Mr. Thompson at Lynn, published June 13, 1835

[From the Lynn Record,]

This distinguished young friend and disciple of Wilberforce, and justly celebrated orator, who has been repeatedly invited by the Anti-Slavery Society of this town, arrived on Saturday afternoon last, and was received with great satisfaction and delight. The society had a meeting on business, at the Town Hall, at the close of which, Mr. Thompson addressed a large crowded assembly of people, ladies and gentlemen, nearly two hours, in a strain of eloquence and power, quite beyond any thing we ever heard, and equally beyond our power to describe. All were held, as if by enchantment, to the close. It would be difficult to decide in which he most excelled, matter or manner. He took a comprehensive and varied view of the enormous injustice and evil of slavery, and brought up and considered the most prominent and popular objections to the plan of immediate abolition, and exposed their hypocrisy and absurdity in his own peculiar and effectual manner of cutting sarcasm. The effect was evidently great.

After Mr. Thompson had closed, a stern Pharisaical looking man, who had been sitting near the speaker, announcing himself as a preacher of the Gospel, from the South, desired the privilege of putting a few questions to Mr. Thompson, which was readily granted, and the questions as readily answered, to the satisfaction of the audience generally. The object of the stranger was to cavil and carp at what had been said. But the tables were adroitly turned upon the poor man, in a manner least expected, and most mortifying to him. One of the questions, in substance at least, was—‘Do you consider every slaveholder a thief?’ ‘I consider every person who holds and claims the right of holding his fellow being, as property, A MAN STEALER.’

After several questions, captious in their nature, had been asked and answered, Mr. Thompson turned upon his assailant, ‘If you have now done, sir, I, in turn, should like to ask you a few questions.’

‘Do you consider slavery a sin?’

‘I consider slavery a moral evil.’

‘Do you consider slavery a sin?’

‘I do consider slavery a sin.’

‘Is the marriage of slaves legal in the Southern States?’

‘It is legalized in Maryland.’

‘Can the Slaveholder, by the laws of Maryland, separate husband and wife?’

‘He can,’ &c. &c.

The gentleman stranger, (who is said to belong to Springfield in this state, formerly from the South) appealed to the people, but finally withdrew his appeal, and declared himself ‘satisfied.’ Whether satisfied or not, we believe he had as much as he could digest, and as much as he could swallow, including the question and answer system.

On Sunday evening, Mr. Thompson delivered a lecture on Slavery, in a religious view, as opposed to the doctrines of the Bible. The meeting-house (Rev. Mr. Peabody's) was much crowded, and many went away unable to gain admittance.

On Monday evening, Mr. Thompson lectured on the sin of slavery, before a newly formed ‘Anti-Slavery Society, of the New England Conference of Methodist Episcopal Ministers, consisting of about 60 or 70 Ministers—(a glorious phalanx!) at the South street Methodist meetinghouse. The house was well filled; but owing to a misunderstanding by many, that the lecture was to be delivered at the Woodend Meeting-house, (which was otherwise engaged) all who went were enabled to get in. The lecture was a powerful and splendid production both in argument and in manner of delivery.

On Tuesday evening, Mr. Thompson lectured at the Friend’s meeting-house, which is very large, and was thoroughly filled. He was assisted by Rev. A. A. Phelps, one of the public Agents of the Society, whose address was able, and well received. Mr. Garrison and several other friends of the cause, from Boston and Salem, were present. Mr. T. took occasion to glance at the past history and conduct of the Friends in regard to slavery, the lively interest they had taken in the cause of the oppressed, and the liberal contributions they had made; and exhorted to a continuance in the ways of well doing.

There may be men in our own country of more learning and more depth of mind, and strength of reasoning, than Mr. Thompson, though, we think, rarely to be found; but for readiness and skill in debate, and splendor of eloquence, as an orator, we believe he stands unrivalled. His amiableness, mildness of temper, urbanity, and blandness of manners and deportment, are adapted to win the love and affection of all, who are honored with his acquaintance. That the haughty, and the envious, should whisper their malignant hints that something evil is lurking about his character, is no more than may be naturally expected; though they are most fully and satisfactorily refuted by his numerous and honorable testimonials of respect which we have seen, from benevolent societies and individuals in England, where he is well known. These all breathe the warm friendship and esteem which goodness and greatness of soul alone can inspire.

The independence of mind which Mr. Thompson possesses, is one of the most striking and important traits in his excellent character. He shrinks from nothing. He is ready to attack sin and wickedness in every shape—in high or low places: and his thrusts never miss—never fail of effect.

The name of ‘Mr. George Thompson’ was often associated in the public journals, with distinguished orators and philanthropists, at the various public meetings of benevolent societies in England, long before he embarked for this country. He was there ranked among the most able and popular orators. But here, in this country, there are certain would-be great men, who dare not meet Mr. Thompson in the open field, who vent their pitiful malice, and strive to induce others to treat him with that neglect, to which themselves are so well entitled; because he brings out and exposes to the light of day their works of darkness.

‘He is a foreigner—he has no right to come here interfering with our laws, our customs, and our private rights.’

Very fine, indeed! Capital! Who has a right to interfere, or say a word, if a man murders his wife and children, or sells them into bondage? It was all his own family concern. Who has a right to express an opinion of the Turks, when oppressing, starving, and murdering the Greeks, not only men, but helpless women and children : Who has a right to express an opinion against the Russians for similar conduct toward the Poles, under similar circumstances, as the latter were the vassals of the former, in both cases? Who has a right to send Gospel missionaries abroad among the benighted heathen, groping in darkness, in order to instruct and enlighten them in the way of truth? WE—we, the American people, the ‘sons of liberty,’ claim the right, and exercise it too; without once being asked, why do ye so We, the American people, claim and exercise the right, when the laws of God— the eternal laws of truth and justice, and humanity, are broken, to expose the sin, and to ‘reprove, rebuke and exhort the transgressor.

