History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880 Volume II Part 5

"It appears from an article in 'The Journal of the Times,' a newspaper of some promise, just established in Bennington, Vt., that a pet.i.tion to Congress for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia is about to be put in circulation in that State.

"The idea is an excellent one, and we hope it will meet with success. That Congress has a right to abolish slavery in that District seems reasonable, though we fear it will meet with some opposition, so very sensitive are the slave-holding community to every movement relating to the abolition of slavery. At the same time, it would furnish to the world a beautiful pledge of their sincerity if they would unite with the non-slave-holding States, and by a unanimous vote proclaim freedom to every soul within sight of the capital of this free government. We could then say, and the world would then admit our pretence, that the voice of the nation is against slavery, and throw back upon Great Britain that disgrace which is of right and justice her exclusive property."

Charmed by the originality, boldness, and humanity of Garrison, the meek little Quaker went to Boston by stage; and then, with staff in hand, walked to Bennington, Vt., to see the young man whose great heart-throbs for the slave he had felt in "The Journal of the Times."

There, in the Green Mountains of Vermont, swept by the free air, and mantled by the pure snow, the meek Quaker communed with the strict Baptist, and they both took sweet counsel together. The bright torch that Garrison had held up to the people in Vermont was to be transferred to the people of Baltimore, who were "sitting in darkness." So, as a result of this conference, Garrison agreed to join Lundy in conducting "The Genius of Universal Emanc.i.p.ation."

Accordingly, in September, 1829, Garrison took the princ.i.p.al charge of the Journal, enlarged it, and issued it as a weekly. Lundy was to travel, lecture, and solicit subscribers in its interest, and contribute to its editorial columns as he could from time to time.

Both men were equally against slavery: Lundy for gradual emanc.i.p.ation and _colonization_; but Garrison for _immediate and unconditional emanc.i.p.ation_. Garrison said of this difference: "But I wasn't much help to him, for he had been all for gradual emanc.i.p.ation, and as soon as I began to look into the matter, I became convinced that immediate abolition was the doctrine to be preached, and I scattered his subscribers like pigeons."

But the good "Friend" contemplated the destructive zeal of his young helper with the complacency so characteristic of his cla.s.s, standing by his doctrine that every one should follow "his own light." But it was not long before Garrison made a bold attack upon one of the vilest features of the slave-trade, which put an end to his paper, and resulted in his arrest, trial for libel, conviction, and imprisonment.

The story runs as follows:

"A certain s.h.i.+p, the 'Francis Todd,' from Newburyport, came to Baltimore and took in a load of slaves for the New Orleans market. All the harrowing cruelties and separations which attend the rending asunder of families and the sale of slaves, were enacted under the eyes of the youthful philanthropist, and in a burning article he denounced the inter-State slave-trade as piracy, and piracy of an aggravated and cruel kind, inasmuch as those born and educated in civilized and Christianized society have more sensibility to feel the evils thus inflicted than imbruted savages. He denounced the owners of the s.h.i.+p and all the parties in no measured terms, and expressed his determination to 'cover with thick infamy all who were engaged in the transaction.'"

Then, to be sure, the sleeping tiger was roused, for there was a vigor and power in the young editor's eloquence that quite dissipated the good-natured contempt which had hitherto hung round the paper. He was indicted for libel, found guilty, of course, condemned, imprisoned in the cell of a man who had been hanged for murder. His mother at this time was not living, but her heroic, undaunted spirit still survived in her son, who took the baptism of persecution and obloquy not merely with patience, but with the joy which strong spirits feel in endurance. He wrote sonnets on the walls of his prison, and by his cheerful and engaging manners made friends of his jailer and family, who did everything to render his situation as comfortable as possible.

Some considerable effort was made for his release, and much interest was excited in various quarters for him.[13]

Finally, the benevolent Arthur Tappan came forward and paid the exorbitant fine imposed upon Garrison, and he went forth a more inveterate foe of slavery. This incident gave the world one of the greatest reformers since Martin Luther. Without money, social influence, or friends, Garrison lifted again the standard of liberty.

