Discussion on American Slavery

'Perhaps the great reason against the exercise of that power' [to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia,] was, that it would inevitably produce a dissolution of the Union. Put 'this and that together.' 'There is not a sane man in the free states, but wishes the world rid of slavery;' the free states contain 'seven millions out of the eleven millions of the white population of the Union;' (see page 7,) 'a large minority in the slaveholding states, in some nearly one half of the population,' (see page 13,) 'are zealously engaged in furthering the abolition of slavery,' and yet the exercise by Congress of its constitutional power to abolish slavery in the national district would 'inevitably dissolve the Union.' Verily, the old proverb hath well said that a certain class of persons should have a good memory.

Mr. B. sneers at 'Mr. Thompson's argument about the standing army employed in keeping down the slaves,' and declares that it was 'complete humbug, founded upon just nothing at all.' Will the citizens of Southampton county, Virginia, who called in the aid of the U. S. dragoons to quell an insurrection a few years ago, corroborate his testimony? 'An officer of the United States' army, who was in the expedition from fortress Monroe, against the Southampton slaves in 1831, speaks with constant horror of the scenes which he was compelled to witness. Those troops, agreeably to their orders, which were to exterminate the negroes, killed all that they met with, although they encountered neither resistance, nor show of resistance: and the first check given to this wide, barbarous slaughter grew out of the fact, that the law of Virginia, which provides for the payment to the master of the full value of an executed slave, was considered as not applying to the cases of slaves put to death without trial. In consequence of numerous representations to this effect, sent to the officer of the United States' army, commanding the expedition, the massacre was suspended.' —Child's Oration.

And what says Mr. B. to this assertion of John Q. Adams, that were it not for the protection of the western frontier against the Indians, and of the Southern slaveholder against his human 'machinery,' this country would scarcely have any need of a standing army. Is that 'complete humbug' too?

Mr. B. ventures to say that 'there are not ten persons in the whole state of Kentucky, holding anti-slavery principles, in the Garrison sense of the word.' Page 40. We know not how many there may be now, but in 1835, a constitution of a state society, framed on anti-slavery principles, 'in the Garrison sense of the word,' was signed by more than forty persons.

Mr. B. tells about a minister who was driven, he says, from Groton, Mass., by the storm of abolitionism, and who seems to have fled to Baltimore, doubtless, seeking a congenial climate. See page 40. But Mr. B. forgot to mention the many cases in which the slave spirit, 'like a storm of fire and brimstone from hell,' has driven faithful pastors from their charges, just for the crime of praying and preaching now and then for the enslaved.

Mr. B. says of a document from which his opponent quoted certain Maryland laws that placed the 'benevolent colonization scheme' in any thing but a favorable light, that it was said in America, and he believed truly, to contain not the laws, but only schemes of laws which never passed the Assembly. See page 47. On this the Emancipator remarks, 'This was never alleged against the pamphlet. The pamphlet contains the laws precisely as they stand in the statute book of Maryland, as Mr. B. would have seen had he ever taken the trouble to compare them. And for him to make such assertions, without having done so, is only another instance of "unpardonable ignorance, or a purpose to mislead."'

In the third evening's discussion, Mr. B. asserted, page 50, that Mr. Garrison was among the first who opposed the Colonization Society, 'on the ground that its operations were injurious to the colored race in America.' To this the Emancipator says, 'This is partly true and partly not. The Society was decidedly opposed, at the outset, both by the colored people and by those who, up to that time, had been most active in promoting the cause of emancipation. As early as August, 1817, the subject came before the "American Convention for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery," &c., at its session in Philadelphia. This body, representing for the most part Friends, and made up of delegates from abolition and manumission societies in different parts of the country, after a full discussion, appointed a committee on the subject. That committee reported, that "they must express their unqualified wish, that no plan of colonization shall be permitted to go into effect without an immutable pledge from the slaveholding states of a just and wise system of gradual emancipation;" and they conclude their report, which was approved and adopted by the Convention with the following resolution: —

"Resolved, As a sense of this Convention, that the gradual and total emancipation of all persons of color, and their literary and moral education, should precede their colonization."

