ZION'S WESLEYAN.

THURSDAY, MAY 19, 1842.

LEAVING FOR CONFERENCE.

The time draws near when we that have labored in
our several circuits and stations must leave them to
attend our annual conference. What a moment this,
when our minds look forward to the welcome season
that will be presented, when, the Lord willing, we
shall hear the welcome voices of our venerable su-
perintendents addressing the throne of grace with the
voice of thanksgiving unto him who has bid us go in
search of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, that
we have been carried through another conference year
of toil and labor.

But before we enjoy this privilege, we must take the
parting hand with those with whom we have been as-
associated; and O, the scene in the congregation where
the cries of the wounded have pierced our hearts, and
where the shouts of the redeemed have gladdened and
encouraged us in the good work; the thought that
presses on the mind, of the moment passed in the
chamber of the sick and dying; the grief of the wid-
ow; the silent tear of the fatherless, while we have
commended them to God and the word of his grace;
the thought of saying with Paul, "Finally, brethren,
farewell:" This scene is to be surmounted only
by looking forward to that clime, where all tears will
be wiped from our eyes, and parting can never come;
and O, shall I be so happy as to meet on those shores
and take the hand of my brethren in the ministry, and
count our toils over? Yea, brethren, may we not look
to that time when the watchmen will be called from
labors to reward; yet while we part with the old
soldier that we have labored with through the year,
and while the young that have just embarked in the
old ship Zion, fill our hearts with anxious care, that
the same Lord that spoke peace to their mind, may
guide and direct them; O, how they twine about our
heart.

But my brethren, we will labor and travail, and be
content, if at last we may say with the poet,

Happy if with my latest breath,
I may but gasp his name,
Preach him to all, and cry in death,
Behold, behold the Lamb!

Boston, May 17.

J. C. BEMAN.

[For the Clarksonian.]

ALBANY, Dec. 10, 1844.

Dear Bro. Pennington—A multiplicity of en-
gagements have prevented me from writing a
few lines to you before, expressive of my appre-
ciation of your sacrifices and labors in the cause
of HUMAN RIGHTS, and the moral advancement
of our people; and though it has not been in my
power to render you that assistance which I
could have wished, yet my heart is with you in
the great work in which you are engaged, and
my influence, if any, shall not be withheld. If
I were competent, I should love to become your
Albany correspondent. I will, however, if ac-
ceptable to you, endeavor to engage in your ser-
vice one or two able pens that I have now in my
mind's eye.

I have read with much pleasure the last num-
ber of our "Clarksonian;" I say our, because it
belongs to the colored people; and being ours, I
hope we will exert ourselves to sustain it. I was
glad to find Bro. Garnet occupying a place in
its columns, and I will only say, that upon the
subject he writes, I am with him. I wish others
could be induced to do as he has—write. I like
your neutrality in politics. "Continue ye in well
doing." We have a diversity of opinions and
preferences in party politics, and why should not
we as well as others; surely, it would be strange,
very strange, if we were all Whigs, Democrats,
or Liberty party men, and if such were the case,
it appears to me it would indicate an imbecility
of judgement and of mind. The union of our
entire people with either party is impossible; but
even if it was not so it would necessarily fail of
producing what to us is most needful. We must
therefore look to something higher and nobler—
something more congenial to the nature of man,
and effective in accomplishing the results desired.
Moral reform in the broadest sense of that term,
should be our primary object, and our progres-
sion there may be urged regardless of localities.
Its blessings will necessarily follow. Politics
and other local considerations should be used as
secondaries, or the lesser agents in the advance-
ment of our people in respectability, influence,
and wealth. In fact, they appear to me to have
very little, if any control over these matters. I
will not say a good man may not use the elective
franchise, and still retain his integrity and worth;
but I am not aware that any person may become
more honest or upright by the use thereof.

There is great need of a check to the drink-
ing, gaming, and other evil propensities and hab-
its of a portion of our people, who, unfortunately
have adopted the vicious practices of our self-
styled superiors; and it is the PRESS, which on
account of the measure of ubiquity which it pos-
sesses, that should prove a moral battering ram
to demolish the citadels of intemperance and
vice, as well as an index to the path of useful-
ness and virtue. If such continues to be the
character of the "Clarksonian," you will most
certainly prosper, though for a season you may
be compelled to contend with the current of con-
flicting opinions. The omnipotence of truth
will eventually subdue opposition, and numbers
who are now opposing, or reposing in indiffer-
ence, will advance and aid you in sustaining
upright the standard of morality and religion.

On Thursday evening last, at the Hamilton
street (colored) Baptist church, I had the pleas-
ure of witnessing the ordination of Mr. William
D. Serrington. The exercises were of the most

interesting, solemn, and imposing character.—
The introductory prayer and reading of select
and appropriate portions of Scripture, were per-
formed by the pastor of the Baptist church at
the Sand Lake—his name I have not learned. The
sermon was preached by Rev. Mr. Howard,
of Troy, from 2d Corinthians, 2d chap. and 14
and 16 verses inclusive. It was excellent, full
of instruction, and happily adapted to the occa-
sion. The ordaining prayer by Rev. Dr. Welch,
of this city, was one of the most applicable, fer-
vent and impressive, that I have ever had the
pleasure of listening to; it very forcibly remind-
ed me of that beautiful and eloquent prayer of
Solomon, at the dedication of the temple. The
charge to the candidate, and the right hand of
fellowship, were given by Elders Bronson and
Wilkins, of this city. The address to the church
by Eider Dodge of West Troy. (Of the sing-
ing I have nothing to say, except that while I
could discover a few excellent voices in the
choir, it was not all that it should have been.)
The benediction was pronounced by Rev. Mr.
Serrington; and the large congregation retired,
highly gratified with the services and deeply im-
pressed with a sense of personal responsibility.
I have much more to say, but as my sheet is

full, I must close.
Yours respectfully,
S. W.

Providence, Oct. 1843.

MR. EDITOR:

MR. EDITOR.—I want to speak one word to my colored brethren throughout this country, young and old. As Americans, we ought to feel a deep interest in every thing that bears on her future destiny; though here in this country, we have been stripped, wounded, and left in a pitiable condition; yet notwithstanding all this, it is still our home, the home of our boyhood; the society of youth draw around us many, very many associations which afford us strong attachments to this country. Then while the spirit of freedom is abroad in the land, it is our duty, and will be for our interest, to stand firm at the standard of truth, and be willing to do our duty in the fear of the Lord; but the great question at this important time is, what is the duty of the colored people; is it not, say some, to "stand still and see the salvation of God?" is it not to rest our hope on the doings and actions of the aboriginalists of the country—to change the Government and laws, and send forth the sound of freedom and equality from her Congressional and legislative halls in answer to this question? I will say, much depends on this action of the nation, but more on the colored people themselves. We have to bear a prominent part in the onward march of freedom in this country; if we have faith in the anti-slavery movements of the nation, we must have works on our part. The great Apostle said, "show me thy faith without thy works, and I shew thee my faith by my works." It is an easy thing to sit still and appreciate the works of our friends; but I ask, is not better, will it not afford much pleasure, to work for ourselves? The next question comes, what can we do? for, but in a very few few of the states, can we exercise the elective franchise; we are gaged down by popular position: now I will say—though we are

not under a dictatorship, so that I do not appear as dictator to any of my people—I am sure I may be allowed to give a humble opinion

and suggest a few things, for our consideration. 1st. We ought to feel that "knowledge is power," and the very power we need at this solemn crisis; and that power is now within our reach; the door is open; we may go in and arm ourselves for the contest; it is our duty to do it. Books and institutions are now brought down to the capacity of all classes; literary institutions are open; lyceums, literary societies, where a mutual interchange of sentiment and thought on the great subject of improvement does afford a choice opportunity to all of every grade. The legitimate influences of slavery must and will give way, before the enlightened character of a people struggling for right; is it not true—I appeal to all—every hour, every moment, every means, should be employed by our youth and rising generation, while the motto should be "old men for council, and young men for war." Let us adopt this method for action, and there would be a speedy change in the character and doings of this government. Soon the galloping fetters would fall from the sore limbs of the afflicted slave, and his life, instead of being a life of sorrow and anguish, would be a life of comfort to himself and his afflicted wife, and children. I repeat it, much depends on the action of the colored people to establish their own happiness. Again, this knowledge ought to be coneyed from one to another, through some medium that would ralry all to the holy warfare. What should be that medium?—why the press; this always has been the great palladium of liberty, in all nations where a people have struggled for liberty, and why may it not be the same with us? My friends, it should be the great nucleus, around which, should gather the talent and ability which God hath given us; we should be willing to let go some of the comforts of life, rather than let go the press; we should rather go with two meals a day, than go without a newspaper in our family—and a paper too, that we call our own—the organ of our people. We should feel willing to make it by our support, the pioneer of freedom; to speak for us in every place where americans resort; that our voice may be heard in all parts of the country; and be heard clearer than it could be through the columns of any published by our white friends. I hope no colored man or woman will say they do all they can, until the press is fully sustained among us, and the march of improvement is seen going on at a far greater pace than it is now or has yet been. There are so many advantages to be derived from this object, I wonder that it is not more highly appreciated than it is—advantages of the greatest importance to us all as a people. But another thing worthy the notice of our people, which they can and ought to do; that is, cultivate good, religious and moral characters among themselves and their children; moral worth will commend itself and claim respect in every place, let it be in a colored man or white. As wicked as community may be, they are good men who hold community in check—they will acknowledge moral worth; and the wicked will feel the effects of it, and good will be the result of all good efforts.

Yours, truly,

JOHN W. LEWIS.

HARTFORD, DECEMBER 14, 1844.

REV. J. W. C. PENNINGTON, EDITOR.

TROY, Dec. —, 1844.

Mr. Sub-Editor:—I came to this place about a week ago, and have been spending the time most delightfully in the bosom of the amiable family of our much-loved brother, H. H. Garnet. I have long been impressed with the belief that colored ministers and teachers do not hold mental communion enough, one with another. From time immemorial, educated men have sought and priz ed conversation with each other. This is a source of improvement to any class—but more especially to those who are engaged in public labors.

During the week I have spent with bro. Garnet, I have been confirmed in the impression above alluded to. There is something in conversation better adapted to improve, than in any form of popular debating. In conversation, your learned friend opens his mind to you, and speaks in the most free and unrestrained manner. Whatever light or knowledge he possesses, you are let into it with the same freedom that you find a seat at his table. Persons of moderate education can improve themselves to a great extent in this way. Errors are much easier corrected, and information much easier obtained.

Troy contains a pleasant colored population of 500. Two churches, one day school, one Sab bath school, one Female Benevolent Society, one St. Augustine Association. Of the two latter of these, the first is twelve years old, and the latter four. Both of these institutions are flourishing. The Female Benevolent Society appeared in So ciety order at the funeral of one of its members, Mrs. Jefferson, and I have to testify that it made a most solemn impression upon my mind. I can not but express my decided conviction that such societies are of great utility, and the hope that they will become more general.

Liberty Street Church, Presbyterian—Pastor, Rev. H. H. Garnet. Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Fifth Street—Pastor, Rev. Mr. Noyes. Day school, 50 scholars—principal, H. H. Gar- net. Sabbath school, 60 scholars—superintend- ent, Mr. Bigelow.

The colored people's list of real estate in Troy is valued at $25,000.

I have the pleasure of going with bro. Garnet into his literary home for life—the Young Men's Association Reading Room.

This is an interesting society, and has the resources of great improvement.

I shall write you next either from Albany or Pittsfield.

J.W.C.P.

For the Colored American.

MR. EDITOR,—In the Colored American of the 3d of March, in an editorial notice of the great meeting on the Right of Suffrage, held under the Tabernacle, I perceive some editorial animadversions upon me, and the remarks which I made at said meeting. Business of an urgent nature has allowed me no leisure to reply till the present, and I take up, my pen to do so now, "more in sorrow than in anger," as I regret that the columns of our "little organ" should at all be occupied with replies to the im mature criticisms of the Editor, when every inch of the paper should be devoted to discussions, arguments and appeals upon the great question of our political elevation.

So much of your criticism as relates to my defective ness in judgment and prudence—and my "extremely imprudent remarks," being mere *ipsos dixit*, unbacked by evidence, and failing as it does to come up to the dignity of fair and generous animadversions, by citing the instan ces and passages exemplifying the defectiveness and im prudence of which it complains, I pass it by as the id wind which I regard not: perfectly aware that such is the wanted approbatory style in which self-assuming and self presuming age, condescends to notice the essays of young aspirancy." It is to the latter part of your editorial criti cism, where an insult is offered to my understanding, in the critic's supposing me to misapprehend the object of a meeting which I had the honor of calling to order, and drafting resolutions expressive of its sentiments, (which even the critic acknowledges were "judicious and excel lent.") that I have conceived myself called upon to reply.

It is to the latter portion of your critical remarks, where by a peculiar abruptness and ambiguity of the style, I am made to appear as having, in an audience composed of the assembled gravity, intelligence, and discretion of our people, met for the purpose of signing petitions to the Legislature, humbly praying for a restoration of rights, advocated physical resort as a means of procuring said rights, and political enfranchisement; that I have con ceived myself called upon to protest against as unkind and unfair. And to be short.

I protest against the latter portion of your criticism as unmanly, unkind and unfair. Unmanly, in failing to notice the Rev. gentleman who ALONE conceived the object of the meeting to be, bodily emancipation—who ALONE discoursed upon the necessity of physical resort—who alone spoke of belligerent agitation. Unfair, in obliquely fastening upon me improprieties which, in justice, you should have passed over to the account of another who enacted them. Unkind, in admitting a perfect knowl edge and understanding that the whole scope of my re marks and allusions "had no reference but to moral efforts," and yet obliquely misrepresenting and charging them with being irrelevant, impolitic and unhappy.

I am unable to account for the peculiar representation and coloring given to my remarks by the latter part of your editorial strictures—unless, I suppose, that the eye of your judgment was bleared, and your imagination, unhappily affected by the warlike positions assumed and advocated by the reverend personage before alluded to.—Because I distinctly stated, in calling the meeting to order, that we had assembled to devise such means and adopt such measures as would ensure political enfranchisement to ourselves and our posterity; and in the re marks sustaining the resolutions which I presented, I emphatically declared that truth and argument were the weapons to be wielded in achieving our political enfranchisement, and the procurement of civil rights; and in the evidence which I adduced in support of the position that I assumed, I held up that the weapons of mind had achieved largely, gloriously and triumphantly for human rights, freedom, felicity and elevation. I deny ever hav ing uttered a remark on the occasion above alluded to, which advocated "physical resort as a means of procuring political enfranchisement and civil rights."

In conclusion, allow me to say, that from the admissions and the general character of your criticism, I have been unable to perceive its object or intent; for if designed for my good or improvement, it has failed to achieve either, from its own manifest defectiveness, and failure to do the part of enlightened criticism—the pointing out to the criticised, by example, the defects, unhappy allusions, &c., to be guarded against in future efforts.

Respectfully yours

THOMAS S. SIDNEY

[For the Christian Freeman.]

NEW HAVEN, Sept. 6, 1845.

MESSRS. EDITORS.—At the ninth annual meeting of the Connecticut State Temperance and Moral Reform Society, which met in Hartford the 3d day of the present month, the following vote was passed:

*Resolved*, That the proceedings of this meeting be published in the "Christian Freeman," at Hartford, and the "Fountain" at New Haven. In pursuance of that vote, I herewith transmit to you a copy of the proceedings, with a request that they may appear in your paper.

Yours, with respect,

JOSEPH BROWNE,

Sec. C. S. T. M. R. S.

Ninth Annual Meeting of the Connecticut State Temperance and Moral Reform Society, city of Hartford, Sept. 3d, 1845.

The Convention met in the Talcott street church at 11, A. M. The President not having arrived, the 1st Vice President, Mr. James Mars, of Hartford, took the chair and called the house to order. Prayer by the Rev. J. W. C. Pennington. The roll of delegates was then made out in part, and read; the recording Secretary then read the minutes of the last Convention.

Prince Swan, of Hartford, Alexander C. Luca of New Haven, Henry Fowler, of Bridgeport, and George Maison of Lyme, being one from each delegation then present, were on motion, appointed by the chair, a committee to nominate officers for the ensuing year. Messrs. Joseph Browne, of New Haven, John Maison, and Daniel R. Condoll, of Lyme, were also appointed a committee to report business for the afternoon.

Adjourned to meet at half past two, P. M.

Afternoon session.

The Convention met as per adjournment. The President, Rev. A. G. Beman, in the chair. Prayer by deacon A. C. Luca. The business committee then reported as follows: First, the annual report of the Secretary; second, the election of officers; third, reports from the local Societies, through their delegates. The Secretary stated that not knowing a report would be expected from him, he had collected no material from which to form one, and referred to the published minutes of the last Convention, where in a note, he resigned the office of secretary. He was excused.

The election of officers then took place, which resulted as follows: For President, Rev. Amos G. Beman, of New Haven; for Vice Presidents, James Mars, of Hartford, Wm. Bouchet, of New Haven, Hercules White, of Middletown, Wm. Spelman, of Norwich, Cato Nichols of New Milford, John Feely, of Bridgeport, George Brown, of Hartford, (Methodist society;) for Corresponding Secretary, Isaac Cross, of Hartford; for Recording Secretary, Joseph Browne, of New Haven; for Treasurer, George Garrison, of Middletown; for Executive Committee, Prince Swan, Henry Fowler, Burnett Wright, Daniel Condoll and Charles Thatcher.

The next business being reports from the local Societies, Mr. Luca moved that the reports be delayed to some future time, in order that we might have a full attendance at the time. Motion carried. A standing business committee was then formed of the following persons, to wit, James Mars, A. C. Luca, John Parkiss, Henry Fowler, Charles J. Thacher, George Maison and Wm. Spelman.

The following gentlemen then gave addresses on the subject of Temperance, Mr. Mars, to the delegates, and Messrs. Fowler, Condoll, and Spellman, to the people. A temperance song was then sung by John W. Luca, a juvenile songster, from New Haven. Afterwards some remarks were made by Mr. Swan, when the business committee came in and reported the following for the evening exercises, viz: Speakers for the evening, A. C. Luca, J. W. C. Pennington, J. Parkiss, H. Foster, J. Browne, P. Swan; time allowed to each speaker, 15 minutes, and a collection to be taken up at the close of the meeting. Adjourned to half past 7.

Evening session.

President in the chair. Opened with singing by the choir of the church. Deacon Mars addressed the throne of grace; the Secretary read the minutes of the last session. The gentlemen appointed by the Committee to give addresses, did so, with the exception of Mr. Pennington, who wished to be excused on account of ill health, and having been engaged in other business throughout the day which had required the full exercise of his mental powers. He was excused. The exercises were interspersed during the evening with singing by the talented choir connected with the Talcott street church. After the collection was taken up, a motion was made by Mr. Mars, seconded by Mr. Luca, that the delegates give in their reports on Thursday, afternoon, at 3 o'clock. Motion carried. Adjourned to meet at 10 o'clock, Thursday morning.

After the adjournment, the Treasurer came forward and informed the Secretary that he was necessitated to leave for home that evening and that he held in his possession three dollars and twenty-five cents.

Morning session, Sept. 4.

President in the chair. Opened with prayer by Mr. Foster. The Secretary read the minutes of last session. The business committee then reported a set of seven resolutions which were discussed at some length, and after various amendments they were passed, as follows:

*Resolved*, That the next annual meeting be held in the city of New Haven, on such day and at such hour in the month of September, 1846, as the Executive committee shall direct.

*Resolved*, That the proceedings of this Convention be published in the Christian Freeman at Hartford, and the Fountain at New Haven, and a copy sent to each local society in the State.

*Resolved*, That it is our duty to advocate the cause of Temperance on all proper occasions.

Of the remaining resolutions, one was rejected, and the remainder laid on the table. Adjourned to 3, P. M.

Afternoon session.

At 3, P. M., the President took the chair, and called upon Mr. Worthington to open the house with prayer. He then stated the business of the afternoon to be the hearing of reports from the delegates.

Mr. Thacher, of New Milford, being anxious to leave town, was first called upon, who stated that the colored population of New Milford was 140. Their Temperance Society numbered seventy; their meetings were well attended; they had collected and disbursed 60 dollars since last February, 50 of which was paid for a banner. The anniversary which they had held had made a favorable impression on the white people of their village; twelve meetings had been held since the 1st of May. They hold their

meetings once in two weeks; their children have access to all the schools in town; the children generally attend both day and Sabbath Schools, and that great improvement had been made since the commencement of the Temperance reforma-
tion.

Mr. Mars, for Hartford, stated that they had held but seven meetings during the year; seven new names had been added to the pledge; whole number belonging to the Society, 173; had held their meetings whenever they could obtain a lecturer to interest the people.

Mr. Luca, for New Haven, stated that the Society has 190 names enrolled on the pledge; seven meetings had been held during the year; there is also a society connected with the Methodist church. The congregational church has taken action on the subject, and passed a resolution refusing hereafter to admit any one into the church, who will not sign the pledge of total abstinence; the monthly concert of prayer for the enslaved, is also held. A temperance choir has been formed which gives an impulse to the cause. The young men are interested in the cause of temperance.

Mr. Fowler, for Bridgeport, stated that they had held sixteen meetings since April, and numbered 79 members; they have a benevolent fund connected with the society, but no one receives aid from it unless he has paid in his money according to the terms of the constitution; colored population 200; have colored school which is well attended. There is no anti-slavery society, no monthly concert of prayer for the slave.

Mr. Condoll, for Lyme, stated that the Society there was small, numbering only 33; there are only seven colored families in the place; have added during the year, seven names to the pledge; fourteen have removed to other places; have had some trouble in regard to their schools, but are now better off.

Mr. Parkiss, for New London, stated that being connected with the Society from its first formation, he knew all its history. He was first interested in using efforts to bring our people into the Washingtonian movement, but prejudice met them in the white Society's meeting. He then made an effort to organize a Society among themselves. After much effort they succeeded in getting a place, and a Society was formed; they got seventeen names the first night, and from that time have been increasing; they have built a hall at the expense of 400 dollars, seating about 200 persons. The colored population is 250, of which 150 belong to the Society. They have a boarding committee to board the vessels as they arrive in port, to circulate the pledge among the sailors; they have also a sailor's home, and also a female vigilance society, to reclaim abandoned females, and whose labors have been blessed. They have some interesting facts in regard to the sailors, who at times have come forward in tears, to sign the pledge, and gone away blessing them for their influence. They have an interesting school of 30 scholars, taught by a lady of superior talent, and who appears to have the welfare of her scholars at heart.*

* It is feared, however, that her services will soon be lost, as there appears a desire on the part of the citizens of New Haven, to obtain her services as a teacher in a female seminary to be established there.

There is also an anti-slavery society, and a female sewing society.

Mr. Spellman, for Norwich, stated that he had nothing very cheering to report. Having some time ago lost their books, they formed a new constitution, and reorganized last December; since then there has been more interest. The population is about 250, of which 55 are members of the Society, 5 have broken the pledge, whom we hope, however to reclaim. They have had a temperance jubilee, in which the New London Society joined; they have no colored schools.

Mr. Nichols, for the Methodist Society of Hartford, stated that their Society numbers 65; was formed in 1844, meet once a month; meetings of late have been poorly attended; about half of the Society are church members.

Mr. Pennington here called the attention of the Convention to the Constitution, and proposed an amendment to the fifth article, which was laid over to the evening session. Adjourned to meet at half past 7, P. M.

Evening session.

President in the chair. Mr. Pennington offered the following amendment to the constitution, which after some remarks by himself and others, was adopted, viz: "The Board of Managers shall meet immediately after their appointment, and also at the same time and place of the meeting of the Convention, and shall present a report by one of their secretaries. Several resolutions were offered and discussed by Messrs. Pennington, Luca, Davis, Parkiss and Browne, and the resolutions passed.

A vote of thanks was passed for the services of the President and Secretary, the choir of singers, and the kindness shewn to us by the citizens of Hartford. After the passage of the resolutions, the choir performed a spirited piece, the President gave his farewell address, and the Convention adjourned sine die.

Attest, J. BROWNE, Sec'y.

For the Colored American.

FRESHET AND GREAT DISTRESS,

HARTFORD, Jan. 11th, 1841.

DEAR BROTHER RAY:—Our city has been, since Friday, the 8th inst., a scene of confusion and distress. We are, in the northeastern section of the city, subject to an annual freshet, occasioned, generally, by the breaking up of the Connecticut river and flowing of the ice out, into the sound.

This season of moderate weather has now brought it on. It is supposed that the river is opened nearly to its source. Vast bodies of ice and snow began to come down last week. The bed of the river above the bridge lays high, and for some distance above the city the banks are low, so that the water and ice swell out of the compass of the river's banks above, and comes down upon us with tremendous force. On Friday last many families left their habitations. Others fortified themselves for the seige. Most of those who remained were driven to the upper stories, and, if their houses were small, they were in danger of being carried off.

It would take me several days to collect all the facts, and to view the scene before I could give you a full picture. Take your station on some cupola or hill, and glance your eye from what we call the little bridge at the upper end of Front street, down to State street—two blocks in length, and varying from one to two blocks in width, and you will see almost all in flood and ice. Houses, great and small, look as if they were squatting in the water. Out buildings, barns, &c., half capsized or realing to and fro like drunken men; domestic creatures either floating in the water or clinging to rocks, or squatting on wood. Small boats plying through the streets, and people using the second story or garret windows for door ways.

I happened to live myself in a part of the city which is not thus visited. But I kept my library in a house in the upper part of Front street, the head quarter of the scene. It was from the ground in a three story house, on brick foundation, with a back building. There were three families in it. Brothers Patterson, Cross and Johnson. I had a room in the third story where were all my books and papers. I went at noon on Friday, as usual, but I found I could not get to the house without a boat. At that time brother Johnson's family had quit the house. The other two families were remaining and retreating to the upper story. The water continued to rise till 12 o'clock Friday night, when they began to be afraid the house would be swept away. They rallied a boat and retreated from the house leaving their things; and in fifteen minutes after the last soul escaped the back building, in which brother Johnson lived, was swept away with nearly all he had, and the foundation of the other was racked so it poised over. The water come within two feet of the upper windows.

I have been so fortunate, through the intrepid exertions of two of my parishioners, as to save my library without injury.

This is only one case. I cannot, as I said, tell you the worst yet. The ice however has nearly all passed down, and the waters are abating. They have not been so high since 1801. "Forty years long was I grieved with this generation." Ps. xcv. 10.

J. W. C. PENNINGTON.

Extending the Right of Suffrage.

At a meeting in the Assembly Chamber, held agreeably to previous notice, on the evening of the 2d April, the Hon. W. C. BLOSS, of Monroe, was called to the chair, and the Hon. D. LEE, of Erie, appointed secretary.

The Chair stated the object of the meeting to be to hear an address from Dr. M'CUNE SMITH, on the subject of removing the property qualification, which now applies exclusively to men of color as a restraint on the right of suffrage, limiting it by a constitutional inhibition to such as possess a freehold estate worth $250:—

Having been called upon by the Hon. William C. BLOSS, chairman of the meeting, Dr. J. M'CUNE SMITH said,

Gentlemen of the Legislature of New York:—

By the kind permission of the Honorable the Assembly, I appear here this evening, to say a few words in regard to one of an important series of subjects which now engage your attention—the amendments to the Constitution of this State.

The Constitution of the State, in placing the origin of amendments thereto in the hands of the Legislature, has entrusted to your keeping the safety and the well-being of our institutions, over which you are called upon to watch with unceasing vigilance, lest on the one hand sudden and frequent changes should impair the stable foundations on which alone these institutions can safely rest; or lest, on the other hand, the onward tendency of our social well-being should receive check or detriment by laws which the progress of society has rendered obsolete or oppressive.

With a profound sense of the earnest and thoughtful spirit with which you are exercising this high function of your office, I would most respectfully solicit your attention to one of the proposed amendments—an amendment which the stability of our institutions, and the progress of the whole people alike pronounce a necessity for. I mean an amendment of that portion of article second, section, first of the present Constitution of the State, which makes the possession of $250 worth of real estate the price of the vote of a colored man.

This amendment, notwithstanding its apparent insignificance, lies deeper among the essential elements of our stability and prosperity, than any other which has come before you.

For, if we look at the distinctive elements of political freedom on which our State government was originally founded, and on which our progress has mainly depended, we shall see that each of them is contravened, contradicted and annulled by this portion of the Constitution.

One of these principles is that there shall be no taxation without representation.

Another of those principles is, that manhood and not property, should be represented.

A third principle is, that there shall be no caste, or difference of rank, among the free people of this commonwealth.

A fourth principle is, "that no member of this State shall be disfranchised except by the law of the land, or a jury of his peers."

All these elements of freedom were embodied in the old Constitution of this State—a Constitution which had for a portion of its Preamble The Declaration of Independence; an instrument, which, if it was a 'rhetorical flourish' in 1776, became a concrete law, part and parcel of the institutions of this State, when it was adopted by the Convention of 1777, a Convention which had been driven at the point of the bayonet from New York city to Kingston:—in that perilous time, it was cheerfully admitted, that "all men were equal" whatever may have been the color of their skin.

The amended constitution, however, by introducing the property qualification in regard to men of color, declared that 50,000 colored persons should be taxed, but should not be represented. It is true, that this section declares that they shall be free from personal tax; but it taxes their property; and if this property be worth less than $250, they are compelled to pay taxes on it, but cannot vote.—The people of color pay taxes on the tenements which they occupy. In the city of New York alone, there are about 5,000 colored householders, who pay on an average $60 a year; which is $300,000 per annum. In paying this rent, they pay to the landlords a sum which includes the taxes, even where the fact is not specified. In like manner, they pay taxes on their food, clothing and all the necessaries of life.

The State (including the city) there are 22 colored schools supported by the State, independently of the colored children who attend white schools.—There is abundant proof of the intelligence of the parents, who sufficiently estimate the value of learning to be solicitous to educate their children: here is proof too, that each succeeding year will find the colored youth who arrive at manhood more and more intelligent.

In 1821, there were, in the city of New York among the colored people only two Mutual Benefit Societies, to relieve the sick, and bury the dead; they had a capital of 600 or 700 dollars. Now, there is among the colored population of the same city, fifty of these societies, with a floating capital of $70,000; all of which is expended in relieving the State and the city from the burden of supporting the sick, and burying the dead among the colored people. Several of these Societies have been honored with a charter from this Honorable Body. One of them, The New York African Society for Mutual Relief, was incorporated in 1810; and among other good which it has effected, has recently erected a fine Hall four stories high. This hall, in the vicinity of what is known as the Five Points—hitherto considered as a hopeless sink of iniquity— is becoming the means of spreading light and learning and religion in that quarter. A Public School, for white children is kept in this hall; and, on Sundays, a free church is opened, to which they whom the world has cast into outer darkness, are summoned and earnestly taught the way of Life! In 1821, there were 3 now there are 12 colored churches in New York city. There are also among the colored people, in this State, Literary Societies—one of them with a library of 1,400 volumes.—There are also Temperance Societies, and a Temperance Newspaper has long been published by a colored man in this city, Mr. Stephen Myers.

One striking proof of the advancement of the colored people is, that whilst in 1821, the proportion of mortality was 1 in 22 in New York city; it has been only 1 in 38, 39 and 40 during the last three or four years. And, statistics, universally admit, that there is no proof of comfort, none to be relied on, than diminution of mortality. It is also evidence of intellectual advancement. The diminution of mortality among the colored people in New York, in 22 years, has been as great as the diminution in the city of Geneva, in Europe, in one hundred years. Verify Freedom is redeemed of her children.

If then, gentlemen, you will look at the intelligence, the schools, the benefit societies, the churches and other societies devoted to moral purposes, among the colored people of this State, you will perceive proofs of advancement, of intelligence, on which you may safely rely, to which you may safely trust the exercise of the elective franchise.

And these schools and these proofs of intelligence, are all owing to the generous liberality of this honorable body, which has magnanimously extended common school privileges to every child within our State, no matter what may be the complexity of his skin. The State has educated us for the rank of freemen, and we humbly but earnestly entreat you to give us the rank for which we have been duly prepared.

Such are the reasons which were urged in 1821 for introducing the property qualification. What reasons have sprung up in its defence during the last twenty years?

A correspondent of the Evening Post stated, the other day, as one reason, "that the colored people do not care for the privilege of voting, as they had made no effort to obtain it." This is a mistake.—Ever since 1826, almost every year have we petitioned for an extension of the elective franchise.—During the last five years we have held many meetings, and in particular five annual Conventions, especially called with reference to the franchise: and if, of late, our petitions are fewer it is because we have petitioned so long in vain—"hope deferred maketh the heart sick."

Another reason urged, is, that if affranchised, the colored people will all vote one ticket. This objection shows that the objector will not have confidence in the principles of his own party: it also contains the absurd doctrine that men should be disfranchised for holding certain political opinions. It is not true, that the colored people would all vote one ticket; the same independence of thought which exists among other citizens of the State. Besides, this property qualification, or its abolition, are not party questions.

Another objection is—And I heard it urged by a gentleman late a member of the Honorable the Assembly—that the colored people would not appreciate the privilege of voting. "Foreigners," said he, "coming from the tyrannies of the old world, find so great a difference in the freedom of this government that the change at once enlarges their views, and fits their capacities for the exercise of the franchise." But the hon. gentleman had forgotten that oppression—whether it be the tyranny of the few, or the tyranny of the many—is the same in all time and in all places, in depressing the facilities and deadening the energies of the masses; and, that whenever, and wherever that oppression be removed, the human soul will rise to the full exercise of all its faculties. So that the change will be as great, and the capacity the same, if colored men be affranchised, or foreigners naturalized and affranchised: The hon. gentleman had forgotten that gratitude was one of the virtues which the vertiest hater of the colored man has never denied him; and that this sentiment will never be called into action but such exercise, as when the last shackle, the last emblem of degradation shall be removed from the man of color!

"Oh yield him back his privilege! No sea swells like the bosom of a man set free!"

Another objection is, that the feelings of the Southern portion of these United States would be affronted, if this State should affranchise her colored citizens. This objection belongs not to the internal welfare, but to the external relations of the State. It might be met on the ground of States' rights; for this State is not called upon to cripple her progress, to violate the fundamental principles of her Constitution, in order to avoid offending the fancied wrath of other States, especially when those States are filled with ideas of reciprocity of such kind, that they believe reciprocity to be an admirable thing when it is all on one side, and that side their own.

But, apart from the State's-right question, this objection may be met on higher grounds. Whichever will look at the succession of providences, which this great confederation of Sovereign States have been vouchsafed the glorious privilege of advancing civil and religious liberty more rapidly than has been permitted to any nation upon the earth, will see, that whilst to the whole has been allotted these great work, yet to separate portions or States have been assigned separate and special parts of the labor. The Northern States have ever been pioneers in the path of freedom. Such was their position in the war of Independence: such is their position now. Blessed with a climate most favorable to intellectual development, and with all which can not support human slavery, they have had enough times been called "all that is left of the Republican"—have all of them been raised to eminence by the mingled sufferages of Indians, Whites and Negroes. She is a great State, because she give free exercise and equal privileges to the faculties of all her citizens.

Another objection to the affranchisement of the colored citizens of this State is, "the number of colored persons in the prisons, alms-house," &c. If the laws of the State have degraded her colored citizens, it is reasonable to expect that they will be found degraded; partly because they are shut out from the free and full exercise of the faculties, and partly because they may be oppressed with impunity. Your constables, if in search of a culprit, will think twice before they arrest a white man once, because they know he has a vote: but they will at once arrest a colored man who even looks suspicious. Thence every colored man who has committed the misdemeanor is almost sure to be caught, whilst the white man escapes, in many instances. Look, for a moment, also, at the record of the Court of Sessions of the city of New York: it will be seen that eight out of every ten white men arrested and committed, forfeit their recognizances, and escape the penitentiary, whilst a colored man once committed and rarely escapes punishment. He has imprisoned and rarely escapes punishment. He has imprisoned and followed that justice to the white as well as to the colored portion of our population, requires the removal of all legal obstructions to the improvement and prosperity of all classes of our inhabitants," &c. &c. This Report is dated in House, Jan. 18th, 1845, and is signed by the Honorable, Robert P. Paine, N. P. Johnson and B. Randall.

From these circumstances it is easy to perceive, that the property qualification, being the cause of the degradation of the colored citizens, its continuance would only continue that degradation; whilst its removal would promote their advancement. It is also seen, that with a proportion of crime, not larger than is committed by the whites, the number of colored criminals is swellied beyond their relative proportion.

Thus much, gentlemen, for the objections that have been, and are urged against the affranchisement of men of color. I would most respectfully submit it to this honorable body, that there is no longer any special fear of bribery, in regard to men of color: and also that there is among the colored citizens an advancement in intelligence so great, that they may be safely entrusted with the highest privilege, the inalienable right of freemen—the right to vote.

Extend the Franchise to colored citizens, and your Constitution will be purified from gross violations of its spirit and of its letter. The first duty of legislators, is, to guard against apparently insignificant violations of sound and accepted principles; because such may become precedents for greater violations.

Extend the Franchise, and the Empire State will summon to her common weal all the elements of which she is composed. Her advancement would then be rapid, because there would be no dragweights, no castes to retard the onward march of mind.

Old Massachusetts, has, during fifty-five years, suffered all her citizens to vote on equal terms, and she is a glorious example of progress. Her ballot boxes are filled with the

"Voiceless utterance of the will!"

of freemen of every color, and of every sect. She says to every man within her borders, "My son, give me thy heart," and he gives it. Each one, and all, contribute to advance the great whole, and there she is,

"Little too look upon,

But terrible to cope with."

Her sauls whiten every sea; her ships go forth, commanded by white men, Indians and by pure Negroes. She has laid under contribution the weaker enterprise of the Empire State and turned into her own coffers a portion of that golden river which pours 2½ millions annually into our State treasury. "The great men of the old Bay State, are great men in the councils of the Nation—her Nortons, her Davis's, her Websters, her Cushings, her Banquets, and that 'old man eloquent,' who in perils times has been called "all that is left of the Republican"—have all of them been raised to eminence by the mingled sufferages of Indians, Whites and Negroes. She is a great State, because she give free exercise and equal privileges to the faculties of all her citizens.

Massachusetts on our east; then there is Ohio on our west—Ohio, distinguished ten years ago for her bitter oppression of colored men; Ohio is now about to take the lead in elevating and affranchisning her colored citizens. Hear the "report of a select committee of the Legislature of Ohio, proposing to repeal all laws creating distinctions on account of color, commonly called the BLACK LAWS":

* * "It was upon this doctrine of man's equality of natural and political rights, that the North American Colonies founded their claim to political independence. To establish this "equality of rights" they entered upon the war of the revolution, encountered its perils, fought its battles, and achieved its victories.

"Among those who shared in their dangers, and bore a part in that seven years struggle of toil and privation, were many colored men; and it is believed that the number of colored soldiers who served in the armies of the revolution was greater, in proportion to the colored population, than was that of the whites in proportion to the free white population of the then provinces. These colored men fought as gallantly, suffered as patiently and bled as freely as did their white brethren in arms. They contended for the same rights, and were stimulated by the same love of freedom, that nerved the arms of our ancestors during the memorable struggle; and, in the opinion of a majority of your committee, their descendants are as justly entitled to share in the benefits obtained from that glorious war for freedom, as are the sons of those who fought by their sides and shed their blood upon the same battle fields. They followed that justice to the white as well as to the colored portion of our population, requires the removal of all legal obstructions to the improvement and prosperity of all classes of our inhabitants," &c. &c. This Report is dated in House, Jan. 18th, 1845, and is signed by the Honorable, Robert P. Paine, N. P. Johnson and B. Randall.

The State (including the city) schools
of the

Another objection is—And I heard it proved by a t

REV. JOHN W. LEWIS.—This brother is a colored man. We mention this, because many of our readers do not know the fact. He has been for a long time in the employ of the New Hampshire Anti Slavery Society, as a lecturing agent, and has, taking the Herald of Freedom as authority, labored with great effect, none more so among them. He has received encomiums through the columns of the Herald, for the abundance of his labors, as well as the effect which has attended them, as great, and as many, doubtless, as he has wished to see. Brother Lewis has, in a letter to the executive committee of the Society, resigned his agency, giving his reasons for so doing. Among other things, he asserts, "that he feels it to be his duty to take strictly neutral ground in relation to the contentions going on between the two societies," which he thinks are ruinous rather than advantageous to the cause. The editor of the Herald, now that Brother Lewis has resigned his agency, and given his reasons, for the first time, has discovered that he has not been very faithful in the cause, especially of late, and is quite out upon him, notwithstanding having spoken so strongly in his favor, attributing to him reasons for resigning, other than those he has given, and which it were unworthy for him to do.

We confess our spirit stirred within us upon reading the remarks of the Herald, prefacing the letter of brother Lewis, and we had to lay it aside and let evaporation go on a little before we attempted to say anything about it. We cannot pass by in silence such thrusts at our brethren by some of the laborers in this cause, because, in their enlightened judgment and calm reason, they choose to differ from them, not upon the great question, but in regard to a certain spirit, and certain other views. When we look at such—what shall we call them? We have to say, "patience come speedily to our help." Brother Rogers must not suppose himself to be the oracle of wisdom, we know a little ourselves. We have not, as an op-pressed class, suffered so much and so long for nothing, and experience teaches us that our judgment is certainly worth something. He is certainly mistaken, also, when he says, that the colored people will not approve of the course of friend Lewis. We firmly believe, that ninetenths of the enlightened portion of them, unmoved by prejudice, by fear, or by favor, would, upon reading the letter, endorse every sentiment it contains. We intended to have found a place in this number, for the letter referred to, but shall endeavor to give it to our readers in our next.

We have never felt disposed, and we still do not, to enter into the arena of strife, which has been carried on among our friends. We refer to this matter now in defence of the course of brother Lewis.

NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 1841.

CIVIL CONDITION OF THE COLORED PEOPLE
OF OHIO.

OATH LAW.

We remarked at some length upon this law, in our pa-
per of December 26th, but circumstances having come
to our notice, compel us to refer to it again. It is suffi-
cient to say, that the law excludes the testimony of a co-
lored person (or was intended to,) against a white person.
We stated explicitly that a white man might murder a
colored man, in the presence of colored persons only, and
under the operations of this law, or as it had been inter-
preted, the murderer might go unpunished. Such a case
of murder has already occurred.

About one year since, a white man, living in the vi-
cinity of Cincinnati, enticed Charles Scott and brother,
colored men, across the river into Kentucky, upon pre-
tence to assist in bringing some cattle into Ohio.
They had no sooner landed on the Kentucky side of the
river, than they were incarcerated in jail, as runaway
slaves. The brother soon procured the necessary testi-
mony and was released, but Charles had to lie there six
weeks. On his return home, he immediately commenced
a suit against the white man for false imprisonment, which
incensed him exceedingly. Attempts were made to in-
duce him to withdraw the suit, at last they threatened to
shoot him if he did not do so; but all to no purpose. A
short time since he was shot in his own house, by his own
fireside, while engaged, it is said, in singing to his wife.
This dark deed occurred on Saturday.

The man was arrested, and the following Monday was
the day set apart for the trial, to examine the case. But
there were none present when the deed was committed,
but colored persons, whose testimony against a white per-
son this law makes invalid. The attorney for the accus-
ed, therefore, rejected the testimony of the wife of Scott,
who recognized the man, as not admissible, she being a
black person. But there was another person present of
a different complexion, but the defendant's attorney ruled
her testimony out also, on the ground that she was a mu-
latto. Thus this case was attempted to be got rid of,
and the murderer to go unpunished, because the persons
who saw the deed committed, " were black and mulatto."

