C.A. HATHERTON (_Baroness Hatherton_).
ELIZABETH DUCIE (_Countess Dowager of Ducie_).
CECILIA PARKE (_Wife of Baron Parke_).
MARY ANN CHALLIS (_Wife of the Lord Mayor of London_).
E. GORDON (_Duchess Dowager of Gordon_).
ANNA M.L. MELVILLE (_Daughter of Earl of Leven and Melville_).
GEORGIANA EBRINGTON (_Lady Ebrington_).
A. HILL (_Viscountess Hill_).
MRS. GOBAT (_Wife of Bishop Gobat of Jerusalem_).
E. PALMERSTON (_Viscountess Palmerston_).
_and others_.
Sisters,--More than eight years ago you sent to us in America a document
with the above heading. It is as follows:--
"A common origin, a common faith, and, we sincerely believe, a common
cause, urge us, at the present moment, to address you on the subject of
that system of negro slavery which still prevails so extensively, and,
even under kindly disposed masters, with such frightful results, in many
of the vast regions of the Western world.
"We will not dwell on the ordinary topics,--on the progress of
civilization, on the advance of freedom everywhere, on the rights and
requirements of the nineteenth century; but we appeal to you very
seriously to reflect and to ask counsel of God how far such a state of
things is in accordance with His Holy Word, the inalienable rights
of immortal souls, and the pure and merciful spirit of the Christian
religion. We do not shut our eyes to the difficulties, nay, the dangers,
that might beset the immediate abolition of that long-established
system. We see and admit the necessity of preparation for so great an
event; but, in speaking of indispensable preliminaries, we cannot be
silent on those laws of your country which, in direct contravention of
God's own law, 'instituted in the time of man's innocency,' deny in
effect to the slave the sanctity of marriage, with all its joys, rights,
and obligations; which separate, at the will of the master, the wife
from the husband and the children from the parents. Nor can we be silent
on that awful system which either by statute or by custom interdicts
to any race of man or any portion of the human family education in
the truths of the gospel and the ordinances of Christianity. A remedy
applied to these two evils alone would commence the amelioration of
their sad condition. We appeal to you, then, as sisters, as wives,
and as mothers, to raise your voices to your fellow-citizens and your
prayers to God for the removal of this affliction and disgrace from the
Christian world.
"We do not say these things in a spirit of self-complacency, as though
our nation were free from the guilt it perceives in others.
"We acknowledge with grief and shame our heavy share in this great sin.
We acknowledge that our forefathers introduced, nay, compelled the
adoption of slavery in those mighty colonies. We humbly confess it
before Almighty God; and it is because we so deeply feel and so
unfeignedly avow our own complicity, that we now venture to implore your
aid to wipe away our common crime and our common dishonor."
This address, splendidly illuminated on vellum, was sent to our shores
at the head of twenty-six folio volumes, containing considerably more
than half a million of signatures of British women. It was forwarded
to me with a letter from a British nobleman now occupying one of the
highest official positions in England, with a request on behalf of these
ladies that it should be in any possible way presented to the attention
of my countrywomen.
This memorial, as it now stands in its solid oaken case, with its heavy
folios, each bearing on its back the imprint of the American eagle,
forms a most unique library, a singular monument of an international
expression of a moral idea.
No right-thinking person can find aught to be objected against the
substance or the form of this memorial. It is temperate, just, and
kindly, and on the high ground of Christian equality, where it places
itself, may be regarded as a perfectly proper expression of sentiment,
as between blood-relations and equals in two different nations.
The signatures to this appeal are not the least remarkable part of it;
for, beginning at the very steps of the throne, they go down to the
names of women in the very humblest conditions in life, and represent
all that Great Britain possesses, not only of highest and wisest, but
of plain, homely common sense and good feeling. Names of wives of
cabinet-ministers appear on the same page with the names of wives
of humble laborers,--names of duchesses and countesses, of wives of
generals, ambassadors, savans, and men of letters, mingled with names
traced in trembling characters by hands evidently unused to hold the pen
and stiffened by lowly toil. Nay, so deep and expansive was the feeling,
that British subjects in foreign lands had their representation. Among
the signatures are those of foreign residents from Paris to Jerusalem.
Autographs so diverse, and collected from sources so various, have
seldom been found in juxtaposition. They remain at this day a silent
witness of a most singular tide of feeling which at that time swept over
the British community, and _made_ for itself an expression, even at the
risk of offending the sensibilities of an equal and powerful nation.
No reply to that address, in any such tangible and monumental form, has
ever been possible. It was impossible to canvass our vast territories
with the zealous and indefatigable industry with which England was
canvassed for signatures. In America, those possessed of the spirit
which led to this efficient action had no leisure for it. All their time
and energies were already absorbed in direct efforts to remove the great
evil concerning which the minds of their English sisters had been newly
aroused, and their only answer was the silent continuance of these
efforts.
From the Slaveholding States, however, as was to be expected, came a
flood of indignant recrimination and rebuke. No one act, perhaps, ever
produced more frantic irritation or called out more unsparing abuse.
