We arrived at Peterboro' early the following morning, where I remained

till the sixteenth, at the house of Gerrit Smith. He was once a zealous

supporter of the Colonization Society, but when convinced of the evil

character and tendency of that scheme, he withdrew from it, and became a

warm and able advocate of the immediate abolition of slavery. He is one

of the few Americans who have inherited large property from their

parents, and he has contributed to this cause with princely munificence.

Gerrit Smith and Arthur Tappan have, each on one or more occasions given

single donations of ten thousand dollars (upwards of two thousand pounds

sterling) to promote anti-slavery objects. His wife, Ann Carroll Smith,

who is a native of Maryland, and his daughter, an only child, share in

my valued friend's ardent sympathy for the sufferings of the slave.

During my stay, he received a letter from Samuel Worthington, of

Mississippi, who held in slavery Harriet Russell. Harriet was formerly

the slave of Ann Carroll Smith, having been given to her when they were

both children. Ann C. Smith was but twelve years old when, with her

father's family, she removed from Maryland to New York. Harriet was left

in Maryland. Shortly after Ann C. Smith's marriage, and when she was

about eighteen years of age, her brother, James Fitzhugh, of Maryland,

wrote to ask her to give Harriet to him, stating that she was, or was

about to be, married to his slave, Samuel Russell. She consented: and

her brother soon after emigrated to Kentucky, taking Samuel and Harriet

with him. After this Samuel and Harriet were repeatedly sold.

Some years ago, Gerrit and Ann C. Smith having become deeply impressed

with the great sin of slavery, were anxious to learn what had become of

Harriet. But they did not succeed in ascertaining her residence, until

the letter received during my visit informed them of it, and which also

stated that Harriet and her husband were living, and that they had

several children. The price put upon the family was four thousand

dollars.

James C. Fuller having kindly offered to go into Kentucky, where Samuel

Worthington then resided, to negotiate with him for the purchase of the

family, G. Smith gladly accepted the offer of one so well qualified for

this undertaking. James C. Fuller succeeded in purchasing the family for

three thousand five hundred dollars, exclusive of his travelling

expenses, and those of the slave family, which amounted to about two

hundred and eighty dollars. He has published a very interesting account

of his journey, in a letter addressed to myself, from which some

extracts are given in the Appendix.[A] Eighteen months ago, G. and A.C.

Smith united with other children of her father, the late Col. Fitzhugh,

in purchasing, at the cost of four thousand dollars, the liberty of ten

slaves, who, or their parents, were among the slaves of Colonel Fitzhugh

when he left Maryland. I have recently learned that they are negotiating

the purchase of the liberty of other slaves, who formerly belonged to

Colonel Fitzhugh. It is nearly seven years since Gerrit Smith and his

family adopted the practice of total abstinence from all slave produce,

thus additionally manifesting the sincerity of those convictions which

have induced him to contribute so largely of his wealth both to the

anti-slavery funds, and for the liberation of all slaves with which his

family property had the most remote connection.

[Footnote A: See Appendix I.]

Here, I had some expectation of again meeting my friend, James G.

Birney, who was gone on a journey to Ohio, and is well known to English

abolitionists, by his able assistance at the great Anti-Slavery

Convention, as one of its vice-presidents, and by his subsequent labors,

which are thus acknowledged, on his return to America, by the Committee

of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society:--

"That this committee are deeply sensible of the services

rendered to the anti-slavery cause by their esteemed friend and

coadjutor, James Gillespie Birney, Esq., whilst in this country,

in a course of laborious efforts, in which his accurate and

extensive information, his wise and judicious counsels, and his

power of calm and convincing statement, have become eminently

conspicuous.

"The committee also take the present occasion to record their

sense of his zealous and disinterested labors in defence of the

rights of outraged humanity in his own country, during a period

of great excitement and opposition: and of the proof he has

given of his sincerity, in having twice manumitted the slaves

that had come into his possession; a noble example, which they

trust others will not be slow to follow."

Whilst J.G. Birney was in this country, in addition to his arduous

labors, in addressing large assemblies in many of the cities of the

United Kingdom, he prepared and published his excellent work, "The

American Churches the Bulwark of American Slavery," which is eminently

deserving of the attentive perusal of all Christian readers. The

estimation in which James G. Birney is held by American abolitionists,

is marked by his having been twice unanimously selected by the "Liberty

Party," as a candidate for the Presidential chair.

I found G. Smith as much interested in the subject of temperance, as in

that of slavery. No person in the whole of the township in which he

lives is licensed to sell drams. For an innkeeper to sell a glass of

spirits, or even of strong beer, is illegal, and exposes him to a heavy

fine.

The next morning I left early for Utica, where I had the pleasure of

again meeting the friends I had parted from at Buffalo, with whom I paid

a visit to the Oneida Institute, about two miles from Utica. This

college was the first in the United States to throw open its doors to

students, irrespective of color. It was also one of the earliest

institutions to combine manual labor with instruction. The principle is

adopted partly from a motive of economy, but principally because

intellectual vigor is believed to depend on bodily health, and that

these can be best secured and preserved by exercise and labor,

especially out of door and agricultural employments. The labor of the

students defrays a considerable part of the expense of their support,

but as the severe pressure of the times has limited the means of many

liberal benefactors of Oneida, the establishment, which usually

comprises one hundred young men, is now limited to about one-third of

the number. Several of these are colored. The Oberlin Institute in Ohio

is on a much larger scale than this, and is on an equally liberal

footing with regard to color. I much regretted being unable, from want

of time, to comply with the urgent request of my friend, Wm. Dawes and

others, to visit this important and interesting establishment. The

number of students at Oberlin last year was five hundred and sixty,

including those in the department for females.

I was much pleased to have the opportunity of becoming further

acquainted with the President of Oneida, Beriah Green, and with his

friend, Wm. Goodell, who resides in the neighborhood. Their names will

be reverenced by the abolitionists of America as long as the memory of

anti-slavery efforts shall survive. Before we left, we had an

opportunity of meeting the students together, who appeared much

interested with my friend John Candler's details of the results of

emancipation in Jamaica. I was disappointed in not finding at home Alvan

Stewart, one of the ablest and most zealous friends of the Anti-Slavery

cause; but Beriah Green kindly accompanied me to call upon several of

their abolition friends in the city.

My limited time prevented my paying a visit to Henry B. Stanton, who was

residing not far from Utica, and whose acquaintance I had the pleasure

of making in England. He also will be remembered for his able assistance

at the Convention, and by his eloquent addresses at public meetings in

this country. The following record of his services is made by the

Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society:--

"That this Committee, in taking leave of their friend and

fellow-laborer in the cause of universal emancipation, Henry

Brewster Stanton, Esq., record their high estimate of the

valuable services rendered by him to that cause, whilst in Great

Britain, by his eloquent and powerful advocacy; and, in

tendering him their thanks, they express their sincere desire

for his success in the great work to which he has devoted

himself."

The name of Henry B. Stanton previously occurs in conjunction with that

of Theodore D. Weld, as having left Lane Seminary with many other

students, rather than be silent on the abolition question: becoming from

that time a strenuous and powerful anti-slavery advocate.

I proceeded in the evening to Albany, and thence to New York the next

morning; where I remained from the 17th to the 26th instant, and, during

this time, I put in circulation the following address:--

"_To the Members of the Religious Society of Friends in the

United States of America_.

"Dear Friends,--Having for many years believed it my duty to

devote a considerable portion of my time and attention to the

promotion of the abolition of slavery and the slave-trade, I

have acted in cordial co-operation with the British and Foreign

Anti-Slavery Society since its formation. The principles of that

Society may be briefly explained by the following extract from

its constitution: 'That so long as slavery exists, there is no

reasonable prospect of the annihilation of the slave-trade, and

of extinguishing the sale and barter of human beings: that the

extinction of slavery and the slave-trade will be attained most

effectually by the employment of those means which are of a

moral, religious, and pacific character: and that no measures be

resorted to by this society in the prosecution of their objects,

but such as are in entire accordance with these principles.'

"My visit to this country had reference, in a great measure, to

the objects for which this society was established; but,

although I left my native land with the general approbation and

full unity of my friends, they concurred with me in opinion,

that any _official_ document, beyond a certificate from 'my

monthly meeting,' expressive of sympathy with my engagement,

might rather obstruct than promote the end I had in view. I was

desirous of a personal interchange of sentiment with many of the

abolitionists in this land, upon matters having an important

bearing upon our future exertions. The warm attachment which I

have ever felt to the religious society with which I am

connected, and the ready co-operation of its members with their

Christian neighbors in promoting this cause in Great Britain,

inclined me to embrace every suitable opportunity to communicate

with Friends in this country. And I have been encouraged, not

only by the great personal kindness I have received from them

generally, but also by the lively interest expressed by most, on

the subject of emancipation, wherever I have introduced it.

"A further acquaintance with Friends in the compass of the three

or four 'Yearly Meetings,' in which my lot has been cast, and my

inquiries respecting the state of the other Yearly Meetings, has

convinced me that a large number of their most consistent

members, including many aged and universally respected Friends,

are desirous of embracing every right opening, both individually

and collectively, for the promotion of the abolition cause. And

while they are fully aware that there are reasons growing out of

the existing state of things, which render great circumspection

necessary, they can see no good ground for believing that the

manner in which Friends of this country, of a former generation,

labored for the liberation of the slave, was not under the

guidance of the Spirit of truth.

"This is now the course pursued by Friends generally in England.

That there may be no misapprehension as to the conduct of

Friends, with regard to this subject, in Great Britain, I may

mention, that I am the bearer of a document expressive of unity

with my visit, signed by William Allen, Josiah Forster, William

Forster, George Stacey, Samuel Fox, George W. Alexander, and

Robert Forster, who declare themselves fellow members with

myself of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Committee. This

committee is composed of persons of various religious

denominations, amongst whom it will be seen are many of the

prominent members of our meeting for sufferings. Upon the list

of delegates to the late Anti-Slavery Convention, in London, are

the names of nearly one hundred well known Friends, including

those of four who are, or have been clerks of the yearly

meeting; and the present clerk of that meeting, my esteemed

friend, George Stacey, took an active part, and rendered

essential service in the Convention. The meeting house in

Gracechurch Street was freely granted by Friends in London, who

have charge of it, for the use of the Convention, and the

concluding sittings of that body were held in it.

"In fact, Friends generally in England think it their duty to

render every aid in their power to the anti-slavery cause,

whether in their collective capacity, or individually uniting

with their fellow-citizens, when they can do so without any

compromise of our religious principles and testimonies. I speak

more explicitly on this point, because I have ascertained with

much concern, that there is an influential portion of the

Society, including, I have no doubt, some sincere abolitionists,

who have been so fearful that the testimonies of the Society

might suffer by any union with others, that they have not only

avoided such a co-operation themselves, but have dissuaded those

of their brethren, who have believed it incumbent upon them to

act otherwise; and in one 'Yearly Meeting,' at least, I have too

much reason to fear they have tacitly, if not actively

sanctioned the omission of the names of Friends on meeting

appointments,--however consistent in their conduct, and

concerned for the welfare of the society--simply because they

have felt it their duty to act with persons of other

denominations in promoting the abolition of slavery; thus, in

appearance at least, throwing the whole weight and influence of

the society, in its collective capacity, against a movement,

which, although doubtless partaking of the imperfections

attendant upon all human instrumentality, has already aroused

the whole country to a sense of the wrongs of the slave, and

secured to the nominally free colored citizens, in many of the

States, rights of which they have been so long and so unjustly

deprived.

