Lane Seminary was an institution established by our orthodox
fellow-Christians, mainly for the preparation of young men for the
ministry. It attained so much importance in the estimation of its
patrons, that, in 1832, they claimed for it the services and the
reputation of Rev. Dr. Beecher, who left Boston at that time and became
its president. There he found, or was soon after joined by, Prof.
Calvin E. Stowe, another distinguished teacher of Calvinistic theology.
This school of the prophets was placed on Walnut Hill, in the vicinity
of Cincinnati, that it might be near to the Southwestern States, and
was separated from Kentucky only by the river Ohio. It had attracted,
by the reputation of its Faculty, from all parts of the country, quite
a number of remarkably able, earnest, conscientious, and, as they
proved to be, eloquent young men.
At the time when the signal event occurred of which I am now to give
some account, there were in the literary and theological departments
of Lane Seminary more than a hundred students. Eleven of these were
from different slave States; seven of them sons of slaveholders, one
himself a slaveholder when he entered the institution, and one of the
number--James Bradley--had emancipated himself from the cruel bondage
by the payment of a large sum, that he had earned by extra labor.
Besides these, there were ten of the students who had resided more or
less in the slave States, and were well acquainted with the condition
of the people, and the influence of their “peculiar institution”
of domestic servitude. Moreover, that you may appreciate fully the
importance of the event I am going to narrate to you, and know that it
was not (as some at the time represented it to be) a boyish prank, or
mere college rebellion,--“a tempest in a teapot,”--let me tell you that
the youngest student in the seminary was nineteen years of age, most of
the students were more than twenty-six years old, and several of them
were over thirty. They were sober, Christian men, who were preparing
themselves, in good earnest, to preach the Gospel; and they believed
that one of its proclamations was “liberty to the captives, let the
oppressed go free, break every yoke.”
Soon after the seminary was opened, a Colonization Society was formed
among the students. At the time of which I speak most of them were
members of that Society, and were encouraged by the Faculty so to be.
But the publication of Mr. Garrison’s “Thoughts on Colonization,” and
the formation of the “American Antislavery Society,” attracted the
attention of some of their number. Conversations arose on the subject
between them and their fellows. An anxious inquiry was awakened as to
the truth of the allegations brought against the Colonization scheme,
and as to the justice of the new demand made by Mr. Garrison and his
associates for the “immediate abolition of slavery.” At length, in
February, 1834, it was proposed that there should be a thorough public
discussion of two questions:--
1st. Whether the people of the slaveholding States ought to abolish
slavery at once, and without prescribing, as a condition, that the
emancipated should be sent to Liberia, or elsewhere, out of our country?
2d. Whether the doctrines, tendencies, measures, spirit of the
Colonization Society were such as to render it worthy of the patronage
of Christian people?
We were informed at the time, by several who were cognizant of the
fact, that the Faculty, fearing the effect of such a discussion upon
the prosperity of the seminary, officially and earnestly advised
that it should be indefinitely postponed. But many of the students
had become too deeply interested in these questions to consent that
they should remain unsettled. They were therefore discussed,--each
one through nine evenings,--in the presence of the President and
most of the Faculty, fully, faithfully, earnestly, but courteously
debated. The results were, on the first question, an almost unanimous
vote to this effect: that “Immediate emancipation from slavery was
the right of every slave and the duty of every slaveholder.” And on
the second question it was voted, by a large majority, “That the
American Colonization Society and its scheme were not deserving of
the approbation and aid of Christians.” This was the purport, if not
the exact language, of the resolutions at the close of the debate of
eighteen evenings.
The report of the proceeding and the result went speedily through the
land; and, as speedily, there came back, from certain quarters, no
stinted measure of condemnation, warning, threats. These so alarmed the
Faculty that, as soon as was practicable, they formally prohibited the
continued existence of an Antislavery Society among the students of
Lane Seminary; and required that the Colonization Society, which they
had cherished hitherto, should be also disbanded and abolished.
At the next meeting of the Overseers, or Corporation of the Seminary,
this high-handed measure of the Faculty was approved and confirmed. The
remonstrance of the students (all but one of them adult men, thirty
of them more than twenty-six years of age) availed not to procure a
reconsideration of this oppressive decree. Accordingly, nearly all of
them--seventy or eighty in number--withdrew from the Seminary, refusing
to be the pupils of theological professors who showed so plainly that
their sympathies were with the oppressors, rather than with the
oppressed; or that they had not courage enough to denounce so egregious
a wrong, so tremendous a sin, as the enslavement of millions of human
beings.
Like the disciples after the martyrdom of Stephen, these faithful young
men were scattered abroad throughout the land, and went everywhere,
preaching the word which they were forbidden to utter within the
enclosure of a school, dedicated to the promulgation of the religion of
Jesus of Nazareth.
