ENGLAND. AND Aliv'EEICA 
 
 SPi'^.ECH 
 
 HENRY WARD^^EECHER 
 
 FREE-TRADE HALL, ilANCHESTER, 
 
 OCTOBER 9,«18e3. 
 
 BEFBINTED F£OS THE MiSCQESTER " EXJOlISsa AWD TIHB8. 
 
 Boston : 
 
 JAMES REDPATH, Publisher, 
 
 221 Washington Street. 
 
 1863. 
 
ENGLAND AND AMERICA : 
 
 7-7 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 HENRY WARD BEECHER 
 
 PREE-TRADE HALL, MANCHESTER, 
 
 OCTOBER S, 1863. 
 
 HErniXTED FROM THE MAKCIIESTER "E.TAllIXER ,lXIt TIMES. 
 
 Bos 1 071 r< 
 
 JAMES RED PATH, Publisher, 
 2 21 W A s H I N G T o X Street. 
 
 1863. 
 

 Prkss of Geo. C. Raxd & Avery, 3 Cornuill. 
 
s 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 S P E E C II 
 
 A MEETING was held last night in the Free-trade Hall, ac- 
 cording to announcement, " to v;clcorae the Rev. Henry Ward 
 Beecher, on his public appenianee in this country." The hall 
 was extremely crowded, and there were probably six thousand 
 persons present. It was supposed, from the paper-war of 
 placards for the last fortnight, that the meeting might be dis- 
 turbed by partisans of the Confederate States. AiTange- 
 ments had, therefore, been made for the prompt suppression 
 of disorder ; and notices to that effect were posted about the 
 room. The chair was taken, at half-past six, by Mr. Francis 
 Taylor, At the same time, the entrance of Mr. Beecher, 
 accompanied by Mr. Bazley, M. P., and some prominent 
 members of the Union and Emancipation Society, was the 
 signal for enthusiastic and repeated cheering. The following 
 were among the gentlemen present : Mr. Thomas Bazley, M. 
 P. ; Bev. Dr. Parker, Manchester ; Bev. J. B. Paton, 
 Sheffield; Mr, W. P. Boberts, Manchester; Mr, Councillor 
 "Williams, Salford ; Bev. Bichard Jones, Manchester ; Bev. 
 J. Bertram, Manchester ; 3Ir. Samuel Bennett, Manchester ; 
 ]Mr. W. Heywood, Manchester ; jMr. James Galloway, ]^Ian- 
 cliester; Mr. Frederick Cooper, Manchester; Mr. Councillor 
 Clegg, Manchester ; Mr. Joseph Spence, I^Ianchester ; Bev. 
 P. Prout, Haslingden ; Mr. A. Ireland, Mr. Joseph Leese, 
 Mr. Charles Bury, Mr. H. Dunckley : Bev. G. M'Gregor, 
 Farnworth ; Mr. B. Cooper, Manchester; Mr, J. B. Cooper, 
 
Manchester ; Rev. J. Duneklej, Heywood ; Rev. W. Duck- 
 ins, Micldlewich ; Rev. W. Hanson, Manchester; Rev. J. 
 Turner, Farn worth ; Rev. J. M'Pherson, Manchester ; Rev. 
 R. Cliff, Bury ; Rev. W. Sykes ; Rev. W. H. Davidson ; 
 Rev. R. Best, Bolton ; Rev. J. S. Hill, Pendleton ; Rev. J. 
 P. Taylor, Darlington ; Rev. G. Robinson, Over Darwen ; 
 Rev. G-. Pywell, Stockport ; Mr. D. Mills, Bowdon ; Mr. 
 S. P. Robinson, Manchester ; Rev. Gr. Waldon, Manchester ; 
 Rev. J. Morgan, Rev. W. Shuttleworth, Manchester ; Rev. 
 J. Taylor, Manchester ; Rev. 0. B. Beadwell, America ; 
 Rev. T. G. Lee, Salford ; Mr. Robert Smith, Manchester ; 
 Mr. W. Boyd, Glossop; Mr. T. Roberts, Manchester; 
 Mr. J. B. Whitehead, Rawtenstall ; Mr. J. C. Edwards, 
 Manchester ; Mr. T. R. Whitehead, Rawtenstall ; Mr. E. 0. 
 Greening, Manchester; Mr. S. Watts, Jun., Manchester; Mr. 
 J. C. Dyer, Bumage ; Mr. Councillor T. Warburton, Man- 
 chester ; Mr. T. H. Barker, Manchester ; Mr. J. H. Est- 
 court, Manchester ; and Mr. P. Smclair, Manchester. Padre 
 Gavazzi was in one of the reserved seats below the platform. 
 The first row was occupied Ijy forty of the students of the 
 Lancashire Lidependent College. 
 
 One of the honorable secretaries (Mr. Greening) stated 
 that the following letter had been addressed to his colleague, 
 Mr. Edwards, and himself, by their president, from Scot- 
 land : — 
 
 PxTXACREE, DtTNKELD, October 8, 18G3. 
 
 Gentlemen : — I regret that I shall not be able to be with 
 you on Friday, to join in your welcome to the Rev. Henry 
 Ward Beecher, as I am suffering from the effects of severe 
 influenza. I have firm faith that, purified from the plague- 
 spot of slavery, the Republic will emerge in its integrity from 
 this war with renewed life and vigor. I desire, however, 
 most earnestly to impress upon the working-men of Manches- 
 
ter, that the struggle iiov»' going on iu Amcriea is tlich- ov^n 
 battle ; for on the maintenance of the great Republic in the 
 West, depends in a great degree the progress of popular in- 
 stitutions all over the world. This, the enemies of freedom 
 well know ; and therefore imperial influences abroad, as well 
 as selfish and oligarciiical sympathies at home, are brought to 
 bear in fovor of the slave-holding conspirators. Mr. Beecher 
 will be able to tell his fellow-countrymen that, whoever else 
 be against them, the hearts of the working-men of England, 
 and I believe througliout Europe, beat in unison with those 
 who are fighting the battle of freedom on the other side of 
 the Atlantic. Yours, &c., 
 
 (Signed) Thomas Bayley Potter. 
 
 The Honorable Secretaires of the Union and Emancipation 
 Society. 
 
 (Prolonged applause.) Letters also had been received 
 from Mr. W. E. Forster, M. P. for Bradford, (cheers,) and 
 Mr. Bright, M. P., (prolonged cheering,) regretting their in- 
 ability to be present. Mr. Bright said, '* I am grieved to be 
 away from home when Mr. Beecher is in the neighborhood." 
 (Loud cheers.) 
 
 The chairman said he felt proud of the honor of chau-- 
 manship conferred upon him on this occasion ; and, in re- 
 liance upon their kind forbearance, he would endeavor to dis- 
 charge the duties to the best of his ability. (Applause.) 
 He could promise that the preliminary proceedings should not 
 be long. They had come together to welcome the Rev. H. 
 W. Beecher, on his first public appearance in England, (loud 
 cheers) ; and, notwithstanding all the attempts which had 
 been made in public and in private to deter persons from be- 
 ing present, he was happy to see such a large and crowded 
 assembly. (Cheers.) 
 
 Mr Greenino; read the followino; address : — - 
 
Eeverend and Deak Sir : As mombers of the Uninii and 
 Eiiiancipation Society, Vfe avail ourselves of this, your first 
 public apwaranee in Engianfi, after a tour nndertalven for the 
 purpose of relaxation, to welcome you, not on!}'- as a citizen 
 of a great and fiee country, but as one who, for a long series 
 of years, has been a prominent and successful pioneer in the 
 cause of human progress. Though separated from you by 
 the broad Atlantic, we have been earnest spectators of your 
 fearless and persisitent advocacy of the personal rights of the 
 colored race, amidst many perils and dangers unmoved alike 
 by the blandishments of office, or the threats of opponents ; 
 and also of your consistent adherence to the principles of 
 political and religious liberty. We d(3eply deplore the dread- 
 ful calamity which has come upon your native country ; but^ 
 believing as we do, that its sole cause is to be found in that 
 sum of all vJUanies, human slavery, we recognize in it the 
 hand of retribudve justice working out the inevitable punish- 
 ment of wrong-doing, and overtaking not only the Southern 
 slave-holder, whose hands are imbued with guilt, but our own 
 country, from which you inherited this hideous institution, and 
 the Free States of America which have tolerated its existence. 
 Living ourselves under a constitutional government, and hav- 
 ing firm faith in representative institutions, we viewed with 
 alarm the outbreak of a rebellion, which its promoters avowed 
 to be an attempt to raise an empire on the ' ' corner-stone 
 of slavery," and which was essentially a rebellion against 
 free constitutional government, and an appeal from the ballot- 
 box to the riiie. The success of such a rebellion would place 
 constitutional hberty in jeopardy everywhere, and we con- 
 gratulate you and your countrymen on the determined stand 
 you have made to maintain unimpaired the great Republic 
 which has been handed down to you by your forefathers, and 
 thus to present to the world a noble spectacle of self-denying 
 patriotism. We rejoice that your statesmen, while maintaining 
 that the restoration of the Union is a sacred obligation, have 
 been led, step by step to the recognition of the rights of the ne- 
 gi-o ; thus vindicating the consistency of those who have labored 
 in the anti-slavery cause for a cjuaiier of a century, in the midst 
 of obloquy and misrepresentation, supported only by their firm 
 
