which have been committed against them; they are the tempters, and are
held responsible by God, as well as the tempted. Wilt thou tell me, who
was responsible for the mob which went with swords and staves to take an
innocent man before the tribunals of Annas and Pilate, some 1800 years
ago? And who was responsible for the uproar at Ephesus, the insurrection
at Athens, and the tumults at Lystra and Iconium? Were I a mobocrat, I
should want no better excuse than thou hast furnished for such outrages.
Wonderful indeed, if, in free America, her citizens cannot _choose_ where
they will erect their literary institutions and presses, to advocate the
self-evident truths of our Declaration of Independence! And still more
wonderful, that a New England woman should, _after years of reflection_,
deliberately write a book to condemn the advocates of liberty, and plead
excuses for a relentless prejudice against her colored brethren and
sisters, and for the persecutors of those, who, according to the opinion
of a _Southern_ member of Congress, are prosecuting ‘the _only plan_ that
can ever overthrow slavery at the South.’ I am glad, _for thy own sake_,
that thou hast exculpated abolitionists from the charge of the ‘deliberate
intention of fomenting illegal acts of violence.’ Would it not have been
still better, if thou hadst spared the remarks which rendered such an
explanation necessary?
I find that thou wilt not allow of the comparison often drawn between the
effects of christianity on the hearts of those who obstinately rejected
it, and those of abolitionism on the hearts of people of the present day.
Thou sayest, ‘Christianity is a system of _persuasion_, tending by kind
and gentle influences to make men _willing_ to leave their sins.’ Dost
thou suppose the Pharisees and Sadducees deemed it was very _kind_ and
_gentle_ in its influences, when our holy Redeemer called them ‘a
generation of vipers,’ or when he preached that sermon ‘full of harshness,
uncharitableness, rebuke and denunciation,’ recorded in the xxiii. chapter
of Matthew? But I shall be told that Christ knew the hearts of all men,
and therefore it was right for him to use terms which mere human beings
never ought to employ. Read, then, the prophecies of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and
others, and also the Epistles of the New Testament. They employed the most
offensive terms on many occasions, and the sharpest rebukes, knowing full
well that there are some sinners who can be reached by nothing but
death-thrusts at their consciences. An anecdote of JOHN RICHARDSON, who
was remarkable for his urbanity of manners, occurs to me. He one day
preached a sermon in a country town, in which he made use of some _hard_
language; a friend reproved him after meeting, and inquired whether he did
not know that hard wood was split by soft knocks. Yes, said Richardson,
but I also know that there is some wood so rotten at the heart, that
nothing but tremendously hard blows will ever split it open. Ah! John,
replied the elder, I see thou understandest _how_ to do thy master’s work.
Now, I believe this nation is _rotten at the heart_, and that nothing but
the most tremendous blows with the sledge-hammer of abolition truth, could
ever have broken the false rest which we had taken up for ourselves on the
very brink of ruin.
‘Abolitionism, on the contrary, is a system of _coercion_ by public
opinion.’ By this assertion, I presume thou ‘hast not been correctly
informed’ as to the reasons which have induced abolitionists to put forth
all their energies to rectify public opinion. It is _not_ because we wish
to wield this public opinion like a rod of iron over the heads of
slaveholders, to _coerce_ them into an abandonment of the system of
slavery; not at all. We are striving to purify public opinion, first,
because as long as the North is so much involved in the guilt of slavery,
by its political, commercial, religious, and social connexion with the
South, _her own citizens_ need to be converted. Second, because we know
that when public opinion is rectified at the North, it will throw a flood
of light from its million of reflecting surfaces upon the heart and soul
of the South. The South sees full well at what we are aiming, and she is
so unguarded as to acknowledge that ‘if she does not resist the danger in
its inception, it will _soon_ become _irresistible_.’ She exclaims in
terror, ‘the truth is, the _moral_ power of the world is against us; it is
idle to disguise it.’ The fact is, that the slaveholders of the South, and
their northern apologists, have been overtaken by the storm of free
discussion, and are something like those who go down to the sea and do
business in the great waters: ‘they reel to and fro, and stagger like a
drunken man, and are at their wit’s end.’
