Notices of some Prominent Abolitionists--T. Fowell Buxton--Zachary
Macaulay--Joseph Sturge--William Allen--James Cropper--Joseph and
Samuel Gurney--George William Alexander--Thomas Pringle--Charles
Stuart--John Scoble--George Thompson--Rev. Dr. Thomson--Rev. Dr.
Wardlaw--Rev. Dr. Ritchie--Rev. Mr. James--Rev. Messrs. Hinton,
Brock, Bevan, and Burnet.
Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton was the Abolition leader in the House of
Commons during the Anti-Slavery conflicts of 1832 and 1833. His life is
a beautiful illustration of Solomon's saying, "Train up a child in the
way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." At six
years of age, Thomas lost his father; but there was left to him that
most valuable of blessings, a vigorous-minded, well-educated, virtuous
mother, who watched his young days with pains-taking solicitude. He was
naturally of a sportive, roving disposition, and, when at school or
college, made rather greater proficiency in the practice of hunting and
fishing than in the study of mathematics and the languages. Though his
juvenile tastes led him to scatter large quantities of that erratic
grain called "wild oats," the teachings of his mother inclined his
maturer years to the cultivation of the more profitable fields of
Humanity and Philanthropy. The training of the child was shown in the
actions of the man. Mr. Buxton's public life was devoted to meliorating
the condition of the unfortunate classes of society. Especially was he
the friend of prisoners, criminals and slaves. While a young man, he
took a lively interest in Prison Discipline--published a work on that
subject in 1816, being the result of observations in the prisons of
France and Belgium--and having taken his seat in the Commons in 1819,
joined Mackintosh in his efforts to limit the death-penalty, and soften
other severe features of the criminal code.
Surrounded by a strong Quaker influence from his youth, his mother being
a Friend, which was subsequently increased by his marriage with a sister
of the Gurneys and Mrs. Elizabeth Fry, (he had been accompanied by J. J.
Gurney and Mrs. F. in his continental tour,) Mr. Buxton's mind was early
turned toward the state of slavery in the Colonies. In 1821, (I think,)
immediately after he had delivered an able speech in the House on Prison
Discipline, Mr. Wilberforce wrote him an earnest letter, alluding to his
own services in abolishing the slave trade, and requesting Buxton to
join him in "a truly holy alliance" for meliorating the condition of the
negro slaves, and ultimately advancing them to the rank of a free
peasantry; and, in view of his advancing years, solicited Buxton to
become his successor in "the blessed service," when increasing
infirmities should compel him to relinquish the lead to younger hands.
Mr. Buxton at once threw his mind and heart into the work, and his
subsequent ability and devotion to it justified the compliment of
Wilberforce, a few years afterward, when he called him his
"Parliamentary Executor."
The resolutions of 1823, which have already been mentioned, were moved
by Mr. Canning, as an amendment to a more radical proposition introduced
by Mr. Buxton. To him, therefore, humanity is indebted for the first
important ministerial step towards Abolition, which was the precursor of
all that followed till the end was attained. It is with reference to the
debate on this occasion, I believe, that the anecdote is told of
"Brougham helping Buxton, and Buxton helping Brougham." Buxton was to
move the proposition, and Brougham was to second him. Due notice had
been given, and the West India interest was in commotion. Buxton
anticipated that an attempt would be made to cough and scrape him
down--not an unusual practice in this "assembly of the first gentlemen
in the world." Just as Buxton was rising, Brougham whispered to him, "I
will cheer _you_ with all my might, and then you must cheer _me_."
"Agreed!" responded the agitated brewer, who, in the suppressed
mutterings and growlings, saw a storm was brewing. But he went on,
Brougham crying "Hear! hear! hear!" so vigorously, and stamping and
cheering so lustily, that the West Indians were dumb with wonder, and
permitted Buxton to finish his speech without much interruption. Mr.
Canning replied in his adroit and elegant style, moved his amendment,
and resumed his seat under cheers from all sides. Brougham sprang to his
feet, full of excitement with the great theme. Members cried, "Divide!
divide!" in deafening tones. But Harry stood firm, lifted his voice
above the tempest, and began to roll out long sentences crowded with big
thoughts, while Buxton's shouts of "Hear! hear! hear!" finally silenced
the clamor, when, his cheers of the matchless eloquence of his colleague
becoming contagious, Brougham wound up a great speech amid "thunders of
applause."
