The Sun.
London, England, 1840-06-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 1840.

the declaration of Independence or the Constitution of

' 1787, they must hold that it was not acknowledged by the
Constitutien.—(Cheers,) Slavery was a deep crime which
multiplied robbery and murder, but the Americans added
hypocrisy to their other accomplishments. He flung it
upon America that she stood in this predicament. They
say they have no power to emancipate the slaves. He
would whisper in their ears—Colombia.—( Cheers.) Co-
lombia was not bound by any Constitution—there they
had the power if they pleased to use it. Then, why come
down upon him with such hypocrisy. They said they
were the first gentlemen and the most enlightened Legis-
lature in the world,—(Laughter.) He would whisper to
Colombia then, " You have the power to remove this foul
blot—you have the authority—you have everything, in
fact, but the will—that alone is wanting." He would now
turn to a subject of congratulation—he alluded to
those noble-hearted men and women in America, who
through difficulties and dangers were hearty in the cause
of abolition. —( Loud cheers.) He held them all as
friends. He implored them to think him as one of their
body.—(Cheers.) He:wanted no higher station in the
world, but he did covet the honour of becoming a brother
among the American Abolitionists. Here the Abolitionists
were in safety, and more honoured for their exertions by
the good; here they were encouraged and cheered by the
smiles of the Fair ; they were bound together by godlike
truth. But far different was it with their friends in Ame-
rica ; there they were vilified and insulted. Very lately
did not a body of so-called gentlemen—men who would call
any one out to try rifle shooting who denied them that
cognomen—break in upon the Ladies' Anti- Slavery So-
ciety, and assault them in the most cowardly manner ?
And where did this happen ?—why, in Boston, enlight-
ened Boston, the capital of a non-slave-holding State. The
Aboliticnists hero had nothing to complain of. In Ame-
rica they are met with the Bowie knife and Lynch Law.
There had even been martyrs in the sacred cause, and
their blood cried out not for vengeance, butthat the friends
of the cause in which it was shed should not re-
lax in their endeavours. No human being could
be placed in a more glorious position than those
Americans who are friends to the negro. Ho was
delighted to be one of a Convention in which so many of
those bravo and good men were—he trusted that their
reception would be such, that their zeal would be strength-
ened; it was a noble struggle they were engaged in, and
they would yet raise a shout of liberty that would make
their enemies tremble. Those brave and glorious men
ought to have their names immortalised.—( Cheers.) The
habits of this country bad forbid them from receiving some
female delegates, because of the ridicule which ignorant
people would have thrown upon their proceedings, but al-
though they bad not received them as delegates, were they
the less esteemed or the less respected on that account.
or at his age, he might be allowed to say less loved ? They
all remembered Angelica Grimkims, and her zeal in the
cause of abolition, for which they owed a deep debt of gra-
titude. The societies in America were deeply persecuted,
and were therefore deserving of every encouragement
they could bestow upon them. Had he the ability he
would tell them how deeply he loved and honoured
America and the Americans ; he loved their institutions,
but he denounced the anathema of civilized Europe upon
them as slaveholders; they ought not to b. received
in society. Even the American Minister at
our Court was a slaveholder ; whether ha bred
them for sale was still a disputed point, which he would not
then enter into. The Government of this country should
refuse to have any dealings with him, and tell America
that they would not receive any sleveholder or recogdze
him. He would tell them an anecdote. Last year a very
well-dressed gentlemanlike person addressed him in the
Lobby of the House of Commons, and said he was from
America. He begged him (Mr. O'Connell) to afford him
the means of hearing the debate. He said, with pleasure ;
but first let him ask him a question—from what State was
he ? Alabama. Was he a slayeowner ? Yes. Then he
(Mr. O'Connell) bowed and left him.—( Laughter. )
Now that was an example that ought to be followed. Hold
no intercourse with a slavebolder. They might deal in
business with him, but even then they must be cautious—
( A laugh)—but they ought to be very scant of courtesy
towards him until he had cleared himself of the foul spot.
