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Maryland State Archives Maryland Colonization Journal Collection MSA SC 4303 msa_sc4303_scm11070-0029 Enlarge and print image (5M) |
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Maryland State Archives Maryland Colonization Journal Collection MSA SC 4303 msa_sc4303_scm11070-0029 Enlarge and print image (5M) |
| MARYLAND COLONIZATION JOURNAL. CONDUCTED BY THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATIONS OF THE MARYLAND STATE COLONISATION SOCIETY, UNDER THE AUSPICES Ol-' THE M\NAUF.HS OF THE STATE FIND. Vol. 1, Baltimore, December, 1836. !%'©. 7. When gratuitous please circulate. In the last number of the Journal) we referred to the discussion that had taken place in Glasgow, (Scotland) between the Hev. K. J. Breckenridge, and the noted George Thompson, wandering abolitionist. We give below the admirable letter of Mr. Brecken- ridge to Dr. Wardlaw, the clergyman who presided at the meetings where the discussion took place. We commend it to the notice of all our readers. It is able and unanswerable. (From the New York Observer.) To the Hev. Ralph Wardlaw, D. J), of Glasgow: Sir,—I observed in the London Patriot, of last week, an abstract of the proceedings of the Glasgow Kmancipation Society, on the 1st of this month, at a public meeting held Mbr the purpose of expressing the sentiments of the society in reference to the discus- sion on American Slavery, between the Rev. K. J. Breckenridge and Mr. George Thompson.' The greater porliou of the report before mc, is occupied with a speech made by you on that occasion, in pro- posing to the meeting the following resolution, viz : 'That in the deliberate judgment of this meeting the wii»h announced by Mr- George Thompson, to meet publicly any antagonist, especially any minister of the gospel front the United States, on the subject of American Slavery, or on any one of the branches of that subject, was dictated by a well-founded conscious- ness of the integrity of his purpose, and assurance of the correctness of his facts ; and that the recent dis- cussion in this city between him and the Hev. It. J. Breckenridge, of Baltimore, has left not merely un- shaken, but confirmed and augmented their confidence in the rectitude of his principles, the purity of his motives, the propriety of his measures, the fidelity of lna statements, and the straight forward honesty and undaunted intrepidity of his zeal.} This motion was seconded by the venerable and respected Dr. Kid- stone, whose speech on the occasion is but briefly reported. Other resolutions—some of similar import, some of a general character—were offered, and se- conded by Dr. Heugh, and Messrs. IsM, King, M'Laren and Kettle. But above all, the proceedings bear the iignature of Robert Grahame, of Whitehiil, whose venerable name is dear to every good man. These proceedings, sir, have relieved me from a state of great and painful anxiety, as to the view my countrymen might take of the propriety of my taking any notice, more or less, of Mr. George Thompson. Kor while nothing is further from my purpose than to wound the feelings of any friend of that individual, it is necessary to say, that in America, every one who is not an abolitionist, or, in other words, ninety-nine hundredths of the people, consider him, not only unworthy of credit, but unworthy of notice. At length, I have a tangible proof, by which to make my couutrymen feel, that persons of the utmost respecta- bility, eicellcnce, and piety, in Britain, not only con- cur in all the principles and proceedings, buL partake of all the prejudices and ignorance of that individual, and openly defend his flagitious conduct. From this day forth, 1 deem myself fully acquitted on the only part of the subject which titled me with personal anxiety. For although you have not hesitated to speak in terms sufficiently disparaging of my humble efforts to defend this truth ; yet as you have given no reasons for the judgment you have delivered, those who read for themselves may escape the influence even of your authority. And as you have been pleased to decide on the whole merits of the case, as well as on the merits of the parties involved in it,—I escape, of course, from the whole blame of having damaged the truth by feeble advocacy. In this stale of the case, it cannot surprise you, that I turn With delight from those who have hitherto assailed me, and address myself to you , that 1 avail myself of the right arising from your free and repeat- ed use of my name, and your judgments both upon my character and acts, to Bjieak freely in return. Lei us forgel the miserable trifling of Mr. Robert Bernard Hall. Let us pass over poor Moses Roper, who, it is but just to say, has wrillen the most modest and sen- bible attack yet made on me. Let us even be mode- rate iu having absolutely silenced the garrulity of Mr. Thompson, who begs off m his last note, which has just rea«hed me, in the Patriot of ihc 17th instant. 