But the Judge questioned whether the latter person
was a mulatto. And as the law, advantage of which was
now attempted to be taken, confined itself strictly in
its letter, to "blacks and mulattoes," and the Supreme
Court, having decided that this statute was a "disabling
one, and intended to take away every existing right," decid-
ed that it should be construed literally. He, therefore,
this being a desperate case, not stopping to reason about
what the framers of it meant, what they had in their
minds at the time, should take them at what they said,
and adhere strictly to its letter. The attorney for the de-
fendant, failing to prove that this woman was a "mu-
latto," the Justice admitted her testimony, and the man
was committed for trial. This is something new too, in
our country, for a Judge to throw his doubts in favor of a
colored person.

The Ohio people are beginning to arrive where they
might necessarily expect to be carried by warring against
right, as they have done in the enactment of such laws.
They find it necessary now, as one might argue, to vio-
late their intent, (for it was intended to operate only
against the colored people, and cut off all colored testi-
mony,) necessary to save themselves, to keep society
pure. It will not do to let a murderer go at large, though
he has murdered only a colored person; it will not do to
let him loose, the flood gates to murder having been let
down, he will next, when he thinks it may suit his con-
venience, murder some of us; therefore, though we have
but colored testimony, which this law intended to rule out,
we will adhere strictly to the letter of it, and this colored
person, being neither a "black nor a mulatto," we will
admit the evidence, commit the man, and rid society of a
murderer.

But this interpretation of this law, has another very
important bearing. The decision is, that a strict literal
construction shall be put upon it; courts shall be govern-
ed by what it says. It speaks only of "blacks and mulat-
toes," the prosecuting attorney, therefore, contended,
that by this decision, his client might prove the witness
to be any shade of complexion between white and black,
(excepting a mulatto) and her testimony was admissible.

What a reflection upon that law, and upon the men who
passed it, and upon those also who suffer it to remain
upon the statute book.

We knew that a person in Ohio, proving himself to be
two-thirds white became entitled, by this decision, to the
rights of a freeman; but now, by this interpretation, a
more general application is to be made of it, and all other
shades of complexion not mentioned in it, are not to be
ruled out by it. The law is abominable, modify it ever so
much—better interpret it all away, and let it bear down no
longer upon any class of immortal minds in the State.

This decision of the Supreme Court, becomes the law
of the State, and as our people are diversified with almost
every shade of complexion, from the white up, this inter-
pretation of it, at once puts all to whom the term in the
original law does not literally apply, while the decision
remains unrevoked, into the rights of citizens.

For if the terms "blacks and mulattoes," do not apply
in the oath law, by the same decision, neither will they
in the settlement law, nor in the franchise law. Every
right of citizens, therefore, not withheld by the use of the
term cloored, or guarded by the insertion of the word
white, this decision puts those to whom the term in the
original law does not apply, into the possession of. What
legislation this, how it turns into folly the wisdom of sage
actors, how it rebukes man for running headlong against
common justice, how it shows the conflicting fruits, and
disarrangement to follow, in not only disregarding, but
destroying the rights of a class.

We hope our people in Ohio will hold on, preparing
for the best. Their case becomes every day more and more
hopeful. The "black laws" will soon give way to make
room for just ones. Safety, poliey, interest and justice
are all combining, and will soon set in like a flood, to
make the people act and watch for the common defence,
without regard to complexion.

We have used terms in this article, which we prefer,
when we can, to avoid, but which we are sometimes com-
pelled, as in this case, to use, to show the folly, in some
cases, of human wisdom.

J. W. DUFFIN, OF GENEVA, SAID :

He rejoiced to hear that a call was to be sent out, for a National Convention. He wished that it might be extended to our brethren in Canada—there were ten or twelve thousand of our brethren there, whose feelings, hopes, and interests, were identified with our own; those that had been driven there in consequence of slavery, and would gladly participate with us in any thing that would break the yoke of oppression, and meliorate our condition. He had long been of the opinion that a National Convention of our people, was needed, in order to bring us together, to deliberate on those questions that pertain to our rights; that the time had come when we ought to take the subject into our own hands, when we ought with one mighty and united effort roll back the tide of oppression, that is about to overwhelm us. Our white friends had done perhaps all they could, towards redressing our wrongs. He hoped that they would continue their efforts in connection with ours. Yet he believed that the history of the world, and common sense, clearly shows that if a people would be free, they must labor for it themselves; they must come together as one man, determined never to give up the struggle until liberty is theirs. I hail this contemplated convention, Mr. President, as the best of better days.

I believe sir, that if it is rightly conducted, relying upon God for success, it will be the commencement of a new era in the history of our people. I would have that convention speak out to the slave holders and oppressors in this nation, in language that could not be misunderstood; tell them that the millions of our oppressed brethren must go free; tell them that the three hundred thousand nominally free, in the nominally free states, are laboring under grievous and severe laws that has kept us down to the earth, and will unless removed, forever hinder us from rising to the dignity and station of men. There were numerous reasons, why we should have a National Convention; many of them had already been given in the very able speech that had preceded him; but there were a few more reasons that he would give, we wanted a convention, that we might take some measures for the establishment of a permanent press amongst us, through which our grievances might be known, that it might be a witness against our enemies, who deny the ability of colored men to speak or write intelligently. He believed that there was talent enough—that there was money enough, and enterprise enough, amongst us to establish a press that would be permanent and lasting; but it required union in the matter, and all must feel interest in its success and prosperity. We wanted a National

Convention that we might put a stop, once and forever to colonizationist; we are their subjects. Let us tell them that we can never be removed through their instrumentality, from this the land of our birth; a land that has been enriched by the blood and sweat, and toil of our ancestors; that we have no confidence in their pretended philanthropy and hypocritical benevolence. I would have a convention sir, he said, that would take measures to protect the fugitive slave that has escaped at the peril of his life to us, and of whom God says, that we shall in no wise deliver up. I would have our white friends identify themselves with us in this matter, and instead of exiling the poor fugitive in another land to famish and starve, to stand by him, and protect him, and if the slave holder carries him back into bondage, that he must carry us with with him. He did not believe in this kind of milk and water abolition that would see a poor bleeding fugitive that had fled to us for protection, sent on to a land of strangers, and there perhaps to die, for the want of the necessaries of life. There was much that might be said Mr. President, on this subject as well as others. He did not know hardly where to begin, so important was the work before us.

He rejoiced to see so large a meeting convened together, on this subject; especially was he glad to see so many ladies present, it showed that they felt the importance of this subject, they were indeed interested in this matter; a million and a half of their sex, were now suffering all the cruelties and abuse that a tyrannical oppressor choose to inflict upon them. They could do much by their united efforts towards restoring the slave and themselves to that station in society for which God had created them. And now, Mr. President, he said, I will leave this important subject with these brief remarks, hoping that the call for this convention may be sent out immediately, thro' the length and breadth of this land;—that meetings responding to this call may be held in every city and town, and that delegates may be sent up to the convention, with a full determination to do whatever is right, and never give over the struggle until we are a free and disenthralled people.

["For the Colored American.", "OUR FRIENDS HINDER OUR IMPROVEMENT.\"", "Mr. Editor,—I noticed an article in your last\npaper, under the above head. It showed the\nnecessity of an educated colored ministry, and\nmoreover showed how ill our wants are suppli-\ned. I concur with your remarks, and feel rejoiced\nin this, as I have often felt in other instances, for\nthe deep interest that you manifest for the wel-\nfare of our people.", "Surely your description of the disease is plain,\nand leaves no doubt of its correctness. But, sir,\npermit me to say that the remedy which you have\nprescribed, has not the power or will to remove it.\nYour remedy is \"a demand of the church.\"—\nAlas for her! it is with shame that I say, she will\nnot grant the demand. I do not mean to say,\nthat the church will do nothing; for there are a\nfew who have not defiled themselves by the love of\nfilthy lucre. But that number is small; and it\nhappens to be made out of that portion who are,\nin reality, the least prepared, or able to contrib-\nute. I repeat it, the church will not support my\nconfident sons, nor I feel confident, that what I\nsay is true, if I may judge by her works. Of\ncourse, sir, I mean our churches; and when I say\nour, I mean the colored churches.", "I am personally acquainted with several young men, who are preparing for the ministry, who receive most all of what little support they have, from those who belong to no church. These are facts: now what is to be done? Why, if those young men have the use of their hands, they must work their own way through, may be the reply. We have need to thank God that this most every colored student should do. I would not wish to be understood that I say we should be glad that prejudice shuts us out from all but manual labor Institutions, but that we should rejoice that our young men are required to \"join manual with mental labor.\" But suppose young men get embarassed even in manual labor schools, what are they to do? Apply to their friends,— But their friends are poor, and have already done all they can. Well, let them leave their books for awhile, and put their manual labor into practice. O, but will this not look like \"edging into tice.\" O, but will this not look like \"edging into tice.\" O, but will this not look like \"edging into tice.\"—What! turn to some other calling? Who is it that tells us thus to act? Must we then turn away from the injunctions which God has laid upon us? No, never. For the covenant which we make with our Master, is not to be broken with impu- nity. Woe be unto us, if we preach not the gospel. It is hoped that those who are preparing themselves to proclaim the riches of free grace, are actuated by no other motives than a sense of their duty to God, and true Christian benevolence. And if thus we are governed, who is it that is to tell us to turn to some other calling?", "The young colored men who are in some fu-\nture day to fill the pulpit, are sons of poor men;\nfor be it known that the rich are either ashamed\nor unwilling to take up the humble mantle of our\nLord and Saviour. Therefore, the gospel now,\nas in ancient days, is, and will be preached by the\npoor; and have the poor the means? The col-\nored student has no c**n**cation societies to which\nhe can apply—no able friends to lend him money,\nand what is he to do? If he leaves his studies\nto collect means to defray his expenses, he is in\ndanger of being numbed with those who are\nsaid to be \"edging into the ministry by a side\ncut.\" Where are our benevolent, monied men?\nWhy, they are loud and eloquent upon the floor,\nbefore crowded assemblies, but if you would find\ntheir money, you must look to the stout old iron\nchests, that are groaning with loads of dollars,\nturned blue by age and disease.", "Whoever has tears that he wishes to shed, let\nhim look at the poor colored student, who is about\nto go in search of the golden treasures of knowl-\nedge. He takes his little wallet, and with a few\nedge. He takes his pocket, he starts. He finally reach-\nes his place of destination, and believes the tables\nspread with the sweet food of wisdom. He is\ninvited to partake of the dainties, which he eager-\nly accepts. But ere he has allayed his longing\nappetite, he must up, and go out into the busy\nworld, to get money enough to pay his fare.—\nThese are the cares that", "\"Cloud young genius, brightening into day.\"", "A POOR STUDENT.", "Philadelphia, August 21st, 1837.", "REV. S. E. CORNISH:", "My dear Sir,—I avail myself of the first lei-\nsure moment to inform you that the SO CALLED\n\"Moral Reform Convention,\" closed its sitting\non Friday afternoon last, as was expected. The\nprofessed object of the meeting, as you are aware,\nwas to devise plans for ameliorating the condition\nof the people of color; and according to usage,\nafter its organization, a committee was sent out to\nbring in a form of business for its action. This\nCommittee reported; and the first item of their\nreport was in substance to this effect:—\"that we\nrecommend to the free people of color the estab-\nlishment of schools, in the mutual improvement\nof old and young, in every State, county, city,\ntown, village, &c., wherever it might be practica-\nble and safe, for the acquisition of a good English\neducation, and also to acquire the mechanic arts.\"\nFrom this you will perceive that the Committee\nsurveyed the whole ground, and came to the\nconclusion that such a recommendation was best\nadapted to the circumstances of our people at\npresent,—they being destitute, as a people, of\nthese grand essentials,—for a change in their\ncondition. Our duty therefore required of us to\nrecommend this course, as, under existing circum-\nstances, it was obvious that none more advan-\ntageous could possibly be proposed, for the pur-\npose of attaining that foundation which must\nnecessarily render their advancement, as well as\nthat of the rising generation, in every point of\nview, under God, sure and certain. We were\ninduced to make this direct reference to the free\npeople of color, inasmuch as our enslaved brothers\nexist, geographically speaking, beyond our sphere\nof action,—to say nothing of the severe and\noppressive laws which prohibit them from the\nenjoyment of all moral and religious privileges;\nand while we cherish the keepest sympathy for\nthem, we consider that it would be useless to\ndirect the reference to them.", "But blind and furid-\nous objections, which finally resulted in its over-\nthrow, were urged against the admission of\nthe throw, the reasons\narged by the adverse party, was, that the term\n\"colored,\" implied degradation; and they further\ninsisted that their duties should have relation to\nthe white as well as the colored community !! and\nothers alike unwise, absurd and preposterous. It\nmay indeed seem almost incredible, that a specifi-\ncity like the first here noticed, should be brought\nforward by men of color, against the hine with\nwhich it hath pleased Infinite Wisdom to cover\nthem; yet, it is a lamentable fact that such was\nthe only legitimate inference that could be drawn\nfrom what, on this point, was said. One of the\nobjectors to the word \"color,\" went so far, in the\nplenitude of his wisdom, as to *âsk*—\"Why should\nwe glory in retaining the *bugdage* of our degrada-\ntion?!!!!\" This is here mentioned merely to con-\nvey an accurate idea of the sense and tenor of\nthe objections brought forward: as any thing so ex-\ceedingly simple and ridiculous, is wholly un-\nworthy of further notice. As to our proceedings\nhaving relation to the *improvement* of the *white*\n*population*, who possess and cultivate every ad-\nvantage which we need, and are seeking to secure\nto ourselves, it is a piece of ridiculous nonsense\nthat I shall not waste ink with, further than this\npassing notice.", "But the question will be asked, how was it pos-\nsible, then, that the resolution should have met\nan overthrow? I answer, that after the resolution\nhad underwent discussion, and was passed by a\ngood majority, it was at a future period, and in\nthe absence of some of the more sensible and re-\nfleeting men, again called up; and by the practice\nof deception, and the casting vote of the presiding\nofficer, the former decision was reversed.", "This, we believe, is the first instance of any\nportion of God's creatures quarrelling with and\nrefusing to be recognised, when necessary, by the\ncolor with which he has chosen to designate them;\nand if these are the principles which are to char-\nterize the wise moderan reformers, tell those", "splendid instances of disinterested philanthropy\nwhich adorn your great city and State, to furl\ntheir banners, and cease to plead the cause of the\ncolored man!—for if it is *color*, and not *condition*,\nthat must be changed, our doom, as a people, is\ninevitably fixed. No reformers, preceding these,\nhave ever refused identity with all the pereculiari-\nties of their people,—but either have sought to\nembrace them;—as Moses preferred to be known\namong and identified with his people, notwith-\nstanding all their uniseries and persecutions, to all\nthe glittering stars and honors of Pharaoh's courts.\nHow fruitless would have been all the exertions\nand efforts of Chatham, Wilberforce, Pitt, and\nother advocates for the abolition of the slave trade,\nand others for West India emancipation, if they\nhad sought a change in *color* instead of *condition* ?\nor had claimed their rights on the ground that it\nor had claimed the slaves were of the *hue*\ncould not be *proved* that the slaves were of the *

For the Colored American

## AFRICAN MISSIONS.

TO ONESIMUS.

Dear Sir,—I have carefully perused your eloquent appeals in behalf of “ill-fated Africa;” and while contemplating the magnitude of the subject, have been led to admire your zeal, devotion, and faithfulness to the cause of “African Missions.”

As an impartial and candid inquirer after truth, I have endeavored to disconnect the subject from all its kindred objects, so that its claims might stand forth in bold relief, free from sectarian bias and established prejudices. When I have not been able to adopt the reasoning by which your arguments were enforced, I still regarded the subject as having claims on the enlightened humanity of the world.

In your 10th letter, you regard the successful prosecution of this subject as one of the surest methods of abolishing slavery. Now, sir, if you can but fairly substantiate this argument, you will enlist thousands in its support. I believe it to be our duty to rally around that standard that points most unerringly to the emancipation of the “human race.” It is not my intention at present to attempt at controverting your positions, or give a descriptive analogy respecting the claims of kindred institutions that are engaged in the same holy enterprise. Although, to my mind, your concepts of the principles and measures that are now in operation in this country for the abolition of slavery, appear to be quite superficial.

It may be necessary, before interrogating you with respect to the character of the principles your society proposes to introduce into Africa for the suppression or annihilation of slavery, to briefly state my own.

1. I believe **Christianity** to be the antipode of human slavery.

2. That the principles of the Christian religion, when introduced and practiced in any country where slavery exists, are calculated to effect its entire abolition. Now this very assumption leads me to adopt the belief that the true principles of Christianity have had but a partial introduction into this country, either in theory or practice.

The most prominent religion in this country is the Protestant religion; and as slavery has “grown with its growth, and strengthened with its strength,” I am unable to arrive at the conclusion that it displays the powers of God, or carries with it those evidences of a divine nature that Jesus Christ suffered and died to establish. Therefore I do not regard it as a blessing to Africa to erect its standard on her heathen shores. Born and nurtured under the despotisms of the “old world,” it became allied to them. When the civil power became its patron, “the unnatural marriage between “Church and State” was consummated. Their combined efforts are now employed in attempting to crush the peasantry of the “Emerald Isle.” When the Protestant religion was introduced into this country, it brought with it all its forms and ceremonies—its pomp and grandeur, as well as its prominent features of despotism. It came anterior to the establishment of our “national government;” therefore the nuptial ceremony became unnecessary, because it bound itself up with the government, and therefore became a part of it. It now exhibits its despotic power in the halls of our National and State Legislatures, by abridging the right of petition on the subject of slavery, and performing such other service for the lordly oppressor as may tend to perpetuate his demoniacal power over the victim of his cupidity, lust and avarice.

The adoption of the “Declaration of American Independence,” and the cultivation of free principles, in spite of the combined efforts of the “Protestant Churches” and the civil government, have, so far as relates to the subject of slavery, divided the former into three grand divisions. The first vindicates it. The second tolerates it, and the third opposes it in all its forms, at all times, in all places, and in every country. Now, sir, if your society is

not formed of such persons as constitute the latter division of Protestants, so far as the subject of slavery is concerned, it will not deserve public patronage.

But if it be your object, by establishing a Missionary Society in this country, to spread in Africa what is termed here, “light, civilization and religion,” then I most respectfully ask whether it be the same kind of religion that has banished the native Indians beyond the bosom of the distant waters—the religion that has both sanctified and condemned the African slave trade, according to the whims of caprice, the goadings of ambition, or the corroding spirit of avarice—the religion that not only sanctions, but sustains and protects American slavery, the proof of which is to be found in the theological disquisitions of its most distinguished advocates, the records of ecclesiastical councils, and the authoritative doctrines of its learned expounders.

It should be the kind of religion your Society intends to carry into Africa, I humbly protest, in the name of freedom and freedom's God, against such a wicked and abominable crusade against the “rights of man.” I am at a loss to know where you will be able to derive your arguments from, that will prove that the Protestant religion has been the means of abolishing slavery in any country; at least, it will be difficult to point to that period when it will have annihilated the spirit in Africa, that it has been cultivating for these centuries in America. With the hope that you may continue to enlighten the public mind on this subject, I subscribe myself, Yours respectfully, AMERICANUS.

Columbia, Oct. 5, 1841.

For the Colored American

MR. EDITOR—My last letter informed you that I was not yet through my visit at Middletown, Conn., and that I hoped to be able to do considerable more for our journal, &c. My expectations were not fully realized, yet I did very well, considering the hard times, and the few working men and women that they have got. Four or five of them have to do most all the work in both Church and State, whilst others do comparatively nothing, yet participate equally in the benefits; still, the cause of improvement is onward, and a brighter day is dawning. Brother P. Ross is with them as pastor, and notwithstanding he is a small man, he has a large heart, and a strong voice, and believes in going right ahead in religion, temperance, education, and all the rights of his master's down-trodden and poor.

The spirit of Colonization in Middletown is still unwilling to go down, yet it is dying.

As usual, you will perceive that I have been walking

in the city of the dead, (the grave yard.) I was accompanied by brethren Ross, Jeffrey, and Hanson.—Tombstones tell such hard stories, we did not know whether to believe the following or not, which we found on two of them. Perhaps you can tell us, as Middletown used to be your place of residence:

1. "In memory of Jenney, the servant of the Rev. Enoch Huntington, and wife of Mark Winthrop—ho died April 28, 1784. On the day of her death, she was Mr. Huntington's property"!!

2. "In memory of Cato, servant of Lamberton Cooper, who died Sept. 4, 1804, in the 17th year of his age."

Do you think that they were used well? Methinks eternity will tell it.

worldly honor; and that it will, in equal degree,
despise the lowly and less prosperous. This is the
true reason of our debasement. It is upon this
foundation that the gigantic fabric of American
prejudice, against the African and his descendants,
stands. But, although the superstructure of this
cedifice be stupendous, and its foundation deep,
broad, and ample, it rests upon a quicksand—the
quicksand of error, which is destined to be swept
away by the irresistible torrent of truth, and hur-
ried down the dark wave of oblivion,—no more to
be remembered while time exists, or while the un-
ending revolutions of eternity endure. It is be-
cause public opinion has ever crouched in sup-
pliance before the prudence, distinction and honor
of the world, that nations upon which the sun of
prosperity once shone, and which were, in conse-
quence, honored and caressed, are now,—being
overshadowed by the clouds of adversity,—insulted
and enslaved. It is not so made for what they are
in themselves, as for what they are not in the esti-
mation of the world. It is not because the African
is black, that he is depressed both in his own person
and in his descendants. Black he has been from
time immemorial. His black complexion gave no
offence either to the optic or olfactory nerves of
the immortal gods, when he was the most highly
honored guest at their sumptuous banquets; nor
would it, in my humble opinion, be so now, even
to the most fastidious American, were the condi-
tion of the country of his ancestors as exalted as
once it stood in the scale of nations.

I remember an anecdote somewhat in point. At
the time of the occurrence of which I am about to
speak, it was contrary to the regulations required
to be observed at Vauxhall Garden, to allow visit-
ors to that establishment to take their dogs in with
them. A spinster lady visiting that garden, car-
ried with her a favorite lap-dog, from which, being
much attached to it, she was loth to be separated.
The porter at the gate remonstrated, and refused to
admit the lady unless she would go without her
pet. The lady, in turn, expostulated long and
earnestly, but in vain. At length, finding verbal
argument of no avail, she quietly slipped a shilling
into the porter's hand, who still remonstrated,
though evidently not so strenuously as before.—
Soon a second metallic argument followed the
first, by which the porter, if not convinced, was at
least satisfied, for he declared that, "by the aid of
the pair of spectacles she had given him, he per-
ceived that it was a cat which she had brought,
and not a dog," and with a significant "Ask your
pardon, Ma'am," he quietly let her pass. Thus
for the anecdote; leaving each reader to make
the application for himself, I remark, that if the
vast peninsula of Africa, instead of being, as now,
divided and subdivided into so many petty States,
was one consolidated empire; and if its ninety
millions of population possessed regularly organ-
ized and well disciplined navies; enjoyed the light
of education; were conversant with the circle of
the sciences; familiar with the fine arts; and,
above all, illuminated—though but partially, even
as this land—by the benign ray of Christianity;
what mental vision is there so obtuse that may not
see, that, far different there the state of feeling to-
ward the African, sojourn whereso'er he might?
Nor would he then be subject to such indigities,
when required by duty, pleasure, or by whatever
cause, to travel in the free States of "the freest na-
tion upon earth." The house of God were then no
longer sacrilegiously disgraced, and the majesty of
Jehovah insulted by the existence of the "Negro
Pew;" because Africans would then no longer be
enslaved; and it would no longer be politic to fos-
ter a prejudicial hatred against them in order that

the right kind. I visited the Mendians every day
while in town, and it would do your heart and soul good
to sit and see them learn while their teacher, Mr. Ray-
mond, is instructing them. When they come to a hard
word, soon as they find out what it is, so that they un-
derstand it, they all laugh right out loud, it makes them
so glad; and so they are going ahead. In my next, I
shall tell you something more about Farmington and
New Haven.

I know you will rebuke me for writing so long a let-
ter, but I ask your pardon, and hope you will grant it
without abridging my letter, as your clerk did before.
I will now close, if you will please to record the names
of Cinque and his comrades, in connection with this
letter, that they may be a matter of history, and our
journal graced with such illustrious names, to hand
down to posterity:

Cinque, the Chief; Kinna; Ka-li, (Wu-lu;) Little
Fu-li, (Wa;) Large Bar-tu; Ful-li, (Wu-lu;) Fa-ban-
na; Fa-gin-na; Ban-na, (Wa;) Si-si; So-ko-ma;
Kong; Sa; Grab-eau; Ya-boi; Na-qua, or Na-kwoi;
Ber-ri; Yang-o-ni; Ban-yai-ye; Dam-ma; Ba; Fa-
kin-na; Pi-e; Molu; Kimbo; Kali, (Wa;) Su-ma,
Shu-li; Ban-na, (Wu-lu;) Pu-ngwaw-ni; Kon-o-ma;
Ba-u. The names of the girls are, Mar-gru; Te-me;
Ken-yeh. The name of the one that was drowned is
Fo-ni.

I expect to leave Hartford for Springfield, at 2
o'clock this afternoon. Adieu.

W. P. JOHNSON.

LETTER OF REV. J. C. BEMAN.

Mr. Editor,—Should the following sketch of my recent tour to Baltimore, Md., and Washington, be thought worthy a place in your valuable paper, it is at your disposal.

I left Boston July 16th, via New York and Philadelphia, and on the 21st, left the latter place in the car for Baltimore, in company with the Rev. Wm. Miller, of Philadelphia, one of the superintendents of our connection, and Br. Collins, the preacher in charge of the Wesley church in Philadelphia. After paying our fare, we were pointed to the Jim Crow or separate car. Nothing very particular transpired until we arrived at the ferry to cross to Havre de Grace, Md. While on the boat, which is fitted up with refreshment tables, Br. Collins proposed our taking some refreshments, to which I consented; and after buying and paying for what we wanted, we commenced eating. Instantly, the man in attendance says, "Here, here, you must not eat here;" and calling a boy (colored), says to him, "Open that door, and show the men where they may eat, and be quick." This door opened into the kitchen or pantry. "There," said he, sternly, "is the place for you." Resistance was useless in a land of whips.

As we proceeded on our way, it was painful to see the way passengers coming into the car desisted to neighboring plantations; and as the conductor came into the car to receive the fare, they would show each one a scrap of paper [pass], and he would read and nod the head and pass out.

Having arrived in Baltimore, I took my seat with my brethren in the Conference, which I came to attend, as a delegate from the New York Conference. On the 25th July, the Conference granting leave of absence for the day, in company with Br. Mars we repaired to the depot to obtain tickets for Washington. On asking the clerk for tickets, the answer was, "Who is your bondsman? You can have no ticket unless a white man gives bonds for you?" It was fortunate for me, that before I left the old Bay State, I procured a protection from under the hand of the governor, with the seal of the State. Not only so, I took a line from under the hand of the clerk of the Philadelphia depot, when I arrived in Baltimore, stating that my name was on the way-bill from Philadelphia.

Thus I obtained my ticket, and took my seat in another JIMMY or separate car; and as we moved towards the capitol, what scenes presented to my view—the plantations, the farm houses, and log cabins. But in the fields, to see my sisters toiling, pitchfork and rake in hand, under the scorching rays of the sun, with no covering on the head, and but little on the body—as this was the first scene of the kind I ever saw, my feelings were such as I cannot describe. I tried to raise my cries to Heaven, but in this I was interrupted, for the flowing tear forced its way down my care-worn cheek, and with the brother that was with me, I remained in silence while the car rolled on, and I could but think of the words of the statesman, "I tremble for my country, when I know that God is just."

We were soon in the great metropolis. We first visited the patent office; from thence to the school of the Rev. Mr. Cook (colored), and here I was struck with the different shades of complexion; some very dark, and some almost white. I thought the inseparable barrier had been passed. From thence to the president's house. Viewing this in the interior, I thought, must this nation pay a man $25,000 per year, to enjoy all this splendor, and he hold my brother in bonds? From thence I found my way to the capitol—viewed the paintings, the Senate chamber, the Representative hall, and from its splendid dome, viewed the District of Columbia; but notwithstanding all its greatness, I thought slavery was wafted on every breeze. I then dined at a Mr. Walker's eating-house, and at four o'clock took the cars for Baltimore, sighing to think that my father faced the cannon's mouth for this country's liberty, and I and my brother still bound.

During my stay in Baltimore, I attended what they call a bush meeting, in Ann Arundell Co., on the plantation of Mr. R. Cromwell, who has a large number of slaves that were in attendance. There was powerful preaching by the brethren in attendance. Yet to see some two thousand people, all colored, and a large number of them in bonds, although they appeared to enjoy the meeting, and had plenty of food for the time being, yet slavery poisoned all its sweets to me, and I turn from the sickening picture, while the loss of reason alone can erase from my mind the scenes through which I have just passed.

J. C. BEMAN.

Boston, Aug. 10, 1844.

The Pittsburgh papers contain a letter signed

From the Friend of Man.

Speech of Rev. Theodore S. Wright,

AT THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE NEW-YORK STATE ANTI-SLavery SOCIETY,

Ulica, September 27th, 1837, in support of the
following resolution:

Resolved, That we claim for our colored brethren all the privileges, civil and social, literary and religious, to which, if they were white, their pressing wants and moral worth would entitle them; and that we look upon those social circles, and those literary institutions, and those Christian churches, which have fully yielded to this claim, with lively complacency and warm approbation.

Nothing but a sense of imperious duty, at all times and under all circumstances, where I am permitted to lift up my voice in behalf of crushed humanity, induces me, at this late period of the evening, to occupy a few moments of your precious time.

Nothing is more common than the remark, that anti-slavery agents are "men of one idea," and that their topics are very common-place. It is true with regard to the great subject involved in this resolution, viz. prejudice against color, and the recognition of all the rights of the colored man, under all circumstances—it is true that it is a trite and common subject with three hundred thousand men in this country. They feel the evils of prejudice, and the subject is emphatically common-place to them. The colored man, at every progressive step, literally runs the gauntlet. He is scarred from head to foot, in all the walks of life. The evils of prejudice are wide spread and wicked; and nothing will be effected for the benefit of the people of color, until a proper public sentiment be formed with regard to this class of the community; until the people feel that the course pursued is a wicked course.—The prejudice entertained in this country is peculiarly American, and robs the people of color of their political rights. This was shown by Mr. Yates, in his statements respecting their legal disabilities. It was shown that they were deprived, even in this state, of the right of trial by jury. He who addresses you might be arrested to-night, and brought before the magistrates of this city; and, if arrested as a slave, would not be allowed a trial by jury.

This prejudice also disintegrates a man of color, takes from him the right of choosing his rulers.— Had we time, we might dwell upon another class of disabilities thrown upon the man of color. It imposes innumerable, and almost insurmountable obstacles to his obtaining a livelihood. It deprives him of acquiring the mechanic arts. The difficulty of colored young men in acquiring the knowledge of trades, and after they have acquired the knowledge of trades of getting employment, is manifest. It is well known that there is a monopoly here, so great a monopoly that men of color cannot enjoy these privileges, or if they do, with great difficulty.— From most of the useful occupations in society, they are excluded. They are not employed as clerks, no matter what may be their talents or skill. They are also deprived of the privileges of education. Every person who is acquainted with the subject knows perfectly well, that throughout this whole state colored children are excluded from common schools. In such places as Schenectady, Poughkeepsie, and Catskill, and all these large places, colored parents train up their children under great disadvantages, in respect to education. From colleges they have been entirely excluded, with the exception of two or three—the Oneida Institute and Dartmouth College. These two institutions are now open. They have declared to the world, that they will receive persons irrespective of color.

I confess it is somewhat embarrassing for a man to speak of his own degradation. But when he feels the pressure of such disabilities as I have mentioned; when, whether at home or abroad, in the parlor, the stage coach, the bar room, or the public mart, he feels the pressure of the chain, how can he be silent? Why is all this? Sir, it is to be traced to the spirit of slavery existing in the breasts of men, even in those who think they have sympathized for the oppressed. This is the great support of, the system of slavery. Oh! there is enough in this feeling to cause tears of blood to flow from the eyes of those who possess it. It is this that deprives man of his manhood; brings him down from that elevated position which God designed he should occupy, to a place with chattels and things. Oh! if we had time to delineate the effects of this spirit, we should keep you here till midnight, stating facts and telling tales of woe, the thought of which makes our spirits to sink within us. I will state but a few facts, illustrative of the effect of the prevalence of the cord of caste.

Miss Betsy Stockton, a colored lady, who accompanied Mrs. Stewart on the first mission, I think, to the Sandwich Islands, was traveling for her health. In coming up the North River, although under the protection of a white gentleman, and although an intelligent and philanthropic woman, who had crossed the ocean to aid in enlightening and converting the heathen, she was not permitted a place beneath the deck to lay her head in the damp night. By this exposure her health was injured and her life endangered.

Mrs. Smith was a pious woman, and lived in Newburgh. She was going down the North River on the steam boat. Night began to come on, and she thought of the infant she held in her arms. She went to the captain of the steam boat and plead for a place, where with her dear babe she might be comfortable, and its life and health not be jeopardized. Such a place she was refused. She arrived at the city of New-York. Her child died, and after a short period she died herself, from the cold she then caught.

I might also mention the case of the Rev. Jeremiah Gloucester, former pastor of the Second Presbyterian church in Philadelphia. Eight years since he traveled, on his professional tour, through New England—was excluded from the cabin of a steam boat at night. Although in poor health, like his master, he had not where to lay his head. His exposure threw him into a decline, and he died.

I might relate other painful facts, to illustrate the bearing of this prejudice upon the life of its victims.

The following I state by request: In the fall of 1828, a gentleman and lady, friends of mine, with a little infant, came from Princeton, New Jersey, to visit me at Schenectady. On the steam boat between New-York and Albany, they were denied a place to lay their heads at night. When they arrived at Albany, they sought a passage in the stage for Schenectady. The woman being light complexed would pass for white. She was interrogated very promptly whether she wished a passage. She told them she did. Her baggage was put on the stage. But when she spoke to her husband, and they discovered he was a dark man, the baggage was taken off the stage, and they refused a passage in it. She sat down upon the baggage, with her babe in her arms, and wept, when some benevolent friend, seeing their condition, kindly procured for them a private vehicle, at an expense of four dollars, which conveyed them to my residence in Schenectady. On their return from their visit, they went to Albany, expecting to meet the steam boat Albany, which, at that time, was very favorably disposed toward the people of color. But, unfortunately, they were a few moments too late. Their condition then was lamentable. I went from steam boat to steam boat; made great efforts to procure a passage for them, so that the mother, with her infant, might return comfortably; but in vain was my attempt. Whilst her husband left her and went home, I was compelled to return with her to my residence in Schenectady. When the boat returned to Albany, with my companion, I accompanied her home to Princeton. On our return, between Brunswick and New-York, we were overcome by a tremendous gale and rain; and in consequence of my companion being excluded from the ladies' apartment, she caught a violent cold, which detained us several days in New-York.—Now despair almost drank up my spirits. I went from steam boat to steam boat, from line to line, to obtain a place, even below the deck, so that our

lives might not be endangered. I made interest with my friends to strive for me, but in vain. At length we went on board of the steam boat, and were compelled to sit on deck. This was in the fall; ice was in the river, and the weather was cold. At night, my wife was permitted to sleep with the cook, in a dirty apartment near the machinery, whilst I was permitted—and thankful was I for the privilege—to lie down on the deck, inclosed as it is from the weather. In the morning, we rejoiced and blessed God together for the preservation of our lives. But alas! my wife had received the fatal shaft, and she died after a few months, in consequence of the cold she then caught. Here are the results of prejudice; and such things are constantly taking place. Now I call upon all present to ask themselves, if here they ought not to remember those who are in bonds as bound with them. How would the men and women of this convention feel and act, were they similarly circumtanced? How would the members of this meeting act, were they under the disabilities of the colored man?

As I said before, we have to run the gauntlet. Sabath before last, I had occasion to visit New Rochelle, to see my family, who were then in that place. I attended the Presbyterian church in the morning—took a place in the gallery. I was requested to leave my seat, and occupy another place. I did not think it proper, however, to move, and thus sanction my own degradation. In the evening, I thought I would go and hear the Methodist brethren. They understood I was a minister from New-York. They treated me with kindness, and invited me to address the meeting. I assented—and no sooner did I commence, than there was a rush at the door; and the cry was raised, "Bring him out!" After I left the house, I was surrounded by a number of young men, who exhibited the spirit of foul fiends, rather than of human beings. I thought it unsafe to go to my vehicle. I waited till my friend brought it, and myself and wife got in. Sir, the sufferings of the colored man are fully known only to him who experiences them.

When we hear you talk of female seminaries, and of sending your daughters to them, we weep to think our daughters are deprived of such advantages. Not a single high school or female seminary in the land is open to our daughters. And when we go into the church, how much of this spirit is here exhibited! In the house of God; in the place which Jesus Christ has appointed for his people; in the place where they sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; even there the man of color is prescribed. Oh! how do these things appear in the eye of Heaven! Let me ask those men and women who are here to-night, how would you feel to be proscribed when you go to the house of prayer? This is the case with the colored man. He is told, "Sit thou there: go and take that place." When he goes into the house of God, and takes a seat, how it depresses his spirits to be avoided; to have the whole congregation excited, as though some monster had come in among them. And then at the communion table, to be passed by, till the elements are presented to all the rest! Is there nothing withering in all this? How does the Savior, whose blood flowed freely for all, regard it? Are we not alike going to the grave? Are we not all hastening to the same judgment? Let me tell you, brethren, these things to which I have referred are destructive to souls, because they make infidels. When the man of the dark complexion goes into such a place as Tammany Hall; when he goes among the Shaking Quakers, or into the Catholic house of worship, he finds no distinctions. There the people seem to be for God and truth; the cord of caste is almost entirely disregarded; there he may sit without molestation. But among those who profess to be most orthodox, nearest the Bible, with a few exceptions, he finds the most prejudice! Now these things give a prevalence to skepticism; and of course tend to ruin souls. I know of many men who turn away from Christ on this account. They inquire, naturally, Can this be the religion of Jesus Christ? Now let me beseech you to look to this matter; to look at the bearing of these things upon the colored community.

One more fact with regard to prejudice, illustrative of its bearing upon the conversion of the world. A few weeks since, a vessel arrived from Africa. The captain was an African; the crew mostly natives, and a part of them converted Africans. On Sabbath they were taken to meeting by a gentleman, and seated as other people. A great excitement was produced. These men made inquiry into the cause; and they were told that in this country, even in Christian churches, where they pray that Ethiopia may stretch forth her hands unto God, and send Bibles to Africa, the people revolt at the idea of having colored men sit with them. On another Sabbath they went to one of the churches, and sat on the steps during all the services. They were not invited to take a seat in the sanctuary. These men are converted heathen, and are going back to Africa. Oh! what a specimen of American slavery! And yet, those who entertain this prejudice, which is destroying the beauty of the religion of Jesus Christ, complain that the abolitionists are neglecting the missionary and Bible cause, that they are combining all their influence, and concentrating all their efforts, to accomplish one object; and that they are "men of one idea." The abolitionists are aiming at the removal of the greatest obstruction to the conversion of the world. For this let them employ their powers. For this let them labor and pray; and in due time they shall reap their reward.

## ALBANY MECHANICAL INGENIOUS SOCIETY.

(Formed July 1st, 1840.)

MR. EDITOR—The above is the appellation of an association of colored young men in the city of Albany. I believe their objects are benevolence and encouragement in the mechanic arts. They intend to have a repository, where specimens of the production of each member may be seen. Already they have made and collected some 18 or 20 pieces of different articles, which are beautiful, and appear to be well done. I was much delighted, as I am sure all will be who may attend their exhibitions; and all who can, ought to attend, and encourage these young men. They intend to have a public exhibition on Thursday, 29th inst., and it will be a splendid thing. Also, I understand that they intend to have an exhibition in the city of Troy, on Monday, August 2d, when that lovely flourish of the British PEN, which IMMEDIATELY made 800,000 things, men, women, and children, will be celebrated. I hope that there will be at least one representative from the West Indies present to participate in the feast; and if not, it will suffice that W. S. Baltimore, G. B. Morton, Rev. John Williams, and Elder Henry Higland Garnet, are appointed as speakers for the occasion; also a member of the M. I. Society is expected to take a part. Surely the citizens of Albany, Troy, and the adjacent places, will have an intellectual feast. May they all attend, and be so highly pleased that they will contribute more than enough MONEY to defray the expenses of the day.

Mr. Editor, as this article is already long enough, I will close it by giving an imperfect description of a few of the above named articles. They are, a large steamboat, 5 feet long, made after the model of the old North America. Also a large British man-of-war, a 74, carrying three tiers of guns, all rigged and ready for sailing, the crew and soldiers all in the British uniforms, and attending to their business. The ship looks as if she was laying in the water, near the shore, where stands a group of native Africans in chains, under the care of an American kidnapper, and both of the long boats are full of soldiers huzzzing to honor the Queen, by taking the chains off from the slaves, and putting them on the kidnapper! They also have banners made of wood, and at a distance they look as if they were painted upon silk or satin; upon one they have the name of the society on one side, and upon the other, the chief of the Anisad captives, the noble CINQUE, and other appropriate figures, &c.

W. P. J.

Albany, July 17, 1841.

Delivered before the N. Y. Phœnixonian Literary Society,
at its anniversary meeting.

BY R. H.

One closing sultry summer day,
I wandered forth to view
The beauties of my native vale;
The scenes seemed ever new.
There danc'd the sunbeams on each hill,
Here shade did intervene;
While murm'ring sounds rose from each rill,
As it cour'd'd through foliage green.
And then the songs of feathered tribes,
As borne on evening's gale,
Came from each bush on mountain-side,
Adown the sloping vale.
What sweetness did those notes prolong,
As God-ward they did rise :
Methought it were some seraph's song,
Who dwells above the skies.
Listening to catch each dying sound,
As evening's shade did fall,
I heard a voice, borne o'er the ground,
In gentle accents call.
Again it came—the plaintive sound
Of woe methought would tell;
For it seem'd to call on one beloved,
As it echo'd through the dell.
With hurried step I hasten'd on,
Till in a cot I stood;
And there found her, from whom that sound
Had echoed o'er the sod.
Her care-worn cheek, and upturn'd look,
Each told of dark despair;
Her speech, her dress, her frenzied eye,
Told reason dwelt not there.
Ha! com'st thou now to steal my child?
(Ask'd she with vacant stare.)
Thou say'st it is thy slave—'tis not!
'Twas born as free as air!
When the war trump's blast was heard
Throughout the land, then 'twas
His father took up arms to serve
His country and her cause.
On Orleans plain, in foremost rank,
He marched to shed his blood;
While ye from death in terror shrank,
Like adamant he stood !
Where were ye, while in battle's heat,
The cotton bales they rear?
Ye coward's, were ye not all safe
From danger? Yes, ye were.
When martial glory crowned his brow,
Ye said he should be free.
Why came ye hence to violate
That oath you pledged to me?
Why came ye in the dead of night,
When nature calls for rest,
To drag my husband from his home,
From all that he loved best?
But tell me, ye who bore him off
Unto your southern climes,—
Will he return to me again,
Freed from slavery's chains?
Ah yes! he comes! 'tis cold! 'tis cold!
(Said she, with fleeting breath.)
And sweetly smiling on her babe,
She breathed her last in death,

Up, brothers, up! how long shall scenes
Like these your land disgrace?
Has not the plaint of human kind
Enter'd the holy place?
Dost thou not hear, on southern gales,
As northward they do blow,
From hill-top and from mountain-side,
The captives' tale of woe?
Why slumber then! while all that's just
And right is stricken down!
Dost thou not hear her spirit-voice
Crying from the ground?
Up, then! and onward for the cause!
And your songs shall be,
When victory shall crown your brows:
My native land is free!

July 4th, 1841.

A CALL
FOR A
STATE CONVENTION OF THE COLORED
FREEMEN OF PENNSYLVANIA,

To be held in the City of Pittsburgh, on the 4th Monday,
23d of August, 1841.

