Joseph Sturge

“ If we refuse the Americans as customers, we compel them to become our rivals; and, after supplying their own wants, they will compete with us for the trade of the world, on more than equal terms. Our statesmen may yet employ America to build up the prosperity of our country whilst increasing her own, or they may suffer its rapidly developing and gigantic resources to work out our ruin: the alternative is before them and before the country—but decision must be prompt, for there is no pause in the march of events. ”

“ When hunted from every other quarter of the globe by the inexorable spirit of abolition, when even Cuba and Brazil cease to afford them an asylum—when slave-holding shall be every where else as odious and detestable as midnight larceny, or highway robbery,—Texas alone, uninfected and secure, is to open its gates of refuge to the persecuted Calhouns and McDuffies, and their northern allies in church and state—the San Marino of slavery, dissevered from the world's fanaticism—isolated and apart, like the floating air-island of Dean Swift. ”

“ But notwithstanding the glowing emotions which seem naturally called forth by the locality, there is many an American who bitterly feels that the District of Columbia is the shame, rather than the glory of his country. Here is proclaimed to the whole world by the united voice of the American people, "We hold these truths to be self-evident—that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights—that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;" ”

“ In order to make this apparent, as well as to vindicate my own proceedings in the United States, it is incumbent on me to show, that the great contest, for the abolition of American slavery, is to be decided in the free States, by the power of public opinion. I have distinctly admitted, that the confederated republics have each their independent sovereignty. Neither the free States, nor the general Government, can perhaps constitutionally abolish slavery in any one of the existing slave States. ”

“ What, my friend, is to be learned from these gleanings at Ashland?—from the doings of our mutual friend, Joseph John Gurney's 'dear friend,' Henry Clay: the man who boasts that 'every pulsation of his heart beats high for liberty,' yet is not ashamed to buy men and women at the Capitol!—that place which, above all others, ought not to be cursed by the footsteps of a slave. ”

“ The District of Columbia is the chief seat of the American slave trade; commercial enterprize has no other object! Washington is one of the best supplied and most frequented slave marts in the world. The adjoining and once fertile and beautiful States of Virginia and Maryland, are now blasted with sterility, and ever-encroaching desolation. The curse of the first murderer rests upon the planters, and the ground will no longer yield to them her strength. The impoverished proprietors find now their chief source of revenue in what one of themselves expressly termed, their "crop of human flesh." ”

“ It is affecting to us to think with what astonishing rapidity slavery is extending itself upon the Continent of North America, and how from year to year the slave population is increasing among you. Our spirits are oppressed with a sense of the magnitude of the evil; we tremble at the awful consequence which, in the justice and wisdom of Almighty God, may ensue to those who persist in the upholding of it. ”

“ With the enlarged views entertained by Friends of the mercy and love of our heavenly Father towards his children of every nation and tongue all the world over, we desire to press it upon you still to labor for the removal of all those unjust laws and limitations of right and privilege consequent upon the unwarrantable distinction of color—a distinction which has brought so much suffering upon those settled in different parts of the Union, and which we think must conduce to the strengthening of the prejudices of former years, and to retard the work of emancipation. ”

“ But if those in authority have, upon their own principles, treated us with neglect in the hour of our peril, upon them let the responsibility rest. We have thus far survived the onset. Under God, for to him alone are we indebted for protection, we are still left to bear our testimony to the truth. Our consciences are in this matter void of offence. In cheerful serenity of spirit, and not in the tone of menace or boasting, we declare our faith in the principles of emancipation unfaltering—our zeal undiminished—our determination to persevere unaltered. ”

“ It is too evident, nevertheless, that the principle of retaliatory punishment, irrespective of any considerations of public safety, or the benefit of the offender, pervades our criminal jurisprudence, both in theory and practice, and just so far as this is the case, is the last great object defeated, for his feelings are deadened, and his heart hardened by it. The most depraved wretch has that within him which testifies that his fellow worm has no right to inflict pain upon him solely as a punishment, and his heart rebels against what he feels to be oppression. ”

