Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1845-10-10
Letter from Frederick Douglass.
DUBLIN, Sept. l, 19i5.
DEAR FRIEND GARRISON:

DEAR FRIEND GARRISON:
Thanks to a kind Providence, ! am now
safe in old Ireland, in the beautiful city OF
Dublin, surrounded by the kind family y, and
seated at the table of our mutual friend,
James H. Webb, brother of the well known
Richard d. Webb. | landed at Liverpool
on Thursday morning, 29th August, and
took lodgings at the Union hotel, Clayton
Square, in company with friend Buffum and
our warm-hearted singers, the Hutchinson
family. Here we all continued until Satur-
day evening, the Both instant, when friend
Buffum and myself with no little reluc-
tance) separated from them, and took ship
for this place, and on our arrival here, were
kindly invited by James, in the temporary
absence of Richard d. Webb and family,
to make his house our home.
There are a number of things about which
l should like to write, aside from those i'm
mediately connected with our cause; but of
this ! must deny myself,-at least under
present circumstances. Sentimental letter.
writing must give way, when its claims are
urged against facts necessary to the advance
ment of our cause, and the destruction OF
slavery. l know it will gladden. your heart
to hear, that from the moment we first lost
sight of the American shore, till we landed
at Liverpool, our gallant steamship was the
theatre of an almost constant discussion Of
the subject of slavery-commencing cool,
but growing hotter every IN it advance
ed. IL was a great time for anti-slavery, and
a hard time for slavery;-the one d~elightlng
in the sunshine of free discussion, and the
other horror-stricken at its God-like approach.
The discussion was general. If suppressed
in the saloon, it broke out in the steerdge;
and if it ceased in the Storage, it was re-
newed in the saloon; and if suppressed in
both, it broke out with redoubled energy,
high upon the saloon deck, in the open, re-
freshing, free ocean air. | was happy. Ev-
ery thing went on nobly. The truth was
being told, and having its Legitimate effect
upon the hearts of those who heard it. At
last, the evening previous to our arrival at
Liverpool, the Shareholders, convinced that
reason, morality, common honesty, humani-
ty, and Christianity, were all against them,
and that argument was no longer any means
of defence, or at least but a poor means,
abandoned their post in debate, and resorted
to their old and natural mode of defending
their morality by brute forco.
Yes, they actually got up a MORA real
American, republican, democratic, Christian
mOD,-dUu llldI, lUOy jill tllC utCh " q DIl-
ish steamer, and in sight of the beautiful
high lands of Dungarvan! | declare, it is
enough TO make slave ashamed Of the coun-
try that e~nslaved him, to think of it. With
out the slightest pretensions to patriotism,
as the phrase goes, the conduct OF the mob
ocratic Americans on board the Cambria al
most made me ashamed to say | had run
a,pI M from such a country. 1t was decided
ly the most daring and disgracefnl, as well
as wicked exhibition of depravity, | ever
witnessed, North or South; and the actors
in it showed themselves to be as hard in
heart, as venomous in spirit, and as bloody
in design, as the infuriated men who bath6a
their hands in the warm blood of the noble
Lovejoy.
The facts connected with, and the circum-
stances leading to, this most disgraceful
transaction, | will now give, with SOM
minuteness, though | may border, at times,
a little on the ludicrohs.
In the first place, our passengers were
made up of nearly all sorts of people, from
different countries, of the most opposite
modes of thinking on all subjects. We had
nearly all sorts of parties in morals, relig'
ion, and politics, as well as trades, CEILINGS,
and professions. The doctor and the law
yer, the soldier and the sailor, were there
The scheming Connecticut wooden clock
maker, the large, surly, New York lion.
tanner, the solemn Roman Catholic bishop.
and the Orthodox Quaker were there. a
minister of the Free Church of Scotland
and a minister of the Church of England
the established Christian and the wandering
Jew, the Wing and the Democrat, the white
and the black-were there. There was thu
S,rk.visaged Spanisrd, and the light-visagec
trnglishman-the man from Montreal, anc