‘But slavery was brought to our shores and entailed on us by England, against our consent, when we were under her government; and now shall England send men here to complain of the injustice and cruelty of the act, when we should be glad to get rid of the evil, but cannot?’

Reason answers, Yes. If England did wrong, and afterward saw the evil, repented, and brought forth fruits meet for repentance, by liberating all their own slaves, was it not right—was it not a christian duty, to extend their acts of kindness to us also, whom they had led into error; to tell us what they had done, and how they did it ; and to aid and assist us to get out of the difficulty ? The law of God is universal. The law of Christians—the law of love, is universal; and requires the subjects of that law to oppose and expose sin and oppression wherever they are found. We send Ministers, political, religious, and masonic, to England and other places—to co-operate—to ask and give assistance, and mutually to benefit each other. But what can we, in the Northern States do? We can say, slavery is ‘a sin.’ We can enlighten public sentiment on the subject, and cause the sin of slavery—the greatest sin in the world, to become odious: and public sentiment in this country has the force of law, to correct any evil.

To assist us in these labors of love, Mr. Thompson has been sent among us, by the friends of humanity in England; and a most efficient and powerful co-worker he is, sweeping away the refuges of lies, and carrying his principles as a mighty sweeping torrent, wherever he goes. The advocates of slavery fear and hate him, the humane and philanthropic love him, and all respect and admire his talents, whatever they may pretend.

Mr. Thompson possesses all the requisites of an impressive and powerful orator—a fund of acquired knowledge, a brilliant imagination, natural pathos, a powerful voice, an elegant form, graceful gesticulation, a countenance capable of expressing any passion or emotion, and lastly, the most important of all, a benevolent heart—an expansive soul.

SOURCES: Isaac Knapp, Publisher, Letters and Addresses by G. Thompson [on American Negro Slavery] During His Mission in the United States, From Oct. 1st, 1834, to Nov. 27, 1835, p. 88-92; “Mr. Thompson at Lynn,” The Liberator, Boston, Massachusetts, Saturday, June 13, 1835, p. 3.

George Thompson to William Lloyd Garrison, Thursday Morning, April 23, 1835

• Continued from: George Thompson to William Lloyd Garrison, Wednesday Morning, April 22, 1835.

Thursday morning, 23d. Last evening, I delivered a second lecture in the 4th Presbyterian church. The audience rather more numerous than at the first meeting. Two days were occupied in seeking to obtain a church more eligibly situated, but in vain, Mr. Delevan and other gentlemen have used their influence to obtain a church in the upper part of the city, but so far, to no purpose. Yesterday afternoon, Mr. Phelps and myself met a committee of gentlemen, when it was resolved to hold a public meeting as early as possible, and submit the constitution of an Anti-Slavery Society. Last evening's lecture appears to have done good, and I have no doubt that, could I remain and deliver a course of lectures, we should be able to form a good society, if not carry the entire city. This afternoon, Mr Phelps and myself go to Troy. I give my second lecture this evening.

I am much pleased to find that Mr. May has got fairly to work. His labors will greatly advance the cause in Massachusetts.

I write, as you perceive, upon a Circular put forth by Mr. Israel Lewis. The colored people of this city held a meeting on Monday evening to express their opinions in reference to the contents of this document, and decided almost unanimously, that it would not be proper for the colored people to send their children to Canada for education, or encourage the emigration to that settlement of any free persons. They considered it the duty of the whole population to remain here, and combat the wicked and cruel prejudices at present operating against them; they considered the Circular based upon Colonization principles, and therefore an appeal to the prejudiced, rather than to the unprejudiced Anti-Slavery portion of the community. These conclusions are fully in accordance with my own views of the matter. I cannot but regard the Circular as an appeal to the prejudices of the whites, — and the selfishness of the colored people. I rejoice that Wilberforce offers an asylum for the absconding slave, and hope it will be sustained as a city of refuge for him; but I want the free colored man to remain here, and for a while to suffer, toil, and mourn, if it must be so, the victim of the prejudices of a pale-skinned aristocracy, that he may share the common lot of his class, and by making a bold . stand against conduct so inhuman, hasten the time, when the monster prejudice shall spread his dark wings, and wheel his flight to the nethermost hell, where he was begotten. Ever, most affectionately yours,

GEORGE THOMPSON.

SOURCE: Isaac Knapp, Publisher, Letters and Addresses by G. Thompson [on American Negro Slavery] During His Mission in the United States, From Oct. 1st, 1834, to Nov. 27, 1835, p. 64-5

Nathaniel Peabody Rogers: Limitations Of Human Responsibilities. — Dr. Wayland, October 6, 1838

We were unpleasantly surprised, on receiving our last number of the “Comprehensive Commentary” and the “Supplement,” from our good anti-slavery friend Boutelle, to find the unfeeling author of the “limitations” posted up, in the frontispiece, by Dr. Jenks, at his own right hand, and directly over the head of old President Dwight. Perhaps this is a sort of peace-offering to the slaveholder—a bit of policy to give the "Commentary" a currency among our “southern brethren.” The Doctor's image would give the Commentary a cordial passport to the heart of every slaveholder. He would expect to find the Bible itself chock full of limitations of human obligations and warrant for slaveholding.

