LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I have selected as an appropriate theme upon which to address you on this occasion,
John Mercer Langston
The anti-slavery movement, like other great movements whose aim has been the good of mankind, has not been the result of passion, has not been the invention of distempered genius. It finds its origin in the wants, the necessities of man; and its principles of love and mercy, of beneficence and good-will have their home in the bosom of God.
The paternity of the anti-slavery movement belongs to no particular individual, nation or age. Wherever oppression- has exhibited its hydra-head, whether in the days of antiquity or in modern times, there the spirit that animates and energizes this grand movement, has arrayed itself in hostile and deadly conflict against it. Indeed, it has been the delight of the statesman, the philosopher, the poet, and the philanthropist of all times, to leave embalmed in his writings, as a sacred and priceless treasure to after-coming generations, the record of his deep love of freedom and his intense hatred of slavery. So we read in the writings of the great statesman of Israel words like the following: "He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, be shall surely be put to death." And the Wise Man says: "Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose thou none of his ways." The Prophet Isaiah, too, asks with great pith and cogency: "Is not this the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?" And the words of the sacred writers of a latter date are not less instinct with the same sentiment. In the New Testament the law of love is revealed in all its grandeur and beauty ; for the great Nazarene Teacher declared: "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." With great force and power, also, have the writers of Greece and Rome expressed themselves on this subject. Socrates says: " Slavery is a system of outrage and robbery." Aristotle says : "It is neither for good nor is it just, seeing all men are by nature alike and equal, that one should be lord and master over others." And Plato says: "Slavery is a system of the most complete injustice." The better judgment of Rome is expressed by her noble Cicero, in the following words: "By the grand laws of Nature all men are born free and equal, and this law is universally binding upon all men." Nor are Germany, France, Scotland, Ireland, England, or Russia, without the distinguished honor of bearing manly testimony against oppression. Says Grotius: "Those are men stealers who abduct, keep, sell, or buy slaves or free men. To steal a man is the highest kind of theft." And the poet Goethe says:
"Such busy multitudes I fain would see
Stand upon free soil with a people free."
A German writer of the present day uses the following truthful and glowing language: "Will you support by your vote a system that recognizes property of man in man ? A system which sanctions the sale of the child by its own father, regardless of the purpose of the buyer? What need is there to present to you the unmitigated wrong of slavery?" He continues: "Liberty is no exclusive property; it is the property of mankind of all ages. She is immortal; though crushed, she can never die; though banished, she will return , though fettered, she will still be free."
The Frenchman Buffon pays a deserved compliment to the colored man, and at the same time expresses commend able sympathy and tenderness of heart, when he says : "It is apparent that the unfortunate Negroes are endowed with excellent hearts, and possess the seeds of every human virtue. I cannot write their history without lamenting their miserable condition." "Humanity," he continues, "revolts at those odious oppressions that result from avarice." And Brissot says : "Slavery in all its forms, in all its degrees, is a violation of divine laws and a degradation of human nature." The brave spirit of Scotland is beautifully mirrored in the truthful words of Miller: "The human mind revolts at the serious discussion of the subject of slavery. Every individual, whatever be his country or complexion is entitled to freedom." More than half a century ago the immortal Curran gave expression to these eloquent words:
"I speak in the spirit of British law, which makes liberty commensurate with and inseparable from British soil; which proclaims even to the stranger and the sojourner, the moment lie sets his foot upon British earth, that the ground on which he treads is holy, and consecrated by the genius of universal- emancipation. No matter in what language his doom may have been pronounced; no matter what complexion; incompatible with freedom, an Indian or an African sun may have burnt upon him ; no matter ill what disastrous battle his liberty may have been cloven down; no matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar of slavery, the moment be touches the sacred soil of Britain the altar and the god sink together in the dust ; his soul walks abroad in her own majesty, and he stands redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled by the irresistible genius of universal emancipation." Blackstone says : " If neither captivity nor contract can, by the plain law of nature and reason, reduce the parent to a state of slavery much less can they reduce the offspring." And the noble Mansfield says, in his decision in the celebrated Summerset case
"The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political, but only by positive law, which preserves its force long after the reasons, occasion and time itself, whence it was created, is erased from the memory. It is so odious that nothing can be sufficient to support it but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from the decision I can not say this case is allowed or approved by the law of England, and therefore the black must be discharged."