"Though I can hardly expect that any thing from one entertaining

my view of the subject, can have much weight with those Friends,

who, with a full understanding of the heavy responsibility they

were assuming, have discountenanced anti-slavery exertions, and

the use of our meeting houses, even by consistent members, for

the purpose of giving information on the subject:[A] yet, as it

has occasioned me no small degree of anxiety, both in reference

to the anti-slavery cause, and the Society of Friends itself, I

believe I cannot return to my native land with peace of mind,

without earnestly and affectionately pressing upon such Friends,

the great importance of a careful examination of the ground

which they have taken. Our unwearied adversary is sometimes

permitted to lead us into the most fearful errors, when he

assumes the appearance of an angel of light. And is there not

great danger, in encouraging the young and inexperienced to

suppose that the maintenance of any of our testimonies may be

neglected, except when we feel a Divine intimation to uphold

them, and may it not open the door to great laxity in our

practice? While I fully believe that the true disciple of Christ

will be favored with the immediate guidance of the Holy Spirit

whenever it is needful to direct his steps; it appears to me

especially important, that, in matters of self-sacrifice and

conflicting with our worldly interest or reputation, we should

guard against being deluded into a neglect of duty, by waiting

for this direct Divine intimation, where the path of duty is

obvious and clearly understood, and when testimonies are

concerned, which we have long considered it our duty, on all

occasions, to support. If, under such a view of the subject, we

do believe it our duty to cease to act ourselves, and discourage

our brethren from laboring in the cause of the slave; a close

self-examination surely is needful, in order to ascertain if we

are consistently carrying out the same principle in our daily

walk in life--in our mercantile transactions--our investments of

property--in our connection with public institutions,--and with

political parties.

[Footnote A: "It is right to state, that I was much encouraged

by the lively expression of sympathy in the anti-slavery cause

in the Yearly Meetings of Philadelphia and New York: that at the

former place Friends opened a room at the meeting house for my

friend John Candler to give some information on the subject, and

at New York the large meeting house was not only readily granted

to him and me for the same purpose, but the clerks of the Yearly

Meeting kindly gave notice and invited Friends to attend."]

"It should be borne in perpetual recollection, that we are in no

small danger of shrinking from a faithful maintenance of those

testimonies which are unpopular with the world, as well as of

not seeing our own neglect of duty, while censuring the zeal or

supposed indiscretion of others. Besides, if this good cause be

really endangered by popular excitement, and the indiscretion of

its imprudent advocates, the obligation of consistent Friends to

be found at their posts, faithfully maintaining the testimony of

truth on its behalf, is greatly increased; and it is under such

circumstances that I think I have seen the peculiar advantage

and protection to our young friends in England, of having their

elder brethren with them, aiding them by their sympathy, as well

as by their advice and counsel. I am persuaded that those who

are called to occupy the foremost ranks in society cannot be too

careful not to impose a burden upon tender consciences, by

discouraging, either directly or indirectly, a course of conduct

which is sanctioned by the precepts and examples of our Divine

Master, lest they alienate from us some of His disciples, and

thereby greatly injure the society they are so laudably anxious

to 'keep unspotted from the world.'

"We are told, on the highest authority, that 'by their fruits'

we are to judge of the laborers in the Christian vineyard; and,

while I am fully aware of the greater difficulties in the way of

emancipation _here_, as compared with Great Britain, I have been

almost irresistibly led to contrast the difference in the

results of the course pursued by Friends in the two countries.

In America, during the last twenty-five years, it is evident

that slavery and the slave-trade have greatly increased; and

even where the members of our society are the most numerous and

influential, the prejudice against color is as strong as in any

part of the world,[A] and Friends themselves, in many places,

are by no means free from this prejudice. In Great Britain,

Friends, by society action, and by uniting with their

fellow-countrymen, not only contributed, under Providence, in no

small degree, to the passage of the act of 1834, for the

abolition of slavery in the British West Indies; but, when it

was found that the system of apprenticeship which this act

introduced, was made an instrument of cruel oppression to the

slaves, a renewal of similar labors for about twelve months,

resulted in the _complete_ emancipation of our colored brethren

in those colonies.

[Footnote A: "I should, I believe, do wrong to conceal the

sorrow which I have felt that the scheme of African

colonization, the great support of which, at the present time,

appears to be hostility to anti-slavery efforts and an

unchristian prejudice against color, still has the sympathy and

the active aid of some members of our society."]

"In closing this letter, I wish to address a few words to that

numerous and valuable class of Friends, previously alluded to,

with whom I deeply sympathize, who are only deterred from more

active exertion by their reluctance to give dissatisfaction to

those whom they respect. The sorrow which I feel, under the

consideration that, in parting with many of you, we never

probably shall meet again in mutability, is softened by the

persuasion, that the difficulties by which you are surrounded

are lessening, and that some who are now opposing you, will, ere

long, join you in efforts, which shall remove from the minds,

both of abolitionists and slave-holders, the belief so generally

entertained, that the Society of Friends in this country are not

earnestly engaged for the _total and immediate_ abolition of

slavery. No one regrets more than myself that any friends to the

cause of abolition should connect other topics with it, which,

however suitable to be discussed on their own merits, must

necessarily interfere with this simple and momentous object. You

are aware of some of the circumstances which may have led to the

state of feeling, with many in our society, which we so much

deplore. And it is my fervent desire that none of you, in any

steps you may consider it your duty to take, may afford just

cause of uneasiness, by any compromise of Christian principle,

any improper harshness of language, or by the introduction of

any subject not strictly belonging to the anti-slavery cause.

Your situation is one of peculiar difficulty and delicacy. Both

from a regard to your own religious society and the suffering

slave, you have need to exercise great watchfulness, and to

cultivate feelings of brotherly love and that 'charity which

suffereth long, and is kind.' The beautiful example of John

Woolman, in this respect, is worthy of your imitation. His

labors were, for years, far less encouraged by the leading

influences of society than your own at the present time; yet we

find, in reading his invaluable journal, no traces of bitterness

or uncharitable feeling.

"Finally, dear friends of all classes,--In thus freely

addressing you, I have written, not only with a strong

attachment to our religious society, but, I trust, under a

feeling of a degree of that love, which is not confined to

geographical boundaries, or affected by color or by clime. The

prayer of my heart is, that each of you may be willing to be

made instrumental, in the Divine Hand, in faithfully maintaining

our Christian testimony against slavery; bearing in mind, that

the labors of your ancestors have greatly increased your

responsibility, by separating you from those influences which so

deaden the feelings and harden the heart against the claims of

our brethren in bonds. May these considerations, viewed in

connection with the difficulties which obstruct the progress of

emancipation in this land, stimulate you to increased exertion;

and when you are summoned to the bar of that final tribunal,

towards which we are all hastening, may you have the

inexpressible consolation of reflecting, that you have performed

all you could towards 'undoing the heavy burden and letting the

oppressed go free.'

"I am, very sincerely,

"Your friend,

"JOSEPH STURGE."

"New York, Seventh Month 17th, 1841."

The above letter so fully embodies my view of the state of the Society

in reference to the anti-slavery cause, that I shall think it needless,

after a few general observations, again recur to this subject. I feel

bound to acknowledge that this public mode of making my sentiments known

was disapproved by some Friends; yet of all the objections that were

made to the proceeding, none tended to impugn the accuracy of my

representation of the existing state of things. This is approved by

some, and deplored by others, but my statement has not been denied by

any. In consequence of a remonstrance made to me on special grounds in

the kindest and most Christian manner by two beloved friends, I felt

called upon to subject my motives and conduct, in issuing such an

address, to deliberate reconsideration; and the result was, that I not

only felt myself clear of just censure, but that in no other way could I

have discharged my duty according to my own interpretation of its

dictates. Of other objectors, I may add, that simply to enumerate their

reasons, stated to me in private conference, would be the severest

public animadversion that could be made, either on the individuals

themselves, or on the Society whose views they professed to represent.

In the present state of this great controversy, the abolitionists may

justly say, "he that is not with us, is against us," while the

pro-slavery party can witness, "he that is not against us, is on our

side." Hence the praise bestowed on the neutrality of the Society of

Friends by the great slave-holding senator, Henry Clay. Hence also the

suspicious compliments of the late President Van Buren, the first act of

whose administration was a pledge to refuse his signature to any bill

for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. I fear it is

undeniable that in the last eight years the collective influence of the

Society has been thrown into the pro-slavery scale, and this

notwithstanding the existence of much diffused and passive sympathy and

right feeling on behalf of the slave, in the breasts of probably a large

majority of individual members. The abolitionists of the United States

have been treated by too many influential Friends, as well as by the

leading professors of other denominations, as a party whose contact is

contamination; yet to a bystander it is plainly obvious that the true

grounds of offence are not always those ostensibly alleged, but the

activity, zeal, and success with which they have cleared themselves of

participation in other men's sins, and by which they have condemned the

passive acquiescence of a society making a high profession of

anti-slavery principles. I do not intend to defend all the proceedings

of the anti-slavery societies. That they have sometimes erred in

judgment and action,--that they have had unworthy men among their

members, I have little doubt. But, the same objections might have been

raised to the old anti-slavery societies, in which the leading Friends

of the United States took an active part with their neighbors of other

denominations, and, with far greater force against the Colonization

Society, which is patronized, even to this day, both by individual

members and by at least one Meeting of Sufferings.[A] The causes that

have produced the state of things I have attempted to describe, derive

their origin, I believe, from one source--inaction. After the Society of

Friends had purified itself from slave-holding, it gradually subsided

into a state of rest, and finally lapsed into lethargy and indifference

on this question. In the world we live in, evil is the quick and

spontaneous growth, while good is the forced and difficult culture. Good

principles can only be preserved bright, pure, and efficient, by

watchful care and constant use; if laid aside, they rust and perish.

These are the necessary effects of the fall of man by disobedience from

that state of happiness and holiness in which he was formed by a

beneficent Creator. In a state of inaction, Friends have been exposed to

the influences of a corrupt public sentiment; they have, to a

considerable extent, imbibed the prejudice against color, while some of

them have been caught by the gilded bait of southern commerce.

[Footnote A: See Appendix K.]

