A Voice to the u.5. of America from
Scotland-18300
Z: 161
5263
US



U55263.131.2
Harvard College Library
TARDIAN
VERIN
MIA
RISTO
ECCLE
TASI
LON.N
ADEM
CHR
ESTAR
ONUN
FROM THE
BRIGHT LEGACY
One half the income from this Legacy, which was re-
ceived in 1880 under the will of
JONATHAN BROWN BRIGHT
of Waltham, Massachusetts, is to be expended for books
for the College Library. The other half of the income
is devoted to scholarships in Harvard University for the
benefit of descendants of
HENRY BRIGHT, JR.,
who died at Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1686. In the
absence of such descendants, other persons are eligible
to the scholarships. The will requires that this announce-
ment shall be made in every book added to the Library
under its provisions.
upun
undan
upun
unகார






155263.131.2
Harvard College Library
ARDIA
ET
Mami UN
VERI
TEMIA
RISTO
ECCLES
TAS
WONOV
CHR
ESIAE
COV
Nyos
FROM THE
BRIGHT LEGACY
One half the income from this Legacy, which was re-
ceived in 1880 under the will of
JONATHAN BROWN BRIGHT
of Waltham, Massachusetts, is to be expended for books
for the College Library. The other half of the income
is devoted to scholarships in Harvard University for the
benefit of descendants of
HENRY BRIGHT, JR.,
who died at Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1686. In the
absence of such descendants, other persons are eligible
to the scholarships. The will requires that this announce-
ment shall be made in every book added to the Library
under its provisions.
unon
noun
unon
nuoun
unon








A VOICE
TO THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
FROM THE
METROPOLIS OF SCOTLAND;
BEING AN ACCOUNT OF
VARIOUS MEETINGS HELD IN EDINBURGH ON THE SUBJECT
OF
AMERICAN SLAVERY,
UPON THE RETURN OF
MR GEORGE THOMPSON,
FROM HIS MISSION TO THAT COUNTRY.
We hold these truths to be self-evident:-THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL; that they are
endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness.-American Declaration of Independence.
EDINBURGH:
WILLIAM OLIPHANT AND SON,
7 SOUTH BRIDGE STREET.
1836.


PRELIMINARY NOTICE.
WHILE the inhabitants of this country were straining every nerve,
to effect the abolition of Slavery within their own colonies, they were
far from being insensible to the groans of millions, who have long
been held in a state of bondage as outrageous and deplorable as that
of the West India Islands, and, in many instances, far more so: but at.
that time they were fully aware of the painful situation in which they
stood. They felt that with no consistency could their voice be heard
on high, and that all their remonstrances must have fallen point-
less to the ground. “ Physician, heal thyself,” might then have been
the reply from every other country. As a nation, we required first
to take the beam out of our own eye, before we could see clearly how
to take the mote out of the eye of any other nation. But no sooner
was the blow struck which abolished our own colonial slavery,—no
sooner was the day determined, and the great truth, that man cannot
hold property in man, recorded in our statute-book, as one fixed
principle of British law, than the spirit of sympathy began to strug-
gle for expansion, and the spirit of freedom for expression in regard
to slavery wherever it existed. « THE EDINBURGH Society FOR
THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY THROUGHOUT THE WORLD," was one
of the results. It was formed in October 1833, after a series of Lec-
tures on the subject of slavery by Mr GEORGE THOMPSON, whose la-
bours in this country, in the great cause of Negro emancipation, had
been attended with triumphant success.
Slavery throughout the world presented a field for exertion, of the
most appalling description, far more extensive than that which had
so long wrung the hearts, and stimulated the energy, of the people
in this kingdom. There was the existence of the slave trade itself,
still carried on to great extent by other nations, in express violation
of treaties, solemnly signed, sealed, and delivered; to which the at-
tention of our Legislature yet remains to be respectfully, but ener-
getically and perseveringly directed. There was the horrid system
of slavery as still practised in Brazil to a prodigious extent; and,
above all, because, under all its circumstances, it is the vilest on which
the sun has ever shone, the slavery of the United States of America.
Slavery maintained, nay, and defended with unblushing effrontery,
by a people who claim to be regarded by all other nations as the freest in
the world, could not fail, in these days, to excite notice and reproba-


PRELIMINARY NOTICE.
tion; and the more so, as above three hundred thousand free people
besides, were there doomed to habitual ignominy, to degradation and
contempt, merely because the boasting white man had found them
“ guilty of a skin not coloured like his own !" To designate this as
simply a prejudice against colour, was seen to be a prostitution of
terms, it being, in fact, a state of mind combining haughtiness and
disdain, in their meanest and most execrable forms, and standing out
in strange contrast even with Brazil. *
Thus, however vast the field of misery, and crime, the Society
could not for a moment hesitate where they were bound to begin
their operations. It was in the land as guilty as our own had been, but
where, deeds which Britain has never perpetrated, have too long been
sanctioned and defended ;—the land, where, with the declaration daily
in their mouths, “ that all men are born equal, and are endowed with
certain inalienable rights,” they hold two millions three hundred thou-
sand of the species in bondage; carry on without a sigh a system of
inter-national slavery; and, what is far more dreadful, have interwoven
slavery, and all its inseparable abominations, with the divine and
merciful system of Christianity itself;—the land, where man is the
absolute property of his fellow-man, an article of barter or of sale, a
chattel personal, not ranked among accountable beings ;—the land,
where slavery is hereditary, and where the children of a slave-mother,
though the father be a white, are doomed to perpetual vassalage;
where, therefore, parents are selling their own children, and where even
females are sold by weight, and in exchange for animals of the brute
creation ;—the land, too, where, in one of its most populous and
powerful states, the punishment for the second offence of teaching
blacks in a Sabbath school, is death! where, in all their Slave States,
the benefits of education are withheld, and in most of them, fines,
whipping, and imprisonment, are the penalties imposed upon those
who dare to adopt any means of enlightening the black or coloured
population ;—the land, in short, where every rising sun witnesses
two hundred infants born into this dreadful state of hopeless bondage,
and where, therefore, in one single year, about as many hapless
souls are added to the millions enslaved, as are taken from Africa by
the slave traders of all other nations !
Whether there has been any such outrage against humanity in past
ages, we need not inquire; but when the light, the civilization, and,
above all, the Christianity of America are taken into the account, it
certainly has no parallel under Heaven at the present moment.
After such a scene had been unfolded, will it be believed, that, by
the lips of a single human being in this country, the inquiry was
ever whispered, “ But have we any right to interfere ?” The timid
only, or those who are themselves the slaves of a sinful expediency,
* Where, as soon as the Mulatto or Negro is freed, he becomes eligible to
all offices, and, in the eye of the law, is equal to the white—where the hand of
the Negro officer comes in contact with that of royalty itself, and where he
escapes in one day from that dire proscription which disgraces the boasted
freedom of the United States ; a proscription which will invariably raise the
finger of scorn to their Declaration of Independence.


PRELIMINARY NOTICE.
must have been the parties who could, for one moment, pause with
regard to right, nay, and imperative duty, in such a heart-rending
case as this. Perhaps, however, even the scrupulous may be helped
out of their cold hesitation, when they are informed, that the friends
of Negro emancipation in Great Britain had already been appealed
to, and implored by inhabitants of America itself; and that before any
effort had been put forth by this country, it had been urgently invited.
“ It is impossible," said the appeal from New England, “it is im-
possible that the British people, standing, as they now are, upon the
neck of colonial slavery, it is impossible for them to consider their
work at an end, while there remains a human being held as a chattel
under the whole heavens, Dear friends! surely you will do some-
thing in our behalf, being assured, that any sacrifice you may make,
will, like good seed sown in good ground, produce at least an hun-
dredfold."
In these deeply interesting and affecting circumstances, Mr
George THOMPSON, in every respect so highly qualified for proceed-
ing to the United States, having been cordially and unanimously in-
vited on the same day (the 7th October 1833), by the Emancipa-
tion Societies of Edinburgh and Glasgow to undertake this arduous
mission, he at once acceded to their request, embarked for America,
and safely arrived in New York on the 19th of September 1834.
It may also be mentioned, that the path for his proceeding thither
was made still more plain by the following statement on the part of
the New England Anti-Slayery Society.
“ The New England Anti-Slavery Society believing that, at the present
moment, no more efficient plan can be adopted to promote the freedom of the
Negroes in the United States, than that which has proved so eminently suc-
cessful in Great Britain, namely, the employment of eloquent and intelligent
agents, have invited Mr GEORGE THOMPSON to become their lecturer. The
Anti-Slavery party in the United States, though increasing in number, is,
however, scattered and poor, and greatly overburdened by their past efforts
and sacrifices. The wealth and influence of the nation are arrayed against it.
They therefore need the pecuniary assistance of Great Britain as much as her
sympathy. Would she be generous enough to support Mr Thompson during
his mission, say for three years, the Society might say to their fellow-coun.
try, "He who is come among us, seeks not to obtain our money but our
hearts : he will not burden us to the amount of a farthing. All he asks for
himself is a friendly reception, and a patient and a candid hearing.'
“ It is confidently believed that this sacrifice, which, if divided among many,
will not be felt, will be cheerfully and gladly made.”'
While Mr Thompson remained in the United States, he delivered
between two and three hundred public lectures, besides innumerable
shorter addresses in committees, conventions, associations, &c.
He left behind him from a thousand to twelve hundred ministers of
the Gospel enlisted in the cause of immediate emancipation,-new
societies organising weekly,—a great number of newspapers and
periodicals pleading for the oppressed and down-trodden coloured
population,—and every day witnessing fresh accessions of moral
energy to the cause of humanity. He quitted the chosen field of his
labours on the 8th of November last, but not without various testi-
monies to the effects produced. One may suffice, from that intre-



U55263.131.2
Harvard College Library
VARDIAN
ET
VERI
ISTO
EMIA
ECCLE
TASI
CHR.
MON.N
ESTA
CADE
NY.
FROM THE
BRIGHT LEGACY
One half the income from this Legacy, which was re-
ceived in 1880 under the will of
JONATHAN BROWN BRIGHT
of Waltham, Massachusetts, is to be expended for books
for the College Library. The other half of the income
is devoted to scholarships in Harvard University for the
benefit of descendants of
HENRY BRIGHT, JR.,
who died at Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1686. In the
absence of such descendants, other persons are eligible
to the scholarships. The will requires that this announce-
ment shall be made in every book added to the Library
under its provisions,
Ci 101 1001
OGL TOT ləpun OVOGLIO
under itit 19b under til








A VOICE
TO THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
FROM THE
METROPOLIS OF SCOTLAND;
BEING AN ACCOUNT OF
VARIOUS MEETINGS HELD IN EDINBURGH ON THE SUBJECT
OF
AMERICAN SLAVERY,
UPON THE RETURN OF
MR GEORGE THOMPSON,
FROM HIS MISSION TO THAT COUNTRY.
We hold these truths to be self-evident:-THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL; that they are
endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness.-American Declaration of Independence.
EDINBURGH:
WILLIAM OLIPHANT AND SON,
1836.


us 5268.131.2
RUARD CULLEN
SEP 17 1934
LIBRARY
Brigit frank
PRINTED BY NEILL & co., OLD FISHMARKET.


PRELIMINARY NOTICE.
WHILE the inhabitants of this country were straining every nerve
to effect the abolition of Slavery within their own colonies, they were
far from being insensible to the groans of millions, who have long
been held in a state of bondage as outrageous and deplorable as that
of the West India Islands, and, in many instances, far more so: but at
that time they were fully aware of the painful situation in which they
stood. They felt that with no consistency could their voice be heard
on high, and that all their remonstrances must have fallen point-
less to the ground. “ Physician, heal thyself,” might then have been
the reply from every other country. As a nation, we required first
to take the beam out of our own eye, before we could see clearly how
to take the mote out of the eye of any other nation. But no sooner
was the blow struck which abolished our own colonial slavery,-no
sooner was the day determined, and the great truth, that man cannot
hold property in man, recorded in our statute-book, as one fixed
principle of British law, than the spirit of sympathy began to strug-
gle for expansion, and the spirit of freedom for expression in regard
to slavery wherever it existed. " THE EDINBURGH SOCIETY FOR
THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY THROUGHOUT THE WORLD," was one
of the results. It was formed in October 1833, after a series of Lec-
tures on the subject of slavery by Mr GEORGE THOMPSON, whose la-
bours in this country, in the great cause of Negro emancipation, had
been attended with triumphant success.
Slavery throughout the world presented a field for exertion, of the
most appalling description, far more extensive than that which had
so long wrung the hearts, and stimulated the energy, of the people
in this kingdom. There was the existence of the slave trade itself,
still carried on to great extent by other nations, in express violation
of treaties, solemnly signed, sealed, and delivered; to which the at-
tention of our Legislature yet remains to be respectfully, but ener-
getically and perseveringly directed. There was the horrid system
of slavery as still practised in Brazil to a prodigious extent; and,
above all, because, under all its circumstances, it is the vilest on which
the sun has ever shone, the slavery of the United States of America.
Slavery maintained, nay, and defended with unblushing effrontery,
by a people who claim to be regarded by all other nations as the freest in
the world, could not fail, in these days, to excite notice and reproba-


PRELIMINARY NOTICE.
tion; and the more so, as above three hundred thousand free people
besides, were there doomed to habitual ignominy, to degradation and
contempt, merely because the boasting white man had found them
“ guilty of a skin not coloured like his own !" To designate this as
simply a prejudice against colour, was seen to be a prostitution of
terms, it being, in fact, a state of mind combining haughtiness and
disdain, in their meanest and most execrable forms, and standing out
in strange contrast even with Brazil. *
Thus, however vast the field of misery, and crime, the Society
could not for a moment hesitate where they were bound to begin
their operations. It was in the land as guilty as our own had been, but
where, deeds which Britain has never perpetrated, have too long been
sanctioned and defended ;—the land, where, with the declaration daily
in their mouths, “that all men are born equal, and are endowed with
certain inalienable rights,” they hold two millions three hundred thou-
sand of the species in bondage; carry on without a sigh a system of
inter-national slavery; and, what is far more dreadful, have interwoven
slavery, and all its inseparable abominations, with the divine and
merciful system of Christianity itself ;—the land, where man is the
absolute property of his fellow-man, an article of barter or of sale, a
chattel personal, not ranked among accountable beings ;—the land,
where slavery is hereditary, and where the children of a slave-mother,
though the father be a white, are doomed to perpetual vassalage;
where, therefore, parents are selling their own children, and where even
females are sold by weight, and in exchange for animals of the brute
creation ;—the land, too, where, in one of its most populous and
powerful states, the punishment for the second offence of teaching
blacks in a Sabbath school, is death! where, in all their Slave States,
the benefits of education are withheld, and in most of them, fines,
whipping, and imprisonment, are the penalties imposed upon those
who dare to adopt any means of enlightening the black or coloured
population ;—the land, in short, where every rising sun witnesses
two hundred infants born into this dreadful state of hopeless bondage,
and where, therefore, in one single year, about as many hapless
souls are added to the millions enslaved, as are taken from Africa by
the slave traders of all other nations !
Whether there has been any such outrage against humanity in past
ages, we need not inquire ; but when the light, the civilization, and,
above all, the Christianity of America are taken into the account, it
certainly has no parallel under Heaven at the present moment.
After such a scene had been unfolded, will it be believed, that, by
the lips of a single human being in this country, the inquiry was
ever whispered, “ But have we any right to interfere ?” The timid
only, or those who are themselves the slaves of a sinful expediency,
• Where, as soon as the Mulatto or Negro is freed, he becomes eligible to
all offices, and, in the eye of the law, is equal to the white_where the hand of
the Negro officer comes in contact with that of royalty itself, and where he
escapes in one day from that dire proscription which disgraces the boasted
freedom of the United States; a proscription which will invariably raise the
finger of scorn to their Declaration of Independence.


