o>' \^' ^^ oo' ''c^. A^^' ■x. '' V I - aV 3 '^' .-y~ '■ « tf 1 \ ■•^i-- .c^"* ^*-, \ f^ ■5r (^J^ ^i t, .0 N "00' r ..^^ \ LETTERS TO ©j^^nci^iEaMn^ iMa mmm^^'M^y IN REPLY TO AN ESSAY ON SLAVERY AND ABOLITIONISM, ADDRESSED TO A. E. GRIMKE REVISED BY THE AUTHOR BOSTON: PRINTED BY ISAAC KNAPP, 25, CORN HILL. Ib38. B'A -j Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year 1838, by Isaac KbAPP, in ilie Clerk'd Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. LETTER I. FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF ABOLITIONISTS. Brookline, Mass. 6 months 12th, 1837. My Dear Friend : Thy book has appeared just at a time, when, from the nature of my engagements, it will be impossible for me to give it that attention which so weighty a subject demands. Incessantly oc- cupied in prosecuting a mission, the responsibilities of which task all my powers, I can reply to it only by desultory letters, thrown from my pen as I travel from place to place. I prefer this mode to that of taking as long a time to answer it, as thou didst to determine upon the best method by which to counteract the ef- fect of my testimony at the north — which, as the pre- face of thy book informs me, was thy main design. Thou thinkest I have not been ' sufficiently informed in regard to the feelings and opinions of Christian fe- males at the North ' on the subject of slavery ; for that in fact they hold the same principles with Abolition- ists, although they condemn their measures. \Vilt thou permit me to receive their principles from thy pen ? Thus instructed, however misinformed I may •1 FT'NDAMENTAL PRINCirLE hercioforc have been, I can hardly fail of attaining to acoiiraio knowledge. Let us examine them, to see how far they correspond with the principles held by Abolitionists. The great fundamental principle of Abolitionists is, that man cannot rightfully hold his fellow man as pro- perty. Therefore, we aflirm, that every slaveholder is a inan'Stcaler. We do so, for the following reasons : to steal a man is to rob him of himself. It matters not whether this be done in Guinea, or Carolina; a man is a vtnn, and as a man he has bmlieiiahle rights, nmong which is ihe right to pevsoual liber /y. Now if every mun has an iHulienable right to personal liberty, it follows, that he cannot rightfully be reduced to sla- very. I^u 1 (iii't ill these United States, 2,250,000 men, women and ihilJren, robbed of that to which liiey have an iualienahh right. How comes this to pass? Where millions are plundered, are there no piunderira? If, then, the slaves have been robbed of ihcir liberty, who has robbed them ? Not the man who stole their forefathers from Africa, but he Avho now holds them in bondage; no matter /^oz<; they came into his pos.session, whether he inherited them, or bought them, or seized them at their birth on his own plantation. The only difference I can see between Ihc original man-stealer, who caught the African in his native country, and the American slaveholder, is, that the former committed owe act of robbery, w^hile the other perpetrates the same crime coiUimmlly. Slave- hol.lin^' is the perpetrating of acts, all of the same kind, in n srric$, the tirst of which is technically called man- sieahn^. The Jirst act robbed the man of himself; OF ABOLITIONISTS. 5 and the same state of mind that prompted that act, keeps up the series, having taken his all from him : it keeps his all from him, not only refusing to restore, but still robbing him of all he gets, and as fast as he gets it. Slaveholding, then, is the constant or habit- ual perpetration of the act of man-stealing. To make a slave is man-stealing — the act itself- — to hold him such is man-stealing — the habit, the permanent state, made up of individual acts. In other words — to be- gin to hold a slave is nian-stealing — to keep on holding him is merely a repetition of the first act — a doing the same identical thing all the time. A series of the same acts continued for a length of time is ^habit — a permanent state. And \kiQ first of this series of the same acts that make up this habit or state is just like all the rest. If every slave has a right to freedom, then surely the man who withholds that right from him to-day is a man-stealer, though he may not be the first person who has robbed hmi of it. Hence we find that Wes- ley says — ' M.^Si'Ci-huyers are exactly on a level with men-5?e«Z6r5.' And again — ' Much less is it possible that any child of man should ever be born a slave.'' Hear also Jonathan Edwards — ' To hold a man in a state of slavery, is to be every day guilty of robbing him of his liberty, or of man-stealing.'' And Groti- us says — ' Those are men-stealers who abduct, keep, sell or buy slaves or freemen.' If thou meanest merely that acts of that samenature, but differently located in a series, are designated by different terms, thus pointing out their different rela- tive positions, then thy argument concedes what we 1# 6 ri'N'DAMENTAL PRINCIPLE aii'irm,— ihe iJenliiy in ilic nature of the acts, and \\i\\^ ii dwindles to a mere philological criticism, or rutii'-r a mere play upon words. These are Abolition sentiments on tlie subject of slaveholding ; and although our principles are univer- .vally lieid l>y our opposers at the North, yet I am told on ihe 41lh page of thy book, that ' the word man- fcicaler has one peculiar signification, and is no more synonymous with slaveholder than it is with sheep- slealer.' I must acknowledge, thou hast only confirm- ed my opinion of the difference which I had believed lo exi>l between Abolitionists and their opponents. As well might Saul have declared, that he held simi- lar views with Stephen, when he stood by and kept the raiment of those who slew him. I know that a broad line of distinction is drawn be- tween our principles and our measures, by those who are anxious to * avoid the appearance of evil' — very desirous of retaining the fair character of enemies to slavery. Now, our measures are simply the carrying out of Qwx principles ; and we find, that just in pro- portion as individuals embrace our principles, in spirit and in truth, they cease to cavil at our measures. Ger- rit Smith is a striking illustration of this. Who cav- ill' 1 more at Anti-Slavery measures, and who more ' • U- now to acknowledge his former blindness ? Real iiionists know full well, that the slave never has been, and never can be, a whit the better for mere ab»tractions, floating iu the head of any man ; and thfv al>o know, ([vaX principles, fixed in the heart, are tilings of another sort. The former have never done any good in the world, because they possess no OF ABOLITIONISTS. 7 vitality, and therefore cannot bring forth the fruits of holy, untiring effort ; but the latter live in the lives of their possessors, and breathe in their words. And I am free to express my belief, that all who really and heartily approve our _pW?zcz^Ze5, will also approve our raeasures ; and that, too, just as certainly as a good tree will bring forth good fruit. But there is another peculiarity in the views of Ab- olitionists. We hold that the North is guilty of the crime of slaveholding — we assert that it is a national sin : on the contrary, in thy book, I find the following acknowledgement: — ' Most persons in the non-slave- holding States, have considered the matter of south- ern slavery as one in which they were no more called to interfere, than in the abolition of the press-gang system in England, or the tithe-system in Ireland.' Now I cannot see how the same principles can pro- duce such entirely different opinions. * Can a good tree bring forth corrupt fruit V This I deny, and can- not admit what thou art anxious to prove, viz. that * Public opinion may have been lorong on this point, and yet right on all those great principles of rectitude and justice relating to slavery.' If Abolition princi- ples are generally adopted at the North, how comes it to pass, that there is no abolition action here, except what is put forth by a few despised fanatics, as they are called ? Is there any living faith without works ? Can the sap circulate vigorously, and yet neither blos- soms put forth nor fruit appear ? Again, I am told on the 7th page, that all Northern Christians believe it is a sin to hold a man in slavery for ^ Tnere jnir poses of gain ;^ as if this was the wkole 8 rrNPAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF ABOLITIONISTS. abolilion principle on this subject. I can assure thee thai Aboliiionisis do not slop here. Our principle is, thai no circumstances can ever justify a man in hold- ing his fellow man a'^ property ; it matters not what motirt he may give for such a monstrous violation of the law.s of God. The claim to him ViS property is an annihilalion of his right to himself, which is the foun- dation upon which all his other rights are built. It is high-handed robbery of Jehovah; for He has declar- ed, ' All souls arc ininc.' For myself, I believe there ire hundreds of thousands at the South, who do not hold their slaves, by any means, as much 'for purposes of gain,' as they do from the lust of power : this is the passion that reigns triumphant there, and those who do not know this, have much yet to learn. Where, then, is the similarity in our views ? I forbear for the present, and subscribe rnyself, Thine, but not in the bonds of gospel Abolitionism, A. E. GRDIKE. LETTER II. IMMEDIATE EMANCIPATION. Brookline, Mass. Q)th month, 17tk, 1S37, Dear Friend : Where didst thou get thy statement of what Abolitionists mean by immediate emancipa- tion? I assure thee, it is a noveUy. I never heard any aboHtionist say that slaveholders ' were physically unable to emancipate their slaves, and of course are not bound to do it,' because in some States there are laws which forbid emancipation. This is truly what our opponents affirm ; but tve say that all the laws which sustain the system of slavery are unjust and oppressive — contrary to the fundamental principles of morality, and, therefore, null and void. We hold, that all the slaveholding- laws violate the fundamental principles of the Constitution of the United States. In the preamble of that instrument, the great objects for which it was framed are declared to be ' to establish justice, to promote the general welfare, and to secure the blessings of liberty to us and to our posterity.' The slave laws are flagrant 10 • IMMEDIATE violations of these fundamental principles. Slavery subverts justice, promotes the welfare of the few to the manifest injury of the many, and robs thousands of the posterity of our forefathers of the blessings of liberty. This cannot be denied, for Paxton, a Virginia slaveholder, says, ' the best blood in Virginia flows in the veins of slaves !' Yes, even the blood of a Jeffer- son. And every southerner knows, that it is a com- mon thing for the posterity of our forefathers to be sold on the vendue tables of the South. The posteri- ty of our fathers are advertised in American papers as runaway slaves. Such advertisements often contain expressions like these : ' has sometimes passed himself off as a white man,' — ' has been mistaken for a white man,' — ' quite white^ has straight hair, and would not readily be taken for a slave,' &c. Now, thou wilt perceive, that, so far from thinking that a slaveholder is bound by the immoral and un- co7istitutional laws of the Southern States, we hold that he is solemnly bound as a man, as an American, to break them, and that immediately and openly ; as much so, as Daniel was to pray, or Peter and John to preach — or every conscientious Quaker to refuse to pay a militia fine, or to train, or to fight. We promulgate no such time-serving doctrine as that set f trth by thee. When ice talk of immediate emanci- pation, we speak that we do mean, and the slavehold- ers understand u.s, if thou dost not. Here, then, is another point in which we are entire- ly at variance, though the principles of abolitionism are 'generally adopted by our opposers.' What shall I say to these things, but that I am glad thou hast af- EMANCIPATION forded me an opportunity of explaining to thee what our principles really are ? for I apprehend that thou * hast not been sufficiently informed in regard to the feelings and opinions ' of abolitionists. It matters not to me what meaning ' Dictionaries or standard writers ' may give to immediate emancipa- tion. My Dictionary is the Bible ; my standard au- thors, prophets and apostles. When Jehovah com- manded Pharaoh to ' let the people go,' he meant that they should be immediately emancipated. I read his meaning in the judgments which terribly rebuked Pharaoh's repeated and obstinate refusal to ' let the people go.' I read it in the universal emancipation of near 3,000,000 of Israelites in one aivful night. When the prophet Isaiah commanded the Jews ' to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy bur- dens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke,' he taught no gradual or partial emanci- pation, but immediate, universal emancipation. When Jeremiah said, ' Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him ,that is spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor,' he commanded immediate deliverance. And so also with Paul, when he exhorted masters to render unto their servants that which is just and equal. Obedience to this command would immediately over- turn the whole system of American Slavery ; for lib- erty is justly due to every American citizen, according to the laws of God and the Constitution of our coun- try; and a fair recompense for his labor is the right of every man. Slaveholders know this is just as well as we Jo. John C. Calhoun said in Congress, in 1S33— * He who mrm the money— who digs it out of the 12 IM.'IEDIATE earth with ihe sweat of his brow, has dijicst title to it ni'ninsi ilie Universe. No one has a right to touch it trt'''i Where, then, I ask, is this glorious success of -which we hear so much, but sec so little ? Let us travel onward, from tlie year 1806, when England passed her abolition act. What were British philanthropists doing for the emancipation of the slave, for the next twenty years ? Nothing at all ; and it was the voice of Elizabeth Heyrick which first •And in ' Laird's Expedition to Africa, &c.' a work recently published in Enj^land, this assertion of the slave trader is fully su5iaincd. Laird relates that ' there is 'proof of the horrid fact, that several of the wretches engaged in this traffic, when hotly pursued, consigned ivholc cargoes to the deep.' He then. goes on to slate several such instances, from which I select the following: ' In 1833, the Black Joke and Fair Rosamond fell in with the Herculc and Kegule, two slave vessels off the Bonny River. On perceiving the cruisers, they attempted to regain the port, and pitched overboard upwards of 500 human beings, chained together, before they were captured ; from the abundance of .sharks in the river, their track was literally a blood-stained one. The slaver not only does this, but glories in it : the first words uttered by the captain of the Maria Isa- bellc, stM/fd by captain Rose, were, ' that if he had seen the man of war in chase an hour sooner, he would have thrown (very slave in his vessel overboard,, as he was fully insured,^ MAIN PRINCIPLE OF ACTION. lY awakened them from their dream of gradualism to an understanding of the simple doctrine of immediate emancipation ; but even though they saw the injus- tice and inefficiency of their own views, yet several years elapsed before they had the courage to promul- gate hers. And now I can point thee to the success of these efforts in the emancipation bill of 1834. But even this success was paltry, in comparison with what it would have been, had all the conspicuous abolitionists of England been true to these just and holy principles. Some of them were false to those principles, and hence the compensation and appren- ticeship system. A few months ago, it was my priv- ilege to converse with .Joseph Sturge, on his return from the West Indies, via New York, to Liverpool, whither he had gone to examine the working of Eng- land's plan of emancipation. I heard him speak of the bounty of £20,000,000 which she had put into the hands of the planters, of their mean and cruel abuse of the apprenticeship system, and of the hearty ap- probation he felt in the thorough-going principles of the Anti-Slavery Societies in this country, and his increased conviction that ours were the only right principles on this important subject. That even the apprenticeship system is viewed by British philan- thropists as a complete failure, is evident from the fact that they are now re-organizing their Anti-Sla- very Societies, and circulating petitions for the substi- tution of immediate emancipation in its stead. Hence it appears, that so far from our resting 'wholly upon a false deduction from past experience^'' we are resting on no experience at all ; for no class of 2=^ IS MAIN PRINCIPLE OF ACTION. men in the world ever have maintained the principles which we now advocate. Our main principle of uciion is *oWdiencc to God '— oiu- hope of success is faith in Him. and that faitli is as unwavering as He is true and powerful. 'Blessed is the man who ih in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.' >. uh regard to the connection between the North and the South, I shall say but little, having already ;hoe my views on that subject in the letter to ' Cl.irkson,' originally published in the New Haven •ntliL'ioiis Intelligencer. I there pointed out fifteen • ll-.rurciit ways in which the North was implicated in the guillof slavery ; and, therefore, I deny the charge llial abolitionists ave endeavoring 'to convince their V riliz'-ms of the faults of another community.' .NM. ;ii al!. We arc spreading out the horrors of slavery beioro Northerners, in order to show them their own sin in sustaining such a system of complicated wrong and suffering. It is because we are ]X)litically, com- mercially, and socially connected with our southern 1' •■ •• ■. that wo urge our doctrines upon those of the !. s. We have begun our work /zere, because pro-slavery men of the North are to the system of slavery just what temperate drinkers were to the vice of intemperance. Temperance reformers did not begi7i their labors among druidiards, but among temperate drinkers : so Anti-Slaverv reformers did not deiri?i iheir labors among slaveholders, but among those who wero making their forlimes out of the unrequited toil of the sl;»vc. and rereiving larije mnrtgaces on south- ern plantations and slaves, and tradiiig occasionally in ' slaves and the souls of men,' and sending men to MAIN PniNCIPLE OF ACTION. IS^ Congress to buy up southern land to bo co:i verted into slave States, such as Louisiana and Florida, which cost this nation $20,000,000 — men who have adnnitted seven slave States into the Union — men who boast on the floor of Congress, that ' there is no cause in v/hich they w^ould. sooner buckle a knapsack on their backs and shoulder g. musket, than that of putting down a servile insurrection at the South,' as said the' present Governor of Massachusetts, vv hich odious sen- timent was repeated by Governor Lincoln only last w^inter — men who, trained up on Freedom's soil, yet go down to the South and marry slaveholders, and beconie slaveholders, and then return to our northern cities with slaves in their train. This is the case with a native of this town, who is now here with his southern wife and southern slave. And as soon as we reform the recreant sons and daughters of the North, — as soon as we rectify public opinion at the North, — then I, for one, will promise to go down inta the midst of slaveholders themselves, to promulgate our doctrmes in the land of the slave. But how can we go now, v^/hen northern pulpits and meeting-houses are closed, and northern ministers are dumb, and northern Governors are declaring that ' the discussion of the subject of slavery ought to be made an offence indictable at common lavi^,' and northern women are writing books to paralyze the efforts of southern w^o- men, who have come up from the South, to entreat their northern sisters to exert their influence in behalf of the slave, and in behalf of the slaveholder, who is as deeply corrupted, though not equally degraded, with the slave. No ! No ! the taunts of a New England 20 MAIN PRINCIPLE OF ACTION. woman will induce no abolitionist to cease his rebuke of northern slaveholders and apologists for slavery. Southerners see the wisdom o[ this, \ithou canst not; and over against thy opinion, I will place that of a Loui.>iana planter, who, whilst on a visit to his relatives at Uxbridge, Mass. this summer, unhesitatingly ad- mitted that the I^orth was Uw right place to begin Anti-Slavery efforts. Had I not been convinced of this before, surely thy book would have been all-suffi- cient to satisfy me of it ; for a more subtle defence of the slaveholders right to property in his helpless vic- tmis, I never saw. It is just such a defence as the hidden enemies of Liberty will rejoice to see, because, like thyself, they earnestly desire to < avoid the appear- ance of evil ; ' they are as much opposed to slavery as we are, only they arc as much opposed to Anti-Sla- very as the slaveholders themselves. Is there any nnddle path in this reformation? Or may we not fa.rly conclude, that he or she that is not for the slave in deed and in truth, is against him, no matter how specious their professions of pity for his condition ? h\ haste, I remain thy friend, A. E. GRIMKJE. LETTER IV. CONNECTION BETWEEN THE NORTH AND SOUTH. Danvers, Mass., ^(th mo.