JOSEPH STURGE.

_New York, 5th Month 17th_, 1841.

This request was kindly complied with. The large meeting house was

granted for the evening of the 27th. The clerks of the men's and women's

meetings gave public notice of it in their respective assemblies. The

former, the venerable and worthy Richard Mott, encouraged Friends to be

present, and said, as a thinking and reasoning people, they need fear no

harm from a calm consideration of the subject. The attendance was large,

including, I believe, most of those Friends who were from the country.

The following brief notice of it in the American and Foreign

Anti-Slavery Reporter, will explain the character of the meeting.

"On Thursday evening of last week, the members of the Society of

Friends (Orthodox,) assembled in this city at their Annual

Meeting, met at their meeting house in Orchard street, to listen

to the statements of John Candler, of England, lately returned

from a visit to the West India Islands, as to the results of

emancipation in those Islands, and also of our esteemed friend,

Joseph Sturge, in reference to the general subject of

emancipation throughout the world.

"The meeting was largely attended. The successful and happy

results of the immediate emancipation of the slaves of the

colonies, as detailed by John Candler, were calculated to

strengthen the conviction that to do justice is always

expedient. Joseph Sturge gave a history of the progress of the

anti-slavery cause in Great Britain from the time of the old

abolition society, of which Thomas Clarkson was a member, and of

which he is sole survivor. He also glanced at the state of the

cause in other quarters of the globe--at the efforts for East

India emancipation, and at late movements in France, Brazil and

Spain, in favor of emancipation; concluding with a most

affecting appeal to the members of his religious society to omit

no right opportunity for pleading for the slave, and for

hastening the day of his deliverance.

"We take pleasure in recording such evidences that the good old

testimony of the Society of Friends, on this subject, is still

maintained among them. The Friends of the past generation set a

noble example to other Christian sects, by emancipating their

slaves, from a sense of religious duty; and it seems to us, that

those of the present day have great responsibilities resting

upon them; and that it especially becomes them to see to it that

their light is not hidden in this hour of darkness and

prejudice, on the subject of human rights. The slaveholder and

his victim both look to them;--the one with deprecating gesture,

and words of flattery--the other in beseeching and half

reproachful earnestness. We cannot doubt that the agonizing

appeal of the latter is listened to by all who truly feel the

weight of their religious testimonies resting upon them; and we

trust there will be found among them, an increasing zeal to

secure to these unhappy victims of avarice and the lust of

power, that liberty which George Fox, two centuries in advance

of his contemporaries, declared to be 'the right of all men.'"

When the assembly broke up, the clerk of the Yearly Meeting, who sat by

us, expressed to me his entire satisfaction with the proceedings, as did

others present. One influential member of the Society, however, who met

me the next day in the street, stated very decidedly his disapprobation

of the tenor of certain parts of my address; but I found that he

condemned me on hearsay evidence, not having attended the meeting

himself. On the 29th, I was favored with a call from Lieutenant Governor

Cunningham, of St. Kitts, on his way to England, who gave a very

favorable account of the continued good conduct of the emancipated

slaves in that Island. It is surely an eminent token of the divine

blessing on a national act of justice and mercy, that evidence of this

kind should have been so abundantly and uniformly supplied from every

colony where slavery has been abolished. A fine black man was brought to

me about this time, who showed me papers by which it appeared he had

lately given one thousand five hundred dollars for his freedom. He had

since been driven from the State in which he lived, by the operation of

a law, enacted to prevent the continued residence of free people of

color, and has thus been banished from a wife and family, who are still

slaves. He has agreed with their owner, that if he can pay two thousand

five hundred dollars, in six years, his wife and six children shall be

free, and he was then trying to get employment in New York, in the hope

of being able to raise this large sum within the specified time.

On the 29th, I proceeded to Burlington; while I was there five or six

Friends drew up and presented me with a resolution, expressive of their

readiness and desire to join with other members of their religious

society in active efforts for the abolition of slavery.

On the 30th, I paid a second visit to my venerable friend John Cox. The

next morning his grandson kindly accompanied me to Mount Holly, to see

the humble dwelling of the late John Woolman. I afterwards received from

John Cox a letter, from which I quote the following extract relating to

this remarkable man, whose character confers interest even on the most

trivial incidents of his life which can now be remembered:

"Since our separation on the morning of the 31st ultimo, when my

grandson accompanied thee to Mount Holly, I have been there, it

having been previously reported that the ancient, humble dome,

which passed under thy inspection as the residence of John

Woolman, he never inhabited, though that he built the house (as

Solomon built the temple,) is admitted. With a view to remove

this erroneous impression, I sought and obtained an interview

with the only man now living in the town, who was contemporary

with John Woolman, (now eighty years of age,) and in habits of

occasional intercourse with him. He informed me that John

Woolman's daughter (an only child,) and her husband resided in

the house when her father embarked for London, which was in the

year 1772, as recorded in his journal. The fact of residence is

corroborated by the circumstance of the search for and

destruction of caterpillars in the apple orchard, which I think,

was related to thee.

"The sage historian of by-gone days, whom I met at Mount Holly,

spake of his being at John Woolman's little farm, in the season

of harvest, when it was customary, and so remains to the present

time, for farmers to slay a young calf or a lamb; the common

mode is by bleeding in the jugular vein; but with a view to

mitigate the sufferings of the animal in that mode, he had

prepared, and kept by him for that express purpose, a large

block of wood with a smooth surface, and after confining the

limbs of the animal, it was laid gently thereon, and the head

severed from the body at one stroke."

While in this neighborhood, I made a call on Nathan Dunn, the proprietor

of the "Chinese collection." He resided many years at Canton, and since

his return has built himself a mansion in the Chinese style. His museum

of Chinese curiosities is by far the most extensive and valuable which

has ever been seen out of that country, and forms one of the most

attractive and instructive exhibitions in Philadelphia; one whose

character and arrangement are quite _unique_, and which has some

pretensions to the title of "China in miniature." It occupies the whole

of the lower saloon of that splendid building recently erected at the

corner of Ninth and George streets, by the Philadelphia Museum Company.

The visitor's notice is first attracted by a series of groups of

figures, representing Chinese of nearly every grade in society, engaged

in the actual business of life. The figures, in their appropriate

costume, are modeled in a peculiarly fine clay, by Chinese artists, with

exquisite skill and effect. All are accurate likenesses of originals,

most of whom are now living. The following enumeration of one of the

cases, expanded in the subsequent description, which I quote from the

catalogue, will give an idea of the manner in which Chinese life and

manners are illustrated:

"CASE VIII.--_No_. 21. _Chinese Gentleman_.--22. _Beggar asking

alms_.--23. _Servant preparing breakfast_.--24.

_Purchaser_.--25. _Purchaser examining a piece of black silk.

The proprietor behind the counter making calculations on his

counting board_.--_Clerk entering goods_.--_Circular table, with

breakfast furniture_.

"This has been arranged so as to afford an exact idea of a

Chinese retail establishment. Two purchasers have been placed by

the counter: one of whom is scrutinizing a piece of black silk

that lies before him. The owner, behind the counter, is

carelessly bending forward, and intent on casting an account on

the 'calculating dish,' while his clerk is busy making entries

in the book, in doing which he shows us the Chinese mode of

holding a pen, or rather brush, which is perpendicularly between

the thumb and all the fingers. A servant is preparing breakfast.

A circular eight-legged table, very similar to those used by our

great grandfathers, is spread in the centre of the shop. Among

its furniture, the ivory chopsticks are the most novel. On the

visitor's right hand sits a gentleman, with a pipe, apparently a

chance comer, 'just dropped in' about meal time; on the left, a

blind beggar stands, beating two bamboo sticks against each

other, an operation with which he continues to annoy all whom he

visits, till he is relieved by some trifling gratuity, usually a

single _cash_. A gilt image of Fo is inserted in the front part

of the counter, and a small covered tub, filled with tea, with a

few cups near by, standing on the counter, from which customers

are always invited to help themselves.

"The merchants and shop-keepers of Canton are prompt, active,

obliging, and able. They can do an immense business in a short

time, and without noise, bustle, or disorder. Their goods are

arranged in the most perfect manner, and nothing is ever out of

its place. These traits assimilate them to the more enterprising

of the Western nations, and place them in prominent contrast

with the rest of the Asiatics. It is confidently asserted by

those who have had the best opportunities of judging, that as

business men, they are in advance of Spanish, Italian, and

Portuguese merchants.

"There is a variety of amusing inscriptions on the scrolls hung

up in the interior of some of the shops, which serve at the same

time to mark the thrifty habits of the traders. A few specimens

are subjoined:--'Gossipping and long sitting injure business.'

'Former customers have inspired caution--no credit given.' 'A

small stream always flowing.' 'Genuine goods; prices true.'

'Trade circling like a wheel,' et cet."

In addition to the above models, the collection includes an almost

innumerable variety of specimens of the fine arts and manufactures,

comprising almost every article of use and luxury--furniture, modern and

antique porcelain, models houses, pagodas, boats, junks, and bridges;

pieces of silk, linen, cotton, grass-cloth, and other fabrics

manufactured in China for home consumption; books and drawings, costume,

idols, and appendages of worship; weapons, musical instruments, signs,

mottoes, and entablatures, and numerous paintings, which last, it is

justly observed, "will satisfy every candid mind that great injustice

has been done to the Chinese artists, in the notion hitherto entertained

respecting their want of skill. They paint insects, birds, fishes,

fruits, flowers, with great correctness and beauty; and the brilliancy

and variety of their colors cannot be surpassed. They group with

considerable taste and effect, and their perspective--a department of

the art in which they have been thought totally deficient--is often very

good."

Many of the paintings represent actual scenes and occurrences; and thus,

like the models before mentioned, bring living China before the mind's

eye. The following is a good example.

"910. _View of the interior of the Consoo House, with the court

in session, for the final decision of the charge of piracy

committed by the crew of a Chinese junk on a French captain and

sailors, at a short distance from Macao_.

"The French ship, Navigatre, put in to Cochin China in distress.

Having disposed of her to the government, the captain, with his

crew, took passage for Macao in a Chinese junk belonging to the

province of Fokien. Part of their valuables consisted of about

100,000 dollars in specie. Four Chinese passengers bound for

Macao, and one for Fokien, were also on board. This last

apprised the Frenchmen in the best manner he could, that the

crew of the junk had entered into a conspiracy to take their

lives and seize their treasure. He urged that an armed watch

should be kept. On reaching the Ladrone Islands, the poor Macao

passengers left the junk. Here the Frenchmen believed themselves

out of danger, and exhausted by sickness and long watching,

yielded to a fatal repose. They were all massacred but one, a

youth of about nineteen years of age, who escaped by leaping

into the sea, after receiving several wounds. A fishing boat

picked him up and landed him at Macao, where information was

given to the officers of government, and the crew of the junk,

with their ill-gotten gains, were seized, on their arrival at

the port of destination in Fokien.

"Having been found guilty by the court, in their own district,

they were sent down to Canton, by order of the Emperor, to the

Unchat-see, (criminal judge) to be confronted with the young

French sailor. This trial is represented in the painting. The

prisoners were taken out of their cages, as is seen in the

foreground. The Frenchman recognized seventeen out of the

twenty-four; but when the passenger, who had been his friend,

was brought in, the two eagerly embraced each other, which scene

is also portrayed in the painting. An explanation of this

extraordinary act was made to the judge, and the man forthwith

set at liberty. A purse was made up for him by the Chinese and

foreigners, and he was soon on his way homeward. The seventeen

_were_ decapitated, in a few days, in the presence of the

foreigners; the captain, was to be put to a 'lingering death,'

the punishment of traitors, and the stolen treasures were

restored."

