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AUTOGRAPHS

FOR FREEDOM. 

EDITED BY

JULIA GRIFFITHS. 

 "In the long vista of the years to roll, Let me not see my country's honor fade; Oh! let me see our land retain its soul! Her pride in Freedom, and not Freedom's shade. "

AUBURN:ALDEN, BEARDSLEY & CO. 

ROCHESTER:WANZER, BEARDSLEY & CO. 

1854. 

ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, byALDEN, BEARDSLEY & CO. , In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Northern Districtof New York. 

STEREOTYPED BYTHOMAS B. SMITH, 216 William St. N. Y. 

[Illustration: J. B. Giddings (Engraved by J. C. Buttre. )]

Preface. 

In commending this, the second volume of "_the Autographs forFreedom_, " to the attention of the public, "THE ROCHESTER LADIES'ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY" would congratulate themselves and the friends offreedom generally on the progress made, during the past year, by thecause to which the book is devoted. 

We greet thankfully those who have contributed of the wealth of theirgenius; the strength of their convictions; the ripeness of theirjudgment; their earnestness of purpose; their generous sympathies; tothe completeness and excellence of the work; and we shall hope to meetmany of them, if not all, in other numbers of "_The Autograph_, " whichmay be called forth ere the chains of the Slave shall be broken, andthis country redeemed from the sin and the curse of Slavery. 

On behalf of the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society. 

[Illustration: (signature) Julia Griffiths]

_Sec'y. _

ROCHESTER, N. Y. 

Contents. 

 Subject Author PAGE

 INTRODUCTION (The Colored People's "Industrial College") _Prof. C. L. Reason_ 11

 Massacre at Blount's Fort _Hon. J. R. Giddings_ 14

 The Fugitive Slave Act _Hon. Wm. Jay_ 27

 The Size of Souls _Antoinette L. Brown_ 41

 Vincent Ogé _George B. Vashon_ 44

 The Law of Liberty _Rev. Dr. Wm. Marsh_ 61

 The Swiftness of Time in God _Theodore Parker_ 63

 Visit of a Fugitive Slave to the Grave of Wilberforce _Wm. Wells Brown_ 70

 Narrative of Albert and Mary _Dr. W. H. Brisbane_ 77

 Toil and Trust _Hon. Chas. F. Adams_ 128

 Friendship for the Slave is Friendship for the Master _Jacob Abbott_ 134

 Christine _Anne P. Adams_ 139

 The Intellectual, Moral, and Spiritual Condition of the Slave _J. M. Langston_ 147

 The Bible _versus_ Slavery _Rev. Dr. Willis_ 151

 The Work Goes Bravely on _W. J. Watkins_ 156

 Slaveholding not a Misfortune but a Crime _Rev Win Brock_ 158

 The Illegality of Slaveholding _Rev. W. Goodell_ 159

 "Ore Perennius" _David Paul Brown_ 160

 The Mission of America _John S. C. Abbott_ 161

 Disfellowshipping the Slaveholder _Lewis Tappan_ 163

 A Leaf from my Scrap Book _Wm. J. Wilson_ 165

 Who is my Neighbor _Rev. Thos. Starr King_ 174

 Consolation for the Slave _Dr. S. Willard_ 175

 The Key _Dr. S. Willard_ 177

 The True Mission of Liberty _Dr. W. Elder_ 178

 The True Spirit of Reform _Mary Willard_ 180

 A Welcome to Mrs. H. B. Stowe, on her return from Europe _J. C. Holly_ 184

 Forward (from the German) _Rev. T. W. Higginson_ 186

 What has Canada to do with Slavery? _Thos. Henning_ 187

 A Fragment _Rev. Rufus Ellis_ 190

 The Encroachment of the Slave Power _John Jay, Esq. _ 192

 The Dishonor of Labor _Horace Greeley_ 194

 The Evils of Colonization _Wm. Watkins_ 198

 The Basis of the American Constitution _Hon. Wm. H. Seward_ 201

 A Wish _Mrs. C. M. Kirkland_ 207

 A Dialogue _C. A. Bloss_ 210

 A time of Justice will come _Hon. Gerit Smith_ 225

 Hope and Confidence _Prof. G. L. Reason_ 226

 A Letter that speaks for itself _Jane G. Swisshelm_ 230

 On Freedom _R. W. Emerson_ 235

 Mary Smith. An Anti-Slavery Reminiscence _Hon S. E. Sewell_ 236

 Freedom--Liberty _Dr. J. McCune Smith_ 241

 An Aspiration _Rev. E. H. Chapin_ 242

 The Dying Soliloquy of the Victim of the Wilkesbarre Tragedy _Mrs. H. H. Greenough_ 243

 Let all be Free _Hon. C. M. Clay_ 248

 Extract from a Speech _Frederick Douglass_ 251

 Extract from an Unpublished Poem on Freedom _William D. Snow_ 256

 Letter _Rev. H. Ward Beecher_ 273

 A Day Spent at Playford Hall _Mrs. Harriet B. Stowe_ 277

 Teaching the Slave to Read _Mary Irving_ 304

INTRODUCTION. 

The Colored People's "Industrial College. "

WHAT SOME OF THE BUILDERS HAVE THOUGHT. 

A word oft-times is expressive of an entire policy. Such is the term_Abolition_. Though formerly used as a synonym of _Anti-Slavery_, people now clearly understand that the designs of those who haveranged themselves under the first of these systems of reform are ofdeeper significance and wider scope than are the objects contemplatedby the latter, and concern themselves not only with the great primaryquestion of bodily freedom, but take in also the collateral issuesconnected with human enfranchisement, independent of race, complexion, or sex. 

The Abolitionist of to-day is the Iconoclast of the age, and hismission is to break the idolatrous images set up by a hypocriticalChurch, a Sham Democracy, or a corrupt public sentiment, and tosubstitute in their stead the simple and beautiful doctrine of acommon brotherhood. He would elevate every creature by abolishing thehinderances and checks imposed upon him, whether these be legal orsocial--and in proportion as such grievances are invidious and severe, in such measure does he place himself in the front rank of the battle, to wage his emancipating war. 

Therefore it is that the Abolitionist has come to be considered theespecial friend of the negro, since _he_, of all others, has been madeto drink deep from the cup of oppression. 

The free-colored man at the north, for his bond-brother as forhimself, has trusted hopefully in the increasing public sentiment, which, in the multiplication of these friends, has made his futureprospects brighter. And, to-day, while he is making a noble struggleto vindicate the claims of his entire class, depending mainly for theaccomplishment of that end on his own exertions, he passes in reviewthe devotion and sacrifices made in his behalf: gratitude is in hisheart, and thanks fell from his lips. But, in one department ofreformatory exertion he feels that he has been neglected. He has seenhis pledged allies throw themselves into the hottest of the battle, tofight for the Abolition of Capital Punishment--for the Prohibition ofthe Liquor Traffic--for the Rights of Women, and similar reforms, --buthe has failed to see a corresponding earnestness, according to theinfluence of Abolitionists in the business world, in opening theavenues of industrial labor to the proscribed youth of the land. Thiswork, therefore, is evidently left for himself to do. And he has laidhis powers to the task. The record of his conclusions was given atRochester, in July, and has become already a part of history. 

Though shut out from the workshops of the country, he is determined tomake self-provision, so as to triumph over the spirit of caste thatwould keep him degraded. The utility of the Industrial Institution hewould erect, must, he believes, commend itself to Abolitionists. Butnot only to them. The verdict of less liberal minds has been givenalready in its favor. The usefulness, the self-respect andself-dependence, --the combination of intelligence and handicraft, --theaccumulation of the materials of wealth, all referable to such anInstitution, present fair claims to the assistance of the entireAmerican people. 

Whenever emancipation shall take place, immediate though it be, thesubjects of it, like many who now make up the so-called freepopulation, will be in what Geologists call, the "Transition State. "The prejudice now felt against them for bearing on their persons thebrand of slaves, cannot die out immediately. Severe trials will stillbe their portion--the curse of a "taunted race" must be expiated byalmost miraculous proofs of advancement; and some of these miraclesmust be antecedent to the great day of Jubilee. To fight the battle onthe bare ground of abstract principles, will fail to give us completevictory. The subterfuges of pro-slavery selfishness must _now_ bedragged to light, and the last weak argument, --that the negro cannever contribute anything to advance the national character, "nailedto the counter as base coin. " To the conquering of the difficultiesheaped up in the path of his industry, the free-colored man of theNorth has pledged himself. Already he sees, springing into growth, from out his foster _work-school_, intelligent young laborers, competent to enrich the world with necessary products--industriouscitizens, contributing their proportion to aid on the advancingcivilization of the country;--self-providing artizans vindicatingtheir people from the never-ceasing charge of a fitness for servilepositions. 

Abolitionists ought to consider it a legitimate part of their greatwork, to aid in such an enterprise--to abolish not only chattelservitude, but that other kind of slavery, which, for generation aftergeneration, dooms an oppressed people to a condition of dependence andpauperism. Such an Institution would be a shining mark, in even thisenlightened age; and every man and woman, equipped by its disciplineto do good battle in the arena of active life, would be, next to theemancipated bondman, the most desirable "_Autograph for Freedom_. "

[Illustration: (signature) Chas. L. Reason]

Massacre at Blount's Fort. 

On the west side of the Appalachicola River, some forty miles belowthe line of Georgia, are yet found the ruins of what was once called"BLOUNT'S FORT. " Its ramparts are now covered with a dense growth ofunderbrush and small trees. You may yet trace out its bastions, curtains, and magazine. At this time the country adjacent presents theappearance of an unbroken wilderness, and the whole scene is one ofgloomy solitude, associated as it is with one of the most cruelmassacres which ever disgraced the American arms. 

The fort had originally been erected by civilized troops, and, whenabandoned by its occupants at the close of the war, in 1815, it wastaken possession of by the refugees from Georgia. But little is yetknown of that persecuted people; their history can only be found inthe national archives at Washington. They had been held as slaves inthe State referred to; but during the Revolution they caught thespirit of liberty, at that time so prevalent throughout our land, andfled from their oppressors and found an asylum among the aboriginesliving in Florida. 

During forty years they had effectually eluded, or resisted, allattempts to re-enslave them. They were true to themselves, to theinstinctive love of liberty, which is planted in every human heart. Most of them had been born amidst perils, reared in the forest, andtaught from their childhood to hate the oppressors of their race. Mostof those who had been personally held in degrading servitude, whosebacks had been seared by the lash of the savage overseer, had passedto that spirit-land where the clanking of chains is not heard, whereslavery is not known. Some few of that class yet remained. Their grayhairs and feeble limbs, however, indicated that they, too, must soonpass away. Of the three hundred and eleven persons residing in"Blount's Fort" not more than twenty had been actually held inservitude. The others were descended from slave parents, who fled fromGeorgia, and, according to the laws of slave States, were liable tosuffer the same outrages to which their ancestors had been subjected. 

It is a most singular feature in slave-holding morals, that if theparents be robbed of their liberty, deprived of the rights with whichtheir Creator has endowed them, the perpetrator of these wrongsbecomes entitled to repeat them upon the children of their formervictims. There were also some few parents and grandchildren, as wellas middle-aged persons, who sought protection within the walls of theFort against the vigilant slave-catchers who occasionally were seenprowling around the fortifications, but who dare not venture withinthe power of those whom they sought to enslave. 

These fugitives had planted their gardens, and some of them had flocksroaming in the wilderness; all were enjoying the fruits of theirlabor, and congratulating themselves upon being safe from the attacksof those who enslave mankind. But the spirit of oppression isinexorable. The slaveholders finding they could not themselves obtainpossession of their intended victims, called on the President of theUnited States for assistance to perpetrate the crime of enslavingtheir fellow men. That functionary had been reared amid southerninstitutions. He entertained no doubt of the right of one man toenslave another. He did not doubt that if a man held in servitudeshould attempt to escape, he would be worthy of death. In short, hefully sympathised with those who sought his official aid. Heimmediately directed the Secretary of War to issue orders to theCommander of the "Southern Military District of the United States" tosend a detachment of troops to destroy "Blount's Fort, " and to "_seizethose who occupied it and return them to their masters_. "[1]

General Jackson, at that time Commander of the Southern MilitaryDistrict, directed Lieut. -Colonel Clinch to perform the barbaroustask. I was at one time personally acquainted with that officer, andknow the impulses of his generous nature, and can readily account forthe failure of his expedition. He marched to the vicinity of the Fort, made the necessary recognisance, and returned, making report that "thefortification was not accessible by land. "[2]

Orders were then issued to Commodore Patterson, directing him to carryout the directions of the Secretary of War. He at that time commandedthe American flotilla lying in "Mobile Bay, " and instantly issued anorder to Lieut. Loomis to ascend the Appalachicola River with twogun-boats, "to seize the people in BLOUNT'S FORT, deliver them totheir owners, and destroy the Fort. "

On the morning of the 17th Sept. , A. D. 1816, a spectator might haveseen several individuals standing upon the walls of that fortresswatching with intense interest the approach of two small vessels thatwere slowly ascending the river, under full-spread canvas, by the aidof a light southern breeze. They were in sight at early dawn, but itwas ten o'clock when they furled their sails and cast anchor oppositethe Fort, and some four or five hundred yards distant from it. 

A boat was lowered, and soon a midshipman and twelve men were observedmaking for the shore. They were met at the water's edge by some halfdozen of the principal men in the Fort, and their errand demanded. 

The young officer told them he was sent to make demand of the Fort, and that its inmates were to be given up to the "slaveholders, then onboard the gun-boat, who claimed them as fugitive slaves!" The demandwas instantly rejected, and the midshipman and his men returned to thegun-boats and informed Lieut. Loomis of the answer he had received. 

As the colored men entered the Fort they related to their companionsthe demand that had been made. Great was the consternation manifestedby the females, and even a portion of the sterner sex appeared to bedistressed at their situation. This was observed by an old patriarch, who had drunk the bitter cup of servitude, one who bore on his personthe visible marks of the thong, as well as the brand of his master, upon his shoulder. He saw his friends faultered, and he spokecheerfully to them. He assured them that they were safe from thecannon shot of the enemy--that there were not men enough on board thevessels to storm their Fort, and finally closed with the emphaticdeclaration: "_Give me liberty or give me death!_" This saying wasrepeated by many agonized fathers and mothers on that bloody day. 

A cannonade was soon commenced upon the Fort, but without muchapparent effect. The shots were harmless; they penetrated the earthof which the walls were composed, and were there buried, withoutfurther injury. Some two hours were thus spent without injuring anyperson in the Fort. They then commenced throwing bombs. The burstingof these shells had more effect. There was no shelter from these fatalmessages. Mothers gathered their little ones around them and pressedtheir babes more closely to their bosoms, as one explosion afteranother warned them of their imminent danger. By these explosions somewere occasionally wounded and a few killed, until, at length, theshrieks of the wounded and groans of the dying were heard in variousparts of the fortress. 

Do you ask why these mothers and children were thus butchered in coldblood? I answer, they were slain for adhering to the doctrine that"all men are endowed by their Creator with the _inalienable right toenjoy life and liberty_. " Holding to this doctrine of Hancock and ofJefferson, the power of the nation was arrayed against them, and ourarmy employed to deprive them of life. 

The bombardment was continued some hours with but little effect, sofar as the assailants could discover. They manifested no dispositionto surrender. The day was passing away. Lieut. Loomis called a councilof officers and put to them the question, _what further shall bedone_? An under officer suggested the propriety of firing "hot shot atthe magazine. " The proposition was agreed to. The furnaces wereheated, balls were prepared, and the cannonade was resumed. Theoccupants of the Fort felt relieved by the change. They could hear thedeep humming sound of the cannon balls, to which they had becomeaccustomed in the early part of the day, and some made themselvesmerry at the supposed folly of their assailants. They knew not thatthe shot was heated, and was therefore unconscious of the danger whichthreatened them. 

The sun was rapidly descending in the west. The tall pines and sprucethrew their shadows over the fortification. The roar of the cannon, the sighing of the shot, the groans of the wounded, the dark shades ofapproaching evening, all conspired to render the scene one of intensegloom. They longed for the approaching night to close around them inorder that they might bury the dead, and flee to the wilderness forsafety. 

Suddenly a startling phenomena presented itself to their astonishedview. The heavy embankment and timbers protecting the magazineappeared to rise from the earth, and the next _instant_ the dreadfulexplosion overwhelmed them, and the next found _two hundred andseventy_ parents and children in the immediate presence of a holy God, making their appeal for retributive justice upon the government whohad murdered them, and the freemen of the north who sustained suchunutterable crimes. [3]

Many were crushed by the falling earth and the timbers; many wereentirely buried in the ruins. Some were horribly mangled by thefragments of timber and the explosion of charged shells that were inthe magazine. Limbs were torn from the bodies to which they had beenattached. Mothers and babes lay beside each other, wrapped in thatsleep which knows no waking. 

The sun had set, and the twilight of evening was closing around them, when some sixty sailors, under the officer second in command, landed, and, without opposition, entered the Fort. The veteran sailors, accustomed to blood and carnage, were horror-stricken as they viewedthe scene before them. They were accompanied, however, by some twentyslaveholders, all anxious for their prey. These paid little attentionto the dead and dying, but anxiously seized upon the living, and, fastening the fetters upon their limbs, hurried them from the Fort, and instantly commenced their return towards the frontier of Georgia. Some fifteen persons in the Fort survived the terrible explosion, andthey now sleep in servile graves, or moan and weep in bondage. 

The officer in command of the party, with his men, returned to theboats as soon as the slaveholders were fairly in possession of theirvictims. The sailors appeared gloomy and thoughtful as they returnedto their vessels. The anchors were weighed, the sails unfurled, andboth vessels hurried from the scene of butchery as rapidly as theywere able. After the officers had retired to their cabins, therough-featured sailors gathered before the mast, and loud and bitterwere the curses they uttered against slavery and against thoseofficers of government who had then constrained them to murder womenand helpless children, merely for their love of liberty. 

But the dead remained unburied; and the next day the vultures werefeeding upon the carcasses of young men and young women, whose heartson the previous morning had beaten high with expectation. Their boneshave been bleaching in the sun for thirty-seven years, and may yet beseen scattered among the ruins of that ancient fortification. 

Twenty-two years elapsed, and a representative in Congress, from oneof the free States, reported a bill giving to the perpetrators ofthese murders a gratuity of five thousand dollars from the publictreasury, as a token of the gratitude which the people of this nationfelt for the soldierly and gallant manner in which the crime wascommitted toward them. The bill passed both houses of Congress, wasapproved by the President, and now stands upon our statute book amongthe laws enacted at the 3d Session of the 25th Congress. 

The facts are all found scattered among the various public documentswhich repose in the alcoves of our National Library. But no historianhas been willing to collect and publish them, in consequence of thedeep disgrace which they reflect upon the American arms, and uponthose who then controlled the government. 

[Illustration: (signature) J. R. Giddings]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Vide Executive documents of the 2d Session 13th Congress. 

[2] It is believed that this report was suggested by the humanity ofCol. Clinch. He was reputed one of the bravest and most energeticofficers in the service. He possessed an indomitable perseverance, andcould probably have captured the Fort in one hour, had he desired todo so. 

[3] That is the number officially reported by the officer in command, vide Executive doc. Of the 13th Congress. 

The Fugitive Slave Act. 

Few laws have ever been passed better calculated than this to hardenthe heart and benumb the conscience of every man who assists in itsexecution. It pours contempt upon the dictates of justice andhumanity. It levels in the dust the barriers erected by the common lawfor the protection of personal liberty. Its victims are native bornAmericans, uncharged with crime. These men are seized, without notice, and instantly carried before an officer, by whom they are generallyhurried off into a cruel bondage, for the remainder of their days, andsometimes without time being allowed for a parting interview withtheir families. Such treatment would be cruel toward criminals; butthese men are adjudged to toil, to stripes, to ignorance, to poverty, to hopeless degradation, on the pretence that they "owe service. "This allegation all know to be utterly false, they having neverpromised to serve, and being legally incapable of making any contract. Every act of Christian kindness to these unhappy people, tending tosecure to them the rights which our declaration of independenceasserts belong _to all_ men, is made by this accursed law a penaloffence, to be punished with fine and imprisonment. Mock judges, unknown to the constitution, and bribed by the promise of double feesto re-enslave the fugitive, are commanded to decide, _summarily_, themost momentous personal issue, with the single exception of life anddeath, that could possibly engage the attention of a legal tribunal ofthe most august character. Yet this tremendous issue of liberty orbondage, is to be decided, not only in a hurry, but on such _primafacie_ evidence as may satisfy the judge, and this judge, too, _selected_ from a herd of similar creatures, by the claimant himself!!An _ex parte_ affidavit, made by an absent and interested party, withthe certificate of an absent judge that he believes it to be true, isto be received as CONCLUSIVE, in the face of any amount of oral anddocumentary testimony to the contrary. "Can a man take fire into hisbosom and not be burned?" Can a man aid in executing such a lawwithout defiling his own conscience? Yet does this profligate statute, with impious arrogance, command "ALL GOOD CITIZENS" to assist inenforcing it, when required so to do by an official slave-catcher!

It is a singular fact, in the history of this enactment, that Mr. Mason, who introduced the bill, and Mr. Webster, who, in advance, pledged to it his support "to the fullest extent, " both confessed, onthe floor of Congress, that in their individual judgments, it wasUNCONSTITUTIONAL, --that is, that the constitution, as they expoundedit, imposed upon the _States_ severally, the obligation to surrenderfugitive slaves, and gave Congress no power to legislate on thesubject. The Supreme Court, however, having otherwise determined, these gentlemen acquiesced in its decision, without being convinced byit. It is well known how grossly Mr. Webster, in his subsequentcanvass for the Presidency, insulted all who, like himself, denied theconstitutionality of the law. Another significant fact in the samehistory is, that the law was passed by a _minority_ of the House ofRepresentatives. Of 232 members, only 109 recorded their names in itsfavor. Many, deterred either by scruples of conscience or doubts ofthe popularity of the measure, declined voting, while party disciplineprevented them from offering to it an open and manly resistance. Athird fact in this history, worthy to be remembered, is, that theadvocates of the law are conscious that its revolting provisions wouldnot bear discussion, forced its passage under the previous question, thus preventing any remarks on its enormities--any appeals to theconsciences of the members--against the perpetration of suchdetestable wickedness. 

Seldom has any public iniquity been committed to which the words ofthe Psalmist have been so applicable: "Surely the wrath of man shallpraise THEE; and the remainder of wrath shalt THOU restrain. "

It was happily so ordered, that several of the early seizures andsurrenders under this law were conducted with such marked barbarity, such cruel indecent haste, such wanton disregard of justice and ofhumanity, as to shock the moral sense of the community, and to renderthe law intensely hateful. 

Very soon after the law went into operation, one of the pseudo judgescreated by it, surrendered an alleged slave, on evidence which no jurywould have deemed sufficient to establish a title to a dog. In vainthe wretched man declared his freedom--in vain he named six witnesseswhom he swore could prove his freedom--in vain he implored for a delayof ONE HOUR. He was sent off as a slave, guarded, at the expense ofthe United States treasury, to his pretended master in Maryland, whohonestly refused to receive him. The judge had made a mistake (!) andhad sent a free man instead of a slave. 

This vile law, although of course receiving the sanction of theDemocrats, it being a bid for the Presidency, was a device of the Whigparty, and could not have been carried but by the co-operation ofWebster, Clay, and Fillmore. As if to enhance the value of the bid, the Administration affected a desire to baptise it in northern blood, by making resistance to the law, a crime to be punished with DEATH. The hustling of an officer, and the consequent escape of an arrestedfugitive, were declared, by the Secretary of State, to be a _levyingof war against the United States_--of course an act of HIGH TREASON, to be expiated on the gallows; and the rioters at Christiana wereprosecuted for HIGH TREASON, in pursuance of orders forwarded fromWashington. This wretched sycophancy won no favor from theslaveholders, and the result of the abominable and absurd prosecutiononly brought on the authors and advocates of the law fresh obloquy. When men obtain some rich and splendid prize, by their wrong-doing, many admire their boldness and dexterity, but foolish, profitlesswickedness ensures only contempt. The northern Whigs, in doingobeisance to the slave power, sinned against their oft-repeated andsolemn professions and pledges. They sinned in the expectation ofthereby electing a President, and enjoying the patronage he woulddispense. Most bitterly were these men disappointed, first in thecandidate selected, and next in the result of the election. The partyhas been beaten to death, and it died unhonored and unwept. Let theFugitive Slave Law be its epitaph. Truly the Whig politicians were"snared in the work of their own hands. "

Certain fashionable Divines deemed it expedient to second the effortsof the politicians in catching slaves, by talking from their pulpitsabout Hebrew slavery, and the reverence due to the "powers that beordained of God. " Yet the injunctions of the fugitive law were soobviously at variance with the "HIGHER LAW" of justice and mercy whichthese gentlemen were required by their Divine Master to inculcate, that "cotton divinity" fell into disrepute, nor could the plaudits ofpoliticians and union committees save its clerical professors fromforfeiting the esteem and confidence of multitudes of Christianpeople. 

But Whig politicians and cotton Divines are not the only friends ofthe fugitive law to whom it has made most ungrateful returns. TheDemocratic leaders, bidding against the Whigs for the Presidency, weremost vociferous in expressions of the delight they took in the humanchase. Democratic candidates for the Presidency, to the goodly numberof NINE, gave public attestations under their _signs manual_, of theirapprobation of a law outraging the principles of Democracy, as well asof common justice and humanity. Each and all of these men wererejected, and the slaveholders selected an individual whom they werewell assured would be their obsequious tool, but who had offered nobribe for their votes. 

But did the slaveholders themselves gain more by this law than theirnorthern auxiliaries? They, indeed, hailed its passage as a mightytriumph. The nation had given them a law, drafted by themselves, laying down the rules of the hunt, as best suited their pleasure andinterest. Wealthy and influential gentlemen in our commercial cities, out of compliment to southern electors, became amateur huntsmen, andin New York and Boston the chase was pursued with all the zeal andapparent delight that could have been expected in Guinea or Virginia. Slave-catching was the test, at once, of patriotism and gentility, while sympathy for the wretched fugitive was the mark of vulgarfanaticism. The north was humbled in the dust, by the action of herown recreant sons. Every "good citizen" found himself, for the firsttime in the history of mankind, a slave-catcher by law. Everyofficial, appointed by a slave-catching judge, was invested with theauthority of a High Sheriff, being empowered to call out the _possecomitatus_, and compel the neighbors to join in a slave chase. Well, indeed, might the slaveholders rejoice and make merry;--well, indeed, in the insolence of triumph, might they command the people of thenorth to hold their tongues about "the peculiar institution, " underpain of their sore displeasure. 

But amid this slavery jubilee, a woman's heart was swelling andheaving with indignant sorrow at the outrages offered to God and manby the fugitive law. Her pent up emotions struggled for utterance, and at last, as if moved by some mighty inspiration, and in all thefervor of Christian love, she put forth a book which arrested theattention of the WORLD. A miracle of authorship, this book attained, within twelve months, a circulation without a parallel in the historyof printing. In that brief space, about two millions of volumesproclaimed, in the languages of civilization, the wrongs of the slaveand the atrocities of the AMERICAN FUGITIVE LAW. The gaze of mankindis now turned upon the slaveholders and their northern auxiliaries, both clerical and lay. The subjects of European despotisms consolethemselves with the grateful conviction, that however harsh may betheir own governments, they make no approach to the baseness or to thecruelty and tyranny of the "peculiar institution" of the ModelRepublic. [4]

One slaveholder, together with the cotton men of the north, frettedand vexed by their sudden and unenviable notoriety, foolishlyattempted to obviate the impressions made by the book, by denouncingit as a lying fiction. Nay, one of the most affecting illustrations ofpure and undefiled Christianity that ever proceeded from an uninspiredpen, was gravely declared, by an organ of cotton divinity, to be anANTI-CHRISTIAN book. [5] Truly, indeed, the wisdom of man isfoolishness with God. "He disappointeth the devices of the crafty. "

Branded with falsehood and impiety, the author was happily put on hertrial before the civilized world. She collected, arranged, and gave tothe press, a mass of unimpeachable documents, consisting of laws, judicial decisions, trials, confessions of slaveholders, advertisements from southern papers, and testimonies of eye-witnesses. The proof was conclusive and overwhelming that the picture she haddrawn of American slavery was unfaithful, only because the coloringwas faint, and wanted the crimson dye of the original. A verdict ofnot guilty of exaggeration has been rendered by acclamation. 

It has long been the standing refuge of the slaveholders, thatnorthern men and Europeans, in condemning slavery, were passingjudgment against an institution of which they were ignorant. The"peculiar institution" was represented as some great _mystery_ whichcould not be understood beyond the slave region. Thanks to thefugitive law, it has led to the construction of a "_key_, " which hasunlocked our Republican bastile, thrown open to the sunlight itshideous dungeons, and exposed the various instruments of torture forsubjecting the soul, as well as the body, to hopeless and unresistingbondage. The iniquity of our cherished institution is no longer aMYSTERY. All Christendom is now made familiar with it, and is sendingforth a cry of indignant remonstrance and of taunting scorn. Such isthe suppression of anti-slavery agitation given to the slaveholders bytheir northern friends--such the strength imparted by the fugitiveslave law to the system of human bondage. How applicable to theinventors and supporters of that statute are the words of David, inregard to some politician of his own day: "Behold he travaileth withiniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. Hemade a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealingshall come down upon his own pate;" and then he adds, "I will praisethe Lord. " So also let the Christian bless and magnify HIM, who by hisinfinite wisdom brings good out of evil, and in the case of thefugitive law, HATH CAUSED THE WRATH OF MAN TO PRAISE HIM. 

But there is still a _remainder_ of wrath. The law is still on theStatute Book, and hungry politicians are promising that there itshall ever remain; and terrible threats come from the south, of theruin that shall overwhelm the free States, should the law be repealedor rendered less abominable than at present. Yet, in spite of northernpromises, and professions of security, and in spite of the greatswelling words of the dealers in human flesh, the _practical_, likethe moral working of the law, has been very far from what its authorsanticipated. The law was passed the 18th September, 1850, and, in twoyears and nine months, not fifty slaves have been recovered underit--not an average of EIGHTEEN slaves a year! Poor compensation thisto the slaveholders for making themselves a bye-word, a proverb, and areproach to Christendom--for giving a new and mighty impulse toabolition, and for deepening the detestation felt by the true friendsof liberty and humanity, for an institution asking and obtaining forits protection a law so repugnant to the moral sense of mankind. Butwhile this artful and wicked law, with its army of ten-dollar judges, and marshals, and constables, and office-seekers, and politicians, with the President and his cabinet all striving to enforce it, "to thefullest extent, " has restored to their masters not _eighteen slaves_a year; the escapes from the prison house have probably never beenmore numerous, nor the aid and sympathy afforded by Christians moreabundant. Thus has THE REMAINDER OF WRATH BEEN RESTRAINED. In themarvellous conversion of this odious law into an anti-slavery agency, let us find a new motive for unceasing and unwearied agitation againstslavery, and a new pledge of ultimate triumph. 

[Illustration: (signature) William Jay]

BEDFORD, June 1853. 

FOOTNOTES:

[4] A late American traveller, in Germany, invited to an evening partyat the house of a Professor, attempted to compliment the company byexpressing his indignation at the oppression which "the dear oldGerman fatherland" suffered at the hands of its rulers. The American'sprofferred sympathy was coldly received. "We admit, " was the reply, "that there is much wrong here, but we do not admit the right of _yourcountry_ to rebuke it. There is a system now with you, worse than anything which we know of tyranny--your SLAVERY. It is a disgrace andblot on your free government and on a Christian State. We have nothingin Russia or Hungary which is so degrading, and we have nothing whichso crushes the mind. And more than this, we hear you have now a LAW, just passed by your National Assembly, which would disgrace the cruelcode of the Czar. We hear of free men and women, hunted like dogs onyour mountains, and sent back, without trial, to bondage worse thanour serfs have ever known. We have, in Europe, many excuses in ancientevils and deep-laid prejudices, but you, the young and free people, inthis age, to be passing again, afresh, such measures of unmitigatedwrong!"--_Home life in Germany, by Charles Loving Brace_. Mr. Bracehonestly adds: "_I must say that the blood tingled to my cheek withshame, as he spoke_. "

[5] "We have read the book, and regard it as Anti-Christian, on thesame grounds that the chronicle regards it decidedly antiministerial. "--New York Observer, September 22, 1852. --_Editorial_. The Bishop of Rome also regards the book as Anti-Christian, and hasforbidden his subjects to read it. On the other hand, the clergy ofGreat Britain differ most widely from the reverend gentlemen of the"Observer" and the Vatican, in their estimate of the character of thebook. Said Dr. Wardlaw, who on this subject may be regarded as therepresentative of the Protestant Divines of Europe: "He who can readit without the breathings of devotion, must, if he call himself aChristian, have a Christianity as _unique and questionable_ as hishumanity. "

[Illustration: Antoinette L. Brown (Engraved by J. C. Buttre)]

The Size of Souls. 

