The DUKE OF SUTHERLAND having introduced Mrs. Stowe to the assembly, the
following short address was read and presented to her by the EARL OF
SHAFTESBURY:--
"Madam: I am deputed by the Duchess of Sutherland, and the ladies of the
two committees appointed to conduct 'The Address from the Women of
England, to the Women of America on the Subject of Slavery,' to express
the high gratification they feel in your presence amongst them this day.
"The address, which has received considerably more than half a million
of the signatures of the women of Great Britain and Ireland, they have
already transmitted to the United States, consigning it to the care of
those whom you have nominated as fit and zealous persons to undertake
the charge in your absence.
"The earnest desire of these committees, and, indeed, we may say of the
whole kingdom, is to cultivate the most friendly and affectionate
relations between the two countries; and we cannot but believe that we
are fostering such a feeling when we avow our deep admiration of an
American lady who, blessed by the possession of vast genius and
intellectual powers, enjoys the still higher blessing, that she devotes
them to the glory of God and the temporal and eternal interests of the
human race."
The following is a copy of the address to which Lord Shaftesbury makes
reference:--
"_The affectionate and Christian Address of many thousands of Women of
Great Britain and Ireland to their Sisters, the Women of the United
States of America_.
"A common origin, a common faith, and, we sincerely believe, a common
cause, urge us at the present moment to address you on the subject of
that system of negro slavery which still prevails so extensively, and
even under kindly-disposed masters, with such frightful results, in many
of the vast regions of the western world.
"We will not dwell on the ordinary topics--on the progress of
civilization; on the advance of freedom every where; on the rights and
requirements of the nineteenth century; but we appeal to you very
seriously to reflect, and to ask counsel of God, how far such a state
of things is in accordance with his holy word, the inalienable rights of
immortal souls, and the pure and merciful spirit of the Christian
religion.
"We do not shut our eyes to the difficulties, nay, the dangers, that
might beset the immediate abolition of that long-established system; we
see and admit the necessity of preparation for so great an event; but in
speaking of indispensable preliminaries, we cannot be silent on those
laws of your country which, in direct contravention of God's own law,
instituted in the time of man's innocency, deny, in effect, to the slave
the sanctity of marriage, with all its joys, rights, and obligations;
which separate, at the will of the master, the wife from the husband,
and the children from the parents. Nor can we be silent on that awful
system which, either by statute or by custom, interdicts to any race of
men, or any portion of the human family, education in the truths of the
gospel, and the ordinances of Christianity.
"A remedy applied to these two evils alone would commence the
amelioration of their sad condition. We appeal to you, then, as sisters,
as wives, and as mothers, to raise your voices to your fellow-citizens,
and your prayers to God, for the removal of this affliction from the
Christian world. We do not say these things in a spirit of
self-complacency, as though our nation were free from the guilt it
perceives in others. We acknowledge with grief and shame our heavy share
in this great sin. We acknowledge that our forefathers introduced, nay,
compelled the adoption of slavery in those mighty colonies. We humbly
confess it before Almighty God; and it is because we so deeply feel, and
so unfeignedly avow, our own complicity, that we now venture to implore
your aid to wipe away our common crime, and our common dishonor."