He wanted a declaration of that kind from the Convention ;
they ought to proclaim to the slave-holders that as long as
they were engaged in the accursed traffic they held them
to be of a different race. Such a declaration from such a
body would make the slaveholders tremble. He knew
the bravery of the American nation, but still he wanted to
frighten them by the powerful force of public sentiment.—.
( Cheers.) In order to do so they ought to lay hold of all
that would assist them. The Learned and Hon. Judge
wl.o had addressed them had himself set a splendid exam-
ple to all the slave-holding world.—( Cheers.) He had
called their attention to Texas. It was only a few days
ago that he was favoured with a Texian newspaper, and,
blesed be Heaven, it most cordially abused him.—
(Great laughter.) He was as well abused in it
as he had ever been in any one in this
country. He read with delight in it that that monster,
O'Connell, had been the means of preventing the English
Government from acknowledging the Texas.—(Laugh-
ter.) He, on reading it, took off his hat, and made a low
bow, saying, " You do me too much henour, Mr. Texian."
He would most cheerfully submit to any such attacks in
such a cause. No party in England would dare to ac-
knowledge such a nest of plundering brutes.—( Cheers and
laughter) They actually stole the land, and their first
act was to introduce slavery, which had been abolished by
the Mexican Congress, and they made a law by which it
is impossible for any one to stir the Abolition question for
a certain number of years ; and when they expired, no
person could do so, unless he had the authority of three-
fourths of the people. That put him in mind of a story
toll as having happened in chivalrous times. A knight
was placed upon the top of a church, where he was to re-
main seven years. On the opposite end to him was
placed a sheaf of wheat, and in the middle a needle, and
he was to be fed by the wheat which the wind blew
through the eye of the needle.—(Laughter.) So it was
with the people of Texas and the abolition of slavery ; it
would be impossible far any one ever to get three-fourths
of the slave-holding people to concur in its abolition.
The first acts of the robbers were to murder, systemati-
cally, all Indians, and to et slave the African. Only
lately seven chiefs had been induced, by some means, to
enter their town, and all of them were barbarously
murdered. They might call him monster as long as they
pleased, but so long as he had a tongue, he would
call them foul robbers and murderers ; and he would
never vote with any Ministry who recognised them.—
( Cheers ) He felt deeply grateful for the attention they
had been pleased to afford him. It was a glorious strug-
gle they were engaged in—it was a holy cause ; let them
persevere, and sacred freedom's banner would soon float
over emancipated America, and they would rejoice in the
good work.—( Loud cheers.)
The Rev. GOLUSHY, of New York, said that, as
an American eilzen, he telt himself placed in a peculiar
and responsible situation, but he trusted he should not be
found deficient in that moral courage which had been so
highly commended by the eloquent gentleman who had
just sat down. He knew not but when it was known in
his own country in what manner he had given his vote he
should be charged with high treason. He spoke not be-
cause he regretted God had placed him in a situation of
such responsibility, or trom any reluctance to meet the cir-
cumstances which might result from it, but for the pur-
pose of letting the friends of humanity and justice in this
country know on what principle he founded a vote for which
he might be traduced as a recreant and traitorous citizen
in his own country.—( Hear, hear.) The Convention
must be aware that the resolution reflected most seriously
on the Government of his country, and he hailed it with
the more pleasure on that account—( Cheers)—because he
thought the censure was deserved, and he hoped
that by their unanimous vote it would bejustly, amply, and
effectually inflicted—( Cheers.) For a minister of the
Gospel to act thus might be deemed by some of the lo-
gicians of his land extremely indecorous and presump-
tuous ; but he wished it to be known that the principles on
which he acted were of higher and more paramount obli-
gation than an others. He was called to do it by the dic-
tates of his nature—by the principles imprinted on his con-
stitution by the finger of God ; and as a Christian minister,
whose duty it was to teach the principles of his religion.