A quaint old writer describes a class of persons who have souls sovery small that "500 of them could dance at once upon the point of acambric needle. " These wee people are often wrapped up in a lump ofthe very coarsest of human clay, ponderous enough to give them thesemblance of full-grown men and women. A grain of mustard seed, buriedin the heart of a mammoth pumpkin, would be no comparison to thelittle soul, sheathed in its full grown body. The contrast in sizewould be insufficient to convey an adequate impression; and the tinysoul has little of the mustard seed spiciness. 

Yet if this mass of flesh is only wrapped up in a _white skin_, eventhough it is not nearly thick enough to conceal the grossness andcoarseness of the veiled material, the poor "feeble folk" within willfancy that he really belongs to the natural variety of aristocratichumanity. He has the good taste to refuse condescension sufficient toallow him to eat at table with a Frederick Douglass, a Samuel R. Ward, or a Dr. Pennington. Poor light little soul! It can borrow a pair offlea's legs, and, hopping up to the magnificent lights of publicopinion, sit looking down upon the whole colored race in sovereigncontempt. 

Take off the thin veneering of a white skin, substitute in its steadthe real African ebony, and then place him side by side with one ofthe above-mentioned men. Measure intellect with intellect--eloquencewith eloquence! Mental and moral infancy stand abashed in the presenceof nature's noblemen!

So, mere complexion is elevated above character. Sensible men andwomen are not ashamed of the acknowledgment. The fact has a popularendorsement. People _sneer_ at _you_ if you are not ready tocomprehend the fitness of the thing. If you cannot weigh mind in abalance with a moiety of coloring matter, and still let the mind befound wanting, expect, in America, to lose cast yourself for want ofapproved taste. 

If sin is capable of being made to look mean, narrow, contemptible--to exhibit itself in its character of thorough, unmitigated bitterness--it is when exhibited in the light of our"peculiar" prejudices. Mind, Godlike, immortal mind, with its burdenof deathless thought, its comprehensive and discriminating reason, itsbrilliant wit, its genial humor, its store-house of thrillingmemories--a voice of mingled power and pathos, words burning with theunconsuming fire of genius, virtues gathering in ripened beauty upon abrave heart, and moral integrity preeminent over all else--all thiscould not make a black man the social equal of a white coxcomb, eventhough his brain were as blank as white paper, and his heart as blackas darkness concentrated. May heaven alleviate our undilutedstupidity!

 ANTOINETTE L. BROWN. 

Vincent Ogé

 [Fragments of a poem hitherto unpublished, upon a revolt of the free persons of color, in the island of St. Domingo (now Hayti), in the years 1790-1. ]

 There is, at times, an evening sky-- The twilight's gift--of sombre hue, All checkered wild and gorgeously With streaks of crimson, gold and blue;-- A sky that strikes the soul with awe, And, though not brilliant as the sheen, Which in the east at morn we saw, Is far more glorious, I ween;-- So glorious that, when night hath come And shrouded it in deepest gloom, We turn aside with inward pain And pray to see that sky again. Such sight is like the struggle made When freedom bids unbare the blade, And calls from every mountain glen-- From every hill--from every plain, Her chosen ones to stand like men, And cleanse their souls from every stain Which wretches, steeped in crime and blood, Have cast upon the form of God. Though peace like morning's golden hue, With blooming groves and waving fields, Is mildly pleasing to the view, And all the blessings that it yields Are fondly welcomed by the breast Which finds delight in passion's rest, That breast with joy foregoes them all, While listening to Freedom's call. Though red the carnage, --though the strife Be filled with groans of parting life, -- Though battle's dark, ensanguined skies Give echo but to agonies-- To shrieks of wild despairing, -- We willingly repress a sigh-- Nay, gaze with rapture in our eye, Whilst "FREEDOM!" is the rally-cry That calls to deeds of daring. 

 * * * * *

 The waves dash brightly on thy shore, Fair island of the southern seas! As bright in joy as when of yore They gladly hailed the Genoese, -- That daring soul who gave to Spain A world--last trophy of her reign! Basking in beauty, thou dost seem A vision in a poet's dream! Thou look'st as though thou claim'st not birth With sea and sky and other earth, That smile around thee but to show Thy beauty in a brighter glow, -- That are unto thee as the foil Artistic hands have featly set Around Golconda's radiant spoil, To grace some lofty coronet, -- A foil which serves to make the gem The glory of that diadem!

 * * * * *

 If Eden claimed a favored haunt, Most hallowed of that blessed ground, Where tempting fiend with guileful taunt A resting-place would ne'er have found, -- As shadowing it well might seek The loveliest home in that fair isle, Which in its radiance seemed to speak As to the charmed doth Beauty's smile, That whispers of a thousand things For which words find no picturings. Like to the gifted Greek who strove To paint a crowning work of art, And form his ideal Queen of Love, By choosing from each grace a part, Blending them in one beauteous whole, To charm the eye, transfix the soul, And hold it in enraptured fires, Such as a dream of heaven inspires, -- So seem the glad waves to have sought From every place its richest treasure, And borne it to that lovely spot, To found thereon a home of pleasure;-- A home where balmy airs might float Through spicy bower and orange grove; Where bright-winged birds might turn the note Which tells of pure and constant love; Where earthquake stay its demon force, And hurricane its wrathful course; Where nymph and fairy find a home, And foot of spoiler never come. 

 * * * * *

 And Ogé stands mid this array Of matchless beauty, but his brow Is brightened not by pleasure's play; He stands unmoved--nay, saddened now, As doth the lorn and mateless bird That constant mourns, whilst all unheard, The breezes freighted with the strains Of other songsters sweep the plain, -- That ne'er breathes forth a joyous note, Though odors on the zephyrs float-- The tribute of a thousand bowers, Rich in their store of fragrant flowers. Yet Ogé's was a mind that joyed With nature in her every mood, Whether in sunshine unalloyed With darkness, or in tempest rude And, by the dashing waterfall, Or by the gently flowing river, Or listening to the thunder's call, He'd joy away his life forever. But ah! life is a changeful thing, And pleasures swiftly pass away, And we may turn, with shuddering, From what we sighed for yesterday. The guest, at banquet-table spread With choicest viands, shakes with dread, Nor heeds the goblet bright and fair, Nor tastes the dainties rich and rare, Nor bids his eye with pleasure trace The wreathed flowers that deck the place, If he but knows there is a draught Among the cordials, that, if quaffed, Will send swift poison through his veins. So Ogé seems; nor does his eye With pleasure view the flowery plains, The bounding sea, the spangled sky, As, in the short and soft twilight, The stars peep brightly forth in heaven, And hasten to the realms of night, As handmaids of the Even. 

 * * * * *

 The loud shouts from the distant town, Joined in with nature's gladsome lay; The lights went glancing up and down, Riv'ling the stars--nay, seemed as they Could stoop to claim, in their high home, A sympathy with things of earth, And had from their bright mansions come, To join them in their festal mirth. For the land of the Gaul had arose in its might, And swept by as the wind of a wild, wintry night; And the dreamings of greatness--the phantoms of power, Had passed in its breath like the things of an hour. Like the violet vapors that brilliantly play Round the glass of the chemist, then vanish away, The visions of grandeur which dazzlingly shone, Had gleamed for a time, and all suddenly gone. And the fabric of ages--the glory of kings, Accounted most sacred mid sanctified things, Reared up by the hero, preserved by the sage, And drawn out in rich hues on the chronicler's page, Had sunk in the blast, and in ruins lay spread, While the altar of freedom was reared in its stead. And a spark from that shrine in the free-roving breeze, Had crossed from fair France to that isle of the seas; And a flame was there kindled which fitfully shone Mid the shout of the free, and the dark captive's groan; As, mid contrary breezes, a torch-light will play, Now streaming up brightly--now dying away. 

 * * * * *

 The reptile slumbers in the stone, Nor dream we of his pent abode; The heart conceals the anguished groan, With all the poignant griefs that goad The brain to madness; Within the hushed volcano's breast, The molten fires of ruin lie;-- Thus human passions seem at rest, And on the brow serene and high, Appears no sadness. But still the fires are raging there, Of vengeance, hatred, and despair; And when they burst, they wildly pour Their lava flood of woe and fear, And in one short--one little hour, Avenge the wrongs of many a year. 

 * * * * *

 And Ogé standeth in his hall; But now he standeth not alone;-- A brother's there, and friends; and all Are kindred spirits with his own; For mind will join with kindred mind, As matter's with its like combined. They speak of wrongs they had received-- Of freemen, of their rights bereaved; And as they pondered o'er the thought Which in their minds so madly wrought, Their eyes gleamed as the lightning's flash, Their words seemed as the torrent's dash That falleth, with a low, deep sound, Into some dark abyss profound, -- A sullen sound that threatens more Than other torrents' louder roar. Ah! they had borne well as they might, Such wrongs as freemen ill can bear; And they had urged both day and night, In fitting words, a freeman's prayer; And when the heart is filled with grief, For wrongs of all true souls accurst, In action it must seek relief, Or else, o'ercharged, it can but burst. Why blame we them, if they oft spake Words that were fitted to awake The soul's high hopes--its noblest parts-- The slumbering passions of brave hearts, And send them as the simoom's breath, Upon a work of woe and death? And woman's voice is heard amid The accents of that warrior train; And when has woman's voice e'er bid, And man could from its hest refrain? Hers is the power o'er his soul That's never wielded by another, And she doth claim this soft control As sister, mistress, wife, or mother. So sweetly doth her soft voice float O'er hearts by guilt or anguish riven, It seemeth as a magic note Struck from earth's harps by hands of heaven. And there's the mother of Ogé, Who with firm voice, and steady heart, And look unaltered, well can play The Spartan mother's hardy part; And send her sons to battle-fields, And bid them come in triumph home, Or stretched upon their bloody shields, Rather than bear the bondman's doom. "Go forth, " she said, "to victory; Or else, go bravely forth to die! Go forth to fields where glory floats In every trumpet's cheering notes! Go forth, to where a freeman's death Glares in each cannon's fiery breath! Go forth and triumph o'er the foe; Or failing that, with pleasure go To molder on the battle-plain, Freed ever from the tyrant's chain! But if your hearts should craven prove, Forgetful of your zeal--your love For rights and franchises of men, My heart will break; but even then, Whilst bidding life and earth adieu, This be the prayer I'll breathe for you: 'Passing from guilt to misery, May this for aye your portion be, -- A life, dragged out beneath the rod-- An end, abhorred of man and God-- As monument, the chains you nurse-- As epitaph, your mother's curse!'"

 * * * * *

 A thousand hearts are breathing high, And voices shouting "Victory!" Which soon will hush in death; The trumpet clang of joy that speaks, Will soon be drowned in the shrieks Of the wounded's stifling breath, The tyrant's plume in dust lies low-- Th' oppressed has triumphed o'er his foe. But ah! the lull in the furious blast May whisper not of ruin past; It may tell of the tempest hurrying on, To complete the work the blast begun. With the voice of a Syren, it may whisp'ringly tell Of a moment of hope in the deluge of rain; And the shout of the free heart may rapt'rously swell, While the tyrant is gath'ring his power again. Though the balm of the leech may soften the smart, It never can turn the swift barb from its aim; And thus the resolve of the true freeman's heart May not keep back his fall, though it free it from shame. Though the hearts of those heroes all well could accord With freedom's most noble and loftiest word; Their virtuous strength availeth them nought With the power and skill that the tyrant brought. Gray veterans trained in many a field Where the fate of nations with blood was sealed, In Italia's vales--on the shores of the Rhine-- Where the plains of fair France give birth to the vine-- Where the Tagus, the Ebro, go dancing along, Made glad in their course by the Muleteer's song-- All these were poured down in the pride of their might, On the land of Ogé, in that terrible fight. Ah! dire was the conflict, and many the slain, Who slept the last sleep on that red battle-plain! The flash of the cannon o'er valley and height Danced like the swift fires of a northern night, Or the quivering glare which leaps forth as a token That the King of the Storm from his cloud-throne has spoken. And oh! to those heroes how welcome the fate Of Sparta's brave sons in Thermopylĉ's strait; With what ardor of soul they then would have given Their last look at earth for a long glance at heaven! Their lives to their country--their backs to the sod-- Their heart's blood to the sword, and their souls to their God! But alas! although many lie silent and slain, More blest are they far than those clanking the chain, In the hold of the tyrant, debarred from the day;-- And among these sad captives is Vincent Ogé!

 * * * * *

 Another day's bright sun has risen, And shines upon the insurgent's prison; Another night has slowly passed, And Ogé smiles, for 'tis the last He'll droop beneath the tyrant's power-- The galling chains! Another hour, And answering to the jailor's call, He stands within the Judgment Hall. They've gathered there;--they who have pressed Their fangs into the soul distressed, To pain its passage to the tomb With mock'ry of a legal doom. They've gathered there;--they who have stood Firmly and fast in hour of blood, -- Who've seen the lights of hope all die, As stars fade from a morning sky, -- They've gathered there, in that dark hour-- The latest of the tyrant's power, -- An hour that speaketh of the day Which never more shall pass away, -- The glorious day beyond the grave, Which knows no master--owns no slave. And there, too, are the rack--the wheel-- The torturing screw--the piercing steel, -- Grim powers of death all crusted o'er With other victims' clotted gore. Frowning they stand, and in their cold, Silent solemnity, unfold The strong one's triumph o'er the weak-- The awful groan--the anguished shriek-- The unconscious mutt'rings of despair-- The strained eyeball's idiot stare-- The hopeless clench--the quiv'ring frame-- The martyr's death--the despot's shame. The rack--the tyrant--victim, --all Are gathered in that Judgment Hall. Draw we the veil, for 'tis a sight But friends can gaze on with delight. The sunbeams on the rack that play, For sudden terror flit away From this dread work of war and death, As angels do with quickened breath, From some dark deed of deepest sin, Ere they have drunk its spirit in. 

 * * * * *

 No mighty host with banners flying, Seems fiercer to a conquered foe, Than did those gallant heroes dying, To those who gloated o'er their woe;-- Grim tigers, who have seized their prey, Then turn and shrink abashed away; And, coming back and crouching nigh, Quail 'neath the flashing of the eye, Which tells that though the life has started, The will to strike has not departed. 

 * * * * *

 Sad was your fate, heroic band! Yet mourn we not, for yours' the stand Which will secure to you a fame, That never dieth, and a name That will, in coming ages, be A signal word for Liberty. Upon the slave's o'erclouded sky, Your gallant actions traced the bow, Which whispered of deliv'rance nigh-- The meed of one decisive blow. Thy coming fame, Ogé! is sure; Thy name with that of L'Ouverture, And all the noble souls that stood With both of you, in times of blood, Will live to be the tyrant's fear-- Will live, the sinking soul to cheer!

[Illustration: (signature) George B. Vashon. ]

SYRACUSE, N. Y. , August 31st, 1853. 

The Law of Liberty

Freedom, under the proper restraint of Law and Duty, is a _political_good, for that which is morally wrong can never be politically right. 

Fine moral sense will pour indignation on oppression, as well asapplause on worth. It will give sympathy to the afflicted, andtreasures to relieve the needy. Such a spirit will exalt a nation, andcommand the respect of other nations. But general freedom can onlyflourish beneath the undisturbed dominion of equitable laws. 

Governments should aim at the welfare of the people, and thatgovernment which secures the person, the property, the liberty, thelives of dutiful subjects, and thus makes the common good the rule andmeasure of its government, will receive a blessing from God. 

Let America act on her own avowed principles, that every man is bornfree, and she will be exalted, when tyrannical, persecuting, slaveholding nations will come to nought. 

[Illustration: (signature) Wm. Marsh, D. D. ]

 H. CANON OF WORCESTER. 

The Swiftness of Time in God. 

FROM THE KNABEN WUNDERHORN. (B. I. P. 73, _et seq. _)

 The general at Grosswardein Had once a little daughter fine:-- Her name was called Theresia, -- God-loving, modest, chaste and fair:

 And from her childhood up was she Most deeply given to piety, With prayers and music's solemn tone She ever praised the Three-in-One. 

 Whene'er she heard of Jesus' name, Her love and joy flamed brighter flame; Jesus to serve she makes her cross, Devotes herself to be his Spouse. 

 A noble lord came her to woo, Her father gave consent thereto; The mother to her daughter said, -- "Dear child, this man thou'lt surely wed. "

 The daughter said, "Mother of me That can and must not ever be. My heart is fixed on higher worth, A Bridegroom he not of this earth. "

 The mother then, "My daughter dear, Ah, do not contradict us here, Thy sire and I we both are old, And God has blessed our toil with gold. "

 Thereat the maid began to weep, "I have a lover beloved so deep, To him I've made my promise down; I'll wear for him a virgin crown. "

 Thereat the sire, "This must not be, My child away this phantasy, Where wilt thou dwell when past thy prime? We both are old, far gone in time!"

 The noble lord again draws near, And even the bridal feast prepare, For all things soon were ready made, -- But sorrow veils the maiden's head. 

 Quick to the garden, goeth she, There falls she down upon her knee, Out from her heart her prayer she poured To Jesus her espoused Lord. 

 She lay before him on her face, And sighed with sighs to win his grace. The dearest Christ the clouds unrolled, "Look up, " said he, "my maid behold!

 "Thou yet shalt be, in briefest time, In heaven with me in joy's full prime, And mid the lovely angels there, In full delight and joy appear. "

 He greets the maiden wondrous fair: She stands before him without fear, Down cast her eyes with modest grace, -- She felt the beauty of his face. 

 Then speaks the youth, the heavenly King, And weds her with a golden ring;-- "Look there, my bride! Love's pledge for thee, Oh, wear it on thy hand for me. "

 The maiden then sweet vows took, "My Bridegroom dear!" to Christ she spoke, "Herewith art thou firm wed to me, Henceforth my heart loves none but thee. "

 Then walked abroad the married pair, And gathered many a blossom fair;-- Jesus thus spake to her anew:-- "Come, and my lovely garden view!"

 He took the maiden by the hand, And led her from her fatherland, Unto his Father's garden fair Where many beauteous blossoms are. 

 The maiden now with joy may win The precious fruits which grow therein; But mortal fancy cannot know The noble fruits therein which grow. 

 She hears such music and such song, That length of time seems nothing long, And silver-white the brooklets there Flow ever on so pure and fair. 

 The youth again addressed the maid, "My garden here thou hast surveyed. I will again conduct thee home. To thine own land, the time is come. "

 The maiden turns with grief away, Comes to the town without delay, The watchman calls, "Stand, who goes there?" She says, "I to my father must repair!"

 "Who is your father, then, " quoth he, "The general, " she answers free. The watchman then replied and smiled, "The general;--he has no child. "

 But by her garments all men see, The maiden is of high degree. The watchman then conducts her straight Before the guardians of the State. 

 The maid declares and stands thereto, The general is her father true. And but two hours have scarcely flown, Since she went out to walk alone. 

 The guardians saw a wonder great, And asked where she had been of late; Her father's name, his power and race, That she must tell them face to face. 

 They searched the ancient records through, And this they found was written true, That once was lost a bride so fine From this same city Grosswardein. 

 The length of time they came to try, And sixteen years they find passed by; And yet the maid was fresh and fair, As when first in her fifteenth year. 

 Thereby the guardians understand This is the work of God's own hand. They bring the maiden food to eat, She turns white as a winding-sheet. 

 "Of earthly things I wish for nought, " Cries she; "but let a priest be brought, That I may take ere death is sent, The body true in sacrament. 

 As soon as this last act was done-- And many a Christian looked thereon-- Free from all pain and mortal smart, Then ceased to beat that holy heart. 

[Illustration: (signature) Theo. Parker]

Visit of a Fugitive Slave to the Grave of Wilberforce. 

On a beautiful morning in the month of June, while strolling aboutTrafalgar Square, I was attracted to the base of the Nelson column, where a crowd was standing gazing at the bas-relief representations ofsome of the great naval exploits of the man whose statue stands on thetop of the pillar. The death-wound which the hero received on boardthe Victory, and his being carried from the ship's deck by hiscompanions, is executed with great skill. Being no admirer of warlikeheroes, I was on the point of turning away, when I perceived among thefigures (which were as large as life) a full-blooded African, with aswhite a set of teeth as ever I had seen, and all the otherpeculiarities of feature that distinguish that race from the rest ofthe human family, with musket in hand and a dejected countenance, which told that he had been in the heat of the battle, and shared withthe other soldiers the pain in the loss of their commander. However, as soon as I saw my sable brother, I felt more at home, and remainedlonger than I had intended. Here was the Negro, as black a man as wasever imported from the coast of Africa, represented in his properplace by the side of Lord Nelson, on one of England's proudestmonuments. How different, thought I, was the position assigned to thecolored man on similar monuments in the United States. Some yearssince, while standing under the shade of the monument erected to thememory of the brave Americans who fell at the storming of FortGriswold, Connecticut, I felt a degree of pride as I beheld the namesof two Africans who had fallen in the fight, yet I was grieved but notsurprised to find their names colonized off, and a line drawn betweenthem and the whites. This was in keeping with American historicalinjustice to its colored heroes. 

[Illustration: Wm. W. Brown. (Engraved by J. C. Buttre)]

The conspicuous place assigned to this representative of an injuredrace, by the side of one of England's greatest heroes, brought vividlybefore my eye the wrongs of Africa and the philanthropic man of GreatBritain, who had labored so long and so successfully for the abolitionof the slave trade, and the emancipation of the slaves of the WestIndies; and I at once resolved to pay a visit to the grave ofWilberforce. 

A half an hour after, I entered Westminster Abbey, at Poets' Corner, and proceeded in search of the patriot's tomb; I had, however, gonebut a few steps, when I found myself in front of the tablet erected tothe memory of Granville Sharpe, by the African Institution of London, in 1816; upon the marble was a long inscription, recapitulating manyof the deeds of this benevolent man, and from which I copied thefollowing:--"He aimed to rescue his native country from the guilt andinconsistency of employing the arm of freedom to rivet the fetters ofbondage, and establish for the negro race, in the person of Somerset, the long-disputed rights of human nature. Having in this gloriouscause triumphed over the combined resistance of interest, prejudice, and pride, he took his post among the foremost of the honorable bandassociated to deliver Africa from the rapacity of Europe, by theabolition of the slave-trade; nor was death permitted to interrupthis career of usefulness, till he had witnessed that act of theBritish Parliament by which the abolition was decreed. " After viewingminutely the profile of this able defender of the negro's rights, which was finely chiselled on the tablet, I took a hasty glance atShakspeare, on the one side, and Dryden on the other, and then passedon, and was soon in the north aisle, looking upon the mementoes placedin honor of genius. There stood a grand and expressive monument to SirIsaac Newton, which was in every way worthy of the great man to whosememory it was erected. A short distance from that was a statue toAddison, representing the great writer clad in his morning gown, looking as if he had just left the study, after finishing some chosenarticle for the _Spectator_. The stately monument to the Earl ofChatham is the most attractive in this part of the Abbey. Fox, Pitt, Grattan, and many others, are here represented by monuments. I had tostop at the splendid marble erected to the memory of Sir FowellBuxton, Bart. A long inscription enumerates his many good qualities, and concludes by saying:--"This monument is erected by his friends andfellow-laborers, at home and abroad, assisted by the gratefulcontributions of many thousands of the African race. " A few stepsfurther and I was standing over the ashes of Wilberforce. In no otherplace so small do so many great men lie together. The following is theinscription on the monument erected to the memory of this devotedfriend of the oppressed and degraded negro race:--

"To the memory of WILLIAM WILBERFORCE, born in Hull, August 24, 1759, died in London, July 29, 1833. For nearly half a century a member ofthe House of Commons, and for six parliaments during that period, oneof the two representatives for Yorkshire. In an age and countryfertile in great and good men, he was among the foremost of those whofixed the character of their times; because to high and varioustalents, to warm benevolence, and to universal candor, he added theabiding eloquence of a Christian life. Eminent as he was in everydepartment of public labor, and a leader in every work of charity, whether to relieve the temporal or the spiritual wants of his fellowmen, his name will ever be specially identified with those exertionswhich, by the blessings of God, removed from England the guilt of theAfrican slave-trade, and prepared the way for the abolition ofslavery in every colony of the empire. In the prosecution of theseobjects, he relied not in vain on God; but, in the progress, he wascalled to endure great obloquy and great opposition. He outlived, however, all enmity, and, in the evening of his days, withdrew frompublic life and public observation, to the bosom of his family. Yet hedied not unnoticed or forgotten by his country; the Peers and Commonsof England, with the Lord Chancellor and the Speaker at their head, insolemn procession from their respective houses, carried him to hisfitting place among the mighty dead around, here to repose, till, through the merits of Jesus Christ his only Redeemer and Saviour, whomin his life and in his writings he had desired to glorify, he shallrise in the resurrection of the just. "

The monument is a fine one; his figure is seated on a pedestal, veryingeniously done, and truly expressive of his age, and the pleasure heseemed to derive from his own thoughts. Either the orator or the poethave said or sung the praises of most of the great men who lie buriedin Westminster Abbey, in enchanting strains. The statues of heroes, princes, and statesmen are there to proclaim their power, worth, orbrilliant genius, to posterity. But as time shall step between themand the future, none will be sought after with more enthusiasm orgreater pleasure than that of Wilberforce. No man's philosophy wasever moulded in a nobler cast than his; it was founded in the schoolof Christianity, which was, that all men are by nature equal; thatthey are wisely and justly endowed by their Creator with certainrights which are irrefragable, and no matter how human pride andavarice may depress and debase, still God is the author of good toman; and of evil, man is the artificer to himself and to his species. Unlike Plato and Socrates, his mind was free from the gloom thatsurrounded theirs. Let the name, the worth, the zeal, and otherexcellent qualifications of this noble man, ever live in our hearts, let his deeds ever be the theme of our praise, and let us teach ourchildren to honor and love the name of William Wilberforce. 

[Illustration: (signature) W. Wells Brown. ]

LONDON. 

Narrative of Albert and Mary. 

It was a beautiful morning as ever glittered over the broad Atlantic. The sun had the brightness and the sky the soft cerulean with whichthe month of June adorns the latitude of Carolina. The sea was notheavy nor rolling, but its motion was just enough to make its wavessparkle under the slanting rays of the morning sun. 

Mary stood with her betrothed in the bow of the boat, as it gracefullyploughed its way towards New York. She was only eighteen, and Albertwas just twenty. 

Mary was on her way to Troy, to complete her studies in the excellentinstitution for young ladies, which has sent out some of the brightestornaments of their sex, to refine and bless the world. She had beenentrusted to Albert's care, who was to spend his summer in New York, in the pursuit of the legal profession. They were both Carolinians, and had no little of that ardent spirit which distinguishes the youthof the South; while their well-developed forms, their intellectualcountenances, and their sensible speech, placed them in associationbeyond their years. 

As Mary leaned upon the arm of her gallant protector, theirconversation sparkled as the ocean spray that dashed against steamer'sbow. But suddenly, as the jet black eye of Albert Gillon caught thesoft blue of Mary's, he started at the discovery of a tear tremblingupon her eye-lash. 

"Sweet Mary, what saddens you?"

"Ah! Albert, the greatest trial of my feelings is the thought that youhave never yet consecrated yourself to Christ. "

"I have, " replied Albert, "no natural repugnance to religion. On thecontrary, I see and acknowledge God in all his works and in all hisprovidence, as the author and supreme ruler of all things. But, Mary, I do not understand the God of the Bible. I do not understand how theywho claim to be God's own people, and have the distinguishing title ofChristians, are, many of them, far worse in moral character, thanthose who make no such profession. I do not mean hypocrites; but thosewho are actually respected as orthodox Christians. There is Mr. Verse, of Philadelphia, for instance, who has a high place as a religiouseditor, and discusses the doctrines of Christianity with a zeal whichshows he takes deep interest in his work, and yet young as I am, andgay as I am, I can see that in his practical application ofChristianity, he teaches sentiments at variance with the plainestprinciples of moral truth; and he sets himself against those whosemoral character is above reproach; and rebukes them as infidels intheir very efforts to elevate the moral tone of society. How is itthat Mr. Verse is recognized as a Christian, and these excellent menare avoided as infidels? Why is he fit for heaven, and they must becast down to hell? I don't understand it. "

"I know, " replied Mary, "that wiser heads than mine find difficulty inanswering your question; and it would be presumptuous in me to signifythat I can solve it to your satisfaction. But still, Albert, yourobservations only confirm, in my own mind, your total ignorance ofwhat constitutes a Christian. Albert, it is not morality; it is notconsistency of practice with profession; it is not the _doing_ rightthat makes a Christian, for if man could have attained to entirecorrectness in morals, there would have been no such thing asChristianity. But it is because of man's wickedness and hisinconsistency, both in theory and in practice, that the Christianreligion is presented as the means of attaining to _salvation_. Christmakes the Christian--the Christian in Christ and Christ in theChristian--a loving, affectionate, endearing union--of ignorance withwisdom, of infirmity with strength, of immorality with virtue. Christthrows his robe of righteousness over the follies and the wickednessof the converted soul, and by covering him with himself, graduallysimilates him to himself until what is carnal being cast off, thespiritual remains at death a pure child of God. "

"Dear me, Mary, you look lovely as you speak this mysterious theology. And I really pant after such feelings as I see beaming from yourcountenance; but you might just as well speak to me in Arabic for anyunderstanding I can have of this thing called Christianity. It must besomething good, or it could not thus fill your own soul, intelligentas you are, with a joy that makes you indifferent to those gaietiesof life which give me pleasure. "

"You need, " said Mary, "the teachings of God's spirit. You know I tookdelight in those things a year ago, but God's spirit taught me that Iwas sinning in partaking of them. I was at Fayolle's, dancing, and, inthe midst of a figure in the cotillon, my head became giddy, and I hadto be supported to a seat. I soon recovered, but the thought of asudden death distressed me, for it came very forcibly to my mind--I ama wicked sinner. "

"O, Mary, Mary, " interrupted Albert, "you did not think yourself asinner!"

"Yes, Albert, I did. I had never thought so before, but had ratherprided myself upon being called a good girl by all my acquaintances. But I now saw things in a different light; and when I went home andbegan self-examination, I soon found I had a very wicked heart. Itried to do better, but the more I tried to live unto God the more Idiscovered the proneness of my heart to sin. I tried to think goodthoughts, and evil thoughts came directly in my way to mar my peace. Day after day I made effort to purify my thoughts. It was all in vain. A pure thought immediately suggested its opposite, and I found myselfmore familiar with the evil than the good. It shocked me. But Ipenetrated deeper and deeper into my own heart--into the iniquity ofmy soul, until I despaired of ever sounding its depth. I then cried toGod to have mercy on me. He heard my prayer, and Jesus Christ came tomy help. I felt that he had suffered in my stead, and had poured outhis blood as an atonement for my sins. I found peace to my soul as Icast myself, a poor, helpless sinner, upon his atoning altar, andbathed myself in his all-cleansing blood. "

Mary could proceed no farther, for the tears began to flow toorapidly, and her emotion might have been noticed by others thanAlbert. 

The wind, too, began to rise, and it blew so fresh that they retiredto the cabin, where Albert occupied himself with a game of chess, andMary read, with evident pleasure, such parts of her dearly-prizedBible which suited the state of her mind, occasionally callingAlbert's attention to some passage particularly striking. 

In the afternoon, Mary took her seat in a position to enjoy the bestview of the western sky, in which floated, in all their gorgeousness, the variegated sun-lit clouds. 