PRELIMINARY NOTICE,
must have been the parties who could, for one moment, pause with
regard to right, pay, and imperative duty, in such a beart-rending
case as this. Perhaps, however, even the scrupulous may be helped
out of their cold hesitation, when they are informed, that the friends
of Negro emancipation in Great Britain had already been appealed
to, and implored by inhabitants of America itself; and that before any
effort had been put forth by this country, it had been urgently invited.
“ It is impossible,” said the appeal from New England, “it is im-
possible that the British people, standing, as they now are, upon the
neck of colonial slavery,“it is impossible for them to consider their
work at an end, while there remains a human being held as a chattel
under the whole heavens. Dear friends ! surely you will do some-
thing in our behalf, being assured, that any sacrifice you may make,
will, like good seed sown in good ground, produce at least an hun-
In these deeply interesting and affecting circumstances, Mr
GEORGE THOMPSON, in every respect so highly qualified for proceed-
ing to the United States, having been cordially and unanimously in-
vited on the same day (the 7th October 1833), by the Emancipa-
tion Societies of Edinburgh and Glasgow to undertake this arduous
mission, he at once acceded to their request, embarked for America,
and safely arrived in New York on the 19th of September 1834.
It may also be mentioned, that the path for his proceeding thither
was made still more plain by the following statement on the part of
the New England Anti-Slayery Society.
“ The New England Anti-Slavery Society believing that, at the present
moment, no more efficient plan can be adopted to promote the freedom of the
Negroes in the United States, than that which has proved so eminently suc-
cessful in Great Britain, namely, the employment of eloquent and intelligent
agents, have invited Mr GEORGE THOMPson to become their lecturer. The
Anti-Slavery party in the United States, though increasing in number, is,
however, scattered and poor, and greatly overburdened by their past efforts
and sacrifices. The wealth and influence of the nation are arrayed against it.
They therefore need the pecuniary assistance of Great Britain as much as her
sympathy. Would she be generous enough to support Mr THOMPSON during
his mission, say for three years, the Society might say to their fellow-coun.
try, 'He who is come among us, seeks not to obtain our money but our
hearts: he will not burden us to the amount of a farthing. All he asks for
himself is a friendly reception, and a patient and a candid hearing.'
“It is confidently believed that this sacrifice, which, if divided among many,
will not be felt, will be cheerfully and gladly made.”
While Mr THOMPSON remained in the United States, he delivered
between two and three hundred public lectures, besides innumerable
shorter addresses in committees, conventions, associations, &c.
He left behind him from a thousand to twelve hundred ministers of
the Gospel enlisted in the cause of immediate emancipation,-new
societies organising weekly,-a great number of newspapers and
periodicals pleading for the oppressed and down-trodden coloured
population, and every day witnessing fresh accessions of moral
energy to the cause of humanity. He quitted the chosen field of his
labours on the 8th of November last, but not without various testi-
monies to the effects produced. One may suffice, from that intre-


PRELIMINARY NOTICE.
pid and successful advocate in the cause of human rights, William
LLOYD GARRISON :-" In spite of persecution and reproach, you
have accomplished the work of years in a single year. Your mission
has been owned and blessed of God. It has shaken the nation to its
centre. It has opened the eyes of the blind, unstopped the ears of
the deaf, and raised from moral corruption the dead. Thousands
have been converted, and a multitude of associations formed through
your instrumentality.-0 how closely do the ties of love bind you
to our hearts! How many are the prayers that will be offered to
God for your safety and deliverance from every evil !”
Mr THOMPSON having proceeded by way of St John's, New
Brunswick, embarked on board of a British vessel for Liverpool,
where he arrived on the 4th of January, and on the 12th was hap-
pily joined by his family, who had left New York on the 16th of
December.
In every place which he has since visited he has been met by the
same unanimous testimony of encouraging and heart-felt approba-
tion; and now, whether, upon his return to this City, he was not
hailed by all ranks, and by persons of every denomination, as having
full well accomplished a great Christian duty, and hastened the arri-
val of a day, to be remembered by future ages on the American con-
tinent with more of reason, and more of heart-felt gratitude, than
even the anniversary of their own independence,—let the readers of
the following pages judge..
The reader will here see, that even now, so far from all being
dark or hopeless in the United States as to the entire abolition of
Slavery there, its doom is fixed ;—that the undaunted friends of im-
mediate abolition, male and female, have already made more personal
sacrifices, than the people of this country were ever called to do,
during their long-protracted struggle. He may see the dawning of
a day, which will not set till the last link that binds the slave is
broken; and he may now safely anticipate, that the men of the south,
who now talk so exceeding proudly, must at last yield or change
their minds, bowing before the potent influence of public opinion,
and the sense of shame. Many of them will; and, if others do not,
before they close their eyes in death, they will probably hear their
very children, in prospect of the event, unite with our own poet and
say-
“ I would not have a slave to till my ground,
To carry me, to fan me while I sleep,
And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth
That sinews bought and sold have ever earn’d.”


CONTENTS
·
·
.
·
.
·
Page
PRELIMINARY NOTICE, . . . . . . . . . 3
MR THOMPSON'S ARRIVAL IN EDINBURGH, . .... 9
RESOLUTIONS OF COMMITTEE OF EDINBURGH EMANCIPATION Society, 9
MR THOMPSON'S FIRST LECTURE, . . ... . 10
... ... SECOND LECTURE, . . . . . . 14
RESOLUTIONS OF EDINBURGH EMANCIPATION SOCIETY, 16
MR THOMPSON'S THIRD LECTURE, . . . . . . 17
GREAT MEETING IN THE WATERLOO ROOMS, . . .
SPEECH of the LORD Provost,. . . . . . . .
James CRAUFURD, Esq.
the Rev. A. BENNIE, · · ·
the Rev. W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, M.A. . .
JAMES MONCREJFF, Esq. · · ·
BAILIE MACFARLAN, . . . . . .
... Mr THOMPSON, . . . . . . . . .
MR THOMPSON'S FOURTH LECTURE, . .
MEETING IN THE HOPETOUN ROOMS, . . .
MR THOMPSON'S FIFTH LECTURE, . . . . . .
SOIRÉE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS IN HONOUR OF MR THOMPSON,
SPEECH of Dr GREVILLE, LL.D., F. R. S. . . . . . 37
ADDRESS to Mr THOMPSON, . . . . . . . i 39
SPEECH of the Rev. A. LIDDELL, . . . . . . . 40
the Rev. WILLIAM PEDDIE, . ..
Mr THOMPSON IN REPLY, . . . . . . 45
(second) of Mr THOMPSON, . . . . . .
of the Rev. C. ANDERSON, . . . i . . ..
·
. . .
·
.
·
.
·
·
· ·
.:
·
·
.
· ·
.
·


EDINBURGH EMANCIPATION SOCIETY.
Committee.
Rev. CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON. John DICKIÉ, W.S.
Rev. WM. ANDERSON, Loanhead. Hon. H. D. ERSKINE.
Rev. WILLIAM GOOLD.
GEORGE INGLIS, Jun.
Rev. E. HALLEY, Leith.
JOHN MACANDREW, S.S.C.
Rev. PROFESSOR PAXTON.
JAMES MARTIN.
Rev. Dr PEDDIE.
JAMES OGILVY.
Rev. WILLIAM PEDDIE.
William OLIPHANT, Sen.
Rev. Dr JOHN RITCHIE.
T. R. ROBERTSON, W.S.
W. ALEXANDER, Leith.
CAPTAIN ROSE.
JAMES BREMNER.
W. SOMERVILLE, Sen.
PETER BROWN.
CHARLES SPENCE, S.S.C.
John CAMPBELL of Carbrook.
PATRICK TENNENT, W. S.
ALEXANDER CRUICKSHANK.
JAMES B. TOD.
EDWARD CRUICKSHANK.
JOHN WIGHAM, Jun.
HENRY DAVID DICKIE.
GEORGE WILSON.
WILLIAM SOMÉRVILLE, Jun. ).
Secretaries.
Henry Tod, W. S.
WILLIAM OLIPHANT, Jun. Treasurer,
Ladies' Committee.
Miss ALEXANDER.
Mrs MACANDREW.
Mrs ANDERSON.
Mrs WILLIAM MILLER.
Miss BAYNE.
Mrs NIMMO.
Mrs Dr BEILBY.
Mrs W. RENTON.
Miss B. BONAR.
Mrs Dr RITCHIE.
Mrs BROWN.
Miss SPENCE.
Mrs CRUICKSHANK.
Miss Tod.
Mrs EDWARD CRUICKSHANK.
Miss MARGARET Top.
Miss CRUICKSHANK.
Miss WEBSTER.
Miss GRANT.
Mrs WIGHAM.
Miss M. GRANT.
Mrs Wilson.
Hon. Mrs ERSKINE, Secretary.
Miss VINER, Treasurer.





A VOICE
то THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
FROM THE
METROPOLIS OF SCOTLAND;
BEING AN ACCOUNT OF
VARIOUS MEETINGS HELD IN EDINBURGH ON THE SUBJECT
OF
AMERICAN SLAVERY,
UPON THE RETURN OF
MR GEORGE THOMPSON,
FROM HIS MISSION TO THAT COUNTRY.
We hold these truths to be self-evident:--THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL; that they are
endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness.-- American Declaration of Independence.
no one by the creates toile
EDINBURGH:
WILLIAM OLIPHANT AND SON,
7 SOUTH BRIDGE STREET.
1836.


US 5269. 131.2
VARD COLLES
COLLEGE
HARVAS
SEP 17 1934
LIBRARY
Brigit freund
PRINTED BY NEILL & co., OLD FISHMARKET.


PRELIMINARY NOTICE.
WHILE the inhabitants of this country were straining every nerve
to effect the abolition of Slavery within their own colonies, they were
far from being insensible to the groans of millions, who have long
been held in a state of bondage as outrageous and deplorable as that
of the West India Islands, and, in many instances, far more so: but at
that time they were fully aware of the painful situation in which they
stood. They felt that with no consistency could their voice be heard
on high, and that all their remonstrances must have fallen point-
less to the ground. “ Physician, heal thyself,” might then have been
the reply from every other country. As a nation, we required first
to take the beam out of our own eye, before we could see clearly how
to take the mote out of the eye of any other nation. But no sooner
was the blow struck which abolished our own colonial slavery,no
sooner was the day determined, and the great truth, that man cannot
hold property in man, recorded in our statute-book, as one fixed
principle of British law, than the spirit of sympathy began to strug-
gle for expansion, and the spirit of freedom for expression in regard
to slavery wherever it existed. " The EDINBURGH Society FOR
THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY THROUGHOUT THE WORLD," was one
of the results. It was formed in October 1833, after a series of Lec-
tures on the subject of slavery by Mr GEORGE THOMPSON, whose la-
bours in this country, in the great cause of Negro emancipation, had
been attended with triumphant success.
Slavery throughout the world presented a field for exertion, of the
most appalling description, far more extensive than that which had
so long wrung the hearts, and stimulated the energy, of the people
in this kingdom. There was the existence of the slave trade itself,
still carried on to great extent by other nations, in express violation
of treaties, solemnly signed, sealed, and delivered; to which the at-
tention of our Legislature yet remains to be respectfully, but ener-
getically and perseveringly directed. There was the horrid system
of slavery as still practised in Brazil to a prodigious extent; and,
above all, because, under all its circumstances, it is the vilest on which
the sun has ever shone, the slavery of the United States of America.
Slavery maintained, nay, and defended with unblushing effrontery,
by a people who claim to be regarded by all other nations as the freest in
the world, could not fail, in these days, to excite notice and reproba-


PRELIMINARY NOTICE.
tion; and the more so, as above three hundred thousand free people
besides, were there doomed to habitual ignominy, to degradation and
contempt, merely because the boasting white man had found them
“ guilty of a skin not coloured like his own !" To designate this as
simply a prejudice against colour, was seen to be a prostitution of
terms, it being, in fact, a state of mind combining haughtiness and
disdain, in their meanest and most execrable forms, and standing out
in strange contrast even with Brazil. *
Thus, however vast the field of misery, and crime, the Society
could not for a moment hesitate where they were bound to begin
their operations. It was in the land as guilty as our own had been, but
where, deeds which Britain has never perpetrated, have too long been
sanctioned and defended ;--the land, where, with the declaration daily
in their mouths, “ that all men are born equal, and are endowed with
certain inalienable rights,” they hold two millions three hundred thou-
sand of the species in bondage; carry on without a sigh a system of
inter-national slavery; and, what is far more dreadful, have interwoven
slavery, and all its inseparable abominations, with the divine and
merciful system of Christianity itself ;—the land, where man is the
absolute property of his fellow-man, an article of barter or of sale, a
chattel personal, not ranked among accountable beings ;—the land,
where slavery is hereditary, and where the children of a slave-mother,
though the father be a white, are doomed to perpetual vassalage;
where, therefore, parents are selling their own children, and where even
females are sold by weight, and in exchange for animals of the brute
creation ;—the land, too, where, in one of its most populous and
powerful states, the punishment for the second offence of teaching
blacks in a Sabbath school, is death! where, in all their Slave States,
the benefits of education are withheld, and in most of them, fines,
whipping, and imprisonment, are the penalties imposed upon those
who dare to adopt any means of enlightening the black or coloured
population ;-the land, in short, where every rising sun witnesses
two hundred infants born into this dreadful state of hopeless bondage,
and where, therefore, in one single year, about as many hapless
souls are added to the millions enslaved, as are taken from Africa by
the slave traders of all other nations !
Whether there has been any such outrage against humanity in past
ages, we need not inquire; but when the light, the civilization, and,
above all, the Christianity of America are taken into the account, it
certainly has no parallel under Heaven at the present moment.
After such a scene had been unfolded, will it be believed, that, by
the lips of a single human being in this country, the inquiry was
ever whispered, “ But have we any right to interfere ?" The timid
only, or those who are themselves the slaves of a sinful expediency,
* Where, as soon as the Mulatto or Negro is freed, he becomes eligible to
all offices, and, in the eye of the law, is equal to the white_where the hand of
the Negro officer comes in contact with that of royalty itself,—and where he
escapes in one day from that dire proscription which disgraces the boasted
freedom of the United States; a proscription which will invariably raise the
finger of scorn to their Declaration of Independence.