When the Convention met again in 1819, the Pennsylvania society, in sending up a statement of its views and proceedings, warned the "abolitionists of our country to retain in view the lessons of experience, and avoid substituting for them, schemes however splendid, yet of questionable result;" and added, "for ourselves there is but one principle on which we can act. It is the principle of immutable justice! We can make no compromise with the prejudices of slavery, or with the slavery of prejudice. The same arguments that are now urged against emancipation, unless the subjects of it be removed from our territory, were used with more plausibility when abolition was an experiment, yet they were combatted with success."

Mr. B. says, page 52, it 'would-be difficult, if not utterly impossible, for evidences of friendship to the Colonization Society from an avowed friend of slavery to be culled out, as occurring within the last three or four years.' Says the Emancipator, "So far is this from being true, that the most decisive evidences of this sort are found, within the last three or four years. Scarce a pro-slavery mob, or speech, or meeting, during this whole time, but has contained, in one and the same breath, a condemmnation of abolition and a commendation of colonization."

After quoting the resolution against the Colonization Society, in Boston last year, Mr. B. remarks, 'that the verbiage of this resolution, showed its parentage. No one who had ever heard one of Mr. Thompson's speeches could, for a moment, doubt the authorship of the resolution!' This is a small mistake indeed, and among so many great ones, scarce merits a notice, but to show that Mr. B's sagacity in conjecture, exceeds not much his veracity in assertion, we just mention in passing, that the 'authorship of the resolution' belongs not to Mr. Thompson.

'The abolitionists,' says Mr. B. page 54, 'have been going about, from Dan to Beersheba, not only attacking and vilifying the whites, for proposing to colonize the blacks, with their own free consent; but equally attacking the blacks for availing themselves of the offer.' An assertion utterly false, and wickedly slanderous.

On page 55, Mr. B. introduces an extract from an address of some of the Cape Palmas Colonists to their friends in America, for the purpose of showing the prosperity of the Colony. In connection with this, let the following letter from a colonist be read: —

'Cape Palmas, May 5th, 1834.

Dear Mother, – I write you with regret. It is true, I wrote to you of my passage, how I enjoyed it. I spent a very agreeable time, and also on my first arrival; but now I am distressed, and all Mr. C's family also. * * * O! I am sorry! yes, sorry that I ever came to this country. It is true, mother, had I taken your advice, I would not have been here. I have suffered and all my family, and Mr. C's family too, and we still continue to suffer. Not a cent of money have any of us got. Now, mother, if you can get any gentleman to advance the amount of three hundred dollars, or two hundred and fifty dollars I will work for them for it four years. I will serve as a waiter in a house, or any thing at all, to pay for it. My wife says she would maintain herself and sister, if that could get her home once more, for here they can do nothing, for we are not able, the country is so sickly – we have been sick ever since we have been here – * * * I will serve any way or at any thing. I will sell myself as a slave, for the sake of getting HOME once more. Try for me, if you please, for my family's sake. If I was by myself, I might scuffle for myself.'

In a subsequent letter, dated August 3, 1834, this same writer communicates the additional intelligence, that Mrs. C 'died of grief.'

'Every benevolent and right thinking person must see, that the scheme of colonizing Africa by black men, is necessary to enlighten Africa, and prevent the extirpation of the black man there.' So says Mr. Breckinridge. Doubtless it was to enlighten the poor natives, and prevent their extirpation, that a brisk traffic in rum, tobacco, gunpowder, and spear-pointed knives, has been carried on with them by black men colonized in Africa – that nine pound balls from 'a gun of great power' were discharged into a body of eight hundred men, standing within sixty yards, pressed shoulder to shoulder, in so compact a form that a child might easily walk upon their heads from one end of the mass to the other' and 'every shot literally spent its force in a solid mass of living human flesh2 – that by fraud and injustice the colonists excited the hostility of the Africans, and stirred up a war with King Joe Harris, which resulted in the slaughter of numbers of the ignorant barbarians, who were unable to cope with the superior arms, and discipline, and military prowess of the American blacks – the 'missionaries in the holy cause of civilization, religion, and free institutions.'3

'America,' says Mr. B., 'was christianized by colonization.' Yea, verily! and in this case we have another precious example of the enlightening, civilizing, and christianizing influence of colonies. The poor Indian has felt, and faded away before it, along the Atlantic-shores, and still the 'missionary' work is going on at the far southwest. Ask the Seminoles and the Creeks if colonization has not Christianized America. Ask the shades of Metacom, and Canonicus, and Sarsacus; ask the feeble remnants of the mighty tribes which once dwelt from the lakes to the Gulf, and from the ocean to the Alleghany, and learn of them the process of christianization which colonies have introduced into America. Is it by a similar process that 'colonizing Africa by black men,' is to 'prevent the extirpation' of the natives of that continent?