FREEMEN! The present Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania deprives you of the right of suffrage—a right paramount in importance to all other political rights, being their foundation and only safeguard, and without which all other rights are rendered unsafe and insecure. Argument to induce you to make one united and powerful effort to obtain this right is useless. Nay, it argument were necessary to induce such effort, it would show that you were undeserving of its enjoyment. Your love of liberty, of your country, of yourselves, and of your posterity, will constitute inducements to effort more powerful than the most eloquent argument which we could adduce. You are therefore at once invited to assemble in State Convention, and devise and adopt the best means for its attainment.

The Convention should be a large one. Every country in the State should be represented. Every friend of equal laws and equal rights should be present, either in person or by representation. Every community that can should elect and send on a representation; and those who can elect no representatives should come themselves.

In our circular first proposing the Convention, Harrisburg was named as the place of meeting; but her citizens, although in favor of the Convention, thought it not best for it to meet there. From the commencement, a strong desire manifested itself, not to meet in the extreme eastern part of the State; and no other central place offering in good time, and the citizens of Pittsburg calling for it with an unanimity and enthusiasm seldom equalled, it was thought expedient to yield to their request. Her want of centrality is fully compensated by her facilities of access; and the lactiques of the journey will soon be forgotten in the general kindness and hospitality of her citizens. Highways and canals of the best quality, and on which is every species of conveyance, and at the lowest charges, start out from here and reach every extreme of the State, offering an open door and easy journey to all who desire to come. Freemen, respond to the invitation of your fellow citizens. Let your Convention in Pittsburg on the 4th Monday in August, 1841, be worthy of those who invite you, worthy of yourselves, worthy of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Pittsburg, July 17, 1841.

[The call is signed by John Peck, and 34 others, of Alleghany county, and numerous citizens of the counties of Washington, Chester, Green, Mifflin, Centre, Adams, Dauphin, Cumberland, Lycoming, Franklin, Huntington, Fayette, York, Cambria, Indiana, Bedford, Armstrong, and Beaver.]

For the Colored American.

LETTER

TO THE REV. A. G. BEMAN, OF NEW-HAVEN, CONN.

Dear Brother,—As our last interview together was in the city of New York, and as I believe you have nothing but the best feeling for my interest and prosperity, as well as for the interest of Zion every where, and especially this part of Zion, where, through your instrumentality, and the kind providence of God, I am now permitted to labor, and where you labored a few months with so much success. Entertaining these feelings with such facts before me, I am led to indulge the belief that a few lines from your unworthy friend will be kindly received.

"Although we've parted for a while,
Ere long we'll meet again;
And if it be not in this world,
I trust on Canaan's plain."

On the 18th of May, I left the city of New York, in the fast and splendid steamboat Belle. This boat leaves the city three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; runs to Providence, where she generally arrives in the morning, in time for passengers to take the cars for Boston. This was my expectation, but I got greatly disappointed; for in about three hours after we had left the wharf, one of the boilers sprung aleak, which detained us for about three hours. By this detention, we, of course, were too late for the morning cars to Boston. I, however, stopped at Newport, there took the stage, rode about thirty miles, where I took the cars, and arrived in Boston at 6 o'clock, P. M.

The accommodations on board the steamboat Belle. I would say, for the benefit of those who are travelling east, are very good. Besides myself, there were several other persons of color on board, who found the officers kind, and the waiters obliging. Every one. I believe, was provided with a good and comfortable berth.

Now, sir, on reaching Boston, I supposed that the steamboat for Portland had gone; but on making inquiries, I learned that she did not leave until 7 o'clock. At this, I jumped into a cab, and was whirled from street to street, until I soon found myself alongside the boat, about to leave for Portland. Presently we were under weigh, and soon out of sight of Boston; and to the right of us nothing could be seen but sky and water. But very soon darkness came on, and I retired. About six o'clock next morning we arrived in Portland, where I found several of the brethren waiting, ready to receive and welcome me to their city. The first night I entered, after leaving the boat, was your kind and warm-hearted friend, sister Driver's. After breakfast I made several calls. In almost every place that I called, I was asked, when have you seen, or how is brother Beman, and when is he coming?

On making inquiries about their Church, I was informed that the minister that they have had for some time past had been obliged to leave, and that they were now without any; but notwithstanding they were destitute of a minister, their house was opened three times on the Sabbath, for prayer and exhortation. Prayer meetings are held every night in the week, except Saturday evenings. These meetings, notwithstanding so frequent, are well attended. Some evenings they are so filled that persons are obliged to go away, unable to find ad-

mittance. On Sabbath morning I preached to a goodly number, but in the afternoon and evening, to a much larger number. Many came out, I was told, that had not been to church since you was here. The second week after I came, we had a temperance meeting; and after some few remarks from several gentlemen, we proceeded to form a society on the total abstinence plan; and I am happy in saying, that forty names that evening were obtained to the pledge. Our meeting then adjourned to meet two weeks from that evening, every person being requested to attend, and to bring one or more with them. Two weeks rolled around; quite a large number assembled, and twenty-five additional names received to the pledge. Several short addresses were made, after which it was proposed that committees should be appointed, both of males and females, whose business it should be to visit every colored person in the city, and to induce them, if possible, to sign the pledge. After this, the meeting adjourned to meet again in two weeks. What the result will be, remains yet to be seen.

On the next Sabbath I visited the Sabbath school, and I am sorry to say that I found but a small number in attendance, but this may be, however, owing to the shortness of time that the school has been in progress.

At present we have it very pleasant and healthy here, although like in most other places, the spring has been backward and cold. Now, if you have never been here this season of the year, you can scarcely conceive how pleasant it is. You know that the city lays quite low, near the water; but as you leave this and go back, there is a constant elevation until you get up near the Observatory, where at one view, we can overlook the whole city, and at another, as far as the eye can stretch, we see nothing but the pathless ocean, with here and there an island, and then a sail. We turn again, and at another view, we behold the orchards smiling on the hill, and fields of grass waving in the valley.

But my limited space will not allow me to proceed further. I close by saying that the Rev. Mr. Lewis arrived in town this evening, and is now with us.

Brother Lewis complains very much about the neglect of his western friends. Although he has written, and they promised to, yet he seldom gets a letter from them. Now, why so good a man should be neglected, I cannot conceive; he is probably doing more for the benefit of the colored race, than any other man in the country.

Yours,

A. N. FEEEMAN.

Portland, June, 1841.

For the Colored American.

THOMAS VAN RENSELAERS INCONSISTEN-
CY OF CONDUCT. (a)

In the last two numbers of this paper, allusion was
made to some remarks I made at a public meeting re-
cently.

I am sorry to perceive that the remarks have aawa-
kenel so much bitterness and anger in a certain quar-
ter. The last of these ranting articles was written by
a young schoolmaster, who attempts to relate a circum-
stance; and himself being one of the parties, it was
expected that nothing but the truth in relation to the
circumstance, would have been told by him, but we are
disappointed; and I would state that I had determined
not to notice them. It is a settled principle with me
never to defend my character in the columns of a
newspaper, but some of my friends have demanded an
explanation, which I will cheerfully make. Alexan-
der Crumnell, and I believe, Charles L. Reason, are
the gentlemen mentioned in the communication referred
to, written by R. These two individuals called at the
hour of business, at my house, came into the kitchen
door, and asked to see me. I left my carving table,
and came forward; they asked if they could have din-
ner; I said yes, and on looking into the dining room, I
found that the tables were all occupied, and advanced
this idea to them—that it would be improper for me to
seat them at a table already occupied by others. So
they concluded, finding me very busy, to retire for a
few minutes, and return; and I determined, if they did
return, in the same manner as at first.

After so repeatedly stating, publicly and privately,
that my house was a place where people could be ac-
commodated, irrespective of color, to think that two
young men, with their advantages and calling, and
dressed as they were, like gentlemen, to pass by the
door where other gentlemen came in, and instead of
going in and taking their seats like other people, come
round to the kitchen, as it consious of *superiority*, (and
all this after one of them had dined there before.) I say
I had determined to colonize them, by setting a table
for them in the kitchen; and it is a most remarkable
fact that my principles on this subject have lost me
hundreds of dollars in the loss of custom. My colored
friends have never been fifty dollars benefit to me, but
I hope near to sacrifice principle for money. I think
I have said as much as is necessary to satisfy those in-
terested on this subject; and they will believe me when
I say, that both the theory and the practice in my es-
tablishment are now what they were. The commence-
ment, without proscription,

As regards the article written (Mr. Ray, I believe
that gentleman was not at the meeting in which my
remarks were made; neither has he inquired of me
whether I entered the sentiment at liberty in his arti-
cle to me, or not. Any person, therefore, of common
sense, must believe that he is poorly qualified to reply to
them. So I intend to let him rest for the present. (h)

New York, June 15, 1841.

For the Colored American.

A STATE CONVENTION.

DEAR BROTHER RAY:

In your paper of the 12th last, I see that you have
suggested the propriety of our people in this State hold-
ing another Convention. I hope that you will not think
it out of place for one so humble as myself to say, that
I heartily approve of the measure, and I see no good
reason why we should not all unite in it. While, on
the other hand, there are many reasons why we should
again come together and strike for Freedom, the favor-
able reception of our petitions in the Convention.

the still more favorable Report of the Judiciary Com-
mittee on those petitions, clearly show that the Con-
vention held last summer, followed up as it was by the
Chairman of the Central Committee, was not in vain.
An influence has been gained over the public mind
that will not be easily effaced. You can scarcely find
a politician in Western New York that does not ap-
prove of the course we have taken, and I am satisfied,
for one, that the current is changing in our favor. The
mist of slavery and prejudice which has heretofore ob-
scured their sight, is about being removed, and they
begin to see colored men as trees walking. The posi-
tion taken by our Chief Executive in the Virginia con-
troversy, backed up as he was by the leading men of the
State, and the repeal of the nine months' slave law, is
sufficient proof of this change. This has been effected
under the blessing of God, by the persevering efforts of
the colored men of this State, and their friends.

If a Convention was needed last summer, to com-
merce this work, there is greater need of one this sum-
mer, to carry out the measures already begun. The
success of the past gives us great encouragement to
hope for the future. It is true, that before we can re-
possess ourselves of a right so dear, sacrifices must be
made, both of time and money; but what are these in
comparison to the inestimable blessings of liberty for
ourselves and our children.

Let us rally again; let the united wisdom and
strength of our brethren, from the Atlantic to Lake
Erie, be brought to bear on this subject. Let our pe-
titions ascend daily to Heaven for a blessing on our
efforts, and I verily believe that Liberty will be ours,
and that we shall soon see the last vestige of oppression
stricken out of the statute book of the Empire

State. Yours truly,
Geneva, June 18, 1841.

J. W. DUFFIN.

For the Colored American.

VACATION.

Our public schools have been vacated for a week,
in accordance with the requisitions of the by-laws
of the public school society. Two weeks more,
and teachers and scholars must be at their post.
Must be! that, it will be said, is rather imperative.
Must be for the king, not for the school agent. The
teachers and scholars may say, We know our
time; he need not jog our memories in reference
to it. However, Mr. Editor, as I am aware that
many of our teachers are gone far away, and as I
know that your excellent paper has a favor-
able reception in the remotest part of our country, I catch an
opportunity, previous to my leaving the city, and say,
through your sheet, (not so much to teachers as to

oughly cleansed and repaired, with extensive addi-
tions to the supplies, consisting of books, maps and
globes, on the 30th of the present month. Now,
parents, you know me well. I am continually
talking to you about sending your children to
school. I shall be around in September, to secure
your co-operation in a desperate effort to get the
audience of our schools up. We have the chil-
dren. Now, assist me, one and all, clergy and
laity, and we will have them in school. I will
state, for the information of parents and others,
that our teachers generally are colored, and they
are of the first stamp. They are determined that
their reputation shall not suffer beside any teachers
of the same grade, colored or white. Hence, pa-
rents, you are encouraged to be particular, and
pay every attention to the education of your chil-
dren, and prepare them for the high and respon-
sible office of school teachers. Fathers and moth-
ers, do send your children regularly to school, and
at the hour appointed. It is shameful to see so
much inattention. There are too many about the
streets when schools are in session. The inatten-
tion to our schools furnishes too much argument
for the opposers of our elevation and improvement.
Let our attendance this year be 2000 instead of
one, and then we leave 1000 strolling the streets.

P. LOVERIDGE,

Agent of the Schools for Col'd Children.
New York, August, 1841.

DIED,

In Portland, Me., Sept. 16, Mr. James B. White
aged 23 years.

The friends of Zion and of every good cause, have,
in the death of brother White, sustained a severe loss
—one that cannot be easily repaired. During a revival
of religion in this city, about eighteen months since, his
attention was called up to the consideration of the "one
thing" needful; and through the truth and the blessed
influence of the Holy Spirit, he was led to view himself
as a lost sinner. It was then that by faith he laid hold
on the hope set before him in the gospel.

Frem that time, he ever continued a bright and
shining example in his Divine Master's cause, ever
ready to co-operate with any measures that tended to
advance that cause which lay so near his heart, and
lived in his affections.

Regular and constant in his attendance upon the
means of grace—ardent in his feelings—firm in his
principles—energetic in his actions—he was fitted to
be of great service to the Church and the world; and
his friends rejoiced in the hope that long he would con-
tinue to bless the circle in which he moved; but alas !
human hopes are often blasted when they seem to burn
the brightest! Though his friends mourn, it is not
like those that mourn without hope—their loss is his
gain.

May they imitate him, as far as he imitated Christ—
may their last hours be as peaceful, and as full of a glo-
rious hope of a blissful immortality as were the last
hours of James B. White.

A. N. F.

A. N. F.

Portland, Oct. 1841.

The following lines were written, and are now published, as a reply to "The Spirit Voice, or Call to the Disfranchised, by C. L. R." which appeared in our paper of the 7th. The friends of impartial freedom are appealed to in every line of both communications, to attend the Troy Convention, and make large exertions to free the State from the last link of oppression's chain.

For the Colored American.

WE COME! STILL WE COME!

BY R. H.

We come o'er mountain top,
And inland sea !
We come from whence rises up
Songs of the free !
We come up from Montauk,
Where old Ocean's wave
Swells proudly, dies gently on
Shore; 'tis her grave,
We come up from Flushing,
Will'sburg* and Newtown,
From Brooklyn, Jamaica,†
(Tis she wears the crown.)
We come from the empire
City in might,
Clad in mail-suit of truth,
Guarded well for the fight.
Each city, town, hamlet,
On Hudson's proud wave,
Shall send forth her myriads
Of hearts, true and brave.
On the west bank, from Kingston,
Newburgh and Catskill,
Is heard on each zephyr,
We come! yes, we will !
Nor slumbers the east, for
From hill-top and vale,
Is heard 'bove the noise of
The murmuring gale,
Onward! right onward! for
Troy! for 'tis there
Shall throng injured freemen,
Their rights to declare.
We come! shouteth Orange,
Delaware, and old Brcome;
Tioga is up! hark those sounds!
'Tis Chemung !
We come! still we come! shouts
Steuben in her might;
Alleghany, Cattaraugus, are
Up for the fight.
We come! is now heard, from
The far west once more !
'Tis the voice of Chautauque,
From her Erie-girt shore,
To those who dwell in the
Mohawk's fair vale,
The voice is familiar,
'Tis heard on each gale.
From northward, from southward,
From east, and from west,
'Tis heard 'neath her groves,
Where her pearl dew.drops rest;
'Tis heard on each margin
Of riv'let and stream;
'Tis heard at o'en tide
And morning's fresh gleam;
'Tis heard in the north,
'Bove Ontario's foam;
Niagara echoes the shout,
Still we come !
O'er Greene, Monroe, Wayne,
The echo now breaks.
Hark! list to the west !
Now 'tis heard on her lakes.

Oneida, Cayuga; and
Seneca, all
Join in the shout !
(For 'tis liberty's call.)
The hills, rocks and mountains
Re-echo the cry;
It is heard on the ocean,
It now sweeps the sky.
Thus myriads of hearts,
Now blended in one,
Give forth the glad tidings,
WE COME! STILL WE COME!

* Williamsburg.

† The first County Convention assembled there.

ZION'S WESLEYAN.

THURSDAY, MAY 19, 1842.

LEAVING FOR CONFERENCE.

But before we enjoy this privilege, we must take the
parting hand with those with whom we have been as-
sociated; and O, the scene in the congregation where
the cries of the wounded have pierced our hearts, and
where the shouts of the redeemed have gladdened and
encouraged us in the good work; the thought that
presses on the mind, of the moment passed in the
chamber of the sick and dying; the grief of the wid-
ow; the silent tear of the fatherless, while we have
commended them to God and the word of his grace;
the thought of saying with Paul, "Finally, brethren,
farewell :" This scene is to be surmounted only
by looking forward to that clime, where all tears will
be wiped from our eyes, and parting can never come;
and O, shall I be so happy as to meet on those shores
take the hand of my brethren in the ministry, and
count our toils over? Yea, brethren, may we not look
to that time when the watchmen will be called from
labors to reward; yet while we part with the old
soldier that we have labored with through the year,
and while the young that have just embarked in the
old ship Zion, fill our hearts with anxious care, that
the same Lord that spoke peace to their mind, may
guide and direct them; O, how they twine about our
heart.

Boston, May 17.

J. C. BEMAN.

For the Colored American.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING
OF THE CONNECTICUT STATE TEMPER.
OF THE CONNECTICUT STATE TEMPER.
ANCE AND MORAL REFORM SOCIETY.
SEPTEMBER, 2, 1840.

The Connecticut State Temperance and Moral Re-
form Society met this day. President Mr. Henry
Foster in the chair. Prayer by the President. Com-
mittee appointed to nominate officers for the ensuing
year. During the absence of the committee, the con-
stitution of the Society was read; and remarks upon
the subject made by various members.

The committee report the following names which
were chosen to the several offices:—

President—James W. C. Pennington.

Vice Presidents—Samuel R. Freeman, Hartford;

Leveret C. Beman, Middleton; Daniel R. Condell,
Lyme; Joseph Quy, Norwich; Amos G. Beman,
New Haven.

Recording Secretary—Isaac Cross, Hartford.
Corresponding Secretary—Alexander C. Luca,

Corresponding Secretary—Alexander C. Luca,
New Haven.

Treasurer—George Garrison, Middleton.

Executive Committee—Samuel Ellis, Norwich;
Henry Foster, Hartford; Daniel Van Devere, Middle-
ton; Joseph Brow, New Haven; William Con dall,
Lyme.

Rev. Samuel Serrington, and Deacon James Mars
of Hartford, were admitted Honorary Members of the
Convention. Adjourned until 3 o'clock P. M.

Afternoon session.—Met as per adjournment. The
President, Rev. J. W. C. Pennington, in the chair.
Prayer by Rev. Samuel Serrington. Address to the
delegates by Mr. Henry Foster, of Hartford.

The meeting was then addressed by gentlemen from
Hartford, Middletown, Lyme, New Haven, and Nor-
wich, upon the subject of Temperance. Adjourned
until 7 o'clock, P. M.

Evening session.—Rev. A. G. Beman, Vice Pre-
sident, in the chair. Prayer by the President. The
meeting was addressed by Mr. Seymour, of Hartford.
S. Ellis of Norwich, W. Condall, of Lyme, Deacon
James Mars, of Hartford, Rev. A. G. Beman of New
Haven. Adjourned until 10 o'clock A. M.

Thursday morning met as per adjournment. The
President in the chair. Prayer by the Rev. Theodore
S. Wright, of New York. Moved by Rev. A. G.
Beman, seconded by Isaac Cross, that Rev. Theo. S.
Wright, Rev. C. B. Ray, of New York, and Mr. P.
Swan of Hartford, be Honorary Members of this Con-
vention.

The delegates for the different places then made a
report of the state of the temperance cause in their
societies.

The business committee then introduced the follow-
ing resolution, which was discussed by several mem-
bers and adopted:—

Resolved, That while we deem it our duty to co-
operate with all good men in every good work, espe-
cially in the cause of human rights, we also deem it
right and expedient to hold Conventions whenever
circumstances require.

Moved by Rev. Theo. S. Wright, seconded by Mr.
T. A. Pelham, that the resolution be adopted;—car-
ried. Adjourned until 3 o'clock, P. M.

Met as per adjournment. The President in chair.
Prayer by Rev. C. B. Ray. After some remarks by
different members upon Conventions, Mr. Swan, of
Hartford, gave an address on temperance, and Rev. C.
B. Ray upon education; after which, the Rev. T. S.
Wright offered the following resolution, which was
seconded,—when he proceeded to address the Conven-
tion in a spirited and eloquent manner until the hour
of adjournment.

Resolved, That the holy principles of human rights,
as maintained by the abolitionists of this country and
of Europe, are at once the hope of the slave and of the
nominally free of our land; and that the zeal—the
perseverance—the patient endurance of persecution
evolved by the abolitionists in sustaining their princi-
ples, excite our gratitude to God—and claim our
hearty co-operation. Adjourned until 7 o'clock, P. M.

Met as per adjournment. President in the chair.
Prayer by Rev. A. G. Beman. The report of the com-
mittee on the state of the temperance cause was read
by Rev. A. G. Beman, and on motion accepted. Mr.

Beman also read a letter to the Convention from Mr. William P. Johnson of New York. Rev. Theo. S. Wright then proceeded, and concluded his eloquent argument to sustain the resolution which he introduced in the afternoon. Having concluded, Mr. L. C. Beman, Vice President of the Society, was called to the chair, and Rev. J. W. C. Pennington, of Hartford, introduced and sustained the following resolution, which was adopted:—

Resolved, That it is the duty of all the friends of
humanity to be signers of the total abstinence pledge.

Rev. A. G. Beman offered a resolution in favor of
sustaining the Colored American, which were second-
ed and advocated by Rev. T. S. Wright, of New York,
and by the mover, and adopted. Adjourned until
9 o'clock, Friday morning.

Met sa per adjournment. President in the chair.
Prayer by Rev. D. Van Devere. The following reso-
lution was introduced by Deacon James Mars, of Hart-
ford, and seconded by H. Foster:—

Resolved, That this Convention do recommend to
the colored people of this State to petition the legisla-
ture at their session in 1841 to grant us the elector-

franchise, on the rights of suffrage; and that the mem-
bers of this Convention make special efforts to have
this resolution carried into effect.

After considerable discussion the resolution was
adopted, and central and sub-committees appointed in
all the places represented, to superintend the petition
to be presented to the Legislature.

The unfinished business of the Convention was then
attended to.

Voted, That an abstract of the doings be published
in the Colored American, with a request that the Con-
gregationalist Observer, of Connecticut, copy it.

Voted, That the delegates present their thanks to
their friends for their hospitality to them.

Voted, That the Convention has been exceedingly
gratified with the superior singing of the choir under
the direction of Mr. P. Johnson.

Voted, That we present our thanks to the commit-
tee of the Congregational Society, and through them
to the Society, for the use of their Church for the use
of the Convention.

Voted, That we present our thanks to the President
and Secretary, for their faithfulness, and impartiality
in the discharge of the duties imposed upon them by
the convention.

Voted, That the next meeting of this society be
held in Bridgeport.

The following resolution was then introduced by
Rev. A. G. Beman, of New Haven, seconded by Rev.
T. S. Wright.

Resolved, That we here express our feelings of gra-
titude to Almighty God for the blessing which has hi-
thereto attended our efforts; and we do pledge ourselves
anew to each other, to be faithful in the great work of
Moral Reform. Adopted unanimously.

After singing and prayer, the convention adjourned
sine die.

J. W. C. PENNINGTON, President.

ISAAC CROSS, Secretary.

The following are some of the resclutions passed
by the convention.

Resolved, That it is our duty to investigate the prin-
ciples upon which our mental, moral and civil eleva-
tion depends; and to cultivate such habits as will
most effectually enable us to guard and advance these
interests.

Resolved, That when any people fail, under God, to
be their own guardians and protectors, their speedy
downfall and oppression may be expected.

Resolved, That it is only upon the principles of
truth and righteousness that any people can hope to
prosper.

Resolved, That the state of feeling existing in a
community towards a proscribed class, and the course
of conduct pursued in relation to their elevation and
rights, is invariably in accordance with the views en-
tertained of them; and the views entertained of them
also is in accordance with the development of virtue
and intelligence by them made: Therefore

Resolved, That we regard the continuance of the
"Colored American," edited by Charles B. Ray, the
only weekly paper absolutely under the control of co-
lored men in this country, as vital to our interest, in-
asmuch as it is a proper medium of communication
through which to develope the views and powers of
our proscribed people.

For the Colored American

LETTER OF REV. THEODORE S. WRIGHT.

NEW YORK, Oct. 19, 1844.

Dear Br. Leavitt,—Although in the providence of God, I have been withdrawn, by sickness, the past three months, from the field of actual effort, not being able to minister to my people, nor to co-operate in efforts for the poor slave, I nevertheless feel a deep concern for those great interests. I am thankful that I may present them in supplication before His gracious throne, who has an ear to hear, and an arm to save. I thank God for the signal success which has attended your laborious efforts, in wielding the Liberty press, the Emanipulator, since your removal to the "good old Bay State." Thank kind Heaven, that your enterprise of establishing the Daily Chronicle thus far has proved successful. O brother, what has not God wrought, in spite of human imperfection, for the cause of human rights, since the memorable period we came together, at the first meeting of the executive committee of the A. A. Slavery Society, held in the basement room in Nassau st. How manifestly God has been the great patron of this glorious reformation! The "Liberty ball" is rolling, and the concentrated efforts of the minions of earth and hell cannot arrest its onward career. Colonization and prejudice against color, crippled, are getting out of the way; the pro-slavery parties are trembling; the church is arousing the slavocracy; the dragon, fatally wounded, in diabolical contortions, is struggling for perpetuity. But O! this busy, unreflecting, pro-slavery city,—this granite rock,—what will wake her up? what will reach and soften her icy, obdurate heart? The few and faithful have not given her up as hopeless. She may yet be won by the potency of truth; the friends of the Liberty party are alive to their duty. We hope, if we do not make advances on the enemy, at least to maintain our ground, which I trust will tell at the polls. Those among the nominally free of this city, who stand for God and his truth; who believe they ought to vote as well as pray for the slave; who believe that their political, their every interest in this nation, is indissolubly linked with the destiny of the enslaved millions whose labor is extorted by the bloody lash wielded by Whigs and Democrats in the southern prison-house, have a mighty moral conflict to sustain with those of our own number. Whigism and worldly, wicked and blinding expediency, are the monsters we are called upon to resist. To many even of our most bitter foes, the idea is almost incredible, that men in our position are still flattered and lured by the vain hope of regaining their plundered franchise by our action upon either of the dominant parties. Of this you will find abundant evidence, by the "minutes of the New York State convention of colored citizens," and in an article in the Anti-Slavery Standard of the 17th instant. O, tell it not in South Carolina, publish it not in Alabama; whisper it not in the dungeons of the martyred Walker and Torrey, that there are men of color, men of learning and talents, for which we delight to honor them, who, nevertheless, are at this late day wielding all their influence in efforts to dissuade their brethren from coming out openly and manly on the side of liberty principles! to dissuade their brethren from fearlessly rallying around and holding up the hands, and cheering the hearts of the noble, disinterested host, who have wrenched themselves away from those political parties, which trample in the dust the declaration of American

independence,—framing mischief by law—and have laid a political platform for the vindication of that declaration, for the salvation of the nation, primarily for the disenthrallment of our brethren in bonds. Strange, passing strange is it, that these men do not reflect upon the fact that both of these parties in New York have had abundant opportunity to redress our grievances. Especially is this true of the Whigs during the administration of the noble-hearted Seward.—But what have they done for us? Just nothing at all. Nor will they do any thing for us until compelled by the action of the Liberty party.

We have asked them for an egg, but they have given us a scorpion; and many of us begin to feel that we have been starved and stung long enough. We have turned our attention with anxious solicitude to the God of the oppressed, and to the friends and advocates of his impartial truth to regain our right. This is our hope. Here are we willing patiently to wait and abide the issue;—and when the tide of Liberty sentiment shall rise in New York in the same degree as in Massachusetts, then will New York do justly by her colored citizens. This, this is our only hope.

I was pleased with your articles explanatory of the motives, and vindicating the integrity of the old committee from the censures of "old organization." I discover one small mistake in reference to myself, as to my first connection with the executive committee of the American Anti-Slavery society. I was appointed by the convention at Philadelphia.

Yours, in the cause of Liberty,

THEO. S. WRIGHT.

P. S.—Dr. Smith and his clan are making a desperate struggle; they have enlisted the Standard on their side, in the hope of making capital for "old organization." My congregation and Brother Ray, are "right side up," and quite a number of our tallest men. You will aid us and the cause by noticing the report of our convention, and extracting as far as you think proper. My dear old father is with me, and desires to be particularly remembered to you. The fire of liberty still burns in his bosom.

THE SEASONS.

The following beautiful passage is from a Poem written by GEORGE VASHON, a colored young man of Pittsburgh. They exceed any verses, says the Newark Advertiser, we have seen from any one with a "skin not colored like our own:"

First, SPRING came tripping on from Southern bowers,
And strewed her sunny path with fragrant flowers,
Bade the still brook from out its torpor wake,
And freed from icy bonds, the captive lake,
Then smiling back upon the smiling land,
Resigned the rule to SUMMER's warmer hand.
Earth, in the genial change rejoicing much,
Glowed like a picture 'neath a Guido's touch,
And lovelier grew, with each succeeding day,
Till AUTUMN seized the sceptre and the sway.
She, to enhance the beauty of the scene,
Tinged with rich brown each leaflet's brilliant green,
Cast o'er the land her sad yet lovely smile,
Then sank beneath dread WINTER's chilling wile.—
Dread Winter, who, with no kind feeling warm,
Evoked, in envious rage, the blighting storm;
And conscious, that no gift she could bestow,
To equal Summer's, Spring's, or Autumn's glow,
Blew, spitefully, her freezing breath on all,
And strove to crush Earth 'neath her snowy pall.

For the Northern Star & Clarksonian.

NORWICH, Sept. 4, 1844.

The Connecticut State Temperance and Moral
Reform Society met this day. The President,
Amos Gerry Beman of New Haven, in the chair.
Prayer by Dea. A. C. Luca. The following
gentlemen were then appointed a committee to
nominate officers for the ensuing year:

G. Worthington, Wm. Condall, A. C. Luca,
S. Ellis.

The following gentlemen were then chosen a
business committee:

J. L. Smith, G. Worthington, D. R. Condall,
L. Lathrop, Wm. Spellman.

Roll of the members of the Convention:

Hartford—G. Worthington, Isaac Cross, C.
Lee.

New Haven—A. C. Luca, J. W. Howell, L.
Lathrop, A. G. Beman.

Lyme—D. R. Condall, Wm. Condall, G. Ma-
son, Henry Condall.

Norwich—Wm. Spellman, F. A. Pelham. I.
Randall, S. Ellis, J. L. Smith.

The nominating committee made the following
report, which was read, accepted and adopted :

President—Amos Gerry Beman.

Vice Presidents—J. Mars, L. Lathrop, William
Spellman, G. Mason, A. J. Morrison.

Recording Secretary—J. W. C. Pennington.*

Corresponding Secretary—L. C. Beman.

Treasurer—George Garrison.

Executive Committee—S. Ellis, H. Foster,
C. Nichols, Wm. Condall, J. Brown, J. Johnson,
Wm. Anderson.

Resolved, That we acknowledge with feelings
of devout gratitude, the good Providence of God
which has permitted us to meet again as a soci-
ety, and for the success which has crowned our
labor's.

Resolved, That this society shall pay the trav-
eling expenses of the President and Recording
Secretary, in their attendance upon the annual
meetings of the society.

Adjourned until 2 o'clock, P. M.

Afternoon Session.

Met pursuant to adjournment. The President
in the chair. Prayer by Rev. J. L. Smith of
Norwich.

The business committee reported,

That the time of the convention would be oc-
cupied in hearing statements from the delegates
from the different places.

Messrs. Worthington of Hartford, Smith of
Norwich, Wm. Condall of Lyme, Luca of New
Haven, severally made very interesting state-
ments of the progress of temperance and moral
improvement among their colored people.

The resolutions which the business committee
had introduced, were then taken up, advocated,
and adopted by the convention, as follows:

Resolved, That we, as the friends of temper-
ance, shall not think we go too far when we use
all moral means in redeeming man from his foul
adversary—Alcohol.

Moved and seconded by J. Wm. Howell of N.
Haven, and G. Worthington of Hartford.

Resolved, That the cause of total abstinence
from the use of all intoxicating liquors as a com-
mon beverage, still demands the most faithful and
vigorous efforts of all the friends of God and man,
to carry it on to its full triumph.

Supported by William Spellman and J. L.
Smith.

Resolved, That it is the duty of the friends of
temperance to petition the Legislature to prohibit
by law the sale of intoxicating liquors to be used
as a common beverage.

Advocated by L. Lathrop of New Haven and
D. R. Condall of Lyme.

Resolved, That this convention recommend to
all the local societies to hold a monthly meeting
for the purpose of promoting the cause of tempe-
rance.

Supported by A. C. Luca of New Haven, and
F. A. Pelham of Norwich. Adjourned.

Evening Session.

President in the chair. Prayer by Mr. Isaac
Cross.

The evening was occupied in hearing address-
es and remarks from Messrs. Ellis, Cross, Beman,
Newcomb, and in singing by the choir.

Adjourned until 9 o'clock, A. M.

Thursday, Sept. 5.

Morning Session.

President in the chair. Prayer by Mr. G.
Worthington.

The subject of a paper was introduced, and re-
marks were made in favor of the ' Northern Star
and Clarksonian,' edited by Rev. J. W. C. Pen-
nington, by the agents and others—recommend-
ing it as worthy of the faithful support of all the
friends of our improvement.

Mr. Isaac Cross was then, on motion, chosen
President *pro tem.*, and took the chair.

The following resolution was then introduced
to the convention :

Resolved, That every local society be request-
ed, and it shall be considered the duty of the
Presidents and Secretaries of the local societies,
to send to the President of the State Society a
written statement of the doings of every such so-
ciety, at least four weeks previous to each annual
meeting of this society.

The above resolution was advocated by Messrs.
Beman, Ellis, Pelham, Howell, and A. C. Luca,
and unanimously adopted.

Thrilling and interesting statements were then
made by G. Mason of Lyme, and C. Lee of
Hartford, two good Washingtonians.

Adjourned until 3 o'clock.

Afternoon Session.

Met pursuant to adjournment. The President
in the chair. Prayer by Mr. Islely.

The following resolution and votes were then
passed, interspersed with various interesting re-
marks from different members of the convention :

Resolved, That this society will, on all proper
occasions, exert itself to banish intemperance from
among men, and to destroy every vestige of the
prejudice which even still remains against the to-
tal abstinence principle.

Resolved, That we will 'remember those in
bonds as bound with them:' to prove it we will
study into the workings of the system of Ameri-
can slavery, in all its malign influence upon the
social, religious, and civil relations of man; and
in a hearty and faithful opposition to its spirit and
influence wherever we meet it.

Resolved, That we, the delegates to this con-
vention, present our thanks to those of the citi-
zens of Norwich, who have manifested toward us
so much kindness and liberality during our visit
among them.

Voted, That the thanks of the convention be
presented to the committee of the Allen Street
Church for its use to hold the meetings of the so-
ciety in.

Voted, That the next annual meeting of this
society be held in the city of Hartford, in the
month of September, 1845, on such day as the
society there, in connection with the President
and Secretary of the State Society shall deter-
mine, whose duty it shall be to give notice to all
the auxiliary societies.

Resolved, That we tender the President and
Secretaries our warmest thanks for the able and
efficient manner in which they have discharged
their official duties.

The convention then united in singing, and,
after prayer, adjourned *sine die*.

AMOS GERRY BEMAN, Pres't.

A. C. LUCA,
JOHN RANDALL,
} Secretaries.

*[We take this method and opportunity to say that we
must, in justice to ourself, resign this office. And in so
doing, we do not wish to be considered as wanting in in-
terest in the cause. Our reasons are—1. Our hands are*

LETTERS TO REV. T. S. WRIGHT, OF
NEW-YORK.—NO. II.

HARTFORD, CONN., Jan. 15, 1846.

Rev. Dear Sir :—

In my first paper, I endeavored to reply to the most objectionable parts of President Lord's letter in reference to colored students, without any particular reference to myself.—Since in that he made no allusion to me individually, to write a direct and personal defence, would seem to anticipate a subject un-called for. My course, therefore, on this point, will, perhaps, be to you unexpected and novel.

Since no one knows my history better than
myself, you will pardon, I hope, my presump-
tion in speaking on so delicate a point as my
own career. It may give some idea of the
difficulties of a colored student, and prevent
misrepresentation as to the improvement and
progress of our race. And here I choose rath-
er to run the risk of incurring the imputation
of egotism and pedantry, than not mention
what present circumstances give my friends a
right to know.

My native place is Trenton, New-Jersey.—
My own mother was a native of South-Asia,
my father was from Virginia, and probably
an unmixed African. My step-mother,—(an
excellent Christian woman, of Indian, white
and negro extraction.)—and my father, were
slaves in their youth, and consequently de-
prived of all means of education. However,
a few years since, my mother attended school

in another State, at a great sacrifice, and made
some progress in reading. Previous to this,
she labored earnestly to give me and my sister
the advantages which she greatly appreciated,
but had been deprived of by slavery and
prejudice.

Till the age of twelve or thirteen, and pre-
vious to much abolition excitement, my ad-
vantages in the private white schools, had
been equal with those of the white children,
and without distinction en account of color.—
About this time, or previous, our weekly visi-
tants, "The Liberator," and "The Genius of
Universal Emancipation," gave me a passion
for reading History, Poetry, and Biography,
and made me hate slavery and prejudice, and
feel and think myself united to humanity by a
common tie. The result was a determination
to pursue the studies which the white boys did
—to become a scholar, a teacher, and a useful
man.

At this age, without advice from any one,
I went to Davenport's Bookstore, with my
saved spending money, and asked for a Latin
Grammar. Do you read Latin? said Mr. D.
No, Sir, I replied; but I intend to—have
you the book? Yes, said he; but why won't
English books do for you?

Thinking by his countenance, that he did
not wish to sell me the book, I went to the
other stores; but they did not have it. This
was my first disappointment.

After that, I applied to the schools for re-
admission. Public sentiment having changed,
some teachers told me to come at five o'clock
in the afternoon, when they would hear me
recite alone. Others said they would consult
the parents of their scholars. Neither of
these terms would I accept; and from this
time, I was engaged two or three years in
manual labor for my father, and in occasional
studies in other schools, or in private.

At sixteen, seeing my people imposed upon,
(so far as my own experience went,) by many
unqualified teachers and ministers, I commen-
ced a small school on my own responsibility,
with perhaps a vain hope of beginning a fu-
ture reform. After three or five months, just
as I had established my reputation, despite of
many objections to my youth,—obtained thirty
pupils, and received the praises of my igno-
rant friends as a "wonderful scholar," I found
that I was far below the mark I had set up for
others, and knew comparatively nothing.

'Fickle and inconstant,' I resolved to go
somewhere and study. I wrote for advice to
a noted and good abolitionist of New York,
whose name I had seen in the papers. Be-
ing advised to go to Oneida Institute, I im-
mediately set out for that institution, and re-
mained there nearly a year and a half, pre-
paring to enter the Institute, and completing
my Freshman year. This time was occupied
principally in studying Greek, Hebrew, and
some Algebra. I always disliked the course
there, of studying Hebrew instead of Latin.

My father having failed in business some time
previous, ordered me to return home; but be-
ing advised not to return, I remained there
some months, incurring expenses which he
would not pay. At the close of my Freshman
year, I returned to New York, and had spent
two months looking for some suitable employ-

ment, when I engaged as clerk in a drug store of a practical abolitionist in Cherry street.—At the expiration of two weeks, an application was made to me, to take charge of the Public School of Brooklyn, which I gladly accepted, happy to get farther away from the temptations, and vices of city life. By this time, my expenses at the Institute, and for Board in New York, amounted to nearly $200. Since I was under age, I expected my parents, who were then able, would pay my bills at the Institute; but finding they would not, in the course of two years, I paid them myself, and every cent I owed in the world. During this time, I had become a member of the First Presbyterian church of that city, (with which I am still connected,) and continued my studies in Latin and Greek, under a classical teacher. Still 'inconstant and fickle,' I then resolved to prepare myself to teach a classical and English school for the education of teachers, and the preparation of students for College, fitting myself at the same time for the Christian ministry.

Thus I aspired to the College and Theological Seminary. I applied to the American Education Society, to know if I could receive aid from it. The then Secretary, the Rev. Mr. Labarce, received me with great kindness, and seemed happy to present my case to the Committee, and requested me to call at a certain time for examination. Accordingly, I presented myself for examination, when Mr. L. had resigned his office, and the Rev. Mr. P. was his successor. I presented the three required certificates of character, scholarship, &c., from the Mayor of the city, my pastor, and my classical teacher. Mr. P. having read my papers wrote on them, "credentials for Augustus Washington, colored boy, June—'41,' and laid them aside. I told him that I was going to Dartmouth College. He said he thought the Faculty would not receive me, and I had better return to the Oneida Institute. I replied that the application had been made to that College, and I knew that I would be received; and that I was unwilling to sacrifice my present employment for any institution except a College. He still doubted that the Faculty would receive me—said he knew but one colored man, (the late Rev. Mr. Harris, a graduate of Middlebury,) who had pursued a regular and thorough course of study—that some who had received aid from the Education Society, had married in their course, and now worthless, were strolling about the streets. Therefore he thought I had better go back to the Institute and work my way through. I asked if the Society would aid students there. No, he replied, they do not study Latin, nor pursue a college course in other respects, and for this reason, we will not aid beneficiaries who go to that Institution.

I left the office disappointed and almost discouraged. When my friend learned the nature of this conversation, he replied, 'you better have nothing to do with the Society; we

will try some plan to aid you.' Immediately it was arranged that I should receive some money, (no definite sum); and the balance I promised, if possible, to obtain from my parents. But they "were not in favor of such a waste of time in studying," and would give nothing. This I was not certain of, till I had spent two years in the Academy, and had entered College.

At once, I resigned my school, at the very time I was told that my salary would be increased from $300 to $400 a month. A month or two elapsed, before we could hear of an Academy where they would receive and prepare for College a colored student, without distinction on account of color. An application was made to Kimbal Union Academy, at Meriden, N. H., one of the most wealthy and flourishing preparatory institutions in New England, where several teachers are the advocates of sound learning, and would be an ornament to any enlightened community. In reply the Principal stated that, "after considerable deliberation and consultation with the teachers and Trustees, they had decided to receive me; but would not commit themselves in regard to party questions respecting abolitionism." But, said he, "we receive him simply as we would receive any gentleman of like character and purposes, without regard to any public questions or excitements." He also expressed the opinion, that if there was a difference of treatment, it would probably be in my favor. This proved to be true; for I could not have been treated better in London or Paris, than I was during the two years spent in that Institution. I mention these facts simply because they tend to confirm what I have always believed and maintained, almost alone—that no class of men in the world have fewer prejudices themselves, than the professors of our Colleges and teachers of Academies.—But, in most cases, they yield to a corrupt public sentiment.

I completed my course of preparation, reading nine Orations in Cicero, Sallust, Virgil, Xenophon's Anabasis, two books of Homer, and some Mathematics. For my standing as a scholar, and character as a gentleman while there, I must appeal to the teachers and my classmates, who are now in Yale, Amherst, Burlington, Middlebury, Dartmouth and other Colleges. Besides, in these studies, and those of my College terms, I am willing to submit to an examination at any time, and by any person.