Antislavery truth was disseminated far and wide by their agency. Those
who were the sons of slaveholders returned to the homes of their
parents, and besought them and their neighbors to repent of their great
unrighteousness and flee from the wrath to come. These entreaties were
not all lost. Several slaveholders were converted, and gave liberty to
their bondmen. If I mistake not, the attention of that admirable man,
Hon. James G. Birney, of Kentucky, was fixed by the discussions in Lane
Seminary, and by conversations with the students upon the really evil
tendency of the Colonization plan, which, with the best intentions, he
had done so much to promote. At any rate, his conversion about that
time to the doctrine of “immediate emancipation” was an event of signal
importance, as I hope to show you in a future article.
It was not my privilege to become personally acquainted with many
of these young men, whose conscientious, courteous, dignified, yet
determined course of conduct awakened our admiration, and whose
subsequent labors helped mightily the great work projected by the
American Antislavery Society. Several of them were called to announce
and advocate their principles in communities where it was especially
dangerous “to speak those truths which tyrants dread.” We were
delighted from time to time by the accounts that came to us of their
unflinching fidelity. And undoubtedly there were some cases of peculiar
trial and suffering endured by them, which are treasured among the
secret things that are to be made known, when He “who seeth in secret
will reward men openly.”
Amos Dresser, eager to raise the funds he needed to enable him to
pursue his studies and complete his preparation for the ministry, took
of the publishers an agency for the sale of the “Cottage Bible” in
Tennessee. For the transportation of himself and his load he procured
a horse and barouche. He had proceeded without molestation as far as
Nashville. There it was discovered that he was an Abolitionist,--one of
the students that had left Lane Seminary on account of his principles.
He was arrested by order of the Mayor, and brought before the Committee
of Vigilance. By them his trunk was searched, his journal, private
papers, and letters were examined. These showed plainly enough, and he
promptly acknowledged, that he was opposed to slavery; that he pitied
his fellow-men who were in bondage, and regarded those who held them in
chains as guilty of great wickedness.
Therefore, although there was not the slightest proofs that, thus far,
he had done or said anything that did not pertain to his business, he
was condemned by the Committee to be taken out immediately, to receive
twenty lashes upon his bare back, and to depart from the city within
twenty-four hours. Accordingly, that American citizen, for the crime of
believing “the Declaration of Independence,” was taken by the excited
populace to a public square in Nashville, and there on his knees
received upon his naked back twenty lashes, laid on by a city officer
with a heavy cowhide. He was then hurried away, leaving behind him five
hundred dollars’ worth of property, which was never restored.
James A. Thome, the son of a Kentucky slaveholder, was so thoroughly
converted to Abolitionism that, during the pendency of the infamous
decree of the Faculty and Trustees of the Seminary, he was sent as a
delegate from the Antislavery Society which the students had formed
to attend the annual meetings of the Abolitionists in May, 1834. He
came and addressed the public in New York, Boston, and elsewhere. His
heartfelt sincerity, his tender, fervid eloquence, made a peculiarly
deep impression upon his audiences. And having been born and brought
up in the midst of slavery, his testimony to its cruelties, its
licentiousness, and its depraving influences was received without
distrust, though it sustained the worst allegations that had ever been
brought against the domestic servitude in our Southern States.
Henry B. Stanton came with Mr. Thome as another delegate from the Lane
Seminary Antislavery Society to the May meetings of 1834. This then
young man also evinced so much zeal in the cause, so much power as a
speaker and skill in debate, that soon after the dissolution of his
connection with the seminary, in the month of October of that year,
he was appointed an agent of the American Antislavery Society, and,
for ten years or more afterwards, Mr. Stanton continued to do us most
valuable service by his eloquent lectures, his pertinent contributions
to our antislavery papers, and his diligence and fidelity as one of the
secretaries of the National Society.
But Theodore D. Weld was the master-spirit among the Lane Seminary
students. Indeed, he was accused by the Trustees of being the
instigator of all the fanaticism and incendiary movements that had
given them so much trouble and threatened the ruin of the institution.
Accordingly, it was moved that Mr. Weld be expelled. No breach of law
was charged upon this gentleman; no disrespect to the Faculty, nor
anything implicating in the least his moral character, only that he was
the leader of the Abolitionists. Still, the proposition to expel him
was favored by the majority of the Trustees. When, therefore, the final
action of the Board had determined the students to ask for a dismission
from the seminary, Theodore D. Weld, with becoming self-respect, chose
to remain until he should be cleared by the Faculty of all charges of
misconduct. As soon as the Board had had a meeting and withdrawn their
accusation, he applied for and received an honorable dismission.
Then he accepted an appointment as an agent of the Antislavery Society,
at a salary less by half than was offered him by another benevolent
association. And throughout the Western and Middle States, and
occasionally in New England, he lectured with a frequency, a fervor,
and an effect that justify me in saying that no one, excepting only
Mr. Garrison and Mr. Phillips, has done more than Mr. Weld for the
abolition of American slavery.
What a loss it would have been to the cause of liberty, if the Faculty
and Trustees of Lane Seminary had been wiser men!