The committee of ten, appointed at the close of the first day to
prepare a declaration of the sentiments and purposes of the American
Antislavery Society, felt that the work assigned them ought to be most
carefully and thoroughly done, embodying, as far as possible, the
best thoughts of the whole Convention. Accordingly, about half of the
members were invited to meet, and did meet, the committee early at the
house of our chairman, Dr. Edwin P. Atlee.
After an hour’s general conversation upon the importance of the
document to be prepared, and the character it ought to possess, we
agreed that each one present should, in his turn, utter the sentiment
or announce the purpose which he thought ought to be given in the
declaration. This was done, and revealed great unanimity, and at the
same time not a little individuality of opinion among the members. I
cannot now recall many of the suggestions thrown out. One, however, was
so pregnant that it contained the text and the substance of several
of my lectures afterwards. “I wish,” said Elizur Wright, “that the
difference between our purpose and that of the Colonization Society
should be explicitly stated. We mean to exterminate _slavery_ from our
country with its accursed influences. The Colonizationists aim only
to _get rid of the slaves_ so soon as they become free. Their plan is
unrighteous, cruel, and impracticable withal. Our plan needs but a good
will, a right spirit amongst the white people, to accomplish it.”
After a session of more than two hours thus spent a sub-committee of
three was appointed to prepare a draft of the proposed declaration, to
be reported next morning at nine o’clock to the whole committee, in the
room adjoining the hall of the Convention. William L. Garrison, John
G. Whittier, and myself composed that sub-committee. We immediately
repaired to the house of Mr. James McCrummel, a colored gentleman,
with whom Mr. Garrison was at home; and there, after a half-hour’s
consultation, it was of course determined that Mr. Garrison, our
Coryphæus, should write the document, in which were to be set before
our country and the world “the sentiments and purposes of the American
Antislavery Society.” We left him about ten o’clock, agreeing to come
to him again next morning at eight.
On our return at the appointed hour we found him, with shutters closed
and lamps burning, just writing the last paragraph of his admirable
draft. We read it over together two or three times very carefully,
agreed to a few slight alterations, and at nine went to lay it
before the whole committee. By them it was subjected to the severest
examination. Nearly three hours of intense application were given
to it, notwithstanding repeated and urgent calls from the Convention
for our report. All the while Mr. Garrison evinced the most unruffled
patience. Very few alterations were proposed, and only once did he
offer any resistance. He had introduced into his draft more than a page
in condemnation of the Colonization scheme. It was the concentrated
essence of all he had written or thought upon that egregious
imposition. It was as finished and powerful in expression as any part
of that Magna Charta. We commented upon it as a whole and in all its
parts. We writhed somewhat under its severity, but were obliged to
acknowledge its exact, its singular justice, and were about to accept
it, when I ventured to propose that all of it, excepting only the first
comprehensive paragraph, be stricken from the document, giving as my
reason for this large erasure, that the Colonization Society could not
long survive the deadly blows it had received; and it was not worth
while for us to perpetuate the memory of it, in this Declaration of
the Rights of Man, which will live a perpetual, impressive protest
against every form of oppression, until it shall have given place to
that brotherly kindness, which all the children of the common Father
owe to one another. At first, Mr. Garrison rose up to save a portion
of his work that had doubtless cost him as much mental effort as any
other part of it. But so soon as he found that a large majority of
the committee concurred in favor of the erasure, he submitted very
graciously, saying, “Brethren, it is your report, not mine.”
With this exception, the alterations and amendments which were made,
after all our criticisms, were surprisingly few and unessential; and we
cordially agreed to report it to the Convention very much as it came
from his pen.
Between twelve and one o’clock we repaired with it to the hall. Edwin
P. Atlee, the Chairman, read the Declaration to the Convention. Never
in my life have I seen a deeper impression made by words than was made
by that admirable document upon all who were there present. After the
voice of the reader had ceased there was a profound silence for several
minutes. Our hearts were in perfect unison. There was but one thought
with us all. Either of the members could have told what the whole
Convention felt. We felt that the word had just been uttered which
would be mighty, through God, to the pulling down of the strongholds of
slavery.
The solemn silence was broken by a Quaker brother, Evan Lewis, or
Thomas Shipley, who moved that we adopt the Declaration, and proceed
at once to append to it our signatures. He said, “We have already
given it our assent; every heart here has responded to it; and there
is a doctrine of the ‘Friends’ which impelled me to make the motion
I have done: ‘_First impressions are from heaven_.’ I fear, if we go
about criticising and amending this Declaration, we shall qualify its
truthfulness and impair its strength.”
