Autographs for Freedom Part 13

In the faith of the "good time coming,"

I remain yours,

HORACE GREELEY.

NEW YORK, Nov. 7, 1853.

The Evils of Colonization

I speak the words of soberness and truth when I say, that the most inveterate, the most formidable, the deadliest enemy of the peace, prosperity, and happiness of the colored population of the United States, is that system of African colonization which originated in and is perpetuated by a worldly, Pharoah-like policy beneath the dignity of a magnanimous and Christian people;--a system which receives much of its vitality from _ad captandum_ appeals to popular prejudices, and to the unholy, grovelling pa.s.sions of the canaille;--a system that interposes every possible obstacle in the way of the improvement and elevation of the colored man in the land of his birth;--that instigates the enactment of laws whose design and tendency are obviously to annoy him, to make him feel, while at home, that he is a stranger and a pilgrim--nay more,--to make him "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked;"--to make him "a hissing and a by-word," "a fugitive and a vagabond" throughout the American Union;--a system that is so irreconcilably opposed to the purpose of G.o.d in making "of _one_ blood all nations for to dwell on _all_ the face of the earth," that when the dying slaveholder, under the lashes of a guilty conscience, would give to his slaves unqualified freedom, it wickedly interposes, and persuades him that "to do justly and love mercy" would be to inflict an irreparable injury upon the community, and that to do his duty to G.o.d and his fellow-creatures, under the circ.u.mstances, he should bequeath to his surviving slaves the cruel alternative of _either expatriation to a far-off, pestilential clime, with the prospect of a premature death, or perpetual slavery, with its untold horrors, in his native land_. Against this most iniquitous system of persecution and proscription of an inoffensive people, for no other reason than that we wear the physical exterior given us in infinite wisdom and benevolence, I would record, nay _engrave_ with the pen of a diamond, my most emphatic and solemn protest; more especially would I do so, as the system, under animadversion, is most inconsistently fostered, and shamelessly lauded, by ministers of the gospel in the nineteenth century, as a scheme of Christian philanthropy! "O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their a.s.sembly, mine honor, be not thou united."

[Ill.u.s.tration: (signature) Wm. Watkins]

TORONTO, C. W., Oct. 31st.

[Ill.u.s.tration: William H. Seward. (Engraved by J. C. b.u.t.tre)]

The Basis of the American Const.i.tution

"Happy," (said Was.h.i.+ngton, when announcing the treaty of peace to the army,) "thrice happy shall they be p.r.o.nounced hereafter, who shall have contributed anything, who shall have performed the meanest office in erecting this stupendous fabric of freedom and empire on the broad basis of independency, who shall have a.s.sisted in protecting the Rights of Human Nature, and establis.h.i.+ng an asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations and religions."

You remember well that the Revolutionary Congress in the declaration of independence placed the momentous controversy between the Colonies and Great Britain on the absolute and inherent equality of all men. It is not, however, so well understood that that body closed its existence on the adoption of the Federal Const.i.tution with this solemn injunction, addressed to the people of the United States: "Let it be remembered that it has ever been the pride and boast of America, that the Rights for which she contended were the Rights of Human Nature."

No one will contend that our Fathers, after effecting the Revolution and the independence of their country, by proclaiming this system of beneficent political philosophy, established an entirely different one in the const.i.tution a.s.signed to its government. This philosophy, then, is the basis of the American Const.i.tution.