In a former part of this work I have briefly alluded to that memorable

reformation, which, in the latter part of the preceding century, purged

the Society of Friends from the heinous sins of slave trading and

holding slaves. This reformation in Great Britain, with perhaps a few

individual exceptions, consisted merely in the adoption of new

convictions, and the abandonment of lax opinions; but, on the American

continent, it was sealed by the willing sacrifice of an immense amount

of property. One can scarcely avoid looking back with regret to times

when convictions of duty had such power, when Christian principle was

carried out, whatever the cost. Then, indeed, was exhibited, by the

American Friends, the fruit of a world-overcoming faith. It must be

confessed that the present position of their descendants presents an

unpleasing contrast; yet I trust, that from all I have written, the

conclusion will be drawn, that I look forward to the future with hope;

though it is a hope chastened with fear. Next to a fervent desire that

slavery may be speedily abolished, it is one of the warmest wishes of my

heart, that the "Society of Friends" in America, may be among the

chiefly honored agents in accomplishing, in the wisdom and power of

Jesus Christ, so great a work, thereby contributing to the fulfilment of

the angelic prophecy of "Glory to God, and good will to man."

I subsequently visited, in company with a colored gentleman, one of the

principal colored schools in New York, in which there were upwards of

three hundred children present. All the departments appeared to be

conducted, under colored teachers, with great order and efficiency, and

the attainments of the higher classes were very considerable. On the

whole, this school would bear comparison with any similar school for

white children which I ever visited.

Having received from Great Britain the minutes of a special meeting of

the Anti-Slavery Society, called to consider the time of holding a

second General Convention, I met some of the friends of the cause in New

York, together with John G. Whittier and Elizur Wright, of Boston, to

obtain an interchange of their sentiments on the same subject. After

considerable discussion, they unanimously concluded to leave the

decision as to the time of holding a future Convention to the London

Committee--the question of time being the summer of 1842 or 1843.

The numerous persons on whom I called, before leaving New York,

concurred uniformly in the belief that public opinion was steadily, and

somewhat rapidly advancing, in favor of emancipation, and that the

prejudice against color was lessening.

The unanimity I found in the opinion that public feeling in favor of

peace was continually strengthening, was very encouraging. All whom I

consulted, approved of the suggestion of Judge Jay, already mentioned,

though I had no suitable opportunity of obtaining the collective

sentiments of the friends of peace in New York upon it.

The Secretary of the Vigilance Committee, an association existing in

several of the Northern cities, formed to aid runaway slaves in escaping

to a place of safety, as well as to protect the free colored people from

kidnappers, informed me that the number of slaves who applied for

assistance was constantly on the increase. He said that, only a few days

before, a man, who was a preacher of the gospel, who was escaping to

Canada, called upon him; and on being asked why he was fleeing from

slavery, he exposed his naked back, lacerated with a recent flogging,

and said that he had received that punishment for going to his place of

worship.

On the evening of the 24th I went up the river Hudson to Sing Sing, in

company with Lewis Tappan. Our object was to spend the next day, which

was the first day of the week, in this celebrated state prison. We

lodged at a quiet hotel, on an eminence above the village; and next

morning, about eight o'clock, we went to the prison, where we were very

kindly received by the superintendent, J.G. Seymour, and by the

chaplain. Soon afterwards, we had the opportunity of seeing all the male

prisoners, about seven hundred and fifty, in the chapel, when they were

addressed by a minister of the Presbyterian persuasion, whom we had met

on board the steamer, and whom Lewis Tappan had invited to be there. We

were informed that about one-third of the prisoners were colored: these

did not sit separate, but were intermixed with the rest. In general,

however, the striking language of De Beaumont, a late French traveller

in the United States, will be found true. "The prejudice against color

haunts its victim wherever he goes,--in the hospitals where humanity

suffers,--in the churches where it kneels to God,--_in the prisons where

it expiates its offences_,--in the grave-yards where it sleeps the last

sleep."

From hence we proceeded to the female department, where about eighty

were assembled, some of whom seemed much affected by an address from my

friend, Lewis Tappan. He told them he saw at least one present who had

been a scholar in his colored Sabbath School at New York. The white

women were placed in the front seats, and the colored behind them. We

next went to the Sabbath School for the male prisoners, held in the

chapel, where the attendance is general, though perfectly voluntary.

Twenty-five of the best educated and most orderly prisoners are allowed

to teach classes: the other teachers were officers of the prison, and

other persons attracted hither by benevolent motives; and I was told the

teachers selected among the convicts had not once been detected in the

abuse of this privilege, by entering into conversation on other topics.

On the breaking up of the school, Lewis Tappan addressed them, and I

added a few words. We were kindly invited to dine with the matron. She

mentioned one instance of complete reformation in a female, which was to

be attributed she believed, under the Divine blessing, to the ministry

of Joseph J. Gurney, who visited Sing Sing, in the course of his

religious labors in the United States.

After dinner we were permitted to visit the male prisoners at their

cells, list shoes being provided for us that we might walk along the

galleries without noise. Those who wished to do so, were suffered to

speak to us through their grated doors, in a low voice. A number

embraced this opportunity; of the sincere repentance and reformation of

some of whom, I could scarcely doubt. One prisoner, a man of color,

appeared to enjoy a state of perfect happiness, under a sense of being

at peace with his Maker. Another manifested such a feeling of his

spiritual blessings, and especially of that change of heart he had been

favored to experience, as scarcely to have a desire for his liberation,

though his health was visibly sinking under the confinement, and there

appeared little other prospect but that of his dying in the prison, as

he had been condemned for ten years, of which three yet remained.

Several were Englishmen, who were mostly under feigned names, keeping

their real names secret, from a natural unwillingness to disgrace their

families. Some of these were men of education, and communicated to me in

confidence their family names. One referred to gentlemen standing

deservedly high in the estimation of the British public, as well knowing

him. Two or three of this class wept much, when speaking of their

situation, and of the offences that had brought them there.

I gathered from the prisoners themselves that a great change had been

introduced, both in the affairs and in the management of the prison,

within the last eighteen months, by the present excellent superintendent

and chaplain and their coadjutors, and with the happiest effects. The

former system was one of brutal severity; now, without any relaxation of

discipline, needless severity is discarded, and the floggings have been

reduced nine-tenths, the great object being the reformation of the

prisoners. One of these, speaking of the superintendent and chaplain,

said: "there was not a prisoner in the jail, but rejoiced to hear the

sound of their feet."

J.G. Seymour mentioned one of the English prisoners to me, whose heart

had been softened, and his reformation commenced, through the kindness

of his prosecutor, who had spent both time and money in endeavoring to

procure his release. This statement was fully confirmed in an

interesting conversation I had with the individual himself, who was

subsequently permitted, as well as another Englishman, to send letters

by me to their relations in this country.

An extract from the correspondence of one of my unfortunate

fellow-countrymen, which I am permitted to make, will afford an

interesting view of the internal administration of the Sing Sing prison,

by one of its inmates. After alluding to the absolute monotony of prison

life, he gives one day as a specimen of every day. "Monday morning, the

large prison bell rings at five o'clock, when we all rise; half an hour

after, we all go out to work, to our respective shops, till breakfast,

the keepers all the time seated upon a high seat, overlooking--seeing

that everything is ordered and going on in a proper manner: no talking

allowed upon any occasion, or under any pretence whatever. When the

breakfast-bell rings, we all go in to breakfast, each one to a separate

room, (which are all numbered, one thousand in all;) every man's

breakfast is ready for him in his room,--one pint of coffee, with plenty

of meat, potatoes, and rye bread. After one hour, the prison opens

again, and we work in a similar manner till twelve--dinner hour--when we

go in again. Dinner is set ready as before,--an ample quantity of meat,

potatoes, and bread, with a cup of water, (the best beverage in the

world--would to God I had never drank any thing else, and I should not

have been here;) one hour allowed for dinner, when we go out and work

again till six o'clock, when we come in and are locked up for the night,

with a large bowl of mush, (hasty pudding with molasses,) the finest

food in the world, made from Indian meal. Thus passes each day of the

week. Sundays we rise at the same hour; each man has a clean shirt given

him in his room, then goes to the kitchen, brings his breakfast in with

him, the same as before, and is locked up till eight, when Divine

service is performed by a most worthy and able chaplain. After service,

through the pious and benevolent efforts of Mr. Seymour, we have an

excellent Sabbath School. Bible classes, where from three to four

hundred attend, about half to learn to read, and the others to receive

instruction in the way to attain everlasting life, under the immediate

inspection of Mr. Seymour; and I am happy to say, that the greatest

attention is paid by scholars of both classes: many, very many, know how

to appreciate the value of these privileges, and benefit by them

accordingly. Mr. Seymour has obtained a large library for us, and one of

the prisoners is librarian. At eleven o'clock we are locked up for the

day, with an extra allowance of food and water sufficient. The librarian

and an assistant are left open, to distribute the books; that is to go

to each man's cell, get the book he had the previous Sunday, and give

him another in exchange, generally supplying them with a small tract, of

which we mostly have a great plenty."

A large proportion of the prisoners work in a stone quarry without the

walls; and the most painful sight I saw at Sing Sing were the sentinels

placed on prominent points commanding the prison, with loaded muskets

and fixed bayonets, who have orders at once to shoot a convict who may

attempt to escape, if he does not obey the order to return. I was told,

however, an occurrence of the kind had not happened for years.

A number of the female domestics in different families in the village of

Sing Sing, have been prisoners, and are now reformed and generally

conducting themselves to the entire satisfaction of their employers.

There are few subjects more interesting to a civilized and Christian

community, than that of prison discipline. It will scarcely, at the

present day, be denied that the only motives on which, in such a

government, criminal law can be administered, are the public safety, and

the reformation of the criminal himself. Vengeance has not been

delegated to man under the Christian dispensation. It is too evident,

nevertheless, that the principle of retaliatory punishment, irrespective

of any considerations of public safety, or the benefit of the offender,

pervades our criminal jurisprudence, both in theory and practice, and

just so far as this is the case, is the last great object defeated, for

his feelings are deadened, and his heart hardened by it. The most

depraved wretch has that within him which testifies that his fellow worm

has no right to inflict pain upon him solely as a _punishment_, and his

heart rebels against what he feels to be oppression. On the more

enlightened, the effect is equally unfavorable, for he contrasts the

practice of his persecutors with their profession, and is perhaps

conducted thereby to infidelity and despair. One of the prisoners at

Sing Sing, while contrasting the former with the present management,

said, "We used to hear the gospel preached to us on the Sabbath, but see

its doctrines trampled upon in all the conduct pursued towards us the

whole week besides." How different the result where the law of love

reigns! At Sing Sing there are numerous recent instances where

conviction on the minds of the prisoners that the authorities of the

prison have no other object than their temporal and spiritual benefit,

has softened their hearts, and thereby disposed them to the reception of

that consoling faith in a crucified Saviour, which is the only

foundation of true amendment of life. How important is it that all the

offices in a prison should be filled by persons of true piety; and where

can such be more usefully employed?