Albert soon joined her. "Well, Mary, you seem to be meditating; butallow me to participate in the luxury of your reflections upon thatsplendid horizon. "

"Indeed, Albert, I was thinking how much more impressive is suchscenery than the traveller on land enjoys. In the rapid succession ofscenery and variety of faces, as the coach or the steam car drivesrapidly onward, everything one sees increases the mind's confusion. Whatever he casts his eye upon, worthy of admiration, attracts hisattention but a moment; and the sublimity of mountain heights, thegaudy decorations of fertile valleys, and the frowning grandeur ofrocks, as they cast their dark shadow upon some foaming torrent, flitby him as a dream of twilight, and leave upon his memory only penciloutlines of the beautiful and the sublime. Not so the voyager on theocean. Here the beautiful imprints itself ineffaceably in all itssparkling and its gorgeous variety upon the enchanted mind, and thegrand and the sublime raise such a tempest of wonder in the soul thatthe ocean ever after rolls its foaming waves over the broad expanse ofmemory. "

"Mary, " said Albert, "these clouds, floating so gracefully on theocean, and this gorgeous horizon inspiring your poetic fancy, aresomething more than mere sky drapery, for you'll perceive that thewind is becoming boisterous, and I fear we are going to have a stormynight. "

"You do not feel alarmed, do you Albert?"

"I cannot say I feel alarmed; but I would be more comfortable at thistime if I had not so precious a charge. There may be no real danger, but there can be no harm in preparing for what might happen. If weshould have a storm I wish you would take your seat on that large box, so as to appropriate it and keep it. Your father brought me twolife-preservers and a good cord, when we came on board, and charged meto use them in case of accident. You smile, Mary, at my earnestness, and perhaps my love for you induces anxiety which circumstances do notwarrant. Still you can keep in mind my directions. "

Albert walked towards the bow of the steamer, while Mary again fixedher attention upon the variegated clouds. She did not participate inAlbert's apprehensions, and thought his anxiety needless. Yet hisearnest request made that sort of impression upon her mind whichrather conduced to religious contemplation. 

The broad disk of the sun could be seen through the floating cloud, and as Albert returned, Mary remarked:--"Albert, an hour ago I triedto look at the sun, but his light dazzled my eyes to blindness. Icould not mark its shape nor perceive its beauty. But now the cloudfloats before it, and through its light vapor I see the sun's circularinfinity, and admire its beauty and its glory undazzled by itseffulgence. So it is I see God through Christ, as he transmits theglory of his Father. And it is by thus seeing God through Christ, instead of by the eyes of intellect and mere mental observation, thatI obtain hope in God and feel prepared to enter upon the realities ofthat world which is eternally lighted by the invisible presence ofJehovah. Seeing him in Christ Jesus, I feel an assurance of his mercy, and am freed from those apprehensions which your scepticism anddistrust occasion yourself. "

"My dear Mary, " replied Albert, "do not suppose my counsel to youoriginated in any fear for myself personally. It may be from want ofreflection, but really I do not know what the fear of death is. Yoursafety, Mary, is the cause of my present anxiety. I do not doubt yourpreparation for eternity, but I am not willing to resign you yet tothe companionship of angels. If you perish beneath these billows, andI survive, my hope for happiness in this life is blasted. What is tobe beyond the grave I know not; and my religion concerns the life thatnow is. I must make the best of time, and leave eternity to be takenaccount of when I am fairly launched into it. Perhaps enjoying thisworld with you, I might learn from you to prepare for eternity. Atpresent my care must be to get my dear Mary safely over thistreacherous ocean. "

The sun now sank beneath the western horizon. The variegated colors ofthe sky were rapidly commingling into one dense canopy of gloom. 

The passengers earnestly inquired of the captain about the prospect. He hoped to run into the port of Wilmington, but he exhorted them tohave brave hearts for the danger was imminent. The storm was rapidlyincreasing. All urged that the pressure of steam be increased to theutmost capacity of the boat. 

O, what an anxious crowd were upon the deck of that steamer, as theystrained their eyes towards the land, and anon lost their balance bythe dashing of the billows! The lightning played with terrificsplendor, alternating with the blackness of the heavens; and the roarof the waves was only hushed by the awful artillery of the skies. 

Mary was sitting where Albert had directed, awaiting with greatcalmness the result of the storm. 

Albert carefully fastened her with a cord to the box, having firstplaced beneath her arms the life-preserver. Placing anotherlife-preserver around himself, he stood by Mary's side with watchfulanxiety. Suddenly a heavy sea threw the boat forcibly to one side, andAlbert mechanically stretching forth his hand to save himself, accidentally got caught in the rope that he had entwined about thebox, and with Mary was tossed into the sea and overwhelmed with thewaves. 

The steamer was several hundred yards ahead of them before Albertsucceeded in adjusting his position to maintain a good hold upon thebox. His first thought was to examine how Mary was situated. Thelightning gave him sufficient assurance that she was alive and unhurt. At that moment a dreadful explosion directed their eyes towards thesteamer, and the awful sight was exhibited of their late associatesblown into the air and then sinking beneath the waves. 

The loss of the Pulaski has made many a flowing tear. But few wereleft to tell the horrors of that night. The public are familiar withtheir description of the sad disaster. But they knew not the fate ofAlbert and Mary, and only added them to the catalogue of the lost. 

It was with the greatest difficulty that Albert could afford hischarge any aid, and they must both soon have perished if the storm hadbeen long protracted. But fortunately, the wind shifting, the cloudswere soon dispersed, and the stars shone out brightly. 

Before morning they were rescued from their perilous situation, andfound themselves, on recovering from their exhaustion, in thecomfortable cabin of a fast-sailing brig. The storm, althoughexceedingly perilous to a steamboat, was not such as to damage awell-trimmed vessel; and the brig, soon after the explosion, bore downtowards the wreck, and recovered from a watery grave the interestingsubjects of our narrative. 

Mary was taken on board in a state of entire unconsciousness, whileAlbert was too much interested for her to make any special observationof the persons by whom they were rescued. 

After seeing her sufficiently restored to animation to be left torepose, he retired from her state-room and suffered himself to beassisted to a berth. 

The sun was high in the heavens when they were awaked from theirslumber and invited to breakfast. Every accommodation in the way ofdry clothing was supplied them, and they met in the saloon of the brigto embrace, in the transport of grateful hearts. 

Having recovered their self-possession, they looked around fortheir deliverers. None were in the saloon with them but ahighly-accomplished looking lady and the steward and stewardess. 

The lady saluted them in the blandest and most refined manner, andexpressed her sincere gratification that they had been so soondelivered from their perilous situation, and were already so wellrecovered from their exhaustion. 

"To whom, Madam, " said Albert, "are we indebted for these expressionsof kindness and tender solicitude?"

"I am, sir, the wife of the captain and master of this brig. Myhusband will pay you his respects as soon as you have partaken of someof this warm Java and these hot rolls. "

"I would not, " said Mary, "be doing justice to my own feelings were Ito sit down to breakfast without first asking your liberty, Madam, toread a beautiful psalm which occurs to my mind at this moment. "

"Certainly, " said the lady; "and, steward, invite the chaplain in tooffer prayer. Doubtless it will be perfectly agreeable to our youngguests. "

A reverend and benevolent looking gentleman, in black, soon enteredfrom the deck, and, in the kindest manner and address, saluted theyoung couple, expressing, with deep emotion, his sympathy with themand his anxiety in their behalf. 

Mary pointed out to him the Psalm she had selected. He read it; made afew highly-appropriate comments, and, while all knelt, such a strainof grateful praise and of fervent prayer flowed from the lips of thewarm-hearted minister as seldom is surpassed. 

Mr. Gracelius, for this was the minister's name, was of the orthodoxfaith, and had long been engaged in preaching the doctrines of theCalvinistic school. Yet he was not bigoted or rigid. His heart wasfull of the milk of human kindness, and he carried conviction to hishearers, not more by the strength of his logic than the benignity ofhis address. He was just such a minister as the devout andaccomplished Mary St. Clair would have full confidence in. She wasdelighted to think that she had been so fortunate as to meet such afriend and spiritual counsellor at such a time; and she at once gaveutterance to the warm feelings of her heart, and begged that Mr. Gracelius would feel at perfect liberty to counsel and advise her. 

"My advice then is, my dear young sister, that first of all you sitdown to your breakfast, and allow Mrs. Templeton to help you and theyoung gentleman to your coffee. "

Albert and Mary could not but feel that they had fallen among truefriends. And, having eaten a cheerful breakfast, they both expressedtheir sincere gratitude to their kind hostess, which she received withequally deep emotion. 

Captain Templeton now entered, and with great courteousness, blendedwith warmth of address, gave his hand to Albert, and, with a gracefulbow to Mary, expressed the pleasure he felt in having rescued themfrom a watery grave. "And now, my young friends, " said the Captain, "Iwish you to make yourselves perfectly at home in my vessel; and assoon as I can with safety restore you to your friends, I shall do so. "

"Permit me to inquire, " said Albert, "to what port you are destined?"

"We do not go into any harbor in the United States, " replied theCaptain; "but should we meet with a merchant vessel under favorablecircumstances, you will be placed on board. "

"Is not this a merchant vessel?" inquired Albert. 

"No, sir. This is an armed brig. "

"Of what nation?" asked Albert. 

The Captain smiled as, with a courteous bow, he replied, "We arepirates;" and immediately went on deck, leaving Albert and Mary inperfect amazement. 

Recovering himself in a moment, Albert said to Mrs. Templeton: "Yourhusband is very jocose!"

"No, sir; he was serious in what he said. We are pirates. But you needbe under no apprehension of danger, nor feel the slightest alarm. Iknow that you have been trained to believe that pirates arenecessarily devoid of humane feelings, and are ever thirsting forblood. But I trust we are as hospitable and kind a people to ourguests, as are to be found on land. "

Albert and Mary were indeed the guests of a piratical crew; but theywere soon relieved of all apprehension of personal danger; for therewas that in the deportment of all on board which satisfied them of asincere desire to serve and accommodate them in every way. 

A few days brought them into such intimacy with the crew that theyspoke with freedom, even on the subject of piracy. They were indeedastonished to find that even Mr. Gracelius advocated the claims ofpirates as a civilized and religious people. 

On board the brig they had morning and evening prayers, and a lectureone evening in the week, and two sermons on the Sabbath. What seemedparticularly remarkable was the sound evangelical faith of the Captainand his family, and the unexceptionable doctrines that were preachedby their minister. There was so much fervor, earnestness, and pathosin the sermons of Mr. Gracelius, that Mary was constrained to admit toMrs. Templeton that she had never heard better. 

They had been on the brig about three weeks, without any eventcalculated to disturb the sensibilities of our young friends, beyondthe unaccountably strange sentiments of the piratical crew. Everythingwas conducted with so much order and propriety, good taste and moraldeportment, that they could scarcely believe at times otherwise thanthat a mere sportive hoax was being played upon them. 

But the tranquil, social pastimes were now interrupted by a new sceneof action. 

It was a pleasant morning; a gentle breeze filled the sails. Anunusual arrangement of the vessel attracted the attention of Albert. Soon he observed men at the guns, and Captain Templeton standing in acommanding position. The brig was bearing down upon a Frenchmerchantman. 

Albert hastened to Mary, and disclosed to her the state of things. Mary at first trembled, but soon composed herself with trust in God. Albert, taking her arm into his, led her to where Captain Templetonwas standing:

"Captain, " said Albert, "I perceive you are bearing down upon thatmerchant vessel. Is it your object to place us on board, or do youdesign to capture her?"

"Mr. Gillon, " replied the Captain, "I shall see to it that you andyour young charge are safely provided for; and that you may beperfectly easy on that score, I now inform you that when I takepossession of that merchantman, I shall make arrangements for you tobe taken in her to a suitable port, whence you can find your way toyour friends. Be composed now, and pay such attention to Miss St. Clair as the unusual occasion may seem in your judgment to require. Ina few moments we shall have something to do, and perhaps a necessityto use our guns. But I hope not. If you will retire to the cabin, Mrs. Templeton will entertain you there better than you are likely to be ondeck. "

There was so much politeness in the Captain's manner, and yet evidentfixedness of purpose, that Albert attempted no answer. There was nowno doubt that their hospitable entertainers were pirates. They retiredto the cabin, and sat there in profound silence. Soon Mrs. Templetoncame in, and in her gentle winning manner began to prepare Mary forthe scenes that might transpire. 

"You must not be alarmed, my dear. You will be perfectly safe. I onlyregret we are so soon likely to lose your company. "

"O Mrs. Templeton!" said Mary, "how can you prosecute such a life! Itis so wicked! Excuse me, ma'am, but I cannot suppress my feelings ofhorror. "

At this moment the conversation was interrupted by the entrance ofCaptain Templeton, who, with a calm countenance, said:--

"Wife, I perceive that there are several guns on that vessel, and Ijudge that the crew and passengers are somewhat numerous. We shallhave to proceed with caution, and as we are likely to have somewhat ofa warm time, I think I should feel better satisfied to have a seasonof prayer. "

Albert knit his brow in moody silence. Mary heaved a deep sigh. Mr. Gracelius was called in, and having read the 20th Psalm, he offered upthe following prayer:--

"Oh! Thou mighty God of Jacob, who didst accompany Thine ancientIsrael through all their trials, and didst fight their battles forthem, we thank Thee that Thou hast taught us to put our trust in Thee. And we beseech Thee, oh! blessed Father, for the sake of Thine own SonJesus Christ, to help us at this time in our endeavor to appropriateto the support of this branch of thy Zion, the treasures which, forthe mere purposes of an unhallowed commerce, are being transported tothat people who have ever distinguished themselves by theirinfidelity, and by their scorn of all true religion; who have also bytheir mighty leaders devastated kingdoms and shed seas of blood togratify a vain-glorious ambition. 

"Oh! Lord, we would not shed blood needlessly, and we therefore prayThee to enable us in the approaching conflict, to have a single eye toThy glory, and thus preserve a calm and kind temper, whatsoever may bethe resistance offered on this occasion. And wilt Thou, O Lord, assistour beloved captain to do his duty, and to so command his men andorder the battle, that when all shall be over, he may have aconscience void of offence towards God and towards man. And whatsoevertreasures may come to us, may we gratefully employ in Thy service andto Thy glory, remembering that Jesus Christ, who died for us and roseagain for our justification, first became poor, that we through hispoverty might be made rich, and therefore that we ought to use ourwealth to the advancement of Christianity in our own souls and amongour fellow-beings, as the best evidence of our gratitude for ourearthly prosperity, and for those treasures which are laid up for usin heaven; and to Thy gracious name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, bethe praise forever. _Amen_. "

The tone of the chaplain's voice, the fervid manner and the strikingpathos of this short prayer, had a strong effect upon CaptainTempleton and his wife. They both rose from their knees with tears intheir eyes. 

The Captain grasped the hand of Mr. Gracelius, and earnestly said: "Ifeel strengthened, my brother; and I can now say, If the Lord be forus, who can be against us!" He then passed out and resumed hisposition on the deck. 

"Miss St. Clair, " said Mrs. Templeton, "do you think that can bewickedness which the Lord sanctifies with his communion?"

Before Mary could reply, the loud report of a cannon gave notice thatthe action had commenced. 

The struggle was a short one, the French vessel was captured, with theloss of her commander, who fell at the first fire. It took but a shorttime to have all on the merchantman in fetters, and the vessel mannedby the pirates. 

It was not until the morning after the capture that matters becamecomposed on the pirates' vessel, and everything in usual order. 

At breakfast Mary took the liberty to ask the Captain what he designedto do with his prisoners. 

"I always endeavor, " he replied, "to remember the obligations ofhumanity and Christianity. Sometimes, for our own safety, we arecompelled to put our captives to death, but I do so always with greatreluctance, and never without prayer to God that their souls might besaved. In this case I think we shall not be under this painfulnecessity. "

"Captain, " said Albert, "it is perfectly unaccountable to me how a manof your naturally humane and benevolent disposition can engage in thisbusiness of robbery and murder. "

"Well, Mr. Gillon, " replied the Captain, "I make every allowance forone who has been educated as you have been, and taught that pirateswere only worthy of the gallows; although I cannot but feel that yourlanguage is not such as your refined and polished manners wouldwarrant me to expect and require. Our business is not robbery andmurder. The laws under which we live, both social and political, areas decidedly opposed to such crimes as among any other people. "

"I did not, " replied Albert, "intend to be ungentlemanly in mylanguage, and was not aware that these terms were offensive to you. But, sir, you only increase my amazement. I cannot comprehend how youcan characterize your business by terms more appropriate. Is it not sothat piracy is but the practice of robbery and murder, when it takesaway a man's possessions, and then destroys his life to make the bootysecure?"

"I perceive, Mr. Gillon, that you labor under the delusion that allpirates are bad and cruel men. I confess, sir, there are many of ourpeople who treat their prisoners with unnecessary severity, andfrequently inflict death when the occasion does not demand it. But, mydear sir, this is the abuse of piracy, not its legitimate use. "

"And do you really mean to say, Captain Templeton, " said Mary, "thatpiracy can be made an honorable business?"

"Of course I do, miss, " replied the Captain, "and I regret that MissSt. Clair can suppose I would engage in a business that I did notbelieve to be honorable. "

"But, Captain, you profess to be a Christian, and it is a greatmystery to me how you can reconcile your profession with yourpractice. Surely you do not believe that the Scriptures justify such alife. "

"That is precisely my belief, Miss, " replied the Captain. "Piracy is aBible institution, and if it were not so, I would abandon it at once. "

"Ah!" said Albert, "that accounts for it. It is that belief in theBible that leads the mind and the heart astray from the clearprinciples of a sound moral philosophy. Even my good Mary, here, is sowarped by her reverence for the Bible, that she defends theinstitution of slavery, which I abhor with all my heart. But, Captain, although I am not surprised at your belief that the Bible sanctionspiracy, since it is quoted by Christians in support of all sorts ofwickedness, I am surprised that a man of your good sense and keenmoral perception in regard to other matters of life, should notperceive that slavery, and piracy, and war, and everything of thesort, are irreconcilable with sound morality. "

"I do not know, " replied the Captain, "what might be the conclusionsof abstract reasoning upon the subject outside of the Bible, for Ihave never thought very profoundly about it. But I feel satisfied solong as I have the assurance that the revealed Word is on my side. "

"But, Captain, " said Mary, "I am not willing to allow that the Bibleis on your side. It shocks me to hear you say so. "

"Well, Miss St. Clair, I must turn you over to brother Gracelius, whois well posted up in Bible matters. He will be able to show you thatpiracy is a Bible institution. "

"Yes, my young sister, " said Mr. Gracelius, who had not beeninattentive to the conversation, while he was enjoying an excellentcup of coffee. "The Scriptures do most certainly sanction theinstitution of piracy. "

Here Mr. Gracelius took from his pocket a small Bible, and proceededto say: "On such a question, I am strongly disposed to pass by allethical and metaphysical dissertation, and appeal at once to the onlystandard of right and wrong which can prove decisive. It is theresponses of the sacred oracles to which we must after all appeal. "

"I could wish, Mr. Gracelius, " said Albert, "that you would discussthis question rather upon the foundation principles of morality, thanby arguments from a volume which sanctions war, slavery, deathpenalties, and a host of other evils, by the very confessions ofChristians themselves. "

"I perceive, " said Mr. Gracelius, "that you, sir, have never yetlearned the true grace of God through regeneration, or you too wouldbow submissively to the teachings of the sacred Scriptures, andacknowledge them as the highest standard of right and morality. Icannot, therefore, hope to seriously affect your mind by an appeal tothe Bible. But Miss St. Clair, being a Christian, will feel the forceof such high authority. "

"Truly, Mr. Gracelius, " said Mary, "I do take the Bible as my higheststandard of truth; and it is from the principles taught by the Biblethat I have the assurance that piracy is awfully criminal. And I amutterly astonished that a man of your apparent piety, and who so wellunderstands the doctrines of Christianity, can for a moment think thatthe Bible justifies such crimes. "

"My dear young sister, " said the minister, "you are begging thequestion when you call piracy a crime, for that is the very thing youare to prove. But let us see what piracy is:

"In order to clear away rubbish, and to arrive at once at the point, let me remind you that it is simply the _essential_ character ofpiracy which we are discussing. Piracy itself is nothing more than theappropriating of the products of another's labor and skill, withouthis consent or contract. The absence of the contract, or the consentof the producer, does not alter the nature and extent of the pirates'right. The case is analogous to that of parents and children. A fatherhas a right to the productions of his child's labor during hisminority, without the contract or consent of the child, and he mayeven transfer that right. But I grant that this does not justify thefather in doing anything to the detriment of the child, eithermorally, intellectually, or physically. And, beyond doubt, this is thetrue light in which Christianity would have pirates regard theirrelations. The capture of a vessel, and the treatment of prisoners, involve a great responsibility. Nothing more should be done than isabsolutely essential to the maintenance of the peculiar institutionsof piracy. It is not the relation of the pirate to the producer orprisoner which is sinful, but infidelity to the solemn trust whichthat relation creates. It does not follow, because he has a right tothe produce of another's labor or skill, that he has also a right toinflict unnecessary violence on his person, or take from him all meansof livelihood. Whenever it can be done, without jeopardizing thewell-being and interests of our society and institutions, we ought tospare the prisoner's life, make him comfortable while in our hands, place him as soon as possible where he can return to his home, andleave him means enough to keep him from starving or absolutedestitution. 

"To include in the idea of piracy, that also of robbery and murder, isto confound two things entirely distinct, and which really have nosort of connection. If I take from another that which I have no rightto by the laws of the society or government under which I live, then Iam a robber; for that alone is property which the law makes property, as one of your own great statesmen has very properly said; and if Itake life, when not essential to maintain my own rights under the lawsof that government which I recognize in my social obligations, I am amurderer. I therefore insist upon it, that, in discussing thissubject, we regard as appropriate to the question only the _essential_elements of piracy, and not its abuses; for piracy may exist withoutinflicting these aggravated wrongs. 

"Christian pirates have great regard for the welfare, temporal andspiritual, of their fellow-beings, and oftentimes exercise the spiritof the most self-denying missionaries. Such men and women do honor tohuman nature. They are the true friends of their race. 

"Now, here is piracy--a system of society and government which givesopportunity to inculcate among graceless men who fall into our handsthe principles of the Gospel of Christ; and many an ungodly man hashad the opportunity in our cabin of hearing the doctrines of thecross, who, whilst immersed in the business, and cares, and pleasuresof life, never darkened the door of a meeting-house on land. And manyof them have been converted to the Christian faith, and have becomeexcellent and worthy Christian pirates. 

"Those of our captains who have Christian sailors under them have thebest-managed vessels; and really their crews do more of effectivework, both in battle and in ship duties, than any ungodly crew thatcan be found. 

"No, Sister Mary, depend upon it, you have imbibed a prejudice againstpiracy, and you suppose it to involve all sorts of crime. But the truequestion of issue between us is pruned to this:--Is it necessarily acrime in the sight of God to control the property, or curtail thepersonal liberty, or take the life of a human being in any case?

"Every government has necessarily a right to pass laws indispensableto its existence; and it has a right, also, to establish thoseregulations which shall best promote the good of the whole population. Now, what political organization is most desirable for a particularpeople, depends on circumstances; but, whatever be that adopted, whether democracy, or despotism, or piratical confederation, therights of man, as a human being, are trenched upon; and visionary haveproved and will prove all projects of constructing and fashioningsociety according to philosophical notions and theories of abstractunalienable rights. That piracy or any civil institution interfereswith the property of a man, or a class of men (as, for instance, merchants), does not then make it necessarily, and, amid allcircumstances, a crime. "

Mr. Gracelius here paused, and gave Mary an opportunity to put in aword. 

"But, " said she, "after taking off what you call the rubbish, Mr. Gracelius, and pruning the question down as much as you please, Icannot possibly admit that the Bible anywhere justifies piracy underany circumstances whatsoever, either abstractly or practically. I callupon you for anything in all the Bible that gives the slightestcountenance to such a mode of life, or such a government, as you arepleased to term it. "

"I should rather require of you, " replied the learned divine, "to makeout from the Bible your charge that piracy is a crime. I know not aword from the first of Genesis to the end of Revelation where piracyis once condemned. But I pass this, and, waiving my clear logicalrights, undertake to prove the negative, and to show that the Bibledoes, most explicitly, both by precept and example, bear me out in myassertion, that piracy is not necessarily, and always, and amidst allcircumstances, a sin. WHAT GOD SANCTIONED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, ANDPERMITTED IN THE NEW, CANNOT BE SIN. 

"I begin with the patriarch Jacob, whose name Israel has beenappropriated from his day to this time to the true church. How didJacob acquire his great riches? Was it not by appropriating theproperty of Laban to himself? And did not God bless him in thus doing?There is not a word of condemnation; but, on the contrary, Jacob, intelling his brother that he had much property, remarked, that God haddealt graciously with him. Here, you see, is a marked case of anappropriation of another's property by a very adroit stratagem, whichis fully justified by the Old Testament, and uncondemned by the New. 

"Had Jacob not represented in his person a different community fromLaban's, of which he was to be the Patriarch, his mode of acquiringwealth out of Laban would have been censurable. But his conducttowards Laban was consistent with what was subsequently allowed underthe Mosaic laws on the part of the Jews towards other nations. Theycould, for instance, make slaves of the nations round about;--theycould take usury of them;--they could despoil them by war, and theycould do a variety of things in relation to the people of othernations which would have been robbery, fraud, murder, and so on, ifdone by Jews to Jews. Thus the idea that that is property which thelaw makes property, is of divine origin. 

"Take now the case of the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt; theywere positively enjoined by the Divine command to borrow of theirEgyptian neighbors their various costly jewelries, not with the ideaof returning them, but of appropriating them permanently to their ownbenefit. 

"David, who was a man after God's own heart, did not regard it robberyto obtain from the Priest the shew-bread itself, although to do so hedeceived the Priest by telling that which, under other circumstances, would be called a lie. It was essential to his life--to his support. It was not therefore criminal to tell the falsehood in order to obtainthe bread. Now, it is upon this very principle that your governmentand all civil governments employ diplomatic agents, in order to secureby adroitness and craftiness commercial and other advantages; and itis upon the same principle that we pirates justify our proceedings. Itis essential to the support and maintenance of our people; and thereis as much in the Scriptures to warrant our stratagems to decoyvessels and get the benefit of their cargoes, as for your governmentto obtain advantages by diplomatic adroitness. We must have a living. 

"But you say we not only rob but murder. But as all appropriations ofothers' possessions are not essentially robbery, so all killing is notessentially murder. If you will look into the Book of Judges, xiv. 19, you will find that the taking of spoil even by violence and bloodshed, is not necessarily a crime--is not necessarily robbery and murder. Itis the case of Samson when he had to give thirty changes of raiment tothose who had expounded his riddle. It is said: "And the Spirit of theLord came upon him, and he went down to Askelon and slew thirty men ofthem, and took their spoil, and gave change of garments unto themwhich expounded the riddle. " Now, notice this particularly, thatSamson did all this under the influence of God's Spirit. And you willremember that Paul in Hebrews mentions Samson with specialcommendation. 

"Now, if Samson, and David, and Jacob did such things, we feeljustified in proceeding accordingly. 

"But as I have not time to go into very minute detail, I pass at onceto two very important points in the New Testament. The first occursin Christ's parable of the unjust steward. There the steward iscommended for making an arrangement by which he secured his permanentinterest by adroitly subtracting from what was due his Lord by hisdebtors. He had acted unjustly in the office of steward, being boundby honor to fulfil its duties and his obligations to his employer, butso soon as his obligations to his employer ceased on being ordered outof the stewardship, and his very living cut off, then it was no longerunjust, but commendable to do that which before would have been fraudor robbery. 

"The other case is that of our blessed Lord himself. He sent hisdisciples to take away from the place where they were tied an ass andher colt; and he told them how to escape should they be caught at it, by saying: 'The Lord hath need of them. ' Now, when we take away theproperty of others, we may reply to those who question us, 'The Lordhath need of them, ' for every good pirate will endeavor so to use whathe obtains as to promote the best interests of religion, and toglorify our blessed Redeemer. 

"And now, my dear young sister, what more need I say to establish thepoint that piracy is not essentially sinful--that it is not _malum inse_? Indeed, it stands upon the same footing that slavery does, and isvindicated by the same process of reasoning. The argument for slaveryis identically the same in principle as for piracy. And you know it isupon the ground that slavery is not under all circumstances a sin, that Christians in the Northern States hold communion with you of theSouth. And I admire that charitable spirit which induces them tobelieve that Southern Christians do not uphold the barbarous featureswhich wicked and cruel masters impress upon the system of slavery. They give you, therefore, very properly, the right hand of Christianfellowship, which they could not do if slaveholding were sin initself. And I doubt not they would as readily commune with Christianpirates, since it is evident that piracy is not, any more thanslavery, _malum in se_. "

Mary made no reply, but sat musing with a countenance overwhelmed withsadness. 

Mr. Gracelius looked as though he had accomplished a decided victory;and Captain Templeton smiled with approbation. 

Albert after a short silence exclaimed with great emphasis: "I thankGod _my_ Bible is my _reason_, my _conscience_, and my _heart_. Ithis day glory in being an infidel. "

"Oh! Albert, Albert!" cried Mary, and burst into tears. 

Albert seeing he had wounded the feelings of one he loved so dearly, tried to soothe her by remarking that he had met at the North withsome persons who maintained that the Bible was misunderstood andmisinterpreted by the most of the commentators and theologians, andthat when rightly explained and received, would be found to beperfectly in harmony with the sympathies and philanthropic emotions ofthe human heart, and with the principles of enlightened reason. But asthese persons were generally called fanatical and visionary, he hadnot paid much attention to their strictures. "I intend, however, " headded, "to take an early opportunity to investigate the Bible formyself, and if it prove itself to be better than its commentators andexpounders, perhaps I shall become a Christian. But I cannot be aChristian if Christianity props up slaveholding and piracy. "

Here the conversation was interrupted by the entrance of a messenger, who announced that every preparation had been made, and that Mr. Gillon and Miss St. Clair could now go on board the merchant vessel. On rising to depart, Albert with much feeling addressed the Captain:

"Captain Templeton, we are much indebted to you for saving our lives, and for the hospitality and very kind attentions we have received. Iwould that I could repay you in some way. But you will pardon me, soyoung a man, for expressing the profound wish of my heart, that youwould abandon this horrible life, and no longer delude yourself withthe idea that the Bible is the highest authority for the regulation ofman's life. Recognize every man, everywhere, as your brother, andtreat all as you have treated Mary and myself, --treat all as your ownheart, left to its most benevolent promptings, would dictate, and (theBible to the contrary notwithstanding) you will please God better thanyou can do by any adherence to theological dogmas, that make theAlmighty the author of piracy, slavery, war, death-penalties, and suchlike institutions and practices. "

"And I, too, hope, " replied Captain Templeton, "that you will lookinto this matter with care, and come to the conclusion to follow thatgood book rather than the _ignis fatuus_ of mere human reason andnatural conscience. I admire your honesty and candor, Mr. Gillon, and, although I cannot but regard your views as fanatical, I trust thatwhen the ardor of youth shall give place to the reflections of matureryears, you will be as firm a believer in the Bible as I am. "

"Ah!" said Mr. Gracelius, "that will depend upon the grace of God. Farewell, young man, and may the Lord convert your soul and give us ahappy meeting again, where we shall sing the song of the Lamb foreverand ever. "

Mary, still in tears, took Mr. Gracelius by the hand and said:

"Mr. Gracelius, I am not at all convinced that the Scriptures favoryour views, although I am not prepared to meet your arguments. But Ifear you have so confirmed Albert in his infidelity, that it will beexceedingly hard to get him hereafter even to listen to Christianinstruction. "

"Oh! my young sister, " replied the minister, "the grace of God canconquer the worst of infidels, and I hope your friend will yet becomean ambassador of Christ. "

By this time the party were standing on deck, ready to bid the lastadieu. Our young friends were soon on board the merchant vessel andout of sight of their strange benefactors. 

They found that the pirates had liberated the crew and passengers, andreturned them to their vessel, retaining only the rich cargo. 

Having been well supplied with funds, in gold, when they left home, which Albert had about his person when taken up by the pirates, theyfound no difficulty, on reaching France, in making their way toEngland, and thence to the United States. 

On the voyages Albert perused the Scriptures with great attention, notonly because Mary had urged him to do so, but because he felt that heneeded to be informed of the true nature and character of what wasclaimed to be sacred writings. He was careful to avoid conversation onthe subject during the progress of his investigations; and Maryherself was not, after her last interview with Mr. Gracelius, sufficiently quieted in her own mind to give expression to herthoughts. 