It came with the whole united weight of the British aristocracy and
commonalty on the most diseased and sensitive part of our national life;
and it stimulated that fierce excitement which was working before and
has worked since till it has broken out into open war.
The time has come, however, when such an astonishing page has been
turned in the anti-slavery history of America, that the women of our
country, feeling that the great anti-slavery work to which their English
sisters exhorted them is almost done, may properly and naturally feel
moved to reply to their appeal, and lay before them the history of what
has occurred since the receipt of their affectionate and Christian
address.
Your address reached us just as a great moral conflict was coming to its
intensest point.
The agitation kept up by the anti-slavery portion of America, by
England, and by the general sentiment of humanity in Europe, had made
the situation of the slaveholding aristocracy intolerable. As one of
them at the time expressed it, they felt themselves under the ban of the
civilized world. Two courses only were open to them: to abandon slave
institutions, the sources of their wealth and political power, or to
assert them with such an overwhelming national force as to compel the
respect and assent of mankind. They chose the latter.
To this end they determined to seize on and control all the resources
of the Federal Government, and to spread their institutions through new
States and Territories until the balance of power should fall into their
hands and they should be able to force slavery into all the Free States.
A leading Southern senator boasted that he would yet call the roll of
his slaves on Bunker Hill; and, for a while, the political successes of
the Slave Power were such as to suggest to New England that this was no
impossible event.
They repealed the Missouri Compromise, which had hitherto stood,
like the Chinese wall, between our Northwestern Territories and the
irruptions of slaveholding barbarians.
Then came the struggle between Freedom and Slavery in the new
Territory,--the battle for Kansas and Nebraska, fought with fire and
sword and blood, where a race of men, of whom John Brown was the
immortal type, acted over again the courage, the perseverance, and the
military religious ardor of the old Covenanters of Scotland, and, like
them, redeemed the Ark of Liberty at the price of their own blood and
blood dearer than their own.
The time of the Presidential canvass which elected Mr. Lincoln was the
crisis of this great battle. The conflict had become narrowed down to
the one point of the extension of slave-territory. If the slaveholders
could get States enough, they could control and rule; if they were
outnumbered by Free States, their institutions, by the very law of
their nature, would die of suffocation. Therefore, Fugitive-Slave Law,
District of Columbia, Inter-State Slave-Trade, and what not, were all
thrown out of sight for a grand rally on this vital point. A President
was elected pledged to opposition to this one thing alone,--a man known
to be in favor of the Fugitive-Slave Law and other so-called compromises
of the Constitution, but honest and faithful in his determination on
this one subject. That this was indeed the vital point was shown by the
result. The moment Lincoln's election was ascertained, the slaveholders
resolved to destroy the Union they could no longer control.
They met and organized a Confederacy which they openly declared to be
the first republic founded on the right and determination of the white
man to enslave the black man, and, spreading their banners, declared
themselves to the Christian world of the nineteenth century as a nation
organized with the full purpose and intent of perpetuating slavery.
But in the course of the struggle that followed, it became important for
the new Confederation to secure the assistance of foreign powers, and
infinite pains were then taken to blind and bewilder the mind of England
as to the real issues of the conflict in America.
It has been often and earnestly asserted that slavery had nothing to do
with this conflict; that it was a mere struggle for power; that the only
object was to restore the Union as it was, with all its abuses. It is
to be admitted that expressions have proceeded from the National
Administration which naturally gave rise to misapprehension, and
therefore we beg to speak to you on this subject more fully.
And, first, the declaration of the Confederate States themselves is
proof enough, that, whatever may be declared on the other side, the
maintenance of slavery is regarded by them as the vital object of their
movement.
We ask your attention under this head to the declaration of their
Vice-President, Stephens, in that remarkable speech delivered on the
21st of March, 1861, at Savannah, Georgia, wherein he declares the
object and purposes of the new Confederacy. It is one of the most
extraordinary papers which our century has produced. I quote from the
_verbatim_ report in the Savannah "Republican" of the address as it was
delivered in the Athenaeum of that city, on which occasion, says the
newspaper from which I copy, "Mr. Stephens took his seat amid a burst of
enthusiasm and applause, such as the Athenaeum has never had displayed
within its walls, within 'the recollection of the oldest inhabitant.'"
"Last, not least, the new Constitution has put at rest _forever_ all
the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution,--African
Slavery as it exists among us, the proper _status_ of the negro in our
form of civilization. _This was the immediate cause of the late rupture
and present revolution_. Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated
this, as the 'rock upon which the old Union would split.' He was right.
What was conjecture with him is now a realized fact. But whether he
fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock _stood_ and
_stands_ may be doubted. _The prevailing ideas entertained by him and
most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old
Constitution were that the enslavement of the African was in violation
of the laws of Nature, that it was wrong in principle, socially,
morally, and politically_. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal
with; but the general opinion of the men of that day was, that,
somehow or other, in the order of Providence, the institution would be
evanescent, and pass away. This idea, though not incorporated in the
Constitution, was the prevailing idea at the time. The Constitution, it
is true, secured every essential guaranty to the institution, while
it should last; and hence no argument can be justly used against the
Constitutional guaranties thus secured, because of the common sentiment
of the day. _Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested
upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error_. It was
a sandy foundation; and the idea of a government built upon it--when
'the storm came and the wind blew, it fell.'