I do not quote the above for the sake of the anecdote, though the

relation is authentic, but as, affording a striking illustration of the

advanced civilization of the Chinese. It shows that the supremacy of the

law is universal, and its administration efficient. The criminals, in

this instance, are promptly seized, tried, and condemned on strong

evidence; but, before they are executed, reference is made to the

distant metropolis, Pekin. Here it is observed, that the most important

witness was not 'confronted with the prisoners,' and they are forthwith

directed to be conveyed to Canton, to be examined in his presence.

Seventeen are recognized by him and are executed. The rest escape. Now

this is just what might have taken place under the best ordered

governments of Europe. The humane maxims of British jurisprudence, if

not acknowledged in theory, may be here witnessed in practical

operation, and the single circumstance of referring capital convictions

to the Emperor, in his distant metropolis, for confirmation, before they

are carried into effect, shows a respect for human life, even in the

persons of criminals, which is one of the surest tokens of a high state

of civilization. Such is the criminal jurisprudence of China, in

practice; in theory, its just praise has been awarded, some years ago,

by an able writer in the Edinburgh Review. He says:--

"The most remarkable thing in this code, is its great

reasonableness, clearness, and consistency; the businesslike

brevity and directness of the various provisions, and the

plainness and moderation of the language in which they are

expressed. It is a clear, concise, and distinct series of

enactments, savoring throughout of practical judgment and

European good sense. When we turn from the ravings of the

Zendavesta, or the Puranas, to the tone of sense and of business

of this Chinese collection, we seem to be passing from darkness

to light--from the drivellings of dotage to the exercise of an

improved understanding; and, redundant and minute as these laws

are in many particulars, we scarcely know any European code that

is at once so copious and so consistent, or that is nearly so

free from intricacy, bigotry and fiction."

In addition to what have been noticed, the Chinese exhibition includes a

copious and very interesting collection of specimens of the natural

history of China.

I trust the extended notice I have given to the subject, will at least

prove that this is not an ordinary exhibition, but a representation of a

distant country and remarkable people, in which amusement is most

skilfully and philosophically made subservient to practical instruction.

A beneficent Creator has implanted within us a thirst for information

about other scenes and people. To be totally devoid of this feeling

would argue, perhaps, not merely intellectual but moral deficiency. Such

being the case, the founder of the "Chinese collection" deserves to be

regarded as a public benefactor, for, by spending a few hours in his

museum, with the aid of the descriptive catalogue, one may learn more of

the Chinese than by the laborious perusal of all the works upon them

that have ever been written.[A]

[Footnote A: While the above was passing through the press, I have

learned that this interesting Collection has arrived for exhibition in

this country.]

I cannot dismiss this subject without expressing my deep regret that the

British public should appear to view with indifference, or complacency,

the cruel and unjust war which our Government is now waging against this

highly cultivated and unoffending people, at the instigation of a

handful of men, who have acquired wealth and importance in the vigorous

pursuit of an immoral and unlawful traffic, by means the most criminal

and detestable. I have attempted, since my return from the United

States, to give some expression to my sentiments, in a letter which has

been widely circulated, and which will be found reprinted in the

Appendix.[A] I trust none under whose notice this subject may come will

endeavor to evade their share of responsibility. If the present war with

China were the sole consideration, perhaps no course would be left to

the Christian citizen, but to record his protest and mourn in silence;

but the conclusion of the war _per se_ would not terminate the

difficulty, for trade and mutual intercourse between the two countries,

_on the basis of a reciprocation of interests_, can never be restored

till the EAST INDIA COMPANY'S OPIUM TRADE, a traffic, like the slave

trade, hateful in the sight of God and man, is suppressed; or at least,

until British connection with it is severed; If asked who are the guilty

persons, I would say, in the first instance, the East India Company;

secondly, the opium smugglers; thirdly, the British government, and

lastly, the British people, who, by silent acquiescence, make the whole

guilt, and the whole responsibility their own.

[Footnote A: See Appendix G.]

The author of the most popular modern work on China, who long

superintended the interests of the British merchants at Canton, and

whose work, to a considerable extent, reflects their views, after

stating the increasing discouragements imposed by the authorities on

foreign commerce, the effect for the most part of opium smuggling, and

other lawless proceedings, observes:--"These (discouragements) are their

(the British merchants) real subjects of complaint in China; and

whenever the accumulation of wrong shall have proved, by exact

calculation, that it is more profitable, according to merely commercial

principles, to remonstrate than submit, these will form a righteous and

equitable ground of quarrel!!"[A]

[Footnote A: Davis's China and the Chinese, (Murray's Family Library,)

vol. i. p. 195.]

The remonstrance here alluded to is WAR, as is apparent from the context

of the passage, as well as from the fact, that by the author's own

showing no other kind of remonstrance remained to be tried. The true

"casus belli" is set forth by anticipation in this passage without

disguise, and by one who knew well, and has clearly described the causes

that were operating to produce a rupture. The opium merchants have

discovered that now, in the fulness of time, it is _profitable_ to go to

war with China, and forthwith the vast power of Great Britain, obedient

to their influence, is put in motion to sustain their unrighteous

quarrel, to the unspeakable degradation of the character of this

professedly Christian nation. The morality of the war on our side, is

the morality of the highwayman; that morality by which the strong in all

ages have preyed upon the weak. And though a handful of unprincipled men

find their account in it, before the people of Great Britain have paid

the expenses of the war, and the losses from derangement and

interruption of commerce, it will cost millions more than all the profit

that has ever accrued to them from the opium trade. From what motive

then, do we uphold a traffic, which is the curse of China, the curse of

India, and a calamity to Great Britain? Such a war may be fruitful in

trophies of military glory, if such can be gained by the slaughter of

the most pacific people in the world; but to expect that it will promote

the reputation, the prosperity, or the happiness of this country, would

be to look for national wickedness to draw down the Divine blessing. The

descriptive catalogue of the "Ten thousand Chinese things," concludes

with sentiments on this subject which do equal honor to the head and

heart of the writer.

"Alas for missionary efforts, so long as the grasping avarice of

the countries, whence the missionaries go, sets at nought every

Christian obligation before the very eyes of the people whom it

is sought to convert! Most devoutly do we long for the

auspicious day, when the pure religion, that distilled from the

heart, and was embodied in the life of Jesus, shall shed its

sacred influence on every human being; but, in our inmost soul

we believe it will not come, till the principles of religion

shall take a firmer hold on the affections of those who profess

to receive it, and rear a righteous embankment around their

sordid and stormy passions. When the missionary shall find an

auxiliary in the stainless life of every compatriot who visits

the scene of his labors, for purposes of pleasure or of

gain,--when he can point not only to the pure maxims and sublime

doctrines proclaimed by the Founder of his faith, but to the

clustering graces that adorn its professors,--then indeed will

the day dawn, and the day star of the millennium arise upon the

world."

During my short stay in Philadelphia on this occasion, I visited several

of its prisons, philanthropic institutions, et cet. These are

pre-eminently the glory of this beautiful city; yet as they have been

often described, I shall pass them by in silence, with the exception of

two, the Refuge, and the Penitentiary; which I briefly notice because I

may offer a few general remarks in another place, on the important

subject of prison discipline. The Refuge is an asylum for juvenile

delinquents, founded on the just and benevolent principle that offences

against society, committed by very young persons, should be disciplined

by training and education, rather than by punishment. In this

establishment there are from eighty to ninety boys, and from forty to

fifty girls, of ages varying from eight to twenty-one years. The former

are employed in various light handicraft trades, and the latter in

domestic services, and both spend a portion of their time in school.

They remain from six months to four years. From the statements of the

superintendent and matron, it appeared that about three-fourths of the

male, and four-fifths of the female inmates become respectable members

of society, and the remainder are chiefly such as are fifteen or sixteen

years of age when first admitted into the Refuge, an age at which

character may be considered as in a great measure formed. The labor of

the children pays about one-fifth of the expense of the establishment,

the rest being defrayed by the legislature.

The prejudice of color intrudes even here, no children of that class

being admitted into the Refuge. Colored delinquency is left to ripen

into crime, with little interference from public or private

philanthropy. As might have been expected, colored are more numerous

than white criminals, in proportion to relative population; and this is

appealed to as a proof of their naturally vicious and inferior

character; when in fact the government and society at large are

chargeable with their degradation.

The Penitentiary contained, at the time of my visit, about three hundred

and forty male, and thirty-five female prisoners. In this celebrated

prison, hard labor is combined with solitary confinement, an arrangement

which is technically known as the "separate system." Silence and

seclusion are so strictly enforced as to be almost absolute and

uninterrupted; even the minister who addresses the prisoners on the

Sabbath is known to them only by his voice. A marked feature of this

institution is security without the aid of any deadly weapon, none being

allowed in the possession of the attendants, or indeed upon the

premises. As compared with the "silent system," exhibited in the not

less famed prisons of the State of New York, this is much less

economical, as the mode of employing the prisoners, in their solitary

cells, greatly lessens the power of a profitable application of their

labor. If prisoners exceed their allotted task, one-half of their

surplus earnings is given to them on being set at liberty. My visit was

too cursory to enable me to give a decisive opinion on the "separate

system," but I confess my impression is, that the punishment is one of

tremendous and indiscriminating severity, and I find it difficult to

believe that either the safety of society, or the welfare of the

prisoner, can require the infliction of so much suffering. Criminals are

sometimes condemned for very long periods, or for life; and in these

cases, I was informed, occasionally manifested great recklessness and

carelessness of their existence. I am also not quite convinced that the

reformation of prisoners is effected to the extent sometimes inferred

from the small number of recommittals. A statistical conclusion cannot

be drawn from this datum, unsupported by other proofs.

On the 2d of the 6th Month, (June,) I proceeded to Wilmington, Delaware,

with my friend John G. Whittier. Here we met a company of warm-hearted

and intelligent abolitionists, with whom we discussed the prospects of

the cause. It was calculated that if compensation were conceded, to

which many would on principle object, a tax of less than one dollar per

acre would buy up all the slaves in the State for emancipation. It was

admitted by all, that the abolition of slavery would advance the price

of land in a far greater ratio; probably ten or twenty dollars per acre.

We went forward the same evening to Baltimore, accompanied by one of our

Wilmington acquaintance, and in the railway carriage was a member of the

Society of Friends from North Carolina, who, though a colonizationist,

appeared to be a man of candor. He gave it as his opinion that the

majority of the free people of that State are in favor of the abolition

of slavery. We also had the company, a part of the way, of Samuel E.

Sewall, Counsellor at Law, in Boston, an early and tried abolitionist,

and a faithful friend and legal adviser of the free people of color.

The next morning, we left Baltimore for Washington, two hours' ride by

railway. The railroads of this country being often extremely narrow, the

trains frequently pass almost close to the piers of the bridges and

viaducts, a circumstance which explains the following printed notice in

the carriages: "Passengers are cautioned not to put their arms, head, or

legs out of the window."

In passing from a free to a slave State, the most casual observer is

struck with the contrast. The signs of industry and prosperity on the

broad face of the country are universally in favor of the former, and

that to a degree which none but an eye witness can conceive. This fact

has been often noticed, and has been affirmed by slaveholders

themselves, in the most emphatic terms. In cities the difference is not

less remarkable, and was forcibly brought to our notice in the hotel at

which we took up our residence on arriving at Washington, and which,

though the first in the city, and the temporary residence of many

members of Congress, was greatly deficient in the cleanliness, comfort,

and order, which prevail in the well-furnished and well-conducted

establishments of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, &c. At this house, I

understood, some of the servants were free, and others slaves.

