Reminiscences.
Dear Yerrington:
You and I were play fellows in boyhood, some five and forty years ago! Indeed, I believe you are, now, the only person, except my own relatives, of whom I have so long a remembrance, extending back, as you will bear me witness, to incidents in the war with Great Britain in 1812. So quickly does time pass away! And, now, I find my old friend toiling at the case on The Liberator, a most honorable employment, and devoting his best days to the cause of Human Freedom. May he have gratitude for the present, and hope for the future—hope for himself, and for the whole human race!
Here is a letter I received, as you will see, from Mr. Garrison, twenty-six years ago. It is interesting as having been written in his ‘first love,’ and will enable us to see whether he has backslidden or not. I submit it to you, with a hope that it may find a place in The Liberator.
Yours, truly,
Boston, September 14, 1857.
☞We thank our old friend, as we are sure the readers of The Liberator will, for the privilege (with the editor’s consent) of laying this heroic and heavenly tempered letter before the public. Our ‘honorable employment’ of ‘toiling at the case on The Liberator,’ to which our friend alludes, though at times wearisome to the flesh, is nevertheless a delightful task, and always strengthening to the soul and spirit.—Y.
Dear Sir:
I labor under very signal obligations to you for your disclosures, relative to my personal safety. These do not move me from my purpose the breadth of a hair. Desperate wretches exist at the South, no doubt, who would assassinate me for a sixpence. Still, I was aware of this peril when I began my advocacy of the cause of the slave. Slaveholders deem me their enemy; but my aim is simply to benefit and save them, and not to injure them. I value their bodies and souls at a high price, though I abominate their crimes. Moreover, I do not justify the slaves in their rebellion: yet I do not condemn them, and applaud similar conduct in white men. I deny the right of any people to fight for liberty, and so far am a Quaker in principle. Of all men living, however, our slaves have the best reason to assert their rights by violent measures, inasmuch as they are more oppressed than others.
My duty is plain—my path without embarrassment. I shall still continue to expose the criminality and danger of slavery, be the consequences what they may to myself. I hold my life at a cheap rate: I know it is in imminent danger: but if the assassin take it away, the Lord will raise up another and a better advocate in my stead.
Again thanking you for your friendly letter, I remain, in haste,
Yours, in the best of bonds,
To La Roy Sunderland.
Slave Law Case.
To the Editor of the Liberator:—
I send you a statement of a law case, recently decided in this State, that may be of interest to your readers. The case has been appealed, but I have little hope of its reversal. The Dred Scott decision is making its mark. Five years ago, no Kentucky court would have ever thought of rendering such a decision as the one I report.
Stephen Kyler, a negro, who was born a slave, was emancipated by his master, Joseph Kyler, in 1843, and has since that time been a freeman. For several years prior to his emancipation, he cohabited with and was the husband (so far as by the laws of Kentucky, the place of their residence and nativity, he could be a husband) of a female slave named Cynthia, the property of a neighbor. Joseph Kyler, the former owner of Stephen, who was a bachelor and an old man, being anxious to secure Cynthia to Stephen as a wife, purchased her of her owner, but could not, under the Kentucky Constitution of 1850, and an act of the Legislature passed in pursuance thereof, emancipate her without her emigrating from the State, which was not required by law when Stephen was freed. This being the case, and Stephen and Cynthia desiring to remain in Kentucky, Joseph Kyler consulted a lawyer as to the best method of effecting his intentions, who advised him to convey her to Stephen, which he did in 1853, without any consideration. The conveyance, which was an ordinary bill of sale, was absolute on its face, but the object and understanding of the parties was not to convey Cynthia to Stephen as property, or so as to lay her liable for his debts, or to enable him to sell her or exercise any other power or control over her than that of husband, and he has at no time claimed or exercised any other right or power.
Prior to this conveyance, in the year 1849, Hon. George W. Dunlap, a lawyer, had recovered a judgment against Stephen for attorney’s fees, and in 1857 had a writ of fieri facias on the judgment, and levied by an officer on Cynthia as the property of Stephen, and was proceeding to have her sold as a slave for its satisfaction. To prevent this, a suit was instituted by Stephen and Cynthia against Dunlap and the officer, by which they prayed the court to declare that she was not the property, but the wife of Stephen; and even if she should be held to be the property of Stephen, that she was not liable for Dunlap’s debt, it having been contracted before the conveyance of Cynthia to Stephen; and the conveyance, if fraudulent as to Stephen’s creditors at all, in consequence of its being unconditional, (as contended for by Dunlap,) was not fraudulent as to creditors whose claims were in existence at the time.
The case was tried at the August term, 1857, of the Garrard Circuit Court, in the State of Kentucky, and was elaborately argued by Allan A. Burton and L. Landram, Esqs., for Stephen and Cynthia, and by Dunlap for himself; and the court held that Cynthia was not a wife, but property merely, and as such liable to be sold for her husband’s debt to Dunlap.
The decision was appealed from, and will be tried at the December term, 1857, of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky.
The Reins Tightening.
