TO D. O'CONNELL, M. P., JOSEPH STURGE, ESQRS., AND THE OTHER ENGLISH ABOLITIONISTS OF NEGRO SLAVERY. Southam, Warwickshire, September 16, 1839. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I AM not about to condemn or to approve of your opposition to negro slavery. It is a question of too much importance for me to decide upon, without more consideration than I have given to it. I am convinced, however, from what I have seen in America, that to free those who were born slaves, and who were fortunate enough to have for their owner a kind man, would be to inflict a curse, rather than to bestow a blessing, upon them. As to the cruel treatment inflicted by the tyrannic owners, that we cannot too much deplore. And as to those who voluntarily enter into such trade, for them no excuse can be found; but we ought to make every fair allowance for those who have inherited slaves, and who were born and bred up in countries where slavery is, and has ever been a common thing. And we should bear strongly in mind, too, that to free, at once, the immense number of slaves in the United States of America would be to do that of which no man could foresee the consequences. But this makes it the more necessary that much discussion and consideration should be bestowed upon it; and forms no ground whatever for the barbarous proceedings which I am about to speak of. With the Abolition question I have nothing to do: my purpose, at present, being to point out to you that which all of you may not be aware of;—and that which will have a tendency, I hope, to make those that are not already so thankful that Providence has placed them under a government, and amidst a people, that suffer them to enjoy their own opinions on these and other matters; and that they can, at any time or place, assemble together to discuss what subject they please, without being made afraid by an ignorant mob of blood-thirsty brutes, who are fit for nothing but slaves themselves. Had your lot been cast in the United States of America, in that "Great Republic," where so much is said of liberty, you could not, but at the hazard of your lives and properties, have uttered a word in favour of emancipating, or even of instructing, the poor negroes. The first independent act that "great people" did, was to declare that all men were created equal, and that every one had a right to liberty, and while they were thus enlightening the world on this subject, they were actually tightening the chains of their own slaves. You will suppose that, in the non-slave-holding states, the people, if they did not generally disapprove, would not, at any rate, interest themselves in the support of slavery; and, surely, those that are honest and sensible will scarcely believe it posssible for freemen, like the Pennsylvanians, whose motto is "Virtue, Liberty, and Independence," to sally out in mobs, and, without judge or jury, destroy the property of, and put to death, any man that dares to defend either. And yet such is the case, even in the "enlightened city of Philadelphia," where, if a man is only suspected of sympathizing with the blacks, whether free or slaves, such a man finds it necessary to plead, in the most earnest manner, for his life and property,—an instance of which I give you in the Appendix, of one David P. Brown, Esq., attorney-at-law, in the said city. This gentleman was suspected by his " fellow-citizens," in 1835, of being rather inclined to freedom of speech on the "Abolition Question," and the Lynchers gave it out that they were about to call on him, when he found it necessary to publicly address them, and to excuse himself as well as he could for having given offence to the supreme authority, of the land: part of which excuse you will find in said Appendix ; where you will also find how many others, guilty of a like offence, have suffered. I have there selected a few cases, which will show you how the blacks, and those that befriend the blacks, are treated. I assure you that in the free states all that are considered to have any tinge, however slight, of the negro about them, no matter how respectable, are cruelly used; and, in the eyes of a great majority of the rich as well as poor, they are considered little or nothing better than the beast of the field. It is grievous to hear the scornful epithets given to them by the boys in the streets, as soon as they are old enough to hector. And this feeling towards the negroes every day increases,-a convincing proof of which we have in their having been excluded from the elective franchise by the New Constitution of Pennsylvania, which is just now come into effect. Fifty years back, at the making of the late constitution of that State, the free blacks were considered as men, and came within the pale of the famed declaration, that all men are equal. To be sure, in large cities, or towns, popular opinions, against which American constitutions have, from the beginning, been but a dead letter, would not suffer them to vote; and they were as effectually excluded by that authority, in Philadelphia, as they will now be by the new constitution, which, in this respect, will only serve to show the world how liberty and equality are marching in Pennsylvania. Had the blacks been disfranchised, on account of their want of capapacity, by those competent to judge, it would have been right enough; but the truth is, that that power which excluded the blacks from the polls, ought to be excluded itself; which the reader of this letter, and its Appendix, will, I doubt not, be well convinced of. Among the free blacks, it is true, there are some that are not so good and deserving as they should be. If it were not so it would be a wonder indeed, considering the example set them by the "superior race;" but, generally speaking, those that are labourers are the best and most civil labourers that are to be found in America. Many of them are industrious, careful, and honest: but the hand of the oppressor knows no distinction; and it is not possible to conceive the horrid barbarities that are at times inflicted upon them. A person cannot walk the streets of any city in the United States, without seeing some unprovoked attack made upon them. And I have seen mobs, without any alleged cause, other than that, in their opinion, the negroes ought not to be suffered to live in a free country-I have seen such mobs march in order down to that part of the city of Philadelphia, which is principally inhabited by coloured people, and deliberately set about to murder them, destroy their houses, break up their furniture, steal their money, or other valuable things that the poor creatures might possess. And, to escape the murderous hands of these infuriated and fiend-like beings, the affrighted and screaming women and children, in whatever condition they happened to be in at the time, have flown from their homes to the woods, where they have, for weeks together, slept upon leaves, and lived upon berries, or what else by chance they could