We were now in the District of Columbia, the seat of this powerful

Federal Government, and in the city of Washington, the metropolis of the

United States. Here are concentrated as it were into one focus, the

associations of the past, connected with the great struggle for

independence, and the memory of those names and events which already

belong to history. Whatever may be our political principles, or the

opinions of those who like myself consider all resort to arms as

forbidden under the Christian dispensation, it is impossible to recall

without emotion, transactions which have exerted and will continue to

exert, so marked an influence on the destinies of mankind. This city was

not the scene of those events, but it was erected to be a perpetual

monument of them, and in the limited district of ten miles square, in

which it stands, the Government which was then called into existence

reigns sole and supreme. If a stranger were to inquire here for the

monuments of the fathers of the Revolution, the American would proudly

point to the Capitol, with the national Congress in full session, and to

the levee of the President, crowded by free citizens, and

representatives of foreign nations. The United States were thirteen

dependent colonies, they are now twenty-six sovereign States, rich and

populous, covering the face of this vast continent, and compacted into

one powerful confederacy. But notwithstanding the glowing emotions which

seem naturally called forth by the locality, there is many an American

who bitterly feels that the District of Columbia is the shame, rather

than the glory of his country. Here is proclaimed to the whole world by

the united voice of the American people, "We hold these truths to be

self-evident--that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by

their Creator with certain inalienable rights--that among these are

life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;" and here also by a

majority of the same people expressing their deliberate will, through

their representatives, this declaration is trampled under foot, and

turned into derision.[A]

[Footnote A: "Large establishments have grown up upon the national

domain, provided with prisons for the safe keeping of negroes till a

full cargo is procured; and should, at any time, the factory prisons be

insufficient, the public ones, erected by Congress, are at the service

of the dealers, and the United States Marshal becomes the agent of the

slave trade."--_Judge Jay's View of the action of the Federal Government

in behalf of Slavery_, _page_ 93. "But the climax of infamy is still

untold. This trade in blood,--this buying, imprisoning, and exporting of

boys and girls eight years old,--this tearing asunder of husbands and

wives, parents and children,--is all legalized, in virtue of authority

delegated by Congress!! The 249th page of the laws of the city of

Washington is polluted by the following enactment, bearing date 28th

July, 1838:--'For a _license_ to trade or traffic in slaves for profit,

four hundred dollars.'"--_Ibid_, _page_ 98.]

The District of Columbia is the chief seat of the American slave trade;

commercial enterprize has no other object! Washington is one of the best

supplied and most frequented slave marts in the world. The adjoining and

once fertile and beautiful States of Virginia and Maryland, are now

blasted with sterility, and ever-encroaching desolation. The curse of

the first murderer rests upon the planters, and the ground will no

longer yield to them her strength. The impoverished proprietors find now

their chief source of revenue in what one of themselves expressly

termed, their "crop of human flesh." Hence the slave-holding region is

now divided into the "slave-breeding," and "slave-consuming" States.

From its locality, and, from its importance as the centre of public

affairs, the District of Columbia has become the focus of this dreadful

traffic, which almost vies with the African slave trade itself in extent

and cruelty, besides possessing aggravations peculiarly its own.[A] Its

victims are marched to the south in chained coffles, overland, in the

face of day, and by vessels coastwise. Those who protest against these

abominations are the abolitionists; a body whose opinions are so

unpopular that no term of reproach is deemed vile enough for their

desert; yet if these should hold their peace, the very stones would

surely cry out. The state of things in this District has one peculiar

feature; being under the supreme local government of Congress, it

presents almost the only tangible point for the political efforts of

those hostile to slavery. Against slavery in any but their own States,

the abolitionists have neither the power nor the wish to exert that

constitutional interference which they rightfully employ in the States

of which they are citizens; but with respect to the District of

Columbia, they are, in common with the whole republic, responsible for

the exercise of political influence for the abolition of slavery within

its limits. Hence this is the grand point of attack. They have

experienced a succession of repulses, but their eventual success is

certain; the political influence of the slave-holding interest, which is

now paramount, and which controls and dictates the entire policy of the

general Government will be destroyed. Then will the abolition of

American slavery be speedily consummated.

[Footnote A: "Human flesh is now the great staple of Virginia, In the

legislature of this State, in 1833, Thomas Jefferson Randolph declared

that Virginia had been converted into 'one grand menagerie, where men

are reared for the market, like oxen for the shambles.' This same

gentleman thus compared the foreign with the domestic traffic: 'The

trader (African) receives the slave, a stranger in aspect, language and

manner, from the merchant who brought him from the interior. But _here_,

sir, individuals whom the master has known from infancy,--whom he has

seen sporting in the innocent gambols of childhood,--who have been

accustomed to look to him for protection,--he tears from the mother's

arms, exiles into a foreign country, among a strange people, subject to

cruel task-masters. In my opinion, it is much worse.'--Mr. Gholson, of

Virginia, in his speech in the legislature of that State, January 18,

1831, says: 'The master forgoes the service of the female slave, has her

nursed and attended during the period of her gestation, and raises the

helpless and infant offspring. The value of the property justifies the

expense; and I do not hesitate to say, that in its increase consists

much of our wealth.'--Professor Dew, now President of the College of

William and Mary, Virginia, in his review of the debate in the Virginia

legislature, 1831-3, speaking of the revenue arising from the trade,

says: 'A full equivalent being thus left in the place of the slave, this

emigration becomes an advantage to the State, and does not check the

black population as much as at first view we might imagine; because it

furnishes every inducement to the master to attend to the negroes, to

_encourage breeding_, and to cause the greatest number possible to be

raised. Virginia is, in fact, a negro-raising State, for other

States.'--Mr. C.F. Mercer asserted, in the Virginia Convention of 1829,

'The tables of the natural growth of the slave population demonstrate;

when compared with the increase of its numbers in the commonwealth for

twenty years past, that an annual revenue of not less than a million and

a half of dollars is derived from the exportation of a part of this

population.'"--_Judge Jay's View_, _pages_ 88, 89.]

Very soon after our arrival, we proceeded to the House of

Representatives, then sitting, and were favored, by introductions from a

member, with seats behind the Speaker's chair. The subject before the

House was, of course, peculiarly interesting to me, being the proposed

re-enactment of the "gag;" a rule of the House, by which petitions for

the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, are laid upon the

table, without being read or referred, and thus are virtually rejected.

One of the speakers, William Slade, of Vermont, who was opposed to the

"gag," told the pro-slavery members that they were greatly mistaken in

supposing that such a measure would suppress the anti-slavery feeling of

the country. They might, for a time, block up the Potomac, but it would

only be to direct its waters into a new channel; in the same way as the

rejection of anti-slavery petitions had resulted in the formation of a

third abolition political party, which was now regularly organized and

in the field. Having previously heard much of the virulence of the

pro-slavery members, I was particularly impressed with the silence and

attention with which they listened to this speech, and with the feeling

which seemed evidently to prevail, that the subject could no longer be

met with contempt and ridicule. One of the liberal members told me

afterwards, that they felt themselves in a different atmosphere to what

they did two years ago, both in the House and in the city, when touching

upon this subject. Before the debate closed, the House divided on the

question, whether ex-president Adams, the veteran defender of the

constitutional right of petition, and who had brought forward this

motion for the repeal of the "gag," was entitled to the right of reply.

This was decided in his favor, and the House adjourned till the

beginning of the following week.

In the afternoon, I proceeded, by a steam packet, with one of my

friends, to Alexandria, about six miles distant, on the other side of

the Potomac. A merchant, to whom I had an introduction, kindly

accompanied us to a slave-trading establishment there, which is

considered the principal one in the District. The proprietor was absent;

but the person in charge, a stout, middle-aged man, with a good-natured

countenance, that little indicated his employment, readily consented to

show us over the establishment. On passing behind the house, we looked

through a grated iron door, into a square court or yard, with very high

walls, in which were about fifty slaves. Some of the younger ones were

dancing to a fiddle, an affecting proof, in their situation, of the

degradation caused by slavery. There were others, who seemed a prey to

silent dejection. Among these was a woman, who had run away from her

master twelve years ago, and had married and lived ever since as a free

person. She was at last discovered, taken and sold, along with her

child, and would shortly be shipped to New Orleans, unless her husband

could raise the means of her redemption, which we understood he was

endeavoring to do. If he failed, they are lost to him for ever. Another

melancholy looking woman was here with her nine children, the whole

family having been sold away from their husband and father, to this

slave-dealer, for two thousand two hundred and fifty dollars. This

unfeeling separation is but the beginning of their sorrows. They will,

in all probability, be re-sold at New Orleans, scattered and divided,

until not perhaps two of them are left together. The most able-bodied

negro I saw, cost the slave-dealer six hundred and eighty-five dollars.

Our guide told us that they sometimes sent from this house from fifteen

hundred to two thousand slaves to the South in a year, and that they

occasionally had three hundred to four hundred at once in their

possession. That the trade was not now so brisk, but that prices were

rising. The return and profits of this traffic appear to be entirely

regulated by the fluctuations in the value of the cotton. Women are

worth one-third less than men. But one instance of complete escape ever

occurred from these premises, though some of the slaves were

occasionally trusted out in the fields. He showed us the substantial

clothing, shoes, &c., with which the slaves were supplied when sent to

the South; a practice, I fear, enforced more by the cupidity of the

buyers, than the humanity of the seller. Our informant stated, in answer

to inquiries, that by the general testimony of the slaves purchased,

they were treated better by the planters than was the case ten years

ago. He also admitted the evils of the system, and said, with apparent

sincerity, he wished it was put an end to.

We went afterwards to the city jail, to see a youth whose case I had

heard of in Delaware, who had come to Alexandria on board a vessel, and

had here been seized and imprisoned on suspicion of being a slave, not

having any document to prove his freedom. He had now been incarcerated

for near twelve months, and though admitted by the jailer and every one

else to be free, he was about to be sold in a few days into slavery for

a term, in order to pay the jail-fees, amounting to eighty dollars. In

the evening on returning to Washington, we paid a visit by appointment

to John Quincy Adams, ex-president of the United States; who though

considerably more than seventy years of age, is yet one of the most

assiduous and energetic members of the House of Representatives, and one

of the most influential public men of the day. To this must be added the

far higher praise that his distinguished powers are employed in the

service of humanity, truth, and justice. How rare is it to witness such

a union of intellectual and moral greatness! Posterity will do justice

to his fame, when slavery shall exist only in the records of the past,

and when it shall be related with wonder, that this venerable man,

standing almost alone in his defence of the right of petition, received

daily anonymous letters threatening him with assassination. He received

us very kindly, and in the course of conversation expressed how much

importance he attached to the late repeal of the "nine months law," in

the State of New York, as a favorable indication of the current of

public feeling. He did not appear sanguinely to anticipate that he

should be in a majority on his pending motion for the repeal of the

"gag."

One of the principal objects of my visit to Washington was to present an

Address to the President, from the Committee of the British and Foreign

Anti-Slavery Society. In the course of my inquiries of various official

persons, members of Congress, et cet., I found that to obtain an

audience for the express purpose would be very difficult, as no member

of Congress appeared willing to undertake the unpopular service of

introducing the bearer of such a document. I was not disposed to apply

to the British Ambassador, who on some occasions had shown a want of

sympathy with the anti-slavery cause. I found, however, that it was not

contrary to etiquette, in this country, for a private individual to

address a note to the President, to which, in ordinary courtesy,

according to the custom of the place, he has a right to expect a reply.