We should not dare send a lad to the Doctor's college, for fear he would teach him this science of “limitations;” a science as fatal to human welfare as the atmosphere of Upas is to healthful respiration. What a kindly blow has the Rev. Doctor here struck at religion and humanity, by this work, with a most significant and appropriate title — “Limitations of Responsibilities!” Abridgment of human obligations! Curtailment of moral obligations! Irresponsibilities to God and man! What a title and a work, to surprise and delight the devil withal! Give me, quoth the devil, these abridgers of human liability. O no, sweet mortals, “ye shall not surely die.” Hath God indeed said so and so? It may be — but then the meaning hath excellent “limitations.” Commend me, quoth the arch-gambler for the exposed soul, to these highly taught rabbies — brought up at foot of Gamaliel, who will ratiocinate the apprehensive mind clear of the trammels of responsibility.

It has been a desideratum with human depravity, from the first transgression down, to discover that this fatal responsibility had limits — some resting place, short of these crucifying requirements. Orthodoxy itself hath at last discovered it, and the fortunate finder is Doctor Francis Wayland.

“Granting slavery to be in violation of the law of God,” says the daring Doctor, “it still remains to be decided, what is our duty respecting it.” In this horrible doctrine we cannot agree, but say rather, that granting slavery, or any thing else, to be in violation of that law, it is decided, and always has been, that our duty is forthwith to labor to our utmost for its immediate suppression.

The Doctor's essay is to “kill the abolitionists dead.” Colonel Mordecai Noah, of the tribe of Issachar, says exultingly, that it is doing it. A band of self-devoted men and women have formed themselves together, to deliver, by the power of simple truth, their poor, soul-withered brethren from a condition that would awaken irrepressible pity in any thing but an under mill-stone. They are succeeding. They have insured success; and this northern Doctor has volunteered, as a sort of Swiss guard, to protect the slaveholder against them in his “paramount fights,” and to “kill” these unoffending and faithful ones “dead.” He has woven a web of sophistry, which it would waste time, and no doubt puzzle our unmetaphysical brains to unravel, in the cunning order in which it is put together. We shall not worry ourselves to thread its labyrinths, or unglue its spider fastenings. In plain housewife style, we take the broomstick of “self-evident truth,” and just poke down this cobweb — dead flies and all, warp and filling, — with the sly old weaver himself, where he sits in his central woof, “cunning and fierce, mixture abhorred.” For see. — Slaveholding is a self-evident crime. We (Doctor and all) are palpably at the bottom of it. It is engendered and fed on our own vicious public (sentiment. We are bound forthwith to correct this sentiment, and thereby abolish slavery. There is no “limitation” about it, and no “two ways about it,” in the expressive parlance. This is better made out, in the statement, than by any help of words with which we are acquainted,—and we here dispose of the whole Doctor.

“No cat has two tails,” quoth the Doctor. Agreed, gays Major Noah, and his gentile brother, the New Hampshire Patriot, “But every cat has one tail more than no cat,” adds the Doctor, “Han't she?” cries Major Noah. “I want to know if she han't,” echoes the New Hampshire Patriot. “Therefore,” concludes the Doctor, (and anti-slavery is extinguished) — “therefore every cat has Three tails.” “Three tails!” exults the epauletted Israelite; “three tails, by our gold-laced gabardine, every cat is a three-tailed bashaw,” and it is “perfectly conclusive to the mind” of the New Hampshire Patriot. Now we hold up any bona fide pussy in the land by the. tail, and all eyes may see that she hath but one. The Doctor cannot argue it into three.

SOURCE: Collection from the Miscellaneous Writings of Nathaniel Peabody Rogers, Second Edition, p. 31-3 which states it was published in the Herald of Freedom of October 6, 1838.

Arnold Buffum to William Lloyd Garrison, March 5, 1835

PHILADELPHIA, 3d mo. 5, 1835.

MY DEAR FRIEND, — Unwilling to do anything that could by possibility fan the flames which for a time seemed to threaten with riotous destruction our civil institutions, we have, in this city, for several months past abstained from public efforts, for promoting the glorious cause of human liberty. Still we have not been unmindful of the cries and groans of two millions of our countrymen in bondage. We have marked the accelerated progress of licentiousness and pollution in the slaveholding sections of our country; we have seen the hand of despotism extending its iron grasp over two hundred new born victims in every twenty-four hours; we have heard the lamentations of the bereaved mother when her darling babe has been torn from her bosom; we have observed the widely withering influence of an unholy prejudice against beings created, like ourselves, in the image of God; we have heard the sentiment advanced, by professed ministers of Him who came to undo the heavy burdens, and let the oppressed go free, that we ‘are but a set of misguided fanatics, unworthy of the public regard.’ All this we have silently borne for weeks and months that are past. But the claims of our fellowmen, who are suffering under the cruel yoke of oppression, have during this interval, often ascended in our orisons to the Throne of Grace, and the spirit of the Lord has been at work in the hearts of many people, preparing them for the reception of truth, and for active co-operation in the cause of universal freedom; and now we have been comforted and made to rejoice together, by the labors of a messenger of love, whom I verily believe the God of the oppressed has sent among us. Our beloved coadjutor, George Thompson, arrived here, from New-York, on the 2nd instant, and on the evening of the 3rd, delivered a Lecture in the ‘Reformed Presbyterian Church,’ in Cherry Street. No public notice had been given, yet such was the anxiety to hear him, that not less than one thousand persons assembled on the occasion and all were more than gratified. The interesting nature of the subject, the perfect understanding of it in all its bearings evinced by the speaker, the truly christian spirit with which he spoke of the wrong doers, all added to his commanding eloquence, carried conviction to the understanding and bore the hearts of his auditors along with him, and unfurled in many a bosom, the standard of immediate abolitionism.

