Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1845-07-11
LETTER FROM ELIHU BURRIT TO THE
ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION
AT CINCINNATI
WORCESTER, May %, 1915.

SAMUEL LEWIS, ESQ
Wv Dear ,Sir:-I am almost at loss for language
to express my sense of obligation to you, and the
Committee in whose behalf you speak, for those
terms of kindness and confidence with which
you invite me to be at your great convention at
Cincinnati, on the 1th of June. And it is with
profound sentiment of regret that | am COM
PEELED, by circumstances which cannot bend to
INV wish, to fnrego a pleasure which | should
have cherished during the remainder of my life
as one of the choicest souvenirs in the jewelry of
my remembrance. 1t is with great difficulty
that | can arrange my labors so as to permit
me to be absent from Worcester fortnight at a
time Still have longed to see your great and
prosperous State and when, few weeks before
| received your communication, letter came
from certain literary societies connected with the
Oberin Institute, inviting me to deliver their
next annual address, in August, ] accepted the
invitation, that l might associate with my visit
some other object than that Of mere curiosity
To fulfil this engagement will exhaust all the
time that can force out of the discharge of my
labors at home, which would preclude the posi-
bility of making two journies to Ohio in one sea-
son. Although | cannot be with you in person
----or rather in body---I shall be present with ev-
cry earnest sympathy ofmy soul, with every at
tribute of my humanity that can pray and hope
for man, and labor to lift up my down-trodden
brother the SLAvE-God's child to a new life
and the light of new heaven spanned with Gods
own hand writing in the fixed stars and every
rain bow of hope that his own Ethiopian hue
shall no longer impair the dignity of his human-
4y, or his title or access TO all the privileges,
progress and prospects Of the children of a com
mon Father, either on earth or in heaven The
place, the motives and the members of your con-
Eention will all conspire to give it moral might
and majesty, which will be felt over the Union,
and carry premoniton of death to an institu-
ton which, like huge, deep rooted upas, has
diffused its subtle poison over one Of the green
est portions of this continent, until every thing
that lives OF lies beneath its shade bears the hec-
tic of the soaring curse.
No place in the Union could have been more
appropriately selected than Cincinnati. Situat-
ed on the heaven side of freedom, magnificent
illustration of what it can do for human nature
and human society, well might it say to those
who live in the pale and sickly wilderness of slave
ny, "C0me LIT as reason together" And il should
quicken the pulse Of great hearted patriotism,
that this friendly call has been greeted by cor
dial response from the first home of the Anglo
Saxon race on this continent----from unfortunate
Virginia, the primeyal Eden of Nature in Amer
lea, now pining beneath the breath of an lnstitu-
ton which has blasted the foliage and the fruit
of her tree of knowledge, and her tree of life:
and which, if it has not banished her ito the will
~derness without has brought the wilderness in
to her paradise. Virginia! Oldest patriarch in
the ark of Freedom which outrode the universal
deluge OF despotism----among the first affairs il
erected in its heritage, was one for the sacrifice
of human liberty. First to declare the inaliena
BILE rights of man, and, like the anedeluvlan pa.
triarch, to preach the righteousness of freedom tc
the world, it was the first to become intoxicated
with the spirit of its domestic slavery----and un.
der its influence, to curse its posterlty with an
evil which has operated with unspent and I'M
sparing malignity upon young and old, rich ant
poor, bond and free, through their successive
generations. Virginia, still venerable in hci
misfortunes and grand in her decadence, the de-
vout and hlial memories which cluster about he
ancient virtues, like the pious sons of Noah
would approach her behind mantle Of charity
which should hide from the subjcc and obiec
Of the sorrowlul vision, the sight of her uncon
scious weakness and nsensible prostration.
And old Virginia, the Virginia of the bes
days of our history will be with you, represent
ed by few choice spirits, who, with the sublime
chlvalry of moral heroism, the offspring and ori
gin of better things in her condition, will 60 W
to your communion, as the estranged and scat
tered children Of Israel went up from their coasts
to worship with their Jewish brethren in th(
temple at Jerusalem in the days Of Hezekiah
And between that ancient Jubilee and your Con
vention, pray that there may be features of re
semblance to which future generations shall re
vert in grateful memory. If there is one thing
more than another which would enhance m,
pleasure in being present on the occasion,
would be the privilege ofmeetng there those he
roc spirits from Virginia. Above all the place
on earth, should prefer to give them the warn
hand of fraternal fellowship on the green bank
of the Ohio There in view of uxuriant field
and all the verdant life ofyour illimited Eden,
would hold with them brotherly communion O.
the gospel Of nature and the great principles G
humanity--W beautiful world of exubel
ant fertility expanded to their view beneath tn
heaven-blessed labor of free hands, and cite
and villages, buoyant with the vigor of youthfr
activity, We'd with vegetation in rapidity {
growth would remind them, with earne'
tenderness, that the rain, the dew and the sur
light fell upon the fields of Virginia with til
same richness of bene6cence as upon those
Ohio, that nature had lavished upon the "Ol
Dominion" all that she could do for her choices
vineyard, and never withheld a gift that coul
make it the garden and Of glory of America,
would say to them that if the recent wilderness