faith in the eternal principles of i-ight and justice ; and cstal)- 
 lishing for them a claim to the heartfelt gratitude of the lov- 
 ers of freedom everywhere. In conclusion, we venture to hope 
 that your visit may be the means of correcting some of the 
 misrepresentations, as to the position of this country in regard 
 to the American struggle, which have been assiduously spread 
 by certain portions of the press, and of cementing the bonds 
 of amity, which ought forever to bind together in peace the 
 two great regresentatives of the Anglo-Saxon race — England 
 and America. The cordial aUiauce of these two powers may 
 not be consistent with the designs of despotism, or be aj)- 
 proved by the enemies of liberty here or elsewhere ; but, be- 
 ing one in race, language, religion, and love of freedom, they 
 may thus lead the van of civilization, and bid defiance to the 
 shocks which jealousy or suspicion might bring upon them. 
 In the firm hope that such a future may be in store for your 
 country and ours, we bid you God speed in the enterprise in 
 which you have been so long engaged, and borne such a 
 noble part. 
 
 (Signed) Tho^ias Bayley Potter, President. 
 
 On behalf of the Union and Emancipation Society. 
 
 Mr. Bazley, M. P., in a speech of some length, and which 
 was much applauded, moved the adoption of the address by 
 the meeting. 
 
 Mr. Estcoui't seconded the motion. 
 
 The chairman then put the resolution, and thousands of 
 hands were thrust up high above the heads of the dense au- 
 dience. After an interval of loud cheers, the chairman put 
 the contrary, and, amidst peals of derisive laughter and 
 cheers, about fifty hands were held up. 
 
 The chairman : I declare the resolution carried by a ma- 
 jority of five hundred to one. (Enthusiastic cheering.) The 
 chairman, in handing tlie address to jMr. Beecher, expressed 
 a hope that the reverend gentleman would long liavc health 
 to continue his famed career. 
 
The Rev. Mr. Beeclier then turned to tlie audience to 
 speak, but for several minutes he was prevented by deafening 
 cheers, followed by a few hisses, which only provoked a re- 
 newed outburst of applause. 
 
 Mr. Beecher then said : — 
 
 Mr, Chairman, Ladies and Gtentlemen : The address 
 which you have kindly presented to me contains matters 
 both personal and national. (InteiTuption.) My friends, 
 we will have a whole night session but we will be heard ! 
 (Loud cheers.) I have not come to England to be surprised 
 that those men whose cause cannot bear the lioht are afraid 
 
 o 
 
 of free speech. (Cheers.) I have had practice of more 
 than twenty-five years in the presence of mobs and riots, 
 opposing those very men whose representatives now attempt 
 to forestall free speech. (Hear.) Little by little, I doubt 
 not, I shall be permitted to speak to-night. (Hear.) Little 
 by little, I have been permitted, in my own country, to speak, 
 until at last the day has come there when nothing but the 
 utterance of speech for freedom is popular. (Cheers.) You 
 have been pleased to speak of me as one connected with the 
 great cause of progress in civil and religious liberty. I covet 
 no higher honor than to have my name joined as one among 
 the list of that great company of noble Englishmen from 
 whom we derived our doctrines of liberty. (Cheers.) For 
 although I understand there is some opposition to what are 
 called American ideas, what are these American ideas ? The 
 seed-corn we got in England — (hear) ; and if, on a larger 
 sphere, and under circumstances of unobstruction, we have 
 reared mightier sheaves, every sheaf contains the grain that 
 has made old England rich for a hundred years. (Great 
 cheering.) I am, also, not a little gratified that my first 
 appearance to speak on secular topics in England is in this 
 
9 
 
 goodly town of jManchester, for I had mther have praise from 
 men who undei-stand the quality praised, than from those 
 who speak at hazard, and w^ith little acquaintance with th« 
 subject. (Hear.) And where else, more than in these 
 great central portions of England, have the doctrines of 
 human rights been battled for, and where else have there 
 been gained for them nobler victories than here ? (Cheers.) 
 It is not indiscriminate praise, therefore ; you know what you 
 talk about. You have had practice in these doctrines your- 
 selves, and to be praised by those who are illustrious is praise 
 indeed. (Cheers.) 
 
 Allusion has been made bj' one of the gentlemen — a 
 cautionary allusion, a kind of deference evidently paid to 
 some supposed feeling — an allusion has been made to words 
 or deeds of mme, that might be supposed to be offensive to 
 Enghshmen, (Hear.) I cannot say how that maybe. I 
 am sure that I have never thought, in the midst of this 
 mighty stmggle, which has taxed every power and energy in 
 our land — (" Oh," and cheers) — I have never stopped to 
 measure and to think whether my words, spoken for truth 
 and fidelity to duty, would be liked in this shape or in that 
 shape, by one or another person. (Cheers.) I have had 
 one simple, honest purpose, which I have pursued ever since 
 I have been in public life, and that was, with all the strength 
 that Grod has given to me, to maintain the cause of the poor 
 and of the weak in my own country. (Cheers.) And if, 
 in the height and heat of conflict, some words have been over 
 sharp, and some positions have been taken heedlessly, are 
 you the men to call one to account? (Hear.) A\Tiat if 
 some exquisite French dancing-master, standing on the edge 
 of a battle, w^here some Pvichard Coeur de Leon swung his 
 axe, criticised him, by saying that " it violated the propriety 
 1* 
 
10 
 
 of the danciiig-room in the midst of battle." (Laughter.) 
 When dandies fight, they think how thej look, but when men 
 fight, they think about what they are doing. (Cheers.) 
 
 But I am not here either on trial or on defence. (Heai-, 
 hear.) I am very willing to tell you what I think about 
 England, or anybody, but T am not willing to tell you what 
 I think about myself. (Cheers.) Let me say one word, 
 however, in the beginning, in regard to this meei:ing, and the 
 peculiar gi-atiSeation which I feel in it. I have ground, and 
 God is my judge, and bears witness to the truth of what I 
 say. I can return to my countrymen, and bear witness to the 
 cordial kindness of Englishmen towards America. (Cheers.) 
 There has been serious doubt. The same agencies which 
 have been at work to misrepresent good men in our country to 
 you, have been at work to misrepresent to us good men here ; 
 and when I say to my friends in America that I have at- 
 tended such a meeting as this, received such an address, and 
 beheld such enthusiasm, it will be a renewed pledge of amity. 
 (Cheers.) I have never ceased to feel that war between 
 two such o-reat nationalities as these would be one of the 
 most unpardonable and atrocious offences that the world ever 
 beheld — (cheers) — and I have regarded everytliing, there- 
 fore, which needlessly led to this feeling, out of v/nich war 
 comes, as being in itself wicked. (Cheers.) The same 
 blood is in us. (Cheers.) We are your children, or the 
 childien of your fathers and ancestors. You and we hold 
 the same substantial doctrines. (Cheers, and cries of "Turn 
 him out/') We have the same mission amongst the nations 
 of the earth. Never were mother and daughter set forth to 
 do so queenly a thing in the kingdom of God's glory as Eng- 
 land and America. (Cheers.) And if you ask why we are 
 so sensitive, and why have we hewu England with our tongue 
 
11 
 
 as we have, I will tell yuu why. There is no man who can 
 offend 3^ou so deeply as the one you love most. (Loud 
 cheers.) Men point to France and Napoleon, and say he has 
 been joint, step by step, in all England has done, and why 
 are the press of America silent against France, and why do 
 they speak as they do against England ? It is because we 
 love England. (Cheers.) 
 