In 1843, I received from the Academy my recommendation, sustained my examination by the Faculty of the College, and entered it with a good number of my former classmates. My class in College numbered about fifty: and for my standing there, till on account of pecuniary embarrassments, I determined to leave, I appeal to the testimony of my teachers and classmates, rather than the President, with whom, in my class, I had nothing to do. By the way, I may remark, that during the time I was in College, I neither observed nor felt any manifestations of prejudice from the Faculty or community of Hanover. Nor did I observe any prejudice among the students, in the recitation rooms, college halls, literary societies, or boarding houses. Being the only colored student, there that year, I was known to all. And when I decided to leave College,

I knew that it might lead, (as it ultimately did,) to much misrepresentation, and consequently to an outburst of the concealed prejudices of the ignorant and envious of the colored, as well as that of the illiberal of the white community. For most persons had an idea that I received from some source, means sufficient to pay all my expenses. When I was about to leave, an intelligent and excellent colored old lady sent me word, that if I would remain in College, or return there, she would wash and mend for me through the whole course, for nothing. I felt most grateful, and I have mentioned this, simply because it was more than any person I know, or even my parents would do for a colored student, in College.—From these facts, you will plainly see that our colored students suffer more from a want of pecuniary means, than from prejudice, or a want of intellect, or from any other supposed causes.

I promised many of my classmates that I would return to College at the next Commencement, or the one succeeding. If I can obtain the means, I still intend to return there next August, or that following, if God is willing, and this expression of my free thoughts do not prevent me.

In the winter vacation of 1843, when most of my class taught schools, I wrote many letters applying for a school, but could not obtain one for so short a term as three months, among colored people, nor among the whites on account of color. Thus disappointed, I went home to obtain money from my parents to meet some arrears. Failing in obtaining this, in that emergency, I was favored in learning the Daguerrean Art, merely as a means to an end—for profitable employment during my vacations. By this act, I incurred the censure of the President, my parents, and some of my friends. I improved the art to its present degree of perfection, and after I left College, received the patronage of some of the Faculty and citizens of Hanover. Having made in a month what it cost me, I laid it aside, because it took my attention too much from my studies. I then applied for a colored school of this city, which I have taught since, and with how much success, the intelligent white and colored community, who have visited and examined it, will testify.

Desiring to instruct a few scholars in the languages, on my return from College, I called on my teacher in the classics, who gave me the following certificate:

NEW YORK, Oct. 23, 1844.

"Having been the Tutor of Mr. Washington while he was connected with the Freshman Class of '43—'44, in Dartmouth College, I am happy to say, that I considered him superior in his classical studies during that period.

HENRY E. PARKER."

Last Winter, besides attending to my ordinary duties, I instructed gratuitously in Latin,

[For the Clarksonian.]

HUDSON, Jan. 6, 1844.

Mr. Editor—I perceive by the number of your paper prior to this last, that the subject of a national movement among our people is again agitated by two promised master spirits of the age, if I judge rightly of the signature of A. G. B. of New Haven, and take the plain signature of our esteemed friend of Troy.

Now, sir, it is one thing to talk of rights, and another thing to obtain them. We have no le gislative power, and what can we accomplish by assembling? It is true we may meet to greet each other, to cheer on in the noble struggle for freedom. But is this worth a national meeting when there are so many mediums by which the thing can be done so effectually and thoroughly?

For example, let our worthy friend at New Haven take your valuable medium. I mean your paper, and there let him breathe his thoughts in living light and splendor, before every understanding in the land.

I am sure, sir, that you will not quench his thirst for war, but will give him plenty of field-room, provided it is not a war of words, and no fight; and as to our esteemed, learned, eloquent, prophetic friend of Troy, he will be giving us an excellent piece of history. If he will tell us what will be the destiny of our people in the coming two years, which will shame the dead calm of past centuries.

Mr. Editor, I will trouble you no more at this time, but remain, yours in love for truth,

J. N. G.

two of the most intelligent and more colored lads of fifteen and sixteen years, that I have yet met with. Of their own accord, one is now preparing himself to become a good scholar and a teacher, and the other, through my instrumentality, is fitting himself for College, in another school, whom, if I should fail myself, I shall be happy to assist as my representative in Dartmouth College. These, perhaps, may be some of the germs of a public blessing to our people.

I have taken much pains to write to Academies, at my own expense, to know if they would receive colored students without personal distinction, and have obtained answers in the affirmative. And at sundry times I have written to talented colored young men and women, and boys and girls, some of whom I scarcely knew in other respects, urging them to improve their minds—obtain an education, and directing how, and where. They need only the pecuniary means.

My most intelligent colored correspondent, Mr. S—, of Brooklyn, who is himself an astonishing example of self-education, perseverance and industry, recently requested me by letter, to write to an intelligent young friend of his, as he says, "one of those soul-thrilling letters, which would almost energise a wooden man," to encourage him to pursue with unyielding perseverance, a course of studies which he himself had persuaded him to commence.

Thus my friends may see that I labor, as best I can, though in obscurity and silence, to exert a happy influence. And if this influence be indeed a good one, it is base, ungenerous and unkind, in any man, to throw new obstacles in our way, and thus impair our use-

tulness.

I left Hanover owing there altogether about $120, and when first I met with the President's letter, I had remitted and paid $104, towards liquidating that debt. No security was required for more than $30 of this amount. Intending to return, I left all my library of 150 select volumes, and my apparatus and furniture there, till I had paid $104, when at my request they were forwarded to me, last summer.

I speak only for myself. It is said that several thousand dollars are due at Hanover by other students. But no one, as yet, has charged me with a want of mediocrity in my studies or dishonesty in other respects. If the man who loves to harp on what I might have done, will sustain the necessary examination himself, and take my place beside, and hold his way with those Saxon students, I will pledge myself to pay him in advance, as aid, $20 a year, while I am out of College.

I confess that my zeal and ambition have sometimes been greater than my means, and often for a short time, I have yielded to despondency. I am not yet discouraged, however, for I am in the vigor of youth and health; and nothing but a failure of the latter, or death, shall prevent me from becoming a thorough scholar, as well as a sincere Christian.

If any further reply is necessary to the cause of the failure of two "negroes", for myself, as one of the two meant, I am ready for a fair investigation; but no ex parte one.

I have given simply a statement of facts; my friends and the public are the judges.— Hoping this may remove from their minds any false impressions which may have been created, and awaken a proper sympathy for a struggling people, is the earnest desire of

Your obedient servant,

AUGUSTUS WASHINGTON.

TO REV. THEODORE S. WRIGHT.

tion, which, happily for me, contains no principle requiring my advocacy, and which, I am sure, will receive the hearty and unanimous response of this assembly. In consequence of the delicacy of my health, the only condition upon which I could consent to offer it, was, that no remark would be expected from me, than, as the Lord might give ability. But I cannot but express devout thanks to the Giver of all good, that I am permitted to be present and to participate in these deeply interesting exercises. I cannot but express my gratification, that I am permitted to meet on this occasion, the venerable Archdeacon Trew, an honored coadjutor of Wilberforce, Clarkson, Sturge, and O'Connell, by whose philanthropy and christian efforts has been accomplished a triumph of liberty, despite of the power, political prejudice, and wealth, which were arrayed against them—a triumph which conferred the precious boon of liberty to 800,000 souls in these most happy Isles, and made your nation the honored pioneer of liberty to the world.

Your Excellence, I would do violence to my feelings did I not express my extreme felicity at mingling in an assembly, where, for the first time, I have seen the Representative of her most gracious Majesty presiding. When first I entered this hall, and cast my eye over this auditory, I felt that I was a stranger, that I was not at home. But after hearing the reverend and honorable gentlemen who have preceded me, give utterance to such noble sentiments, portraying the intrinsic value and moral grandeur of the sacred volume, my soul was stirred within me. When I reflected that upon this broad platform of christian philanthropy is recognized the sentiment "My country is the world; and all mankind are our countrymen." When I remembered too, the age, not the less sublime because expressed by a slave hundreds of years since, "I am a man, and I deem nothing which relates to man foreign to me," I feel no longer that I am a stranger—I am entirely at home, surrounded with kindest spirits, engaged in the noble work of spreading abroad the blessed book of God. Before I take my seat, Sir, I cannot but advert to the British and Foreign Bible Society, which as a great moral luminary, during the past 40 years, has been irradiating the moral and intellectual darkness which envelopes the world, diffusing light and salvation among its population. 1804, the memorable year which gave birth to that noble institution, formed a new era in the history of the moral and religious movements of the world. It has extended its influence to almost every nation and clime, and has translated the sacred volume into nearly 200 different languages and dialects. Twelve years after, the christian philanthropy of my own country received the generous impulse, when was formed the American Bible Society, which, as an humble life member (with my friend, Mr. Timothy Darling, the worthy Consul of my country), I am happy to represent. It is with satisfaction I inform you that our Society is doing well, and has attempted and effected great things. If my memory serves me, in the year 1831 or 1832, it accomplished the herculean task of placing the Bible in every destitute family in our widely extended nation, with the exception of that of the poor slave! In 1833, she passed a series of resolutions, extending her foreign efforts to the inhabitants around the Mediterranean, and to the various fields of christian missions. At the same time, a correspondence on the subject of foreign distribution, was opened with kindred institutions, more particularly with the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the Protestant Bible Society of Paris, with very pleasing results.

The argument and facts which demonstrate the value of divine revelation, are innumerable; we might devote the whole night to their enumeration. O Sir, the Bible is every thing to us. It is not only the prolific source of those sublime and precious truths which alone dissipate the gloom and darkness enveloping the tomb, and calm the soul when all human props fail. When it views itself about approaching into the august presence of its Maker and Judge. It is also the only source of civilization, real refinement, and domestic happiness. It is the repository of the principle of human liberty, and of the rights of conscience. If there were an individual present indifferent to the importance of the distribution of the Bible, who still withholds his co-

operation, were it possible, I would convey that individual to some lofty peak of the Andes or Himalaya, and could, our vision be strengthened. I would then give him a panoramic view of the globe; I would point him to the dense darkness enveloping the greater portion of Asia, Africa, the Isles of the seas, and to the wilds of America; I would direct his attention to the various and horrifying forms of selfishness there presented. I would then point to those portions of Europe and America, illuminated by the sum of revelation. Why this striking contrast?! The Bible has diffused its influence over the latter, while the former is destitute of it. Contemplate the polygamy, infanticide, the utter destitution of domestic quiet every where seen. Ah! the Bible is not there. I would direct him to cast an eye to Hindostan, upon the huge car of their idol, and to behold the blinded devotees casting themselves beneath its crushing wheels, and to see the land for miles whitened with the bones of the infatuated men striving to appease the wrath of their imaginary deities by self-immolation! I will reiterate, the Bible is not there.

If there be a female present who disparages this benevolent cause, or who is indigent as to her cooperation, I would respectfully remind her that woman is deeply interested in this subject. Everywhere throughout the globe, where the benign influence of the Bible is not diffused, she is degraded and oppressed. If not viewed as by the Mussulman, as destitute of a moral existence, she is looked upon as merely subserving the caprice, the will, or the passions of the stronger sex. It is only where the blessed volume is received, that the endearing name of mother, sister, wife are revered; that domestic happiness is known; or that the rights of woman, the better portion of creation, are defined or recognized. It is only in Christendom that woman is regarded as an equal, and is restored to the dignity of an help-mate for man. I would point the ladies present in India; why, I must be tender females there crowded and secluded, without the advantage of liberal intercourse with mankind, in Hararest! This blessed volume is not there,

See that mother, with downcast look approaching the shore of the Ganges, as, with a parent's love, for the last time, she claps to her bosom her infant, and commits it to the monsters of the deep. O! the Bible is not there.

Why are those funeral piles kindled, upon which widows, in self-immolation are consumed with the corpses of their husbands?! The light of revelation is not there. O! if any ought to glory in, and labour for the universal dissemination of the Bible, it is woman! I must beware lest I make a speech [Cries of go on] I will give utterance to one or two more thoughts.

This volume, upon the sacred pages of which, is written "God hath made of one blood, all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth," "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them" is the grand palladium of human rights.

The signal triumph of liberty over injustice and oppression so recently achieved by England, in magnanimously proclaiming liberty to the enslaved of her land, was effected, by the principles of this book. And while I love my country, (and palsied be this arm if I ever forsake her, for there lie the bones of my fathers), I am humbled in saying, that her noble institutions are endangered, are rendered a by-word and hissing to the nations, by her foul system of slavery. I cannot but venerate the mother country for the noble example she has set her daughter, which has rendered her for all-coming time the exemplar of liberty to the world.

I will go home and tell my countrymen that England has not only conferred the precious boon upon the inhabitants of these Isles, but that the Bible is placed in their hands, so that her freed-men, my brethren, "may be free indeed." I will tell them of your schools, in which the dear children are training for usefulness and responsibility; and of the numerous sanctuaries that adorn the land; and of the self-denying, and devoted Missionaries who are labouring for the intellectual and moral improvement of the people. I will tell the Pro-slavery that Britannia has not destroyed her resources, nor impoverished her Colonies, by emancipation, as they tauntingly allege, but has more closely united the bonds of union between all classes of her subjects.

When they urge their futile objections to the disentrainment of the suffering millions who are inhumanly sacrificed upon the shrine of the American Moloch. I will point them to the trestle-board, erected by Jehovah, heaven high over these free and happy Isles; and tell them that here, if they will, they may see the grand problem solved, "That immediate emancipation is safe, expedient, and for the highest interests of all." I will tell them that here, written in characters of vivid

light, they may if they will, see all their objections triumphantly answered. Oh! the Bible is the only hope of the slave.

In conclusion, permit me to remark, that upon this Christian platform, denominational preferences and distinction, however important in other relations, are lost. As we come together, occasionally, all greet each other as brethren, cooperating in one common cause other as brethren, having one Lord, one common enemy, one precious Bible, one glorious home, to which we all aspire, and where we all hope to meet. [Cheers.]

The Rev. T. S. WATKIN's resolution was seconded by Mr. C. W. RAE, with a few remarks.

The Rev. J. CORLETT moved that the thanks of this meeting be presented to his Excellence the Governor, for his kindness in taking the Chair on the present occasion.

This resolution was immediately responded to by all present, who simultaneously rose from their seats and cheered.

His Excellence briefly returned thanks, and assured those present that he felt great pleasure in witnessing so large an assemblage, and said that his services might always be obtained on this and any other occasion when the interest of the inhabitants of the Bahamas was concerned. He should not allude to the excellent speeches which had been delivered, but he must acknowledge his gratification at hearing the remarks made by the Rev. gentleman from America, who, he hoped, would tell his countrymen that in this community men mingle together in all the social interconexions of life, according to moral and intellectual worth, without reference to caste.

The venerable the ARCHDEACON pronounced the blessing after the collection.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

PORT OF NASSAU.

24 S.

—

25

—

26

—

27

—

ADDRESS

Delivered before the Sunday School Be-
nevolent Society, of Buffalo, N. Y., by J.
M. WHITFIELD.

Mrs. President—It is with considerable
diffidence that I have accepted the invita-
tion to address so intelligent an audience as
the individuals composing this society; and
and I have to request that a portion of that
charity which forms the basis of your in-
stitution, be extended to the few feeble re-
marks which I shall make this evening.

The practice of benevolence is the first
and most important duty devolving upon
mankind; the one most universal in its de-
mands, most salutary in its influence, pro-
ductive of the most good to all the human
race, and the basis of all genuine philan-
thropy. This, as I understand it, is the
foundation upon which your society is
based; and the particular objects for which
it is designed, are to establish a Sabbath
school where children can be reared in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord, and to
furnish the destitute with the means of ob-
taining moral and intellectual culture—a
high and holy purpose, and one which can-
not fail of being eminently successful if the
principles which you have laid down as
your rule of conduct are but carried out in
practice as well as theory. And more es-
pecially must you bear in mind, that
merely bestowing your dollars and cents
upon those who stand in need, is but a part,
and that too the smallest part of what con-
stitutes true benevolence. It requires a far
higher order of benevolence to look with
a charitable eye upon the failings of
others, to check the tongue of slander and
detraction, to suppress the workings of en-
vy and malice, and restrain the swelling
ebullions of pride and arrogance, than it
does to render pecuniary assistance. And
I rejoice to see the ladies foremost in this
important enterprise. I hail it as an au-
gury of better things. There is perhaps
no surer sign of a correct state of public
sentiment than to see institutions of this
kind well supported by females; as it is
certainly a fact, that the surest index to the
condition, prospects, and ultimate destiny
of any people is to be found in the state of
their females; and although men form the
laws of the country, yet women form the
manners, in accordance with which all
laws must necessarily be framed. Though
it is not her province to plunge into the
turmoil of politics, and guide the car of
state through the intricate mazes of diplo-
macy. Though she does not mount the
rostrum, and sway the mighty power of
eloquence, or rush to the ensanguined field,
where war in all its horrors reigns supreme;
yet it is no less true that she is the chief
instrument in forming the principles which
shall guide the statesman in the cabinet,
that will inspire the orator in the forum, or
nerve the warrior in the battle-field.

Among some nations we find her re-
garded as the mere slave and drudge of
man. Such is the case among the Chi-
nese, and though China contains about one-
third the population of the earth, and tho'
her people are distinguished for industry,
and have for ages been pre-eminent in
many of the arts, requiring only perseve-
ring industry, yet such is the insignifi-
cance of her political power, and such the
imbecility of her government, that she con-

tinues to be ranked among the most inferior
powers.

Among the Turks, and most of the east-
ern nations, woman is regarded as merely
formed to gratify the sensual lusts of man;
and the time which should be employed in
cultivating the mind, is spent in developing
those charms which capivate the senses;
and now look at the condition of those na-
tions! Favored beyond any other por-
tion of the earth with all the resources ne-
cessary for the promotion of individual hap-
piness or national greatness, they remain
ignorant, superstitious, bigoted, and effemi-
nate, completely enervated, and a prey to
the ambition of their more vigorous neigh-
bors. To use the expressive language of
the poet,

"The Turk's own mind example gives
Of what such superstition breeds;
Debased, luxurious, proud he lives,
Despises learning, and believes
His sword, his harem, all he now or ever
needs."

The nations of antiquity among whom
civilization and the arts and sciences made
greatest progress, as Egypt and Greece,
were foremost to place woman in her pro-

per sphere in society, and prohibit polyga-
my and such sensual indulgences. And
as the fruit of it, the philosopher appeared
and plunged deep into the abodes of sci-
ence, and spread her treasure's open to the
world; and poetry and eloquence joined
with art to add new beauty to the scene;
and though the night of ignorance has
again fallen upon those classic shores—
though barbarous fanaticism has nearly ob-
literated every vestige of literature and
science, and laid its worthless hand upon
the splendid trophies of genius and art, and
swept them as with the besom of destruc-
tion; yet, the spirit of liberty, and thirst
for knowledge then awakened, has stimu-
lated men in other parts of the world to
emulate their noble deeds. "Tis here that
the philosopher, the poet, and the artist, and
men in every department of literature and
science, turn for their most illustrious mo-
dels; and does the patriot need some great
example to fire his heart in the cause of
freedom, where shall he turn but to the
land of heroes? And when he thinks of
Marathon, Platea, Salamis, and Thermo-
pyle, he feels new vigor nerve his arm;
and while he admires, he wonders at the
invincible will which could enable 300 men
to face the countless numbers of the Per-
sian monarch. But when we read of Spar-
tan mothers while lamenting their sons
slain in battle, rejoicing to see that the
wounds by which they died were received
in front, the mystery is solved; and we no
longer wonder that the children of such
mothers should prefer a glorious death to
a life of ignominy. And I would have
you emulate those mothers; not, indeed,
in raising children possessed only of that
physical courage which shall render them
invincible in the battle field, but I would
have you instil deeply into their minds that
higher, nobler, moral courage, which alone
can raise man to the station his Creator
designed him to occupy.

The individual who possesses this facul-
ty, however humble his sphere, however
degraded his condition, has more claim to
true courage and greatness of soul than all
the conquerors who ever ravaged the
earth; more wisdom than all the philoso-
phers who have speculated on theories for

man's advancement; and more real good-
ness than all the priests and prelates who
ever reduced religion to a senseless mass
of rites and ceremonies. Poverty may
lay its iron grip upon him, and those who
have been favored with the smiles of for-
tune may pass him by with contempt and
disdain, but they cannot rob him of that
inexhaustible mine of wealth in his own bo-
som which enables him to endure unmoved
the privations of poverty, and the scorn of
his fellow men. Oppression and bigotry in
every form may assail him, and deprive
him of his dearest and most sacred rights;
but his proud soul, conscious of its own
dignity, can never be subdued, but by the
workings of envy, malice, and contempt.
The votaries of pleasure and ambition may
seek to beguile him with their syren songs;
but his greatest pleasure consists in doing
right; his highest ambition is to merit the
title of an honest man. These are the
principles which from the earliest dawn of
opening childhood should be deeply im-
planted in the youthful mind. It is the
impressions then received which are likely
to exert a lasting influence upon all their
future actions; and during those first years
of their existence they are almost entirely
under your care: how important it is then,
that all your teachings should be such as
are calculated to fit them for their high
destiny? The embryo mind developing
beneath your care, may one day weld the
destinations of nations; it may be his lot to
lead embattled legions to the field; and it
may depend upon the bias given by you in
early childhood, whether that power shall
be wielded in the cause of liberty and jus-
tice, or be exercised to build up tyranny
and oppression. He may explore new
paths in the fields of science and philoso-
phy; and it may depend upon yourselves
whether that deep learning and erudition
shall be employed in promoting the cause
of virtue and religion, or be devoted to the
propagation of vice and infidelity. He
may be possessed of those splendid talents,
which, as a poet, will enable him to clothe
his burning thoughts in the magnificent
harmony of verse, and bring all the re-
sources of reality and fiction, of nature and
art, of reason and imagination, to embel-
lish the productions of his brain; and it
will depend chiefly upon you, whether the
power of spch genius shall be employed in
adding fresh force and beauty to the eter-
nal principles of truth and justice, or be de-
voted to gilding and embellishing vice, and
hiding its deformity beneath the mask of
ornament and refinement; thus sowing the
seeds of moral poison, pestilence, and death
throughout the world, and corrupting the
fountains of moral and intellectual refine-
ment. He may be gifted with that supe-
rior eloquence, which shall enable him by
the force of his logic, the beauty of his rhe-
toric, the depth and pathos of his feelings,
the splendor of his diction and power of
expression, to penetrate the innermost re-
cesses of the human mind; to convince the
reason, enlist the sympathies, arouse the
passions, and sweep every chord of the hu-
man heart with a master's hand; and it
will in a great measure depend upon you
how those great powers shall be applied;

whether they shall be devoted to purifying
and elevating mankind, or be rendered
subervient to sordid passions and unprinci-
pled ambition. He may be poor and des-
pised, the victim of oppression and perse-
cution; he may have to drink deep of the
cup of adversity, and be exposed to all
manner of temptations; and upon the
principles which you have been instrumen-
tal in implanting may depend his fate;
whether he shall in some unguard ed mo-
ment, and in the bitterness of his soul yield
to temptation, and seek for blind revenge,
or pursue his course with that manly cou-
rage, which, while it resists with inflexi-
ble determination every species of wrong
and oppression, refuses with equal firmness
to right one wrong by inflicting another;
and, relying on the conscious purity of its

ling Providence, scorns alike to do, or suffer
wrong.

But in order to impress these principles
with success upon the minds of others, you
must yourselves be actuated by them, and
must feel and properly appreciate the vast
responsibility which rests upon you, and
the powerful influence, either for good or
evil, which you necessarily exert in society,
and your chief study should be to exert
that influence in such a manner as is best
calculated to promote the welfare and ele-
vate the character of mankind. As I be-
fore said, the surest manner by which the
superficial observer can form a correct
opinion of the character of any people, is
by noticing the condition of their females.
The student of human nature, who in the
early ages of the Roman Republic had
marked the chaste simplicity and dignified
virtues of its females, might safely have
ventured to predict its future glory; and
ten could he a few centuries later have
beheld primitive simplicity and virtue give
place to imperial magnificence and osten-
tation, and have seen the maids and ma-
tation, and have seen the maids and ma-
tions of Rome feasting their eyes on the
combats of gladiators, and such revolting
spectacles he could have told without turn-
ing to the record of her political intrigues
into the memory of that mighty and
civil strifes, that the sun of that mighty
empire was destined to go down in blood.
Among those barbarians by whom the Ro-
man Empire was subverted, woman was
generally highly regarded; and this, when
their manners came to receive some re-
finement, gave rise to the institution of chi-
valry, which, though wild and absurd, an-
swered a very good purpose at the time in
subduing the ferocious spirit of the age, and
smoothing the way for those social rights
which women now enjoy throughout the
civilized world.

Among the Indian tribes of this conti-
nent, the females have generally been re-
garded as inferiors and drudges; and the
result is, that all attempts to improve their
condition, or introduce civilization, have
proved in a great measure abortive; and
as civilization has advanced they have re-
ceeded before it, adopted its vices and re-
jected its virtues, until it has become al-
most certain that extermination is their in-
evitable doom.

On the other hand, among the African
tribe woman is treated with a degree of
courtesy and respect uncommon among
barbarians, or, in fact, among any but the
most enlightened nations. And now look
at those who have been consigned to slave-

ry in this country, and see what a cen-
trast they present to the aborigines. The
victims of a system of oppression, une-
qualified for cruelty in the annals of the
world, they have not only improved as
fast in proportion to their opportunities, but
have improved much faster every way
than any other class in the community. In
proof of this assertion you have only to
compare yourself with the numerous emi-
grants from Europe, in your immensely
superior capacity to enjoy and appreciate
republican civilization; and yet they have
been some ten or twelve centuries in rising
from their state of barbarism, while we
have attained an equal or superior degree
of civilization in three or four generations.

It now depends chiefly upon you, ladies,
whether fresh impulse shall be given to
our onward progress, or whether our un-
precedented success in self elevation, in
spite of the bitterest opposition shall be
checked. That your endeavors will be
used to promote the former I cannot doubt.
It depends in a great measure upon you
whether the generation now coming upon
the stage of action shall be men worthy
the name of freemen, knowing how to ap-
preciate and defend their rights, or the
passive instruments of petty tyranny;
whether they shall be men of sound minds
and morals, possessed of integrity and pu-
rity of character, and strength of intellect,
or libertines in principle, fops in manner,
and superficial in all their literary attain-
ments. As long as you bestow your
smiles of approbation upon the libertine,
you need not expect good morals to pre-
vail in society; but when you show him
that in order to receive your approa tion
he must respect and sustain, instead of be-
tray innocence and virtue, you have taken
the first great step towards purifying and
elevating the manners of both sexes. As
long as you make wealth the measure of
the man, and extend your courtesy chiefly
to those arrayed in fine clothing, without
regard their intellectual capacity or attain-
ments, so long may you expect ignorance,
with its concomitant vices to reign; for it
is easier to acquire wealth than wisdom,
to array the body in fine clothing than it is
the mind. I see before me many indivi-
duals of cultivated minds and vigorous in-
tellects, young men of superior natural
and acquired abilities, while I, an ignorant
and illiterate individual am called upon to
address you. This state of things ought
not to be; and I call upon you who have
the power to remedy it; no one knows
better than yourselves the influence which
you possess; and I insist that you employ
it, to bring forth those talents which have
so long been buried in the earth; and
then, instead of having to call on individu-
als like myself, feeble in intellect, without
learning, and rude and uncouth in manners,
you would have those, who, added to natu-
ral genius, would fetch all the power and
beauty of eloquence to their aid. Let them
but see in order to obtain your favor
and approbation, they must make some sa-
crifice of self, and labor for the elevation
of their down-trodden race; and a spirit of
emulation would be aroused that would
soon sweep before it the last vestage of sla-
very, and assert the inalienable rights of all
the human race.

SPEECH OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

*Reported for the Standard, by Oliver Dyer, Phonetica*
*Verbatim Reporter.*

I am very glad to be here. I am very glad to be pre-
sent at this Anniversary, glad again to mingle my voice
with those with whom I have stood identified, with those
with whom I have laboured, for the last seven years, for
the purpose of undoing the burdens of my brethren, and
hastening the day of their emancipation.

I do not doubt but that a large portion of this audience
will be disappointed, both by the manner and the matter
of what I shall this day set forth. The extraordinary
and unmerited eulogies, which have been showered upon
me, here and elsewhere, have done much to create expec-
tations which, I am well aware, I can never hope to gra-
tify. I am here, a simple man, knowing what I have
experienced in Slavery, knowing it to be a bad system,
and desiring, by all Christian means, to seek its over-
throw. I am not here to please you with an eloquent
speech, with a refined and logical address, but to speak
to you the sober truths of a heart overborne with grati-
tude to God that we have in this land, cursed as it is
with Slavery, so noble a band to second my efforts and
the efforts of others, in the noble work of undoing the
yoke of bondage, with which the majority of the States
of this Union are now unfortunately cursed.

Since the last time I had the pleasure of mingling my
voice with the voices of my friends on this platform,
many interesting and even trying events have occurred
to me. I have experienced, within the last eighteen or
twenty months, many incidents, all of which it would be
interesting to communicate to you, but many of these I
shall be compelled to pass over at this time, and confine
my remarks to giving a general outline of the manner and
spirit with which I have been hailed abroad, and wel-
comed at the different places which I have visited during
my absence of twenty months.

You are aware, doubtless, that my object in going from
this country, was to get beyond the reach of the clutch of
the man who claimed to own me as his property. I had
written a book, giving a history of that portion of my life
spent in the gall and bitterness and degradation of Slavery,
and in which, I also identified my oppressors as the perpe-
trators of some of the most atrocious crimes. This had
deeply incensed them against me, and stirred up within
them the purpose of revenge, and, my whereabouts being
known, I believed it necessary for me, if I would pre-
serve my liberty, to leave the shores of America, and
take up my abode in some other land, at least until the
excitement occasioned by the publication of my Narrative
had subsided. I went to England, monarchal Eng-
land, to get rid of Democratic Slavery; and I must con-
fess that at the very threshold I was satisfied that I had
gone to the right place. Say what you will of England—
of the degradation—of the poverty—and there is much
of it there,—say what you will of the oppression and
suffering going on in England at this time, there is Li-
berty there, not only for the white man, but for the black
man also. The instant that I stepped upon the shore,
and looked into the faces of the crowd around me, I saw in
every man a recognition of my manhood, and an absence,
a perfect absence, of everything like that disgusting hate
with which we are pursued in this country. (Cheers.) I
looked around in vain to see in any man's face a token of
the slightest aversion to me on account of my complexion.
Even the cabmen demeaned themselves to me as they
did to other men, and the very dogs and pigs of old Eng-
land treated me as a man! I cannot, however, my
friends, dwell upon this anti-prejudice, or rather the
many illustrations of the absence of prejudice against co-
lour in England, but will proceed, at once, to defend the
right and duty of invoking English aid and English sym-
pathy for the overthrow of American Slavery, for the
education of coloured Americans, and to forward, in

every way, the interests of humanity; inasmuch as the
right of appealing to, England for aid in overthrowing
Slavery in this country has been called in question, in
public meetings and by the press, in this city.

I cannot agree with my friend Mr. Garrison, in relation to my love and attachment to this land. I have no love for America, as such; I have no patriotism. I have no country. What country have I? The institutions of this country do not know me, do not recognize me as a man. I am not thought of, spoken of, in any direction, out of the Anti-Slavery ranks, as a man. I am not thought of, or spoken of, except as a piece of property belonging to some Christian slaveholder, and all the religious and political institutions of this country, alike pronounce me a slave and a chattel. Now, in such a country as this, I cannot have patriotism. The only thing that links me to this land is my family, and the painful consciousness that here are three millions of my fellow-creatures, groaning beneath the iron rod of the worst despotism that could be devised, even in Pandemonium; that here are men and brethren, who are identified with me by their complexion, identified with me by their hatred of Slavery, identified with me by their love and aspirations for liberty, identified with me by the stripes upon their backs, their inhuman wrongs and cruel sufferings. This, and this only, attaches me to this land, and brings me here to plead with you, and with this country at large, for the disenthralment of my oppressed countrymen, and to overthrow this system of Slavery which is crushing them to the earth. How can I love a country that dooms three millions of my brethren, some of them my own kindred, my own brothers, my own sisters, who are now clanking the chains of Slavery upon the plains of the South, whose warm blood is now making fat the soil of Maryland and of Alabama, and over whose crushed spirits rolls the dark shadow of oppression, shutting out and extinguishing forever, the cheering rays of that bright sun of Liberty lighted in the souls of all God's children by the Omnipotent hand of Deity itself? How can I, I say, love a country thus cursed, thus bedewed with the blood of my brethren? A country, the Church of which, and the Government of which, and the Constitution of which, is in favour of supporting and perpetuating this monstrous system of injustice and blood? I have not, I cannot have, any love for this country, as such, or for its Constitution. I desire to see its overthrow as speedily as possible, and its Constitution shivered in a thousand fragments, rather than this foul curse should continue to remain as now. (Hisses and Cheers.)

In all this, my friends, let me make myself understood. I do not hate America as against England, or against any other country, or land. I love humanity all over the globe. I am anxious to see righteousness prevail in all directions. I am anxious to see Slavery overthrown here; but, I never appealed to Englishmen in a manner calculated to awaken feelings of hatred or disgust, or to influence their prejudices towards America as a nation, or in a manner provocative of national jealousy or ill-will; but I always appealed to their conscience—to the higher and nobler feelings of the people of that country, to enlist them in this cause. I always appealed to their manhood, that which preceded their being Englishmen, (to quote an expression of my friend Phillips,) I appealed to them as men, and I had a right to do so. They are men, and the slave is a man, and we have a right to call upon all men to assist in breaking his bonds, let them be born when, and live where they may.

But it is asked, "What good will this do?" or "What
good has it done?" "Have you not irritated, have you
not annoyed your American friends, and the American
people rather, than done them good?" I admit that we
have irritated them. They deserve to be irritated. I am
anxious to irritate the American people on this question.
As it is in physics, so in morals, there are cases which
demand irritation, and counter irritation. The con-
science of the American public needs this irritation.

And I world blister it all over, from centre to circumference, until it gives signs of a purer and a better life than it is now manifesting to the world.

But why expose the sins of one nation in the eyes of another? Why attempt to bring one people under the odium of another people? There is much force in this question. I admit that there are sins in almost every country which can be best removed by means confined exclusively to their immediate locality. But such evils and such sins pre-suppose the existence of a moral power in this immediate locality sufficient to accomplish the work of renovation. But where, pray, can we go to find moral power in this nation, sufficient to overthrow Slavery? To what institution, to what party shall we apply for aid? I say, we admit that there are evils which can be best removed by influences confined to their immediate locality. But in regard to American Slavery, it is not so. It is such a giant crime, so darkening to the soul, so blinding in its moral influence, so well calculated to blast and corrupt all the humane principles of our nature, so well adapted to infuse its own accursed spirit into all around it, that the people among whom it exists have not the moral power to abolish it. Shall we go to the Church for this influence? We have heard its character described. Shall we go to politicians or political parties? Have they the moral power necessary to accomplish this mighty task? They have not. What are they doing at this moment? Voting supplies for Slavery—voting supplies for the extension, the stability, the perpetuation of Slavery in this land. What is the Press doing? The same. The pulpit? Almost the same. I do not flatter myself that there is moral power in the land sufficient to overthrow Slavery, and I welcome the aid of England. And that aid will come. The growing intercourse between England and this country, by means of steam-navigation, the relaxation of the protective system in various countries in Europe, gives us an opportunity to bring in the aid, the moral and Christian aid of those living on the other side of the Atlantic. We welcome it, in the language of the resolution. We entreat our British friends to continue to send in their remonstrances across the deep, against Slavery in this land. And these remonstrances will have a powerful effect here. Sir, the Americans may tell of their ability, and I have no doubt they have it, to keep back the invader's hosts, to repulse the strongest force that its enemies may send against this country. It may boast, and it may rightly boast, of its capacity to build its ramparts so high that no foe can hope to scale them, to render them so impregnable as to defy the assault of the world. But, Sir, there is one thing it cannot resist, come from what quarter it may. It cannot resist TRUTH. You cannot build your forts so strong, nor your ramparts so high, nor arm yourself so powerfully, as to be able to withstand the overwhelming MORAL SENTIMENT against Slavery now flowing into this land. For example; prejudice against color is continually becoming weaker in this land; and why? Because the whole European Continent denounces this sentiment as unworthy a lodgment in the breast of an enlightened community. And the American abroad dare not now, even in a public conveyance, to lift his voice in defence of this disgusting prejudice.

I do not mean to say that there are no practices abroad which deserve to receive an influence favourable to their extermination, from America. I am most glad to know that Democratic freedom—not the bastard democracy, which, while loud in its protestations of regard for liberty and equality, builds up Slavery, and, in the name of Freedom, fights the battles of Despotism—is making great strides in Europe. We see abroad, in England especially, happy indications of the progress of American principles. A little while ago England was cursed by a Corn monopoly—by that giant monopoly, which snatched from the mouths of the famishing poor the bread which you sent them from this land. The community, the people of England, demanded its destruction, and they

have triumphed! We have aided them, and they aid us, and the mission of the two nations, henceforth, is to serve each other.

Sir, it is said that, when abroad, I misrepresented my country on this question. I am not aware of any misrepresentation. I stated facts, and facts only. A gentleman of your own city, Rev. Dr. Cox, has taken particular pains to stigmatize me as having introduced the subject of Slavery illegitimately into the World's Temperance Convention. But what was the fact? I went to that Convention, not as a delegate. I went into it by the invitation of the Committee of the Convention. I suppose most of you know the circumstances, but I wish to say one word in relation to the spirit and the principle which animated me at the meeting. I went into it at the invitation of the Committee, and spoke not only at their urgent request, but by public announcement. I stood on the platform on the evening referred to, and heard some eight or ten Americans address the seven thousand people assembled in that vast Hall. I heard them speak of the temperance movement in this land. I heard them eulogize the temperance societies in the highest terms, calling on England to follow their example; (and England may follow them with advantage to herself;) but I heard no reference made to the 3,000,000 of people in this country who are denied the privileges, not only of temperance, but of all other societies. I heard not a word of the American slaves, who, if seven of them were found together at a temperance meeting, or any other place, would be scourged and beaten by their cruel tyrants. Yes, nine-and-thirty lashes is the penalty required to be inflicted by the law if any of the slaves get together in a number exceeding seven, for any purpose however peaceable or laudable. And while these American gentlemen were extending their hands to me, and saying, "How do you do, Mr. Douglass? I am most happy to meet you here," &c. &c. I knew that, in America, they would not have touched me with a pair of tongs. I felt, therefore, that that was the place and the time to call to remembrance the 3,000,000 of slaves, whom I aspired to represent on that occasion. I did so, not maliciously, but with a desire, only, to subserve the best interests of my race. I besought the American delegates, who had at first responded to my speech with shouts of applause, when they should arrive at home to extend the borders of their temperance societies so as to include the 500,000 coloured people in the Northern States of the Union. I also called to mind the facts in relation to the mob that occurred in the city of Philadelphia, in the year 1842. I stated these facts to show to the British public how difficult it is for a coloured man in this country to do anything to elevate himself or his race from the state of degradation in which they are plunged; how difficult it is for him to be virtuous or temperate, or anything but a menial, an outcast. You all remember the circumstances of the mob to which I have alluded. A

number of intelligent, philanthropic, manly coloured men, desirous of snatching their coloured brethren from the fangs of intemperance, formed themselves into a procession, and walked through the streets of Philadelphia with appropriate banners and badges and mottoes. I stated the fact that that procession was not allowed to proceed far, in the city of Philadelphia—the American city of Brotherly Love, the city of all others loudest in its boasts of freedom and liberty—before these noble-minded men were assaulted by the citizens, their banners torn in shreds and themselves trampled in the dust, and inhumanly beaten, and all their bright and fond hopes and anticipations, in behalf of their friends and their race, blasted by the wanton cruelty of their white fellow-citizens. And all this was done for no other reason, than that they had presumed to walk through the streets with temperance banners and badges, like human beings.

The statement of his fact caused the whole Convention to break forth in one general expression of intense disgust at such atrocious and inhuman conduct. This disturbed the composure of some of our American representatives, who, in serious alarm, caught hold of the skirts of my coat, and attempted to make me desist from my exposition of the situation of the coloured race in this country. There was one Doctor of Divinity there, the ugliest man that I ever saw in my life, who almost tore the skirts of my coat off, so vehement was he in his friendly attempts to induce me to yield the floor. But fortunately the audience came to my rescue, and demanded that I should go on, and I did go on, and, I trust, discharged my duty to my brethren in bonds and the cause of human liberty, in a manner not altogether unworthy the occasion.

I have been accused of dragging the question of Slavery into the Convention. I had a right to do so. It was the World's Convention—not the Convention of any sect, or number of sects—not the Convention of any particular nation—not a man's or a woman's Convention, not a black man's nor a white man's Convention, but the WORLD'S Convention, the Convention of ALL, black as well as white, bond as well as free. And I stood there, as I thought, a representative of the 3,000,000 of men whom I had left in rags and wretchedness, to be devoured by the accursed institution which stands by them, as with a drawn sword, ever ready to fall upon their devoured and defenceless heads. I felt, as I said to Dr. Cox, that it was demanded of me by conscience, to speak out boldly in behalf of those whom I had left behind. (Cheers.) And, Sir, (I think I may say this, without subjecting myself to the charge of egotism,) I deem it very fortunate for the friends of the slave, that Mr. Garrison and myself were there just at that time. Sir, the churches in this country have long repined at the position of the churches in England on the subject of Slavery. They have sought many opportunities to do away the prejudice of the English churches against American Slavery. Why, Sir, at this time there were not far from seventy ministers of the Gospel from Christian America, in England, pouring their leprous pro-slavery distilment into the ears of the people of that country, and by their prayers, their conversation, and their public speeches, seeking to darken the British mind on the subject of Slavery, and to create in the English public the same cruel and heartless apathy that prevails in this country in relation to the slave, his wrongs and his rights. I knew them by their continuous slandering of my race; and at this time, and under these circumstances, I deemed it a happy interposition of God, in behalf of my oppressed and misrepresented and scarred people, that one of their number should burst up through the dark incrustation of malice, and hate, and degradation, which had been thrown over them, and stand before the British public to open to them the secrets of the prison-house of bondage in America. (Cheers.) Sir, the slave sends no delegates to the Evangelical Alliance. (Cheers.)

The slave sends no delegates to the World's Temperance Convention. Why? Because chains are upon his arms and fetters fast bind his limbs. He must be driven out to be sold at auction by some Christian slaveholder, and the money for which his soul is bartered must be appropriated to spread the Gospel among the heathen.

Sir, I feel that it is good to be here. There is always work to be done. Slavery is everywhere. Slavery goes out in the Cambria and comes back in the Cambria. Slavery was in the Evangelical Alliance, looking saintly in the person of the Rev. Dr. Smythe; it was in the World's Temperance Convention, in the person of the Rev. Mr. Kirk. Dr. Marsh went about saying, in so many words, that the unfortunate slaveholders in America were so peculiarly situated, so environed by uncontrollable circumstances, that they could not liberate their slaves; that if they were to emancipate them they would be, in many instances, cast into prison. Sir, it did me good to go around on the heels of this gentleman. I was glad to follow him around for the sake of my country, for the country is not, after all, so bad as the Rev. Dr. Marsh represented it to be.

My fellow-countrymen, what think ye he said of you, on the other side of the Atlantic? He said you were not only pro-slavery, but that you actually aided the slaveholder in holding his slaves securely in his grasp; that, in fact, you compelled him to be a slaveholder. This I deny. You are not so bad as that. You do not compel the slaveholder to be a slaveholder.

And Rev. Dr. Cox, too, talked a great deal over there; and among other things he said, "that many slaveholders—dear Christian men!—were sincerely anxious to get rid of their slaves; and to show how difficult it is for them to get rid of their human chattels, he put the following case: A man living in a State, the laws of which compel all persons emancipating their slaves to remove them beyond its limits, wishes to liberate his slaves, but he is too poor to transport them beyond the confines of the State in which he resides; therefore he cannot emancipate them—he is necessarily a slaveholder. But, Sir, there was one fact, which I happened, fortuitously, to have on hand just at that time, which completely neutralized this very affecting statement of the Doctor's. It so happens that Messrs. Gerrit Smith and Arthur Tappan have advertised for the especial benefit of this afflicted class of slaveholders that they have set apart the sum of $10,000 to be appropriated in aiding them to remove their emancipated slaves beyond the jurisdiction of the State, and that the money would be forthcoming on application being made for it; but *no such application was ever made!* This shows that, however truthful the statements of these gentlemen may be concerning the things of the world to come, they are lamentably reckless in their statements concerning things appertaining to this world. I do not mean to say that they would designedly tell that which is false, but they did make the statements I have ascribed to them.