It has already been stated, that in May, 1832, on motion of Mr. Buxton,
a committee was appointed in the Commons, to inquire and report upon the
most expedient measures for the extinction of slavery throughout the
British dominions. His labors as chairman of this committee, of which
Lord John Russell, Sir Robert Peel, and other distinguished statesmen,
were members, whose sittings did not terminate till August, were
indefatigable, and worthy of the highest praise. His permitting the
reins of leadership in this measure to slip into the hands of the
compromising Colonial Secretary, the next spring, was censured by some
Abolitionists. But no man strove more earnestly than he to remedy the
defects in the ministerial plan. He repeatedly divided the House on
amendments, and succeeded in reducing the period of apprenticeship
one-half. And any ground which he might have lost by the transactions of
1833, was nobly redeemed by his subsequent services in bringing to an
end a system, which, at the outset, he had denounced as "unjust in
principle, indefensible in policy, and anomalous, unnatural, and
unnecessary."
After the abolition of the apprenticeship, Mr. Buxton turned his
attention to the slave trade. In June, 1839, he instituted the "Society
for the Extinction of the Slave Trade and the Civilization of Africa,"
and was appointed its chairman. The same year, he brought out an
elaborate work on "The Slave Trade and its Remedy," which was followed
the next year by an enlarged edition, extending to some 600 pages. It is
the most valuable and authentic publication extant on that subject. The
facts it detailed, as to the extent of the traffic, astonished all who
paid any attention to what Mr. Pitt had denominated "the greatest
practical evil that ever afflicted mankind." While for a quarter of a
century "the triumphs of humanity in the abolition of the African slave
trade" had rounded the periods of orators in the British Senate and on
the rock of Plymouth, Mr. Buxton proves that in 1840, and for a long
period before, the victims of the traffic were more numerous, and its
features more grim and gory than when Clarkson entered upon his
philanthropic work in 1786. If Mr. Buxton had done nothing more, during
his life, than to open the eyes of deluded Christendom to the present
extent of this atrocious piracy, he would be entitled to the thanks of
mankind.
The publication of his volume stimulated the British Government to
greater efforts for bringing the traffic to an end. Though his main
remedy, the civilization of Africa, showed a comprehensive and
benevolent mind, the African expeditions undertaken in accordance with
his plan were less successful than he fondly anticipated; and many of
the best-informed persons became firmly fixed in the opinion, that the
only effectual remedy for the slave trade is the complete abolition of
slavery itself, and that anything short of this is amelioration, and not
extermination. While it is believed that Mr. Buxton never abandoned his
favorite plan, yet, till the close of his laborious and philanthropic
life, he was the steady friend of all efforts for the overthrow of
slavery and the slave trade throughout the world.
Mr. Buxton possessed large wealth, which he liberally devoted to the
promotion of benevolent enterprises--had a clear and capacious mind,
well stocked with useful knowledge--was ever under the influence of a
liberal heart and catholic spirit--and his majestic form, he being about
six feet and a half in hight, gave impressive dignity to the lucid style
in which he presented his subject, whether pleading for justice and
mercy before an adverse House of Commons, or surrounded by applauding
thousands in Exeter Hall.
Next to Mr. Buxton, if indeed he was not in advance of him, Mr. ZACHARY
MACAULAY exerted as wide an influence in marshaling public sentiment for
the victory of 1833-4, as any other person in the kingdom. His services
were not of an ostentatious kind, being confined chiefly to the
committee room and the editorial chair. Having resided both in Africa
and the West Indies, his practical acquaintance with the matters in
controversy imparted rare value to his counsels, while his acute and
powerful pen was in constant requisition, to prepare reports of
committees, memorials to Parliament, pamphlets for general distribution,
and articles for the periodical press. The self-sacrificing spirit in
which he wore out his life in the cause received additional luster from
the rare fact that he coveted none of the glory of his good works.
Mr. JOSEPH STURGE deserves a high place, not only among the
Abolitionists, but among the reformers of Great Britain. Having taken an
active part in preparing public opinion for negro emancipation, he
recorded his protest against the apprenticeship. When contradictory
statements as to its operation were confusing the English mind, he
determined to investigate the matter for himself. Accordingly, in 1836
and 1837 he made a tour of the West Indies. Satisfied of the pernicious
character of the scheme, he wrote home, advising an earnest movement for
its abolition. On his return, he published the results of his
observations--the demand for repeal reverberated through the British
Isles--the days of the apprenticeship were numbered. To him, more than
to any other man, this consummation is attributable. Soon afterward, he
conceived the plan of a General Convention to promote the universal
abolition of slavery and the slave trade. The result was, "the World's
Convention" of 1840, composed of delegates from many nations and both
hemispheres, over whose deliberations the patriot Clarkson presided, and
which contributed to the overthrow of East Indian slavery, and gave an
impulse to the cause throughout the world.