I would remark, however, that nothing is more easy than to gain access

to the President; but I felt that to avail myself of those facilities,

to place in his hands a document which he might object to receive, would

be uncandid. I therefore addressed a note to him, stating that I was the

bearer of a memorial from the Committee of the British and Foreign

Anti-slavery Society, signed by Thomas Clarkson, addressed to the

President of the United States, in which I said, "It may, perhaps, be

right to state, that the memorial refers to slavery and the slave-trade

in the United States, and that it was written before the death of

General Harrison was known in Europe." I then asked permission to

present it.

To this I received no reply. We were afterwards introduced to the

President, by a member of Congress, who evinced an anxiety that I should

make no reference to the memorial; and the President, on his part, made

no allusion to it, or to my letter to himself. After this interview, we

proceeded to the Senate, but it had risen just as we entered. I had a

short conversation with Henry Clay, who alluded to Joseph John Gurney's

work on the West Indies, which I need scarcely add, is written in a

series of letters to this statesman. He said that the recent short crop

of sugar in Jamaica was a proof that the author had been misled in the

favorable information he had collected, and also that this deficiency in

the crop was a proof not only of the idleness, but of the immorality of

the negroes. He accused my companion, John G. Whittier, of deserting

him, after having been his warm friend; and on J.W.'s giving his reasons

for so doing, he complained that the abolitionists improperly interfered

with the affairs of the South, though he made an exception in favor of

the Society of Friends. He inquired if J.G. Whittier was a "Friend" in

regular standing, evidently intimating a doubt on that point, on account

of his being so decided an abolitionist. The praise of such men is the

strongest testimony that could be adduced to the declension of the

Society of Friends in anti-slavery zeal. To a great extent I fear their

sentiments on this subject have been held traditionally; and that in

many cases, they have not only done nothing themselves, but by example

and precept have condemned the activity of others; I trust, however, a

brighter day in regard to their labors is approaching. I feel

disinclined to take leave of Henry Clay, without some animadversions

which, on the public character of a public man, I may offer without any

breach of propriety. In early life, that is in some part of the last

century, he supported measures tending to the "eradication of slavery"

in Kentucky, and at various periods since, he has indulged in cheap

declamation against slavery, though he is not known to have committed

himself by a solitary act of manumission. On the contrary, having

commenced life with a single slave, he has industriously increased the

number to upwards of seventy. As a statesman, his conduct on this

question has been consistently pro-slavery. He indefatigably negotiated

for the recovery of fugitive slaves from Canada, when Secretary of

State, though without success. In the Senate he successfully carried

through the admission of Missouri into the Union, as a slave State. He

has resisted a late promising movement in Kentucky in favor of

emancipation; and lastly, in one of his most elaborate speeches, made

just before the late presidential election, the proceedings of the

abolitionists were reviewed and condemned, and he utterly renounced all

sympathy with their object. By way of apology for his early

indiscretion, he observes, "but if I had been then, or were _now_, a

citizen of any of the planting States--the southern or southwestern

States--I should have opposed, and would continue to oppose, any scheme

whatever of emancipation, gradual or immediate."

In this extract, and throughout the whole speech, slavery is treated as

a pecuniary question, and the grand argument against abolition, is the

loss of property that would ensue. Joseph John Gurney, who appears to

have been favorably impressed by Henry Clay's professions of liberality,

his courteous bearing, and consummate address, manifested a laudable

anxiety that so influential a statesman should be better informed on the

point on which he seemed so much in the dark; he therefore addressed to

him his excellent "Letters on the West Indies," of which the great

argument is, that emancipation has been followed by great prosperity to

the planters, and attended with abundant blessings, temporal and

spiritual, to the other classes, and that the same course would

necessarily be followed by the same results in the United States. He has

accumulated proof upon proof of his conclusions supplied by personal and

extensive investigation in the British Colonies. But Henry Clay shews no

sign of conviction. Yet though he made to us the absurd remark, already

quoted, on Joseph John Gurney's work, I have too high an opinion of his

understanding to think him the victim of his own sophistry. He is a

lawyer and a statesman. He is accustomed to weigh evidence, and to

discriminate facts. I have little doubt that all my valued friend would

have taught him, he knew already. He could not be ignorant of the

contrast presented by his own State of Kentucky, and the adjoining State

of Ohio, and that the difference is solely owing to slavery. If J.J.

Gurney could have shewn that abolition would soon be the high road to

the President's chair, it is not improbable that he would have made an

illustrious convert to anti-slavery principles. Henry Clay's celebrated

speech before alluded to, was delivered in the character of a candidate

for the Presidency just before the last election--it was prepared with

great care, and rehearsed beforehand to a select number of his political

friends. The whig party being the strongest, and he being the foremost

man of that party, he might be looked upon as President-elect, if he

could but conciliate the south, by wiping off the cloud of abolitionism

that faintly obscured his reputation. He succeeded to his heart's desire

in his immediate object, but eventually, by this very speech, completely

destroyed his sole chance of success, and was ultimately withdrawn from

the contest. Thus does ambition overleap itself.[A]

[Footnote A: As a practical commentary on Henry Clay's professions of a

regard for the cause of human liberty, I append the following

advertisement, which, about two years ago, was circulated in Ohio:

"THREE HUNDRED DOLLAR'S REWARD.

"_Run away_ from James Kendall, in Bourbon County, Ky., to whom

he was hired the present year, on Saturday night last, the 14th

instant, a negro man, named Somerset, about twenty-six years of

age, five feet, seven or eight inches high, of a dark copper

color, having a deep scar on his right cheek, occasioned by a

burn, stout made, countenance bold and determined, and voice

coarse. His clothing it is thought unnecessary to describe, as

he may have already changed it.

"ALSO,

"From E. Muir, of the same county, on the same night, (and

supposed to have gone in company,) a negro man, named Bob, about

twenty-nine years old, near six feet high, weighing about 180 or

90 pounds, of a dark copper color, of a pleasant countenance,

uncommonly smooth face, and a remarkable small hand for a negro

of his size. He spells and reads a little. His clothing was a

greenish jean coat and black cloth pantaloons.

"We will give the above reward for the delivery of said negroes

to the undersigned, or their confinement in jail, so that we get

them; or 150 dollars for either of them, if taken out of the

State, or 100 dollars for them, or 50 dollars for either, if

taken out of the county, and in the State.

"HENRY CLAY, Senior,

"E. MUIR.

"_Bourbon Co. Ky., Sept_. 17, 1839."

]

On leaving the Senate House, we drove to a slave-dealer's establishment,

near at hand, and within sight of the _Capitol_. I have given some

particulars of this visit elsewhere, which I need not repeat. I cast my

eye on some portraits and caricatures of abolitionists, British and

American, among whom Daniel O'Connell figured in association with Arthur

Tappan, and the ex-president Adams. The young man in charge of the

establishment began to explain them, for our amusement; on which, one of

my companions pointed to me, and informed him I was an English

abolitionist. He looked uneasy at our presence, and evidently desirous

we should not prolong our stay. He told us there were five or six other

dealers in the city who had no buildings of their own, and who kept

their slaves here, or at the public city jail, at thirty-four cents per

diem, the difference in comfort being wholly on the side of the private

establishments.

We subsequently visited the city jail, to which reference is made in the

letter below, and were able to confirm this statement from our own

observation.

We left for Baltimore this afternoon. Although I had not succeeded in

presenting the address before-mentioned to the President, I little

regretted the failure, being convinced that it would not be less

generally read by the public on that account, and in this I have not

been disappointed. I proceeded at once, the next morning, to

Philadelphia; and here I concluded to print and publish the following

letter, which, was sent, through the post, to the President, and to each

member of the Senate and House of Representatives.

"_To the Abolitionists of the United States_.

"I was commissioned by the committee of the British and Foreign

Anti-Slavery Society, to present a memorial from them to your

President, and proceeded to Washington, a few days ago,

accompanied by John G. Whittier, of Massachusetts, and a friend

from the State of Delaware.

"It was my first visit to the seat of legislation of your great

republic. On our arrival we went to the House of

Representatives, then in session. A member from Maryland was

speaking on our entrance, who was the author of a resolution,

which had been carried in a former Congress, excluding nearly

three millions of your countrymen, on whom every species of

wrong and outrage is committed with impunity, from all right of

petition, either by them selves or their friends. He was

advocating the re-enactment of this very resolution for the

present Congress, and stated that he had a letter from your

President approving the measure. Although I believe I do not

speak too strongly when I say an attempt to enforce such a

resolution by any crowned head in the civilized world, would be

inevitably followed by a revolution, yet it seemed evident that

no small portion of your _present_ members were in favor of it.

It was with no ordinary emotion that I saw the venerable

ex-president Adams at his post, nobly contending against this

violation of the rights of his countrymen, and I could not but

regret that, with one or two exceptions, be appeared to find

little support from his younger colleagues of the free States.

"The same day we visited one of the well-known slave-trading

establishments at Alexandria. On passing to it we were shewn the

costly mansion of its late proprietor, who has lately retired on

a large property acquired by the sale of native born Americans.

In an open enclosure, with high walls which it is impossible to

scale, with a strong iron-barred door, and in which we were told

that there were sometimes from three to four hundred persons

crowded, we saw about fifty slaves. Amongst the number thus

incarcerated was a woman with nine children, who had been

cruelly separated from their husband and father, and would

probably be shortly sent to New Orleans, where they would never

be likely to see him again, and where the mother may be for ever

severed from every one of her children, and each of them sold to

a separate master. From thence we went to the Alexandria city

jail, where we saw a young man who was admitted to be free even

by the jailer himself. He had been seized and committed in the

hope that he might prove a slave, and that the party detaining

him would receive a reward. He had been kept there nearly twelve

months because he could not pay the jail fees, and instead of

obtaining any redress for false imprisonment, was about to be

sold into slavery for a term to reimburse these fees.

"The next morning I was desirous of handing to the President the

memorial, of which the following is a copy:

"'_Address to the President of the United States, from

the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery

Society_.

"'SIR,--As the head of a great Confederacy of States,

justly valuing their free constitution and political

organization, and tenacious of their rights and their

character, the Committee of the British and Foreign

Anti-slavery Society, through their esteemed coadjutor

and representative, Joseph Sturge, would respectfully

approach you in behalf of millions of their fellow-men,

held in bondage in the United States. Those millions are

denied, not only the immunities enjoyed by the citizens

of your great republic generally, and of the equal

privileges and the impartial protection of the civil

law, but are deprived of their personal rights, so that

they cease to be regarded and treated, under your

otherwise noble institutions, as MEN, except in the

commission of crime, when the utmost rigor of your penal

statutes is invoked and enforced against them; but are

reduced to the degraded condition of "chattels personal

in the hands of their owners and possessors, to _all

intents, constructions, and purposes, whatsoever_."

"'This is the language and the law of slavery; and under

this law, guarded with jealousy by their political

institutions, the slaveholders of the South rest their

claims to property in man But, sir, there are claims

anterior to all human laws, and superior to all

political institutions, which are immutable in their

nature,--claims which are the birthright of every human

being, of every clime, and of every color,--claims which

God has conferred, and which man cannot destroy without

sacrilege, or infringe without sin. Personal liberty is

among these, the greatest and best, for it is the root

of all other rights, the conservative principle of human

associations, the spring of public virtues, and

essential to national strength and greatness.

