Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1859-08-13
SPEECH OF EDMUND QUINCY,
AT ABINGDON, MASS. AT THE FIRST OF AUGUST csLE-
BRATIoN.

The President then called upon Edmund Quin.
cy, ESQ.,, to address the audience, who, on rising,
said he ought to make a good speech for he GER
tainly did not know what he was going to say, and
that was generally the best possible preparation a
man could have. The event, to celebrate the an
n~iversary of which they had assembled together,
was one of the most extraordinary in the history
Of mankind. 1t was the very first time, in histo-
ry, SO for as he knew, when a great nation confess
ed and forsook it's sin. before God and in the
world; when a great nation confessed tina: it had
been guilty of injustice and wickedness, and re-
solved to cease from committing that sin forever
more.
In regard to the condition OF the colonies, as re-
spected the mother country, in comparison with
the relation held by the Southern States to the
nominally free States # this Union, Mr.. Quincy
said that while in some respects it was similar,
yet in others there was a wide difference. 1t was
very true, that the slave interest Of the West In
dies governed the mother country, but it govern
ed her only on this one point. The slave masters
of the West Indies did not and could not hold in
their hands the d%estinies of the British Empire, as
our slave masters hold the destinies of this coun-
try. Their influence was confined to the uphold
ing of their interest, and there they we're, for ma
ny years, supreme, and there it seemed as if they
would be forever dominant. In the House of
Peers, there was a large body of noblemcn who
were also West India proprietors, and ia the
House Of Commons there were many men who
owned slaves themselves. and there were many
others who were elected by persons directly inter
ested in the maintenance of slavery; and this be-
ing the case, the abolition of sla sery looked, thir.
ty years ago, "a desperate in the West Indies as il
does now in this country. Ii was only the very
year before the passage Of the Emancipation Act,
that notification was proposed in South Carolina.
and the nullifers relied for support, in their war
upon the Northern States, upon England. South
Carolina was ready to throw herself into the arms
of England, and she had no doubt that England
would gladly receive her. She felt as sure that
slavery was to endure forever under the British
sceptre, as she did that it was to endure forever
within her own borders; and yet, within one little
twc.ve-month. there ceased to be q slave in the
British dominions.
And how was this change brought sbouts By
the foolishness Of preaching; by the ~incessant ap-
~plication of truth to the mind of the British peo-
Pile, who. thank God held in their hands the abb
solute law-making power for the whole Empire
and as soon as the people in the British islands
had been brought up to a comparatively low plain
of right feeling on this subject. they inspired the
members of the House of Commons, they over
came the hereditary legislators in the House of
Peers, and they dictated to the Throne. then occu-
pied by William w.. who, when Duke of Clar-
epce, had iusalted clarkson. and who. thirty years
before that time, stood, as it were. at the head OF
the pro-sisyery interest Of the country. This
showed what could be done in a country where the
people have q direct power over the government
But in this country it was very different. We had
here no absolute power over the slaves in the
States; we could not elect Congressman for the pur