^ 1837. Dear Friend : — I thank thee for having furnished me with just such a simile as I needed to illustrate the connection which exists between the North and the South. Thou sayest, ' Suppose two rival cities, one of which becomes convinced that certain practices in trade and business in the other are dishonest, and have an op- pressive bearing on certain classes in that city. Suppose, also, that these are practices,which, by those who allow them, are considered as honorable and right. Those who are convinced of this immorality wish to alter the opinions and the practices of the citizens of their rival city, and to do this they commence the collection of facts, that exhibit the tendencies of these practices and the evils they have engendered. But, instead of going among the community in which the evil exists, and endeavoring to convince them, they proceed to form voluntary associations among their neighbors at home, and spend their time, money, and efforts to convince their fellow citizens that the inhabitants o-f ^2 CONNECTION BETWEEN their rival city are guilty of a great sin.' Now I will take up the comparison here, and suppose a few other things about these two cities. Suppose that the peo- ple in one city were known never to pay the laborer his wages, but to be in the constant habit of keeping back the hire of those who reaped down their fields ; and that, on examination, it was found that the people in the other city were continually going over to live with these gentlemen oppressors, and instead of re- buking them, were joining hands in wickedness with them, and were actually Jiiore oppressive to the poor than the native inhabitants. Suppose, too, it was found that many of the merchants in the city of Fair- dealing, as it was called, were known to hold mort- gages, not only upon the property which ought to belong to the unpaid laborers, but mortgages, too, on the laborers themselves, aj^ and their ivives and chil- dren also, a thing altogether contrary to the laws of their city, and the customs of their people, and the principles of fundamental morality. Suppose, too, it was found that the people in the city of Oppression were in the coristant practice of sending over to the city of Fairdealing, and bribing their citizens to seize the poorest, most defenceless of their people for them, because they were so lazy they would not do their own work, and so mean they would not pay others for doing it, and chose thus to supply themselves with laborers, who, when they once got into the city, were l)larfd under such severe laws, 'that it was almost im- possible for them ever to return to their o-fflicted wives and children. Suppose, too, that whenever any of these oppressed, unpaid laborers happened to escape THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 23 from the city of Oppression, and after lying out in the woods and fastnesses which lay between the two cities, for many weeks, 'in weariness and painfulness, in watchings, in hunger and thirst, in cold and naked- ness,' that, as soon as they reached the city of Fair- dealing, they were most unmercifully hunted out and sent back to their cruel oppressors, who it was well known generally treated such laborers with great cru- elty, ' stern necessity' demanding that they should be punished and ' rebuked before all, that others might fear' the consequences of such elopement. In short, suppose that the city of Fairdealing was so completely connected with the city of Oppression, that the golden strands of their interests Avere twisted together so as to form a bond of Union stronger than death, and that by the intermarriages which were constantly taking place, there was also a silken cord of love tying up and binding together the tender feelings of their hearts with all the intricacies of the Gordian knot ; and then, again, that the identity of the political interests of these cities were wound round and round them like bands of iron and brass, altogether forming an union so complicated and powerful, that it ^vas impossible even to speak in the most solemn manner, in the city of Fairdeahng, of the enormous crimes which were common in the city of Oppression, without having brickbats and rotten eggs hurled at the speaker's head. Suppose, too, that although it was perfectly manifest to every reflecting mind, that a most guilty copartnership existed between these two cities, yet that the ' gentlemen of property and standing' of the city of Fairdealing were continually taunting the 24 CONNECTION BETWEEN people who were trying to represent their iniquitous leag"ue with tiie city of Oppression in its true and einful bearings, willi the query of ' Why don't you go lo the city of Oppression, and tell the people there, not to rob the poor?' Might not these reformers very justly remark, we cannot go there ztntil we have persuaded our own citizens to cease their unholy co- operation with them, for tliey will certainly turn upon us in bitter irony and say — ' Physician, heal thyself;' go back to your own city, and tell your own citizens * lo break olf their sins by righteousness, and their transgressions by showing mercy to the poor,' who fly from our city into the gates of theirs for protection, but receive it not. Would not common sense bear them out in refusing to go there, until they had first converted their own people from the error of their ways? I will leave thee and my other readers to make the apjjlication of this comparison ; and if thou dost not acknowledge that abolitionists have been governed by the soundest common sense in the course they have pursued at the North with regard to slave- ry, then I am very much disappointed in thy profes- sions of eandor. With regard to the parallel thou liasl drawn (p. 16,) between abolitionists, and the * men (who)are daily going into the streets, and calling all bystanders around them ' and pointing out certain men, some as liars, some as dishonest, some as licen- tious, and then briuging proofs of their guilt and re- bukmg them before all; at the same time exhorting all around to point at them the finger of scorn;' thou sayest, ' they persevere in this course till the whole community is thrown into an uproar; and assaults THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 25 and even bloodshed ensue.' But why, I should like to know, if these people are themselves guiltless of the crimes allesfed ao-ainst the others ? I cannot un- derstand wh}^ they should be so angry, unless, like the Jews of old, they perceived that the parable had been spoken ' against them.'' To my own mind, the exasperation of the North at the discussion of slavery is an undeniable proof of her guilt, a certain evidence of the necessity of her plucking the beam out of her own eye, before she goes to the South to rebuke sin there. To thee, and to all who are continually crying out, ' Why don't you go to the South?' I re- tort the question by asking, why don't you go to the South ? We conscientiously believe that this work must be commenced here at the North ; this is an all-sufficient answer for us ; but you, w^ho are ' as much anti-slavery as w^e are,' and differ only as to the modus operandi, believing that the South and ?zo? the North ought to be the field of Anti-Slavery labors — YOU, I say, have no excuse to offer, and are bound to go there now. But there is another view to be taken of this sub- ject. By all our printing and talking at the North. we have actually reached the very heart of the disease at the South. They acknowledge it themselves. Read the following confession in the Southern Lite- rary Review. ' There are many good men even among us^ who have begun to grow timid. They think that what the virtuous and high-minded men of the North look upon as a crime and a plague-spot, cannot be perfectly innocent or quitte harmless in a slaveholding community.' James Smylie, of Missis- 3 26 CONNECTION BETWEEN sippi, a minister of the gospel, so called, tells us on the very first page of his essay, written to uphold the docirines of Governor McDuffie, ' that the abolition maxim, viz. that slavery is iti itself sinful, had gained on and entwined itself among the religious and con- scientious scruples of many in the community, so far as to render them unhapjnj.^ I could quote other southern testimony to the same effect, but will pass on to another fact just published in the New England Spectator; a proposition from a minister in Missouri • to have separate organizations for slavery and anti- slavery professors,' and indeed * all over the slave- holding States.' Has our labor then been in vain in the Lord ? Have we failed to rouse the slumbering consciences of the South? Thou inquires! — ' Have the northern States power to rectify evils at the South, as they have to remove their own moral deformities?' I answer unhesitat- ingly, certainly they have, for moral evils can be re- moved only by moral power ; and the close connec- tion which exists between these tAvo portions of our country, affords the greatest possible facilities for ex- erting a moral influence on it. Only let the North exert as much moral infltience over the South, as the South has exerted demoralizing influence over the North, and slavery would die amid the flame of Christian remonstrance, and faithful rebuke, and holy- indignation. The South has told us so. In the re- port of the committee on federal relations in the Leo-- islature of South Carolina last winter, we find the following acknowledgement: 'Let it be admitted, that by reason of an efhcient police and judicious in- THE NORTH AND SOUTH. 27 ternal legislation, we may render abortive the designs of the fanatic and incendiary within our limits, and that the torrent of pamphlets and tracts which the abolition presses of the North are pouring forth with an inexhaustible copiousness, is arrested the moment it reaches our frontier. Are we to wait until our enemies have built up, by the grossest misrepresenta- tions and falsehoods, a body of public opinion, which it would be impossible to resist, without separating ourselves from the social system of the rest of the civilized world?' Here is the acknowledgement of a southern legislature, that it will be impossible for the South to resist the ijifluence of that body of public opinion, w^hich abolitionists are building up against them at the North. If further evidence is needed, that anti-slavery societies are producing a powerful influence at the South, look at the efforts made there to vilify and crush them. V/hy all this turmoil, and passion, and rage in the slaveholder, if we have indeed rolled back the cause of emancipation 200 years, as thy father has asserted? Why all this terror at the distant roar of free discussion, if they feel not the earth quaking beneath them 1 Does not the South understand what really will afTect her interests and break down her domestic institution ? Has she no subtle politicians, no far-sighted men in her borders, who can scan the practical bearings of these troublous times ? Believe me, she has ; and did they not know that we are springing a mine beneath the great bastile of slavery, and laying a train which will soon whelm it in ruin, she would not be quite so eager * to cut out our tongues, and hang us as high as Haman.' 29 CONNECTION BETWEEN THE NORTH AND SOUTH. I will ju.-t :u1l1, iliat as to the committee saying that abolitionists arc building; up a bod}^ of public opinion at the North ' by the grossest misrepresenta- tions and falsehoods,' I think it was due to their character for veracity, to have cited and refuted some of these calumnies. Until they do, we must believe them ; and as a Southerner, I can bear the most de- cided testimony against slavery as the mother of all abominations. Farewell for the present. I remain thy friend, A. E. GRIMKE. LETTER V. CHRISTIAN CHARACTER OF ABOLITIONISM. Newburyport, 1th mo. 8th, 1837. DexYR Friend : As an Abolitionist, I thank thee for the portrait thou hast drawn of the character of those with whom I am associated. They deserve all thou hast said in their favor ; and I will now endeavor to vindicate those ' men of pure morals, of great honesty of purpose, of real benevolence and piety,' from some objections thou hast urged against their measures. ' Much evidence,' thou sayest, ' can be brought to prove that the character and measures of the Aboli- tion Society are not either peaceful or christian in tendency, but that they are in their nature calculated to generate party spirit, denunciation, recrimination, and ansry passion.' Now I solemnly ask thee, wheth- er the character and measures of our holy Redeemer did not produce exactly the same effects ? Why did the Jews lead him to the brow of the hill, that they might cast him down headlong ; why did they go about to kill him ; why did they seek to lay hands on him, if the tendency of his measures was so very pacific ? 30 CHRISTIAN CHARACTER Listen, loo, to his own declaration : ' I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword ;' the effects of which, he expressly said, would be to set the mother against her daughter, and the daughter-in-law against her mother- in-law. The rebukes Avliich he uttered against sin were eminently calculated to produce ' recriminations and angry passions,' in all who were determined to cleave to their sins ; and they did produce them even against ' him who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouih.' He was called a wine-bibber, and a glutton, and Beelzebub, and was accused of casting out devils by the prince of the devils. Wh}', then, pro- test against our measures as unchristian, because they do not smooth the pillow of the poor sinner, and lull his conscience into fatal security ? The truth is, the efforts of abolitionists have stirred up the very same spirit which the efforts of all thorough- going reform- ers have ever done ; we consider it a certain proof that the truths we utter are sharper than any two edged sword, and that they are doing the work of con- viction in the hearts of our enemies. If it be not so, I have greatly mistaken the character of Christianity. I consider it pre eminently aggressive ; it waits not to be assaulted, but moves on in all the majesty of Truth to attack the strong holds of the kingdom of darkness, carries the war into the enemy's camp, and throAvs its fiery darts into the midst of its embattled hosts. Thou seemest to think, on the contrary, that Christianity is just such a weak, dependent, puerile creature as thou hast described woman to be. In my opinion, thou hast robbed both the one and the other of all their true di^iity and glory. Thy descriptions may suit OF ABOLITIONISM. 31 the prevailing Christianity of this age, and the general character of woman ; and if so, we have great cause for shame and confusion of face. I feel sorry that thy unkind insinuations against the christian cliaracter of Wm. Lloyd Garrison, have ren- dered it necessary for me to speak of him individual- ly, because what I shall feel bound to say of him may, to some like thyself, appear like flattery ; but I must do what justice seems so clearly to call for at my hands. Thou sayest that ' though he professes a be- lief in the christian religion, he is an avowed oppo- nent of most of its institutions.' I presume thou art here alluding to his views of the ordinances of bap- tism and the Lord's supper, and the Sabbath. Permit me to remind thee, that in all these opinions, he coin- cides entirely with the Society of Friends, whose views of the Sabbath never were so ably vindicated as by his pen : and the insinuations of hypocrisy which thou hast thrown out against him, may with just as much truth be cast upon theiJi. The Quakers think that these are not christian institutions, but thou hast assumed it without any proof at all. Thou say- est farther, ' The character and spirit of this man have for years been exhibited in the Liberator.' I have taken that paper for two years, and therefore under- stand its character, and am compelled to acknowledge, that harsh and severe as is the language often used, I have never seen any expressions which truth did not warrant. The abominations of slavery cannot be otherwise described. I think Dr. Channing exactly portrayed the character of brother Garrison's writings when he said, ' That deep feehng of evils, which is CHRISTIAN CHARACTER necessary to effectual conflict with tlicm, which marks God's most powerful messengers to mankind, cannot breathe itself in soft and tender accents. The deeply moved soul icill speak strongly, and ought to speak strongly, so as to move and shake nations.' It is well for the slave, and well for this country, that such a man was sent to sound the tocsin of alarm before slavery had com- pleted its work of moral death in this ' hypocritical na- tion.' Garrison begun that discussion of the subject of slavery, which J. Q. Adams declared in his oration, de- livered in this town on the 4th inst. ' to be the onl}' safe- ty-valve by wliich the high pressure boiler of slavery could be prevented from a most fatal explosion in this country ;' and as a Southerner, I feel truly grateful for all his eflbrts to redeem not the slave only, but the slaveholder, from the polluting influences of such a system of crime. In his character as a man and a Christian, I have the highest confidence. The assertion thou makest, ' that there is to be found in that paper, or any thing else, any evidence of his possessing the peculiar traits of Wilberforce, (benignity, gentleness and kind heart- edness, I suppose thou meanest,) not even his w^arm- est admirers will maintain,' is altogether new to me ; and I for one feel ready to declare, that I have never met in any one a more lovely exhibition of these traits of character. I might relate several anecdotes in proof of this assertion, but let one suflice. A friend of mine, a member of the Society of Friends, told me that after he became interested in the Anti- Slavery cause through the Liberator, he still felt so much pre- judice against its editor, that, although he wished to OF ABOLITIONISM. 33 labor in behalf of the slaves, he still felt as if he could not identify himself with a society which recog- nized such a leader as he had heard Wm. L. Garri- son was. He had never seen him, and after many struggles of feeling, determined to go to Boston on purpose to see ' this man,' and judge of his character for himself. He did so, and when he entered the of- fice of the Liberator, soon fell into conversation with a person he did not know, and became very much in- terested in him. After some time, a third person came in and called off the attention of the stranger, whose benevolent countenance and benignant manners he had so much admired. He soon heard him ad- dressed as Mr. Garrison, which astonished him very much ; for he had expected to see some coarse, un- couth and rugged creature, instead of the perfect gen- tleman he now learned was Wm. L. Garrison. He told me that the effect upon his mind was so great, that he sat down and wept to think he had allowed himself to be to prejudiced against a person, who was so entirely different from what his enemies had repre- sented him to be. He at once felt as if he could most cheerfully labor, heart and hand, with such a man, and has for the last three or four years been a faithful co-worker with him, in the holy cause of immediate emancipation. And his confidence in him as a man of pure, christian principle, has grown stronger and stronger, as time has advanced, and circumstances have developed his true character. I think it is im- possible thou canst be personally acquainted with brother Garrison, or thou wouldst not write of him in the way thou hast. If thou really wishest to have 34 CHRISTIAN CHARACTER OF ABOLITIONISM. thy erroneous opinions removed, embrace the first op- poriuniiy of being introduced to him ; for I can assure ihee, that with the fire of a Paul, he does possess some of the most lovely traits in the character of Wilber- force. In much haste, I remain thy friend, A. E. GRIMKE. LETTER VI. COLONIZATION. Amesbury, 1th mo. 20th, 1837. Dear Friend : The aggressive spirit of Anti-Slavery papers and pamphlets, of which thou dost complain, so far from being a repulsive one to me, is very attrac- tive. I see in it that uncompromising integrity and fearless rebuke of sin, which will bear the enterprize of emancipation through to its consummation. And I most heartily desire to see these publications scatter- ed over our land as abundantly as the leaves of Au- tumn, believing as I do that the principles they pro- mulgate will be as leaves for the healing of this na- tion. I proceed to examine thy objections to * one of the first measures of Abolitionists:' their attack on a be- nevolent society. That the Colonization Society is a benevolent insti- tution, we deny : therefore our attack upon it was not a sacrilegious one ; it was absolutely necessary, in or- der to disabuse the public mind of the false views they entertained of its character. And it is a perfect mys- 36 COLONIZATION. tcry lo mc liow men and women can conscientiously persevere in u])holJing a society, which the very ob- jects of its professed benevolence have repeatedly, sol- emnl}', constantly and universally condemned. To say the least, this is a very suspicious kind of benev- olence, and seems too nearly allied to that, which in- duces some southern professors to keep their brethren in bonds /or their benefit. Yes, the free colored peo- ple are to be exiled, because public opinion is crushing them into the dust ; instead of their friends protesting against that corrupt and unreasonable prejudice, and living it down by a practical acknowledgement of their right to every privilege, social, civil and religious, which is enjoyed by the white man. I have never yet been able to learn, how our hatred to our colored brother is to be destroyed by driving him away from us. I am told that when a colored republic is built up on the coast of Africa, then we shall respect that republic, and acknowledge that the character of the colored man can be elevated ; we will become con- nected with it in a commercial point of view, and wel- come it to the sympathies of our hearts. Miserable sophistry ! deceitful apology for present indulgence in sm ! What man or woman of common sense now doubts the intellectual capacity of the colored people ? Who does not know, that with all our efforts as a na- tion to crush and ^annihilate the mind of this portion of our race,' we have never yet been able to do it ^ Henry Berry of Virginia, in his speech in the Legis- lature of that State, in 1S32, expressly acknowledged, that although slaveholders had 'as far as possible clos- ed every avenue by which light might enter their COLONIZATION. 37 minds,' yet that they never had found out the process by -which they ' could extinguish the capacity to see the light.' No I that capacity remains — it is inde- structible — an integral part of their nature, as moral and immortal beings. If it is true that white Americans only need a de- monstration of the colored man's capacity for eleva- tion, in order to make them willing to receive him on the same platform of human rights upon which they stand, why has not the intelligence of the Haytians convinced them ? Their free republic has grown up under the very eye of the slaveholder, and as a nation Ave have for many years been carrying on a lucrative trade with her merchants ; and yet we have never re- cognized her independence, never sent a minister there, though we have sent ambassadors to European countries whose commerce is far less important to us us than that of St. Domingo.^ These professions of a wish to plant the tree of Liberty on the shores of Africa, in order to convince our Republican Despotism of the high moral and in- tellectual worth of the colored man, are perfectly ab- * Although there are some who like to discant on the worthless character of the Haytians, and the miserable con- dition of the Island, yet it is an indisputuble fact, that a pop- ulation of nearly 1,000,000 are supported on its soil, and that in 1833, the value of its exports to the United States exceed- ed in value those of Prussia, Sweden, and Norway— Denmark and the Danish West Indies— Ireland and Scotland— Holland — Belgium- Dutch East Indies— British West Indies— Spain —Portugal— all Italy— Turkey and the Levant, or any one Republic in South America. 4 r^^ COLONIZATION. surd. Hayii has done that long ago. A friend of mine (not an Abolitionist) whose business called 'him ID that island for several months, told me that in the society of its citizens, he often felt his own inferiority. He was astonished at the elegance of their manners, and the intelligence of their conversation. Instead of going into an examination of Colonization principles, I refer thee to the Appeal to the Women of the nom- inally free States, issued by the Convention of Amer- ican Women, in which we set forth our reasons for repudiating them. Thou hast given a specimen of the manner in which Abolitionists deal with their Colonization oppo- nents. Thy friend remarked, after an interview with an abolitionist, ' I love truth and sound argument ; but when a man comes at me with a sledge hammer, I cannot help dodging.' I presume thy friend only felt the truth of the prophet's declaration, ' Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces ?' I wonder not that he did dodge, when the sledge hammer of truth was wield- ed by an abolition army. Many a Colonizationist has been compelled to dodge, in order to escape the blows of this hammer of the Lord's word, for there is no other way to get clear. We must either dodge the arguments of ab- olitionists, or like J. G. Birney, Edward C. Delevan, and many others, be willing to be broken to pieces by them. I greatly like this specimen of private dealing, and hope it is not the only instance which has come under thy notice, of Colonizationists acknowledging the absolute necessity of dodging Anti-Slavery argu- ments, when they were unwilling that \\\e rock of pre^ :^7idhc should be broken to pieces by them. COLONIZATION. 