Our view of the doctrine of expediency, thou art pleased to pronounce
‘wrong and very pernicious in its tendency.’ Expediency is emphatically
the doctrine by which the children of this world are wont to guide their
steps, whilst the rejection of it as a rule of action exactly accords with
the divine injunction, to ‘walk by faith, _not_ by sight.’ Thy doctrine
that ‘the wisdom and rectitude of a given course depend entirely on the
_probabilities of success_,’ is not the doctrine of the Bible. According
to this principle, how absurd was the conduct of Moses! What probability
of success was there that he could move the heart of Pharaoh? None at all;
and thus did _he_ reason when he said, ‘Who am _I_, that I should go unto
Pharaoh?’ And again, ‘Behold, they will not believe _me_, nor hearken unto
my voice.’ The _success_ of Moses’s mission in persuading the king of
Egypt to ‘let the people go,’ was not involved in the duty of obedience to
the divine command. Neither was the success of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and
others of the prophets who were singularly _unsuccessful_ in their mission
to the Jews. All who see the path of duty plain before them, are bound to
walk in that path, end where it may. They then can realize the meaning of
the Apostle, when he exhorts Christians to cast all their burden on the
Lord, with the promise that He would sustain them. This is walking by
_faith_, not by sight. In the work in which abolitionists are engaged,
they are compelled to ‘walk by faith;’ they feel called upon to preach the
truth in season and out of season, to lift up their voices like a trumpet,
to show the people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins.
The _success_ of this mission, _they_ have no more to do with, than had
Moses and Aaron, Jeremiah or Isaiah, with that of theirs. Whether the
South will be saved by Anti-Slavery efforts, is not a question for us to
settle--and in some of our hearts, the _hope of its salvation has utterly
gone out_. All nations have been punished for oppression, and why should
ours escape? Our light, and high professions, and the age in which we
live, convict us not only of enormous oppression, but of the vilest
hypocrisy. It may be that the rejection of the truth which we are now
pouring in upon the South, may be the final filling up of their
iniquities, just previous to the bursting of God’s exterminating thunders
over the Sodoms and Gomorrahs, the Admahs and Zeboims of America. The
_result_ of our labors is hidden from our eyes; whether the preaching of
Anti-Slavery truth is to be a savor of life unto life, or of death unto
death to this nation, we know not; and we have no more to do with it, than
had the Apostle Paul, when he preached Christ to the people of his day.
If American Slavery goes down in blood, it will but verify the
declarations of those who uphold it. A committee of the North Carolina
Legislature acknowledged this to an English Friend ten years ago.
Jefferson more than once uttered his gloomy forebodings; and the
Legislators of Virginia, in 1832, declared that if the opportunity of
escape, through the means of emancipation, were rejected, ‘though they
might _save themselves_, they would rear their posterity to the business
of the dagger and the torch.’ I have myself known several families to
leave the South, solely from a fear of insurrection; and this twelve and
fourteen years ago, long before any Anti-Slavery efforts were made in this
country. And yet, I presume, _if_ through the cold-hearted apathy and
obstinate opposition of the North, the South should become strengthened in
her desperate determination to hold on to her outraged victims, until they
are goaded to despair, and if the Lord in his wrath pours out the vials of
his vengeance upon the slave States, why then, Abolitionists will have to
bear all the blame. Thou hast drawn a frightful picture of the final issue
of Anti-Slavery efforts, as thou art pleased to call it; but none of these
things move me, for with just as much truth mayest thou point to the land
of Egypt, blackened by God’s avenging fires, and exclaim, ‘Behold the
issue of Moses’s mission.’ Nay, verily! See in that smoking, and
blood-drenched house of bondage, the consequences of oppression,
disobedience, and an obstinate rejection of truth, and light, and love.
What had Moses to do with those judgment plagues, except to lift his rod?
And if the South soon finds her winding sheet in garments rolled in blood,
it will _not_ be because of what the North has told her, but because, like
impenitent Egypt, she hardened her heart against it, whilst the voices of
some of her own children were crying in agony, ‘O! that thou hadst known,
even thou, in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace; but now
they are hid from thine eyes.’
Thy friend,
A. E. GRIMKÉ.
LETTER IX.
EFFECT ON THE SOUTH.
BROOKLINE, Mass., _8th month, 17th, 1837_.