1 have that to say which you have not only invited, but challenged me to utter, and to which I ask your se> nous regard. 1 have manifested my deference to the judgment of a christian people, by discussing at ils bar, questions purely national and personal, into which, under erro- neous pretexts, they had interfered in a manner the most vexatious. I believed they were in great error— I presumed they were sincerely disposed to do good — I knew they were really doing us, and themselves, and the world, harm—and challenged and forced into tho matter, I have discussed it on its mere merits— admitting you and your people to be, nil you professed to be—and only endeavouring to prove that we were not as evil as you made us out. So far as you, and those who cau influence, are concerned, you have declared that you remain more firmly than ever set- tled in your harsh judgments of us, and vour fixed pni post- to follow out all your offensive courses. Nay, you plainly declare, that rather than alter a tittle of your conduct, principles, opinions, or demands on this subject, you prefer that all fellowship between us and you shall terminate. That argument and conclusion, then, being complete and final, we need say no more. I am content to wait and see, whether the American people will, at your suggestion, change their national constitution j or whether, in the event of the adequate majority for that purpose not being attainable, tliey will, as the inference of your argument, break up the confederacy—to regain your good opinion. There is, as 1 have said, quite another view of the whole case. You say in the course of your speech, 'if our American brethren saw any tiling in us, winch they thought, and justly thought, was an evil of suffi- cient magnitude to induce their kind offices for its suppression, we ought to feel obliged by their using their endeavours to stir ua up to a due consideration of it, and to practical efforts for its removal.* And in the context you are tomewhut pointed in enforcing this idea, as containing in it a great rule of duty. In general we have considered the ill-doing of this deli- cate office more hurtful than its omission. In parti- cular, it has appeared to us as a pretext liable to infi- nite sbuse, and practically resorted to most by those who had least grouud and least right to display it. But, sir, I can hardly, either in faithfulness or honour, sbstaiu any longer from its use. And the main object of this communication is, to point out, in the actual condition of considerable portions of the British empire, evils, which really are, or which your party has declared to be, of so palpable aud su monstrous a description, that decency would seem to require you to repress them, or be very modest in rebuking others while they exist. 1. To come at once lo the grand cause of outcry against us—the unhappy ami indefensible existence of slavery in many of the states. Will you be so good as to turn your eyes to the map of Africa, and fix them on a spot longer than half of Western Europe ? At its southern extremity, find Cape Town Then find the speech of Dr. Philip, delivered in Kxeter Hall, ten days after you delivered yours. In that town and neighbourhood are 1),000 British slaves!! Scattered over that vast peninsula are ninny thousand more of British slaves!! And yet the ear of day is dull with being told that in the British empire there were no slaves ; and the very speech that has elicited these remarks, was made at a meeting on the anniversary devoted to a glorious fact that never occurred, name' lv, 'Slave emancipation in the British colonies.1 2. Turn now, I pray you, to the map of Asia, and find the vast dominions which God has lent to you there, embracing a population of one hundred and thirty millions of souls. Then look over a file of papers, and read a conversation that occurred in the Commons House of Parliament, but a hurt time back, between the Hon. Mr. Huston and Sir J. Hob- house, on the subject of British slavery in India!'. There you will find it admitted, that 'domestic slave- ry prevail to a great extent' in India, 'especially in Bengal.' There you will find proof that 110 direct effort was ever made to abolish it,—and reasons urged by the government why it cannot now be abolished—and why treaties now existing seem to render its future abolition impossible. 