It only remains for me to do Russia the justice to say, in this connection, that the enterprise recently inaugurated by the present Emperor for the emancipation of the serfs , gives a new lustre, a glowing halo, to her growing reputation. Nor am I unmindful of the great American declaration in favor of freedom and protestation against slavery, which is encouched in these sacred words : " We hold these truths to be self-evident : 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." Thus the great men of every nation have paid their devoirs to the Goddess of Liberty. But this love and veneration of freedom has not been confined to those who possessed mental superiority and distinguished position. The more lowly and obscure have venerated and loved that divine principle of liberty which underlies the anti-slavery movement, snd whose natal day dates back to the memorable hour when God breathed into man the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And like this vital element implanted in man by Deity, and of which it is an inseparable part, liberty is itself immortal. Political assemblies can not legislate its destruction, nor can ecclesiastical decrees tarnish the glory of its existence.
The anti-slavery movement has always had its representative men ; men who have been its advocates, its champions and its heroes. Indeed, there is no department of history which the anti-slavery reformer of the present day can read with more interest and profit than that which records the noble deeds of the brave men whose crowning honor is, that they have labored and suffered in behalf of this cause. The first representative man and hero of the anti-slavery movement of whom history makes record is the Jewish law-giver, who was appointed to appear before Pharaoh, and to demand the release of the children of Israel, and to lead them out of the land of bondage into the land of freedom. And now as we behold him "upon the misty mountain-top of antiquity" we can but admire and applaud his grand achievements. His God-appointed mission, his heroic devotion and indefatigable zeal, his untiring energy and his glorious success, render it altogether fit and proper that he should stand first among the representatives of the anti-slavery movement who con- ducted to triumph that movement, whose record is at once God's solemn protest against oppression and His ineffaceable and eternal proclamation in favor of the largest, the fullest freedom.
Slavery existed in Greece from her earliest history. It existed in all her various States, under different codes of laws, with more or less severity and rigor. In Chios the yoke was found too galling to be borne, and multitudes, betaking themselves to flight, found secure and permanent retreats in the mountain fastnesses of the interior of the island; and from these mountain retreats such fugitive slaves, headed by the noble Drimacos, met the expeditions of the Chians and vanquished them with great slaughter. The Chians, baffled and defeated, were glad to accept the terms, humiliating and mortifying though they were, proposed by the commander of the insurgents, and thus secure a truce. But the ardor and enthusiasm, the resolution and courage of the insurgents were inspired in a goodly degree by the valor and conduct of their brave and daring leader. Drimacos is, indeed, worthy of the highest eulogium. His moderation and wisdom, his generosity and magnanimity, his undying love of liberty and just appreciation of human rights illustrate- and distinguish his character. The very last act of his life attests the true nobility of his soul. The Chians feared his power and influence even in his old age; and, prompted by the mean spirit of oppression, they offered a great reward to any one who would capture him or bring his head. The old hero, fearing the base work of treachery, determined to make his death, as he had already made his life, a holy sacrifice to liberty. And he did. Calling to him a young man whom he greatly loved he said to him:
"I have ever regarded you with a stronger affection than any other man, and to me you have been a brother. But now the days of my life are at an end, nor would I prolong them. With you, however, it is not so; youth and the bloom of youth are yours. What then is to be done? You must prove yourself to possess valor and greatness of soul; and since the State offers riches and freedom to whomsoever shall slay me and bear them my head, let the reward be yours; strike it off, and be happy." His heart-touching appeals overcame the young man; and the death of the immortal Drimacos became the price of his freedom. It is this fugitive- slave, the "propitious hero," as the Chians afterwards denominated him, that I would name as another representative character and hero of the anti-slavery movement.
Roman history, also, records the life and character and conduct of a fugitive slave, who, with propriety, may be named as another hero of the anti-slavery movement. I refer to Eunus, the gallant leader of the Sicilian slaves who were twice driven to rebellion by the severity, the cruelty of their oppressors. But the noblest, the most magnificent anti-slavery struggle recorded in Roman history is that of the Gladiators, who rose in rebellion against their oppress ors under the leadership of Spartacus. It is true that their plot was discovered; but a small body broke out, which was greatly increased by the rapid accession of vast numbers of other slaves, when under the courageous and skillful generalship of Spartacus, they subdued a Roman consular army, and were not themselves subdued till after a struggle of two years and until sixty thousand of them had fallen in battle, and Spartacus himself fell fighting upon his knees upon a heap of his enemies Possessing the strength, the size and the physical endurance that fitted him to play the part of a gladiator he possessed, also, the courage, the skill, the energy, the resolution and the sagacity, which rendered him a brave and formidable leader. But these were not the only qualities which adorned and embellished his character. He possessed a heart full of humanity, instinct with the love of liberty It was this sentiment of freedom that fired and nerved his soul, that prompted every act and governed his whole life. The language of the play, then, is but the natural, the inevitable outburst of his manly spirit. In addressing his fellow gladiators he is made to say: "If ye are beasts, then stand here like fat oxen waiting for the butcher's knife. If you are men, follow me. Strike down your guard gain the mountain passes, and then do bloody work, as did your sires at old Thermopylae! Is Sparta dead? Is the old Grecian spirit frozen in your veins that you do crouch and cower like a belabored hound beneath his master's lash? 0, comrades! Warriors! Thracians! If we must fight, let us fight for ourselves! If we must slaughter, let us slaughter our oppressors! If we must die, let it be under the clear sky, by the bright waters, in noble, honorable battle!" Among the heroes of the anti-slavery movement, whose lives and characters are portrayed in the historical annals of antiquity, a prominent and conspicuous place be longs to this fugitive gladiator.