DEAR FRIEND:--Thou sayest ‘There are cases also, where differences in age,
and station, and character, forbid all interference to modify the conduct
and character of others.’ Let us bring this to the only touchstone by
which Christians should try their principles of action.
How was it when God designed to rid his people out of the hands of the
Egyptian monarch? Was _his_ station so exalted ‘as to forbid all
interference to modify his character and conduct?’ And _who_ was sent to
interfere with his conduct towards a stricken people? Was it some brother
monarch of exalted station, whose elevated rank might serve to excuse such
interference ‘to modify his conduct and character?’ No. It was an obscure
shepherd of Midian’s desert; for let us remember, that Moses, in pleading
the cause of the Israelites, identified himself with the _lowest_ and
_meanest_ of the King’s subjects. Ah! he was _one of that despised caste_;
for, although brought up as the son of the princess, yet he had left Egypt
as an outlaw. He had committed the crime of murder, and fled because the
monarch ‘sought to slay him.’ This exiled outlaw is the instrument chosen
by God to vindicate the cause of his oppressed people. Moses was in the
sight of Pharaoh as much an object of scorn, as Garrison now is to the
tyrants of America. Some seem to think, that great moral enterprises can
be made honorable only by Doctors of Divinity, and Presidents of Colleges,
engaging in them: when all powerful Truth cannot be dignified by _any_
man, but _it_ dignifies and ennobles all who embrace it. _It_ lifts the
beggar from the dunghill, and sets him among princes. Whilst it needs no
great names to bear it onward to its glorious consummation, it is
continually making great characters out of apparently mean and unpromising
materials; and in the intensity of its piercing rays, revealing to the
amazement of many, the insignificance and _moral_ littleness of those who
fill the highest stations in Church and State.
But take a few more examples from the bible, of those in high stations
being reproved by men of inferior rank. Look at David rebuked by Nathan,
Ahab and Jezebel by Elijah and Micaiah. What, too, was the conduct of
Daniel and Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego, but a _practical_ rebuke of
Darius and Nebuchadnezzar? And _who_ were these men, apart from these acts
of daring interference? They were the Lord’s prophets, I shall be told;
but what cared those monarchs for _this fact_? How much credit did they
give them for holding this holy office? None. And why? Because all but
David were impenitent sinners, and rejected with scorn all ‘interference
to modify their conduct or characters.’ Reformers are rarely estimated in
the age in which they live, whether they be called prophets or apostles,
or abolitionists, or what not. They stand on the rock of Truth, and calmly
look down upon the careering thunder-clouds, the tempest, and the roaring
waves, because they well know that where the atmosphere is surcharged with
pestilential vapors, a conflict of the elements _must_ take place, before
it can be purified by that moral electricity, beautifully typified by the
cloven tongues that sat upon _each_ of the heads of the 120 disciples who
were convened on the day of Pentecost. Such men and women expect to be
‘blamed and opposed, because their measures are deemed inexpedient, and
calculated to increase rather than diminish the evil to be cured.’ They
know full well, that _intellectual_ greatness cannot give _moral_
perception--therefore, _those who have no clear views of the
irresistibleness of moral power, cannot see the efficacy of moral means_.
They say with the apostle, ‘The natural man receiveth not the things of
the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned.’ We know full well, that
northern men and women laugh at the inefficacy of Anti-Slavery measures;
_but slaveholders never have ridiculed them_: not that their moral
perceptions are any clearer than those of our northern opponents, but
where men’s _interests_ and _lust of power_ are immediately affected by
moral effort, they instinctively feel that it is so, and tremble for the
result.
But suppose even that our measures were calculated to _increase_ the
evils of slavery. _The measures adopted by Moses, and sanctioned by God,
increased the burdens of the Israelites._ Were they, therefore,
_inexpedient_? And yet, if _our_ measures produce a similar effect, O
then! they are very inexpedient indeed. The truth is, when we look at
Moses and his measures, we look at them in connection with the
emancipation of the Israelites. The _ultimate_ and glorious success of the
measures proves their wisdom and expediency. But when Anti-Slavery
measures are looked at _now_, we see them long _before the end is
accomplished_. We see, according to thy account, the burdens increased;
but we do not yet see the triumphant march through the Red Sea, nor do we
hear the song of joy and thanksgiving which ascended from Israel’s
redeemed host. But canst thou not give us twenty years to complete our
work? Clarkson, thy much admired model, worked twenty years; and the
benevolent Colonization Society has been in operation twenty years. Just
give us as long a time, or half that time, and then thou wilt be a far
better judge of the expediency or inexpediency of our measures. Then thou
wilt be able to look at them in connection with their success or their
failure, and instead of writing a book on thy opinions and my opinions,
thou canst write a _history_.
