Many of these Recollections were published at intervals, during the
years 1867 and 1868, in _The Christian Register_. They were written
at the special request of the editor of that paper; and without the
slightest expectation that they would ever be put to any further
use. But so many persons have requested me to republish them in a
volume, that I have gathered them here, together with several more
recollections of events and transactions, illustrative of the temper
of the times as late as the winter of 1861, when our guilty nation was
left “to be saved so as by the fire” of civil war.
My readers must not expect to find in this book anything like a
complete history of the times to which it relates. The articles of
which it is composed are fragmentary and sketchy. I expect and hope
they will not satisfy. If they whet the appetites of those who read
them for a more thorough history of the conflict with slavery in
our country and in Great Britain, they will have accomplished their
purpose. That in the two freest, most enlightened, most Christian
nations on earth there should have been, during more than half of the
nineteenth century, so stout a defence of “the worst system of iniquity
the world has ever known,” is a marvel that cannot be fully studied and
explained, without discovering that the mightiest nation, as well as
the humblest individual, may not with impunity consent to any sin, nor
persist in unrighteousness without ruin.
I am happy to announce that in due time a somewhat elaborate history
of the rise and fall of the slave power in America may be expected
from the Hon. Henry Wilson. He is competent to the undertaking. He
is cautious and candid as well as brave and explicit. He was an
Abolitionist before he became a politician. He has never ignored the
rights of humanity, for the sake of partisan success or personal
aggrandizement. Mr. Wilson, I believe, did as much as any one of our
prominent statesmen to procure the abolition of slavery in the District
of Columbia, and to effect its subversion throughout the country.
My brief sketches have been taken, I presume, from a point of sight
different somewhat from his. Many of my readers may wish that I had not
reported so many of the evil words and deeds of ministers and churches.
I have done so with regret and mortification. But it has seemed to me
that the most important lesson taught in the history of the last forty
years--the influence of slavery upon the religion of our country--ought
least of all to be withheld from the generations that are coming on to
fill our places in the Church and in the State.
My book, I fear, will be displeasing to many because they will not find
in it much that they expect. I can only beg such to bear in mind what
I have proposed to give my readers,--not a history of the antislavery
conflict, only some of my recollections of the events and actors
in it. I have merely mentioned the names of our indefatigable and
able fellow-laborers, Henry C. Wright, Stephen S. Foster, and Parker
Pillsbury. A due account of their valuable services in this country and
Great Britain would fill a volume as large as this. But, for the most
part, these became known to me through _The Liberator_ and _Antislavery
Standard_.
My sphere of operation and observation was confined almost entirely to
Massachusetts and Connecticut, until I removed to Central New York in
1845. My travels as an antislavery agent and lecturer were restricted
to New England, and to the years from 1832 to 1836, before many who
have since become distinguished had given themselves to the work.
The field has been coextensive with our vast country. It cannot be
supposed that I have personally known a tenth part of the individuals
who have done good services, much less that I have been a witness of
their words and deeds. Often have I been encouraged and delighted by
unexpected tidings of noble words uttered and brave deeds done, in one
part and another of the land, by individuals whom I never saw before
nor since. Almost everywhere there was some one who promptly responded
to the demand for the liberation of the enslaved, and dared to advocate
their right to freedom. Could a perfect history be written of the
antislavery labors of the last forty years, hundreds would be named as
having rendered valuable services, of whom I have never heard; whose
good word or work perhaps was not known beyond the immediate circle
that was affected by it. But the memory thereof will not be lost. Every
righteous act, every heroic, generous, true utterance in the cause of
the outraged, crushed, despised bondmen, will be had in everlasting
remembrance, and He who seeth in secret will hereafter, if not here,
openly reward the faithful.