One of our most estimable citizens, who has been favorable to colonization, said at the close of the meeting, that he would willingly go thirty miles at any time to hear such a discourse. I would attempt to give an outline of it, were it possible for me to do it justice, but I can only say, to all who would understand a christian's views and feelings, and know his arguments on the subject of slavery and its remedy, you must go and hear George Thompson for yourselves. He labors in the cause of God, and in behalf of that portion of the creation of God made in his own image, who are borne down by relentless oppression, in every portion of the habitable globe. He pleads with Christians of every name, to arouse from their lethargy, and in the name of the Master whom they profess to serve, to vindicate the right of man to be free; his motto is, ‘Man is man, endowed by his Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’

Yesterday morning, our dear friend returned to New-York, to fulfil prior engagements in that city. Last evening our board of Managers unanimously adopted the following Resolution, viz:

‘Resolved, That the thanks of this Board be presented to our highly esteemed coadjutor, George Thompson, for the clear and forcible exposition of Abolition principles, presented in his address to an assemblage of our fellow-citizens last evening, and that he be most respectfully invited to return to this city as soon as previous engagements will permit, to plead before other congregations the cause of the oppressed,’

Last evening, our estimable friend, Amasa Walker, from your city, made an excellent address before our Anti-Slavery Society, and coadjutors from every quarter are coming up in the name of the God of hosts, to the furtherence of his righteous cause. Our hearts are animated with the increase of light; the day begins to dawn, the manacles of oppression will ere long be melted by the genial warmth of the Sun of Righteousness, and Ethiopia will stretch forth her hand to God.

Most truly, my friend, ever thine,

ARNOLD BUFFUM.

Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Boston.

SOURCE: Isaac Knapp, Publisher, Letters and Addresses by G. Thompson [on American Negro Slavery] During His Mission in the United States, From Oct. 1st, 1834, to Nov. 27, 1835, p. 45-7

George Thompson’s Reply to Professor Daniel D. Whedon, February 18, 1835

23 BRIGHToN STREET, FEB. 18, 1835.

To the Editor of Zion's Herald:

SIR — I have just read in your paper of to-day a letter signed D. D. Whedon, and headed “Foreign Interference.” I am ignorant of the profession or station of the writer. If he be a Christian man, and continue one a few years longer, he will, I believe, deeply lament the publication of the sentiments which that letter contains. Under what extraordinary circumstances of excitement it was written I cannot say. I hope it was not a cool closet composition; for with the belief that it had been written deliberately, I should be compelled to draw conclusions very unfavorable to the character of the writer's heart.

He declares it right to denounce the measures of the Papists in this country as “infamous and impertinent foreign interference;” and then asks, in reference to myself, “but with what severer epithet [severer than infamous and impertinent!] shall we characterize the man who comes to lecture the citizens of these United States upon the most delicate and most vital of all the PoliTICAL questions which agitate this distracted nation?” In other words, who comes to “open his mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.” Your correspondent proceeds — “Did that gentleman come, commissioned from some foreign clubs, to collect meetings and nominate an American President, it might be borne with comparative patience; but to come to apply the principles of the gospel to a system which reduces to the most brutal subjection one-sixth portion of our home-born population of these United States; — which puts out the eyes of the soul, defaces the image of the Maker, and leaves the wretched victim to grope sightless and hopeless to the judgment of an equal God; — which tears the infant from its mother's bosom, and brands it as a beast for the shambles; — which converts into solemn mockery the charter of man’s rights, and all the forms of justice; — which renders null and void the holy bond of matrimony;—which denies the Book of Life to two millions, who without it are destitute of that knowledge which begets a hope beyond the grave; — which punishes with DEATH the second offence of teaching an immortal being the way to heaven: to apply the principles of eternal righteousness to such a system is a work which requires “better credentials than a diploma from any foreign Society, of whatever character or of whichever sex.” Your correspondent is “right,” and I am thankful that such credentials are at hand. Whenever your correspondent is disposed, I will, in his presence, spread these credentials before any impartial American audience he can collect, and allow him all the space he wishes to question their sufficiency, or invalidate their authority.

There is every evidence that your correspondent deems himself a staunch patriot, — so staunch that he dare not trust himself to comment upon the extensive patronage which the Anti-Slavery Association of this country have extended towards me, lest he should be “betrayed into language half as strong” as the “perpetration of such an act deserves.”

From the 57th page of the life of Richard Watson, I make the following extract. It is the language of that distinguished ornament of the Methodist body, and will perhaps show that the work in which I am engaged is as patriotic as writing unkind and violent articles against the friends of the enslaved :—

“To what, then, ought patriotism to be directed? It has secured our civil rights; it has organized our armies; it has rendered our navy invincible; it has extended our commerce, and enlarged our dominions: but there is yet one object to be accomplished, without which well appointed armies, an invincible navy, extended commerce and enlarged dominion, will add little to our dignity, our happiness, or our real strength; — I mean, the correction of our MoRALs. Immorality and irreligion as certainly dry up the resources of a nation, and hasten its downfall, as a worm at the root of the finest plant will cause it to fade, to wither, and to die. Wickedness arms God against us; and if he ‘speak concerning a nation, to pluck it up and to destroy,’ no counsels, however wise, no plans, however judicious, no exertions however vigorous, can avert the sentence — “Righteousness exalteth a nation ; and every endeavor to promote it is PATRIOTIC.”

