I may mention, in this connection, that A.L. Pennock, as well as others with whom I conversed on the subject, spoke with much regret of the want of faithfulness on the part of members of the Society of Friends, in maintaining their testimony against slavery, while exercising their civil rights as citizens and electors. From all I could learn, I have been led to fear that "Friends" in the United States, with few exceptions, are in the practice of voting for public officers, without reference to their sentiments on the important subject of slavery. At the late Presidential election it is very evident that the great body of "Friends" who took any part in it, voted for John Tyler, the slaveholder.
Among the active friends of emancipation, who occupy a high station in our society, I can scarcely omit mentioning Enoch Lewis, of Chester county, Pennsylvania, whose talents and literary acquirements, devoted as they are, to the maintenance and promulgation of the principles and Christian testimonies of our religious society, deservedly command a high degree of respect.
Among the members of the society which have separated from "Friends" in Philadelphia and elsewhere, I met with many warm and steady friends of emancipation, some of whom have proved their sincerity by great sacrifices. Amongst these I cannot omit mentioning James and Lucretia Mott, James Wood, Dr. Isaac Parish, and Thomas Earle, of this city.
I republished in Philadelphia, with the permission of the author, in two separate pamphlets, for distribution amongst those to whom it was addressed, "A Letter to the Clergy of various Denominations, and to the Slave-holding Planters in the Southern parts of the United States of America, by Thomas Clarkson." This remarkable production was written after its venerable author had attained his eightieth year, and has been pronounced by a very competent judge the most vigorous production of his pen. As its circulation had but just commenced when I left the United States, I could not judge of the effect produced by this energetic appeal from one whose name must command respect, even from the slave-holders; but I have since been informed it has been read with interest and attention.
I had several conferences with "Friends" who were interested in the cause, to discuss the best mode of engaging the members of the Society to unite their efforts on behalf of the oppressed and suffering slaves; and though no immediate steps were resolved on, yet I found so much good feeling in many of them, that I cannot but entertain a hope, that fruit will hereafter appear. I had spent much of my time and labor in Philadelphia, particularly among that numerous and influential body with whom I am united in a common bond of religious belief, and I trust of Christian affection. Of the kindness and hospitality I experienced I shall ever retain a grateful recollection; yet I finally took my leave of this city, under feelings of sorrow and depression that so many of the very class of Christian professors who once took the lead in efforts for the abolition of slavery, efforts evidently attended with the favor and sanction of the Most High, should now be discouraging, and holding back their members from taking part in so righteous a cause. Among the warmest friends of the slave, sound both in feeling and sentiment, are a few venerable individuals who are now standing on the brink of the grave, and whose places, among the present generation, I could not conceal from myself, there were but few fully prepared to occupy. I had found in many Friends much passive anti-slavery feeling, and was to some extent cheered by the discovery. May a due sense of their responsibility rest upon every follower of Christ, to remember them that are in bonds, and under affliction, not only with a passive, but with an active and self-denying sympathy, a sympathy that makes common cause with its object.
Apart from the fact, that Philadelphia is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, to a member of the Society of Friends it must ever be an object of peculiar interest. Here William Penn made his great experiment of a Christian government. Here, to the annual assemblies of Friends, came Warner Mifflin, and John Woolman, and James Pemberton, and George Dillwyn, and other worthies of the past, who have now gone from works to rewards. A few miles distant, in Frankford, is still to be seen the residence of the excellent Thomas Chalkley. Here Benezet exemplified, in the simplicity, humility, and untiring benevolence of his daily life, the lessons inculcated in his writings. And here, at this day, are a larger number of members of our religious society than can be found congregated elsewhere, within an equal space of territory. They are, in general, in easy circumstances, many of them wealthy, and occupying a high rank in the community.
Who can recur, without a lively feeling of interest, to the hopes and prayers of the benevolent founder of the city, as expressed in affecting terms in his farewell letter, written as he was about taking his final departure for England.
"And thou, Philadelphia, the virgin settlement of this province, named before thou wert born, what love, what care, what service, and what travail has there been to bring thee forth, and preserve thee from such as would defile thee! Oh, that thou mayest be kept from the evil that would overwhelm thee! that faithful to the God of Mercies, in a life of righteousness, thou mayest be preserved to the end!"
On the 11th, with John G. Whittier, I left for New York, and the next day we proceeded by steam packet to Newport, on Rhode Island, to attend the New England yearly meeting of the Society of Friends, which was to be held the next week. We arrived about seven o'clock in the morning. I found the change of climate particularly refreshing and agreeable. During the last fortnight, the range of the thermometer had frequently reached 94 degrees or 96 degrees in the shade: a tropical heat, without those alleviations which render the heat of the tropics not only tolerable, but sometimes delightful. In Rhode Island, the climate, while we were there, was almost as temperate as an English summer.
Some parts of the New England States are much resorted to by southern families of wealth; and their annual migrations have the effect of materially adding to the vast amount of complicated pro-slavery interests which exist in the free States, as well as of diffusing pro-slavery opinions and feelings throughout the entire community. We may hope this current will soon set in the opposite direction. The season was too early for the arrival of these visitors, and the hotels were generally filled with "Friends," collected from near and distant places, to attend the yearly meeting. There were upwards of a hundred boarding at the same house with ourselves. Soon after our arrival I addressed a letter, making the same application for the use of the meeting house for my friend, John Candler, who was also here, and myself, which had been complied with at New York, forwarding at the same time my credentials. My request, however, in this instance was not granted. Yet there was plainly a willingness on the part of many to receive information, and we caused it to be known that we should be at home at our hotel, on the evening of the sixteenth. About two hundred friends assembled, and appeared interested in a brief outline of the state and prospects of the cause in Europe which I endeavored to give them.