He began a lecture tour in which G.o.d taught him the magnitude of his work. Everywhere mouths were sealed and public halls closed against him. At length, on January 1, 1831, he issued the first number of "The Liberator," which he continued to edit for thirty-five years, and discontinued it only when every slave in America was free! His methods of a.s.sailing the modern Goliath of slavery were thus tersely put:

"I determined, at every hazard, to lift up the standard of emanc.i.p.ation in the eyes of the nation, within sight of Bunker Hill, and in the birthplace of liberty. That standard is now unfurled; and long may it float, unhurt by the spoliations of time or the missiles of a desperate foe; yea, till every chain be broken, and every bondman set free! Let Southern oppressors tremble; let their secret abettors tremble; let all the enemies of the persecuted Black tremble. a.s.senting to the self-evident truths maintained in the American Declaration of Independence,--'that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,' I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchis.e.m.e.nt of our slave population.

"I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write with moderation. No! No! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present! I am in earnest. I will not equivocate--I will not excuse--I will not retreat a single inch. AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.

"It is pretended that I am r.e.t.a.r.ding the cause of emanc.i.p.ation by the coa.r.s.eness of my invective and the precipitancy of my measures. The charge is not true. On this question, my influence, humble as it is, is felt at this moment to a considerable extent; and it shall be felt in coming years--not perniciously, but beneficially,--not as a curse, but as a blessing; and POSTERITY WILL BEAR TESTIMONY THAT I WAS RIGHT. I desire to thank G.o.d that He enables me to disregard 'the fear of man which bringeth a snare,' and to speak truth in its simplicity and power; and I here close with this dedication:

"Oppression! I have seen thee, face to face, And met thy cruel eye and cloudy brow; By thy soul-withering glance I fear not now-- For dread to prouder feelings doth give place, Of deep abhorrence! Scorning the disgrace Of slavish knees that at thy footstool bow, I also kneel--but with far other vow Do hail thee and thy herd of hirelings base; I swear, while life-blood warms my throbbing veins, Still to oppose and thwart, with heart and hand, Thy brutalizing sway--till Afric's chains Are burst, and Freedom rules the rescued land, Trampling Oppression and his iron rod; Such is the vow I take--so help me, G.o.d!"

There never was a grander declaration of war against slavery. There never was a more intrepid leader than William Lloyd Garrison. Words more prophetic were never uttered by human voice. His paper did indeed make "Southern oppression tremble," while its high resolves and sublime sentiments found a response in the hearts of many people. It is pleasant to record that this first impression of "The Liberator"

brought a list of twenty-five subscribers from Philadelphia, backed by $50 in cash, sent by James Forten, a Colored man!

One year from the day he issued the first number of his paper, William Lloyd Garrison, at the head of eleven others, organized _The American Anti-Slavery Society_. It has been indicated already that he was in favor of immediate emanc.i.p.ation; but, in addition to that principle, he took the ground that slavery was supported by the Const.i.tution; that it was "a covenant with death and an agreement with h.e.l.l"; that as a Christian it was his duty to obey G.o.d rather than man; that his conscience was paramount to the Const.i.tution, and, therefore, his duty was to work outside of the Const.i.tution for the destruction of slavery. Thus did Garrison establish the first Anti-slavery Society in this country to adopt aggressive measures and demand immediate and unconditional emanc.i.p.ation. It is not claimed that his methods were original. Daniel O'Connell was perhaps the greatest _agitator_ of the present century. In a speech delivered at Cork, he said:--

"I speak of liberty in commendation. Patriotism is a virtue, but it can be selfish. Give me the great and immortal Bolivar, the savior and regenerator of his country. He found her a province, and he has made her a nation. His first act was to give freedom to the slaves upon his own estate. (Hear, hear.) In Colombia, all castes and all colors are free and unshackled. But how I like to contrast him with the far-famed Northern heroes! George Was.h.i.+ngton! That great and enlightened character--the soldier and the statesman--had but one blot upon his character. He had slaves, and he gave them liberty when he wanted them no longer.

(Loud cheers.) Let America, in the fulness of her pride wave on high her banner of freedom and its blazing stars. I point to her, and say: There is one foul blot upon it: you have negro slavery.