39 Thy next complaint is against the manner in which this benevolent Expatriation Society was attacked. ' The style in which the thing was done was at once offensive, inflammatory and exasperating,' — ' the feel- ings of many sincere, upright, and conscientious men were harrowed by a sense of the injustice, the inde- corum and the unchristian treatment they received.' But why, if they were entirely innocent of the charges brought against Colonizationists ? I have been in the habit, for several years past, of watching the workings of my own mind under true and false charges against myself; and my experience is, that the more clear I am of the charge, the less I care about it. If I really feel a sweet assurance that ' my witness is in heaven — my record is on high,' I then realize to its fullest extent that ' it is a small thing to be judged of marCs judgment,' and I can bear/aZ^e charges unmoved ; but true ones always nettle me, if I am unwilling to con- fess that ' I have sinned ;' if I am, and yield to con- viction, O then ! how sweet the reward ! Now I am very much afraid that these sincere, upright and con- scientious Colonizationists are something like the 'pi- ous ^professors of the South, who are very angry be- cause abolitionists say that all slaveholders are men- stealers. Both find it 'hard to kick against the pricks' of conviction, and both are unwilling to repent. A northern man remarked to a Virginia slaveholder last winter, ' that as the South denied the charges brought against her by abolitionists, he could not understand why she w^as so enraged ; for,' continued he, ' if you were to accuse us at the North of being sheep-stealers, we should not care about the charge — w^e should ridi- 40 COLONIZATION. cule it.' '0 !' said the Virginian with an oath, ' what the abolitionists say about slaveholders is too true, and that's the reason we are vexed.' Is not this the reason why our Colonization brethren and sisters are so angry ? Ls not what we say of them also too true ? Lei them examine these things with the bible and prayer, and settle this question between God and their own souls. Every true friend of the oppressed American has great cause to rejoice, that the cloak of benevolence has been torn off from the monster Prejudice, which could love the colored man after he got to Africa, but seemed to delight lo pour contumely upon him whilst he remained in the land of his birth. I confess it would be very hard for me to believe that any associa- tion of men and women loved me or my family, if, be- cause we had become obnoxious to them, they were to meet together, and concentrate their energies and pour out their money for the purpose of transporting us back to France, whence our Hugenot fathers fled to this couiryn to escape the storm of persecutions. Why not let us live in America, if you really love us ? Surely you jiever want to ' get rid ' of people whom you love. I like to have such near me ; and it is because I love the colored Americans, that I want them to stay in this country ; and in order to make it a happy home to them, I am trying to talk down, and write down, and live down this horrible prejudice. Sending a few to Africa cannot destroy it. No— we must dig up the weed by the roots out of each of our hearts. It is a sin, and we must repeal of it and forsake it— and then COLONIZATION. 41 Vve shall no longer be so anxious to ' be clear of them ^ * to get rid of them.'' Hoping, though against hope, that thou mayest one day know how precious is the reward of those who can love our oppressed brethren and sisters in this day of their calamity, and who, despising the shame of be* ing identified with these peeled and scattered? ones, rejoice to stand side by side with them, in the glorious conflict between Slavery and Freedom, Prejudice and Love unfeigned, I remain thine in the bonds of uni-» versal love, / A. E. GRIMKE, 4^ LETTER VII. PREJUDICE. Haverhill, Mass. 1th mo. 23, 1S37. Dear Friend : — Thou sayest, ' the best way to make a person like a thing which is disagreeable, is to try in some way to make it agreeable.' So, then, instead of convincing a person by sound argument and pointed rebuke that sin is sin^ we are to disguise the opposite virtue in such a way as to make him like that, in preference to the sin he had so dearly loved. We are to cheat a sinner out of his sin, rather than to compel him, under the stings of conviction, to give it up from deep- rooted principle. If this is the course pursued by ministers, then I wonder not at the kind of converts wliich are broug-ht into the church at the present day. Thy remarks on the subject of prejudice, show but too plainly how strongly thy own mind is imbued with it, and how little thy colonization principles have done to extermi- nate this feeling from thy own bosom. Thou sayest, 'if a certain cla^s of persons is the subject of unrea- sonable prejudicf, the peaceful and christian way of removing it would be to endeavor to render the un- PREJUDICE. 43 fortunate persons who compose this class, so useful, so humble^ so unassuming, &c. that prejudice would be supplanted by complacenc}'' in their goodness, and pity and sympathy for their disabilities.' ' If the friends of the blacks had quietly set themselves to work to increase their intelligence, their usefulness, &c. and then had appealed to the pity and benevc* lence of their fellow citizens, a very different result would have appeared.' Or in other words, if one person is guilty of a sin against another person, I am to let the sinner go entirely unreproved, but to per- suade the injured party to bear with humility and patience all the outrages that are inflicted upon him, and thus try to soothe the sinner ' into complacency with their goodness' in 'bearing all things, and en- during all things.' Well, suppose I succeed: — is that sinner won from the evil of his ways hy priiici- pie ? No ! Has he the principle of love implanted in his breast ? No ! Instead of being in love with the virtue exhibited by the individual, because it is virtue, he is delighted with the personal convenience he experiences from the exercise of that virtue. He feels kindly toward the individual, because he is an instrument of his enjoyment, a mere meafis to promote his wishes. There is 7io reformation there at all. And so the colored people are to be taught to be ' very humble' and ' unassuming,' ' gentle' and ' meek,' and then the 'pity and generosity' of their fellow citizens are to be appealed to. Now, no one who knows anything of the influence of Abolitionists over the colored peo- ple, can deny that it has been peaceful and christian ; had it not been so, they never would have seen those 44 PREJUDICE. whom they had regarded as their best friends, mobbed and persecuted, without raising an arm in their de- fence. Look, too, at the rapid spread of thorough. temperance principles among them, and their moral reform and other laudable and useful associations ; look at the rising character of this people, the new life and energy which have been infused into them. "Who have done it? Who have exerted by far the greatest influence on these oppressed Americans ? I leave thee to answer. I will give thee one instance of this salutary influence. In a letter I received from one of my colored sisters, she incidentally makes this remark: — ' Until very lately, I have lived and acted more for myself than for the good of others. I con- fess that I am wholly indebted to the Abolition cause for arousing me from apathy and indifference, and shedding light into a mind which has been too long wrapt in selfish darkness.' The Abolition cause has exerted a powerful and healthful influence over this class of our population, and it has been done by quietly going into the midst of them, and identifying ourselves with them. But Abolitionists are complained of, because they, at the same time, fearlessly exposed the sin of the unreasonable and unholy prejudice which existed against these injured ones. Thou sayest 'that re- proaches, rebukes and sneers were employed to con- rince the whites that their prejudices were sinful, and without any just cause.' Without any just cause! Couldst thou think so, if thou really loved thy colored sisters as thyself? The unmeasured abuse which the Colonization Society was heaping upon this de- PREJITDICE. 45 spised people, was no just cause for pointed rebuke, I suppose ! The manner in which they are thrast into one corner of our meeting-houses, as if the plague- spot was on their skins ; the rudeness and cruelty with which they are treated in our hotels, and steam- boats, rail road cars and stages, is no just cause of reproach to a professed christian community, I pre- sume. Well, all that I can say is, that I believe if Isaiah or James were now alive, they would pour their reproaches and rebukes upon the heads and hearts of those who are thus despising the Lord's poor, and saying to those whose spirits are clothed by God in the ' vile raiment' of a colored skin. Stand thou there in yonder gallery, or sit thou here in ' the negro-pew.' ' Sneers,' too^ are complained of. Have abolitionists ever made use of greater sarcasm and irony than did the prophet Elijah ? When things are ridiculous as well d- wicked, it is unreasonable to expect that every cast of mind will treat them with solemnity. And what is more ridiculous than Amer- ican prejudice ; to proscribe and persecute men and women, because their complexions are of a darker hue than ov.x own 1 Why, it is an outrage upon common sense ; and as my brother Thomas S. Grimke remark- ed only a few weeks before his death, ' posterity will laugh at our prejudices.' Where is the harm, then, if abolitionists should laugh now at the wicked ab- surdity ? Thou sayest, ' this tended to irritate the whites, and to increase their prejudices against the blacks.' The truth always irritates the proud, impenitent sinner. To charge abolitionists with this irritation, is some- 46 PREJUDICE. thing like the charge brought against the English government by the captain of the slaver I told thee of in my second letter, who threw all his human mer- chandize overboard, in order to escape detection, and then charged this horrible wholesale murder upon the government ; because, said he, they had no business to make a law to hang a man if he was found engaged in the slave trade. So loe must bear the guilt of man's angry passions, because the tr^cth we preach is like a two-edged sword, cutting through the bonds of interest on the one side, and the cords of caste on the other. As to our increasing the prejudice against color, this is just like the North telling us that we have in- creased the miseries of the slave. Common sense cries out against the one as well as the other. With regard to prejudice, I believe the truth of the case to be this : the rights of the colored man never were ad- vocated by any body of men in their length and breadth, before the rise of the Anti-Slavery Society in this country. The propagation of these ultra prin- ciples has produced in the northern States exactly the same effect, w^hich the promulgation of the doctrine of immediate emancipation has done in the southern States. It has developed the latent principles of pride and prejudice, not loroduced them. Hear John Green, a Judge of the Circuit Court of Kentucky, in reference to abolition efforts having given birth to the opposition against emancipation now existing in the South: 'I would rather say, it has been the means of manifesting that opposition, which previously existed, but laid dormant for want of an exciting cause.' And just PREJUDICE. 47 SO has it been with regard to prejudice at the North — when there was no effort to obtain for the colored man his riglds as a man, as an American citizen, there was no opposition exhibited, because it ' laid dormant for want of an exciting cause.' I know it is alleged that some individuals, who treated colored people with the greatest kindness a few years ago, have, since abolition movements, had their feelings so embittered towards them, that they have withdrawn that kindness. Now I would ask, could such people have acted from prmciple ? Certainly not ; or nothing that others could do or say would have driven them from the high ground they appear- ed to occupy. No, my friend, they acted precisely upon the false principle which thou hast recommend- ed ; their pity was excited, their sentiments of gene- ro.9% were called into exercise, because they regarded the colored man as an unfortunate inferior, rather than as an outraged and insulted equal. Therefore, as soon as abolitionists demanded for the oppressed American the very same treatment, upon the high ground of human rights, why, then it was instantly withdrawn, simply because it never had been conceded on the right ground ; and those who had previously granted it became afraid, lest, during the sera of abo- lition excitement, persons would presume they were acting on the fundamental principle of abolitionism — the principle of equal rights, irrespective of color or condition, instead of on the mere principle of 'pity and generosity .^ It is truly surprising to find a professing christian excusing the unprincipled opposition exhibited in New 48 PREJUDICE. Haven, to the erection of a College for young men of color. Are we indeed to succumb to a corrupt public sentiment at the North, and the abominations of sla- very at the South, by refraining from asserting the right of Americans to plant a literary institution in New Haven, or New York, or any where on the American soil ? Are we to select ' some retired place,' where there would be the least prejudice and opposi- tion to meet, rather than openly and fearlessly to face the American monster, who, like the horse-leach, is continually crying give, give, and whose demands are only increased by compromise and surrender ? No ! there is a spirit abroad in this country, which will not consent to barter principle for an unholy peace ; a spirit which seeks to be ' pure from the blood of all men,' by a bold and christian avowal of truth ; a spirit which will not hide God's eternal principles of right and wrong, but will stand erect in the storm of human passion, prejudice and interest, ' holding forth the light of truth in the midst of a crooked and perverse gene- ration ;' a spirit which will never slumber nor sleep, till man ceases to hold dominion over his fellow crea- tures, and the trump of universal liberty rings in every forest, and is re-echoed by every mountain and rock. Art thou not aware, my friend, that this College was projected in the year 1831, previous to the forma- tion of the first Anti-Slavery Society, which was or- ganized in 1S32 ? How, then, canst thou say that the circumstances relative to it occurred ' at a time when the public mind was excited on the subject?' I feel quite amused at the presiimption which thou appearest to think was exhibited by the projectors of this insti- PREJUDICE. 49 tution, in wishing- it to be located in New Haven, where was another College ' embracing a large pro- portion of southern students,' &c. It was a great of- fence, to be sure, for colored men to build a College by the walls of the w-hite man's ' College, where half the shoe-blacks and waiters were coloi^d men.'' But why so ? The other half of the shoe-blacks and wait- ers were vohite, I presume ; and if these white servants could be satisfied with their humble occupation under the roof oi Yale College, why might not the colored w^aiters be contented also, though an institution for the education of colored Americans might presuine to lift its head 'beside the very walls of this College?' Is it possible that any professing christian can calmly look back at these disgraceful transactions, and tell me that such opposition was manifested '/or the best reasons V And what is still worse, censure the pro- jectorsof a literary institution, in free, republican, en- lightened America, because they clid not meekly yield to '■such reasonable objections,'' and refused ' to soothe the feelings and apprehensions of those who had been excited' to opposition and clamor by the simple fact that some American born citizens wished to give their children a liberal education in a separate College, only because the white Americans despised their brethren of a darker complexion, and scorned to share with them the privileges of Yale College ? It was very wrong, to be sure, for the friends of the oppressed American to consider such outrageous conduct ' as a mark of the force of sinful prejudice !' Vastly un- charitable ! Great complaints are made that ' the worst motives were ascribed to some of the most re- 5 50 "PREJUDICE. spectablc, and venerated, and piotis men who opposed ihe measure.' Wonderful indeed, that men should be found so true to their principles, as to dare in this age of sycophancy to declare the truth to those who stand in high places, wearing the badges of ofllce or honor, and fearlessly to rebuke the puerile and un- christian prejudice which existed against their colored brethren ! ' Pious men !' Why, I would ask, hoAV -are we to judge of men's piety- — by professions or products 1 Do men gather thorns of grapes, or thistles of figs ? Certainly not. If, then, in the lives of men we do not find the fruits of christian principle, we have no right, according to our Saviour's criterion^ * by their fruits ye shall know them,' to suppose that men are really pious who can be perseveringly guilty of despising others, and denying them equal rights, because they have colored skins. ' A great deal was said and done that was calculated to throw ihe community into an angry ferment.' Yes, and I suppose the friends of the colored man were just as guilty as was the great Apostle, who, by the angry, and excited, and prejudiced Jews, was accused of being ' a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition,' be- cause he declared himself called to preach the ever* lasting gospel to the Gentiles, whom they considered as * dogs,' and utterly unworthy of being placed on the same platform of human rights and a glorious immor» lality. Thy friend, A. E. GRIMKE. LETTER VIIL VINDICATION OF ABOLITIONISTS^ Groton, Mass. 6^A monh, 1837. Dear Friend : — In my last, I commented upon the- opposition to the establishment of a College in New- Haven, Conn., for the education of colored young men.- The same remarks are applicable to the perse- cutions of the Canterbury School. I leave thee and our readers to apply them. I cannot help thinking how strange and unaccountable thy soft excuses for the sins of prejudice will appear to the next genera- tion, if thy book ever reach their eye. As to Cincinnati having been chosen as the city m which the Philanthropist should be published after the- ?e treat of its editor from Kentucky, thou hast not been ' sufficiently informed,' for James G. Birney pursued exactly the course which thou hast marked out as the most prudent and least offensive. He edited his paper at New Richmond, in Ohio, for nearly three months before he went to Cincinnati, and did not go there until the excitement appeared to have subsided. And so, thou thinkest that abolitionists are account- able for xhjQ outrae-es which have been committed 52 \1NDICATI0N against them ; they arc the tempters, and are held re- sponsible by God, as well as the tempted. Wilt thou tell me, who was responsible for the mob which went with swords and staves to take an innocent man be- fore the tribunals of Annas and Pilate, some ISCO years ago ? And who was responsible for the uproar at Ephesus, the insurrection at Athens, and the tu- mults at Lystra and Iconium ? Were I a mobocrat, I should want no better excuse than thou hast furnished for such outrages. Wonderful indeed, if, in free America, her citizens cannot choose where they will erect iheir literary institutions and presses, to advocate the self-evident truths of our Declaration of Indepen- dence ! And still more wonderful, that a New Eng- land woman should, aftcj' years of reflection., deliber- ately write a book to condemn the advocates of liberty, and plead excuses for a relentless prejudice against her colored brethren and sisters, and for the perse- cutors of those, who, according to the opinion of a Southern member of Congress, are prosecuting ' the only plan that can ever overthrow slavery at the South.' I am g]ad,j^?- tJty own sake, that thou hast exculpated abolitionists from the charge of the ' delib- erate intention of fomenting illegal acts of violence.' AVould it not have been still better, if thou hadst spared the remarks which rendered such an explanation ne- cessary ? I find that thou wilt not allow of the comparison often drawn between the eflects of Christianity on the hearts of those who obstinately rejected it, and those of abolitionism on the hearts of people of the present day. Thou sayest, ' Christianity is a system of per- OF ABOLITIONISTS. 53 suasion, tending- by kind and gentle influences to make men ivillmg to leave their sins.' Dost thou suppose the Pharisees and Saddiicees deemed it was very kind and gentle in its influences, when our holy Redeemer called them ' a generation of vipers,' or when he preached that sermon ' full of harshiccss, un- charitableness, rebuke and denunciation,' recorded in the xxiii. chapter of Matthew ? But T shall be told that Christ knew the hearts of all men, and therefore it was right for him to use terms w^hich mere human beings never ought to employ. Read, then, the pro- phecies of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and others, and also the Epistles of the New Testament. They employed the most ofllensive terms on many occasions, and the sharpest rebukes, knowing full well that there are some sinners who can be reached by nothing but death-thrusts at their consciences. An anecdote of John Richardson, who was remarkable for his urban- ity of manners, occurs to me. He one day preached a sermon in a country town, in which he made use of some hard language; a friend reproved him after meeting, and inquired wdiether he did not know that hard wood was split by soft knocks. Yes, said Rich- ardson, but I also know that there is some wood so rotten at the heart, that nothing but tremendously hard blows wall ever split it open. Ah ! John, replied the elder, I see thou understandest hoio to do thy master's work. Now, I believe this nation is rotten at the heart, and that nothing but the most tremendous blows with the sledge-hammer of abolition truth, could ever have broken the false rest which we had taken up for ourselves on the very brink of ruin. 64 VINDICATION ' Abolitionism, on llie conlrav}-, is a system of co" ercion by public opinion.' By this assertion, I pre- sume lliou ' hast not been correctly informed' as to the reasons which have induced abolitionists to put forth all their energies to rectify public opinion. It is 7iot because we wish to wield this public opinion like a rod of iron over the heads of slaveholders, to coerce ihcm into an abandonment of the system of slavery ; not at all. We are striving to purify public opinion, first, because as long as the North is so much involved in the guilt of slavery, by its political, com- mercial, ireligious, and social connexion with the South, her own citizens need to be converted. Second, because we know that when public opinion is rectified at the North, it will throw a flood of light from its million of reflecting surfaces upon the heart and soul of the South. The South sees full well at what we are aiming, and she is so unguarded as to acknowl- edge that ' if she does not resist the danger in its inception, it will soon become irresistible.' She ex- claims in terror, 'the truth is, the 7?207-«Z power of the world is against us ; it is idle to disguise it.' The fact is, that the slaveholders of the South, and their northern apologists, have been overtaken by the storm of free discussion, and are something like those who go down to the sea and do business in the great waters : ' they reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit's end.' Our view of the doctrine of expediency, thou art pleased to pronounce ' wrong and very pernicious in its tendency.' Expediency is emphatically the doc- trine by which the children of this world are wont to OP AHOLITIONISTS. $^ guide their steps, whilst the rejection of it as a rule of action exactly accords with the divine injunction,- to 'walk by faith, not by sight.' Thy doctrine that * the wisdom and rectitude of a given course depend entirely on the probabilities of success,^ is not the doc- trine of the Bible. According to this principle, how absurd was the conduct of Moses ! What probability of success was there that he could move the heart of Pharaoh ? None at all ; and thus did he reason: when he said, ' Who am 1, that I should go unto Pharaoh ?' And again, ' Behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto' my voice.' The success of Moses's mission in persuading the king of Egypt to" ' let the people go,' was not involved in the duty of ohedience to the divine command. Neither was the success of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others of the pro- phets who were singularly unsuccessful in their mis= sion to the Jews. All who see the path of duty plain before them, are bound to walk in that path, end where it mr;y. They then can realize the meaning of the Apostle, when he exhorts Christians lo cast all their burden on the Lord, with the promise that He would sustain them. This is walking hy faith, not by sight. In the work in which abolitionists are engaged, they are compelled to ' walk by faith ;' they feel called upon to preach the truth in season and out of season, to lift up their voices like a trumpet/ to show the people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins. The success of this mission, theij have no more to do with, than had Moses and Aaron, Jeremiah or Isaiah, with that of theirs. Whether the South will be saved by Anti- Slavery efforts, i& 56 VINDICATION not a question for us to settle — and in some of our hearts, the hope of its sahation has utterly gone out. All nations have been punished for oppression, and why should ours escape ? Our light, and high pro- fessions, and the age in which we live, convict us not only of enormous oppression, but of the vilest hypocrisy. It may be that the rejection of the truth which we are now pouring" in upon the South, may be the final filling up of their iniquities, just previous to the bursting of God's exterminating thunders over iho Sodoms and Gomorrahs, the Admahs and Ze- boims of America. The result of our labors is hidden from our eyes ; whether the preaching of Anti-Sla- very truth is to be a savor of life unto life, or of death unto death to this nation, we know not ; and we have no more to do with it, than had the Apostle Paul, when he preached Christ to the people of his day. If American Slavery goes down in blood, it will but verify the declarations of those who uphold it. A committee of the North Carolina Legislature ac- knowledged this to an English Friend ten years ago. Jefllerson more than once uttered his gloomy fore- bodings ; and the Legislators of Virginia, in 1832, declared that if the opportunity of escape, throuoh the means of emancipation, were rejected, ' though they might save themselves, they would rear their pos- terity to the business of the dagger and the torch.' I liave myself known several families to leave the South, solely from a fear of insurrection; and this twelve and fourteen years ago, long before any Anti- Slavery efforts were made in this country. 