'The climate' of Africa Mr. B. says, page 58 'suits the black man, while hundreds of white men have fallen victims to it.' And how many 'hundreds of black men' have fallen victims to it? Those especially who have gone from the Northern states, have found it as fatal as have the whites themselves, nor has it been very remarkably healthy to any portion of the colonists.

Mr. B. is very certain that colonizing Africa will destroy the slave trade. He says the colonists 'would put an end to the trade the moment they were able to chastise the pirates, or make reprisals on the nations to which they belonged. Nothing is plainer, than that any nation that will make reprisals, will have none of the inhabitants stolen. If reprisals were made effective, the slave trade would be immediately stopped.' A Christian mode of reforming vices and removing evils, truly! 'Any nation that will make reprisals!' So, if Peter steals John's child, John must steal Peter's by way of reprisal, and that will put a stop to the mischief at once! And why not reprisals prevent all other kinds of violence, as well as man-stealing? If an Englishman shoots a Frenchman, let a Frenchman shoot an Englishman in return, and the quarrel is settled, and peace restored! For 'nothing is plainer, than that any nation that will make reprisals, will have none of the inhabitants' shot. Does past history sustain this doctrine? Do present facts sustain it? No longer let our clergy preach, that 'all they who take the sword, shall perish by the sword.' 'Nothing is plainer,' than that those nations 'which take the sword' to 'make reprisals,' 'will have none of the inhabitants' injured by the sword. But where is the need of colonies? If the 'Foulahs' will only steal as many men, women, and children, from the 'Ialoffs,' as the latter from the former, 'nothing is plainer than that these two tribes will have none of the inhabitants stolen.' Do the various African tribes never make reprisals? How happens it then, that the slave trade, and the whole business of man-stealing has not been long since suppressed?

'On one hundred leagues of the African coast,' says Mr. B., 'it is already to a great degree suppressed' by the operation of the colonization societies and their colonies. To this the Emancipator says, 'These statements are far, very far from true, and we can account for them only on the ground of "unpardonable ignorance, or a purpose to mislead." Again and again have we been assured, and on colonial colonization authority too, that the trade still goes on in the vicinity of the colony as briskly as ever, nay, that it is even prosecuted within the limits of the colony, and in sight of Monrovia itself. Indeed, at this very moment the colony, instead of being able to suppress or destroy the trade, is in danger of being itself destroyed by it, and is sending out its appeal to this country for help, praying that some "American vessels" may be sent upon the coast to seize the traders, and to protect the colony. Let our friends in this country and in England peruse the following extracts from the Liberia Herald just received in this country, and then say what shall be thought of the man or the men who, in the face of such and similar testimony repeatedly received, can unblushingly pretend "that on one hundred leagues of the African coast, the trade is already to a great degree suppressed?"

Extracts from late Liberia papers, received at the office of the N. Y. Commercial Advertiser: —

"Slave Trade.– This nefarious traffic is again lifting its horrid head in our vicinity, and increasing in a fearful ratio. Within one hundred miles of the settlement, there are at this very time, at least four factories for the purchase of slaves, and one of them not more than eighteen miles off! The consequences are most severely felt by the colony. It is now impossible to purchase rice, at any rate that would not starve the most fortunate man. In our immediate vicinity, it is reported, slavers have lately given the natives a musket for four cross! the retail price of which, in the colony, is six dollars! To the Spaniards, in view of a successful voyage, the profits of which are so enormous, goods are of no value; but it is far otherwise with us. The natives, like other men, disposed to get the most for their articles, will of course sell to those who will give the highest. This being the case, we ask, how are the people of this colony to live? We have sometimes thought if the people of the United States once knew the inconvenience to which the slave trade subjects us, and what an effectual check it is upon the advancement and prosperity of the colony, and how little of those surplus and useless millions, whose proper place of deposite has created so much contention, that without an exception, saints and sinners, politicians, philosophers, colonizationists, and abolitionists, anti-colonizationists, anti-abolitionists, and anti-all, would rise up, and with one general voice decree, that a small armed vessel shall ply between Sherbro Islands and Kroo country, and thus effectually protect a few poor OUTCASTS, while millions of their brethren are faithfully slaving to enrich us at home."