They may compare their struggles for freedom to Marathon and Leuctra, and point to the rifleman with his gun, amidst her woods and forests, shouting for liberty and America. In the midst of their laughter and their pride, I point them to the negro children screaming for the mother from whose bosom they have been torn. America, it is a foul stain upon your character! (Cheers.) This conduct kept up by men who had themselves to struggle for freedom, is doubly unjust. Let them hoist the flag of liberty, with the whip and rack on one side, and the star of freedom upon the other. The Americans are a sensitive people; in fifty-four years they have increased their population from three millions to twenty millions; they have many glories that surround them, but their beams are partly shorn, for they have slaves. (Cheers.) Their hearts do not beat so strong for liberty as mine.... I will call for justice, in the name of the living G.o.d, and I shall find an echo in the breast of every human being. (Cheers.)"[14]

But while Garrison's method of agitation was not original, it was new to this country. He spoke as one having authority, and his fiery earnestness warmed the frozen feeling of the Northern people, and startled the entire South. One year from the formation of the society above alluded to (December 4, 5, and 6, 1833), a _National Anti-Slavery Convention_ was held in Philadelphia, with sixty delegates from ten States! In 1836 there were 250 auxiliary anti-slavery societies in thirteen States; and eighteen months later they had increased to 1,006. Money came to these societies from every direction, and the good work had been fairly started.

William Lloyd Garrison created a party, and it will be known in history as the _Garrisonian Party_.

While Mr. Garrison had taken the position that slavery was const.i.tutional, there were those who held the other view, that slavery was unconst.i.tutional, and, therefore, upon const.i.tutional grounds should be abolished.

The Whig party was the nearest to the anti-slavery society of any of the political organizations of the time. It had promised, in convention a.s.sembled, "to promote all const.i.tutional measures for the overthrow of slavery, and to oppose at all times, with uncompromising zeal and firmness, any further addition of slave-holding States to this Union, out of whatever territory formed.[15] But the party never got beyond this. Charles Sumner was a member of the Whig party, but was greatly disturbed about its indifference on the question of slavery. In 1846 he delivered a speech before the Whig convention of Ma.s.sachusetts on "_The Anti-Slavery Duties of the Whig Party_." He declared his positive opposition to slavery; said that he intended to attack the inst.i.tution on const.i.tutional grounds; that slavery was not a "covenant with death or an agreement with h.e.l.l"; that he intended to do his work for the slave inside of the Const.i.tution. He said:--

"There is in the Const.i.tution no compromise on the subject of slavery of a character not to be reached legally and const.i.tutionally, which is the only way in which I propose to reach it. Wherever power and jurisdiction are secured to Congress, they may unquestionably be exercised in conformity with the Const.i.tution. And even in matters beyond existing powers and jurisdiction there is a const.i.tutional mode of action. The Const.i.tution contains an article pointing out how at any time amendments may be made thereto. This is an important article, giving to the Const.i.tution a progressive character, and allowing it to be moulded to suit new exigencies and new conditions of feeling. The wise framers of this instrument did not treat the country as a Chinese foot, never to grow after its infancy, but antic.i.p.ated the changes incident to its growth."

He proposed to the Whigs as their rallying watchword, the "REPEAL OF SLAVERY UNDER THE CONSt.i.tUTION AND LAWS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT."

Discussing the methods, he continued:--

"The time has pa.s.sed when this can be opposed on const.i.tutional grounds. It will not be questioned by any competent authority that Congress may by express legislation abolish slavery, first, in the District of Columbia; second, in the territories, if there should be any; third, that it may abolish the slave-trade on the high seas between the States; fourth, that it may refuse to admit any new State with a const.i.tution sanctioning slavery. Nor can it be doubted that the people of the free States may, in the manner pointed out by the Const.i.tution, proceed to its amendment."

Thus did Charles Sumner lay down a platform for a _Political Abolition Party_, and of such a party he became the laurelled champion and leader.

The year 1846 was marked by the most bitter political discussion; Garrison the _Agitator_, the Mexican war, and other issues had greatly exercised the people. At a meeting held in Tremont Temple, Boston, on the 5th of November, 1846, Mr. Sumner took occasion to give his reasons for bolting the nominee of the Whig party for Congress, Mr.

Winthrop.[16] Mr. Sumner said that he had never heard Mr. Winthrop's voice raised for the slave; and that, judging from the past, he never expected to hear it. "Will he oppose," asked Mr. Sumner, "at all times, without compromise, any further addition of slave-holding States? Here, again, if we judge him by the past, he is wanting. None can forget that in 1845, on the 4th of July, a day ever sacred to memories of freedom, in a speech at Faneuil Hall, he volunteered, in advance of any other Northern Whig, to receive Texas with a welcome into the family of States, although on that very day she was preparing a const.i.tution placing slavery beyond the reach of Legislative change."[17]

Here, then, was another party created--a _Political Abolition Party_--for the suppression of slavery.