It was in November, when an Indian summer was augmenting the beauty ofthe scenery about the harbor of New York, that our young friends weresitting together in Mary's spacious state-room on board the noblevessel which was just passing Staten Island. 

"Albert, " said Mary, with deep emotion, and the tear in her eye, "Ihave become an Abolitionist. "

"And I, " said Albert, with yet deeper emphasis, "have become aChristian. "

"Thank God--thank God!" exclaimed Mary. "O, Albert, I cannot tell youhow happy I am to hear you say so. But I do not need any explanation, for I see through it all. The pirates have made me an Abolitionist, and the Bible has made you a Christian. I have now learned how tounderstand its teachings, and you have learned that the preciousvolume has been grievously tortured to uphold the evil instead of thegood. "

"It is even so, Mary, " replied Albert. "I have been reading andstudying with an earnest desire for truth. I find much, in the OldTestament, calculated to bewilder, and much that requires the NewTestament to explain. I find, scattered through the Old Testament, holy principles that are brought into full relief by Jesus Christ, whohas, by his example, and in his instructions to his disciples, elucidated what was obscure and rejected from the claims of divineauthority what was only Jewish misconception. I am satisfied that itdoes not uphold violence, oppression, and wrong, and throw aroundthese things the sanction of the divine mind. I find that everythingtaught by Jesus Christ is in full harmony with the most benevolent andhonorable feelings of the human heart, and with the highest sense ofjustice and consciousness of right, and is diametrically opposed toall base carnal passions and affections, and to all that is violativeof human equality and brotherhood. 

"I believe in Jesus Christ. And I had the ideal of such a Saviour forman before I saw that the Jesus of the New Testament is the trueCaptain of Salvation. And now I find that such a Saviour reallyexists, I am willing to follow his leadings, although I know it willrequire self-denials and sacrifices. I tell you, Mary, I found outfrom reading the Bible that I was an unregenerated man, and neededGod's spirit to purify and sanctify my heart; and I have learned thisfrom studying carefully the life and doctrines of Christ, who, in theflesh, gave a full manifestation of the godhead, and by _hisrighteousness_ brought to my own view _my unrighteousness_. 

"I read of Jesus dying on the cross rather than not carry out everyjot and every tittle of the divine morality, and every principle ofpure and undefiled religion. I stand in admiration of this divineheroism. I learn farther that his great mission was to induce sinfulman to abandon his sins and become reconciled to God; and that it wasin carrying out this mission that he subjected himself to the torturesof the cross. Under the influence of God's Spirit, this brings me totrue repentance, and I determine to reform by taking Jesus as myexemplar and the captain of my salvation. I am thus made reconciled toGod's law, and feel pardoned for the past and hopeful for the future. My faith in Christ gives me strength to live the life of a Christian, and thus I am saved. Jesus Christ's death has in this way reconciledme to God, and being thereby brought into harmony with God, God isreconciled to me. Jesus Christ therefore making atonement orreconciliation for me, has truly suffered in my stead. That is to say, his suffering in order to impress me with my obligations to God andhis law, has by reconciling me to God's law, kept me from sufferingthe penalty of law. And when I think that God made this provision forthis fallen world--that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoeverbelieveth in him should not perish but have eternal life, and Irealize it all with trust and confidence, I feel that the kingdom ofheaven is within me. I am truly happy. "

"My dear Albert, " responded Mary, "you make me to see all this in anew light. I confess I never before properly understood the doctrineof the atonement. I did not before understand that atonement for man, and reconciliation between God and man, were one and the same thing. But I now perceive that there is no atonement unless we becomeChrist-like; and that just in proportion as we are Christ-like, we arein harmony with God, and are thus far saved. God converts the soulfrom the love of sin to the love of Christ, and that love of Christinsures obedience to his commandments to the full measure of ourknowledge. To be clothed upon then with the righteousness of Christ, and to have Christ's righteousness imputed to us, are not termssignifying a righteousness extraneous from ourselves, and onlyregarded in place of righteousness in us, but really and truly tomanifest a righteousness which will be seen and recognized by ourownselves and others as a righteousness derived from Christ, becausewe live as Christ would have us to live. O how pleasant it is to seethe matter in so clear a light!"

"And now, " said Albert, "I wish to know how it is you a little whileago called yourself an Abolitionist. Did you really mean what you saidin its full import?"

"Yes I did, " replied Mary. "That argument made by Mr. Gracelius was soexactly similar to the mode of interpreting the Scriptures in behalfof slavery, that I at once saw if it were good for slavery, it wasjust as good in defence of piracy; and that I must give up the Bibleunder such a mode of interpretation, or admit that piracy itself issanctioned by the Bible. I could not give up my precious Bible, for Ihave felt so much of its hallowed influences upon my soul, that Icould not think of parting from it. I have, like yourself, spent thisvoyage studying it with great care, and whatever may be the criticismsof the learned upon words, I am certain that the whole spirit ofChristianity, as developed before and since Christ, utterly condemnsany and every system, or practice, or principle which does notrecognize all men as brethren. And I also perceive that many thingshave been wrested from their original meaning to subserve thepurposes of oppression and tyranny. I now so read that good book, thatI discriminate between the erroneous ideas and practices of the Jewsand the divine law--between historical facts and traditionalinferences--between man's misconceptions and the true principles ofreligion. I now can and do see from the Bible itself that slavery isall wrong; and being so, I am obliged to be an Abolitionist; for Iknow that no Christian ought to continue the practice of what is wrongin itself on any consideration. But, Albert, how was it that you whodid not believe in the Bible, became an Abolitionist?"

"Why, Mary, the truth is, I did not believe in the Bible, because, being an Abolitionist, professed Christians and ministers instructedme that the Bible sanctioned slavery, and that it required obedienceto earthly masters and rulers, even although their commands and lawsbe contrary to the divine law. This was so contrary to my sense ofnatural right, that I said to myself I cannot honor the true God bysubmitting to the authority of the Bible; and therefore it was I tookan utter aversion to the Bible. My respect for my parents prevented mefrom telling them when they would urge me to read the Bible, thattheir own views and practice had already convinced me that it was anunrighteous book; for I could not believe that my father would holdslaves under any conviction of its rightfulness drawn from nature, andthat my mother would treat the blacks as she did, had she beengoverned by her natural sense of justice; but that by early educationin the Bible, they had been trained to regard slaveholding perfectlycompatible with the divine law, and the black as some heathenishbeing, whom it was no oppression to enslave. But now having examinedthe Bible with care, I see that they who take that Book to justify theenslaving of men, have been most dreadfully deluded. "

"Well, Albert, " said Mary, "you know the obligations of Christianityrequire action as well as sentiment. If we are Christians truly, wehave to serve Christ fully. We dare not, therefore, withhold ourtestimony against slavery any more than against any other crime. Howthen can we return to Carolina? We cannot be happy there amidst aninstitution which we abhor. "

"Mary, like yourself, I now feel, " said Albert, "that a Christian mustnot hide his light under a bushel. We must speak for the dumb and forthe truth as it is in Jesus. But with such views and intentions wewould not be suffered in South Carolina. What, then, are we to do?"

Mary, after a few moments' meditation, answered, "Albert, our parentsthink we were lost with the Pulaski. Let it stand so. They will suffermore if we go back to them with such sentiments as we now entertain. And for your sake, and for our parents' sake, and for the sake ofChrist, I am willing to sacrifice all my worldly prospects and try tomake a living by my own exertions in some place where my own feelingswill not be shocked with the perpetual violation of Christian law bymy own slaveholding relatives, and where I shall not be myself anannoyance to them. "

Here their dialogue was interrupted by the arrival of the ship at thewharf, and in a short time our young friends were safely landed in NewYork. 

Suffice it to say, in conclusion, that they both agreed never more tobe dependent on the wealth of their parents, --assured as they werethat all they could bestow upon them would be the product ofunrequited toil. They were soon united in holy wedlock, and, afterengaging in teaching an academy a short time, Albert became a faithfuland zealous minister of the gospel; and he and his loving wife inprocess of time succeeded in revealing their situation to theirparents, in such terms as to reconcile them to their anti-slaveryviews, and to induce them finally to emancipate their slaves. 

They are all living happily in moderate circumstances, in a littletown in one of the free States, --in the direct line of the"under-ground railroad;" and many a poor fugitive finds a comfortableshelter in either of their humble cottages. 

A short time since, Mary was reading the discussion between Dr. Wayland and Dr. Fuller, on the subject of slavery, and was startled tofind the very words of Mr. Gracelius and his identical argument, usedby the champion of American slavery. 

"Albert, " said she to her husband, "would you believe it, Dr. Fullerand Mr. Gracelius are one and the same person. "

"It surely cannot be!" said Albert. But to this day the matter looksvery mysterious to them. And it is hoped that Dr. Fuller or Dr. Wayland will explain the coincidence of the arguments in somesatisfactory manner. 

[Illustration: (signature) Wm. Henry Brisbane]

Toil and Trust. 

This is the motto of all persons sincerely disposed to embrace thecross of the anti-slavery enterprise. The duty it imposes is two-fold;1. To _toil_ for the spread of the truth; and 2. To _trust_ to thedissipation of error. The most potent barrier set up against theopponents of slavery is made of the prejudices carefully instilledinto the popular mind against them. I propose, in brief, to point outtheir origin. 

It is sedulously inculcated:

1. That anti-slavery is a pure sectional feeling, and springs fromjealousy of the South. 

Fifty years ago this idea might fairly have been entertained. Many ofthe arguments then used have no better root than political jealousy. But it is not so now. The ruling objection at present is, that slaveryis WRONG, no matter where it may be found; that it is a moral evil, and an offence against religion, not less than a great politicalcurse; that indifference to it among good men encourages its extensionamong bad men; and that nothing but resolute and universalcondemnation of it in every form will stimulate to its abolition. Howfar these views are from jealousy of the South, must appear obviousenough to all who reflect that those who entertain them, consider theresult to be arrived at as one which must spring from the voluntaryconvictions of those most affected by it, that they are getting rid ofthe only serious drawback to their own prosperity. Of course, then, itis the best interests of the South, --their strength, moral, social, and political, --that anti-slavery men believe they are promoting, bytheir course. 

2. That the enemies of slavery desire to subvert the Constitution andto dissolve the Union. 

Possibly, a few impatient spirits may have got so far. Theyconstitute, however, but a very small portion of the number includedin the term. Nine-tenths of these hold that neither the Constitutionnor the Union should be brought into question at all. They considerthat the resort to them as a protection and safeguard to slavery, byill-judging and rash conservatives, has done more to put them intoserious danger, than the acts of all others combined during thepresent century. Any man who relies upon a good government to sustainacknowledged evil, does much to modify the notions of goodness whichhonest and conscientious men have entertained respecting thatgovernment. He furnishes an entering wedge for doubt and distrust, which, if not removed, will grow into aversion. Anti-slavery menreason differently. They separate slavery from the Constitution andthe Union, and, by seeking to destroy the former, desire to perpetuatethe latter. They hold, that against the concentrated moral sentimentof the whole country, acting through its legitimate public channels, and aided by the prayers and the hopes of all the civilized world, itwould be much more difficult to maintain slavery in the States, thanif the dangers of general misgovernment and disunion were to come into distract the public attention, and open up social disasters of aworse kind than those which they seek to remedy. 

3. The spirit of this reform is denunciatory, violent, andproscriptive. 

It is inevitable that all movements directed against the establishederrors of communities originate with men more or less fanatical inspirit. None but they have the necessary elements of character toadvance at all. But, as others become convinced of the fundamentaltruths which they utter, the tendency of their association is tomodify and soften the tone, and make it more nearly approximate thecorrect sentiment. At this period, there is quite as much ofliberality among anti-slavery men as is consistent with a determinedmaintenance of their general purpose. Though disposed to be just toall who conscientiously differ with them in opinion, they cannotoverlook the fact that many honest persons are too indifferent, andmore are too compromising in their views of slavery. To rouse the one, and alarm the other class into a conviction of their responsibilityfor their apathy, is one of the most imperative duties. It may be thatthis is not always done in the most courtly or the choicest terms. Some allowances must be made for the spirit of liberty. These casesform, however, the exception, and not the rule, among anti-slaverymen. The great majority well comprehend that the greatest results willfollow efforts made without bitterness of temper. They remember thatwhilst the Saviour denounced without stint the formal scribe, thehollow Pharisee, and the greedy money-changer, he chose for his sphereof exertion the society of publicans and sinners. 

4. Anti-slavery men seek to set slaves against their masters, at therisk of the lives and happiness of both. 

This impression, which is much the most common, is, at the same time, the least founded in truth of all. No evidence, worthy of a moment'scredit, has ever been produced, implicating any class of them in asuspicion of the kind. Nothing proves the absence of all malignitytowards the slaveholders more clearly than this. If they sought reallyto injure them, what could be more easy than to stimulate disaffectionalong so extensive a line of boundary as that of the slave States?Probably few of them entertain any doubt of the abstract _right_ ofthe slave to free himself from the condition in which he is keptagainst his own consent, in any manner practicable. How easy then thestep from this opinion to an act of encouragement! That it has neverbeen taken furnishes the most conclusive proof of the falsity of thepopular impression, and of the moderations of the anti-slavery men, who seek only, in the moral convictions of the masters, for thesource of freedom to the slaves. 

But though it be true that all these common impressions are delusionsstrewn in the way of anti-slavery men to impair the effect of theirexertions, it by no means follows that they should be induced by themto assume a moderation which encourages sluggishness. No greatmovement in human affairs can be made without zeal, energy, andperseverance. It must be animated by a strong will, and tempered by abenevolent purpose. Such is the shape which the anti-slavery reform isgradually assuming. Its motto, then, should be, as was said in thebeginning:

 "TOIL AND TRUST. "

[Illustration: (signature) Charles Francis Adams. ]

QUINCY, 10 July, 1853. 

Friendship for the Slave is Friendship for the Master. 

It is a mistake on the part of the people of the south to suppose thatthose who desire the extinction of slavery, whether residing inAmerica or England, are actuated by unfriendly feelings toward thempersonally, or by any hostility to the pecuniary or social interestsof their section of country. The most important and influentialclasses of the population, both of England and of the northern Statesof this Union, have a direct and strong pecuniary interest at stake, in the prosperity and welfare of the south. If the people ofMassachusetts or those of Lancashire were employed in raising cottonand sugar, and if the prices which they obtained for their producewere kept down by southern competition, then there might perhaps besome ground for suspecting a covert hostility in any action orinfluence which they might attempt to exert on such a question. Butthe contrary is the fact. New England and Old England manufacture andconsume the cotton and sugar which the south produces. They aredirectly and deeply interested in having the production of thesearticles go on in the most advantageous manner possible. The southernplanter is not their competitor and rival. He is their partner. Hiswork is to them and to their pursuits one of co-operation and aid. Consequently his prosperity is their prosperity, and his ruin would bean irretrievable disaster, not a benefit, to them. They are thusnaturally his friends, and, consequently, when in desiring a change inthe relation which subsists between him and his laborers, they declarethat they are not actuated by any unfriendly feeling toward him, buthonestly think that the change would be beneficial to all concerned, there is every reason why they should be believed. 

There was a time when the laboring population of England occupied aposition in respect to the proprietors of the soil there, veryanalogous to that now held by African slaves in our country. But thesystem has been changed. From being serfs, compelled to toil formasters, under the influence of compulsion or fear, they have become afree peasantry, working in the employment of landlords, for wages. But this change has not depressed or degraded the landlords, orinjured them in any way. On the contrary, it has probably elevated andimproved the condition of the master quite as much as it has that ofthe man. 

Imagine such a change as this on any southern plantation: theChristian master desiring conscientiously to obey the divinecommand, --given expressly for his guidance, in his responsiblerelation of employer, --that he should "give unto his servants thatwhich is just and equal, --forbearing threatening, "--resolves that hewill henceforth induce industry on his estate by the payment of honestwages, instead of coercing his laborers by menaces and stripes; andafter carefully considering the whole ground, he estimates, as fairlyand faithfully as he can, what proportion of the whole avails of hisculture properly belong to the labor performed by his men, and what tothe capital, skill, and supervision, furnished and exercised byhimself, --and then fixes upon a rate of wages, graduating the scalefairly and honestly according to the strength, the diligence, and thefidelity of the various laborers. Suppose, also, that some suitablearrangement is made on the plantation or in the vicinity, by which theservants can expend what they earn, in such comforts, ornaments, orluxuries as are adapted to their condition and their ideas. Supposethat, in consequence of the operation of this system, the laborers, instead of desiring, as now, to make their escape from the scene oflabor, should each prize and value his place in it, and feardismission from it as a punishment. Suppose that through the changewhich this new state of things should produce, it should become anagreeable and honorable duty to superintend and manage the system, asit is now agreeable and honorable to superintend the operations of amanufactory, or the construction or working of a railway, or thebuilding of a fortress, or any other organized system of industrywhere the workmen are paid, and that consequently, instead of rude anddegraded overseers, intemperate and profane, extorting labor bythreats and severity, there should be found a class of intelligent, humane, and honest men, to direct and superintend the industry of theestate, --men whom the proprietor would not be ashamed to associatewith, or to admit to his parlor or table. In a word, suppose that thegeneral contentment and happiness which the new system would induce inall concerned in it, were such that peace of mind should return tothe master's breast, now, --especially in hours of sickness andsuffering, and at the approach of death, --so often disturbed, and asense of safety be restored to his family, so that it should no longerbe necessary to keep the pistols or the rifle always at hand, and thatthe wife and children could lie down and sleep at night, withoutstarting at unusual or sudden sounds, or apprehending insurrectionwhen they hear the cry of fire. Suppose that such a change as thiswere possible, is it the part of a friend or an enemy to desire tohave it effected?

But all such suppositions as these, the southern man will perhaps say, are visionary and utopian in the highest degree. No such state ofthings as is contemplated by them, can by any possibility be realizedwith such a population as the southern slaves. Very well; say _this_, if you please, and prove it, if it can be proved. But do not chargethose who desire that it might be realized, with being actuated, inadvocating the change, by unfriendly feelings towards you, --for mostassuredly they do not entertain any. 

[Illustration: (signature) Jacob Abbott. ]

Christine. 

 "O, these childen, how they do lie round our hearts. "--MILLY EDMONDSON. 

The clock struck the appointed hour, and the sale commenced. Articlesof household furniture, horses, carts, and slaves, were waitingtogether to be sold to the highest bidder. For strange as it wouldseem in another land than this, beneath the ample folds of the"Star-spangled Banner, " _human sinews_ were to be bought and sold. Bodies, such as the Apostle called the "temples of the Holy Ghost, " inwhich dwelt souls for which Christ died;--men, women and littlechildren, made in the image of God, were classed with marketablecommodities, to be sold by the pound, like dumb beasts in theshambles. Husbands would be torn from their wives, mothers from theirchildren, and _all_ from everything they loved most dearly. 

The group of _human chattels_ excited great interest among thelookers-on, for they were a choice lot of prime negroes, and rumorsaid that he would get a rare bargain who bought that day. 

It was a saddening sight, that dusky group, whose only crime was being

 "---- guilty of a skin Not colored like our own, "

as they waited with anxious looks and quivering hearts to hear theirdoom, filling up the dreary moments with thoughts of the chances andchanges which overhung their future. 

A bright-eyed boy, of twelve years old, "A brave, free-hearted, careless one, "

with a proud spirit playing in every line of his handsome face, and inevery movement of his graceful form, was first called to theauction-block. His good qualities were rapidly enumerated, his limbsrudely examined, his soundness vouched for, and he became the chattelpersonal of a Georgian, who boasted of his good bargain; and on beingwarned that he would have trouble with the boy, declared with an oath, that he would "soon take the devil out of him. "

Matty, a sister of this lad, was next placed upon the stand. Herbeauty, which the excitement of that dreadful moment only served toheighten, hushed for awhile the coarse jests of the crowd. She was asplendid-looking creature, just entering upon womanhood. But herbeauty proved, as beauty must ever prove to a slave woman, a deadlycurse. It enhanced her market value, and sealed her deadly fate. Itattracted the eye, and inflamed the passions of a wealthy Louisianian, named St. Laurent, who gave a thousand dollars in hard gold inexchange for her, that he might make her his petted favorite. Wives, mothers, daughters of America, have _you_ nothing to do with slavery, when such is the fate of slave women? _Can_ you sit silent, and atyour ease, knowing that such things are?

When Matty was removed from the auction-block, she fell upon herbrother's neck, and wept such tears as only they can weep whom slaveryparts, never to meet again. 

"Christine!" cried the loud voice of the auctioneer. Matty checked herpassionate grief, and turning saw her mother, with her baby in herarms, standing where she herself had stood but just before. Quicklyher keen eye sought the form of her new master. With a sudden impulseshe threw herself at his feet, exclaiming, "O master, master, _do_ buymy mother too!" The man gazed for a moment on the beautiful faceupturned to his, with a look which made the lashes droop over herpleading eyes, and tapping her cheek with his finger, he said, "What! coaxing so early, my pretty one? No, no; it will not do; I haveno use for the old woman. "

"Oh, master, she is not old. _Do_ buy my mother, master!"

"Here is a prize for you, gentlemen, " broke in the harsh tones of theauctioneer. "There is the best housekeeper and cook in all Virginia. Who bids for her? $300 did you say, sir? $325--thanks, gentlemen, butI cannot sell this woman for a song. She is an excellent seamstress. $400--$450--$500--I am glad to see you are warming up a little, gentlemen, --but she is worth more money than that. Look at her! What aform! what an eye! what arms!--there is muscle for you, gentlemen. Upon my honor she is the flower of the lot, --a dark-coloredrose, --black, but comely; and her baby goes with her. $550, did Ihear you say, sir? Will no one give more than $550 for such a womanand baby?"

"The baby is of no account, " said Mr. St. Laurent; "she would sellbetter without it. If I buy her, I shall give away the littleencumbrance. "

The poor slave-mother heard him, and strained her baby to her bosom, as if she would say, "You shall _never_ take him from me. " The boylooked into her face, and smiled a sweet baby smile, and put hislittle arms about her neck, and laid his cheek on hers. One would havethought he understood what was passing in her heart, and strove tocomfort her. "$575--$600--$650, "--and Christine and her baby boybecame the property of Mr. St. Laurent. 

"I would not have bought the woman, " said he, turning to anacquaintance, "but for the girl's importunity. I feared she would havethe sulks if I didn't, and I want to keep her good-natured. I shallgive the mother as a wedding-present to my daughter. But anybody mayhave the child, who will take him off my hands?"

"I will take him, sir, and thank you too, " said a little, sharplooking, bustling man, stepping briskly up, and bowing to Mr. St. Laurent. 

"Will you, my friend? Then he is yours, and you may take him away assoon as you please. "

"If I take him now, the woman will raise a storm, " said the littleman; "I know a better way than that, " and drawing Mr. St. Laurentaside, he communicated his plan, and they parted mutually satisfied. 

Meanwhile the sale went on, but we will not follow further itsrevolting details. Christine, with her baby and Matty, were put insafe quarters for the night. Notwithstanding the intense anxiety thatfilled their minds, and a superstitious fear in Christine's heart thatthe worst had not yet come, an unaccountable drowsiness oppressedthem, and before long both fell into a deep death-like sleep. 

Morning broke over the green earth. The sun gilded the mountain-tops, and bathing the trees in splendor, was greeted with ten thousandbird-songs. He kissed the dewy flowers, and their fragrance rose asincense on the morning air. He looked into the windows of happy homes, and wakened golden-haired children to renew their joyous sports, andmothers, whose

 "---- souls were hushed with their weight of bliss Like flowers surcharged with dew, "

sent up their morning thanksgiving to "Him who never slumbers, " forHis protection of their "laughing dimpled treasures. " Suddenly a warmray fell upon the face of the sleeping slave-mother. She wakened witha start, and with one wild shriek of agony sprang from the bed. Herbabe was gone. 

Why need we dwell upon what followed? What pen can describe theanguish of the heart-broken mother, when she knew that while under theinfluence of opiates which she had unwittingly taken, her boy had beentaken from her, and that she should look upon her darling's face nomore. Mother! look at the darling nestler upon your own bosom, and askyourself how you would have felt in Christine's place. 

After the first burst of agony was over, she did not give wayoutwardly to grief. One might have thought she did not grieve. But shecarried all her sorrows in her heart, till they had eaten out herlife. 

On the morning of Eleanore St. Laurent's bridal day, Christine wassent for to perform some service for her young mistress. But the spoilhad been taken out of the hands of the spoiler--the bruised heart wasat rest. The outraged soul had gone with its complaints to the bar ofthe Eternal. 

[Illustration: (signature) Anne P. Adams. ]

The Intellectual, Moral, and Spiritual Condition of the Slave. 

The American slave is a human being. He possesses all the attributesof mind and heart that belong to the rest of mankind. He has intellectwith which to think, sensibility with which to feel, and toil whichprompts him to vigorous and manly action. Nor is he destitute of thesublime faculty of reason, which is related to eternal and absolutetruths. Imagination and fancy, too, he possesses, in a very largedegree. But all these faculties, which nature has bestowed upon theslave in common with other men, by a decree of slavery fixed andunalterable like the laws of the Medes and Persians, are undeveloped, and the results, therefore, of their activities are not to be found. How mean then it must be to reproach the unfortunate slave with a lackof intellectual qualities, such as characterize men generally. Inproof of the statement, that slaves have these qualities, it is onlynecessary to refer to the many fugitives who, by their great thoughts, their masterly logic, and their captivating eloquence, are astonishingboth the Old and the New World. Education is what the white man needsfor the development of his intellectual energies. And it is what theblack man needs for the development of his. Educate him, and his mindproves itself at once as profound and masterly in its conceptions, andas brisk and irresistible in its decisions, as the mind of any otherman. 

But, in addition to his intellectual, the slave possesses a moralnature, capable of the highest development and the most refinedculture. A conscience tender and acute, the voice of God in his soulbidding him to choose the right and avoid the wrong, is his lawfulinheritance bestowed upon him by his Heavenly Father. This no one candeny who knows aught of the love of moral truth manifested by theslaves of this country. God has not left the slaves without moralsense. Nor has he denied him the spiritual faculty which, whencultivated, enables him to recognize God in his spiritualmanifestations, to discern and appreciate spiritual truths, and tofeel and relish the gentle distillations of the spirit of divine loveas they fall upon his heart like dew upon the grateful earth. Themoral and spiritual nature of the slave, however, like hisintellectual, goes uneducated and untrained. Deep, dark, andimpenetrable is the gloom which enshrouds the mind and soul of theslave. No ray of light cheers him in his midnight darkness. No one isallowed to fetch him the blessings of education, and no preacher ofrighteousness is suffered to illumine his dark mind by thepresentation of sacred truth. 

It is indeed true that slavery is a political, a civil, and acommercial evil. It is true that it is most excruciating and frightfulin its effects upon the physical nature of its victim. But slavery isseen in its more awful wickedness and terrible heinousness, when wecontemplate the vast waste of intellect, the vast waste of moral andspiritual energy, which has been caused by its poisonous touch. 

And yet the power of the State, and the influence of the Church, aregiven to its support. Many of our leading statesmen are engaged indevising and furthering plans for the extension of its territorialarea, thereby hoping to perpetuate and eternize its bloody existence, while the majority of our most distinguished divines find employmentin constructing discourses, founded upon perverse expositions ofsacred writ, calculated to establish and fix in the minds of thepeople the impression that slavery is a divine institution. 

Although this mighty power of the State, and influence of the Church, be opposed to the slave, let him not despair, but be full of hope. ForGod is upon his side, truth is upon his side, and a multitude of goodand able men and women are engaged in working out his redemption. 

[Illustration: (signature) J. Mercer Langston]

OBERLIN, August 27, 1853. 

The Bible vs. Slavery. 

"Nothing, " says Dr. Spring, "is more plain to my mind than that theword of God recognizes the relation between master and slave as one ofthe established institutions of the age; and, that while it addressesslaves as Christian men, and Christian men as slaveholders, it somodifies the whole system of slavery as to give a death-blow to allits abuses, and breathes such a spirit, that in the same proportion inwhich its principles are imbibed, the yoke of bondage will melt away, all its abuses cease, and every form of human oppression will beunknown. The Bible is no agitator. It changes human governments onlyas it changes the human character. It aims at transforming thedispositions and hearts of men, and diffusing through all humaninstitutions the supreme love of God, and the impartial love of man. "

Now, this either means that the Bible requires that all institutionsbe adjusted and harmonized with the moral law--the law of love--or itmeans nothing. For, we maintain, that slavery is _per se_ wrong, wherethe enslaver has no direct warrant from heaven, or the enslaved hasnot forfeited liberty by crime on principles of recognized anduniversal equity; and the whole Bible forbidding wrong must be held asforbidding slavery, or any arbitrary and inhuman tamperings with theinalienable rights of a fellow-creature. 

If slavery is not a wrong in itself, irrespective of what are calledits abuses, then all that is essential in it may be retained from ageto age; and all the amelioration which the Christian law superinducesmay be such as to consist with the violation of the naturalprerogatives of humanity, and with the denial to man of the essentialand dearest privileges of social and domestic life, with the denial ofthe rights of conscience too. For slavery, as distinguished fromservice by contract, is this thing and no other:--it is laborundefined, unrewarded, on the condition of being used as vendibleproperty, and every independent right of the slave, as anintellectual and moral being, is ignored. By practical indulgencesuch rights may be sometimes conceded. But the slave-law ceases assuch when these are recognized. 

Now, we hold it a libel on the Bible to affirm that it sanctions suchslavery. We must warn you of the fallacy that lies in this distinctionof the thing itself, and its abuse. What is called the abuse here isthe essence and the characteristic of the subject. Service as well asslavery may be abused. Everything may be abused. But, the claim of theslaveholder is itself the abuse of the God-ordained relation of masterand servant. Can men be regarded as a chattel?--that is thequestion--and so regarded without his consent, and his family treatedas such permanently, without his consent, or even with it?

It comes of this bad interpretation of the Christian law, that in thenineteenth century slavery still remains, --is cherished. It is notthat the principles of Christianity do not tend to extinguish it. Butmen, forcing their false interpretation on the Scriptures, plead theirauthority for a system or institution, to which their whole spirit isopposed, --and which confesses its unscriptural character by keepingout Christian light, and forbidding the Scriptures with the slave. 

To talk of the spirit of Christianity, in distinction from its expressor implied law against slavery, is as if one would trust for theextinction of sin against the sixth or seventh commands of thedecalogue, by general inculcation of meekness or purity, withoutdenouncing murder and defining it, or defining between allowed anddisallowed affinity in the marriage law. We may if we do not proscribetheft, and bring the positive law of God to bear against it, and bringa law into harmony with the divine, be understood, while we talk onlyof the abuses of property, as warning rather against spending stolengoods in a bad way, than against theft itself? But the design of themoral law is to define rights, as well as to govern the use of them;and it requires that not only the tempers of men, but the institutionsof society, be adjusted by the law of equity and charity. It forbidsnot only the abuse of just power, but all false usurpations of power, and classes man-stealers and extortioners as murderers. 

Who, if he but examines the laws of social and relative duty, as laiddown in the New Testament Epistles, may not discern that the relationof master and servant is recognized side by side with the permanentrelations of parent and child, husband and wife, which rest on the lawof nature; just because it is not the temporary, unnatural, andviolent relation of slaveholder and slave which is recognized, butthat of master and servant by contract. The other, its very apologistsallow, will pass away; but these duties are enhanced in a law ofpermanent application, and rest on natural principles, common to alltimes and all nations. 

[Illustration: (signature) Michael Willis]

"The Work Goes Bravely on. "

Like all Reforms which have for their object the amelioration of man'scondition; the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom; the cause ofhuman freedom has encountered many oppositions calculated to impedeits progress. It has temporarily suffered from cruel defection within, and the most virulent persecution without the camp. 

John, the forerunner of Jesus, had for his portion "locusts and wildhoney. " But those who have stood forth in the sunlight, the advocatesof the crushed and bleeding bondman; whose motto is, "Our country isthe world, and our countrymen all mankind, " have had no _honey_ for_their_ portion. Oh no! they have ever dwelt among the tempest and thestorm, with thunder, lightning, and whirlwind, to feed upon. 

Some have been called, for the advocacy of the truth, to wing theirflight from the prison-house to Heaven; and others, to bare theirbosoms to the red-hot indignation of relentless mobs, arrayed inmurderous panoply. They have gone; but, thank God, "THE WORK GOESBRAVELY ON!"