And Dr. Cox and others charge me with having stirred up warlike feelings while abroad. This charge, also, I deny. The whole of my arguments and the whole of my appeals, while I was abroad, were in favour of anything else than war. I embraced every opportunity to propagate the principles of peace while I was in Great Britain. I confess, honestly, that were I not a peace-mans, were I a believer in fighting at all, I should have gone through England, saying to Englishmen, as Englishmen, there are 3,000,000 of men across the Atlantic who are whipped, scourged, robbed of themselves, denied every privilege, denied the right to read the Word of the God who made them, trampled under foot, denied all the rights of human-beings; go to their rescue; shoulder your muskets, buckle on your knapsacks, and in the in-

["vincible cause of Human Rights and Universal Liberty, go forth, and the laurels which you shall win will be as fadeless and as imperishable as the eternal aspirations of the human soul after that freedom which every being made after God's image instinctively feels is his birth-right. This would have been my course had I been a war man. That such was not my course, I appeal to my whole career while abroad to determine.", "\"Weapons of war we have cast from the battle;\nTRUTH is our armour, our watch-word is LOVE;\nHushed be the sword, and the musketry's rattle,\nAll our equipments are drawn from above.\"", "Praise then the God of Truth,\nHoary age and ruddy youth,\nLong may our rally be\nLove, Light, and Liberty,\nEver our banner the banner of Peace.\"", "Mr. Douglass took his seat in the midst of the most enthusiastic and overwhelming applause, in which the whole of the vast assembly appeared heartily to join.", "## A Fugitive Slave visiting the Birth-place of", "ROBERT BURNS.", "The following is an extract from a letter of Frederic Douglass, to a friend, dated April 23, 1846. The writer, be it remembered, is a runaway slave, who during his eight years of stolen freedom, in defiance of all the disadvantages under which his class labor, has qualified himself to think and write thus:—\n*Alb. Eve. Journal.*", "I am now in the town of Ayr. It is famous for being the birth-place of Robert Burns, the poet, by whose brilliant genius every stream, hill, glen and valley in the neighborhood have been made classic. I have felt more interest in visiting this place than any other in Scotland, for, as you are aware, (painfully perhaps) I am an enthusiastic admirer of Robert Burns. Immediately on our arrival, Friend Buffum and myself were joined by Rev. Mr. Renwick, the minister in whose meeting-house we are to lecture during our stay, and proceeded forthwith to see Burns's Monument. It is about three miles from town, and situated on the south bank of the river Doon, and within hearing of its gentle steps as it winds its way over its pebbled path to the ocean. The place of the monument is well chosen, being in full view of all the places mentioned and referred to in the poet's famous poem called \"Tam O'Shanter,\" as well as several others of his most popular poems. From the monument (which I have not time to describe) may be seen the cottage where Burns was born—the old and new bridge across the Doon—\"Kirk Alloway,\" called by Burns the \"Haunted Kirk.\" The banks of Doon, rising majestically from the sea toward the sky, and the Clyde stretching off to the highlands of Arran, whose dim outline is scarcely discernable through the fog by which it is almost constantly overhung, makes the spot admirably and beautifully adapted to the monument of Scotland's noble bard. In the monument there is a finely executed marble bust of Burns—the finest thing of the kind I ever saw. I never, before looking upon it, realized the power of man to make the marble speak. The expression is so fine, and the face is so lit up, as to cause one to forget the form in gazing upon the spirit.", "In another room, there are two statues carved out of freestone—the one of Souter Johnny and the other of Tam O'Shanter, two characters named in his most famous poem. These were also finely executed, and shared my attention, but I was drawn to Burns. In a glass case near his bust there was a Bible, given by Burns to his \"sweet Highland Mary\"—there is also in the same case a lock of her hair neatly fastened to a card. As I gazed on the hair of her he so dearly loved, and who by death was snatched from his bosom, and up to his bust was

Henry H. Garnet.

We are induced to say thus much, as an introduction to the following address, written by Mr. Garnet, and read to the great assembly, at the conclusion of his speech, with thrilling effect:—

### THE WRONGS OF AFRICA.

*Fellow Citizens of the United States:*—The Father of Mercies has given us an inheritance in a goodly land, and has scattered unnumbered blessings around us. He has given us a pleasant sky, and caused our fields to yield their fruits in abundance. The character of our institutions is such, that intelligence is disseminated among the majority of people. The Bible is placed in the hands of the free, and by an almost unanimous consent it is used as a school book. That sacred volume declares that “God is no respecter of persons,” and that “He has made of one blood all people.” In this land there are but a few who are unacquainted with the Declaration of American Independence, a paper which, in point of just sentiments, is held in respect next to the Bible, because it draws its leading principles from that book.

Here in this favored land, are thousands of ministers professing to be disciples of Him whose advent was to bring peace on earth and good will to men. From every valley I heard the voice of prayer, and songs of Zion ascending. There are a million of hearts among us that sympathize with the oppressed of every class in foreign lands. Uncounted treasures have been properly expended for the evangelization of the heathen abroad. When modern Greece stirred up her quenchless fires on the fields which had witnessed the exploits of her sons, when her name was potent, the American people hailed the event with joy. When Poland raised her arm against her oppressors, every heart wished her success, and when she could no longer contend against an unequal foe, you welcomed her exiled sons to your freer and more peaceful shores. You can point to fields that have witnessed the most victorious achievements of our armies in the revolution. In the bosom of this soil rest the ashes of Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, and here are the tombs of Franklin, Adams, and Washington. So certain are we that we have a superiority over all other people, we have thrown aside a becoming modesty and proclaimed ourselves the freest nation of the earth.

But, fellow citizens, look at the truth. In the name of my brethren I entreat you not to turn from it with scorn, but view it calmly and fairly, however humiliating it may be to your national pride.

There are at this moment three millions of slaves in the United States. Merciful God, what a vast number is this! Our proud New England does not contain more inhabitants. Besides this number in actual slavery, there are more than a half million of people of color in the non-slaveholding States, who are in one way or other proscribed by law or abused by prejudice. Thus this government has placed its feet upon the neck of three and a half millions of Africa-Americans. Where there has been one tear shed in consequence of the oppressions of our mother country, or the perils of the revolution, there have been a thousand shed on account of the bitterness of that slavery which you tolerate. And for every drop of blood poured out in defence of American liberty, you can be pointed to streams drawn from the lacerated bodies of the descendants of Africa.

During these hundred and twenty-five years, we have been doomed to suffer in this land all the cruelties common to a system of oppression, which in regard to wickedness, is not equalled by any in the world.

In consequence of this condition, a mighty overwhelming current of prejudice has set against us.

My brethren, many of whom are members of the church of Christ, are sold like beasts in the shambles, and every tie of relationship is ruthlessly torn asunder.

Sons have been compelled to behold the mothers who bore them, withering beneath the lash; aye and more, they have sometimes been forced to apply the scourge on the labor-broken frames of their aged parents.

Our sisters, daughters, and wives have been driven into prostitution, and concubinage, and their unhappy offspring have been sold by their unfeeling fathers; and in order to prevent these

children from pleading the privileges of their Anglo-Saxon blood, the American slave law declares that the child shall follow the condition of its mother!

The Holy Bible is a sealed book to all the enslaved with a few exceptions. Hence they are the most unfortunate of all heathens. They sit in darkness while light surrounds them. They die of thirst while streams of salvation are flowing through the land.

In some parts of the country the most systematic efforts have been made to keep us in intellectual darkness; and the reason urged in favor of the course is, that knowledge would reveal our condition to us more plainly, and would therefore make us discontented.

Slaveholders and their apologists, say that we are ignorant and unprepared for freedom, and are still they punish with imprisonment and death every attempt to prepare!

Our children that are born from day to day, and who might have as fair opportunity as any others to fill the most useful spheres in life, are thrown into the same ocean of degradation in which their father's rights have been engulfed.

The vast amount of mind which is crushed by the slavery maintained in this country, is the most fearful part of the system. It has deprived the land of at least two thousand educated ministers.

It has robbed us of our due proportion of professional men—physicians, lawyers, legislators, merchants, poets, and philosophers.

It has kept from the heathen three hundred missionaries.

From the Liberty Press.

“THE SWEET CAKE PARTY.”

Mr. EDITOR: I noticed an article in the "National Anti-Slavey Standard," of the 17th instant, under the caption, "Proscription among the Colored People." The article fills two columns of that large sheet, and purports to be a report of a meeting held in New York city on the Friday evening preceding. I am aware that nothing that may come from the editor of that paper touching the character of a Liberty man can be considered slander, for no one suspects him of telling the truth. I hope you will pardon me noticing the scurrilous article through the columns of your paper. If my character alone had been assailed, I should have done on this occasion as I have hitherto—I should have left him alone severely.” But he has not only attacked me, but he has libelled the noble and patriotic sons of New York, who in all their State Conventions have shown their attachment for liberty.

The report was made by Sydney Howard Gay, and I must say that I never read an article in Mr. Bennett's Herald that contained half so many vulgar lies. When I saw Mr. Gay in the meeting, being "set on" by the leaders of the "sweet cake men," I concluded he was one of the Herald's reporters, for I did not know the man. But I was mistaken, for every honest man who attended the meeting will testify that, in point of veracity, Sydney Howard Gay belongs to a class several steps below the Herald.

Before I proceed to examine the false report of this notorious man, and Dr. Smith, it may be well for me to give you a short account of the "sweet cake party." The two great leaders of the party are, 1st. Mr. Stephen Myers, of Albany, now editor of a Temperance paper, called the Pioneer—also formerly General Agent,

and a shareholder of the "Northern Star"—also formerly Agent for the "Advocate"—and also lately General Agent of the Northern Star and Clarksonian. Since Mr. Pennington wisely disengaged himself from Mr. Myers, the "Pio-neer" has become the organ of this "sweet cake party"—and according to its prospectus, it is neither for God nor for Satan—it says, "in politics and religion this paper will be strictly neutral." Yet its neutral policy leads it to at-tack the Liberty party in every number—in-deed, it does in the very prospectus. 2d. Dr. Smith, of New York, treads in the footsteps of his illustrious leader, and while he was editor of the "Northern Star," every week he rushed with Quixotic fury upon the liberty party. In those articles he manifested the greatest bitter-ness towards Messrs. Birney, Stanton, Leavitt, and Prof. Wright, and many other faithful friends of freedom, whose names are enrolled far beyond the short-sight of James McCune Smith, M. D. This party are at home, when they are fawning around the feet of their op-pressors. When their masters desire them to do a piece of dirty work, they give them a small loaf of sweet cake, and, spaniel like, they hunt down their own race to disgrace them.—Sometimes they receive a few dollars to sup-port their worthless papers. Sometimes, just before elections, they are taken into the back parlors of their oppressors—that is, when every body else has gone abroad. Then they are stroked on the head, and while the polls are open, they are called 'the trustiest of their kind.' The language of Dr. Smith, in reference to the members of the liberty party is, "they are po-litical aspirants"—they are trying to ride into office over the broken hearts of bleeding slaves. Pro-slavery editors say, "Ah he is a noble fel-low," and then they give him and his party another loaf of sweet cake. This pitiable com-pany is very small, as the proceedings of our Convention will show. They have never been able to carry a single measure. The people, yes, thank God, the people hold them in utter contempt. They are as decidedly pro-slavery as any party this side of South Carolina.

They sympathize no more with the Old Or-ganization than they do with the New. I am, therefore at a loss to know how they succeeded in obtaining Sydney Howard Gay to write false-hoods for them. Perhaps they passed the sweet cake to him—and the man must get his living. This same Dr. Smith, two years ago, attacked and blackguarded, in public meeting, in New York, that able and eloquent herald of freedom, C. Lenox Remond. And what had he done? He was invited to speak, and uttered some plain and simple Anti-slavery truth, at which Dr. Smith took umbrage. Truly, Pilate and Herod have renewed friends.

I am happy to say that we had a most glori-ous Convention, notwithstanding the attempt of the "sweet cake men" to break it up. No doubt that but the leaders expected that their with-drawal from the Convention would have about the same effect, as did the Great Red Dragon

rom Heaven, who drew the third part of the stars with his tail. But the stars did not follow. No, not even the "Northern Star" which is so prone to wander, could he draw that time—and "there's the rub."

Here follows the protest which the people would not allow to disgrace their minutes. Read it carefully, for you may never see its like a-gain:—[See Standard, Oct. 24.]

This wonderfully foolish protest carries an antidote for its own poison. Any honest man is called upon to show what part of the two resolutions, quoted in the protest, commits the colored people of New York to the liberty par-ty. The writer of this article was not the au-thor of the above resolutions: if he had been, he would have been more definite. Any edu-cated man who will say that the Whigs or Dem-ocrats have not neglected and refused to do our people justice, is "more knave than fool."

This "sweet cake party" is certainly the lit-tlest, and narrowest party in existence. The smallest room in Lilliput would accommodate a mass meeting of a hundred thousand of them. They say that anti-slavery and temperance are-subjects that are extraneous to the objects of a State Convention. And why? Because they are pro-slavery, and some of them wine-bibbers. Let it be understood, that the creed of freemen declares, that "nothing is foreign to them that interests man." Liberty "extraneous!" O, what philanthropists these men are! New York may constitute herself that such men are few and far between. They say that it will not do for them to speak the truth in regard to these parties, because they are and have long been, our cruel oppressors, and because we are looking for favors from them! The do favour us as cats favor mice—

"They first do play, And aft r slay."

They further tell us that, inasmuch as we do not know into whose hands we shall fall, we must pray "good Lord and good Devil."

All of the article in reference to myself at the Governor's house is an utter falsehood. I denied the whole statement at the convention, and Mr. Thompson very meekly said—"Well, that may go for what it may fetch—I may be mistaken.

The Convention at Schenectady was the first that Dr. Smith has ever attended out of the city. His sole object in attending the meeting was to carry through the protest, which he con-templated doing in the morning of the first day and to go home in the afternoon. Wonderful patriotism! Consummate conceit! No doubt but that this heroic leader of the sweet cake men intended carrying home Cæsar's report—veni, vidi, vici. But the noble freemen—the people, gave him another—"I came, I saw and I ran." No sooner did these men behold the fate of their puerile protest, than they availed themselves of the swiftness of the Hudson river steamboats.

hereafter. I have enough, and read at more than your
subscribers will be disposed to read at one time, of the
bright side of the picture. I can truly say, I have
spent some of the happiest moments of my life since
landing in this country. I seem to have undergone
a transformation. I live a new life. The warm and
generous cooperation extended to me by the friends
of my despised race—the prompt and liberal manner
with which the press has rendered me its aid—the
glorious enthusiasm with which thousands have
fleeted to hear the cruel wrongs of my down-trod-
den and long-enslaved fellow-countrymen pourtray-
ed—the deep sympathy for the slave, and the strong
abhorrence of the slaveholder, everywhere evinced
—the cordiality with which members and ministers
of various religious bodies and of various shades
of religious opinion, have embraced me, and lent
me their aid—the kind hospitality constantly prof-
fered to me by persons of the highest rank in so-
ciety—the spirit of freedom that seems to animate
all with whom I come in contact—and the entire
absence of every thing that looked like prejudice
against me, on account of the color of my skin—
contrasted so strongly with my long and bitter
experience in the United States, that I look with
wonder and amazement on the transition. In the
Southern part of the United States, I was a slave,
thought of and spoken of as property. In the lan-
guage of the LAW, 'held, taken, reputed and ad-
judged to be a chattel in the hands of my owners
and possessors, and their executors, administrators
and assignees, to all intents, constructions, and pur-
poses whatsoever.'—BREV. DIGEST, 224. In the
Northern States, a fugitive slave, liable to be hunted
at any moment like a felon, and to be hurled into the
terrible jaws of Slavery—doomed by an inveterate
prejudice against color to insult and outrage on
every hand (Massachusetts out of the question)—
denied the privileges and courtesies common to
others in the use of the most humble means of con-
veyance—shut out from the cabins of steamboats—
refused admission to respectable hotels—caricatur-
ed, scorched, soiled, mocked and maltreated with
impunity by any one, (no matter how black his
heart), so he has a white skin. But now behold the
change! Eleven days and a half gone, and I have
crossed three thousand miles of the perilous deep:
Instead of a democratic government, I am under a
monarchical government. Instead of the bright blue
sky of America, I am covered with the soft grey fog
of the Emerald Isle. I breathe, and lo! the chattel
becomes a man. I gaze around in vain for one who
will question my equal humanity, claim me as his
slave, or offer me an insult. I employ a cab— I am
seated beside white people—I reach the hotel—I
enter the same door—I am shown into the same par-
lor—I dine at the same table—and no one is offend-
ed. No delicate nose grows deformed in my pre-
sence. I find no difficulty here in obtaining admission
into any place of worship, instruction or amuse-
ment, on equal terms with people as white as any I
ever saw in the United States. I meet nothing to
remind me of my complexion. I find myself regarded
and treated at every turn with the kindness and
d deference paid to white people. When I go to
church, I am met by no upturned nose and cornuc-
hip to tell me, 'We don't allow niggers in here!'

I remember, about two years ago, there was in
Boston, near the South-West corner of Boston
Common, a menagerie. I had long desired to see
such a collection as I understood had been exhib-
ited there. Never having had an opportunity while
a slave, I resolved to seize this, my first since my
escape. I went, and as I approached the entrance
to gain admission, I was met and told by the door-
keeper, in a harsh and contemptuous tone, 'We
don't allow niggers in here!' I also remember at-
tending a revival meeting in the Rev. Henry Jackson's
meeting house, at New-Bedford, and going up the
broad aisle to find a seat, I was met by a good
deacon, who told me, in a pious tone: 'We don't al-
low niggers in here!' Soon after my arrival in
New-Bedford from the South, I had a strong desire
to attend the Lyceum, but was told, 'They don't
allow niggers in here!' While passing from New-
York to Boston on the steamer Massachusetts, on
the night of 9th Dec. 1843, when chilled almost
through with the cold, I went into the cabin to get a
little warm. I was soon touched upon the shoulder
and told, 'We don't allow niggers in here!'

arriving in Boston from an anti-slavery tour, hun-
gry and tired, I went into an eating-house near
my friend Mr. Campbell's, to get some refresh-
ments. I was met by a lad in a white apron,
' We don't allow niggers in here!' A week or
two before leaving the United States, I had a meet-
ing appointed at Weymouth. On attempting to take
a seat in the omnibus, I was told by the driver, (and
I never shall forget his fudish hate.) 'I don't at-
low niggers in here!' Thank Heaven for the re-
spite I now enjoy! I had been in Dublin but a few
spite I now enjoy! I had been in Dublin but a few
days, when a gentleman of great respectability kind-
ly offered to conduct me through all the public build-
ing of that beautiful city; and a little afterwards, I
went myself dining with the Lord Mayor of Dublin.
What a pity there was not some American Demo-
cratic Christian at the door of his splendid mansion,
to bark out at my approach, 'They don't allow nig-
ers in here!' The truth is, the people here know
nothing of the Republican negro hate prevalent in
our glorious land. They measure and esteem men
according to their moral and intellectual worth, and
not according to the color of their skin. Whatever

may be said of the Aristocracies here, there is none
based on the color of a man's skin. This species of
Aristocracy belongs preeminently to 'the land of the
free, and the home of the brave.' I have never found
it abroad, in any but Americans. It sticks to them
wherever they go. They find it almost as hard to
get rid of it as to get rid of their skins.

The second day after my arrival in Liverpool, in
a company with my friend Buffam, and several other
friends, I went to Eaton Hall, the residence of the
company at a time. We all had to wait till the company
within came out. And of all the bodies, the fleshy,
expresive of chagrin, those of the Americans were preeminent.
They looked as sour as vinegar, and bitter as gall.
When they found I was to be admitted on equal
terms with themselves. When the door was opened,
I walked in, on an equal footing with my white fel-
low citizens, and from all I could see, I had as much
attention paid me by the servants that showed up
through the house, as any with a paler skin. As I
walked through the building, the statuary did not
fall down, the pictures did not leap from their places,
the doors did not refuse to open, and the servants did
not say, 'We do not allow niggers in here!'

Excuse this imperfect scrawl, and believe me to
be ever and always yours,

FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

## Letter from Frederick Douglass.

### Conpendence of The Tribune.

GLASGOW, Scotland, April 15th, 1846.

MR. GREELEY—*My Dear Sir:* I never wrote nor
attempted to write a letter for any other than a strict-
ly Anti-Slavery press; but being greatly encourag-
ed by your magnanimity, as shown in copying my
letter written from Belfast, Ireland, to the Liberator
at Boston, I venture to send you a few lines direct
from my pen.

I know not how to thank you for the deep and
lively interest you have been pleased to take in the
cause of my long neglected race, or in what lan-
guage to express the gratification I feel in witness-
ing your unwillingness to lend your aid to 'break a
brusied reed,' by adding your weight to the already
insopportable burden to crush the feeble though vir-
tuous efforts of one who is laboring for the emanci-
bation of a people who, for two long centuries, have
endured with the utmost patience, a bondage one
hour of which, in the graphic language of the im-
mortal Jefferson, is worse than ages of that which
your fathers rose in rebellion to oppose.

It is such indications on the part of the press—
which, happily, are multiplying throughout all the
land—that kindle up within me an ardent hope that
the curse of Slavery will not much longer be per-
mitted to make its iron foot-prints into the lacerated
hearts of my sable brethren, or to spread its foul
mantle of moral blight, mildew and infamy over the
otherwise noble character of the American people.

I am very sorry to see that some of your immedi-
ate neighbors are very much displeased with you
for this act of kindness to myself, and the cause of
which I am an humble advocate, and that an at-
tempt has been made on the part of some of them,
by misrepresenting my sayings, motives and objects
in this country, to stir up against me the already too
bitter antipathy of the American people. I am
called by way of reproach a runaway Slave. As if
it were a crime—an unpardonable crime—for a man
to take his inalienable rights! If I had not run away,
but settled down in the degrading arms of Sim-
very and made no effort to gain my freedom, it is
quite probable that the learned gentlemen who
now brand me with being a miserable runaway
Slave, would have adduced the fact in proof of the
Negro's adaptation to Slavery and his utter unfitness
for freedom! 'There is no pleasing some people.'
But why should Mr. James Brooks feel so much an-
noyed by the attention shown me in this country;
and so anxious to excite against me the jealousy and
hatred of the American people? I can very readi-
ly understand why a Slaveholder—a trader in Slaves
—one who has all his property in human flesh, blind-
ed by ignorance as to his own best interest, and un-
der the dominion of violent passions engendered by
the possession of discretionary and irresponsible
power over the bodies and souls of his victims—ac-
customed to the inhuman sight of men and women
sold at auction in company with horses, sheep and
swine, and in every way treated more like brutes
than human beings, should repine at my success and
in his blindness seek to throw every discourag-
ment and obstacle in the way of the slave's eman-
cipation. But why a New-York Editor, born and
reared in the State of Maine, far removed from the
contaminated and pestilential atmosphere of Slave-

FIRST OF AUGUST.

The chairman then introduced Frederic Douglass, who was greeted with loud and enthusiastic applause as he came forward upon the platform. Mr. Douglass spoke as follows:

We have assembled here to-day to celebrate the anniversary of West India emancipation—an event which may be justly regarded the greatest and grandest of the nineteenth century.

We meet here in the fulness of grateful sincerity, joyfully to commemorate that glad day the bright sun of whose morning beamed light and liberty upon the Western Isles. We are to direct our attention with joyous admiration to a splendid achievement, a glorious triumph of justice, love, and mercy, over avarice, pride, and cruelty. In a word, we meet here on this occasion to rekindle the fire of freedom upon the altar of our hearts, and to renew the impression made nine years ago upon the tablets of our memory by that magnanimous act of British legislation, deciding like a voice from the celestial throne of God, scattering the infernal altars of slavery, proclaimed deliverance from thraldom to eight hundred thousand of our fellow men.

In view of the majestic grandeur and moral sublimity of the subject, I might well pause and apologize for consenting to occupy the prominent position which the Committee of Arrangements have assigned me. It is without the slightest affection of humility that I confess the theme worthy of more eloquent lips, and of a more comprehensive mind. I would prefer to be the last rather than the first on this platform. I have, however, one consolation in my present somewhat unaccustomed position—and that is, I am to be followed by a gentleman distinguished alike for philanthropy and ability, who I am sure will make good any defects which may appear in my humble address.

Friends and countrymen, I rejoice to meet you here; I am proud to assemble with you. The vastness of your number is delightful to my heart. Your holy enthusiasm carries gladness through my soul. Your presence here is a mighty argument, a powerful demonstration, which must act advantageously wherever known and heard of.

The sentiment which leads us to celebrate noble deeds—to make and commemorate great events in the world's progress, is natural and universal. The existence of this sentiment, like that of religion, is a grand proof of the superiority of man-kind over the brute creation. This sentiment is as useful as it is universal; it is the power which makes the present generation the proprietors of the wisdom and expe-

rience of by-gone ages. It makes the good of the past the prosperity of the present. It serves to keep alive that sense of gratitude to God essential to the fai h, without which it is impossible to succeed against present ills. It is the golden chain extending from Earth to Heaven, and to it we may summon the millions in eternity to aid us in pulling down the giant crimes of our age.

In coming together this day to celebrate this glorious anniversary, we but act out one of the noblest sentiments of human nature, and vindicate our just claim to an equal place in the ranks of human brotherhood.

It is just possible, however, that some may doubt the propriety of the people of one nation celebrating the deeds of another. On this point I have no scruples. Neither geographical boundaries, nor national restrictions ought, or shall prevent me from rejoicing over the triumphs of freedom, no matter where or by whom achieved. We are not only Americans, but men—colored men. Many of us have worn the yoke of bondage; we have dragged its heavy chains; the chambers of our souls have been made dark by its infernal gloom; our spirits have been crushed beneath its ponderous weight; our lacerated hearts have swollen with bitter anguish while we sighed for the inesciable boon of liberty; and having now, by the blessing of God, escaped the galling chain, and are in the enjoyment of personal liberty, we should be unworthy of the name of men and our own freedom, if we did not remember with gratitude and rejoicing the day of deliverance to so many of our long abused race.

On this question we are strangers to nationality. Our platform is as broad as humanity. We repudiate with unutterable loathing and disgust that narrow spirit which would confine our duties to one quarter of the globe, to the exclusion of another—that can see nothing good or great in any land but our own, and which makes

Lands intersected by a narrow firth
Abhor each other; montains interposed
Make enemies of nations, who had else,
Like kindred drops, been mingled into one.

In celebrating this day we place ourselves beneath the broad eyes of human brotherhood, and adopt the motto of our illustrious pioneer, "Our country is the world, and all mankind are our country-men." and maintain the right and propriety of commemorating the victories of liberty over tyranny throughout the world. And, sir, where is the man of high or low standing, white or black, who would lift his arm or raise his voice, to remove us from this place, or to silence our joyous exultations?

It is true that but a few years ago our brothers in Philadelphia undertook to do just what we are now doing. They undertook to celebrate the anniversary of West India emancipation, they formed their procession with the utmost order and decorum, they neither assaulted nor insulted any man, their banners were raised in honor of liberty; and in order to avoid of fence to their white brethren, as well as a desire to advance the cause of righteousness, they inscribed Temperance as well as Freedom on their banners.

But, sir, with all their virtuous precautions, they did not avoid giving offence; nor did they escape brutal chastisement. They had not passed through two streets of that city before they were cruelly assaulted by the populace. The ranks of their procession were broken up, their banners torn into fragments, and many of themselves were trampled in the dust, and left horribly bruised and mangled in the street. Mob violence, stimulated by the cheers of a profligate press and an inefficient police, reigned supreme in that city. They marched in the very presence of the city government, and with the ferocity of wild beasts rushed into the houses of colored people, sparing neither men, women, or children, but dealing heavy blows with sticks, stones, and clubs upon the defenceless heads of their victims. From the private dwellings they passed to the colored churches; they burnt the colored Presbyterian church, threatened the Methodist, and destroyed the Temperance Hall. And all this, fellow countrymen, for doing just what we are now doing. I mention this in sorrow rather than anger, and I thank God we are not subjected to such outrages here to-day; and it is peculiarly gratifying to see so many of our white fellow countrymen present, to participate with us in these joyous proceedings. We are worshipping at the same shrine with the same heart and spirit, and I trust we shall be mutually refreshed and blessed in the deed.

Sir, rightly to comprehend the grandeur of West India emancipation, we must do more than fix our attention upon the simple act of manumission. To know the value of a result, we must know something of the labor and toil of bringing it about. Properly to appreciate the value of deliverance, we must adequately comprehend the greatness of the evil from which deliverance has been wrought out. The importance of this glorious event must be determined by considering its connection with the past, its bearing on the present, and its influence on the future.

I shall not be able to enter fully and particularly into all the branches of this great subject, but will confine myself to one or more, and leave the field to other and abler hands.

From the earliest periods of man's history, we are able to trace manifestations of that spirit of selfishness which leads one man to prey upon the rights and interest of his fellow man. Love of ease, love of power, a strong desire to control the will of others, lay deep seated in the human heart. These elements of character, overriding all the better promptings of human nature, has cursed the world with slavery and kindred crimes; weakness has ever been the prey of power, and ignorance of intelligence.

Joseph was sold into Egyptian bondage by his own brethren, at a time when he ought to have been the most dear unto them. The famine-stricken Israelites were reduced to slavery, when their sufferings ought to have aroused the most benevolent energies of the human heart.

The Helots were consigned to serfdom or slavery while yet smarting under wounds received in battle for their country. The proud Anglo-Saxons, overpowered in

Mr. had their property confiscated by their
Naughty Norman superiors, and enslaved
on their own sacred soil. There are at
is moment not fewer than forty millions
white slaves in Russia: a number far
exceeding the present number of black
aves.

However we may deplore the wicked-
ess of such wholesale slavery, it is some-
what consoling that all nations have had a
share of it, and that it cannot be said to be
the peculiar condition of our race any more
than others. He that leadeth into capti-
ity shall go into captivity, is a truth con-
formed in all history, and will remain im-
knutably true.

Who were the fathers of our present
naughty oppressors in this land? They
were, until within the last four centuries.
the miserable slaves, the degraded serfs of
Norman nobles; they were subjected to
every species of brutality which their fiend-
ish oppressors could invent; they were re-
garded as an inferior race, unfit to be
trusted with their own rights; they were
not even allowed to walk on the highway
and travel from town to town, without a
written permission from their owners; they
could not hold any property whatever, but
were themselves property bought and sold
They were not permitted to give testimony
in courts of law. They were punished for
erimes, which if committed by their
naughty masters, were not deemed worthy
of punishment at all. They were not al-
lowed to marry without the consent of their
owners. They were subjected to the lash,
and might even be murdered with impunity
by their cruel masters.

But, sir. I must not dwell here, though a
profitable comparison might be run between
the condition of the colored slaves of our
own land and the ancient Anglo-Saxon
slaves of England.

I come at once to the history of the en-
slavement of that race whose deliverance
from thraldom we have met to celebrate.

The slave trade by which slavery was
introduced and established in the British
West Indies, was commenced in the reign
of Elizabeth, in the year 1562. Spain
and Italy had long been engaged in the
traffic, and England no doubt tempted by
their success, was induced reluctantly to
follow in their footsteps. I say reluctantly,
because from the first the great princess
Elizabeth seemed to have entertained reli-
gious scruples concerning it, and to have
evolved at the thought of it. This is in-
erred from a conversation which the queen
had with Sir John Hawkins on his return
from his first slave-trading voyage. At
his interview she expressed her concern
est any of the Africans should be carried
off without their free consent, declaring it
would be detestable, and would call down
the vengeance of Heaven upon the under-
aking. This pious outburst, though mon-
trous and absurd, as coming from one who
had just given her royal assent to this infer-
al traffic, was the natural result of her
icked position, and is not without its pa-
allel in our own land. It was like Pilton
delivering the Lamb of Calvary to the
non-hearted murderer, and washing his
ands of his blood. Of course the decla-
vations of the queen were disregarded. It
could not be otherwise. To make mer-
handize of man, and treat him kindly and
respect his will, is morally impossible.—

The expression of the queen, if sincere,
may be creditable to her humanity; but is
a dark reflection on her sagacity. The
will of a victim is never respected. The
lamb committed to the wolf may expect
no quarter.

The injustice, cruelty, and barbarity of
this inhuman trade can never be told or
conceived, they are known only to God;
he alone can fully comprehend them. We
mortal and finite beings, can only receive
a partial view of them. To assist in this,
let us imagine what must be far less than
the whole truth. Let us go to that little
village on the west coast of Africa. Its
inhabitants are quiet, simple, peaceful, and
happy. It is evening. Through the rents
and crevices of their fragile dwelling a
bright moon pours her soft and tranquil
rays. The day's work is done, and the
profound stillness is only relieved by the
melodious hum of various insects. How
sweet the scene. The husband and wife;
the parent and child; the sister and bro-
ther, and "friends of kindred tie," have
met to while away the evening hour in
simple talk and innocent song; and how
sweetly the moments glide. At the hour
appointed the mother claps her innocent
babe to her bosom, and with looks and
words of love and admonition she retires.
Soon all follow, and our hut and village is
still. The unsuspecting inhabitants are in
the arms of "nature's soft muse," and lulled
with sounds of sweetest melody. They
sleep on the brink of destruction.

Let us leave for a moment this happy
village and to the shore. A slave ship is
anchored off the coast. On her deck dim
lights are seen in motion. A boat is now
lowered from the side, and softly rowed
asheore. Twelve armed men land. Their
swords, guns, and cutlasses reflect the
moonlight. When ready for their infernal
work, they move off stealthily toward the
doomed village. They are met by some
wrench who calls himself a prince; who,
bribed by this wicked crew, becomes the
treacherous instrument of destruction of
this abode of happiness, and the enslave-
ment of its unoffending people. A few
moments, and the village is in flames.—
The fear-smitten people start forth from
the devouring fire; and in the hour of surprise
and consternation its people have become
the prey of the spoiler. Grim death and
desolation reigns where before was life,
peace, and joy.

Let us follow this despoiled people a
short distance on their voyage to West In-
dia. Chained and handcuffed,
they are driven before cutlasses and pistols
to the ship. Their path is marked with
blood. Torn from home, despoiled of their
freedom, they go to drag out a miserable
existence in colonial slavery. What pain!
What anguish! What agony of soul
struggles beneath the hatchway of that pi-
rate ship. They are stowed away with as
little regard to health as to decency, breath-
ing the putrid air inseparable from being so
closely packed. Disease and death soon
reigns in this infernal dungeon. Many of
them become food for the hungry shark,
who reddens the wake of the slave ship
with their blood, and by the time they land
at their point of destination, one-third of all
taken on board have been thrown over-
board during the voyage; and more hor-
rible still, many have been thrown over-

board alive, lest they should spread the
death dealing contagion to the rest. Those
who reach the shore are sick, emaciated,
and covered with sores. Landed on the
English soil, strangers to the English
tongue, their only language is that of the
lash. Before the bloody lash they are
driven to market, and under the cry of the
auctioneer they are sold and separated
from each other. All is lost. They are
—they know not where.

Such is but a faint picture of that trade
which is now practiced, and which peopled
with slaves the Western Isles, and made

Liverpool, Glasgow, and Bristol rich on
the blood, bones, and sinews of men.

A view at this God-defying trade led the
great anti-slavery poet of England to cry
out in the agony of his mighty soul,

> "Is there not a chosen curse
> Hid in the stores of heaven, red with uncommon
> wrath,
> To blast the man who gains his fortune by
> The blood of souls."

In view of the cruel inhumanity of this
trade, it is matter of astonishment that it
was carried on for nearly two centuries
under the very eye of the British govern-
ment, and under the very drappings of
the British pulpit. For two hundred years did
this trade go on, despoiling Africa of her
children, bearing them away into a worse
than an Egyptian bondage, consigning
them to the cruel lash, and hurrying them
into eternity uninformed and unprepared.
Yet during this whole time scarce a voice
was heard against it. Silence prevailed.
The slave trade, with its train of evils, in-
creased every year, added to its strength
and augmented its influence, both upon the
government and the church. The first
merchants of England were engaged in it.
Professors of religion were engaged in it;
and it became so interwoven with the vari-
ous classes, as even attracted to bring the
powers of Church and State to its defence.
The minister of religion pleaded the Bible
in its favor, and the minister of the crown
pleaded the national prosperity in its behalf.
Thus bulwarked and protected it became
a giant in the land, threatening to cast
down at a blow any who might adventure
to attack it. Giant, however, though it
was, and greatly to be dreaded, thank
heaven there were found a chosen few who
did not shrink from the attack. I should
be most happy did my brief hour permit
to give you the names and the history of
those who had the humanity and the intre-
pidity to stand forth as pioneers in this holy
cause; but this I cannot do; I may only
in reverence repeat their names, and be-
stow upon each a tear of gratitude. They
have gone from this stage of life and acti-
vity unto the boundless realms of eternity.
They rest from their labors and their good
works do follow them. Yea, we are at
this moment reaping the rich reward of
their labors.

Among the most distinguished of those
who early struggled in this holy cause his
tory has handed down the names of Rich-
ard Baxter, Addison, Montesque, Goodwin.
Steele, Shenstone, Sterne, Warburton.
Wesley, Whitfield, Dr. Hartley, Gran-
ville, Sharpe, Dr. Robertson, Abbe Ray-
nold, Thomas Day, Bishop Portieus. Neek-
er, Thompson, Adam Smith, Gilbert
Wakefield, and George Fox. Brave men.
let their names be remembered and their

Ma.

memory cherished. Let us thank God that such men were raised up. Let us hand down their names to our children, and commend their conduct for their initiation. These holy men laid the foundation upon which the noble Wilberforce and the illustrious Clarkson erected the temple of West India freedom.

What confidence in truth—what faith in God—what a self-sacrificing spirit must have animated the bosoms of those fore-runners in the cause of emancipation.—They arrayed themselves against powers and principalities. The nation was against them. The church was against them.—The wealth of England was against them. So universal was the practice of slavery in that land, that it was quite common to see advertisements in respectable London journals for runaway slaves. Slaveholders from Jamaica hunted and apprehended their slaves with as much impunity as American slaveholders do in our land; and this practice continued till the sainted Sharpe in seventeen hundred and sixty-nine obtained the famous Somerset case, by which England was redeemed from the disgrace of being slaveholding ground.

The slave trade was regarded by the friends of freedom as the life blood of slavery. Hence it was the first object of attack. It is a remarkable circumstance that men so sagacious and disinterested as Clarkson and Wilberforce should have labored so long and so hard for the accomplishment of a half-way measure; and their experience ought to be a lesson to us—for, with all their caution against asking too much, they neither appeased the wrath of the slave-trader nor gained the good will of the slaveholder. They were called wild enthusiasts, fanatical declaimers, and humanity mongers. The now sainted Clarkson was once burnt in effigy, and came near being thrown overboard and drowned at Liverpool. It was the utmost difficulty that these men could be heard against this giant crime. Ten times did the noble-hearted Wilberforce move a bill to abolish this infernal traffic, and ten times was he doomed to defeat. The slave power in Parliament, like the slave power in Congress, maintained a united and bold front. The arguments used by these defenders of the slave trade, were quite similar to those used in this country; and in behalf of slavery it was said that if the slave trade were abolished, prisoners taken in war in Africa would be murdered; that it was merciful to bring them into slavery. They were better off than the laborer in England; it was a source of revenue to the country; it was a religious duty to bring the heathen where they could be brought under the influence of the Christian religion, and it was contended that the Scripture sanctioned it. However, as the cause prospered, some more prudent, just, and magnanimous than the rest, were for regulating the trade, and this was deemed a great concession; it was a confession that something ought to be done. But what an idea to talk of regulating a system of wholesale plunder. Mr. Fox replied to this argument in the most powerful manner. He said it was impossible to regulate robbery and murder. After twenty-five years of anxious conflict with this great crime, the friends of humanity triumphed. The bill to abolish the slave trade was carried

through the British Parliament and obtained the royal assent 1807.

This was justly regarded a great victory.

Immediately after this event, and in the same year, a society was formed called the African Institution. Clarkson and Wilberforce were identified, and took an active part in its proceedings. The object of the institution was the ultimate abolition of slavery in the West Indies. At this time no one thought of immediate emancipation as practicable or desirable. Gradual emancipation was the most ultra idea then broached, and though lame, insidious, and stale, it was at the first a terrible note to the slaveholders as well as their abettors. It however lost its power to stir the souls of its friends, or disturb the fears of its foes. The cause languished. Every body was in favor of gradual abolition, but no one was ready for action now, after twenty years of toil to promote gradual abolition. The cause dragging heavily along, while those noble men were hesitating about what they should do to inspirit the anti-slavery laborers, and to accomplish this noble purpose, a woman, with the head of a prophetess and the heart of an angel, came to instruct and strengthen their falling ranks. She taught that what is right is reasonable, and what ought to be done can be done, and that immediate emancipation was the right of the slave and the duty of the master. Her heavenly counsel was heeded.—Wilberforce was converted.

They organized committees, appointed agents, sent forth lecturers into all parts of the country. They printed tracts, circulated their views through the press in various ways, till they succeeded in impressing the public mind favorably to their objects, and created that tide of public opinion which demanded the immediate and unconditional freedom to the West India slave. The anti-slavery cause in England received but little support from the government church. Yet it was ever regarded as a religious movement, and was early espoused by dissenting churches and ministers in that land. In this honorable work the Baptist and Congregational denominations stood foremost. It was the noble Knibb and Burchell, Baptist ministers, who gave the last and most powerful blow towards the overthrow of this foul crime, and which ended its existence in the West Indies. In perusing this history, one is struck with the contrast between the churches and ministers of our own country and those of England. Slavery found no support in the Baptist, Methodist, or Congregational Churches of England, Ireland or Scotland. But how different with us today. The slave system finds no such palliatives and defenders as emanate from those bodies. In our land our churches are directly implicated in the crime. In the slaves of the Union we have slavery openly defended from the Bible. Corrupt and corrupting as are our political parties, they send no champions into the field to do battle for slavery equal to these. They speak in the name of God, and are clothed with divine authority, they brand all movements for the abolition of slavery with the charge of infidelity. They are the choice friends of slavery. When we attack it, it runs to them for protection, and within their walls finds protection. Religion is prostituted to the support of robbery.

The Gospel of Liberty is tortured to maintain slavery. Piety is pressed into the service of cruelty, and slave-holding, and slave-buying and slave-trading is deliberately carried on in this country by all the leading Christian denominations. We have men sold to build churches; babes sold to buy bibles, and women sold to support missionaries. It was not thus in England.—Slavery was the deadly foe of religion; it hated the missionary; it robbed their chaps; assaulted their ministers; and for the best of all reasons the minister was faithful to his charge, denounced slavery as being from the infernal and not from the celestial regions.

But, sir, I must hasten to a close. Others are to follow me who will do ample justice to this subject. I will just say in conclusion that I am not disheartened. I am not discouraged. The cause is in good hands: God, Truth and Humanity are with us, and all things are working for our good. I see cause for hope in all directions; in the movements of our enemies not less than our friends. The wrath of man is made to praise God. He has declared that he will confound the wisdom of the crafty, and bring to nought the counsels of the ungodly. In the spirit of the age—in the voice of civilization—in the improvement of steam navigation—in every bar of railroad iron—I read the approach of that happy period, when instead of being called upon to celebrate the emancipation of eight hundred thousand persons in the West Indies, we shall be summoned to rejoice over the downfall of slavery in our own land.