—( Hear, hear.) He held it to be treason against Heaven,
for any man, especially for any Christian man, to unite in
any act, or any compact, which contravened the principles
of justice and humanity—( Cheers.) He held, that by
being an American citizen he was not obliged to be a
party to the violation of those immutable principles. A
pledge was given in their great Magna Charta, to which
allusion had been made, that these first principles should
be carried out by the Government ; and when he saw the
administration of that Government repudiating these eter-
nal principles, he was bound to go back to the principles
themselves—to the origin of the principles on which his
Government was founded, which be traced back to this
country. He spoke not now of civil power, but of the
great moral principles which moved the hearts and souls of
those great men who first landed in the American colo-
nies, and planted there the tree of liberty, the seed of which
they brought with them from this land—the germs of
woich had been nourished by British blood.—(Cheers.)
It was by these he justified his vote—to these he clung.
These principles were recognised in that sacred book
which commanded them to " Honour the King," which he
supposed by a liberal construction might be rendered
" Honour the Queen," and when the principles of the
Queen's subjects were conte.mable to the dictates of God's
Word, he was bound to honour both the people and the
Queen of the land as well as the King of Heaven.
Mr. JONATHAN BACKHOUSE thought it would be be
that the resolution should be submitted to the Committeetter
for examination, and he would also suggest whether a per-
tion of the Convention should not make an appeal to the
f
Queen, and thus secure interference in a
quarter rom
whence it would be most likely to be aeailing.—(No, no,
—Question, question. )
Mr. I3uasev said there was in the preamble of the
lered-
solution a succinct statement of the facts which had
to it. The Learned Gentleman also suggested that the
i
for"u
;
"camewords'wl "unchristian"
a cbrbisatd grace," which
be substituted
sophical," and " ought never to have emanated,"nP Ie
for
The resolution was then againwhich wa
eads, a
unani-
mously amid loud cheering.
Mr. O'CONNELL said it appeared to him the Conven
tion would do well to express their sentiments respecting
the noble conduct of the American Anti-slavery Advo-
cates, and that the last act of the Convention would be the
read, and
carriedt o
unani-
best time for it. He should feel proud to propose a rose
lution to that effect himself.—(Cheers.)
The CHAIRMAN said perhaps the Convention would
before they passed such a resolution, to bear a few more
of those gentlemen, in order that they might be able to
do so with greater knowledge, unanimity, and cordialit
and then called on
Mr. STANTON, the Secretary of the Abolition Society
of America, who said he had had much experience in ad.
dressing public Conventions, and had ever found as they
approached the period of adjournment they were like him-
self fatigued both in body and mind, and therefore he felt
embarrassed in bringing forward a resolution at that stage
of their proceedings ; he felt thus also on another ac-
count—the resolution was very important, and he thought
involved in it a principle which had much to do with the
extinction of slavery in America. It was no formal intro
duetion of himself to say, that be felt great cruherraseteent
in bringing forward this iewlntiouraft,""lle:4)"4 tikul

had just heard from the eloquent and enlightened Gen-
tleman of the Emerald Isle—(Cheers)—whom he took

great pleasure in assuring that his eloquent denunciations
had " careered against the blast as thunder against
the wind." However, he would say with one of their poets,
" Hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may
hear,"—adding to it, if not poetically, yet sincerely,—ani
that you may believe. The resolution was, " That while
the literature of Great Britain exercises so vast an in-

fluence over the public opinion of America, we deem it the
duty of British Abolitionists, individually as well as col-
lectively, to make systematic efforts to secure a frequent,
clear, and full expression of the sentiments of the nation,
through its leading religious, political, and literary pe-
riodicals, on the subject of slavery and the anti-slavery en-
terprizo in the United States,—to fix the attention of the
world on the successful results of the West India experi-
ment, and to spread before the American public evidence
of the deep indignation of the civilized world against a
slave-holding republic." On account of some sentiments
advanced by the gentleman who had supported Mr.