 I have lived through a whole period and revolution of feeling. 
 X remember very well in my boyhood the then recent war of 
 1812, and tlie embers kindled in the Revolutionary War of in- 
 dependence, an almost universal feehng against the Britishers, 
 as they were called, and I have seen that feehng httle by lit- 
 tle dying out ; and, what with conunon commercial interests, 
 with reciprocal blessinirs in civilitv and in relio'ion, with mul- 
 tiplied interchanges of friendly visits, there has come to be a 
 feelino- in America most cordial and admirino; of Enjrland. 
 For when we searched our principles, they all run back to 
 rights in English history ; when we looked at those institu- 
 tions of which we were most proud, we beheld that the foun- 
 dations of them, and the very foundation stones, were taken 
 from your history ; when we looked for those men that had 
 illustrated our own tongue, — orators, or eloquent ministers of 
 the gospel, — they were English ; we bon-owed nothing from 
 France but here a fashion and there a gesture or a custom, 
 but what we had to dignify humanity — that made life worth 
 having — were all brought from Old England. (Cheers.) 
 And do you suppose that under such ciicumstances, with this 
 growing love, with this growing pride, with this gladness to 
 feel that we were being associated in the historic glory of Eng- 
 land, because both you and we Ijelong to a race — to the 
 Anglo-Saxon race — do you suppose that it was with feelings 
 of mdiiference that we beheld in our midst the heir-apparent 
 
12 
 
 to tlie British throne ? (Cheers.) There is not reigning on 
 the globe a sovereign who commands our simple, unpreten- 
 tious, and unaffected respect, as your own beloved Queen in 
 America. (Loud cheers.) I have heard multitudes of men 
 say that if there was nothing for the heir-apparent, it was 
 their joy and their pleasure to pay respect to him, that his 
 mother might know that through him the compliment was 
 meant to her. (Loud cheers.) It was an unarranged and 
 unexpected, spontaneous and universal outbreak of popular 
 enthusiasm; it began in the colonies of Canada, the fire 
 rolled across the border, all throuo;h New Enoland, all 
 through New York and Ohio, down through Pennsylvania 
 and the adjacent States ; nor was the element quenched until 
 it came to Richmond. I said, and many said, the past of 
 enmity and prejudice is now rolled away down below the 
 horizon of memory, a new era is come, and we have set oui' 
 hand and voices as a sacred seal to our cordial affection and 
 cooperation with England. (Cheers.) Now (whether we 
 interpreted it aright or not is not the question) when we 
 thought England was seeking opportunity of going with the 
 South against us of the North, it hurt us as no other nation's 
 conduct could hurt us on the face of the globe ; and if we 
 spoke some words of intemperate heat, we spoke them in the 
 mortification of disappointed affection. (Cheers.) It has 
 been supposed that I have aforetime urged or threatened war 
 with England. Never. (Cheers, followed by a few gi'oans, 
 in reference to which the speaker remarked : "I have spoken 
 on the prairies where buffaloes bellowed before." The ob- 
 servation provoked loud laughter.) This I have said, — and 
 this I repeat now, and here, — that the cause of constitutional 
 government and of universal liberty, as associated with it in 
 our country was so dear, so sacred, that rather than betray it, 
 
13 
 
 we would give the kvSt child we had ; tliat we would not 
 relinquish this conflict though other States rose, and entered 
 into a league with tlie South ; and that, if it were necessary, 
 we would maintain tliis great doctrine of representative gov- 
 ernment in America against the armed world — ao-ainst Eno;- 
 land and France. (Great cheeiing, followed by some dis- 
 turbance, in reference to which the chairman rose and cau- 
 tioned an individual under the gallery whom he had observed 
 persisting ininteiTuption.) Let me be permitted to say, then, 
 that it seems to me the darker days, in so far as embroilment 
 between this country and America is concerned, are past. 
 (Cheers.) The speech of Earl Russell (renewed cheer- 
 ing) will go far toward satisfying our people. Under- 
 stand me ; we shall not accept his views of the past, and the 
 doctrines which he has propounded. (Cheers.) But the 
 statement of the present attitude of the goveriunent of Great 
 Britain, and its intentions for the future, coupled with the 
 detention of those armed ships of war, — that will take away 
 the sting from the minds of our people. (Hear, hear.) 
 And, although we differ with you in respect to the great doc- 
 trine of belligerency, the time is past to discuss that, except 
 as a question of history and of civil law. We have drifted 
 so far away from the period in which it was of any use to dis- 
 cuss that, and the circumstances of the war and your circum- 
 stances have so far changed, that now we can na longer stop 
 to discuss whether it was or was not right for Great Britain to 
 assume this position she has assumed. She has for years acted 
 upon it and will not change it ; and now all that we can ask 
 is, — Let there be a thorough neutrality. (Loud cheers.) I 
 believe there will be one. (Resumed cheers.) • If you do 
 not send us a man, we do not ask for a man. If you do not 
 send us another pound of powder, we are able to make our 
 
u 
 
 own powder, (Laughter.) If you do not send us another 
 musket, nor another cannon, we have cannon that will carry 
 five miles already. (Laughter.) We do not ask for mate- 
 rial help. We shall be grateful for m-oral sympathy 
 (cheers) ; but if you cannot give us moral sympathy, we 
 shall still endeavor to do without it. But all that we say is. 
 Let France keep away, let England keep hands off; if we 
 cannot manage this rebellion by ourselves, then it shan't be 
 managed at all . ( C heers . ) 
 
 The question of war, under the circumstances in which 
 war is now carried on in our country, is simply a question of 
 time. (Cheers.) The population is with the North. The 
 wealth is with the North. (Cheers.) The education is with 
 the North. (Cheers.) The right doctrines of civil govern- 
 ment are with the North. (Cheers, and a voice, " Where's 
 the justice ? " ) It will not be long before one thing more will 
 be with the North, — victory. (Loud and enthusiastic rounds 
 of cheers.) Men on this side are impatient at the long de- 
 lay; but if we can bear it, can't you ? (Laughter.) You 
 are quite at ease ("Not yet"); we are not. You are 
 not materially affected in any such degree as many parts of 
 our own land are now. (Cheers.) But if the day shall 
 come in one year, in two years, or in ten years hence, when 
 the old stars and stripes shall float over every State of Amer- 
 ica — (Loud cheers and some disturbance from one or two.) 
 Oh, let him (the chief disturber) have a chance. (Laugh- 
 ter.) We will take a turn about: I will say the sentences, 
 and you shall make the responses. (Laughter.) I am a 
 Congregationalist, but I can make a very good Episcopal 
 minister, too. (Loud laughter.) I was saying, when inter- 
 rupted by that sound from the other side of the house, that if 
 the day shall come, in one or five or ten j^ears, in which the 
 
15 
 
 old honored and historic banner shall float again over every 
 State of the South ; if the day shall come when that which 
 was the accursed cause of this dire and atrocious war — sla- 
 very — shall he done away, (cheers); if the day shall 
 have come when through all the Gulf States there shall be 
 liberty of speech, as there never has been, (cheers) ; if 
 the day shall come when there shall be liberty of the press, 
 as there never has been ; if the day shall come when men 
 shall have common schools to send their children to, v/hich 
 they never have had in the South; if the day shall come 
 when the land shall not be parcelled in gigantic plantations, 
 in the hands of a few rich oligarchs (loud cheers,), but 
 shall be parcelled out to honest farmers, every man owning 
 his little (renewed cheers) ; in short, if the day shall come 
 when the simple ordinances, the fraition and privileges of 
 civil liberty, shall prevail in every part of the United States, 
 it will be worth all the dreadful blood, and" tears, and woe. 
 (Loud cheers.) You are impatient ; and yet God dwelleth 
 in eternity, and has an infinite leisure to roll forward the af- 
 fairs of men, not to suit the hot impatience of those who are but 
 children of a day, and cannot wait or linger for long, but ac- 
 cording to the infinite circle on which he measures time and 
 events. He expedites or retards as it pleases him ; and if he 
 heard our cries or prayers, not thrice would the months re- 
 volve but peace would come. But the strong crying and 
 prayers of millions have not brought peace, but only thicken- 
 ing war. We accept the Providence ; the duty is plain. 
 (Cheers and interruption.) I repeat, the duty is plain. 
 (Cheers.) So rooted is this English people in the faith of 
 liberty, that it were an utterly hopeless task for any minion 
 or sympathizer of the South to sway the popular sympathy of 
 England, if this English people believed that this was none 
 
16 
 
 other than a conflict "between liberty and slavery. It is just 
 that. (Loud cheers.) I am here, to be sure, in some points 
 to cite history, but for the most part I stand a witness to tes- 
 tify what I have seen of things, with which I have intimately 
 mingled, which have been common to me since my boyhood, 
 — things which I do know, and which history will establish 
 beyond all peradventure or controversy. 
 