But lest I weary your patience in dwelling too long upon the anti-slavery struggles of distant antiquity, and upon the character and lives, the daring and achievements of their master spirits, I will come at once to the history of certain anti-slavery struggles of a more recent date, whose consideration is equally fraught with interest and profit. This brings us to the fifteenth century, the last half of which is certainly distinguished for three things; first, the introduction of the African slave trade, by Antonio Gonzales, a Portuguese sea-captain; secondly, the discovery of America in 1492; and thirdly, the appropriation of the then discovered West India Islands by the Spaniards, with the reduction of the natives to slavery. These natives are said to have been a listless, improvident people, of small endurance, and ill suited to the hard labor and cruel usage of slaves. Their sad and lamentable condition aroused the sympathy of the Dominican priest, Las Casas. Through the energetic and persevering endeavors of this advocate of the Indians, a favorable impression was made in their behalf. But "the relaxation" in favor of the Indian slave was only secured at the expense of the African. As early as 1503 a few African slaves had been brought across the Atlantic. Indeed, according to Bancroft, there were such numbers of Africans in Hispaniola at this time that Ovando, the governor of the island, entreated that the importation might no longer be permitted. The first anti-slavery movement upon this continent, however, in favor of the African slave was an insurrection in New Segovia. Two hundred and fifty of the slaves, who belonged in the governments of Venezuela and Santa Marta, prompted not by their natural fierceness and arrogance, as the Spanish historian would have us believe, but by their love of liberty and their determination to be free, gathered themselves together and made a desperate struggle for their freedom. It is true that they were over- powered and put to the sword. But their attempt, their manly struggle, though they were defeated, challenges our admiration.
The first importation of slaves from Africa by the English was made during the reign of Queen Elizabeth in 1562. The noble Queen herself is said to have doubted the propriety and lawfulness of the procedure. Indeed, she seems to have entertained religious scruples concerning it, and to have revolted at its very thought. She imposed upon Captain Hawks, the first Englishman who transported African slaves to America, the most rigid injunctions. Fearing that the Africans would he carried away from their native land without their consent, she declared to him that "It would be detestable, and call down the very curse of Heaven upon the undertakers." Though thus early introduced there was not well-organized or well-adjusted effort made for its overthrow till 1787. This movement, however, had its fearless harbingers, prominent among whom were Morgan Godwin, Richard Baxter, Edmund Burke, and the pure-minded and indomitable Granville Sharp, whose peculiar mission it was to establish the principle that, according to English law, as soon as a slave sets his foot on English territory his shackles fall and he becomes free; thus giving a complete refutation to the opinion of York and Talbot, that a slave by coming from the West Indies into Great Britain or Ireland, either with or without his master, does not become free, and that the master may legally compel him to return to his plantation .
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, and George Fox, the founder of the society of Quakers, deserve special men in this connection. The names of others press upon me, but I must not tarry to mention them. In 1785 the immortal Thomas Clarkson made his appearance, and took his position as the advocate of the outraged slaves; as the leader of the movement in favor of the abolition of the slave trade. His labors were many and arduous. But with a zeal and devotion worthy of the noble cause which he had espoused, he was ready to make any sacrifice and meet the heaviest task. The movement, however, needed a representative and hero in Parliament. This want was supplied in the mild and amiable, the firm and courageous, the able and laborious Wilberforce. It was at this time in the history of the cause that its friends and advocates formed themselves into an association. Through the instrumentality of Clark- son and the members of this association outside of Parliament, and Wilberforce, Pitt, Fox and Burke, with others, in Parliament, after a twenty-years struggle, in 1807, the slave trade was abolished. But the anti-slavery spirit of England did not become extinct with the abolition of the slave trade. Its triumph there only nerved it for the work or abolishing slavery itself, which reached its consummation in the emancipation of 800,000 West India bondmen. It is the glorious triumph of this movement that we have met today to commemorate. And it is altogether fit and proper that we should thus commemorate it ; for it is one of the grandest achievements of the world's anti-slavery movement It was not the result of a bloody and cruel war. Its honor and glory belong not to the prowess, the cunning and the skill of some military chieftain, It was a great moral triumph, whose power and glory belong to those " mild arms of truth and love made mighty through the living God."
