objection to joining this association,) is their advocacy of a
principle, which is wrong and very pernicious in its tendency. I refer
to their views in regard to what is called "the doctrine of expediency."
Their difficulty on this subject seems to have arisen from want of a
clear distinction between the duty of those who are guilty of sin, and
the duty of those who are aiming to turn men from their sins. The
principle is assumed, that because certain men ought to abandon every
sin immediately, therefore, certain other men are bound _immediately_ to
try and make them do it. Now the question of expediency does not relate
to what men are bound to do, who are in the practice of sin
themselves--for the immediate relinquishment of sin is the duty of all;
but it relates to the duty of those who are to make efforts to induce
others to break off their wickedness.
Here, the wisdom and rectitude of a given course, depend entirely on the
_probabilities of success_. If a father has a son of a very peculiar
temperament, and he knows by observation, that the use of the rod will
make him more irritable and more liable to a certain fault, and that
kind arguments, and tender measures will more probably accomplish the
desired object, it is a rule of expediency to try the most probable
course. If a companion sees a friend committing a sin, and has, from
past experience, learned that remonstrances excite anger and obstinacy,
while a look of silent sorrow and disapprobation tends far more to
prevent the evil, expediency and duty demand silence rather than
remonstrance.
There are cases also, where differences in age, and station, and
character, forbid all interference to modify the conduct and character
of others.
A nursery maid may see that a father misgoverns his children, and
ill-treats his wife. But her station makes it inexpedient for her to
turn reprover. It is a case where reproof would do no good, but only
evil.
So in communities, the propriety and rectitude of measures can be
decided, not by the rules of duty that should govern those who are to
renounce sin, but by the probabilities of good or evil consequence.
The Abolitionists seem to lose sight of this distinction. They form
voluntary associations in free States, to convince their fellow
citizens of the sins of other men in other communities. They are blamed
and opposed, because their measures are deemed inexpedient, and
calculated to increase, rather than diminish the evils to be cured.
In return, they show that slavery is a sin which ought to be abandoned
immediately, and seem to suppose that it follows as a correct inference,
that they themselves ought to engage in a system of agitation against
it, and that it is needless for them to inquire whether preaching the
truth in the manner they propose, will increase or diminish the evil.
They assume that whenever sin is committed, not only ought the sinner
immediately to cease, but all his fellow-sinners are bound to take
measures to make him cease, and to take measures, without any reference
to the probabilities of success.
That this is a correct representation of the views of Abolitionists
generally, is evident from their periodicals and conversation. All their
remarks about preaching the truth and leaving consequences to God--all
their depreciation of the doctrine of expediency, are rendered relevant
only by this supposition.
The impression made by their writings is, that God has made rules of
duty; that all men are in all cases to remonstrate against the violation
of those rules; and that God will take the responsibility of bringing
good out of this course; so that we ourselves are relieved from any
necessity of inquiring as to probable results.
If this be not the theory of duty adopted by this association, then they
stand on common ground with those who oppose their measures, viz: that
the propriety and duty of a given course is to be decided by
_probabilities as to its results_; and these probabilities are to be
determined by the _known laws of mind_, and the _records of past
experience_.
For only one of two positions can be held. Either that it is the duty of
all men to remonstrate at all times against all violations of duty, and
leave the consequences with God; or else that men are to use their
judgment, and take the part of remonstrance only at such a time and
place, and in such a manner, as promise the best results.
That the Abolitionists have not held the second of these positions, must
be obvious to all who have read their documents. It would therefore be
unwise and wrong to join an association which sustains a principle false
in itself, and one which, if acted out, would tend to wrath and strife
and every evil word and work.
Another reason, and the most important of all, against promoting the
plans of the Abolitionists, is involved in the main question--_what are
the probabilities as to the results of their movements?_ The only way to
judge of the future results of certain measures is, by the known laws of
mind, and the recorded experience of the past.
Now what is the evil to be cured?
SLAVERY IN THIS NATION.
