The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-06-18

United States 60 educate and intellectually de-
yelop their ohildren Mr. =. NJ Peto, NJ J..
followed in confirmation of the views al'ead,
expressed by Mr. Garnet, insisting that he couif
not as a Christian treat the STAKEHOLDER otherwise
than as tyrant and robber Aud then a very
witty negro from Boston, (kev. Mr., Henson
understood his name,) spoke quite al iength ~
unmeasured glorihcation Of Great Britain as tht
land o. true freedom and equality, where simple
manhood is respected without regard to color
and where alone he had ever been treated by al
as man and brother
| BY this time was very ready to accept with
eagerness the chairman's invitation to say few
words. For, while all that the speakers had ut.
tered with regard to slavery was true enough, II
was most manifest that, whatever effect the
course of action they urged might have IN Amer
lea, it could have no other than banefu infiu-
ence on the cause of political reform in this
country. True, IL did not always say IN so many
words that the social and political institutions
of Great Britain are perfect, but IL never init
mated the contrary, while it generally implied
and often distinctly affirmed this. The effect,
therefore, of such incucatons is not only to
stimulate and aggravate the phariseeism to which
all men are naturally addicted, but actually to
impede and arrest the progress of reform IN this
country by arguing that nothing here needs re-
forming And as this doctrine Of stand by
myself for | am hoIier than thou" was Of
course received with general applause by a Brit
ish audience, the vices of speaker and hearer
reacted on each other; and, Judging from the
specimens | had that evening, ! must regard
American, and especially Afric American, lee
turers against slavery 10 this country as among
the most effective upholdcrs of all the enormous
nolificol ohuoao and wrouuo uhich ara here N
prevalent.
When the stand was accorded to me, there
fore, ! proceeded, not by any means to apollo
gize for American slavery, nor to suggest the
natural obstacles to its extinction, but to point
out, as freely as the audience would bear, rome
modes of effective hostility to it, in addition to
those already commended Promising the fact
that slavery in America now justites itself mainly
on the grounds that the class who live by rude
manual toll always are and must be degraded
and ill-reqHtxd-that there is more debasement
and Indebtedness on their part in the free
States and in Great Britain ITSELF than there is
ia the slave States-and that, moreover, free la
borers will not work in tropical climates so
that these must be cultivated by slaves or not at
all suggested and briefly urged on British
Aboitionists the following course of action
l. Energetic and systematic exertions to in
crease the reward Of labor and the comfort and
consideration Of the depressed aboring class here
at home; and to diffuse and cherish respect for
man as man, without regard to class, color or yo-
cation.
q Determined efforts for the eradication of
thee social evils and miseries here which are APP
pealed to and relied on by shareholders and their
champions everywhere as justifying the contin-
uance of slavery; and
g. The colonization of the slave States by thou
sands of intelligent moral, industrious free la
borers who will silently and practically dispel
the widespread deluson which affirms that the
Southern States must be cultivated and their
great staples produced by slave labor not at all
think did not speak more then fifteen min
utes, and was heard patiently to the end, but
my remarks were received with no such thun-
ders of applause as had been accorded to the
more polite efforts of the colored gentlemen.
There was in fact repeatedly evinced prevalent
apprehension that ,conM say something which
it would be incumbent on the audience TO resent;
but | did not And have faint hope that some
of the remarks thus called forth will be remem-
bered and reflected on. am sure there is great
need of it, and that denunciation of slavery ad-
dressed by London to Charleston and Mobile
will be far more effective after the extreme Of
destitution and misery uncovered by the ragged
schools shall have been banished forever from
this isiand--nay, after the great body of those
who here denounce slavery so unsparingly shall
have earnestly, uEsefshly, thoroughly tried so
TO Danish 1t. II. G.