Extract of a private letter from a highly intelligent gentleman in Missouri:—
‘I think the tyrant reins of slaveholding are being drawn so tight, (or taut, as the sailor says,) that they must soon break. Clay is dead, Benton is dead, politically, and the cause of slavery is in the hands of Southern madmen, and Northern doughfaces, like Cass and Webster, who would be glad to see slavery killed, but who dare not help to kill it. To me, it seems certain that the country will soon be where slavery will have to die, or else we must all be slaves. We must settle the point whether slavery or liberty shall govern the territories, and the determination of that question will determine its continuance in the States. In Missouri, we have fairly turned the prejudice against the negroes into a new channel, where it works against slavery, because the white laborer will not work by the side of the negro slave. Hence he will try to drive the slave out of the State, and the prejudice which has heretofore sustained slavery will now oppose it. There is also a strong Northern emigration coming into the State, and in a few years, I expect to see most of the slaves removed. They will never increase. But slavery, when abolished in this State, will be abolished by prejudice, and not by principle.’
Let freedom be decreed on principle, Missourians!
Letter from Aaron M. Powell.
Elmira Water Cure, N. Y.
Dear Mr. Garrison:
Again we are in the field of active labor, as soldiers enlisted in the warfare for freedom. Our meetings, thus far, though not largely attended, have been composed of a most intelligent and interesting class of persons, and we hope and believe that much good will come of them, in the respective localities in which they have been held. This, as you know, is a portion of New York upon which very little of our kind of labor has been bestowed. The old ‘mad-dog’ cry of ‘Infidelity’ has been thoroughly sounded in relation to us, especially at Owego, at which place we closed a series of four meetings last evening. For something more than a year past, the Rev. Dr. Cox has been preaching in Owego, and of course the people who have been blessed (I should say cursed) with his ministrations would see little else than dangerous infidelity in any thing that faithfully exposed a pro-slavery, time-serving religion. The Rev. Time-server’s influence, so far as it has extended, has been most pernicious; but we found a few earnest, truth-loving spirits at Owego, some of whom subscribed for the Standard, and I trust that our work will not be without good and lasting results.
To-morrow, we commence a series of meetings in Corning, to continue two days, after which we return to this place (Elmira) for a two days’ Convention. Surely, there was never greater need of our labors than in the present ‘crisis.’ May the ‘crisis’ continue, until the ‘oppressed shall go free.’
As ever, truly your friend,
Letter from Charles L. Remond.
My Dear Friend, Mr. Garrison:
This hurried note will intimate to you the safe arrival of Sarah and myself in Alliance on Saturday noon, whereat we found the Western Anti-Slavery Society in session, and fairly opened, under a large tent and in a beautiful grove owned by our friend I. R. Haynes, to whom, together with Mrs. Haynes and family, we are deeply indebted for their attentions and hospitality during our stay. The audience under the tent far exceeded our expectations in numbers, and for interest, intelligence, enthusiasm and unanimity of spirit and purpose, I have never seen it surpassed.
Our friends, S. S. and A. K. Foster, Foss, Mrs. Coleman, Pillsbury, were on hand from beginning to end, and never did better work for the cause. To neither party nor sect did they give quarter, nor ask it of them.
The meeting opened with high-toned resolutions, and the key-note given by the first speaker was an unmistakable one, and sustained throughout the many sessions without the appearance of abatement, qualification or reservation. The Chairman found it difficult to keep the vast assembly upon their seats, from actual eagerness to see every thing passing and to hear every thing said. Upwards of $500 were paid and promised to carry forward the cause, many subscribers added to the Bugle, and first-rate work opened to the local friends and to the several agents from the East.
Although I have not fully regained my strength, I never felt more hale and hearty for the struggle. I often spoke of you in answer to inquiring friends around me in the meeting, and as often did we wish that you were present to participate in the proceedings, and to join in the general expression of hope and encouragement inspired by the glorious gathering and demonstration just passed.
My sheet is full, and I can only add the desire to be kindly remembered to the friends at 21 Cornhill.
Yours, faithfully,
P. S. It was said that there were three thousand persons present at the meeting on Sunday, and every body appeared to be upon their good behavior. A good sign.C. L. R.
Anniversary of the Western A. S. Society.
Dear Friend May:
The anniversary meeting at Alliance closed on Monday. It was, on the whole, the best one I ever saw in the West. It was well attended, and the discussions were very spirited, and mainly interesting and profitable. I see no reason why we may not prosecute a campaign worthy of so auspicious a beginning. Calls pour in on us from all quarters for lectures and conventions, and many old Republicans and Free Soil men are about tired of their political warfare.
You will soon see the Resolutions of the Anniversary, and I hope approve them, too. They all passed unanimously, except that of S. S. Foster on political action; and the opposition to that was almost as decided as the approval of the rest. I think it finds very little, if any, favor among the Executive Committee, or any of the old friends of the Western Society, except, it may be, among a very few of strong political tendencies, or actual members of the Republican party.