"_Our new government is founded upon on exactly the opposite ideas: its
foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that
the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to
the superior race, is his natural and moral condition. (Applause.) This
our new government is the first, in the history of the world, based upon
this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth_.
"This truth has been slow in the process of its development, like all
other truths in the various departments of science. It is so even
amongst us. Many who hear me, perhaps, can recollect well that this
truth was not generally admitted, even within their day. The errors of
the past generation still clung to many as late as twenty years ago.
Those at the North who still cling to these errors with a zeal above
knowledge we justly denominate fanatics. All fanaticism springs from an
aberration of the mind, from a defect in reasoning. It is a species of
insanity. One of the most striking characteristics of insanity, in many
instances, is forming correct conclusions from fancied or erroneous
premises. So with the _anti-slavery_ fanatics: their conclusions are
right, if their premises are. They assume that the negro is equal, and
hence conclude that he is entitled to equal privileges and rights with
the white man. If their premises were correct, their conclusions would
be logical and just; but their premises being wrong, their whole
argument fails.
* * * * *
"In the conflict thus far, success has been on our side complete,
throughout the length and breadth of the Confederate States. It is upon
this, as I have stated, our social fabric is firmly planted; and I
cannot permit myself to doubt the ultimate success of a full recognition
of this principle throughout the civilized and enlightened world.
"As I have stated, the truth of this principle may be slow in
development, as all truths are, and ever have been, in the various
branches of science. It was so with the principles announced by Galileo;
it was so with Adam Smith and his principles of political economy; It
was so with Harvey in his theory of the circulation of the blood. It is
said that not a single one of the medical profession, at the time of
the announcement of the truths made by him, admitted them; now they are
universally acknowledged. May we not, therefore, look with confidence
to the ultimate universal acknowledgment of the truths upon which our
system rests? It is the first government ever instituted upon principles
in strict conformity to Nature and the ordination of Providence in
furnishing the material of human society. Many governments have been
founded upon the principles of certain classes; but the classes thus
enslaved were of the same race and in violation of the laws of Nature.
Our system commits no such violation of Nature's laws. The negro, by
Nature, or by the curse against Canaan, is fitted for that condition
which he occupies in our system. The architect, in the construction of
buildings, lays the foundation with the proper material,--the granite;
then comes the brick or marble. The substratum of our society is made of
the material fitted by Nature for it; and by experience we know that it
is best not only for the superior, but the inferior race, that it should
be so. It is indeed in conformity with the Creator. It is not safe for
us to inquire into the wisdom of His ordinances, or to question them.
For His own purposes He has made one race to differ from another, as one
star differeth from another in glory. The great objects of humanity are
best attained, when conformed to His laws and decrees in the formation
of government as well as in all things else. Our Confederacy is founded
on a strict conformity with those laws. _This stone, which was rejected
by the first builders, has become the chief stone of the corner in our
new edifice!_"
Thus far the declarations of the slave-holding Confederacy.
On the other hand, the declarations of the President and the Republican
party, as to their intention to restore "the Union as it was," require
an explanation. It is the doctrine of the Republican party, that Freedom
is national and Slavery sectional; that the Constitution of the United
States was designed for the promotion of liberty, and not of slavery;
that its framers contemplated the gradual abolition of slavery; and
that in the hands of an anti-slavery majority it could be so wielded as
peaceably to extinguish this great evil.
They reasoned thus. Slavery ruins land, and requires fresh territory
for profitable working. Slavery increases a dangerous population, and
requires an expansion of this population for safety. Slavery, then,
being hemmed in by impassable limits, emancipation in each State becomes
a necessity.
_By restoring the Union as it was_ the Republican party meant the Union
in the sense contemplated by the original framers of it, who, as
has been admitted by Stephens, in his speech just quoted, were from
principle opposed to slavery. It was, then, restoring a _status_
in which, by the inevitable operation of natural laws, peaceful
emancipation would become a certainty.
In the mean while, during the past year, the Republican Administration,
with all the unwonted care of organizing an army and navy, and
conducting military operations on an immense scale, have proceeded
to demonstrate the feasibility of overthrowing slavery by purely
Constitutional measures. To this end they have instituted a series
of movements which have made this year more fruitful in anti-slavery
triumphs than any other since the emancipation of the British West
Indies.
The District of Columbia, as belonging strictly to the National
Government, and to no separate State, has furnished a fruitful subject
of remonstrance from British Christians with America. We have abolished
slavery there, and thus wiped out the only blot of territorial
responsibility on our escutcheon.
By another act, equally grand principle, and far more important in its
results, slavery is forever excluded from the Territories of the United
States.
By another act, America has consummated the long-delayed treaty with
Great Britain for the suppression of the slave-trade. In ports whence
slave-vessels formerly sailed with the connivance of the port-officers,
the Administration has placed men who stand up to their duty, and for
the first time in our history the slave-trader, is convicted and hung as
a pirate. This abominable secret traffic has been wholly demolished by
the energy of the Federal Government.