"'The monstrous and wicked assumption of power by man,

over his fellow man, which slavery implies, is alike

abhorrent to the moral sense of mankind; to the

immutable principles of justice; to the righteous laws

of God; and to the benevolent principles of the gospel.

It is, therefore, indignantly repudiated by all the

fundamental laws of all truly enlightened and civilized

communities, and by none more emphatically than by that

over which, Sir, it is your honor to preside.

"'The great doctrine, that God hath "created all men

equal, and endowed them with certain inalienable rights,

and that amongst these are life, liberty, and the

pursuit of happiness," is affirmed in your Declaration

of Independence, and justified in the theory of your

constitutional laws. But there is a stain upon your

glory; slavery, in its most abject and revolting form,

pollutes your soil; the wailings of slaves mingle with

your songs of liberty; and the clank of their chains is

heard, in horrid discord with the chorus of your

triumphs.

"'The records of your States are not less distinguished

by their wise provisions for securing the order and

maintaining the institutions of your country, than by

their ingenious devices for riveting the chains, and

perpetuating the degradation of your colored brethren;

their education is branded as a crime against the

State--their freedom is dreaded as a blasting

pestilence--the bare suggestion of their emancipation is

proscribed as treason to the cause of American

independence.

"'These things are uttered in sorrow; for the committee

deeply deplore the flagrant inconsistency, so glaringly

displayed between the lofty principles embodied in the

great charter of your liberties, and the evil practices

which have been permitted to grow up under it, to mar

its beauty and impair its strength. But it is not on

these grounds alone, or chiefly, that they deplore the

existence of slavery in the United States. Manifold as

are the evils which flow from it--dehumanizing as are

its tendencies--fearful as its reaction confessedly is

on its supporters,--the reproach of its existence does

not terminate on the institutions which gave it birth:

the sublime principles and benign spirit of Christianity

are dishonored by it. In the light of Divine Truth it

stands revealed, in all its hideous deformity, a crime

against God,--a daring usurpation of the prerogative and

authority of the Most High! It is as a violation of His

righteous laws, an outrage on His glorious attributes, a

renunciation of the claims of His blessed gospel, that

they especially deplore the countenance and support it

receives among you; and, in the spirit of Christian love

and fraternal solicitude, would counsel its immediate

and complete overthrow, as a solemn and imperative duty,

the performance of which no sordid reasons should be

permitted to retard--no political considerations

prevent. Slavery is a sin against God, and ought,

therefore, to be abolished.

"'The utter extinction of slavery, and its sister

abomination, the internal slave-trade of the United

States, second only in horror and extent to the African,

and in some of its features even more revolting, can

only be argued, by the philanthropy of this country, on

the abstract principles of moral and religious duty; and

to those principles the people of your great republic

are pledged on the side of freedom beyond every nation

in the world!

"'The negro, by nature our equal, made like ourselves in

the image of his Creator, gifted by the same

intelligence, impelled by the same passions and

affections, and redeemed by the same Savior, is reduced

by cupidity and oppression below the level of the brute,

spoiled of his humanity, plundered of his rights, and

often hurried to a premature grave, the miserable victim

of avarice and heedless tyranny! Men have presumptuously

dared to wrest from their fellows the most precious of

their rights--to intercept as far as they may the bounty

and grace of the Almighty--to close the door to their

intellectual progress--to shut every avenue to their

moral and religious improvement, to stand between them

and their Maker! It is against this crime the committee

protest as men and as Christians, and earnestly but

respectfully call upon you, Sir, to use the influence

with which you are invested, to bring it to a peaceful

and speedy close; and, may you in closing your public

career, in the latest hours of your existence on earth,

be consoled with the reflection that you have not

despised the afflictions of the afflicted, but that

faithful to the trust of your high stewardship, you have

been "just, ruling in the fear of the Lord," that you

have executed judgment for the oppressed, and have aided

in the deliverance of your country from its greatest

crime, and its chiefest reproach.

"'On behalf of the Committee,

"'THOMAS CLARKSON.

"'British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, for the

Abolition of Slavery and the Slave-trade throughout the

world.

"'27, _New Broad Street, London, March 5th_, 1841.'

"I thought it most candid to address a letter to the President

informing him of the character of the foregoing memorial, rather

than take advantage of a merely formal introduction to present

it, without a previous explanation. To this letter no reply was

received, and no allusion was made to it by the President at a

subsequent introduction, which we had to him. It may be proper

to mention in this connection, that memorials of a similar

character, bearing upon slavery and the slave-trade, signed by

the venerable Clarkson, have been presented to different Heads

of Governments, in other parts of the world, and have been

uniformly received with marked respect.

"Previous to our departure, we visited a private slave-trading

establishment in the city, and looked in upon a group of human

beings herded together like cattle for the market, within an

enclosure of high brick walls surrounding the jail. The young

man in attendance, informed us that there were five or six other

regular slave-dealers in the city, who, having no jails of their

own, either placed their slaves at this establishment, or in the

public CITY PRISON. The former was generally preferred, on

account of its superior accommodations in respect to food and

lodging. On my making some remarks to the young man on the

nature of his occupation, he significantly, and as I think, very

justly replied, that he knew of no reasons for condemning

slave-traders, which did not equally apply to slave-holders. You

will bear in mind that this was said within view of the Capitol,

where slave-holders control your national legislation, and

within a few minutes' walk of that mansion where a slave-holder

sits in the presidential chair, placed there by your votes; and

it is certainly no marvel, that, with such high examples in his

favor, the humble slave-dealer of the District should feel

himself in honorable company, and really regard his occupation

as one of respectability and public utility.

"From thence we proceeded to the city prison, an old and

loathsome building, where we examined two ranges of small stone

cells, in which were a large number of colored prisoners. We

noticed five or six in a single cell, barely large enough for a

solitary tenant, under a heat as intense as that of the tropics.

The keeper stated that in rainy seasons the prison was

uncomfortably wet. The place had to us a painful interest, from

the fact that here Dr. Crandall, a citizen of the free States,

was confined until his health was completely broken down, and

was finally released only to find a grave, for the crime of

having circulated a pamphlet on emancipation, written by one of

the friends who accompanied me.[A] On inquiry of the keeper, he

informed us that slaves were admitted into his cells, and kept

for their owners at the rate of thirty-four cents per day, and

that transfers of them from one master to another sometimes took

place during their confinement; thus corroborating the testimony

of the keeper of the private jail before mentioned, that this

city prison, the property of the people of the United States,

and for the rebuilding of which, a large sum of your money has

been appropriated, is made use of by the dealers in human beings

as a place of deposit and market; and thus you, in common with

your fellow citizens, are made indirect participators in a

traffic equal in atrocity to that foreign trade, the suppression

of which, to use the words of your President in his late

message, 'is required by the public honor, and the promptings of

humanity.'

[Footnote A: On being released from prison, Dr. Crandall went to

Kingston, Jamaica, to recruit his health. A gentleman of that

city, W. Wemyss Anderson, found him in his lodgings, solitary

and friendless, and rapidly sinking under his disease. He took

him, though a perfect stranger, into his own house; and the last

days of Dr. Crandall were soothed by the kind sympathy and

attentions of a Christian family. It was also manifest, that he

enjoyed the sunshine of inward peace, and the rich consolations

of the gospel. His kind host, whom I count it a privilege to

call my friend, obeyed, in this instance, the apostolic

injunction, and experienced the consequent reward, "Be not

forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have

entertained angels unawares."]

"As one who has devoted much of his humble labors to the cause

you wish to promote, I perhaps shall be excused for thus stating

these facts to you, as they all passed before my personal

observation in the course of a few hours. I shall deem it right

to publish them in Europe, where I am about shortly to return.

Recollect, they all occurred and exist within the District of

Columbia, and that those who elect the legislators who uphold

the slave system, are justly responsible for it in the sight of

God and man. Is it not all the natural consequence of your

electing slave-holders and their abettors to the highest offices

of your State and nation? Some of your most intelligent citizens

have given it as their opinion that fully two-thirds of the

whole population of the United States are in favor of the

abolition of slavery; and my own observation, since I landed on

these shores, not only confirms this opinion, but has convinced

me that there is a very rapid accession to their numbers daily

taking place; and yet we have the extraordinary fact exhibited

to the world, that about two hundred and fifty thousand

slave-holders--a large proportion of whom, bankrupt in fortune

and reputation, have involved many of the North in their

disgrace and ruin--hold in mental bondage the whole population

of this great republic, who permit themselves to be involved in

the common disgrace of presenting a spectacle of national

inconsistency altogether without a parallel. I confess that,

although an admirer of many of the institutions of your country,

and deeply lamenting the evils of my own government, I find it

difficult to reply to those who are opposed to any extension of

the political rights of Englishmen, when they point to America

and say, that where all have a control over the legislation but

those who are guilty of a dark skin, slavery and the slave-trade

remain not only unmitigated, but continue to extend; and that

while there is an onward movement in favor of its extinction,

not only in England and France, but even in Cuba and Brazil,

American legislators cling to this enormous evil, without

attempting to relax or mitigate its horrors. Allow me,

therefore, to appeal to you by every motive which attaches you

to your country, seriously to consider how far you are

accountable for this state of things, by want of a faithful

discharge of those duties for which every member of a republican

government is so deeply responsible; and may I not express the

hope that, on all future occasions, you will take care to

promote the election of none as your representatives who will

not _practically_ act upon the principle that in every clime,

and of every color, 'all men are equal?'

"Your sincere friend,

"JOSEPH STURGE.

"_Philadelphia, 6th Month 7th_, 1842."

This letter was extensively reprinted, not only in the anti-slavery but

in pro-slavery newspapers, both in the North and South. In the numerous

angry comments upon it, no attempt that has come to my knowledge was

made to deny any one of my statements. One of the papers intimates that

the vote by which the house soon after refused to adopt a specific and

exclusive rule against abolition petitions, was brought about by "the

sinister influence of Mr. Sturge." I need not add how happy I should

have been to have possessed the influence with which this writer has so

liberally invested me, and that I should have regarded it as a talent to

be employed and improved to the very utmost.

I spent from the 5th to the 11th of the Sixth Month, (June) in

Philadelphia and the vicinity, during which time, I made numerous calls,

and met several large parties in private.

During this stay, in company with John G. Whittier, I paid a visit to my

excellent friend, Abraham L. Pennock, at his residence in Haverford,

Delaware county, about ten miles from the city. He is an influential

member of the Society of Friends, and until recently he has been a

resident in the city. He has, for many years, been an uncompromising

abolitionist, and an active member and officer of anti-slavery

societies; yet he appears to enjoy the respect and confidence not only

of his anti-slavery associates, but of the Society of Friends, and the

community generally. I found him a warm advocate, in practice as well as

theory, of entire abstinence from the products of slave labor, as well

as of independent political action on the part of abolitionists. He

expressed much regret that he was unable to attend the General

Anti-Slavery Convention, in London, and gave his cordial approbation to

its proceedings.[A]

[Footnote A: See Appendix H.]

We reluctantly bade farewell to our kind friend and his interesting

family, all the members of which appear to share his zeal and untiring

devotion to the cause of the oppressed, and returned to our lodgings in

the city. Even now I look back to this visit as among the most grateful

recollections of my sojourn in the United States.

