Within a few years past, several of our visitors from the other side of
the Atlantic, have published their views of our country and her
institutions. Basil Hall, Hamilton and others, in their attempts to
describe the working of the democratic principle in the United States,
have been unfavorably influenced by their opposite political
predilections. On the other hand, Miss Martineau, who has strong
republican sympathies, has not, at all times, been sufficiently careful
and discriminating in the facts and details of her spirited and
agreeable narrative.
The volume of Mr. Sturge, herewith presented, is unlike any of its
predecessors. Its author makes no literary pretensions. His style, like
his garb, is of the plainest kind; shorn of every thing like ornament,
it has yet a truthful, earnest simplicity, as rare as it is beautiful.
The reader will look in vain for those glowing descriptions of American
scenery, and graphic delineations of the peculiarities of the American
character with which other travellers have endeavored to enliven and
diversify their journals. Coming among us on an errand of peace and good
will--with a heart oppressed and burdened by the woes of suffering
humanity--he had no leisure for curious observations of men and manners,
nor even for the gratification of a simple and unperverted taste for the
beautiful in outward nature. His errand led him to the slave-jail of the
negro-trafficker--the abodes of the despised and persecuted colored
man--the close walls of prisons. His narrative, like his own character,
is calm, clear, simple; its single and manifest aim, _to do good_.
Although this volume is mainly devoted to the subject of emancipation,
and to his intercourse with the religious Society of which he is a
member, yet the friends of peace, of legal reform, and of republican
institutions, will derive gratification from its perusal. The liberal
spirit of Christian philanthropy breathes through it. The author's deep
and settled detestation of our slavery, and of the hypocrisy which
sustains and justifies it, does not render him blind to the beauty of
the republican principle of popular control, nor repress in any degree
his pleasure in recording its beneficent practical fruits in the free
States.
The labors of Mr. Sturge in the cause of emancipation have given him the
appellation of the "Howard of our days." The author of the popular
"History of Slavery," page 600, thus notices his arduous personal
investigations of the state of things in the West India Islands, under
the apprenticeship system. "The idea originated with Joseph Sturge, of
Birmingham, a member of that religious body, the FRIENDS, who have ever
stood pre-eminent in noiseless but indefatigable exertions in the cause
of the negro; and who seem to possess a more thorough practical
understanding than is generally possessed by statesmen and politicians,
of the axiom that the shortest communication between two given points,
is a straight line. While others were speculating, and hoping that the
worst reports from the West Indies might not be true, and that the evils
would work their own cure, this generous and heroic philanthropist,
resolved to go himself and ascertain the facts and the remedy required."
On his return, Mr. Sturge, with his companion, Thomas Harvey, published
a full account of their investigations into the working of the
apprenticeship system; and his testimony before the Parliamentary
Committee, occupied seven days. His disclosures sealed the fate of the
apprenticeship system. Such a demonstration of popular sentiment was
called forth against it, that the Colonies, one after another, felt
themselves under the necessity of abandoning it for unconditional
emancipation. It was a remark of Brougham, in the House of Lords, that
the abolition of the apprenticeship was the work of one man, and that
man was Joseph Sturge.
Mr. Sturge's benevolent labors have not been confined to the abolition
of slavery. He is a prominent member of the Anti-corn Law League. He is
an active advocate of the cause of universal peace. He has given all his
influence to the cause of the oppressed and laboring classes of his own
countrymen: and his name is at this moment, the rallying-word of
millions, as the author and patron of the "Suffrage Declaration," which
is now in circulation in all parts of the United Kingdom, pledging its
signers to the great principle of universal suffrage--a full, fair and
free representation of the people. It was reserved for the untitled
Quaker of Birmingham to take the lead in the great and good work of
uniting, for the first time, the middle and the working classes of his
countrymen, and in so doing, to infuse hope and newness of life into the
dark dwellings of the English peasant and artisan. The Editor of the
London Non-Conformist, speaking of this movement of Mr. Sturge, says:
"The Declaration is put forth by a man, who, perhaps, in a higher degree
than any other individual, has the confidence of both the middle class
and the working men. The former can trust to his prudence; the latter
have faith in his sincerity."
Such is the man, who, prompted by his untiring benevolence, visited our
shores during the past year. This volume is the brief record of his
visit, and of the impressions produced upon his mind by our conflicting
interests and institutions. It is now republished, in the belief that
the opinions of its author will be received with candor and respect by
all classes of our citizens, and that they are calculated to make a
permanent and salutary impression, in favor of the great cause of
universal freedom.
Boston, May, 1842.