The great men of the nation, the mighty men, the chief priests andrulers, have risen in their strength, and resolved to crush, as withan avalanche, the irrepressible aspirations of the bondman's heart forFREEDOM; they have attempted to padlock the out-gushing sympathies ofhumanity; to trample in the dust the sacred guarantees of thepalladium of their own liberties, but their "terribleness hathdeceived them, and the pride of their heart, " for the desolating angelhath sealed _their_ lips in the silence of the tomb, and we, therecipients of their crushing cruelties, thank God "THE WORK GOESBRAVELY ON. "

[Illustration: (signature) Wm. James Watkins]

Slaveholding not a Misfortune but a Crime. 

 LONDON, September 2, 1853. 

"For your movement on behalf of the slave, I have profound respect. Iassure you of my unfeigned sympathies and of my earnest prayers. In myview, you deserve the high esteem of all who love and serve God. Nothing would be deemed by me a greater honor than co-operation withyou actively in your work of faith and your labor of love. With fullconsent of all that is within me, do I range myself among those whodeem American slavery not a sad misfortune, but a heinous crime: acrime all the more heinous, because justified and even perpetrated bymen who call themselves the servants of Christ. 

 "I am, madam, yours respectfully, [Illustration: (signature) William Brock]

The Frugality of Slaveholding. 

There is nothing in the universe that can deserve the name or do thework of valid LAW but the commandment and the ordinance of the livingGod. All human enactments, adjudications and usages not founded onthese, are of no legal force, and should be trampled under foot. Thepractice of slaveholding, for this reason, can never be legalized, andall legislative or judicial attempts to sustain it are rebellionagainst God, and treason against civil society. To teach otherwise, would be to set up other gods above Jehovah, to promulgate thefundamental principle of atheism, and proclaim war against theliberties of mankind. 

[Illustration: (signature) Wm. Goodell]

"Ore Perennius. "

I ask no prouder inscription for my humble tomb, than "Here lies theFriend of the Oppressed. "

[Illustration: (signature) David Paul Brown Sept. 28, 1859]

The Mission of America. 

 BRUNSWICK, Maine, September 30, 1853. 

MISS JULIA GRIFFITH, My Dear Madam, your letter of September 23d I have received. I regretexceedingly that it is not in my power to furnish the article you havedone me the honor to solicit, for the "Autographs for Freedom. "Particularly do I regret this now, when the great conflict betweenaristocracy and democracy is about being renewed all over thecontinent of Europe, and when despots are pointing with exultation tothe unparalleled enormities of our "peculiar institutions, " and thefriends of republican equality, in all lands, are disheartened by ourexample. Would the slaveholders of the south but consent to placethose who till their lands, under the protection of wholesome andimpartial law, and pay them honest wages, it would ere long causehuman rights to be respected in every corner of the globe. It shouldbe the mission of America, by the silent influence of a gloriousexample, to revolutionize all despotisms. We have a vast continent tosubdue and to adorn, and we need the aid of millions more of willinghands to accomplish the magnificent enterprise. With much esteem I amtruly yours, [Illustration: (signature) John S. C. Abbott. ]

[Illustration: Lewis Tappan, esq. (Engraved by J. C. Buttre)]

Disfellowshipping Slaveholders. 

The late Dr. Chalmers, not long before his death, spoke withdisapprobation of Abolitionists in the United States, "forundertaking, " as he said, "to decide, without sufficient evidence, upon the irreligious character of ministers and church-members. _They_, forsooth, undertake to exclude men from the Lord's table, whoare in good and regular standing in the church of Christ, because theyhappen to hold slaves! _They_ pretend to decide who, and who are notChristians!" It is marvellous that so learned and so distinguished aman should have fallen into such a mistake; and, on hearsay, venturedto utter a most calumnious accusation against the friends of theslave. 

The Abolitionists might, perhaps, make decisions in the case not wideof the mark, founded upon the rule given by Jesus Christ: "By theirfruits ye shall know them. " But, in declaring that slaveholders oughtnot to be fellowshipped as Christians, they do not say whether aslaveholder is or is not a Christian. On the contrary, they leave eachone with his Maker, the INFALLIBLE JUDGE. But this they do:--they holdthat no slaveholder, professing to be a Christian, is entitled toChristian FELLOWSHIP, _because_ slaveholding is a sin, and shouldsubject the offender to discipline. Neither Dr. Chalmers nor any otherdivine could deny the propriety of this, provided they believed thatslaveholding is a sin, or an ecclesiastical offence. The apostle Pauldirected that Christians should not _eat_ with an _extortioner_. Aslaveholder is an extortioner. If, then, a Christian may not eat acommon meal with such an offender, may he sit at the Lord's table withhim? I trow not. 

 LEWIS TAPPAN. 

A Leaf from my Scrap Book. 

 MAY, 1849. 

SAMUEL R. WARD AND FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 

Perhaps a fitter occasion never presented itself, nor was moreproperly availed of, for the exhibition of talent, than when FrederickDouglass and Samuel R. Ward debated the "question" whether theConstitution was or not a pro-slavery document. 

With the "question" at issue we have, at present, nothing to do; andwith the arguments so far only as they exhibit the men. 

Both eminent for talent of an order (though differing somewhat incast) far above the common level of great men. 

If any inequalities existed, they served rather to heighten thandiminish the interest of the occasion, giving rise to one of theseverest contests of mind with mind that has yet come to my notice. 

Douglass, sincere in the opinions he has espoused, defends them with afervor and eloquence that finds scarcely a competitor. 

In his very look--his gesture--in his whole manner, there is so muchof genuine, earnest eloquence, that they leave no time for reflection. Now you are reminded of one rushing down some fearful steep, biddingyou follow; now on some delightful stream, still beckoning you onward. 

In either case, no matter what your prepossessions or oppositions, youfor the moment, at least, forget the justness or unjustness of hiscause and obey the summons, and loath, if at all, you return to yourformer post. 

Not always, however, is he successful in retaining you. Giddy as youmay be with the descent you have made, delighted as you are with thepleasure afforded, with the elysium to which he has wafted you, youreturn too often dissatisfied with his and your own impetuosity andwant of firmness. You feel that you had had only a dream, a pastime, not a reality. 

This great power of momentary captivation consists in his eloquence ofmanner--his just appreciation of words. 

In listening to him, your whole soul is fired--every nervestrung--every passion inflated--every faculty you possess ready toperform at a moment's bidding. You stop not to ask why or wherefore. 

'Tis a unison of mighty yet harmonious sounds that play upon yourimagination; and you give yourself up, for a time, to theirirresistible charm. 

At last, the _cataract_ which roared around you is hushed, the_tornado_ is passed, and you find yourself sitting upon a bank (atwhose base roll but tranquil waters), quietly meditating that why, amid such a display of power, no greater effect had really beenproduced. 

After all, it must be admitted, there is a power in Mr. Douglassrarely to be found in any other man. 

With copiousness of language, and finish of diction, when even ideasfail, words come to his aid--arranging themselves, as it were, socompletely, that they not only captivate, but often deceive us forideas; and hence the vacuum that would necessarily occur in theaddress of an ordinary _speaker_ is filled up, presenting the samebeautiful harmony as do the lights and shades of a picture. 

From Mr. Douglass, in this, perhaps, as much as in any other respect, does Mr. _Ward_ differ. Ideas form the basis of all Mr. Ward utters. Words are only used to express those ideas. 

If words and ideas are not inseparable, then, as mortar is to thestones that compose the building, so are his words to his ideas. 

In this, I judge, lays Mr. Ward's greatest strength. Concise withoutabruptness--without extraordinary stress, always clear and forcible;if sparing of ornament, never inelegant. In all, there appears aconsciousness of strength, developed by close study and deepreflection, and only put forth because the occasion demanded, --a powernot only to examine but to enable you to see the fairness of thatexamination and the justness of its conclusions. 

You feel Douglass to be right, without always seeing it; perhaps it isnot too much to say, when Ward is right you see it. 

His appeals are directed rather to the understanding than theimagination; but so forcibly do they take possession of it, that theheart unhesitatingly yields. 

If, as we have said, Mr. Douglass seems as one whirling down somesteep descent whose very impetuosity impels;--ere you are aware of it, it is the quiet serenity of Mr. Ward, as he points up the ruggedascent, and invites you to follow, that inspires your confidence andensures your safety. Step by step do you with him climb the ruggedsteep; and, as you gain each succeeding eminence, he points you to newscenes and new delights;--now grand--sublime; now picturesque andbeautiful;--always real. Most speakers fail to draw a perfect figure. This point I think Mr. Ward has gained. His figures, when done, standout with prominence, possessing both strength and elegance. 

Douglass' imagery is fine--vivid--often gaudily painted. Ward'spictures--bold, strong, glowing. 

Douglass speaks right on; you acknowledge him to have been on theground--nay, to have gone over the field; _Ward_ seeks for and findsthe corners; sticks the stakes, and leaves them standing; we knowwhere to find them. 

Mr. Douglass deals in generals; Mr. Ward reduces everything to apoint. 

Douglass is the _lecturer_; Ward the _debater_. Douglass powerful ininvective; Ward in argument. What advantage Douglass gains in mimicryWard recovers in wit. 

Douglass has sarcasm, Ward point. 

Here, again, an essential difference may be pointed out:--

Douglass says much, at times, you regret he uttered. This, however, isthe real man, and on reflection you like him the better for it. WhatWard says you feel to be but a necessity, growing out of thecase, --that it ought to have been said--that you would have saidprecisely the same yourself, without adding or diminishing a singlesentence. 

Douglass, in manner, is at all times pleasing; Ward seldom less so;often raises to the truly majestic, and never descends belowpropriety. If you regret when Douglass ceases to speak, you areanxious Ward should continue. 

Dignity is an essential quality in an orator--I mean true dignity. 

Douglass has this in an eminent degree; Ward no less so, coupled withit great self-possession. He is never disconcerted--all he desires hesays. 

In one of his replies to Mr. Douglass I was struck with admiration, and even delight, at the calm, dignified manner in which he expressedhimself, and his ultimate triumph under what seemed to me verypeculiar circumstances. 

Douglass' was a splendid effort--a beautiful effusion. One of thoseoutpourings from the deeps of his heart of which he can so admirablygive existence to. 

He had brought down thunders of well-merited applause; and sure I am, that a whisper, a breath from almost any other opponent than Mr. Ward, would have produced a tumult of hisses. 

Not so, however, now. The quiet, majestic air, the suppressed richnessof a deep-toned, but well-cultivated voice, as the speaker paid a fewwell-timed compliments to his opponents, disturbed not, as it hadproduced, the dead stillness around. 

Next followed some fine sallies of wit, which broke in on the calm. 

He then proceeded to make and accomplished one of the most finishedspeeches to which I have ever listened, and sat down amidst a perfectstorm of cheers. 

It was a noble burst of eloquence, --the gatherings up of the choicestpossible culled thoughts, and poured forth, mingling with a unison ofbrilliant flashes and masterly strokes, following each other in quicksuccession; and though felt--deeply felt, no more to be described thanthe vivid lightning's zig-zag, as produced from the deep-chargedthunder-cloud. 

If Douglass is not always successful in his attempts to heave up hisponderous missiles at his opponents, from the point of his descent, healways shows determination and spirit. 

He is often too far down the _pass_, however, (herculean though hebe, ) for his intent. 

Ward, from the eminence he has gained, giant-like, hurls them backwith the force and skill of a practised marksman, almost invariably tothe detriment of his already fallen victim. 

In Douglass you have a man, in whose soul the iron of oppression hasfar entered, and you feel it. 

He tells the story of his wrongs, so that they stand out in all theirnaked ugliness. 

In Ward, you have one with strong native powers, --I know of nonestronger; superadded a careful and extensive cultivation; anunderstanding so matured, that fully enables him to successfullygrapple with men or errors, and portray truth in a manner equalled byfew. 

After all, it must be admitted, both are men of extraordinary powersof mind. 

Both well qualified for the task they have undertaken. 

I have, rather than anything else, drawn these outline portraits forour _young men_, who can fill them up at leisure. 

The subjects are both fine models, and may be studied with profit byall, --especially those who are destined to stand in the front rank. 

[Illustration: (signature) William J. Wilson]

 NOTE. --It has been some years since the above sketch was drawn; and though my impressions, especially of Mr. Douglass, has undergone some slight change since, --seeing in him enlarged, strengthened, and more matured thought, still I think, on the whole, the careful observer will attest substantially to its correctness. 

"Who is my Neighbor?"

It gives me great pleasure to express my interest in your objects, bythe following sentiment: Sympathy for the slave, --the clearestexhibition in modern times of the spirit which, in the parable of theSamaritan, first illumined the wrong of oppression, and the divinenessof brotherly love. 

[Illustration: (signature) Th. Starr King]

Consolation for the Slave. 

 Slave though thou art to unfeeling power, Till wrong shall reach her final hour, Mourn not as one on whom the day Will never shed a healing ray. The star of hope, that leads the dawn, Appears, and night will soon be gone. 

 Long has thy night of sorrow been, Without a star to cheer the scene. Nay; there was One that watched and wept, When thou didst think all mercy slept; That eye, which beams with love divine, Where all celestial glories shine. 

 Justice will soon the sceptre take; The scourge shall fall, the tyrant quake. Hark! 'tis the voice of One from heaven; The word, the high command is given, "Break every yoke, loose every chain, To usher in the Saviour's reign. "

[Illustration: (signature) Samuel Willard]

The Key. 

The Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin: a key to unlock any mind that is notrendered inaccessible by the rust of conservatism or party-spirit, andto open the fountain of every generous affection, which is not closedwith impenetrable ice. With this key may every one become familiar, who would know, and both in word and deed "bear witness to the truth!"

[Illustration: (signature) Samuel Willard]

The True Mission of Liberty. 

If Liberty were to go on a pilgrimage all over the earth, she wouldfind a home in every house, and a welcome in every heart. None wouldreject the favors she offers if brought to their own doors. Sure andprompt as the impulses of instinct, every bosom would open to admither and her blessings, but--when her gospel is proclaimed as a commonbounty to all the world, --when she is seen visiting and feasting withpublicans and sinners, and sitting with her unwashed disciples infamiliar and loving companionship, Cĉsar and the synagogue are alikealarmed and enraged. When she is found daily in the marketplace and onthe mountain-top, in the hamlet and on the highway, ministering to themultitude, healing and feeding them, --showing the same love andreverence for humanity in every variety of conditions, and howeverdisguised or degraded, --the cruelty of caste and the bitterness ofbigotry straightway take counsel among themselves how they may destroyher. 

Heaven help us! Divided as we are, into the hating and the hated, theoppressors and the oppressed, we have settled it, somehow, that we areof necessity at war with each other--that the welfare of one in someway depends upon the wretchedness of another. How much madness andmisery would be spared if we could in any way learn that we arebrethren. 

[Illustration: (signature) William Elder]

The true Spirit of Reform. 

The religion of Jesus, acting as a vital principle in the individualheart, and thus leaving the entire mass of humanity, to this alone arewe to look as of sufficient power to do away the evils that are nowrife in the world. Just so far as the true spirit of Jesus is infusedinto the soul, and acts in the life of man, we know that sin, in itsvarious forms of sensuality, oppression, and bloodshed, mustdisappear. All reforms, which are not based on this corner-stone, aresuperficial; and, however goodly their proportions may appear to theeye of man, they want that firm foundation which will secure themagainst being undermined or overthrown by the force of adversecircumstances. "Other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, "for the building up of all that is really excellent and heavenly. 

But, while we acknowledge the omnipotence of true religion for theratification of all social wrongs, we are not to rest in theinculcation of its abstract principles and outward forms alone. It isnot enough that we ourselves become, or persuade our fellow-men tobecome professed disciples of Jesus; not enough that, in a generalway, we urge the precepts of the gospel. The obtuseness of the humanheart, when hardened by habit and early education, requires that wemake particular application of the precepts of Christ, and address ourefforts to the removal of specific sins: the sins of our own age andcountry. It may be that our brother, sincerely intending to act in thespirit of Jesus, is yet blinded by the force of habit, and fails tosee the sin in which he is living. If our position make us to see moreclearly than he the course he should pursue, let us endeavor gently toremove the veil from his eyes, remembering how often our own vision isdimmed by prejudice and outward circumstances. In the moral, as wellas in the natural world, we believe that God demands our activecoöperation; and, as the farmer not only sows the seed, but roots outthe weeds from among the grain, so are we to endeavor to eradicatefrom the broad field of the moral world those evil practices whichobstruct the growth of the harvest of pure and undefiled religion. 

"The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hathlong patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. " Soare we obliged often to have "long patience, " until we see themanifest blessing of God on our labors. But patient waiting becomes avirtue, only when combined with the exercise of our best powers inpromoting the object of our desire. We must adapt our efforts to theexpress object which we seek to attain. Taking those spiritual weaponswhich are "mighty for the pulling down of the strongholds" of sin, letus assault the great evils of slavery and oppression of every name andkind, always marching under the banners of the Prince of Peace, whoseconquests are achieved not by violence, but by the subduing power ofGodlike love. Let us go forth, brethren, sisters, a feeble band thoughwe may seem to the eye of man, yet strong in the assurance that thehosts of heaven are encamped round about us, and that "more are theythat are with us, than they that are" on the side of the oppressor;and let us not falter until in God's own good time the word shall bespoken, not as, we would hope, in the whirlwind or the earthquake, but in the "still small voice" of the oppressor's own conviction, saying to the slaves, "Go free!"

[Illustration: (signature) Mary Willard]

A Welcome to Mrs. H. B. Stowe, on her Return from Europe. 

 She comes, she comes, o'er the bounding wave, Borne swift as an eagle's flight; She comes, the tried friend of the slave, -- Truth's champion for the right. 

 Not as the blood-stained warrior comes, With shrill-sounding fife and drums; But peaceful by our quiet homes, The conquering heroine comes. 

 Then welcome to our Pilgrim shore, Tho' sad affliction[6] meet thee; Three million welcomes from God's poor, The south winds bear, to greet thee. 

 To thee, with chain-linked hearts we come, Which naught but death can sever, To thank thee for thy "Uncle Tom, " Thy gentle-hearted "Eva. "

 When the crushed slave himself shall own, Three million fetters broken, Shall mount before thee, to the Throne; Of thy true life, the token. 

 Then welcome to our northern hills; Thy own New England dwelling; The birds, the trees, the sparkling rills, All, are thy welcome swelling. 

[Illustration: (signature) Joseph C. Holly. ]

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

FOOTNOTES:

[6] The sickness of her daughter. 

Forward. 

FROM THE GERMAN OF HOFFMAN, IN FOLLERSLEBEN. 

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

 O forward! forward! why stand still? The flood will ne'er run dry; Who through the wave not venture will, That land shall never spy. 

[Illustration: (signature) T. W. Higginson. ]

What has Canada to do with Slavery?

The question is often asked, both in Canada and in the United States:What have we in Canada to do with the Institution of Slavery, as itexists in the neighboring Republic? I do not think that a betteranswer is necessary, than that which is contained in the followingextracts--the former of which is taken from a speech delivered byGeorge Thompson, Esq. , at the formation of the Anti-Slavery Society ofCanada--the latter from the valuable work of the Rev. Albert Barnes onSlavery:

"Are we separated geographically and politically from the countrywhere slavery reigns? We are, for that very reason, the persons bestable to form an unbiassed and sound judgment on the question at issue. We have as much to do with this question as with any question thatconcerns the happiness of man, the glory of God, or the hopes anddestinies of the human race. We have to do with this question, for itlies at the foundation of our own rights as a portion of the humanfamily. The cause of liberty is one all over the world. What have youto do with this question? The slave is your brother, and you cannotdissolve that Union. While he remains God's child he will remain yourbrother. He is helpless, and you are free and powerful; and if youneglect him, you are not doing as you would have others do to you, were you in bonds. Know you not that it is God's method to save man byman, and that man is only great, and honorable, and blest himself, ashe is the friend and defender of those who need his aid. You aredwellers on the same continent with three millions of slaves. Theirsighs come to you with every breeze from the South. Oh, haste to helpthem, that this glorious continent may be freed from its pollution andits curse. "

Extract from Barnes on slavery:

"Slavery pertains to a great wrong done to our common nature, andaffects great questions, relating to the final triumph of theprinciples of justice and humanity. The race is one great brotherhood, and every man is under obligation, as far as he has the ability, todefend those principles which will permanently promote the welfare ofthe human family. * * * * The questions of right and wrong know nogeographical limits; are bounded by no conventional lines; arecircumscribed by the windings of no river or stream, and are notdesignated by climate or by the course of the sun. There are noenclosures within which the question of right and wrong may not becarried with the utmost freedom. "

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

[Illustration: (signature) Thomas Henning]

The Fugitive Slave Bill: a Fragment. 

But ours is the saddest part of this sad business. It would be hardenough to live surrounded by bondmen, even though we had never knownany other way of life. Still, for one who had grown up with youngslaves for playmates and for nurses, there might be much in therelation to quiet the conscience and soothe the sensibilities. Strongattachments, we all know, are often realized, even in a condition ofthings so anomalous. Perhaps, too, a large number of those about uswould be as feeble in capacity as humble in their circumstances. Oneso born might tolerate such a position. But how different, --how, incomparison, and in every way intolerable, to be set as watchmen andinterceptors of these, the brighter and the better, who, beyond allcontroversy, have outgrown the estate of bondage, and who are soloudly called of God to be freemen, that they will brave any peril inobedience to the call! How can we do this and still be men andChristians? Would our brethren at the south do it for us? If we have, in our haste, so covenanted, must we not rather pay the penalty thanfulfil the bond? I recognize obedience to civil government as thesolemn duty of all save _those who without cause are made outlaws bythe State_. Government protects our hearths and shelters those who aredearest to us. But we can honor the law by submitting to its penaltiesas well as by complying with its demands, and the penalty would be myelection when a man who had seized his manhood at the peril of hislife should claim of me shelter and the means of escape. Before Irefuse that, "may my right hand forget its cunning and my tonguecleave to the roof of my mouth. "

[Illustration: (signature) Rufus Ellis. ]

The Encroachment of the Slave-Power. 

EXTRACT. 

Such is the unholy and gigantic power that, leaving its territorialdomain, has usurped the seat of freedom--that has established at ourcapitol a central despotism, and bends to its will with iron hand theLegislative, Executive, and Judicial branches of our FederalGovernment. 

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

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

 Faithfully yours, [Illustration: (signature) John Jay, esq. ]

The Dishonor of Labor. 

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

Labor is not truly a curse, as has too long been asserted. It onlybecomes such through human perverseness, misconception and sin. It wasno curse to the first pair in Eden, and will not be to theirdescendants, whenever and wherever the spirit of Eden shall pervadethem. It is only a curse because too many seek to engross the productof others' work, yet do little or none themselves. If the secret werebut out, _that no man can really enjoy more than his own moderatedaily labor would produce_, and _none can truly enjoy this withoutdoing the work_, the death-knell of Slavery in general--in itssubtler as well as its grosser forms--would be rung. Until that truthshall be thoroughly diffused, the cunning and strong will be able toprey upon the simple and feeble, whether the latter be called slavesor something else. 

[Illustration: Horace Greeley. (Engraved by J. C. Buttre. )]

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

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

Every man who educates his son for a profession, rather than amechanical or agricultural calling, not because of that son's supposedfitness for the former rather than the latter, but because he imaginesLaw, Physic or Preaching, a more respectable, genteel vocation, thanbuilding houses or growing grain;

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

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

Every youth who is trained to regard little work and muchrecompense--short business-hours and long dinners--as the chief endsof exertion and as assurances of a happy life;

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

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

Every Abolition lecturer who would send a hireling two miles after ahorse, whereon to ride three miles to fulfil his next appointmentrespectably; Though meaning no such thing, and perhaps shocked whenit is suggested, is a practical and powerful upholder of the continuedenslavement of our fellow-men. 

 In the faith of the "good time coming, " I remain yours, HORACE GREELEY. 

NEW YORK, Nov. 7, 1853. 

The Evils of Colonization

I speak the words of soberness and truth when I say, that the mostinveterate, the most formidable, the deadliest enemy of the peace, prosperity, and happiness of the colored population of the UnitedStates, is that system of African colonization which originated in andis perpetuated by a worldly, Pharoah-like policy beneath the dignityof a magnanimous and Christian people;--a system which receives muchof its vitality from _ad captandum_ appeals to popular prejudices, andto the unholy, grovelling passions of the canaille;--a system thatinterposes every possible obstacle in the way of the improvement andelevation of the colored man in the land of his birth;--thatinstigates the enactment of laws whose design and tendency areobviously to annoy him, to make him feel, while at home, that he is astranger and a pilgrim--nay more, --to make him "wretched, andmiserable, and poor, and blind, and naked;"--to make him "a hissingand a by-word, " "a fugitive and a vagabond" throughout the AmericanUnion;--a system that is so irreconcilably opposed to the purpose ofGod in making "of _one_ blood all nations for to dwell on _all_ theface of the earth, " that when the dying slaveholder, under the lashesof a guilty conscience, would give to his slaves unqualified freedom, it wickedly interposes, and persuades him that "to do justly and lovemercy" would be to inflict an irreparable injury upon the community, and that to do his duty to God and his fellow-creatures, under thecircumstances, he should bequeath to his surviving slaves the cruelalternative of _either expatriation to a far-off, pestilential clime, with the prospect of a premature death, or perpetual slavery, with itsuntold horrors, in his native land_. Against this most iniquitoussystem of persecution and proscription of an inoffensive people, forno other reason than that we wear the physical exterior given us ininfinite wisdom and benevolence, I would record, nay _engrave_ withthe pen of a diamond, my most emphatic and solemn protest; moreespecially would I do so, as the system, under animadversion, is mostinconsistently fostered, and shamelessly lauded, by ministers of thegospel in the nineteenth century, as a scheme of Christianphilanthropy! "O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto theirassembly, mine honor, be not thou united. "

[Illustration: (signature) Wm. Watkins]

TORONTO, C. W. , Oct. 31st. 

[Illustration: William H. Seward. (Engraved by J. C. Buttre)]

The Basis of the American Constitution

"Happy, " (said Washington, when announcing the treaty of peace to thearmy, ) "thrice happy shall they be pronounced hereafter, who shallhave contributed anything, who shall have performed the meanest officein erecting this stupendous fabric of freedom and empire on the broadbasis of independency, who shall have assisted in protecting theRights of Human Nature, and establishing an asylum for the poor andoppressed of all nations and religions. "

You remember well that the Revolutionary Congress in the declarationof independence placed the momentous controversy between the Coloniesand Great Britain on the absolute and inherent equality of all men. Itis not, however, so well understood that that body closed itsexistence on the adoption of the Federal Constitution with this solemninjunction, addressed to the people of the United States: "Let it beremembered that it has ever been the pride and boast of America, thatthe Rights for which she contended were the Rights of Human Nature. "

No one will contend that our Fathers, after effecting the Revolutionand the independence of their country, by proclaiming this system ofbeneficent political philosophy, established an entirely different onein the constitution assigned to its government. This philosophy, then, is the basis of the American Constitution. 

It is, moreover, a true philosophy, deduced from the nature of man andthe character of the Creator. If there were no supreme law, then theworld would be a scene of universal anarchy, resulting from theeternal conflict of peculiar institutions and antagonistic laws. Therebeing such a universal law, if any human constitution and lawsdiffering from it could have any authority, then that universal lawcould not be supreme. That supreme law is necessarily based on theequality of nations, of races, and of men. It is a simple, self-evident basis. One nation, race, or individual, may not oppressor injure another, because the safety and welfare of each is essentialto the common safety and welfare of all. If all are not equal andfree, then who is entitled to be free, and what evidence of hissuperiority can he bring from nature or revelation? All mennecessarily have a common interest in the promulgation and maintenanceof these principles, because it is equally in the nature of men to becontent with the enjoyment of their just rights, and to bediscontented under the privation of them. Just so far as theseprinciples practically prevail, the stringency of government is safelyrelaxed, and peace and harmony obtain. But men cannot maintain theseprinciples, or even comprehend them, without a very considerableadvance in knowledge and virtue. The law of nations, designed topreserve peace among mankind, was unknown to the ancients. It has beenperfected in our own times, by means of the more general disseminationof knowledge and practice of the virtues inculcated by Christianity. To disseminate knowledge, and to increase virtue therefore among men, is to establish and maintain the principles on which the recovery andpreservation of their inherent natural rights depend; and the Statethat does this most faithfully, advances most effectually the commoncause of Human Nature. 

For myself, I am sure that this cause is not a dream, but a reality. Have not all men consciousness of a property in the memory of humantransactions available for the same great purposes, the security oftheir individual rights, and the perfection of their individualhappiness? Have not all men a consciousness of the same equal interestin the achievements of invention, in the instructions of philosophy, and in the solaces of music and the arts? And do not theseachievements, instructions, and solaces, exert everywhere the sameinfluences, and produce the same emotions in the bosoms of all men?Since all languages are convertible into each other, by correspondencewith the same agents, objects, actions, and emotions, have not all menpractically one common language? Since the constitutions and laws ofall societies are only so many various definitions of the rights andduties of men as those rights and duties are learned from Nature andRevelation, have not all men practically one code of moral duty? Sincethe religions of men, in their various climes, are only so manydifferent forms of their devotion towards a Supreme and Almighty Powerentitled to their reverence and receiving it under the various namesof Jehovah, Jove, and Lord, have not all men practically onereligion? Since all men are seeking liberty and happiness for aseason here, and to deserve and so to secure more perfect liberty andhappiness somewhere in a future world, and, since they allsubstantially agree that these temporal and spiritual objects are tobe attained only through the knowledge of truth and the practice ofvirtue, have not mankind practically one common pursuit through onecommon way of one common and equal hope and destiny?

If there had been no such common Humanity as I have insisted upon, then the American people would not have enjoyed the sympathies ofmankind when establishing institutions of civil and religious libertyhere, nor would their establishment here have awakened in the nationsof Europe and of South America desires and hopes of similarinstitutions there. If there had been no such common Humanity, then weshould not ever, since the American Revolution, have seen humansociety throughout the world divided into two parties, the high andthe low--the one perpetually foreboding and earnestly hoping thedownfall, and the other as confidently predicting and as sincerelydesiring, the durability of Republican Institutions. If there had beenno such common Humanity, then we should not have seen this tide ofemigration from insular and continental Europe flowing into ourcountry through the channels of the St. Lawrence, the Hudson, and theMississippi, --ebbing, however, always with the occasional rise of thehopes of freedom abroad, and always swelling again into greater volumewhen those premature hopes subside. If there were no such commonHumanity, then the poor of Great Britain would not be perpetuallyappealing to us against the oppression of landlords on their farms andwork-masters in their manufactories and mines; and so, on the otherhand, we should not be, as we are now, perpetually framing apologiesto mankind for the continuance of African slavery among ourselves. Ifthere were no such common Humanity, then the fame of Wallace wouldhave long ago died away in his native mountains, and the name even ofWashington would at most have been only a household word in Virginia, and not as it is now, a watchword of Hope and Progress throughout theworld. 

If there had been no such common Humanity, then when the civilizationof Greece and Rome had been consumed by the fires of human passion, the nations of modern Europe could never have gathered from among itsashes the philosophy, the arts, and the religion, which wereimperishable, and have reconstructed with those materials that bettercivilization, which, amid the conflicts and fall of political andecclesiastical systems, has been constantly advancing towardsperfection in every succeeding age. If there had been no such commonHumanity, then the dark and massive Egyptian obelisk would not haveeverywhere reappeared in the sepulchral architecture of our own times, and the light and graceful orders of Greece and Italy would not as nowhave been the models of our villas and our dwellings, nor would thesimple and lofty arch and the delicate tracery of Gothic design havebeen as it now is, everywhere consecrated to the service of religion. 

If there had been no such common humanity, then would the sense of theobligation of the Decalogue have been confined to the despised nationwho received it from Mount Sinai, and the prophecies of Jewish seersand the songs of Jewish bards would have perished forever with theirtemple, and never afterwards could they have become as they now are, the universal utterance of the spiritual emotions and hopes ofmankind. If there had been no such common humanity, then certainlyEurope and Africa, and even new America, would not, after the lapse ofcenturies, have recognized a common Redeemer, from all the sufferingsand perils of human life, in a culprit who had been ignominiouslyexecuted in the obscure Roman province of Judea; nor would Europe haveever gone up in arms to Palestine, to wrest from the unbelieving Turkthe tomb where that culprit had slept for only three days and nightsafter his descent from the cross, --much less would his traditionaryinstructions, preserved by fishermen and publicans, have become thechief agency in the renovation of human society, through after-comingages. 