The resolutions on the Church found no opponent whatever. Those relating to the new compensation project of Elihu Burritt were equally unfortunate It was delightful to see how promptly and how unitedly the Western Society placed the whole weight of its foot on this last attempt of cowardice and compromise to evade its most solemn duty, at once to demand the liberation of the captive, regardless of the iron demands of those who have robbed them so long.
The meeting continued three days. On Sunday, the attendance was at least three thousand persons. The great Oberlin Tent was never much better filled never with a more earnest and determined congregation of the friends of freedom and humanity.
Yours, for the right,
A Wrong Imputation.
Dear Garrison:
We noticed the article from the Tribune in The Liberator of last week, respecting the leasing of one of the rooms of the Tract Society building for a rum shop, by their Committee. We do not see the Tribune, but we are told by a friend of ours from New York, who does take it, that the statement was an error, and that it was corrected by the Tribune in a day or two after its insertion. The facts in the case, as we understand from our friend, are these:—The Committee of the Tract Society rented this room to a man engaged in the hat trade, with the understanding that he should not underlet it. Notwithstanding this, it appears that he did underlet it to this concern for the liquor traffic. As soon as this became known to the Committee, the necessary steps were taken for his removal, which was accomplished.
We know that you will agree with us that all errors should be corrected as early as possible, and as extensively as the errors were circulated.
Kansas. A gentleman who has just returned from a tour through the border counties of Missouri states that nothing is talked of there save the proposed invasion of Kansas the coming October. The Blue Lodges are being reorganized, and every thing gives evidence that extensive preparations are being made to control the election in Kansas. On the other hand, the military organization, formed by the Free State men for the protection of the ballot-box, is rapidly being completed. Affairs in the Territory are evidently tending towards a terrible crisis, and the October election may witness its denouement.
From the Richmond Enquirer of Sept. 4.
Letter from ex-President Tyler.
Messrs. Editors: Although I have observed profound silence in regard to all public political discussions since the close of my official residence at Washington, yet it seems to me to be not only proper, but in some measure required of me, to vindicate an act of my administration, for which posterity will hold me accountable, against a public attack made upon it. Such an occasion has occurred in the published debates of the recent Commercial Convention at Knoxville, wherein a member is stated to have declared the provision in the treaty of Washington, stipulating on the part of the United States for the maintenance of a fleet of eighty guns for the suppression of the slave trade under the American flag, was an act of discourtesy and insult to the South, as a reason for its abrogation. The declaration thus made seems to have met with the countenance of a large majority of the convention, in the final vote upon the subject.
I propose to do no more, Messrs. Editors, than revive with the public a recollection of the incidents which led to the incorporation of that provision in the treaty; and having done so, I shall be content to leave the matter to the arbitrament of the proper tribunal.
I shall, however, be permitted to observe, that the remarks reported to have fallen from members of the convention, in debating the main subject, are so entirely variant from the popular sentiment entertained throughout the Southern States, as I believe, in 1842, as to occasion me no little surprise. Who, in 1842, even dreamed that there would be, as early as 1857, a proposition seriously made to revive the slave trade? I certainly entertained no such idea; nor did, I am quite sure, any one of the able and patriotic statesmen who were my constitutional advisers. I really thought, and often declared, that the Southern States were more opposed to the slave trade than any other portion of our people. They had voted with singular unanimity for the act of Congress which declared that all citizens of the United States engaged in that trade should be regarded, and if convicted punished, as pirates. How it happens, then, that a provision introduced into a treaty to enforce a law for which the South had voted can be rightfully regarded as an insult to the South, I must say passes my comprehension. Certainly, such an idea never entered into my head or heart.
My principal desire, however, is to call the attention of the country, in brief, to the facts as they existed immediately antecedent to the treaty of Washington. The British government had insisted upon the right, in virtue of various treaties with other nations, to visit ships on the coast of Africa sailing under the American flag, for the purpose of ascertaining the true nationality of the ships. England had even ventured to put their claim into practice. This called forth strong remonstrances from Mr. Stevenson, who was then our minister at London, and a most able argument in pamphlet form appeared soon after, from the pen of Gen. Cass, who was our minister at Paris. The conduct of our representatives at London and Paris, in this particular, was fully approved by the administration, and, in my annual message to Congress, I took decided ground against the claim preferred by Great Britain, and made the occasion to say, that as the United States government was the first to declare the slave trade to be piracy, so far as the citizens of the United States were concerned, so it was fully able to enforce its own laws, without the aid of British cruisers.
Thus the two governments remained for a time antagonized on the question. Great Britain urged that she meant no insults to the American flag, but that it was impossible, without a visit to the ship, to ascertain whether she belonged to the nation whose flag she bore, or had assumed that flag merely to deceive, thus seeking immunity under the American flag, when the vessel, officers and crew might be French, Portuguese or Spanish, or some other nation, intent on the slave trade, whose treaty stipulations had given to Great Britain the right of visit and search. Great Britain also urged on our government, as a consideration for quiescence on our part in the matter, that if the vessel visited should turn out to be truly American, bound on a peaceful mercantile voyage, she would indemnify all loss and every damage sustained, as had been honorably done in all preceding cases. Lord Ashburton was possessed of full power to negotiate on this as on other subjects, and upon conference, I reiterated my declaration, made in my annual message, that the United States government was able to enforce its own laws, and that I should see to their enforcement, treaty or no treaty, under the obligations of paramount duty. I then suggested, by way of discharging this duty on my part, that we should keep upon the African coast a naval armament sufficiently great to visit all ships that might hoist the United States flag and fall under suspicion, but that we could not permit another nation to do so. Upon this basis, the stipulation in the treaty has, in my mind, always rested. Certain it is, that for the after-time of my service, no visit, much less search, of an American vessel, occurred on the part of a British cruiser. What has taken place since, I will not undertake to say.