Adopting Mr. Watson's views of “patriotism,” I plead for the liberation from hateful and unjust bonds of 2,250,000 human, immortal, blood-ransomed beings. Am I worse than “infamous” and “impertinent” for this?

I plead that the hindrances to moral and religious improvement may be removed, and the colored population, instead of “perishing for lack of knowledge,” enjoy the blessings of education, grow up in “the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” and in his fear discharge all the duties of civil, social, and domestic life. Am I worse than “infamous” and “impertinent” for doing this?

I plead that the BIBLE may be given to millions of accountable beings who are prohibited from looking into its pages. Am I worse than “infamous” and “impertinent” for doing this?

I plead for the abolition of temptations and opportunities to licentiousness, profligacy, and impurity, and the presentation of motives to chastity, honor and fidelity. Am I worse than “infamous” and “impertinent” for doing this?

I plead for the recognition, protection, sanctification and security of the marriage tie. Am I worse than “infamous” and “impertinent” for doing this?

I plead for the abolition of a practice that robs the fathers and mothers of this land of two hundred new born infants a day, and introduces that number of hapless innocents into all the pollution and degradation of hopeless thraldom. Am I worse than “infamous” and “impertinent” for doing this?

But enough. Let the Christian world judge between me and my accuser. I fear not the verdict.

I desire to register my unfeigned gratitude to God for the success which he has uniformly granted to the fearless publication of the truth upon the subject of Slavery. Our cause is advancing rapidly. Its advocates may smile upon all opposition. Any attempt to prevent the spread of abolition sentiments, or crush the spirit which is now going through the land, is as vain, (to say nothing of its wickedness,) as to attempt to hurl the Rocky Mountains from their foundations, or roll back the waters of the Mississippi. We may adopt the language of the dying Wesley — “The best of all is, God is with us.”

To D. D. Whedon I would kindly say — Take the letter you have published to your closet, your knees, and your God. Pray earnestly for wisdom, truth, and charity. Contemplate the state of things in the Southern States of the country you profess to love. Let the slave stand before you in the awful attributes of a deathless and accountable being. Reflect upon your own responsibility to plead his cause and promote his present and eternal good, — and then say, whether you have done well to seek to bring down upon the head of a stranger, and the slave's advocate, a relentless storm of popular indignation ?

I will offer no reply to your remarks on my country. They are wholly unworthy the Christian — the patriot – and the man.

In respect to the “fulness of hospitality” which you say you would “pour upon me” if I were an inactive and indifferent observer of the wrongs of the slave, — I beg to say that I am quite content to relinquish the enjoyment, and see it reserved for the “Christian brother” who can “forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain.”

Pardon, Mr. Editor, these protracted remarks. I doubt not you will follow the dictates of justice whether you insert or reject what I have written. It is not likely I shall soon trouble you again. Heaven bless your country, and send a speedy and peaceful triumph to the cause of the oppressed! “The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice!”

— “All is in his hand whose praise I seek,

Whose frown can disappoint the proudest work,

Whose approbation prosper even mine.”

Very respectfully yours,

GEO. THOMPSON.

SOURCE: Isaac Knapp, Publisher, Letters and Addresses by G. Thompson [on American Negro Slavery] During His Mission in the United States, From Oct. 1st, 1834, to Nov. 27, 1835, p. 41-4

Thomas Wentworth Higginson to Louisa Storrow Higginson, June 26, 1856

Worcester, June 26,1856

I have a momentary lull, having yesterday sent off my second party to Kansas. . . . The first had forty-seven and our Committee will send no more, leaving it for the State Committee, which was appointed yesterday, chiefly on my urging. . . .

At Chicago they show an energy which disgraces us; have arrangements and men already and need only money. The night I came from Brattleboro', Friday, we had letters from Chicago, and our Finance Committee voted them fifteen hundred dollars and voted to add three thousand dollars more, unless I could raise this second party by Wednesday, which I did. Saturday, the day after, I was sent to Boston, with the same letters, to urge the Boston Committee to send money to Chicago. With great difficulty I got five minutes each from Pat Jackson and several other merchants, and at two they came together for ten minutes and voted to send two thousand dollars, Ingersoll Bowditch being happily absent, who had just told me he should come and oppose it entirely. I saw the telegraphic despatch written and came back.

That very night we got a telegraphic despatch from Chicago, imploring us to send that precise sum, for the relief of a large party of emigrants, detained at Iowa City for want of means. The two despatches crossed on the way.

This two thousand dollars, with our remittance, and our two parties of emigrants (which would not have gone till by this time if I had not gone to work on it the first night I came) are absolutely All that has yet been done by New England for Kansas, in this time of imminent need. This I say to show you how ill-prepared we are for such emergencies. The busy give no time and the leisurely no energy, and there is no organization. I should except the Committee here, which has done admirably, and that in Concord, Massachusetts, and Dr. Howe, Sam Cabot, Charles Higginson, and a few others in Boston.

There is talk now of sending Dr. Howe to Kansas with a large sum of money, and this will be the best thing possible, but it should have been done a fortnight ago.

SOURCE: Mary Potter Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 137-9

Samuel Fessenden to the Editor of the New York Evangelist, November 2, 1834

PORTLAND, ME., Nov. 2, [1834].

As you have already received and published a correct account of the formation of a State A. S. Society for Maine, an event which diffuses general joy among the friends of the cause of immediate abolition, and increases the hopes of its advocates, I do not recur to the event for any other object, than as it was the occasion of drawing into this State that distinguished friend of the cause, George Thompson, Esq.