3. Turn your attention, next, to the western side of the Atlantic Ocean, and see nearly a million of ap- prentices in the West India Inlands; and then remem- ber what you have yourself said and written on the subject of this system : and to call to iniud the innu- merable declarations made weekly, up and down the country, by those who belong to your party, and who (at the Houdsworth Anti-Slavery Society, on the 3d of this month) denounced it 'as aggravated slavery, under the delusive name of apprenticeship,' and de- nounce every 'proposal of government' as only calcu- lated to excite suspicion. Do I draw an inference at all strained, when I say, that the subjects of a monarch, whose dominions in three-quarters of the globe are, by their own showing and by irrefragable proofs, covered with slaves, should deal somewhat gently with other nations, who may chance lo be in the same unhappy condition? Do I say too much, when I caution such people to be more guarded in boastful assertions, which are contradicted by the fact and the record of the case ? Do I give needless offence, when I beg you to remember, that your Parliament is omnipotent over this subject, and is therefore responsible for all the evils winch exist, either through their negligence or by their consent ? Alas! sir, it is an ancient habit, to be bitter against our brother for a mote, when a beam is in our own eye- But I have more to add. We' have been spoken against with great severity for neglect of the spiritual welfare of tin- coloured population of the United States: and you have in an unhappy hour, said, you believed and approved these hard sayings. I have m vain deuied, in vain disproved them. My object now is, to bIiow the condition of the country whose people bring and credit them; still keeping the hue m duty indicated by your suggestion. 4- Let me beg you then to look at the condition of Lower Canada, where the liomau Catholic reli- gion is established by treaty and by law, where annual grants of public money are made to support it, and where it has had t'me course, until the people are so ignurant, that by statute law, the grand jurors and the school commissioners are allowed the privilege of making their marks instead of signing their names, and where, according to the belief of the whole universe, except papists, a system of idola- trous worship is guaranteed by the power of the Bri- tish realm. 5. Then look over the votes in the Committee of Supply, in the present Parliament, and you will see ^'8,1)28 'for the Koman Catholic College at May- noolb,' (which is just about the sum ilie vilified Ame- ricans pay annually to promote the religion of Jesus Christ in Western Africa, through the Colonization Society,) and 1 ask you as a christian, to resulve the questions, which of these enterprises you deem most injurious to true rcligiun ? which you and your party have most actively opposed? and which is most under your eye and control? Heaven and earth are moved to prevent the spread of the gospel in Africa, through the Colonization Society; and not a whisper is heard to prevent the increase of idolatry in your own land, through governmental patronage. C- Bui a more frightful case remains. Remember that you have above one hundred millions of heathen in your Indian possessions—then read the noble speech of the Kev. W. Campbell, a missionary from Bengalore, delivered at Kxeter Hall, at the last annual meeting of the London Missionary Society. There, sir, you will find positive proof lhat the horrid system of Hindoo idolatry, in all its cruelty and cor- ruption, is upheld, partaken of, and made a source of gam by the British authorities in India! Temples are supported by the government; priests and dancing women are paid a monthly allowance out of the pub- lic revenue; magistrates are present uud aiding offi- cially at their brutal ceremonies; military officers do their peculiar honours to the abominable thing; and British functionaries cutlect the wages of imquily- And now, sir, what can the eagerness of party zeal find, in all its false allegations agauibt us, equal to the naked deformity of these facts? 7. But pass again to another portion of your wide empire. In multitudes of publications 1 have Been our alleged neglect of the religious instruction of the coloured population of America, made the basis of insinuations against the sincerity of our religious pro- fession. If you will read the speech of Dr. Philip, already alluded to, you will find the following sen- tence: 'Boti iii.in, a Catfre chief, and others, have been petitioning me for missionaries, by every mes- senger through whom they could convey to me a ver- bal communication, for the last twelve years; and 1 have not yet been able to send them one.' Gracious heaven! what an account will the twenty thousand protestanl ministers of (ireat Britain have tu render for the souls of these pour Cuffres, whom so many of them have forgotten, to abuse their brethren in Ame- rica for neglecting a population amongst whom a larger proportion hear the gospel, than of the inhabi- tants of the capital of the British empire. 