I have nothing to do with what the government of this country may deem it proper to do in regard to that stipulation; but this I will venture to say, that, repeal when it pleases that provision of the treaty, it will still find it necessary, for the enforcement of the laws of the United States, as well as for the protection of the traffic of merchant vessels on that coast—a traffic every year increasing in value, and destined in the end to be of vast magnitude—to maintain a fleet of at least eighty guns on the coast of Africa. It might be worthy of consideration by the next Commercial Convention whether, before they advise the cancelling of the provision in question, and denounce it as an insult to the South, they should not first repeal the law relative to piracy in regard to the slave trade.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
State Conventions.
The Young Men’s Convention, for the ratification of the nomination of Hon. N. P. Banks for Governor, met in Worcester on the 8th inst. at Mechanics’ Hall. George White, Esq., of Quincy, presided, and speeches were made by Mr. Banks, Senator Wilson, Hon. Sullivan Ballou of Rhode Island, Hon. J. T. Headly of New York, Hon. S. C. Maine of Chelsea, D. W. Gooch of Melrose, Hon. C. C. Chaffee, Hon. C. L. Knapp, M. C.’s, John L. Swift, George Odiorne, Hon. Gideon Haynes, Z. K. Pangborn and others, and a series of resolutions endorsing the nomination of Mr. Banks, and in favor of a cordial union of all the friends of freedom in the future, on the paramount issue of opposition to the extension of slavery, were adopted unanimously. Several thousand people were present, and everything passed off harmoniously.
Two American State Conventions were held in Boston on Thursday, one in Tremont Temple, composed of the Gardner wing of the Fremont Americans, and another in Chapman Hall, of National or Filmore Americans. E. C. Baker presided over the former, and W. S. King over the latter.
Both conventions united in re-nominating Governor Gardner. They subsequently fused and went to Faneuil Hall, where Gov. Gardner made a speech. Addresses were made during the day by A. A. Lawrence, Col. Dewitt and others.
The Tremont Temple Convention adopted resolutions re-endorsing the Springfield. Platform, and in favor of retrenchment and reform, while the Chapman Hall Convention endorsed the doctrines of the National Council.—Salem Observer.
‘The Nation Must Be Free!’
I.
In Freedom’s cause we meet to-day,
A young, but Spartan band,
With Banks to point the shining way
Where free men love to stand!
From every hill-top, vale and plain,
O’er land—from sea to sea—
Ring forth the pæan, shout the strain,
‘The Nation must be free!’
Chorus.—In Freedom cause our sires fought,
In days lang syne—
For boon like this we well may shout,
Hurrah! for auld lang syne!
II.
From Berkshire’s green and rugged hills,
To Cape Cod’s glittering sand,
The joyous clamor, echoing, thrills—
‘Freedom throughout the land!’
From hill-top, valley, river, plain—
O’er land—from sea to sea—
Proclaim our motto—ring the strain—
‘The Nation must be free!’
Chorus.—In Freedom’s cause our sires fought, &c.
III.
Then—up, boys, up! Gird on the sword,
And mount your ready steeds!
The ‘iron man’ will give the word—
We ’ll follow where he leads.
Fling out the banner! Spread the sail!
Our watchword—‘Victory!’
With Banks, ‘there’s no such word as fail’—
‘The Nation must be free!’
Chorus.—In Freedom’s cause our sires fought, &c.
Slave-Catching in Maryland. A letter, dated Washington, Sept. 6, says:
‘A few days since, about seventeen slaves, including both sexes, were permitted by their masters, residing in this city, to attend a camp-meeting toward the north part of the State, (Maryland.) After getting their spiritual strength renewed, they concluded to turn their faces toward the land of the free, and had almost succeeded in reaching a place of safety, when the stampede became known. A drover in Baltimore offered to capture the fugitives for a share of the sale money to the cotton plantations of the South. The owners having agreed to his proposition, he went in pursuit, and brought back nine of the party, who were yesterday put en route for the cotton fields. The profits to the catcher, I am told, amounted to more than $2000. The rest of the party have not yet been captured.’