Birney's resolution, he wished to pass to what he
said with regard to the operation of the American
Constitution with reference to slavery. They admitted
that at the outset their fathers had sinned, and that
they, their sons, had sinned also, with regard to the
constitution of America. He begged, therefore, to make
a plain exposiCee of one or two principles of the con-
stitution as they bore upon slavery, and he would take
an opposite course to Mr. Birney to show what the Ge-
neral Congress could do indirectly for the extinction of
slavery. The Hon. Member for Dublin had alluded to
the district of Colombia. It was true the General Con-
gress of the United States had not power to abolish
slavery through all the States, but they had the power to
do it in this district. Did they ask what is the extent of
slavery in so small a district ? In the first place the occa-
sional discussion of the whole question must take place,
and all the various objections of the slave holders must be
met and must be, as they would be, completely answered.
Now, in his country, as in this, it was the habit to report
speeches at length ; these reports were printed in their
newspapers, and carried into every part of the slave-holding
States, where an Anti-slavery Delegate could not venture,
but to meet certain destructioh by Lynch Law, or the yet
more summary jurisdiction of the bowie-knife. Thus they
would bring the subject home to the planter's bosom, and
thus sooner or later they might operate upon his
heart.—( Hear and cheers.) Again, with regard to the
district of Colombia, not only would it be the subject of
discussion by the highest legislative body in his nation,
but by their abolition of slavery in that district, this body
would say to the nation that it was a system that was not
fit to live. It would be a declaration by the highest autho-
rity in the land that slavery ought to be exterminated.—
( Hear, hear ) It was in allusion to this that Senator
Preston in South Carolina, who strongly resembled the
Hon. and eloquent Gentleman (Mr. O'Connell) beside
him, not only in personal appearance—( Laughter)—but
also in the use cf the argument ad hominem—and who
said " We must resist the abolition of slavery in Colombia."
And why? "Because it is the gateway of American
slavery." On this ground the American Congress had
refused even to receive petition on the subject in defiance
of the right of petition, in defence of which, when refused
by the British Throne, his fathers went to battle and to
death ; and thus—(l am, said the Hon. Gentleman, an
American, and you will pardon me for saying so)—wrung
from it that independence which they regarded as their
birth-right.—( Cheers.) Yet this same people for five
successive Sessions have denied this right.—( Hear, hear. )
We, therefore, think this abolition in Colombia would in
a great measure tend to remove from it those slaves which
now tarnish the American flag.
" While every flap of England's flag
Proclaims that all around are free,
From farthest Ind to each blue crag,
That beetles o'er the Western Sea.
Yet, yet we scoff at Europe's Kings,
While Freedom's fire is dim with us,
And round our country's alter clings
The damning shade of Slavery's curse."
—(Cheers ) Again, Congress had the power, not only
to abolish slavery in Colombia, but indirectly to extermi-
nate what is called internal, but what Quincy Adams
rightly called on the floor of the Senate, infernal
slavery.—{Cheers.) It is admitted generally that Con-
gress has the power to exterminate this, the main pillar of
American slavery. He had called it the main pillar—if
permitted be would vary the figure, and call it the jugular
vein of the system, without which it would cease to live.
The northern States were the breeding states, while the
southern States were the consumers. The northern slave
States reared slaves, whom the southern States worked into
premature graves.—( Hear, hear.) The former were the
Congos and Guineas of American slavery to the extreme
southern States. In raising hemp and tobacco at home
they did not need slave-labour. Slavery, therefore, was
made profitable in the northern States by raising men and
women for sale—( Hoar, hear)—and he would only say,
with regard to their Ambassador to this country, that
while he was a slaveholder, if he did not traffic in human
flesh, be was an exception to the great mass of Virginian
slaveholders, and he thought it incumbent on that gen-
tleman to prove that he came within the exception, instead
of the general rule.—( Hear, hear.)
Mr. O'CONNELL—He denied any knowledge of such
practices in America.
Mr. STANTON-Then I say he is too ignorant to repre-
sent the American people here—( Loud cheers)—or too
dishonest,. for there lies on this table a document from the
press of his native State, which says that in 1806 twenty
millions of dollars worth of slaves were sold from Virginia
to the other States.—( Hear, hear.) Virginia not a slave-
breeding State 1 In what else is her prosperity but in
human flesh ?_( Hear, hear.) Now what would be the
effect of the extermination of the internal slave trade?