The majority of the Convention, however, thought it best, in a matter
so momentous, to be deliberate; to weigh well every word and act by
which our countrymen and the world would be called to justify or
condemn us and our enterprise. Accordingly, we adjusted ourselves to
hear the Declaration read again, paragraph by paragraph, sentence
by sentence, and to pass judgment upon it in every particular. The
whole afternoon, from one o’clock until five, was assiduously and
patiently devoted to this review. Discussion arose on several points;
but no one spoke who had not something to say. Never had I heard in
a public assembly so much pertinent speech, never so little that was
unimportant. The result of the afternoon’s deliberations was a deeper
satisfaction with the Declaration. Some expressions in it were called
in question, but few were changed. And just as the darkness of night
had shut down upon us we resolved unanimously to adopt it. On motion of
Lewis Tappan we voted that Abraham L. Cox, M. D., whom the mover knew
to be an excellent penman, be requested to procure a suitable sheet of
parchment, and engross thereon our magna charta before the following
morning, that it might then receive the signatures of each one of the
members.
At the opening of the meeting next morning the Doctor was there, with
the work assigned him beautifully executed. He read the Declaration
once and again. Another hour was expended in the consideration of
certain expressions in it. But no changes were made. It was then
submitted for signatures; and Thomas Whitson, of Chester County,
Pennsylvania, being obliged to leave the city immediately, came forward
and had the honor of signing it first. Sixty-one others subscribed
their names on the 6th day of December, 1833.
If I ever boast of anything it is this: that I was a member of the
Convention that instituted the American Antislavery Society. That
assembly, gathered from eleven different States of our Republic, was
composed of devout men of every sect and of no sect in religion, of
each political party and of neither; but they were all of one mind.
They evidently felt that they had come together for a purpose higher
and better than that of any religious sect or political party. Never
have I seen men so ready, so anxious to rid themselves of whatsoever
was narrow, selfish, or merely denominational. I was all the more
affected by the manifestation of this spirit, because I had been living
for ten years in Connecticut, where every one who did not profess a
faith essentially “Orthodox” was peremptorily proscribed. In the
Philadelphia Convention there were but two or three of my sect, which
you know at that time had but few avowed adherents anywhere except in
the eastern half of Massachusetts, and was then, much more than now,
especially obnoxious to all other religionists in the land. Yet we were
cordially treated as brethren, admitted freely, without reserve or
qualification, into that goodly fellowship. They were indeed a company
of the Lord’s freemen, a truly devout company. And the scrupulous
regard for the rights of the human mind, no less than for the other
natural rights of man, was shown from the beginning to the end of the
Convention.
Much the largest number of any sect present were what were then, and
are now, called Orthodox, or Evangelical. There were ten or twelve
ministers of one or the other of those denominations that claim to be
Orthodox; yet I distinctly remember that some of them were the most
forward and eager to lay aside sectarianism, and their generous example
was gladly followed by all others. At the suggestion of an Orthodox
brother, and without a vote of the Convention, our President himself,
then an Orthodox minister, readily condescended to the scruples of our
Quaker brethren, so far as not to _call upon_ any individual to offer
prayer; but at the opening of our sessions each day he gave notice that
a portion of time would be spent in prayer. Any one prayed aloud who
was moved so to do.
It was at the suggestion also of an Orthodox member that we agreed to
dispense with all titles, civil or ecclesiastical. Accordingly, you
will not find in the published minutes of the Convention appendages to
any names,--neither D. D., nor Rev., nor Hon., nor Esq.,--no, not even
plain Mr. We met as fellow-men, in the cause of suffering fellow-men.
When the resolution was read recommending the institution of a monthly
“concert of prayer” for the abolition of slavery, a Quaker objected to
its passage, on the ground that he believed not in stated times and
seasons for prayers, but that then only can we truly pray when we are
moved to do so by the Holy Spirit. Effingham L. Capron, a member of
the “Society of Friends,” immediately and earnestly expressed regret
that his brother had interposed such an objection. “For,” said he,
“this measure is only to be recommended by the Convention, not insisted
on, much less to be incorporated into the constitution of the society
we have formed; and such is the liberal, catholic spirit of all here
present,” he added, “that I do not suspect any one wishes to urge the
measure upon those who would have conscientious scruples against it.”
“Certainly not, certainly not,” said the mover of the resolution.
“Certainly not, certainly not,” was responded from all parts of the
hall. On this explanation the brother withdrew his opposition, and the
resolution passed, _nem. con._