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