In a former part of this work, I have expressed a somewhat unfavorable

opinion on "the separate system," adopted in the Philadelphia

Penitentiary. One of my objections to this system is this, that to

deprive man so entirely of human society, is to do violence to the

strongest instinct of his nature, and thereby to inflict suffering far

more severe than corporeal pain or privation. If the severity of this

system does not obviously tend to carry out the legitimate objects of

prison discipline, it cannot be defended. The small number of

recommittals is no proof of the efficacy of this system; since, in a

country like the United States, a liberated felon may very easily choose

another locality for his sphere of action. In favor of the "separate

system," it is occasionally pleaded that the prisoner is under a veil of

secresy; and that when he goes forth, neither the censorious public, nor

his fellow-prisoners, can point him out; and thus, his character being

comparatively unblemished, he can, with less difficulty, procure

employment. It is obvious that this would induce, in many cases, a

degree of dishonest concealment from an employer, and encourage

dissimulation. It would be much better that the prisoner should depend

for a situation on the good character which the superintendent would

give him if reformed; and I was glad to find at Sing Sing guarded

situations had been procured, in numerous instances, for the liberated

prisoners, and that their employers, with very little exception,

represented them to be most valuable servants. I could hear of no case,

in either of the prisons I visited, of any permanent injury to the

health of a prisoner from the entire disuse of intoxicating drinks,

however intemperate their previous habits might have been. The same

remark is true with regard to tobacco. I will only add, that it is

notorious that the prison discipline of Great Britain, notwithstanding

all its recent improvements, is yet lamentably deficient; and that

though the United States justly claim precedence of us in this respect,

they have, by no means reached perfection. The greatest deficiency of

all, however, in each nation, is that of institutions like the

Philadelphia Refuge, co-extensive with the wants of the community, for

the reformation of juvenile delinquency; thus suppressing crime in its

small beginnings. So long as this want is unsupplied, and the juvenile

offender is contaminated by contact with the hardened criminal, the

statesmen and those who control the legislatures of both countries,

dishonor their profession of Christianity.

On the 26th, I accompanied my friends, J. and M. Candler, to the steamer

which was to convey them on board the "Roscius" packet, to sail for

Liverpool this afternoon. I afterwards called upon Charles Collins, who,

for many years past, has dealt exclusively in articles of free labor

produce, and for which he said he had found the demand to increase of

late. I am more and more convinced that this branch of the abolition

question has not received the attention it deserves from the friends of

the cause. Before leaving New York, I ought not to omit to record a

visit that was on a previous occasion paid us at our hotel, by William

Cullen Bryant, whose name on this side of the water is associated with

some of the most beautiful productions of American literature. He is the

editor of the _New York Evening Post_, a leading democratic paper, and,

to his credit be it said, he has always advocated the rights of the

abolitionists. He has a thin, pale, thought-worn countenance, and his

manner is quiet and unassuming. I also formed an agreeable acquaintance

with Lydia Maria Child, known in both hemispheres as one of the most

pleasing of American writers. She is editor of the _National

Anti-Slavery Standard_. Her services in the cause of the slave have

been of great value, and have been given at the risk of destroying her

interests and popularity as an author.

I finally quitted this city, in the steamer, for Boston, on the 24th,

accompanied by John G. Whittier.

I remained in Boston till the first of the Eighth Month, (August) when I

embarked on board the "Caledonia" steamer for England.--During the

interval, I made a number of calls upon the abolitionists in Boston;

and, among others, saw Henry and Maria Chapman and Wendell Phillips; the

former of whom had just returned from a visit to Hayti, and the latter

from Europe. I had several interviews with Martha V. and Lucy M. Ball,

secretaries of the Boston Female Emancipation Society, who have long

been faithful and laborious abolitionists. I also met, as at New York, a

number of the friends of the cause, again to consider the best time for

calling a second general Convention, to whom I read the London minutes

on that subject. A resolution was unanimously passed, of the same tenor

as those of New York, lately noticed. While in this city, I had not only

the pleasure of renewing my intimacy with my friend, Nathaniel Colver,

who is known to many of the English abolitionists as their valuable and

cordial coadjutor at the great Convention in London, but of becoming

acquainted with many zealous and able friends of the slave. One of these

was Amos A. Phelps, one of those who signed the original declaration

issued by the American Anti-Slavery Society, on its foundation at

Philadelphia, in 1833.

We also went to Salem, and met a number of "Friends" who were

abolitionists, and who appeared desirous to embrace every suitable

opportunity of promoting the cause.

Salem is a city of about fourteen thousand inhabitants, and I was told

that the number of its population who went and returned to and from

Boston, a distance of fourteen miles, weekly, was about five hundred--a

striking proof of the locomotive energy of the Americans. Their

gratification, in this respect, has been much facilitated of late by the

rapid extension of railways. These, with few exceptions, are by no means

so completely constructed as in England; but, owing to the cheapness of

land, timber, et cet., and by making the lines generally single, and, on

the average, the speed of travelling being about one-fourth less than is

common in England, they answer the purpose of rapid transit, while the

outlay is about as many dollars per mile as it is sovereigns with us. On

this railway, and some others in New England, the lines are double, and

the construction and speed are nearly equal to ours.

I was informed, the proportion of severe accidents is not larger than in

Great Britain. The carriages are generally built to hold sixty or

seventy persons, who are seated two by two, one behind another, on

double rows of seats, ranged across the carriage, with room to walk

between, along the centre. The carriage in which we returned from Salem

had twenty-two seats on each side, to contain two each, or, in the

whole, eighty-eight passengers. Yet the weight of this machine would be

little more than that of an English first-class carriage, to hold

eighteen persons, and it cost probably less. Their carriages are well

ventilated in summer, and warmed by a stove in winter. Locomotive

engines approach Boston near enough to prevent the use of horses; but,

on arriving at the distance of a mile or two from New York,

Philadelphia, and Baltimore, the carriages and passengers are drawn in

by horses. One carriage is often specially reserved for the ladies on

the principal lines, into which gentlemen do not usually intrude, unless

they have ladies under their care. It is common, however, for the latter

to take their seats in any of the carriages. There is no distinction of

price, and none of accommodation, except that an inferior and more

exposed carriage, at the same fare, is purposely provided for persons of

color; but this disgraceful relic of past times cannot survive long. The

principal disadvantage that I observed on the American, as compared with

the English railways, was the delay on meeting other trains, and on

stopping for them at places where they could pass, and also the sparks

from the wood, used for fuel instead of coke. On one occasion, my coat

was set on fire in this way, though I was seated in a covered carriage.

Very efficient locomotive engines are made in the United States. I

visited a celebrated manufactory at Philadelphia, which has sent ten to

England, for the use of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway. At the

time of my visit, they had many orders unexecuted from several European

governments. As far as my inquiries went, the cost of making them is,

upon the whole, about the same as in England.

Having been, for several years, a director on the Birmingham and London

Railway, I felt some interest in these inquiries, and came to the

conclusion, that there are several arrangements of economy, and some of

convenience, in the construction and working of railways, which the

English might borrow with advantage from the United States.

On the 29th instant, the secretary of the Peace Society convened a

meeting of the members of that society, and of other influential

gentlemen, including Alden Bradford, late secretary of the State of

Massachusetts; Robert Rantoul, an eloquent and prominent member of the

legislature, and S.E. Coues, of New Hampshire,[A] to take into

consideration the best means of securing permanent international peace.

A very harmonious and satisfactory discussion took place, and the

following statement of the proceedings was subsequently handed to me by

the gentleman who officiated as secretary to the meeting:

[Footnote A: Since elected President of the American Peace Society.]

"A meeting of the friends of peace was held in the city of

Boston, on the evening of the 29th day of July, 1841.

"The meeting was called for the purpose of meeting Mr. Joseph

Sturge, from England, and there were present most of the active

members of the American Peace Society.

"Amasa Walker, Esq., was chosen chairman; and J.P. Blanchard,

secretary.

"Mr. Sturge addressed the meeting, and suggested the expediency

of calling, at some future time, a Convention of the friends of

peace, of different nations, to deliberate upon the best method

of adjusting international disputes; and, offered, for the

consideration of the meeting, a plan proposed by Judge Jay, in

which all the friends of peace could unite.

"The meeting was then addressed by several gentlemen, who

cordially approved the plan proposed, and, subsequently, the

following resolutions were unanimously adopted.

"Resolved,--That this meeting receives with great pleasure the

suggestion of our friend Joseph Sturge, of England, of a general

conference of the friends of peace, at the earliest practical

opportunity, at London, to consult on the measures which are

best adapted to promote universal peace among the nations of the

earth; and they respectfully refer the subject to the executive

committee of the American Peace Society, for their decision, on

correspondence and consultation with the friends of the cause in

this and other countries.

"Resolved,--That the suggestion by Judge Jay, of the insertion

of a clause in all conventional treaties between nations,

mutually binding the parties to submit all international

disputes, during the continuance of such treaties, to the

arbitration of some one or more friendly powers, presents a

definite and practicable object of effort, worthy of the serious

attention of the friends of peace. And this meeting recommends

to the friends of the cause, in different countries, to petition

their respective Governments in favor of the measure."

On the 30th, in company with John G. Whittier and C. Stewart Renshaw, I

went over to Lowell, the chief seat of the woollen and cotton

manufacture in America. Less than twenty years ago, there were not more

than forty or fifty houses on the site of this flourishing city, which

now contains upwards of twenty thousand inhabitants. Its numerous mills

are all worked by water power, and belong to incorporated joint-stock

companies. We were obligingly shown over two of the largest woollen and

cotton factories, where every stage of the manufacture was in process,

from the cotton, or sheep's wool, to the finished fabric. We also

visited works, where the printing of cottons is executed in a superior

style, besides a new process for dyeing cotton in the thread, invented

by an Englishman, now in the establishment. The following abstract of

the manufacturing statistics of Lowell, on the first of January, 1841,

will show the great importance to which this new branch of industry has

attained with such unprecedented rapidity.

Ten joint-stock companies, with a capital of ten millions of dollars,

having thirty-two woollen and cotton factories, besides print works, et

cet., with one hundred and seventy-eight thousand eight hundred and

sixty-eight spindles, and five thousand five hundred and eighty-eight

looms, employing two thousand one hundred and seventy-two males, and six

thousand nine hundred and twenty females, who made, in 1840, sixty-five

millions eight hundred and two thousand four hundred yards of cotton and

woollen cloths, in which were consumed twenty-one millions four hundred

and twenty-four thousand pounds of cotton alone.

The average amount earned by the male hands employed, exclusive of their

board, is four dollars and eighty cents, or about twenty shillings

sterling per week, and of the females two dollars, or about eight

shillings and sixpence per week.