Upon the consequences of this movement many interesting and important things might be said did time permit. I will only say, however, that emancipation in the West Indies has brought to the inhabitants the most beneficial results. To this assertion all persons well acquainted with the condition of the planters and laboring classes of the islands will bear the most satisfactory testimony. The emancipated classes are now enjoying the advantages of freedom; are devoting themselves to honest and profitable industry, and to the cultivation of morality and religion. Now they enjoy the elective franchise and are eligible to exalted positions of honor and trust in the State. They are not only eligible to such high offices, but many of their number are today filling them with great credit to them selves and honor and profit to the State. In both Houses of the Legislature of Jamaica, and in the Privy Council of the Governor, are colored men who are distinguished for their probity, sagacity, and wisdom. Indeed, the most eminent politician of Jamaica, Hon. Edward Jordon, is a colored man, and is said to be the principal member of Governor Darling's Cabinet. lie is also Mayor of Kings ton. But he is not the only colored man of the island whose position entitles him to special mention in this connection. The position and services of Vickars, Price, and Walters, not to mention others, render them conspicuous and noteworthy.
But upon this subject, fruitful of thought and advantageous reflection, I cannot dwell. In leaving it I would refer the incredulous and uninformed to the able letter of S. B. Slack, of Jamaica, upon the actual results of emancipation in that island, recently published in the New York Tribune.
Passing over other struggles and triumphs of the anti- slavery movement, their heroes and representative men, I come at once to the bloody contest of Haiti. Unlike the peaceful triumph of the emancipation of the British West Indies, the struggle of Haiti was full of blood, carnage, and death. Unlike the emancipation movement of the West Indies, also, this movement was inaugurated and carried to triumph by colored men themselves. They caught the spirit of the French Revolution, and vowed eternal hostility to slavery. Their souls were aroused by the announcement in the celebrated Declaration of Rights, "that all men are free and equal." It was the struggle of a people who, driven to desperation by inhuman and intolerable oppression, made one last, mighty effort to throw off their yoke and gain their manhood, and assert and maintain their rights. Fired with this sentiment, they made that resolution which always brings a glad and glorious success to a people armed in a Just and holy cause. The moving spirit of the first insurrection was James Oge. While residing in Paris lie made the acquaintance and enjoyed the familiar friendship of Brissot, Robespierre, Lafayette, and other revolutionists connected with the society Amis des Noirs. From these men he learned his lessons of freedom. Resolving to become the deliverer of his race lie returned to his native land on the 12th day of October, 1790, and announced himself, in the language of the historian, as the redresser of his people's wrongs. He commenced his work with a force two hundred strong. But circumstances were not yet ripe for the undertaking. Oge was defeated and compelled, with several of his companions, to take refuge in the Spanish portion of the island. lie was demanded, however, from the Spaniards, and in March, 1791, was broken alive upon the wheel. A sad fate, indeed, for a man of such generous impulses and noble purpose, a hero of such self-sacrifice and benevolent enterprise, a patriot so deeply devoted to his country and the welfare of the people.
A similar though more barbarous fate was the portion of his associates, Vincent Oge and Jean Baptiste Chevanne. History nowhere records anything more cruel and inhuman than the condemnation passed by the court upon these men. The stoutest, the hardest heart must shudder at its words. They were to he conducted, according to Lacroix, "by the public executioner to the church of Cape Francois, and there bareheaded, en chemise, with a rope about their necks, Upon their knees, and holding in their hands a wax candle of two pounds weight, to declare they had wickedly, rashly, and by evil instigation, committed the crimes of which they bad been accused and convicted, and there and then that they repent of them, and ask the forgiveness of God, of the king, and the violated justice of the realm; that they should then be conducted to La Place d'Armes of the said town, and in the place opposite to that appropriated to the execution of white men, to have their arms, legs, hips, and thighs broken alive; that they should be placed upon a wheel with their faces toward heaven, and there remain so long as God should preserve their lives. After their death their heads were to be severed from their bodies and placed upon poles; that of Oge on the road to Dondon, that of Chevanne on the road to Grande Riviere, and the property of both was to be confiscated to the king:'
It is said that Oge lost his firmness in this terrible moment, but that Chevanne died, as he had lived, the same stern, unyielding foe of his oppressors, But the martyrdom of these heroes of the first insurrection did not quench the growing determination of the people to be free. Indeed, it was the rallying-cry of the after-struggle. At this time all things in France and in the island conspired to hasten the insurrection which had been espoused by Vincent Oge before his execution. The story of the barbarous death of Oge created in France a terrible storm of popular indignation against the planters. The feeling now in favor of the colored people became intense and vehement. And the National Assembly, borne along upon the tide of popular enthusiasm, passed a decree giving citizenship to all colored persons in the colonies born of free parents, and, also, makinging them eligible to seats in the colonial judicatures. But when the news of the passage of this decree reached the island it filled the planters with ungovernable anger. All were for throwing off allegiance to the mother country and hoisting the English flag. Their fierce anger was at length allayed. It was not long, however, before the cry, "The blacks have risen! " sent a thrill to the hearts of the planters more terrible than the awful tread of an earthquake.
