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Page 56
The writer of this sketch was chosen Chairman of the meeting, and
commenced its proceedings by delivering the following address, which we
cut from the columns of the _Morning Advertiser_:--
"The Chairman, in opening the proceedings, remarked that, although the
metropolis had of late been inundated with meetings of various
character, having reference to almost every variety of subject, yet that
the subject they were called upon that evening to discuss differed from
them all. Many of those by whom he was surrounded, like himself, had
been victims to the inhuman institution of Slavery, and were in
consequence exiled from the land of their birth. They were fugitives
from their native land, but not fugitives from justice, and they had not
fled from a monarchical, but from a so-called republican government.
They came from amongst a people who declared, as part of their creed,
that all men were born free, but who, while they did so, made slaves of
every sixth man, woman, and child in the country (hear, hear). He must
not, however, forget that one of the purposes for which they were met
that night was to commemorate the emancipation of their brothers and
sisters in the isles of the sea. That act of the British Parliament, and
he might add in this case with peculiar emphasis, of the British nation,
passed on the 12th day of August, 1833, to take effect on the first day
of August, 1834, and which enfranchised 800,000 West Indian slaves, was
an event sublime in its nature, comprehensive and mighty in its
immediate influences and remote consequences, precious beyond expression
to the cause of freedom, and encouraging beyond the measure of any
government on earth to the hearts of all enlightened and just men. This
act was the commencement of a long course of philanthropic and Christian
efforts on the part of some of the best men that the world ever
produced. It was not his intention to go into a discussion or a
calculation of the rise and fall of property, or whether sugar was worth
more or less by the act of emancipation. But the abolition of Slavery
in the West Indies, was a blow struck in the right direction, at that
most inhuman of all traffics, the slave trade--a trade which would never
cease so long as slavery existed, for where there was a market there
would be merchandise; where there was demand there would be a supply;
where there were carcases there would be vultures; and they might as
well attempt to turn the water, and make it run up the Niagara river, as
to change this law. It was often said by the Americans that England was
responsible for the existence of slavery there, because it was
introduced into that country while the colonies were under the British
Crown. If that were the case, they must come to the conclusion that, as
England abolished Slavery in the West Indies, she would have done the
same for the American States if she had had the power to do it; and if
that was so, they might safely say that the separation of the United
States from the mother country was (to say the least) a great misfortune
to one-sixth of the population of that land. England had set a noble
example to America, and he would to heaven his countrymen would follow
the example. The Americans boasted of their superior knowledge, but they
needed not to boast of their superior guilt, for that was set upon a
hill top, and that too, so high, that it required not the lantern of
Diogenes to find it out. Every breeze from the western world brought
upon its wings the groans and cries of the victims of this guilt. Nearly
all countries had fixed the seal of disapprobation on slavery, and when,
at some future age, this stain on the page of history shall be pointed
at, posterity will blush at the discrepancy between American profession
and American practice. What was to be thought of a people boasting of
their liberty, their humanity, their Christianity, their love of
justice, and at the same time keeping in slavery nearly four millions of
God's children, and shutting out from them the light of the Gospel, by
denying the Bible to the slave! (Hear, hear.) No education, no marriage,
everything done to keep the mind of the slave in darkness. There was a
wish on the part of the people of the northern States to shield
themselves from the charge of slave-holding, but as they shared in the
guilt, he was not satisfied with letting them off without their share in
the odium. And now a word about the Fugitive Slave Bill. That measure
was in every respect an unconstitutional measure. It set aside the right
formerly enjoyed by the fugitive of trial by jury--it afforded to him no
protection, no opportunity of proving his right to be free, and it
placed every free coloured person at the mercy of any unprincipled
individual who might wish to lay claim to him. (Hear.) That law is
opposed to the principles of Christianity--foreign alike to the laws of
God and man, it had converted the whole population of the free States
into a band of slave-catchers, and every rood of territory is but so
much hunting ground, over which they might chase the fugitive. But while
they were speaking of slavery in the United States, they must not omit
to mention that there was a strong feeling in that land, not only
against the Fugitive Slave Law, but also against the existence of
slavery in any form. There was a band of fearless men and women in the
city of Boston, whose labours for the slave had resulted in good beyond
calculation. This noble and heroic class had created an agitation in the
whole country, until their principles have taken root in almost every
association in the land, and which, with God's blessing, will, in due
time, cause the Americans to put into practice what they have so long
professed. (Hear, hear.) He wished it to be continually held up before
the country, that the northern States are as deeply implicated in the
guilt of slavery as the South. The north had a population of 13,553,328
freemen; the south had a population of only 6,393,756 freemen; the north
has 152 representatives in the house, the south only 81; and it would be
seen by this, that the balance of power was with the free States.
Looking, therefore, at the question in all its aspects, he was sure that
there was no one in this country but who would find out, that the
slavery of the United States of America was a system the most abandoned
and the most tyrannical. (Hear, hear.)"
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