 WM. H. SEWARD. 

A Wish. 

 "Could I embody and unbosom now, That which is most within me;--could I wreak My thoughts upon expression, and thus throw Soul, heart, mind, passions, feelings strong or weak, All that I would have sought, and all I seek, Bear, know, and feel, and breathe, --into _one_ word, And that one word were lightning"--

I would speak it, not to crush the oppressor, but to melt the chainsof slave and master, so that _both_ should go free. 

[Illustration: (signature) Caroline M. Kirkland. ]

NEW YORK, November 8th, 1853. 

A Dialogue. 

SCENE. --A BREAKFAST TABLE. 

MRS. GOODMAN, _a widow_. FRANK GOODMAN, _her son_. MR. FREEMAN, _a Southern gentleman, brother to Mrs. Goodman_. MR. DRYMAN, _a boarder_. 

MR. FREEMAN. (_Sipping his coffee and looking over the morning paper_)reads--

"The performance of Uncle Tom's Cabin attracts to the theatre veryunusual audiences. In the "genteel row" last evening, we observed thestrictest religionists of the day, not excepting puritanicPresbyterians, and the sober disciples of Wesley and Fox. Forourselves, we must candidly confess we have never witnessed such a_play_ upon all the emotions of which humanity is susceptible. Mrs. Stowe, however unworthy the name of Patriot, is at least entitled tothe credit of seizing the great thought of the age, and embodying itin such a form as to make it presentable to every order of mind andevery class of society. She says, in effect, to Legislators, let mefurnish your amusements, and I care not who makes your laws. "

 * * * * *

Politicians would do well to look to this--(_laying down the paper andspeaking in a tone of impatience_)--so, so, Fanaticism is leading toits legitimate results. Uncle Tom in our parlors, Uncle Tom in ourpulpits, and Uncle Tom in our plays. 

_Mr. Dryman. _ Truly "he eateth with publicans and sinners. "

_Mr. F. _ (_Not noticing Mr. D's remark. _) One would think this lastappropriation of the vaunted hero would be sufficient to convince themost radical of the demoralizing influence of these publications. 

_Frank. _ (_Modestly. _) How differently people judge. Why, lastevening, when I saw crowds of the hardened and dissipated sheddingtears of honest sympathy, when Uncle Tom and Eva sang, "I see a band of spirits bright, And conquering palms they bear"--

I felt that the moral sentiment was asserting its supremacy even inplaces of amusement. 

_Mr. F. _ Worse and worse, my nephew and namesake a theatre-goer. 

_Mr. D. _ (_In an under tone. _) Namesake! "that's the unkindest cut ofall. "

_Frank. _ Not exactly a theatre-goer, uncle, though I confess I mightbe, were the performance always as excellent as last evening. 

_Mrs. Goodman. _ Frank, my son, I hope thee will not attempt to drinkfrom a dirty pool because a pure stream flows into it. 

_Frank. _ But the rank and file of Democracy drank deep libations toLiberty there, mother. 

_Mr. D. _ (_Passing his cup. _) "Drink deep or taste not of the Pierianspring. "

_Mr. F. _ (_Sarcastically. _) Take care, you'll be found using theproducts of slave labor!

_Frank. _ (_Jocosely. _)

 "Think how many backs have smarted, For the sweets, " &c. 

Take a bit of toast, Mr. Dryman, our northern products are perfectlyinnocent, you know?

_Mr. D. _ (_Helping himself bountifully. _) "Ask no questions forconscience's sake. "

_Mr. F. _ The practice of you Northerners is consistent with yourprofessions. 

_Mr. D. _ "Consistency, thou art a jewel!"

_Frank. _ It is very hard to be consistent in this world, uncle. Mymother once made a resolution to use nothing polluted by Intemperanceor Oppression, but finding that it required her to take constantthought "what we should eat and drink, and wherewithal we should beclothed, " she was fain to relax her discipline. 

_Mrs. G. _ Frank, thee must not transcend the truth in thymirthfulness. 

_Frank. _ Well, mother, did not some experiment of the kind lead to theconclusion, that I might exercise my freedom in worldly amusements?

_Mrs. G. _ Yes, my son, but thy enthusiasm about the theatre makes mefear I have gone beyond my light. 

_Mr. F. _ (_Bitterly. _) Never fear, sister, the young man will soonprove that Abolition Societies and Theatres are admirable schools ofmorals. 

_Frank. _ Uncle Tom at least has a good moral, and so has William Telland Pizarro--indeed I do not remember of ever reading a play which hadnot. 

_Mr. F. _ (_In a tone of irony. _) When I see a young man spending histime at the theatre, in search of good morals, I think he "pays toodear for his whistle. "

_Mrs. G. _ And yet brother Frank speaks the truth. What success doesthee think a play would meet, which should represent such a man asUncle Tom yielding his principles and faith to the will of a Legree?

_Mr. F. _ (_With great asperity. _) Do you, too, Rebecca, advocatetheatres?

_Mrs. G. _ It is not of theatres, but of books, that I am speaking. Does thee recollect any work, the whole plot and design of which ismade to turn upon the triumph of the wicked over the good?

_Mr. F. _ (_Musing. _) Why--I--don't remember now--

_Frank. _ (_In great surprise. _) Why, mother, are there no bookswritten in favor of Slavery?

_Mrs. G. _ I cannot think of any book which can be said to be writtenfor Slavery, in the sense that Uncle Tom's Cabin is written againstit. Such a work is, I think, impossible. No poet would attempt toportray its moral aspects, and delineate its beauties, with the ideaof exciting our admiration and approval. 

_Mr. F. _ Spoken just like a woman! Your sex always seize upon somethought gained through the sensibilities, and then bring in adecision without farther investigation. 

_Frank. _ And is not the instinct of a woman a more perfect guide inmorals, than the reason of man?

_Mr. F. _ (_Sarcastically. _) Certainly--if it direct her son to thetheatre. 

_Mr. D. _ Or teach him the supremacy of the "Higher Law. "

_Frank. _ (_With warmth_. ) My mother did not direct me to the theatre, sir; she has taught me to love better things;--to her I owe all thelofty sentiments of virtue and truth. 

_Mrs. G. _ Softly, softly Frank, theatres and Slavery will be quitesufficient for this discussion, without introducing Woman's Rights. (_To Mr. Freeman_. ) Would it not be more consistent, brother, for theeto disprove my argument, than to object to my method of obtaining it?

_Mr. F. _ Nothing can be easier--you have asserted in round terms thatno work was ever written in favor of Slavery. What an absurdity! Ifyou have any information you must know that the southern press groanswith publications upon this topic. 

_Mrs. G. _ Still if thee examine the matter, thee will find that everyone of these books treats Slavery as a curse, and describes it not asa _good_ but an _evil_, of which each man loads the guilt upon hisforefathers or his neighbors. 

_Mr. F. _ Granted they call it a curse, but assuredly they bringforward a defence. 

_Mrs. G. _ Yes, they defend the Constitution; they defend the rights ofthe south; they advocate Colonization, or point out the errors ofAbolitionists, but what one in word or in effect advocates theprinciples of human Slavery? The truth is, brother, the system has theliterature of the world against it; and the south ought to see in thisreading age an infallible sign that the days of its cherishedinstitutions are numbered. Does thee not perceive that every novel andevery poem carries to the parlor, or, if it please thee, to thetheatre, an influence which will eventually re-act on the ballot-box. 

_Frank. _ Do you mean, mother, to include in your remarks thediscourses of Reverend Divines upon the Patriarchal Institution?

_Mrs. G. _ I cannot except even these; for they acknowledge it an evil, though they contend it exists by divine ordination, just as theyassert Original Sin to be the offspring of Eternal Decrees; but theyno more convince the Slaveholder, that he loves his bondman ashimself, than they convict him of the guilt of Adam's transgression. 

_Mr. F. _ What do you say to Webster's great speech on the compromisemeasure?

_Mrs. G. _ (_Pleasantly. _) Is not the moral view of a question, aboutas far as a woman's instinct ought to go?

_Mr. F. _ Oh, no; go on, your strictures are quite amusing. 

_Mrs. G. _ Well, then, since _we_ have taken the position of areviewer, _we_ must confess that the last effort of the great Danielappears to us to be _on an Act of Congress_. 

_Mr. D. _ And _at_ the Presidential chair. 

_Mrs. G. _ (_Continuing. _) It did not touch the merits of slavery atall. Webster knew the feelings of the constituents too well to attemptsuch a task. He therefore skilfully diverted their attention from hisreal issue, to the glorious Union, and its danger from agitators, andhe thus carried with him the sympathies of many honest haters ofoppression. 

_Mr. F. _ Well, sister, I do not know but you will prove that there isnot an advocate for slavery on the face of the earth. 

_Mrs. G. _ Only such advocates as there is for robbery and war. Thosewho find it for their interest to practice these crimes condemn themin the abstract, or at most only apologize for them, as necessary andexpedient, under peculiar circumstances. 

_Frank. _ (_Laughing. _) Why, mother, I shall certainly subscribe foryour "North American Review, " particularly if you fill the literarydepartment as ably as you have the moral and political, to test which, let me propound a question? If the reward of the good be the charm offiction, how do you account for the pleasure derived from tragedy, where the good are overwhelmed with the evil?

_Mrs. G. _ (_Smiling. _) With great diffidence we reply to the query ofour learned friend. The force of tragedy consists in its depictingevil so ruinous as to involve even the innocent in the catastrophe;the pleasure is derived, we think, from the _failure_ of themischievous design, and the merited retribution which falls upon thehead of the plotters. In Romeo, "a scourge is laid upon the hate ofthe Montagues and Capulets, by which all are punished;" Hamlet'swicked uncle is justly served, drinking the poison tempered byhimself; and Iago pulls down ruin upon himself no less than uponCassio. 

_Frank. _ (_Bowing playfully_. ) Your review meets my entireapprobation, inasmuch as it confirms my doctrine, that theatres alwaysgive their verdict in favor of virtue. 

_Mr. D. _ "Casting out devils through Beelzebub. "

_Mrs. G. _ The artistic effect of every work of the imagination iswrought upon what critics call the "sympathetic emotion of virtue, "and the decisions of this faculty, so far as we understand them, always correspond with what Christians believe concerning the "finalrestitution of all things. "

_Frank. _ The theatre, then, ought to promote good morals--why does itnot?

_Mr. D. _

 "And many worthy men Maintained it might be turned to good account, And so perhaps it might, but never was. "

_Mrs. G. _ The "sympathetic emotion of virtue, " not having an object, never rises to passion, and therefore never produces action. Philosophers tell us that a thought of virtue passing often throughthe mind, without being wrought out into a fact, weakens the moralsense; thus people may read the best of books, and witness the finestexhibitions of moral beauty, and constantly retrograde in virtue. Thedissolute characters of players, who continually utter the loftiestsentiments, and practice the lowest vices, are accounted for on thisprinciple; and we ought to judge the theatre as we do slavery, by itsdemoralizing effect upon those engaged in it. 

_Mr. F. _ Do you mean to say, Rebecca, that slaveholding has the sameeffect upon me that stage-playing has upon the actor?

_Mrs. G. _ Well, brother, I put it to thy own conscience. Does theenot, daily, in dealing with thy slaves, stifle thy emotions of piety, generosity, and love, and is it not easier to do this now than it wastwenty years ago, when, with a heart full of tenderness and truth, thee left us for thy southern home?

_Mr. F. _ (_Rising and pacing the room with great agitation_. ) Now, sister, you are going to introduce another absurdity! Do I practicethe principles learned in the nursery? No, I do not! Do I believe"honesty is the best policy" and its kindred humbugs? Of course Idon't! Show me the man who does? Do I follow the precepts of thesermon on the Mount? Not I! The man who should undertake to do sowould make himself a perfect laughing-stock. I should like to see oneof your northern hypocrites attempt it. Ha! ha! ha! "Lay not uptreasure upon earth, " and "take no thought for the morrow;" why, whatelse do people take thought for, either North or South? It is not whatthey shall eat, drink, or wear to-day, that worries them, but how theyshall lay up something for themselves or their children hereafter. Yousilly women are always talking about righteousness, as if you reallythought it could enter in human plans, but we men of the world, whohave to wring the precious dollar from the hard hand of labor, knowbetter! I tell you, Rebecca, I don't believe there is a business-manin your pious Quaker city even, who would dare acquaint his wife anddaughters with all his little arrangements for amassing wealth. Ha!ha! ha! How the pretty things would stare at the tricks of the trade, and simper: "Is that right?" As though anybody thought businessprinciples were gospel principles! As though they expected a man wasgoing to love his neighbor as himself, when he was making a bargainwith him! It provokes me to see you make yourself so ridiculous! Youought to know that every man _acts_ on the principle, that "Wealth isthe chief good;" and you ought to know, too, that there theslaveholders have the advantage of you entirely. They do right towork, and grind it out of the slaves on a large scale, and callAbraham and Moses to witness the patriarchal method, while yournorthern mercenaries scheme and speculate how they can turn a pennyout of ignorance and poverty, and have not even the apology of aprecedent for their meanness. Why, one of our generoussouthern planters is as far above one of your stingyshave-three-cents-on-a-yard-tradesmen, as Robin Hood is above amiserable tea-spoon burglar. The south sails under false colors, doesit? What flag do your platform men give to the wind, I should like toknow? What do they care for the Fugitive Slave Law? Half of them wouldhelp a runaway to Canada with as good a will as they'd eat theirdinner. (_Coming close and sitting down, so as to look fixedly in herface_. ) I'll tell you what, sister, the chivalry of the south respondsto you northern Christians who prate so loud of brotherhood andcharity, in the words of young Cancer to his mother--"_Libenter tuisprĉceptis obsequar, si te prius idem facientem videro_. "

_Mrs. G. _ (_very gently_. ) These strictures, brother, are too keenlyjust. They remind me of Kossuth's assertion, that there is not yet aChristian nation on the earth, nor yet a Christian church, that dareventure entirely upon the principles of the Gospel. Still, theaberration of reformers proves no more in favor of slavery, than thevices and miseries of civilized life prove that barbarism is thenatural and happy state of the human race; nay, these very aberrationsprove that a centripetal power counteracts the opposing force, andholds them within the genial influence of the sun of truth. 

The law of spiritual gravitation is little understood. But thousandsof philosophers are closely observing the phenomena, and carefullycomparing them with the data given in the Sermon on the Mount; and itis not too much to hope that this generation will give to the world aNewton, whose moral mathematics shall demonstrate that the _law_ of_love_ is the true theory of individual and national prosperity. 

_Mr. F. _ Well, sister, I wish you much joy of your millennial state;but before the Sermon on the Mount becomes the code of nations, Iguess you will find--

_Mr. D. _ (_interrupting_. ) "A little more grape, Captain Bragg!"

_Frank. _ I tell you, uncle, "there's a good time coming. " Mother is aprophet. I have watched her words all my life, and I never knew themfall to the ground. 

_Mrs. G. _ Observe, my friends, that the Sermon on the Mount putsblessing before requirement. If you accept these beatitudes as thegift of your Divine Master, you will find that obedience to theprecepts which follow, is not the unwilling service of a bondsman, butthe free and natural action of an unfranchised spirit. 

[Illustration: (signature) C. A. Bloss]

CLOVER STREET SEM. , November 10th, 1853. 

[Illustration: Gerritt Smith (Engraved by J. C. Buttre)]

A Time of Justice will Come

We are conscious of the odium that rests upon us. We feel that we arewronged; but we are not impatient for the righting of our wrongs. Webide our time. The men that shall come after us, will do us justice. The present generation of America cannot "judge righteous judgment, "in the case of the uncompromising friends of freedom, religion, andlaw. They are so debauched and blinded by slavery, and by the perverseand low ideas of freedom, religion, and law, which it engenders, thatthey "call evil good, and good evil; put darkness for light, and lightfor darkness; put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. " They havebeen living out the lie of slavery so long, and have been, thereby, deadening their consciences so long, as to be now well nigh incapableof perceiving the wide and everlasting distinctions between truth andfalsehood. 

 GERRITT SMITH. 

Hope and Confidence. 

 O! What a strange thing is the human heart! With its youth, and its joy and fear! It doats upon creatures that day-dreams impart, -- Full sorely it grieves when their beauties depart, And weeps bitter tears over their bier. 

 The veriest gleamings that dart into birth, Reveal to its being of light: The dimliest shadows that flit upon earth, Allure it, with promise of pleasure and mirth In a country, where never is night. 

 It leaves the sure things of its own real home, To pursue the mere phantoms of thought! Well knowing, that certain, there soon must come, An end to the visions, that so gladsome, It bewilder'd, has eagerly sought. 

[Illustration: Chas. L. Reason (Engraved by J. C. Buttre)]

 It fleeth the wholesome prose of life, With its riches all sure and told: And scorning the beauties, that calmly in strife Truth fashions, it longs for the things all rife With glitter, and color, and gold. 

 It buildeth its home 'neath an ever calm sky, Near streams wherein crown-jewels sleep, -- And there it reposeth: while soothingly nigh, Some loved one, perchance, doth most wooingly sigh, As the zephyrs all full-laden creep. 

 Thus it musingly wasteth its strength, in dreams Of bliss, that can never prove true: And ever it revels amid what seems, A paradise smiling with Hope's warm beams, And flowers all spangled with dew. 

 But, even as flowers are broken and fade, And yield up their perfumes--their souls, -- So vanish the colors of which dreams are made, -- So perish the structures on which Hope is staid, And the treasures to which the heart holds. 

 In vain does it follow the wandering forms That promise, yet always recede:-- Too briefly the sunshine is darken'd by storms: Hope minstrels it onward, yet never informs Of the dangers unseen, that impede. 

 The Heart trusts the outward: "Of man 'tis the whole. " Thus Confidence clings to decay! It feels the sweet homage that riches control, -- And laughs in contempt at the wealth of the soul: And behold! now, friends wait for their prey. 

 It trusteth in glory, and beauty, and youth, -- In love-vows that ne'er are to die: But soon the Death-king, in whose heart is no ruth, Enfolds it, --and mounting aloft, of Truth Thus sings, as turns glassy the eye. 

 "There's nothing so lovely and bright below, As the shapes of the purified mind! Nought surer to which the weak heart can grow, On which it can rest, as it onward doth go, Than that Truth which its own tendrils bind. 

 "Yes! Truth opes within a pure sun-tide of bliss, And shows in its ever calm flood, A transcript of regions, where no darkness is, Where HOPE its conceptions may realize, And CONFIDENCE sleep in 'The Good. '"

[Illustration: (signature) Chas. L. Reason. ]

A Letter that Speaks for Itself. 

To T---- M----. 

Disinterested benevolence, my dear sir, has nothing at all to do withabolitionism. Nay, I doubt very much if there is such a thing asdisinterested benevolence; but be this as it may, there is no occasionfor it in the anti-slavery ranks. 

It is selfishness, --sheer selfishness, that has thus far carried onthe war with slavery and wrong in all times; and selfishness mustbreak the chains of the American slave. 

Self-love has fixed the chain around the arm of every leader and everysoldier in the American anti-slavery army. Where would William LloydGarrison have been to-day, if any combination of circumstances couldhave shut in his soul's deep hatred of oppression, and prevented itsfinding utterance in burning words? He would have been dead androtten. It is necessary to his own existence that he shouldwork, --work for the slave; and in his work he gratifies all thestrongest instincts of his nature, more completely than even thegrossest sensualist can gratify _his_, by unlimited indulgence. 

Gerritt Smith, too. Suppose he was compelled to hoard his princelyfortune, or spend it as most others do! O dear! what a dyspeptic weshould have in six months; and all the hydropathic institutes in thecountry could never keep him alive five years. 

John P. Hale would soon be done with his rotund person and jovialface, if he could no longer send the sharp arrows of his wit andsarcasm into the consciences of his human-whipping neighbors. 

It is a necessity of all great nations to hate meanness, and nothingunder God's heaven ever was so mean as American slavery. Think of it. _Men_ who swagger around with pistols and bowie-knifes to avenge theirinsulted honor, if any one should question it, --imagine one turning uphis sleeves to horsewhip an old woman for burning his steak, orpocketing her wages, earned at the wash-tub!

No one with a soul above that of a pig-louse, could help loathing thesystem, the instant he saw it in its native meanness. Then, in orderto keep his own self-respect, --to gratify the love of the good andtrue in his own soul, he _must_ express that loathing. 

No disinterestedness about doing right, for nobody can be so muchinterested in the act as the doer of it. 

Wrong-doing is the only possible self-abnegation, of which the wholerange of thought admits. 

All the humiliation and agony of the Saviour himself, were necessaryto himself. Nothing less could have expressed the infinite love of theDivine nature; and in working out a most perfect righteousness forthose he loved, he also wrought out a most perfect happiness forhimself. 

The eternal law of God links the happiness of all the creatures madein His image in an electric chain, united in the Divine love; and He, who has "a fellow-feeling for our infirmities, " has given us afellow-feeling with the sufferings of each other. So that no soul inwhich the Divine image is not totally obscured, can know of the miseryof another, without a sympathetic throb of sorrow. 

The true heart in Maine _cannot_ know that the slave-mother in Georgiais weeping for her children, torn from her arms by avarice, withoutfeeling her anguish palpitating in its inmost core. 

It is the pulsations of the sympathetic heart which stretches out thehand to interfere between her and her aggressor; and abolitionists arejust seeking a soft pillow that they may "sleep o' nights. "

It is selfishness, I tell you, all selfishness! The great whale whenshe gives up her own large life to protect her young one, and thelittle wren when she carries all the nice tit bits to her babies, areas true to themselves as the old pig when she shoulders all her littlefamily out of the trough. 

The whale enjoys death, and the wren her little fellows' supper, witha better zest than an old grunter does her corn, and Wm. Gildersten inspending money and laboring to prevent any more scenes of brutalviolence in his State, by punishing the one past, gratifies his ownloves and longings quite as much as Judge Grier in grunting out hiswrath against all lovers of liberty. 

The one would enjoy being hanged for the cause of God and Humanity, more than the other would the luxury of hanging him, even if he couldhave _all_ the pleasure to himself, --be not only judge andpersecutor, as he prefers, but marshal, jailor, and hangman to boot. 

More than this, every creature, so far as other creatures areconcerned, has a right to be happy in his own way. Nero had as muchright to wish for power to cut off all the heads in Italy at one blow, as an innocent pig to wish for capacity to eat all the corn in theworld. Mankind has no right to punish either for the desire or itsmanifestation. They should only make fences to prevent theaccomplishment of the wish. 

Americans have no right to punish Judge Grier for wishing to persecuteeverybody who attempts to enforce State laws against murderousassaults by _his_ officers. They should content themselves withfencing his Honor in, or, if necessary, putting a ring in his nose. Hehas as much right to be Judge Grier as George Washington had to beGeorge Washington, and is no more selfish in following the instinctsof his nature, than Washington was in following his. 

 Without any great respect, I am your friend, [Illustration: (signature) Jane G. Swisshelm]

On Freedom. 

 Once I wished I might rehearse Freedom's pĉan in my verse, That the slave who caught the strain Should throb until he snapt his chain. But the Spirit said, "Not so; Speak it not, or speak it low; Name not lightly to be said, Gift too precious to be prayed, Passion not to be exprest But by heaving of the breast; Yet, --would'st thou the mountain find Where this deity is shrined, Who gives the seas and sunset-skies Their unspent beauty of surprise, And, when it lists him, waken can Brute and savage into man; Or, if in thy heart he shine, Blends the starry fates with thine, Draws angels nigh to dwell with thee, And makes thy thoughts archangels be; Freedom's secret would'st thou know?-- Right thou feelest rashly do. 

[Illustration: (signature) R. W. Emerson. ]

Mary Smith, AN ANTI-SLAVERY REMINISCENCE. 

Some years ago a free colored woman, who was born in New England, andhad gone to the south to attend upon some family, was shipwrecked, asshe was returning northwards, on the coast of North Carolina. She, however, as well as some of the crew of the vessel, was saved. Thehalf-civilized people of that region rendered some assistance to theshipwrecked party; but Mary Smith was detained by one of the nativesas a slave. 

The poor woman succeeded in getting a letter written to some person inBoston, in which the particulars of her story were narrated. Eitherthis letter, or one afterwards written, contained references to peoplein Boston who were acquainted with her. 

It was not very easy, even with these references, to get sufficientevidence to prove the freedom and identity of an obscure person, whohad been away from Boston for some years. A strong interest, however, was felt in the case wherever it became known. And Rev. SamuelSnowden, well-remembered by the name of Father Snowden, with his usualindomitable energy and perseverance in aiding persons of his own colorin distress, succeeded in finding people in Boston who were wellacquainted with Mary Smith, and recollected her having left that placeto go to the south. Pursuing his inquiries with great diligence, heascertained the place of her birth, which was somewhere in NewHampshire. I forget the name of the town. 

Affidavits were now procured, which established the place of MarySmith's birth, her residence in Boston, and the time of her departurefor the south, and other circumstances to corroborate her story. 

Edward Everett, who was at this time Governor of Massachusetts, at therequest of Mary Smith's friends, forwarded the documents they hadobtained, accompanied with an urgent letter from himself, demandingher release from captivity, on the ground of her being a free citizenof Massachusetts. 

The Governor of North Carolina replied very courteously to GovernorEverett. He admitted the right of the woman to her freedom, andacknowledged that no person in North Carolina could lawfully detainher as a slave. But, at the same time he said, that as Governor, hehad no power to interfere with the person who held her in custody. Thedecision on her right to freedom, depended on another department ofthe government. He promised, however, to write to the man who heldher, and solicit her release. 

The remonstrances of the Governor of North Carolina proved successful. Mary Smith soon arrived in Boston. And some of her old acquaintanceswho had given the evidence which led to her release, hastened to meether and congratulate her on her escape from bondage. At the meetingthey looked on her for some moments with astonishment, for they couldtrace in her features no resemblance to their former companion. Aspeedy explanation took place, from which it appeared that all thedocuments sent to North Carolina related to one Mary Smith; but thewoman whose liberty they procured, was another Mary Smith. 

Governor Everett had a hearty laugh when Father Snowden told him thehappy result of his letter to the Governor of North Carolina. 

The moral of this story is, that a plain, common name, is sometimesmore useful to its owner, than a more brilliant one. 

[Illustration: (signature) S. E. Sewall]

 NOTE. --I have endeavored to give the facts of Mary Smith's story with exact accuracy, writing from memory only, without the aid of anything written. It is possible I may be mistaken in some immaterial circumstance. 

Freedom--Liberty. 

Freedom and Liberty are synonymes. Freedom is an essence; Liberty, anaccident. Freedom is born with a man; Liberty may be conferred on him. Freedom is progressive; Liberty is circumscribed. Freedom is the giftof God; Liberty, the creature of society. Liberty may be taken awayfrom a man; but, on whatsoever soul Freedom may alight, the course ofthat soul is thenceforth onward and upward; society, customs, laws, armies, are but as wythes in its giant grasp, if they oppose, instruments to work its will, if they assent. Human kind welcome thebirth of a free soul with reverence and shoutings, rejoicing in theadvent of a fresh off-shoot of the Divine Whole, of which this is buta part. 

[Illustration: (signature) James McCune Smith]

NEW-YORK, Nov. 22d, 1853. 

An Aspiration. 

You want my autograph. Permit me, then, to sign myself the friend ofevery effort for human emancipation in our own country, and throughoutthe world. God speed the day when all chains shall fall from the limbsand from the soul, and universal liberty co-exist with universalrighteousness and universal peace. In this work I am

 Yours truly, [Illustration: (signature) E. H. Chapin. ]

NEW YORK, Nov. 22d. 

[Illustration: E. H. Chapin (Engraved by J. C. Buttre)]

The Dying Soliloquy of the Victim of the Wilkesbarre Tragedy. 

He was approached from behind by Deputy Marshal Wyncoop and hisassistants, knocked down with a mace and partially shackled. Thefugitive, who had unsuspectingly waited upon them during theirbreakfast at the Phenix Hotel, was a tall, noble-looking, remarkablyintelligent, and a nearly white mulatto; after a desperate effort andsevere struggle, he shook off his _five_ assailants, and with the lossof everything but a remnant of his shirt, rushed from the house andplunged into the water, exclaiming: "I will drown rather than be takenalive. " He was pursued and fired upon several times, the last balltaking effect in his head, his face being instantly covered withblood. He sprang up and shrieked in great agony, and no doubt wouldhave sunk at once, but for the buoyancy of the water. Seeing hiscondition, the slave-catchers retreated, coolly remarking that "deadniggers were not worth taking South. "

 Than be a slave, Dread death I'll brave, And hail the moment near, When the soul mid pain, Shall burst the chain That long has bound it here. 

 Earth's thrilling pulse, Man's stern repulse, This weary heart no longer feels; Its beating hushed Its vain hopes crushed, It craves that life which death reveals. 

 That moment great My soul would wait, In awe and peace sublime; Nor bitter tears, Nor slave-born fears, As I pass from earth to time. 

 The angry past, Like phantoms vast, Glides by like the rushing wave; So soon shall I, Forgotten lie, In the depths of my briny grave. 

 The time shall be, "When no more sea" Shall hide its treasures lone; Then my soul shall rise, Clothed for the skies, To find its blissful home. 

 Foul deeds laid wrong The whip and thong, Have scored my manhood's heart, But ne'er again Shall fiends constrain My body to the slave's vile mart. 

 The 'whelming wave, This corpse shall lave; Let the winds still pipe aloud, Let the waters lash, The white foam dash, O'er mangled brow and bloody shroud. 

 Roll on, thou free, Unfettered sea, Thy restless moan, my dirge, My cradle deep In my last lone sleep, Is the scoop of thy hollow surge. 

 Would I might live, _One_ glance to give, To those whose hearts would bless, Each word of love, All price above, As mine to theirs I press. 

 The wish is vain; My frenzied brain, Is dark'ning even now; Above, above, Is Heaven's love, And mercy's wide arched bow. 

 Glad free-born soul With grateful hold, Now grasp the gift from Heav'n-- Thy freedom won, New life begun, Forgive, thou'rt there forgiv'n. 

[Illustration: (signature) H. H. Greenough]

Let all be Free. 

 Unbounded in thy expanse--far reaching From shore to shore--ever beautiful Are thy crystal waters--O sea. Beautiful--when thy waves, the white pebbles lave, When the weary sea-birds sleep, upon the bosom of the deep. But when thy storm-pressed billows burst, The grasp which man would "lay upon thy mane, " Then do I most love thee, sea, Thou emblem of the _Free_. 

 When above me beam the stars, How beautiful in their infinitude of light, O'er the blue heavens spread, like gems Upon the brow of youth! Far, far away, beyond the paths of day, More glorious yet, as suns which never set, In darkness never! but shining forever! You are more loved by me-- Ye emblems of the _Free_. 

 All earth of the beautiful is full. Beautiful the streams which leave the rural vales, Fringed with scarlet berries and leafy green! O world of colors infinite, and lines of ever-varying grace, How by sea and shore art thou ever beautiful! But the torrent rushing by, and the eagle in the sky, The Alpine heights of snow where man does never go, More lovely are to me, For they are _Free_. 

 Beautiful is man, and yet more beautiful Woman: coupled by bare circumstance Of place or gold, still beautiful. But this must fade! Only the soul, grows never old: They most agree, who most are free: Liberty is the food of love! The heavens, the earth, man's heart, and sea, Forever cry, _let all be Free_!

[Illustration: (signature) C. M. Clay. ]

KENTUCKY, 1853. 

[Illustration: Frederick Douglass (Engraved by J. C. Buttre)]

_To the Editor of the "Autographs for Freedom. "_

 DEAR MADAM, --

 If the enclosed paragraph from a speech of mine delivered in May last, at the anniversary meeting of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, shall be deemed suited to the pages of the forthcoming annual, please accept it as my contribution. 

 With great respect, [Illustration: (signature) Frederick Douglass]

 ROCHESTER, November, 1853. 

Extract. 