Mr. Douglass took his seat, leaving the highly delighted audience sending up a storm of applause.

FREE LABOUR MOVEMENT.

On Wednesday evening a very numerous and re-
spectable meeting assembled in the Lecture-room of
the Athenaeum to hear an address from Mr. H. H.
Garnett, (a man of colour and formerly a slave), on
the importance of the free-labour movement, as a
means for the suppression of slavery. The popu-
larity of Mr. Garnett since his visit to this neigh-
bourhood, and the interest of the cause which he
advocated, combined to draw together a very large
and respectable audience. The front seats were
occupied for the most part by ladies, many of whom
were members of the society of friends, who have
ever been foremost in promoting the claims of
humanity in whatever shape or form it has demanded
their sympathy. The back seats were crowded,
"almost to suffocation," as the phrase is, by the
labouring classes, whose breathless attention through-
out the proceedings evinced a more than ordinary
interest in the subject under consideration.

Mr. J. D. Carr occupied the chair on a raised
platform; Mr. Garnett, who was loudly cheered on
entering the room, sat on his right; Mr. George
Robinson and Mr. Hudson Scott also supported Mr.
Carr.

The CHAIRMAN, after alluding with much satisfaction to the numerous attendance, said that since the last meeting many inquiries had been made of him respecting the Free-Labour Movement which had been set on foot in this country, and perhaps it would not be uninteresting were he to give some account of its rise and progress. No doubt they were all anxious to hear their friend Henry Garnett, but as a matter of business it was desirable to be in possession of this preliminary information. Two years ago a few individuals desirous of aiding the Anti-Slavery Movement, resolved to do so by abstaining from the use of slave-grown produce. This view of the question brought the subject before them in a manner which rendered it necessary that arrangements should be made to provide free-labour produce and for the last twelve months gentlemen had been down in the slave states engaged in purchasing free-labour cotton to a considerable extent. (Hear.) Hitherto it had been mixed with the slave-grown produce, sent to this country, and passing through the brokers' hands, was sold indiscriminately. The importance of this country's turning its attention to free-labour cotton was mentioned by Mr. Morse, a member of the American Congress, who was a slaveholder, and he, in a taunting manner, speaking of the attempts of English abolitionists, said, "There is a very easy way to get rid of slavery in the United States, without doing one single thing that the nicest caviller could ensure, and which, I believe, in his sober seriousness, will effect your object as certainly as day succeeds night, and which we have no right to object to or complain of, touch not taste not, handle not, one single product of slave labour." That was certainly high authority, coming as it did, from a member of the Congress, and a slaveholder himself. The Chairman here read several extracts from various communications upon the subject from America. In Philadelphia the friends of the movement were making great progress, and were preparing to carry out their plans on an extensive scale. All the accounts had the same tendency; they showed that the cause of free labour was increasing in favour, that there is a vast quantity of, free cotton cultivated in the heart of the slave states of America, and that this cotton is obtainable by Abolitionists, both in that land and in this, if they are but sincere in their efforts to procure it. One extract we give. It is a communication from Jacinto (Miss), and says—"Oh, what an influence it would have, if all were willing to come up to the mark! I thought I had a specimen of this while at —'s gin. While I was taking the names of his customers, eight or nine men standing by, and the principal slaveholder in the neighbourhood among them, I was introduced by the gin-holder—a rough spoken old man—as a gentleman buying cotton for an abolition company to manufacture. This drew forth some remarks, and I proceeded to take the names of the neighbours—of course omitting this slave-holder. He being a little on one side, observed to the gin-owner that it was hard, after he had worked and got a few wiggers, he must be kicked out of society. (Those were just the persons they wished to kick out of society.) (Hear.) I was delighted to hear — give the character of one of his customers—a cultivator of cotton and a free man, of colour— as one of the most upright and pious christians in that county." (Applause.) Mr. Carr read further from the same communication—"We come now to the most knotty part of the question. There will be a trifling expense in collecting this cotton, probably amounting to a few shillings per bale, or less than one penny upon a dozen goods of the manufactured article. This trifling cost upon free cotton for a year or two to come, and until it can be grown more largely in our own colonies, is literally all that the case calls for; as, after long and anxious negotia-

tions on the subject, several trustworthy manufac-
turers have declared that they are now willing to
make the required goods if the Abolitionists of this
country are determined to call for them." (Hear.)
Were there but a good demand for the article in this
country, continued the chairman, it would come over
here unmixed with the slave-grown cotton, and he
was glad to say that a very influential house in
London was about to make arrangements to have a
large quantity of free labour goods always on hand,
in order to supply those who were willing to reject
the slave-grown produce. The house in question
(Morley & Son) was of the highest respectability, and
he appealed to any gentleman present who was
acquainted with the firm to bear out his statement.

Mr. GEORGE ROBINSON, draper, said he could testify to the high respectability of the firm alluded to. It was a house so well known and well established in this country that he should have the greatest confidence that nothing which came from there was not what they represented it to be. (Hear.)

The CHAIRMAN proceeded. They promised that if
there should be a sufficient call in this country for
free-labour goods, they would direct their whole
energies to get them. The great object then was to
create a demand. Of course it would be difficult to
do so at first on account of the prices and other ex-
isting circumstances, but time and perseverance
would remove them all. (Hear.) In fact, when they
considered the present state of the cotton market,
and the struggle which was now going on in America
upon the slavery question, they might feel assured
that the present circumstances could not continue—
that result must be accomplished by some means or
other, and he hoped it might be brought about by
a friendly mercantile arrangement, rather by any
serious measures. (Hear, hear.) When they con-
sidered the present state of the cotton trade, and
the success of a large portion of the community of this
country depended upon its prosperity, they must be
aware of the dangerous position in which they were
placed, and that it behoved them to turn their atten-
tion and time to looking out for cotton from other
quarters of the globe. (Hear, hear.) A consider-
able quantity of that useful material came from Egypt.
No doubt in that country there was a great deal of
tyranny, and it was much to be regretted that the
labouring population should be subject to such op-
pression and cruelty; but there was this important
difference between the two countries—if an increased
demand for cotton were to go to Egypt the labourers
there would experience relief and reap the advantage,
whereas were it to go to America, the poor slaves
instead of being better off, would, if possible, be sunk
into a still more miserable condition than they were
before. (Hear and cheers.)

Mr. H. H. GARNETT then came forward and was well received. He is an interesting and gentlemanly looking man, unassuming, and courteous. He spoke well, and his general manner is pleasing and effective. He said—Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot but congratulate myself and the cause which I come to represent on beholding this large assembly of the friends of humanity. On the two former occasions when I had the privilege of standing before an audience in this place I was much gratified with the support I received, and went away from Carlisle strengthened and encouraged to labour on still more assiduously in the cause. (Hear, hear.) But when at the request of friends I was desired to return, and for the third time urge the claims of my suffering fellow-countrymen upon you, I could not but come to the conclusion that there was more than ordinary interest excited in the minds of the public upon the question in this place, and, indeed, wherever I have been since those lectures, and even before them. (Hear, hear.) The very warm reception which the cause has received from every class of life, from the pulpit, from the press, and from the masses—all these things conspire to arm me with courage, and to make me believe that after all I have fallen amongst friends, and that soon the heart of Old England that has so often beaten, and in fact that so constantly beats in the cause of humanity, is about to send forth its warm pulsations—to raise her voice so loudly that it shall be heard on the other side of the Atlantic and the science-stricken slave-holder shall feel that the day of slavery is near at an end. (Applause.) Every time intelligence is wafted across the Atlantic we hear that the slave-holders are sensible that the doom of slavery is written, for it seems that they are now making a dying struggle to gain the ascendancy—to lay their hands upon power, that in case this odious tyranny be destroyed in the far south, they may still secure sufficient extent of territory on which to form a large and powerful body. (Hear.) But even in this anticipation they have been disappointed at the outset, for many of those whom they expected to have numbered amongst their warmest supporters, have since announced themselves friends of humanity. (Applause.) California, upon which they calculated with hopeful confidence, has cast them off and declared in favour of freedom; that most extensive country, rich not only in agricultural wealth, but abounding in unexplored mines of gold, has cast off the yoke of servitude, whilst with respect to that curse of slavery the Fugitive Slave Bill, we find that already a counteracting influence has sprung up in the United States themselves. (Hear, hear.) Scarely any arrests

["of fugitive slaves have been successful under this iniquitous law, for where attempts have been made to put it in force public indignation has assumed such a threatening aspect that the men hunters have feared to prosecute their fugitives. (Applause.) Mr. Garnett then pathetically describes the flight of a fugitive slave girl from Virginia. She had carried trials and sufferings that no woman could support but for accomplishing her freedom, and at length contrived to reach Geneva. There she was secreted and it was supposed she might rest in safety, but soon she was compelled to abandon her hiding place at midnight on the Sabbath in order to avoid the remorseless pursuit of the American democratic blood-hound. Fortunately she had escaped, and was now living in the cherishing hope that she may yet see the day when her feet shall press the free soil of Great Britain. (Cheers.) That was their isolation to them in the day of trouble, that was the hope which supported them amid the ravages of men-stealers, for they knew that whilst tugging and toiling under a burning sun and the cruel I sh, there was a country on the face of the earth upon which if the bondsman but once pressed his feet from that moment he felt that he was free. (Hear, hear, and applause.) He was informed also by a correspondent that the other day a party of thirteen fugitive slaves passed through Tamaqua, Schuylkill County, en route for Canada. The next day they were followed by two individuals, who, engaging the assistance of a constable, followed on in their pursuit. The pursuers succeeded in overtaking the slaves at Wilkbarre; but owing to the strong expression of feeling manifested by the people in their favor, they were forced to beat a hasty retreat. The constable was induced to follow them under the impression that they were horse thieves, but on learning otherwise, he refused to render any further co-operation, declaring that he would have nothing to do with it, and in-mstead of the black-men being the fugitives the slave-owner himself became one, being obliged to escape ignominiously round the south. (Cheers.) By another communication he learnt that a slave had escaped a few days since from one of the back countries of Missouri and fled to Illinois. His pursuers hearing that he was in Quincy, ill, passed over to that city, taking with them another slave who was to identify the runaway, and whom they hired from his owner at so much per diem, giving a guarantee that they would return him \"in good order and condition\" as now received. At Quincy they were informed the runaway had taken the underground track for Chicago, and forthwith they proceeded to that city, bringing their man who was to identify the fugitive along with them. Here, however, they received the unkindest cut of all. In the first place, they learned that the man they were after was not there and never had been; in the next place, the colored people got their heads together, gave the negro they brought with them for identification purposes a hint as to how \"things was working,\" and on", "the Diesy evening they shipped him off by rail o\nCanada, where by this time he is safely set down beyond\nthe reach of his pursuers; they, poor fellows, deamped\nfor the South the same evening, their departure being\nhastened by a threat of \"far and feathers\" from the\nexcited colored population, who were up in arms, and\nnightly, as well as daily, on the watch for white gea-\nmen with sharp noses, sallow complexions and broad brim\nhats. (Laughter and applause.) In many places the\npeople had decided that they would not obey so uncon-\nstitutional and unholy a law as the fugitive slave law, and\nthey had ordered their men in authority to pay no respect\nwhatever to it. So they saw that after all the slave-\nholders had gone a step too far; they had attacked man's\nsocial and moral rights; they had attempted to lay down\nto the law against the feelings of humanity, and to dictate\nto the public principles of revolting as they were cruel\nand tyrannical. But when he reviewed the present affairs\nof the United States and reflected upon the results they\nmight lead to, he felt that out of this darkness light\nwould proceed, and that there would be cause on Earth\nfor man to praise Him who had said, \"Thus far shall\nthou go, and no further.\" (Hear, and applause.) In\ncoming to this country by the invitation of some of the\nstaunchest friends of freedom, and especially by those\nwho had looked with pity upon the wretched condition of\nhis unfortunate brethren, he did not come in order to\nconvince them that American slavery, or any other kind\nof slavery was wrong, for he would not insult the good\nsense of Englishmen by supposing for a moment there\nwas any necessity for doing so, but he came to ask of\nBritain's sons to pronounce calmly in the light of\nchristianity and humanity upon the relation in which\nthey stood towards the American Slavery system.\n(Cheers.) Having then abolished slavery in their own\npossessions abroad, having thus stood out upon an\neminence, high above all other nations, in favour of\nimmediate emancipation, this country was in an eligible\nposition to do still more good, and to hasten more\nspeedily than any other the final destruction of that\ninhuman and diabolical system. (Cheers.) Were he to\nask them if they would like to sustain a political union\nwith slave-holding America, he felt assured there would\ncome from the British heart a \"No\" as loud as the\nroaring of the ocean's waves, and which would strike\nterror into the enemies of freedom; it should be a voice\ngoing forth to America declaring that so long as they\nkept one-sixth of their population in slavery, so long as\nthey bought and sold men, women, and children, like\nbeasts in the shambles, so long as in the face of their", "broad declaration that they held all men created equal\nand endowed with the same faculties and freedom of\nbeing, they still bound and scourged and whipped to death\nmen and women possessing immortal souls, and rights\nas sacred as their own, the people of Great Britain would\nnever hold a political union with them. (Applause.)\nWere he to ask the people of this country if they would\nsustain a social union with them, he knew what would be\ntheir reply. Thousands upon thousands would shrink\nwith disgust from such a relation, and would scorn to\ntouch the gross and polluted hand of a barbarous slave-\nholder—they would no sooner receive them into their\nsocial union than they would be willing to admit the slave\nwho would not scruple to steal his horses or any other pro-\nperty they possessed. (Cheers.) It is true, and a pity\nit is true, that there were persons mistaken enough\nto send their children for the sake of wealth to the\nsouthern portions of the United States into the very\nmidst of the institutions of slavery, but alas, they would\ntoo soon discover that they had opened to their offspring\nthe high road to ruin and destruction, for such were the\ndemoralising and inevitable effects of the system that\nthey might as well write \"ruin\" on the foreheads of their\nchildren as expose them to its contaminating influence.\n(Applause.) But he was not so sure of so ready a reply\nwhen he came to ask the people of Great Britain if they\nwere prepared to keep up relations with America which\nhad a far greater tendency than the rest to bind the slave\nto the dust—he meant a commercial union. (Hear.) He\nChristian kindness, for he was convinced that those\nwhose hearts beat in favour of humanity would not per-\nmit the subject to rest when all the circumstances were\nproperly laid before them. Slavery existed unquestion-\nably because it was a profitable concern. A slave-holder\nhad said to him that they did not hold slaves because he\nhated their people, and had shown that there was no\nmuch prejudice against the black people in south, which\nwas the stronghold of bondage, as there was in the north\nwhere it had no existence. They kept the coloured\npeople down because they feared the consequences which\nfreedom might bring upon them; he admitted that the\nsystem was bad, that it not only affected injuriously the\nblacks, but was a cancer in the heart of the whole white\npopulation of the south, so true was it that\nthe oppressor could not smite to the dust the rights and\nliberties and happiness of a portion of the community—\nthat he could not bring them down to a level with the\nbrute creation, without in some degree affecting the wel-\nfare of the whole community. (Hear, hear.) Though a\nprofitable investment at present slavery would not be\nfound such in the long run, for like every other immo-\nrality it would prove disastrous in the end. Men went to\nreturn home and spend the remainder of their days in\nhappiness, as if a man with the consciousness of guilt and\nhis means of enjoyment! (Hear, hear.) After they\nhad travelled a little into the slave breeding states they\nsoon discovered that the system was bad, but having\nadvanced their capital in the purchase of slaves they\ncould not think of losing it by giving them their freedom,\nat the same time they acknowledged that could they\nbegin their career again they would not live the life of a\nslave-holder. (Cheers.) The unhealthy climate of the\nSouthern States had been looked upon by the slave-\nrid themselves of their superabundant negro population,\nseven years. In Maryland and Virginia there had been at one\ntime been a talk of emancipation, but as soon as there\ncame a demand from this country for cotton, all the hopes\nhad been banished and had never returned. The slave\nmarket was ruled by the price of cotton; as it rose so\nthe price of slaves advanced in proportion, and as it fell,\nso the value of slaves decreased. If then they wished to\ndestroy slavery they must touch the slave-holder's\npocket; such was the selfishness of the human heart, so\nmuch were they wedded to gain, so far would a Yankee\ngo for a penny (laughter) that there could be no hopes\nof succeeding in their purpose whilst they gave the slave-\nholder a profitable market for his productions. (hear,\nand cheers), unless, indeed, his poor oppressed fellow\ncreatures, driven to desperation by their wrongs, should\nburst their bonds asunder and go forth with fire and\nsword and blood should flow like water through the\nvalleys of the earth. Such a day they must all depre-\ncate; they would rather by the principles of justice do\nwas it that the African slave-trade had increased instead\ndown? Because there had been a constant and increased\ndemand for slave-grown productions in the British\nlabour produce and the cause would cease; let the pub-\nlie move first, and all the great firms who supplied the\ncountry must follow as a matter of course. Let the\nLadies take it into their hands. (Hear, hear, and cheers.)\nslave-labour; let them keep on asking for free-labour\nwould apply them, some from motives of humanity,\nothers from motives of interest, and others as the only\nthem follow the example of the ladies in America under\nthe following circumstances. A man kept a house of\nrevelry, at which many young men were ruined. Mothers,", "The\nage\nof\nsafety\nin\nthe\ncity\nof\nLondon\nand\nthe\nrest\nof\nthe\nkingdom.", "\"Of\nlate\nI\ndismiss\nthe\nBible\nin\nmy\nown\ntime\nand\nplace\nto\nbe\nat\nmy\nown\ntime\nand\nplace\nto\n

No.

wives, sisters, and daughters met with the determination of putting this house down. "One lady," said Mr. Garnett—"went 'long first and told him to give up his trade. He treated her with contempt, and wanted to know what she had to do with his private affairs. She went away and 'long came another. He sent her away with the same answer, when 'long came another with the same request. He was more respectful but would not promise. She went away and 'long came another. (Laughter.) 'Stop,' said the man, 'any more of you coming?' 'Oh, said she, we are only just beginning; there are 365 of us, and you will see us every day in the year.' 'Oh,' groaned the fellow, 'pray don't, and I'll shut up my shop.' (Laughter and applause.) So, he thought, by dint of perseverance they might be able in a few years to drive all slave-grown produce from this country. (Hear, hear.) He did not speak figuratively when he said that the cotton which we used, the sugar with which we sweetened our tea, and the rice which we ate, were actually spread with the sweat of the slaves, sprinkled with their tears and fanned by their sighs, whilst the brutal driver goaded them to desperation, until an early grave relieved them from their misery. (Hear.) Could we then consent to give power to the arm that whirled the lash, and help to drive the iron into the soul of the poor bondsman? (Hear, hear.) With as little concern as our farmers separated their cattle did these American men-stealers separate their poor slaves from each other, and as an instance of their inhuman cruelty Mr. Garnett repeated a beautiful and affecting piece of poetry descriptive of a heart-rending scene on the beautiful banks of the Ohio, where a poor blind orphan was torn by the remorseless slave-dealer from the fond embrace of his unfortunate mother, and sold for a dollar into a distant part of the country. The recital produced an evident effect upon the audience whose countenances depicted the liveliest emotions of sympathy and indignation. The lecturer spoke against the use of slave-grown tobacco, and mentioned that after his lecture at Maryport a veteran sailor got up and addressed the meeting. He declared that he had seen far more horrible scenes of slavery than had been described by Mr Garnett, but he had never looked upon them before in the light in which he then saw them, and though he had used tobacco for nearly 50 years, he had chewed his last quid that night. (Laughter and applause.) An eminent surgeon in Whitehaven had also resolved to abstain from the use of his favourite snuff unless it could be procured uncurbed by the miseries of unfortunate slaves. (Cheers.) He must say, continued Mr. Garnett, that never did Great Britain look so glorious as when arming herself to do battle in the cause of these unfortunate people. Let them create a demand for free-grown cotton and they would soon effect a change. Brother Jonathan could not afford to lose so good a customer. (Cheers.) When emancipation was accomplished in America the sons of Africa would have access to all the means of improvement; they would convey the light of the gospel to their benighted brethren, and a door would be opened into the centre of Africa revealing those immense resources of wealth and interest which had hitherto been hidden from our eyes because the white man could only go to a certain point where pestilence and death consigned him to a premature grave. It would be manifestly to the advantage of the whole world were these sources of wealth revealed, for all would participate, and it was therefore the interest as well as the duty of every one to aid in bringing about so desirable a consummation. (Cheers.) Within two months seventeen associations for this purpose had already been formed, embracing many hundreds of people, and when the news of their progress was sent across the Atlantic the slave owner would feel that the time was coming when he must succumb to the demands of justice and injured humanity. (Loud cheers.) On resuming his seat Mr. Garnett was greeted with continued applause.

Mr. G. ROBINSON then moved the following resolution, viz.:-

"Resolved, That this meeting views with abhorrence the still existing institution of slavery, and concurs in the expression of sentiments of our coloured friend, H. H. Garnett, on the importance of the free labour movement as a check to this barbarous system. Although this country has set the example of liberating the slave in her various colonies, yet in her large commercial connexions with the United States of America and Brazil she is virtually the upholder of slavery to a very considerable extent; and in this view of the case ought to exert herself to the utmost in its extinction. The recent oppressive law in the United States, and the high price of cotton in this country, have turned increasing attention to the loss of the slave, and an attempt to ameliorate his condition, will perhaps at this time above all others be successful."—(Cheers.)

Mr. HUDSON SCOTT seconded the resolution, which was carried unanimously.

The CHAIRMAN then read the objects of the association; the principal one we subjoin:-

"That it shall be to promote the abolition of negro slavery by the disuse of its productions as far as possible; that is, by encouraging the consumption of free labour cotton, sugar, rice, &c., in preference to the same articles raised by slaves—thus giving our practical protest against the unrighteous system by withdrawing our support from it."

The CHAIRMAN added that a working committee would be formed to endeavour to carry out these suggestions. He also remarked that it was probable Henry Garnett would remain two years in this country for the purpose of agitating the question, and as he had considerable anxiety for the safety of his family it was agreed that they should be sent for to reside with him.

At the request of Mr. Robinson, Mr. Garnett sang his slavery hymn in a clear and musical voice; and at the conclusion he was again very warmly applauded.

The meeting then broke up.

81

3

LETTER FROM REV. H. H. GARNET.

NEW HAVEN, April 28th, 1851.

B OTHER WARD :

I send you, for publication in the *Citizen*, the fol-
lowing communication, which I have received from
our distinguished and faithful friend, GARNET.
With this, also, you will receive the speech of the
Irish clergyman referred to in his letter, and which
he desired the American public to read.

Yours truly,

A. G. B.

LONDON, March 14, 1851.

BROTHER B—

Two weeks ago, I preached for Rev. John Angel James, of, Birmingham. Two thousand persons were present. Before the audience, and before the communion table, he gave me the right hand of fellowship.

At Leamington, we had a great meeting. The venerable Wm. Marsh, 'D. D., Honorary Canon of Worcester, Chaplain to the Earl of Cadogan, and Incumbent of St. Mary's District Church, Leamington, presided. He said in his speech—'Mr. Garnet, when you go to America, say to the pro-slavery Doctors of New York—Spring, Cox, Dewey, Hawks and Krebs—that Dr. Marsh sends no compliments to them, and that if they should come to Leamington, he would not invite them to call upon him, lest his house should be polluted.' Rev. Mr. Winslow, the celebrated author, also took part, and dealt heavy blows upon slavery and American prejudice. I send you this scrap, which, with the speech of an Irish clergyman my wife will send you, please publish to the best advantage.

'The Crystal Palace,' for the Exhibition, is a
wonderful affair. All the lanes and avenues of it
make sixteen miles!

Now, my brother, will you allow me to unburden
my mind to your boxed flock upon one subject?
My mind of late has been much exercised concern-
ing our children. What our race shall be, under
God, much depends upon how our children are train-
ed. O, train them for the service of God! I know
that the responsibility resting upon you is great;
but you are able to bear it, for God prepares the
back for all the burdens which he imposes. Precept
is good, when rightly ordered; but when precept
and example meet together in the education of the
young, they form an influence which cannot be over-
thrown by men or devils. Be careful, therefore, of
the home education of your children. The school
and the church cannot make up the deficiencies of
home. Be quiet—be exemplary—govern well your
own tempers—train your children to daily industry.
You that can pray, dedicate them to God around
your family altars; you that cannot pray, do begin!
What is your hope, or that of your children, without
Christ? If slavery, prejudice and injustice are ever
to be overthrown, pure religion will be the principal
instrumentality. Prepare them daily to fight the
battles of freedom; help them to put on the Chris-
tian armor, for more than mere human fortitude is
needed to prosecute our war. Teach them daily
what they must do and suffer in years to come.
Keep pressing these things home upon their minds.
Be in earnest, and ask God to help you. Make
home pleasant to your children. Make them love
home more than any other place in the world. En-
courage them in innocent amusements, and make
the acquisition of wisdom and knowledge a pleasure.
O that you would be wise, dear parents! How
much good might be done to yourselves, your chil-

dren, and to posterity, if half the money that is spent
merely for *public displays*, was used for the purpose
of imparting learning and virtue to your children.
Keep them away from evil company; learn them to
observe the Sabbath, by doing so yourselves. When
they leave school, see that they have trades, or some
business. Remember the old saying, 'An idle mind
is the devil's workshop.' Do these things, and all
your children will be left with large fortunes, and
your labors will return, like the dews of heaven,
upon your heads.

I could write much more, but time fails. God
bless you all, my esteemed friends!

HENRY HIGHLAND GARNET.

[We have not room for the speech alluded by our
friend this week. It shall appear in our next.]

BROTHER WARD:

I herewith send you an extract from a letter which
I have just received from our eloquent friend, Rev.
HENRY H. GARNET. Every item of news from him,
and the good cause in which he is so successfully
laboring, will be received with joy by thousands in
this country. Yours truly A. G. B.

New Haven, Feb. 12, 1851.

'I am deeply grieved at the religious condition of our brethren. But when will it be better, if those who lead them will continue their connection with men like Drs. Spring, Cox, Fuller, Parker, Skinner, &c.? You may not live to see a better day, and I may pass away without beholding a reformation in the American churches; but whenever it does come, it will be preceded by a faithful ministry among the blacks themselves. I ask, in the name of high Heaven, what have our people to do with men, in a religious capacity, who deny to them the rights of human beings, to say nothing of their treatment of us as fellow Christians? Where, O where, is the spirit of our fathers gone? Should they arise from their tombs, they would deny their degenerate sons. I say it calmly, that there was more of true heroism and manhood in the good RICHARD ALLEN, than we find in all this generation. Behold the men of these times bowing themselves voluntarily to receive the yokes of their opressors! Their masters kick, and drive, and hate them, and still they kiss their feet. Look at the conduct of the Presbyterians and Episcopalians towards their negro brethren. The deliverance of the people will be reserved for another age, for we are more than slaves. In England, Ireland and Scotland, there are tens of thousands of Christians who will hold no communion with men-stealers and opressors, and even the 'Evangelical Alliance' has cut its connection with them; and yet the chief men in many of our religious organizations cling to these dead bodies.

'I have thought, my brother, that much good
might be effected through the agency of fasting and
prayer. If our brethren of the various denomina-
tions, and their friends, would appoint the 4th day
of next March for such purpose, and if thousands
should humble themselves before the Lord, and ask
Him to restrain the wrath of man and to destroy the
accursed Fugitive Slave Law, it may be that the
Almighty will hear. Do say it before the brethren,
and though I am far from you, I will endeavor to
ask the aid of Christians here.'

chip, by the learning of
yet ignorant of the alphabet!

Next to the pulpit, and behind the chairs,
no place has greater charms for colored Am-
ericans than a seat in the chair editorial.—
The majority of our men of note have, at
some time, "served the devil" with copy. In
1826, a white man, in New York city, named
Armistead, started the first colored paper,
called the *Rights for All*. In the spring of
1827, John B. Russwurm (late Governor of
Cape Palmas) and Rev. Samuel E. Cornish
published *Freedom's Journal*, and since that
date until the present, there have always
been one or two, sometimes seven or eight
weekly papers edited by colored men—*as
such*, (for there is no telling how much negro
blood has crept into editorial chairs!) Among
our *corps* editorial may be named, Junius C.
Morel, Philip A. Bell, Robert McCrummel,
Martin R. Delany, Henry Highland Garnet,
Samuel R. Ward, Professor Allen, Rev. Dr.
Pennington, Rev. Charles B. Ray, Theodore
S. Wright, Amos Gerry Beman, the Rt. Rev.
Bishop Payne, Thomas Vanrensellaer, Henry
H. Bibb, and others in Ohio, and Frederick
Douglass.

The names of their various papers are al-
ready of historic interest, and indicate, but
faintly the resolute tone of protest against
oppression that has distinguished them.—
*Freedom's Journal, Weekly Advocate, Colored
American, The Elevator, People's Press, North
Star, Northern Star, and Clarksonian, The
Clarion, The Watchman, The Impartial Cit-
izen, The Disfranchised American, The De-
mosthenian, Shield, The Ram's Horn, The
Voice of the Fugitive* and Fred. — but
"present company, &c., &c." It is not a
little remarkable, that the editor's above
named, not less than one third were fugitives
from the "house of bondage;" showing that
the *vis* which bore them out of slavery car-
ried them into the chair editorial: and it is
a curious inference from the above names,
that, taking into the account, the proportion
of *fugitives* to the *free colored* in the free
States, slavery has produced the greater
number and the most talented among our
editors. Had all this and kindred talent been
penned up in the slave States, would not an-
other kind of *mark* have been made in our
history?

C . . . W .

From the N. Y. Tribune.

AFRICAN COLONIZATION.
BY A MAN OF COLOR.

As the infant Republic of Liberia is now attracting the attention of the enlightened nations, and the press of both England and America, I may hope that a communication in regard to that country, and the Afric-Americans in this, may not be deemed a subject intrusive nor foreign to the public interest. And I am encouraged by the just and liberal course you have taken in favor of the proposed line of steamers to the Western Coast of Africa, and also the boldness with which you have lately urged the propriety and interest of some of the colored people emigrating from our crowded cities to less populous parts of this country, as the great West, or to Africa, or any other place where they may secure an equality of rights and liberty, with a mind unfettered and space to rise. Besides, as your paper is generally read by the progressive and more liberal portion of white Americans and some of the most intelligent of the colored, I may also hope to be confirmed in my present sentiments and measures, or driven to new and better convictions. I do not wish to be thought extravagant, when I affirm what I believe to be true, that I have seen no act in your public career as an editor, statesman and philanthropist, more noble and praiseworthy than that of turning your pen and influence to African colonization and civilization, after finding that you could not secure for the black man in America those inalienable rights to which he, with other oppressed nations, is entitled, and for which you have heretofore labored. Though the colored people may not appreciate your kind efforts, and those of many other good and true men who pursue your course, we trust you will not on account of present opposition be weary in well-doing. Though dark the day, and fearful as is the tide oppression is rolling over us, we are certain that it is but the presence of a more glorious morrow. We do not despair. We thank God that, notwithstanding all the powerful combinations to crush us to the earth, as long as the Bible with its religion endures, there will ever be a large number of the American people whose prayers, sympathies and influence will defend us here, and assist and encourage our brethren who have sought, or may in future seek liberty on a foreign shore. If these no other reward awaits, the time is not distant when they shall receive at least the thanks and benedictions of a grateful people, "redeemed, regenerated and disenthralled by the genius of universal emancipation." Ever since the annexation of Texas and the success and triumph of American arms on the plains of Mexico, I have been looking in vain for some home for Afric-Americans more congenial for their feelings and prejudice than Liberia. The Canadas, the West Indies, Mexico, British Guiana, and other parts of South America have all been brought under review. And yet I have been unable to get rid of a conviction long since entertained and often expressed, that if the colored people of this country ever find a home on earth for the development of their manhood and intellect, it will first be in Liberia or some other parts of Africa. A continent larger than North America is lying waste for want of the hand of science and industry. A land whose bowels are filled with mineral and agricultural wealth, and on whose bosom reposes in exuberance and wild extravagance all the fruits and productions of a tropical clime. The providence of God will not permit a land so rich in all the elements of wealth and greatness to remain much longer without civilized inhabitants. Every one who has traced the history of missions in Africa, and watched the pro-

gress of that little Republic of Afric-Americans on the western coast, must be convinced that the colored men are more peculiarly adapted, and must eventually be the means of civilizing, redeeming and saving that continent, if ever it is done at all. Encouraged and supported by American benevolence and philanthropy, I know no people better suited to this great work—none whose duty more it is. Our servile and degraded condition in this country, the history of the past, and the light that is pouring in upon me from every source, fully convinces me that this is our true, our highest and happiest destiny, and the sooner we commence this glorious work, the sooner will "light spring up in darkness, and the wilderness and the solitary place be glad, and the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose."

I am aware that nothing except the Fugitive Slave Law can be more startling to the free colored citizens of the Northern States, than the fact that any man among them whom they have regarded as intelligent and sound in faith should declare his convictions and influence in favor of African Colonization. But the novelty of the thing does not prove it false, nor that he who dare reject a bad education and break loose from long-established prejudices may not have the most conclusive reasons for such a course.

I am aware, too, of the solemn responsibility of my present position. It must result in some good or great evil. I maintain that, clinging to long-cherished prejudices and fostering hopes that can never be realized, the leaders of the colored people in this country have failed to discharge a great and important duty to their race. Seeing this, though a mere private business man, with a trembling pen I come forward alone, joining with friend and foe in moving the wheel of a great enterprise, which, though unpopular with those it designs to benefit, must result eventually in the redemption and enfranchisement of the African race.

With the conviction of a purpose so noble, and an end so beneficent, I cannot notice the misrepresentations, slander and anathemas, which I must for a while endure, even from those whose approximation and good will I would gladly retain. It was no difficult task to have seen, that unless they could force emancipation, and then the perfect social and political equality of the races, human nature, human pride and passions would not allow the Americans to acknowledge the equality and inalienable rights of those who had been their slaves. One or the other must be dominant. For this reason, seven years ago, while a student, I advocated the plan of a separate state for colored Americans—not as a choice, but as a necessity, believing it would be better for our manhood and intellect to be freemen by ourselves than political slaves with our oppressors. I enlisted at once the aid of a few colored young men, of superior talent

and ability; and we were earnestly taking measures to negotiate for a tract of land in Mexico, when the war and its consequences blasted our hopes, and drove us from our purpose. About five years ago I told my excellent friend, Geo. L. Seymour, of Liberia, (who, after a residence of some years there, had returned to this city to take out his family,) that I knew only one way to develop the faculties of our people in this country, and that by their entire separation from oppression and its influences; and that if I was compelled to abandon my plan of a separate State in America, I would devote my voice, my pen, my heart and soul to the cause of Liberia. I have since written to him that he has my heart in Africa now, and in two or three years, if we live, I will shake hands with him on the banks of the St. John.

Ever since a lad of fifteen, it has been my con-
stant study to learn how I might best contribute to
elevate the social and political position of the op-
pressed and unfortunate people with whom I am
identified; and while I have endeavored, in my
humble way, to plead the cause of three millions of
my enslaved countrymen, I have, at the same time,
thought it no inconsistency to plead also for the
hundred and fifty millions of the native
Africa. But every word uttered in
jeets us to the imputation of being a
and covers us with the odium our
such a name; as if something unju-
was naturally associated with the term,
fact that odium, if such I may call it for the sa-
argument, can exist only with those who have
gotten the history of Plymouth Rock and Jan-
town, or who are determined not to know the truth,
in spite of facts and the evidence of the most en-
lightened reason. What is Colonization? For the
benefit of those who treat it with contempt, and
think that no good can come out of it, I may merely
remark that the thirteen original States, previous
to the Declaration of Independence, were called
the Colonies of Great Britain, the inhabitants col-
onists. The companies and individuals in England
that assisted in planting these Colonies were called
Colonizationists. These colonists came from the
land of their birth, and forsook their homes, their
firesides, their former altars and the graves of their
fathers, to seek civil and religious liberty among
the wild beasts and Indians on a foreign, bleak and
desolate shore. Oppressed at home, they emigrated
to Holland, and after remaining there twelve years,
returned to England, and found not the hope of
rest until they came to America. That very per-
secution and oppression of the mother country
planted in America the purest civil and religious
institutions the world had ever seen. And now
this powerful Republic, by her oppression and in-
justice to one class of this people, will plant in Africa
a religion and morality more pure, and liberty more
universal, than it has yet been the lot of any people
to enjoy. I never have been of that class who
repedate every thing American. While I shall
never make any compromise with slavery, nor feel
indifferent to its blighting, withering effects on the
human intellect and human happiness, I cannot be
so blind as not to see and believe that, in spite of all
its corrupting influences on national character, there
is yet piety, virtue, philanthropy and disinterested
benevolence among the American people; and when,
by the progress of free thought and the full de-
velopment of her free institutions, our country shall
have removed from her national escutcheon that
plague-spot of the nation, she will do more than all
others in sending the light of liberty and everlast-
ing love into every portion of the habitable globe.
In our enthusiasm and devotion to any great bene-
volent cause, we are generally unwilling to make
the best use of men as we find them, until we have
wasted our energies in accomplishing nothing, or
a calmer reflection convinces us of our error. It
is well for those to whom this reflection comes not
too late. We have been an unfortunate people.
For 400 years the avarice, fraud and oppression of
Europeans and their descendants have been preying
upon the children of Africa and her descend-
ants in America. Says my eloquent correspondent, in
writing upon this subject: "I know this was the
soil on which I was born; but I have nothing to
glorify this as my country. I have no pride of an-
cession to point back to. Our forefathers did not
come here, as did the Pilgrim fathers, in search of
a place where they could enjoy civil and religious
liberty. No; they were cowardly enough to allow
themselves to be brought manacled and fettered as
slaves, rather than die on their native shores resist-

ing their oppressors.” In the language of Dr.
Todd: “If the marks of humanity are not blotted
out from this race of miserable men, it is not because
oppression has not been sufficiently legalized, and
avarice been allowed to pursue its victims till the
grave became a sweet asylum.”
During the past thirty years, two influential and

During the past thirty years, two influential and
respectable associations have arisen in our behalf,
each claiming to be the most benevolent, and each
seemingly opposed to the intentions and purposes
of the other.

The American Colonization Society, on the one
hand, proposed to benefit us by the indirect means
of planting a colony on the western coast of Africa,
as an asylum for the free colored people and man-
umitted slaves of the United States; and by this
means also to send the blessings of civilization and
religion to the benighted sons of that continent.
The principal obstacle in the way of their success
has been that the free colored people, as a body,
everywhere, have denounced the whole scheme as
wicked and mischievous, and resolved not to leave
this country; while those who have gone to that
colony, from a state of slavery, as the condition
of freedom, have been least able to contribute to
the knowledge and greatness of a new country, and
impart civilization and the arts and sciences to its
heathen inhabitants. This Society was one of the
few that are popular in their very beginning. But
that which made it most popular with the Ameri-
can public furnished the cause of the opposition of
the colored people. They erected a platform so
broad, that the worst enemies of the race could
stand upon it with the same grace, and undistin-
guished from the honest and true philanthropist.
It could at the same time appeal for support to
the piety and benevolence of the North, and to the
prejudices and sordid interest of the South. I
state this simply as a fact, not for the purpose of
tinding fault. It is always easier to show one plan
faulty than to produce a better one.

Notwithstanding the different and adverse mo-
tives that have prompted the friends of Coloniza-
tion, they certainly have labored perseveringly and
unitedly for the accomplishment of one great pur-

pose. And, in spite of all our former distrust, we
must give them the credit at least of producing as
yet the only great practical scheme for the amelior-
ation of the condition of the free colored man and
the manumitted slave. They did not profess nor
promise to do more. Instead of engaging in
clamorous agitations about principles and meas-
ures, they turned what men and means they had
to the best purpose, and engaged industriously in
founding and nurturing a colony for the free col-
ored people, where they have an opportunity of
demonstrating their equality with the white race,
by seizing upon, combining and developing all the
elements of national greatness by which they are
surrounded. Thus far the end is good: we need
not stop now to scan their motives.

The Abolitionists, on the other hand, proposed
by moral means the immediate emancipation of the
slave, and the elevation of the free colored people
in the land of their birth. And this they did at a
time which tried men's souls. Theirs was a plat-
form on which none dare stand who were not will-
ing to endure scorn, reproach, disgrace, lynch law,
and even death for the sake of oppressed Ameri-
cans. At first, interest, reputation, office nor pro-
fit, but the reverse, were the reward of an Aboli-
tionist. Now that Anti-Slavery has become popu-
lar with many of the American people, it assumes
another name, and is converted into political capi-
tal. Even Free-Soilism was not so much designed
to make room for our liberties, as to preserve un-
impaired the liberties of the whites. The Aboli-

Ionists have not yet accomplished any thing which we can see to be so definite and practical. Yet they have divested themselves of personal prejudices, aroused the nation to a sense of its injustice and wrongs toward the colored people, encouraged them in improving and obtaining education here, broken down many arbitrary and prescriptive usages in their treatment, and convinced this nation and England that they are a people capable of moral, social, and political elevation, and entitled to equal rights with any other community. Both of these benevolent societies might perhaps have accomplished more good, if they had wasted less ammunition in firing at each other. While one has formally declared a moral and intellectual inferiority of our race, with an incapacity ever to enjoy the rights and prerogatives of freemen in the land of our birth, the other has declared that hatred to the race and the love of slavery were the only motives that prompted the Colonizationists to action. In taking a liberal and more comprehensive view of the whole matter, we believe that whatever may have been the faults, inconsistencies and seeming opposition of either, both have been in instrumental in doing much good in their own way; and under the guidance of an all-wise Providence, the labors, devotion and sacrifices of both will work together for good, and tend toward a grander and more sublime result than either association at present contemplates.

For our own part, under the existing state of things, we cannot see why any hostility should exist between those who are true Abolitionists and that class of Colonizationists who are such from just and benevolent motives. Nor can we see a reason why a man of pure and enlarged philanthropy may not be in favor of both, unless his devotion to one should cause him to neglect the other. Extremes in any case are always wrong. It is rare to find that all the members of any association, untrammelled by interest, act solely from high moral principle and disinterested benevolence. The history of the world, civil, sacred and profane, shows that some men have, in all ages, espoused tyrannical and benevolent causes, more or less influel by prejudice or selfishness. Human nature, both its imperfections, remains the same.

Ever since the adoption of the Constitution, the government and people of this country, as a body, have pursued but one policy toward our race. In abery contest between the great political parties we have been the losers. But this result it is inaisable to expect in a Republic whose Constitution guarantees protection alike to our peculiar and our free institutions—thus securing the rights and liberties of one class at the expense of the liberties of another. "Besides this, Texas and all the States that have since come into the Union, have surrounded us with political embarrassments. Every State that has lately revised or altered her Constitution, has been more liberal in extending rights to the white and less so to the colored man. In view of these facts, I assume as a fixed principle that it is impossible for us to develope our moral and intellectual capacities as a distinct people, under our present social and political disabilities; and, judging by the past and present state of things, there is no reason to hope that we can do it in this country in future.

Let us look a moment at some of the consequences of this social and political distinction on the entire mass. They are shut out from all the offices of profit and honor, and from the most honorable and lucrative pursuits of industry, and confined as a class to the most menial and servile positions in society. And, what is worse than all, they are so educated from infancy, and become so accustomed to this degraded condition, that many of them seem to love it.

They are excluded in most of the States from all participation in the government; taxed without their consent, and compelled to submit to unjusteous laws, strong as the nation that enacts them, and cruel as the grave.

They are also excluded from every branch of mechanical industry; the workshop, the factory, the counting-room, and every avenue to wealth and respectability, is closed against them.

Colleges and academies slowly open their doors to them, when they possess no means to avail themselves of their advantages, and when their social condition has so degraded and demoralized them as to destroy all motive or desire to do so.