Radical Abolitionists. Miss Susan B. Anthony, Mr. Brown (who was once a slave,) and Mr. Powell, have been holding meetings in Ahwaga Hall on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday last. On Monday evening, Miss Anthony delivered an able address on Female Education. On Tuesday evening, she lectured on Slavery. Miss Anthony is a pleasing speaker, and whatever subject she discusses, no person can mistake her meaning, or fail to be moved by her earnest pathos, however much he may dissent from her conclusions. Mr. Brown has experienced all the blessings of slavery. He acknowledges that he now is not his own, but the property of a few women in England who bought him of his former master, who, he says, is his uncle. Mr. Powell is a good debater, and knows his subject well. In their discussions, they hit the Democrats some hard blows, and the Republicans suffered some too. They boldly take the position that the Union ought to be dissolved. In this particular, we essentially differ from this class of politicians.—Owego Times.
Poems by Frances Ellen Watkins. We have before us a little collection of poems upon miscellaneous subjects, which we desire to commend to the notice of the contemners of the colored race, as an evidence of what that depressed people can accomplish in the field of general literature. The authoress, Miss Watkins, is a young lady of color, a native of Baltimore, and still resident there. She is very favorably known as a public speaker. She is about 22 years of age, of pleasing appearance and interesting manners, and one who is destined, we anticipate, to aid largely in the elevation and redemption of her sisters and brethren.
The poems in this little paper-covered volume—of which the tenth thousand has been issued—are, as Mr. Garrison says in an appropriate Introduction, ‘very creditable to her, both in a literary and moral point of view, and indicate the possession of a talent which, if carefully cultivated and properly encouraged, cannot fail to secure for herself a poetic reputation.’—Salem Observer.
☞We often hear of singular cases of gratitude, which show human nature to be better than many would have us believe. Here is the last case: At the time of the pro-slavery riots in 1838, in Philadelphia, the Orphan Asylum for Colored Children was fired. Through the exertions of the Good Will Engine Company, the building was partially saved from the flames, and the lives of its inmates rescued from a devouring element and a furious mob. On Friday evening last, a colored man, neatly attired, entered the house of the Good Will Engine Company, and desired to see some of the members. Having introduced himself to them, he stated that nineteen years since, through their exertions, while an inmate of the Colored Asylum, his life was preserved. He then presented them with a silver goblet, valued at forty dollars, as a testimony of his undying esteem.
A Dress Reform Convention.—Miss Hancock, the Secretary of the Cayuga Dress Reform Society, publishes the proceedings of a convention of the Reformers, held at Auburn a few weeks since. The following resolutions were adopted:—
‘Resolved, That as health is closely allied to dress, we, as reformers, adopt and lend our aid to carry into common use short skirts, loose waists, minus the whalebone, and any style which we deem comfortable and healthful.
Resolved, That we regard Paris fashions as a nuisance; and that we, as American free-born women, do discard them as such.’
The convention adjourned to meet at Skaneateles, N. Y., Nov. 13, when a ‘dress reform ball’ is to be given.
A Big Boot.—Among the boots for the Southern market manufactured in the Philadelphia Penitentiary, is a pair that would have almost answered for the famous legendary giant who wore the seven leagued boots. Each one weighs eight and a half pounds, and is nineteen inches in length, and six and three-quarters inches wide across the soles. They are intended for a slave upon a plantation, who officiates on Sunday as a preacher.
Oregon.—It has been taken for granted that a territory so far north as Oregon was forever sacred to Freedom; but the politicians of the Southern stripe, who swarm in that region, are endeavoring to have it otherwise. The Convention to form a State Constitution proposes to submit the question, whether they shall have slavery or not, to the vote of the people.
Brigham Toasted.—One of the toasts at a Mormon celebration at Philadelphia was: ‘Brigham Young—The Lion of the Lord. When he roars in the mountains, all the whelps stick up their ears. Such a getting up stairs I never did see.’
☞The statue erected to Daniel O’Connell, at Limerick, is of bronze, of colossal size, and represents ‘the Liberator’ in a commanding attitude, grasping in his left hand the roll of the Emancipation Act, and his right hand raised in front of his breast.
☞The ‘Straight Republican’ Provisional Committee, J. M. Stone, Chairman, and H. A. Peirce, Secretary, have called a State Convention in Boston, September 30th. They repudiate Mr. Banks, as having uttered himself in his New York speech, and in his recent Worcester speech, in a rather hunkerish way.
☞It is suggested that Proverbial Philosophy Tupper’s last sonnet on the Atlantic cable was the real cause of the break. Nothing on earth, or beneath the deep, could stand such a strain as that!
☞The Annual Meeting of the American Abolition Society will be held in Syracuse, N. Y., on Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept 29th and 30th, commencing at 2 P. M. on Tuesday, and continuing until Wednesday evening.
☞French agents have been openly sent to the coast of Africa in order to recruit negro slaves for the West Indies, and the Legislature of Guadaloupe has been officially apprized of the fact.
☞Emerson Etheredge was only beaten for Congress in Tennessee by 127 votes in an aggregate poll of 16,000. Of the Southern members who voted against the Nebraska bill, not one will serve in the next Congress. Colonel Benton, Louisiana Hunt, Tennessee Cullom, &c., were run out of the last Congress, and the rest, with Gen. Sam Houston, have now followed them.
Help for the Filibusters.—A Mobile paper says $150,000 have been raised in Georgia in aid of Walker’s proposed descent upon Nicaragua.