PRELIMINARY NOTICE.
must have been the parties who could, for one moment, pause with
regard to right, nay, and imperative duty, in such a heart-rending
case as this. Perhaps, however, even the scrupulous may be helped
out of their cold hesitation, when they are informed, that the friends
of Negro emancipation in Great Britain had already been appealed
to, and implored by inhabitants of America itself; and that before any
effort had been put forth by this country, it had been urgently invited.
“ It is impossible,” said the appeal from New England, “it is im-
possible that the British people, standing, as they now are, upon the
neck of colonial slavery, it is impossible for them to consider their
work at an end, while there remains a human being held as a chattel
under the whole heavens. Dear friends! surely you will do some-
thing in our behalf, being assured, that any sacrifice you may make,
will, like good seed sown in good ground, produce at least an hun-
dredfold.”
In these deeply interesting and affecting circumstances, Mr
GEORGE THOMPSON, in every respect so highly qualified for proceed-
ing to the United States, having been cordially and unanimously in-
vited on the same day (the 7th October 1833), by the Emancipa-
tion Societies of Edinburgh and Glasgow to undertake this arduous
mission, he at once acceded to their request, embarked for America,
and safely arrived in New York on the 19th of September 1834.
It may also be mentioned, that the path for his proceeding thither
was made still more plain by the following statement on the part of
the New England Anti-Slavery Society.
« The New England Anti-Slavery Society believing that, at the present
moment, no more efficient plan can be adopted to promote the freedom of the
Negroes in the United States, than that which has proved so eminently suc-
cessful in Great Britain, namely, the employment of eloquent and intelligent
agents, have invited Mr GEORGE THOMPSON to become their lecturer. The
Anti-Slavery party in the United States, though increasing in number, is,
however, scattered and poor, and greatly overburdened by their past efforts
and sacrifices. The wealth and influence of the nation are arrayed against it.
They therefore need the pecuniary assistance of Great Britain as much as her
sympathy. Would she be generous enough to support Mr THOMPSON during
his mission, say for three years, the Society might say to their fellow-coun.
try, "He who is come among us, seeks not to obtain our money but our
hearts : he will not burden us to the amount of a farthing. All he asks for
himself is a friendly reception, and a patient and a candid hearing.'
“It is confidently believed that this sacrifice, which, if divided among many,
will not be felt, will be cheerfully and gladly made.”
While Mr THOMPSON remained in the United States, he delivered
between two and three hundred public lectures, besides innumerable
shorter addresses in committees, conventions, associations, &c.
He left behind him from a thousand to twelve hundred ministers of
the Gospel enlisted in the cause of immediate emancipation,-new
societies organising weekly,-a great number of newspapers and
periodicals pleading for the oppressed and down-trodden coloured
population,—and every day witnessing fresh accessions of moral
energy to the cause of humanity. He quitted the chosen field of his
labours on the 8th of November last, but not without various testi-
monies to the effects produced. One may suffice, from that intre-


PRELIMINARY NOTICE.
pid and successful advocate in the cause of human rights, William
LLOYD GARRISON :-" In spite of persecution and reproach, you
have accomplished the work of years in a single year. Your mission
has been owned and blessed of God. It has shaken the nation to its
centre. It has opened the eyes of the blind, unstopped the ears of
the deaf, and raised from moral corruption the dead. Thousands
have been converted, and a multitude of associations formed through
your instrumentality.-0 how closely do the ties of love bind you
to our hearts ! How many are the prayers that will be offered to
God for your safety and deliverance from every evil !”
Mr THOMPSON having proceeded by way of St John's, New
Brunswick, embarked on board of a British vessel for Liverpool,
where he arrived on the 4th of January, and on the 12th was hap-
pily joined by his family, who had left New York on the 16th of
December.
In every place which he has since visited he has been met by the
same unanimous testimony of encouraging and heart-felt approba-
tion; and now, whether, upon his return to this City, he was not
hailed by all ranks, and by persons of every denomination, as having
full well accomplished a great Christian duty, and hastened the arri-
val of a day, to be remembered by future ages on the American con-
tinent with more of reason, and more of heart-felt gratitude, than
even the anniversary of their own independence,—let the readers of
the following pages judge..
The reader will here see, that even now, so far from all being
dark or hopeless in the United States as to the entire abolition of
Slavery there, its doom is fixed ;—that the undaunted friends of im-
mediate abolition, male and female, have already made more personal
sacrifices, than the people of this country were ever called to do,
during their long-protracted struggle. He may see the dawning of
a day, which will not set till the last link that binds the slave is
broken ; and he may now safely anticipate, that the men of the south,
who now talk so exceeding proudly, must at last yield or change
their minds, bowing before the potent influence of public opinion,
and the sense of shame. Many of them will; and, if others do not,
before they close their eyes in death, they will probably hear their
very children, in prospect of the event, unite with our own poet and
say—
“ I would not have a slave to till my ground,
To carry me, to fan me while I sleep,
And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth
That sinews bought and sold have ever earn’d.”


CONTENTS.
Page
PRELIMINARY NOTICE, . . . . . . . . . 3
MR THOMPSON'S ARRIVAL IN EDINBURGH, . . . . 9
RESOLUTIONS OF COMMITTEE OF EDINBURGH EMANCIPATION SOCIETY, 9
·
·
·
·
·
·
MR THOMPSON'S FIRST LECTURE, . . . . . . . 10
... ... SECOND LECTURE, . . . . . . 14
RESOLUTIONS OF EDINBURGH EMANCIPATION SOCIETY, 16
MR THOMPSONS THIRD LECTURE, . . . . . .
GREAT MEETING IN THE WATERLOO ROOMS, . . .
SPEECH of the LORD Provost,. . . .
·
JAMES CRAUFURD, Esq. . . . . . . .
the Rev. A. BENNIE, . . . . . .
the Rev. W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, M.A. . .
JAMES MONCREJFF, Esq. . . . ..
BAILIE MACFARLAN, . . . . . .
... Mr THOMPSON, . . . . . . .
MR THOMPSON'S FOURTH LECTURE, . . .
MEETING IN THE HOPETOUN ROOMS, . . . . . .
MR THOMPSON'S FIFTH LECTURE, . . . . . ..
SOIRÉE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS IN HONOUR OF MR THOMPSON,
SPEECH of Dr GREVILLE, LL.D., F. R. S. . . . . . 37
ADDRESS to Mr THOMPSON, · · · · · · · · · 39
SPEECH of the Rev. A. Liddell, . . . . . . . 40
the Rev. WILLIAM PEDDIE, . ..
Mr THOMPSON IN REPLY, . . . . . . 45
(second) of Mr THOMPSON, . . . . . . ..
... of the Rev. C. ANDERSON, . . . . . . .
·
·
·
·
· · · ·
· ·
·


EDINBURGH EMANCIPATION SOCIETY.
Committee.
Rev. CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON.
John DICKIÉ, W.S.
Rev. WM. ANDERSON, Loanhead. Hon. H. D. ERSKINE.
Rev. WILLIAM GOOLD.
GEORGE INGLIS, Jun.
Rev. E. HALLEY, Leith.
John MACANDREW, S.S.C.
Rev. PROFESSOR PAXTON.
JAMES MARTIN.
Rev. Dr PEDDIE.
JAMES OGILVY.
Rev. WILLIAM PEDDIE.
WILLIAM OLIPHANT, Sen.
Rev. Dr JOHN RITCHIE.
T. R. ROBERTSON, W.S.
W. ALEXANDER, Leith.
CAPTAIN ROSE.
JAMES BREMNER.
W. SOMERVILLE, Sen.
PETER BROWN.
CHARLES SPENCE, S.S.C.
John CAMPBELL of Carbrook.
PATRICK TENNENT, W. S.
ALEXANDER CRUICKSHANK.
JAMES B. TOD.
EDWARD CRUICKSHANK.
JOHN WIGHAM, Jun.
Henry David DICKIE.
GEORGE Wilson.
WILLIAM SOMERVILLE, Jun.).
Secretaries.
Henry Tod, W. S.
WILLIAM OLIPHANT, Jun. Treasurer.
Ladies' Committee.
Miss ALEXANDER.
Mrs MACANDREW.
Mrs ANDERSON.
Mrs WILLIAM MILLER.
Miss BAYNE.
Mrs NIMMO.
Mrs Dr BEILBY.
Mrs W. RENTON.
Miss B. BonAR.
Mrs Dr RITCHIE.
Mrs Brown.
Miss SPENCE.
Mrs CRUICKSHANK.
Miss Tod.
Mrs EDWARD CRUICKSHANK.
Miss MARGARET TOD.
Miss CRUICKSHANK.
Miss WEBSTER.
Miss GRANT.
Mrs WIGHAM.
Miss M. GRANT.
Mrs Wilson.
Hon. Mrs ERSKINE, Secretary.
Miss VINER, Treasurer.


A VOICE
FROM THE
METROPOLIS OF SCOTLAND.
MR THOMPSON'S ARRIVAL IN EDINBURGH.
On reaching this City, Mr Thompson's first meeting was with the joint-
committees of the Edinburgh Emancipation Societies. The proceedings
are reported in the following article taken from the Scotsman Newspaper
of the 30th of January, W. ALEXANDER, Esq. of Leith, being in the
chair.
..Mr GEORGE THOMPSON, the highly esteemed and intrepid advocate of
human freedom, arrived in this city last Tuesday evening, and on Wed-
nesday he was met by the Ladies and Gentlemen forming the Committees
of the Edinburgh Emancipation Society, in the Saloon of the Royal Hotel.
The statement then given by Mr THOMPSON with regard to himself, through-
out his visit to the United States, was to every one present far more than
satisfactory. Of his every movement they highly approved, while his
account of America in regard to the subject of slavery, and the prospect
of its ultimate extinction, was at once deeply affecting, and most en-
couraging. At the close of his narrative, the following Resolutions pro-
posed by the Rev. CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON of Edinburgh, and seconded
by the Rev. WILLIAM ANDERSON of Loanhead, were unanimously adopt-
ed by both the Committees in union, as conveying their sentiments on
the first occasion on which they enjoyed the pleasure of meeting with
their friend.
I. That it is with feelings of sincere delight and satisfaction, mingled with those of
the most poignant regret, that we have listened to the statements now given, by our
most esteemed friend Mr George Thompson-of delight and satisfaction, on seeing
himself amongst us once more, in perfect safety and in health—but of painful regret at
the occasion of his returning so much sooner than it was intended, both by himself and
by us, from the United States of America.


10
RESOLUTIONS OF COMMITTEE.
II. That while we have deprecated from the beginning, as we now do once more, the
most remote idea, of interfering with any single state, or city, or village throughout
America, in the arrangement or management of their own institutions, still, as
we consider it at once an act of duty and of kindness, to hold up before all men the
great principles of truth, and justice, and humanity, and, regarding the prevalence of
slavery, as involving the habitual violation of a law infinitely above all human arrange-
ments—we cannot but deeply deplore, that in a country where our common language
is spoken, and loudly demanding to be acknowledged as the home of the free, the spirit
of persecution against those who merely plead the cause of the oppressed, should have
risen to a height which has abridged, if not endangered, all freedom of discussion.
III. That as God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face
of the earth, and hath Himself determined also the bounds of their habitation, we re.
gard the prejudice against colour, which has been nursed and cherished for ages through-
out the United States, with greater pain and abhorrence than ever—as not merely the
fruitful and disgusting source of crime, but of itself alone a daring and contemptuous pro-
vocation of our common Creator and final Judge.
IV. That the signal preservation of our valued friend Mr Thompson amidst all the
violence and malignity of the abettors of American slavery, and the measure of success
by which his faithful, zealous, and unwearied efforts have been crowned, call alike
for our devout acknowledgments, regarding them as equal tokens of his having been
engaged in a righteous cause; and that we can now entertain no doubt of the day ap-
proaching when, far from being stigmatised as an intruding foreigner, or a foe to har-
mony and peace, he will be hailed by the moral and upright, the humane and chris-
tian citizens of America, as a man who sought only to avert a catastrophe from which
his native land had happily been delivered, and which America, with all her resources,
has now such just reason both to dread and to deprecate.
V. That with regard to the great cause of human freedom, from the statements given
by Mr THOMPSON, as well as from other sources of information to which we have had
access during his absence, even in the United States we not only find many encourage-
ments to persevere, but in the pure spirit of devotion to the cause evinced by many in
that great country, we discover sufficient ground to hope that the progress of America
towards universal emancipation, will proceed with accelerated steps, till the rod of the
oppressor shall be broken, till there is not one house of bondage on her soil, and Amè-
rica, in the judgment of other nations, becomes fairly entitled to her claim of being the
Land of the Free.
VI. That with feelings of strong sympathy, respect, and increased affection towards
all those American citizens, both male and female, who, far from shrinking, have re-
mained firm and undaunted, --we feel called upon to remember them before the God of
righteousness and peace, with whom all the swellings of human passion are as nothing;
that He may continue to preserve them, and enable us to persevere in the great cause
of universal emancipation, to which we now stand, more than ever, bound to adhere.
At the close of the meeting, thanks were returned to God, for his most
merciful preservation of Mr THOMPSON and his family, as well as for their
safe return, after his having accomplished so much in such a limited pe-
riod.
MR THOMPSON'S FIRST LECTURE.
Mr Thompson's first public lecture was delivered in Dr Peddie's Chapel,
Bristo Street, on Thursday evening, January 28th. In consequence of
the unprecedented anxiety to hear the details of Mr Thompson's trials and
successes in the United States, the Committee deemed it necessary to re-
gulate the admission by tickets, sold at various shops in the city. The
propriety of this measure was fully apparent on the evening of the lecture,


