I am careful to affix his _titles_ to the name of this distinguished
friend of humanity, because they indicate, in some measure, the
estimation to which George Thompson has risen both in England and in
the United States. The former title was conferred upon him in his own
country, the latter in ours. But both nations owe him much more than
_titles_. By each he should be placed high on the list of its public
benefactors, and the two should unite to give him every comfort that he
may need in his old age, and enable him to provide well for all who
are dependent upon him.
George Thompson was born in 1804, the same year that gave birth to
William Lloyd Garrison, and, like our illustrious countryman, has risen
to his high elevation from a lowly estate of life. His native place was
Liverpool, not far from the residence of William Roscoe, his father
being, at the time of his birth, in the service of that distinguished
scholar and philanthropist. He never attended school a day, but, like
Garrison, was indebted to his mother for all elementary instruction.
For the rest of his acquisitions he was left to depend upon himself.
While he was quite young his parents removed to London, and so soon
as he could be made serviceable he was employed as an errand-boy.
Quickened and guided by his excellent mother’s love of knowledge, he
early acquired the habit of reading, and greedily devoured all books
adapted to his age that she could procure for him.
He was so fortunate as to attract the kind regard of the Rev. Richard
Watson, the distinguished writer and preacher in defence of the
doctrines of Methodism. He was taken as a chore-boy into that good
man’s family, and was with him, as his humble assistant in indoor and
outdoor work, during most of the time that Mr. Watson was preparing
his most famous publications. Owing to the influence of this divine,
but more to his mother, at the age of fifteen George Thompson became
the subject of deep, religious convictions, and consecrated himself,
by public profession, to the service of God and the redemption of man.
When sixteen years old he was appointed a Tract distributor, and joined
a society for visiting and nursing the destitute sick. About the same
time he was apprenticed to a grocer, and continued in his employment a
number of years, having in due time become his accountant.
At the age of twenty George Thompson was admitted a member of a large
debating-club. In this connection, he soon disclosed to those about
him the value of the acquisitions he had made by reading, under the
direction of his mother and Mr. Watson; and sometimes gave off more
than sparks of that eloquence which since then has so often electrified
and fired his large audiences, throughout Great Britain and our
Northern and Western States.
In the course of the years 1825, 1826, and 1827, the benevolent people
of England were pretty thoroughly roused by Clarkson, Wilberforce,
Macaulay, and their brother philanthropists, to a consciousness of
their nation’s wickedness, in consenting to the system of West India
slavery under the dominion of the British Crown. The question of
immediate emancipation was agitated everywhere throughout the realm.
It was introduced into the debating-club which George Thompson had
joined. His sympathy for the slaves had been awakened very early in
life. His father, when a young man, ran away from home, and enlisted as
captain’s clerk on board a slave-ship, not knowing what he did. But so
soon as he witnessed the embarkation of the victims of that accursed
traffic, and the treatment of them on the “middle passage,” he was too
much horrified to remain an hour longer, than he was obliged to, in any
way connected with “a business too bad for demons to do.” Immediately,
therefore, on the arrival of his ship in the West Indies, he fled to an
officer of a British man-of-war, and begged that he might be impressed
into the naval service, and so escape the repetition of the horrors
he had seen and unwillingly helped to perpetrate. Often had George
heard his father narrate the cruelties which were inflicted on board
the ship with which he was connected,--cruelties inseparable from the
forcible transportation of human beings, without the least regard to
their personal comfort, from the freedom of their native wilds to the
hell of slavery in America. Thus was his young heart and soul fired
with indignation at the sin of his nation, and baptized into the love
of impartial liberty. He, of course, welcomed the introduction of the
question into the club, and entered upon the debate with holy zeal.
The discussion was continued through twelve evenings. It attracted
much attention; resulted in a resolution, passed almost unanimously,
in favor of _immediate emancipation_; and was deemed of sufficient
importance to be reported to the government. Especial mention was made
of “the heartfelt, impassioned eloquence of a young man, named George
Thompson”; and our friend became the cherished associate of several
gentlemen who have since been widely known among the active friends of
all the reforms and social improvements that have blessed Great Britain
and Ireland within the last forty years.
In 1828 Mr. Thompson was especially invited to join “The London
Literary and Scientific Association,” comprising about a thousand
young men. Here, too, the question of West India emancipation came
up for consideration, was earnestly and ably debated through three
long evenings, and resulted in favor of the _immediate abolition_ of
slavery. This result was attributed mainly to “the masterly logic, as
well as fervid eloquence, of young Thompson.” The newspapers commented
on his success, as an augury of what might be expected from him in _a
more august debating-club_, which in England means Parliament.
And here I must tell you a family secret. The lady who afterwards
became his wife, whose position in society was much higher than his
own (a circumstance of far greater importance in England than in
our country), was present at these debates. She was fired with such
admiration of his powers, and of his consecration of them to the cause
of suffering humanity, that it lighted a kindred flame in his bosom;
or, to speak in plain American English, they there fell in love with
each other, and were soon after married.