 But let me go back a little before my time, for I am not 
 yet one hundred years old. (Laughter. ) Slavery was in- 
 troduced into our country at a time, and in a manner, when 
 England nor America knew well what were the results of 
 that atrocious system. It was ignorantly received and prop- 
 agated on our side ; little by little it spread through all the 
 thirteen States that then were ; for slavery in the beginning 
 was in New England, such as now it is in the Southern States. 
 But when the great struggle of our lievolution came on, the 
 study of the doctrines of human rights had made such prog- 
 ress that the whole public mind began to think it was wrong 
 to wage war to defend our rights, while we were holding men 
 in slavery, depriving them of theirs. It is an historical fact, 
 that all the great and renowned men that flourished at the 
 period of our Bevolution were abolitionists. Washington was ; 
 so was Benjamin Franklin ; so was Thomas Jeflferson ; so 
 was James Monroe ; so were the principal Virginian and 
 Southern statesmen ; and the first abolition society ever found- 
 ed in America was founded not in the North, but in the Mid- 
 dle and a portion of the Southern States. (Cheers.) After 
 the Declaration of Independence, and the adoption of our Con- 
 stitution, slavery began to cease. It never had been a very 
 abundant institution in New England, because the habits of 
 the people and their conscientious convictions did not make 
 them gTeat friends of slavery. It has been said, they sold 
 
17 
 
 their slaves, and preached a cheap emancipation tj the South. 
 Slavery ceased in this Tvise in Massachusetts. Suit was 
 brought for the services of a slave, and the Chief Justice de- 
 clared the declaration of the equality of all men and their 
 right to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness was 
 equivalent to a bill of emancipation, and he refused to render 
 back that slave's services. At a later period, New York 
 brought an emancipation act. It has been said that she sold 
 her slaves. No slander was ever greater. The most careful 
 provision was made. No man travelling out of the State of 
 New York, after the passing of the emancipation act, was 
 permitted to have any slave with him, unless he gave bonds 
 for his reappearance with him. As a matter of fiict the slaves 
 were emancipated without compensation on tlie spot, to take 
 effect gradually class by class. But after a trial of half a 
 score of years, the people found this gradual emancipation was 
 intolerable. (Hear, hear.) It is like gradual amputation. 
 They therefore met together, and by another act of legisla- 
 tion they declared immediate emancipation (hear), and 
 that took effect ; and so slavery perished in the State of New 
 York. Substantially so it was in New Jersey, and in Penn- 
 sylvania ; substantially so it may be said, in respect to the 
 Northern States, that there never was an example of nations 
 that emancipated slaves so purely from moral conviction of 
 the wrong of slavery. I know that it is said that Northern 
 capital and Northern ships were employed in the slave trade. 
 To an extent it was so. But is there any community that 
 lives in which there are not miscreants who violate the public 
 feeling? (Cheers.) Then and since, the man who dared to 
 use his capital and his ships in this infamous traffic hid him- 
 self, and did by agents what he was ashamed to be known to 
 have done himself. (Hear.) No man in the North who had 
 
18 
 
 part or lot in tliis iiifanious traflic in slaves, but would nave 
 been branded with the mark of Cain. (Cheers.) It is time 
 that New York port has been employed in this infernal traf- 
 fic, but it was because it was unfortunately under the influ- 
 ence either of that democratic party that is in alliance with 
 the Southern slavery (hear, hear), or because it v/as 
 under the dark political control of the South itself. For 
 when the South could appoint our marshals, when the South 
 appointed through the administration the secretaries of the 
 treasury, and the officers of the custom-houses in all parts of 
 the country, when everything by the political machinery of 
 the South v/as favoring slavery, it could not but be that 
 there should be the ranning of the gauntlet in our ports, and 
 that the slave-trade should be carried on ; but it was by the 
 immense majority of the people abhorred, and the men who 
 did it were detested. (Cheers.) There was one Judas ; is 
 Christianity therefore a hoax ? (Hear.) There are hissing 
 men in this audience ; are you not respectable? (Cheers 
 and laughter. ) The folly of the few is that light which God 
 casts to irradiate the wisdom of the many. (Hear.) But 
 when the Constitution itself was formed, there was such a feel- 
 ing opposed to slavery that you are familiar with the fact that 
 Mr. Madison and Mr. Eandolph refused to permit the word 
 " servitude " to go into that docu-ment, and on this express 
 ground, that the time would come when slavery was to end, 
 and that they would not have the memorial of such a disgrace 
 remaining in the great charter of our liberties. (Cheers.) 
 So the word was changed from " servitude " to " service." 
 (Hear.) 
 
 And let me say one word here about the Constitution of 
 America. It recognizes slavery as a fact ; but it does not 
 recognize the doctrine of slavery in any way whatever. It 
 
WW 
 
 19 
 
 WcTS a fact. It lay before the ship of state as a rock lies in 
 tlie channel of the sliip as she goes into harbor; and be- 
 cause a ship steers round a rock, does it follow that that rock 
 is in the ship? (''Hear," and laughter.) And because 
 the Constitution of the United States made some circuits to 
 steer round that great fact, does it follow that therefore 
 slavery is recognized in the Con.stitution as a right or sys- 
 tem? (No.) See how carefully that immortal document 
 worded itself. In the slave laws, the slave is declared to be 
 — what? Expressly, and by the most repetitious phrase- 
 ology, he is denuded of all the attributes and characteristics 
 of manhood, and is pronounced a "chattle." (Shame.) 
 Now, you have just that same word with the k left out — 
 " cattle." (Hear, hear.) And the difference between 
 cattle and chattle is the difference between quadruped and 
 biped. (Laughter.) So far as animate property is con- 
 cerned, and so far as inanimate property is concerned, it is 
 just the difference between locomotive propei-ty and station- 
 ary property. (Hear, hear.) Now, all the Slave States 
 stand, on the radical principle that a slave is not for purposes 
 of law any longer to be ranked in the category of human 
 beings, but that he is a piece of property, and to be treated, 
 to all intent: and purposes, as a piece of property; and the 
 law did not blush, nor do the judges blush, nowadays, 
 who interpret that law. (Hear.) But how is it that the 
 Constitution of the United States, when it begins to speak of 
 these very same slaves, names them? Does it call them 
 "slaves " ? Does it speak of them as in " servitude " ? It 
 lifts itself up as if consciously inspired with the grandeur of 
 the thought and dignity of man, and says, " Persons held in 
 slavery." (Hear and cheers.) Go to South Carolina, and 
 ask what she calls slaves, and it says "things;" and the 
 
20 
 
 old capitol, at Washington, sullenly reverberates, " No ; per- 
 sons ! " (Cheers.) Go to South Carolina, and her funda- 
 mental article says she looks upon slaves as " things; " and 
 again the Constitution echoes, "No; persons." (Hear.) 
 Gro to the charter of Louisiana with their constitution, or to 
 the southwestern Slave States, and still that doctrine of devils 
 is enunciated — it is "chattle," it is "thing." Looking 
 upon those for whom Christ felt mortal anguish in Geth- 
 semane, and stretched himself on death in Calvary, their 
 laws call them still, "things," and " chatties ; " and still, in 
 suppressed tones of thunder, the Constitution of the United 
 States says " Persons." (Cheers.) 
 
 What was it, then, when the country had advanced so far 
 toward universal emancipation, in the period of our national 
 formation, that stopped this onward tide? Two things, 
 commercial and political. First, the wonderful demand for 
 cotton throughout the world, coupled with the facility of 
 producing it, arising from the invention of the cotton gin, 
 that introduced a new element of value. Slaves that before 
 had been worth from three hundred to four hundred dollars, 
 began to be worth five hundred dollars. That knocked 
 away one-third of our adherence to the moral law. Then 
 afterwards they became worth seven hundred dollars, and 
 half the law went — (cheers and laughter) ; then eight 
 hundred or nine hundred dollars, and then there was no 
 such thing as moral law — (cheers and laughter) ; then one 
 thousand or twelve hundred dollars, and slavery became one 
 of the beatitudes on the Mount. (Cheers and laughter.) 
 When IMoses wrote his laws, delivered by the Highest, he 
 wrote them on tables of stone ; but when the Devil, through 
 his minion, wrote his laws, he wrote them on silver. 
 (Cheers and loud laughter.) Their pocket is their Mount 
 
21 
 
 Slnal — (cheers and laughter) ; they are the lineal descend- 
 ants of those men who before worshipped tlie golden calf. 
 (Cheers.) 
 