'And OF ABOLITIONISTS. 57 yet, I presume, «/ through the cold-hearted apathy and obstinate opposition of the North, the South should become strengthened in her desperate determination to hold on to her outraged victims, until they are goaded to despair, and if the Lord in his wrath pours out the vials of his vengeance upon the slave States, why then, Abolitionists will have to bear all the blame. Thou hast drawn a frightful picture of the final issue of Anti-Slavery efforts, as thou art pleased to call it ; but none of these things move me,' for with just as much truth mayest thou point to the land of Egypt, blackened by God's avenging fires, and ex- claim, ' Behold the issue of Moses's mission.' Nay, verily ! See in that smoking, and blood-drenched house of bondage, the consequences of oppression, disobedience, and an obstinate rejection of truth, and light, and love. What had Moses to do with those judgment plagues, except to lift his rod 1 And if the South soon finds her winding sheet iu garments rolled in blood, it will not be because of what the North has told her, but because, like impenitent Egypt, she hardened her heart against it, whilst the voices of some of her own children were crying in agony, ' ! that thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace ; but nov/ they are hid from thine eyes.' Thy friend, A. E. GRIMKE. LETTER IX. EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. Brookline, Mass. Sih months 17tk, 1S37. Dear Friend : — Thou sayest ' There are cases also, where differences in age, and station, and character, forbid all interference to modify the conduct and char- acter of others.' Let us bring this to the only touch- stone by which Christians should try their principles of action. How was it when God designed to j:id his people out of the hands of the Egyptian monarch ? Was his station so exalted ' as to forbid all interference to mod- ify his character and conduct V And who was sent to interfere with his conduct towards a stricken people ? Was it some brotlier monarch of exalted station, whose elevated rank might serve to excuse such in- terference «to modify his conduct and character?' No. It was an obscnre shepherd of Midian's desert; for let us remember, that Moses, in pleading the cause of the Israelites, identified himself with the lotvest and meanest of the King's subjects. Ah ! he was one of that despised caste; for, although brought up as the son of the princess, yet he had left Egypt as an out- EFFECT ON THE SOUTfi. 59 law. He had committed the crime of murder, and fled because the monarch ' sought to slay him.' This exiled outlaw is the instrument chosen by God to vin- dicate the cause of his oppressed people. Moses was in the sight of Pharaoh as much an object of scorn, as Garrison noiv is to the tyrants of America. Some seem to think, that great moral enterprises can be made honorable only by Doctors of Divinity, and Presidents of Colleges, engaging in them : when all powerful Truth cannot be dignified by any man, but it dignifies and ennobles all who embrace it. It lifts the beggar from the dunghill, and sets him among princes. Whilst it needs no great names to bear it onward to its glorious consummation, it is continually making great characters out of apparently mean and unpromising materials ; and in the intensity of its piercing rays, revealing to the amazement of many, the insignificance and moral littleness of those who fill the hig'hes't stations in Church and State. But take a few more examples from the bible, »of those in high stations being reproved by men of in- ferior rank. Look at David rebuked by Nathan, Ahab and Jezebel by Elijah and Micaiah. What, too, was the conduct of Daniel and Shadrach, Me* shack and Abednego, but ^ipractical rebuke of Darius and Nebuchadnezzar? And who were these men, apart from these acts of daring interference ? They were the Lord's prophets, I shall be told ; but what cared those monarchs for this fact ? How much credit did they give them for holding this holy office ? None. And why ? Because all but David were impenitent sinners, and rejected with scorn all ' interference to ^0 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. modify their conduct or cliaracters.' Eeformers are rarely estimated in the age in which they live, whether they be called prophets or apostles, or aboli- tionists;, or what not. They stand on the rock of Truth, and cahnly look down upon the carccrino- thunder-clouds, the tempest, and the roaring waves, because they well know that where the atmosphere is surcharged with pestilential vapors, a conflict of the elements miist take place, before it can be purified by that moral electricit}-, beautifiilly typified by the cloven tongues that sat upon each of the heads of the 120 disciples who were convened on the day of Pen- tecost. Such men and w^omen expect to be ' blamed and opposed, because their measures are deemed in- expedient, and calculated to increase rather than di- minish the evil to be cured.' They know full well, that intellectual greatness cannot give vioral percep- tion — therefore, those icho have no clear vieics of the irresistiblencss of moral poicer, ca?mot see the efficacy of moral mea?is. They say with the apos.le, ' The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto him : neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' We know full well, that northern men and w^omen laugh at the inefficacy of Anti-Slavery measures ; hut slaveholders never have ridiculed them : not that their moral perceptions are any clearer than those of our northern opponents, but where men's interests and lust of power are immediately afTected by moral cfTort, they instinctively feel that it is so, and tremble for the result. But suppose even that our measures were calc.u- EFFECT OF ABOLITIONISM 61 lated to increase the evils of slavery. Tlie measures achpteJ by Moses, and sanctioned by God, increased the burdens of the Israelites. Were the}^ therefore, inexpedient ? And yet, if our measures produce a similar effect, O then ! they are very inexpedient in- deed. The truth is, when we look at Moses and his measures, v/e look at them in connection with the eniancipation of the Israelites. The ultimate and glorious success of the measures proves their wisdom and expediency. But when Anti-Slavery measures are looked at 'now, we see them long before the end is accomplished. We see, according to thy account, t;]e burdens increased ; but we do not yet see the triumphant march through the Red Sea, nor do we hear the song of joy and thanksgiving which ascended from Israel's redeemed host. But canst thou not give us twenty 3'ears to com.plete our work? Clark- son, thy much admired model, worked twenty years; and the benevolent Colonization Society has been in operation twenty years. Just give us as long a time, or half that time, and then thou wilt be a far better judge of the expediency or inexpediency of our meas- ures. Then thou wilt be able to look at them in connection with their success or their failure, and instead of writing a book on thy opinions and my opinions, thou canst write a history. I cannot agree with thee in the sentiment, that the station of a nurserymaid makes it inexpedient for her to turn reprover of the master who employs her. This is the doctrine of modern aristocracy, not of primitive Christianity ; for ecclesiastical history in- forms us that, in the first ages of Christianity, kings 6 62 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. were converted through the faithful and solemn re- bukes of their slaves and captives. I have mN'self been reproved by a slave, and I thanked her, and still thank her for it. Think how this doctrine robs the nursery maid of her responsibility, and shields the master from reproof; for it may be that she alone has seen him ill-treat his wife. Now it appears to me, so far from her station forbidding all interference to modify the character and conduct of her employer, that that station peculiarly qualifies her for the difficult and delicate task, because nursery maids often know secrets of oppression, which no other persons are fully acquainted with. For my part, I believe it is now the duty of the slaves of the South to rebuke their masters for their robbery, oppression and crime ; and so far from believing that such ' reproof would do no good, but only evil,' I think it would be attended by the happiest results in the main, though I doubt not it would occasion soiTie instances of severe personal suffering. No station or character can destroy indi- vidual responsibility, in the matter of reproving sin. I feel that a slave has a right to rebuke me, and so has the vilest sinner; and the sincere, humble chris- tian will be thankful for rebuke, let it come from whom it may. Such, I am confident, never would think it inexpedient for their chamber maids to ad- minister it, but would endeavor to profit by it. Thou askest very gravely, why James G. Birney did not go quietly into the southern States, and col- lect facts? Indeed! Why should he go to the South to collect facts, when .he had lived there forty years ? Thou mayest with just as much propriety EFEECT ON THE SOUTH. 63 ask me, why I do not go to the South to collect facts. The answer to both questions is obvious : — We have lived at the South, as integral parts of the system of slavery, and therefore we know from practical obser- A^ation and sad experience, quite enough about it al- ready. I think it would be absurd for either of us to spend our time in such a way. And even if J. G. Birney had not lived at the South, why should he go there to collect facts, when the Anti-Slavery presses are continually throwing them out before the public? Look, too, at the Slave Laws ! What more do we need to show us the bloody hands and iron heart of Slavery ? Thou sayest on the 89th page of thy book, * Every avenue of approach to the South is shut. No paper, pamphlet, or preacher, that touches on that topic, is admitted in their bounds.' Thou art greatly mis- taken : every avenue of :"-^roach to the South is not shut. The American Anti- Slavery Society sends between four and five hundred of its publications to the South by mail, to subscribers, or as exchange papers. One slaveholder in North Carolina, not long- since, bought $60 worth of our pamphlets, &c. which he distributed in the slave States. Another slaveholder from Louisiana, made a large purchase of our publications last fall, which he designed to distribute among professors of religion who held slaves. To these I may add another from South Carolina, another from Richmond, Virginia, numbers from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, and others from New Orleans, besides persons connected with at least three Colleges and Theological Seminaries 61 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. in slave States, have applied for our publications for their own use, and for distribution. \Vithin a few weeks, the South Carolina Delegation in Congress have sent on an order to the publishing Agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society, for all the principal bound volumes, pamphlets, and periodicals of the Society. At the same time, they addressed a very courteous letter to J. G. Birney, the Corresponding Secretary, propounding nearly a score of queries, embracing the principles, designs, plans of operation, progress and results of the Society. I know in the large cities, such as Charleston and Kjchmond, that Anti-Slavery papers are not suffered to reach their destination through the mail ; but it is not so in the smaller towns. But even in the cities, I doubt not they are read by the postmasters and others. The South may pretend that she will not read our papers, but it is all pretence ; the fact is, she is very anxious to sec what we are doing, so that when the mail-bags were robbed in Charleston in 1835, / knoio that the robbers were very careful to select a few copies of each of the publications before they made the bonfire, and that these were handed round in a private way through the city, so that they were extensively read. This Aict I had from a friend of mine who was in Charleston at the time, and read the publications himself. My relations also wrote me word, that they had seen and read tliem. In order to show that our discussions and publica- tions have already produced a great effect upon many individuals in the slave States, I subjoin the following detail of facts and testimony now in my possession. EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 65 My sister, S. M. Grimke, has just received a letter from a Southerner residing in the far South, in which he says, ' On the 4th of July, the friends of the op \ pressed met and contributed six or eight dollars, to obtain some copies of Gerrit Smith's letter, and some other pamphlets for our own benefit and that of the vicinity. The leaven, we think, is beginning to work, and we hope that it will ere long purify the whole mass of corruption.' An intelligent member of the Methodist Church, who resides in North Carolina, was recently in the city of New York, and told the editor of Zion's Watchman, that ' our publications were read with great interest at the South — that there w^as great curiosity there to see them.' A bookseller also in one of the most southern States, only a few months ago, ordered a package of our publications. And within a very short time, an influential slaveholder from the far South, who called at the Anti-Slavery Office in New York, said he had had misgivings on the subject ever since the formation of the American Society — that he saw some of our publications at the South three years ago, and is now convinced and has emancipated his slaves. A correspondent of the Union Herald, a clergyman, and a graduate of one of the colleges of Kentucky, says, ' I find in this State many who are decidedly opposed to slavery— but few indeed take the ground that it is right. I trust the cause of human rights is onward — laeekly, I receive two copies of the Emanci- pator, which " I send out as battering rams, to beat down the citadel of oppression.' In a letter to James 6* (jG effect on the south. G. Birney, from a gentleman in a slave State, we find this declaration : ' Your paper, the Philanthro- pist, is regularly distributed here, and as yet works no incendiary results ; and indeed, so far as I can learn, general satisfaction is here expressed, both as to the temper and spirit of the paper, and no disap- probation as to the results.' At an Anti-Slavery meeting last fall in Philadelphia, a gentleman from Delaware was present, who rose and encouraged Abolitionists to go on, and said that he could assure them the influence of their measures was felt there, and their principles were gaining ground secretlyand silently. The subject, he informed them, was discuss- ed there, and he believed Anti-Slavery lectures could be delivered there with safety, and would produce important results. Since that time, a lecturer has been into that State, and a State Society has been formed, the secretary of which was the first editor of the Emancipator, and is now pastor of the Baptist church in the capital of the State. The North Caro- lina Watchman, published at Salisbury, in an article on the subject of Abolition, has the following remarks of the editor : * It [the abolition party] is the growing party at the North : we are inclined to believe, that there is even 7nore of it at the South, than prudence will permit to be openly avowed.' It rejoices our hearts to find that there are some southerners who feel and acknowledge the infatuation of the politi- cians of the South, and the philanthropy of abolition- ists. The Maryville Intelligencer of 1836, exclaims, ' What sort of madness, produced by a jaundiced and distorted conception of the feelings and motives by ii EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 67 which northern aboh'tionists are actuated, can induce the southern pohtical press to urge a severance of the tie that binds our Union together? To offer rewards for those very individuals who stand as mediators be- tween masters and slaves, urging the one to be obe- dient, and the other to do justice ?' A southern Minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at the session of the New York Annual Con- ferencOj in June of 1836, said : ' Don't give up Abo- litionism—don't bow dovvn to slavery. You have thousands at the South who are secretly praying for you.' In a subsequent conversation with the same individual, he stated, that the South is not that unit of which the pro-slavery party boast — there is a di- versity of opinion among them in reference to slavery, and the reign of terror alone suppresses the free expression of sentiment. That there are thousands who believe slaveholding to be sinful, who secretly wish the abolitionists success, and believe God will bless their efforts. That the ministers of the gospel and ecclesiastical bodies who indiscriminately de- nounce the abolitionists, without doing any thing themselves to remove slavery, have not the thanks of thousands at the South, but on the contrary are viewed as taking sides with slaveholders^ and recreant to the princi'ples of their own profession. — Zion's Watch- man^ November, 1836. The Christian Mirror, published in Portland, Maine, has the following letter from a minister who has lately taken up his abode in Kentucky, to a friend in Maine : — * Saveral ministers have recently left the State, I believe, on account of slavery ; and many of the mem« 6S EFFECT ON TIIi: SOUTH. bors of churches, as I have understood, have sold their property, and removed to the free States. Many are becoming more and more convinced of the evil and sin of slavery, and would gladly rid themselves and the community of this scourge ; and I feel confident that influences are already in operation, which, if properly directed and regulated by the principles of the gospel, may ' break every yoke and let the oppressed go free' in Kentucky. In 1st month, lS3o, when Theodore D. Weld was lecturing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the close of one of his evening lectures, a man sought him through the crowd, and extending his hand to him through his friends, by whom he was surrounded, solicited him to step aside with him for a moment. After theyhad retired by themselves, the gentleman said to him with great earnestness, ' I am a slaveholder from Maryland — you are right — the doctrine you advocate is truth.'' Why, then, said the lecturer, do you not emancipate your slaves ? ' Because,' said the Marylander, ' I have not religion enough' — He was a professing christian — ' I dare not subject myself to the torrent of opposition which, from the present state of public sen- timent, would be poured upon me ; but do you aboli- tionists go on, and you will effect a change in public sentiment, which will render it possible and easy for us to emancipate our slaves. I know,' continued he, * a great "many slaveholders in my State, who stand on precisely the same ground that I do in relation to this matter. Only produce a correct public sentiment at the Northland the icork is done ; for all that keeps the South in countenance ichile continuing this sys- •:*ai^'W^'W^ EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 69 tevi, is the apology and argument afforded so gener- ally by the North ; only produce a right feeling in the North generally, and the South cannot stand be- fore it ; let the North be thoroughly converted, and the tcork is at once accomplished at the South.'' Another fact which may be adduced to prove that the South is looking to the North for help, is the follow- ing : At an Anti- Slavery concert of prayer for the op- pressed, held in New York city, in 1S38, a gentleman arose in the course of the meeting, declaring himself a Virginian and a slaveholder. He said he came to that city filled with the deepest prejudice against the abolitionists, by the reports given of their character in papers published at the North. But he determined to investigate their character and designs for himself. He even boarded in the family of an abolitionist, and attended the monthly concert of prayer for the slaves and the slaveholders. And now, as the result of his investigations and observations, he was convinced that 7iot only the spirit but the principles and measures of the abolitionists ARE RIGHTEOUS. He was now ready to emancipate his own slaves, and had com- menced advocating the doctrine of immediate emanci- pation — ' and here,' said he, pointing to two men sitting near him, 'are the first fruits of my labors — these two fellow Virginians and slaveholders, are converts with myself to abolitionism. And I know a thousand Vir- ginians, who need only to be made acquainted with the true spirit and principles of abolitionists, in order to their becoming converts as we are. Let the aboli- tionists go 071 in the dissemination of their doctrines^ and let the Northern papers cease to misrepresent 70 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. them at the South — let the true light of abolitionism be fully shed upon the Southern ?nind, and the icork of immediate and general emancipation loill he speed- ily accomplished.' — Morning Star, N. Y. A letter from a gentleman in Kentucky to Gerrit Smith, dated August, 1836, contains the following ex- pressions : — ' I am fully persuaded, that the voice of the free Slates, lifted up in a proper manner against the evil, [Slavery] will awaken them [slaveholders] from their midnight slumbers, and produce a happy change. I rejoice, dear brother in Christ, to hear that you are with us, and feel deeply to plead the cause of the op- pressed, and undo the heavy burdens. May God bless you, and the cause which you pursue.' In the summer of 1835, William R. Buford, of Vir- ginia, who had then recently emancipated his slaves, wrote a letter which was published in the Hampshire Gazette, North Hampton, Mass. from which I give thee some extracts. Dear Sir : — As you are ardently engaged in the discussion of Slavery, I think it likely I may be of service to you, and through you to the cause which you arc advocating. ^' ^ =^ I was born and brought up at the South in the midst of slavery, as you know. IVly father inherited slaves from his father, and I from him. So fnv from thinking slavery a sin, or that I had no right to own the slaves inherited from my father, 1 thought no one could venture to dispute that right, any more than he could my right to his land or his stock. I advocated Colonization, as I thought it on many accounts a good plan to get rid of such color- ed ptTsons as wished to go to Africa ; but my con- scirnce as a slaveholder was not much troubled by it. Of course, I had no tendency to make me disclaim my EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 71 right to my slaves. Abolition — immediate abolition, began afterwards to be discussed in various parts of the country. My right to the slaves I owned began to be disputed. 