I had the pleasure of attending most of his lectures while among us, and cannot but say, I feel thankful to God, who has inclined his heart to embark in the mighty undertaking of the emancipation of American slaves, having in conjunction with the great and good, achieved the emancipation of British slaves. Next to Him, “who holds the hearts of men in his hands, and turns them as the rivers of waters are turned,” I feel grateful to Mr. T., who has given himself liberally to the work, and to those beloved philanthropists who have furnished the means of his coming. Never, in my humble judgment, was an individual better qualified for the mighty task which he has come to aid than is Mr. T. Every word every action affords strong evidence that he enters on his labors with a heart overflowing with Christian philanthropy, and devoted to the God-like cause which he has come to sustain and enforce.

I place first among his qualifications as an advocate of abolition, the spirit of Christ with which he is, most evidently, deeply imbued, and which he breathes forth in every address, and I might add, in almost every sentence. On his tongue, is emphatically the law of kindness. This is as it should be. Next his powers of mind are evidently of a superior order. And if you add the gifts and graces of a thorough systematic education, it must necessarily follow that he must be a powerful advocate of any cause to which he might devote his attention, and upon which he should bring such a mind to bear. He has-great, complicated, delicate, and I might say overwhelming as it is—completely mastered the subject. It must have been considered by him in its infinitely important relations, both to time and eternity, with a clearness of perception which is the result of the combined agency of pure and elevated religious affections, and a powerful and discriminating intellect. That Mr. Thompson should possess a very thorough knowledge of the evils of slavery generally, and of its appropriate remedies, I was prepared to expect; but I was not prepared to see him display such a thorough and intimate acquaintance with the constitution and laws, and genius of our government, if I may use the expression, and with the constitution and laws of the slaveholding states, as he has evidently acquired. He seems to be as familiar with them all as one born and educated upon the soil polluted by this mightiest of evils — this most flagrant of sins. He seems like one who has traced this system through all its labyrinths of iniquity, to its polluted source; and to have uncovered its dark streams, and to exhibit to the moral and mental eye how it gushes from the grand reservoir of all plagues, the bottomless pit.

Such a man, on such a subject, cannot fail to be eloquent. Mr. Thompson is truly so. I think all who have heard him, both the friends and enemies of the cause, will sustain me in this. If to convince the understanding, to captivate the heart and engage the affections is eloquence, then Mr. T. is eloquent.

You will pardon me for adverting to the manner in which Mr. T. manages the question, and which bears me out in saying that he must prove a powerful agent in the accomplishment of the emancipation of the slaves and the extinction of slavery in our beloved country.

Mr. Thompson lays the foundation of his argument on the immutable law of God, and shows that slavery in all its shapes and forms, even the mildest it can assume, is opposed to the great and universal law of love — that, therefore, no one who claims to hold his fellow-man as property, can be guiltless — that the assumption of such a right is wresting from Jehovah his own peculiar prerogative, and must, therefore, be an aggravated sin—that it is the duty of all who are guilty, and that it is imperatively required, instantly to cease from this as well as from all other sins — that the only path of safety is the path of obedience — and that this is safe. That humanity, justice, the best interest of the slaveholder, as well as the slave, are in accordance with the law of God, and that we may safely rest on the promises of God that he will reward obedience in this, as well as in all other cases, by averting any evils which may be found as the result of obedience to his holy and righteous behests.

Such has been the scope of his argument. To do justice to his power in illustrating and enforcing it as well by the divine law, as promulgated in the word of God, as by the law written on the heart, and in the understanding, and enforced by an enlightened conscience, and confirmed by the whole history of mankind, and the dealings of Jehovah with individuals and nations, I would not attempt. Let him be heard, only, and any attempt I might make would be useless.

But, it will naturally be asked, what has been the effect produced upon the cause of the oppressed which he has thus been pleading! On those who have heard, I have no hesitation in saying the effect has been great and salutary. The decided have been aroused to more vigorous exertion —  the roving confirmed, and not a few, of the comparatively few, of the decided opponents, who were induced to attend, have been converted, or brought to pause in their career of opposition. But while I have the satisfaction of stating that the audiences, in point of numbers and moral worth, were respectable and in most instances large, still, a large proportion of the people, the professed friends of colonization, and most of our clergymen of the various denominations, and especially in this city, refused to hear. Some deeming the cause too secular to be considered by the religious community, and too unholy to be discussed from the pulpit.

Then in some instances it was found difficult to procure a suitable house, and in some we were met by absolute refusal. In some instances clergymen, professing to be opposed to slavery, refused even to give notice of our meetings from the pulpit. The Rev. Mr. Dwight, one of our most talented and active ministers of the congregational order in this city, refused to give the following notice:

“Mr. Thompson, from England, will lecture at 7 o'clock this evening, at the Christian chapel in Temple-street, on the subject of immediate emancipation, when he will attempt to show that such emancipation is not only required by the word of God, but is also the only just, safe or expedient remedy for American Slavery.

“All the friends of liberty, humanity, and religion, are respectfully invited to attend.”

I give this instance to show the spirit of the opposition with which we have to contend, and how far this awful sin of slavery has given a tinge to the minds of some, and I fear many, of our great and good men.

But I trust none of these things move us from our purpose, never to rest till an end is put to this crying abomination of our land.

Mr. T., I trust, will ere long visit your city, and that he may be heard, and rightly appreciated, is my earnest prayer. I am, dear sir, most affectionately,

Your friend and servant,

SAMUEL FESSENDEN.