In 1848, Mr. Sumner left the Whig party, and gave his magnificent energies and splendid talents to the organization of the _Free-Soil Party_, upon the principles he had failed to educate the Whigs to accept.

Charles Sumner was in the United States Senate, where "his words were clothed with the majesty of Ma.s.sachusetts." The young lawyer who had upbraided Winthrop for his indifference respecting the slave, and opposed the Mexican war, was consistent in the Senate, and in harmony with his early love for humanity. He closed his great speech on FREEDOM NATIONAL, SLAVERY SECTIONAL, in the following incisive language:--

"At the risk of repet.i.tion, but for the sake of clearness, review now this argument, and gather it together. Considering that slavery is of such an offensive character that it can find sanction only in positive law, and that it has no such 'positive'

sanction in the Const.i.tution; that the Const.i.tution, according to its Preamble, was ordained to 'establish justice,' and 'secure the blessings of liberty'; that in the convention which framed it, and also elsewhere at the time, it was declared not to 'sanction'; that according to the Declaration of Independence, and the address of the Continental Congress, the nation was dedicated to 'Liberty' and the 'rights of human nature'; that according to the principles of common law, the Const.i.tution must be interpreted openly, actively, and perpetually for Freedom; that according to the decision of the Supreme Court, it acts upon slaves, _not as property_, but as _persons_; that at the first organization of the national government under Was.h.i.+ngton, slavery had no national favor, existed nowhere on the national territory, beneath the national flag, but was openly condemned by the nation, the Church, the colleges, and literature of the times; and finally, that according to an amendment of the Const.i.tution, the national government can only exercise powers delegated to it, among which there is none to support slavery;--considering these things, sir, it is impossible to avoid the single conclusion that slavery is in no respect a national inst.i.tution, and that the Const.i.tution nowhere upholds property in man."

This speech set men in the North to thinking. Sumner was now the acknowledged leader of the only political party in the country that had a wholesome anti-slavery plank in its platform.

Daniel Webster and the Whig party were in their grave. After the Democratic Convention had met and adjourned without mentioning Webster, a Northern farmer exclaimed when he had read the news, "_The South never pay their slaves_!"

During all these years of agitation and struggle, the pulpit of New England maintained an unbroken silence on the slavery question. Doctor Lyman Beecher was the acknowledged leader of the orthodox pulpit. Dr.

William E. Channing was the champion of Unitarianism and the leader of the heterodox pulpit. Dr. Beecher was fond of controversy, enjoyed a battle of words upon every thing but the slavery question. He proclaimed the doctrine of "_immediate repentance_"; was earnest in his entreaties to men to quit their "cups" at _once_; but on the slavery question was a slow coach. He was for _gradual_ emanc.i.p.ation.

He frowned not a little upon the vigorous editorials in "The Liberator." He regarded Mr. Garrison as a hot-head; "having zeal, but not according to knowledge." Abolitionism received no encouragement from this venerable divine.

Dr. Channing was a gentle, pure-hearted, and humane sort of a man. He dreaded controversy, and shunned the agitation and agitators of anti-slavery.

The lesser lights followed the example of these bright stars in the churches.

But all could not keep silent,--for slavery needed apologists in the North. Stewart, of Andover; Alexander, of Princeton; Fisk, of Wilberham, and many other leading ministers endeavored to prove the _Divine Origin and Biblical Authority of Slavery_.

The silence of the pulpit drove out many anti-slavery men who, up to this time, had been hoping for aid from this quarter. Many went out of the Church temporarily, hoping that the scales would drop from the eyes of the preachers ere long; but others never returned-were driven to infidelity and bitter hatred of the Christian Church. Dr. Albert Barnes said: "That there was no power out of the Church that would sustain slavery an hour if it were not sustained in it."

Among the leaders of the HETERODOX ANTI-SLAVERY PARTY--those who attacked the reticency, silent acquiescence, or act of support the Church gave slavery,--were Parker Pillsbury, James G. Birney, Stephen S. Foster, and Samuel Brooke. The platform of this party was clearly defined by Mr. Pillsbury:--

"That slavery finds its surest and sternest defence in the prevailing religion of the country, is no longer questionable.