1 had to defend myself. In vain did I say I inherited my slaves from a pious father, who seemed to be governed in his dealings by a sense of duty to his slaves. In vain did I say that nearly all my property consisted in slaves, and to free them would make me a poor man. My duty to emancipate vv^as still urged. At length my eyes were opened — partly by the arguments used by the abolitionists : but mainly, by long being compelled hy them to examine the subject for myself. No longer could I close my eyes to the evils of slavery, nor could I any longer despise the abolitionists, ' the only true friends of their country and kind.' I now think, I know, I have no more right to own slaves, whether I inherited them or not, than I hav^e to encourage the African slave trade. By declaring this sentiment, I expect and design to abet the cause of Abolition at the North, and through the North the emancipation of the slaves at the South. I know that in doing this, I condemn the South. No one can suppose, however, that I have any unkind feelings towards the South. All my relatives live in the slaveholding States, and are almost all slave- holders. I think the abolitionists have done, and are doing a great deal of good, by holding slavery up to the pub- lic gaze. Sentiment at the North on the subject of slavery must have the same effect on the South, that their opinions have on any other matter.' The wTiter of the foregoing is, as I am told, still a resident of Virginia, where he has long been known, and is highly respected. In the 11th month, 183o, the United States Tele- graph, published at Washington city, contains the fol- lowing remarks by the Editor, Duff Green. 72 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH ' We are of those who believe the South has nothing to fear from a servile war. We do not believe that the abolitionists intend, nor could they if they would, excite the slaves to insurrection. The danger of this is remote. We believe that we have most to fear from the organised action vpon the consciences and fears of the slaveholders themselves ; from the imin- uatiojis of their dangerous heresies into our schools, our pulpits, and our domestic circles. It is onhj hy alarming the consciences of the weak and feehle, and diffusing among our oivn people a morbid sensibiliiy oil the questimi of slavery, that the abolitionists can accomplish their object. Puepaiiatory to this, they are now laborinir to saturate the non-slaveholding States with the belief that slavery is a ' sin against God.' We must meet the question in all its bearings. We must SATISFY the CONSCIENCES, we must allay the fears of our own people. We must satisfy them that slavery is of itself right — that it is not a sin against God— that it is not an evil, moral or political. To do this, we must discuss the subject of slavery itself. We must examine its bearing upon the moral, politi- cal, and religious institutions of the country. In this way, and this way only, can we prepare our own peo- ple to defend their own institutions.' In another number of the same paper, the Editor says, * We hold that our sole reliance is on ourselves ; that we have most to fear Jrom the gradual operation on public opinion among oitr selves ; and that those are the most insidious and dangerous invader^ of our rights and interests, who, coming to us in the guise of friendship, endeavor to persuade us that slavery is a sin, a curse, an evil. It is not true that the South sleeps on a volcano — that we are afraid to go to bed at night — that we are fearful of murder and pillage. Our greatest cause of apprehension is from the ope- ration of [the morbid sensibility ichich appeals to the EFFECT ON THE SOU TH. 73 conscieyices of our oiun people, and would make them the voluntary instruments of their own ruin.' In 1835, 1 think about the close of the year, a series of articles on Slavery appeared in the Lexington (Ken- tucky) Intelligencer. In one of the numbers, the writer says : — ' Much of the preceding matter was inserted (May, 1833) in the Louisville Herald. A g7'eat change has since taken place in public sentiment. Colonization, then a favorite measure, is now rejected for instant emancipation. Were this last feasible, I would gladly join its advocates,' &;c. In a letter to the publisher of the Emancipator, dated ' April 1, 1837,' from a Southerner, I find the following language : — ' Though a born and bred, I now consider the Anti-Slavery cause as a just and holy one. Deep re- flection, the reading of your excellent publications, and — years of travel in Europe, have made me, what I am now proud to call myself, an abolitionist. ' For the present, accept the assurances of my un- swerving devotion to the cause of liberty and justice. Any letter from yourself will always give me sincere pleasure, and whenever I go to New York, I shall call upon you, sans ceremonie, as I would upon an old friend.' A short time since, J G. Birney received a dona- tion of 820 for the Anti- Slavery Society, from an in- dividual residing in a slave State, accompanied with a request that his name might not be mentioned. About the time of the robbery of the U. S. Mail, and the burning of Abolition papers by the infatuated citizens of my own city, the Editor of the Charleston Courier made the following remarks in his paper, 7 74 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. which plainly reveal the cowering of the spirit of sla- very, under the searching- scrutiny occasioned by the Anti-Slavery discussions in the free States. ' Mart for Negroes. — We understand that a propo- sition is before the city council, relative to the estab- lishment of a mart for the sale of negroes in this city, in a place 7)?ore remote from observation, and less of- fensive to the public eye, than the one now used for that purpose. We doubt not that the proposition be- fore the council will be acceptable to the community, and that it may be so matured as to promote public decency, without prejudice to the interest of individ- uals.' Hear, too, the acknowledgement of the Southern Literary Eeview, published at Charleston, South Car- olina, which was got up in 1837, to sustain the system of Slavery. ' There are maiiy good men even among us, who have begun to grow timid. They think that what the virtuous and high-minded men of the North look upon as a crime and a plague-spot, cannot be perfectly innocent or quite harmless in a slaveholding commu- nity. ^ ^ =^ Some timid men among us, whose ears have been long assailed with outcries of tyranny and oppression, wafted over the ocean and land "from North to South, begin to look fearfully around them.' A correspondent of the Pittsburgh Witness, detailing the particulars of an Anti-Slavery meeting in Wash- ington CO. Pennsylvania, says :—' After Dr. Lemoyne, the President of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery So- ciety, had finished his address, in which the principles and measures of the Anti-Slavery Society were fully exhibited, the Rev. Charles Stewart, of Kentucky, a slaveholding clergyman of the Presbyterian church, who was casually present, rose and addressed the au- dience, and instead of opposing our principles as might EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 75 have been expected, fully endorsed every thing that had been said, declaring his conviction that such a speech would have been well received by the truly re- ligious part of the community in which he resided, and would have been opposed only by those who were actuated by party politics alone, or those who ' neither feared God nor regarded man.' I give thee now a letter from a gentleman in a South Western slaveholding State, to J. G. Birney. ' Very Dear Sir: — I knew you in the days of your prosperity at the South, though you will not recognize me. Ever since you first took your stand in defence of natural rights, I have been looking upon you with intense interest. I ivas violently opposed to Aboli- tionists, and verily thought I was doing service to both church and State, in decrying them as incendia- ries ^n^ fanatics. What blindness and infatuation! Yet I was sincere. Ah ! my dear sir, God in mercy has taught me that something more than sincerity, in the common acceptation of the term, is necessary to preserve our understandings from idiocy, and our hearts from utter ruin. How could I have been such a madman, as coolly and composedly to place my foot upon the necks of immortal beings, and from that horrid point of elevation, hurl the deep curses of church and State at the heads of whom ? Fa- natics 1 No, sir ! — hict of the only persons on the face of the earth, who had heart enough to feel, and SOUL enough to act, in behalf of the RIGHTS OF MAN ! Yet I was just snch a madman ! Yes, sir, I was a fanatic, and an incendiary too— setting ori fire the worst passions of our fallen nature. But I have repented. I have become a convert to political, and I trust, also, to Christian Freedom. The specta- cle exhibited by yourself, and your compatriots and fellow-chrislians, has completely overcome me. Your reasonings convince my judgment, and your actions win my heart. God speed you in your work of love . 76 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. The hopes of the worlJ depend, under God, upon the success ol your cause. Very respectfully and with undying affection, Your friend and brother, A Southerner.' Another of J, G. Birney's southern correspondents says, in 1S36, ' That portion of the Church with which I am con- nected, seem to have no sympathy with the indignation against the abolitionists, which prevails so extensively North and South ; but, on the other hand, consider the Sonlh as infatuated to the highest degree. There is more credit for philanthropy given those who manumit their slaves, without expatriation ^ than formerly. The thirst for information is increasing, while the ' noil liquetisirC [voting on neither side] of brethren in church courts is becoming less and less satisfactory ; and such of them as adv^ocate the perpetuity of the system, are looked upon with surprise and regret. Those who view with horror the traffic in slaves by ministers of the gospel, express more freely their pain at its indulgence, than 1 have ever known. I am acquainted with several such cases. In no in- stances have they left the brother's standing where it was, before it took place. Of such cases — even those, too, where the usual allowances might be called for — I have heard professors of religion remark, ' Mr. A. could not get an audience to hear him preach' — ' Mr. B. has more assurance than I could have, to preach, after selling my slaves as he has done' — ' He can never make me believe he has any religion' — ' This is the fir.^t time you have done so, but repeat it, and I think I shall never hear you preach again.' These remarks were made by slaveholding profes- sors of religion themselves, and under circumstances neither calculated nor intended to deceive. i^ EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 77 The following letter was written by an intelligent gentleman in the interior of Alabama, to Arthur Tap- pan, of New York, who had sent him some Anti-Sla- very publications. The date is March 21, 1S34. ' Dear Sir — Your letter of Dec. last, I read with much interest. The numbers of the Anti-Slavery Reporter, also, which you were so kind as to send me, I carefully examined, and put them in circulation. Your operations have produced considerable excite- ment in some sections of this country, but humanity has lost nothing. The more the subject of slavery is agitated, the better. A distinguished gentleman re- marked to me a day or two since, that ' there was a great change going on in public sentiment.' Few would acknowledge that it was to be ascribed to the influence of your Society. There can be no doubt, however, that this is directly and indirectly the prin- cipal cause.' During the same year, the Editor of the New York Evangelist received a letter from a christian friend in North Carolina, from which I give thee an extract. To the Editor of the Evangelist — ' The subject of slavery, recently brought up and discussed in your paper, is the one which elicits the following remarks. In the first place I will state, that I entertain very different views 7iow, to what I did six months ago. I was among those who thought (and honestly too) that there was no more moral guilt attached to the holding our fellow beings in bondage, regarding them as pro- perty, than to the holding of a mule or an ox. It was natural enough for me to think so, for I had been trained from my very infancy to view the subject in no other light. I shall never forget my feelings when the subject was first hit upon in the Evangelist. I became angry, and was disposed to attribute sinister 7# k 78 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. motives to all who were concerned in the matter. With some others, I determined to stop the paper fortliwith. Though I made every effort to turn my mind away from the subject, my conscience in spite of me began to awake, and to be troubled. The word of God was resorted to, witli the hope of finding something to brinof peace and quietude, but all in vain. It was but adding fuel to the flame. I determined, let others do as they would, to meet the subject, to examine it in all its bearings, and to abide the result ; and if it should be found that God regards slavery as an evil, and in- compatible with the gospel, I would give it up. If not, I should be made wiser without incurring any harm by the investigation. In the very nature of God's dealings with men, this subject must and will be agitated, until conviction shall be brought home to the heart and conscience of every man, and slavery shall be banished from otir land. And woe be to him who wilfully closes his eyes, and stops his ears against the light of God's truth.' In Sth month of the same year, the same paper contained the following extract from another corres- pondent in North Carolina. N. C. July 9, 1834. 'Rev. and dear Sir — If I owe an apology for in- truding on you, and introducing myself, I must find it in the fact, that I wish to bid you God speed in the fifood cause in which you are so heartily engaged. Wiiile so many at the North are opposing, I wish to cheer you by one voice from the South. If it is un- popular to plead the cause of the oppressed negro in New York, how dangerous to be known as his friend in the far South, where, as a correspondent in the Evangelist justly observes, a minister cannot enforce the law of love, without being suspected of favoring EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 79 emancipation. I am glad the people with you are beginning to feel and to act. I pray God that you may go on with all the light and love of the gospel, and that the cry of ' Let us alone,' will not frighten you from your labor of love.' James A. Thome, a Presbyterian clergyman, a na- tive, and still a resident of Kentucky, said in a speech at New York, at the Anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1834 : ' Under all these disadvantages, you are doing much. The very little leaven which you have been. enabled to introduce, is now working with tremen- dous power. One instance has lately occurred within my acquaintance, of an heir to slave property — a young man of growing influence, who was first awakened by reading a single number of the Anti- Slavery Reporter, sent to him by some unknown hand. He is now a whole-hearted abolitionist. I have facts to show that cases of this kind are by no means rare. A family of slaves in Arkansas Terri- tory, another in Tennessee, and a third, consisting of 83, in Virginia, were successively emancipated through the influence of one abolition periodical. Then do not hesitate as to duty. Do not pause to consider the propriety of interference. It is as unquestionably the province of the North to labor in this cause, as it is the duty of the church to convert the world. The call is urgent — it is imperative. We want light. The ungodly are saying, ' the church will not en- lighten us.' The church is saying, ' the njinistry will not enlighten us.' The ministry is crying, 'Peace — take care.' We are altogether covered in gross darkness. We appeal to you for light. Send us faets — send us kind remonstrance and manly rea- soning. We are perishing for lack of truth. We have been lulled to sleep by the guilty apologist.' 1 80 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. A letter from a Post Master in Virginia, to the editor of ' Human Rights,' dated August 15, 1835, contains the following : — ' I have received two numbers of Human Rights, and one of The Emancipator. I have read and loan- ed them, had them returned, and loaned again. I can see no unsoundness in the arguments there ad- vanced — and until I can see some evil in your publi- cations, I shall distribute all you send to this office. It is certainly high time this subject was examined, and viewed in its proper light. I know these publi- cations will displease those who hold their fellow men in bondage : but reason, truth and justice are on your side — and why should you seek the good will of any who do evil ? I would be pleased to have a copy of the last Report of the Am. Anti-Slavery Society, if convenient, and some of your other pamphlets, which you have to dis- tribute gratis. I will read and use them to the best advantage.' A gentleman of Middlesex County, Mass. \vhose house is one of my New England homes, told me that he had very recently met with a slaveholder from the South, who, during a warm discussion on the subject of slavery, made the following acknowledgment : ' The worst of it is, we have fanatics among ourselves, and we don't know what to do with them, for they are in- creasing fast, and are sustained in their opposition to slavery by the Abolitionists of the North.' A Baptist clergyman whom I met in Worcester County, Mass., a few months since, told me that his brother-in-law, a lawyer of New Orleans, who had recently paid him a visit, took up the Report of the Massachusetts Ami- Slavery Society, and read it with EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. SI great interest. He then inquired, whether the princi- ples set forth in that document were Anti-Slavery principles. Upon being informed that they were, he expressed his entire approbation of them, and full conviction that they would prevail as soon as the South understood them ; for, said he, they are the prin- ciples of truth and justice, and must finally triumph. This gentleman requested to be furnished with some of our publications, and carried them to the South with him. There certainly can be no doubt to a reflecting and candid mind, as to what will and must be the result of Anti-Slavery operations. Hear now the opinion of one of the leading political papers in Charleston, South Carolina, the Southern Patriot. ' While agitation is permitted in Congress, there is 710 securitij for the South. While discussion is aU lowed in that body, year after y':::ir, in relation to sla- very and its incidents, the rights of property at the South must, in the lapse of a short period, be under- mined. It is the weapon of all who expect to work out great changes in public opiniori. It was the in- strument by which O'Connell gradually shook the fabric of popular prejudice in England on the Catho- lic question. His sole instrument was agitation, both in Parliament and out of it. His constant counsel to his followers was, agitate ! agitate ! They did agi- tate. They happily carried the question of Catholic rights. Agitation may be successfully employed for a bad as w'ell as good cause. What was the weapon of the English abolitionists? — Agitation. Eegard the ques- tion of the abolition of the slave trade when first brought into Parliament — behold the influence of PITT and the tory party beating down its advocates S2 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. b}' ail overwhelming- majority ! Look at the question of abolition itself, twenty years after, and you see WiLBERFORCE and his adherents carrying the question itself of aholUloii of slavery, by a majority as trium- phant ! How was all this accomplished ? — By agita- tion in Parliiment ! It was on this ample theatre that the abolitionists worked their fatal spells. It was on this wide stage of discussion that they spoke to the people of Engh\nd in that voice of fanaticism, which, at length, found an echo that suited their pur- poses. It was through the debates, which circulated by means of the press throughout every corner of the realm, that they carried thai question to its extreraest borders, to the hamlet of every peasant in the empire. Can it then be expected, if we give the American abolitionists the same advantage of that wide field of debate wliich Congress affords, that the same results will not follow? The local legislatures are limited theatres of action. Their debates are comparatively obscure. These are not read by the people at large. Allow the agitators a great political centre, like that of Washington — permit them to address their voice of fiinatical violence to the whole American people, through their diffusive press, and they want no greater advantage. They have a moral lever by avhich THEY CAN MOVE A WORLD OF OPINION. The course of the southern States is therefore marked out by a pencil of light. They should obtain additional guarantees against the discussion of slavery i)i Congress, hi any manner, or in any of its forms, as it exists in the tfaited States. This is the only moans that promises success in removing agitation. We have said that this is the accepted time. When we look at the spread of opinion on this subject in some of the eastern States— in Vermont, Massachu- setts and Connecticut — what are we to expect in a few years, in the middle States, should discussion proceed in Congress ? These States are yet unin- fected, in any considerable degree, by the fanatical EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 83 spirit. They may not remaiyi so after a lajjse of fice years. If they are animated by a true spirit of pntri- otisiu — by a genuine love for the Union, they should, and could with effect, interpose to stay this moral pestilence. Their voice in this matter would be in- fluential. New York and Pennsylvania are inter- mediate between the South and East in position and in physical strength.' Samuel L. Gould, a minister of the Baptist denom- ination, writing to the Secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society, from Fayette County, Penn- sylvania, in 4th month, 1S38, says : — ' The Smithfield Anti-Slavery Society, [on the border of Virginia] has among its members, several residents of Virginia. Its President has been a slave- holder, and until recently, was a distinguished citizen of Virginia, the High Sheriff of Rockingham County. Having become convinced of the wickedness of slave- holding, a little more than a year ago he purchased an estate in Pennsylvania, and removed to it, his colored men accompanying him. He now employs them as hired laborers.' ^ I may mention, in this connection, an Alabama sraveholder, a lawyer named Smith, who emancipated his slaves, I think about twenty in number, a few months since. He was the brother-in-law of William Allan of Hantsville, who was in 1834, president of the Lane Seminary Anti-Slavery Society, and subse- quently an agent of the American Anti-Slavery So- ciety, and who had for years previous been in kind and faithful correspondence with him on the subject of slavery. Henry P. Thompson, a stude^it of Lane Seminary, and a slaveholder at the time of the Anti- Slavery 84 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. discussion in that Institution, was convinced by it, went to Kentucky, aiul emancipated his slaves. Arthur Thome, an elder in the Presbyterian Church, Augusta, Kentucky, emancipated his slaves, fourteen in number, about two years since. J. G. Birney, speaking of him in the Philanthropist, says : — * For a long time he had been a professor of reli- gion, but had not, till the doctrines of abolition were embraced by his son on the discussion of the subject at Lane Seminary, given to the subject more attention than was usual among slaveholding professors at the tin)e. At first he thought his son was deranged — and that his intended trip to New York, to speak at the anniversary of the American Anti-Slavery Soci- ety, was evidence of it. He sought him (as we have heard,) on the steamboat, which was to convey him up the Ohio river, that he might stop him from going. Something, however, prevented his seeing his son before his departure, and there was no detention. The truth bore on the mind of Mr. T. till it pro- duced its proper fruit — and he now says, that he is confident no other doctrine but that of the sin of slave- holding, connected with an immediate breaking ofF< from it, will influence the slaveholder to do justice.