They are by necessity constant consumers, while they produce comparatively nothing, nor derive profit from the production of others. Shut out from all these advantages, and trained to fill the lowest condition in society, their teachers and ministers as a class educate them only for the situation to which the American people have ascribed them. And hence too many of them aspire no higher than the gratification of their passions and appetites, and cling with deadly tenacity to a country that hates them and offers them nothing but chains, degradation and slavery.

Since things are so, it is impossible for them while in this country to prove to the world the moral and intellectual equality of the Africans and

their descendants. Before such an experiment can be fairly tested, our colored youth from childhood must be admitted to a full participation in all the privileges of our schools, academies and colleges, and in all the immunities and rights of citizenship, free from every distinction on account of color, and the degrading influences that ignorance, prejudice and slavery have heretofore thrown around them.

The same inducements as to white Americans should engage them in agriculture, commerce, manufactures, the mechanic arts, and all the pursuits of civilized and enlightened communities. Every man of common intelligence knows this has not been done; knows, too, it cannot be done, for the first time, in the United States. In the face of these facts, we are compelled to admit that the Africans, in their present state, cannot compete with the superior energy and cultivated intellect of long-civilized and Christian Saxons.

And, hence, we are driven to the conclusion that the friendly and mutual separation of the two races is not only necessary to the peace, happiness and prosperity of both, but indispensable to the preservation of the one and the glory of the other. While we would thus promote the interests of two great continents, and build up another powerful Republic, as an asylum for the oppressed, we would, at the same time, gratify national prejudices. We should be the last to admit that the colored man here, by nature and birth, is inferior in intellect, but by education and circumstances he may be. We could name many moral and intelligent colored young men in New-York, Philadelphia, and Boston, whose talents and genius far excel our own, and those of a majority of the hundreds of Saxon students with whom we have at different times been associated; men who, if liberally educated, would operate like leaven on our whole people, waken responses in the unexplored regions of Africa, and pour new light on the republic of letters; but who, for the wants of means and an unchained intellect, will probably live and die "unknown, unhonored and unsung."

"Full many a gem of purest ray serene,

The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear :

Full many a flower is born to blush unsen,

And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

This may appear ridiculous to those who know
the colored man only as a domestic slave in the
South or a political cypher in the North. But the
generations living sixty years hence will regard him
in a very different light. Before that time shall
have arrived, American Christians, as an expiation
for the past, have a great silent to discharge to a
prostrate nation, pleading in silent agony to God,

"With two more eloquent than learned tongue
Or lyre of purest note."

We too have a great work to perform. To the
Anglo and African-American is committed the re-
demption and salvation of a numerous people, for
ages sunk in the lowest depth of superstition and
barbarism. Who but educated and pious colored
men are to lead on the van of the "sacramental
host of God's elect" to conquer by love, and bring
Africa, with her trackless regions, under the do-
minion of our Saviour; to baptize her sons at the
font of science and religion, and teach them to
chant the praises of liberty and God, until

"One song employs all nations; and all cry,
Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us!"
The dwellers in the vales and on the rocks
Short to each other, and the mountain tops
From distant mountains catch the flying jy·
Till, nation after nation taught the strain,
Earth rolls the rapturous hosanna round."

Whatever may have been the objections to Col-
onization in former times, I call upon colored peo-
ple of this country to investigate the subject now
under its present auspices. When I consider the
kind of treatment they have received from their
professed friends in America, I do not blame them
in the past for exclaiming, "God deliver us from
our friends, and we will take care of our enemies."
I can never forget the round of applause that rang
through an audience when a talented colored man
of New-York, in an earnest harangue against Colo-
низation, said: "Mr. President, the Colonization-
ists want us to go to Liberia if we will; if we
won't go there, we may go to hell." It seemed to
indicate that they felt there was too much truth in
the remark. Their principal objection has been,
that the men who professed the greatest love for
them in Africa, did the most to exclude them here
from the means of education, improvement, and
every respectable pursuit of industry. And their
personal treatment was such as colored men only
are made to feel, but none can describe. When
the temperance men treated the inebriate as an
outcast—a wretched debased and lost—they accom-
plished nothing, but repelled him from their kind
influences; now, when they recognize him as a man
and a brother, their efforts are crowned with great
success. In keeping with other reforms, I think
that Colonizationists have become more liberal and
kind than formerly. Whether this be true or not,
if I can dispose of a single objection, I shall be
confident that African-Americans are to be benefited
more by the cause they advocate and sustain, than
by any other practical scheme philanthropy has
yet devised. I should have been glad if this So-
ciety, consistent with its leading purpose, had done
something for the improvement and education of
colored youth. And this would have been a great
auxiliary to their main object. They have thought
that, if they encouraged their education here, they
would not go to Africa. This is a mistake! If
they would aid and encourage them in obtaining
such education as white men receive, they could
not keep them in this country. They would en-
tirely unfit them for the debased position they
must here occupy. Give me but educated intel-
lect to operate upon, and I can send Liberia more
useful men in three months, than I can in five
years' labor with society as I find it. I speak only

from my own experience, when I say that, during a
life of constant struggle and effort, I never have
received any sympathy or encouragement in ob-
taining an education, nor in aspirations to usefulness,
from any of the advocates of Colonization, except
my noble friend, J. C. Potts, Esq., of Trenton, N. J.
Yet from some little acquaintance with many others,
I believe they are good and true friends, ready to
do any thing for colored Americans that they would
for white men in similar circumstances. I have
never doubted the good motives and true benevo-
lence of such gentlemen as Benjamin Coates,
Theodore Frelinghuysen, A. G. Phelps, J. G. Pin-
ney, John McDonough, and a host of others, whose
sentiments and efforts in our behalf I know only
by reading. But slavery and its consequent degra-

dation, together with our social position, have kept
us farther apart than if separated by the waters of
the Atlantic. However good the men and worthy
their cause, it cannot flourish without the co-opera-
tion of African-Americans here. Our brethren across
the Atlantic have been struggling thirty years, and
in tears and joy have laid the foundations of a free
Republic with civil and religious institutions. They
now call on us to assist in sustaining them and par-
ticipate in their blessings; to aid them to civilize
its inhabitants and extend the rising glory of the
Lone Star of Africa. We should examine their
cause, and if it is just, we should no longer with-
hold our aid; and especially when, in benefiting
them, we must benefit ourselves. If, by my feeble
efforts, I shall ever be able to do any thing that
shall tell in future blessings on that injured coun-
try, it will be very much owing to the sympathy
and encouragement received, in the course of my
education, from S. H. Cox, D.D., of 1844, and
Lewis Tappan, Esq., that unchanging and unflinch-
ing advocate of the slave.

But we have never been pledged to any men or
set of measures. We must mark out an independ-
ent course, and become the architects of our own
fortunes, when neither Colonizationists nor Abo-
litionists have the power or the will to admit us to
any honorable or profitable means of subsistence
in this country. I only regret that I come to the
aid of Africa at a time when I possess less ability
to speak or write in her behalf than I did five
years since. Strange as it may appear, whatever
may be a colored man's natural capacity and litera-
ry attainments, I believe that, as soon as he leaves
the academic halls to mingle in the only society he
can find in the United States, unless he be a minis-
ter or lecturer, he must and will retrograde. And
for the same reason, just in proportion as he in-
creases in knowledge, will he become the more
miserable.

"If ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise."

He who would not rather live anywhere on
earth in freedom than in this country in social and
political degradation, has not attained half the
dignity of his manhood. I hope our Government
will justly recognize the independence of Liberia,
establish that line of steamers, and thus give Atri-
ca a reinforcement of ten thousand men per annum
instead of four hundred.

Pardon my prolixity. The subject and the occa-
sion have compelled me to write more than I ex-
pected to. In attempting to be just to three
classes, I expect to please none. While the press
and our whole country is vexed and agitated on
subjects pertaining to us, if I can do nothing more
than provoke an inquiry among African-Americans, I
shall have the satisfaction of hoping, at least, that
I have contributed something to the interest and
happiness of the citizens of the United States and
the people of Africa.

AUGUSTUS WASHINGTON,

Hartford, July 3, 1851.

["JESDAY, SEPTEMBER", "ANTI-SLAVERY MEETING.", "A MEETING of the friends of immediate abolition was held on Monday evening last, in Queen Street Hall, for the purpose of hearing an address from the Rev. Henry H. Garnett (a gentleman of colour, and an escaped slave), previous to his leaving this country, and with special reference to the means of aiding the Vigilance Committee in their efforts in behalf of fugitive slaves. Bailie Boyd was, on the motion of Mr J. H. Stott, called to the chair.", "The proceedings were opened with devotional exercises, conducted by the Rev. G. D. McGregor, of Portobello; after which", "The CHAIRMAN rose and returned thanks for the honour which had been conferred upon him. I regard it, he said, as a high honour, and a great privilege, to preside at the meeting of a society having for its object the abolition of slavery. In all its forms, and wherever found, slavery is one of the greatest evils that can afflict humanity. (Cheers.) That a rational, accountable, and immortal being, may be stolen and chained, bought and sold, flogged and driven, by his fellow man, indicates a most unnatural and unwholesome state of society—a state of things opposed in the last degree to the best interests alike of the slave-holder and the slave. We have, as a nation, to congratulate ourselves on many splendid epochs in our history; on many brilliant achievements in arts and arms; but it seems to me that the brightest era of our history was, when, having achieved and established our own liberty, we banished slavery for ever from our shores; that then we made a stride in civilization which has ever since placed us a far-head of all the other nations of the earth. (Cheers.) Since that day the stain of slavery, foul enough before, has borne a deeper, fouler hue; and now we know it chiefly as the shame and disgrace of a nation enlightened and independent, and calling itself the freest upon earth. (Hear, hear.) It is impossible to think of the slaves of America—their number—their helplessness—their physical sufferings—their mental degradation—their spiritual destitution, without sympathizing deeply with them in their misery, and doing all in our power against the impious system of which they are the victims—a system opposed alike to reason and justice, humanity and religion. (Cheers.) To the Ladies' Emancipation Society we are under peculiar obligations, for the activity, energy, and perseverance they have displayed in this cause. (Cheers.) He concluded by calling upon the Rev. Henry Garnett to address the meeting.", "Mr GARNETT, who was received with prolonged\ncheering, said that, in rising to address this meet-\ning, he would not attempt to describe his own feel-\nings. When he remembered that he stood before\nmany who had, for years, been known as the friends\nof Universal Emancipation, he was quite conscious\nthat he could do nothing more than stir up their\nminds in remembrance of this subject. He con-\nsidered it would be most appropriate for him during\nthe short time that he would occupy in addressing\nthem, to give them a brief sketch of the present state\nof the Anti-Slavery cause in the United States of\nAmerica. In doing so, he would endeavour to show\nthem what the friends of freedom had there to contend\nwith; to tell of the sufferings of the bondman; the\nindifference of many to the cause; and especially,\nof the opposition given to it by those who, from\ntheir high professions, better things were to be ex-\npected. In the first place, then, he would say,\nthat the system of slavery had lost none of its\nenormities. To-day there was just as much guilt\ndiscoverable in slavery as there had ever been in\ndays past; and, if there was any change, it was\nactually for the worse. In proportion as the slave-\nholder approached the period when he knew he must\ntake his foot from the necks of his victims, and be com-\npelled by the force of truth and the voice of the", "people to throw open the prison, and let the op-\npressed go free,—he increased his cruelty towards\nhis slaves and his opposition towards the anti-\nslavery cause. But after all the friends of abolition\nwere not placed in circumstances to justify them in\nhanging their heads and yielding to despondency.\nNotwithstanding their opponents had brought to\ntheir support every principle and every influence\nthey could command; notwithstanding they had\ntaken the Word of God, and made that in their im-\npious hands a strong bulwark in defence of slavery,\n—notwithstanding they had committed this high\nsin against man, and this blasphemy against God,\nhe was conscious that the Almighty would yet\nvindicate his honour, and make his truth triumph-\nant. These men very frequently said that the\nBible was the main support of slavery. A learned\ndoctor of divinity had very lately published a large\nvolume upon the subject of slavery, and had\nbrought forward arguments, which by many were\nconsidered conclusive, to support the declaration,\nthat there was nothing at all in the Bible to denounce\nslavery—that the prophets had said nothing against\nit, and, in all that was ever said and done\nin New Testament times, not a single word\ncould be said to oppose or denounce the sys-\ntem. He (Mr G.) could not but think that that\ndivine and all others who took that position must\nhave got hold of an expurgated edition of the Bible\nin which there was found no 21st chapter of Exo-\ndus, where it was plainly stated—\"He that stealthe\na man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his\nhand, he shall surely be put to death;\" one in\nwhich there was no 58th chapter of Isaiah—\"Is\nnot this the fast that I have chosen?\" To lose the\nbonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens,\nand to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break\nevery yoke?\"—one that contained no declaration\nsuch as that which forms the golden rule—\"Do\nunto others as ye would that they should do unto\nyou;\" and one which speaks not of the slaveholder as\nbeing classed amongst the vilest of men. If a\nslaveholder were to address that meeting, he would\ntell them that they had not got right idea of\nwhat God meant in his word, that all our\ntranslations were wrong, both from the Hebrew\nand the Greek, and that where the word servant was\ninserted it meant a slave of the American fashion,\nan article of property which might be bought and\nsold. Notwithstanding all this, however, they had\nnot succeeded in eradicating the idea of liberty\nfrom the minds of the people—for the more it was\nrevolved there, the deeper root it took. Not con-\ntent with this perversion of the meaning of the\nBible, they had actually struck out of the Hymn-\nbooks most extensively used in the south, those\nlymns or verses which opposed slavery. After\nquoting several psalms which had thus been expur-\ngated, and which they considered downright incen-\ndiarism and fanaticism, if the people were allowed\nto read them, Mr G. went on to state that the\nteachers in the south, when they came across, in\nthe school-books that were used some years ago,\nsome of the spirited lines of our genuine poets—\nCowper for instance—and poets never wrote in favour\nof slavery.—(cheers)—they used to say, \"Cowper\nwas very crazy when he wrote that.\" (Laughter.)\nThese poems were discarded from their later edi-\ntions. Longfellow had been advised by his pub-\nlisher, in order not to injure the sale in the south\nof his other poems, to publish those against slavery\nin a separate form. When both were published,\ntwenty copies of his anti-slavery poems were sold\nfor one of the other. (Cheers.) These poems\nwere now spreading all over the world, and the\nslaveholders, notwithstanding all their efforts, were\ncompelled to take the bitter of them along with the\nsweet. (Cheers.) After adverting to the stopping\nof public discussion in Congress upon the subject\nof slavery, and the mode which was adopted by the\nLegislature of America when petitions against the\nsystem were sent in from the provinces, he went\non to inform the meeting that the Ecclesiastical\nAssemblies in the States had also followed a simi-\nlar course, the result of which was, that many\nmembers of their communion had separated\nfrom them. They would have no commu-\nnion whatever with slaveholders. (Cheers.)\nThe effects of the Fugitive Slave Law in arousing\nthe people to the iniquities connected with it, and\nin compelling them to say when they saw so many\npoor victims sent weeping to their homes—\"Slavery\nmust be destroyed or slavery will destroy us,\" were\nto ched upon. It had set to work the machinery\nwhich had produced that inimitable book, of the kind,"", "\"Uncle Tom's Cabin,\"—(cheers)—which had an im-\nmense influence in enlightening the public mind\non the subject. He then alluded to the efforts\nwhich were being made on behalf of the slave by\nthe ladies' on this side the Atlantic, mentioning\nthat in Glasgow, on the 19th and 20th of next\nmonth, a bazaar was to be held of articles gathered\ntogether from various parts of Scotland and Eng-\nland; and stated that the vigilance committees had\ncarried away in one month more slaves then had\nbeen rescued during the two and a-half years that\nthe Fugitive Slave Act had been in existence. That act\nwas becoming more and more unpopular. The slave-\nholders on the south threatened that if it were\nabolished they would break up the union—that as\nthe act is in his opinion the bond of the union\nboth must be abolished together; but the slave-\nholders could not exist without the support which\nthey were getting from northern politicians, and\nthe northern Church. He concluded by stating\nthat he was conscious that by the extreme measures\nof the slaveholders, they had been instrumental in\ndriving men into the opposite ranks, whose num-\nbers had considerably increased. There was a\ngorgeous flower which bloomed in the waters of\nSouth America; it did not thrive if the waters re-\nmained calm and unmoved, but just let its element\nbe moving and agitated—place that flower on the\nborder of a cataract, then it thrived, shone gloriously\nforth like a beauteous thing. So it was very often\nwith liberty; it grows and thrives best when\nin the midst of tempests and storms, and the\nslaveholders would yet see it, they would know\nit, when the shouts of the ransomed, f\nthe redeemed, and disembralled from the galling\nyoke of slavery, should go forth from one end\nof the land to the other—from Maine to Florida,\nand from Texas to California—\"The chains are\nbroken, the bondmen are free; the Lord God\nOmnipotent reigneth, hallelujah to God and the\nLamb.\" (Loud and reiterated cheering.)", "Rev. Mr BALLANTyne moved the following reso-\nlution:—\"That this meeting expresses its deep\nsympathy with the Rev. Henry H. Garnett in his\nexpatriation, through the working of the iniquitous\nslave law; that it regards the law itself as unhuman,\nunscriptural, unpolitic, and infamous; and that it\npledges itself to support every lawful measure that\nmay be adopted for the purpose of securing its\nabolition.\" This movement he thought never was\nin a more prosperous and hopeful condition than\nat present. For himself, he never entertained any\ndoubt of the ultimate triumph of the principles on\nwhich it is based. Just as assuredly as truth was\nmighty, and would ultimately prevail, as surely as\nthere was a God in heaven, to whom belonged\nvengence, and who would yet avenge the wrongs\nof the oppressed, and as surely as there\nwere millennial days yet in store for this\nworld, even so assuredly should the time come\nwhen the last fetters would be struck from the\nlimbs of the down-trodden slave, and the might of\nthe oppressor be broken for ever. (Cheers.) A\nmost unjust—a most infamous and atrocious act\nhad been passed by the American Legislature; and\nwhen they thought of it, they were apt to say—\n\"surely things are at the worst now,\" and must,\nin the language of an old proverb, \"begin to\nmend.\" That slave law, as they had heard to-\nnight, had created multitudes of fugitive slaves for\none that existed before. It was drawing down the\nindignation of an enlightened world upon the fear-\nful system connected with it, and undoubtedly it had\nled many a one to breathe in secret the solemn vow\nthat he would never cease agitating those great\nprinciples of liberty until they secured a triumph.\nLet them, therefore, freely, but decidedly, express\ntheir opinion upon this question; let them circu-"]

15, 1852.

late intelligence regarding it throughout our own
land; let them contribute offerings for the purpose
of aiding the cause on the other side of the Atlant-
ic; let every influence possible be brought to bear
upon this movement, and they would thus do their
best to the advancement of the cause, and the pro-
motion of a healthy public opinion, before which
the system must sooner or later crumble into dust.
(Cheers.)

Rev. ALEX. M'LEAN of Kirriemuir seconded the
resolution, which was carried unanimously.

The next resolution was moved by the Rev. Mr M'GREGOR, and was to the following effect: —
"That this meeting declares an unabated attachment to the great principle on which the anti-slavery movement is founded; that it earnestly sympathizes with those brethren in America who are nobly struggling to complete the triumph of that movement by lawful and Scriptural means; and that it pledges itself to continued effort for the purpose of securing the emancipation of the enslaved, and the universal spread of human freedom."

Mr BEGG seconded the resolution, which passed nem. con.

Mr P. SINCLAIR proposed the third resolution, as
follows:—

"That inasmuch as a grand bazaar of useful and fancy articles, for the purpose of assisting the escape of fugitive slaves from the southern "house of bondage" to our Canadian possessions, is to be held in Glasgow, in the Merchants' Hall, on the 19th and 20th of October next, this meeting cordially approves of it, and earnestly invites the co-operation of all ladies who sympathize with the object, in order to render it as effecttive as possible."

He impressed upon ladies present the propriety
of contributing articles to the Bazaar mentioned
in the resolution, in behalf of the oppressed, and
for the purpose of ransoming such men as Fre-
derick Douglas, Dr Pennington, and Henry Garnet.
(Cheers.)

This resolution, like the others, was carried with
applause, and a vote of thanks to the chairman,
moved by the Rev. Mr Ballantyne, brought the pro-
ceedings to a close.

["THE NEW ERA.", "Speech of R. T. Greener, Esq.", "Among the many grand Celebrations through-\nout the country, the one at Troy, New York,\ndeserves especial mention. It was a success\nthroughout, and the orator of the day greatly\ncontributed to the success. Most of our read-\ners are already familiar with the name of R.\nT. GREENER, as a valued correspondent to this\nJournal.", "This brings us down to the address of the evening, that of Mr. R. T. Greener, a young colored gentleman from Harvard, whose talents certainly qualify him for any position in the country. Indeed in every sense Mr. Greener is another evidence of the utter falsehood of the calumny that the black man is incapable of any superior educational development. Our present speaker has a broad open countenance, a graceful carriage, a voice of great sweetness, and, if necessary, power, and a pronunciation faultless. Frequent and well merited applause interrupted the graceful flow of his periods, and the impression left upon the audience—an audience which included many of the most intelligent whites in our midst—was one of pure and entire gratification. He had perfect command of himself and spoke with perfect composure, and yet with the utmost modesty and respect for his audience. Except in the case of Wendell Phillips, we have never listened to a more perfect enunciation, every syllable of the address having been distinctly heard in the remotest corner of the building. As this was by far the best effort of the whole celebration, we make no apology for treating our readers to some portions of the speech verbatim. Lacking the room to treat them to the whole cake, we will content ourselves with offering a few siloes.", "After some introductory remarks, the speaker said:", "> It is scarcely necessary to revert to the struggle which, starting with the foundation of the government, has embodied in the contest for our rights the symbol of liberty and equality. It has been said that our history in this country has been its romance; but it might have been as truly said, I imagine that it has been also its tragedy. The slave ship, the slave hut and pen, the overseers' whip, and the burning tears of separated husband and wife, and the equally cruel caste and proscription which has hounded the negro when free from the eradle to the grave, have mingled in far unequal proportions the romantic with the tragic. They will live in the history of the country, not to be cherished with vindicative feelings by us, but to be read as warnings against injustice, to be cited as sad examples of that perversion which noble principles may undergo, when the children drift from the teachings of the fathers, when expediency and wrong are substituted for right. We are assembled to rejoice to-night because the Congress of the United States has re-enacted justice, and the chief executive officer, has gladly given it his sanction. My first emotions, like yours, are of gratitude and joy. I thank God that we have been permitted to see this day, for which our fathers have longed and died without the sight; that to us, far more unspread open, with its plains and valleys, aye, with its quicksands and deserts.", "After noticing the great historical truth that all reform is at most a revival, and that especially Anglo-Saxon reform is tardy in producing its work, Mr. Greener said:", "> \"I thought once that we were the only ones on whom a price was placed—to whom were offered inducements to forget our race—to be traitors to our best blood. But when I read the Irish code, running away back to the tenth and eleventh centuries, when, to be fostered by an Irish woman, to marry one, to speak the", "Irish language, or give an allegiance to Irish customs, was treason; when an Irish horse couldn't pasture in an English field—I found the source from which the old slave code came —I had discovered the old arsenal of oppression, and found that neither its weapons nor its plans were new. When I think of these things I am thankful that in so short a space of time we have had justice done us.\"", "Mr. Greener went on to show that the negro did not need any special legislation. Indeed, as a principle, the colored man did not need any separate church; but they would be necessary for some time yet, even for those who were fit, in everything but negrophobia, for Heaven. And in a far larger sense was there need for able colored speakers, lawyers, statesmen, and editors, to watch the interests of their race. Because the feeling of caste is not dead. If Mr. Greeley should invite Sella Martin to the Tribune staff, or Parke Goodwin hurry to retain him for the Post, or New York State should make Frederick Douglass governor, he was sure the most zealous of the colored race would not show the slightest greenish tinge, but rather rejoice that the results of the statute books were beginning to act upon the hearts and feelings of the people. Next to the duty the colored people owed to the support of their own great men, was that of looking out for and educating their own able boys. Mr. Greener went on:", "> \"Troy ought to-day to be supporting two or three students at Yale or Harvard, or the many divinity and law schools throughout the country. Boston and New York city ought to be doing it. Chicago and Cincinnati are abundantly able to maintain a dozen each. We hear frequent exhortation as to our duty, and", "in view of these it behooves us to preserve that\nequiposte of character which shall enable us\nto see what our duty is before we hasten to act.\nA friend of mine had just been converted. He\nwas a man of quite excitable temperament, and\nafter he felt perfectly sure that he was saved,\nhe threw up his hands and went about shouting\nand praying, and calling on every one to repent.\nHe met a shrewd old deacon, an excellent\njudge of character, and an exemplary\nand earnest Christian. 'Deacon B.,' said the\nconvert, 'I feel so happy I wish to tell all the\nworld. I must go forth and preach, and save\nthe sinners.' 'My dear brother,' said the dea-\ncon, 'I have seen many young converts, and I\nfeelings that you express, but it has been my\nexperience that one can serve the Lord best by\njust letting the world go, and tending to oneself.\nSee that you stay converted; the Lord will\nlook out for the rest of mankind.'", "Now my application of this story is this:\nMany of our friends, many of us, probably, ex-\npect that we are going to blossom out at once\ninto chief justices, first-class lawyers, states-\nmen, editors, ministers, all to order. Now I\ndon't expect any such phenomena, and I should\nbe sorry if we had any such prophetic hopes to\nmake good at the expense of our normal proper\ndevelopment. We have never asserted our\nsuperiority yet as a race, nor acknowledged our\ninferiority. The burden of proof lies with\nthose who called us baboons, and said we\nwouldn't study if we got a chance, wouldn't\nwork after we had enough to eat. I do not\nthink that many educated people ever honestly\nbelieved these assertions, but they were handy\nto use while fighting against our rights. They\nfolly of their words by rushing to the other\nextreme, and by attempting to fill positions for\nwhich we are not fitted by training and educa-\ntion. I know of many philanthropic people,\nwho are giving much money to establish num-\nbers of freedmen's schools, who will not help a\ntolerably well educated young man in the same\ncity through a theological seminary. Many\nwill help the negro to learn his primer, but will\nnot tell the colored boy at the North, who is", "THE", "Mr. Edith\nMr. Editor\nMr. Editor\nMr. Editor\nMr. Editor

the methods of improving himself, which Humboldt did not think beneath his dignity to unfold to the young but poor student Agassiz, in his humble lodgings in Paris.

No great reform has ever originated from the rulers of a people, because of the low water-mark of political morality. A few men like the six chartists in 1832 mark out what they want, and begin to agitate for it.

In 1867 a liberal Parliament comes up to the standard of the six men of 1832. O'Connell's room and his ten men are the agitators for Catholic emancipation, and Garrison and his colored boy as assistant is the little lever which overturned the bulwarks of slavery. But while acknowledging the dependence of premiers and statesmen on the men of ideas, the chosen few who begin reforms, let us not forget the parties through whom these reforms can only become actual, who are as necessary to the reformer as the latter is to them, to give that high moral purpose which shall carry its banner in triumph over the ramparts of the enemy, or strengthen the rank and file in the hour of defeat.

We have such a party in the grand Republican party, the inheritors of the traditions of the old liberty party. The best blood of the old Whigs and Free Soilers entered into its composition, while the ultra abolitionists, though outwardly blaming it, in secret sent up their fervent prayers for its success. The note which it struck in 1856 showed that it had strong lungs and was destined for a vigorous youth, a healthy and useful manhood. I know, my friends, that the Democratic press have prophesied that we would not cling to the party which has stood by us—that our allegiance was forfeited by the new condition of things which the Fifteenth Amendment introduces. When Napoleon, after a hard fought battle, had captured one of the Turkish chief-tains, and in admiration of his valor was telling him that he would inform the Bey of his bravery, the haughty chieftain replied, “Thou must save thyself the trouble; my master knows me better than thou canst.”

So do we answer those who imagine what they would fain have occur, that we will forget the party by whose agency the republic has been saved and our rights restored. They may save themselves that trouble, who speak of our ties being severed which bind us to the Republican party, our master knows us better than they possibly can. Is the obligation then so small which binds us to that great party that we can lightly break it? I trust not, I know not, and I should only insult that generosity and gratitude which are universally our characteristics, did I, on this happy occasion, broach such a thought.

We have not forgotten what this party of Freedom, this party of ideas has accomplished. We have not forgotten its leader who has done more than he promised. We find its record in the free soil of Kansas, which it saved from the border ruflians and the slave driver, in the slaves of rebels whom it freed, in the refusal to return the fugitives who sought the protection of the national flag, in the initial measure the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, in the prohibition of slavery forever in the territories.

Has it not recognized the independence of Hayti and Liberia? Did it not give us Lincoln, who gave us the proclamation? But it did not rest satisfied with giving the black soldier a right to fight for his country. It also flung around his wife and children the protecting arms of the country. To it we owe the admission of the testimony of colored people in the District of Columbia, the right of the colored people in that District to ride in the public conveyances. By its party vote was slavery formally abolished. By its vote the civil rights bill supplemented that measure, and by its still more comprehensive and just policy the amendment which we celebrate to-night became a reality. Could we ask more than this record for fourteen years of existence? Could we ask more than this for ten years of power? Wherever it has planted the flag of the Union, as the symbol of its authority, freedom and equality have been on the side of the Government.

But, fellow-citizens, as I have said, I feel tonight more like keeping silence, more like standing dumb in the presence of this mighty change, more like crying with the poet—

> "Lord forgive us, what are we,
> That our eyes this glory see,
> That our ears have heard the sound!

> It is done!
> In the circuit of the sun
> Shall the sound thereof go forth.
> It shall bid the sad rejoice,
> It shall give the dumb a voice,
> It shall fill with joy the earth!"

But in the midst of the silence of thankfulness, while pouring out our gratitude, thoughts of the future come up; what is the right to vote if it bring not that equality, that recognition of our manhood, which no mere slip of paper with a name on it can ever bestow? Have we forgotten that for years we of the North have been nominally free—that is, we have been permitted to exist, but the hotel, the cars, the places of amusement, and often the hospital and the graveyard, have been closed against us. A proscription has been expensed against us which seems like a page torn out of the English persecutions of the Jews. And yet many well disposed of our white fellow citizens have done this, winked at “shared in the plunder, but pitied the man.” This is the fear which makes my few remarks right more like a dirge, perhaps, than a pas de joy. I do not believe one-third of the American people have forgotten their feeling of east— I am afraid, judging from analogy, that it would take some time yet, much calm, laudable work, on our part, before they do forget. There are some from whom the feeling of prejudice will never be eradicated. There are others who have vulnerable points. Give me one black Jim Fisk, and I will guarantee that no hotel, nor steamboat, nor opera, nor theatre, either closes its doors to him, or if it opens them, consigns him to a back seat. Do not understand me, friends, as clamoring for false equality—an equality of ignorance and learning, of virtue and vice, of respectability and low-mindedness. They never ought to be, and, thank God, in the nature of things, they never

will be on a social level. Society happily regu-
lates itself, opening its doors gradually to me-
rit, and endeavoring, if it does not always suc-
ceed, to keep out shoddy and sham.

No nobler caste can exist in any country than that which proceeds from noble and virtuous deeds and lives, when adorned by culture and wealth. But it is not against these that I raise my voice. It is rather that meane, infinitely smaller and insignificant spirit which would give us all the political rights of citizens, while in the common conveniences, needs and advantages of the State, it wishes us eit' to have no share or to accept them as a gravity—the spirit which builds up separate neuro schools when the State furnishes them for all—which allows the servants of the public to discriminate in regard to the public. Many of these things we may not hope to alter at once, nor be discouraged if they do not immediately disappear, but strive so earnestly, so determinedly and patiently after all that is worthy of attainment in education, wealth and upright conduct, that our enemies shall be ashamed of their unseemly prejudices.

To the future, then, O friends, let us cast our hopeful gaze. Let no further thoughts of the sad past, which this amendment closes out forever, interfere with or slacken our efforts in behalf of what is now in deed and in truth our country. With a step more buoyant, a lighter heart, and a straighter back, and clearer cause with more hopeful eye we assume our just position in our native land, forgetful of wrong, emulous of all good deeds. Bow down in prayer and praise! No poorest in thy borders but may now lift to the juster skies a man's enfranchised brow.

O beautiful! my Country! Ours once more!
Smoothing thy gold of war-dishevelled hair
O'er such sweet brows as never other wore,

And letting thy set lips,
Freed from wrath's pale eclipse,
What words divine of their smile lay bare;
Could tell our love or make thee know it?
Among the nations bright beyond compare!
What were our lives without thee?

We rock not what we gave thee;
We will not, dare to doubt thee;
But ask whatever else, and we will dare.

92

["\"Our Free Colored Population.\"", "To the Editor of the Phildelphia North American and United States Gazette :", "SIR:—The editorial in your issue of the 23d inst., entitled, \"Our Free Colored Population\"—an article which however well intended, will tend to add greatly to the afflictions and disadvantages under which that people already labor—is more in accordance with the spirit of American prejudice and the schemes of colonizationists, than with facts; and we ask to be briefly heard upon it.", "It is not true, that \"as far as the colored population of the free States are concerned, there are no laws that trammel their faculties or limit their sphere of industry.\" Yet upon this broad and sweeping assertion is based your argument and conclusion that negroes cannot become useful citizens of the U. States. Now there is not a single State in this Union in which the colored man has equal rights before the law—not even excepting Massachusetts. Neither in Massachusetts nor in Pennsylvania, nor in any other State is the black man equal before either the statute or that other and higher law of public sentiment. With two or three exceptions, there is not a college, academic, medical, or law, in the whole North, in which a black man can enter as a man. Could a black man study as white men do, medicine, law, or science, in Pennsylvania, or put either into requisition here, if he could get it? Every source (there is hardly an exception) upon which white men rely for education and refinement, is denied him. This is the law of prejudice. It does \"trammel the black man's faculties.\" It crushes out his manhood, numbs his ambition, and may yet drive him to desperation.", "Again. It is well known that colored mechanics cannot find employment or encourage. No white mechanic would think of employing a colored one; none of taking a colored apprentice; none that would encourage him by word or deed. Why is it that, in the House of Refuge in this city—which, we believe, is in some measure a State institution—colored inmates are not given the same trades as the white? This single instance, though a small one, serves to show what is Pennsylvania's policy in this matter. Can a black man navigate the high seas? Can he form business corporations? Would the editor of the North American and U. S. Gazette employ a black compositor, a black book-keeper, a black assistant editor, even though he, were well qualified? No; the black man is shut out from nearly every mechanical trade, as well as all the honorable occupations growing out of those trades. This surely \"limits his sphere of industry.\"", "It is true, as you say, that the removal of oppressive laws and customs only leaves man free to do as his fellows. But while these laws and customs last, they have an effect far beyond their mere operation as laws. They provoke the prejudices of the masses, sear the spirit, burn the soul. What need then is there of laws on the statute book of Pennsylvania against the black man, when public sentiment is many times stronger against him than any law can be?", "In the matter of industry, you yourself, in this very issue of the 23d inst., say: \"White labor is superabundant all over the free States, and will not tolerate companionship of the black.\" By this very remark any unprejudiced judgment would judge that there is indeed much \"to trammel their faculties and limit their sphere of industry.\"", "You say, and truly, that black men are leaving callings, once deemed exclusively theirs—avocations which you are pleased to call menial.", "I regard the institution of slavery as absolutely necessary to Louisiana, and I regard the preservation of the Union and our present Constitution as absolutely indesirable for the preservation of slavery in the Southern States, and I regard the increase of the number of slaves beyond the natural increase by births from those now among us, as absolutely necessary for the preservation of the Union, first and finally for the preservation of slavery where it now exists. For these reasons I am in favor of the proposition to import African laborers, although they were to be nominally free.", "With these general declarations I shall from time to time examine the subject in its different and collateral aspects, and endeavor to discuss it impartially, as the subject demands, without prejudice. My early education and associations were certainly not calculated to induce me to favor the extension of slavery, which I now deem of so much importance to this nation as to outweigh all other propositions and considerations. Therefore I shall not be considered as either pro-slavery or as favoring the fire-eating opinions of a portion of our citizens.", "But to the Apprentice bill; it authorized certain gentlemen to import from Africa into this State, twenty-five hundred free African laborers, upon the condition that they shall be bound in apprenticeship not less than fifteen years, it left it open for them to be bound as much longer as they might agree upon, and for our State to fix the status of the apprenticeship among us.", "Their condition would have been exactly that of our slaves so long as the time of their apprenticeship had not expired, and it is not to be supposed by any candid and informed man, that any one of them would have ever outlived the term of engagement; in point of fact he would have been a slave for life, without it being so expressed in the article of indenture.", "The proposition to import twenty-five hundred was made upon the ground that if the experiment resulted as its friends expected, that further authority would be given to import any desired number in addition, and if, on the contrary, it was found not to work well, that number was sufficient.", "That an increase of slaves is necessary to the preservation of slavery and the Union, is clear to my mind for the following reasons, viz: it is apparent to us beyond controversy that the Union can only be preserved by neutralizing the abolition influence in one branch of our Congress, by there being a pro-slavery majority in one House of Congress. The Free-soilers now have a clear majority of the House of Representatives, and will soon have a like majority in the U. S. Senate, unless prevented by the creation of more slave States.", "I am of the opinion that within a very few years, if not at the next election, that the Freesoilers and Abolitionists will elect their candidate for President, and that they then will have a majority in the United States Senate, and the only barrier to their revolutionary schemes will be the Supreme Court, to which they now announce their intention of reconstructing, or in other words revolutionizing, by the appointing of all judges hereafter from partisans of their party, or the known adherents and exponents of their abolition opinions.", "To avert this calamity, which would speedily cause revolution and war between the North and the South, we can only find one remedy, that is, to increase our strength in the Senate by the admission of more slave States into the Union. To do this, we must first find territory where slave labor would be profitable, and then slaves to fill it.", "At present we have not sufficient slaves to fill the States already in the Union, where Slavery exists, and the greatest and most imminent danger which slavery has to apprehend is from the action of the free white laborers, whose occupations bring them into competition with slave labor in the slave States themselves. Going upon the last Democratic principle, that the inhabitants of each State shall control their own affairs, we now see an active and doubtful struggle in the State of Missouri for the abolition of slavery in that State.—This is likely to be extended to the States of Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland, at no distant day, with certainty of ultimate success, unless some changes takes place in the value of slaves. At their present value, the dollar is an almighty Abolitionist, by making slave labor the dearest and most unprofitable kind of labor in three-fourths of the area of the present slave States.", "It is apparent that the creation of new slave States south or west of us would only precipitate abolition in the more northern slave States, by causing the exportation of their slaves to other fields, and leaving Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri to be tilled by white free laborers, in whose hands would be vested the political destinies of their commonwealth.", "It is plain that we cannot extend the area of slavery South or West into new territory without abandoning the more Northern slave States to the Abolitionists, unless we can procure a supply of slaves from some other source to fill up the vacuum which would be caused by the removal of slaves in great numbers from the old slave States to new ones.", "The above pretty plainly indicates that which is certain to become the leading policy of the slaveholding States. It is entirely consistent with the history of slavery for the last twenty years; and although Virginia and one or two other slave-breeding States, whose interests would be damaged by a depreciation of the value of the home manufactured slaves, the preponderance in the South must, in the end, be largely in favor of the revival of the inferior traffic. This must be recognised among the issues presented by slavery. How rapidly is the accursed thing dragging the nation back to barbarism.—Ed. F. D. Paper.", "save of doings and sayings. The president in se that he not, but belon place preac and the admi duties tain hepe minis ment. Some has an and th do, Perm is a m to do, and t do, Presi is a m to do, and t do, Perm is a m to do, and t

ALCOHOL PERSONIFIED.

WRITTEN FOR THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE
TEMPERANCE CONVENTION AT HUDSON, N. Y.

JULY 8th, 1845.

BY E. P. ROGERS.

Kind Providence hath spared us
Another year to see,
And brought us to this sacred place
To strive for victory.

Our weapons are not carnal,
But mighty through the Lord :
He is the captain of our choice,
His spirit is our sword.

Our cause it is most glorious,
For victory we sigh,
We ne'er will be discomfited,
But conquer though we die.

With hearts replete with firmness
We boldly face the foe,
And if he cry surrender !
We'll coolly answer no !

Our laws like those of Sparta
Forbid us to retreat,
Our earnest cry is victory !
We're strangers to defeat.

Our foe is strong and subtle,
And multitudes has slain,
And filled the world with penury
With bitterness and pain.

His name is Belial Alcohol :
His lineage we trace
Back to the Sons of Ishmael
That rude and barbarous race.

He's stalked abroad for centuries
Has traversed every land,
And sown the hateful seeds of death
With his destructive hand.

The upright and the virtuous
Are subject to his wiles,
And Demon-like he first betrays,
Then o'er their ruin smiles.

At times he seems quite fluent,
And proffers joy and health,
But gives for joy a bleeding heart,
And poverty for wealth.

The children of the forest
He's slaughtered them by tribes ;
And meanly stripped them of their wealth,
And gulled their chiefs with bribes.

In Africa's sunny regions
Where purling water runs,
Oft has he played his treach'rous games
With her benighted sons.

He's dealt in human beings,
Bought scores of luckless slaves,
Who, while in agony and chains
W're ferried o'er the waves.

But a political commander
Oft has made insane,
hurled his richly laden ships
own in the raging main.

Persevering husbandmen
From off their lands he's driven,
And scattered all their families
Unto the winds of heaven.

Of honest hearted tradesmen
Poor bankrupts he has made,
And caused their wives and families
Through streams of grief to wade.

Physicians oft have bowed the knee
To this deceptive god,
Whose skill has quickly died away
Beneath his iron rod.

Lawyers too of much repute,
Well skilled in classic lore,
Have keenly felt his fiery sting
And sunk to rise no more.

To halls of legislation
This Demon finds his way,
And men of sound and vig'rous minds
Have oft become his prey.

The church of Christ he's entered,
And slain his thousands there,
And bid defiance to the Lord ;
To faith, and zeal, and prayer.

He's visited the pulpit
With his unholy leaven !
And caused the heralds of free grace
To fall like stars from heaven.

What multitudes of victims
No human tongue can tell,
By him have been conducted
Down to the gates of hell.

Where'er life's streams are flowing
The nations to immerse,
There Belial Alcohol has been
Administ'ring his curse !

On men he has no mercy,
But fills their minds with gloom,
And meanly aims in all his acts,
To lure them to their doom.

Sisters, wives, and mothers too,
He often has betrayed,
And artless maids of beauty rare
In deep disgrace has laid.

Oh ! Belial Alcohol ! thou foe !
To heaven and earthly joy ;
We've sworn by every sacred thing,
Thy influence to destroy.

By the millions thou hast slain,
And by the captives led,
We've sworn to battle side by side
'Till thou art Dead ! Dead ! ! Dead ! ! !

We ne'er will grant thee quarter !
We never will retreat !

But follow thee o'er hill and dale,
Till lifeless at our feet.

Gray-headed sires, we need your aid
Although far past your youth,
For hands quite tremulous with years
Best wield the sword of truth.

Young men, we need your active powers;
You too must face the foe,
And while the fathers guide the ranks
'Tis yours to strike the blow.

Wives, and mothers, we conjure
Our phalanx to adorn,
For without them king Alcohol
Will laugh his foes to scorn.

Young maidens too must fill our ranks,
And kindly act their part;
And like sweet music in the field
Cheer every fainting heart.

And you, the ministers of Christ
Who labour for the Lord,
Your power is great, your influence wide,
You bear the keenest sword.

And if you do not face the foe
With this keen sword in hand,
On you the frown of God will rest,
Like mildew on the land.

And let us all both old and young,
Of every name and sex,
Unite and slay king Alcohol,
That he no more may vex,

Our world our country and our kind :
Destroying souls of men,
And hurl him quickly to the tomb
Never to rise again.