Mr. Sturge has been an assiduous laborer in other fields of reform.
Among the first to embark in the movement for the total repeal of the
corn laws, he participated in it till victory crowned the exertions of
its friends. During this controversy, he became thoroughly convinced
that a more radical and comprehensive reform was requisite to break up
the system of class legislation, which bore so heavily on the working
masses of the country. The Chartist enterprise had arrested his
attention and enlisted his sympathies from its beginning. A firm
believer in the second, if not the first line of Mackay--
"Cannon balls may aid the Truth,
But Thought's a weapon stronger"--
he could not countenance the violent measures of some leading Chartists,
and would fain infuse into their counsels a more pacific spirit.
Advocating their cardinal doctrines, but wishing to base his opinions on
actual observation and experiment, he visited the United States in 1841,
to inquire into the working of universal suffrage, voting by ballot,
equal representation, and frequent elections. Returning to England, he
published the results of his investigations, which had convinced him of
the practicability of applying the main features of our Congressional
system of representation and election to the House of Commons. At a
meeting of anti-corn law deputies, held at Manchester, in November,
after the business for which they had assembled was finished, Mr. S.
brought forward the subject of "complete suffrage." His lucid and
practical views begat a general desire among the deputies for the
commencement of a movement for a thorough reform in Parliament. In
December following he issued a "Declaration," embracing the outlines of
his plan, which ultimately drew to his views a portion of the Chartists,
who, throwing off the old name, united with others in adopting that of
Complete Suffragists.
In February, 1842, a meeting of delegates was held in London, on the
call of Mr. Sturge, cotemporaneously with an immense anti-corn law
convention, which had assembled to protest against Mr. Peel's proposed
new law. After a full discussion, in which many members of the latter
convention participated, the basis was laid for a union between the
Corn-Law Repealers and the Complete Suffragists. In April following, a
conference was held in Birmingham, mainly through his influence,
composed of delegates from England, Scotland, and Ireland. The
proceedings of this important body, over which Mr. Sturge presided, gave
new energy to the movement commenced at the previous meeting in London.
"_The National Complete Suffrage Union_" was formed by this conference,
and Mr. Sturge was chosen its first President. In the course of this
year a vacancy happened in the representation of Nottingham, a town
containing some four thousand electors. Mr. Sturge was requested to
stand as the Radical candidate, merely as an experiment, no one
expecting him to succeed. In his address to the electors, he avowed
himself in favor of universal suffrage, the severance of the Church from
the State, and the total repeal of the corn laws; declared he would not
spend a farthing in electioneering purposes, (i. e., bribing and
treating,) nor countenance any efforts in his behalf, not sanctioned by
the precepts of morality; and urged his friends to employ only such
measures, during the canvass, as would make defeat honorable, and add
luster to victory. His opponent, Mr. Walter, the proprietor of the
London Times, stimulated the exertions of his supporters with a purse of
L15,000. At the close of the poll, Mr. Sturge lacked but seventy-four
votes of an election. He would have succeeded, but for the extensive
bribery and intimidation of his opponent, who, on this account, was
unseated on the reaessembling of Parliament.
During the last six years, Mr. Sturge has devoted himself, with his
characteristic ability, zeal, and munificence, to the promotion of
general education, complete suffrage, church reform, corn-law repeal,
slave-trade extermination, universal peace, and cognate reforms.
On the summoning of a new Parliament, in 1847, he reluctantly consented
to contest Leeds. In the course of his speech at the hustings, his
proposer, the venerable Edward Baines, who had long represented the
town, said: "I have to propose for your choice, as one of your
representatives in Parliament, my friend and your friend, the friend of
his country and of the human race, Joseph Sturge. With his principles
you are well acquainted. They are the principles of liberty, of
humanity, of economy, of equal rights, of freedom of trade and of
thought, of voluntary education, of universal peace, and of justice to
all mankind, of whatever color and of whatever clime. There are in
Parliament an abundance of merchants, of manufacturers, of bankers, of
lawyers, of soldiers, of sailors, of ecclesiastical patrons, of peers,
and of bishops; but there is a deplorable deficiency of such men as
Joseph Sturge." In his address to the electors, Mr. Sturge gave a
thorough exposition of his political views, in the face of frowning
Whigs and hissing Tories, both of whom brought forward candidates, and
made him the object of their common hostility. After a hot contest, he
was barely defeated by the concentration of a part of the Tory votes
upon one of the Whig candidates; but the result was a moral triumph for
Mr. Sturge and his cause.
