The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1845-07-18


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GOV. HAMMoND's LETTERS ~
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SOU TttERN sEAVERY..:-
-. 'ADDREssED-To THOMAS GARRISON -~,.
THE ENGLISH AnoLiriosls!.
-AualIER 49,
IntrOdueionle Stare Trade, and futile attempts to
abolish -Ptsosty.Ve siars,y in ths abstract
snsts Moral a1 Heg .4spec.ia its PoAe shin
ass.s y as ss,.s'irs iuss draa"a ass.y sad
- sf--~. srL.EH BLvTs, s. CIV JAN: D, lsa5.
sfR,aI received short time age. letter from the
\ & NJ & at your gGs,dsssS
was enclosed COPY Circular Letter addressedte
Processing Christians Northern States, having
concern th slavery and to others there. b presume
tAat Nh Dicknsons leter~wss written with you know
ledge and the document enclosed with your mt and
as sr sat nosSy Pr ~ y
be recreation to me to devote portion Of It to an ex
NINA and free discussion ofthc Question of Slavery
as IFS exists IN our Southern States and SINCE yoh have
thrown down the gauntlet to me- do notlicsitate to
take it up '-tr~'' r'''- '-' r .-+f. = -';--
Familiar you have been with the discussions Of hfs
subject in all its aspects and Under all the excitenen
has Dccas oned for sixty years past may be- able
present much that will be new to you Nor ought Ito
have SO long cherished and zealousy promulgated
Still time and experience have developedfacts constant
y furnishing fresh tests to opinions formed sixty years
since and continually placing this great question In
points Of view which could to the most
consumrhatc imelecteven quarter of century ago ;
previous convictions, pTeiuices and habits of thought
have thoroughly and permanently biased them to one
fixed way OF Hooking at the matter while there are
pecuiiaiites tie operation brewery social and
spectral local as we'll as moral caus es materially affecting
cam fully or Besr
IT may be possibly, novelty to you to encounter one
who conscentiousy Believes the domestic Slavery p
THESE states to DO OF only fnexofable Necessity for
the present, but a:mor1l and huHnne institution pro-
ductyc of the greatest political and social advantages
ana who IS disposed as am to- defend r on these
II onot propose however defend the African Slave
cvilsarisc from lms been and is now condnefed
unnecessary wars md cruel kidnapping in Africa the
most shocking barbarities the Middle PASSAGE
pc rhaps Tess humane system OF slavery in countries
continually supplied with fresh iaborcrs at cheap rate
The evils OF however it may be fairly Presumed are
of transactions stated occurring in this traie by that
OF those reported as transpiring among us souid not
circulation are unfonnded and most fthe remainder
highly cofored.- ~ Hf,s- 49, az y"s 5tF'SF
onthe passage of the ct Of Parliament prohibiting
is tradct British Subjects rests what You esteem the
glory cf hies 1T required twenty years Of arduons
agitation and the intervening extraordinary political
rest Tous King Of the expectancy Of this measured
and hat inst say that individual rendered more
essential service to the than you did IN rejecting
the subject You often ASH yourself What after
all has been accomplished; fro,y much human suffering
has beenavertcd how many fidman beings have been
rescuedrom transatlantic slavery? And on the
you can give these questions must IN great measure9
pres,me depend the happiness Of your life In framing
them, how frequently must yen be reminded Of the
mark of Mr. Grosvenor IN Of the early debates upon
the subject which believe you have yourse recorded
" that he had twenty objections to the abolition OF the
Slave Trade the first was that it was impossible
sresthe need not give" Can you sayto yourself to
been YET confited 1t estimated at the commence
ment OF your agitatonih 1857 that foryive thousand
africans were annually to America and the
West indies And the mortality ofthe Middle Passage
computed by some at Sis admitted not to have
ceeded eper' cent Notwithstanding your Act OF Par
lament the previous abolition by the United States and
that all the powers in the ~orithave seuently pro
Inbred this tradesone ofthc greatest oftnem declaring
1t piracy, and covering the African with armee
vessels to preventit. Sir Thoms Fowel Buxton coad-
jutor of yours declared in 1910, that the number Of
Africans ow annually sold into slavery beyond the sea
amounts at the very least to hundred and fifty
thousand souls while the mortality Of the Middle Pas
sage was increased, in consequence of the
the hundred add fifty thousand slaves who have been
captured and liberated by British of since the
passage Of your Act, Judge Jay American aboli-
ZIONIST that hundred Thousand, twohirds
have persisted between their capture and liberation
phet7 That though nearly all the "impossibiies' d.
1887 have vanished and become familiar facts
household csstom under the magic influence Of steam,
cotton and universal peace yethis wonderful prophecy
still stands; defyng time and the energy and genius Of
mankind Thousands Of valuable lives and fifty millions
of pounds sterling have been given away by your
government in fitess attempts to turn It, Ihope
You have not lived too long for yourown happiness
though you have been sparedo that spite of all
yourto and those of your fellow iabcrcrs, and the &C
compiisment of all that human agency could do the
African slave Trade three-iold under
eyesmore rapidly, perhaps than any other ancient
branch OF commerce and that your efforts to suppress
i nave effected nothing more than hree e
powerful rseeing. He does not permit His creatures
TO foil HIS designs IT lie who for His allwise though
to often inscrutable purposes throws mposbittes"
TN this way Of our fondet hopes and most strenuous
exertions, Can you Doubt this r. - T, -
Experience having settled the point, that this Trnde
abolished by the use Of force AMI that
ading suadrons serve only to make it more profitable
and more cruel am surprised that the attempt is per.
sisted in unless serves cloak other ptr
poses II would he far better than it now is for the Ar
can if the trade was free from all restrictions and left
to the mitigation and decay which time and competition
wo ud surely bring about If Kidnapping both secretly
and by made fer the purpose could be by any means
prevented in Africa, the greatest blessing you could
besowu that country would be to transport its
tual slaves in comfortable vessels the Atlantic.
Though they might be perpetual bondsmen, still they
to cvilizationfrom idolatry to chrisanity-in short
from death to life. d.
sgnay defeated the philanthropy of the world and turn
to American slavery, to which you have directed
preached enthusiastic and ferocious that Of Peter
the Hermit-destined, believe be about assuccess.
between the two though you may not acknowledge it
The wisdomof ages has concurred in the justice and
pediency of establishing rights by prescrptive USE
however torous in their origin they may have, been
You would deem man insane whose keen sense of
eqaity would lead him to denounce your right to the
lands you hold and which perhaps you inherited from
long line of ancestry, because your title derived
from Saxon or Norman conquero and your lands were
originally wrested by violence from the vanquished
Britons. And so would the New England Aboiitionis
regard any who would insist that he should restore
his farm to the descendants Of the slaughtered red
to whom God has clearly given it, he gave life and
freedom to the kidnapped African That time does not
consecrate wrong allaey which all history exposes
and which the best and wses men Of all ages and pro-
fcssinns Of religious faith have practically denied The
means therefore, whatever they may have been, by
which the African in this country have been
reduced to slavery cannot affect u.s. since they
property your land is yours, by inheritance pur
chase and prescrptive right. You will say that man
and actually does hold property his fellow all the
world over, in variety Of forms and has always done
So will show presently his authority for doingi it,