SOURCE: Isaac Knapp, Publisher, Letters and Addresses by G. Thompson [on American Negro Slavery] During His Mission in the United States, From Oct. 1st, 1834, to Nov. 27, 1835, p. 17-20

J. M. Allen to Deacon John Gulliver, October 13, 1835

Boston, Oct. 13, 1835.

Mr. Gulliver,

Sir: Such is the state of public feeling with regard to Mr. Thompson, and so great, so very great is the probability, that if he attempt to deliver an address to-morrow afternoon, it cannot but be productive of disastrous consequences, to what extent it is impossible to foretell; and being wholly unwilling to jeopardize my property and that of others entrusted to my care—

I Hereby Give Notice to you and all concerned, (that unless good and satisfactory bonds to the amount of dollars 10,000, can be given to make good all damages,) that the meeting of the Female Abolition Society, for the purpose of hearing an address from Mr. Thompson, in Congress (late Julien) Hall, is Forbid; and that I shall take measures, by having proper officers on the ground, to prevent all assembling together for that purpose.

As a specimen of the feelings of the community generally on the subject, I refer you to the Boston Com. Gazette of this day, and also express my belief that it is the determination of (not the rabble,) but the most influential and respectable men in the community, to make trouble to-morrow should Mr. T. hold forth.

Your ob't serv't,

J. M. Allen.

SOURCE: Boston Female Anti Slavery Society, Report of the Boston Female Anti Slavery Society; With a Concise Statement of Events, Previous and Subsequent to the Annual Meeting of 1835, p. 10-11

Thomas Wentworth Higginson to Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1855

I am authorized by the Committee of the AntiSlavery Society, to ask you to name some time for the actual delivery of your address. . . .

I believe that our Treasurer had no opportunity of paying you the twenty dollars proposed. In view of the circumstances (as we rely greatly on the sale of single tickets, in our course), the Committee seem to think themselves authorized in offering you the full price for your first lecture (or attempt at it) and ten dollars more should you come again, — making thirty dollars in all.

SOURCE: Mary Potter Thacher Higginson, Editor, Letters and Journals of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1846-1906, p. 59

Gerrit Smith to Samuel Simon Schmucker, 1838

If the Colonization Society had not come out against the doctrine of immediate emancipation, and inferentially against the doctrine of the sinfulness of slavery, I should, in all probability, have continued a member of it down to the present time. But for its opposition to those doctrines, I might very probably have continued to think that it was producing a measure at least, of the good influences and effects which you ascribe to it. It is however, but proper to say that my confidence in the usefulness of the colonization of our colored brethren, or any portion of them on the coast of Africa or any where else,—and even though such colonization were conducted with great benevolence and with no unfriendliness to the great doctrines of the anti-slavery societies, — has undergone a great, exceedingly great diminution. It is not however on the ground of diminution, that I avow myself an anti-colonizationist. It is because it has, to use your own language, taken the “position that the colored race cannot with any propriety be emancipated on the soil, — that expatriation and emancipation must go together.” . . . I would not deny that there are members of the Colonization Society who favor the doctrine of immediate and unconditional emancipation; — though Judge Jay, in his book on colonization, speaks of me as the only one. But certain it is that they are rare; and as certain it is that the society ridicules, denounces and abhors the doctrine. . . In view of the exceedingly wicked and abhorrent sentiments of Rev. R. J. Breckinridge, which I have cited, I cannot but think how grateful you and I should feel that God has led us to quit forever a society which generates and fosters such sentiments. Had we remained in it we might have been left to imbibe those sentiments, to adopt all its cruel and murderous policy and to keep pace with its fast increasing wickedness.

SOURCE: Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Gerrit Smith: A Biography, p. 169-70

Gerrit Smith to Reverend Ralph Randolph Gurley, November 24, 1835

Peterboro, November 24,1835.

Rev. R. R. Gurley, Secretary of American Colonization Society.

My Dear Friend, — Great as the pleasure would be to me of meeting, at the approaching Anniversary of the American Colonization Society, with my beloved fellow laborers in the cause of African Colonization, I must not, for this alone, make a journey to Washington. Could I connect with the anticipation of this pleasure the prospect of gaining over the Society to the views which I have so long, but in vain, pressed upon its adoption, the journey would then be made most cheerfully; but the present circumstances and complexion of the Society afford anything but such a prospect.

You well know, my dear sir, how faithfully I labored, at the Anniversary of the Society in January, 1834, and for a year before; and how much I have written to that end since, to bring back the Society to its constitutional and neutral ground, respecting the subject of slavery. The ineffectualness of these efforts is manifest in the fact, that the Society is now, and has been for some time, far more interested in the question of slavery than in the work of colonization — in the demolition of the Anti-slavery Society, than in the building up of its colony. I need not go beyond the matter and spirit of the last few numbers of its periodical for the justification of this remark. Were a stranger to form his opinion by these numbers, it would be, that the Society issuing them was quite as much an anti-abolition, as colonization society: and this would be his opinion of a society, which has not legitimately anything to do with slavery, either as its opponent or advocate — of a society of which I said in my speech before it, in January 1834, and justly, I believe, that “such is, or rather such should be its neutrality, on the subject of slavery, that its members may be free, on the one hand, to be slaveholders; and on the other to join the Anti-slavery Society.” It has come to this, however, that a member of the Colonization Society cannot advocate the deliverance of his enslaved fellow-men, without subjecting himself to such charges of inconsistency, as the public prints abundantly cast on me, for being at the same time a member of that Society and an abolitionist.