But the most striking and gratifying feature of Lowell, is the high

moral and intellectual condition of its working population. In looking

over the books of the mills we visited, where the operatives entered

their names, I observed very few that were not written by themselves;

certainly not five per cent. of the whole number were signed with a

mark, and many of these were evidently Irish. It was impossible to go

through the mills, and notice the respectable appearance and becoming

and modest deportment of the "factory girls," without forming a very

favorable estimate of their character and position in society. But it

would be difficult indeed for a passing observer to rate them so high as

they are proved to be by the statistics of the place. The female

operatives are generally boarded in houses built and owned by the

"corporation" for whom they work, and which are placed under the

superintendence of matrons of exemplary character, and skilled in

housewifery, who pay a low rent for the houses, and provide all

necessaries for their inmates, over whom they exercise a general

oversight, receiving about one dollar and one-third from each per week.

Each of these houses accommodates from thirty to fifty young women, and

there is a wholesome rivalry among the mistresses which shall make their

inmates most comfortable. We visited one of the hoarding houses, and

were highly pleased with its arrangement. A considerable number of the

factory girls are farmers' daughters, and come hither from Vermont, New

Hampshire, and other distant States, to work for two, three, or four

years, when they return to their native hills, dowered with a little

capital of their own earnings. The factory operatives at Lowell form a

community that commands the respect of the neighborhood, and of all

under whose observation they come. No female of an immoral character

could remain a week in any of the mills. The superintendent of the Boott

Corporation informed me, that, during the five and a half years of his

superintendence of that factory, employing about nine hundred and fifty

young women, he had known of but one case of an illegitimate birth--and

the mother was an Irish "immigrant." Any male or female employed, who

was known to be in a state of inebriety, would be at once dismissed.

At the suggestion of the benevolent and intelligent superintendent of

the Boott Company, we waited to see the people turn out to dinner, at

half-past twelve o'clock. We stood in a position where many hundreds

passed under our review, whose dress, and quiet and orderly demeanor

would have done credit to any congregation breaking up from their place

of worship. One of the gentlemen with me, who is from a slave State,

where all labor is considered degrading, remarked, with emotion, "What

would I give if, (naming a near relative in the slave States,) could

witness this only for a quarter of an hour!" We dined with one of our

abolition friends at Lowell, who informed us that many hundreds of the

factory girls were members of the Anti-Slavery Society; and that,

although activity in this cause has been pretty much suspended by the

division in the ranks of its friends, yet there is no diminution of good

feeling on the subject. The following extracts, from a pamphlet

published by a respectable citizen of Lowell, will further illustrate

the moral statistics of the place, which, I believe, can be paralleled

by no other manufacturing town in the world. The work is dated July,

1839:--

"There are now in the city fourteen regularly organized

religious societies, besides one or two others quite recently

established. Ten of these societies constitute a Sabbath School

Union. Their third annual report was made on the fourth of the

present month, and it has been published within a few days. I

derive from it the following facts. The number of scholars

connected with the ten schools at the time of making the report,

was four thousand nine hundred and thirty-six, and the number of

teachers was four hundred and thirty-three, making an aggregate

of five thousand three hundred and sixty-nine. The number who

joined the schools during the year, was three thousand seven

hundred and seventy, the number who left was three thousand one

hundred and twenty-nine. About three-fourths of the scholars are

females. A large proportion of the latter are over fifteen years

of age, and consist of girls employed in the mills. More than

five hundred of these scholars have, during the last year,

become personally interested in practical piety, and more than

six hundred have joined themselves to the several churches. Now

let it be borne in mind, that there are four or five Sunday

Schools in the city, some of which are large and flourishing,

not included in this statement. Let it be borne in mind, too,

that a great proportion of these scholars are the factory girls,

and furthermore, that these most gratifying results just given,

have nothing in them extraordinary--they are only the common,

ordinary results of several of the past years. There has been no

unusual excitement; no noise, no commotion. Silently, quietly,

unobtrusively, from Sabbath to Sabbath, in these little

nurseries of truth, duty and religion, has the good seed been

sowing and springing up--watered by the dews, and warmed by the

smiles of heaven--to everlasting life....

"I shall now proceed to enumerate some of the influences which

have been most powerful in bringing about these results. Among

these are the example and watchful care and oversight of the

boarding house keepers, the superintendents, and the

overseers.... But a power vastly more active, all pervading and

efficient, than any and all of these, is to be found in the

jealous and sleepless watchfulness, over each other, of the

girls themselves.... The strongest guardianship of their own

character, as a class, is in their own hands, and they will not

suffer either overseer or superintendent to be indifferent to

this character with impunity.

"The relationship which is here established between the Sunday

school scholar and her teacher--between the member of the church

and her pastor--the attachments which spring up between them,

are rendered close and strong by the very circumstances in which

these girls are placed. These relationships and these

attachments take the place of the domestic ties and the home

affections, and they have something of the strength and fervency

of these."

The next extract shows their prosperity in a pecuniary point.

"The average wages, clear of board, amount to about two dollars

a week. Many an aged father or mother, in the country, is made

happy and comfortable, by the self-sacrificing contributions

from the affectionate and dutiful daughter here. Many an old

homestead has been cleared of its incumbrances, and thus saved

to the family by these liberal and honest earnings. To the many

and most gratifying and cheering facts, which, in the course of

this examination I have had occasion to state, I here add a few

others relating to the matter now under discussion, furnished me

by Mr. Carney, the treasurer of the Lowell Institution for

Savings. The whole number of depositors in this institution, on

the 23d July, was nineteen hundred and seventy-six; the whole

number of deposits was three hundred and five thousand seven

hundred and ninety-six dollars and seventy cents, (about

£60,000.) Of these depositors, nine hundred and seventy-eight

are factory girls, and the amount of their funds now in the

bank, is estimated by Mr. Carney, in round numbers, at one

hundred thousand dollars, (about £20,000.) It is a common thing

for one of these girls to have five hundred dollars (about £100

sterling) in deposit, and the only reason why she does not

exceed this sum is the fact, that the institution pays no

interest on any larger sum than this. After reaching this

amount, she invests her remaining funds elsewhere."

In confirmation of this description of the state of the Lowell

population, I have obtained, through the kindness of a friend in

Massachusetts, the following parallel statistics to a recent date:--

"PUBLIC SCHOOLS.--By the report of the school committee for the

year ending on the 5th of Fourth Month (April) 1841, it appears

that the whole number of pupils in the schools, who attended

during the whole or part of the year, was 5,830. The whole

amount expended by the city for these schools, during the year,

was 18,106 dollars, 51 cents.

"SABBATH SCHOOLS.--The number of scholars and teachers in the

Sabbath Schools, connected with the various religious societies

in Lowell, during the year ending on the 5th of Seventh Month

(July) 1841, was 5,493.

"SAVINGS BANK.--The Lowell Institution for Savings, in its

report of Fifth Month (May), 1840, acknowledges 328,395 dollars,

55 cents, deposits, from 2,137 persons; together with 16,093

dollars, 29 cents, nett amount received for interest on loans

and dividends in stocks, less expense and dividends paid--making

in all, 344,488 dollars, 84 cents; nett amount of interest,

24,714 dollars, 61 cents. Within the year, 120,175 dollars, 69

cents, had been deposited, and 70,384 dollars, 24 cents, drawn

out.

"PAUPERS.--The whole expense of the city for the support of the

poor, during the year ending on the 31st of Twelfth Month

(December) 1840, was 2,698 dollars, 61 cents."

As a proof, slight yet significant, of the spread of intellectual

cultivation, I ought not to omit a notice of the "Lowell Offering," a

little monthly magazine, of original articles, written exclusively by

the factory girls. The editor of the _Boston Christian Examiner_

commends this little periodical to those who consider the factory system

to be degrading and demoralizing; and expresses a doubt "whether a

committee of young ladies, selected from the most refined and best

educated families in any of our towns and cities, could make a fairer

appearance in type than these hard-working factory girls."

The city of Lowell has been distinguished by British tourists as the

Manchester of the United States; but, in view of the facts above

related, an American has declared it to be "_not_ the Manchester of the

United States."

Besides the general prosperity of the operatives, the shareholders in

the different corporations divide from eight to fifteen per cent, per

annum on their capital.

The inquiry naturally suggests itself, why the state of things in the

manufacturing districts of Great Britain should be so widely different

from this? Some may satisfy themselves by recollecting that England is

an old and America a young country; though, to my mind, this affords no

reasonable explanation of the contrast--since, from the possession of

surplus capital, complete machinery, and facility of communication, et

cet., the advantages for _commerce and manufactures_, under a system of

perfectly unrestricted exchange, must preponderate greatly in favor of

the former. But whatever the solution of the difficulty, it is quite

evident that the statesman who would elevate the moral standard of our

working population, must begin by removing the physical depression and

destitution in which a large proportion of them, without any fault of

their own, are compelled to drag out a weary and almost hopeless

existence. To some peculiarly constituted minds, "over-production" is

the explanation of the present appalling distresses of this country; and

what they are pleased to consider a healthy state of things, is to be

restored by a diminution of production;--yet nothing is more certain,

than that the largest amount of production which has ever been reached,

is not more than adequate to supply our increasing population with the

necessaries of life, on even a very limited scale of comfort. A

diminished production implies the starving down of the population to

such a diminished number as may obtain leave to toil, and leave to

subsist, from legislators, who, either in ignorance or selfishness, set

aside nature's laws, and disregard the plainly legible ordinances of

Divine Providence. If we reflect on the part which commerce is made to

perform in the moral government of the world, on the one hand as the

bond of peace between powerful nations, by creating a perpetual

interchange of temporal benefits; and, on the other, as the channel for

the diffusion of blessings of an intellectual and spiritual kind; we are

conducted irresistibly to the conclusion, that any arbitrary

interruption of its free course must draw down its own punishment.

Though the laws of nature may not permit the limited soil of this

country to grow food enough for its teeming population, yet while Great

Britain possesses mineral wealth, abundant capital, and the largest

amount of skilled industry of any nation in the world, the tributary

supplies of other countries would not only satisfy our present wants,

but would, I firmly believe, with an unfettered commerce, raise our

working population, the most numerous, and by far the most important

part of the community, to the same level of prosperity as the same class

in the United States. Then would there be more hope for the success of

efforts to elevate the standard of moral and intellectual cultivation

among them, for as an improvable material they are no way inferior to

any population upon earth. John Curtis of Ohio, a free trade missionary

to this country, has published a pamphlet full of important statistical

facts, illustrating the suicidal policy of Great Britain, from which I

venture to take the following extracts:

"England already obtains luxuries in superabundance; but these

can never supply the wants of her artizans--they demand

substantial bread and meat, and a market where their labor can

procure these necessaries. Tropical climates are not adapted to

supply their wants. For this reason trade either with the East

or West Indies cannot give effectual relief: it may furnish

luxuries, but England is overstocked with them already. The food

of tropical climates, with the exception of rice, is not

calculated for export. The people of England, if they are to

import food, need the production of a climate similar to their

own. In this respect America is well adapted to supply them.