Lastly, and more significant still, the United States Government has in
its highest official capacity taken distinct anti-slavery ground, and
presented to the country a plan of peaceable emancipation with suitable
compensation. This noble-spirited and generous offer has been urged on
the Slaveholding States by the Chief Executive with an earnestness and
sincerity of which history in after-times will make honorable account in
recording the events of Mr. Lincoln's administration.
Now, when a President and Administration who have done all these things
declare their intention of restoring "_the Union as it was_," ought not
the world fairly to interpret their words by their actions and their
avowed principles? Is it not _necessary_ to infer that they mean by it
the Union as it was in the intent of its anti-slavery framers, under
which, by the exercise of normal Constitutional powers, slavery should
be peaceably abolished?
We are aware that this theory of the Constitution has been disputed
by certain Abolitionists; but it is conceded, you have seen, by the
Secessionists. Whether it be a just theory or not is, however, nothing
to our purpose at present. We only assert that such is the professed
belief of the present Administration of the United States, and such are
the acts by which they have illustrated their belief.
But this is but half the story of the anti-slavery triumphs of this
year. We have shown you what has been done for freedom by the simple use
of the ordinary Constitutional forces of the Union. We are now to show
you what has been done to the same end by the Constitutional war-power
of the nation.
By this power it has been this year decreed that every slave of a Rebel
who reaches the lines of our army becomes a free man; that all slaves
found deserted by their masters become free men; that every slave
employed in any service for the United States thereby obtains his
liberty; and that every slave employed against the United States in any
capacity obtains his liberty: and lest the army should contain officers
disposed to remand slaves to their masters, the power of judging and
delivering up slaves is denied to army-officers, and all such acts are
made penal.
By this act, the Fugitive-Slave Law is for all present purposes
practically repealed. With this understanding and provision, wherever
our armies march, they carry liberty with them. For be it remembered
that our army is almost entirely a volunteer one, and that the most
zealous and ardent volunteers are those who have been for years fighting
with tongue and pen the Abolition battle. So marked is the character of
our soldiers in this respect, that they are now familiarly designated
in the official military despatches of the Confederate States as "The
Abolitionists." Conceive the results, when an army, so empowered by
national law, marches through a slave-territory. One regiment alone has
to our certain knowledge liberated two thousand slaves during the past
year, and this regiment it but one out of hundreds. We beg to lay before
you some details given by an eye-witness of what has recently been done
in this respect in the Department of the South.
"_On Board Steamer from Fortress Monroe to Baltimore_, Nov. 14, 1862.
"Events of no ordinary interest have just occurred in the Department of
the South. The negro troops have been tested, and, to their great joy,
though not contrary to their own expectations, they have triumphed, not
only over enemies armed with muskets and swords, but over what the black
man dreads most, sharp and cruel prejudices.
"General Saxton, on the 28th of October, sent the captured steamer
Darlington, Captain Crandell, down the coast of Georgia, and to
Fernandina, Florida, to obtain recruits for the First Regiment
South-Carolina Volunteers. Lieutenant-Colonel O.T. Beard, of the
Forty-Eighth New-York Volunteers, was given the command of the
expedition. In addition to obtaining recruits, the condition and wants
of the recent refugees from slavery along the coast were to be looked
into, and, if occasion should offer, it was permitted to 'feel the
enemy.' At St. Simond's, Georgia, Captain Trowbridge, with thirty-five
men of the 'Hunter Regiment of First South-Carolina Volunteers,' who had
been stationed there for three months, together with twenty-seven more
men, were received on board. With this company of sixty-two men the
Darlington proceeded to Fernandina.
"On arriving, a meeting of the colored men was called to obtain
enlistments. The large church was crowded. After addresses had been made
by the writer and Colonel Beard, one hundred men volunteered at once,
and the number soon reached about one hundred and twenty-five. Such,
however, were the demands of Fort Clinch and the Quartermaster's
Department for laborers, that Colonel Rich, commanding the
fort, consented to only twenty-five men leaving. This was a sad
disappointment, and one which some determined not to bear. The
twenty-five men were carefully selected from among those not employed
either on the fort or in the Quartermaster's Department, and put on
board. Amid the farewells and benedictions of hundreds of their friends
on shore they took their departure, to prove the truth or falsity of
the charge, 'The black man can never fight.' On calling the roll, a
few miles from port, it was found our twenty-five men had increased
to fifty-four. Determined not to be foiled in their purpose of being
soldiers, it was found that thirty men had quietly found their way on
board just at break of day, and had concealed themselves in the hold of
the ship. When asked why they did so, their reply was,--
"'Oh, we want to fight for our liberty, and for de liberty of our wives
and children.'
"'But would you dare to face your old masters?'
"'Oh, yes, yes! why, we would fight to de death to get our families,'
was the quick response.
"No one doubted their sincerity. Muskets were soon in their hands, and
no time was lost in drilling them. Our steamer, a very frail one, had
been barricaded around the bow and stern, and also provided with two
twelve-pounder Parrott guns. These guns had to be worked by black men,
under the direction of the captain of the steamer. Our fighting men
numbered only about one hundred and ten, and fifty of them were raw
recruits. The expedition was not a very formidable one, still all seemed
to have an unusual degree of confidence as to its success.