 The other cause which prevented the progress of emanci- 
 pation, that had already so auspiciously begun, was the 
 political cause. The policy of America has been shaped by 
 the essential spirit of slave-holding Southerners. All the 
 aggression, the fiUbuster, — all the threats to England, and 
 the tauntings of Europe , — and all the belligerence our 
 government has assumed, hiive been under the inspiration, 
 and under the almost monarchical sway of the Southern 
 oligarchy. (Loud cheering). And now, since Britain has 
 been snubbed by the Southerners, and threatened by the 
 Southerners, and domineered over by the Southerners — 
 (■' No ") — yet now. Great Britain has thrown her arms of 
 love around the Southerners, and turns from the Northern- 
 ers. (No). She don't"? (Cheers.) I have only to say that 
 she has been caught in very suspicious circumstances. 
 (Laughter.) But I have said it, perhaps, as much as 
 anything else, for this very sake, — to bring out from you 
 this expression ; to let you know what we know that all 
 the hostility felt in my country toward Great Britain 
 has been sudden ; and I want you to say to me, and 
 through me, to my countrymen, that those irritations against 
 the North, and those likings for the South, that have been 
 expressed in your papers, are not the feelings of the great 
 mass of your nation. (Great cheering, the audience rising.) 
 Those cheers already sound in my ears as the coming accla- 
 mations of friendly nations; those waving handkerchiefs 
 are the white banners that symoolize peace for all countries. 
 (Cheers.) Join with us, then, Britons. (Cheers.) From 
 you we learnt the doctrine of what a man was worth ; from 
 
m 
 
 you we iGamt to detest all oppressions ; from yon we learnt 
 that it ^Ya3 the noblest tiling a man couid do, to die for a 
 principle. (Cheers). And now, when we are set in that 
 very course, and are giving our best blood for principle, let 
 the world understand that when America strikes for the li}> 
 erty of the slave, and of the common people^ Great Britain 
 indorses her. (Cheers.) 
 
 And now I come to the period in which I, myself, became 
 an actor. (Loud cheers.) From that time to this time, 
 there has been no important movement on the subject of 
 public affairs in the connection of slavery, that I have not 
 either had a part in it, or been a most interested and inti- 
 mate obrerver of it, and I shall tell you not what I believe, 
 but what I know. (Hear, hear.) It was extremely diffi- 
 cult to get the voice of the public. Those that first at- 
 tempted it were made wellnigh marij^'s. I remember full 
 well wjien Burness Prest v/as mobbed in Cincinnati, and 
 drajrofed into the Ohio, for no other reason than for anti-slav- 
 ery sentimciiis. I remember the early martja^doms, and for 
 two years, with my pockets filled with pistols, — to the hor- 
 ror, I suppose, of those peace-loving slavery men, — I pa- 
 trolled the streets, made a special constable for the defence 
 of these poor creatures' houses. T suppose it was very 
 naughty to meddle with fire-arms ; but then I was not a min- 
 ister ; then I was only a student for the ministry, and I did not 
 fire the pistols off once. Mr. Weld, Mr. Garrison, Allan Stew- 
 art, now gone, and a multitude of men whom I ought to have 
 prepared myself to mention, that I might not, in mentioning 
 the few, seem to neglect the many, — these were the pio- 
 neers. You have been pleased to say in this address, that I 
 have been one of those pioneers. I unloosed the shoe-latch- 
 ets of the pioneers, and that is all. I was but little more 
 
than a boy ; and I bear witness that the hardest blows and 
 the most cruel sufferings were endured by men before I was 
 thrust far enough into public life to take any particular 
 share, and I do not consider myself entitled to rank amcngst 
 the pioneers. They were better men than I. Those noble 
 men did resist this downward tendency of the North. They 
 wore rejected by society. To be called an abolitionist, ex- 
 cluded a man from respectable society in those days. To be 
 called an abolitionist, blighted any man's prospects in politi- 
 cal life in those days. To be called an abolitionist, marked 
 a man's store, — his very customers avoided him as if he 
 had the plague. To be called an abolitionist, in those days, 
 shut up the doors of confidence from him in the church, and 
 he was regarded as a disturber of the peace. Nevertheless 
 they maintained then* testimony. (Loud cheers,) Little 
 by little, they gained the conscience, — they gained the un- 
 derstanding. And as, when old Luther spoke, thundering 
 in the ears of Europe the long-buried treasures of the Bible, 
 there were hosts against him, and the elect few, nevertheless, 
 gathered little by little, themselves. Many Luthers thun- 
 dered God's truth of human liberty, and they were followed 
 more and more for half a score of years, until they began to 
 be numerous enough to be an influential party in the State 
 elections. (Cheers ) 
 
 In 1848, I think it was, when that Buffalo platform was 
 laid ; it was the first endeavor of the Northern States to 
 form a platform that should carry rebuke to the slave- 
 holding ideas in the North. Before this, however, there 
 was help given us from the South ; and I can say that, un- 
 der God, the South have done more to bring on this work 
 of emancipation than the North itself. (Hear, hear.) 
 First, they began to declare, after the days of Mr. Calhoun, 
 
24 
 
 that tliey accepted slavery no more as a misfortune, but as a 
 divine blessing. Mr. Calhoun advanced the doctrine, which 
 is now the marrow of secession, that it was the duty of gov- 
 ernment, not merely to protect States from interference, but 
 that it was the duty of the general government to make slavery 
 equal with liberty. (Cheers.) These monstrous doctrines 
 began to be the development of future ambitions. The South, 
 having the control of government, knew from the inherent 
 weakness of their system, that if it were confined, it was as 
 a huge flock of herds pasturing on small pastures, that soon 
 gnaws the grass to the roots, and must have other pasture or 
 it dies, (Cheers.) Slavery is of such a nature that if you 
 do not give it continual change of feeding-ground, it must 
 die. (Renewed cheering.) And then came, one after an- 
 other the assertions of the South of rights never dreamed of. 
 From them came the Mexican war for territory ; from them 
 came Texas and its entrance as a Slave State ; from them 
 came that organized rowdyism in Congress that browbeat 
 every Northern man who had not sworn fealty to slavery ; 
 that filled all the courts of Europe with ministers holding 
 slave doctrines ; that gave the majority of the seats on the 
 bench to slave-owning judges ; and that gave, in fact, all 
 our chief offices of trust to either slave-owners, or to men 
 who licked tlie feet of slave-holding men. (Loud cheers.) 
 Then came that ever-memorable period, when, for the very 
 purpose of humbling the North, and making her drink the 
 bitter cup of humiliation, and making them understand that 
 the North was inferior, and the South their natural lords, 
 was passed the Fugitive Slave Bill. (Loud hisses,) There 
 was no need of that. There was already existing just as 
 good an instrument for so infernal a purpose as any fiend 
 could have wished. Against that infamy my soul revoltedj 
 
and these lips protested, and I defied to its face the govern- 
 ment, and told them, " I will have none of your unrighteous 
 laws ; send to me that fugitive who is fleeing from his master, 
 and I will step between him and his pursuer." (Loud 
 and prolonged cheers.) Not once nor twice have my 
 doors shut between oppression and the oppressed ; and 
 the church itself over which I minister has been the un- 
 known refuge of many and many a one. (Cheers.) But 
 whom the Devil promises he cheats. (Laughter.) That 
 peace that was the thirty pieces of silver paid for the Christ 
 of man, turned into fire, and burnt the hands that took it. 
 For how long was it after this promised peace that the 
 Missouri Compromise was abolished in an infamous disregard 
 of holy compacts? (Loud cheers.) It never ought to 
 have been made ; but havmg been made, it ought never to 
 have been broken by the South, (Cheers.) And with no 
 other pretence than the robber's pretence that might makes 
 right, they did destroy it, that they might carry slavery far 
 North. That was what was needed to arouse the long-reluc- 
 tant patriotism of the North. (Cheers.) By the abolition 
 of this compromise another Slave Sfate was immediately to 
 have been brought into the Union to balance the ever-grow- 
 mg free territories of the Northwest. Then it was that there 
 arose a majesty that had no record thus far, and has had no 
 parallel, and instead of merely protesting, young men and 
 maidens, laboring men, farmers, and mechanics, all of them 
 sped with a sacred desire to rescue free territory from the 
 toils of slavery, and emigrated in hundreds and in thou- 
 sands, that when this territory should come in to vote, it 
 should vote as a Free State. (Loud cheers.) A more infa- 
 mous and atrocious system of cheating never was practised 
 than that by which the South sought, by perjury, by intirai- 
 2 
 
26 
 
 dation, by the prostituted use of the United States army, to 
 force a vile system upon these unwilling men who had voted 
 almost unanimously for liberty and against slavery in that 
 State. (Hear.) 
 