No colored man, with any nervous sensibility, can stand before anAmerican audience without an intense and painful sense of thedisadvantages imposed by his color. He feels little borne up by thatbrotherly sympathy and generous enthusiasm, which give wings to theeloquence, and strength to the hearts of other men, who advocate otherand more popular causes. The ground which a colored man occupies inthis country is, every inch of it, sternly disputed. Sir, were I awhite man, speaking for the right of white men, I should in thiscountry have a smooth sea and a fair wind. It is, perhaps, creditableto the American people (and I am not the man to detract from theircredit) that they listen eagerly to the report of wrongs endured bydistant nations. The Hungarian, the Italian, the Irishman, the Jew andthe Gentile, all find in this goodly land a home; and when any ofthem, or all of them, desire to speak, they find willing ears, warmhearts, and open hands. For these people, the Americans haveprinciples of justice, maxims of mercy, sentiments of religion, andfeelings of brotherhood in abundance. But for _my_ poor people, (alas, how poor!)--enslaved, scourged, blasted, overwhelmed, and ruined, itwould appear that America had neither justice, mercy, nor religion. She has no scales in which to weigh our wrongs, and no standard bywhich to measure our rights. Just here lies the grand difficulty ofthe colored man's cause. It is found in the fact, that we may notavail ourselves of the just force of admitted American principles. IfI do not misinterpret the feelings and philosophy of my whitefellow-countrymen generally, they wish us to understand distinctly andfully that they have no other use for us whatever, than to coindollars out of our blood. 

Our position here is anomalous, unequal, and extraordinary. It is aposition to which the most courageous of our race cannot look withoutdeep concern. Sir, we are a hopeful people, and in this we arefortunate; but for this trait of our character, we should have, longbefore this seemingly unpropitious hour, sunk down under a sense ofutter despair. 

Look at it, sir. Here, upon the soil of our birth, in a country whichhas known us for two centuries, among a people who did not wait for usto seek them, but who sought us, found us, and brought us to their ownchosen land, --a people for whom we have performed the humblestservices, and whose greatest comforts and luxuries have been won fromthe soil by our sable and sinewy arms, --I say, sir, among such apeople, and with such obvious recommendations to favor, we are farless esteemed than the veriest stranger and sojourner. 

Aliens are we in our native land. The fundamental principles of therepublic, to which the humblest white man, whether born here orelsewhere, may appeal with confidence in the hope of awakening afavorable response, are held to be inapplicable to us. The gloriousdoctrines of your revolutionary fathers, and the more gloriousteachings of the Son of God, are construed and applied against us. Weare literally scourged beyond the beneficent range of bothauthorities, --human and divine. We plead for our rights, in the nameof the immortal declaration of independence, and of the writtenconstitution of government, and we are answered with imprecations andcurses. In the sacred name of Jesus we beg for mercy, and theslave-whip, red with blood, cracks over us in mockery. We invoke theaid of the ministers of Him who came "to preach deliverance to thecaptive, " and to set at liberty them that are bound, and from theloftiest summits of this ministry comes the inhuman and blasphemousresponse, saying: if one prayer would move the Almighty arm in mercyto break your galling chains, that prayer would be withheld. We cryfor help to humanity--a common humanity, and here too we are repulsed. American humanity hates us, scorns us, disowns and denies, in athousand ways, our very personality. The outspread wing of AmericanChristianity, apparently broad enough to give shelter to a perishingworld, refuses to cover us. To us, its bones are brass, and itsfeathers iron. In running thither for shelter and succor, we have onlyfled from the hungry bloodhound to the devouring wolf, --from a corruptand selfish world to a hollow and hypocritical church. 

Extract from an unpublished Poem on Freedom. 

 Oh, Freedom! when thy morning march began, Coëval with the birth and breath of man; Who that could view thee in that Asian clime, God-born, soul-nursed, the infant heir of time-- Who that could see thee in that Asian court, Flit with the sparrow, with the lion sport, Talk with the murmur of the babbling rill And sing thy summer song upon the hill-- Who that could know thee as thou wast inwrought The all in all of nature's primal thought, And see thee given by Omniscient mind, A native boon to lord, and brute, and wind, Could e'er have dreamed with fate's prophetic sleep, The darker lines thy horoscope would keep, Or trembling read, thro' tones with horror thrilled, The damned deeds thy future name would gild?

 Lo! The swart chief of Afric's vergeless plains, Poor Heaven-wept child of nature's joys and pains, Mounts his fleet steed with wind-directed course, Nor checks again his free unbridled horse, But lordless, wanders where his will inclines From Tuats heats to Zegzeg's stunted pines! View him, ye craven few, ye living-dead! Wrecks of a being whence the soul has fled! Ye Goths and Vandals of his plundered coast! Ye _Christian_ Bondous, who of feeling boast, [7] Who quickly kindling to historic fire Contemn a Marius' or a Scylla's ire, [8] Or kindly lulled to sympathetic glow, Lament the martyrs of some far-off woe, And tender grown, with sorrow hugely great Weep o'er an Agis' or Jugurtha's fate![9] View him, ye hollow heartlings as he stalks The dauntless monarch of his native walks Breathes the warm odor which the girgir bears, [10] Shouts the fierce music of his savage airs, Or madly brave in hottest chase pursues The tawny monster of the desert dews; Eager, erect, persistent as the storm, Soul in his mien, God's image in his form! Yes, view him thus, from Kaffir to Soudan, And tell me, worldlings, is the black a man?

 See, the full sun emerging from the deep, Climbs with red eye, the light-illumined steep, And brightly beautiful continuous smiles A fecund blessing on those Indian Isles! Like eastern woods which sweeten as they burn, So, the parched earths to odorous flowrets turn, And feathered fayes their murmurous wings expand, Waked by the magic of his conjuror's wand, Flash their red plumes, and vocalize each dell Where browse the fecho and the dun-gazelle, [11] While half forgetful of her changing sphere, The loathful summer lingers year by year. Here, in the light of God's supernal eye-- His realms unbounded, and his woes a sigh-- The dusky son of evening placed whilcome Found with the Gnu an ever-vernal home, And wiser than Athenas' wisest schools, [12] Nor led by zealots, nor scholastic rules, Gazed at the stars that stud yon tender blue, And hoped, and deemed the cheat of death untrue; Yet, supple sophist to a plastic mind, [13] Saw gods in woods, and spirits in the wind, Heard in the tones that stirred the waves within, The mingled voice of Hadna and Odin, Doomed the fleeced tenant of the wild to bleed A guileless votive to his harmless creed, Then gladly grateful at each rite fulfilled, Sought the cool shadow where the spring distilled, And lightly lab'rous thro' the torpid day, Whiled in sweet peace the sultry eve away. 

 Or if perchance to nature darkly true, He strikes the war-path thro' the midnight dew, Steals in the covert on the sleeping foe, And wreaks the horrors of a barbarous woe; Yet, yet returning to the home-girt spot-- The vengeful causes and the deed forgot--[14] Where greenest boughs o'er sloping banks impend, And gurgling waves to bosky dells descend; Intent the long expectant brood to sea, He halts beneath the broad acacia tree; And warmly pressed by wonder-gloating eyes, Displays the vantage of each savage prize; Stills with glad pride and plundered gems, uncouth, The ardent longings of his daughter's youth;

 Bids the dark spouse the tropic meal prepare, Mid laughing echoes from the bird-voiced air; Passes before him in a fond review The merry numbers of his crisp-haired crew;[15] Recounts the dangers of the last night's strife, Joys with their joy, and lives their inner life; And then when slow the lengthened day expires, Mid twilight balms and star-enkindled fires, With _all_ the father sees each form retire, A ruthless heathen, but a loving sire. [16]

 Innocuously thus, thro' long, long years Untaught by learning, yet unknown to fears, The swarthy Afric whiled the jocund hours, A petted child of nature's rosiest bowers, Till lured by wealth the hardy Portuguese, [17] Seeks the green waters of his Eastern seas, And venturous nations more excursive grown, Scan his glad coast from radiant zone to zone, Then Fortune's minion in a foreign clime, Cursed by his own and damned to later time, Of incest born and by the chances thrown A tainted alien on a ravished throne, Gapes the foul flatteries of a fawning train, And fatuous mock'ries, which themselves disdain, A fancied monarch, but the witless sport Of adulation, and a practiced court, Vaunts to his broad realms and Timour-like proclaims Illusive titles of barbaric names, Cheats his own nature, and now generous grown, [18] Dispenses souls and empires not his own, Draws the deep purple round his royal seat, Lifts his low crest, affects the God complete, By giving with light breath, oh, shame to tell! These heirs of Heav'n unto the fate of hell. Sped by the mandate of his recreant train, Lo! commerce, broad winged seraph of the main! Shook her white plumage and coqueting, won Propitious favors from the southern sun, Till manly hearts and keel-impelling gales, Furled on the coast her half-reluctant sails. 

 Abashed, amazed, with fear-dilated eye The marvelling tribes these new-born wonders spy; See from the shore, bright glittering in the sun, The moving freightage of each galleon; Wait till the measured strokes of oars bring near These way-lost wanderers of another sphere, Then timorously glad, yet awe-struck still, Lead from the sunshine to the breezy hill; With courteous grace a resting place assign 'Neath rustling leaves and grape-empurpled vine, And led by craft in artless pride make known The lustrous lurements of their gorgeous zone, As in the field some skilful ranger sets The fraudful cordage of his specious nets, Places some fragrant viand in the snare, And captive takes the unsuspicious hare; So the bold strangers with superior will Lay their base plans with disingenuous skill, Ope their stored treasures and with art display Their worthless figments to the air of day, Roll their large lids, and with grave gestures laud Each tinsel trinket and each painted gaud; With mystic signs of strange import apply Some gew-gaw bauble to the gloating eye; Touch with nice skill, yet craft-dissembled smile, Gems from the mine and spices from the Isle, Affect no care, yet hope a thrifty sale-- The wealth of Empires in th' opposing scale-- While he, the poor victim of their selfish creed, Prescient of evil art foredoomed to bleed, Pleased yet alarmed, desiring but deterred, Flutters still nearer like a snake-charmed bird; Alas, too often taken with a toy-- Too soon to weep a kindred fate with Troy!

 Evils received, like twilight stars dilate, The less the light, the larger grows their state; Thus the first error in that savage air, Spreads as a flame, and leaves a ruin there. Too dearly generous and too warmly true, [19] The simple black wears out the fatal clew, -- From barter flies to trade; from trade to wants; From wants to interests and derided haunts; Thence, rolls from off the once-sequestered shore, The turgid tide of havoc and of war; No warning ringing from the red adunes, No prophets rising, and no Laocoons, Remotest tribes the baleful influence own; Feel to extremes, and at their centres groan. Now laughs the stranger at their anguished throes, [20] Feeds on their ills, and battens on their woes; Glads his freed conscience at each pillaged mine, And finds forgiveness at a Christian shrine; By specious creeds and sophists darkly taught, [21] To semble virtue and dissemble thought, With Saviour-seeming smile, adds fuel to the flame, -- Ulysses' craft, without Ulysses' aim, -- And sadly faithful to his dark designs, Fiction improves; heroic rage refines; For lo! Achilles, victor of the train! Draws Hector lifeless, round the Ilian plain; But ah! these later Greeks more cruel strive, And bind their victim to the load alive!

 Oh, beats there, Heaven, beneath thy gorgeous blue, One heart so basely to itself untrue, So dead of pulse, and so insensate grown, It feels not such a cause dear as its own? Dwells there a being 'neath thine eye, oh, God! A fellow-worm from out the self-same clod, Whose fevered blood does not impatient boil, Fierce as a tiger's in the hunter's toil, To see degenerate men and States prolong, So foul a deed--so thrice accursed a wrong? Tell me, ye loud-voiced winds that ceaseless roll, Eternal miracles from pole to pole, Breathes there on earth so vile and mean a thing That crushed, it will not turn again and sting? And say! ye tyrants in your boasted halls, Read ye no warnings on your darkened walls? Hear ye no seeming mutterings of the cloud Break from the millions which your steps have bowed? Think ye, ye hold in your ignoble thrall, Mind, soul, thought, taste, hope, feeling, valor, all? No; these unfettered scorn your nerveless hand, Sport at their will, and scoff at your command, Range through arcades of shadow-brooding palms, Snuff their free airs and breathe their floating balms, Or bolder still, on fancy's fiery wing--[22] Caught from their letters at the noon-day spring-- With star-eyed science, and her seraph train Read the bright secrets of yon azure plain; Hear Loxian murmurs in Rhodolphe's caves[23] Meet with sweet answers from the nymph-voiced waves; Sit with the pilot at Phoenicia's helm, And mark the boundries of the Lybian realm; See swarthy Memnon in the grave debate, Dispute with gods, and rule a conqu'ring state, And warmly and kindling dare--yes, _dare_ to hope, A second Empire on the future's scope!

 And thou, my country, latest born of time! Dearest of all, of all the most sublime! How long shall patriots own, with blush of shame, So foul a blot upon so fair a name? How long thy sons with filial hearts deplore, A Python evil on thy Cyprean shore? What! and wilt thou, the moral Hercules Whose youth eclipsed the dream of Pericles, Whose trunceant bands heroically caught, The Spartan phalanx with the Attic thought, The wizard throne of age-nursed error hurled, Defied a tyrant and transfixed a world! Wilt _thou_ see Afric like old Priam sue, The bones of children as in nature due, And foully craven, ingrate-like forget, Thy life, thy learning's her dishonored debt? Say; wilt not _thou_, whose time-ennobling sons-- Thy Jay's, thy Franklin's and thy Washington's, Caught the bright cestus from fair freedom's God, And bound it as a girdle to thy sod; Ah! wilt not thou with generous mind confess The might of woe, the strength of helplessness? High-Heaven's almoner to a world oppressed, Who in the march of nations led the rest![24] Will there no Gracchus in _thy_ Senate stand And speak the words that millions should command? No Clysthementhe 'neath thy broad arched dome, Predict the fortunes with the crimes of Rome? Shall time yet partial in his cycling course, Bring thee no Fox, no Pitt, no Wilberforce? Still must thou live and corybantic die, A traceless meteor in a clouding sky; Thy name a cheat; thyself, a world-wide lie? No; there will come, prophetic hearts may trust, Some embryo angel of superior dust, With brow of cloud and tongue of livid flame-- Another Moses, but in time and name-- Whose Heaven-appealing voice shall bid thee pass-- On either hand a wall of living glass;-- Ope for the Lybian with convulsive shock His more than Horeb's adamantine rock, And gazing from some second Pisgah, see Thy idol broken and thy people free. 

[Illustration: (signature) William D. Snow]

RICHMOND, Dec. 1st, 1853. 

FOOTNOTES:

[7] "Ye Christian _Bondous_ who of feeling boast!"

Unable in the whole range of my vernacular, to find an epithetsufficiently expressive to enunciate the aggravated contempt which allfeel for that pseudonymous class of philanthropists, who flauntinglyparade a pompous sympathy with popular and distant distresses, butstudiously cultivate a coarse ignorance of, and hauteur to, theGreeks, which "are at the door, " I have had recource to the Metonymy, _Bondou_, as rendered mournfully significant through the melancholyfate of the illustrious Houghton. --Vide _Report African DiscoverySociety_. 

[8] "Contemn a Marius' or a Scylla's ire. "

Napoleon in his protest to Lord Bathurst, provoked by the pettytyranny of Sir Hudson Lowe, said of the "Proscriptions, " and (bynegative inference) in extenuation of them, that they "_were made withthe blood yet fresh upon the sword_. " A sentence, which, falling fromthe lips of one of the most imperturbably cool and calculating ofmankind, under circumstances superinducing peculiar reflection onevery word uttered, cannot but come with the force of a whole volumeof excoriative evidence against the demoralization of war, even uponthe most abstracted and elevated natures. --Vide _Letters of Montholonand Las Cases_. 

[9] "Weep o'er an Agis' or Jugurtha's fate. "

Agis, King of Lacedemon and colleague of Leonidas, was a youth ofsingular purity and promise. Aiming to correct the abuses which hadcrept into the Spartan polity, he introduced regenerative laws. Amongothers, one for the equalization of property, and as an example ofdisinterested liberality, shared his estate with the community. Unappreciated by the degenerated Senate however, he was deposed, and, with his whole family, strangled by order of the ingrateState. --_Edin. Encyc. _

It is said that when Jugurtha was led before the ear of the conquerer, he lost his senses. After the triumph he was thrown into prison, where, whilst they were in haste to strip him, some tore his robes offhis back, and others, catching eagerly at his pendants, pulled off thetips of his ears with them. When he was thrust down naked into thedungeon, all wild and confused, he said, with a frantic smile, "Heavens! how cold is this bath of yours!" There struggling for sixdays with starvation, and to the last hour laboring for thepreservation of his life, he came to his end. --_Plut. Cai. Mar. _

[10] "Breathes the warm odor which the _girgir_ bears, "

The girgir, or the _geshe el aube_, a species of flowering grass. Piercing, fragrant, and grateful in its odor, it operates not unlike amild stimulant, when respired for any length of time, and is foundchiefly near the borders of small streams and in the vicinage of theTassada. --_Lyn. Gui. And Soud. _

[11] "Where browse the _fecho_ and the dun-gazelle. "

Among the wild animals are prodigious numbers of the vari-coloredspecies of the gazelle, the bohur sassa, fecho, and madoqua. They areextremely numerous in the provinces depopulated _by war and slavery_, enjoying the wild oats of the deserted hamlets without fear ofmolestation from a returning population. --_Notes on Central Africa. _

[12] "And wiser than Athenas' wisest schools, Nor led by zealots, nor scholastic rules, Gazed at the stars which stud yon tender blue, And hoped and deemed the cheat of death untrue. "

Though Socrates and Plato, particularly the former, are generallyadmitted by writers of authority, among whom, indeed, are Polycarpe, Chrysotom, and Eusebius, to have in a manner _suspected_ rather thanbelieved, the immortality of the soul; yet we have no evidence oftheir ever having, by the finest process of ratiocination, sothoroughly convinced themselves as to introduce it generally as atenable thesis on the portico. A beautiful thread of implicit beliefand fervent hope, of after life, assimilating to the hunting-ground ofour own American Indians, and though sensuous still, a step far inadvance of the black void of ancient philosophy, has always runthrough the higher mythologies of the Negro. So notorious, indeed, wasthe fact among early Christians, that that ubiquitous riddle, "PrestorJohn, " was, by believers, regarded as having a _locale_ in CentralAfrica; while Henry of Portugal actually despatched two ambassadors, Corvilla and Payvan, to a rumored Christian court, south of theSahara. --_Edin. Encyc. Early Chris. His. Port. _

[13] "Yet supple sophist to a plastic mind, Sees gods in woods, and spirits in the wind. "

The imagination of the African, like his musical genius, whichextracts surprising harmony from the rudest of sources, the clappingof hands, the clanking of chains, the resonance of lasso wood, andperforated shells, seems to invest everything with a resident spiritof peculiar power. Accordingly, his mythologies are most numerous andpoetical--his entire catalogue of superior gods alone, embracing amore extended length than the Assyro-Babylon Alphabet, with its threehundred letters. 

[14] "The vengeful causes and the deed forgot. "

All travellers agree in the facile ductility and inertia-likeamiability of the native African character. --BREWSTER _on Africa. _

[15] "The merry numbers of his crisp-haired crew. "

The negro race is, perhaps, the most prolific of all the humanspecies. Their infancy and youth are singularly happy. The parents arepassionately fond of their children. --GOLDBURY'S _Travels. _

"Strike me, " said my attendant, "but do not curse my mother. " The samesentiment I found universally to prevail. 

Some of the first lessons in which the Mandings women instruct theirchildren is the _practice of truth_. It was the only consolation for anegro mother, whose son had been murdered by the Moors, that "_the boyhad never told a lie_. "--PARK'S _Travels. _

[16] "With all the father sees each form retire, A ruthless heathen, but a loving sire. "

 "Or led the combat, bold without a plan, An artless savage, but a fearless man. " CAMPBELL. 

[17] "Till lured by wealth the hardy Portuguese, Sought the green waters of his Eastern seas, And venturous nations more excursive grown, Pierced his glad coast from radiant zone to zone. "

Vasquez de Gama, a Portuguese nobleman, was the first to discover amaritime passage to the Indies; unless, perhaps, we credit theimprobable achievement of the Phoenicians, related by Herodotus asoccurring, 604 B. C. 

De Gama doubled the cape in 1498, explored the eastern shores as faras Melinda, in Zanguebar, and sailing thence arrived at Calcutta inMay. This expedition, second to none in its results, save that ofColumbus six years before, drew the attention of all Europe. Wholenations became actuated by the same enthusiasm, and private companiesof merchants sent out whole fleets on voyages of discovery, scouringthe entire coast from Cape Verd to Gaudfui, and discovering theMascharenhas and most of the islands of the Ethiopean Archipelago. 

[18] "Cheats his own nature and now generous grown, Dispenses realms and empires not his own. "

Charles V. Granted a patent _to one of his Flemish favorites_, containing an exclusive right to import four thousand negroes!--_Hist. Slavery_. 

The crime of having _first_ recommended the importation of Africanslaves into America, _is due to the Flemish nobility_, who obtained amonopoly of four thousand negroes, which they sold to some Genoesemerchants for 25, 000 ducats. --_Life of Cardinal Ximenes_. 

They (the Genoese) were the first to bring into a regular form, thatcommerce for slaves, between Africa and America, which has since grownto such an amazing extent. --_Robertson. _

[19] "Too warmly generous and dearly true, The simple black, " &c. 

It will remain an indelible reproach on the name of Europeans, thatfor more than three centuries their intercourse with the Africans hasonly tended to destroy their happiness and debase theircharacter. --_Edin. Ency. _

[20] "Now laughs the stranger at their anguished throes. "

The arts of the slave-merchant have inflamed the hostility of theirvarious tribes, and heightened their ferocity by sedulously increasingtheir wars. --_Ibid. _

[21] "By specious creeds and sophists darkly taught. "

Hamlet's advice to his offending mother;--

 "Assume a virtue, tho' you have it not. "

Adding hypocrisy to avowed unworthiness, was the acknowledgedinjunction of the church, wherever and whenever she participated insecular affairs, with a view of emolument. For a peculiar illustrationof this favorite doctrine, see Clement VI. 's edict, when, in virtue ofthe right arrogated by the holy see _to dispose of all countriesbelonging to the heathen_, he erected (1344) the Canaries into akingdom, and disposed of them to Lewis de la Corda, a prince ofCastile. 

[22] "Or bolder still on fancy's fiery wing. "

That I do not exaggerate the _belle lettres_ and classicalaccomplishments of at least two of the "chattels" of the "peculiarinstitution, " in the lines following the above, see "Poems written byRosa and Maria, " _property_ of South Carolina, and published in 1834. 

[23] "Hear _Loxian_ murmurs in Rhodolphe's caves. "

Loxian is a name frequently given to Apollo by Greek writers and ismet with, more than once, in the "Choephorĉ of Eschylus. "--_Campbell. _

Euripides mentions it three times, and Sophocles twice, its euphonyrecommends it more than any other name of the fair-haired god. 

[24] "And in the march of nations led the _van_. " _Campbell_

[Illustration: Henry Ward Beecher. (Engraved by J. C. Buttre)]

Letter

 BROOKLYN, December 6th, 1853. 

Dear Sir, --

Your note of November 29th, requesting a line from me for theAutographs for Freedom, is received. 

I wish that I had something that would add to the literary value ofyour laudable enterprise. In so great a cause as that of humanliberty, every great interest in society ought to have a voice and adecisive testimony. Art should be in sympathy with freedom andliterature, and all human learning should speak with _unmistakable_accents for the elevation, evangelization, and liberation of theoppressed. In a future day, the historian cannot purge our politicalhistory from the shame of wanton and mercenary oppression. But thereis not, I believe, a book in the literature of our country that willbe alive and known a hundred years hence, in which can be found thetaint of despotism. The literature of the world is on the side ofliberty. 

 I am very truly yours, [Illustration: (signature) Henry Ward Beecher]

[Illustration: H. B. Stowe (Engraved by J. C. Buttre)]

[Illustration: PLAYFORD HALL, SUFFOLK. The seat of Thomas Clarkson, Esq. ]

A Day spent at Playford Hall. 

It was a pleasant morning in May, --I believe that is the orthodox wayof beginning a story, --when C. And I took the cars to go into thecountry to Playford Hall. "And what's Playford Hall?" you say. "Andwhy did you go to see it?" As to what it is, here is a reasonably goodpicture before you. As to why, it was for many years the residence ofThomas Clarkson, and is now the residence of his venerable widow andher family. 

Playford Hall is considered, I think, the oldest of the fortifiedhouses in England, and is, I am told, the only one that has water inthe moat. The water which is seen girdling the wall in the picture, isthe moat; it surrounds the place entirely, leaving no access exceptacross the bridge, which is here represented. 

After crossing this bridge, you come into a green court-yard, filledwith choice plants and flowering shrubs, and carpeted with that thick, soft, velvet-like grass, which is to be found nowhere else in soperfect a state as in England. 

The water is fed by a perpetual spring, whose current is so sluggishas scarcely to be perceptible, but which yet has the vitality of arunning stream. 

It has a dark and glassy stillness of surface, only broken by theforms of the water plants, whose leaves float thickly over it. 

The walls of the moat are green with ancient moss, and from thecrevices springs an abundant flowering vine, whose delicate leaves andbright yellow flowers in some places entirely mantled the stones withtheir graceful drapery. 

The picture I have given you represents only one side of the moat. Theother side is grown up with dark and thick shrubbery and ancienttrees, rising and embowering the whole place, adding to the retiredand singular effect of the whole. The place is a specimen of a sort ofthing which does not exist in America. It is one of those significantlandmarks which unite the present with the past, for which we mustreturn to the country of our origin. 

Playford Hall is a thing peculiarly English, and Thomas Clarkson, forwhose sake I visited it, was as peculiarly an Englishman, --a specimenof the very best kind of English mind and character, as this is ofcharacteristic English architecture. 

We Anglo-Saxons have won a hard name in the world. There areundoubtedly bad things which are true about us. 

Taking our developments as a race, both in England and America, we maybe justly called the Romans of the nineteenth century. We have beenthe race which has conquered, subdued, and broken in pieces, otherweaker races, with little regard either to justice or mercy. Withregard to benefits by us imparted to conquered nations, I think abetter story, on the whole, can be made out for the Romans than forus. Witness the treatment of the Chinese, of the tribes of India, andof our own American Indians. 

But still there is an Anglo-Saxon blood, a vigorous sense of justice, as appears in our Habeas Corpus, our jury trials, and other featuresof State organization, and, when this is tempered in individuals, withthe elements of gentleness and compassion, and enforced by thatenergy and indomitable perseverance which are characteristic of theAnglo-Saxon mind, they form a style of philanthropists peculiarlyefficient. In short, the Anglo-Saxon is efficient, in whatever he setshimself about, whether in crushing the weak, or lifting them up. 

Thomas Clarkson was born in a day when good, pious people, importedcargoes of slaves from Africa, as one of the regular Christianizedmodes of gaining a subsistence, and providing for them and theirhouseholds. It was a thing that everybody was doing, and everybodythought they had a right to do. It was supposed that all the coffee, tea, and sugar in the world were dependent on stealing men, women, andchildren, and could be got no other way; and as to consume coffee, sugar, rice, and rum, were evidently the chief ends of humanexistence, it followed that men, women, and children, must be stolento the end of time. 

Some good people, when they now and then heard an appalling story ofthe cruelties practiced in the slave ship, declared that it was reallytoo bad, sympathetically remarked, "What a sorrowful world we livein, " stirred their sugar into their tea, and went on as before, because, what was there to do--hadn't everybody always done it, and ifthey didn't do it, wouldn't somebody else?

It is true that for many years individuals, at different times, remonstrated, had written treatises, poems, stories, and movements hadbeen made by some religious ladies, particularly the Quakers, but theopposition had amounted to nothing practically efficient. 

The attention of Clarkson was first turned to the subject by having itgiven out as the theme for a prize composition in his college class, he being at that time a sprightly young man, about twenty-four yearsof age. He entered into the investigation with no other purpose thanto see what he could make of it as a college theme. 

He says of himself: "I had expected pleasure from the invention ofarguments, from the arrangement of them, from the putting of themtogether, and from the thought, in the interim, that I was engaged inan innocent contest for literary honor, but all my pleasures weredamped by the facts, which were now continually before me. 

"It was but one gloomy subject from morning till night; in the daytime I was uneasy, in the night I had little rest, I sometimes neverclosed my eyelids for grief. "

It became not now so much a trial for academical reputation as towrite a work which should be useful to Africa. It is not surprisingthat a work, written under the force of such feelings, should havegained the prize, as it did. Clarkson was summoned from London toCambridge, to deliver his prize essay publicly. He says of himself, onreturning back to London: "The subject of it almost wholly engrossedmy thoughts. I became at times very seriously affected while on theroad. I stopped my horse occasionally, dismounted, and walked. 

"I frequently tried to persuade myself that the contents of my essaycould not be true, but the more I reflected on the authorities onwhich they were founded, the more I gave them credit. Coming in sightof Wade's Mill, in Hertfordshire, I sat down disconsolate on the turfby the roadside, and held my horse. Here a thought came into my mind, that if the contents of the essay were true, it was time that somebodyshould see these calamities to an end. "

These reflections, as it appears, were put off for awhile, butreturned again. 

This young and noble heart was of a kind that could not comfort itselfso easily for a brother's sorrow as many do. 

He says of himself: "In the course of the autumn of the same year, Iwalked frequently into the woods that I might think of the subject insolitude, and find relief to my mind there; but there the questionstill recurred, 'are these things true?' Still the answer followed asinstantaneously, 'they are;' still the result accompanied it, --surelysome person should interfere. I began to envy those who had seats inParliament, riches, and widely-extended connections, which wouldenable them to take up this cause. 

"Finding scarcely any one, at the time, who thought of it, I wasturned frequently to myself, but here many difficulties arose. Itstruck me, among others, that a young man only twenty-four years ofage could not have that solid judgment, or that knowledge of men, manners, and things, which were requisite to qualify him to undertakea task of such magnitude and importance; and with whom was I to unite?I believed, also, that it looked so much like one of the feignedlabors of Hercules, that my understanding would be suspected, if Iproposed it. "

He however resolved to do something for the cause by translating hisessay from Latin into English, enlarging and presenting it to thepublic. Immediately on the publication of this essay, he discovered tohis astonishment and delight, that he was not the only one who hadbeen interested in this subject. 

Being invited to the house of William Dillwyn, one of these friends tothe cause, he says: "How surprised was I to learn, in the course ofour conversation, of the labors of Granville Sharp, of the writings ofRamsey, and of the controversy in which the latter was engaged, of allwhich I had hitherto known nothing. How surprised was I to learn thatWilliam Dillwyn had, himself, two years before, associated himselfwith five others for the purpose of enlightening the public mind onthis great subject. 

"How astonished was I to find, that a society had been formed inAmerica for the same object. These thoughts almost overpowered me. Mymind was overwhelmed by the thought, that I had been providentiallydirected to this house; the finger of Providence was beginning to bediscernible, and that the day-star of African liberty was rising. "

After this he associated with many friends of the cause, and at lastit became evident that in order to effect anything, he must sacrificeall other prospects in life, and devote himself exclusively to thiswork. 

He says, after mentioning reasons which prevented all his associatesfrom doing this: "I could look, therefore, to no person but myself;and the question was, whether I was prepared to make the sacrifice. Infavor of the undertaking, I urged to myself that never was any cause, which had been taken up by man, in any country or in any age, so greatand important; that never was there one in which so much misery washeard to cry for redress; that never was there one in which so muchgood could be done; never one in which the duty of Christian charitycould be so extensively exercised; never one more worthy of thedevotion of a whole life towards it; and that, if a man thoughtproperly, he ought to rejoice to have been called into existence, ifhe were only permitted to become an instrument in forwarding it in anypart of its progress. 

"Against these sentiments, on the other hand, I had to urge that Ihad been designed for the church; that I had already advanced as faras deacon's orders in it; that my prospects there on account of myconnections were then brilliant; that, by appearing to desert myprofession, my family would be dissatisfied, if not unhappy. Thesethoughts pressed upon me, and rendered the conflict difficult. 