And when we see that Alcohol
Has yielded up his breath,
And all his numerous foes behold
Him lie enchained in death,

Then will we shout, and shout again
With all our vocal powers,
And praise and thank the Lord of hosts,
That victory is ours.

["Journal and Courier.", "EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY", "CARRINGTON & CO.\nNo. 233 State st. Courier Building.", "DAILY JOURNAL...........PER ANNUM...$8.00\nWEEKLY JOURNAL...........PER ANNUM...$2.00", "Tuesday, January 4, 1870.", "The JOURNAL and COURIER is the largest paper in the country for the price at which it is sold, and has, with a single exception, a larger daily circulation than any other newspaper in New England out of Boston.", "### On Outside Pages.", "FIRST PAGE—Two or Three Views of Mr. Stanton—Anecdote of a New Jersey Farmer.", "FOURTH PAGE—Recollections of E. M. Stanton.", "WILLIAMAS, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing among other things the following: \"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, all people within the United States, being the inhabitants of the States, and all other people, shall be free and equal in the rights of the United States; and that from and after the first day of January, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation shall be issued by the President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested, as Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy of the United States, and as a general order, to be observed and observed as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, and the following, to wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the region of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, La Fourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth, and with each other parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation had not been issued, and by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I DO ORDER AND DECLARE THAT ALL PERSONS HELD AS SLAVES WITHIN SAID DESIGNATED STATES AND PARTS OF STATES, ARE, AND HENCEFORTH SHALL BE, FREE, and that the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. And I h-e-reby enjoin the people so declared to be free, to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense, and I recommend that in all cases where allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages, and I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States, to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.\"", "### A PROCLAMATION", "BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.", "Exercises of an appropriate character took place at Music Hall, where was gathered an audience of about one thousand. Felsbury's band entered the audience for a while, and at eight o'clock the exercises were opened with prayer, offered by Rev. William L. Black of this city, after which Rev. William Butler of New York, who had been selected to preside, returned his thanks for the honor conferred. He was followed by Rev. J. Williams of Norwalk, who read President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.", "### IN THE EVENING", "The dinner closed the observance of the day, but the dinner was followed by enthusiastic cheers were given. The dinner closed the observance of the day, and then both and enthusiastic cheers were given. While the procession was upon its march, quite a crowd of its admirers followed upon the walk. Occasionally some well known citizen was recognized on the route of march, or a flag seen floating at the window of some residence, and then both and enthusiastic cheers were given. The dinner closed the observance of the day, and then both and enthusiastic cheers were given. The dinner closed

was on their side. The colonization society
might plot for their removal, but in vain. He
predicted that the time would soon come, if they
held on and did their duty, when every
republican liberty should be theirs. He
earnestly urged them not to despair of a
complete attainment of their rights. Going to
Boston I made another address. From this also
he quoted. In that he spoke of the high char-
acter of the work of the abolitionists, and the
noble faith and hope that led them on, and the
high courage that inspired them. Did I not
prophecy truly in regard to the abolitionists?
Did they ever forsake the cause, and did they
not work to the end? All, I do not prove true,
but I do say that God wonnated the nation
for the men that should achieve your liberty.
Do we not stand here to-night to celebrate the
event, not secured by Abraham Lincoln, but by
God? To Him should be given all the praise.
It was a long struggle. For a while the anti-
slavery cause engaged on slowly winning new
convents, but at the same time slavery held on
with a strength that seemed to overbalance the
opposition to it. When I first spoke against it
I had to speak of two millions of slaves, and
then of three millions, and finally of four mil-
lions. The longer we were about it the more
there were who went out of bondage. Never
since the days of Pharaoh, has there been an
event like this one. As the Israelites sang songs
of praise for their deliverance, so should we.
Only nine years ago the slave power seemed to
defy all opposition. Where stood the nation
then? It did not stand. It was lying in the
dirt, willing to do anything to conciliate that
power. Oh, the servility of those times. There
seemed to be nothing capable to cope with
slavery. Those were days of homage, as in the
days of Nebuchadnezzar, when all the people,
but three men, bowed down to his image. God
saved the three from the flames to which they
were consigned. The abolitionists also came
out all right. Nebuchadnezzar at length was
clothed in his right mind, and praised God, and
so perhaps will the South yet do. A sycomat
at the court of the Emperor of Russia said,
"the Emperor is a great man." Another man
said, "Yes, but God is greater." Ah said the
sycomat, "but the emperor is cry-
ing yet." So the slave power when the
South was young put above God. Its power effected
the whole nation. It permeated our whole re-
ligion. The North stood by and saw the slaves
weltering in their blood and were afraid to in-
terfer. The clergy found excuses for the sys-
tem. The great public sentiment of the country
was hurled against the anti-slavery society from
the Penobscot to the Rio Grande, so great was
the influence of the slave power. In the consti-
tution were provisions and compromises that
tied us up and held us socially and governen-
tially bound up with the social evil of the South.
But God is just. The South rose in rebellion,
and slavery fell. There was this difference be-
tween the North and South. The North pro-
tested a duty. The South loved and
adored it and were ready to sacri-
fice everything for it. The North had no
interest in it. Hence the South very properly
by the war was more terribly chastised than the
North. The country deserved to be chastised
and she was chastised. It was the judgment of
God for cherishing slavery for 25 years, that was
visited upon us. In Cuba God was working out
the freedom of the slave. Those young to-day
could not realize the change worked by the anti-
slavery society. We have seen chattels trans-
formed into men, slaves into jurors. How do
the colored men act as jurors. He read from a
Florida paper showing that there they had given
satisfaction by their verdicts. They have you,
see, set an example to the white people, for
from their hands they never received justice.
How do they vote? That was a wonderful act
of Congress. We did not expect to see it. I do
not know that we ever talked in the anti-slavery
society of anything but emancipation, houseless
and homeless emancipation, for that was all the
nation could bear. In all cases where they have
been allowed to vote they have given
their votes on the side of liberty. They
know well the South, and they vote intelligently
and with discrimination. He read from a Bos-
ton paper on the subject. Speaking of the indi-
cations in the Mississippi election, when I es-
poused your cause, it was not because I was
identified with you, but because I was opposed

to all forms of oppression. If I have over-pow-
ering passion, it is for liberty. Thank God the
idea of liberty could never be whipped out of
the bosoms of the slave. The slave owners left
nothing undone to deface the slave so as to put
this flame of freedom. In spite of whips
and chains and bloodbonds they could not
crush out the love of liberty, and yet how afraid
they were. No one was allowed to speak against
slavery South, and they were afraid of what was
said in the far-off North. The slightest whisper
sounded like thunder to the slave owners' ears.
He read from a Richmond paper on the subject.
I had not published my Liberator for a year,
and I began it without a subscriber, and yatit teri-
fied the Southerners so much that in Georgia a
law was passed by the legislature offering $5,-
000 reward for my seizure. It was seized bp
Gov. Lumpkin and has never been repeated.
The slave owners held that their institution was
divine, peculiar, yes, diabolically peculiar,
and they held it was philanthropic to protect
and cherish it. They said to abolish it would
fill the South with murder and rapine. I pro-
pose to see what have been the results of aboli-
tionism. We have no more rewards offered for
runaway slaves. Slavery cared nothing for
color. How Mr. Minor, of Pennsylvania, said
that white children were stolen from that State
and tanned to color them and sold. The speak-
er read from the advertisement of the Souther-
ners of runaway slaves. One for a white ne-
gro. There's a white blackbird for you. (Laugh-
ter.) He has a Roman nose and will probably
try to pass himself for a white man. Why
should he? (Laughter.) Slavery did not care
about the color. Frederick Douglass stated the
state once when he said that the man who
steal a black horse would not hesitate about
stealing a white one. (Laughter.) He also
steal one advertising for a slave, nearly white,
with red hair, and who spoke mountain Irish,
and one white girl who could read and write and
speak French. We shall have, now, no more of
this. No more slave auctions, no pens, no run-
aways, no insurrections, no burnings, no unlaw-
ful meetings. I suppose you understand that
well. (A voice. "I understand that well."
Laughter.) These are the results of emancipa-
tion. Then we are to have the colored man in
the witness stand. There they are to have full
citizenship, and every man is to stand as high
as the President himself. Then another result
is light. The North has sent down its teachers
and we have some wonderful results from these
educational efforts. There was a time when in
Louisiana it was death to teach a slave to read,
and fine and imprisonment in the other states.
In this state you remember when at Canterbury
Lucy Crandall undertook to teach a few colored
people, how the state was stirred, how the town
refused to vote money for the school, and the
well was filled with filth, and finally the house
was burned down. You remember how a young
colored man was turned out of the hall at the
Wesleyan University at Middletown, and how
when Rev. Mr. Beman, who speaks to night, then
a young man, undertook to teach a few colored
people, he received a note from several students
threatening him if he did not desist. What do
we now behold in the South? The whole num-
ber of schools among the freedmen is 4,424;
teachers, 9,503; and pupils 256,353. What an
army has been learned to read! Of these pu-
pils, 192,227 were formerly slaves. Of the
schools the freedmen support 1,581, and the
number of houses owned by them is 750. He
read from a report to show how eager the freed-
men were to learn. They have normal schools
and colleges for colored students. I remember
when we tried to establish one in this State,
but the project was frowned down and had to be
given up. He read from the reports showing
the condition of these institutions South. In
regard to industry, the colored people of the
South are showing that they are as willing to
work as any one, and that in this respect they
are human like the rest of us. They have shown
themselves to be animated by the hope of the
rewards of labor. They show great results in
this respect. They have paid $200,000 for edu-
cation. In Washington they have a savings
bank. Only think of that! A savings bank
for those who not long since were sold them-
selves. In this bank they have deposited
$8,704,772.75. The depositors number 23,000,
and the interest paid was $53,000. I spoke in
England not long since, where a rebel general
was on the stage, and after my speech the rebel
General Richardson came forward and spoke

highly of the freedmen. He had believed
that they would not work except under the lash
but he had changed his mind. The freedmen
have done not only well, but wonderfully well.
Not only in the army, but in the schools. A-
laborers, as public speakers, in the churches,
and as voters they have evinced their ability.
So we have now a happy and free people, with a
promise at last of a thorough renovation of that
portion of our country that shall become the
garden thereof. Now marriage has its sanctities
there. With slavery, there was no marriage, for
slavery with consistency, that was diabolical,
said, why should things marry. But marriage
is sacrad now, and now it brings happy and
pure homes. There has been a great overturn-
ing. God has worked it all out. There is no
running to the bible now to find excuses for
slavery: we have anti-slavery bible now. He
spoke of the struggle of liberty in Hayti, and
the refusal of this country to recognize the gov-
ernment, under the dictation of the slave power.
Benton, Haines, and the others who opposed
her recognition, are dead, but Hayti still lives,
and her representative is recognized at the Capi-
tol. Under the Fifteenth Amendment you are
about to be clothed with the powers of citizen-
ship. I hope you will make yourselves worthy of
all that may be conferred upon you. You will
respect yourselves so that you may be so, and
Still you are to stand up asking for a fair chance
for a share in education, and the other privi-
leges of the State. The nation did not grant
emancipation because it was sorry, but as a
military necessity. Mr. Lincoln said he should
save the nation with slavery if he could; but I
will take nothing from the name of Abraham
Lincoln, for he finally became a martyr; but I
tell you that in that day when all things are dis-
closed, there will be found in the ranks of free-
dom men who, in the days that tried men's souls,
were greater, even, than Abraham Lincoln.
(Appause).

Mr. Butler said it was expected that a gentle-
man would be present to speak for the colored
soldiers, but he had sent a letter stating that he
could not be present. That man was General
Hawley. Mr. Williams then read

GOV. HAWLEY'S LETTER.

HARTFORD, Jan. 3, 1868.

GENTLEMEN:—I accepted your invitation to listen
at the address there given without sufficient con-
sideration. I did not notice that the 3d of January
would be the first Monday of the month. I find that

I have two engagements, and the one made
some weeks before with certain friends in Hartford.
I have done my utmost to-day to postpone the latter
engagement or be released from it. I cannot do
so, as I have not yet received an answer. I have this moment
obliged to abandon the hope of hearing Mr. Garrison
this evening.

I should have spoken very briefly, for remarks of
mine would be superfluous after an address by the
veteran of a thirty year war against slavery and
caste, and I have repeatedly borne my testimony
in favor of the gallantry and efficiency of the colored
troops in the late war. At the last battle of Olustee,
Florida, Feb. 20, 1864, I had in my brigade the 5th
U. S. Colored Troops, commanded by Col. Frisley, of
Pennsylvania. It was the first battle of the regiment,
Out of 600 men and officers they lost 320 or
330 killed and wounded. The noble Frisley fell at
the head of his men. The oldest veteran could not
have faced danger with less fear than those who
recruited. Under my eye in the same battle were the
35th U. S. C. T., Col. James Beecher's regiment. He
was absent, 10 his great regret, and the regiment
was commanded by the major. They charged gal-
lantly and found with unshakable steadiness, I saw
them running to the whole continuance in the battle and
knew whereof I t e t i t y. They must have fully lost
one third of their number. I saw also in the same
battle the 54th Massachusetts, and the other regi-
lations, the 1st Michigan Quaker, Col. Hallowell. Its
already established reputation is fully maintained. I
always considered that one of the very best regi-
ments in the whole army.

I had the good fortune to be present at the dis-
cussions to note the behav-
ior of colored troops in minor affairs, and I never
saw anything but good conduct, either in the fight
or in the terribly tedious and wearing labors of
the siege.

In the battle which extended along the whole lines
of the Army of the James and the Army of the Poto-
mac, Oct. 37, 1865, I commanded Gen. William Bar-
ney's division of the confederate army. It became
southeast of Richmond. The heaviest portion of
the work fell to our own colored regiment, the 29th
Connecticut, Col. Wooster, their brave command, who
was already in the field, and the other command fell to M a-
por Camp, of Middletown, now of the regular army.
I put them on the skirmish line. They charged over
the enemy's pickets, captured a large number, and
drove them during the encroachments. It became no-
cessary to leave the 29th in lines as skirmish, or rather
on picket duty, close to the enemy's breastworks
during the whole stormy night. I am only doing
them simple justice in saying the duty could not

["been better performed. They were vigilant and brave, and their loss of twelve or fifteen per cent. showed that they had hard work to do.", "It was with colored troops as with white soldiers: their efficiency depended upon their intelligence and courage, experience, and the fidelity, discipline and courage of their officers. Some regiments were better than others, of course, but that the colored men, whether from their more intelligent classes at the North, or from their more intelligent classes at the South, or the rich plantations of South Carolina, could and did make good soldiers, was soon settled to the satisfaction of all. There on those fields I renewed my pledges of devotion to the cause of equal rights and exact justice. The worst of the great contest is over. Let us hope and believe that very soon, perhaps before the next State election, the great amendment will be adopted, and the Republic that asked the colored man to shed his blood for the flag, will no longer refuse him the right to be the birthright and shield of the ballot. You do right to celebrate the anniversary of the great transformation of American citizens from slavery to freedom. Wishing you success and prosperity, I am very heartily, but sincerely yours,", "JOS. R. HAWLEY.", "After an air from the band, three cheers were given for the 29th C. V. and for Gen. Hawley.", "### THE CONCLUDING ADDRESS.", "Rev. A. G. Beman of New York was then introduced. He said a most wonderful change had been wrought in the country. He remembered well the first copy of the *Liberator* he received. It raised the first hope in his heart that he felt. He spoke of the obstacles met with by the anti-slavery society. When an effort was made in 1832, in New Haven, to obtain educational advantages, Rev. E. S. Joscelyn addressed the meeting in favor of it, but it was voted down by a vote of 700 to 5. What a change has been wrought since then. When the colored people proposed to join the army they were not allowed to meet in New York. They said there we do not want you, but the time came when the pride of the North was humbled and they called for us to come and help them. He spoke of how the slaves had prayed for deliverance, and how it had at length come. He referred to the advancement made by his people, and urged them to go forward in the work of self improvement.", "His remarks concluded the exercises, and at half-past ten the meeting adjourned.", "### THE WOOSTER GUARD BALL.", "While the rooms at the State House were crowded with people flocking to the festival, the Wooster Guard ball was in progress at Smith's Hall. The floor and gallery were crowded, and as the arrangements were in charge of a diligent and efficient committee of the company, everything went along like clock-work, and the guests entered into the spirit of the occasion with undisguised pleasure. The Guard appeared in a blue uniform, and the men in citizens' full evening coonskins, very tastefully elicited admirations dancing, even from the blue eyes of the blue eyes of the blue eyes of the

Remarks of Richard T. Greener,
Esq., at the Inauguration of Post
134 of the Grand Army of the
Republic, at Boston, July 18, 1870.

Mr. Commander and Gentlemen of Post 134,
G. A. R.:

It is a rare pleasure to me to be permitted
to take part in the proceedings of this evening
—to assist by my voice in the formation of this
charitable organization of those honored de-
fenders of the integrity of the Union—the men
who not only saved the country for those of us
who had not the privilege of fighting for it, but
also made it in truth and indeed a free country.
Sir, there is no measure of gratitude which a
generous country ought not to heap up for you.
Henceforth there will be no aristocracy of the
land, the aristocracy of learning not even ex-
cepted, which will rival your claim.

To have served in the army of the Union—
to have been a member or officer of one of
those black regiments, not one of which ever
flinched or turned its back upon the foe—not
one of which ever contained a lukewarm de-
fender of his country's honor, will be glory
enough for any man in the future, and a legacy
better than riches to leave to his children.

It seems but a few weeks ago when the drum
beat was again waking the echoes of Concord
Bridge, Bunker Hill, and State street. How
the banners fluttered in the breeze! How
grandly looked the old flag which we all love
so well! How quickly beat the pulses of our
hearts at the thought of our Fatherland in dan-
ger. How speedily did we forget our wrongs,
the proscription and prejudice which had trod
us under foot, and rally as one man around
the glorious old stars and stripes. You may
remember, I certainly do, that there were some
men then, white and black, who advised us not
to go to the war until we could go as officers;
who opposed the formation of black regiments
until we were treated as the other regiments of
the State. They were right in their intentions,
but wrong in the application. As events
proved, those who advised us to accept the
situation and fight as best we could, showed
themselves the most practical advisers. There
was one large hearted, sggacious, intrepid man,
our beloved Governor, John Albion Andrew,
who risked his political reputation on your
valor, who presented to you with his own hands
this scar-worn honored flag which you brought
back without dishonor.

How your hearts must have beat with a con-
sciousness of duty done; how every loyal heart
throughout the country rejoiced with you when
he wrote, after your gallant assault on Fort
Wagner, "Our honor is bright o'er all the
land!"

To-day as I look back on the record—and a
gallant one it is which you have left, gentlemen
—the race is proud of you—your country de-
lights to honor you, and owns with shame that
she mistook your valor as she had overlooked
your magnanimity.

The bayonet which you wielded with such
terrible effect at James Island, Olustee and
Fort Wagner, the heroic endurance and indom-
itable courage which you displayed at Milliken's
and, Port Hudson, and under the gallant
Butler in the army of the James, gave our
ends ground on which to stand, in battling

for an enfranchisement; gave courage to our
honored representatives in Congress, while de-
manding for us equal rights, and the right of
suffrage. All these things, my friends, were
made possible because you carried the knap-
sack, shouldered your muskets, and were wil-
ling to die that your country might live. Men
had talked, lectured, wrote, debated, preached
long before your time and mine against slavery.
Phillips, Garrison and Douglass had stirred the
people, but it was the bayonets of white and
black soldiers which peirced through and
through the serried ranks of slavery, which ap-
plied the torch to the charnel house of the Re-
public, and consigned it and its horrid crew to
everlasting destruction.

But out from the dust and the smoke, out
from the falling debris, the foulness and impur-
ity of this Southern citadel, has arisen a fairer
more perfect, a firmer structure because built
on the everlasting rock of justice, a building
sacred to that American liberty which the
fathers intended, within whose portals every
race and tongue may meet. It was but a few
days ago, Mr. Commander, that on the classic
common at Cambridge, they dedicated, with
triumphal procession, with music, and ban-
ners and elaborate eulogies a monument to the
patriot dead of that city on that common, which
has heard so often the tread of martial feet, in
the near vicinity of the tree under which Wash-
ington first drew his sword for his country's
independence—in close proximity to the vener-
able, but ever young Harvard College, whose
patriotic voice has always stimulated her sons
to die for right and country, they have erected
this granite pile, and on the bronze slabs, which
grace the entablatures, I read with a conscious
glow of pride, the names of Fatal and Skeens
of Jefferson and Thornton. The old era of pro-
scription and hate had passed away in the
equality of that inscription and these brave
partakers in the peril, these martyrs to the

cause of freedom and nationality, united in the
grave, shared the glory which that native city
shed upon her patriotic sons.

It is eminently proper that you should unite
in these charitable organizations for the pur-
pose of perpetuating the friendship formed
often on the field of battle or in the toilsome
march. It is just that you should make the
wants of the widows and orphans of your fallen
comrad your care, since none of us humbler
citizens of the Republic can administer to them
so well In doing this, you not only make
easier and sweeter the sleep of your fallen
heroes, but you assert a stronger claim to the
title of true Christians—those who “visit the
fatherless and widows in their affliction.” To
care for others more needy than ourselves, to
preserve our hearts warm and kindly to our
fellow men, to live noble, unselfish lives, is the
highest stretch of real manhood. Through
these progressive steps, gentlemen, by means
of this organization, you may build up your
own manly character, while performing what is
to you an agreeable, a bounden duty.

You are assembled to-night upon a sad anni-
versary in some respects, upon a glorious one
in others. Upon this very day seven years
ago (how quickly they have passed!) one of the
noblest of the young patriot heroes yielded up

his life cheerfully, manfully, upon the bloody
ramparts of Fort Wagner. It was the first
opportunity he had had to show to the world
what mettle there was in him, what courage
and fidelity in the black troops whom he led so
gallantly to death. Their officers knew them,
their race trusted them, their friends' were
waiting in anxious suspense the time when they
would close with the foe; but their young, chil-
valric commander alone knew what fire was in
them, and felt confident of them when that
momentous hour arrived.

Some of you are here to-night who remember
that memorable day. You recall his words of
cheer before the march; you remember the
terrific fire which the rebels opened upon when
you were within a hundred yards of the fort;
you remember that critical moment when the
battalion hesitated for an instant; then sprang to
the front that delicately nurtured youth, with
his light hair floating in the wind, confidence
on his lip and enthusiasm in the eye, waving
the sword above his head, he shouted those
words which will ever linger in your ears, words
which were never disobeyed—"Forward! Fifty-
fourth!"

Among the first you saw him scale the para-
pet; for an instant he waved you on, and then
within the intrenchment, mortally wounded,
to be buried, as the insolent foe sent us back
word, with his niggers in a ditch.

In marble and on the painted canvas some of
our own race have pictured that thoughtful
face. Soon in our city will be seen his eques-
trian statue, looking, as you have often seen
him in the well-remembered days of old; but
no homage which you can render him, no hum-
ble praise of mine, would that it could but
equal his merit, can bestow upon him a greater
eulogy, one which would have given him more
real gratification than the fact that he was
"buried with his niggers." The principle of
equality in danger and in peace, which he rep-
resented while leading you forth to battle, was
enforced and made doubly potent when he lay
within the deadly rampart and his colored
color-bearer close beside him. It was of him
that the poet wrote:

"Brave, good and true
I see him stand before me now,
And read again on that young brow,
Where every hope was new,
How sweet were life! Yet, by the mouth firm-
set,
And look made up for Duty's utmost debt
I could, divine he knew
That death within the sulphurous hostile lines
In the mere wreck of nobly pitched designs,
Plucks heart-ease and not rue.

Right in the van,
On the red rampart's slippery swell,
With heart that beat a charge he fell,
Forward as fits a man;
But the high soul burns on to light men's feet
Where death for noble ends makes dying sweet;
His life her crescent's span
Orbs full with share in their u darkened days,
Whoever climbed the battalions steeps of praise
Since valor's praise began.

We bide our chance,
Unhappy, and make terms with Fate
A little more to let us wait;
He leads for aye the advance,
Hope's forlorn hopes that plant the desperate
good,

For nobler earths and days of manlier mood;
Our wall of circumstance
Cleared at a bound, he flashes o'er the fight,
A saintly shape of fame, to cheer the right
And steel each wavering glance."

Shortly after his regiment had left Boston he
wrote:

"The more I think of the passage of
Fifty-fourth through Boston the more wonder-
ful it seems to me. Just remember our ow-
doubts and fears, and other peoples' sneering
and pitying remarks when we began last win-
ter, and then look at the perfect triumph of last
Thursday. We have gone quietly along form-
ing the regiment, and at last left Boston amidst
a greater enthusiasm than has been seen since
the first three months troops left for the war.

Truly, I ought to be thankful for all my hap-
piness and success in life so far; and if the
raising of colored troops prove such a benefit
to the country and to the blacks, as many peo-
ple think it will, I shall thank God a thousand
times that I was led to take my chance in it."

Yes, friends, as we meet to-night, with many
of the results of that death, so early, so noble,
bristling about us, as we stand at length citi-
zens in our native land, we, too, can thank God
a thousand times that Col. Robert Gould Shaw
let "the gallant Fifty-fourth" to battle.

While we remember the dead, brought so
vividly to mind by this anniversary, let us not
forget other officers and men in other regiments,
who in war acquitted themselves like men, and
in peace have maintained, by voice and pen,
and more potent example, the principles for
which they fought. Rich is he indeed whom
peace does not deprive of the laurels gained
in war. Brave is he who faces the cannon in
battle, but he is braver still who faces public
opinion in favor of right, who needs not the
adventitious aids, martial enthusiasm, to stand
firm, liberty and equality. Some, you remem-
ber, in the 54th and 55th Regiments of Infantry,
and in the 5th Cavalry, who needed only to
have died to have received meeds of praise
second only to the brave Col. Shaw. There is
Hallowell and Hartwell, Alden, Thurber, Fox,
Roberts, Russell, and Whitney, and other names
thom you know so much better than I, names
f men who live yet, honored by you and their
country.

Let me, then, gentlemen, one whose privilege
it was to handle only a home guard's musket,
and that in defence of the Buckeye State, con-
gratulate and envy you who were more for-
tunate. There is not a shred of that old flag
which "never touched the ground," not the
strip of a gun, not a corps badge, nor a regimen-
tal badge, nor sword of one you honorably
carried in legitimate warfare, that I would not

The Black Boy Artist.

BY GUL. JACOBUS.

It is some three centuries ago since the enterprise of old Spain circumnavigated the West coast of Africa from Cape Spartel to the coast of Guinea, exploring the Gold coast, in the deep inlets of the Gulf of Benin and Biafra in the Gulf of Guinea, between the latitude 5° N. and the Equator. Upon their return they brought back some of the natives, among whom was a black man and his son. These persons were sold to the world's famed artist Murillo, and was named probably by the artist Sebastian. Murillo was a painter of the Spanish school, and gave lessons to pupils in his art. As history is otherwise silent it is presumed that the slave trade upon the Atlantic side of Africa began with this enterprise, near three hundred years ago.

It is probable that it was harmless in its early motive, and as some have reasoned it was ordained by the providence of God to bring about the conversion of those degenerate wanderers to a knowledge of the true God from whom they were so totally depraved. Be this as it may, slavery in the American Colonies has resulted in the emancipation of "millions of transgressors poor," who is for Jesus' sake forgiven, and have received the inheritance of of native-born citizens, who are marching on in the great progress of civilization, and enjoying the full blaze of the sun of gospel day; and have hailed their majority before mankind—invoking, and confessing the name of the only true God, and his son Jesus Christ! The boy, Sebastian, was employed to wait upon the pupils of Murillo, clean up, and take care of the studio generally. Sebastian plodded along in the daily routine of duties, and perhaps many a freak of the Topsy kind did this peculiar

specimen of humanity perform: but as time rolled on, his freaks of youth were balanced, and adjusted by maturer age; and this poor black boy slave became subdued by the ruling passion in his soul, which contact with the sub-lime specimens of art had brought into life! his intuitive genius was inspired with active power and system from contact with the daily lessons before him. The magic pencil of the great master, as he gave life to the vague can-vass, and vividly portrayed the lineaments of nature in the eye, the lively cimple, and rosy-lip of some cherished beauty; or the rough develop-ments of the Shepherd's features, or the grav-ity of the sage bound him by enchantment, as with a chain, to the objects before him! He reasoned not on the difficulties of his position, or despaired of success.

Time rolled on as the daily lesson, and periodic lecture succeeded given by the master, and the boy Sebastian ground the pigment, and prepared the implements for the easel, and kept the studio in proper order. The master had completed and sent into the world many of the finest records of his immortal fame—master-pieces of his art—and the class of anxious pupils, spurred on by ambition, eager to reach the pinnacle of such glory and fame, toiled and

studied, painted in and painted out the misplaced feature, the well-turned muscle, or the quivering nerve, and visage lines of pleasure, beauty, or of pain, with many a dejected and downcast look as each day closed with disappointments or successes. Sebastian's work began, and whistling his merry tune as he moved round the inanimate sketches, easel-scraps and daubs, a dream of some great project lay contained in his spirit, but which was treason to his very thought, for he was but a slave, that he could one day trace those very lines of life and beauty of his great master's genius whom goodness and nature had taught him to love. In the cool of even tide, when the Spanish sun-beam had descended in the west, and the pupils were gone to their enjoyments, or to pour over their future by the successes or disappointments of their efforts, this African boy cleans up and prepares the studio for the morrow. Brushes, pallets, artists' material, and the duties general, this slave boy had to perform, which is all respectably done; and then his frugal meal, and the locks are turned in the doors. In the solitude of night he found peace in the exercise of his mental faculties, and then, without any motive of profit or fame, he made pleasant his loneliness. Left alone to his reflections, he enlivened the solitude by the echoes of his song. Being inspired with the theory of his master's art, he tried the pencil on the late initiated pupils sketches as they stood before him on the easel. So he quietly nightly labored until "tired nature's sweet restorer," balmy sleep, left him all to dreams. As he matured in practice his mighty aims led him too far, and "tired nature" played the traitor, and his work was left so oft its tale to tell—so good—and resembling the touches of the master's hand, that the pupil's delicacy forbade to satisfy their surprise and doubt by investigation. But these things ripened by time as the summer fruits, that suspend their luscious clusters from the bough.

A student who had reached the goal when teachers art can do no more but recommend him to the world—diploma'd—and encouraged to pursue his course, and reach the height of his ambition, had upon his easel his master-piece to put the stroke of finish to his school-labors. Many long and renewed efforts the pupil tried, and the master taught to give to the dead canvas life. The point of sight and finish was the hand. On an evening after effectual toil the unfinished picture remained for the future efforts of the accomplished pupil, Sebastian viewed the unfinished point, and in the solitary night put the full life of nature into the scene.

In the morning the anxious student found that the point of difficulty was mysteriously overcome and the work finely finished, and that could be by no other hand than the pencil of the great master; who being approached upon the subject, viewed the mysterious picture. When all the students were examined, and no clue was found—the curtain of mystery covered the whole affair, so as to produce some alarm in the artist's studio—it was resolved to place themselves on watch for this mysterious painter, in such a manner as to be able to view the studio without being discovered from within. The hoar arrived when quiet and solitude reigned

over the busy studio of Murillo. As they waited and watched through the crevice, ere long the lone sable slave came, with pallet in hand, adjusted the lamp, and proceeded to address himself to some piece of painting in the silent studio. Judge of the surprise of the anxious watchers when they beheld in that poor black boy-slave to be the rival artiste of their great master.

On the morrow Murillo summoned the school and the studio servant—the arrangement being all ready—made enquiry, beginning at the chief student, and so on downward, when all denied in succession the work on the painting, until the boy, trembling, confessed the fact, and sought forgiveness. But the generous master ap- plied his merits, emancipated him to freedom, and gave him a place in his studio.

"Sebastian," said the master, "what can I do for you? Receive my gratitude." "My honored master, all I desire is the freedom of my father." "It shall be done." So that the black African boy was raised to a social position with the master and the school, on the ground of distinguished merit and his high moral character.

A way back in the history of Spain, with her proud chevaliers, we find notice of Sebastian among the men of genius who did honor to that nation. Sebastian rose high as an artist, as he inscribed his great original ideas on the can-vass in immortal lines, and took his place among the grandees in the school of Murillo. His productions were not excluded by Murillo; neither did jealousy excite contempt of a rival on account of birth, previous condition, or color, but allowed his pictures to go into the market and be sold; and it required the most profound connoisseur to define the difference between the merit of these respective artists; and even to this late period are works of great virtue.

Then, we find that a slave boy from the dep-reciated coast of Guinea, blackened by the rays of an equatorial sun, possessed talents even beyond the rest of the students, although grappling with almost insurmountable difficulties, rise contemporary with one of the greatest men in the world. He possessed a high moral appreciation of liberty and love of parents, to ask the liberty of his father rather than wealth. Qualifications of virtue and merit, and intelli-gence to admiration, were the characteristics which elevated this rude specimen of hu-manity.

What may be expected from the full employ-ment of the resources of that vast torrid land

when the majority of those gems of intellect encased in the ebony casket are made powerful by the contact with civilized life, and taught the rudiments of the philosophy, and science of the age? a land reaching from 37° North to 35° South of the zone of the equator, and extending in longitude some 70', which is all summer; the equator passing its principal length how little comparatively of this hand can be known, heated so uniformly by the meridian sun, its rays being most vertical for near 4,000 miles of its centre. Lost and degenerated as those sun-burnt people are, and de-moralized by idolatry, and degenerated into the most abject condition of human depravity; yet we have proof before us that there is mind, and intellect to be raised, and improved by

moral and practical teaching. There is still further proof that they have the elements of progress in them, as they have the idea of the value of gold, and sell it in dust and trinkets for barter, for they supply themselves with manufactures from the more civilized nations. They compress the oil in great abundance from the exuberant Palm tree; they collect the elephants tusks, and vegetable ivory, and ebony wood, skins, &c., and barter: make boats, implements, and sustain life. There is a world in perspective of great value in this unknown land, and it is to be cheerfully hoped for that it is not far distant, when "Ethiopia will stretch forth her hands unto God"—and this will settle her social and political position.

WASHINGTON, D. C., May 6, 1870.

## Biography.

### SPEECH BY FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

The speech of this distinguished gentleman was just what might be expected. We give quite a lengthy portion of it:

> I will, however, since you say go on, say one word in regard to my faith. There are some men who are in great doubt just now as to the future of the colored race. I think I have already said if they can stand let them; if they fall let them. Only do justice—that is all. And do justice if the heavens fall; but they won't.

There are some men consoling themselves with the thought that you are going to join their party, and some of them have been consoling themselves with the idea that liberty is not congenial to the health of the black race. [Laughter.]

They are consoling themselves with the idea that the negro is going to die out. That is it. That this race, like the Indian, is to retreat before your advancing civilization and die out, and utterly disappear from this country. To that class of men I have to say that the prospect is far from flattering. I never saw so many negroes in my life. [Laughter.]

I believe in the black race—I believe in their vitality; I believe all the more in their vitality because for two hundred and fifty years they have been exposed to all the destructive ingenuity of slavery—marriage abolished, family relations ignored, all rights blasted out, the suffering of the wife, the chaining of two together, and the thumbscrew, yet we have continued to live and increase. They still live in Georgia and in the harbor of Charleston; Robert Small is still alive and has an increasing family.

My idea is that if slavery could not kill the negro—slavery, with its no marriage, with its no family; slavery, with its prostration; slavery, without protection—freedom will not. If they could not kill us; if we could grow and increase and progress in the midst of this condition, we have no reason to fear our extinction at present.

Look where you will under the whole heavens. there never was a race subjected to an exterminating force more effective, more calculated to blot out the race than the race to which we belong. never. No white race that I know of has ever been subjected to anything like so destructive a force as the colored men have been subjected, and yet here he is.

Men have made the basis of their calculations and have set forth that the black race is decreasing. Taking it for granted that because certain localities in the South have fewer colored people now than they had before the war, there are fewer colored persons born; but they have not traveled, as I have done, this winter, from Maine to Minnesota, from Minnesota to Missouri, and through Kentucky; and I say that where a few years ago there were no colored people, there are hundreds and hundreds now. They have diffused themselves through the nation. They are destined to grow, and I think they will moderately exercise an influence upon the institutions of this country, and a good influence.

I hope that the old men here who hear me will

remember that any thing more than moral suasion to a difference of opinion, a difference of political action among colored people, (but, my friends, I am not going to give advice, for we are in the position just now to receive perhaps more than we can dispose of in that line); but let me say that one of the first things that we colored voters have to learn is this, to respect to the fullest extent, to respect in each other the right to a difference of opinion.

I hear some men say that if the black man, in this enlightened age, should vote the Democratic ticket, let him be accursed; let him be denounced. [Cheers.] Gentlemen, I do not share that opinion at all. I am a Republican—a Black Republican [cheers], died in the wool—and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress. [Cheers.] But if any one of my colored fellow-citizens chooses to think that his interests and his rights, and the interests of the country can be better subserved by giving his vote against the Republican party, I, as an American citizen, and as one desirous to learn the first principles of free government, affirm his right—his undoubted right—to vote as he chooses.

What we have to learn is respect for the law everywhere; it is not to lead and control the opinions of our fellow-citizens. I am a lover of freedom. I am a Protestant. [Cheers.] I believe in a free conscience, both religiously and politically. I go in for this first, second, and last, and I want you to do so too.

*I am down upon any one who begins to question a man who is going to vote a ticket different from his own. That talk was commenced in the District of Columbia. Nothing! nothing! nothing! will tarnish our liberty in this country so much as doing that. We are to respect each other's rights.

Well, we are to learn something about religious liberty. The colored people in this country are boasting that in Cincinnati the first vote given by the colored people was in favor of retaining the Bible in our common schools. [Cheers.] They had a right so to vote—an undoubted right so to vote, and on this question I am with them. I glory in their stating their convictions; but, on the other hand, if there be any colored man who, by experience, by reading, by knowledge, honestly believes that it is unjust to the Catholic population of this country to impose upon them the reading of King James's version of the Bible to the exclusion of theirs, and was there ore in favor of removing the whole question of religion from our schools, let that man's conscience command the respect which I accord to you, and which you should accord to others who differ from you.

I confess I am of this description of men, and had I been in Cincinnati, I should have voted against enforcing the reading of the Bible in the schools of my country.

The schools of this country were established to teach men what can be known. They were not established to teach what cannot be known, or what any man believes concerning the unknown; but they were established to teach what can be known, and there it would leave them. If any other man has a faith, let him love it; let him teach it to his family; let him teach it by the wayside; let him teach it by his life; let him teach it from the pulpit; let him teach it through the press; but let him not call upon this Government, made up of all religious peoples and no religious people, to undertake to enforce any book of religious ideas whatever. [Cheers]

Religious liberty! Oh! what a liberty it is. The right to think, write and believe; the right to differ with the majority, more precious and more priceless, a liberty that has cost more tears, more blood, more agony than all other liberties together. I am not for seeing it compromised, I am for seeing it established, and my command to the Church, and all denominations of the Church, whether Catholic or Protestant, is hands off this Government. [Cheers] And my command to the Government is, hands off the Church.

Well, here I have gotten out of the way of the fifteenth amendment and been talking of something else; but I throw out these remarks because there is a tendency on the part of certain parties to preengage or pre-promise your votes in a certain direction all through.

We are free men to-night. I like the Republican party. Of course I do. How can I do otherwise? It is the party of progress. It has all for us that has been done, and all has been done glorious by and well.

I have no fear as to where your votes will go. I know you. I know that there are people on this foolstock to whom an appeal, based upon the idea of gratitude to be addressed with a certainty of reply. May they always be in that position. We never forget a favor, though we always forget a wound. It is good to be here. It is excellent. I would like to talk all night, if I could, but I cannot. I must close.

FARRAR, RICHMOND

## EDUCATION OF FREEDMEN.

THE following appeal has been handed us for publication, and we take pleasure in laying it before our readers.

Many persons have, heretofore, distrusted the African Civilization Society, because of its supposed connection with the American Colonization Society, but as the aims and objects of the Association become known, prejudice and distrust give way, and now many of our most distinguished ladies and gentlemen are joining it. This is as it should be.

The officers of the Society are men of spotless reputation, who always stand ready and willing to give every satisfaction as regards the appropriateness of the funds; and the books of the Society are open for public inspection.

The efforts which the Society is now putting forth to sustain schools in the South, and providing places for those colored young friends who have received a liberal education, is worthy of all praise and a generous support.

Persons who desire it may become members of the Association by observing the following article of the constitution.

"ART. 4. The donation or subscription of not less than one dollar annually, shall constitute any individual of good moral character a member of this Society; and the payment at any one time of twenty-five dollars shall make any person a life-member."

### AN URGENT APPEAL.

The African Civilization Society, having hundreds of pupils in their schools for freed children in the District of Columbia, would hereby most respectfully appeal to the ladies in every section of the country, but especially in our large cities, to aid us in this great and good work of educating these children, and making and providing proper situations for our colored youth. Respectfully, yours,

H. H. GARNET, President,
A. N. FREEMEN,
A. G. BEMAN,
R. H. CAIN,
RT. REV. W. M. H. BISHOP,
W. M. SPELLMAN,
RT. REV. D. A. PAYNE, D.D.
RT. REV. WILLIS NAZREY,
H. M. WILSON.

Orderly Sergt, Co. I, 6th U. S. C. T.

## FINANCIAL REPORT OF THE AFRICAN CIVILIZATION SOCIETY.

THE claims of our schools in the District of Columbia are so pressing as to prevent us from issuing our regular annual report until about July 1st; meanwhile, we take pleasure in giving to the world a simple and authorized account of our financial affairs.

The following is our annual report of finances, from May, 1863, to May, 1864. During the last quarter of the year, our Society have organized and supported several schools for the freed adults and children of the South. We have had from three to five hundred pupils in the schools, and from five to eight teachers. We cast ourselves on the confidence of a human and liberal public.

H. H. GARNET, President.

RICHARD H. CAIN,
AMOS G. BEMAN,
HENRY M. WILSON.
} Secretaries.

## REPORT.

### RECEIPTS.

Received from various sources $1,128 29

### EXPENDITURES.

| | |
|:---|---:|
| Salaries | $220 41 |
| Rent | 163 50 |
| Printing | 107 56 |
| Board and travelling expenses of teachers | 88 75 |
| Books, etc. | 38 66 |
| Travelling expenses of five delegates to Washington, D. C., Nov. 3, 1863 | 105 70 |
| Travelling expenses of Messrs. Cain and Wilson, Commissioners to establish schools | 89 25 |
| School furniture | 150 88 |
| Incidental expenses | 47 28 |
| | 1,011 99 |

Cash on hand, $16 30

### LIABILITIES.

| | |
|:---|---:|
| Due Barnes and Burr, | $134 00 |
| " Teachers, | 40 00 |
| " H. Fisher, | 37 50 |
| " Abraham W. Larkins, | 25 00 |
| | $236 50 |

JOHN PETERSON, Treasurer.

### AN APPEAL IN BEHALF OF OUR WOUNDED FROM PETERSON

GRAND CELEBRATION!

The Colored citizens of Greene County will hold
a Grand Celebration in this village, on

THURSDAY, THE 15th DAY OF AUGUST, 1867.

At which time there will be a procession and Ad-
dress by Rev. AMOS G. BEMAN, and others.

The Committee will prepare a Dinner for all who
may favor them with their patronage, sparing no
pains in their power to accommodate all their friends.
The avails will be appropriated towards building a
School-House on the Lot of land which they have
already paid for.

The Committee cordially invite all the friends of
the elevation and improvement of the colored Peo-
ple to join with them on that day.

The members of the U. L. A. will turn out in full.
All members of other Leagues are earnestly invited
to meet with them on the 15th day of August 1867.

COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENT.

Wm. Jackson, Warren Williams,
Sam'l Greer, Albert Gaston,
John Arter, Edward M. Dickson.

Greenenille, Tenn. July 22, 1867.

WM. JACKSON, Grand Marshall of the Day.