Charles Stuart

“ It refreshes my soul to find, that Granville Sharp, partook not of this unfaithfulness. Contemplating the depth and almost death in sin, of the national mind, the others solemnly deliberated, whether they should attack the whole evil, or only a part of it; for it does not seem, that they saw so clearly, as we now cannot help seeing, that the slave trade was merely a branch of slavery—they saw that it was a similar evil—but they do not seem to have seen, that it was an effect of another evil; and that slavery, its cause, must be abolished before it could cease. ”

“ Such are the principles, the universal prevalence of which, would make the world a moral Eden—the rejection of which, keeps it a little hell; especially where freemen hold slaves; for of all governments, an oligarchy is the worst. It consists of a hundred, or a thousand, or ten thousand tyrants, instead of one. It is "diffusing tyranny every where." It is "bringing despotism home to every man's door." It involves the greatest deliberateness and desperation of iniquity, both with law and without law, which it is possible for power to perpetrate against weakness. ”

“ Strangers come, and he is swept from the land of his forefathers—their fields wave rich with corn—their trees hang heavy with fruit—their church spires pierce the skies—their outward Sabbaths are kept by multitudes—commerce, arts, arms flourish—literature is rife, and palace-like are the dwellings which adorn the land. But the law of God is meted and parceled out, at will, or by tradition. A man, walking close with Christ, is deemed a lunatic. Fashion and custom and public opinion are the gods, slavery is nursed in the lap of republics,—and the aboriginies have perished ”

“ The suffering people of color, as peculiarly outraged and afflicted, were objects of peculiar compassion to them. The hearts of Englishmen were their home, even while colonial guilt made England, also, a house of bondage to them—but the British mind, after writhing for a while under the abomination, threw it finally and forever off, as we have seen in 1772. England remained their country, as it is the country of every man in the world, who flies to it from oppression. No white man is more honored there, than brown men, or sallow, or yellow men—or pale men, or red men ”

“ This doctrine is deeply impressed in the genius of our common law, which informs us, by unquestionable maxims, that no man is worthy to hold the reins of administration who cannot maintain the national justice, the chief object of which is certainly, personal protection. 'Cessa regnare, si non vis judicare,' Cease to reign, if you will not do justice, and the reason of this is plain from another maxim, 'Vita Reipublicæ, pax—et animus libertas—et corpus, leges,' peace is the life—and liberty the soul—and the laws the body of the commonwealth. ”

“ Why do slave masters keep slaves? To get labor out of them—and to get money by their labor—and to gratify their affections and appetites by money. They keep slaves to please themselves and to pamper their families—God and their neighbor, in this relation, are as nought to them.
Why do people use slave produce? To please themselves and their company! The cry of the laborer, whose wages are kept back by fraud and force, has gone up to God against it. ”

“ When the American Colonization Society was formed, what was the United States' mind? What is it now?
Full of color-phobia! The land is full of it. It is exhibited in legislation, in custom and in feeling. The man is deemed a fool or a villain who is free from it. It is, above all, exhibited in its perfection, when thorough Colonizationists try to disprove it. Even the kind couple with whom I am now boarding, full of general kindness as they are, are full of it. "What! a colored man to be equal to me!! ”

“ If benevolence to that worst part, be our motive, can we send them away from our liberty, and our light, and our laws, and our power, and our benevolence, to a foreign uncivilized and heathen land?
13. If gratification of prejudice be our motive, how much better is it, to yield to prejudice than to crucify it?—to flatter, than to give it no quarter?
14. If it be true, that every sinner must repent or perish, what must be the fate of those who strive to put away the annoyance produced by an evil, without repenting of the sin which produces it? ”

“ Scott's house, he showed me your 'Law of Retribution.' I was greatly rejoiced to find, that so laborious and learned a man, had appeared as champion for the rights of mankind, against avarice, extortion and inhumanity—that you had, with an heroic courage, dared to press home on an infidel, luxurious world, the dreadful threats of the Lord. The ruins of Babylon, Memphis and Tyre, are strong mementos to a Lisbon, a London, and a Paris, of the recompense paid to those, who fat their luxuries, on the labor of wretched slaves. ”