It was on the night of the twenty-second day of August, 1791, that the second Haitian insurrection broke forth. Its beginnings were of comparatively small account, but its progress was rapid and widespread, so that in a short time it reached "from the sea to the mountains." Destruction and devastation marked its course. Neither life nor property was spared; both were destroyed. The insurgents were determined not only to destroy their masters, but everything which reminded them of their former servile condition . They offered all things as a bloody and burning sacrifice to freedom. They made the flames that wrapt the vast fields of cane in their fiery arms, that devoured the dwellings and mills of flourishing plantations and the lowly cabins, once their own homes, to illuminate the pathway of liberty in its glorious coining to the bondmen of Haiti. To Buck- man, Jean Francois, Jeannot and Biassou belongs the honor of conducting this movement through its first stages. They led their forces against vindictive and cruel foes; foes that would not only subjugate), but enslave them; under whom they had already felt the sharp sting of the lash, and suffered the untold agonies of slavery. It is not strange, then, that in this contest cruelty met cruelty, barbarity barbarity, and many things were done which all are forced to lament and deplore.
In the mean time many white colonists, despairing of peace and prosperity, had left the island; some coming to the United States, and others going to Great Britain and to the neighboring Island of Jamaica. Through the influence of the royalist who had gone from France to Great Britain and the colonists who had gone from Haiti, proposals were made to the British government to take possession of the island and make it a British colony. These proposals were favorably received, and accordingly a British force appeared in the island on the 20th of September, 1793. Then it was that there was to be seen upon the field of conflict four belligerent parties, the English, the French, the Spanish, and the blacks. At this time, too, great confusion and disorganization- prevailed.
Then it was that the master spirit of the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint l'Ouverture, made his appearance. And his coming was like the radiance of morning, all bright and beautiful. The eyes of the whole world were upon him. God had brought him forth, "with Atlantean shoulders," strong and powerful, to bear the responsibilities of a momentous emergency. This great man, than whom a greater never lived, was born in 1743, on Count de Noes plantation, a short distance from Cape Francois. The son of parents purely African, he was, nevertheless, even in his boyhood, distinguished for his gentleness and stability of temper, his deep reflection, and his love and veneration for religion. These peculiarities marked his entire life. Indeed, it was these qualities of character, connected with his great genius, his remarkable patience, Christian moderation and robust constitution, that gave him such power of endurance , which made him the man for the hour; which placed him at the head of the forces fighting for freedom.
In every relation of life this man was a model man. As husband and father, he was altogether without fault, always exhibiting towards his wife the tenderest love, and towards his children the most affectionate and fatherly solicitude; while as a friend his conduct was distinguished by the most unwonted generosity and magnanimity. This is beautifully and touchingly illustrated in his behavior towards his master and family while danger threatened them, and he imperiled his own life to secure their succor. As lieutenant governor his rigid though just discipline, his well-adjusted and judicious plans, his magical influence and power over the people, soon brought to the island peace and prosperity. But the character of this extraordinary man shines most brilliantly and beautifully in his conduct as a great military leader and hero. It was in this capacity that his wonderful originality and independence, his ingenuity and skill, his genius and power found ample scope for their display. Toussaint l'Ouverture was the most extraordinary man of his age, though he lived in an age remarkable for its extra ordinary men. A slave for nearly fifty years, he stepped from slavery into freedom, and at once showed himself an intellectual and moral prodigy. Superior to Napoleon and Washington as a great military leader, he was, like Washington, inclined to the arts of peace. It is not strange that Napoleon, while he studied Toussaint as his model and patron, feared him as a rival, and did not hesitate to make use of the basest treachery to secure his overthrow and destruction he knew full well his just title to the appellation "The Opener," and read in his great native ability and attainments the brilliant career that awaited him.