That this evil is at no distant period to come to an end, is the
unanimous opinion of all who either notice the tendencies of the age, or
believe in the prophecies of the Bible. All who act on Christian
principles in regard to slavery, believe that in a given period
(variously estimated) it will end. The only question then, in regard to
the benefits to be gained, or the evils to be dreaded in the present
agitation of the subject, relates to the _time_ and the _manner_ of its
extinction. The Abolitionists claim that their method will bring it to
an end in the shortest time, and in the safest and best way. Their
opponents believe, that it will tend to bring it to an end, if at all,
at the most distant period, and in the most dangerous way.
As neither party are gifted with prescience, and as the Deity has made
no revelations as to the future results of any given measures, all the
means of judging that remain to us, as before stated, are the laws of
mind, and the records of the past.
The position then I would aim to establish is, that the method taken by
the Abolitionists is the one that, according to the laws of mind and
past experience, is least likely to bring about the results they aim
to accomplish. The general statement is this.
The object to be accomplished is:
First. To convince a certain community, that they are in the practice of
a great sin, and
Secondly. To make them willing to relinquish it.
The method taken to accomplish this is, by voluntary associations in a
foreign community, seeking to excite public sentiment against the
perpetrators of the evil; exhibiting the enormity of the crime in full
measure, without palliation, excuse or sympathy, by means of periodicals
and agents circulating, not in the community committing the sin, but in
that which does not practise it.
Now that this method may, in conjunction with other causes, have an
influence to bring slavery to an end, is not denied. But it is believed,
and from the following considerations, that it is the least calculated
to do the _good_, and that it involves the greatest evils.
It is a known law of mind first seen in the nursery and school,
afterwards developed in society, that a person is least likely to judge
correctly of truth, and least likely to yield to duty, when excited by
passion.
It is a law of experience, that when wrong is done, if repentance and
reformation are sought, then love and kindness, mingled with
remonstrance, coming from one who has a _right_ to speak, are more
successful than rebuke and scorn from others who are not beloved, and
who are regarded as impertinent intruders.
In the nursery, if the child does wrong, the finger of scorn, the
taunting rebuke, or even the fair and deserved reproof of equals, will
make the young culprit only frown with rage, and perhaps repeat and
increase the injury. But the voice of maternal love, or even the gentle
remonstrances of an elder sister, may bring tears of sorrow and
contrition.
So in society. Let a man's enemies, or those who have no interest in his
welfare, join to rebuke and rail at his offences, and no signs of
penitence will be seen. But let the clergyman whom he respects and loves,
or his bosom friend approach him, with kindness, forbearance and true
sincerity, and all that is possible to human agency will be effected.
It is the maxim then of experience, that when men are to be turned from
evils, and brought to repent and reform, those only should interfere who
are most loved and respected, and who have the best right to approach
the offender. While on the other hand, rebuke from those who are deemed
obtrusive and inimical, or even indifferent, will do more harm than
good.
It is another maxim of experience, that such dealings with the erring
should be in private, not in public. The moment a man is publicly
rebuked, shame, anger, and pride of opinion, all combine to make him
defend his practice, and refuse either to own himself wrong, or to cease
from his evil ways.
The Abolitionists have violated all these laws of mind and of
experience, in dealing with their southern brethren.
Their course has been most calculated to awaken anger, fear, pride,
hatred, and all the passions most likely to blind the mind to truth, and
make it averse to duty.
They have not approached them with the spirit of love, courtesy, and
forbearance.
They are not the persons who would be regarded by the South, as having
any _right_ to interfere; and therefore, whether they have such right or
not, the probabilities of good are removed. For it is not only demanded
for the benefit of the offender, that there should really be a right,
but it is necessary that he should feel that there is such a right.
In dealing with their brethren, too, they have not tried silent,
retired, private measures. It has been public denunciation of crime and
shame in newspapers, addressed as it were to by-standers, in order to
arouse the guilty.
In reply to this, it has been urged, that men could not go to the
South--that they would be murdered there--that the only way was, to
convince the North, and excite public odium against the sins of the
South, and thus gradually conviction, repentance, and reformation would
ensue.