The answer was—lt was made profitable there in the cul-
tivation of cotton, sugar, and molasses, by urging men to
labour beyond what human nature could bear. The slaves
in the cotton fields were worked into their graves in seven
years—a system which, if carried on, would depopulate
the world in a century. How was this vacuum supplied ?
By slaves from Virginia and other breeding Steel.—
( Hear, hear.) He would mention a fact, by way of
iilus-
tracing this, which had been told him by a Baptist minis-
ter who attended the Convention from Virginia. He said
that he had asked a Biptist slaveholder, a member of his
congregation, in Virginia, whether he was not apprehen-
sit e lest the ,laves should rise in insurrection against their
masters ? and the answer was, that there were sometimes
apprehensions of it, but that God, in his Providence, had
°pence' for them a safety valve in the extreme
Southern States, which purchased their slaves, and
worked them to death in seven years.--( Great sensation.)
Therefore he (Mr. Stanton) asserted that if Congress
took up the sword of constitutional power and cut thisjugu-
lar vein, slavery would turn pale and gasp at the southern
end, and die of apoplexy at the northern end.—( Hear,
and laughter.) There was another way in which this might
be accomplished, namely, by the non-admission of what
were called free States to the Union. At the period of
the passing of that splendid declaration, That all men were
created equal and entitled to equal rights, there were thir-
teen States of the Union, of whom six were free States or
just on the point of being free, and seven were slave States.
Since the American confederacy was formed thirteen other
States had been admitted to the Union, eight of which
were slave, and five free States. But this admission was
voluntary on their part, and thus they had swelled the
numbers in Congress
,both of senators and representatives.
Yes, like him of old, they had sold their birthright, but
they had not, like him, obtained for it a mess of pottage,
for they now ruled them with a rod of iron. These slave
States now controlled the nation. But there was hope for
freedom even yet. In the north-western section of the
republic there was a most splendid country now rapidly
filling up with the free population of the United States.
This formed what was called the north-west territory, the
land of which was of the most fertile kind, which steam.
boats traversed for upwards of three thousand miles,
and which was fertile in towns and cities.—( Hear.) The
population of the United States flowed over, not into the
slave States, but into this district; and now there were two
States—Wisconsin and Jowa--ready for admission to the
Union. If these States were admitted to the Union, they
might by and bye give the antislavery party the prepon •
derance, for the South had nothing wherewith to coun-
teract them but swamps and Indians. Here then was the
reason why Texas wished for admission to the Union.
These far north-west States were rapidly making New
Englands, and the southern States would not be able to
withstand them, unless Texas were admitted to the Union.
Was it asked, Is this the situation of America ? Even so.
The general Government had no power to abolish slavery,
but in the indirect manner of which he had spoken. They
had the power to alter the constitution, but it would re-
quire the assent of two-thirds of the whole States to
accomplish this. Hence the necessity for reliance upon
moral power : and when he spoke of moral power he
meant also political action—( Hear, hear,)—and hence
the resolution he had the honour to submit. They relied
on external application ; the civilised world must erect a
wall of exterminating fire around American slavery that
would melt the hard heart of the slaveholder. (Hear
hear.) The abolitionists were feeble in body, but
strong in power.—(Cheers,) As yet their numbers were
contemptible, though, thank God, they were growing in
strength. Therefore they fell back for assistance on the
civilised world. One great power they desired to bring
to bear for this purpose was the literature of the world.
He thought he was paying a compliment to this nation
when he said they were a reading people. He had tra-
velled from Torquay to London, and had hardly seen a
newspaper; but everybody read with them—everybody in
America was a politician—everybody had a title to nobi-
lity—everybody was heir apparent to the throne—(Laugh-
ter)—hence they were politicians from necessity. Every
mechanic had his summary, and every gentleman his broad
sheet ; the former was to be seen in every workshop, and
the latter in all the saloons of their aristocracy, for such
they had. The Americans were a reading and a discus-
sing people, but he took pleasure in saying the fountain-
head of their literature was Great Britain.—(Cheers.)