Mr. Sturge is a member of the Society of Friends, and his beneficent
life and amiable deportment are a beautiful embodiment of the principles
of that sect. Till within a few years, he was extensively engaged in the
corn trade, and has long been one of the most wealthy and influential
citizens of Birmingham. Not satisfied with devoting liberal sums and
remnants of time to philanthropic objects, he withdrew from a profitable
mercantile connection, that he might consecrate all his energies to the
advancement of civil and religious liberty. With no pretensions to
literary or oratorical excellence, he is able to express his clear and
vigorous ideas with terseness and point, both with pen and tongue. His
plans, like his mind, are eminently practical; and he goes straight to
the subject-matter, stripping off the husk, somewhat regardless of its
texture and hue, and piercing at once to the kernel. His mercantile
training has given him business habits of the first order, making him as
efficient in executing plans as he is shrewd in their formation. A
little apt to push aside, not to say push over, obtuseness and
sluggishness, yet he mingles his unostentatious activity with such
purity of intention and suavity of manner, as not to offend colder and
more timid natures, while doing in a day what would occupy a month in
their hands. Should he ever enter the House of Commons, he would be
found, not among its brilliant, but certainly among its most useful
members.
In this chapter it would be impossible to name all who bore a prominent
part in the cause now under review. The Society of Friends alone kept an
army in the field during the war. And no soldiers did better service
than the household troops of George Fox. I may name William Allen, to
whose many virtues the Duke of Kent gave the highest evidence, by
appointing him one of the guardians of his daughter Victoria--and James
Cropper, the munificent Liverpool merchant--and Joseph and Samuel
Gurney, the London bankers, the former of whom traveled over the
Continent to investigate the state of its prisons, and made the tour of
the West Indies, to examine into the condition of the emancipated
negroes--and George William Alexander, who has visited France, Denmark,
Holland, and Spain, to arouse them to the duty of abolishing slavery.
I can only allude to Thomas Pringle, one of England's sweetest and most
graceful poets, who officiated as Secretary of the London Anti-Slavery
Society in its infancy, its vigor, and its victory--and Captain Charles
Stuart, one of the purest and bravest of mankind, whose voice and pen
were sacred to Freedom--and John Scoble, who twice visited the West
Indies, and whose chaste oratory on the platform, and terse productions
as Secretary of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society were of
signal service to the cause. Of George Thompson, whom Lord Brougham
pronounced one of the most eloquent men either in or out of Parliament,
I shall speak at greater length, in connection with the abolition of
East Indian Slavery.
I will close this chapter by briefly noticing a few of the many
clergymen who rendered important services to the Anti-Slavery cause.
North of the Tweed, was Rev. ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., of Edinburgh, a
leading minister of the Kirk of Scotland. He has been dead several
years. Posthumous fame tells wondrous tales of his overpowering
eloquence. The reports of his speeches, which I have read, show him to
have been a son of thunder. He did not polish the angles of his
sentences so much as Dr. Chalmers, but he possessed in large measure the
comprehensive views, argumentative power, and splendid imagination,
which distinguished that great divine; while, in directness and point,
and ability to arouse and sway the passions of men, he undoubtedly
excelled him. Robert Hall never said of Andrew Thomson, that he was a
massive door, always turning on its hinges, but never moving onward. A
speech of three hours length, delivered by him, in 1830, before the
Edinburgh Anti-Slavery Society, in vindication of the principle of
immediate as opposed to gradual abolition, and which was widely
published, brought over the great body of Scottish Abolitionists to the
new doctrine, chiefly through its intrinsic merits, partly, no doubt,
because of the high standing of the orator. Its influence crossed the
Border, and among its English converts was the celebrated Mr. George
Thompson, who soon afterward became a lecturing agent of the London
Committee.
The perfect opposite of Dr. Thomson, was the eminent dissenting
minister, Rev. RALPH WARDLAW, D.D., of Glasgow. His tall person is the
fitting embodiment of his large mind; and his benignant countenance is
the index of the purity of his heart. No one ever attended his chapel
without pronouncing him a model for the pulpit. One of the best readers
that ever opened the sacred Volume, his mellow voice, musical cadence,
and chaste delivery, give to the precept or parable he has selected for
the exercise a force and reality that never appeared to the hearer
before. And his sermon--how harmoniously do strength and simplicity
blend, to give vigor and transparency to the argument; and how his
felicitous similes and pointed tropes illustrate and adorn it, without
confusing the reason or sending off the fancy in a chase after mere
imagery.