Here is another case where men are to judge of their duty, by estimating
probabilities of future results; and it may first be observed, that it
involves the principle of expediency, in just that form to which
Abolitionists object.
It is allowed that the immediate abolition of slavery is to be produced
by means of "light and love," and yet it is maintained as right to
withdraw personally from the field of operation, because of
_consequences_; because of the probable danger of approaching. "If we go
to the South, and present truth, argument, and entreaty, _we shall be
slain_, and therefore we are not under obligation to go." If this
justifies Abolitionists in their neglect of their offending brethren,
because they fear evil results to themselves, it also justifies those
who refuse to act with Abolitionists in their measures, because they
fear other evil results.
But what proof is there, that if the Abolitionists had taken another
method, the one more in accordance with the laws of mind and the
dictates of experience, that there would have been at the South all this
violence? Before the abolition movement commenced, both northern and
southern men, expressed their views freely at the South. The dangers,
evils, and mischiefs of slavery were exhibited and discussed even in the
legislative halls of more than one of the Southern States, and many
minds were anxiously devising measures, to bring this evil to an end.
Now let us look at some of the records of past experience. Clarkson was
the first person who devoted himself to the cause of Abolition in
England. His object was to convince the people of England that they were
guilty of a great impolicy, and great sin, in permitting the
slave-trade. He was to meet the force of public sentiment, and power,
and selfishness, and wealth, which sustained this traffic, in that
nation. What were his measures? He did not go to Sweden, or Russia, or
France, to awaken public sentiment against the sins of the English.--He
began by first publishing an inquiry in England whether it was right to
seize men, and make them slaves. He went unostentatiously to some of the
best and most pious men there, and endeavoured to interest them in the
inquiry.
Then he published an article on the impolicy of the slave-trade, showing
its disadvantages. Then he collected information of the evils and
enormities involved in the traffic, and went quietly around among those
most likely to be moved by motives of humanity and Christianity. In this
manner he toiled for more than fourteen years, slowly implanting the
leaven among the good men, until he gained a noble band of patriots and
Christians, with Wilberforce at their head.
The following extract from a memoir of Clarkson discloses the manner and
spirit in which he commenced his enterprise, and toiled through to its
accomplishment.
"In 1785 Dr. Peckhard, Vice-Chancellor of the University, deeply
impressed with the iniquity of the slave-trade, announced as a subject
for a Latin Dissertation to the Senior Bachelors of Arts: '_Anne liceat
invitos in servitutem dare?_' 'Is it right to make slaves of others
against their will?' However benevolent the feelings of the
Vice-Chancellor, and however strong and clear the opinions he held on
the inhuman traffic, it is probable that he little thought that this
discussion would secure for the object so dear to his own heart, efforts
and advocacy equally enlightened and efficient, that should be
continued, until his country had declared, not that the slave-trade
only, but that slavery itself should cease.
"Mr. Clarkson, having in the preceding year gained the first prize for
the Latin Dissertation, was naturally anxious to maintain his honourable
position; and no efforts were spared, during the few intervening weeks,
in collecting information and evidence. Important facts were gained from
Anthony Benezet's Historical Account of Guinea, which Mr. Clarkson
hastened to London to purchase. Furnished with these and other valuable
information, he commenced his difficult task. How it was accomplished,
he thus informs us.
"'No person,' he states,[1] 'can tell the severe trial which the writing
of it proved to me. I had expected pleasure from the invention of the
arguments, from the arrangement of them, from the putting of them
together, and from the thought, in the interim, that I was engaged in an
innocent contest for literary honour. But all my pleasure was damped by
the facts which were now continually before me. It was but one gloomy
subject from morning to night. In the day-time I was uneasy; in the
night I had little rest. I sometimes never closed my eyelids for grief.