* * * * *
"_November_ 6. The women and children (about fifty) taken from St.
Simond's on the day previous were now landed for safety in St.
Catharine's, as a more hazardous work was to be undertaken. Much of the
night was spent in getting wood for the steamer, killing beeves, and
cooking meats, rice, and corn, for our women and children on shore, and
for the troops. The men needed no 'driver's lash' to incite them to
labor. Sleep and rest were almost unwelcome, for they were preparing to
go up Sapelo River, along whose banks, on the beautiful plantations,
were their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, wives, and children.
Weeks and months before, some of the men had left those loved ones, with
a promise to return, 'if de good Lord jis open de way.'
"At five o'clock on Friday morning, November 7, we were under way.
Captain Budd, of the gun-boat Potomska, had kindly promised the evening
before to accompany us past the most dangerous places. On reaching his
station in Sapelo Sound, we found him in readiness. Our little fleet,
led by the Potomska, and followed by the Darlington, sailed proudly
up the winding Sapelo, now through marshes, and then past large and
beautiful plantations. It was very affecting to see our soldiers
watching intensely the colored forms on land, one saying, in the agony
of deepest anxiety, 'Oh, Mas'r, my wife and chillen lib dere,' and
another singing out, 'Dere, dere my brodder,' or 'my sister.' The
earnest longings of their poor, anguish-riven hearts for landings, and
then the sad, inexpressible regrets as the steamer passed, must be
imagined,--they cannot be described.
"The first landing was made at a picket-station on Charles Hopkins's
plantation. The enemy was driven back; a few guns and a sword only
captured. The Potomska came to anchorage, for lack of sufficient water,
a few miles above, at Reuben King's plantation. Here we witnessed a
rich scene. Some fifty negroes appeared on the banks, about thirty
rods distant from their master's house, and some distance from the
Darlington. They gazed upon us with intense feelings, alternately
turning their eyes toward their master, who was watching them from
his piazza, and toward our steamer, which, as yet, had given them no
assurances of landing. The moment she headed to the shore, their doubts
were dispersed, and they gave us such a welcome as angels would be
satisfied with. Some few women were so filled with joy, that they ran,
leaped, clapped their hands, and cried, 'Glory to God! Glory to God!'
* * * * *
"After relieving the old planter of twenty thousand dollars' worth of
humanity, that is, fifty-two slaves, and the leather of his tannery, we
reëmbarked. Our boats were sent once and again, however, to the shore
for men, who, having heard the steam-whistle, came in greatest haste
from distant plantations.
"As the Potomska could go no farther, Captain Budd kindly offered to
accompany us with one gun's crew. We were glad to have his company and
the services of the crew, as we had only one gun's crew of colored men.
Above us was a bend in the river, and a high bluff covered with thick
woods. There we apprehended danger, for the Rebels had had ample time to
collect their forces. The men were carefully posted, fully instructed as
to their duties and dangers by Colonel Beard. Our Parrotts were manned,
and everything was in readiness. No sooner were we within rifle-shot
than the enemy opened upon us a heavy fire from behind the bank and
trees, and also from the tops of the trees. Our speed being slow and the
river's bend quite large, we were within range of the enemy's guns for
some time. How well our troops bore themselves will be seen by Captain
Budd's testimony.
"Our next landing was made at Daniel McDonald's plantation. His
extensive and valuable salt-works were demolished, and he himself taken
prisoner. By documents captured, it was ascertained that he was a Rebel
of the worst kind. We took only a few of his slaves, as he drove back
into the woods about ninety of them just before our arrival. One
fine-looking man came hobbling down on a crutch. McDonald had shot off
one of his legs some eighteen months before. The next plantation had
some five hundred slaves on it; several of our troops had come from
it, and also had relatives there, but the lateness of the hour and the
dangerous points to be passed on our return admonished us to retreat.
"Our next attack was expected at the bluff. The enemy had improved the
time since we parted from them in gathering reinforcements. Colonel
Beard prepared the men for a warm fire. While everything was in
readiness, and the steamer dropping down hard upon the enemy, the writer
passed around among the men, who were waiting coolly for the moment of
attack, and asked them if they found their courage failing. 'Oh, no,
Mas'r, our trust be in de Lord. We only want fair chance at 'em,' was
the unanimous cry.
* * * * *
"Most people have doubted the courage of negroes, and their ability to
stand a warm fire of the enemy. The engagements of this day were not an
open-field fight, to be sure, but the circumstances were peculiar. They
were taken by surprise, the enemy concealed, his force not known, and
some of the troops had been enlisted only two days. Captain Budd, a
brave and experienced officer, and eye-witness of both engagements, has
kindly given his opinion, which we are sure will vindicate the policy,
as well as justness, of arming the colored man for his own freedom at
least.
"'United States Steamer Potomska,
"'Sapelo River, Ga., Nov. 7, 1862.
"'Sir,--It gives me pleasure to testify to the admirable conduct of
the negro troops (First S.C. Volunteers) under the command of
Lieutenant-Colonel Beard, Forty-Eighth New-York Volunteers, during this
day's operations. They behaved splendidly under the warm and galling
fire we were exposed to in the two skirmishes with the enemy. I did not
see a man flinch, contrary to my expectations.
