Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1846-01-16
From he Liberty Bell.
THOMAS CLARKSON.
DEAR MADAM:
PLAYFoRD HALL, near Ipswich,
Oct. 3. 1915.

DLAh -AhbAM'
| received your last letter, but was SO i'll at
the time was unable to answer it for some
days; and indeed have recovered SO little
since that time, that despair of being much
better Ny constitution is now, probably, as
we say in England, breaking up;' which
regret only, as it hinders me from being far
ther useful. | could have wished, perhaps,
to have lived little longer, but it would have
been only for the sake of seeing the dav when
slavery should terminate. That its DAYS are
numbered, | have no doubt; no more doubt
than that | am now living; and the event
cannot fail Of being hastencd on by what has
happened in the case of Cassius NJ. Clay
The brutal treatment of him, and the outra-
ges committed since by the white mob at
Lexington, on the person of the poor and
harmless black people residing III that city,
will be a fine engine for the citizens of the
North, with which to work.
] am very sorry that the present state of
my health will not permit me to send you
the contribution you desire against the forth
coming Fair. 4 particular circumstance has
occurred which will stand in the way Of per-
forming what otherwise would have been a
pleasure to me. An American, of The name
Of ii. c. Wright, who has been in England,
but more in Scotland, for sometime, and who
| udo dttCllbtu StNtldl dHll-SldNGIO ulSGlllIS,
at Edinburgh, Glasgow, and other places, to
the great advantage of the cause, wrote to me
week or two before the receipt Of your let
ter, to do him great favor, which was, that
as my History of the Abolition of the Slave
Trade contained the facts relating to it only
up to March 1907, when the British Parlia-
ment put All end to it, he wished to have some
little farther history of our proceedings in
England since that time, SO as to take in the
rise and means by which slavery in England
was abolished also. He could get this, he
said, (and he said truly from no other per-
son now living but myself. | consented to
furnish him with little account-though far
from well at the time-wiling to oblige a
person who had done SO much for cur cause,
and thinking that it might afford pleasure to
some of our friends in America. agreed on
ly to give him the facts, leaving it TO him so
to embellish it as to make it readable little
book. | had no other idea, however, than
that it would be the work, on my part, of a
fortnight only, though had too many things
on hand even TO spare that time; but three
weeks have passed, and as | am now very
slow writer, it will take three weeks more TO
finish the work. You will see, therefore.
how impossible it is for me, when this worl,
for Mr.. Wright shall have been finished, and
in my present state of health, to write any
thing fit to read, to be ready at the time of
your Fair. ! will just say, that was the
more induced TO put myself to the trouble of
writing on this occasion, when saw that in
the Reporter of the Glasgow Female Anti
Slavery Society, Mr.. Wright had given so
lofty and yet so true character of Mr.. Gar
rison.
Notwithstanding | have said all this, Twill
think of a subject for the Fair, and will en-
deavor if | can steal few moments, at in
teryals, to begin it and go on with it; and if
can finish it in time, | will send it you; but
must know what is the last day for recciv-
ing, at Boston, publications for the press.
And here | will ask a question. | have
some memoirs Of Henry Christophe, king of
Hayti. | corresponded with him for three
years, and put him in the way of making i'm
! provement for the good Of his country, which
believe he followed. His only fault was
that of being too rigid discip iplinarian; fault
| indeed, wich cannot palliate; but his nten-
tions were noble, AMI his projects great, and
he had great mind. When ! was at the
great Congress at AK la Chapele, in Ger.
many, trying to do something with the SOY.
ereigns of Europe, then assembled, in favor
of the abolition of the slave-trade, found
unexpectedly, in my pocket, letter of king
| Henry which had unAnowingiy brought with
me from my own house. This letter had in
it remarks on education. showed it to the
Emperor of Russia. After having read it, he
asked my permission to show it to the En-.
peror of Austria, and the king of Prussia
! lie did so-lnd told me that both of them
were astonished at it as a letter coming from
a black man; and all the three agreed, tina
though they spared no expense in getting Nh
eleUerest men in Europe to be their ministers
and to sit in counsel, no one of their then cab
met could produce better letter. Now the
publication of such memoranda in Americ;
might have good effect in many ways, TO