It was not until some six or eight months since, that I began to despair of seeing the Colonization Society cease, within any short period, if ever, from its interference with the subject of slavery. No more than a year ago, and I was still confident that the Society would retrace its errors, and be again simply a Colonization Society: and then how soon a harmonious, successful and glorious Society!

I still owe a considerable sum on my subscriptions to the funds of the Colonization Society. It is true that the conditions on which these subscriptions were made, have not been fulfilled, and that it is now too late to fulfill them. It is further true, that most of the sum I still owe has some years to run before it is due. But I sympathize with the Society in its embarrassments, and herewith enclose you my check for the whole balance — viz., three thousand dollars. It is my wish, though I would not insist on its taking this direction against the judgment of your much esteemed board — that the whole sum be applied towards the cancelment of the debts of the Society.

At some future period, and under happier auspices, the American Colonization Society may possibly cease to meddle with slavery; and to claim that it is the remedy, and the only remedy for that evil. It may then confine its operations to their constitutional sphere, and employ all its means in the benevolent and delightful work of aiding the free people of color in our country to escape from the unrelenting prejudice and persecution under which they suffer, and to obtain in a foreign land the honorable and happy home which is cruelly and wickedly denied to them in their own. I may then have it in my heart and in my power to contribute again to your treasury. In the mean time, I cannot conscientiously do so, — nor, indeed, do anything else from which my approbation of the Society could be justly inferred.

It is proper for me to say, that I am brought to this determination earlier than I expected to be, by the recent increase of my interest in the American Anti-Slavery Society. From its organization to the present time, I have looked to that society as, under God, the best hope of the slave and of my country. Since the late alarming attacks, in the persons of its members, on the right of discussion, (and astonishing as it is, some of the suggestions for invading this right are impliedly countenanced in the African Repository) I have looked to it, as being also the rallying point of the friends of this right. To that society yours is hostile, I will not say without cause — without even as much as the certainly very great cause which it has for being the enemy of yours. However that may be, it is enough for my present purpose and to justify me in standing aloof from your society, to know that the Anti-Slavery Society has now become identified with this threatened right; and that if it fall, as your society is diligently striving that it shall, this great and sacred right of man will fall and perish with it.

With great regard, your friend,

Gerrit Smith.

SOURCE: Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Gerrit Smith: A Biography, p. 166-8

Diary of Gerrit Smith: July 12, 1834

I attended this evening the meeting in which our town Anti-slavery Society was organized. The constitution is good. Nevertheless I did not join the Society. I think I cannot join the Anti-slavery Society as long as the war is kept up between it and the American Colonization Society — a war, however, for which the Colonization Society is as much to blame as the other Society.

SOURCE: Octavius Brooks Frothingham, Gerrit Smith: A Biography, p. 163-4

Catharine Maria Sedgwick to Susan Higginson Channing, March 10, 1860

Woodbourne, March 10, 1860.

My Dear Friend, — I have not written to you since the death of Eliza,^* an event in which our hearts were blended. Her affection has been a precious boon to both our lives, her life full of rich memories, her character a light from heaven — an assurance of immortality, so much is there in it of that vitality which death can not touch. I have not experienced in her death any thing of that tremulousness, that clouded perception, that failure of faith, that recoiling from the extinguishing touch of death that I sometimes am haunted with; partly, perhaps, because I did not witness the process of mortality. I heard of her illness only the day before I heard of her death, and I would not look at her after the light of her glowing eye was veiled, so that to my perception she passed over the gulf and into her inheritance. I did not see her after I came to Woodbourne. I was purposing to go over to Brookline, but put it off with that reckless delay which, in spite of experience, clings to us to the last, as if we had a secure grant of the future. She wrote to me an earnest invitation to go with her to her annual festival.^† I declined it, assigning to her the true reason, that I shrunk from being with her on an occasion to her of the most elevating excitement which I did not partake. My feelings (perhaps I should say my judgment) would recoil when hers flowed on with the force of ocean waves to high-water mark. The last time she ever put pen to paper — the pen that has done so much blessed work — was with the intention of kindly convincing me I was wrong. Her frame was then shivering with premonitory ague, her hand was weak, and after writing one common note-paper page she could write no farther, and stopped at “our festival” — words fitly her last, for her heart was in them. You will not misunderstand me, my dear Susan, nor imagine that I do not feel heartily in the great question of humanity that agitates our people. It seemed to me that so much had been intemperately said, so much rashly urged on the death of that noble martyr, John Brown, by the Abolitionists, that it was not right to appear among them as one of them.  * * * *  I wish I could know that you were as well and strong as I am, we so much need health in our old age. As the Irishman said of the sun, “What is the use of it in the day?” So youth might spare a little of what is so essential to age. But if we can learn to resign contentedly, to live cheerfully in our narrowed quarters, and to await in tranquillity our Father's last dealings on earth with us, we may still hear those blessed words, “She hath done what she could.” You have doubtless the two last great books, Hawthorne's and Florence Nightingale's — the last, one that will scatter blessings through the land. Like light and air, it is for universal good. It is rare for a person who has Miss Nightingale's wonderful powers of execution to write with such force, directness, and pithiness. I have but just begun the “Marble Faun.” I am sure you will feel, as I do, that it pours a golden light into the dim chambers of memory, and revivifies the scenes that we, too, once enjoyed. * * * *

_______________

^* Mrs. Eliza Cabot Follen.

^† The meeting of the Anti-slavery Society.

SOURCE: Mary E. Dewey, Editor, Life and Letters of Catherine M. Sedgwick, p. 377-8