"'One of them, particularly, came under my notice, who, although, badly
wounded in the face, continued to load and fire, in the coolest manner
imaginable.
"'Every one of them acted like veterans.
"'Very respectfully,
"'WILLIAM BUDD,
"'Acting-Lieutenant Commanding Potomska.
"'_To the Rev. M. French, Chaplain, U.S.A._'
"On reaching his ship, Captain Budd led our retreat. It had been agreed,
after full consultation on the subject, that, in our descent down the
river, it was best to burn the buildings of Captain Hopkins and
Colonel Brailsford. Both of these places were strong picket-stations,
particularly the latter. Brailsford had been down with a small force
a few days before our arrival at St. Catharine's, and shot one of our
contrabands, wounded mortally, as was supposed, another, and carried
off four women and three men. He had also whipped to death, three weeks
before, a slave for attempting to make his escape. We had on board Sam
Miller, a former slave, who had received over three hundred lashes for
refusing to inform on a few of his fellows who had escaped.
* * * * *
"On passing among the men, as we were leaving the scenes of action,
I inquired if they had grown any to-day. Many simultaneously
exclaimed,--"'Oh, yes, Massa, we have grown three inches!' Sam said,--'I
feel a heap more of a man!'
"With the lurid flames still lighting up all the region behind, and the
bright rays of the smiling moon before them, they formed a circle on the
lower deck, and around the hatchway leading to the hold, where were the
women and children captured during the day, and on bended knees they
offered up sincere and heartfelt thanksgivings to Almighty God for the
mercies of the day. Such fervent prayers for the President, for the
hearing of his Proclamation by all in bonds, and for the ending of the
war and slavery, were seldom, if ever, heard before. About one hour was
spent in singing and prayer. Those waters surely never echoed with such
sounds before.
* * * * *
"Our steamer left Beaufort without a soldier, and returned, after an
absence of twelve days, with one hundred and fifty-six fighting colored
men, some of whom dropped the hoe, took a musket, and were at once
soldiers, ready to fight for the freedom of others."
It is conceded on all sides, that, wherever our armies have had
occupancy, there slavery has been practically abolished. The fact was
recognized by President Lincoln in his last appeal to the loyal Slave
States to consummate emancipation.
Another noticeable act of our Government in behalf of Liberty is the
official provision it makes for the wants of the thousands of helpless
human beings thus thrown upon our care. Taxed with the burden of an
immense war, with the care of thousands of sick and wounded, the United
States Government has cheerfully voted rations for helpless slaves, no
less than wages to the helpful ones. The United States Government pays
teachers to instruct them, and overseers to guide their industrial
efforts. A free-labor experiment is already in successful operation
among the beautiful sea-islands in the neighborhood of Beaufort, which,
even under most disadvantageous circumstances, is fast demonstrating how
much more efficiently men will work from hope and liberty than from fear
and constraint. Thus, even amid the roar of cannon and the confusion
of war, cotton-planting, as a free-labor institution, is beginning its
infant life, to grow hereafter to a glorious manhood.
Lastly, the great, decisive measure of the war has appeared,--_The
President's Proclamation of Emancipation_.
This also has been much misunderstood and misrepresented in England. It
has been said to mean virtually this:--Be loyal, and you shall keep your
slaves; rebel, and they shall be free.
But let us remember what we have just seen of the purpose and meaning of
the Union to which the rebellious States are invited back. It is to
a Union which has abolished slavery in the District of Columbia, and
interdicted slavery in the Territories,--which vigorously represses
the slave-trade, and hangs the convicted slaver as a pirate,--which
necessitates emancipation by denying expansion to slavery, and
facilitates it by the offer of compensation. Any Slaveholding States
which should return to such a Union might fairly be supposed to return
with the purpose of peaceable emancipation. The President's Proclamation
simply means this:--Come in, and emancipate peaceably with compensation;
stay out, and I emancipate, nor will I protect you from the
consequences.
That continuance in the Union is thus understood is already made
manifest by the votes of Missouri and Delaware in the recent elections.
Both of these States have given strong majorities for emancipation,
Missouri, long tending towards emancipation, has already planted herself
firmly on the great rock of Freedom, and thrown out her bold and
eloquent appeal to the Free States of the North for aid in overcoming
the difficulties of her position. Other States will soon follow; nor is
it too much to hope that before a new year has gone far in its course
the sacred fire of freedom will have flashed along the whole line of the
Border States responsive to the generous proposition of the President
and Congress, and that universal emancipation will have become a fixed
fact in the American Union.
Will our sisters in England feel no heart-beat at that event? Is it not
one of the predicted voices of the latter day, saying under the whole
heavens, "It is done: the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms
of our Lord, and of His Christ"?
And now, Sisters of England, in this solemn, expectant hour, let
us speak to you of one thing which fills our hearts with pain and
solicitude.
It is an unaccountable fact, and one which we entreat you seriously to
ponder, that the party which has brought the cause of Freedom thus
far on its way, during the past eventful year, has found little or no
support in England. Sadder than this, the party which makes Slavery
the chief corner-stone of its edifice finds in England its strongest
defenders.
