Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1843-09-01

an unanswerable testimonial to posterlty, that III
the roll of American Abolitionsts, first and fore
most after the name of George Washington, is that
of Thomas Jefferson.
The result of the North American Revolutions
ry war had prepared the minds of the people Of the
British Islands to contemplate with calm compos-
ure, the new principle engrafted upon the assocla-
ton of the civilized of man, the self evident
truths-the natural equality of mankind and the
rights of man. They had waged against it cruel
and disastrous war of seven years. Hundreds oil
thousands of valiant Britons had fallen victims ;
hundreds of millions of British treasure had been
squandered to sustain the principle of illmltable
sovereignty against the principle of imitable hui
man right The prize of the conflict was the lib
erty and the immortal soul of man. The contest
was over between Britain and her children. The
Lord of hosts had decided the wager of battle
Human liberty was triumphant and new confed-
Grafton entered upon the field of human affairs,
with the Urim and Thummim OF the Law from Saul,
"Right and Light" inscribed upon her bosom, and
upon the dadem around her brow, "Holiness to
the Lord"
But while this contest had been in progress, both
of intellectual conflict and moral combat, the same
question of human right against lawless power had
been started in the land fboth the combatant par
ties 10 this controversy. The question of the A.
merlcan revolution had been of political govern
ment in the relations of sovereign and subject
Anthony Benezet native of France, settled in
Pennsy lvania, member of the society Of Friends,
and Granville Sharp, an English Philanthropist at
London, were at the same time blowing the bugle
horn of human liberty, and the natural equality of
mankind against the institution of slavery, practi-
ced from time immemorial by all nations, ancient
and modern. There were two modes of slavery
which had crept in upon the relations of mankind
to another, first as the results of war, by the
right of conquest and secondly by the voluntary
servitude of the feudal system. They had both
become odious by the silent progress of Christian
ity. The practice of enslavng enemies taken in
war had already ceased between Christian nations.
The traffic in slaves had been denounced by the
popular writers both of France and England-by
Locke, Addison and Sterne, as well as by Raynal,
Rosseau, Montesqueu and Votare. 1t was eve
ry where odious, but every where practiced, till
just after the close of the American Revolutiona-
ry arose the cry for the abolition of the Afr-
can slave trade. The first assault of the Reform
ers was upon the trade which was prosecuted with
such atrocious cruelty that the mere narrative of
its ordinary details excited disgust and horror
"Sweet are the uses of adversely" saith Shake
speare-and &" In the day of adversity-consder"
saith yet higher authority. In the summer of 1893
when the results of the revolutionary war present.
ed themselves to the people of the British Islands
in the darkest form ofadversty they had, and they
improved the opportunity of considering, the prn-
ciple for which, and the principle against which,
they had so obstinately and so iercely commended.
Their warfare had been against the self evident
truth of human rights. Thomas Clarkson mem
Der of the Society of Friends, with two or three
other Englishmen, associated themselves together
with the purpose of arming the poVer of the Brit
sh Empire for the total abolition of slavery through
out the Earth and the commission with which
they went forth to regenerate the race of man, by
leading captivity captive, was the identical
self evident truth against which Britain had lust
closed her relentless war, in humiliation and de-
feat. She was now to make that identical prnci-
pie the inscription upon her banners-to war a.
ganst s'arery for the natural rights of mankind,
and to proclaim the Jubilee shout of Libertu
throughout the land-of Liberty throughout the
gobe
OF that undertaking, Thomas Clarkson himself,
has written the history. He has shown in what
small beginnings it commercially what slow
and almost imperceptible progress it advanced--by
what interests, preudces and passions, it per-
petualy obstructed. How many years it was be-
fore it could obtain admission to the hall of legis
lation in the British House of Commons How in
the meantime it had been silently making its way
to the hearts of the British people, How many
struggles of argument and of eloquence it had to
encounter, before it could lay PROSTATE all oppos-
ton at its teet-and how this emanation of the
christian faith, after waiting eighteen hundred
years for its development, down at last like
mighty flood, and is even now under the led cross
Albion, and sweeping the slave trade, and slavery
from the face of the terraqueous Globe
People of that renowned Island children of the
land Of OUR Forefathers! proceed, proceed in this
your glorious career till the whole earth shall be
redeemed from the greatest curse that ever has af-
fcted the human race; proceed, until millions up
on millions of your brethren of the human race
restored to the rights with which they were en-
dowed by your and their Creator-but of which
they have been robbed by ruffans of their own
race, shall send their choral shouts of redemption
TO the skies in blessings upon your names.-Oh !!
with what pungent modification and shame must
| confess that in the transcendent gores of that
day, our names will not be associated with yours |!
May Heaven in mercy grant that we may be spar
ed the deeper damnation of seeing our names re-
corded not among the Liberators, but with the OPP
pressors of mankind.
Fellow citizens the first impulse of the regcne-
ration of human liberty came from us--the 4th of
July is our anniversary day. Then was the princ-
pie proclaimed to the world as that which was to be
the vital spark Of our existence as u community a.
mong the nations of the earth. This is the bright
ved But how can we presume to share in the fes-
tivities and unite in songs of triumph of the
first of August? Have we emancipated our
slaves Have we mucted ourselves in hundred
million Of dollars to persuade and prevail upon the
man stealer to renqulsh his grasp upon his prey
Have we encompassed sea ana land ana sounded
the clarion of freedom to the four winds of heaven
to break the chain of slavery in the four quarters
of the earth Has the JUNCTION of our eoquence
moved the bowels of compassion of the Holy Pom
tiff of the Roman Catholic church to issue his
commands TO his christian flock against slavery
and the slave trade? Have we sohened the heart
of the fiery musslemen of Tuns, the followers OF
the war denouncing prophet of Mecca, to proclaim
liberty throughout his land Are zoe carrying in
to Hndoston, the nexpressible blessings of emsn-
cipation Are zoe bursting open the everlasting
gates and overlapping the wall of China to intro
duce into that benighted empire in one concentra-
ted sunbeam the light Of civil and of christian lib
erty? Oh no, my countrymen. No! Nothing of
all this! Instead of all this, are ne not suffering
our own hands to be manacled and our own feet to
be fettered with the chains of slavery? Is it not
enough to be told that by fraudulent perverson
of the language in the Constitution of the United
States we have falsifed the Constitution ITSELF by
admitting into the Legislative and Executive De-
Il