“ Natural relations, are inherent in the nature of things, and nothing can annul them. They arise from the relation which a man bears to mankind in general; and his moral duty results from them. He cannot therefore, change his natural relations—they are universal. Municipal relations are such as arise from being a member of the particular country, where they exist. It appears that by the laws of Virginia, this man is a slave—but the laws of Virginia, rule not in England. In this country, how can this man be a slave, where the meanest have a title to enjoy the rights of freedom. ”

“ The heart of Granville Sharp, shrunk like the sensitive plant, from the very touch of pollution—and it responded buoyantly to every call of truth and law, as the damask rose expands when heaven with the returning summer again showers life and beauty over the earth. ”

“ How long will it take to civilize an uncultivated people, by deluging them, with myriads of the most corrupt, depraved and abandoned inhabitants of a civilized state?
3. How long will it take to christianize heathen nations, by sending the most corrupt, depraved and abandoned people of the United States, as missionaries to them?
4. If instruction be requisite in order to prepare the enslaved Americans for benefiting Africa; and if the slave laws, generally render their instruction impossible, while they remain slaves, how long will it take to prepare them, they remaining slaves? ”

“ Slavery is introduced through human wickedness; but God advocates liberty by the nature which he has given to man. Wherefore, liberty torn from man, always seeks to return to him; and it is the same with every thing, which is dedeprived of its native freedom. On this account it is, that the man who does not favor liberty, must be regarded as impious and cruel; and hence the English law always favors liberty.
"Ratio legis, est animus legis." The resonableness of the law, is the soul of the law. ”

“ The object of the African Institution, was, "To improve the temporal condition and the moral faculties of the natives of Africa; to diffuse knowledge and excite industry, by methods adapted to the peculiar situation and manners of the inhabitants; to watch over their execution of the laws which have been passed by this and other countries, for abolishing the African slave trade; and finally, to introduce the blessings of civilized society, among a people sunk in ignorance and barbarism, and occupying no less than a fourth part of the habitable globe." ”

“ It is I said, that if a man has got one wife, he must not take another wife, or any other woman. 'Oh,' said he, 'two wives, very good—three wives, very, very good.' No, Omai, said I, not so—that would be contrary to the first principle of the law of nature. 'First principle of law of nature,' said he, 'what that? what that?' The first principle of the law of nature is, I said, that no man must do to another person, any thing that he would not like to be done to himself. ”

“ He heard the voice of heaven calling him up to the whole conflict, and he solemnly and vehemently remonstrated with the committee against the resolution which they had adopted declaring, that "as slavery was as much a crime against the Divine law, as the slave trade, it became the committee to exert themselves equally against the continuance of both; and he did not hesitate to pronounce all present, guilty before God, for shutting those, who were then slaves, out of the pale of their approaching labors." ”

“ Alas! if color could disgrace a people, how deep in the nethermost regions of shame, would that color be, which is called white in the United States; frequently with such utter recklessness of truth. White! ”

“ Granville Sharp, was a friend of peace. He had studied his Bible too much, and loved it too well, to be ignorant of the injunctions, "love worketh no ill to its neighbor;" "resist not evil;" "recompense no man evil for evil;" "avenge not yourselves;" "be not overcome of evil—but overcome evil with good;" "love your enemies—bless them that curse you—do good to them that hate you—and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you." ”

“ In short, the doctrine of necessity, may be admitted to excuse some things of an indifferent nature, not evil in themselves, though prohibited by law; but never to justify iniquity and oppression, respect of persons, or any thing that is 'malum in se, evil in its very nature.' Because the first necessity in a Christian community is, to do justice to all men, at all times—as, it is better to endure all adversities, than to assent to iniquity. ”