The words of Toussaint after his overthrow were full of inspiration and truth: "In overthrowing me you have over thrown only the trunk of the tree of Negro liberty in Santo Domingo. It will arise again from the roots, because they are many, and have stuck deep." Indeed, slavery was never re-established in that island. Christope, Dessalines and Cleveaux rose in arms, and forty thousand Frenchmen were made an atoning sacrifice for the temerity of Bonaparte.
I will not harrow up your feelings by dwelling upon the sad fate of the great Haitian hero, upon his cruel separation from his family, nor his death in a "cold, damp and gloomy dungeon," in the castle of Joux, among the Jura mountains. Nor will I, I need not, dwell upon the success and the happy consequence of the Haitian revolution. To all people struggling for freedom, it is a glorious bow of promise, spanning the moral heavens.
Thus, whenever, wherever liberty has made a stand against oppress ion, whether with the arms of "truth and love," or 'with the sword and bayonet, she has always won the most brilliant, splendid triumphs. And in these triumphs of the past we read the sure prophecy of" the good time coming" to the American anti-slavery movement.
This movement also had its forerunners. Upon their history and doings I will not tarry to say a single word. When the time came, however, for the movement to make a new development, to take on another type, to make a higher aim, to assume a definite and positive character, and to receive a new impulse, God, as in the past, raised up a man who has shown himself equal to the arduous undertaking, That man was the immortal William Lloyd Garrison. A man of obscure parentage, without the prestige of a great name or the magical influence of wealth, but possessing great moral courage, stability of character, and Christian fortitude, he came forth as the advocate of liberty, declaring: "I am in earnest; I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will not retreat a single inch; and I will be heard!" He and his associates announced in substance, in their celebrated anti-slavery declaration of 1833, that all men are created free and equal; that slavery is a stupendous wrong; that it is an outrage upon humanity and a sin against God; that no man can by right gain property in the body and soul of his fellow, and that slavery ought to he immediately and unconditionally abolished.
The achievements of the American anti -slavery movement since that time have been such as to impart hope and courage to every heart. Of course, I do not refer to the achievements of any separate and distinct organization. I refer to the achievements of that complicated and stupendous organization composed of persons from all parts of this country, whose aim is the abolition of slavery and the enfranchisement of the colored American. W hat, then, are some of its accomplishments? In the first place, it has brought the subject of slavery itself distinctly and prominently before the pub]lic mind. Indeed, in every nook and corner of American society this matter now presents? itself, demanding, and in many instances receiving, respectful consideration. There is no gathering of the people, whether political or religious, which is not now forced to give a place in its deliberations to this subject. Like the air we breathe, it is all-pervasive. Through this widespread consideration the effects of slavery upon the slave, the slaveholder, and society generally, have been very thoroughly demonstrated ; and as the people have under stood these effects they have loathed and hated their foul cause. Thus the public conscience has been aroused, and a broad and deep and growing interest has been created in behalf of the slave.
In the next place, it has vindicated, beyond decent cavil even, the claim of the slave to manhood and its dignities. No one of sense and decency now thinks that the African slave of this country is not a man. No sensible slaveholder now dares to deny his humanity. Instead of this, the leading slaveholders now claim that all laboring classes, whether white or black, ought to be slaves, no longer predicating their claim to the Negro slave on the ground that he is wanting in humanity. Possessing intellect], sensibility and will, judgment, understanding and imagination, sense, consciousness and fancy, reason and conscience, the American bondman is a man capable of the most refined culture and the noblest endeavor. And the anti-slavery movement has fully attested the truthfulness of this declaration.
The anti-slavery movement has also shown the real condition of the poor non-slaveholding whites of the South; that they have no rights which are to be respected and cared for when the interests of slavery are to be looked after ; that their right to think freely and to give free utterance to their opinions is altogether denied them ; that they have no free voice, no untrammeled utterance, in political or religious matters ; but their opinions are manufactured for them, and they must receive them at the hands of their self-styled superiors ; that they are denied all educational advantages, and their children are left to grow Up in ignorance, and spend their lives in indolence and dissipation. Nor have they the means, the opportunity, of acquiring wealth. They cannot with facility gain a moderate competency. Looked at from any standpoint, their condition is truly an unfortunate one. In it we see the blighting effects of slavery upon free labor. Indeed, free labor and slavery cannot live together. This must be so ; for let the masses be educated, let them enjoy freedom of thought and freedom of speech, and slavery could not stand. This huge image of error and wrong would soon soon tremble and fall to the ground. May God hasten the day when light shall burst upon the minds of these poor whites who now sit in the shadow of death, and they, knowing their rights, shall assert and maintain them like men ; and through their enfranchisement light and liberty may come to the poor bondman! Indeed, the poor white man of the South and the slave ought to be linked in friendship stronger than iron chains ; for a common enemy preys upon their freedom.
