they soon discovered it was a false step. Throwing aside all disguise, they have now gone the whole for political action. At first, they were timid, perhaps—did not know their strength, which might be a reason for not coming out under their own flag. But, crescit eundo—the cause soon obtained sympathy, and found way to importance; and behold! it dares to face the Government of the country in open conflict, and to erect its batteries against that Constitutional fabric, which has hitherto been so dear to American citizens.
We have stated, that this political organization is permanent. The meaning under which we propose to sustain the application of this epithet in this case, refers, by contradistinction, to a mode of popular political action, which, we conceive, is authorised by the Constitutional law of the land, and which proves equally, that a permanent organization of this kind is unauthorised and prohibited. For the present we simply state, what we suppose will not be contradicted, that the American Anti-Slavery Society is a permanent body, in distinction from those popular assemblages or conventions, which are customarily held in this country for political purposes, under the specific sanction of the Constitution and laws, which exist only for the time being, which do not presume to arm themselves with a distinct and separate polity, or to set up an imperium in imperio, independent and irresponsible.
We have stated also, that it is a grand political organization. This term is of no farther importance than simply to indicate, what is very well known, that this Society is great and powerful. It claims to wield 40,000 of the political votes of the State of New York. Whether this be over or under the true estimate, we take it from themselves; and it is probably fair to conclude, that they are equally strong in most of the other free States. Admitting that they have one-half, or even one-fourth, of this power, it is enough to justify the application of this term. It is a grand organization also, in consideration of its vast and complicated machinery, of the variety and extent of its operations, and of its means of influence. In 1838, this Society reports 1350 auxiliaries, of which 12 were State Societies, now 13, and 340 of these organized in the course of the previous year; 38 travelling Agents, so constantly engaged, as to have performed jointly 27 years’ labour in one; 75 local lecturers, circulating in adjacent towns, as far as convenient; money raised in the course of the year, $40,000, being $5,000 in excess of the previous year, notwithstanding the pecuniary embarrassments of the community; the issues of the press, 187,316 copies of Human Rights, 193,800 of the Emancipator, 42,100 Circulars and Prints, 12,054 bound volumes, 72,732 Tracts and Pamphlets, 97,600 of the Slaves’ Friend, and 40,000 of the Anti-Slavery Record. Total: 646,502.
This society, therefore, is a grand, and in its moral and political influence, a stupendous machinery.
And it is self-erected, self-governed, independent, and irresponsible. The truth of these statements, we think, is self-evident in all that we intend, or desire to be understood, by them. The first, certainly, is true. For what authority, independent of its component parts, suggested, or sanctioned it? And the second is equally true. For, where is the power, out of itself, that dictates, or controls, its proceedings? The third and fourth are also true. For what authority will they acknowledge, as competent to call them to account? They are, indeed, responsible to public opinion; but the relation we intend to express, is responsibility to some constituted authority; and in this view our proposition is sustained, so far as their designs are concerned. We presume they do not recognize the right of any known authority to call them to account. We think it fair, therefore, to represent this Society as self-erected, self-governed, independent, and irresponsible. So far as our individual opinion is concerned, we do indeed believe and hold, that they are responsible to an authority that is competent to act upon them, when a sense of public duty may require it, and that it is sufferance only that screens the action of this Society from uncomfortable rebuke. But we mean only to assert in our proposition, what we suppose is true: that they do not hold themselves responsible; that there is no constituted, or official, connexion between them and a superior power; and that they consider themselves entitled to carry on the operations in which they are engaged, under their present organization, without check, control, or interference of any authority.