I cannot agree with thee in the sentiment, that the station of a nursery
maid makes it inexpedient for her to turn reprover of the master who
employs her. This is the doctrine of _modern aristocracy_, not of
primitive christianity; for ecclesiastical history informs us that, in the
first ages of christianity, kings were converted through the faithful and
solemn rebukes of their slaves and captives. I have myself been reproved
by a _slave_, and I thanked her, and still thank her for it. Think how
this doctrine robs the nursery maid of her responsibility, and shields the
master from reproof; for it may be that she alone has seen him ill-treat
his wife. Now it appears to me, so far from her station forbidding all
interference to modify the character and conduct of her employer, that
that station peculiarly qualifies her for the difficult and delicate task,
because nursery maids often know secrets of oppression, which no other
persons are fully acquainted with. For my part, I believe it is _now the
duty of the slaves of the South to rebuke their masters_ for their
robbery, oppression and crime; and so far from believing that such
‘reproof would do no good, but only evil,’ I think it would be attended by
the happiest results in the main, though I doubt not it would occasion
some instances of severe personal suffering. No station or character can
destroy individual responsibility, in the matter of reproving sin. I feel
that a slave has a right to rebuke me, and so has the vilest sinner; and
the sincere, humble christian will be thankful for rebuke, let it come
from whom it may. Such, I am confident, never would think it inexpedient
for their chamber maids to administer it, but would endeavor to profit by
it.
Thou askest very gravely, why James G. Birney did not go quietly into the
southern States, and collect facts? Indeed! Why should he go to the South
to collect facts, when he had lived there forty years? Thou mayest with
just as much propriety ask me, why I do not go to the South to collect
facts. The answer to both questions is obvious:--We have lived at the
South, as _integral_ parts of the system of slavery, and therefore we know
from practical observation and sad experience, quite enough about it
already. I think it would be absurd for either of us to spend our time in
such a way. And even if J. G. Birney had not lived at the South, why
should he go there to collect facts, when the Anti-Slavery presses are
continually throwing them out before the public? Look, too, at the Slave
Laws! What more do we need to show us the bloody hands and iron heart of
Slavery?
Thou sayest on the 89th page of thy book, ‘Every avenue of approach to the
South is shut. No paper, pamphlet, or preacher, that touches on that
topic, is admitted in their bounds.’ Thou art greatly mistaken; every
avenue of approach to the South is _not_ shut. The American Anti-Slavery
Society sends between four and five hundred of its publications to the
South by mail, _to subscribers_, or as exchange papers. One slaveholder in
North Carolina, not long since, bought $60 worth of our pamphlets, &c.
which he distributed in the slave States. Another slaveholder from
Louisiana, made a large purchase of our publications last fall, which he
designed to distribute among professors of religion who held slaves. To
these I may add another from South Carolina, another from Richmond,
Virginia, numbers from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, and others from
New Orleans, besides persons connected with at least three Colleges and
Theological Seminaries in slave States, have applied for our publications
for their own use, and for distribution. Within a few weeks, the South
Carolina Delegation in Congress have sent on an order to the publishing
Agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society, for all the principal bound
volumes, pamphlets, and periodicals of the Society. At the same time, they
addressed a very courteous letter to J. G. Birney, the Corresponding
Secretary, propounding nearly a score of queries, embracing the
principles, designs, plans of operation, progress and results of the
Society. I know in the large cities, such as Charleston and Richmond, that
Anti-Slavery papers are not suffered to reach their destination through
the mail; but _it is not so_ in the smaller towns. But even in the cities,
I doubt not they are read by the postmasters and others. The South may
pretend that she will not read our papers, but it is all pretence; the
fact is, she is very anxious to see what we are doing, so that when the
mail-bags were robbed in Charleston in 1835, _I know_ that the robbers
were very careful to select a few copies of each of the publications
_before_ they made the bonfire, and that these were handed round in a
private way through the city, so that they were _extensively read_. This
fact I had from a friend of mine who was in Charleston at the time, and
_read_ the publications himself. My relations also wrote me word, that
they had seen and read them.