 But at last the day of utter darkness had passed, and the 
 gray twilight was on the morning of the horizon. At last, 
 for the first time, I believe, in the whole conflict between the 
 South and the North, the victory went to the North, and 
 Kansas became a Free State. (Cheers.) Kansas became 
 an impulse that was given to popular feeling, and in 1853 
 Mr. Fremont was nominated for the presidency. He came 
 so near to being elected that, but for an enormous cheating 
 in the polls at Pennsylvania, he would have been elected ; 
 but, instead of Mr. Fremont, Mr. Buchanan was returned. 
 (Hisses.) We aimed at an eagle and hit a buzzard. 
 (Laughter.) Now I call you to witness that in a period 
 of twenty-five or thirty years of constant conflicts with the 
 South, at every single step they gained the advantage, with 
 the single exception of Kansas. AVhat was the conduct of 
 the North? Did they threaten secession? (No.) Did 
 they threaten violence? (No.) So sure were they of the 
 ultimate triumph of that which was right, provided free speech 
 was left to combat error and wrong, that they patiently bided 
 their time. By this time, the North was cured of its love of 
 or indifference to slavery. By this time, anew conscience 
 had been formed in the North, and a vast majority of all the 
 Northern men at this time stood fair and square on the doc- 
 trine of anti-slavery. (Cheers.) It went through all the 
 quicksands of that infamous demonstration of four years, in 
 which senators, sworn by the Constitution, were plotting 
 machinations to destroy the government, in which the mem- 
 bers of the cabinet, who drew their pay month by month, 
 
27 
 
 used their time and their official position to steal arms, to 
 prepare fortifications, to make ready, and in which the most 
 astounding spectacle that the world ever saw, was witnessed, 
 — our great people paying men to sit in the places of power 
 and office to betray them. (Hear, hear.) During all those 
 four years what did we ? We protested and waited, and 
 said, " God shall give us the victory, for it is God's truth 
 that we wield-, and God's truth we promote, and with God, 
 in his own good time, shall be the giving of the victory." 
 (Great cheering.) In all this time we never made an inroad 
 on the rights of the South. (Cheers.) We never asked 
 for retaliatory law. We never taxed their commerce, or 
 touched it with our little finger. We envied them none of 
 their manufactures ; but sought to promote them. We did 
 not attempt to abate, by one ounce, their material prosperity; 
 we longed for their prosperity. (Cheers.) Slavery we 
 always hated ; the Southern men never. (Cheers.) They 
 were wrong. And in our conflicts with them, we have felt 
 as all men in conflict feel. We were jealous, and so were 
 they. We were in the right cause, they in the wrong. 
 (Cheers.) We never envied them their territory; audit 
 was in the heart and it was the faith of the whole Xorth, 
 that, in seeking for the abatement of slavery, and its final 
 abolition, we were conferring upon the South the greatest 
 boon which one nation, or part of a nation, could confer 
 upon another. That she was to come down, and pass 
 through the valley of humiliation, during the progress of 
 her institutions, till she passed from forced labor to free 
 labor, I have no doubt ; but it was nit in our heart to hum- 
 ble her ; but rather to help and sympathize with her. I 
 defy time and history to point to a more honorable conduct 
 than that of the free North toward the South, during all 
 these days. 
 
28 
 
 In 1860, Mr. Lincoln was elected. (Cheers.) I ask you 
 to take notice of the conduct of the two sides at this point. 
 For thirty years we had heen experiencing sectional defeats 
 at the hands of the Southerners. For thirty years and more 
 we had seen our sons proscribed, because loyal to liberty, or 
 worse than proscribed, — suborned, and made subservient to 
 slavery. (Cheers.) We had seen our judges corrupt, our 
 ministers apostate, our merchants running headlong after 
 gold against principle ; but we maintained our fealty to the 
 law and Constitution, and had faith in victory by legitimate 
 means. But when, by the means pointed out by the Con- 
 stitution, and sanctified by the usage of three-quarters of a 
 century, Mr. Lincoln, in a fair open field, was elected Presi- 
 dent of the United States, did the South submit? (Cries of 
 "No," and cheers.) No offence had been committed, — 
 none threatened ; but the arrogation was that the election of 
 a man known to be pledged against the extension of slavery 
 was not compatible with the safety of slavery in the South, 
 and on that ground they took steps for secession. Every 
 honest mode to prevent it, all patience on the part of the 
 North, all pusillanimity on the part of Mr. Buchanan ; while 
 he still sat, before his successor came into office, he left noth- 
 ing undone to make matters worse, did nothing to make 
 things better. The North was patient then, the South im- 
 patient. Then came the steps. The question was put to 
 the South, and with the exception of South Carolina, every 
 State in the South gave a popular vote against secession ; 
 and yet, such was the jugglery of political leaders, before a 
 few months had passed, they had precipitated every State into 
 secession. That could never have been where thei-e were 
 common people. The South has common herds of people, 
 the North had herds of what Lord Brougham lamentably 
 
29 
 
 termed mobs. Lord Brougham, upon whose plenitude of 
 days the light of God shone so gloriously, is bringing his 
 failing days to scandalize the intelligent people of the North, 
 by calling them mobs. (Cheers and counter cheers.) 
 
 I call you to take notice that the people of the South 
 thought the government of the States could not be adminis- 
 tered by an honest man without prejudice to slavery. It 
 could not. The government of the United States is such 
 that, if it be administered equitably, still, in the long run, it 
 would destroy slavery, and it was the prospect of this that 
 led the South to make precipitate secession. (Cheers.) Now 
 against all these facts, it is attempted to make England be- 
 lieve that slavery has had nothing to do with this War. 
 (Laughter.) You might as well have attempted to persuade 
 Noah that the clouds had nothing to do with the flood ; per- 
 haps some man will persuade you that palm-trees and orange- 
 trees will grow at the North Pole ; perhaps some one will 
 persuade you next that there is no sand in the gi-eat desert. 
 It is the most monstrous absurdity ever born in the womb of 
 folly. (Cheers.) Nothing to do with slavery ! It had to 
 do with nothing else. (Cheers.) Slavery was the mother 
 of Rebellion. (Cheers.) The father of it was, — Oh, no, we 
 never mention him. (Much laughter.) Against this with- 
 ering fact, against this damning allegation, what is their 
 escape ? The attempt is to say, the North is just as bad 
 as the South. (Laughter.) Now, we are coming to the marrow 
 of it. (Cheers.) If the North is as bad as the South, why 
 did not the South find it out before you did? If the 
 North has been in favor of oppressing the black man, and 
 just as much in favor of slavery of the South, how is it that 
 the South has gone to war against the North because of their 
 belief to the contrary? (A voice : " Slavery does not pay 
 
 2* 
 
30 
 
 in tile Nortt I ' ^) Gentlemen, I hold in my hand a pub- 
 lished report of the speech of the amiable, intelligent, and 
 credulous president, I believe, of the Society for Southern 
 Independence. (Laughter.) I have some curiosities in it. 
 (Laughter.) That you may know that Southerners are not 
 all dead yet, I will read a paragraph : — 
 
 The South had labored hitherto under the imputation, and 
 it had constantly been thrown in the teeth of all who sup- 
 ported that struggling nation, that they, by their proceedings, 
 were tending to support the existence of slavery. This was 
 an impression which he thought they ought carefully to en- 
 deavor to remove. (Cheers, and laughter.) Because it 
 was one which was injui'ious to their cause (cheers) , not only 
 among those who had the feeling of all Englishmen — of a 
 horror of slavery — but, also, because strong religious bodies 
 in this country made a point of it, and felt it very strongly 
 indeed. (Cheers ) 
 
 I never like to speak behind a man's back. I like to speak 
 right to men's faces what I have to say ; and I could wish 
 that the higher felicity than that which has been accorded to 
 me to-night might have been given, — to have had Lord 
 WharnclifFe present, that I might address to him a few simple 
 and artless Christian inquiries. (Cheers.) For there can 
 be no question that there is a strong impression that the 
 South has had something to do with slavery. (Cheers.) In- 
 deed, on our side of the water, there are many persons that 
 affirm it. (Laughter and cheers.) And, as his lordship 
 thinks that it is the pecuHar duty of this now agglomerated 
 and agglutinated association for Southern independence to do 
 away with that impression, I beg to submit to them that, in 
 the first place, they ought to do away with four million 
 slaves in the South ; for I, for my own part, cannot say but 
 that I think there are uncharitable men enough living in this 
 