^ I see by the late Washington papers, that one of my South Carolina cousins, Robert Barnwell Rhett, the late Attorney General of the State, has come up to my help on this point, with his characteristic chiv- alry ; [howbeit * he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so.'] In his late address to his Congres- sional Constituents, he says : — ' Who that knows anylhinq- of human aff;iirs, but must be sensible that the subject of abolition may be approached in a thousand ways, without direct leg- islation ? By perpetual discussion, agitation and EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 85 threats, accompanied with the real or imaginary- power to perfonn, there loill be need of no other action than loords to shake the confidence ef men in the safely and continuance of the institution of slavery, and its value and existence loill he destroyed. These are all the weapons the abolitionist desires to be allowed to use to accomplish his purpose. When Congress moves, it will be the last act in the drama ; and it wdl be prepared to enforce its leg'slation. To acknowl- edge the right, or to tolerate the act of interference'at alf with this institution, is to give it up— to abandon it entirely; and, as this must be the consummation of any interference, the sooner it is reached the belter. The South must hold this institution, not amidst alarm and molestation, but in geace — perfect peace, from the interference or agitation of others; or, I re- peat it, she idHI — she can — hold it not at alL There is no one so weak, but he must perceive that, whilst the spirit of abolition in the North is increasing, slavery in the South, in all the frontier States, is de- creasing.' Farther, I may add the names of J. G. Birney of Alabama, John Thompson and a person named Meux, [assamine County, Kentucky, J. M. Buchanan, Pro- fessor in Center College, Kentucky, Andrew Shannon, a Presbyterian minister in Shelbyville, Kentucky, Samuel Taylor, a Presbyterian minister of Nichoks- ville, Kentucky, Peter Dunn of Mercer County, Ken- tucky, a person named Doake in Tennessee, another named Carr in North Carolina, another named Harn- don in Virginia— with a number of others, the partic- ulars of wdiose cases I have not now by me, all of whom were slaveholders four years since, and were induced to emancipate their slaves through the influ- ence of Anti-Slavery discussions and periodicals. 8 86 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. The Democrat, a political paper published at Rochester, New York, contained the following in the summer of 1S3-5. ' On Saturday last, many of our citizens had an opportunity of witnessing a noble scene. On board the boat William Henry, then lying at the Exchange street wharf, were ten slaves, or those who had re- cently been such, and several free persons of color. lUie master, a gentleman of more than seventy years of age, accompanied them. His residence was in Powhattan County, seventy miles below Richmond, Virginia. He was on his way to Buffalo, near which place he intends purchasing a large farm, -where his ' people,' as he calls them, are to be settled. The above named gentleman was led to sacrifice much of this world's lucre, besides some SoOOO of human ^ property y' by becoming convinced of the sinfulnt^ss of his practice while reading Anti-Slavery puhlica- tions."* A letter now lies before me from an elder of a re- ligious denomination in the far South- AVest, who was converted to Abolition sentiments by Anti-Slavery publications sent to him from the city of New Yorj and who ha.s already emancipated his slaves, ten in number. The writer says, ' my hopes are revived when I read of the progress of the cause in the East- ern States, and of the increase of Anti-Slavery Socie- ties. My soul glows with gratitude to God for his mercy to the down-trodden slaves, in raising up for them in these days of savage cruelty, hundreds who, fearless of consequences, are standing up for the entire abolition of slavery, whom, though unseen, I dearly love. O I how it would delight me to listen to the public addresses of some of these dear friends.' EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 87 Hear, too, the reason assig'ned by James Smylie, a Presbyterian minister of the Amite Presbytery, Mis- sissippi, for writing a book in 1836, to prove that sla- very is a divine institution. ' From his intercourse with religious societies of all denominations in Mississippi and Louisiana, he was aware that the Abolition maxim, viz : that Sla- very is in itself sinful, had gamed on and entivined itself among the religioiis and conscientious scricples of many in the community, so far as to render them unhappy. The eye of the mind, resting on Slavery itself as a corrupt fountain, from which, of necessity, nothing but corrupt streams could flow, was inces- santly employed in search of some plan by which, with safety, the fountain could, in some future time, be entirely dried up.' An illustration of this impor- tant acknowledgement, will be found in the following fact, extracted from the Herald of Freedom : ' A young gentleman who • has been residing in South Carolina, says our movements (Abolitionists) are pro- ducing the best effects upon the South, rousing the consciences of Slaveholders, while the slaves seem to /y b e impressed as a body with the idea, that help is JB||pming — that an interest is feh for them, and plans ^^fevising for their relief somewhere — which keeps them quiet. He says it is not uncommon for minis- ters and good people to make confession like this. One, riding with him, broke forth, ' O, I fear that the groans and wails from our slaves enter into the ear of the Lord of Sabaoth. I am distressed on this sub- ject : my conscieiice v/ill let me have no peace. I go to bed, but not to sleep. I walk my room in agony, and resolve that I will never hold slaves another day ; but in the morning, my heart, like Pharaoh's, is hardened.' * In the autumn of 1835, an infmential minister in one of the most southern States, (who only one year 83 EFEECT ON THE SOUTH. before had stoutly defended slavery, and vehemently insisted that northern abolitionists "were producing unmixed and irremediable evil at the South,) wrote to the Corresponding Secretary of one of our State Anti- Slavery Societies who had furnished him with Ami- Slavery publications, avowing his conversion to Abo- lition sentiments, and praying that Anti-Slavery So- cieties might persevere in their efforts, and increase them. Among other expressions of strong feeling the letter contained the following : ' I am greatly surprised that I should in any form have been the apologist of a system so full of deadly poison to all holiness and benevolence as slaver}'-, the concocted essence of fraud, selfishness, and cold- hearted tyranny, and the fruitful parent of unnum- bered evils, both to the oppressor and the oppressed, THE ONE THOUSANDTH TART OF WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN BROUGHT TO LIGHT. ' Do you ask why this change, after residing in a' slave country for twenty years? You remember the lines of Pope, beginning : 1 ' Vice is a monster, of so frightful mien As to be hated, needs but to be seen, But seen too oft, familiar with her face ; y We first endure, tlien pity, then embrace.^ I had become so familiar with the loathsome fea- tures of slavery, that they ceased to offend — besides, I had become a southern man in all my feelings, and it is a part of our creed to defend slavery.' About two years since, Arthur and Lewis Tappan received a letter from a Virginian slaveholder, who held nearly one hundred slaves, and whose conscience had been greatly roused to the sin of slavery. In the letter, he avowed his determination to absolve himself 1 4t EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. SO from the guilt of slaveholding, declaring that he ' had rather be a wood cutter or a coal heaver, than to re- main in the midst of slavery.^ An intelligent gentleman, a lawyer and a citizen of ihe District of Columbia, has jnst written a letter to a gentleman of New York city, from which I give thee the following extract : ' The proceedings in Congress at this session have had the effect, I think, to rouse the attention of the public in all quarters, to the subject of slavery; and that, of itself, I think is a good : and it is in my opinion the chief present good that is to grow out of it. Discussion of some sort takes place, and the real foundation on which the system rests, cannot but be brought more or less into view. My hope is, that men who denounce now, will at length reason. That is what is wanted — reasoning, reflection, and a true perception of the basis on which slavery is founded.' The foregoing are but a few of the facts and testi- monies ^n the possession of Abolitionists, showing at their discussions, periodicals, petitions, arguments, peals and societies, have extensively moved, and arestiltmightily moving the slaveholding States — for good. Did time and space permit, I might, by a little painstaking, procure many more. Before passing from this part of the subject, I must record my amazement at the clamors of many of the opponents of Abolitionists, from whom better things might indeed be hoped. What slaveholders have you convinced ? they demand. Whom have you made Abolitionists? Give us their names and places of abode. Now, those who incessantly stun us with such unreasonable clamor, know full well, that to give the public the k. 90 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. names and residences of such persons, would be in most instances to surrender them to butchery. But be it known to the North and to the South, we have names of scores of citizens of the slavehokling states, many of them slaveholders, who are in constant cor- respondence with us, persons who feel so deeply on the subject as to implore us to persevere in our ef- forts, and not to be dismayed by Southern threats nor disheartend by Northern cavils and heartlessness. Yea more, these persons have committed to us the custo- dy even of their lives, thus encountering imminent per- il that they might cheer us onward in our work. Shall we betray their trust, or put them in jeopardy ? Judge thou. Now let me ask, when in former years Anti-Slave- ry tracts, with our doctrines, could be circulated at the South ? The fact is, there were none to be cir- culated there ; our principle of repentance is quite new. But I can tell thee of two facts, which it is probable thou 'hast not been informed of.' In th^^ year 1S09, the steward of a vessel, a colored marj^ carried some Abolition pamphlets to Charleston. Immediately on his arrival, he w^as informed against, and would have been tried for his life, had he not promised to leave the State, never to return. Was South Carolina willing to receive abolition pamphlets then .? Again, in 1820, my sister carried some pam- i phlets there — ' Thoughts on Slavery,' issued by the Society of Friends, and therefore not very incendia- ry, thou mayest be assured ; and yet she was inform- ed some .time afterwards, that had it not been for the i influence of our family, she would have been impris- EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 91 oned ; for she, too, was accused of giving one of them to a slave ; just as Abolitionists have been falsely charged with sending their papers to the en- slaved. What she did give away, she was ohUged to give privately. Was Charleston ready to receive Abolition pamphlets then? Or when ? please to tell me. I say that more, far more Anti-Slavery tracts, &c. are now read in the South, than ever were at any former period. As to Colonizotion tracts, I know they have circulated at the South ; but what of that, when Southernei-s believed that Colonization had no connection with the overthrow of Slavery ? Colonization papers, &c. are not Abolition papers. As to preachers, let me assure thee, that they 7iev- er have dared to preach on the subject of slavery in my native cit}', so far as my knowledge extends. Ah ! I for some years sat under two northern minis- ters, but never did I hear them preach in public, or speak in private, on the sin of slavery. O ! the deej)^ DEEP injury which such unfaithful ministers have in- picted on the South I It is well known that our young men have, to a great extent, been educated in Northern Theological Seminaries. With what prin- ciples w'ere their minds imbued ? What kind of religion did the North prepare them to preach 1 A slaveholdinsf religion. What kind of religion did northern men come down and preach to us ? A slaveholding religion— and multitudes of them be- came slaveholders. Such was one of my northern pastors. And yet thou tellest m.e, the North has nothing to do with slavery at the South — is not guil- ty, &c. &c. ' Their own clergy,' thou sayest, ' eith- 9i2 EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. er entirely hold their peace, or become tlie defend- ers of a system they once lamented, and attempted to bring to an end.' Do name to me one of those valiant defenders of slavery, who formerly lamented over the system, and attempted to bring it to an end. ' What is his name, or what is his son's name, if ihou canst tell V Strange indeed, if, because we ad- vocate the truth, others should begin to hate it ; or because we expose sin, they should turn round and defend what once they lamented over ! Is this in accordance with ' the known laws of -mind,' where principle is deeply rooted in the heart? And then thou closest these assertions luithout proof, wnth the triumphant exclamation, ' This is the record of experience, as to the tendencies of abo- litionism, as thus far developed. The South is just now in that state of high exasperation, at the sense of wanton injury and impertinent interference, which makes the influence of truth and reason most useless and powerless.' Hadst thou been better informed as to the real tendencies of abolitionism on the South,(P^ this assertion also might have been spared. Ao-ain I repeat, the South does not tell us so. Read the subjoined extract of a letter now lying before me from a correspondent in a Sonthern State. ' 12 or 15 at this place believe that all men are born free and equal, \.\\^\. prejudice against color is a disgrace to the mail who feels it, that such a feeling is without foun- dation in reason or scripture, and ought to be aban- doned immediately, that slavery is a malum in se, yea, a heinous cri??}c in the sight of God, to be repented oiicithout delay: Read also the following, extract- EFFECT ON THE SOUTH. 93 ed from the Marietta Gazette : * A citizen of one of the free states, not many months ago, observed to a distinguished southerner, that the operations of the abolitionists were impeding the cause of emancipa- tion — or to that effect. ' Sir,' said the Southerner, 'You are mistaken. Depend upon it, these agita- tions have put the slaveholders to very serious think- ing.' These, then, are the effects which Abolitionism is producing on some at the South. That others are exasperated, I do not deny. Hear what Boiling of AHrginia said in 1832, in the Legislature of that State : ' It has long been the pleasure of those who are wedded to the system of slavery, to brand all its opponents with opprobrious epithets ; to rep- resent them as enemies to order, as persons desir- ous of tearing up the foundation of society there- by endeavoring to brand them with infamy in order to avert from them the public ear.' Here then we find a Southern Legislator acknowledging that all the opponents of Slavery have ever excited the ame exasperation in those who are ' wedded to the system.' AVho is to be blamed ? Is this any cause of discouragement? That we have succeeded in rousing the North to reflection, thou art thyself a liv- ing proof; for let me ask, what it was that set thee to such serious thinking, as to induce thee to write a hook on the Slave Question? Thy friend in haste, A. E. GPvIMKE. LETTER X. 'the tendency of the age towards emancipation' produced by abolition doctrines. Dear Friend: Thou sayest, ' that this evil (Slav- ery,) is at no distant period to come to an end, is the unanimous opinion of all who either notice the ten- dencies of the age, or believe in the prophecies of the Bible.' But how can this be true, if Abolitionists have indeed rolled back the car of Emancipation ? If onr measures really tend to this result, how can this evil come to an end at no distant period? Coloniza-'^^ tionists tell us, if it had not been for our interference, they could have done a vast deal better than they have done ; and the American Unionists say, that we have paralyzed their efforts, so that they can do nothing; and yet ' the tendencies of the age ' are crowding for- ward Emancipation. Now, what has produced this tendency ? Surely every reflecting person must ac- knowledge, that Colonization cannot effect the work of Abolition. The American Union is doing nothing ; and Abolitionists are pursuing a course which ' will tend to bring slavery to an end, if at all, at the 7nost TENDENCY TOWARDS EMANCIPATION. 95 distant period,' — then do tell me, how the tendencies of the age can possibly lean towards Emancipation ! Perhaps I shall be told, that the movements of Great Britain in the West Indies created this tendency. Ah ! bat this is 7\. foreign influence, more so even than Northern influence ; and if the North is ' a foreign community,' as thou expressly stylest it, and can on that account produce no influence on the South, how can the doings of England aflect her ? Now I believe with thee, that the tendencies of the age are toward Emancipation ; but I contend that no- thing but free discussion has produced this tendency — ' the present agitation of the subject' is in fact the thing which is producing this happy tendency. Now let us turn to the South, and ask her eagle-eyed poli- ticians what they are most afraid of. Read their an- swer in their desperate struggles to fetter the press and gag the mouihs of — ichom ? — Colonizationists ? Why no — they talk colonization themselves, and are not at all afraid that the expatriation of a few hun- dreds or thousands in 20 years will ever drain the country of its millions of slaves, where they are now increasing at the rate of 70,000 every year. The American Unionists ? O no ! the South has not deemed them worthy of any notice ! Pray, then, lohose mouths are slaveholders so fiercely striving to seal in silence ? Why' the mouths of Abolitionists, to be sure — even our infant school children know this. Strange indeed, when the labors of these men are ac- tually rolling back the car of Emancipation for one or two centuries ! Why, the South ought to pour out her treasure, to support Anti- Slavery agents, and print 96 TENDENCY TOWARDS EMANCIPATION Anti-Slavery papers and pamphlets, and do all she can to aid us in rolling hack Emancipation. Pray, write her a look., and tell her she has been very need- lessly alarmed at onr doings, and advise her to send us a. few thousand dollars : her money would be very acceptable in these hard times, and we would take il as the wages due to the unpaid laborers, though we would never admit the donors to membership with us. How dost thou think she would receive such a look ? Just try it, I entreat thee. Thou seemest to think that the North has no right to rebuke the South, and assumest the ground that Abolitionists are the enemies of the South. We say, we have the right, and mean to exercise it. I believe that every northern Legislature has aright, and ought to use the right, to send a solemn remonstrance to every southern Legislature on the subject of slavery. Just as much right as the South has to send up a re- monstrance against our free presses, free pens, and free tongues. Let the North follow her example ; but, instead of asking her to enslave her subjects, entreat her to free them. The South may pretend 7i02v, that we have no right to interfere, because it suits her con- venience to say so ; but a few j-ears ago, (1S20,) we find that our Vice President, R. M. Johnson, in his speech on the Missouri question, was amazed at the *cold insensibility, the eternal apathy towards the slaves in tlie District of Columbia,' which was exhib- ited by northern men, ' though they had occular dem- onstration continually ' before them of the abomina- tions of slavery. T?Len the South wondered loe did not interfere with slavery— and now she says we have no right to interfere. TENDENCY TOWARDS EMANCIPATION. 97 I find, on the 57th p. a false assertion with regard to Abolitionists. After showing the folly of our re- jecting the worldly doctrine of expediency, so excel- lent in thy view, thou then sayest that we say, the reason why we do not go to the South is, that we should be murdered. Now, if there are any half- hearted Abolitionists, who are thus recreant to the high and holy principle of ' Duty is ours, and events are God's,' then I must leave such to explain their own inconsistences ; but that this is the reason assign- ed by the Society, as a body, I never have seen nor believed. So far from it, that I have invariably heard those who understood the principles of the Anti-Slav- ery Society best, denij that it was a duty to go to the South, Qiot because they would be killed, but because the North was guilty, and therefore ought to be labor- ed \Y\i\iJirst. They took exactly the same view of the subject, v/hich was taken by the southern friend of mine to whom I have already alluded. ' Until til northern women, (said she,) do their duty on the subject of slavery, southern women cannot be expect- ed to do theirs.' I therefore utterly deny this charge.. Such may be the opinion of a few, but it is not and cannot be proved to be a principle of action in the Anti-Slavery Society. The fact is, we need no ex- cuse for not going to the South, so long as the North is as deeply involved in the guilt of slavery as she is, and as blind to her duty. One word with regard to these remarks : ' Before the Abolition movements commenced, both northern and southern men expressed their views freely at the South.' This, also, I deny, because, as a southerner, 9 98 TENDENCY TOWARDS EMANCIPATION. I liiiow that I never could express my views freely on the abominations of slavery, without exciting anger, even in professors of religion. It is true, ' the dan- gers^ evils and mischiefs of slavery ' could be, and were discussed at the South and the North. Yes, we might talk as much as we pleased about these, as long as we viewed slavery as a misfortune to the slave- holder, and talked of ' the dangers, evils and mischiefs of slavery ' to him, and pitied him for having had such a 'sad inheritance entailed upon him.' But could any man or Avoman ever ' express their views freely ' on the sin of slavery at the South ? I say, never ! Could they express their views freely as to the dangers, mischiefs and evils of slavery to the ^oor suffering slave ? No, never ! It was only whilst the slaveholder was regarded as an iinfortunate sufferer^ and sjnnpathized with as such, that he was willing to talk, and be talked to, on this ' delicate subject.' Hence we find, that as soon as he is addressed as a guilty oppressor, why then he is in a phrenzy of pas- sion. As soon as wc set before him the dangers, and .evils, and mischiefs of slavery to the down-trodden victims of his oppression, O then ! the slaveholder storms and raves like a maniac. Now look at this view of the subject: as a southerner, I know it is the only correct one. With regard to the discussion of ' the subject of slavery, in the legislative halls of the South,' if thou hast read these debates, thou certainly must know that they did not touch on the sin of slavery at all ; they were wholly confined to ' the dangers, evils and mischiefs of slavery ' to the ^infortunate slaveholder. TENDENCY TOWARDS EMANCIPATION. 