get; and whither their savage pursuers, not having glutted their vengeance in the city, have followed them, till fairly tired out with what they term " hunting the Nigs." I have seen these wretches tear down forty houses at one time, in one of these riots, and it has taken them three days and nights to accomplish this. It has been done in the presence of the mayor of the city, the sheriff of the county, and all the public authorities; and the ringleaders of the riot were as well known to these authorities as I am known to my own brother. Not an individual, however, that ever I heard of, was punished for having taken such a part. Indeed, it is well understood that these atrocious deeds are encouraged by the powers that be, and their object in doing this is to please, and to keep in the good graces of the southern slave-holders, too many of whose hearts are elated at the death-screech of the negro, whether from free or slave states, or whichever wind of heaven brings it to them. These public officers, therefore, who are merchants, traders, and so on, expect for their services in this way to be favoured with the slave-holders' commands for merchandise; and when the proceedings of the Abolitionists in Philadelphia had given offence to the slave states, the merchants and traders of the said city held a meeting, at which they unanimously resolved, that their own hearts were sound to the core in favour of slavery. In fact, there is nothing that such men would not do to make money if they are assured they can escape with impunity. And here I cannot forbear from quoting freely from Dr. Channing's letter to senator Henry Clay, on the annexation of Texas to the United States, dated August 1, 1837. This letter describes the character of the Americans, in many respects better than I have seen it described; and coming, as it it does, from one of themselves, will, perhaps, have a tendency to ease off the odium, that a foreigner may be liable to, for having dared to speak the truth concerning the " Great Republican Nation:" "The first grant of land in Texas to our citizens was made under the Royal Government; and, in accepting it, the obligation was expressly incurred, of submission to the civil and religious despotism which then crushed the country. It was understood that the settlers were to adopt the Catholic faith, and to conform in all other respects to the institutions of Mexico. Under the revolutionary governments, which succeeded the fall of the Spanish power, the original grant was confirmed, and new ones made, on condition of subjection to the laws of the land. The terms were very liberal, except that adherence to the Catholic religion was required as the condition of settlement. These facts will help us to understand the reasonableness of some of the complaints, under which the colonists seek to shelter their revolt. Mexico, on declaring her independence of the mother country, established a Republican government, and was unfortunately betrayed by her admiration of this country into the adoption of a Federal system, for which no foundation had been laid in her previous history. From this cause, added to her inexperience in self-government, and to the want of intelligence among the mass of her population, her institutions have yielded very imperfectly the fruits of freedom. The country has been rent by factions, the capital convulsed by revolutions, and the chief office of the state been secured by the military to popular chieftains. The emigrants from this country to Texas went with open eyes, with full knowledge of the unsettled state of affairs, into this region of misrule and agitation. Happily their distance from the seat of government prevented their being drawn into the whirlpool of civil contests, which threatened at times the destruction of the metropolis. Whilst the city of Mexico was pillaged or laid under martial law, Texas found security in her remoteness; and, had her colonists proved loyal citizens, this security might have been undisturbed. * "I have spoken of the Texans as a handful of people. At the breaking out of the insurrection they were about twenty thousand, including women and children. They were, of course, wholly unable to achieve or maintain national independence; so that one condition which is required to authorise revolution, namely, the ability to sustain a government to perform the duties of sovereignty, they could not pretend to fulfil. Twenty thousand men, women, and children, raising the standard of war, and proposing to dismember a mighty empire! It is very possible that there are suburbs of London containing an equal number of discontented people, who suffer under, and have reason to complain of, municipal or national injustice. And may these fly to arms, set up for a nation, and strive to break the unity of the British dominions? It should also be remembered, that the Texans were not only a drop in the bucket compared with the Mexican population, but that they were a decided minority in the particular State to which they belonged; so that their revolt may be compared to the rising of a county in Massachusetts or Virginia, for the purpose of establishing a separate sovereignty, on the ground of some real or imagined violation of right on the part of the Federal or the State government. Still more, this little knot of Texans were far from being unanimous as to the revolt. The older and wealthier inhabitants favoured peace. 'There were great differences of opinion among the colonists, and even violent party dissensions. Many who were in the quiet enjoyment of their property were opposed to all these hostile movements. The first public declaration of independence was adopted, not by persons assuming to act in a representatative capacity, but by about ninety individuals, all, except two, Americans, if we may judge by their names, acting for themselves, and recommending a similar course to their fellow-citizens. That declaration furnishes proofs of the dissensions and jealousies of which we have spoken. It proves another fact, that the ancient population of the province was favourable to the new views of the government of Mexico.' In some letters, written by Col. S. T. Austin, the founder of the colony, in the year 1834, whilst imprisoned in Mexico on the charge of encouraging revolutionary movements in Texas, we have some remarkable passages, showing the aversion of the sounder part of the population to violent measures:- -'I wish my friends and all Texas to adopt and firmly adhere to the motto and rule I have stated in this letter. The rule is, to discountenance, in the most unequivocal and efficient manner, all persons who are in the habit of speaking or writing in violent or disrespectful terms of the Mexican people or authorities.-I have been led into so much difficulty, and Texas has been so much jeopardized in its true and permanent interests, by inflammatory men, political fanatics, political adventurers, would-be-great men, vain talkers, and visionary |