In order to show that our discussions and publications have already
produced a great effect upon many individuals in the slave States, I
subjoin the following detail of facts and testimony now in my possession.
My sister, S. M. Grimké, has just received a letter from a Southerner
residing in the far South, in which he says, ‘On the 4th of July, the
friends of the oppressed met and contributed six or eight dollars, to
obtain some copies of Gerrit Smith’s letter, and some other pamphlets for
our own benefit and that of the vicinity. The leaven, we think, is
beginning to work, and we hope that it will ere long purify the whole mass
of corruption.’
An intelligent member of the Methodist Church, who resides in North
Carolina, was recently in the city of New York, and told the editor of
Zion’s Watchman, that ‘our publications were read with great interest at
the South--that there was great curiosity there to see them.’ A bookseller
also in one of the most southern States, only a few months ago, ordered a
package of our publications. And within a very short time, an influential
slaveholder from the far South, who called at the Anti-Slavery Office in
New York, said he had had misgivings on the subject ever since the
formation of the American Society--that he saw some of our publications
_at the South_ three years ago, and is now convinced and has emancipated
his slaves.
A correspondent of the Union Herald, a clergyman, and a graduate of one of
the colleges of Kentucky, says, ‘I find in this State _many_ who are
decidedly opposed to slavery--but few indeed take the ground that it is
right. I trust the cause of human rights is onward--_weekly, I receive two
copies of the Emancipator_, which I send out as battering rams, to beat
down the citadel of oppression.’ In a letter to James G. Birney, from a
gentleman in a slave State, we find this declaration: ‘Your paper, the
Philanthropist, is regularly distributed here, and as yet works no
incendiary results; and indeed, so far as I can learn, general
satisfaction is here expressed, both as to the temper and spirit of the
paper, and no disapprobation as to the results.’ At an Anti-Slavery
meeting last fall in Philadelphia, a gentleman from Delaware was present,
who rose and encouraged Abolitionists to go on, and said that he could
assure them the influence of their measures was felt there, and their
principles were gaining ground secretly and silently. The subject, he
informed them, was discussed there, and he believed Anti-Slavery lectures
could be delivered there with safety, and would produce important results.
Since that time, a lecturer has been into that State, and a State Society
has been formed, the secretary of which was the first editor of the
Emancipator, and is now pastor of the Baptist church in the capital of the
State. The North Carolina Watchman, published at Salisbury, in an article
on the subject of Abolition, has the following remarks of the editor: ‘It
[the abolition party] is the growing party at the North: we are inclined
to believe, that there is even _more of it at the South_, than prudence
will permit to be openly avowed.’ It rejoices our hearts to find that
there are some southerners who feel and acknowledge the infatuation of the
politicians of the South, and the philanthropy of abolitionists. The
Maryville Intelligencer of 1836, exclaims, ‘What sort of madness, produced
by a jaundiced and distorted conception of the feelings and motives by
which northern abolitionists are actuated, can induce the southern
political press to urge a severance of the tie that binds our Union
together? To offer rewards for those very individuals who stand as
_mediators_ between masters and slaves, urging the one to be obedient, and
the other to do justice?’
A southern Minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, at the session of
the New York Annual Conference, in June of 1836, said: ‘Don’t give up
Abolitionism--don’t bow down to slavery. You have thousands at the South
who are secretly praying for you.’ In a subsequent conversation with the
same individual, he stated, that the South is not that unit of which the
pro-slavery party boast--there is a diversity of opinion among them in
reference to slavery, and the REIGN OF TERROR alone suppresses the free
expression of sentiment. That there are thousands who believe slaveholding
to be sinful, who secretly wish the abolitionists success, and believe God
will bless their efforts. That the ministers of the gospel and
ecclesiastical bodies who indiscriminately denounce the abolitionists,
without doing any thing themselves to remove slavery, have _not_ the
thanks of thousands at the South, but on the contrary are viewed as
_taking sides with slaveholders_, and _recreant to the principles of their
own profession_.--_Zion’s Watchman, November, 1836._