I may mention, in this connection, that A.L. Pennock, as well as others

with whom I conversed on the subject, spoke with much regret of the want

of faithfulness on the part of members of the Society of Friends, in

maintaining their testimony against slavery, while exercising their

civil rights as citizens and electors. From all I could learn, I have

been led to fear that "Friends" in the United States, with few

exceptions, are in the practice of voting for public officers, without

reference to their sentiments on the important subject of slavery. At

the late Presidential election it is very evident that the great body of

"Friends" who took any part in it, voted for John Tyler, the

slaveholder.

Among the active friends of emancipation, who occupy a high station in

our society, I can scarcely omit mentioning Enoch Lewis, of Chester

county, Pennsylvania, whose talents and literary acquirements, devoted

as they are, to the maintenance and promulgation of the principles and

Christian testimonies of our religious society, deservedly command a

high degree of respect.

Among the members of the society which have separated from "Friends" in

Philadelphia and elsewhere, I met with many warm and steady friends of

emancipation, some of whom have proved their sincerity by great

sacrifices. Amongst these I cannot omit mentioning James and Lucretia

Mott, James Wood, Dr. Isaac Parish, and Thomas Earle, of this city.

I republished in Philadelphia, with the permission of the author, in two

separate pamphlets, for distribution amongst those to whom it was

addressed, "A Letter to the Clergy of various Denominations, and to the

Slave-holding Planters in the Southern parts of the United States of

America, by Thomas Clarkson." This remarkable production was written

after its venerable author had attained his eightieth year, and has been

pronounced by a very competent judge the most vigorous production of his

pen. As its circulation had but just commenced when I left the United

States, I could not judge of the effect produced by this energetic

appeal from one whose name must command respect, even from the

slave-holders; but I have since been informed it has been read with

interest and attention.

I had several conferences with "Friends" who were interested in the

cause, to discuss the best mode of engaging the members of the Society

to unite their efforts on behalf of the oppressed and suffering slaves;

and though no immediate steps were resolved on, yet I found so much good

feeling in many of them, that I cannot but entertain a hope, that fruit

will hereafter appear. I had spent much of my time and labor in

Philadelphia, particularly among that numerous and influential body with

whom I am united in a common bond of religious belief, and I trust of

Christian affection. Of the kindness and hospitality I experienced I

shall ever retain a grateful recollection; yet I finally took my leave

of this city, under feelings of sorrow and depression that so many of

the very class of Christian professors who once took the lead in efforts

for the abolition of slavery, efforts evidently attended with the favor

and sanction of the Most High, should now be discouraging, and holding

back their members from taking part in so righteous a cause. Among the

warmest friends of the slave, sound both in feeling and sentiment, are a

few venerable individuals who are now standing on the brink of the

grave, and whose places, among the present generation, I could not

conceal from myself, there were but few fully prepared to occupy. I had

found in many Friends much passive anti-slavery feeling, and was to some

extent cheered by the discovery. May a due sense of their responsibility

rest upon every follower of Christ, to remember them that are in bonds,

and under affliction, not only with a passive, but with an active and

self-denying sympathy, a sympathy that makes common cause with its

object.

Apart from the fact, that Philadelphia is one of the most beautiful

cities in the world, to a member of the Society of Friends it must ever

be an object of peculiar interest. Here William Penn made his great

experiment of a Christian government. Here, to the annual assemblies of

Friends, came Warner Mifflin, and John Woolman, and James Pemberton, and

George Dillwyn, and other worthies of the past, who have now gone from

works to rewards. A few miles distant, in Frankford, is still to be seen

the residence of the excellent Thomas Chalkley. Here Benezet

exemplified, in the simplicity, humility, and untiring benevolence of

his daily life, the lessons inculcated in his writings. And here, at

this day, are a larger number of members of our religious society than

can be found congregated elsewhere, within an equal space of territory.

They are, in general, in easy circumstances, many of them wealthy, and

occupying a high rank in the community.

Who can recur, without a lively feeling of interest, to the hopes and

prayers of the benevolent founder of the city, as expressed in affecting

terms in his farewell letter, written as he was about taking his final

departure for England.

"And thou, Philadelphia, the virgin settlement of this province,

named before thou wert born, what love, what care, what service,

and what travail has there been to bring thee forth, and

preserve thee from such as would defile thee! Oh, that thou

mayest be kept from the evil that would overwhelm thee! that

faithful to the God of Mercies, in a life of righteousness, thou

mayest be preserved to the end!"

On the 11th, with John G. Whittier, I left for New York, and the next

day we proceeded by steam packet to Newport, on Rhode Island, to attend

the New England yearly meeting of the Society of Friends, which was to

be held the next week. We arrived about seven o'clock in the morning. I

found the change of climate particularly refreshing and agreeable.

During the last fortnight, the range of the thermometer had frequently

reached 94 degrees or 96 degrees in the shade: a tropical heat, without

those alleviations which render the heat of the tropics not only

tolerable, but sometimes delightful. In Rhode Island, the climate, while

we were there, was almost as temperate as an English summer.

Some parts of the New England States are much resorted to by southern

families of wealth; and their annual migrations have the effect of

materially adding to the vast amount of complicated pro-slavery

interests which exist in the free States, as well as of diffusing

pro-slavery opinions and feelings throughout the entire community. We

may hope this current will soon set in the opposite direction. The

season was too early for the arrival of these visitors, and the hotels

were generally filled with "Friends," collected from near and distant

places, to attend the yearly meeting. There were upwards of a hundred

boarding at the same house with ourselves. Soon after our arrival I

addressed a letter, making the same application for the use of the

meeting house for my friend, John Candler, who was also here, and

myself, which had been complied with at New York, forwarding at the same

time my credentials. My request, however, in this instance was not

granted. Yet there was plainly a willingness on the part of many to

receive information, and we caused it to be known that we should be at

home at our hotel, on the evening of the sixteenth. About two hundred

friends assembled, and appeared interested in a brief outline of the

state and prospects of the cause in Europe which I endeavored to give

them.

The subject of slavery was brought before the yearly meeting by a

proposition from one of its subordinate, or "quarterly meetings," to

encourage more action, on the part of the society, for its abolition. A

proposal was immediately made, and assented to without discussion, that

the consideration of it should be referred to a committee. On the

reading of the address on slavery from the London yearly meeting, it

was, in like manner, immediately proposed and agreed to, that it should

be referred to the same committee. At a subsequent sitting, this

committee reported, that they should recommend the whole subject to be

left under the care of their "Meeting for Sufferings," which was

adopted. With the exception of reading the documents, and going through

the necessary forms of business, these proceedings passed almost in

silence; yet, in the several epistles drawn up to be forwarded to the

other yearly meetings, allusion was made to the deep exercise of Friends

at this meeting, on the subject of slavery, and their strong desire and

wish to encourage others to embrace every right opening for promoting

its abolition; with a plain intimation, however, in their epistle to

Great Britain, of their disapproval of Friends uniting with any of the

anti-slavery associations of the day. These passages in the epistles

passed without remark or objection. The Meeting for Sufferings, of Rhode

Island, has thus virtually undertaken to do, or at least to originate,

all that is to be done, during the present year, by Friends of New

England, to help the helpless, and to relieve the oppressed slaves.

Sincerely do I desire, that it may not incur the responsibility of

neglecting so solemn a charge. I subsequently met, on board the steamer

in which we left Newport, many members of this body; with one of whom I

had some conversation, in the presence of other Friends, to whom I felt

it right to state, that the declarations of sympathy for the slaves, in

the epistles which had been sent out, were stronger, in my judgment,

than was justified by any thing which had been expressed, or had been

manifested, in the Yearly Meeting. This conviction I yet retain. I

afterwards obtained some authentic extracts from the laws of Rhode

Island, affecting the people of color, and under which slavery is very

distinctly recognized and sanctioned, even in this _free_ State. I felt

it my duty to forward a copy of these to the "Meeting for Sufferings,"

accompanied by the following letter:--

"_To the Meeting for Sufferings of New England_

_Yearly Meeting of Friends._

"On passing through Providence, from the Yearly Meeting at Rhode

Island, a solicitor of that place kindly furnished me with the

annexed extracts from the laws of the State of Rhode Island. I

thought it best to send a copy to you, as it is probable some

members of your meeting may not be aware of their precise

nature; and it is a source of regret to me, and I know it will

be so to my friends in England, to know that in the State in

which your Yearly Meeting is held, slavery is fully legalized,

if the slaves are the property of persons not actually citizens

of that place;--the most odious distinctions of color also

remain on the statute book, including one (Section 10, No. 2,)

which is a disgrace to any civilized community. I may add, that

two very respectable solicitors in Providence expressed their

decided opinion, that if Friends heartily promoted the repeal of

these obnoxious laws, which throw all the moral influence of the

State on the side of slavery, it might easily be accomplished. I

cannot but hope the subject will receive your prompt attention.

"Truly your friend,

"JOSEPH STURGE."

To soften the impression which I fear the preceding detail will give, I

may remark, that I am convinced, from extensive private communication

with Friends in New England, that there is yet among them much genuine

anti-slavery feeling, especially where the deadening commercial

intercourse with the South does not operate; and though, at present,

with some bright individual exceptions, this is a talent for the most

part hidden or unemployed, I trust that many faithful laborers in this

great cause will yet be found among them.

During our stay in Rhode Island, we twice visited Dr. Channing, at his

summer residence, a few miles from Newport. The delicacy which ought

ever to protect unreserved social intercourse, forbids me to enrich my

narrative with any detail of his enlightened and comprehensive

sentiments; yet I cannot but add, that, widely differing from him as I

do, on many important points, I was both deeply interested and

instructed by his modest candor and sincerity, and by the spirit of

charity with which he appeared habitually to regard those of opposite

opinions. Our conversation embraced various topics. I may be allowed to

mention, that he highly approved of Judge Jay's suggestion for the

promotion of permanent international peace. He also made a practical

suggestion on the anti-slavery movement, which I trust will be acted

on--That petitions should be sent to Congress, praying that the free

States should be relieved from all direct or indirect support of

slavery. As the South has loudly complained of Northern interference,

this will be taking the planters on their own ground.

Sixth Month, (June) 19th.--We went on to New Bedford, where, the next

day, we called on a number of persons friendly to abolition, and met a

large party of them the same evening, at the house of a Friend. A public

meeting for worship was appointed during our stay, at the request of a

minister of the Society of Friends from Indiana, which we attended. I

had the pleasure of witnessing the colored part of the audience, placed

on a level, and sitting promiscuously with the white, the only

opportunity I had of making such an observation in the United States;

as, on ordinary occasions, the colored people rarely attend Friends'

meetings. One of the waiters at our hotel told me he had escaped from

slavery some years before. The idea of running away had been first

suggested to his mind, by reflecting on his hard lot, being over-worked,

and kept without a sufficiency of food, and cruelly beaten, while his

owner was living in luxury and idleness, on the fruits of his labor. He

had been flogged for merely speaking to one of his master's visitors, in

reply to a question, because it was suspected he had divulged matter

that his master did not wish the stranger to know.

On the 21st, we arrived at Boston, and stopped at the Marlborough hotel.

One of the first things noticed by a visitor to the States is the number

and extent of the hotels, almost all of which are on the principle of

the English boarding houses. Besides the number of casual visitors in a

population which travels from place to place, perhaps more than any

other in the world, the hotels are the permanent homes of a numerous and

important class of unmarried men, engaged in business, and often indeed

of young married persons, who choose to avoid expense and the cares of

housekeeping. At many, if not most of the hotels, cleanliness,

regularity, and order, pervade all the arrangements, and as much comfort

is to be found as is compatible with throng and publicity. Still the

domestic charm of private life is wanting, and its absence renders the

system of constant residence most uncongenial to English habits and

feelings. An unsocial reserve lies on the surface of English character,

and the love of privacy, or at least of a retirement which can be closed

and expanded at will, is an extensive and deep-seated feeling. Yet the

Anglo-American, even of the purest descent, has early lost the latter

characteristic, while he often retains the first unimpaired. What law

governs the hereditary transmission of such traits? Several first rate

hotels in New England are strictly on the temperance plan, and among

them is the Marlborough, in Boston, the second in extent of business in

this important city, and which makes up from one hundred to two hundred

beds. No intoxicating liquor of any kind can be had in the house.