99 What did the discussion in the Virginia legislature result in ? In the rejection of every plan of emanci- pation, and in the passage of an act which they believ- ed would give additional permanency to the institu- tion, whilst it divested it of its dangers, by removing the free people of color to Liberia ; for which purpose they voted 820,000, but took very good care to pro- vide, ' that no slave to be thereafter emancipated should have the benefit of the appropriation,' so fearful were they, lest masters might avail themselves of this scheme of expatriation to manumit their slaves. The Maryland scheme is altogether based on the principle of banishment and oppression. The colored people were to be ' got rid of,' for the benefit of their lordly oppressors — not set free from the noble principles of justice and mercy to them. If Abolitionists have put a stop to all such discussions of slavery, I, for one, do most heartily rejoice at it. Th- fact is, the South is enraged, because we have exposed her horrible hy- pocrisy to the world. We have torn off the mask, and brought to light the hidden things of darkness. To prove to thee that the South, as a body, never was prepared for emancipation, I might detail histori- cal facts, which are stubborn things ; but I have not the time to go into this subject that would be necessary. I will, therefore, give a few extracts from documents published by the old Abolition Societies, whose prin- ciple w^as gradualism. In 1S03, in the report of the Delaware Society, I find the following statement :— ' The general temper and opinion of the opulent m this state, is either opposed to the generous principles of emancipation to the people of color, or indifferent 100 TENDENCY TOWARDS EMANCIPATION. to the success of the work.' In 1804, when a Com- mittee was appointed to draft a memorial to the Le- gislature of North Carolina, we find the following sentiment expressed in their Report : — ' They believe that public opinion in that state is exceedingly hostile to the abolition of slavery ; and every attempt towards emancipation is regarded with an indignant and jeal- ous eye ; that at present, the inhabitants of that State consider the preservation of their lives, and all they hold dear on earth, as depending on the continuance of slavery, and arc even riveting more firmly the fet- ters of oppression.' ' They believe that great difficul- ty would attend the preseiitation of an address to the public, and that, if presented, it would not be read.' The address was, however, issued, and in it w^e find this complaint — ' Many aspersioTis hsive been cast upon the advocates of the freedom of the blacks, by mali- cious and interested men.' In 1805, in the Report of the Alexandria Society, District of Columbia, they say — ' There is rather a disposition to inc7'ease the measure of affliction already appointed to the poor de- serted African :' and complain of the decline of the Society, for which they assign several reasons, one of which is, ' the admission of slaveholders into fellow- ship at its formation.' Several of the Reports state, that they fully learned the impolicy of this measure, by the violent opposition which these slaveholding members made to their efforts for emancipation. Just as well might a Temperance Society admit a practi- cal drunkard into their ranks, as for an Abolition So- ciety to admit a slaveholder to membership. TENDENCY TOWARDS EMANCIPATION. 101 In 1806, the Report of the Pennsylvania Society says — 'We believe the. true reason, why ostensible and public measures are not pursued by the advocates of abolition in the southern states, will be found in the pretty general impression, that it would not, under ex- isting circumstances, and in the present temper of the public mind, be expedient and useful/ The Wil- mington Report * laments that the people of South Carolina continue opposed to our cause ' — and in 1S09, the Report of this same Society says, ' We regret most sincerely the difficulty we labor under in establishing corresponding agents in the southern states, on whose fidelity and integrity we can firmly rely.' In 1816, the Delaware Society makes the following confes- sion — • When we look back at the bright prospects which opened on this cause within the last 20 years, and recur to the joyful feelings excited by the just anticipations of speedy success in this conflict with cruelty and wrong, we cannot but feel the pressure of that gloom which is the consequence of disappoi^it- ment and defeat' In 1826, we find the North Caro- lina Report acknowledging that ' the gentlest attempt to agitate the subject, or the slightest hint at the work of emancipation, is sufficient to call forth their indig- nant resentment, as if their dearest rights were in- vaded.' How, then, can our opponents say, that the cause of emancipation has been rolled hack by us ? We ask, when was it eYQX forward 1 As a southerner, I repeat my solemn conviction, hom my own experience, and from all I can learn from historical facts, and the reports of the Gradual Emancipation Societies of this 9# 102 TENDENCY TOWARDS EMANCIPATION. country, and the scope of the debates which took place in the Kentucky, Virginia and Maryland Legislatures, that it never ivas forward. If the tendencies of the age are towards emancipation, they are tendencies peculiar to this age in the United States, and have been brought about by free discussion, and in accord- ance, too, with the knoivn laivs of mind ; for collision of mind as naturally produces Hght, as the striking of the flint and the steel produces fire. Free discussion is this collision, and the results are visible in the light which is breaking forth in every city, town and vil- lage, and spreading over the hills and valleys, through the whole length and breadth of our land. Yes ! it has already reached ' the dark valley of the shadow of death ' in the South ; and in a few brief years, He who said, ' Let there be light,' will gather this moral effulgence into a focal point, and beneath its burning rays, the heart of the slaveholder, and the chains of the slave, will melt like wax before the orb of day. Let us, then, take heed lest we be found fighting against God while standing idle in the market place, or endeavoring to keep other laborers out of the field now already white to the harvest. Thy Friend, A. E. GRIMKE. LETTER XL THE SPHERE OF WOMAN AND MAN AS MORAL BEINGS THE SAME. Broo KLINE, Mass. Sth month, 2Sth, 1837. Dear Friend : I come now to that part of thy book, which is, of all others, the most important to the women of this country; thy 'general views in rela- tion to the place woman is appointed to fill by the dispensations of heaven.' I shall quote paragraphs from thy book, offer my objections to them, and then throw before thee my own views. Thou sayest, ' Heaven has appointed to one sex the superior, and to the other the subordinate station, and this without any reference to the character or con- duct of either.' This is an assertion without proof. Thou further sayest, that ' it was designed that the mode of gaining influence and exercising power should be altogether dijferent and peculiar.^ Does the Bible teach this.? 'Peace on earth, and good will to men, is the character of all the rights and privileges, the influence and the power of icoman.'' Indeed ! Did our Holy Redeemer preach the doc- 104 THE SPHERE OF WOMAN AND MAN trines of ;jrace to our sex only ? ' A man may act on Society by the collision of intellect, in public debate ; he may urge his measures by a sense of shame, by fear and by personal interest ; he may coerce by the combination of public sentiment ; he may drive by physical force, and he does not overstep the bounda- ries of his sphere.' Did Jesus, then, give a different rule of action to men and women ? Did he tell his disciples, when he sent them out to preach the gos- pel, that man might appeal to the fear, and shame, and interest of those he addressed, and coerce by pub- lic sentiment, and drive by physical force ? ' But (that) all the power and all the conquests that are lawful to woman are those only which appeal to the kindly, generous, peaceful and benevolent principles ? ' If so, I should come to a very different conclusion from the one at which thou hast arrived : I should suppose that icoman was the superior, and inan the sitbordinate being, inasmuch as moral power is im- measurably superior to 'physical force.' ' Woman is to win every thing by peace and love ; by making herself so much respected, &:c. that to yield to her opinions, and to gratify her wishes, will be the free-will offering of the heart.' This principle may do as the rule of action to the fashionable belle, whose idol is herself ; whose every attitude and smile are designed to win the admiration of others to herself ; and who enjoys, with exquisite delight, the double-refined incense of flattery which is offered to her vanity, by yielding to her opinions, and gratifying her wishes, because they are hers. But to the hum- ble Christian, who feels that it is truth which she AS MORAL BEINGS THE SAME. 105 seeks to recommend to others, truth which she wants them to esteem and love, and not herself, this subtle principle must be rejected with holy indignation. Suppose she could win thousands to her opinions, and govern them by her wishes, how much nearer would they be to Jesus Christ, if she presents no higher motive, and points to no higher leader? ' But this is all to be accomplished in the domestic circle.' Indeed! 'Who made thee a ruler and a judge over all? ' I read in the Bible, that Miriam, and Deborah, and Huldah, were called to fill 'public stations in Church and State. I find Anna, the prophetess, speaking in the temple ' unto all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.' During his ministry on earth, I see women following him from town to town, in the most public manner ; I hear the woman of Samaria, on her return to the city, telling the men to come and see a man who had told her all things that ever she did. I see them even standing on Mount Calvary, around his cross, in the most exposed situation ; but He never rebuked them ; He never told them it was unbecoming their sphere in life to mingle in the crovvds which followed his footsteps. Then, again, I see the cloven tongues of fire resting on each of the heads of the one hun- dred and twenty disciples, some of whom were women ; yea, I hear the??i preaching on the day ol Pentecost to the multitudes who witnessed the out- pouring of the spirit on that glorious occasion ; for, unless ivomen as well as men received the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, w^hat did Peter mean by tell- ing them, ' This is that which was spoken by the 1 106 THE SPHERE OF WOMAN AND MAN prophet Joel : And it shall come to pass in the last days, said God, I will pour out my spirit upon all ' flesh : and your sons and your daughters shall proph- esy. . . . And on my servants and on my handmaid- ens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit ; and they shall prophesy: This is the plain matter of fact, as Clark and Scott, Stratton and Locke, all allow. Mine is no ' private interpretation,' no mere sectarian view. I find, too, that Philip had four daughters which dildi prophesy ; and what is still more convincing, I read in the xi. of I. Corinthians, some particular di- rections from the Apostle Paul, as to hoio women were to pray and prophesy in the assemblies of the people — not in the domestic circle. On examination, too, it appears that the very same word, Diakonos, which, when applied to Phoebe, Romans xvi. 1, is translated servant, when applied to Tychicus, Ephe- sians vi. 21, is rendered minister. Ecclesiastical History informs us, that this same Phccbe was pre- eminently useful, as a minister in the Church, and that female ministers suffered martyrdom in the first ages of Christianity. And what, I ask, does the Apostle mean when he says in Phillipians iv. 3. — * Help those women who labored with me in the gos- pel ' ? Did these holy women of old perform all their gospel labors in ' the domestic and social circle '? I trow not. Thou sayest, ' the moment woman begins to feel the promptings of ambition, or the thirst for poAver, her segis of defence is gone.' Can man, then, retain, his EBgis when he indulges these guilty passions ? Is it woman only who suffers this loss ? AS MORAL BEINGS THE SAME. 107 ' All the generous promptings of chivalry, all the poetry of romantic gallantry, depend upon woman's retaining her place as dependent and defenceless, and making no claims, and maintaining no rights, but what are the gifts of honor, rectitude and love.' I cannot refrain from pronouncing this sentiment as beneath the dignity of any woman who names the name of Christ. No woman, who understands . her dignity as a moral, intellectual, and accountable be- ing, cares aught for any attention or any protection, vouchsafed by ' the promptings of chivalry, and the poetry of romantic gallantry'? Such a one loathes such littleness, and turns with disgust from all such silly insipidities. Her noble nature is insulted by such paltry, sickening adulation, and she will not stoop to drink the foul waters of so turbid a stream. If all this sinful foolery is to be withdrawn from our sex, with all my heart I say, the sooner the better. Yea, I say more, no woman who lives up to the true glory of her womanhood, will ever be treated with such practical contempt. Every man, when in the presence of true moral greatness, * will find an influ- ence thrown around him,' which will utterly forbid the exercise of ' the poetry of romantic gallantry.' What dost thou mean by woman's retaining her place as defenceless and dependent ? Did our Heav- enly Father furnish man with any offensive or de- fensive weapons ? Was he created any less defence- less than she was ? Are they not equally defence- less, equally dependent on Him ? What did Jesus say to his disciples, when he commissioned them to preach, the gospel ?— ' Behold, I send you forth as lOS THE SPHERE OF WOIMAN AND MAN SHEEP in the midst of wolves ; be ye wise as ser- pents, and harmless as doves. What more could he have said to women ? Ao-ain, she must ' make no claims, and maintain no rights, but what are the gifts of honor, rectitude and love.' From whom does woman receive her rights ? From God, or from man ? What dost thou mean by- saying, her rights are the gifts of honor, rectitude and love? One would really suppose that man, as her lord and master, was the gracious giver of her rights, and that these rights were bestowed upon her by ' the promptings of chivalry, and. the poetry of ro- mantic gallantry,' — out of the abundance of his hon- or, rectitude and love. Now, if I understand the real state of the case, woman's rights are not the gifts of man — no! nor the gifts of God. His gifts to her may be recalled at his good pleasure — but her rights are an integTal part of her moral being ; they cannot be withdrawn ; they must live with her forever. Her rights lie at the foundation of all her duties ; and, so long as the divine commands are binding upon her, so long must her rights continue. ' A woman may seek the aid of co-operation and combination among her own sex, to assist her in her appropriate offices of piety, charity,' &c. Appropriate offices ! Ah ! here is the great difHculty. What are they? Who can point them out? Who has ever attempted to draw a line of separation between the duties of men and women, as moral beings, without committing the grossest inconsistencies on the one hand, or running into the most arrant absurdities or the other ? AS MORAL BEINGS THE SAME. 109 ' Whatever, in an}' measure, throws a woman into the attitude of a combatant, either for herself or oth- ers — whatever binds her in a party conflict — whatever obliges her in any way to exert coercive influences, throws her out of her appropriate sphere.' If, by a combatant, thou meanest one who ' drives by phijsi' cal force,^ then I say, vian has no more right to ap- pear as siLch a combatant than womaia ; for all the pacific precepts of the gospel were given to him, as well as to her. If, by a partij conjlict, thou meanest a struggle for power, either civil or ecclesisastical, a thirst for the praise and the honor of man, why, then I would ask, is this the proper sphere of any moral, accountable being, man or woman ? If, by coercive influences, thou meanest the use of force or of fear, such as slaveholders and warriors employ, then, I repeat, that man has no more right to exert these than ivoman. All such influences are repudiat- ed by the precepts and examples of Christ, and his apostles ; so that, after all, this appropriate sphere of woman is just as appropriate to man. These ' gen- eral principles are correct,' if thou wilt only permit them to be of general application. Thou sayest that the propriety of woman's coming forward as a suppliant for a portion of her sex who are bound in cruel bondage, depends entirely on its probable results. I thought the disciples of Jesus were to walk by faith, not by sight. Did Abraham reason as to the probable results of his ofl'ering up Isaac 1 No ! or he could not have raised his hand against the life of his son ; because in Isaac, he had been told, his seed should be called,— that seed in 10 110 THE SPHERE OF WOMAN AND MAN whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed. O ! when shall we learn that God is wiser than man — that his ways are higher than our ways, his thoughts than our thoughts — and that ' obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams ? ' If we are always to reason on the probable results of performing our duty, I wonder what our Master meant by telling his disciples, that they must become like little children. I used to think he designed to incul- cate the necessity of walking by faiih, in childlike simplicity, docility and humility. But if we are to reason as to the probable results of obeying the in- junctions to plead for the widow and the fatherless, and to deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the op- pressor, &c., then I do not know what he meant to teach. According to what thou sayest, the women of this country are not to be governed by principles of duty, but by the effect their petitions produce on ihe mem- bers of Congress, and by the opinions of these men. If they deem them ' obtrusive, indecorous, and un- wise,' they must not be sent. If thou canst consent to exchange the precepts of the Bible for the opin- ions of such a body of men as now sit on the desti- nies of this nation, I cannot. What is this but obeying man rather than God, and seeking the praise of man rather than of God ? As to our petitions in- creasing the evils of slavery, this is merely an opin- ion, the correctness or incorrectness of which remains to be proved. When I hear Senator Preston of South Carolina, saying, that ' he regarded the con- certed movement upon the District of Columbia as AS MORAL BEINGS THE SAME. Ill an attempt to storm the gates of the citadel — as throwing the bridge over the moat' — and declaring that ' the South must resist the dange?- in its incep- tion, or it would soon become irresistible ' — I feel con- fident that petitions will effect the work of emancipa- tion, thy opinion to the contrarjr notwithstanding. And when I hear Francis W. Pickens, from the same State, saying in a speech delivered in Congress — ' Mr. Speaker, we cannot mistake all these things. The truth is, the moral power of the world is against ns. It is idle to disguise it. We must, sooner or later, meet the great issue that is to be made on this subject. Deeply connected with this, is the move- ment to be made on the District of Columbia. If the power be asserted in Congress to interfere here, or any approach be made toward that end, it will give a shock to our institutions and the country, the conse- quences of which no man can foretell. Sir, as well might you grapple with iron grasp into the very heart and vitals of South Carolina, as to touch this subject here.' When I hear these things from the lips of keen-eyed politicians of the South, northern apologies for not interfering with the subject of slave- ry, ' Test it should increase, rather than diminish the evils it is wished to remove ' affect me little. Another objection to woman's petitions is, that they may ' tend to bring females, as petitioners and parti- sans, into every political measure that may tend to injure and oppress their sex.' As to their ever te- coming partisans, i. e. sacrificing principles to power or inte'rest, I reprobate this under all circumstances, and in both sexes. But I trust my sisters may al 10* 112 THE SPHERE OF WOMAN AND MAN ways be permitted to petition for a redress of griev- ances. Why not ? The right of petition is the only political right that women have : why not let them exercise it whenever they are aggrieved ? Our fath- ers waged a bloody conflict with England, because they were taxed without being represented. This is just what unmarried women of property now are. They were not willing to be governed by laws which they had no voice in making ; but this is the way in which women are governed in this Republic. If, then, we are taxed without being represented, and governed by laws we have no voice in framing, then, surely, w-e ought to be permitted at least to remon- strate against ' every political measure that may tend to injure and oppress our sex in various parts of the nation, and under the various public measures that may hereafter be enforced.' Why not? Art thou afraid to trust the women of this country with dis- cretionary power as to petitioning ? Is there not sound principle and common sense enough among them, to regulate the exercise of this right ? I believe they will always use it wisely. I am not afraid to trust my sisters — not I. Thou sayest, ' In this country, petitions to Con- gress, in reference to official duties of legislators, seem, IN ALL CASES, to fall entirely without the sphere of female duty. Men are the proper persons to make appeals to the rulers whom they appoint,' &c. Here I entirely dissent from thee. The fact that women are denied the right of voting for mem- bers of Congress, is but a poor reason why they should also be deprived of the right of petition. If AS MORAL BEINGS THE SAME. 113 their numbers are counted to swell the number of Representatives in our State and National Legisla- tures, the very least that can be done is to give them the right of petition in all cases whatsoever ; and without any abridgement. If not, they are mere slaves, known only through their masters. In my next, I shall throw out my own views with regard to ' the appropriate sphere of woman ' — and for the present, subscribe myself, Thy Friend, A. E. GKIMKE. 10** LETTER XII. HUMAN RIGHTS NOT FOUNDED ON SEX. East Boylston, Mass. 10th mo. 2d, 1837. Dear Friend : In my last, I made a sort of run- ning commentary upon thy views of the appropriate sphere of woman, with something like a promise, that in my next, I would give thee my own. The investigation of the rights of the slave has led me to a better understanding of my own. I have found the Anti-Slavery cause to be the high school of morals in our land — the school in which human rights are more fully investigated, and better understood and taught, than in any other. Here a great funda- mental principle is uplifted and illuminated, and from this central light, rays innumerable stream all around. Human beings have 7'ights, because they are moral beings : the rights of all men grow out of their moral nature ; and as all men have the same moral nature, they have essentially the same rights. These rights may be wrested from the slave, but they cannot be alienated : his title to himself is as perfect now, as is that of Lyman Beecher : it is stamped on his moral being, and is, like it, imperishable. Now HUMAN RIGHTS NOT FOUNDED ON SEX. H if rights are founded in the nature of our moral being, then the mere circumstance of sex does not give to man higher rights and responsibilities, than lo woman. To suppose that it does, would be to deny the self- evident truth, that the 'physical constitution is the mere instrument of the moral nature.' To suppose that it does, would be to break up utterly the relations, of the two natures, and to reverse their functions, cx- altincT the animal nature into a monarch, and hum- blino'the moral into a slave; making the former a proprietor, and the latter its property. Vvhen hu- man beings are regarded as moral beings, sex, instead of being enthroned upon the summit, administering upon rights and responsibilities, sinks into insignifi- cance and nothingness. My doctrine then is, that whatever it is morally right for man to do, it is morally right for woman to do. Our duties orig- inate, not from difference of sex, but from the di- versity of our relations in life, the various gifts and talent; committed to our care, and the different eras in which we live. This regalation of duty by the mere cuxumst^ance of sex, vather than by the fandamental pnncple of moral being, has led to all that multifarious tra.n of evUs aowing out of the anti-christian doctrnie of mas- culine and 'feminine virtues. By this doctnne man has bspn converted into the waurmr, and clothed with sternness, and those other Wndred quahties which in common estimation belong to h.s cbar.Kt r .3 a,««»; whilst woman has been taught town of flesh, to sit as a doll arrayed in g"'^- upon an arm ui "=.