And so, notwithstanding the Paradise to which they have gone, and their "free consent" to go, they are "poor outcasts" when they get there after all; and the very trade which they were sent to abolish, is in a fair way of abolishing them, unless government vessels go out to their aid!'

Of the remark said to have been made by him at the colonization meeting, in 1834, that certain emigrants to Liberia 'were coerced away, as truly as if it had been done with a cart-whip,' Mr. B. says 'it was an unfair report, got up by Mr. Leavitt, the editor of the N. Y. Evangelist, to serve a special purpose.' The Emancipator answers the assertion thus, 'This passage has been quoted and requoted in this country, in times and ways well nigh innumerable, but, to the best of our knowledge, it was never before pronounced an unfair report, either by Mr. B. or any other individual. And now, while we leave Mr. Leavitt to answer for himself on the question of its fairness, we take the liberty to say, that if unfair, it will not relieve Mr. B. of difficulty. For if the report be fair, and Mr. B. did say the things attributed to him, why then, as every body knows, he said what was true. If, however, it be unfair, and he did not say those things, then as every body knows, he did not say what was true, and what, if he had spoken the truth, he would have said. For that they were "coerced away as truly as if it had been done with a cart-whip," every body knows to be fact.'

Mr. Leavitt's Note to the Editor of the Emancipator.

'In reply to Mr. Breckinridge's allegation, that I "got up" a report of his speech, "to serve a special purpose," I will only say, that Mr. Breckinridge did prudently to go across the Atlantic before he made that charge. My character as a fair reporter, will not be affected here by such insinuations. I have no doubt that the report in question gives the ideas Mr. B. uttered, mostly in the very language he used. My recollection, in this case, is very distinct, and the words taken down at the time.

JOSHUA LEAVITT.

Mr. B. says, that 'in many instances the bad laws had become worse, and good laws had become bad, solely through the imprudent conduct of Mr. Thompson's associates.' Some of the most unrighteous, barbarous, and abominable laws ever enacted in this land, whose rulers have so long occupied the 'throne of iniquity,' and been so often and so deeply guilty of 'framing mischief by a law,' are cited in Stroud's Sketch, a work published several years before 'Mr. Thompson and his associates' had commenced their 'imprudent' measures. Those laws certainly were not occasioned by their imprudence. It is nearly a hundred years at least, since these statutes of pandemonium began to disgrace American legislation.

In the fourth evening's discussion, Mr. B. asserts, page 88, that the N. Y. Observer and Boston Recorder, 'print more matter weekly than all the abolition newspapers in America, put together, do in half a year.' It is really matter of astonishment, that he should venture the utterance of such a glaring falsehood. He ought to have learned to keep at least within the bounds of probability in his fictions. There were at the time when his assertion was made – to say nothing of the monthlies – not less than eight or nine weekly anti-slavery papers, some of which circulated more widely than the Recorder, and not much less widely than the Observer. If we do not mistake, Mr. B. told a story at least forty or fifty times as large as the truth, and we are by no means sure that the proportion is not much larger.