"All parts of the United States between thirty-seven and

forty-four degrees of north latitude will produce wheat. But

that part of the country best adapted to furnish an abundant

supply is, beyond all question, the northern part of the

Mississippi valley, and the contiguous country south of the

great lakes. It has been styled _par excellence_ the

wheat-growing region of America. Within its limits lie the six

north-western States of the American Union, Ohio, Indiana,

Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, and Wiskonsan (including as States the

two territories of Iowa and Wiskonsan, about to be admitted into

the Union.) These States, exclusive of two hundred thousand

square miles, the title to which is yet mostly in the Indian

tribes, cover an area of two hundred and thirty-six thousand and

eleven square miles. The country is, generally, an undulating

prairie, interspersed with groves of trees, and unbroken by hill

or mountain. The soil commonly rests upon a strata of limestone,

is fertile beyond description, and abundantly watered by the

finest springs and streams. Its climate is clear and salubrious,

and the country as well calculated as any other on the globe to

minister to the support and happiness of civilized man. As

already explained, for an inland country, it possesses

unequalled facilities for foreign intercourse and commerce, by

means of its great lakes and rivers. The most distant parts of

it are now reached in twenty days from Liverpool. The energies

of the American people have been chiefly expended, during the

last few years, in opening and taking possession of this region,

which they consider destined to become the future seat of

American wealth and greatness.

"Wheat once formed a leading article in the exports of the

United States. The trade of that country with Great Britain was

then double the present amount in proportion to the number of

the population. Had the trade of the two countries continued

free, it would have increased with the increase of population

and capital. The legitimate exchange trade has decreased between

England and America for thirty years. What part has the

restrictive system had in producing this result? A few facts may

enable us not only to answer this question, but to anticipate

the consequences of a continuance of the same policy. From the

time of the revolutionary war in America until 1812, the trade

between the two countries regularly increased with the increase

of the population. The average annual consumption of foreign

merchandise in the United States for each inhabitant was,

From 1790 to 1800, 39s. 4d.

" 1800 to 1810, 41s. 8d.

"In 1812 came the second American war, and in 1815 the British

corn law, which was promptly followed by the high American

tariff of 1816. For ten years prior to 1830, the annual average

consumption of merchandize had fallen to 22s. 6d., while the

population of the States was nearly double, and their capital

treble that of the ten years preceding 1810. Soon after 1830

followed the modification of the American tariff, and the

importations based on the great transatlantic loans of that

period. But, notwithstanding the stimulation and extravagance of

the time, the average annual consumption amounted to only 31s.

per head of foreign produce during the ten years prior to 1840.

Abating the importation based on the loans of the last few

years, and the trade of England with the United States has not

increased in amount for the last thirty years, while the

population of England has increased from eighteen to

twenty-seven millions, and that of the States from seven to

seventeen millions.

"Let the reader observe this, that in the Eastern States, in

that of Massachusetts, for instance, in which State Boston is

situated, the people bring a large part of their food from the

Western States, where they obtain it in exchange for their

manufactures. If free trade were allowed, is it possible for any

man to give a reason why the manufacturer and laborer of

Manchester would not be able to do as well as the manufacturer

and laborer of Boston now does, abating the difference of

transporting goods and grain across the Atlantic? At least, the

consequence would be an extension of trade, and employment equal

to the amount of food which would, in such case, be brought from

America; and the limit to this quantity will be found only when

the wants of Englishmen are supplied, and their ability to pay

exhausted. The ability of America to supply any required

quantity of food has already been shown. There lie the broad

lands, ready for cultivation as soon as there shall be a demand

for the produce. And if seventeen millions of people, sent

chiefly from England, or descended from those who have been

sent, are not sufficient to raise the requisite quantity of

provisions demanded of them by those who remain in the parent

country, then let more be sent, for the land lies equally open

to the people of all nations.

"Then, as to the ability of Englishmen to pay for all they want,

let us ask, what those who produce the food, or those who bring

it, can want in exchange that England cannot furnish? Gold, it

is said.[A] But for what do they want gold but to purchase other

supplies than food? and as they would then have the means to

pay, England would be the very country which, of all others,

could supply them to advantage. Whatever was wanted which her

own artizans do not produce themselves, they could still supply.

Englishmen would not at all be confined to a direct sale or

exchange of their goods with the wheat grower, but can give him

the merchandize of India and China, and the fruits of the

tropics, for which English manufactures would pay. If the idle

mills and idle laborers of England could at once be set at work

to produce food for the people, new activity would be imparted

to trade in every part of the world--from India to the frozen

regions of Greenland and Labrador. But, on the other hand, how

is it possible for England to extend her foreign trade while the

present restrictions continue? Even with such a country as

India, reduced under British sway, it cannot be done except by

diminishing the commerce with other countries to the same

extent. England cannot, in her present condition, greatly

increase her consumption of such merchandize as India can

furnish, or dispose of such merchandize abroad, to any great

extent, for the reasons already given.

[Footnote A: "Englishmen, reasoning from a restricted course of

trade, are constantly prone to the belief that the purchase of

foreign corn, from some unexplained necessity, must take away

their gold. Americans, from the same cause, reason in the same

manner respecting the purchase of foreign goods. Under the

action of the restrictive system, there may be some truth in the

reasonings of each party, but they certainly form a beautiful

running commentary upon each other."]

"As to any proposed gain by the Colonial trade, it is the very

thing rejected by the restrictions on the trade with the United

States. What are these States but the greatest colonies ever

planted by Great Britain? and their independence does not at all

prevent England from deriving all the advantage from them ever

to be derived from colonies. The only good which England can

derive from her extensive colonization is not to be gained by

swaying a barren sceptre over distant colonies, but by spreading

abroad her race, her language, her civilization, and thus

enlarging the sphere of her commerce. Under a free system of

intercourse England would not derive less benefit, at present,

from the United States than if they had remained a part of the

British dominions, for if trade were free, they would not trade

the less because of their independence, or furnish less food, or

at higher prices. England, however, seems determined to

sacrifice all the advantages which naturally accrue to her from

having colonized the finest part of the New World, and to refuse

the abundance and relief thus providentially prepared by her own

offspring."

The great importance of these extracts is the best apology for

their length--but there is yet another branch of the subject. A

country whose population is beyond its means of supply from its

own soil, has no resources but that of her manufactures and

foreign trade; if these be dried up, her people must emigrate or

starve. But the United States has an alternative;--her first and

best resource,--and the most profitable application of her

industry is in her broad and fertile lands, the superabundant

produce of which would not only feed, but, by exchange, clothe

her population, and supply them with all the comforts of

civilized life. She cannot avail herself of this to its full

extent without our aid. But, if we refuse to trade on equal

terms, her wants will not, therefore, go unsupplied. She can

manufacture for herself--her resources for manufactures and

commerce are, at least, equal to our own, with the exception of

capital and population, which the lapse of a few more years will

supply.

"The present may justly be considered a crisis in the commercial

policy of America. If it be decided that foreign markets are to

continue closed against American corn--if England, which is the

principal corn market of the world, refuse to exchange the

produce of her mills and workshops for that of the fields of the

Americans, they have no other alternative than to erect mills

and workshops from which to supply themselves. The effect of

such a course would prove decisive on the trade with England,

and go far to complete the ruin so effectually begun by the

British corn law and corresponding restrictions. If forced from

employment on the land, which an abundant and fertile soil has

naturally made their most profitable one, it will be found that

the Americans lack neither the talent, the energy, nor the

means, at once to extend their present manufactures to the full

supply of their own wants. They have water-power, coal, and

iron, in greater natural abundance and perfection than any other

part of the world."[A]

[Footnote A: "The United States are computed to contain not less

than eighty thousand square miles of coal, or sixteen times as

much as Europe. One of these coal fields extends nine hundred

miles in length. The State of Pennsylvania has ten thousand

square miles of coal and iron. Great Britain and Ireland have

two thousand. All the north-western States of America contain

large quantities of coal. The coal strata of the States

generally lie above the level of the streams, and the coal is

taken from the hill sides. The beds of coal and iron are to a

great extent contiguous."]

This is not mere theory. The developement is actually begun:

"A few years since, the country smiths, and the matrons with

their daughters at the household wheel and loom, were the

principal manufacturers of America. Now the cotton mills alone

are computed at one thousand, and the capital invested in

manufacturing machinery at £23,500,000. The estimated value of

some of the principal articles of manufacture is as follows:

Woollens, £15,750,000

Cotton, 11,250,000

Leather, 9,000,000

Hats and Caps, 3,575,000

Linen, 1,350,000

Paper, 1,350,000

Glass, 1,125,000

Iron and Steel, 11,250,000

"Some idea of the rapidity with which the American manufactures

are now capable of being extended, may be formed from the past

progress of the cotton manufacture. The consumption of raw

cotton was,

In 1833, 196,000 bales.

1835, 236,700 "

1837, 246,000 "

1839, 276,000 "

"The United States already supply two-thirds of their own

consumption of cottons. At the above rate of increase--of nearly

fifty per cent, in five years--America will much more than

supply its own market in five years to come. Never has the

manufacturing interest of the United States been in as

prosperous and sound a condition as at present. They need no

high tariff to protect them against British competition. _The

English corn law is their best protection_."

It is the restrictive policy of Great Britain that has called into

existence Lowell and the manufacturing cities of the United States,

producing an immense amount of articles which were once the sole

products of British industry and skill. If the same policy is continued,

the prosperity of the United States will be impeded, but that of England

will be destroyed.

The following is an extract from the memorial of Joshua Leavitt to

Congress, on the wheat interests of the North Western States:

"Should it, indeed, come to be settled that there is to be no

foreign market for these products, the fine country under

contemplation is not, therefore, to be despaired of. Let the

necessity once become apparent, and there will be but one mind

among the people of the North-west. The same patriotism which

carried our fathers through the self-denying non-importation

agreements of the revolution, will produce a fixed determination

to build up a home market, at every sacrifice. And it can be

done. What has been done already in the way of manufactures,

shows that it can be done. The recent application of the

hot-blast with anthracite coal to the making of iron, and the

discovery of a mine of natural steel, would be auxiliaries of

immense value. We could draw to our factories the best workmen

of Europe, attracted less by the temptation of wages, than by

the desire to leave liberty and land as the inheritance of their

children. But it would take a long time to build up a

manufacturing interest adequate to supply the wants of the

Northwest, or to consume the produce of these wide fields; and

the burden of taxation for internal improvements, uncompleted

and unproductive, would be very heavy and hard to bear: and all

the population that is concentrated upon manufactures, is so

much kept back from the occupation of that noble domain; and the

national treasury would feel the effects of the curtailment of

imports and the cessation of land sales; and the amount of

misery which the loss of the American market would occasion to

the starving operatives and factory children on the other side

of the Atlantic, is worthy to be taken into the account, by

every statesman who has not forgotten that he is a man."

If we refuse the Americans as customers, we compel them to become our

rivals; and, after supplying their own wants, they will compete with us

for the trade of the world, on more than equal terms. Our statesmen may

yet employ America to build up the prosperity of our country whilst

increasing her own, or they may suffer its rapidly developing and

gigantic resources to work out our ruin: the alternative is before them

and before the country--but decision must be prompt, for there is no

pause in the march of events. However unwise the policy, we cannot be

surprised that the American and Continental manufacturer are each

applying to his government to follow our example, and protect home trade

by fiscal regulations.

