Do you remember, on your last visit to Worcester, that I
said that there was but one thing wanting to your position — that you should
become an abolitionist? I rejoiced in your brave action and fine speeches. But
anti-slavery has to you been a summer sea, and you riding nobly on the
advancing waves. What is to be your future? We do not ask you to join us, till
time be ripe.
Make Sumner your star, till time has taught you to see the
greater greatness of Phillips. . . . Remember that with or without Frémont, slaves are carried
from Philadelphia, and to lift a finger is Treason. Colored men are thrust
illegally out of cars in New York, and to take their part is Fanaticism. In
presence of these things, with your upright and unspoiled nature, the end is
sure, you will be more than a Republican orator, and God may grant you the
privilege of being an Abo.
SOURCE: Mary Potter Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters
and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 71-2
No comments:
Post a Comment