It is, moreover, a true philosophy, deduced from the nature of man and the character of the Creator. If there were no supreme law, then the world would be a scene of universal anarchy, resulting from the eternal conflict of peculiar inst.i.tutions and antagonistic laws. There being such a universal law, if any human const.i.tution and laws differing from it could have any authority, then that universal law could not be supreme. That supreme law is necessarily based on the equality of nations, of races, and of men. It is a simple, self-evident basis. One nation, race, or individual, may not oppress or injure another, because the safety and welfare of each is essential to the common safety and welfare of all. If all are not equal and free, then who is ent.i.tled to be free, and what evidence of his superiority can he bring from nature or revelation? All men necessarily have a common interest in the promulgation and maintenance of these principles, because it is equally in the nature of men to be content with the enjoyment of their just rights, and to be discontented under the privation of them. Just so far as these principles practically prevail, the stringency of government is safely relaxed, and peace and harmony obtain. But men cannot maintain these principles, or even comprehend them, without a very considerable advance in knowledge and virtue. The law of nations, designed to preserve peace among mankind, was unknown to the ancients. It has been perfected in our own times, by means of the more general dissemination of knowledge and practice of the virtues inculcated by Christianity.

To disseminate knowledge, and to increase virtue therefore among men, is to establish and maintain the principles on which the recovery and preservation of their inherent natural rights depend; and the State that does this most faithfully, advances most effectually the common cause of Human Nature.

For myself, I am sure that this cause is not a dream, but a reality.

Have not all men consciousness of a property in the memory of human transactions available for the same great purposes, the security of their individual rights, and the perfection of their individual happiness? Have not all men a consciousness of the same equal interest in the achievements of invention, in the instructions of philosophy, and in the solaces of music and the arts? And do not these achievements, instructions, and solaces, exert everywhere the same influences, and produce the same emotions in the bosoms of all men?

Since all languages are convertible into each other, by correspondence with the same agents, objects, actions, and emotions, have not all men practically one common language? Since the const.i.tutions and laws of all societies are only so many various definitions of the rights and duties of men as those rights and duties are learned from Nature and Revelation, have not all men practically one code of moral duty? Since the religions of men, in their various climes, are only so many different forms of their devotion towards a Supreme and Almighty Power ent.i.tled to their reverence and receiving it under the various names of Jehovah, Jove, and Lord, have not all men practically one religion? Since all men are seeking liberty and happiness for a season here, and to deserve and so to secure more perfect liberty and happiness somewhere in a future world, and, since they all substantially agree that these temporal and spiritual objects are to be attained only through the knowledge of truth and the practice of virtue, have not mankind practically one common pursuit through one common way of one common and equal hope and destiny?

If there had been no such common Humanity as I have insisted upon, then the American people would not have enjoyed the sympathies of mankind when establis.h.i.+ng inst.i.tutions of civil and religious liberty here, nor would their establishment here have awakened in the nations of Europe and of South America desires and hopes of similar inst.i.tutions there. If there had been no such common Humanity, then we should not ever, since the American Revolution, have seen human society throughout the world divided into two parties, the high and the low--the one perpetually foreboding and earnestly hoping the downfall, and the other as confidently predicting and as sincerely desiring, the durability of Republican Inst.i.tutions. If there had been no such common Humanity, then we should not have seen this tide of emigration from insular and continental Europe flowing into our country through the channels of the St. Lawrence, the Hudson, and the Mississippi,--ebbing, however, always with the occasional rise of the hopes of freedom abroad, and always swelling again into greater volume when those premature hopes subside. If there were no such common Humanity, then the poor of Great Britain would not be perpetually appealing to us against the oppression of landlords on their farms and work-masters in their manufactories and mines; and so, on the other hand, we should not be, as we are now, perpetually framing apologies to mankind for the continuance of African slavery among ourselves. If there were no such common Humanity, then the fame of Wallace would have long ago died away in his native mountains, and the name even of Was.h.i.+ngton would at most have been only a household word in Virginia, and not as it is now, a watchword of Hope and Progress throughout the world.