This question of trade with America has also most important anti-slavery

bearings--and here, again, I find my own views anticipated by the able

writer already quoted:

"The present policy of restricting the traffic with America so

closely to cotton, gives a deceitful appearance to the stated

imports and exports. From these statements there should, in

fairness, be deducted the value of all the raw cotton which is

returned to America; and, in fact, if the true exchange trade

would be seen, all should be deducted that is exported from

England. That portion of cotton goods which is of English

origin, that is, their value above the raw material out of which

they were made, is, in fact, the only real part of English

export. Before exclusive importance was bestowed on cotton, the

exchange with America was in a large proportion of articles not

to be returned. It would be so again if trade were free."

Again:

"To one effect which would be produced in America by the repeal

of the corn and provision laws, no party or class in England can

profess indifference, and that is, _its effect on slavery in the

United States_. At the present time, England gives a premium to

American slavery by admitting, at low duties, the cotton of the

slave-holder, which is his staple production, and refusing corn,

which is mostly the produce of free labor. The slave-holding

States, to the productions of which Great Britain confines her

American trade, are less populous and less wealthy than the

free; yet of their produce England received in 1839, according

to the American estimates, £11,600,000, while of that of the

free States she received less than £500,000."

"It should be remembered that the labor of the slave States, is

almost wholly expended in agriculture, under the stimulus of a

good market, while a large part of that of the free States is

otherwise employed, for the want of such market. The effective

laborers of the free States are double the number of those in

the slave States; and were an opportunity given them, they would

export in as great a proportion. Thus England, by her laws,

fosters an odious institution abroad, which, in words, she

loudly condemns, and spends millions to rid the world of; whilst

she rejects more honorable, profitable, and wealthy customers,

the fruits of whose free and active industry are in effect made

contraband in England by law.

"Not only would England escape this inconsistency and reproach,

by repealing the corn law, but she would strike a most effectual

blow at the existence of slavery in the United States. Cotton,

at present, from being made by the corn law the principal

exchangeable article in the American trade, assumes an undue and

unnatural importance in American commerce, legislation, and home

industry. The slave-owner drives his slaves in its production,

and purchases supplies of the northern freeman, whose interests

are thus identified with those of the cotton grower, and the

slave-holding interest becomes predominant in the country. From

their habits, the people of the slave-holding States are

constantly contracting more debts in the free States than they

have the means of paying; so that, under the present system of

intercourse, the slaveholders exercise over the free population

of the north, the same control which an insolvent debtor

frequently has over his creditor, by threatening to break and

ruin him, if not allowed his own way. A repeal of the corn laws

would release the free States from their present commercial and

consequent political vassalage to the southern slave-holders,

and thereby take from American slavery, the great citadel of its

strength, and insure its overthrow by the influences which would

arise to assail it from all quarters.

"But as free trade, in destroying the odious monopoly of the

haughty slave-holder, would benefit and not injure him, so would

its effects be found universally. It would give peace and plenty

to England and the world,--it would enlarge and secure trade,

bind the spreading branches of the Anglo-saxon race by natural

affinity to England as their acknowledged head, and promote the

liberty and civilization of the human family at large."

In view of the whole spirit of this discussion of one of the most

important questions bearing upon human interests, I would simply add,

that a wise Providence has bound the duty and the interest, both of

individual and social man, firmly together, but for the trial of his

virtue the bands are concealed.

On the 31st, I took my luggage on board the steam packet "Caledonia,"

for Liverpool, via Halifax, which was to sail the day following,

although it was the first day of the week. The proprietors of the

packets are bound in a heavy fine to sail on the appointed days, whether

those fall on the first day of the week or not. By this arrangement the

religious feelings of the people of Boston are offended, which is the

more inexcusable, on the part of the British Government, as it does not

suffer its own mails to depart, either from London or Halifax, on that

day. Some gentlemen, who were interested in the subject, placed in my

hands a memorial addressed to the Lords of the Admiralty in Great

Britain, praying for such an alteration of the arrangements as would

prevent this periodical violation of the first day of the week. A

gentleman, who was active in getting it signed, assured me it was

received with universal favor. The signatures, obtained on very short

notice, are those of the most influential men in their respective

stations in the city of Boston, and include the names of the mayor of

the city, an ex-lieutenant governor of the State of Massachusetts, one

bishop, upwards of forty ministers of religion, of different

denominations, nine gentleman, upwards of one hundred and twenty

merchants, seventeen presidents of insurance companies, the post-master

of Boston, five physicians, seven members of the legal profession, and

two editors of newspapers. After my arrival in this country, I presented

this document, through the Secretary of the Admiralty, to the

authorities to whom it is addressed, but regret to state that the

request was not complied with. The memorial, and the reply of the Lords

of the Admiralty are given in the Appendix[A]

[Footnote A: .See Appendix L.]

On leaving the shores of the United States, I left the following letter

for publication:--

"_To the Friends of Immediate Emancipation in the United

States_.

"Having visited your country as an humble fellow-laborer in the

great cause in which you are engaged, and which, through trials

and difficulties a stranger can scarcely appreciate, you have so

zealously maintained, I have had a pleasing and satisfactory

interview with many of you, with reference to future exertions,

in cooperation with those of other lands, who unite with you in

regarding slave-holding and slave-trading as a heinous sin in

the sight of God, which should be immediately abolished. It is

the especial privilege of those who are laboring in such a

cause, to feel that 'every country is their country, and every

man their brother,' and to live above the atmosphere of

sectional jealousy and national hostility; and hence I feel an

assurance, that you will receive with kindness a few lines from

me on the eve of my departure to my native land.

"You concur generally in opinion, that in endeavoring to obtain

the great object we have in view, it is very important that the

friends of the cause should be united, not only in principle,

but, as far as may be, in the character of the measures which

they pursue; and I have been much encouraged in finding that you

have generally adopted the sentiment so rapidly spreading on the

other side of the Atlantic,--'That there is no reasonable hope

of abolishing the slave-trade, but, by the abolition of slavery,

and that no measures should be pursued for its attainment, but

those which are of a moral, religious, and pacific character.'

The progress of emancipation in Europe has been, beyond a doubt,

greatly retarded by leaving slavery and the slave-holder

unmarked by public reprobation, and concentrating all the

energies of philanthropy upon a fruitless effort to abolish the

slave-trade. And in this country the Colonization scheme, with

its delusive promise of good to Africa, and its vague

anticipations of putting an end to the slave-trade by armed

colonies on the coast of that ill-fated continent, has been the

means of obstructing emancipation at home, of unprofitably

absorbing the energies and blinding the judgment of many sincere

friends of the slave, and of strengthening the unchristian

prejudice against color. The abolitionists of Europe, with few

exceptions, have seen the error of their former course of

action, and are now striking directly at the root, instead of

lopping the branches of slavery; and if further evidence of the

evil tendency and character of colonization is needed in the

United States, the recent proceeding of a meeting of the

Maryland Society at Baltimore, must convince all who are

friendly to the true interests of the people of color, that it

is a scheme deserving only the support of the enemies of

freedom.[A]

[Footnote A: "The following resolution was passed at the meeting

of the Maryland Society above alluded to:--'That while it is

most earnestly hoped that the free colored people of Maryland

may see that their best and most permanent interests will be

consulted by their emigration from this State; and while this

Convention would deprecate any departure from the principle

which makes colonization dependent upon the voluntary action of

the free colored people themselves--yet, if, regardless of what

has been done to provide them with an asylum, they continue to

persist in remaining in Maryland, in the hope of enjoying here

an equality of social and political rights, they ought to be

solemnly warned, that, in the opinion of this Convention, a day

must arrive when circumstances that cannot be controlled, and

which are now maturing, will deprive them of choice, and leave

them no alternative but removal,'"]

"The rapid progress of public opinion, as to the iniquity of

slavery, and the entire safety, as well as advantage, of its

immediate abolition--the attention which has been awakened to it

in all parts of the civilized world--the movements in France,

Spain, Brazil, and Denmark, and other countries with

slave-holding dependencies, all indicating that the days of

slavery are numbered, should serve to encourage and stimulate us

to increased exertions; and while it is a cause of profound

regret, that any thing should have disturbed the harmony and

unity of the real friends of emancipation in this country--the

hardest battle field of our moral warfare--I am not without

hope, that, in future, those who,--from a conscientious

difference of opinion, not as to the object, but the precise

mode of obtaining it,--cannot act in one united band, will

laudably emulate each other in the promotion of our common

cause, and in Christian forbearance upon points of disagreement;

and that, where they cannot praise, they will be careful not to

censure those, who, by a different road, are earnestly pursuing

the same end. Without entering into the controversies which have

divided our friends on this side the water, I believe it would

be nothing more than a simple act of justice for me to state, on

my return to Europe, my conviction that a large portion of the

abolitionists of the United States, who approve of the

proceedings of the late General Anti-Slavery Convention, and are

desirous of acting in unity with the British and Foreign

Anti-Slavery Society, from the general identity of their

practice, as well as principles, with those of the British and

Foreign Society, are entitled to the sympathies, and deserving

of the confidence and co-operation of the abolitionists of Great

Britain. It has been my pleasure to meet, in a kindly

interchange of opinion, many valuable and devoted friends of

emancipation; who, while dissenting from the class

above-mentioned in some respects, are nevertheless disposed to

cultivate feelings of charity and good will towards all who are

sincerely laboring for the slaves. And in this connection I may

state, that neither on behalf of myself, or of my esteemed

coadjutors in Great Britain, am I disposed to recriminate upon

another class of abolitionists, who, on some points, have so far

differed from the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Committee,

and the great majority of the Convention above mentioned, as to

sustain their representatives in refusing to act with that

Convention, and in protesting against its proceedings; and who

have seen fit to censure the committee in their public meetings

and newspapers in this country, as 'arbitrary and despotic,' and

their conduct as 'unworthy of men claiming the character of

abolitionists.'

"As a corresponding member of the British and Foreign

Anti-Slavery Committee, and intimately acquainted with its

proceedings, I am persuaded that its members have acted wisely,

and consulted the best interest of the cause in which they were

engaged, in generally leaving unnoticed any censures that have

been cast upon them while in the prosecution of their labors.

Yet, before leaving this country, I deem it right to bear my

testimony to the great anxiety of that committee faithfully to

discharge the duties committed to their trust; and to state that

it has never been my privilege to be united to any body more

desirous of keeping simply to the one great object of their

association--the total and immediate abolition of slavery and

the slave-trade. I am persuaded that all candid minds, making

due allowance for the imperfection pertaining to human

associations, will feel their confidence in the future integrity

of that committee increased in proportion as they closely

investigate their past acts; and that, even when the wisdom of

their course may have been questioned, they will accord to them

a scrupulous honesty of purpose.