About this time the London Antislavery Society was formed. The
directors, or executive committee thereof, advertised for a suitable
man, who was willing to become their lecturing agent. This opened the
door to what has since been the business of his life. He hesitated
several weeks, distrusting his ability. But, encouraged and urged by
his young wife, he at length consented that the Secretary, Mr. Thomas
Pringle, should be informed of his wish to receive an appointment. By
that gentleman he was invited to an interview with Sir George Stevens
and Rev. Zachary Macaulay, who, after satisfying themselves of his
qualifications, commended him to Lord Brougham, Lord Denham, and Sir
George Bunting, the committee that was to decide the question of
appointment. These gentlemen, after an extended conversation with him,
gave him a commission for three months, and sent him forth to agitate
the community on the question of West India emancipation.
Could you but turn to the English papers of that day, you would see
for yourself how rapidly, and to what an unexampled height, rose his
reputation as a lecturer. At the end of three months, the demands
that came from all parts of the kingdom for the services of Mr.
Thompson settled the question with the committee. They gave him an
appointment until “the warfare should be accomplished.” And for three
or four years he was the principal, if not the only, agent of that
Society, performing an amount of labor which seems almost superhuman.
In all parts of the United Kingdom his voice was heard, either in
speeches to the crowds that everywhere thronged to listen to him,
or in debates with Mr. Bostwick and other agents hired by the West
India slaveholders to oppose him. And when, in 1833, the victory was
achieved; when, overpowered by the outward pressure, both Houses of
Parliament were compelled to make a virtue of necessity, and to magnify
the glory of England by that Act which gave liberty to eight hundred
thousand slaves, Lord Brougham rose in the House of Lords and said: “I
rise to take the crown of this most glorious victory from every other
head, and place it upon George Thompson’s. He has done more than any
other man to achieve it.” This tribute was most justly deserved.
Yet for all his labors, his inestimable services, Mr. Thompson received
only pecuniary compensation enough to pay his expenses and support his
small family. He asked no more. He had consecrated himself to the cause
of suffering humanity for its own sake, not expecting to be enriched
thereby. But the friends of that cause which he had served so well, so
nobly, could not be indifferent to his future career. Lord Brougham,
Lord Denham, and others, confident that he would become an ornament
and an honor to the legal profession, offered him all the assistance
he could need to defray his own and his family’s expenses for five
years, while he should be pursuing his preparatory studies, and getting
established as a member of the English bar. The prospect thus opened
was most inviting to him; the proposed profession was congenial to
his taste. Indeed, if I have been correctly informed, the preliminary
arrangements were made, when the claims of the most oppressed of all
men,--the enslaved in the United States,--were forcibly urged upon him.
Mr. Garrison had been in England several weeks, laboring successfully
to undeceive the philanthropists and people of Great Britain as to the
real design and tendency of the American Colonization Society. Their
kindred spirits had met and mingled. He had heard Mr. Garrison’s
exposition, and had become, with Clarkson, Wilberforce, Buxton, and
others, fully satisfied that the expatriation of the free colored
people, their removal from this country, if practicable, would only
perpetuate the bondage of the enslaved, and aggravate their wrongs. Mr.
Garrison, on the other hand, had repeatedly witnessed the surpassing
power of Mr. Thompson’s eloquence on the audiences he addressed, had
heard the tributes everywhere paid to the importance of his services,
and was present at the consummation of his unsparing labors,--the
passage by the British Parliament of the bill for the abolition of
West India slavery. It was manifest to him that the man, who had done
so much for the overthrow of British slavery, could help mightily to
accomplish the far greater work needed to be done in this country;
and his heart was set on enlisting Mr. Thompson in the service of the
American Antislavery Society. He pressed his wish, his demand, upon him
just as Mr. Thompson was about to agree to the above-named arrangement
for the study of the law. Mr. Garrison’s invitation was not to be
accepted hastily, nor could he reject it without consideration. He
revolved it anxiously in his mind, as he went from city to city with
his now beloved brother, hearing him portray the peculiarities of the
American system of slavery, the far greater difficulties against which
Abolitionists here had to contend, the need we felt of a living voice,
potent enough to wake up thousands who were _dead_ in this iniquity.
On the eve of Mr. Garrison’s departure from England in the fall of 1833
Mr. Thompson, with deep emotion, said to him: “I have thought much of
the bright professional prospects opened to me here. I have thought
yet more of the dark, dismal, desperate condition of millions of my
fellow-beings in your country. They are no farther from me than are
the eight hundred thousand whom I have been laboring to emancipate,
and their claims upon me for the help God may enable me to give them
are just as strong. I cannot withhold myself from their service. If,
on your return to Boston, you shall still think I can render you much
assistance, and your fellow-laborers concur with you in that opinion,
command me, and I will hasten to you.”
Mr. Thompson, however, remained in England almost a year after Mr.
Garrison left him, that he might reorganize the antislavery hosts who
had triumphed so gloriously in the conflict for British West India
emancipation, and induce them to engage as heartily in the enterprise
for the emancipation of the millions held in the most abject bondage in
these United States, and for the abolition of slavery throughout the
world.