MR THOMPSON'S FIRST LECTURE.
u
when the house was crowded to repletion in every part, and a great num-
ber of applications for admission refused at the gates of the building.
The following account appeared in the Scotsman, already quoted.
On Thursday evening, a public meeting of the Edinburgh Emancipa-
tion Society, and its friends, was held in the Rev. Dr PEDDIE's Chapel,
Bristo Street, when Mr THOMPSON gave an account of his Anti-Slavery
Mission to the United States of America. The admission to the meeting
was by tickets, sixpence each—each ticket admitting two persons, and
as there were upwards of a thousand of these sold, there must have been
more than two thousand persons present. We know, also, that a great
many persons were disappointed in procuring tickets, so speedily were
they all disposed of. About seven o'clock, Mr THOMPSON made his ap-
pearance in the pulpit, and was received with several distinct rounds of
the most enthusiastic applause. John WIGAAM Jun. Esq. was called to
the chair, and in opening the meeting, said, that from the manifestations
which he had just witnessed, he was sure they were all animated by one
common feeling of delight and satisfaction to find that their able and dis-
tinguished friend Mr THOMPSON had performed the object of his mission
so energetically and successfully, and that he had returned to them in
safety, under the extraordinary circumstances in which he had been
placed. (Great cheering.)
Mr THOMPSON then rose, and was received with a fresh burst of applause. He should
not, he said, attempt to describe the feelings of satisfaction with which he gazed
upon the large and intelligent audience which he beheld assembled once more within
these well known walls, for the purpose of listening to him who had now the honour to
appear before them, and to hear from his lips the progress of those principles which
they had there together enunciated and espoused, and the triumph of which they
had there together celebrated. He dared not trust himself even to attempt an ex-
pression of the joy and gratitude which filled his bosom, when he beheld them still feel.
ing a deep interest in the cause of human freedom, and found that not only had they not
deserted that cause, but that they were rallying in even greater numbers around the
standard which they, in by-gone days, had planted and promised to sustain, while
there was a fetter on the heel of a single human being on the face of the globe.
(Loud cheering.) He begged to assure the meeting that his own attachment to
the cause which he had the honour to advocate remained undiminished and not
only so, but that it had never even wavered or been weakened ; that it still continued
as strong as ever, and that what he had witnessed in a far off land, had but the more
deeply convinced him of the potency and omnipotence of those principles by the
advocacy and enforcement of which we had succeeded in slaying the monster on our own
borders; that it had only more deeply convinced him that nothing was wanting but the
unceasing, the persevering publication of those principles, to put an end to slavery
wherever it curses the soil and degrades humanity on the face of the earth. (Immense
applause.) He had that night to draw their attention to the subject of slavery in
the United States of America—to the incongruous institution of domestic slavery
in a land of freedom. He wished it to be understood that they were not met there
that night, guided and influenced by a mere desire to know what was going on in the
United States, as a matter of mere history of contemporaneous events; but that they
were there to feel a deep interest upon many grounds, in the great question of human
rights which was now agitating that wide spread territory. (Cheers.) The history
of the Anti-Slavery question in America was deeply interesting, as developing the best,
the holiest, and the mightiest means of carrying forward a moral revolution; by the
simple enunciation of the principles, the supremacy of which was sought to be obtain.
ed, without resorting to physical violence ; by the simple action of man upon man ; by
opinion operating upon opinion; by merely enlisting the pulpit, the press, and the plat-
A 2


12
MR THOMPSON'S FIRST LECI URE.
form, in the work of that reformation. (Cheers.) The history of the American sla-
very question was as interesting as it was plain, as displaying the mighty influence of
truth when outspoken and fearlessly enunciated, without regard to human wisdom or
expediency ; these having been the means by which a mighty change had been effected
in America in reference to this question—a change so mighty that, he might venture
without hesitation to say, no change so great, without the interference of miraculous
power, had ever been effected in any era of the world. (Great cheering.) He re-
peated that it had been effected not by human wisdom, by rank, nor wealth, nor poli-
tics, nor learning, nor expediency, but by the mighty lever which is fated to overturn
the world, and place it as it should stand, with its apex upwards-it was by “the fool.
ishness of preaching." (Great applause.) That was the mighty agency which had
been employed in America. The history of the Anti-Slavery question was also highly
interesting, as bringing us acquainted with some of the noblest specimens of human
nature—with some of the boldest and purest Reformers that ever lived. He spoke un-
hesitatingly when he said so ; and he should demonstrate the truth of this assertion ére
he left the subject. He begged to state, that he was not there that night to make the
gulf of feeling and sentiment between Great Britain and America wider than it is_he
was not there to publish an act of divorce between them—but to unite them in one
common object, one common sympathy, one common principle, and one common plan,
to put an end to slavery wherever it exists. He wanted to bring the friends of the
slave in this country, in contact with the noble and sublime spirits who were waiting
to embrace them over the blue waters of the Atlantic, and to join them iu one indisso-
luble compact never to relax their moral energy, until they shall have seized the pillars
of the blood-stained fabric which despotism has reared, and, like another Samson,
brought it to the grbund. (Tremendous cheers.) Oh! it was something—and it was
his rich reward—to become acquainted with men in a distant country, having one com-
mon language and one common ancestry, working with us in the same common cause ;
it was something to know that the wilderness of waters did not divide us ; that we are
one in principle ; one in faith ; one in effort ; that we have the same common object in
this world, and the same anticipations hereafter ; it was something, he said, 'to know
that we were engaged with these wise, holy, and uncompromising men in America, in
accelerating the cause of Universal Emancipation. (Great applause.) It was not alone
the cause of Anti-Slavery in which he was embarked ; it was the cause of Anti-Igno-
rance—the cause of anti-everything which degrades, crushes, withers, and destroys the
spirits of mankind. Again, once more ; the question was interesting, because in its
development it made us acquainted with the men and women engaged in it; their prin.
ciples and their conduct; and thus called upon us first to admire them, next to com-
mend them, next to imitate them, and adopt the principles by which on the other side
of the Atlantic they advance the great work. The Anti-Slavery question in this
country was very different from that in America ; the struggle was never so sublime
here as he bad witnessed in America—our sacrifices were never so great; our tempta-
tions to swerve were never so strong ; our interests when at the closest were never so
close, as in the United States. It was never necessary that we sbould suffer in our
reputation ; that we should lose our friends ; the value of our property be deteriorated; or
that we should be deprived of the substance and amount of our profitable trade. But
hard as this was, those now engaged in carrying on this cause in America-men and
women without exception were subjected to it, and sustained by high religious prin.
ciple, they firmly bore up against all these accumulated evils ; and nothing lower, and
nothing less, than that mighty principle could sustain them in a cause, by espousing
which they had every thing to lose, and nothing but infamy to gain. (Cheers.) He
stood there not to defame America. ''Twas true they had persecuted him; but that was
a small matter; 'twas true they had hunted him like a partridge on the mountains; that
he had to lecture with the assassin's knife glancing before his eyes; and his wife and
his little ones in danger of falling by the ruthless hands of murderers. All this was
true, and much more, but he came not there to tell of aught that he had suffered or
done, except in so far as it illustrated the progress of the mighty reformation to which
he had alluded. (Cheers,) He dared not speak slightingly of America. 'Twas true
he liated her sins—but 'twas not less true he loved her sons. His object was not to
overthrow the institutions of America, and bring her constitution into disrepute. Sla.
very might sink, and that constitution still live ; slavery might fall, and that constitu-
tion stand; slavery might die and be buried in a grave of infamy, covered with the
execrations of mankind, and witness no resurrection, and yet the constitution of America


MR THOMPsox'S FIRST LECTURE.
13
stand out in unsullied, and more than pristine beauty, and become the blessing of the
world. (Great cheers.) He should like to have an opportunity to speak of America
in other respects ; to speak of her as being exalted in arms, and as rich in wealth ;
to speak of her extended commerce - of her agriculture — of her unparalleled
means of education-with the volume of Revelation in the hands of all her fami-
lies but those of her degraded bondsmen ; with the ordinances of religion in abundance ;
of her 15,000 ministers, and of her Missionary exertions; on all these he could dwell
with pleasure, after he had discussed the question of slavery. But the damning plague-
spot of America, Christian America, Republican America, America, the land of Bibles,
and Tracts and Missionary societies, America, who boasted herself in being the freest
country on the face of the globe, was slavery! America had her slave ships types of
Pandemonium-gliding on the surface of the ocean, and put forth her presumptuous
hand and traded in the lives and the souls of men! (Cheers.) Would it be believed
that the slaves formed a sixth part of the American population; every sixth man or
woman was a slave-their bodies, their souls, their skill, their energy, their posterity,
their every thing was under the dominion of slavery. It was not true that the slave
trade was abolished in America; slave auctions were still to be seen-men and women
were still to be seen sold like so many cattle. It was to abolish that system he went
to America. He did not deny that the weavers of Paisley, that the peasantry of Ireland,
and many others of our countrymen, were occasionally bordering on starvation. He could
not deny this; but these individuals, poor and miserable as they were, were still free; to
them the wheel of fortune was still revolving ; the starving of to-day were not the star-
ving of to-morrow; hope beamed on all; they may die, but they bequeath liberty to
their children, and they, guided by the way-marks wbich their parents had missed-be-
came the favourites of fortune, and rose to honour, competence, and prosperity. He
did not seek to exempt the slaves from poverty ; he wanted only to give them freedom.
(Great cheering.) But this was not his only mission to America ; he went also to at-
tack a sin not surpassed by slavery—the simple prejudice that prevails against colour.
So deep was this prejudice, that the coloured people were denied a pew in the church, a
place in the cabin of a steam-boat, or the interior of a coach ; the body is even denied
a corner in the usual place of repose for the dead; and they would deny the soul a
place in heaven if they could. The first thing to be done in America, is to plead for
the slave as for a man ; to establish his title to humanity ; and make him stand out
before their eyes as a human being. There was one test which he always applied to a
man about whose title to the full honours of human nature there was some dispute. He
asked not of his clime, his colour, or his stature, of the texture of his hair, or the con-
formation of his limb; he asked not if he issued from the majestic portals of a palace,
or from the humble door of a West Indian negro hut-he asked but one question,
“ Could he love his God?” And if that was answered in the affirmative, then he
recognised his humanity, claimed him as a brother, and elevated bim to the position
which he himself occupied. (Tremendous cheering.)
Well, how did he go to America ? He went without name and without influence,
and without wealth. Well, did he flatter them? No. He could not call them the
freest people, for he did not believe it; he did not call them the wisest people, for he
had left Edinburgh, and he could not say so. (Laughter and cheers.) After de-
scribing the reception he had received, Mr Thompson proceeded to say, he had been
frowned upon, sneered at, and pitied. Even in Edinburgh, he understood, he had
been called an amiable enthusiasta title which he begged to disclaim. An en-
thusiast was one who sought to obtain an end without using the means; and there-
fore the term applied more to the person that used it than to him. He (Mr Thomp-
son) went leaning upon the arm of the Almighty, and trusting in the enunciation
of truth, believing that God is ever with the truth, and in the truth, and that the truth
is God. He was not an enthusiast, therefore, who by the enunciation of truth seeks
to overcome prejudice, and interest, and superstition, but he is an enthusiast who seeks
those ends without using the means. (Cheers.) Mr T. went on to shew the degraded
state of the American slaves, and that even Church dignitaries and ministers were
slaveholders. One of the Professors, he said, put to some slaves the revolting question
of whose are you? One answered I belong to Mr — , and another said I am Mr Such-
a-one's, and another said I am the Congregation's. This was explained by stating that
certain pious persons bequeathed their slaves to the Church by way of endowment, to
keep up the preaching of the Gospel! And it was well known that no slaves were so
wretched as those that belong to the Congregation, which arose from their being hired


MR THOMPSON'S SEEOND LECTURE.
15
per, letter, and pamphlet, in any way bearing upon the abolition question, was seized and
destroyed. Mr Thompson read numerous quotations from the anti-abolition news.
papers, to shew the abusive language which was applied to the advocates of slave-eman-
cipation, whom they recommended should all be hanged or otherwise disposed of in an
equally summary manner. The quotation of the liberal mottoes of some of these pa-
pers, along with the intolerant sentiments of their leading articles, created considerable
sensation in the meeting, as indeed did the whole of the details of the disgraceful con-
duct of the pro.slavery advocates in that land of boasted freedom. He stated that a
Grand Jury in the county of Frederick, Alabama, had presented the Anti-Slavery So-
ciety and the coloured population, as nuisances that ought to be abated by every possi-
ble means ; and another grand jury in the same state had voted GEORGE THOMPSON
a nuisance-(Great laughter)-along with J. G. BIRNEY, W. L. GARRISON, ARTHUR
TAPPAN, and DANIEL O'CONNELL, the great Irish orator-(Renewed laughter and
cheers)—for impertinent and unauthorized interference with the slaveholders in Ame-
rica. Mr T. remarked that one part of the American constitution—the liberty of
speech, and the liberty of the Press—was held to be unalterable by Congress ; not-
withstanding which, there was nothing more common than for public meetings to recom-
mend the legislature to put down certain prints, and to put to death certain individuals,
who advocated the right of the slave, and lifted up their voice in behalf of the oppressed.
He had also to arraign the Christian ininisters of America as the most efficient support-
ers of slavery. (Cries of “ Shame.") He blushed to bring that charge forward, but
they would not have a proper view of American slavery without it. They had to hear,
perhaps for the first time, that the ministers and elders of the respective bodies of Pres-
byterians, Baptist, and Methodists, were the main pillars of that blood-stained fabric
which it was the object of the abolitionists to pull down. (Repeated cries of “ Shame.")
If these parties would withdraw their countenance from slavery—if they would cease to
preach the doctrines they now preach—if they would cease to participate in the gains
of the system by which God's image is bought and sold in America,-slavery would not
remain one year. (Great cheering.) This was a grave charge, and might appear
strange to them, but that was not his fault, but the fault of the Americans, and the
fault of Englishmen who had gone there, and come back here, and said nought about
it. (Cheers.) There was no want of persons to tell all that was good about America,
but why did they not give both sides of the question? It was time that men should
learn to tell not only the truth but the whole truth. While he should be ready to
give America praise for being before us in many things, in this he must say they were
far behind us, in that the clergy of all denominations were not only with the oppressor
in sentiment, but were found the worst of oppressors. Mr THOMPSOn then went at
some length into the proof of these charges, of which it will be sufficient for us to say,
that it was ample and unequivocal enough in all conscience. He then proceeded te
change the picture, and to shew the astonishing alteration which had been effected re-
cently, and the rapid progress which the cause was still making. More than 1000
ministers had already renounced their prejudices and pro-slavery sentiments, and de-
clared themselves in favour of immediate emancipation. (Cheers.) There were already
po fewer than 320 societies established in 14 or 15 of the American States. So great
was the change among the Presbyterian body, that many Synods and Presbyteries were
making abolition sentiments a condition of church membership; and were refusing to
allow a minister, being a slaveholder, to enter their pulpits. (Great cheering.)
An equally gratifying change had been effected in the sentiments of the Episcopal Me-
thodists, the Baptists, and Congregationalists, large numbers of whom were already
acting efficiently in the cause. The Unitarians were also rising in favour of the ques-
tion; and the celebrated Dr Channing had recently come out with a work in favour
of the principles of immediate and entire emancipation. One of the most cheering
evidences of the progress of the cause was perhaps to be found in the fact that the
colleges and seminaries of learning in America were fast becoming abolitionized.
(Cheers.) Mr T. also produced a number of newspapers which were favourable to the
cause, besides monthly and quarterly pefiodicals, annuals, and even almanacs, of every
shape and size. There were also, he said, Anti-Slavery pictures and poetry published,
Anti-Slavery fancy sales held, and petitions got up in all parts of the north. There
were also Anti-Slavery church conferences, and prayer meetings in abundance ; and
fifty Anti-Slavery agents were travelling through the country and lecturing on the sub-
ject. In this country we had never had above four or five agents. Mr THOMPSON
concluded by earnestly urging upon one and all the necessity of being active in the