"The first public suggestion of a General Anti-Slavery

Convention, like the one held last year in London, originated, I

believe, on this side of the Atlantic, although the Committee of

the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society took upon

themselves the heavy responsibility of convening it. At its

close, they invited an expression of the opinion of the

delegates, as to the desirableness of again summoning such an

assembly. The expression was generally in the affirmative; and,

after discussion, a resolution was passed, leaving it to the

Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, after

consulting with the friends of the cause in other parts of the

world, to decide this important question, as well as the time

and place of its meeting, should another Convention be resolved

upon.

"Since I have been in the United States, I have found those

abolitionists who approved the principles and proceedings of the

late Convention so generally in favor of another, and of London

as its place of meeting, that the only question seemed to be

whether it should be held in 1842 or 1843. This expression of

opinion is, I know, so generally in accordance with the views of

the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Committee, and of many

other prominent abolitionists in Europe, that I have little

doubt they will feel encouraged to act upon it, probably at the

latter period. There is abundant and increasing evidence of the

powerfully beneficial influence of the late Convention upon

almost every part of the world where slavery is still tolerated;

and we are encouraged to hope that the one in anticipation will

be still more efficient for the promotion of universal liberty.

"Painful as has been to me the spectacle of many of the leading

influences of the ecclesiastical bodies in this country, either

placed in direct hostility to, or acting as a drag upon, the

wheel of the anti-slavery enterprise--and of the manifest

preponderance of a slave-holding influence in the councils of

the State--I am not one of those who despair of a healthful

renovation of public sentiment which shall purify Church as well

as State from this abomination. There are decided indications

that all efforts of councils and synods to unite 'pure religion

and undefiled,' with a slave-trading and slave-holding

counterfeit of Christianity, must ere long utterly fail. And it

is to me a matter of joy, as it must be to every friend of

impartial liberty and free institutions, that the citizens of

this republic are more and more feeling that the plague-spot of

slavery, as with the increased facilities of communication its

horrors and deformity become more apparent in the eyes of the

world, is fixing a deep disgrace upon the character of their

country, and paralyzing the beneficial influence which might

otherwise flow from it as an example of a well-regulated free

government. May each American citizen who is desirous of washing

away this disgrace, to whatever division of the anti-slavery

host he may attach himself, ever bear in mind that the cause is

of too tremendous and pressing a nature to admit of his wasting

his time in censuring and impeding the progress of those who may

array themselves under a somewhat different standard from his

own; and that any energies thus wasted, which belong to the one

great object, so far as human instrumentality is concerned, is

not only deferring the day of freedom to two and a half millions

of his countrymen, but inasmuch as the fall of American slavery

must be the death-blow to the horrid system, wherever it exists,

the result of the struggle here involves the slavery or freedom

of millions in other parts of the world, as well as the

continuance or suppression of that slave-trade, to the foreign

branch of which alone more than _one thousand victims are daily

sacrificed_; and in reference to which it has justly been said,

'that all that has been borne to Africa of the boasted

improvements of civilized life, is a masterly skill in the

contrivance, and an unhesitating daring in the commission of

crimes, which the mind of the savage was too simple to devise,

and his heart too gentle to execute.' There are no doubtful

indications that it is the will of Him, who has the hearts of

all at His disposal, that, either in judgment or in mercy, this

dreadful system shall ere long cease. It is not for us to say

why, in His inscrutable wisdom, He has thus far permitted one

portion of His creatures so cruelly to oppress another; or by

what instrumentality He will at length redress the wrongs of the

poor, and the oppression of the needy; but should the worst

fears of one of your most distinguished citizens, who in view of

this subject, acknowledged that he 'trembled for his country,

when he remembered that God was just,' be finally realized, may

each one of you feel that no exertions on his part have been

wanting to avert the Divine displeasure, and preserve your land

from those calamities which, in all ages, have rebuked the

crimes of nations.

"Your sincere friend,

"JOSEPH STURGE.

"Boston, Seventh Month 31st, 1841."

My dear friend John G. Whittier, whose pleasant company and invaluable

aid I had enjoyed, as much as his health would permit, during my stay in

the United States, kindly accompanied me on board. Had he been less

closely identified with the transactions of which the present volume is

a record, I should have felt it due to his station among the earliest

and most distinguished advocates of the anti-slavery cause in America,

to attempt some delineation, however imperfect, of that rare and

consecrated union of consistent Christian character, fine talents, and

sound and impartial judgment, which give him so much weight in the

councils of his fellow-laborers. We set sail about noon on the 1st of

the Eighth month, (August,) and arrived off Liverpool about eleven

o'clock, P.M. on the 13th, which interval included ten hours delay at

Halifax. We had about ninety passengers from Halifax to Liverpool, and

with the exception of a severe gale on the 10th, almost amounting to a

hurricane, we had a very favorable voyage. The time from Halifax to

within sight of the light house off the south coast of Ireland was

announced to be only nine days and thirteen minutes.

One of my fellow passengers had recently been traveling in the southern

States, and showed me a letter given to him as a curiosity at the post

office at Charleston, South Carolina, which was addressed by a slave to

her husband, but from insufficient direction had never reached its

destination. It was to convey the tidings that she was about to be sold

to the South, and begging him, in simple and affecting terms, to come

and see her, as they would never meet again. Another of the passengers,

who had also been a fellow voyager with my friend Joseph John Gurney,

had recently travelled in Texas. He was strongly impressed with the

evils likely to result from the proposed recognition of that government

by Great Britain. In consequence of the promising aspect of these

negotiations between General Hamilton and Lord Palmerston in favor of

Texas, the paper money issued by that piratical government, and which

had not been previously negotiable for more than one tenth of its

nominal value, rapidly rose. The Texas republic, in his opinion, could

not secure a permanence without British recognition.

Many planters, with their slaves, have emigrated thither to escape their

creditors from the border States, and the republic has been lavish of

grants of land to men of capital and influence, to induce them to settle

within its limits. My informant considered the state of society to be as

bad as it well could be, and continue to exist. The white inhabitants

are living not only in fear of hostile Indians, but in fear of each

other.

From a late letter of a friend in America, I make the following extract

relative to the present condition of Texas.

"To give thee some adequate idea of the importance of that

beautiful republic of Texas, which Lord Palmerston and the late

Whig government of England took under their especial protection,

I will just refer to the statistics of the late election of its

President. The successful candidate, General Houston, a man

notorious for his open contempt for all the decencies of

civilized society,--brutal, brawling, profane, and

licentious,--received somewhat rising five thousand votes: his

competitor, Judge Burnet, between two and three thousand,--a

vote smaller by thousands than that of our little county of

Essex, in Massachusetts. Late accounts from Texas inform us that

gangs of organized desperadoes, under the names of moderators

and regulators, are traversing its territory, perpetrating the

most brutal outrages. In one instance they seized a respectable

citizen who dared to express his dissatisfaction with their

proceedings, hurried him into the forest, and deliberately dug

his grave before his eyes, _intending to bury him alive_! The

miserable victim, horrified by the prospect of such a fate,

broke away from his tormentors, and attempted to escape, but was

shot down and instantly killed! Such a congregation as Texas

presents was never, I suspect, known, save in that city into

which the Macedonian monarch gathered and garnered, in one

scoundrel community, the vagabond rascality of his kingdom.

"Thou would'st be amused to read an article, which has made its

appearance in the _Houston Telegraph_--a Texian paper--in which

the editor says, 'that while we deeply commiserate the situation

of our sister republic, in regard to the political scourge of

abolitionism, it is pleasing to reflect that our country enjoys

a _complete immunity from its effects_. Indeed we may with

safety declare, that throughout the whole extent of our country,

not a single abolitionist can be found.' He goes on to say that

this induces many of the southern planters to emigrate to Texas,

who, he remarks, '_will necessarily look to Texas, as the

Hebrews did to the promised land, for a refuge and home_.' It

will thus be seen that Texas is the promised land of the

patriarchal slave-holders of the southern States. When hunted

from every other quarter of the globe by the inexorable spirit

of abolition, when even Cuba and Brazil cease to afford them an

asylum--when slave-holding shall be every where else as odious

and detestable as midnight larceny, or highway robbery,--Texas

alone, uninfected and secure, is to open its gates of refuge to

the persecuted Calhouns and McDuffies, and their northern allies

in church and state--the San Marino of slavery, dissevered from

the world's fanaticism--isolated and apart, like the floating

air-island of Dean Swift."

The following extract from a recent New York paper gives an equally

deplorable representation of the society in Texas.

"The pestilent influence of the recent horrible murders on the

Arkansas, and other United States' rivers, has caused the

practice of lynching to break forth with renewed fury in Texas,

where it had apparently slept for the previous year. And we find

recorded in the Texas papers nearly a dozen of these murders

that have occurred, and undoubtedly there have been more than as

many more. In Shelby county two citizens have been shot down,

and several houses burned by a party of outlaws. In Red River

two men have been hanged as horse-thieves, without judge or

jury. In Washington county one man has been shot down, under the

pretence that he was a murderer. In Austin county two men were

killed, and two hostile parties were in arms for several days,

taking the law into their own hands. In Jefferson county two men

have been killed, and the house of one of them burnt to the

ground by a party of self-styled 'regulators.' And all this in

the space of a year."

Several of my fellow-passengers were from Cuba, and some of them

slave-holders by their own admission. With one or two of those who could

speak English, I had much conversation on the abolition of slavery. They

concurred with apparent sincerity in the desire that the slave trade

might be effectually suppressed. They seemed to consider that this trade

was promoted by the mother country as one means of preventing the colony

from aspiring to independence. They admitted the abstract injustice of

slavery, and one remarked, that a difference of the color of the skin

was a misfortune, not a crime. They were not, however, disposed to

entertain a thought of emancipation, without being fully compensated for

their slaves.

I had again the pleasure of observing on this voyage, the benefits of

the change of system with regard to the supply of wines and spirits,

each passenger paying for what he consumes, instead of his fare

including the privilege of drinking _ad libitum_. One of the stewards

told me the quantity consumed was little more than one-tenth as much as

under the former system.

I cannot conclude my narrative more gratefully to my own feelings than

by a tribute to the upright and conscientious officer who commanded the

vessel. On the first day of the week, the only one we spent at sea, the

passengers, and as many of the servants as could conveniently attend,

assembled morning and evening in the saloon, for the purpose of

religious worship. Lord Frederick Fitzclarence, one of the passengers,

officiating as a minister of the English Establishment; and every

evening a similar opportunity was offered in the fore cabin to all who

were inclined to be present. The captain firmly resisted the

introduction of cards on the first day of the week, and in his whole

conduct manifested an anxiety not only for the temporal comfort and

safety, but for the spiritual interests of those under his care. Would

that all captains of vessels, invested as they are with such authority

and influence over the passengers and crews, were like-minded with my

friend Captain McKellar.

I disembarked at Liverpool early in the morning on the 14th of Eighth

month, (August,) 1841.