“ And it is to me a matter of joy, as it must be to every friend of impartial liberty and free institutions, that the citizens of this republic are more and more feeling that the plague-spot of slavery, as with the increased facilities of communication its horrors and deformity become more apparent in the eyes of the world, is fixing a deep disgrace upon the character of their country, and paralyzing the beneficial influence which might otherwise flow from it as an example of a well-regulated free government. ”

“ Let the friends of peace concentrate their exertions in Peace Societies; and let the press proclaim throughout our land, in all its length and breadth, the folly, the wickedness, and the horrors of war; and call on our rulers to provide for the amicable adjustment of national differences. In the first treaty that shall be formed for this purpose we shall behold the dawn of that glorious day, the theme of prophets and the aspirations of saints, when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. ”

“ The reader will look in vain for those glowing descriptions of American scenery, and graphic delineations of the peculiarities of the American character with which other travellers have endeavored to enliven and diversify their journals. Coming among us on an errand of peace and good will—with a heart oppressed and burdened by the woes of suffering humanity—he had no leisure for curious observations of men and manners, nor even for the gratification of a simple and unperverted taste for the beautiful in outward nature. ”

“ A pure despotism in the hands of one man has seldom been seen, except in the instances of those renowned military chiefs, whom a retributive Providence has at intervals employed as the scourge of guilty nations. An aristocracy under various forms and names, has usually been the governing power, and as the too frequent result, laws have been made and administered for the benefit of the few, and not for the many. Yet the United States of North America exhibit, however, notwithstanding their political theory to the contrary, an aristocracy of the worst kind, an aristocracy of color ”

“ The greatest objection to this society, is its representing slavery, and the prejudice against color, as necessary and incurable evils, for which its own mockery of a remedy is the only palliative; and thus administering an opiate to the consciences, not only of slave-holders, but of others who are unwilling to part with their sinful prejudices, and to enter into that fellowship of suffering with the enslaved, without which no efforts for the removal of slavery will be effectual. ”

“ Few will deny that the long and heart-sickening interval that occurred between the abolition of the slave-trade of Great Britain, and the emancipation of her slaves, was owing to the false, but universal notion, that the slaves must be gradually prepared for freedom: a notion that we now confess is as contrary to reason and Christian principle as it is opposed to the past experience of our colonies. Yet a generation passed away while the abolitionists of Great Britain were trying to make ropes of sand—to give practical effect to an impracticable theory ”

“ The only good which England can derive from her extensive colonization is not to be gained by swaying a barren sceptre over distant colonies, but by spreading abroad her race, her language, her civilization, and thus enlarging the sphere of her commerce. Under a free system of intercourse England would not derive less benefit, at present, from the United States than if they had remained a part of the British dominions, for if trade were free, they would not trade the less because of their independence, or furnish less food, or at higher prices. ”

“ In any one of these States, it would, to use the language of a New York mechanic, be exceedingly difficult to prove, to the satisfaction of a jury of honest freemen, that a man had been born 'contrary to the Declaration of Independence.' The frontiers of slavery are every where very much exposed, and all along the line of Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, Virginia, and Missouri, the tide of self-emancipated men and women is pouring in upon the free States. ”

“ A country whose population is beyond its means of supply from its own soil, has no resources but that of her manufactures and foreign trade; if these be dried up, her people must emigrate or starve. But the United States has an alternative;—her first and best resource,—and the most profitable application of her industry is in her broad and fertile lands, the superabundant produce of which would not only feed, but, by exchange, clothe her population, and supply them with all the comforts of civilized life. ”

“ The most we need to do is to embrace opportunities, without seeking to make them. I had not expected to say as much as I did, but it was such a curiosity for a Quaker to be seen in such company, that it was soon universally known why I had come and what I had done. This gave rise to many conversations with slave holders, which I trust did some good. I was astonished at their extreme ignorance concerning the laboring population of the North. Thou wilt perhaps be surprised to hear me assert that slave holders do not know what slavery is. ”

“ To thy remark that thy business was necessary to the system of slavery, and an essential part of it—and if slave-holding were to be justified at all, the slave-trade must be also—I certainly can offer no valid objection; for I have never been able to discover any moral difference between the planter of Virginia and the slave dealer of Baltimore, Richmond, and Washington. Each has his part to act in the system, and each is necessary to the other. ”