It was from the land of Shakspeare and of Milton, of Bo-
lingbroke and Pope, of Hume, and Robertson, and Mack-
intosh, they gathered all the gems which sparkled intheir li-
terary diadens. He came then to England, and said, Give us
an Anti-Slavery literature.—( Hear, hear.) He would state
some facts on this subject, which might be thought amusing.
He had already alluded to the effect of British literature
upon America, and such was the case with its theology.
Their theology was that of Hall and Baxter, of Warbur-
ton and Paley, of Tillotson and Taylor. "We got it
here," said Mr. Stanton, " take heed that it be pure."
Their law was derived front that of Coke and Blackstone,
and others down to Mansfield, who made judicially the
glorious decision, that the moment a slave set his foot upon
British ground, that moment be was free. Their histories
were those of England, from Hume to Mackintosh. He
would take the branch of history. They had all heard of
Tytler. He would show they got up an expurgated edi-
tion of his histories, suited to the prejudices of America.
It was found necessary, on account of some utipleasant re-
miniscences of the slavehoHers, to taboo or expurgate it.
The latter was therefore done, and it now sold well.—
( Hear, hear.) Again the Rev. J. H. Hinton published a
History of America, an edition of which was published in
America by a firm, which, the moment a work arrived, put
it into the hands of their compeeitors, . and sent
the sheets immediately flying over the whole
United States. Ovtir came this history of Mr. Iliriton,

which was circulated in this manner, but it was not lon.,
before these gentlemen found letters on their counters, from
their customers in the Southern States, informing them they
must expect less of their custom if they sent to them such
works as that ; and this was, because this work related the
fact, that two millions and a half of men were held in
bondage in America.—( Hear, hear.) Then, again, the
politics and eloquence of America were derived from Eng-
land. It was on those great principles which, previous to
thc Revolution, had struck so deep, and thrown up their
trenches so high, which were to be found in the works of
Burke and the other distinguished men who then thun-
dered in the Senate, and which had made the hearts of
the Americans burn within them, on which the eloquence
of America was founded. Why, from the days of Chatham
to O'Connell—( Cheers)—the eloquence of the British
Senate had found attentive listeners in America. The
eloquent denunciation of the scalping knife, by Chatham,
had not only been thundered in the British Senate, but in
every city in America. It was recited in every school ;
and when a lad at school, he had ofttimes repeated it.
And even now, in Boston, the denunciations of American
slavery, by O'Connell. were repeated amid enthusiastic
plaudits. Therefore British eloquence was the eloquence
of America. But not only was this exclusion and expur-
gation confined to the higher literature. A little work
was published here, entitled " Woods and Fields," which
was tabooed in America, because it contained the truth
that man was not born to be a slave. They all, no doubt,
read Pollok ; if they had not, they should have done so.
This work Caine also to America ; but the publishers found
that it contained certain sentiments in favour of freedom,
and therefore would never do to sell in the southern
market. The new play of Love was performed at
New York and in other theatres of the States ; but be-
cause in that play Sheridan Knowles denounced slavery,
it was expurgated, for they could not even bear the mimic
freedom exhibited in the theatre.—(Cheers.) Dr. Bow-
ring's Minor Morals shared the same fate—the chapter on
slavery being omitted. There was also another portion
of her literature by which England might reach the Ame-
rican mind, namely, by reviews. Ten or fifteen thousand
copies of reviews published in this country were circu-
lated in the United States. An American house had ten
or twelve thousand subscribers for those reviews, who
subscribed on condition that they should be reprinted en-
tire. An article in one of them, by Miss Martineau, ex-
cited so great a sensation there, that the publishers were
obliged to apologize for its insertion. In the Southern
States a man must run the gauntlet, if suspected of enter-
taining Anti-slavery principles. If such a one attempted
to go into the birth-places of Rush, Jay, Franklin, and
Washington, he must almost take his winding-sheet with
him; but these men would read their publication ; they might
feel disturbed by it, and put it down ; but the next day
they would feel perhaps some shame at being thus discon-
certed by a book, and take it up again, and thus these
principles might strike into their hearts, and take root
downwards, and branch upwards.---( Cheers.) He asked
then on behalf of the American abolitionists that England
would saturate her literature with abolition principles—
( Hear, hear)—that her periodicals should join with them.