It became now not so much a trial for academical reputation, as for the
production of a work which might be useful to injured Africa. And
keeping this idea in my mind ever after the perusal of Benezet, I always
slept with a candle in my room, that I might rise out of bed, and put
down such thoughts as might occur to me in the night, if I judged them
valuable, conceiving that no arguments of any moment should be lost in
so great a cause. Having at length finished this painful task, I sent my
Essay to the Vice-Chancellor, and soon afterwards found myself honoured,
as before, with the first prize.
[1] History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
"'As it is usual to read these essays publicly in the senate-house soon
after the prize is adjudged, I was called to Cambridge for this purpose.
I went, and performed my office. On returning, however, to London, the
subject of it almost wholly engrossed my thoughts. I became at times
very seriously affected while upon the road. I stopped my horse
occasionally, and dismounted, and walked. I frequently tried to persuade
myself in these intervals that the contents of my Essay could not be
true. The more, however, I reflected upon them, or rather upon the
authorities on which they were founded, the more I gave them credit.
Coming in sight of Wade's Mill, in Hertfordshire, I sat down
disconsolate on the turf by the road-side, and held my horse. Here a
thought came into my mind, that if the contents of the Essay were true,
it was time some person should see these calamities to their end.
Agitated in this manner, I reached home. This was in the summer of 1785.
"'In the course of the autumn of the same year I experienced similar
impressions. I walked frequently into the woods, that I might think on
the subject in solitude, and find relief to my mind there. But there the
question still recurred, 'Are these things true?' Still the answer
followed as instantaneously,--'They are.' Still the result accompanied
it; 'Then, surely, some person should interfere.' I then began to envy
those who had seats in parliament, and who had great riches, and widely
extended connexions, which would enable them to take up this cause.
Finding scarcely any one at that time who thought of it, I was turned
frequently to myself. But here many difficulties arose. It struck me,
among others, that a young man of only twenty-four years of age could
not have that solid judgment, or knowledge of men, manners, and things,
which were requisite to qualify him to undertake a task of such
magnitude and importance: and with whom was I to unite? I believed also,
that it looked so much like one of the feigned labours of Hercules, that
my understanding would be suspected if I proposed it. On ruminating,
however, on the subject, I found one thing at least practicable, and
that this was also in my power. I could translate my Latin Dissertation.
I could enlarge it usefully. I could see how the public received it, or
how far they were likely to favour any serious measures, which should
have a tendency to produce the abolition of the slave-trade. Upon this,
then, I determined; and in the middle of the month of November, 1785, I
began my work.'
"Such is the characteristic and ingenuous account given by Clarkson of
his introduction to that work to which the energies of his life were
devoted, and in reference to which, and to the account whence the
foregoing extract has been made, one of the most benevolent and gifted
writers of our country[2] has justly observed,--
[2] Coleridge.
"'This interesting tale is related, not by a descendant, but a
cotemporary; not by a distant spectator, but by a participator of the
contest; and of all the many participators, by the man confessedly the
most efficient; the man whose unparalleled labours in this work of love
and peril, leave on the mind of a reflecting reader the sublime doubt,
which of the two will have been the greater final gain to the moral
world,--the removal of the evil, or the proof, thereby given, what
mighty effects single good men may realize by self-devotion and
perseverance.'
"When Mr. Clarkson went to London to publish his book, he was introduced
to many friends of the cause of Abolition, who aided in giving it
extensive circulation. Whilst thus employed, he received an invitation,
which he accepted, to visit the Rev. James Ramsay, vicar of Teston, in
Kent, who had resided nineteen years in the island of St. Christopher.
"Shortly afterwards, dining one day at Sir Charles Middleton's,
(afterwards Lord Barham,) the conversation turned upon the subject, and
Mr. Clarkson declared that he was ready to devote himself to the cause.
This avowal met with great encouragement from the company, and Sir C.
Middleton, then Comptroller to the Navy, offered every possible
assistance. The friends of Mr. Clarkson increased, and this encouraged
him to proceed. Dr. Porteus, then Bishop of Chester, and Lord Scarsdale,
were secured in the House of Lords. Mr. Bennet Langton, and Dr. Baker,
who were acquainted with many members of both houses of parliament; the
honoured Granville Sharpe, James and Richard Phillips, could be depended
upon, as well as the entire body of the Society of Friends, to many of
whom he had been introduced by Mr. Joseph Hancock, his fellow-townsman.