8. Let us look at London, the seat of your wealth, power, and civilization; the abode of your Sovereign; the seat of your Parliament; the see of a bishop, whose income would support a hundred missionaries. Listen to what the bishop says of so much of his diocese, as is contained in the metropolis. *Therc are,' says he, 'thirty-four parishes, containing above 10,000 souls each, (omitting all notice of those which contain less,) and in the uggrcg&te 1,137,000 souls: but there is church room for only 101,682—less than nm--tenth of the whole! Allow one church for every 3,000 boult, and 372 churv.be* would be required} while in fact there are but G'J: or if consented chapels be added, only 100.' That is, above 1,000,000 souls, iii a single city, and lhat city the seat of your glory, utterly unprovided for by the nation, and the established church. Now if we should add what i* done by dissenters of all classes, and add also the destitute of the small parishes, tho result might be varied a little; but still, make the best of it you can, and you arc left with more people destitute of tlie means ot grace in London, alone, than in all the United States! If you doubt these statements of the Lord Bishop of London, consult the proceedings of the last annual meeting of the City Mission; and then ponder, whether the hundreds of pounds squin- dered on Mr. Thompson's trip to the United Stales— and in printing his slanders of that country—and the additional hundreds, which I see Dr. Heugh urged the people of Glasgow to give him by way of *Tes*.imo- nial Fund—might not have been fully as well laid out in wending the gospel to the British capital? Besides the accusations now made your own, on the general subjects of slavery in itself considered, and neglect (>f the religious instruction of the natives— the remaining charges which we have been arraigned upon—may, to a certain extent, fall under the gene- ral head of seventy, injustice, and deep-rooted preju- dice against the blacks. These, thing* may he. true, or they may be false. The statements and evidence on both sides are in reach of the public. You have vouched for their truth, and it is not now in\ t'l-izii to show the contrary; but to show who they are that are so ready to magnify real errors, and to allege false crimes upon their neighbours. 0. Pray, sir, were you ever in Ireland ? If you were, you saw a land, fertile and beautiful; a people, handsome, intelligent, and active; a climato more genial than any other in so high a northern latitude: in short, every thing that should make its teeming population rich, happy and powerful. I was there. I saw hundreds of people who had no fixed abodes I saw the majority of the houses of the lower classes to be worse than the stables and cow houses in Eng- land; I saw thousands in rags; hundred* naked; and hundreds more naked, except a piece of a single old garment. I looked at the third report on the expe- diency of a poor law for Ireland, made by order of Parliament, and I found that ^,3^5,000 souls arc out of work, have nothing to depend on, and are in dis- tress fur thirty weeks every year. It is a settled, indisputable truth, that one-third of the Irish people beg their bread two thirds of every year. And yet enormous quantities of grain and live slock, and all sorts of provision, are exported from Ireland. And yet, in defiance of all this tremendous, long continued and periodical suffering, there is no poor law, nor any sort of general provision by law, for the poor of that island. But there are forty-nine regiments of horse and foot, and a constabulary force of about equal magnitude—ready to stay the people's stomachs with lead at night and steel in the morning. This is the happy consummation of six hundred years of British authority! And how can you, sir, look any human being hi the face, and charge Ins country with wrong, till you have strained every effort lo redress this vasl hereditary guilt? Or if you fail, how car. you speak, nationallyy in the hearing of earth, or heaven, about human wrongs? 10. Look, for the last time, to the vast plains of South Africa, wet with the blood of murdered nations. Head the clear and masterly speech of Dr. Philip, already twice referred to. 'If a traveller who had viBited that country twenty-five years ago, were to take his stand on the banks of the Keiskamma river, and ask what had become of the natives whom he saw- there on his former visit; if he took his stand on the rocks of the Sondags river, and looked towards a coun- try seventy miles in breadth before him, he might ask the same question; if he were to take his stand again on the Fish river, snd then extend his views to Cain-aria, he might ask the same question; and were he to take his stand on the Snow mountain, called Graf lleinet, (he would have before him a country containing 40,000 square miles,) and ask where was the immense concourse he saw there twenty-five years ago; no man could tell him where they were!' Ask Lord Glenelg, His Majesty's principal Secretary for the colonies, and he will admit that the system of treach- ery, plunder and butchery, by which these brave and upright savages have been wasted in exterminating op- pression, constitutes perhaps the most degrading of all the chapters of the history of mankind! It is a chapter written in the tears and blood of slaughtered tribes— and is hardly yet dry upon the paper that records it for the execration of posterity! It is a chapter that had not been fully enacted