In anticipation of an attack from filibusters, Costa Rica has decreed the expected expedition of General Walker to be piratical, and those who participate in it will be punished with death.
☞Within the past three months, 8,600,000 new cents have been issued from the mint at Philadelphia, weighing forty-three tons.
☞The Hon. George G. Dunn, late a member of Congress from Indiana, and the master-spirit of the quasi Republican opposition to Mr. Banks’s election as Speaker, died at his residence in Bedford, Indiana, on the 5th instant.
Emancipation of Slaves.—By the will of Mrs. M. H. Coalter, who died in Stafford county, Va., last week, ninety-two of her negroes are set free. They are to go to Liberia, or some other free State, which they may select, or, if they prefer remaining in Virginia, are permitted to select their owners among the relatives of the decedent. Charles, her favorite man servant, besides his freedom, receives a $100 annuity during life.—Richmond Dispatch.
☞From a letter of his, in the New York Observer, it appears that Rev. Dr. Baird is much alarmed lest the subject of slavery shall be forced into the Berlin Conference. He tacitly admits the system to be a vast scheme of iniquity, however, by threatening, if it is introduced, to bring up several other matters pertaining to India and China, in which England has acted an unchristian part.
From Cuba.—The negro and cooley importations continue on the increase. From the former, Concha and his satellites derive immense fortunes. Hardly a week passes, without our hearing of some vessel arriving after a successful voyage. The Americans carry on the trade almost exclusively, thanks to the facilities afforded by our deficient laws to evade suspicion on the coast.
The Twenty-Fourth
National
Anti-Slavery Bazaar.
The undersigned again call on all interested in their cause,—the cause of Freedom, so deeply important, not only to the three millions of American slaves, but to the American nation and to entire humanity,—for immediate aid, by contributions of money and materials, and by purchase at the next Bazaar; to be opened in Boston,
On the 17th of December.
Contributions of money at the present time will enable members of the Committee now in Europe to add to the attractions of the exhibition still further, and, in consequence, to increase the funds; which are to be expended, as heretofore, by the American Anti-Slavery Society, in awakening the whole country, through its newspapers, books and various agencies, to the necessity of extinguishing slavery.
Our principle is too well known to need more than a mere statement. It is, immediate, unconditional emancipation, without expatriation, and by peaceful means. From a growing conviction of the justice and necessity of this work, for the good and honor of all concerned, every measure possible to be taken will inevitably spring without delay. Our funds, therefore, will be devoted to the primary work of arousing and engaging the public mind; which, as fast as it awakens, never fails to find a way to work its will,—through church action, by agitation and withdrawal,—by state action, through the customary political channels, or by the profounder policy of creating others,—by legislative and judicial changes,—by individual efforts in the manumission of slaves and the protection of fugitives,—by economical measures prompted by the greater advantages of free labor,—by humane feelings creating a preference for its products.
What we ask of the citizens around us, just awakening to some one or other of the manifold aspects of this great question, is, to enable us to continue the use of the means that have proved so efficacious in their own case, and to sustain the primary cause of whatever Anti-Slavery effects they observe and desire to promote.
Let those who labor for an Anti-Slavery national and State administration, furnish voters with the only sufficient motive to any Anti-Slavery effort, by working with us, so to excite the love of liberty, that every man shall take the risk of trampling down slavery wherever it meets him.
Let them that pity the hunted fugitive, who sees in every Northern man a betrayer, bound to that base function by the great organic law of his country, take the means most effectual to turn the betrayer into the protector, by helping us every where to awaken a stronger sentiment than compassion for the millions who cannot fly: of whose case it was so truly said by a New England poet of the earlier time, before school-books were expurgated by slavery— ‘Their wrongs compassion cannot speak.’ Let all take warning to co-operate with us, from those earlier days when slavery, instead of dying out, as was prophesied, began to grow stronger, because there was then no such fountain head of moral power as we commend to the attention of the whole land to-day.
We do not make this appeal in a sectional spirit as Northern-born, interfering with matters that do not concern us. We make it in grateful acknowledgment of the benefits we have received from the anti-slavery cause, desiring to communicate them to others. We have all been connected personally with the system of slavery. One has known the evil power of its money temptations; another has felt its political despotism; another its perverting social influence; another its corrupting ecclesiastical bondage; another yet has been identified by Southern birth and education with the slaveholders, and sustained the legal relation of ownership to the slaves; while not unfrequently among our most efficient members have been the wives of slaves, driven from us by the operation of laws from which we cannot protect them, and which make us liable to ruinous fine and crushing imprisonment, as they have done our associates erewhile. But we all, with one accord, testify to the truth of the anti-slavery principles, and entreat the aid of all whom this appeal reaches, to deliver the country from such a despotism, by their promulgation.
Contributions may be addressed to Mrs. Chapman, 21 Cornhill, Boston, or to the other members of the Committee, at their respective homes.
