MORAL EFFORTS.
In 1834 Major Delany was actively engaged in the organization of
several associations for the relief of the poor of the city, and for
the moral elevation of his people. Among them was the first total
abstinence society ever formed among the colored people; and another
known as the Philanthropic Society, which, while formed ostensibly
for benevolent purposes, relative to the indigent of the city, was
really the foundation of one of the great links connecting the slaves
with their immediate friends in the North,--known as the “Underground
Railroad,”--which, for long years, had baffled the slaveholders. Of its
executive board he was for many years secretary.
The work contributed by this association constituted it the invaluable
aid of the anti-slavery cause. Its efficiency may be judged from the
fact that, while in its infancy, it is recorded that, within one year,
not less than two hundred and sixty-nine persons were aided in escaping
to Canada and elsewhere.
His sphere in life gave character to him, identifying him with a people
and a time at once wonderful and perilous; wonderful that amid all
the indignities and outrages heaped upon them, unrebuked by church
or state, they did not degenerate into infidels and law-breakers,
instead of being the Christian and truly law-abiding element of the
republic--perilous, for the emissaries of the South instituted the
fiendish spirit of mobbism, selecting either the dwellings or the
business-places of the prominent colored men of the city. On one
occasion, while this spirit was rife, they made an attack on the
house of Mr. John B. Vashon. Major Delany, then quite a young man,
but true to his principles of justice and humanity, and in view of
future outrages, together with men of more mature age, called on Judge
Pentland and other prominent citizens, to notify them that, though
they were a law-abiding people, they did not intend to remain and be
murdered in their houses without a most determined resistance to their
assailants, as there was little or no assistance or protection rendered
by the authorities.
This resulted in his being chosen one of the special police from among
the blacks and whites appointed in conjunction with the military called
out by the intrepid mayor of Pittsburg, Dr. Jonas R. McClintock. Many
were the occasions on which he stood among the foremost defenders
against those mobs which at that time were more frequent than desirable.
The general grievances of the colored people of the North, occasioned
solely on account of caste, were a disgrace to the civilization of the
age, and incompatible with the elements of our professed republicanism,
which induced them to call an assemblage year after year, delegating
their best talent to these, for the purpose of placing before the
people the true condition of the colored people of the North, and also
to devise methods of assisting the slaves of the South.
These conventions were held at an early date. As far back as 1829 we
find a National Convention Meeting in Philadelphia, and where for
many subsequent years they assembled; and enrolled on their list of
members we find the honored names of Robert Douglass (the father of the
artist), Hinton, Grice, Bowers, Burr, and Forten, together with Peck,
Vashon, Shadd, and others whose names would give dignity and character
to any convention.
Through a series of years these continued lifting up their voices
against the existing political outrages to which they were subjected.
To the last of these (about 1836) Major Delany, together with the Rev.
Lewis Woodson, his former preceptor, who, being senior colleague, was
chosen to represent the status of the community at large. On arriving
at Philadelphia they found the Convention had been transferred to
New York; and on their arrival at that point they were notified that
it had been indefinitely postponed, chilling the hopes, doubtless,
of our young delegate with his maiden speech trembling on his lips,
the “tremendous applause” ringing in his ears, and other fancies
legitimately belonging to the rôle of a young man for the first time
taking his place as a representative among the elders.
About three years after, he attended the Anti-slavery Convention at
Pittsburg. At this Convention were many learned divines and a president
of one of the universities of Western Pennsylvania. Here he brought
upon himself the censure of some of his friends for saying in the
course of his argument (concerning Jewish slavery as compared with that
which existed in America), that “_Onesimus was a blood-kin brother
to Philemon_.” This extraordinary and then entirely new ground was so
unexpected and original, that while many approached, congratulating
him on his able arguments, they expressed their regrets that he
ventured to use such weapons, as he rendered himself liable to severe
criticism from the whites. He replied that, in the course of events
soon to greet them, this would become an established fact. He was not
incorrect, only “imprudent,” as the time had not arrived to proclaim
such bold opinions. His fault, in most cases, is in expressing the
thoughts that shape themselves in his healthy, active brain far in
advance of the time allotted by a conservative element for receiving
it. He plans long before the workmen are ready or willing to execute.
Says that friend of humanity, Wendell Phillips, “What world-wide
benefactors these ‘imprudent’ men are--the Lovejoys, the Browns, the
Garrisons, the saints, the martyrs! How ‘prudently’ most men creep into
nameless graves, while now and then one or two forget themselves into
immortality.”
A few years before this Delany began the study of medicine, under the
late Dr. Andrew N. McDowell, but for some cause did not continue to
completion, as he entered practically upon dentistry. The knowledge
acquired in surgery he made use of whenever immediate necessity
required it. On one occasion, in 1839, he went down the Mississippi to
New Orleans, thence to Texas. While at Alexandria he met with the chief
of adventurers, General Felix Houston, whose attention was attracted by
witnessing him dressing the wound of a man stabbed by an intoxicated
comrade. General Houston offered him a good position and protection
if he would join him. He declined the offer, and continued his tour,
spending several months among the slaveholding Indians of Mississippi,
Louisiana, Arkansas, and Texas, viewing the “peculiar institution” as
it existed in all its varied phases,--its pride and gloom,--not loving
freedom less, but hating slavery more, if possible.
He watched closely the scenes through which he had passed, and the
experience gained among the slaves of the south-west was carefully
garnered up for future usefulness. His present post of duty on the Sea
Island of South Carolina, where he executes the duties of his office
with zeal and ability, while his busy brain constantly devises some
new measure for the advancement and elevation of the newly-recognized
people, attests this fact.