when you were concocting plans and arranging agencies, by which to make illus- trious the benign sway of universal freedom, justice and benevolence in your Monarchy—and to brand upon our Htpubl\cy reproaches, winch all coming generations could not clface. But why need I multiply particulars? When these things are set right, and you seek from us another list, we will say to you concerning your polity, in uearly all its parts, things which you will then be (let- ter able to bear. We will point out how you may establish real freedom amongbt yourselves, and there- by show your acquaintance with its sacred principles; how you can make your laws just, equal and humane, and thereby manifest in practice your devotion to pmiciplea commended for others. At present such a proceeding could only irritate; and is the more readi- ly forborne, because it is not as an American or a republican, but as a christian, my mission brought me to you. The assurance, too, that the party with which you act, is, in point of numbers, a very small minority of the British nation, makes me the more willing to adhere to this view of my duty. Indeed it is chiefly because your party has much of its strength in that sect to which I was more particularly sent, that it seemed clearly necessary for me to take pan at all in these discussions. 1 readily admit that time, patience, sacrifices, and much labour, are needful for the redress of the evils 1 have pointed nut. I know that the present genera- tion is not responsible in such a seuse for most of them as past generations have been. I am convinced that multitudes of Knglishmen deplore, and would gladly remove them. I am satisfied that it is by the silent influence of example, and tho kind and clear exposition of general principles, rather than rude and harsh personal or national assaults, that we can do you good, in these or similar cases. And 1 gladly declare my belief, that the christians of America, as such, can and ought to hold christian intercourse in sympathy with the christians of Britain—not- withstanding the British nation may be responsible in the matters alleged; and that we can and ought to do it—without perpetual vituperation and insult, even for what is true — not to say without gross perversions of the facts and merits of the case. Such, sir, are my views of the subject. I deeply regret that yours are so widely different. And I humbly beseech you to imagine the whole course of your proceedings and arguments—embracing of course the mission of Mr Thompson and lux conduct since his return — made ours, and our case made yours; ond then decide what would by this time have been the feelings of your people towards us, if we had treated you as you havo treated us? I declare, in the presence of tod, my firm belief, lhat if things go on much longer a» they have pr9MWMd for the lust two years, there wdl not be found on earth men more estranged from each other thin the professor* of religion in tho two coun- tries. I have already witnessed the spectacle of a part of the religious press in Knsland, urging forward the government of the couniry to an intervention, if ne- cessary, with arms, against the progress of liberty in Texas, upon the false arid ignorant pretext, tint the government of the United Stales, unless prevented by force, would possess itself of that country, and introduce slavery there. The people generally of America, are long ago roused to the highest pitch of indignation against your proceedings in thu whoic business. You have now reduced the christians of that country to a position, where, if they act with you or admit your previous statements or principles—they become, on your own showing, infamous! You may now behold in the preceding statement the posture in which all the world but yourselves have viewed you during all this terrible affair! Was it ignorance ol your real condition, or whs it ignorance still more gross of ours, or was it national vanity and prejudice, or was it all these unitedly, that impelled the abolition party in Britain to pursue the course; they have adopted ? It is not my desire lo give offence, and I will not therefore attempt to de- cide. Your parly profess to have lull and accurate information about us : though it is very odd that, at your meeting, Dr. Heugh moved, and Mr. Eadie seconded, and your i\aTy numerous and highly respec- table meeting' unanimously voted, that our national constitution contained a very important principle, which is not only not in it at all, but which the very discussion )ou were pronouncing on ex cathedrat proved not to be in it! Well informed gentlemen, not to say just judges, should be more cautious It does nol become me lo my that your party are igno- rant of the condition of their own country t but, if they knew the facts now commended to their notice, it is not easy to reconcile their singular disregard of them with their rampant benevolence on the other side of the water ; and if they were unacquainted with