Printed notices are also hung up in the bed rooms, that it is the

established rule to take in no fresh company and to receive no accounts

on the first day of the week, and the cooking and other preparations are

as much as possible performed before hand, that the servants may enjoy

the day of rest, and partake of the moral and Spiritual benefit of a

weekly pause from the whirl and turmoil of secular engagements.

I had scarcely ventured to hope that I should ever witness a large hotel

like this, conducted on such principles; but having now seen it, it adds

additional strength to my conviction, that in proportion as Christianity

is carried out in common life, in the same proportion is the lost

happiness of man recovered. Too many in the present day, who are not

behind-hand in profession, keep their principles more for show than use.

They acknowledge the purity of them, and have some faint perception of

their moral beauty, but secretly believe, and sometimes, openly avow

them to be impracticable in the present state of the world. They who

exhibit proof of the contrary, are benefactors to their fellow men; and

among these, justly deserves to be classed Nathaniel Rogers, the

proprietor of the Marlborough Hotel, in Boston.

We called upon several of our anti-slavery friends on the day of our

arrival, and in the evening, took tea with a number of those who approve

of the proceedings of the London Convention, and who concur in the

principles of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. The subjects

discussed were the time and place of a future convention of the friends

of the slave of different nations. London was unanimously approved as

the place, and the preponderance of sentiment was in favor of 1842 as

the time.

On the 22d we went on to Lynn. Here are a very considerable number of

the Society of Friends, who are desirous of taking part in active

anti-slavery exertion, when they can do so without compromise of

principle. It is greatly to be regretted that in this vicinity, a few

individuals, formerly members of our religious society, have embraced,

in connection with their abolition views, the doctrines of

non-resistance, or non-government, in church and state, and thus greatly

added to the difficulties in the way of efficient action on the part of

consistent members; but whatever may be the errors and indiscretions of

these individuals, they furnish no valid excuse for the apathy and

inaction on the part of "Friends," nor lessen, in the slightest degree,

their responsibility for the firm and faithful maintenance of our

Christian testimony against oppression. We proceeded, the same evening,

to Amesbury, where the family of my friend and companion John G.

Whittier reside, in whose hospitable and tranquil retreat we remained

till the 25th. Here I found myself in a manufacturing district, and paid

a visit to a large woollen mill, and was much pleased with the

cleanliness and order displayed, and with the evident comfort and

prosperity of the working people, who are chiefly young women, none of

whom are admitted under sixteen years of age. Any person given to

intoxication would be instantly discharged. All the manufactories in

this place are joint-stock companies, and the mills are worked by water

power, of which there is an abundant supply.

I had agreed, on my return to Boston, to meet my abolition friends at a

tea party, and found an entertainment provided from the Marlborough

Hotel, in a large room adjoining one of the chapels, on a scale of great

profusion, a little to my disappointment, as I had anticipated one of a

social rather than of a public character, though I could not but feel

the kindness which it was intended to manifest. Charles Stewart Renshaw,

from Jamaica, was opportunely present, and his information on the state

of that Island added much interest to the evening, the proceedings of

which, I hope, gave pretty general satisfaction. In condescension to my

wish, my valued friend, Nathaniel Colver, suggested to the company to

dispense with the usual form of public prayer, and substitute an

interval of silence, after the reading of a portion of scripture, which

was kindly complied with.

Before leaving Boston, I had a long interview with William Lloyd

Garrison. His view of "women's rights" is so far a matter of conscience

with him, as to be made an indispensable term of union; yet though

widely differing on this, and other important points, we parted, I

trust, as we met, on personally friendly terms; and certainly on my part

with a desire to promote a spirit of forbearance, and with a deeper and

stronger conviction that the friends of the bleeding and oppressed

slave, should not spend their strength in unprofitable contention upon

points in regard to which both parties claim to act conscientiously,

while the common cause requires their undivided energies.

On the 28th I left Boston for the beautiful town of Worcester, about

forty miles distant, on the principal line of railway to New York, where

I had the pleasure of visiting, at his own residence, my friend, Cyrus

P. Grosvenor, one of the delegates to the Anti-Slavery Convention last

year. There are here a considerable number of sincere abolitionists, of

whom we met a small company in the evening, in a room used as the

Friends' meeting house. I gave them a brief account of the state of the

anti-slavery cause in other parts of the world. In company with John M.

Earle, editor of one of the Worcester papers, with whom I had formed a

previous acquaintance at the Yearly Meeting, I also called on the

Governor of the State of Massachusetts, who resides in this place. We

had some friendly conversation, but he seemed cautious on the subject of

abolition. The temperance cause in Worcester has made so much progress

that at the three largest and best hotels, which make up nearly one

hundred beds each, no intoxicating liquor of any kind is sold. A people

thus willing to carry out their convictions, to the sacrifice of

prejudice, appetite, and apparent self-interest, cannot long remain a

nation of slave-holders. In common with the rest of New England, this

town is remarkable for the number, size, and beauty of its places of

worship. I calculated, with the aid of a well-informed inhabitant, that

if the entire population were to go to a place of worship, at the same

hour, in the same day, there would be ample accommodation, and room to

spare. Yet here there is no compulsory tax to build churches, and

maintain ministers. By the efficacy of the voluntary principle alone is

this state of things produced.

My dear friend, John G. Whittier returned home from Worcester on account

of increased indisposition, while I proceeded alone to New York. The

journey from Boston to the latter city is a remarkably pleasant one.

Leaving Boston at four in the afternoon, we proceed on one of the best

railways in the States, at the rate of upwards of twenty miles an hour,

through a very beautiful and generally well cultivated country, to the

city of Norwich, in the State of Connecticut, where the train arrives

about eight in the evening, and the passengers immediately embark on a

handsome steamer, for New York, enjoying, as long as daylight lasts, the

fine scenery on the banks of the Thames. The night I went was moonlight;

and, after long enjoying the coolness of the evening on deck, the

company retired to their berths, and arrived at New York at the

seasonable hour of six the following morning.

I remained in New York until the 7th of the Seventh Month (July). My

friends, William Shotwell and wife, had left the city during the hot

months, but very kindly placed their town house at my service, and I

found the retirement thus at my command both refreshing and very

serviceable, in enabling me to bring up arrears of writing. During this

interval, I spent one very pleasant day with Theodore and Angelina

Grimke Weld, and their sister, Sarah Grimke, who reside on a small farm,

a few miles from Newark. To the great majority of my readers these names

need no introduction; yet, for the benefit of the few, I will briefly

allude to their past history. When the American Anti-Slavery Society was

formed, in 1833, Theodore D. Weld was at the Lane Seminary, near

Cincinnati, Ohio. He was unable to attend on that occasion, but wrote a

letter, declaring his entire sympathy with its object. Soon after,

through the influence and exertions of himself and Henry B. Stanton, a

large majority of the students at Lane Seminary, comprising several

slave-holders and sons of slave-holders, became members of an

Anti-Slavery Society. The Faculty opposed the formation of this society,

and finally expelled its members from the seminary. For two or three

years after, Theodore Weld was engaged in anti-slavery effort,

principally in the States of Ohio and New York. His voice failed at

last, and for several years he was unable to address a public assembly.

Angelina Grimke Weld, and her sister, Sarah Grimke, were natives of

South Carolina, the daughters of a distinguished Judge of that State;

for several years they resided in Philadelphia. Having long felt a deep

interest in the condition of the slaves, in the year 1837 they, in

accordance with what they believed to be a sense of religious duty,

visited New York and New England, to plead the cause of those, with

whose sorrows, degradation, and cruel sufferings, they had been familiar

in their native State. They are evidently women of superior endowments,

kind-hearted and energetic, and still retain something of the warmth and

fervor of character peculiar to the South.

Few, even of the well informed abolitionists of England, have an

adequate idea of the extent, variety, and excellence of the anti-slavery

literature of the United States, or of the amount of intellectual power

which has been willingly consecrated to this service. Of the cause

itself, with all its exigencies, we may adopt, in a yet more limited

sense, the sentiment of the Christian poet, on the transient nature of

all sublunary things,

"These, therefore, are occasional, and pass."

The time approaches when the shackles of the slave will fall off--when

his suffering and despairing cry will be no more heard. Slavery itself

is a temporary exigency; but its removal has called, and will yet call

forth, works bearing the impress of intellectual supremacy, which will

be embodied in the permanent literature of the age, and will contribute

to raise the character, and to extend the reputation, of that

literature. The names of Channing, Jay, Child, Green, and Pierpont, are

already their own passport to fame. Other names might be mentioned; but,

one instance excepted, selection might be invidious. That exception is

Theodore D. Weld, whose palm of superiority few would be disposed to

contest. His principal works are, "The Bible against Slavery;" "Power of

Congress over Slavery in the District of Columbia;" and "Slavery as it

is."

All his writings are marked by varied excellence; yet their chief

characteristic is an irresistible and overwhelming power of argument.

Although brief and compressed in style, he exhausts his subject; and his

two principal works, though on warmly controverted topics, have never

been replied to. He would be a bold antagonist who should enter the

lists against him: he would be a yet bolder ally who should attempt to

go over the same ground, or to do better what has been done so well.

One of the most voluminous and popular writers that ever lived, observed

to a friend, "that he was more proud of his compositions for manure,

than of any other compositions with which he had any concern." My

friend, has the same love of rural occupations, and has found severe

manual labor essential for the recovery of health, broken by labor of

another kind. I found him at work on his farm, driving his own wagon and

oxen, with a load of rails. When he had disposed of his freight, we

mounted the wagon, and drove to his home. Two or three of his

fellow-students at the Lane Seminary arrived about the same time, and we

spent the day in agreeable, and, I trust, profitable intercourse. In the

household arrangements of this distinguished family, Dr. Graham's

dietetic system is rigidly adopted, which excludes meat, butter, coffee,

tea, and all intoxicating beverages. I can assure all who may be

interested to know, that this Roman simplicity of living does not forbid

enjoyment, when the guest can share with it the affluence of such minds

as daily meet at their table. The "Graham system," as it is called,

numbers many adherents in America, who are decided in its praise.

My friends, Theodore D. and Angelina Weld, and Sarah Grimke, sympathize,

to a considerable extent, with the views on "women's rights," held by

one section of abolitionists; yet they deeply regret that this, or any

other extraneous doctrine, should have been made an apple of discord;

and, since the rise of these unhappy divisions, they have held aloof

from both the anti-slavery organizations, though, as among the most able

and successful laborers in the field, they may justly be accounted

allies by each party. Difference of opinion on these points did not, for

a moment, interrupt the pleasure of our intercourse; and I could not but

wish, that those, of whatever party, who are accustomed to judge harshly

of all who cannot pronounce their "shibboleth," might be instructed by

the candid, charitable, and peace-loving deportment of Theodore D. Weld.