31 
 
 world to think that a nation that has four million slaves in it 
 has a good deal to do with supporting slavery. (Cheers.) 
 And when he has done that, it might perhaps be pertinent to 
 suggest to his lordship that there should be a little something 
 done to the Montgomery Constitution of the South, which is 
 changed from the old Federal Constitution in only one or two 
 points, the most essential of which is that it introduces and 
 legalizes slavery, and makes it unconstitutional ever to do it 
 away ; and they are under that constitution. Now, I sub- 
 mit that that wants scrubbing a little. (Cheers.) Then I 
 would also respectfully lay at his lordship's feet — more 
 beautifully embossed, if I could, than this addressed to me 
 is — the speech of Vice-President Stephens (hear, hear) in 
 which he declares that all nations have been mistaken, and 
 that the subjugation of an inferior race is the only proper 
 way to maintain the liberty of a superior; in which he 
 teaches Calvary a new lesson ; in which he gives the He into 
 the face of the Saviour himself, who came to teach us that 
 by as much as a man was stronger than another, he owed 
 himself to that other. (Loud cheers.) Not alone are Christ's 
 blood-drops our salvation, but those word-drops of sacred 
 truth which cleanse the heart and conscience by the expres- 
 sion of precious truths and principles, themselves are our 
 salvation, as well as the atoning blood ; and if there be in 
 the truths of Christ one more eminent than another, it is, 
 " He that would be chief, let him be the servant of all." But 
 this audacious hierarch of infidelity, Mr. Stephens,- in the 
 face of God, and before mankind, in this day of universal 
 Christianity, declares that the way for a nation to have man- 
 hood, is to crush out the libeity of an inferior and weaker 
 race. And he declares ostentatiously and boastingly that 
 the foundation of the Southern republic is on that corner- 
 
 2*2 
 
m 
 
 stone. (Loud cheers, '* No, no," and renewed cheers.) I 
 beg leave, when next Lord WharnclifFe speaks for the edifica- 
 tion of this delighted English people (laughter) , — I beg leave 
 to submit that this speech of Mr. Stephens' requires a little 
 scouring. (Applause.) And then, if all the other allega- 
 tions and evidences that the South are upholding slavery are 
 to be the peculiar work of the Southern Independence Asso- 
 ciation, not Hercules, in his palmy days, had such work and 
 wages before him as they have got. (Loud cheers.) We 
 shan't be troubled with them. They will be knee-deep and 
 elbow-deep in their business of scrubbing and scouring, and 
 Lord Wharncliffe may bid farewell to the sweets of domestic 
 leisure and to the pursuit of the interests of state, as all his 
 amusements hereafter will be scrubbing and scouring. (Loud 
 cheers.) But there is another precious paragraph that I 
 will read : — 
 
 He believed that the strongest supporters of slavery were 
 the merchants of New York and Boston. He always under- 
 stood, and had never seen the statement contradicted, that 
 the whole of the ships fitted out for the transport of slaves 
 from Africa to Cuba, were owned by Northerners. (Loud 
 laughter. ) 
 
 His lordship, if he will do me the honor to read my 
 speech, shall hear it contradicted in the most explicit terms. 
 There have been enough Northern ships engaged, but not by 
 any means all, nor the most, Baltimore has a preciminence 
 in that matter ; Charleston, and New Orleans, and Mobile, all 
 of them. And those ships fitted out in New York were just 
 as much despised, and loathed, and hissed by the honorable 
 merchants of that great metropolis, as if they had put up the 
 black flag of pu-acy. (Loud cheers.) Does it conduce to 
 good feeling between two nations to make such atrocious 
 glanders as those ? His lordship goes on to say : — 
 
38 
 
 That in the Northern States the shive was placed in even a 
 worse position than he was in ti^.e South. lie spoke from ex- 
 perience, having visited the country twice. 
 
 I am most surprised, and yet gratified, to learn that Lord 
 WharnclifFe speaks of the suffering of the slaves from ex- 
 perience. (Laughter and cheers.) I never was aware that 
 he had been put in that unhappy situation. Has he toiled 
 on the sugar plantation? Has he taken the night for his 
 friend, avoiding the day ? Has he sped through cane-brakes, 
 hunted by hounds, suffering hunger and heat and cold by 
 turns, until he has made his way to the far Northern States ? 
 (Cheers.) Has he had this experience ? The grammar is 
 good. It is the word experience I call attention to. If liis 
 lordship says that it is his observation I will accept the correc- 
 tion. I continue, — 
 
 In railway carnages and hotels, the negroes were treated 
 as pariahs and outcasts, and never looked upon as men and 
 brothers, but rather as dogs. (Cheers.) 
 
 In all railway cars where Southerners travel, in all hotels 
 where Southerners' money was the chief support, this is true. 
 But allow me to say frankly that there has been some occa- 
 sion for such a statement, and there has been a prejudice in 
 the North against the negi'O. I speak this the more because 
 it has been a part of my duty any time these last sixteen years to 
 protest against it; and a well-dressed and well-behaved colored 
 man has never had molestation or question on entering my 
 church, and taking any seat he pleases in the whole house, 
 • not because I had influence with my people to prevent it, but 
 because God gave me a people whose own good sense and 
 consciences led them to do it of their own accord. But from 
 this vantage ground it has been my duty to mark out the un- 
 righteous prejudice of which the colored people have suffered 
 
34 
 
 in the North ; and it is a part of the great moral revolution 
 which is going on, that the prejudices have been in a great 
 measure vanquished, and are now wellnigh trodden down. 
 In the city of New York there is one street railroad where 
 colored people cannot ride, but in the others they may, and in 
 all the railroads of New England there is not one railroad in 
 which a colored man would be questioned if he rides there. I 
 believe that the colored man may start from the line of the 
 British dominions from the North and traverse all New Eng- 
 land and New York till he touches the waters of the western 
 lakes and never be molested or questioned, passing on as any 
 decent white man would pass. But let me ask you how came 
 there to be these prejudices ? They did not exist before the 
 War of Independence. How did it grow up ? It grew up 
 as one of the accursed offshoots of slavery. Where you make 
 a race odious by oppression, all that belong to that race will 
 participate in that odium, whether they be free or slave. And 
 the South have maintained that institution which has made 
 the African a prejudiced man even in the North. How next 
 did that prejudice come to exist ? It was on account of the 
 multitude of Irishmen who came to the States. (Cheers and 
 interruption.) I declare my admiration for many of these 
 people who have illustrated the page of history in every de- 
 partment. It is part of the fruit of ignorance, and, as they 
 allege, the oppression that they have suffered, that it has 
 made them oppressors. I bear witness that there is no class 
 of people in America who are so bitter against the colored 
 people, and so eager for slavery, as the ignorant, the poor, im- 
 instructed Lishmen. ("Oh," and "hear," and "Three 
 cheers for old Ireland.") But although there have been 
 wrongs done to them in the North, the condition of the free 
 colored people in the North is unspeakably better than in the 
 
35 
 
 South. They own their wives and children. (Hear, hear.) 
 They have the right to select then* place and their kind of 
 labor ; their rights of property are protected just as much as 
 ours are. The right of education is accorded to them. 
 There is in the city of New York more than ten milHon 
 dollars of property owned by free colored people. 
 (Hear.) They have their own schools; they have their 
 own churches ; theu- own orators, and there is no more gifted 
 man, and no man whose superb eloquence more deserves to 
 be Hstened to than Frederick Douglas, (loud cheers) ; and if 
 you think that he has too much white blood, then there is 
 Samuel Ward, who is as black as black can be ; and if you 
 can find any man in the South who is superior to him in 
 sense, in logic, and in eloquence, you will find a man who 
 has never yet appeared in any of then* councils. I say still 
 further than that, that since the breaking out of this war, the 
 good conduct of the slaves at the South, and the good con- 
 duct of the free colored people at the North, has gone far to 
 increase the kind feeluigs of the whites toward them ; and 
 since they have begun to fight for their rights of manhood, 
 there are beginning to be the elements of a popular enthusiasm 
 for them. (Loud cheers. ) I will venture to say that there 
 is no place on the earth where so many colored men stand in 
 a position so auspicious for the futui'e as the free colored men 
 and the freed" slaves of the South and of the North. (Cheers.) 
 I meant to have said a good deal more to you than I have, or 
 I shall have time to say. ("Go on.") I have endeavored 
 to place before you those facts wliich go to show that slavery 
 was the real cause of this war, and that if it came to the cita- 
 tion of facts whether North or South were the most guilty in 
 this matter, there could be no question, I think, before any 
 honorable tribunal, any jury, any deliberative body, that the 
 
36 
 
 decision will be that the South, from beginning to end, for the 
 sake of slavery, has been aggressive, and the North patient. 
 Since the war broke out, the North has been more and more 
 coming upon the high ground of moral principle, until now 
 the government has taken ground for emancipation, and has 
 issued its Proclamation of Emancipation. (Grroans, and coun- 
 ter cheers, and a voice, "Go home.") (There was at this 
 point an outrageous interniption from a person in the gallery, 
 who was removed.) 
 