“ Let a man speak the truth, of the insane and cruel prejudice against color in the United States, declaring however, that it is vincible, and explaining the manly, peaceable and republican process, by which it is actually undergoing a glorious change—and, if an American, he is a slanderer of his country, or a traitor, or something, or anything else, which the color-phobia fancies:—if an Englishman, he "has been imported, for the purpose of vilifying colonization," or for some other purpose, of equally false and elegant tissue. ”

“ Law, ceasing to frame mischief, is restored to its own wholesome and glorious character, as the handmaid of equity—and one of the first lawyers of the age, placed at the fountain head of justice, and freed by the gathered effulgence of truth, from the sophisms of his character and his class, casts off his prejudices and restores to liberty, her resting place on earth. ”

“ I am now in a country where the rights of liberty are known and regarded; and can you tell me the reason, why I am not to be protected by those laws?' To have such a question answered," continued Mr. Mansfield, "consistently with those laws, seems to me impossible—for, on the contrary, he is as fully and clearly entitled to the protection of those laws, as any one who now hears me." ”

“ If armed colonies of civilized people, could ever be a blessing to the uncivilized tribes amongst which they settle, our Pilgrim forefathers had been such! But it is out of nature and even the christianity, to which it is akin, is deemed insane, by the christianity of the world, all bristling with bayonets, ready to pour showers of death from the cannon's mouth, and crimsoned over and over, with its brother's blood—such are armed colonies. ”

“ It is this fact, which causes such mournful waste of life in the new settlements in the United States and in south western Canada, and the settlers therefore cannot be too diligent, in removing all decaying vegetation, and all stagnant moisture as far as possible from their vicinities, before the heats of autumn.
But Sierra Leone is in fact a glorious spot—glorious in beauty, moderately fertile—with one of the finest harbors in the world; replete with the grandeur and beauty of the tropics; and ready to become salubrious, as soon as the causes of death can be removed. ”

“ We have a deplorable instance of the corruptions of legal practice. Mr. Dunning, who supported tyranny in the case of Somerset, had previously been one of the most bright and efficient defenders of liberty. He was the chief advocate in the case of Thomas Lewis, in 1771, and then triumphantly declared, that no man can be legally detained as a slave in England. Granville Sharp's observations upon this tergiversation, are worthy of record, and should ring like warning thunder upon every lawyer's heart. ”

“ He is so far from vindicating the law, like the generous and patriotic apostle, for the sake of national liberty, that he manifestly sets himself up above the law, (which is the first characteristic of a tyrant) and thereby renders himself) in fact, an open enemy to liberty, and consequently a disgrace to society," ibid.
"When they (men) are freest they have limits, for they are not infinite; nay, when they are most free, they are most bound to good order and to right reason." ”

“ Yea, blessed be God—the heart of the United States is not dead forever—its prejudices, though in this respect the most brutal on earth, are vincible. Its religion, and liberty, and manhood are reviving and are going to be vindicated in peace, by God's all conquering weapons of truth and love ”

“ Twenty years have elapsed, since the proof has been complete, that native Africans or negroes, do not need even an hour's drilling by slavery, to prepare them for liberty; since, from the moment, that they are landed from the slave ships, and placed under the protection and coercion of the equitable laws of the settlement, their behaviour has always been, as a body, singularly inoffensive, submissive and affectionate; and their industry, equal to any thing which could have been expected from any body of men in their circumstances. ”

“ And again, "Those rights which God and nature have established, and which are therefore called 'natural rights,' such as life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws, to be more effectually vested in every man, than they are. ”

“ The founders of Liberia contemplated removing, a whole people, as they may be called (the free colored people of the United States) some of whom were wealthy—some of whom were highly cultivated—some of whom were amongst the most precious jewels in their country, of the Lord of hosts—many of whom were in independant circumstances, and all of whom taking them as a body, might have been most happy and useful at home—and why then remove them? ”