The voices that have spoken for us who contend for Liberty have been few
and scattering. God forbid that we should forget those few noble voices,
so sadly exceptional in the general outcry against us! They are, alas,
too few to be easily forgotten. False statements have blinded the minds
of your community, and turned the most generous sentiments of the
British heart against us. The North are fighting for supremacy and the
South for independence, has been the voice. Independence? for what?
to do what? To prove the doctrine that all men are _not_ equal. To
establish the doctrine that the white may enslave the negro.
It is natural to sympathize with people who are fighting for their
rights; but if these prove to be the right of selling children by the
pound and trading in husbands and wives as merchantable articles, should
not Englishmen think twice before giving their sympathy? A pirate-ship
on the high seas is fighting for _independence_! Let us be consistent.
It has been said that we have been over-sensitive, thin-skinned. It is
one inconvenient attendant of love and respect, that they do induce
sensitiveness. A brother or father turning against one in the hour of
trouble, a friend sleeping in the Gethsemane of our mortal anguish, does
not always find us armed with divine patience. We loved England; we
respected, revered her; we were bound to her by ties of blood and race.
Alas! must all these declarations be written in the past tense?
But that we may not be thought to have over-estimated the popular tide
against us, we shall express our sense of it in the words of an English
writer, one of the noble few who have spoken the truth on our side.
Referring to England's position on this question, he says:--
"What is the meaning of this? Why does the English nation, which has
made itself memorable to all time as the destroyer of negro slavery,
which has shrunk from no sacrifices to free its own character from that
odious stain, and to close all the countries of the world against the
slave-merchant,--why is it that the nation which is at the head of
Abolitionism, not only feels no sympathy with those who are fighting
against the slaveholding conspiracy, but actually desires its success?
Why is the general voice of our press, the general sentiment of our
people bitterly reproachful to the North, while for the South, the
aggressors in the war, we have either mild apologies or direct
and downright encouragement,--and this not only from the Tory and
anti-Democratic camp, but from Liberals, or _soi-disant_ such?
"This strange perversion of feeling prevails nowhere else. The public of
France, and of the Continent generally, at all events the Liberal part
of it, saw at once on which side were justice and moral principle, and
gave its sympathies consistently and steadily to the North. Why is
England an exception?"
In the beginning of our struggle, the voices that reached us across the
water said, "If we were only sure you were fighting for the abolition of
slavery, we should not dare to say whither our sympathies for your cause
might not carry us."
Such, as we heard, were the words of the honored and religious nobleman
who draughted this very letter which you signed and sent us, and to
which we are now replying.
When these words reached us, we said, "We can wait; our friends in
England will soon see whither this conflict is tending." A year and a
half have passed; step after step has been taken for Liberty; chain
after chain has fallen, till the march of our enemies is choked and
clogged by the glad flocking of emancipated slaves; the day of final
emancipation is set; the Border States begin to move in voluntary
consent; universal freedom for all dawns like the sun in the distant
horizon: and still no voice from England. No voice? Yes, we have heard
on the high seas the voice of a war-steamer, built for a man-stealing
Confederacy with English gold in an English dockyard, going out of an
English harbor, manned by English sailors, with the full knowledge of
English Government-officers, in defiance of the Queen's proclamation of
neutrality. So far has English sympathy overflowed. We have heard of
other steamers, iron-clad, designed to furnish to a Slavery-defending
Confederacy their only lack,--a navy for the high seas. We have heard
that the British Evangelical Alliance refuses to express sympathy with
the liberating party, when requested to do so by the French Evangelical
Alliance. We find in English religious newspapers all those sad
degrees in the downward sliding scale of defending and apologizing for
slaveholders and slaveholding with which we have so many years contended
in our own country. We find the President's Proclamation of Emancipation
spoken of in those papers only as an incitement to servile insurrection.
Nay, more,--we find in your papers, from thoughtful men, the admission
of the rapid decline of anti-slavery sentiments in England. Witness the
following:--
"The Rev. Mr. Maurice, Principal of the Working-Men's College, Great
Ormond Street, delivered the first general lecture of the term on
Saturday evening, and took for his subject the state of English feeling
on the Slavery question. He said, a few days ago, in a conversation on
the American war, that some gentlemen connected with the College had
confessed to a change in their sympathies in the matter. On the outbreak
of the war, they had been strong sympathizers with the Government and
the Northern States, but gradually they had drifted until they found
themselves desiring the success of the seceded States, and all but free
from their anti-slavery feelings and tendencies. These confessions
elicited strong expressions of indignation from a gentleman present, who
had lectured in the College on the war in Kansas. He (Mr. Maurice) felt
inclined to share in the indignation expressed; but since, he could not
help feeling that this change was very general in England."
Alas, then, England! is it so? In this day of great deeds and great
heroisms, this solemn hour when the Mighty Redeemer is coming to break
every yoke, do we hear such voices from England?