"But the sacrifice of my prospects staggered me, I own, the most. Whenthe other objections which I have related, occurred to me, myenthusiasm instantly, like a flash of lightning, consumed them; butthis stuck to me, and troubled me. I had ambition. I had a thirstafter worldly interest and honors, and I could not extinguish it atonce. I was more than two hours in solitude under this painfulconflict. At length I yielded, not because I saw any reasonableprospect of success in my new undertaking, for all cool-headed andcool-hearted men would have pronounced against it; but in obedience, Ibelieve, to a higher Power. And I can say, that both on the moment ofthis resolution, and for some time afterwards, I had more sublime andhappy feelings than at any former period of my life. "

In order to show how this enterprise was looked upon and talked ofvery commonly by the majority of men in these times, we will extractthe following passage from Boswell's Life of Johnson, in which Bozzythus enters his solemn protest: "The wild and dangerous attempt, whichhas for some time been persisted in, to obtain an act of ourLegislature, to abolish so very important and necessary a branch ofcommercial interest, must have been crushed at once, had not theinsignificance of the zealots, who vainly took the lead in it, madethe vast body of planters, merchants and others, whose immenseproperties are involved in that trade, reasonably enough suppose, thatthere could be no danger. The encouragement which the attempt hasreceived, excites my wonder and indignation; and though some men ofsuperior abilities have supported it, whether from a love of temporarypopularity, when prosperous; or a love of general mischief, whendesperate, my opinion is unshaken. 

"To abolish a statute which in all ages God has sanctioned, and manhas continued, would not only be robbery to an innumerable class ofour fellow-subjects, but it would be extreme cruelty to the Africansavages, a portion of whom it saves from massacre, or intolerablebondage in their own country, and introduces into a much happierstate of life; especially now, when their passage to the West Indies, and their treatment there, is humanely regulated. To abolish thistrade, would be to

 '---- shut the gates of mercy on mankind. '"

One of the first steps of Clarkson and his associates, was theformation of a committee of twelve persons, for the collection anddissemination of evidence on the subject. 

 * * * * *

The contest now began in earnest, a contest as sublime as any theworld ever saw. 

The Abolition controversy more fully aroused the virtue, the talent, and the religion of the great English nation, than any other event orcrisis which ever occurred. 

Wilberforce was the leader of the question in Parliament. The othermembers of the Anti-slavery Committee performed those labors whichwere necessary out of it. 

This labor consisted principally in the collection of evidence withregard to the traffic, and the presentation of it before the publicmind. In this labor Clarkson was particularly engaged. The subjectwas hemmed in with the same difficulties that now beset theAnti-slavery cause in America. Those who knew most about it, wereprecisely those whose interest it was to prevent inquiry. An immensemoneyed interest was arrayed against investigation, and was determinedto suppress the agitation of the subject. Owing to this powerfulpressure, many who were in possession of facts which would bear uponthis subject, refused to communicate them; and often after a long andwearisome journey in search of an individual who could throw lightupon the subject, Clarkson had the mortification to find his lipssealed by interest or timidity. As usual, the cause of oppression wasdefended by the most impudent lying; the slave-trade was asserted tobe the latest revised edition of philanthropy. It was said that thepoor African, the slave of miserable oppression in his own country, was wafted by it to an asylum in a Christian land; that the middlepassage was to the poor negro a perfect elysium, infinitely happierthan anything he had ever known in his own country. All this was saidwhile manacles, and hand-cuffs, and thumb-screws, and instruments toforce open the mouth, were a regular part of the stock for a slaveship, and were hanging in the shop windows of Liverpool for sale. 

For Clarkson's attention was first called to these things by observingthem in the shop window, and on inquiring the use of one of them, theman informed him that many times negroes were sulky and tried tostarve themselves to death, and this instrument was used to force opentheir jaws. 

Of Clarkson's labor in this investigation some idea may be gatheredfrom his own words, when stating that for a season he was compelled toretire from the cause, he thus speaks. "As far as I myself wasconcerned, all exertion was then over. The nervous system was almostshattered to pieces. Both my memory and my hearing failed me. Suddendizzinesses seized my head. A confused singing in the ear followed mewherever I went. On going to bed the very stairs seemed to dance upand down under me, so that, misplacing my foot, I sometimes fell. Talking, too, if it continued but half an hour, exhausted me so thatprofuse perspirations followed, and the same effect was produced evenby an active exertion of the mind for the like time. 

These disorders had been brought on by degrees, in consequence of thesevere labors necessarily attached to the promotion of the cause. Forseven years I had a correspondence to maintain with four hundredpersons, with my own hand; I had some book or other annually to writein behalf of the cause. In this time I had traveled more thanthirty-five thousand miles in search of evidence, and a great part ofthese journeys in the night. All this time my mind had been on thestretch. It had been bent too to this one subject, for I had not evenleisure to attend to my own concerns. The various instances ofbarbarity which had come successively to my knowledge within thisperiod, had vexed, harrassed, and afflicted it. The wound which thesehad produced was rendered still deeper by those cruel disappointmentsbefore related, which arose from the reiterated refusals of persons togive their testimony, after I had traveled hundreds of miles in questof them. But the severest stroke was that inflicted by thepersecution, begun and pursued by persons interested in thecontinuance of the trade, of such witnesses as had been examinedagainst them; and whom, on account of their dependent situation inlife, it was most easy to oppress. As I had been the means of bringingthese forward on these occasions, they naturally came to me, whenthus persecuted, as the author of their miseries and their ruin. Fromtheir supplications and wants it would have been ungenerous andungrateful to have fled. These different circumstances, by actingtogether, had at length brought me into the situation just mentioned;and I was therefore obliged, though very reluctantly, to be borne outof the field, where I had placed the great honor and glory of mylife. "

I may as well add here that a Mr. Whitbread, to whom Clarksonmentioned this latter cause of distress, generously offered to repairthe pecuniary losses of all who had suffered in this cause. Oneanecdote will be a specimen of the energy with which Clarkson pursuedevidence. It had been very strenuously asserted and maintained thatthe subjects of the slave trade were only such unfortunates as hadbecome prisoners of war, and who, if not carried out of the country inthis manner, would be exposed to death or some more dreadful doom intheir own country. This was one of those stories which nobodybelieved, and yet was particularly useful in the hands of theopposition, because it was difficult legally to disprove it. It wasperfectly well known that in very many cases slavetraders made directincursions into the country, kidnapped, and carried off theinhabitants of whole villages, but the question was, how to establishit? A gentleman whom Clarkson accidentally met on one of his journeys, informed him that he had been in company, about a year before, with asailor, a very respectable looking young man, who had actually beenengaged in one of these expeditions; he had spent half an hour withhim at an inn; he described his person, but knew nothing of his nameor the place of his abode, all he knew was that he belonged to a shipof war in ordinary, but knew nothing of the port. Clarkson determinedthat this man should be produced as a witness, and knew no better waythan to go personally to all the ships in ordinary, until theindividual was found. He actually visited every sea-port town, andboarded every ship, till in the very _last_ port and on the very_last_ ship which remained, the individual was found, and found to bepossessed of just the facts and information which were necessary. Bythe labors of Clarkson and his contemporaries an incredible excitementwas produced throughout all England. The pictures and models of slaveships, accounts of the cruelties practised in the trade, werecirculated with an industry which left not a man, woman, or child inEngland uninstructed. In disseminating information, and in awakeningfeeling and conscience, the women of England were particularlyearnest, and labored with that whole-hearted devotion whichcharacterizes the sex. 

It seems that after the committee had published the facts, and sentthem to every town in England, Clarkson followed them up by journeyingto all the places, to see that they were read and attended to. Of thestate of feeling at this time, Clarkson gives the following account:

"And first I may observe, that there was no town through which Ipassed, in which there was not some one individual who had left offthe use of sugar. In the smaller towns there were from ten to fifty, by estimation, and in the larger, from two to five hundred, who madethis sacrifice to virtue. These were of all ranks and parties. Richand poor, churchmen and dissenters had adopted the measure. Evengrocers had left off trading in the article in some places. Ingentlemen's families, where the master had set the example, theservants had often voluntarily followed it; and even children, whowere capable of understanding the history of the sufferings of theAfricans, excluded with the most virtuous resolution the sweets, towhich they had been accustomed, from their lips. By the bestcomputation I was able to make, from notes taken down in my journey, no fewer than three hundred thousand persons had abandoned the use ofsugar. " It was the reality, depth, and earnestness of the publicfeeling, thus aroused, which pressed with resistless force upon thegovernment; for the government of England yields to popular demands, quite as readily as that of America. 

After years of protracted struggle, the victory was at last won. Theslave-trade was finally abolished through all the British empire; andnot only so, but the English nation committed, with the whole force ofits national influence, to seek the abolition of the slave-trade inall the nations of the earth. But the wave of feeling did not restthere; the investigations had brought before the English consciencethe horrors and abominations of slavery itself, and the agitationnever ceased till slavery was finally abolished through all theBritish provinces. At this time the religious mind and conscience ofEngland gained, through this very struggle, a power which it never haslost. The principle adopted by them was the same so sublimely adoptedby the church in America, in reference to the Foreign Missionarycause: "The field is the world. " They saw and felt that as the exampleand practice of England had been powerful in giving sanction to thisevil, and particularly in introducing it into America, that there wasthe greatest reason why she should never intermit her efforts till thewrong was righted throughout the earth. 

Clarkson to his last day never ceased to be interested in the subject, and took the warmest interest in all movements for the abolition ofslavery in America. 

One of his friends, during my visit at this place, read me amanuscript letter from him, written at a very advanced age, in whichhe speaks with the utmost ardor and enthusiasm of the firstanti-slavery movements of Cassius Clay in Kentucky. The same frienddescribed him to me as a cheerful, companionable being, --frank andsimple-hearted, and with a good deal of quiet humor. 

It is remarkable of him that with such intense feeling for humansuffering as he had, and worn down and exhausted as he was, by thedreadful miseries and sorrows with which he was constantly obliged tobe familiar, he never yielded to a spirit of bitterness ordenunciation. 

The narrative which he gives is as calm and unimpassioned, and as freefrom any trait of this kind, as the narrative of the evangelist. 

I have given this sketch of what Clarkson did, that you may betterappreciate the feelings with which I visited the place. 

The old stone house, the moat, the draw-bridge, all spoke of days ofviolence long gone by, when no man was safe except within fortifiedwalls, and every man's house literally had to be his castle. 

To me it was interesting as the dwelling of a conqueror, as one whohad not wrestled with flesh and blood merely, but with principalitiesand powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, and who hadovercome, as his great Master did before him, by faith, and prayer, and labor. 

We were received with much cordiality by the widow of Clarkson, now inher eighty-fourth year. She has been a woman of great energy andvigor, and an efficient co-laborer in his plans of benevolence. 

She is now quite feeble. I was placed under the care of a respectablefemale servant, who forthwith installed me in a large chamberoverlooking the court-yard, which had been Clarkson's own room; theroom where for years, many of his most important labors had beenconducted, and from whence his soul had ascended to the reward of thejust. 

The servant who attended me seemed to be quite a superior woman; likemany of the servants in respectable English families. She had grown upin the family, and was identified with it; its ruling aims andpurposes had become hers. She had been the personal attendant ofClarkson, and his nurse during his last sickness; she had evidentlyunderstood, and been interested in his plans, and the veneration withwhich she therefore spoke of him, had the sanction of intelligentappreciation. 

A daughter of Clarkson, who was married to a neighboring clergyman, with her husband, was also present on this day. 

After dinner we rode out to see the old church, in hose enclosure theremains of Clarkson repose. It was just such a still, quiet, mossy oldchurch, as you have read of in story-books, with the grave-yard spreadall around it, like a thoughtful mother, who watches the resting ofher children. 

The grass in the yard was long and green, and the daisy, which inother places lies like a little button on the ground, here had aricher fringe of crimson, and a stalk about six inches high. It is, Iwell know, the vital influence from the slumbering dust beneath, whichgives the richness to this grass and these flowers; but let not thatbe a painful thought; let it rather cheer us, that beauty shouldspring from ashes, and life smile brighter from the near presence ofdeath. The grave of Clarkson was near the church, enclosed by arailing and marked by a simple white marble slab; it was carefullytended and planted with flowers. In the church was an old book ofrecords, and among other curious inscriptions, was one recording how apious committee of old Noll's army had been there, knocking offsaints' noses, and otherwise purging the church from the relics ofidolatry. 

Near by the church was the parsonage, the home of my friends, a neat, pleasant, sequestered dwelling, of about the style of a New Englandcountry parsonage. 

The effect of the whole together was inexpressibly beautiful to me. For a wonder, it was a pleasant day, and this is a thing always to bethankfully acknowledged in England. The calm stillness of theafternoon, the seclusion of the whole place, the silence only brokenby the cawing of the rooks, the ancient church, the mossy graves withtheir flowers and green grass, the sunshine and the tree shadows, allseemed to mingle together in a kind of hazy dream of peacefulness andrest. How natural it is to say of some place sheltered, simple, cool, and retired, here one might find peace, as if peace came from without, and not from within. In the shadiest and stillest places may be themost turbulent hearts, and there are hearts which, through the busiestscenes, carry with them unchanging peace. As we were walking back, wepassed many cottages of the poor. 

I noticed, with particular pleasure, the invariable flower gardenattached to each. Some pansies in one of them attracted my attentionby their peculiar beauty, so very large and richly colored. On beingintroduced to the owner of them, she, with cheerful alacrity, offeredme some of the finest. I do not doubt of there being suffering andmisery in the agricultural population of England, but still there aremultitudes of cottages, which are really very pleasant objects, aswere all these. The cottagers had that bright, rosy look of healthwhich we seldom see in America, and appeared to be both polite andself-respecting. 

In the evening we had quite a gathering of friends from theneighborhood--intelligent, sensible, earnest, people--who had grown upin the love of the anti-slavery cause as into religion. The subject ofconversation was: "The duty of English people to free themselves fromany participation in American slavery, by taking means to encouragethe production of free cotton in the British provinces. "

It is no more impossible or improbable that something effective may bedone in this way, than that the slave-trade should have beenabolished. Every great movement seems an impossibility at first. Thereis no end to the number of things declared and proved impossible, which have been done already, so that this may do something yet. 

Mrs. Clarkson had retired from the room early; after a while she sentfor me to her sitting-room. The faithful attendant of whom I spoke waswith her. She wished to show me some relics of her husband, his watchand seals, some of his papers and manuscripts; among these was theidentical prize essay with which he began his career, and acommentary on the Gospels, which he had written with great care, forthe use of his grandson. His seal attracted my attention--it was thatkneeling figure, of the negro, with clasped hands, which was at firstadopted as the badge of the cause, when every means was being made useof to arouse the public mind and keep the subject before theattention. Mr. Wedgewood, the celebrated porcelain manufacturer, designed a cameo, with this representation, which was much worn as anornament by ladies. It was engraved on the seal of the Anti-SlaverySociety, and was used by its members in sealing all their letters. This of Clarkson's was handsomely engraved on a large, old-fashionedcornelian, and surely if we look with emotion on the sword of adeparted hero, which, at best, we can consider only as a necessaryevil, we may look with unmingled pleasure on this memorial of abloodless victory. 

When I retired to my room for the night I could not but feel that theplace was hallowed--unceasing prayer had there been offered for theenslaved and wronged race of Africa by that noble and brotherly heart. I could not but feel that that those prayers had had a wider reachthan the mere extinction of slavery in one land or country, and thattheir benign influence would not cease till not a slave was left uponthe face of the earth. 

[Illustration: (signature) H. B. Stowe]

Teaching the Slave to Read. 

Much has been discussed and written, both at the North and South, concerning the policy and propriety of permitting those in bondage togain the rudiments of a common education. 

Many who _conscientiously_ (for having lived among them, I do believethat there _are_ "conscientious" slave-owners) hold their laborers inservitude, believe that the experiment might be successfully tried. Indeed, it is often tried on plantations, even in States where the lawenforces strict penalties against it. They believe that the slaves, ifpermitted to learn to read, would be more moral, faithful andobedient; and they cannot reconcile it with their sense of duty tokeep from them the perusal of the Bible. 

The majority, however, think differently; and the majority will alwaysmake the laws. _They_ believe that there is a talismanic power ineven the alphabet of knowledge, to arouse in the bondsman powers whichthey would crush for ever. They believe that one truth leads on toanother, and that the mind, once aroused to inquiry, will never restuntil it has found out its native independence of man's dominion. Theypoint triumphantly, in proof of the policy of their system, to the"spoiled slave, " as they term many of those in whose training theopposite course has been pursued. More trouble, vexation, andinsubordination, they confidently allege, has been caused bypermitting slaves to learn to read, than by any other indulgence. 

It may be so; it is certain that, in many instances, masters havefailed to win the gratitude to which they thought themselves justlyentitled, for their kindness and care. They have found their servantsgrowing discontented and idle, where they hoped to make them docileand happy. Searching for the cause of this, they perhaps turn upon thecourse of training they have followed, and accuse it of being opposedto the best interests of the slave. Could such reasoners but look uponthe matter in its true perspective, they would cease to wonder that"good" should, in their view, "work out evil. " _Learning_ and_Slavery_ can never compromise; they are as the antagonistic poles ofthe magnet. 

In the first place, Slavery blunts the mind, and renders it, in itsearly years, unsusceptible to those impressions which are generally solasting, when made upon youthful minds. Many who have tried to educatecolored children, have been led to accuse _the race_ of naturalinferiority in its capacity to gain knowledge. We have no right todraw _that_ inference from the few attempts which have been made on apart of the race whose mental faculties have, through manygenerations, been crippled by disuse. 

I had once under my charge, for a short time, a negro girl, born inAfrica--"Margru" of the "Armistad, " with whose history most arefamiliar. On _her_ ancestory hung no clog of depression, except thatof native wildness. There was no lack of aptitude to learn in hercase. She astonished all by the ease with which she acquiredknowledge, particularly in mathematical science. That a native heathenshould be a better recipient of knowledge than one brought up in themidst of American civilization, speaks well for "the race, " but illfor "the system, " which has trained the latter. 

Not only is this native dulness to be overcome, but _time_ for studyis to be found--time enough for the faculties to unbend from thepressure of labor, and fix themselves upon the mental task. This iswhat few employers consider themselves able to afford. Once a week, intheir opinion, is quite often enough for the slave to repeat hislesson; and through the week he may forget it. No wonder that both theindulgent master and the teacher--yes, and the learner, too, oftenbecome discouraged, and give up the task before the Word of God isunlocked to "the poor, " for whom it was expressly written!

I speak as one who has _felt_ these obstacles, having, with theapproval of one of the class to whom I have alluded, taken charge of aSunday school among his servants. More attentive and grateful pupils Inever had, but it has pained my heart to feel the difficulty ofleading them even to the _threshold_ of knowledge; and there leaveingthem!

In an adjoining household, however, it was still worse. George, alight-colored "boy" of twenty-five, the "factotum" of his mistress, was the husband of our cook, Letty. I had succeeded in taking Lettythrough several chapters in the New Testament, and this had arousedthe ambition of George. 

"What do you think?" exclaimed one of the family to me, one morning;"Mrs. ---- has been _whipping_ George!"

"Why! for what could that have been? I thought he was a favoriteservant!"

"For taking lessons of Letty in the spelling-book!"

It was even so. The poor fellow wanted to learn to stammer in hisTestament, and Letty, like any true-hearted wife, had given him thelittle assistance she could render. The whipping failed of itsintended effect, however. Going one evening, at a late hour, intoLetty's cabin, I found George seated by her on the floor, in thecorner of their mud fire-place, poring intently over the forbiddenspelling-book! He started up confused, but seeing who it was, he wasreassured, and went on with his lesson! Whether George, Letty, or anyof those who have gained the rudiments of science, will be _morehappy_ in their servitude, is to me exceedingly doubtful. Thus far theseverer classes of masters have the right; a slave, to be perfectlycontented _as_ a slave, must be in total ignorance. But better, farbetter, greater suffering, if it bring enlargement of man's higherbeing, than that system that would _smother_ the soul in its bodilycase. Let the slave have the key to the gate of Life Eternal, even ifhis pathway through this life must be more thickly sown with thorns. Let the opposing principles wage, until the right of _one_ isasserted. And, oh! above all pray for the day when these fetters shallbe stricken from the souls God has created, wherewith to people, wefirmly trust, no mean "tabernacle" of His New Jerusalem!

[Illustration: (signature) Mary Irving]

THIBODAUX, Nov. 25, 1853. 

FUN-JOTTINGS;

OR, LAUGHS I HAVE TAKEN A PEN TO!

BY N. P. WILLIS

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"It is a good book, and will be read by thousands. "--_ChicagoJournal_. 

"Some of Mr. Willis' happiest hits and most graceful specimens ofcompositions are here included. "--_N. Y. Evangelist. _

"Fresh, lively, gay, and gossipping, these 'Fun Jottings' deservedlymerit the enduring garb in which they appear. "--_Home Gazette_. 

"One of Willis' pleasant books, in which the reader is always sure tofind entertainment. "--_Philadelphia Mirror_. 

"The contents are better than the title. "--_N. Y. Tribune_. 

"A volume of light sketches, written in Mr. Willis' most amusingstyle, and will be read by everybody. "--_Detroit Advertiser_. 

"It contains the best specimen of the prose writings of Mr. Willis. "--_Montgomery Gazette_. 

"The book is entertaining and spicy--just the kind of reading tokeep one 'wide awake' during the long nights that are nowapproaching. "--_Phil. News_. 

"For laughter without folly, for a specific in innocent mirthfulnessagainst _ennui_ and _hypo_--as a cordial to the animal spirits whendrooping with care or flagging with excess of labor--this volume of'Fun-Jottings' bears the palm. "--_N. Y. Independent_. 

"It is funny and fascinating--a collection of Willis' dashingsketches--half comic, half pathetic. "--_Cincinnati Herald_. 

"Mr. Willis' reputation as a story writer, has long been wellestablished, and lovers of this kind of reading will find a richentertainment in this volume. "--_Hartford Times_. 

THE FARM AND THE FIRESIDE;

OR, THE ROMANCE OF AGRICULTURE, BEING

HALF HOURS OF LIFE IN THE COUNTRY, FOR RAINY DAYS AND WINTER EVENINGS. 

BY REV. JOHN L. BLAKE, D. D. 

AUTHOR OF FARMER'S EVERY-DAY BOOK; THE FARMER AT HOME; AND A GENERALBIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 

 * * * * *

COMMENDATIONS OF THE PERIODICAL PRESS. 

From the Ohio Farmer. 

DR. BLAKE is justly regarded as one of the best agricultural writersin the country, and the work before us is one of the most interestingproductions of his pen. Its peculiar merit, as a work for thefireside, consists in the variety of its topics, its plain and simple, yet attractive style, its fine engravings, and the interesting romancewhich the author has thrown around Rural and Agricultural Life. Inthis respect, "The Farm and the Fireside" is a work well adapted tothe youthful mind. We hope it may be extensively read, as it cannotfail to improve the taste and promote inquiry in the most useful andpractical of all departments of science. 

 * * * * *

From the New-York Evangelist. 

The aim of the author has been to throw over labor, home andagricultural life, their true dignity and charm; to introduce thefarmer to the delights and privileges of his lot; to embellish thecares of toil with those kindly sentiments so naturally associatedwith the country and its employments. It is a pleasant book--one thatwill enliven the fireside, elevate and purify the thoughts, and, atthe same time, impart a great deal of valuable agricultural knowledge. We know not how the natural trains of thought of the farmer could bemore aptly met or more safely and agreeably led, than they are bythese brief and varied discussions. The range is as wide as lifeitself--morals, religion, business, recreation, education, home, wifeand daughters--every relation and duty is touched upon, genially andinstinctively. 

 * * * * *

From the New-York Tribune. 

We have here another highly instructive and entertaining volume froman author, who had laid the community under large obligations by theenterprise and tact with which he has so frequently catered to thepopular taste for descriptions of rural life. Its contents are of avery miscellaneous character, embracing sketches of natural history, accounts of successful farming operations, anecdotes of distinguishedcharacters, singular personal reminiscences, pithy moral reflections, and numerous pictures of household life in the country. No family canadd this volume to their collection of books without increasing theirsources of pleasure and profit. 

 * * * * *

From the Northern Christian Advocate. 

The venerable author of this work is entitled to the warmest thanks ofthe public for his numerous and valuable contributions to ourliterature. He is truly an American classic. We have been conversantwith his writings for the last twenty years, and have always foundthem both useful and entertaining in a high degree. His writings onAgriculture contain much real science, with numerous illustrativeincidents, anecdotes, and aphorisms, all in the most lively andpleasing manner. By this means the dry details of farming business aremade to possess all the interest of romance. The style is clear, easy, and dignified; the matter instructive, philosophical, and persuasive. This work is an eloquent plea for the noble and independent pursuit ofAgriculture. 

 * * * * *

From the National Magazine. 

We return our thanks for the new volume of Dr. Blake, "The Farm andthe Fireside, or the Romance of Agriculture, being Half Hours andSketches of Life in the Country, " a charming title, certainly, and onethat smacks of the man as well as of the country. Eschewing thedryness of scientific forms and erudite details, the author presentsdetached, but most entertaining, and often very suggestive articles ona great variety of topics--from the "Wild Goose" to "Conscience in theCow, "--from the "Value of Lawyers in a Community" to the "Objectionsto early Marriages. " The book is, in fine, quite unique, and just sucha one as the farmer would like to pore over at his fireside on longwinter evenings. 

 * * * * *

From the New-York Recorder. 

"The Farm and the Fireside, " is a most interesting and valuable work, being a series of Sketches relating to Agriculture and the numerouskindred arts and sciences, interspersed with miscellaneous moralinstruction, adapted to the life of the farmer. 

 * * * * *

From the Germantown Telegraph. 

We have looked through this work and read some of the "Sketches, " andfeel a degree of satisfaction in saying that it possesses decidedmerit, and will commend itself, wherever known, as a volume of muchsocial interest and entertainment. The sketches comprise "CountryLife" generally--some of them are just sufficiently touched withromance to give them additional zest; while others are purelypractical, and relate to the farmer's pursuit. We regard it as avaluable book, and are sorry our limits will not admit of bestowingupon it such a notice as it really deserves. 

 * * * * *

From Harper's New Monthly Magazine. 

This work is a collection of miscellaneous sketches on the Romance ofAgriculture and Rural Life. Matters of fact, however, are not excludedfrom the volume, which is well adapted for reading in the snatches ofleisure enjoyed at the farmer's fireside. 

 * * * * *

From the True Democrat. 

Dr. Blake's publications are all of a high order, and are doing a mostimportant work towards refining the taste, improving the intellect, and rendering attractive the various branches of Agriculturalscience. Indeed we know no author who has so successfully blended theromantic, the rural and beautiful with the poetical, the useful, andtrue, as has Dr. Blake. This is a peculiar feature of all his works. His style is plain, simple, and perspicuous; and, with unusual tactand judgment, he so manages to insinuate himself upon you, that youare at once amused, delighted, and instructed with the subject he isdiscussing. In this respect he relieves the study of agriculturalscience from the abstruseness of technical science, and thus rendershimself easily comprehended by all classes of readers. 

 * * * * *

From the New-York Evening Post. 

The author's object is to improve the soil through the mind--not somuch to place in the hands of farmers the best methods of raisinglarge crops--for these he refers them to Leibig's AgriculturalChemistry, and to treatises of the like description--but to make themfeel how useful, agreeable, and ennobling, is the profession ofagriculture, and, above all, how profitable the business must becomewhen skilfully and economically carried on. These money-makingconsiderations are, we suspect, the best moral guano that can beapplied to the farmer's spiritual soil. The author writes well of thecountryman's independence, the good effect of fresh salubrious airupon his health, and the moral influence of his every-day intimacywith nature upon his mind. 

"The Farm and the Fireside" is a kind of Bucolical annual--to be readin seasons of leisure--intended for the Phyllises and Chloes, as wellas for the Strephons and Lindors. Dr. Blake has enriched it withcurious anecdotes of domestic animals, and of the best way of raisingand selling them. He describes model-farms, and the large incomes madefrom them. He expatiates on the advantages of matrimony in rural life, expounds the true theory of choosing a helpmate, discusses theadvantages of Sunday-Schools, and recommends neatness of attire andpunctuality in bathing. In short, this volume is as diversified in itsaspect as the small garden of a judicious cultivator, where, in alimited space, useful cabbages, potatoes, and all the solid esculentgreens, grow side by side with choice fruits and pleasant flowers. 

IMMENSE SALE!

 * * * * *

LEWIE;

OR, THE BENDED TWIG!

BY COUSIN CICELY

Author of "SILVER LAKE STORIES. "

 * * * * *

EIGHTH THOUSAND NOW PRINTING!

 * * * * *

NO BOOK sells like it--None so well supplies the demand! SuperblyPrinted and Beautifully Bound. 

Price from $1. 00 to $1. 75, according to style. 

 ALDEN, BEARDSLEY & Co. , Auburn, N. Y. , } } Publishers. WANZER, BEARDSLEY & Co. , Rochester, N. Y. , }

 * * * * *

What the Press Say:

COUSIN CICELY is very industrious--whether in penciling lights orshadows, in describing domestic scenery, or inculcating religiousprinciples, the fair author possesses a happy facility, so as torender her productions alike agreeable and instructive. --_ProtestantChurchman. _

This book is written in a style well calculated to please, andcontains an inestimable moral--plain, concise, and void ofsuperfluities, that a child may understand it--characters life-likeand well sustained, and the whole plan of the work is good. --_YatesCo. Whig. _

The contents of the work are of the first order andunexceptionable. --_Rochester Daily Union. _

The story is not only well written, but it has merits in the dramaticgrouping of incidents, graphic delineation of character, and theaffecting interest which attracts and supports the reader'sattention through the whole work, from the opening scene to thefinale. --_Rochester Daily Democrat. _

This is a new work from the pen of the gifted author of the "SilverLake Stories. " It is got up in a style of mechanical elegance equal tothe issues of Putnam and Appleton, and the quality of its contentswill not be found behind that of three-fourths of the publicationsthat emanate from the pens of more wide-known authors, andfrom publishing houses that employ none but the _bestwriters_. --_Canandaigua Messenger. _

It is a story designed to illustrate the deplorable effects of aneglect of proper parental discipline in infancy; in a well-writtenpreface, the authoress, "Cousin Cicely, " assures us it issubstantially a narrative of facts. It traces the career of a spoiledand petted boy, whose mother was too weak and indolent to restrain himas she ought, through the several stages of a perverse childhood, areckless boyhood, and a passionate, ungovernable youth, till thisvictim of a parent's folly is found in a felon's cell, with the markof Cain on his brow. --_Auburn Daily Advertiser. _

The authoress, who, by the way, need not be afraid to sail under herown proper colors hereafter, claims that most of the incidents aretaken from real life; a very creditable averment, as the work, withslight modifications in each individual case, would prove a faithfulportraiture of the early training and subsequent career of nine-tenthsof the victims of the gallows, and of the penitentiary. --_Mirror, Lyons, N. Y. _

The writer of this, and of many other pleasant volumes--"CousinCicely, " as she chooses to be called--is gifted with rare talents, which she is wisely devoting to useful ends. Her charming "Silver LakeStories, " have effected much good, and this work is well calculatedto do the same, both with children of the larger and of the smallergrowth. * * * Difficulties of various natures arise, on the last andmost important of which hangs the catastrophe of the story. But whatthat is, and how the book ends, is for the reader to find out, not forus to tell. --_Albany Eve Journal. _

* * * One of the domestic sort--speaking of home, dwelling upon homeaffections and family character, and the incidents of common life, yetas deeply interesting as the most romantic narrative. It has not beenparaded before the public with ostentatious praise; but it will be farmore acceptable to the reader than many works that have thus attractedinterest in advance, without being able to meet and repay it. --_AlbanyAtlas. _

 * * * * *

[Transcriber's Notes:

The transcriber made the following changes to the text:

 1. P. 24, "two" changed to italic "two" 3. P. 68, Cries she; "but let . .. No closing quote 4. P. 84, "warant" changed to "warrant" 5. P. 110, "jeweleries" changed to "jewelries" 6. P. 192, "outage, But" changed to "outage. But" 7. P. 214, will of Legree?" closing quote deleted 8. P. 216, "contend its exists" changed to "contend it exists" 9. P. 234, "manisfestation, They" changed to "manisfestation. They"10. P. 235, But the Spirit said, "Not so; . .. No closing quote11. Footnote #7, "Ye christian Bondous" changed to "Ye Christian Bondous"12. P. 293, "cotemporaries" changed to "contemporaries"13. P. 302, "procelain" changed to "porcelain"

Several page numbers in the Contents are not correct. 

"Massacre at Blount's Fort" is actually found on page 16, not 14. Likwise, "A Wish" is found on page 209, not 207. And "Mary Smith" willbe found on page 236, not 237. The page numbers in the Contents remainsas published. 

End of Transcriber's Notes]