But, though justly celebrated as a preacher and a divine, he is more
widely known for his able advocacy of Voluntaryism, in opposition to
Church Establishments, his early and steady services in behalf of negro
emancipation, and his devotion to the general cause of civil and
religious liberty. Probably no chapel in Scotland has opened its doors
to so many secular meetings for the improvement of the human race as
his; and usually the venerable pastor is present to give his countenance
and voice to the work.
We cannot linger longer on Scottish ground; though if we did, we should
certainly be attracted by the erect form and elastic step of Rev. JOHN
RITCHIE, D.D., of Edinburgh, whose Quaker-cut coat, ample white cravat,
jaunty hat, and dangling cluster of watch-seals, would make you assign
him now to membership in the Society of Friends, and then to membership
in some sporting club, but never to his proper place, at the head of the
Secession Church of Scotland. He is an old soldier in the ranks of
Freedom; has fought many a hard battle with Negro Slavery and the State
Church: is an ardent free trader, universal suffragist, and, in a word,
a thorough radical reformer, who can instruct the reason or arouse the
feelings of an auditory with capital effect.
We will hasten to English ground, and spend a few moments with a
clergyman who, in mental characteristics and oratorical peculiarities,
is a cross of the thunder of Dr. Thomson, and the sunshine of Dr.
Wardlaw--Rev. JOHN ANGELL JAMES, of Birmingham. Of Mr. James' course in
the early stages of the anti-slavery movement, I cannot speak with
certainty. But, during the controversy growing out of the
apprenticeship, and in the later efforts for the overthrow of slavery
and the slave trade throughout the world, the contributions of his pen
and voice to the cause received additional influence from his position
as one of the most conspicuous leaders of the Congregational body of
Great Britain. He has also been among the foremost of the dissenting
clergy in advocating the principle of Voluntaryism, in its application
to ecclesiastical affairs and the education of the people. Perhaps, at
the present time, he stands at the head of the denomination which he
adorns by his talents and virtues. Mr. James has a high reputation as a
writer and preacher on both sides of the Atlantic. It was not my fortune
to hear him in the pulpit, but I can bear testimony to his power over
audiences on the platform. He has the external qualities, the physical
embellishments, of an orator: a well-proportioned person--a voice of
great compass, and as flexible and rich as a flute--a singularly
expressive countenance, polished manners, and a graceful gesticulation.
These are the frame and border of that grand and beautiful picture which
his strong mind and glowing imagination paint before admiring
assemblies. He captivates and converts more by winning grace than
conquering power; more by the charms of his rhetoric than the severity
of his logic. Let it not be inferred from this that his speeches are
devoid of argument. Far from it. They abound in that ingredient, without
which all public addresses become the mere sounding brass and tinkling
cymbal of an unbridled imagination, or the sound and fury of hollow
declamation, signifying nothing but the emptiness of the mere
word-spouter. I only mean to say, that his reasoning is not sent into
the world bald, but is embellished with artistic skill, and that his
speeches bear the hearer onward to conviction in a mixed current of
strong argument, elevated sentiment, witty allusions, and happy hits.
His appeals to the nobler feelings of the supporters of the cause he is
advocating, are fully equaled by his adroitness in sweeping away the
objections its opponents have strewed in his path, leaving prostrate
antagonists to admire the skill and courtesy with which the victor waved
rather than hurled them to the ground. In the select social circle he is
as attractive as when eliciting public plaudits on the rostrum; and
though an ecclesiastical leader, and ready to defend his religious
tenets on suitable occasions, his liberal sentiments and courteous
bearing toward all sects, have won him troops of friends in every
denomination and class of Christians, from Bishops in lawn to Quakers in
drab.
Even an incomplete list of clergymen who bore conspicuous parts in the
contests detailed in the last chapter, would be unpardonably defective
if it omitted to name Rev. JAMES HOWARD HINTON, an able Baptist
preacher, and the author of a history of this country--and Rev. WILLIAM
BROCK, an eloquent divine of the same denomination--and Rev. WILLIAM
BEVAN, of the Congregational church, whose pamphlet on the
Apprenticeship did much toward terminating that system--and Rev. JOHN
BURNET, of the same church, one of the keenest debaters the English
pulpit affords.