- MARIA WESTON CHAPMAN,
- MARY MAY,
- ABBY KELLEY FOSTER,
- LOUISA LORING,
- L. MARIA CHILD,
- ELIZA LEE FOLLEN,
- ANNE WARREN WESTON,
- ANN GREENE PHILLIPS,
- SARAH SHAW RUSSELL,
- FRANCES MARY ROBBINS,
- HELEN E. GARRISON,
- ANN REBECCA BRAMHALL,
- SARAH H. SOUTHWICK,
- MARY WILLEY,
- ABBY FRANCIS,
- ANNA SHAW GREENE,
- MARY GRAY CHAPMAN,
- ELIZABETH GAY,
- HENRIETTA SARGENT,
- SARAH RUSSELL MAY,
- CAROLINE WESTON,
- SUSAN C. CABOT,
- MARY H. JACKSON,
- SARAH BLAKE SHAW,
- LYDIA D. PARKER,
- ELIZA F. EDDY,
- EVELINA A. S. SMITH,
- ELIZABETH VON ARNIM,
- AUGUSTA KING,
- ELIZA H. APTHORP,
- JUSTINE de PEYSTER HOVEY,
- MATTIE GRIFFITH.
The Ninth
Worcester Anti-Slavery Bazaar.
To be held in Worcester, during Cattle Show Week, September 22---25, 1857.
The eight years during which this Bazaar has been held in this city have witnessed continued developments of the Slave Power more startling in their character than any that have preceded them. The Fugitive Slave Law, the revolting scenes attendant upon its repeated execution in this State, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the decision of Judge Taney, though the legitimate results of the accursed system whence they sprung, have appalled us by the rapidity with which they have pressed the question nearer to our own homes and firesides.
Our object is not merely to save Kansas, or to exclude slavery from the free States, but to wage against it unceasing warfare wherever it exists on the national domain, until on the soil of the Carolinas the song of the freeman and the hum of free labor shall supplant the groan of the slave and the slave-driver’s lash.
It is for this we ask your sympathy and your aid. We want to raise money to send out lecturers and publications to rouse the slumbering consciences of the people to a consciousness of the increasing importance of the Anti-Slavery cause.
Whatever product of taste, ingenuity or labor, whatever of money or refreshment any one will be disposed to give, will be thankfully received and judiciously appropriated. Communications may be sent to any member of the Committee.
- SARAH H. EARLE,
- EMILY SARGENT,
- LUCY CHASE,
- ADELINE H. HOWLAND,
- HANNAH M. ROGERS,
- ABBY W. WYMAN,
- SARAH L. BUTMAN,
- HANNAH RICE,
- OLIVE LOVELAND,
- MARY C. HIGGINSON, of Worcester;
- ELIZA A. STOWELL, of Warren;
- SARAH R. MAY, of Leicester;—and others.
Sixth Anniversary
of the
Jerry Rescue.
To the Friends of Freedom of our Common Country:
Once more we call a general gathering in honor of the strike for Freedom, which forever annulled the Fugitive Slave Bill in Syracuse.
We invite the friends of freedom everywhere to come to Syracuse the 1st day of October next, to commemorate the rescue of the slave Jerry. The sixth anniversary of that bold and good deed recurs on that day, and may we not hope, from the course of events, that the sabbatical year of our country approaches?
One and all who acknowledge no law for slavery, or who will co-operate in any form to rescue every other slave from its lawless and murderous clutches, come up to our anniversary!
Hon. Gerrit Smith has consented to preside on the occasion, and the most distinguished orators, from different parts of the country, have been invited to attend and address the meeting.
- JOHN THOMAS,
- JAMES FULLER,
- C. B. D. MILLS,
- SAMUEL J. MAY,
- T. G. WHITE,
- J. A. ALLEN,
☞The Michigan Yearly Meeting of the friends of Human Progress will convene at Battle Creek, commencing at half past 10 o’clock, on Saturday, the 10th of October, 1857, and continuing, by adjournment, for three days or more, as may be thought expedient.
This Association has no cherished creeds or theological opinions to promulgate or defend, but disclaiming all ecclesiastical authority, they ‘seek not uniformity of belief in theological affairs,’ ‘but cherishing and encouraging whatever tends to elevate, and condemning and discouraging whatever tends to degrade,’—they would meet on the broad and universal platform of the ‘Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man,’ fearing not for truth, so long as our platform is free,—and they invite the co-operation of all who recognize the equal rights and brotherhood of the human family, without regard to sex, color or condition, and who acknowledge the duty of illustrating their faith in God by lives of personal purity and deeds of practical righteousness.
We therefore invite all sincere seekers after truth, who may be attracted by the principles of our organization, and who, weary of the strifes and perplexities which bewilder and stupefy the popular sectarians of our day, are looking for a higher and more practical manifestation of the religious sentiment, to meet at the time and place above specified, and give the benefit of their counsel. Let us join our hearts and hands for a feast of love and good will, in order more effectually to combat the giant wrongs and errors of the age.
- J. P. AVERILL,
- R. B. MERRITT,
- E. C. MANCHESTER,
- J. WALTON, Jr.,
- H. D. G. FULLER,
- E. C. COCHRAN,
Convention at Berlin.