There were novel readers in America as well as here, and
they asked Edward Lytton I3ulvver to introduce these
principles into his works, they asked Dickens, who was
read and honoured throughout America for his: deep
insight into human nature, to do so also ; and they asked
the newspaper press which, though of less importance, was
also read in America, to assist in the great work, and it
this were done, as slavery was abolished in the Indies, so
would the American slavery fall. They had heard of re-
sistance to moral power. The American people were
a brave people, they had this moral power, but they would
be unable to resist the influence of the literature of this
country. This was his last hope. He spoke as
one who had stood up against slavery, amid strife and op-
position, with those who had bared their breasts to the
bowie knife in defence of their principles.—( Cheers.)
They fell back for assistance on British sentiment—on
O'Connell, on Buxton, and on Clarkson, to reach forth
their hands in their support, and cheer them on. To be a
British abolitionist and an American one were very diffe-
rent things—( Hear, hear)—and if he might be permitted
to spy so, but few of their British abolitionists had stood
fire on the other side the Atlantic.—( Hear, hear.) He
did not speak invidiously, for he saw one ( Mr. G. Thomp-
son) present, who had literally stood fire.—(Cheers.) But
there were some of whom he felt constrained to say,
Save me from my friends." Send us, concluded Mr.
Stanton, good men and true ; and I add, Send us, I will
not say a purified, but a vivified literature, instinct with the
principles of freedom. Let it come in your literature,
your periodicals, and your newspapers, and speak for free-
dom—and thus reach the ears of men whom the voice of
the abolitionist cannot reach, until they shall feel a plea-
sure in the knowledge of the truth of our principles, arid
unite w ith us in their dissemination, until slavery shall
cease.—( Loud cheers.)
Mr. ALLEN said, that understanding there was to be
a public meeting after the sitting of the Convention, ho
wished to remark, that he knew, from the principles
which had ever been entertained by the Duke of Sussex,
his Royal Highness would feel great pleasure in being
their chairman on that occasion—(Cheers)—and he would
propose that he should be invited to be so.
The CHAIRMAN having put this proposition to the
meeting, it was carried with loud acclamations.
The meeting then adjourned till four o'clock.
The Chair was (Tali, taken at four o'clock by the Rev.
R. H. Grevillc, LL.D., when the discussion of the state
of slavery in America was resumed.
Mr. \VENDALL PHILLIPS, upon being called upon by
the Chairman, rose to second the resolution which had
been proposed previous to the adjournment by Mr. Stan.
ton. He had but a fact or two to add to the statements
which had been made by Mr. Stanton, and, as he had
gone through the ground so thoroughly, it was not
necessary to detain the Convention any length of time.
What be wished to call the attention of those present
more particularly to was the fact of the southern portion of
the Union being shut against all the efforts of the abolition
press, and the north itself had also laid an embargo upon all
anti-slavery proceedings. If any thing issued from the
Anti- Slavery Society of New York, what became of it ?
Why it died there. (Cheers.) They could not even
persu. de any of the great leading newspapers of the north
to insert their publications, or the facts they stated with
respect to the \Vest India experiment, and it was utterly
impossible for many of those present to imagine the igno.
ranee that pervaded the northern public with respect to
the question of slavery ; and in spite of that ignorance
they would not be instructed. Though there was no room in
any portion of the American press for the advocacy of the
slavery abolitionists, or the statements of their proceedings,
yet full latitude was given to the distorted calumnies of
the Jamaica press. ( Hear, hear.) There was, in fact, no
attention paid to any anti-slavery publication in the
United States, with the exception of some of the slave-
holding portion of the community,who occasionally alluded
to them because their feelings were harrowed up by them,
and they were told truths which they did not like and
could not deny. Now in order to show the manner in
which those who advocate the abolition of slavery were
treated in Boston, he would advert to a circum-
stance which took place. In that city they had
an Athenaeum, in which was a very exten.
