A Visit to Mount Vernon--Dr. Robinson--Welsh Deputation--Queen Anne and
New York--The Sabbath--Preaching at Dr. L's--Afternoon Service at Mr.
C----'s--Tea at Dr. L----'s--Evening Service at Mr.----'s.
The next day my wife and I paid our promised visit to the institution
of the Abbotts at Mount Vernon. In its government there are neither
rewards nor punishments; but each pupil, at the close of the day, has
to present a brief report of her own conduct. Her good deeds and her
bad deeds must be alike proclaimed--proclaimed by herself,--and that in
the presence of her fellow-pupils who were witnesses of the conduct to
which she refers. This compels her to be faithful. If she tries to
conceal what was faulty, she is surrounded by those who will detect
that concealment: if she ostentatiously parades her own excellences,
she knows she will sink in the estimation of her friends. The
encouragement of self-respect, and of a regard for that which is good
for its _own_ sake, are the great principles of government in this
establishment.
Mr. Abbott's plan of teaching a language is, not at first to weary the
pupils with the dry rules of grammar, but to store their memories with
words. He read a word or a short sentence in French, for instance, and
asked the pupils to translate it into English. Then, with closed books,
he would give them the English in like manner to be turned into French.
I have since adopted the plan with Latin pupils with pleasure and
success.
Mr. Abbott allows a recess of five minutes at the close of every
half-hour. The hours of attendance are from 9 A.M. to 2 P.M.; but a
rest of half an hour is allowed in the midst of that period. We
happened to be there when the said half-hour arrived. All the Abbotts,
the pupils, and ourselves went out to the playground, which was
furnished with seats, and swings, and skipping-ropes, and
swinging-boats, and all sorts of machines for exercise and amusement.
In these gymnastic performances the Abbotts themselves joined the
pupils, with a beautiful combination of freedom and propriety. A
happier assemblage I never saw. We retired highly delighted with all we
had witnessed.
In the afternoon I had the honour of being introduced to Dr. Robinson,
whose Greek Lexicon I had often thumbed with advantage. He appeared to
be from 45 to 50 years of age. His manners were exceedingly simple and
unostentatious,--the constant characteristics of true greatness. I
looked upon him with high respect and veneration. He is a man of whom
America may well be proud. He pressed me to go and address the students
at Union College, of which he is one of the Professors; but an
opportunity of doing so did not occur.
In the evening I was waited upon by two gentlemen who announced
themselves as the "President and Secretary" of a Welsh Temperance
Society, and wished me to attend and address one of their meetings at a
given time. This I could not do. In conversation with them about
slavery, and the oppression of the coloured people, I was surprised and
grieved to find how soon the Welsh people imbibed the feelings and aped
the conduct of the Americans in those matters. On their pressing me to
attend a meeting of their society on some _future_ occasion, I told
them I was one of the most downright Abolitionists that ever lived,
and, if I came, would terrify them all with such an abolition speech as
they had never heard. This, of course, was cold water upon their love,
and our interview soon terminated.
The weather for the next two days was so unfavourable that we could not
go out at all. Among the information I then derived from books were the
following precious morsels from the Introduction to the Natural History
of New York: "The Governor was directed by Queen Anne to take especial
care that the Almighty should be devoutly and duly served according to
the rites of the Church of England," and was at the _same time_ desired
by the Queen "to take especial care that the colony should have a
constant and sufficient supply of merchantable negroes at moderate
rates." Just what our own West India planters _now_ want! Oh! how they
would hail the return of the palmy days of Queen Anne!
On Sabbath the 28th of March I was invited to preach in the morning in
the church of Dr. L----, a Congregational place of worship, capable of
accommodating about 500 persons. The attendance was not more than 200.
There I was delighted to find no negro pew. A few coloured children
were intermingled with the white ones in the gallery. The Doctor, to
whom I had not been introduced, was already in the pulpit when I
arrived. The ceremony of introduction to each other had to be duly
performed in the rostrum. He is a fine, tall, clean, and
venerable-looking old gentleman. He began the service, and, before
sermon, announced that they would then "take up" the usual collection.
That place of worship is what they call a "Free Church,"--_i.e._ there
is no pew-letting; as a substitute for which, they "take up" a weekly
collection. The Doctor also made the following announcement: "A
Missionary of the London Missionary Society, from Guiana, one of the
South American possessions of Britain,--his name is Mr. Davies,--will
now preach; and in the evening Professor Kellog from----, a _long_
friend of mine, will preach." At the close I was introduced to the
Doctor's _long_ friend, Professor Kellog; and sure enough he was a
"long" one! There was present also Professor Whipple, of the Oberlin
Institute, to whom I had before been introduced.
In the afternoon I preached for a Mr. C----, in a Presbyterian Church.
The place was beautiful, commodious, and nearly full. The pastor
introduced the service. In his manner of doing so, I was very much
struck with--what I had before often observed in our Transatlantic
brethren--a great apparent want of reverence and fervour. The singing
was very good--in the choir. In my address, I urged them to give their
legislators, and their brethren in the South, no rest till the guilt
and disgrace of slavery were removed from their national character and
institutions. I also besought them, as men of intelligence and piety,
to frown upon the ridiculous and contemptible prejudice against colour
wherever it might appear. To all which they listened with apparent
kindness and interest.
We took tea by invitation with Dr. L----, for whom I had preached in
the morning. There we met with his nice wife, nice deacon, nice little
daughters, and nice nieces,--but a most intolerable nephew. This man
professed to be greatly opposed to slavery, and yet was full of
contempt for "niggers." He talked and _laughed_ over divisions in
certain churches, and told the company how he used occasionally to go
on Sunday nights to hear a celebrated minister, just "for the sake of
hearing him _talk_--ha--ha--ha!" And yet this was a professor of
religion!