Friends in a Common Cause—Ourselves, who send you this greeting, appoint to meet in Convention, at Berlin Heights, Erie Co., Ohio, on Saturday and Sunday, the 26th and 27th of September instant, to plan what in us lies toward maturing a practical and successful effort at Social re-construction; and we hereby invite you to meet with us, to combine your wisdom and action with our own, that by so much as the union of endeavor is more wide-spread and universal, the result may the more surely and speedily be reached. The Convention will be addressed by the best speakers on Social Science; and the whole great question of Freedom, Association, and Harmonious Human Relations, will come up for discussion.
- Joseph Treat,
- J. W. Towner,
- James A. Clay,
- Alfred Cridge,
- Anne Denton Cridge,
- Elizabeth M. F. Denton,
- J. P. Sasley,
- Clara W. Wait,
- C. Sweet Turner,
- J. H. Cook,
- Wm. M. Williams,
- Wm. A. Hunter,
- Augusta Howell,
- E. B. Londen,
- Alvin Warren,
- J. H. Mendenhall,
- M. F. Mendenhall,
- Charlotte Bowen,
- R. H. Brogden,
- M. A. Hunter,
- C. S. Rowley,
- Charles Huston,
- Ada C. Joiner,
- David Edgar,
- G. W. Reeve,
- C. M. Overton,
- A. P. Bowman,
- Thomas Gale,
- John Moore,
- C. D. Rice,
- Jane S. Gale,
- Geo. W. Roof,
- G. W. Lewis,
- Francis Barry,
- John Allen,
- J. M. Sterlin,
☞Cummington, Mass.—An Anti-Slavery Convention, for Hampshire and Berkshire counties, will be held in Cummington, on Saturday and Sunday, September 19 and 20, commencing on Saturday, at 2 o’clock, P. M. All friends of Freedom, and of an Uncompromising Movement against Slavery, are invited to be present, and confer together upon the duties which the urgent necessities of the cause prescribe.
Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Charles C. Burleigh, Samuel May, Jr., and other speakers design to be present at the meeting. Come one, come all!
☞Aaron M. Powell, an agent of the American Anti-Slavery Society, will lecture in Ontario County, N. Y., as follows:
South Bristol, Sunday afternoon and evening, September 20.
Naples, Monday evening, September 21.
☞Notice.—Abby Kelley Foster’s post-office address will be Salem, Columbiana Co., Ohio, until further notice.
Died—In Attleborough, on Saturday, Sept. 5, Mrs. Lucy Ann Bigelow, wife of Horace H. Bigelow, aged 23.
New England
Female Medical College.
The Tenth Annual Term will commence on the first Wednesday of November, 1857, and continue seventeen weeks. Professors: Enoch C. Rolfe, M. D., Theory and Practice of Medicine; John K. Palmer, M. D., Materia Medica, Therapeutics, and Chemistry; Wm. Symington Brown, M. D., Anatomy and Surgery; Stephen Tracy, M. D., Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children; Wm. Symington Brown, M. D., Physiology, Hygiene, and Medical Jurisprudence; Mary R. Jenks, M. D., Demonstrator of Anatomy; Frances S. Cooke, M. D., Assistant Instructor.
Fees, $5 for each of the seven Tickets. Free tuition to forty Students, in Massachusetts, from State Scholarships.
SAMUEL GREGORY, M. D., Sec’y, Boston, Sept. 11. 3w
Palmer’s Artificial Leg.
Removal of the Springfield Establishment to Boston.
At the urgent solicitation of the most eminent Surgeons and Physicians of Boston and New-England, the manufacture of this unequalled American invention has been removed to Boston. The ‘Palmer Artifical Leg’ is without a rival either in Europe or America, and is now worn by nearly Three Thousand Persons! with astonishing success, upwards of two hundred of whom are ladies, and we have thirty individuals each walking upon two Artificial Legs. It so nearly resembles the natural leg, in appearance and action, that the nicest observation often fails to detect Art from Nature. The ‘Palmer Leg’ took the ‘Great Prize Medal’ at the World’s Fair in London, over thirty competitors from all parts of Europe. No other Artificial Leg is recommended by intelligent Surgeons and Physicians, as the ‘Palmer Leg’ is regarded as the ne plus ultra of Surgical Mechanism. They are very durable, yet light, the average weight being four pounds. They are applied to the shortest and tenderest stumps with entire success. The ‘Leg’ is finely ventilated. In this country, it has been exhibited thirty-five times, and in every instance, received the award of the highest or first premium! The patient is enabled to walk immediately upon its application, with remarkable ease, comfort and naturalness.
Pamphlets giving full information sent gratis to every applicant. General Office and Manufactories for the New England States, including New York and the British Provinces, 19 Green street, Boston, Mass., and 378 Broadway, New York. Patients can be served at Boston or New York, as is most convenient to them.
Boarding-House.
Robert R. Crosby, formerly of the Groton House, 10 Sudbury street, has taken house No. Alden street, a few doors from Court street, where he can accommodate a few transient and permanent Boarders.