16
RESOLUTIONS OF EMANCIPATION SOCIETY.
work of universal emancipation, by prayer to God, by the exercise of their personal
influence with their friends in America, and with the Americans who come to this coun-
try. Seven years, he believed, would not elapse ere Slavery would be abolished in Ame-
rica—for the die was already cast, the blow was struck, the day had dawned: and so
sure as God reigns, so sure would the principles which He had already blessed-s0
marvellously blessed—so surely would those principles overthrow the accursed system
of slavery. (Great cheering.)
RESOLUTIONS OF EDINBURGH EMANCIPATION SOCIETY.
At the conclusion of the lecture the following resolutions were proposed
by the Rev. John RITCHIE, D.D., seconded by WILLIAM ALEXANDER, Esq.
of Leith, and carried amidst loud acclamations : viz.
1. After what has been now and formerly stated by Mr GEORGE THOMPSON, we
are fully persuaded that he has in spirit, procedure, and success, exceeded the most
sanguine anticipations of the Emancipation Society—that, by his firmness and prudence,
zeal and perseverance, in advocating the cause of the Bondsman in the United States,
he has amply redeemed every pledge given by him to the friends of human freedom,
by whom he was deputed—that, amidst obloquy, peril, and physical violence, he con-
tinued to persevere in the high enterprise, until, by the verdict of transatlantic friends,
the best judges in this matter, his remaining longer would, without promoting the cause,
have compromised his own safety. We acknowledge the good hand of Providence
that has been around him, bid him cordial welcome to his native shore, renew our
expressions of confidence in him as a talented Advocate of the Liberties of Man, and
trust that a suitable field may soon be opened up for the renewal of his exertions.
II. We deeply sympathise with our Anti-slavery friends in the United States, under
the persecutions to which they have been subjected. We would remind them, that
their persecutors are the libellers of the American Constitution, which proclaims the
equal rights of all men, while they withhold from 2,000,000 of their fellow citizens
every natural right, and persecute the preachers of the doctrines of the Constitution.
That they are the libellers of their Maker, since they found their injustice on that co-
lour of skin which God has given to the Negro. That in this, if in any cause, our
friends may boldly say, greater is “ He that is with us, than all that can be against
us." We congratulate them on the rapid advance of their cause, e? jrt them to press
onwards, and bid them God speed.
III. We remember with delight the claims of common Parentage, Language and
Interests, and rejoice in the many Institutions, Religious and Philanthropic, by which
America is signalised; and view, with corresponding regret and condemnation, the
support given to Slavery by Christian professors, Ministers, and Churches, and would
adjure them by our common Christianity, and the public shame, thus put upon it, to
weigh their conduct in the balance of the Sanctuary—to give up their horrid traffic in
the Bodies and Souls of men—to put away from among them the accursed thing, to
redeem the past, by awaking to righteousness, by emancipating and evangelizing their
sable fellow citizens, and thus do homage to Him who hath made of one blood all na-
tions of men.
IV. For ourselves, we hail the speedy answer of our prayers, and realization of our
hopes, in the Emancipation of all the Slaves in the United States—we discern it in
the fears and wrath of the Slaveholders—in the absence of moral argument, and in the
melancholy substitute, riot and bloodshed. We descry it in the Labours of a Garrison,
the Sacrifices of a Tappan, the fermenting leaven of Theological Seminaries, the
Christian Heroism of Female Advocates, and in the 320 Anti-Slavery Societies that
have grown to maturity within the short space of a year, and especially in the moral
character of the cause as that of Truth—of Patriotism-of Man—of God—and we
pledge ourselves, by every moral and Scriptural motive, to adjure every friend of ours
beyond the Atlantic, and all that may occasionally visit our land, to use every exertion
to bring to a speedy and peaceful termination, a system so fearfully anomalous and sin-
ful, and Heaven-provoking in a land where Gospel light so much abounds—for the
past, we thank God, and for the future we take and hid all others take courage.
JOHN WIGHAM Jun., Chairman.


PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS.
17
MR THOMPSON'S THIRD LECTURE.
On Wednesday evening, February 3d, Mr Thompson delivered his third
lecture, in the Rev. Dr PEDDIE's Chapel, Bristo Street, which was, as on
the first occasion, crowded to overflowing. The Rev. Dr John RITCHIE
was called to the Chair. The prejudice which exists among the Ameri-
cans against people of colour, formed the chief topic of his lecture, and
he gave a number of very interesting anecdotes in illustration of the ex-
tent to which this absurd and unchristian feeling is carried in that country.
At the conclusion of the lecture, which was at once eloquent and affecting,
a gentleman named FRASER, a minister, we understand, from America, and
who had lived for many years in the Southern States, rose and contra-
dicted some of Mr Thompson's assertions respecting the conduct of the
clergymen of that country in regard to slavery. He denied that they
were so bad as represented by Mr THOMPSON; but remarked, that the
ministers had to be very cautious how they acted in regard to this sub-
ject, as one minister he knew had been deposed in consequence of enter-
taining anti-slavery opinions. Mr THOMPSON said, he was glad to hear
him admit as much; and reminded him, that if one minister was deposed
for holding such sentiments the others must necessarily have held oppo-
site sentiments, or they would have surely met a similar fate; so that, by
his (Mr F.'s) own admission, he (Mr T.) was quite right in stating that
those Anti-Christian sentiments were, unhappily, held by a large majority
of the ministers of America. Mr Fraser denied that religion had any-
thing to do with slavery; a sentiment, the falsity and absurdity of which
· Mr THOMPSON shewed up in a most triumphant manner. After a consi-
derably lengthened discussion, during which the feelings of the meeting
were greatly excited, Mr Fraser hastily left the church, and Mr THOMPSON
was declared to have successfully maintained his position. The meeting
separated about half-past eleven o'clock, the Chairman having first an-
nounced, amidst great cheering, that arrangements were in progress for
holding a public meeting of the Inhabitants of Edinburgh, on the subject
of slavery in the United States.
GREAT MEETING IN THE WATERLOO ROOMS.
The above meeting was called by the following public advertisement:-
. “SLAVERY IN AMERICA.”
“ A Public Meeting of the Inhabitants of Edinburgh will be held in the
Waterloo Rooms, on Monday next, February 8, to express their sense of
the SINFULNESS AND DEGRADING TENDENCY OF SLAVERY, AS IT STILL UNHAP-
PILY EXISTS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.”
“ The Right Honourable the Lord Provost will take the Chair at
one o'clock.”
Long before the hour named for the commencement of the business,
the spacious room was crowded with a most respectable audience, and
.


18
PUBLIC MEETING IN WATEBLOO ROOMS.
hundreds were compelled to retire without the gratification of listening
to the very interesting addresses which were delivered.”
On the platform were the Honourable Henry David Erskine ; Rev.
Drs Dickson, Peddie, and Ritchie ; Rev. Messrs Grey, Bennie, Liddell,
Johnston, French, C. Anderson, Robertson, Innes, Peddie, Goold, W.
Anderson, Wilkes, Alexander, Thomson, &c.; James Craufurd and James
Moncrieff, Esquires, Advocates; Bailies Macfarlan and Sawers ; Trea-
surer Black ; Councillors Duncan, Jameson, and Deuchar; Dr Greville ;
G. M. Torrance, Esq. of Kilsaintninian ; William Wemyss, Esq.; A. Mil-
lar, Esq., Master of Merchant Company; Patrick Tennent, Esq. W. S.;
Henry Tod, Esq. W. S.; Captain Rose ; John Wigham Jun., Esq.;
Alex. Cruickshank, Esq.; Geo. Thompson, Esq.; and between forty and
fifty other gentlemen.
The Lord Provost, on taking the Chair, expressed his gratification at being called
to preside over so very numerous and respectable a meeting of his fellow citizens. He
rejoiced at being able to point to 800,000 of their fellow subjects delivered from gall-
ing bondage in the British colonies. They were now met for no political purpose, but
to express their views of the sinfulness and degrading tendency of slavery in the United
States, a country calling itself free, but cursed with a population of more than two millions
of wretched slaves. His friend near him (Mr THOMPSON) had recently returned from that
country, having narrowly escaped with his life. He (Mr T.) would tell them more cor-
rectly than he could do, what was the real character of that system which was the disgrace
of America. He would not trespass upon the time of the meeting, as many eloquent and
learned gentlemen were prepared to address them. He trusted the cause they had met
to promote would speedily triumph. It was the cause of humanity, freedom, and religion,
(Cheers.) In the course of the meeting the Lord Provost stated, that he had re.
ceived a note from Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Baronet, expressing his regret that a
particular engagement prevented him from being present, I can assure this meeting
(observed his Lordship), that my friend Sir Thomas, feels a deep interest in the ob-
ject for which we are assembled, his heart and soul are with us, and he cordially wishes
us God speed.
James Craufurd, Esq. Advocate, in rising to move the first Resolution,
viz.
That this Meeting consider slavery, under every modification, and in every country,
as opposed to the dictates of humanity, the prosperity of nations, and especially to the
principles of the Christian religion. That, deeply sensible of their obligations to Provi.
dence for removing from this nation the stigma of maintaining slavery, this Meeting feel
called on, as free citizens of a Christian State, to use every lawful means for promoting
the entire abolition of slavery in every quarter of the world,
spoke to the following effect:-
MY LORD, I have been requested to move the first Resolution. I regret that it
has not been intrusted to some one more capable of doing it justice ; but no one could
propose it with more cordiality and sincerity. I cannot refrain from expressing my
gratification at seeing the numerous and respectable meeting which has assembled on
this interesting occasion—it is most encouraging—it is most refreshing, to see men of all
varieties of Christian persuasion, of all opinions in politics, forget their minor differ-
ences, and meet cordially and harmoniously on common ground, for the maintenance
of common principles, for the promotion of a common cause. And it is one among
the many good effects of a meeting like the present, that it tends to smooth the asperi-
ties and to sweeten the intercourse of society ; and, by reminding us of the points
wherein we agree, it teaches us all charity on the points wherein we differ. The time,
my Lord, has not long gone by, when the question which we are met to consider prc-
eented itself in a very different aspect. There are many, I doubt not, present, who
remember when the slave.trade itself, with all its horrors, was protected and en.


PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS.
19
couraged by British law ; and they who ventured to denounce the disgraceful
and inbuman traffic, were derided as visionary enthusiasts. It was at length
put down by a patriotic Government ; but the system to which it had given birth, the
degrading system of West Indian Slavery, continued up to a very recent period; and
when we met to express our deep sense of the guilt and the horrors of slavery, we met
to condemn ourselves, to denounce a system in maintaining which we were ourselves
participant—we met to sympathise with those whom we ourselves, as a nation, had
kept in misery and bondage. The burning blush of shame was on our cheeks, the sin
was national, and every man felt the burden of it. But at length the cry of 800,000
fellow creatures groaning under the iron yoke, aroused the sympathy and indignation of
Englishmen. A small but glorious band of patriots, burning to wipe away the stain
from their country's reputation—to vindicate the outraged rights of suffering humanity,
commenced the agitation of this great question. At the head of this band was one
whose name is identified with the progress of Christian civilization, who embraced the
cause of the slave with zeal and fervour, because to him it was a question not of po-
licy, but of conscience, who maintained it with unremitting ardour, and adhered to it
even when hope seemed extinct, with unshrinking and unwavering constancy; one
whose long life was a continued series of efforts for the good of his fellow creatures, of
labours for the promotion of peace, concord, and charity-for the diffusion of know.
ledge, for the advancement of Christian truth, for the abolition of anti-Christian
slavery.--Need I utter the name of WilBERFORCE-a name to every friend of free-
dom, to every lover of his race, to every sincere professor of Christianity, carum et
venerabile. I know not if, in the whole range of our public men, there has lived one
entitled to a higher place in the annals of patriotism and philanthropy ; and when
monarchs and their courtiers shall be consigned to a common oblivion when the
transient triumphs of partisanship are forgotten—when the blood-achieved laurels of
the warrior have faded, the immortal name of this Christian patriot will be borne on.
ward on the stream of time, amid the swelling glories of an ever-increasing reputation,
embalmed in the grateful memories of thousands of emancipated brethren, inscribed on
the brightest page of universal history, graven in enduring characters on the now stain-
less scutcheon of the rescued honour of his country. The efforts of WILBERFORCE
and his friends, among whom the pious and amiable Mr Buxton must not be forgotten,
were completely successful in awakening the public mind to a strong sense of the guilt and
the evils of slavery. Petitions against it loaded the tables of Parliament. But the people
not being represented, their voice was disregarded. In vain was the iniquity, the cruelty,
the unchristian tendency, and even the imminent danger of the system exposed ; in
vain did the indignant eloquence of BrouGHAM thunder in the ears of Parliament.
Slavery still continued, and the Christian missionaries, in spite of their pious office and
their blameless lives, were forced to fly from the roofless houses and blazing chapels of
Demerara. But a great political change, to which it would be unbecoming in me more
particularly to refer, then occurred. The Reform Bill passed into a law, the people were
for the first time really represented, they demanded the abolition of slavery—the patriotic
Ministers who had been the people's choice, responded to their call- His Most Gra-
cious Majesty approved ; and the act of emancipation—(Cheers)—the noblest enact-
ment which any Government ever proposed, or any monarch was ever privileged to
sanction, became the law of the land; the foul stain was wiped away from the charac.
ter of British justice; the galling shackles fell from the limbs of 800,000 human be.
ings, and now yon glorious sun sees not a single slave throughout the wide realms of British
» dominion. (Great applause.) I have always felt that we were bound to set the slave free,
whatever might be the practical difficulties, whatever might be the probable consequences of
the measure ; but in so far as our experience has gone, Emancipation has proved to be
really expedient, as well as undeniably just, and imperatively necessary. The effects of this
great act of justice have, indeed, been most encouraging. Lord MULGRAVE, a nobleman
alike distinguished for ability and benevolence, presided over the momentous transition
-all the evil forebodings of the supporters of slavery have been silenced, the colonies are
more prosperous, the labourers more contented and peaceable, and, above all, the progress
of moral cultivation—of Christian truth_has been greatly accelerated. And it gives me
peculiar pleasure to observe, that, as a most worthy and appropriate sequel to the gift of
freedom, and a recognition of the great moral and religious principles on which it was con-
ferred, his Majesty's Government have given a grant of L. 10,000 to the London Mis-
sionary Society for the education of the emancipated negroes. Are we not, I ask, under
great obligations to the enlightened statesmen who have accomplished this truly noble task?


PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS.
Ought we not, I ask yet more emphatically, to feel the deepest gratitude to Almighty
God for having so ordered events as to bring about this happy consummation. But
having succeeded in extinguishing slavery at home, are we to proceed no farther, but
remain contented, and calmly see it maintained in all its upmitigated horrors in other
quarters of the globe, and particularly in America ; for, strange as it may appear, in
that mighty Republic, in that land of political liberty, there are two millions of slaves,
and the independent citizen who boasts of his own freedom keeps his fellow.creature
in degrading bondage on account of the colour of his skin. Now, I admit that there
are two classes of men who are not entitled to interfere, even by the expression of pub-
lic opinion, in the question of slavery in America. Ist, Those who, taking their stand
upon very narrow ground, have considered slavery as altogether a question of policy
and expediency, for they must hold it a question of internal policy, with which no other
nation has any concern, and they cannot consistently interfere. And, 2d, There are
not a few who were silent on the subject of West Indian Slavery, who are now loud in
protesting against slavery in America. What is it, I ask, that has effected this change
in their views ? Why were they silent when the consistent friends of freedom struggled
in the cause of the West Indian slave? Where slept the thunders of their wrath, when
slavery was openly defended in their presence ;-when a Government, who refused
emancipation, received their zealous aid—their unqualified support? The truth is, they
declaim against American slavery, not because they abhor slavery, but because they
dislike America. With these men I for one will not co-operate. I denounce slavery
not only as impolitic and inexpedient—not only as inconsistent with the Republican
institutions of America, but as, in every form and in every lard, inbuman, unnatural,
and sinful ; and it is only on a deep conviction of the extreme sinfulness of slavery that,
I think, we are at all warranted to enter our protest against it in America or in any
other land but our own. There is much in America, in her laws, her energies, her ju-
stitutions, which the citizens of every free State, especially of England, are bound to
respect; and the land of Washington, and Franklin, and Abbot, and Channing, and
Jay, must be dear to every friend of humanity. Our common origin, our common
freedom, and, more than all, our common religion, unite us by the strongest and most
endearing ties. It is not, therefore, from a dislike to America, but, on the contrary,
from feelings of cordial esteem and of brotherly regard, and from a sincere desire to pro-
mote her best interests, that we endeavour to awaken her to the guilt and the evils of
slavery. (Hear, hear.) I shall not at all touch on the cruelties perpetrated on the
slaves--on the rigour with which they are treated on the hardships which they are
forced to endure-because, undeniable and appalling as they are, it is not on that ground
that I take my stand. Select the best fed, and clothed, and tended slave that can be
found, surround him with comforts, and provide for all his wants, still he is a slave,
bought and sold as a marketable commodity; and however he may be treated, he who
keeps him in bondage, or he who acquiesces in his bondage, commits or encourages a sin.
It is not my part-there are others here much more adequate to the task_to point out
how entirely and absolutely slavery is opposed to the whole principles and spirit of the
Gospel. The mere use of such terms as “ The bondage of sin,” and “ The glorious
liberty of the sons of God,” is alone sufficient to establish this; for slavery must indeed
mean something unutterably fearful and degrading, when it is used to denote the thral-
dom in which Satan holds the souls of men ; and liberty must imply something inex-
pressibly delightful and ennobling when employed to denote the privileges of the blessed.
I might tell you of the effect of Christian principles on the heart of every man, leading
the slave to burn and pant for freedom, and constraining all to use their every effort to
break the fetters of the captive, and to let the oppressed go free. I might remind you
of the golden rule—" Do unto others as you would be done by,”-a rule which ex-
cludes any man from holding a slave, or from aiding or acquiescing in maintaining the
system who is not prepared to be himself a slave. I might point out the glorious des-
tinies, the immortal prospects, which the Gospel opens alike to “ bond and free;" but
I leave these interesting subjects to reverend gentlemen near me better qualified to en-
large on them; and I put my hand on a principle of which the Americans profess to
be peculiarly proud_.the equality of man. Yes, we are all equal—we all come into the
world in the same naked helplessness—we all drop into the grave in the same naked in-
anity. At the commencement and at the close of life, God has impressed equality on
all human beings; and what is man, that, in the brief interval between these two events,
he should set his foot on his fellow man? Allow me, in conclusion, to remark, that,
in entering our protest agaiost Slavery in America, as sinful, inhuman, and ruinous,


PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS.
21
we must be careful to do so in the tone of kind and friendly remonstrance, worthy of
the cause we advocate and the religion we profess, remembering how recently it is
since we had any title to protest or remonstrate at all, and never forgetting that she is
the freeman whom the truth makes free, and all are slaves beside.” If in this great
cause we wish to prosper, our efforts must be essentially and exclusively Christian
efforts, maintained by Christian principles, by the use of Christian means, tempered by
Christian charity,-above all, accompanied by a prayer for the blessing of God, without
which all human exertions must be vain. Let us in this spirit, and by these means,
proceed, and we may confidently look for success; and some of us may be spared to see
the day, when, successively expelled from every quarter of the earth, Slavery, with
her attendant horrors, shall wing her way to regions of everlasting night, and universal
Liberty commence her peaceful reign. (Great cheering.)
The Rev. ARCHIBALD BENNIE, of Lady Yester's Church, seconded the
Resolution in the following speech :-
MY LORD Provost,_I appear with great pleasure at this meeting of my fellow-citi.
zens to testify against the great sin and evil of slavery, though I cannot entirely sup-
press a feeling of shame in seconding, in the nineteenth century, the resolution which
has now been proposed. One cannot but be ashamed to think, that it should be ne..
cessary, after so much has been done to cultivate mind and to diffuse knowledge, to
repeat, justify, and defend so plain a proposition, as that man is free, and that his fel-
low-man has, and can have, no right of property in him. (Cheers.) There are some
subjects so complex and subtle in their nature, and so varied and minute in their rela-
tions, that men of the calmest judgment and the most candid temper have differed re-
specting them. But most certainly slavery is not one of them. No intricate process
of reasoning, no elaborate induction of particulars, is required to expose its criminality
and wretchedness. It is a subject on which every man is qualified to judge. An ap-
peal to the heart is sufficient to determine it. Is not rank merely the guinea stamp ?
and is not the moral and accountable nature of man the gold on which it is impressed ?
(Great cheering.)
The principle of slavery is subversive of all religion and morality. But long after
this was admitted, there was a disposition to justify slavery in modified forms, and in
particular countries. “ Look,” it was said, at the comfort of these Negroes—the
abundance of their provisions—the quiet shelter of their homes, and the number of
their holidays. Are the labourers and mechanics of Europe as well fed, and as com-
fortable as these?” Admitting the picture to be correct, our answer was, “ There is
the violation of a great principle in slavery. There is a disruption of the most sacred
ties; while, beneath the flowers of the description, the whip is hid, and under the co-
vering of comfort, the chain clinks.” But, we added, “ The picture is not correct.
The comfort is extorted by fear, cr yielded by selfishness, and is therefore precarious
and uncertain. There is in slavery—what has ever been the great bane of society
irresponsible power, against whose abuses no law can guard, and to whose unbridled ex-
cesses no limit can be fixed.” We were also told that man in some countries behoved
to be a slave. There was a necessity for it, arising out of his condition both intellec-
tual and physical. He was ignorant--we said, Give him knowledge. He was desti-
tute of forethought-- we said, Cultivate his powers of reflection and reasoning. He
'was sensual—we said, Purify and refine bis affections and desires. Above all, we said,
“ There is a law written on the brow of the Negro, as on that of the European, · Man
must be free.' This law extends to the hottest plain of the tropics, as to the coldest
field of the polar regions; and if, in any way, or to any extent, you attempt to contra-
vene or to infringe on that law, you fight against the lawgiver, who is God.” (Much
applause.)
This resolution states that slavery is opposed to the dictates of humanity. The his-
tory of all slave countries teems with the proofs of this. There is scarcely a species of
cruelty to which slavery has not led. The blood recoils at the thought of its horrors.
And even in its mildest forms it is a great and outrageous evil. It is a denial that the
slave is man, and therefore a robbery of the first and highest right of his nature. It
is opposed to the prosperity of nations. It debases and brutalises the character of the
people among whom it prevails. It raises up barriers to the progress of knowledge, the
diffusion of education, and consequently to the improvement of society. We read of
gold and silver which are cankered— whose rust shall be a witness against their pos-
sessors, and shall eat their flesh as with fire. The wealth procured by the traffic in


22
PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS.
slaves comes under this head. It is earned by a fraud upon human nature. It is
tainted with injustice and violence. (Cheers.)
I turn from these topics to one which it may be more appropriate in me to illustrate
-slavery is opposed to the principles of the Christian religion. This is almost so self-
evident a proposition, that to put it in words is to prove it. (Cheers.) Many, who
have defended slavery, who have earned their money by it, and have trafficked in slaves,
have professed to believe in Christianity ; but where, in what portion of that religion,
is there the slightest sanction to slavery ? Look to its general tenor. It is a message
of love and peace to man. Look to its doctrines. They are addressed to mankind-
to rich and poor. They make no distinction between kings and subjects, nobles and
peasants. It is man they contemplate—not man with a dark skin or a white--not the
native of Europe, or the native of Asia—but man who has sinned, who has a soul to
be saved, and a Judge to meet-man whom God made, and Christ died to redeem. It
looks at human nature in its naked elements. It speaks chiefly of the soul, and the
soul is the man. It 'excludes from its blessings neither Jew nor Greek, Barbarian,
Scythian, bond nor free. It declares that “ God hath made of one blood all nations
of men.” (Cheers.)
If slavery is opposed to the doctrines and design of Christianity, it is scarcely neces-
sary to state, that it is equally so to its precepts. What is the summary of the Divine
law respecting our duties to mankind ? Love thy neighbour as thyself; and the
Saviour of the world has told us, that all men are our neighbours ;—that, wherever
there is the claim of suffering which we can relieve, there is neighbourhood. The good
Samaritan did not pause to consider whether the robbed and wounded traveller was his
countryman_his fellow-citizen; whether he was a native of swarthy Ethiopia, or a rude
pilgrim from the desert. Enough that he saw him bleeding, and nearly dead. He
was a man-bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. His heart felt the appeal of
misery, and his kind offices answered. Is it neighbourly, then, to buy and sell your
fellow-creature, to treat him worse than the very beast of burden which the Jewish
law protected ? 6. Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn”-(Hear,
bear)—or say to him, “ Go, and he must go; come, and he must come;"_to tell
him, that he is worth so much gold, as your fields, your furniture, and your crops are,
Christianity has placed our duties to others in a strong and impressive light in a single
sentence of beautiful morality, “ Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you
do ye even so to them.” Where is the slaveholder who would wish to be the slave
whom he buys and sells ? who would wish to be ordered out into the fields, compelled
to labour, deprived of social privileges, and treated at best as a piece of useful mechanism,
with a capacity of suffering to be turned to account? But, indeed, I feel as if I was
offering an injury to Christianity, by bringing it into the contaminating presence of
such an idea as slavery. It is a poor thing to say of that religion of peace and love,
that it is opposed to slavery, while there are so many nobler things that may be justly
said of it. Its great object is to exalt, to purify, and to adorn our nature ; and,
wherever it has been diffused, it has covered society with blessings. It has unbarred
the dungeons of persecution. It has softened and humanised the characters of rude
and lawless men. It has said to men everywhere, both spiritually and temporally,
“ Prisoners go forth; ye that are in darkness shew yourselves.” It condemns injus.
tice, cruelty, and violence, in all their forms and degrees. It seeks to lead man to the
love of God, and, through God, to the love of his creatures ; and it may be safely
affirmed, that the more widely it is diffused, and the more deeply its influence is felt,
the more truly will man be the benefactor of man—the more closely will the human
family be linked together, as the children of one parent, and as called to the hope of
one inheritance. It will loose the bands of wickedness,-it will undo the heavy bur-
dens,—it will make the oppressed to go free, and break every yoke! (Great cheering.)
This Resolution acknowledges our obligations to Providence for having freed this great
country from the stigma of maintaining slavery. My Lord Provost, it was a bright day
for Britain when our legislators resolved on this act of justice to our common nature.
Long, long, it was our shame to connive at, and sanction the infamous traffic. But
enlightened Christian opinion at length prevailed ; and this dark stain of our reproach
has been wiped away. Britain is now what she was not before—the consistent patroness
of freedom; and wherever her ships plough their way, the stranger can point to them
and say, “ There goes the flag of a free people.” There was many a vain attempt-
many an arduous struggle—many a keen and resolute debate ; but at length the day of
triumph came; Providence smiled on the cause ; and the chain of slavery, throughout


PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS.
23.
the magnificent territory of Britain, was finally, and for ever, broken. (Loud ap-
plause.)
But, while we are thankful that our country has abolished slavery, we must extend
our sympathies to those who are held in that bondage by other nations. This is no
national or party question—it is a question of humanity; wherever there is a slave, we
must pity him ; wherever there is a people who sanction slavery, we must condemn
them. We must not cease till slavery is abolished all over the world—till there is not
a single link of a chain clinking at the heels of the meanest of our race. Particularly,
when we see slavery sanctioned in America, we must raise our voices. It is a burning
shame to that country that the slave trade should exist in it. It makes liberty dis-
trusted, and the boast of it disgusting. Let us not forget
"'Tis liberty alone that gives the flower
Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume,
And we are weeds without it.”
The reverend gentlemen sat down amidst great applause, and the Re-
solution having been submitted to the meeting by the LORD Provost, was
carried unanimously.
The Rev. W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, M. A., spoke as follows, in moving
the second Resolution, viz.-
" That this Meeting view with sincere regret the existence of unmitigated Slavery in
America, a country connected with Great Britain by many interesting ties ; and con-
ceive it to be their duty publicly to express their sentiments on the subject, and to record
their detestation of this inhuman and unchristian system.”
The motion, my Lord, which I hold in my hand, and which I have the honour to pro.
pose for the adoption of this Meeting, has a reference to the existence of slavery in Ame-
rica, in its most unrelenting and unmitigated forms ; and to the duty devolving upon us,
under these circumstances, of publicly expressing our sentiments on this subject, and re-
cording our detestation and abhorrence of such a state of things. On the general subject
of slavery I shall not offer any remarks ; at this time of day, and especially after the
addresses to which the meeting has already listened, any such remarks would be little bet-
ter than impertinent. Neither shall I attempt to offer any details respecting the actual
state of slavery in America, as that subject has been already so fully and impressively
brought before the public mind in Edinburgh, by the eloquent addresses which our friend
Mr Thompson has on several occasions delivered since he last came among us. I shall
rather keep myself to the main topic of the motion which I hold in my hand, viz. the
loud call which the existence of unmitigated slavery in America makes upon us, the
inhabitants of Britain, to come forward and do what in us lies to enlighten our trans-
atlantic brethren, in regard to the injustice, cruelty, and impiety of such a state of
things, and thus to endeavour to expedite its destruction. By many, I believe, both in
this country and in America, our conduct in what we have already done in this matter,
has been regarded as hardly justifiable, on the principle that the inhabitants of one nation
have no right to interfere with the internal regulations of another. Now, if by this it be
merely meant to affirm that a nation, as such, or a government, as a representative
of a nation, has no right to interfere with the internal policy of another nation, living
under another and an independent government, the affirmation is one which lies at the
very foundation of international law, and it would be at once foolish and wicked to
deny it. But a principle which forbids men to act in a national capacity, by no means
necessarily forbids them to act as individuals. To say that it is inexpedient and wrong
for one government to interfere with the internal operations and economy of another,
is not of necessity to say that it is an error in policy, or a violation of morality, for
one man, or a body of men, acting in their private capacity, to expostulate with those
of another country, upon the criminality and impiety which some of their institutions
may involve. That our Government has no right to take up the question of slavery
in America, I at once concede ; but that we, as individuals, have no such right, I must
take leave to deny; at least, I do not see how this is essentially involved in the con-
cession I have made. I must contend that there are cases which, though placed be-
yond the legitimate influence of national authority or physical power, lie within the
sphere of moral power, and in such cases every man who possesses that power, has,
by the very possession of it, a right to wield it.-(Cheers.) Of such cases the one be-
fore us is an instance. The question of slavery in America, is not with us a political