Seeking information in every direction, Mr. Clarkson boarded a number of
vessels engaged in the African trade, and obtained specimens of the
natural productions of the country. The beauty of the cloth made from
African cotton, &c. enhanced his estimate of the skill and ingenuity of
the people, and gave a fresh stimulus to his exertions on their behalf.
He next visited a slave-ship; the rooms below, the gratings above, and
the barricade across the deck, with the explanation of their uses,
though the sight of them filled him with sadness and horror, gave new
energy to all his movements. In his indefatigable endeavours to collect
evidence and facts, he visited most of the sea-ports in the kingdom,
pursuing his great object with invincible ardour, although sometimes at
the peril of his life. The following circumstance, among others, evinces
the eminent degree in which he possessed that untiring perseverance, on
which the success of a great enterprise often depends.
"Clarkson and his friends had reason to fear that slaves brought from
the interior of Africa by certain rivers, had been kidnapped; and it was
deemed of great importance to ascertain the fact. A friend one day
mentioned to Mr. Clarkson, that he had, above twelve months before, seen
a sailor who had been up these rivers. The name of the sailor was
unknown, and all the friend could say was, that he was going to, or
belonged to, some man-of-war in ordinary. The evidence of this
individual was important, and, aided by his friend Sir Charles
Middleton, who gave him permission to board all the ships of war in
ordinary, Mr. Clarkson commenced his search:--beginning at Deptford, he
visited successfully Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, and Portsmouth;
examining in his progress the different persons on board upwards of two
hundred and sixty vessels, without discovering the object of his search.
The feelings under which the search was continued, and the success with
which it was crowned, he has himself thus described:--
"'Matters now began to look rather disheartening,--I mean as far as my
grand object was concerned. There was but one other port left, and this
was between two and three hundred miles distant. I determined, however,
to go to Plymouth. I had already been more successful in this tour, with
respect to obtaining general evidence, than in any other of the same
length; and the probability was, that as I should continue to move among
the same kind of people, my success would be in a similar proportion,
according to the number visited. These were great encouragements to me
to proceed. At length I arrived at the place of my last hope. On my
first day's expedition I boarded forty vessels, but found no one in
these who had been on the coast of Africa in the slave-trade. One or two
had been there in king's ships; but they never had been on shore. Things
were now drawing near to a close; and notwithstanding my success, as to
general evidence, in this journey, my heart began to beat. I was
restless and uneasy during the night. The next morning I felt agitated
again between the alternate pressure of hope and fear; and in this state
I entered my boat. The fifty-seventh vessel I boarded was the Melampus
frigate.--One person belonging to it, on examining him in the captain's
cabin, said he had been two voyages to Africa; and I had not long
discoursed with him, before I found, to my inexpressible joy, that he
was the man. I found, too, that he unravelled the question in dispute
precisely as our inferences had determined it. He had been two
expeditions up the river Calabar, in the canoes of the natives. In the
first of these they came within a certain distance of a village: they
then concealed themselves under the bushes, which hung over the water
from the banks. In this position they remained during the day-light; but
at night they went up to it armed, and seized all the inhabitants who
had not time to make their escape. They obtained forty-five persons in
this manner. In the second, they were out eight or nine days, when they
made a similar attempt, and with nearly similar success. They seized
men, women, and children, as they could find them in the huts. They then
bound their arms, and drove them before them to the canoes. The name of
the person thus discovered on board of the Melampus was Isaac Parker. On
inquiring into his character, from the master of the division, I found
it highly respectable. I found also afterward that he had sailed with
Captain Cook, with great credit to himself, round the world. It was also
remarkable, that my brother, on seeing him in London, when he went to
deliver his evidence, recognized him as having served on board the
Monarch, man-of-war, and as one of the most exemplary men in that ship.'