sive library. Lydia Maria Child, an individual
who must be known to all present for her literary produc-
tions, was some time since allowed the use of the library
there, but since she had written works against slavery,
that permission had been recalled. She had been told that
her works had been thrown out of the window by the
Solicitor-General of Massachusets, and the greatest in-
dignity had been used towards her. Several similar
cases had taken place in other parts of the United States,
and the fact was, that unless some different course was
adopted the Anti-slavery Society might just as well bottle
up their publications and place them under the corner
stones of the great builslings in America, as attempt to
give them circulation through the whole community of the
United States. The voice that was put forward in this
great cause, and which spoke so loudly in England—
was in America only a whisper, which was drowned in
the discussion of parties. Mr. O'Connell had told them
that morning that the flag of England floated in every
sea, and its voice was heard in the remotest parts of the
world. He agreed with that Honourable Gentleman in
all that he had stated upon this important subject, and he
trusted that this country would make its voice heard in
America, in behalf of those who were in bondage there.-_
( Hear, hear.) They had been asked if they had not
agitated the anti-slavery question in America as Wilber-
force did in England ? They were doing so, and all
they wished was, that the English people, through the
press, should state that they were doing so—( Hear, hear,
and cheers)—as that would effectually silence the malice
of those who call the advocates of the abolition of slavery
fanatics.—( Cheers.) When he went back to America,
and told them that he had seen the white man and the
black man walk arm in arm, be should not be believed.
Why ? Because he was an abolitionist.—( Cheers.) He
wished to have it recorded by the British press, that the
coloured man was to be received in the same manner as
the white—that they were to be considered as brothers,
deriving life and health from the same beneficent Creator.
That was the principle, and the true principle, of the
abolitionist, the man who was so despised and so little
heeded in America. All the publications of the
Anti-Slavery Society were discarded in America ;
and he would venture to say, that even the tract
of Mr. Weld would not be read by one in a thousand
persons in America. But if these things were only no-
ticed in the Edinburgh, and some of the other publications
in this country, they would be read in America with the
greatest avidity.—( Cheers.) Mr. Staunton had alluded
to the East India question, and had said that they should
strike off the shackles of the slaves, by appealing to the
slave-owners' pockets. That might be all very well, but
there was something more required than that. There must
be an appeal to his conscience ; he must be persuaded
that the slave was a brother; and that his duty towards his
God, his duty towards man, forbad him to deal in human
blood and flesh. Such was the object of the Anti-Slavery
Society such was the object of those who advocated its
principles. Their wish was to raise the man who was a
slave to a level with his fellow-man. They wished to do
that by education, and also by exciting the sympathy of
Christians in his behalf. That was only to be done
by the expression of the public sentiment—the religious
public sentiments of England in their behalf.—( Hear.) To
show again the spirit which existed in America against
those who advocated the abolition of slavery, he might just
mention that the Emancipator, a publication the object of
which was to be known from its name, had frequently been
returned from the north to the south, because the post-
master would not send it forward ; and such was the
height to which prejudice was carried on this subject in
America, that if the) were told in the pages of the
Emancipator that such arid such and such was the case,
they would not believe it, hut would say it was an Anti-
Slavery lie.—( Cheers.) But if the same things were only
told them by a portion of ti e British Press they would
believe every word of it. The fact was, that it might be
said of America in this country that the sceptre had not
departed from Judah—( Cheers)—that though the con-
nexion had been dissolved been this country and America,
rs far as holding its own Parliaments and directing its own
affairs, yet they were in its vassalage, as far as talents and
genius were concerned. The Anti- Slavery abolitionists
had eloquent and devoted reen in their eause, but tl:.,
American public would not listea to them. England, au.l
.England alone, was the fulorum which Atherican