Let it be driven from the Church, with the burning seal of its reprobation and execration stamped on its iron brow, and its fate is fixed forever. Only while its horrors are baptized and sanctified in the name of Christianity, can it maintain an existence.

"The Anti-Slavery movement has unmasked the character of the American Church. _Our religion has been found at war with the interests of humanity and the laws of G.o.d._ And it is more than time the world was awakened to its unhallowed influence on the hopes and happiness of man, while it makes itself the palladium of the foulest iniquity ever perpetrated in the sight of heaven."[18]

This was a bold movement, but it was doubtless a sword that was as dangerous to those who essayed to handle it, as to the Church whose destruction it was intended to effect. The doctrine that was to sustain and inspire this party can be briefly stated in a sentence: THE FATHERHOOD OF G.o.d, AND THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN.

Once outside the orthodox church, Theodore Parker gave himself wholly to this idea. He preached the "_Gospel of Humanity_"; and, standing upon a broad platform, preaching a broad doctrine, bound by no ecclesiastical law, his claims to a place in the history of his county, and in the grat.i.tude of his countrymen can be fairly audited when his work for the emanc.i.p.ation of evangelical churches from the thraldom of slavery is considered. He did more in his day to rupture the organic and sympathetic relation existing between the Northern and Southern churches, and, thereby, hasten the struggle between the sections for the extension or extinction of domestic slavery, than any other man in America. The men who found themselves on the outside of the Church gathered about Parker, and applauded his invective and endorsed his arraignment of the churches that had placed their hands upon their mouths, and their mouths in the dust, before the slave power. He touched a chord in the human heart, and it yielded rich music. He educated the pew until an occasional voice broke the long silence respecting the bondman of the land. First, the ministers were not so urgent in their invitations to Southern ministers to occupy their pulpits. This coldness was followed by feeble prayer and moderate speech on behalf of those who were bound. And the churches themselves began to feel that they were "an offence" to the world.

Every note of sympathy that fell from the pulpit was amplified into a grand chorus of pity for the slave. And thus the leaven of human sympathy hid in the orthodox church of New England, leavened the whole body until a thousand pulpits were ablaze with a righteous condemnation of the wrongs of the slaves. Even Dr. Channing came to the conclusion that something should be "So done as not to put in jeopardy the peace of the slave-holding States!"[19]

THE ECONOMIC ANTI-SLAVERY PARTY was headed by the industrious and indomitable Horace Greeley. His claim to the feelings of humanity should never be disputed; but as a practical man who sought to solve the riddle of every-day life he placed his practical views in the foreground. As a political economist he reasoned that slave labor was degrading to free labor; that free labor was better than slave labor, and, therefore, he most earnestly desired its abolition. Wherever you turn in his writings this idea gives the edge to all his arguments concerning slavery. "But slavery," wrote Mr. Greeley, "primarily considered, has still another aspect--that of a natural relation of simplicity to cunning, of ignorance to knowledge, of weakness to power. Thomas Carlyle, before his melancholy decline and fall into devil-wors.h.i.+p, truly observed, that the capital mistake of Rob Roy was his failure to comprehend that it was cheaper to buy the beef he required in the Gra.s.smarket at Glasgow than to obtain it without price, by harrying the lowland farms. So the first man whoever imbibed or conceived the fatal delusion that it was more advantageous to him, or to any human being, to procure whatever his necessities or his appet.i.tes required by address and scheming than by honest work--by the unrequited rather than the fairly and faithfully recompensed toil of his fellow-preachers--was, in essence and in heart, a slave-holder, and only awaited opportunity to become one in deed and practice.... It is none the less true, however, that ancient civilization, in its various national developments, was habitually corrupted, debauched, and ultimately ruined by slavery, which rendered labor dishonorable, and divided society horizontally into a small caste of the wealthy, educated, refined, and independent, and a vast hungry, sensual, thriftless, and worthless populace; rendered impossible the preservation of republican liberty and of legalized equality, even among the nominally free. Diogenes, with his lantern, might have vainly looked, through many a long day, among the followers of Marius, or Catiline, or Caesar, for a specimen of the poor but virtuous and self-respecting Roman citizen of the days of Cincinnatus, or even of Regulus."[20]