This very day the writer of this has been present at a solemn religious
festival in the national capital, given at the home of a portion of
those fugitive slaves who have fled to our lines for protection,--who,
under the shadow of our flag, find sympathy and succor. The national day
of thanksgiving was there kept by over a thousand redeemed slaves, and
for whom Christian charity had spread an ample repast. Our Sisters, we
wish _you_ could have witnessed the scene. We wish you could have heard
the prayer of a blind old negro, called among his fellows John
the Baptist, when in touching broken English he poured forth his
thanksgivings. We wish you could have heard the sound of that strange
rhythmical chant which is now forbidden to be sung on Southern
plantations,--the psalm of this modern exodus,--which combines the
barbaric fire of the Marseillaise with the religious fervor of the old
Hebrew prophet.
"Oh, go down, Moses,
'Way down into Egypt's land!
Tell King Pharaoh
To let my people go!
Stand away dere,
Stand away dere,
And let my people go!
"Oh, Pharaoh said he would go 'cross!
Let my people go!
Oh, Pharaoh and his hosts were lost!
Let my people go!
You may hinder me here,
But ye can't up dere!
Let my people go!
"Oh, Moses, stretch your hand across!
Let my people go!
And don't get lost in de wilderness!
Let my people go!
He sits in de heavens
And answers prayers.
Let my people go!"
As we were leaving, an aged woman came and lifted up her hands in
blessing. "Bressed be de Lord dat brought me to see dis first happy day
of my life! Bressed be de Lord!" In all England is there no Amen?
We have been shocked and saddened by the question asked in an
association of Congregational ministers in England, the very
blood-relations of the liberty-loving Puritans,--"Why does not the North
let the South go?"
What! give up the point of emancipation for these four million slaves?
Turn our backs on them, and leave them to their fate? What! leave our
white brothers to run a career of oppression and robbery, that, as sure
as there is a God that ruleth in the armies of heaven, will bring down a
day of wrath and doom?
Is it any advantage to people to be educated in man-stealing as a
principle, to be taught systematically to rob the laborer of his wages,
and to tread on the necks of weaker races? Who among you would wish your
sons to become slave-planters, slave-merchants, slave-dealers? And shall
we leave our brethren to this fate? Better a generation should die
on the battle-field, that their children may grow up in liberty and
justice. Yes, our sons must die, their sons must die. We give ours
freely; they die to redeem the very brothers that slay them; they give
their blood in expiation of this great sin, begun by you in England,
perpetuated by us in America, and for which God in this great day of
judgment is making inquisition in blood.
In a recent battle fell a Secession colonel, the last remaining son of
his mother, and she a widow. That mother had sold eleven children of
an old slave-mother, her servant. That servant went to her and
said,--"Missis, we even now. You sold all my children. God took all
yourn. Not one to bury either of us. _Now_, I forgive you."
In another battle fell the only son of another widow. Young, beautiful,
heroic, brought up by his mother in the sacred doctrines of human
liberty, he gave his life an offering as to a holy cause. He died. No
slave-woman came to tell _his_ mother of God's justice, for many slaves
have reason to call her blessed.
Now we ask you, Would you change places with that Southern mother? Would
you not think it a great misfortune for a son or daughter to be brought
into such a system?--a worse one to become so perverted as to defend it?
Remember, then, that wishing success to this slavery-establishing effort
is only wishing to the sons and daughters of the South all the curses
that God has written against oppression. _Mark our words!_ If we
succeed, the children of these very men who are now fighting us will
rise up to call us blessed. Just as surely as there is a God who governs
in the world, so surely all the laws of national prosperity follow in
the train of equity; and if we succeed, we shall have delivered the
children's children of our misguided brethren from the wages of sin,
which is always and everywhere death.
And now, Sisters of England, think it not strange, if we bring back the
words of your letter, not in bitterness, but in deepest sadness, and lay
them down at your door. We say to you,--Sisters, you have spoken well;
we have heard you; we have heeded; we have striven in the cause, even
unto death. We have sealed our devotion by desolate hearth and darkened
homestead,--by the blood of sons, husbands, and brothers. In many of our
dwellings the very light of our lives has gone out; and yet we accept
the life-long darkness as our own part in this great and awful
expiation, by which the bonds of wickedness shall be loosed, and abiding
peace established on the foundation of righteousness. Sisters, what have
_you_ done, and what do you mean to do?
In view of the decline of the noble anti-slavery fire in England, in
view of all the facts and admissions recited from your own papers, we
beg leave in solemn sadness to return to you your own words:--
"A common origin, a common faith, and, we sincerely believe, a common
cause, urge us, at the present moment, to address you on the subject"
of that fearful encouragement and support which is being afforded by
England to a slave-holding Confederacy.
"We will not dwell on the ordinary topics,--on the progress of
civilization, on the advance of freedom everywhere, on the rights and
requirements of the nineteenth century; but we appeal to you very
seriously to reflect and to ask counsel of God how far such a state of
things is in accordance with His Holy Word, the inalienable rights
of immortal souls, and the pure and merciful spirit of the Christian
religion.
"We appeal to you, as sisters, as wives, and as mothers, to raise your
voices to your fellow-citizens, and your prayers to God for the removal
of this affliction and disgrace from the Christian world."
In behalf of many thousands of American women,