them, they had better stay at Jericho till their beards be grown. Upon the delicate and painful subject of national prejudice, it is difficult to speak properly at all ; but especially so to gentlemen whose passion lies in surmounting all prejudice whatever. The Julm Bull newspaper is said to represent tho views and feelings of the extreme High Church and Tory party ; the K'icord is the reputed vehicle for Low Church sentiments; the Patriot, I am told, stands in the same relations to the Congregational dis- senters, embracing both Baptists and Independents, who are generally Whigs and Radicals. The Tunes, which, from lis great ability, must always wield a vast influence, is considered the organ of the Independent Conservative interest. I am very likely to be mis- taken ; but I have tried to inform myself of your con- dition, and this is what 1 learn. Be so good, sir, as to read any editorial article in either of these papers for the last four months, in which il was necessary to ex- press opinions or feelings in regard to the U. States, rnd you will at once catch my present drift. But to aid such as hive neither time nor opportunity for such a review, excuse the following sample from a late number of the last named paper :—'In short, this is just the wretched 'colonization scheme,' to which those pious slave-owners, the Baptists, Independents, and Presbyterians of the United States have betaken themselves, as a plaster to their consciences, rank and rotten with hypocrisy ; and though that holy Ameri- can humbug may command a congenial support from the canting zealots of liberty and lashes, hallelujahs and horse-whippings, Bibles and brutality, mission* and murders, religious revivals merging in slave auc- tions, ami love-feasts terminating in Lynch law,' kc. 4tc. It lb but justice to say, that I have seen equal grossness only in the John Bull, and in Mr. Thomp- son's speeches, to some of which latter this hat a most suspicious resemblance. It is my duty also to declare, which I do with sincere pleasure, that the present foreign secretary of the king, (Lord Palmer- stou,) and the journals which speak the sentiments of the government, are by far better informed, and more candid in regard to American affairs in general, than any others whose published views have come tu my knowledge. I may, in the end, be permitted to suggest, that perhaps loo much hat been said in relation to tho existing and prospective intercourse between tho churches of the two countries; and possibly loo much consequence attached to it by myself, as well aa others. 1 have uttered the sentiments of those who sent me, in their name ; and endeavoured to enforce them by such considerations as appeared to me juat and appropriate. But 1 am not aware of any thing having transpired which would justify the supposition that America, or her churches, looked for any advan- tage which was not likely to be reciprocal, in being permitted lo hold this intercourse. Still less can I conceive that any one could be justified in demand- ing of our churches, as conditions of it, not only ad- hesion to moral principles which we reject, but the procurement of political changes which are impossi- ble. Vet, if 1 comprehend the drift of all BriUah abolitioniBin, it stops nol a whit short of this. II was the world, more than America, we fought to benefit. We had no purpose of attempting a revolu- tion in Britain ; nor did it enter into our conceptions thai a revolution in America, of the moat terrible ex- tent, would be dictated to ua, in terms hardly suppor- table. It was the benighted heathen for whose good we were laying plans ; and the thought of personal advantage, or honour, or enjoyment, to any portion of ourselves, had never place for a moment, nor even ground for exercise ; and therefore, we must needs bo proof against all discriminating threats. It ¦• quits gratuitous for the sects in Kugland to decline receiv- ing our delegates, except they be abohtioniata—which many individuals and some public meetings have recommended—which the Baptists, if I am rightly informed, have virtually done—and which aeema nothing beyond the compass of your argument. Indeed, this aspect of the case is so very far from the one which the facts exhibit, that I am greatly sur- prised that wisdom, if not kindness, did not prevent its presentation. For I believe no delegate who has gone from Britain,to America has been assailed, in public and in private, on any of the great evils at which I have hinted in this communication, as every delegate who has come from America to Britain has been assailed on the subject of slavery. I believe, too, you would search in vain in America, fur any man who had received from any sect or institution in Britain, any token of respect or esteem ; while it will be equally hard to find in Britain any man among any sect to which any delegate from America has ever come, who is not indebted to us for all tho consequence he has derived from literary and thcolu* |