During my visit to New York, I became acquainted with many who were

deeply interested in the abolition cause, not a few of whom were members

of my own religious society. Among these, I may particularly mention my

venerable friends, Richard Mott and Samuel Parsons. I paid a second

visit to the residence of the latter at Flushing, but regret to say, I

found him too unwell to enjoy company.[A] His sons are anxiously

desirous of furthering the abolition cause on every suitable occasion.

One evening I spent with a respectable minister, who is a man of color,

and who assured me that most of the intelligent persons of his class in

New York approve of the course pursued by the late Convention in London,

and the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. I saw

at his house a man who had purchased his freedom for twelve hundred

dollars, intending to remain in the same State, but, as in a precisely

similar case already noticed, he afterwards found he had no alternative

but to emigrate, leaving his still enslaved family behind him, or to be

again sold into slavery himself, under the laws enacted to drive out

free people of color. He was trying to raise the large sum of fourteen

hundred dollars, to purchase his wife and four children.

[Footnote A: This illness terminated fatally. One of his intimate

friends in this country, has favored me with the following communication

respecting him. "Samuel Parsons had been from early life, a warm friend

to the African race; his love of peace rendered him at the first

accessible to prejudice against the American Anti-Slavery Society,

through the misrepresentations respecting its violent and rash measures;

which misrepresentations it was much more easy to believe than to

investigate. Yet his interest for the negro and colored population of

the United States continued, and he extended acts of protection and

kindness towards them, whenever opportunity for it was afforded. In the

Eleventh Month, last year, I find the following paragraph in one of his

letters to us, viz. 'Though sensible that I am drawing towards the close

of time, I cannot avoid taking a deep interest in the moral reformation,

relative to slavery and intemperance, which is progressing in the earth;

my son Robert and I look at these publications as they appear, with deep

solicitude. The proceedings of the Anti-Slavery Convention of the world,

and its movements, are of great moment to the whole civilized world. The

anti-slavery cause, has not, I fear, advanced much the last year; the

separation in the National Society, and the truckling to the South of

the politicians of both sides, during the late Presidential election,

has for a time marred the work; but the anti-slavery banner of a third

party is still displayed, and it will probably continue to nominate till

it seriously influences the elections. In the mean time, the individual

States, one after another, are freeing the colored people from part of

their civil disabilities. A hard battle is to be fought, but mighty is

truth, and must prevail.'"]

"The fourth of July," the anniversary of the independence of the United

States, fell this year on the first day of the week, and was therefore

celebrated the day following. It is still marked by extravagant

demonstrations of joy, and often disgraced by scenes of intemperance and

demoralization. The better part of the community wisely counteract the

evil, to a great extent, by holding, on the same day, temperance

meetings, school examinations, opening their places of worship, et cet.

I accompanied my friend Lewis Tappan to attend an anti-slavery meeting

at Newark, in which Theodore Weld was expected to take a part for the

first time after an interval of five years' discontinuance of public

speaking. Several years before, he had been carried away by the stream

in crossing a river, and had very narrowly escaped drowning. This

accident caused an affection of the throat, and eventually disqualified

him for public labor except with the pen, to which, though deemed a

great loss at the time by his fellow-laborers in the anti-slavery cause,

we probably owe the invaluable works before referred to. It was on the

same anniversary, five years ago, that he had spoken last, a

circumstance to which he made a touching allusion: he spoke very

impressively for more than half an hour without serious inconvenience,

and I hope it may please Providence to restore his ability to plead, as

he was wont to do with great power, for the cause of the oppressed.

In the afternoon there was a public examination of the scholars

belonging to the place of worship in which the preceding meeting was

held, and in connection with this a little incident occurred, which may

serve to illustrate the state of public feeling. Newark, from its

extensive trade with the south, is much under pro-slavery influence. But

the congregation of this chapel are generally anti-slavery, and have

several colored children in their school. One of these, a little black

girl, was qualified to take part in the public examination; but this, in

the estimation of some of the parents of white scholars, and several

even of the trustees, could not be borne. Others, on the contrary,

resolved to battle with the prejudice of caste, and to call for her, if

she were not brought forward; and, finally, I suppose, by way of

compromise, she was brought on the platform to recite alone, after the

little scholars who could rejoice in the aristocratic complexion had

performed their parts, without suffering the indignity of a public

association with a colored child. Even this was, however, considered a

victory by the anti-prejudice party.

I left on the seventh for Niagara, being desirous to see the celebrated

Falls, and to visit some friends living in the western part of this

State, as well as to find relief from the oppressive and tropical heat.

I hoped also to fall in with my friends and fellow laborers, J. and M.

Candler, who had gone with a party in the same direction. I need not

describe a route so often traversed by Europeans. One of its agreeable

incidents was an accidental meeting with John Curtis, of Ohio, on his

way, on a free trade mission, to Great Britain, from motives which I

believe to be disinterested and philanthropic. His labors, which are

principally intended to show the evils of our taxes upon food, will not

be in vain; though he will find many in England, as I found in America,

who have no ear for truth when it opposes their prejudices or imaginary

self-interest. He gave me a most cheering account of the march of

abolition in Ohio, and said he had lately attended a meeting held at the

invitation of the abolitionists, on the 5th of July, at which there were

three thousand persons, who had come to the place of meeting in nine

hundred vehicles of different kinds. He said he had never witnessed a

more enthusiastic meeting. Another gentleman and his wife made

themselves known to me, in the railway carriage, as warm abolitionists,

and spoke favorably of the prospects of the cause in this part of the

State of New York. The gentleman said he had lately had a discussion

with a deacon of a church he attended, who defended the admission of

slave-holders to the communion. On being asked, however, whether he

would admit sheep-stealers, he acknowledged this was not so great a

crime as man-stealing, and pleaded no further in favor of

church-fellowship with slave-holders.

The journey from New York to the Falls of Niagara, a distance of 480

miles, is performed in about forty-eight hours, and when the railway

communication is further completed, and the speed raised to the standard

of the best English lines, it will probably be accomplished in less than

thirty hours. The railway passed for many miles through the original

forest, in which I observed very lofty trees, but none of an

extraordinary girth. In many places the ground was crowded with fallen

trees, in every stage of decay. I found my friends at the Eagle Hotel,

at Niagara, where I remained till the twelfth, enjoying with them the

views and scenery of "the Falls," a spectacle of nature in her grandest

aspect, which mocks the limited capacity of man to conceive or to

describe.

On the eleventh, being the first day of the week, we held a meeting for

worship, at our hotel, and were joined by an Irish lady and her three

daughters, who had been living here some months. This lady told me she

was present when M'Leod was arrested in this hotel. From all I have been

able to learn, there are a number of reckless men on both sides the

border line, who are anxious to foment war for the sake of plunder; but

the great bulk of the American people, I am persuaded, are for peace,

and especially for peace with England, a feeling which time is

strengthening.

On the twelfth, our whole party left for Buffalo, by railway, getting a

transient view of Lake Ontario before entering the city. Here we parted

company, they proceeding to Toronto, by steam packet, and I to Syracuse

by coach. The American vehicle of this name, carries nine inside

passengers on three cross seats. It is hung on leather springs, so as to

be fitted to maintain the shocks of a _corduroy_ road. Wishing to see

the country, I mounted the box, by the side of the coachman, but at

times had some difficulty in retaining my seat. The value of land in

this part of the country, when cleared and in cultivation, I understood

to be from thirty to fifty dollars per acre. A large breadth of wheat is

grown, of which the yield is generally good; but this year there will

be, in many cases, a short crop, from the extreme drought in the two

preceding months. I went forward from Syracuse to Rochester by railway,

and thence, with the exception of twelve miles by coach, by the same

conveyance to Auburn, where we arrived at two o'clock in the morning.

One of my fellow-passengers had been a soldier in the so-called

"patriot" army, which enlisted against Santa Anna, in the revolt of

Texas. He stated, that some planters were emigrating from Mississippi,

with as many as two hundred "hands," (slaves,) and plainly said, it was

intended to plant the Anglo-Saxon flag on the walls of Mexico. If half

what he asserted was true, the worst apprehensions of the abolitionists

are too likely to be realized by the Texian revolution, and the

establishment of a new slave-holding power on the vast territory claimed

by that piratical band of robbers, and forming the South-western

frontier of the United States.

At Auburn I paid a visit to the celebrated State Prison, and though,

from want of time to call upon a gentleman in the city for whom I had a

letter, I was unprovided with an introduction, I was politely admitted

by the superintendent, who refused to receive the fee customarily paid

by visitors, when he found, from the entry of my name and address, I was

an Englishman. I passed through the different workshops, in which nearly

all handicraft trades are carried on, and very superior work is

frequently executed by the prisoners. Besides other less complicated

machines, one complete locomotive engine has been constructed within

these walls. As the system of discipline adopted here is the same as at

Sing Sing, also in this State, I defer for the present, any remarks upon

its character and success.

I left Auburn, in a hired carriage, for Skaneateles, to pay a visit to

my friend, James Cannings Fuller. He has a rich farm of 156 acres, with

a good house upon it, about a quarter of a mile west of the large and

flourishing village of Skaneateles, which overlooks a beautiful lake of

the same name, sixteen miles in length, and in some places two miles

wide. James C. Fuller left England about seven years ago, and has

carried his abolition principles with him to his adopted country. He

told me that there had been a great change for the better in the public

mind since his residence in this neighborhood. Abolitionism was once so

unpopular, that he has been mobbed four times in his own otherwise quiet

village. On one occasion he was engaged in a public discussion on

slavery, and a mob so much disturbed the meeting, by the throwing of

shot, and yells the most discordant the human voice could make, that his

opponent moved an adjournment, and afterwards accompanied him on his way

to his own house, with many other persons, as a body-guard. They were

followed by a large number of other persons, who attempted to throw him

down, and were very free in the use of missiles and mud; the mob were so

vociferous, that their shoutings were heard two and a half miles

distant, many persons leaving their houses to endeavor to ascertain the

cause of such an uproar. On James C. Fuller's entering his house, the

mob surrounded his parlor windows, and these would, most probably, have

been smashed in pieces, and the building defaced, had not one of the

assailants been seized with a fit, and in that state conveyed into James

C. Fuller's parlor, where he lay insensible for three quarters of an

hour. This sudden seizure diverted the attention of the mob from my

friend and his property to their own companion.

James C. Fuller informed me that mobs in America are generally, if not

always, instigated by "persons of property and standing;" and the most

blameable, in his case, were not those who yelled, et cet., et cet., but

others who prompted the outrage. Happily this state of things is now

altered: as much order and decorum, with fixed attention, is now

witnessed at an abolition lecture as at any other lecture; and a colored

man can now collect a larger meeting in Skaneateles than a white man,

and the behavior of the audience is attentive, kind, and respectful. My

friend, John Candler, who was here a fortnight before me, collected a

large assembly to hear his account of the effects of emancipation in our

West India Islands, and many expressed themselves much gratified with

his narrative.

Being anxious to proceed to Peterboro', to visit Gerrit Smith, I

accepted James C. Fuller's kind offer to take me in his carriage. The

distance is nearly fifty miles, and the roads were, in some parts, very

rough; but they intersect a fine country. Much wheat is grown in many

places, and here the crop appeared generally good.

Having started rather late in the afternoon, we were benighted before we

reached Manlius Square, where we lodged. Though my kind friend would not

permit me to pay my share of the bill, yet, to gratify my curiosity, he

communicated the particulars of the charge, as follows: Half a bushel of

oats for the horses, 25 cents; supper for two persons, 25 cents; two

beds, 25 cents; hay and stable-room for the two horses, 25 cents; total,

one dollar, or about 4s. 2d. sterling.