“ And in this country the Colonization scheme, with its delusive promise of good to Africa, and its vague anticipations of putting an end to the slave-trade by armed colonies on the coast of that ill-fated continent, has been the means of obstructing emancipation at home, of unprofitably absorbing the energies and blinding the judgment of many sincere friends of the slave, and of strengthening the unchristian prejudice against color. ”

“ We rejoice, and in so doing, the abolitionists of Pennsylvania unite with us, that human life was not sacrificed in defence of our Hall, our persons, and our property. We know, indeed, that had the attack been made upon the United States Bank, or any similar institution in this city, the civil authorities would have met its fury, not as now, with a speech only, but with loaded firelocks and fixed bayonets. We know, it is true, that the mob were in a great measure left free to work their mischievous will upon us. ”

“ Yet more important is it, however, to bring the moral force of the North to bear against slavery, by reforming the prevailing public sentiment of the religious, moral, and intelligent portion of the community. Here again, one of the most sagacious leaders of the pro-slavery party, J.C. Calhoun, has descried the danger from afar, and has publicly proclaimed it in the senate of the United States, by vehemently deprecating the anti-slavery proceedings, not as intended to provoke the slaves to a servile war, but as a crusade against the character of the slave-holders. ”

“ In almost all cases of man stealing, the stolen beings were of those who had tasted the sweets of liberty. To the kidnapper, who made these his prey, there were great facilities for escaping with impunity; not only because, in the depth and darkness of a dungeon, his limbs loaded with fetters, and utterance choked with a gag, his suffering could not be made visible or audible, but also because the deadness of sensibility on this subject, which still pervaded the public, though in a less degree than formerly, seemed to have unnerved every eye and palsied every ear. ”

“ The corruptions and disorders that obscure the bright example of the American people, and detract from the estimation in which their institutions and policy would otherwise be held, generally spring from this source. So long as slavery and distinction of color exist, America will always be pointed at with the finger of scorn, for her flagrant violation of all truth and consistency. ”

“ The temperance cause in Worcester has made so much progress that at the three largest and best hotels, which make up nearly one hundred beds each, no intoxicating liquor of any kind is sold. A people thus willing to carry out their convictions, to the sacrifice of prejudice, appetite, and apparent self-interest, cannot long remain a nation of slave-holders. In common with the rest of New England, this town is remarkable for the number, size, and beauty of its places of worship. ”

“ Under the influence of Divine wisdom, and by this faithfulness on the part of upright Friends, our religious society were brought to a united and settled judgment as a body, that personal slavery, both in its origin and its results, was so great an evil, that it could be tolerated by no mitigation of its hardship; and they felt the demands of equity to be so urgent upon them, that they were concerned to enjoin it upon Friends every where, by a ready compliance with such reasonable duty, to cease to do evil, by immediately releasing those they held as slaves. ”

“ But as free trade, in destroying the odious monopoly of the haughty slave-holder, would benefit and not injure him, so would its effects be found universally. It would give peace and plenty to England and the world,—it would enlarge and secure trade, bind the spreading branches of the Anglo-saxon race by natural affinity to England as their acknowledged head, and promote the liberty and civilization of the human family at large. ”

“ It is impossible that a scene so bright and lovely should not attract the admiration and attention of the world. The extension of education in Europe, and the growing freedom of her institutions, are leading her population to think, and to express their thoughts. The governments of the eastern continent, whatever may be their form, are daily becoming more and more sensitive to public opinion. The people already restive under their burdens, would soon discover that those burdens would be greatly diminished by the adoption of the American policy. ”

“ In short, whether I consider the religious, the benevolent, or the literary institutions of the Northern States—whether I contemplate the beauty of their cities, or the general aspect of their fine country, in which nature every where is seen rendering her rich and free tribute to industry and skill—or whether I regard the general comfort and prosperity of the laboring population,—my admiration is strongly excited, and, to do justice to my feelings, must be strongly expressed. ”