In like manner the anti-slavery movement has fastened the attention of the world upon the impudent and daring encroachments of slavery upon the rights and liberties of the people of the North. In doing this the deep baseness of the Florida war, the annexation of Texas, the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise- mise, the attempt to force slavery upon the people of Kansas , and the Dred-Scott decision, have been most fully and completely developed, while the nefarious outrage perpetrated in the practical abrogation of that clause of the Constitution which guarantees to the citizens of each State all the rights and immunities of the citizens of the several States, as well as the outrage perpetrated by the greedy assumption of well-nigh all the patronage of the National Government, has been thoroughly exposed. This has led the people of the North to array themselves against this common pest of the country. And now we have a North as well as a South.
The anti slavery movement has also offered a most triumphant vindication of the anti-slavery character of the Declaration of Independence, whose broad and comprehensive definition of freedom includes every human being, whether white or black, whether born in heathen lands or in the midst of civilization and Christianity. Indeed, the Declaration is no glittering generality, no beautiful abstraction. Its doctrines of freedom are solemn verities. It has also vindicated, by an argument incapable of refutation, the anti slavery character of the Constitution of the United States, and has met and refuted the foul aspersion of the Bible, that it sanctions and sanctifies slavery. And now, in the name of the Bible, the Constitution, and the Declaration, we demand the immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery.
Another important and splendid achievement of this movement is the establishment of its own literature- a literature peculiar and distinct, and yet distinguished for its excellences and beauties. This could not be otherwise, for many of the most eminent scholars, poets and philosophers of the country are its contributors. Our anti-slavery books, full of valuable and interesting thoughts, rendered acceptable by an appropriate and graceful style, are not only read by all classes, in every section of this country, but are read and admired by the common people, and the critics of other lands. These books are our constant companions. In society and solitude, the living thoughts they contain burn and glow in our hearts. The influence of our anti-slavery literature is silent, yet potential, well-nigh omnipotent. It is true that one good book is more powerful than a thou sand soldiers clad in arms. The attack of an army is for the most part sudden; it may be desperate, but the influence of a book is deep, widespread and permanent. It is imperishable and ever active. What a wonderful, matchless influence, then, our anti-slavery publications are exerting upon the public mind ; through their stubborn facts, convincing the judgment, and through their earnest and pathetic appeals in behalf of freedom, charming and captivating the heart.
This movement also has its living orators. These orators possess the noblest of all themes-a theme whose simple announcement touches the human heart, and wakes a response deep and lasting. It is a theme, too, which affords the most ample field for the display of the stoutest faculties of thought and reason, of imagination and fancy. Upon the "resistless eloquence wielded", by these orators, their incomparable rhetoric, and its admirable effect, I need not pronounce a panegyrie. The beauty and power of their productions must be admitted by all. Indeed, to them more than any other class-to Phillips and Sumner, to Parker and Beecher, to Smith and Cheever, to Douglas and Seward, to Remond and Burleigh- belong the honor of building up an aristocracy of American eloquence, whose authority and sway are extensive and influential. In its authors and orators, this movement has made one of its most imposing achievements. More than this, the anti-slavery movement has brought to the colored people of the North the opportunities of developing themselves intellectually and morally. It has unbarred and thrown open to them the doors of colleges, academies, law schools, theological seminaries and commercial institutions, to say nothing of the incomparable district school. Of these opportunities they have very generally availed themselves; and now, wherever you go, whether to the East or the West, you will find the colored people comparatively intelligent, industrious, energetic and thrifty, as well as earnest and determined in their opposition to slavery. Indeed, they have already been able to furnish a large number of earnest, laborious and efficient workers to this cause; workers of whose endeavors and success we need not be ashamed. With the opportunities offered for their intellectual and moral development- they have also had the means of acquiring wealth, which they have not failed to improve. And now their peculiar ability is not of insignificant account. In the State of Ohio alone thirty thousand colored persons are the owners of six millions of dollars' worth of property, every cent of which stands pledged to the support of the cause of the slave. Animated by the same spirit of liberty that nerved their fathers, who fought in the Revolutionary war and war of 1812, to free this land from British tyranny, they are the inveterate and uncompromising enemies of oppression, and are willing to sacrifice all that they have, both life and property, to secure its overthrow. But they have more than moral and pecuniary strength. In some of the States of this Union all of their colored inhabitants, and in others a very large class of them, enjoy the privileges and benefits of citizens. This is a source of very great power. For next to the magical dollar, the vote is that instrumentality by which the soul of an American is led captive at one's will. This influence, too, is consecrated and pledged to the slave. No Democratic politician; no hollow-hearted politician of any party whatever; no man who is not a devoted, laborious, anti-slavery man can ever secure our vote. Money cannot buy it. Flattering promises of self-aggrandizement cannot induce its desecration; for it is a sacred and shall be used as Ithuriel's spear, to stab the demon of slavery. To have brought the means of education and development to such a people, a people possessing such a spirit, is certainly one of the most desirable and valuable achievements of the American anti-slavery movement.