 It has been said very often in my hearing, and oftener I 
 have read it since I have been in England, — the last reading 
 I had of it was from the pen of Lord Brougham (hisses, 
 and cries of "chair, chair," and disorder, which continuing 
 for some time, Mr. Beecher sat down. When it had some- 
 what subsided, he continued), — it is said that the North is 
 fighting for the Union, and not for the emancipation of the 
 African. Why are we fighting for the Union but because we 
 beHeve that the Union and its government, administered now by 
 Northern men, will work out the emancipation of every living 
 being. (Loud cheering.) If it be meant that the North 
 went into this war with the immediate object of the emanci- 
 pation of the slaves, it never professed to do it ; but it went 
 into war for the Union, with the distinct understanding on 
 both sides, that if the Union was maintained slavery could not 
 live long. (Cheers.) Do you suppose that it is wise to sep- 
 arate the interest of the slave from the interest of the other 
 people on the continent, and to inaugurate a pohcy which took 
 in him alone ? He has got to stand or fall with all of us 
 (hear, hear) ; and the only sound policy for the North is 
 that policy which shall be for the benefit of the North, of the 
 South, of the blacks, and of the whites. (Cheers.) And 
 we hold that the maintenance of the Union, the funda- 
 
37 
 
 mental principles which are contained in the Declaration of 
 Independence and the Constitution, — that this is the way to 
 secure to the African ultimately his rights and his best estate. 
 So that in this way the North did come into tlie conflict with 
 the prayer, the hope, rather than, I had almost said, the ex- 
 pectation, that God would bless their endeavor to the perfection 
 of liberty over all our continent. (Loud cheers.) The con- 
 dition of the North was that of a ship canying passengers 
 tempest-tossed, and while the sailors were laboring, and the 
 captain and officers directing, some gi'umblers would come up 
 from amongst the passengers and say, " You are all the time 
 working to save the ship, but you don't care to save the 
 passengers." I should like to know how you would save the 
 passengers so well as by taking care of the ship. (At this 
 point, the chairman read to the meeting the telegi-am, rela- 
 tive to the seizure of the rams at Liverpool. The effect was 
 starthng ; the audience rose to their feet, while cheer after 
 cheer was given.) Allow me to say of the conduct of the col- 
 ored people, our citizens (for in New York, colored people 
 vote, as they do also m Massachusetts and in several other 
 Northern States, Mr. '\^^larnclifFe — Lord "V\TiarnclifFe, I beg 
 his pardon, — to the contrary notwithstanding), — that it is a 
 subject of universal remark that no men on either side have 
 carried themselves more gallantly, more bravely, than the col- 
 ored regiments that have been fighting for their government 
 and their liberty. IMy own youngest brother is colonel of one 
 of those regiments, and from him I learn many of the most 
 interesting facts concerning them. The son of one of the 
 most estimable and endeared of my fiiends in my congregation, 
 was the colonel of that regiment that charged at Fort Wag- 
 ner. He fell at tlie head of his men, — hundreds fell, — 
 and when inquest was made for liis body, it was repoited by 
 
38 
 
 the men in the tbi t, that he had been bulled with his niggers ; 
 and on his gravestone yet it shall be written, " The man that 
 dared to lead the poor and the oppressed out of their oppres- 
 sion, died with them and for them and was buried with them." 
 (Cheers,) On the Mississippi, the conduct of the colored reg- 
 iments is so good, that, although many of the officers who com- 
 mand them are Southern men, and until recently had the 
 strongest Southern prejudices, those prejudices are almost en- 
 tirely broken down, and there is no difficulty whatever in find- 
 ing officers. Northern or Southern, to take command of just as 
 many of these regiments as can be raised. It is an honorable 
 testimony to the good conduct and courage of these long- 
 abused men, whom God is now bringing by the Red Sea of 
 war out of the land of Egypt and into the land of promise. 
 (Cheers.) I have said that it would give me gi-eat pleasure 
 to answer any courteous questions that might be proposed to 
 me. If I cannot answer them, I will do the next best thing, 
 — tell you so. (Hear.) The length to which this meeting 
 has been protracted, and the very great conviction that I seem 
 to have wrought by my remai-ks, on this Pentecostal occa- 
 sion, in yonder Gentile crowd, (loud laughter,) admonish me 
 that we had better open some kind of ' ' meeting of inquiry. ' ' 
 (Renewed laughter.) It will give me pleasure, as a gentle- 
 man, to receive questions from any gentleman, (hear, hear,) 
 and to give such reply as is in my power. 
 
 The reverend gentleman remained standing for a few mo- 
 ments, as if to give the opportunity of interrogation, but no 
 one rising to question him, he sat down amidst great cheers. 
 The speech lasted nearly two and a quarter hours. 
 
 The chairman than declared the business of the meeting to 
 be at an end, and expressed his thanks for the good order 
 
39 
 
 which had been maintamed, contrary to certain ill-natured 
 predictions. (Cheers and laughter.) 
 
 The chair having been taken by Mr. Bazley, a vote of 
 thanks to Mr. Taylor, for having presided, was moved by 3Ir. 
 Beecher, seconded by Mr. S. Watts, Jr., and passed by ac- 
 clamation. 
 
 Mr. Taylor, in returning thanks, said that it was a subject 
 of congratulation, that the enemies to their cause would be now 
 prevented frqm saying, as they had falsely said before, that 
 the meeting had broken up in confusion. (Loud cheers.) 
 
 The National Anthem was then played on the organ, and 
 the audience dispersed, several hundreds previously pressing 
 round Mr. Beecher, to shake hands with him. 
 
JUST PUBLISHED: 
 
 TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTUSE : 
 
 A Biograpliy and Aiitol)iograpiiy. 
 
 1 Vol. 12rao. pp. 372, illustrated with an authentic Portrait and Autograph 
 
 of Toussaiut, and a Colored Outline Map of Colonial St. Domingo. 
 
 Price $1.25. 
 
 This volume contains two distinct works, — a Biography and an Autobio- 
 graphy. The Biography is that of Dr. Beard, revised and improved, — the 
 only impartial, and complete record of the life of the great Xegro in any 
 language ; while the autobiography is a translation, made expressly for 
 this edition, of the naive and masterly review of his public career, which 
 Toussaint addressed to the Emperor Napoleon while he was a prisoner in 
 the fatal cell of the Chateau de Joux. This interesting Memoir was pub- 
 lished by permission, from the original mauuscriiits in the General Ar- 
 chives of France, for the first time about ten years since, by a Haytien exile. 
 It has never been translated into English before. A collection of interest- 
 ing essays is appended, which embraces a Proclamation by King Christo- 
 plie, in which he alludes to Toussaint's services and policy ; an essay by 
 Harriet Martiueau, in which she describes a visit to the Chateau de Joux; 
 a similar but quite recent account of the same journey by John Bigelow, 
 Esq., our Consul at Paris; the poems of Wordsworth and John G. Whit- 
 tier on the hero of Hayti; while an extract from Wendell Phillips's great 
 oration appropriately closes the volume. 
 
 It is claimed that Toussaint L' Ouvertai'e was not only the ablest Negro 
 that has appeared in modern History, but the greatest military genius and 
 statesman that the New World has produced up to thejfresent time. Hence 
 the appearance of this book, while we are still debating the military capa- 
 city of the Negro, is timely and needed. 
 
 AVENDELL PHILLIPS ON TOUSSAINT. 
 
 " You think me a fanatic to-night, for you read history, not with your 
 eyes, but with your prejudices. But, fifty years hence, when truth gets a 
 hearing, the Muse of History will put Phocion for the Greek and Brutus 
 for the Roman, Hampden for England, Fayette for France; choose Wash- 
 ington as the bright, consummate flower of our earlier civilization, and 
 John Brown tlie ripe fruit of our noonday — then, dipping her pen in the 
 sunlight, will write in the clear blue, above them all, the name of the sol • 
 dier, the statesmau , the martyr, Toussaint L'Ouvertube." 
 
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