If there had been no such common Humanity, then when the civilization of Greece and Rome had been consumed by the fires of human pa.s.sion, the nations of modern Europe could never have gathered from among its ashes the philosophy, the arts, and the religion, which were imperishable, and have reconstructed with those materials that better civilization, which, amid the conflicts and fall of political and ecclesiastical systems, has been constantly advancing towards perfection in every succeeding age. If there had been no such common Humanity, then the dark and ma.s.sive Egyptian obelisk would not have everywhere reappeared in the sepulchral architecture of our own times, and the light and graceful orders of Greece and Italy would not as now have been the models of our villas and our dwellings, nor would the simple and lofty arch and the delicate tracery of Gothic design have been as it now is, everywhere consecrated to the service of religion.

If there had been no such common humanity, then would the sense of the obligation of the Decalogue have been confined to the despised nation who received it from Mount Sinai, and the prophecies of Jewish seers and the songs of Jewish bards would have perished forever with their temple, and never afterwards could they have become as they now are, the universal utterance of the spiritual emotions and hopes of mankind. If there had been no such common humanity, then certainly Europe and Africa, and even new America, would not, after the lapse of centuries, have recognized a common Redeemer, from all the sufferings and perils of human life, in a culprit who had been ignominiously executed in the obscure Roman province of Judea; nor would Europe have ever gone up in arms to Palestine, to wrest from the unbelieving Turk the tomb where that culprit had slept for only three days and nights after his descent from the cross,--much less would his traditionary instructions, preserved by fishermen and publicans, have become the chief agency in the renovation of human society, through after-coming ages.

WM. H. SEWARD.

A Wish.

"Could I embody and unbosom now, That which is most within me;--could I wreak My thoughts upon expression, and thus throw Soul, heart, mind, pa.s.sions, feelings strong or weak, All that I would have sought, and all I seek, Bear, know, and feel, and breathe,--into _one_ word, And that one word were lightning"--

I would speak it, not to crush the oppressor, but to melt the chains of slave and master, so that _both_ should go free.

[Ill.u.s.tration: (signature) Caroline M. Kirkland.]

NEW YORK, November 8th, 1853.

A Dialogue.

SCENE.--A BREAKFAST TABLE.

MRS. GOODMAN, _a widow_.

FRANK GOODMAN, _her son_.

MR. FREEMAN, _a Southern gentleman, brother to Mrs. Goodman_.

MR. DRYMAN, _a boarder_.

MR. FREEMAN. (_Sipping his coffee and looking over the morning paper_) reads--

"The performance of Uncle Tom's Cabin attracts to the theatre very unusual audiences. In the "genteel row" last evening, we observed the strictest religionists of the day, not excepting puritanic Presbyterians, and the sober disciples of Wesley and Fox. For ourselves, we must candidly confess we have never witnessed such a _play_ upon all the emotions of which humanity is susceptible. Mrs.

Stowe, however unworthy the name of Patriot, is at least ent.i.tled to the credit of seizing the great thought of the age, and embodying it in such a form as to make it presentable to every order of mind and every cla.s.s of society. She says, in effect, to Legislators, let me furnish your amus.e.m.e.nts, and I care not who makes your laws."

Politicians would do well to look to this--(_laying down the paper and speaking in a tone of impatience_)--so, so, Fanaticism is leading to its legitimate results. Uncle Tom in our parlors, Uncle Tom in our pulpits, and Uncle Tom in our plays.

_Mr. Dryman._ Truly "he eateth with publicans and sinners."

_Mr. F._ (_Not noticing Mr. D's remark._) One would think this last appropriation of the vaunted hero would be sufficient to convince the most radical of the demoralizing influence of these publications.

_Frank._ (_Modestly._) How differently people judge. Why, last evening, when I saw crowds of the hardened and dissipated shedding tears of honest sympathy, when Uncle Tom and Eva sang,

"I see a band of spirits bright, And conquering palms they bear"--

I felt that the moral sentiment was a.s.serting its supremacy even in places of amus.e.m.e.nt.

_Mr. F._ Worse and worse, my nephew and namesake a theatre-goer.

_Mr. D._ (_In an under tone._) Namesake! "that's the unkindest cut of all."