Mr. Thompson, for the purpose of showing what the abolitionists are doing in one department of their work, produced copies of the Slaves Friend, Anti-Slavery Record, Anti-Slavery Anecdotes, Human Rights, Emancipator, Liberator, New York Evangelist, Zion's Herald, Zion's Watchman, Philadelphia Independent Weekly Press, Herald of Freedom, Lynn Record, New England Spectator, &c., and an Anti-Slavery Quarterly. Of these, Mr. B. said 'some of them were, he believed, long ago dead; some could hardly be said ever to have lived; some were purely occasional; the greater part as limited in circulation, as they were contemptible in point of merit. Not above two or three of the dozen or fifteen that had been produced before them were, in fact, worthy to be called respectable and avowed abolition newspapers.' Now for the truth. Not one of them was 'long ago,' or is now 'dead.' Only one of them is 'purely occasional' – the Anti-Slavery Anecdotes – but, with that exception, all are now alive, and nearly every one has a circulation as extensive as that of the Recorder – some, as already stated, still more extensive. And beside these which Mr. Thompson exhibited, there are several other weekly and monthly anti-slavery publications, which are neither dead, nor likely soon to be. The Philanthropist, (its publication suspended indeed, for a short time by the destruction of its press, but soon to be resumed,) the Friend of Man, the American Citizen, the Vermont Telegraph, the Middlebury Free Press, the Vermont State Journal, and a number more, weekly, and some monthly periodicals are 'avowed abolition newspapers,' some of them devoted almost exclusively to this cause, and all 'respectable' both in character and extent of circulation. Some of them are of the very highest order in point of ability and merit, of the weekly periodicals of the country. Mr. T., therefore, instead of exaggerating in regard to the number of the abolition papers, fell considerably short of the truth.

'Was he [the inhabitant of Louisiana] to be told then, that he should turn off his slaves?' &c., asks Mr. B., page 90, Certainly not – at least, not by abolitionists. They propose that the slaves should be permitted to remain on the plantations and work as free laborers, where their services will be needed, and will be mutually advantageous to themselves and their employers.

Mr. B. denies, page 90, that any person legally free, 'was ever sold into everlasting slavery,' but his denial is only another evidence of the facility with which he can utter, not only gross falsehoods, but falsehoods which contradict notorious facts, and which of course cannot escape detection. Mr. T. has fully exposed this falsehood, by presenting documentary evidence of the fact denied.

Of Mr. B's declarations, on page 91, to which we refer the reader, the Emancipator says, 'All this, if not "gratuitous folly," is at least, unfounded and reckless assertion, which we have scarcely ever seen equalled.'

We ask our readers to turn back, and read again the paragraph on page 97, ending 'to COERCE such emigration, might be a MOST SACRED DUTY,' This has frankness at least, if it has no other good quality to recommend it. But it is the frankness of the tyrant, who, confident of his power to effect his purposes, fears not to avow them, however iniquitous or abominable. And if there be frankness in letting out the design, there is most unblushing impudence in calling its execution 'a sacred duty.' What utter heartlessness too, and what obliquity of moral vision does it exhibit. And this man dares to rank himself with the friends of the colored people! Such a friend as the Holy Inquisitors of Spain, to the heretical Protestants, whom they deem it their 'sacred duty to coerce' with rack and fire, to a renunciation of their heresies. Such a friend as Louis XIV., to the Huguenots, – James I., to the Puritans, and Charles II., to the Scottish Covenanters.

On page 98, Mr. B. introduces what he calls a speech of Mr. T. at Andover, as reported by a student in the Theological Seminary. Mr. T. has met this anonymous report with counter testimony, not anonymous, but we will add that of the editor of the Emancipator, who says, 'Mr. B. although so often pretending that he had no documents, &c., here read the false and distorted account of Mr. Thompson's speech on this occasion, published at the time in the Boston Courier, and signed C. Having been there at the time, we here record our testimony to the fact of its being false and distorted in its representations.'

Mr. B. on page 109, alludes to what Mr. Thompson has said 'about Dr. Sprague having part of his church curtained round for persons of color,' and says he notices it 'only because it was told as a specimen story.' In the same connection he evidently endeavors to create the impression that the religious privileges of the free colored people are equal to those of the whites. On this, the Emancipator remarks, 'We can testify to the truth of the story in regard to Dr. Sprague's church; and although every church does not separate the blacks from the whites with so much care, or in precisely the same way, yet it is strictly true, that almost, without exception, the separation is made and carefully kept up, and this not only in the ordinary worship of the Sabbath, but even when the church gather about the table of their crucified and common Lord, to partake of the emblems of his dying love.' And after admitting that colored men have, in a few instances, been admitted to theological seminaries, and to a seat in ecclesiastical bodies, the editor adds, and truly, as all familiar with the facts can testify, 'Such instances, however, are few and far between, and whenever they do occur, the individuals concerned are, in many ways, made to feel their inferiority and to know their place. The impression made by Mr. B's representation would be, as a whole, incorrect.'