Another achievement of the American anti-slavery movement is the emancipation of forty or fifty thousand fugitive slaves, who stand today as so many living, glowing refutations of the brainless charge that nothing has, as yet, been accomplished Indeed, this movement exhibits great moral muscle and strength, shows itself amoral giant, when despite the Fugitive Slave Law and the vigilant patrol of the South, it sends its powerful and magical influences to the ever glades of Florida, the cane-fields of Louisiana, and the rice swamps of South Carolina, and leads out thence the peeled and broken slave. Nor does this movement leave the fleeing bondman without protection and care in his new home in the North. Wherever he goes, now, whether in our large cities or into our rural districts, he finds friends either to welcome or give him help for his further journey to the freer land of Queen Victoria.
But the crowning achievement of the anti-slavery movement of this country is the establishment, full and complete, of the fact that its great aim and mission is not merely the liberation of four millions of American slaves, and the enfranchisement of six hundred thousand half freemen, but the preservation of the American Government, the preservation of American liberty itself. It has been discovered, at last, that slavery is no respecter of persons, that in its far reaching and broad sweep it strikes down alike the freedom of the black man and the freedom of the white one. This movement can no longer be regarded as a sectional one. It is a great national one. It is not confined in its benevolent, its charitable offices, to any particular class; its broad philanthropy knows no complexional bounds. It cares for the freedom, the rights of us all. Some may call this representation a fancy sketch; rhetorical gammon. But it must be evident to every one conversant with American affairs that we are now realizing in our national experience the important and solemn truth of history, that the enslavement and degradation of one portion of the population fastens galling festering chains upon the limbs of the other. For a time these chains may be invisible; yet they are iron-linked and strong; and the slave power, becoming strong-handed and defiant, will make them felt. This identification of the interests of the white and colored people of the country, this peculiarly national feature of the anti-slavery movement is one of its most cheering, hope-inspiring and hope-supporting characteristics. This fact is encouraging because the white Americans cannot stand as idle spectators to the struggle, but must unite with us in battling against this fell enemy if they themselves would save their own freedom. Indeed, the unchivalrous though natural behavior of the slave oligarchy has already aroused the people of the North to a consciousness of this burning truth. And the deep, solemn voice of the people as it comes thundering up from the hills of New England and from the prairies of the West is pronouncing their heroic determination to meet and overthrow this power. Their cry is: "The slave oligarchy must die; the slave oligarchy shall die!" These are some of the achievements of the anti-slavery movements of our own country. From its very beginning it has gone steadily on in its career of triumph. No power has been able to withstand it. In its irresistible march it has split to pieces all the great ecclesiastical and political organizations of the country. It has overthrown, utterly over- thrown, the old Whig party, and written across the Democratic party, the other stronger ally of slavery, in burning characters: "Thy days are numbered." It has changed the National Congress and the State legislatures into anti-slavery conventions, and has shipwrecked the fortunes of many distinguished men, who had fastened their political destinies to a blind though ardent defense of slavery. These achievements of our American movement augur and insure its ultimate success, and the triumphs of the world's great anti-slavery movement, to which allusion has been made, predict the sure coming of the millennium of liberty.
Let us, then, disfranchised Americans, take new courage; for our cause and the cause of the slave shall triumph gloriously . With hearts full of hope, and a determination to battle for the right against the wrong, let us adopt the beautiful sentiment of the poet:
"God speed the year of Jubilee,
The wide world o'er!
When, from their galling chains set free,
The oppressed shall vilely bend the knee
And wear the yoke of tyranny,
Like brutes, no more.
THAT YEAR WILL COME, and freedom's reign
To man his plundered rights again
God speed the day when human blood
Shall cease to flow!
In every clime be understood
The claims of human brotherhood,
And each return for evil, good-
Not blow for blow.
THAT DAY WILL COME, all feuds to end,
And change into a faithful friend
God speed the hour, the glorious hour,
When none on earth
Shall exercise a lordly power,
Nor in a tyrant's presence cower,
But all to manhood's stature tower,
By equal birth!
That hour will come, to each, to all,
And from his prison-house the thrall
Until that year, day, hour arrive,
With head and heart and hand I'll strive
To break the rod and rend the gyve-
The spoiler of his prey deprive;
So Witness, Heaven!
And never from my chosen post,
Whate'er the peril Or the cost,
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