= ■■. j ■ ,i fn,- Iipt and pearls, and costly array,' to be adnrtred fot her 116 HUMAN RIGHTS personal charms, and caressed and humored like a spoiled child, or converted into a mere drudge to suit the convenience of her lord and master. Thus have all the diversified relations of life been filled with * confusion and every evil work.' This principle has given to man a charter for the exercise of tyran- ny and selfishness, pride and arrogance, lust and bru- tal violence. It has robbed woman of essential rights, the right to think and speak and act on all great moral questions, just as men think and speak and act ; the right to share their responsibilities, per- ils and toils ; the right to fulfil the great end of her being, as a moral, intellectual and immortal creature, and of glorifying God in her body and her spirit which are His. Hitherto, instead of being a help meet to man, in the highest, noblest sense of the term, as a companion, a co-worker, an equal; she has been a mere appendage of his being, an instru- ment of his convenience and pleasure, the pretty toy with w^hich he wiled away his leisure moments, or the pet animal whom he humored into playfulness and submission. Woman, instead of being regarded as the equal of man, has uniformly been looked down upon as his inferior, a mer^ gift to fill up the measure of his happiness. In 'the poetry of roman- tic gallantry,' it is true, she has been called ' the last best gift of God to man ;' but I believe I speak forth the words of truth and soberness when I affirm, that woman never was given to man. She was created, like him, in the image of God, and crowned with glory and honor ; created only a little lower than the angels, — not, as is almost universally assumed, a little NOT FOUNDED ON SEX. 117 lower than man ; on her brow, as well as on hi«, was placed the ' diadem of beauty,' and in her hand llie sceptre of universal dominion. Gen : i. 27, 28. ' The last best gift of God to man !' Where is the scripture warrant for this 'rhetorical flourish, this splendid absurdity V Let us examine the account of her creation. ' And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.' Not as a gift— for Adam immediate- ly recocrnized her as a yctrt of himself— {' this is now bone oFmy bone, and flesh of my flesh')— a compan- ion and equal, not one hair's breadth beneath him in the majesty and glory of her moral being ; not placed under his authority as a subject, but by his side, on the same platform of human rights, under the gov- ernment of God only. This idea of woman's being ' ihe last best gift of God to man,' however pretty it may sound to the ears of those who love to discourse upon ' the poetry of romantic gallantry, and the gen- erous promptings of chivalry,' has nevertheless been the means of sinking her from an end into a mere raeans-o[ turning her into an appe7idage to man in- stead of recognizing her as a part of man^oi de- stroking her individuality, and rights, and re.ponsi- bilities,\nd merging her moral being in that of mam Instead of Jehovah being her king, her lawgiver, and her judge, she has been taken out of the exalted scale of existence in which He placed her, and sub- 'it:rLt;ri ::":..*..-. to define the rights and respo.^^^^^^^^^^^^ beino-s as men and wo^nen. INo one > lis HtJMAN RIGHTS out just where the line of separation between them should be drawn, and for this simple reason, that no one knows just how far below man woman is, wheth- er she be a head shorter in her moral responsibilities, or head and shoulders, or the full length of his noble stat- ure, below him, i. e. under his feet. Confusion, un- certainty, and great inconsistencies, mustexist on this point, so long as woman is regarded in the least de- gree inferior to man ; but place her \vhere her Maker placed her, on the same high level of human rights with man, side by side with him, and difficulties van- ish, the mountains of perplexity flow down at the pres- ence of this grand equalizing principle. Measure her rights and duties by the unerring standard of moral being, not by the false weights and measures of a mere circumstance of her human existence, and then the truth will be self-evident, that whatever it is morally ug\\i for a man to do, it is morally right for a woman to do. I recognize no rights but human rights — I know nothing of men's rights and women's rights ; for in Christ Jesus, there is neither male nor female. It is my solemn conviction, that, until this principle of equality is recognised and embodied in practice, the church can do nothing effectual for the permanent refor- mation of the world. Woman was the first trans- gressor, and the first victim of power. In all heath- en nations, she has been the slave of man, and Christian nations have never acknowledged her rio-hts. Nay more, no Christian denomination or So':iety has ever acknowledged them on the broad basis of hu- manity. I know that in some denominations, she is permitted to preach the gospel; not from a convic- NOT FOUNDED ON SEX. 119 tion of her rights, nor upon the ground of her equality as a human being, but of her equality in spiritual gifts — for we find that woman, even in these Societies, is allowed no voice in framing the Discipline by which she is to be governed. Now, I believe it is woman's right to have a voice in all the laws and regulations by which she is to be governed, whether in Church or State ; and that the present arrangements of soci- ety, on these points, are a violation of Inunan rights, a ra7ik usurpatio7i of poioer, a violent seizure and confiscation of what is sacredly and inalienably hers — thus inflicting upon woman outrageous wrongs, working mischief incalculable in the social circle, and in its influence on the world producing only evil, and that continually. If Ecclesiastical and Civil gov- ernments are ordained of God, then I contend that woman has just as much right to sit in solemn coun- sel in Conventions, Conferences, Associations and General Assemblies, as man — ^just as much right to it upon the throne of England, or in the Presiden- tial chair of the United States. Dost thou ask me, if I would wish to see woman engaged in the contention and strife of sectarian con- troversy, or in the intrigues of political partizans ? l say no ! never— never. I rejoice that she does not stand on the same platform which man now occupies in these respects ; but I mourn, also, that he should thus prostitute his higher nature, and vilely cast away his birthright. I prize the purity of his char- acter as highly as I do that of hers. As a moral he^ mg, whatever it is moralhj tvrong for her to do, it is morally wrong for him to do. The fallacious doc- 120 HUMAN RIGHTS trine of male and female virtues has well nigh ruin- ed all that is morally great and lovely in his charac- ter : he has been quite as deep a sufferer by it as woman, though mostly in dififerent respects and by other processes. As my time is engrossed by the pressing responsibilities of daily public duty, I have no leisure for that minute detail which would be re- quired for the illustration and defence of these princi- ples. Thou wilt find a wide field opened before thee, in the investigation of which, I doubt not, thou wilt be instructed. Enter this field, and explore it : thou wilt find in it a hid treasure, more precious than ru- bies — a fund, a mine of principles, as newas they are great and glorious. Thou sayest, ' an ignorant, a narrow-minded, or a stupid woman, cannot feel nor understand the ration- ality, the propriety, or the beauty of this relation' — i. e. subordination to man. Now, verily, it does appear to me, that nothing but a narrow-minded view of the subject of human rights and responsibilities can in- duce any one to believe in this suhordination to a fal- lible being. Sure I am, that the signs of the times clearly indicate a vast and rapid change in public sen- timent, on this subject. Sure I am that she is not to be, as she has been, ' a mere second-hand agcnf m the regeneration of a fallen world, but the acknowl- edged equal and co-worker with man in this glorious work. Not that ' she will carry her measures by tormenting when she cannot please, or by petulant complaints or obtrusive interference, in matters which are out of her sphere, and which she cannot compre- hend.' But just in proportion as her moral and in- NOT FOUNDED ON SEX. 121 telleclual capacities become enlarged, she will rise higher and higher in the scale of creation, until she reaches that elevation prepared for her by her Maker, and upon whose summit she was originally stationed, only ' a little lower than the angels.' Then will it be seen that nothing which concerns the well-being of mankind is either beyond her sphere, or above her comprehension : The'ii will it be seen ' that America will be distinguished above all other nations for well educated women, and for the influence they will ex- ert on the general interests of society.' But T must close with recommending to thy peru- sal, my sister's Letters on the Province of Woman, published in the New England Spectator, and repub- lished by Isaac Knapp of Boston. As she has taken up this subject so fully, I have only glanced at it. That thou and all my country-women may better un- derstand the true dignity of woman, is the sincere desire of Thy Friend, A. E. GRIMKE. LETTER XIII. I^nSCELLANEOUS REMARKS, — CONCLUSION. HoLLisTON, Mass. lOtk monthy 23d, 1837. My Dear Friend : I resume my pen, to gather up a few fragments of thy Essay, that have not yet been noticed, and in love to bid thee farewelL Thou appearest to think, that it is peculiarly the duty of women to educate the little children of this nation. But why, I would ask— why are they any more bound to engage in this sacred employment, than men ? I be- lieve, that as soon as the rights of women are under- stood, our brethren will see and feel that it is their duty to co-operate wdth us, in this high and holy vo- cation, of training up little children in the way they should go. And the very fact of their mingling in intercourse with such guileless and gentle spirits, will tend to soften down the asperities of their characters, and clothe ihem with the noblest and sublimest Chris- tian virtues. I know that this work is deemed be- neath the dignity of man ; but how great the error ! I once heard a man, who had labored extensively among children, say, ' I never feel so near heaven, as MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS. 123 when I am teaching these little ones.' lie was riLrht ; and I trust the time is coming, when the occupation of an instructor to children will be deemed the most honorable of human employment. If it is drudgery to teach these htlle ones, then it is the duty of men to bear a part of that burthen ; if it is a privilege and an honor, then we generously invite them to share that honor and privilege with us. I know some noble instances of this union of principles and employment, and am fully settled in the belief, that abolition doctrines are pre-eminently calculated to qualify men and women to become faithful and efficient teachers. They alone teach fully the doctrine of human rights ; and to know and ap- preciate these, is an indispensable prerequisite to the wisely successful performance of the duties of a teacher. The right understanding of these will qual- ify her to teach the fundamental hr.t unfashionable doc- trine, that ' God is no respecter of persons,' and that he that despiseth the colored man, because he is ' guil- ty of a skin not colored like our own,' reproacheth his Maker for having given him that ebon hue. I consider it absolutely indispensable, that this truth should be sedulously instilled into the mind of every child in our republic. I know of no moral truth of greater importance at the present crisis. Those teach- ers, who are not prepared to teach this in all its full- ness, are deficient in one of the most sterling elements of moral character, and are false to the holy trust committed to them, and utterly unfit to train up the children of this generation. So far from urging the deficiency of teachers in this country, as a reason why 124 MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS. women should keep out of the anti-slavery excitement, I would say to my sisters, if you wish to become pre- eminently qualified for the discharge of your arduous duties, come into the abolition ranks, enter this high school of morals, and drink from the deep fountains of philanthropy and Christian equality, whence the wa- ters of healing are welling forth over wide desert wastes, and making glad the city of our God. Intellectual en- dowments are good, but a high standard of moral principle is better^ is essential. As a nation, we have too long educated the mi?td, and left the heaj't a moral waste. We have fully and fearfully illustrated the truth of the Apostle's declaration : ' Knowledge pufTeth up.' We have indeed been puffed up, vaunting our- selves in our mental endowments and national great- ness. But we are beginning to realize, that it is ' Righteousness which exalteth a nation.' Thou sayest, when a woman is asked to sign a pe- tition, or join an Anti-Slavery Society, it is ' for the purpose of contributing her measure of influence to keep up agitation in Congress, to promote the excite- ment of the North against the iniquities of the South, to coerce the South by fear, shame, anger, and a sense of odium, to do what she is determined not to do.' Indeed ! Are these the only motives presented to the daughters of America, for laboring in the glorious cause of Human Rights ? Let us examine them. 1. ' To keep up agitation in Congress.' Yes — for I can adopt this language of Moore of Virginia, in the Legislature of that State, in 1S32 : ' I should regret at all times the existence of any unnecessary excite- ment in the country on any subject ; but I confess. MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS. 125 I see no reason to lament that which may have nriseii on the present occasion. It is often necessary iliat there should be some excitement among- the people, to induce them to turn their attention to questions deeply affecting the welfare of the Commonwealth ; and there never can arise any subject more loorthy their attention, than that of the abolition of slavery.^ 2. ' To promote the excitement of the North against the iniquities of the South.' Yes, and against her own sinful copartnership in those iniquities. I believe the discussion of Human Rights at the North has already been of incalculable advantage to this country. It is producing the happiest influence upon the minds and hearts of those who are engaged in it ; just such results as Thomas Clarkson tells us, were produced in England by the agitation of the subject there. Says he, ' Of the immense advantages of this contest, I know not how to speak. Indeed, the very agitation of the question, which it involved, has been highly important. Never was the heart of man so expanded ; never were its generous sympathies so generally and soperseveringly excited. These sym- pathies, thus called into existence, have been useful preservatives of national virtue.' I, therefore, wish very much to promote the Anti-Slavery excitement at the North, because I believe it will prove a useful preservative of national virtue. 3. ' To coerce the South by fear, shame, anger, and a sense of odium.' It is true, that I feel the imn)inent danger of the South so much, that I would fain 'save them with fear, pulling them out of the fire ;' for, if they ever are saved, they will indeed be ' as a brand pluck- 126 MISCELLANEOUS REMAKES. eJ out of the burning.' Nor do I see any thing wrong in influencing slaveholders by a feeling of shame and odium, as well as by a sense of guilt. Why may not abolitionists speak some things to their shame^ as the Apostle did to the Corinthians ? As to anger, it is no design of ours to excite so wicked a passion. We cannot help it, if, in rejecting the truth, they become angry. Could Stephen help the anger of the Jews, when ' they gnashed upon him with their teeth' ? But I had thought the principal motives urged by abolitionists were not these ; but that they endeavored to excite men and women to active exertion, — first, to cleanse their own hands of the sin of slavery, and secondly, to save the South, if possible, and the North, at any rate, from the impending judgments of heaven. The result of their mission in this country, cannot in the least affect the validity of that mission. Like Noah, they may preach in vain ; if so, the destruc- tion of the South can no more be attributed to them, than the destruction of the antediluvian world to him. ' In vain,' did I say? Oh no! The discus- sion of the rights of the slave has opened the way for the discussion of other rights, and the ultimate result will most certainly be, ' the breaking of every yoke,' the letting the oppressed of every grade and description go free, — an emancipation far more glori- ous than any the world has ever yet seen, — an intro- duction into that ' liberty wherewith Christ hath made his people free.' I will now say a few words on thy remarks about Esther. Thou sayest, ' When a woman is placed in MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS. 127 similar circumstances, where death to herself and all her nation is one alternative, and there is nothing- worse to fear, but something to hope as the other al- ternative, then she may safely follow such an exam- ple.' In this sentence, thou hast conceded every thing I could wish, and proved beyond dispute just what I adduced this text to prove in my Appeal. I will explain myself. Look at the condition of our country — Church and State deeply involved in the enormous crime of slavery: ah ! more — claiminof the sacred volume, as our charter for the collar and chain. What then can we expect, but that the vials of divine wrath will be poured out upon a nation of oppressors and hypocrites ? for we are loud in our professions of civil and ecclesiastical liberty. Now, as a Southerner, I know that reflecting slaveholders expect their peculiar institution to be overthrown in blood. Read the opinion of Moore of Virginia, as expressed by him in the House of Delegates in 1S32 : — ' What must be the ultimate consequence of retain- ing the slaves amongst us ? The answer to this en- quiry is both obvious and appalling. It is, that the time loill come, and at no distant day, when we shall be involved in all the horrors of a servile ivar, which will not end until both sides have suffered much, un- til the land shall everywhere be red with blood, and until the slaves or the whites are totally exterminat- ed. If there be any truth in history, and if the time has not arrived when causes have ceased to produce their legitimate results, the dreadful catastrophe in which I have predicted that our slave system must result, if persisted in, is as inevitable as any event which has already transpired.' II 128 MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS. Here, then, is one alternative, and just as tremen- dous an alternative as that which was presented td the Queen of Persia. ' There is nothing worse to fear' for the South, let the results of abolition efforts be what they may, whilst ' there is something- to hope as the other alternative ; ' because if she will receive the truth in the love of it, she may repent and be saved. So that, after all, according to thy own rea- soning, the women of America ' may safely follow such an example.' After endeavoring to show that woman has no moral right to exercise the right of petition for the dumb and stricken slave ; no business to join, in any way, in the excitement which anti-slavery principles are producing in our country; no business to join abolition societies, &c. &c. ; thou professesl to tell out sisters what they are to do, in order to bring the sys- tem of slavery to an end. And now, my dear friend, what does all that thou hast said in many pages, amount to ? Why, that women are to exert their in- fluence in private life, to allay the excitement which exists on this subject, and to quench the flame of sym- pathy in the hearts of their fathers, husbands, broth- ers and sons. Fatal delusion ! Will Christian women heed such advice ? Hast thou ever asked thyself, what the slave would think of thy book, if he could read it? Dost thou know that, from the beginning to the end, not a vord of compassion for him has fallen from thy pen?- Re- call, I pray, the memory of the hours which thou spent in writing it I Was the paper once moistened by the tear of pity ? Did thy heart once swell with MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS. 12& deep sympathy for thy sister in bonds ? Did it once ascend to God in broken accents for the deliverance of the captive ? Didst thou ever ask thyself, what the free man of color would think of it ? Is it such an exhibition of slavery and prejudice, as will call down Ai5 blessing upon thy head? Hast thou thought of these things ? or carest thou not for the blessings and the prayers of these our suffering brethren? Consider, I entreat, the reception given to thy book by the apologists of slavery. What meaneth that loud acclaim with which they hail it ? Oh, listen and weep, and let thy repentings be kindled together, and speedily bring forth, I beseech thee, fruits meet for repentance, and henceforth show thyself faithful to Christ and his bleeding representative the slave. I greatly fear that thy book might have been writ- ten just as well, hadst thou not had the heart of a woman. It bespeaks a superior intellect, but paralyzed and spell-bound by the sorcery of a worldly-minded expediency. AVhere, oh where, in its pages, are the outpourings of a soul overwhelmed with a sense of the heinous crimes of our nation, and the necessity of immediate repentance ? Farewell ! [Perhaps on a dying bed thou mayest vainly wish that ' Miss Beech- er on the Slave Question ' might perish with the mouldering hand which penned its cold and heartless pages. But I forbear, and in deep sadness of heart, but in tender love though I thus speak, I bid thee again. Farewell. Forgive me, if I have wronged thee, and pray for her who still feels like Thy sister in the bonds of a common sisterhood, A. E. GRIMKE. 130 MISCELLANEOUS MEMARKS. P. S. Since preparing the foregoing letters for the press, I have been informed by a Bookseller in Prov- idence, that some of thy books had been sent to him to sell last summer, and that one afternoon a number of southerners entered his store whilst they were lying on the counter. An elderly lady took up one of them and after turning over the pages for some time, she threw it down and remarked, here is a book written by the daughter of a northern dough face, to apologize for our southern institutions— but for my part, I have a thousand times more respect for the Abolitionists, who openly denounce the system of slavery, than for those people, who in order to please us, cloak their real sentiments under such a garb as this. This southern lady, I have no doubt, expressed the sentiments of thousands of the most respectable slaveholders in our country— and thus, they will tell the North in bitter reproach for their sinful subser- viency, after the lapse of a few brief years, when in- terest no longer padlocks their lips. At present the South feels that she must at least a^p^pear to thank her northern apologists. A. E. G. I ;^S x^^' '^/> ->^ '^/^o\v-* <0 -^A ^ .'f' '_> *0 .H •^^ \ - ^ ^ f <5 ca. Oo •K>^ « .'^ :X^^ ^ ^^> ,<^'' -J^' ,-^ ^^% #^.^*^^'^ ^/ ' '^ ■' ■'• ^^ o C^. > ^ \^^. 1 <"• .-^ ^'A ^/>. >» '^c ■0 > ,^^ -^^ oo -f^ v^ .-^^ ^ it ^^ < c^^ l.'f^. ^^ '■ ''fe cP \^ -^'^- - ^ V .-^^ 0^ /- V^^ xO o^ - % :^"'^ -^'^ . oV ■ A^ , N C ,0^ .'^ --. ^ ,=-- •>-• ^\ = ^,, (^ » t ^■ 0^ ^> ^ «*• ^^4:^ « . -^^ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS D0DElSm4t,'^ ^