24
PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS.
question,—the existence or the non-existence of that cruel system, leaves our national
relations with that country alike untouched; the flag of Britain floats not the less
proudly and freely, that that of America is marked with the traces of injustice, and
stained with the blood of the oppressed. But we approach the question as one of
morals and of religion ; we appeal, in the discussion of it, to great and immutable prin.
ciples principles which apply as well in America as in Britain ; we point to the law
written on the heart, and the law recorded in the Bible; we address ourselves to Ame-
rica not as Britons so much as men and as Christians ; and in such a case it is absurd,
it is childish, to speak of national relations and political rights, as if they could inter-
pose a legitimate barrier against the enforcement of our plea.-(Loud cheers.)
The way being, then, open for our interfering in this matter, we are called upon, I
think, by every consideration of humanity and religion, to lift up our voice, and cry
aloud and spare not, until the eyes of our brethren in America are opened to see the
evils and enormities of that system, which still retains among them its unmitigated ex.
istence. Had we nothing else to proceed upon than the principles of ordinary huma-
nity, there would be furnished to us by these, inducements enow to engage in this
work. The sympathies of the human heart are not to be shut up within conventional
limits, or restrained by the enactments of civil policy. Awaken these sympathies by
scenes of sorrow or of agony, and the chainless spirit passes with the rapidity of thought
over seas and continents_breaks through the artificial barriers of national distinctions
laughs to scorn the enactments of charters and constitutions, and rests not until it
has reached the objects of its regards, and mingled with the wail of their suffering the
sympathy of its own lacerated feelings.—(Great applause.) And is there not suffering
in America—deep, uncheered, unmitigated, hopeless suffering? Is there not in Ame-
rica an exhibition, in all its most perfect development, of that hideous system which,
reversing all moral distinctions, and violating all principles of law, makes a man suffer
without a crime, establishes political and personal rights according to mere physiolo-
gical peculiarities, and interrupts that salutary connection which the Creator has insti-
tuted between virtue and happiness, industry and comfort, piety and respectability? Is
it not a fact, that there is not only slavery in America, but slavery in its worst and most
revolting forms? And is it not true, that the system of torture and oppression, with all
its sickening train of immoralities and impurities, which was exhibited in the bud and
embryo in the West Indies, has effloresced into all the luxuriance of full-grown matu-
rity in the slave States of that country? Are these things so ? And shall we be told
to sit still, and hold our peace, and steel our feelings, and do violence to the dictates
of our own bosoms, but perchance we should, by boldly speaking out, offend the pre.
judices, and hurt the selfish pride of that most unsound democracy. I treat with con.
tempt all such paltry bugbears. I throw myself back upon the indestructible sympa.
thies of our common humanity. I say to the slave-driver of America, I claim the re-
lationship of common nature with that being you call your slave ; I look on that man
you are torturing as a brother, on that woman you are degrading as a sister; and in
the name of the God that made us, and made us all of one blood, I command you to
withhold your hand, and let the oppressed go free.—(Great cheers.)
But, my Lord, America professes to be a Christian country, and far be it from me
to deny that in that country there are multitudes that fear the Lord, and are zeal.
ous for his cause. I am not one of those that are for including all our trans-
atlantic brethren in one common charge of irreligion and heathenism, because they
have among them slavery, and have allowed unholy principles and practices to
obtain progress among them as the consequence of this system. I remember
that America is the country of Brainerd, and Edwards, and Dwight, and Judson,
and Newell, and many other imperishable nanies. I bear in mind that it is a land
which contains at present some of the very excellent of the earth, men whose wri-
tings we have rejoiced to study, and some of whose voices we have been refreshed
in hearing. I would not forget all that God has done for Christianity in that land,
and all that Christians in the exercise of holy gratitude have done for the cause of
God; and therefore I will never consent to unchristianize the churches of America, or
to treat their members as heathens and reprobates. On the contrary, I would, in this
matter, feel as if my strongest ground were cut away from me, were I not permitted to
go upon the presumption that there are in that country multitudes on whom I could
press the arguments which the religion of Christ furnishes against slavery and injustice.
Assured that there is nothing in the New Testament to countenance, far less to authorise,
either the practices or the prejudices of Americans in reference to their coloured popu.


PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS.
25
lation, and satisfied that it is only by their eyes being closed against the truth, and their
minds warped and spell-bound by an early evil prepossession, that our Christian bre-
thren on the other side of the Atlantic can reconcile their conduct towards that portion
of the community with their acknowledged principles, or enjoy any peace of conscience
while acting so directly in opposition to the entire spirit and tendency of that holy re-
ligion, of which they are the disciples ; I would take my stand upon Bible principles,
and I would make my appeal to them as friends of the Bible on behalf of these princi-
ples, and of that course of conduct to which they would naturally lead. To act thus
I feel myself bound by the express command of God. I find his people charged in his
word not to suffer sin upon their brethren; I find their doing so identified with hatred
of their brethren ; and I find hatred of their brethren denounced as murderous. Un.
less, then, I would subject myself to this fearful charge, I must remonstrate with my
brethren when their sins are brought before me, and, by reproof as well as argu-
ment and entreaty, endeavour to recal them to a sense of duty, and to the path
of uprightness and virtue, Urged by this consideration, therefore, I would go to the
churches of America to plead with them on behalf of the enslaved and the in-
jured. As brethren in Christ I would entreat them to listen to me for the love I bear
to them. As one whom they have offended, I would seek to be reconciled to them by
persuading them to relinquish the offence and forsake the sin. And as one who
was no niggardly admirer of their zeal, their piety, and their energy, I would implore
them to free themselves from this accursed system, that their zeal might be the purer,
their piety the more sincere, and their energy augmented a thousand.fold. (Cheers.)
There is yet one consideration more, my Lord, which appears to me to furnish a
reason why we should interfere in this matter. It is this, that in respect of American
slavery this country is itself verily guilty. (Hear, bear.) It was Britain that introduced
this state of things into America, and though our descendants there were but too ready
not only to learn the lesson but to improve upon it, it still remains with us as a weighty
charge, that from our hands as a nation came the first impulse which set in operation
that vast machinery whose products of diabolical iniquity have been so plentifully yield.
ed ever since. If, then, we can do aught to remove this weight from our shoulders, let
us do it. If in the days of our own ignorance we taught so erroneous a lesson to others,
let us feel the obligation resting upon us, now that God has opened our eyes to see
the evil and danger of what we once practised, to use every means to unteach what we
formerly inculcated, and arrest the operations of that ruinous system which we were the
first to set agoing.
In aid of all these reasons (so sufficient of themselves to induce us to bestir ourselves
in regard to the existence of slavery in America) there arises now the additional con-
sideration that we have already committed ourselves to the work, and cannot without
disgrace draw back. We have sent out an esteemed and honoured friend to represent
our views, and seek to impress upon the friends of truth and religion in that land the
opinions which have obtained a victory in our own. He has well and powerfully re..
presented us, and roused in that country a feeling and an agitation which cannot sub-
side so long as slavery exists. And now that he has returned, compelled by popular
clamour and lawless outrage to retire from his labour of beneficence, it is for us to fol-
low up his exertions by our remonstrances and our rebukes. We ought to feel also the
claim addressed to us by the band of heroic philanthropists whom he has been the
means of calling into action, and whom he has left behind him to carry on the work of
mercy amid many discouragements and dangers. Let us assist these noble-minded
persons with our advice, our approbation, our encouragement. Let us remember the
peculiar and manifold difficulties of their position-shu tout as they are from the sym-
pathies of their countrymen,-_branded as enemies to their commonwealth, and to its
constitution,—driven from the fellowship of their own rank, and even looked upon with
an evil eye by their professed brethren in Christ. To act firmly, prudently, and per-
severingly, under such circumstances is no easy task; let us then stand forward in
their behalf, and if by our co-operation and sympathy we can in any degree alleviate
their trials, and strengthen their energies, let us cheerfully render them a service which
their exertions so richly demand. (Cheers.)
In conclusion, my Lord, the motion I hold in my hand calls upon us "to record our
detestation of the inhuman and unchristian system” of Negro slavery. This we have
already done, and we are as ready to do it as ever. We have recorded our abhorrence
of slavery in the history of forty years' exertion for its destruction. We have recorded


26
PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS.
it in thousands of petitions to Parliament, bearing the signatures of myriads of free.
born hands, and breathing the aspirations of myriads of freeborn souls. We have re-
corded it in the annals of our nation, and paid Twenty Millions of Pounds Sterling as the
price of the registration. And now we are ready to record it in the history of the world.
We are ready to assume our proper place as the only nation that is truly free, and in all
the dignity of our moral pre-eminence to address ourselves to the race at large. We
would stand forward as the patrons of humanity, the advocates of liberty, the enemies of
oppression, the liberators of the world. We would speak in the accents, not of anger, but
of remonstrance, and enforce our appeals, not by the thunder of our cannon, but by the
persuasiveness of our moral influence. Touched by many a master-finger, the harp of
liberty has flung its hallowed music over glen, and city, and hamlet, and plain, of our
romantic land, and with our souls attuned to that divinest melody we would speak to
the nations. And whether they will listen to us now or not, let this be our unalterable
resolve, that we will never relinquish our exertions in the cause of emancipation ; but
while we have a tongue to speak, or a pen to write, or a heart to pray, we will labour
on till our end shall be obtained—till the relation of master and slave shall be every-
where abolished—till the words slavery and oppression shall become obsolete in every
language-till the lash shall cease to be dyed in human blood_till the chain shall no
longer clank on the innocent victim, and the hammer that was used to rivet it shall lie
idle on the forge—and till from every country on our renovated globe, the hymn of
freedom shall arise to heaven, and the groans of the oppressed be heard no more. (Pro-
longed applause.)
James MONCREIFF, Esq. Advocate, in seconding the motion, spoke
nearly as follows:-
My LORD Provost, I cannot help again congratulating the meeting that we are
in a position which entitles us to deliberate on this question. It was not among the
least of the many miserable consequences of our West Indian slavery, that it paralyzed
our efforts of philanthropy, and threw a shade of just suspicion over the sincerity of our
religious professions ; for how could we be thought truly anxious for the civil liberty
or religious welfare of other nations, while supporting a system of unchristian slavery
at home? On the other hand, we have now a special and peculiar right to lift up our
voice against this iniquity, wherever it is found in the habitable globe; for we do not
speak of miseries we have never known, we do not preach tenets which we have not
been willing to practise, nor do we recommend a course of action, the dangers and
consequences of which we have not ourselves been ready to encounter. (Cheers.)
I need not detain you by delineating the horrors of slavery. The story of slavery
in all times has been the same. To say that the slave in the Southern States of Ame-
rica is considered as ordinary merchandise, possessing neither the affections nor sym-
pathies of a man, nor the destinies of an immortal spirit—that the arm of the law is
felt by him only to remind him that he is not within its pale-and the comforts of
domestic life never enjoyed but with the consciousness that the caprice of another may
to-morrow deprive him of them all—these only fill up the too-often repeated tale of
personal bondage, in Heathen or Christian lands. But American slavery has some-
thing peculiarly revolting. Our West Indian slavery was not paraded before our eyes
-it did not meet us in daily life_it was thought of as a story of horror, which dis-
tance magnified—or, at least, was not present to our minds constantly, and without
some peculiar crisis. But slavery in America is the basis of society. At home and
in the fields — in every relation of public or private life, slavery is the mainspring of
all business or pleasure. The child is brought up in the tenets of Christianity and of
slavery at once; and the planter of Virginia or Maryland, after spending his summer
in superintending his droves of slaves, or driving, perhaps, a profitable merchandise
in his fellow-men, comes up to Congress to declaim on liberty and equality, on Chris-
tian truth, or national independence.
Another fearful picture of American slavery, is the continuance of the infamous slave
trade. This is still carried on to an extent revolting to every feeling or Christian
mind. No man of colour is safe who cannot prove his freedom, and the jails of the
country are filled with these miserable wretches, confined there for no crime, and fre-
quently sold into slavery in the end to pay the fees incurred by their confinement.
It may be said that such meetings as the present can have no effect on the evil.
Even were this true, I would not care, and if all we could do were to release our


PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS.
29
plead the cause of the Transatlantic slave. (Great applause.) It was delightful to see
the highest civic functionary presiding over them, not as a matter of form, but with a
sincere and heartfelt devotion to the cause_his heart and his head alike embued with
sentiments of the warmest sympathy with the suffering and enslaved. (Cheers.) Still,
with all his impressions of the dignity and importance of the meeting before him, he
(Mr T.) could not say that he considered the cause they advocated honoured by the
presence of any around him, however high their rank or wide their influence. He felt
inclined rather to say that the cause itself was so high, and holy, and illustrious, that
it shed honour and radiancy on all who were devoted to it-was “ mightiest in the
mighty," and gave an added grace to the fairest and the wisest of its supporters.
(Great applause.) Negro slavery was the blot and curse of Christendom. Still were
there nearly six millions of human beings in thraldom to Christian states still was the
slave-trade carried on to an extent as great as when the eloquence of the sainted Wil-
berforce charmed the senate of the land. He (Mr T.) thanked God that the slavery
of the West Indies had been declared illegal, and that the islands of the West, swayed
by the British sceptre, if not at present free in reality, had the prospect of a speedy and
certain deliverance from the horrors of bondage. Already the benefits of emancipation were
distinctly visible. Schools were rising; churches and chapels were multiplying ; ves-
sels were leaving our ports freighted with the word of God, the preacher of righteous.
ness, and books of elementary instruction. Soon would the darkness disappear, and
the hills and valleys of Jamaica, instead of echoing the sighing of the prisoner, and the
clank of chains, reverberate with the song of praise, and the melodious anthem of a
regenerated people. (Immense cheering.)
Every friend of humanity and freedom now looked to America—the land of light,
and law, and liberty, and religion ; and yet, with equal emphasis, worthy of being
called a land of heathen darkness, and foul oppression, and mob-supremacy, and prac-
tical atheism (Hear, hear.) There liberty was entrapped in her sanctuary and home
- there the precepts of religion were derided, despised, and contemned, and the foun-
tain of mercy itself converted into the waters of bitterness—there merchants traded
in slaves and the souls of men there, even the ministers who stood at the altars of an
equal God, did not hesitate to deny the book of life to the home-born population
around them. Shame, shame on America! Let the gathered, concentrated, scorch.
ing scorn of every civilized nation be fixed upon the land so boastful of its liberty and
religion ; yet, so recreant to all the principles of truth and justice both human and di-
vine. He spoke not under the influence of wrath, but deep regret. He prayed that
such a meeting as he then addressed might soon be summoned to celebrate the second
and nobler independence of the United States,-an independence of the foul systems of
slavery and prejudice which now polluted the soil of Columbia, and impeded the progress
of the cause of universal freedom. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) The resolution which he
had the honour to second, referred to the hopeful symptoms of a peaceful triumph of
Christian principles over slavery in America. The indications were indeed most cheer-
ing. The progress of the cause during the last two years was without a parallel in the
annals of philanthropy. Light had been diffused throughout the Union. Societies
had been formed in the majority of the States, and numbered together upwards of
320. Converts had been multiplied until they were innumerable. Instances of forti.
tude and martyr-like heroism, worthy of the ages of primitive Christianity, were con-
stantly occurring, and the triumphs every day achieved over interest and prejudice,
gave abundant evidence, that, when the truth was faithfully proclaimed, there would be
a general adoption of sound principles in despite of the effects of education and habit.
The people everywhere were awaking as from a guilty dream. Thousands and tens
of thousands were already arrayed in sackcloth and ashes. The church, too long the
friend and supporter of slavery, was rising in purity, and splendour, and omnipotence,
and coming forth to the battle in the name of the Lord of Hosts. (Great applause.)
America presented a sublime spectacle. The trumpet had been sounded, and the con-
flict had commenced. It was a death struggle. Truth and error_light and darkness
-the angel of mercy and the demon of oppression had grappled. God and good men
were looking on, nor could a doubt be cherished respecting the issue of the combat.
(Loud cheers.)
Mr Thompson then went into a lengthened account of the rapid advance of the cause
during the progress of his mission in America. When he first went over to America
there was no opposition the abolitionists were despised as contemptible visionaries,
and esteemed harmless. But the progress of the question soon roused the anti-aboli-


30
PUBLIC MEETING IN WATERLOO ROOMS.
tionists from their lethargy; and the friends of the slave were everywhere denounced
as disturbers of the peace of the country. Notwithstanding all this opposition, the
cause went on—there were now 320 Abolition Societies through the Union ; there
were nearly 100 abolition newspapers; and for funds, at a meeting not nearly so large
as the present, 14,500 dollars were raised. They had not indeed such patronage as
in Scotland; for, instead of having the Chief Magistrate presiding, as here, when a
meeting of ladies took place in Boston, and four or five thousand well-dressed ruffians
assembled to prevent them, the Mayor went to the room and said, “ Ladies, ladies, I
entreat you to disperse.” One of the ladies shrewdly asked, “ Why don't you entreat
the mob to disperse ?" (Laughter.) “ Oh,” said he, “ I can do nothing with them.”
". Well, then, call out the constables.” “Oh! they are in the mob.” “Call out
the militia, then.” “Oh! they are in the mob.” i The volunteers then.” “Oh!
they are in the mob too." (Loud laughter.) “ Ob! Well, then, go and use your
personal influence.” “Oh! I have no personal influence ; ladies, ladies, you have
all the reason on your side, but I entreat you to disperse." (Great laughter, and
cheering.) Even in the Southern States, the feeling was spreading, though they dare
not avow it, for there it was death for a man to say “ I am an abolitionist.” Judge Lynch
would preside with a short shrift and ready halter ; and a man would be out of the
world almost as soon as the declaration was out of his lips. But their letters to friends
in the north told that their sympathies were with them, and upon these grounds he an.
ticipated that in ten years slavery in America would exist no more. TAPPAN, GARRI-
son, Thompson, and their followers were denounced as incendiaries, seeking to apply the
torch to the airest institutions of the land, and stirring up the slaves to take dreadful ven-
geance upon their oppressors. He (Mr T.) could unequivocally deny the charge. It was
refuted, indeed, by the conduct of their accusers, who had rifled the mails, seized the
parcels and boxes of abolitionists, and otherwise possessed them.selves of the documents,
both public and private, of those they branded as insurrectionists ; yet had never pub-
lished a page, a paragraph, or sentence in support of the allegation. The abolition-
ists of America were men of Christian principle. They placed the question where it
had been that day placed by the learned and reverend gentlemen by whom he had been
preceded, -viz. upon the ground of its sinfulness, and they had sought its settlement
by the same peaceful and moral means as those that day recommended. We meet (said
Mr THOMPSON) as the friends of America. We want not war, neither discord nor
estrangement. We want to be brethren. We are brethren. We claim the privilege
of brethren—the privilege of telling those we love their sins, that they may repent
and be converted. There are already thousands across the water who love us, who
will be delighted by the tidings of this day's proceedings, and, when they hear of our
determination to co-operate with them, who will gather fresh courage. Their
number is fast increasing, and in proportion as they multiply, do the number of
those who are our affectionate brethren and firm allies increase. I look forward,
my Lord, with confidence, to the time when we shall rejoice with our Trans-
atlantic friends in the complete and holy triumph of the great principles which
are now agitating the minds of the American community. Our motives may, for
a time, be mistaken and impugned, but ere long they will be understood and ap-
preciated, and we shall be recognised as those who are not only the friends of the op-
pressed, but the best friends of the free. Let us, then, persevere in a firm but Christian-
minded opposition to every institution in every country, at war with the happiness and
salvation, temporal and spiritual, of mankind. In this work we follow in the steps
of patriarchs and prophets, apostles and martyrs--we labour in the cause of truth and
mercy, and freedom, and God, and we shall not be permitted to labour in vain.
Mr Thompson sat down amidst loud and long continued applause. The above is
but a very imperfect outline of his speech.
On the motion of the Rev. John RITCHIE, D.D. seconded by Adam
Black, Esq. Treasurer of the City, the fourth Resolution was carried
amidst long continued applause, viz.
“ That the thanks of this Meeting be cordially given to GEORGE Thompson, Esq.
for his intrepid, able, and successful services in the cause of Universal Emancipation,
and particularly for his arduous and persevering exertions during his recent mission to
the United States of America.
Thereafter, on the motion of R. K. GreviLLE, LL.D., seconded by the


32
MR TILOM PSON'S FOURTH LECTURE.
that it was almost an insult to a Christian audience to make it the subject
of a debate.
Mr THOMPSON afterwards gave a masterly sketch of the state of American
society, and requested his audience to observe that he had on former oc-
casions spoken in terms of high commendation of many things in that
fine country ; but that it was his duty now to expose in all its loathsome-
ness, the plague-spot, with which it was defiled from the north to the
south,—from the east to the west. It would be impossible in a few lines
to give any idea of the mass of evidence by which he exhibited the de-
moralizing influence of slavery upon the remotest ramifications of Ameri-
can society ; but it may perhaps be asserted that the strongest indications
of feeling manifested during the evening were evinced, when the fact was
stated, that a vast proportion of the American clergy were slaveholders ;
that the very churches might be said to nourish and approve a system of
bondage by which the Bible was confessedly withheld, and the light of
the Gospel excluded. For the space of three hours Mr THOMPSON was lis-
tened to with intense interest. One soul seemed to animate the living
mass, which was known to consist of considerably above two thousand
persons. They fully recognised the principle, that the Gospel does not
sanction slavery in any shape, and that it gave no discretionary power to
man to enslave and hold in bondage, or to barter in the blood and sinews
of a human being; and, above all, they recognised the obligation they
were under as Christians to seek its everlasting overthrow in every part
of the world,
MEETING IN HOPETOUN ROOMS.
On Monday the 15th of February, Mr Thompson delivered a lecture
before a select and highly respectable audience in the Hopetoun Rooms,
the Right Honourable the Lord Provost in the chair. This meeting
took place in consequence of the earnest wish of a number of individuals
who had been unable to attend Mr Thompson's previous addresses. Being
deeply interested in the moral and religious welfare of the human race,
and especially in the true prosperity of the sons of Britain on both sides
of the Atlantic, an anxious desire was expressed that Mr THOMPSON
should, in addition to his description of the extent to which prejudice
against colour was indulged in America, also give some account of the
noble exertions made by that country to relieve herself from the curse
of national intemperance. This desire having been communicated to Mr
THOMPSON, that gentleman most kindly and at once agreed to meet it; and
the subjects which he undertook to illustrate were, therefore, advertised
as follow :
Physical Slavery in America—Prejudice against Colour.
Moral Slavery in Great Britain-Prejudice against Temperance Societies.
The Chair (which was taken at one o'clock) was supported by a num-
ber of philanthropic and influential gentlemen.
It is not necessary to dwell upon the first part of the address. It was
a picture which the eloquent lecturer had already painted on former occa-
sions to other audiences, and the details need not be recapitulated. It was


34
MR THOMPSON'S FIFTH LECTURE.
the richest to the poorest. Statesmen bowed upon the altar of expedien-
cy; and, above all, the sanctuary was not clean. As a Christian nation,
we were paralyzed in our efforts to evangelize the world-partly by the
millions upon millions actually expended annually upon ardent spirits
partly by the selfish and demoralizing feelings which this sensual indul-
gence in particular was known to produce. How could we, as a nation,
upbraid America with her system of slavery, when we ourselves were all
but glorying in a voluntary slavery of a thousand times more defiling
and abominable description ? Let us do justice to America. Let the
Christians of our country remonstrate with her firmly and affectionately
on her crying sin--her conspiracy against the bodies and souls of her
coloured children; and may we listen gratefully to her rebuke of our
country's crying sin—that apathy by which tens of thousands annually
sunk down, uncared for, into the drunkard's grave ? In our own country,
it might be said that there was, as it were, a conspiracy against the bodies
and souls of her people.
MR THOMPSON'S FIFTH LECTURE.
In consequence of the following Requisition, Mr THOMPSON delivered
his Fifth and concluding Lecture in the West Church, on Thursday even-
ing the 18th February, on “ The Duty of British Christians with refe-
rence to Slavery in America.”
“ GEORGE THOMPSON, Esq.
“SIR,—Cordially approving of your great exertions in the cause of
Negro Emancipation, and earnestly desiring that our fellow-citizens may
be stirred up to take a deeper interest in the liberation of the slaves, es-
pecially in America, we beg to request that you will deliver an address
on this subject in the West Church, which is at your disposal for an early
day next week.—We are, Sir, your obedient servants,
(Signed) David Dickson, D. D.
Ministers of the West Church.
John Paul,
William CUNNINGHAM, Minister of the College Church.
Robert S. CANDLISH, Minister of St George's Church.
ARCHIBALD BENNIE, Minister of Lady Yester's Church.
D. T. K. DRUMMOND, Minister of St Paul's Episcopal Chapel.
James ROBERTSON, Westfield.
Wm. Paul, Accountant.
A. MAITLAND, W. S.
ANDREW THOMSON, 32 Royal Circus.
ROBERT CALLENDER, M. D.
J. S. More, Advocate.
Alex. DUNLOP, Advocate. -
W.F. H. LAWRIE, W.S.
ARCHIBALD Bonar, Royal Bank.
J. Y. WALKER, Logie Green.
PATRICK TENNENT, W. S.


MR THOMPSON'S FIFTH LECTURE.
35
Previous to the hour of meeting, Mr THOMPSON met with the Requisition-
ists, the committee of the Emancipation Society, and a number of his pri-
vate friends in the vestry; and at seven o'clock he proceeded with them into
the church, which, though the largest building in Edinburgh, was by this
time filled in every part. The Rev. Mr Paul accompanied him to the pulpit,
and opened the meeting by prayer. Mr THOMPSON then entered on the
proposed question of the duty of British Christians in reference to American
slavery; and commenced an eloquent and powerful lecture by successfully
rebutting the charge made against him, of unnecessarily interfering with
the laws and customs of another and a foreign country. He rested the
justification of the part which he had taken, and which he called on others
in this country to take, on the same grounds by which our missionary
societies justify their interference with the superstitions and vices of the
countries to which their agents are sent. In both cases the sins and de-
lusions of men called for our pity, and our most strenuous efforts to en-
lighten and reclaim them; and the obligation was the stronger in the
case of America, from her being so closely related to us as a people, and
so nearly allied by a common religious faith; and from the aggravated
nature of her guilt in continuing to practise so foul a sin in the face of
the clear light of the Gospel. The horrible effects of slavery were illus-
trated by Mr Thompson from the volumes of Mr ABDY,—a work which a
respectable publishing house in America had resolved to reprint; but,
after they had proceeded with it a considerable length, so terrific were
the statements it contained regarding American slavery, and so undeniable
the facts by which these statements were authenticated, that the publish-
ers decidedly refused to proceed any farther with it, assigning as their
reason,—not that the book was untrue, but that, if they should publish
it, their business would be ruined! Mr THOMPSON also depicted the hor-
rors of slavery from the work of Major HAMILTON ; and from numerous ap-
palling facts, all which he stated to be from unquestionable authority. One
of these facts was an account of a woman, who, when her children had been
gambled away by their unnatural father to a slaveholder, murdered her-
self and them to save them from being separated from her. And another
was the case of a beautiful, accomplished, and almost quite fair female,
who, having been married by a white gentleman in a southern state, was
followed to one of the so-called free states, where they had taken up their
residence, and had to be ransomed by her husband for 800 dollars from
her master, who was at the same time her own father! In pointing out
the particular duties of British Christians in reference to this subject, Mr
THOMPSON alluded to the constant and intimate intercourse kept up be-
tween America and this country; and insisted on the duty of our availing
ourselves of that intercourse, to state our views and feelings on the sub-
ject. Even in private letters to America, a few words in behalf of the
poor and oppressed slaves, might and ought to drop from the pen of
every Christian writer. Church courts, congregations, and religious asso
ciations of all denominations, he contended, also ought to take up the
subject, and remonstrate with their American brethren on the iniquity and


SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS.
37
was the desire among the friends of religion and humanity in Edinburgh
to testify their respect towards this distinguished advocate of the rights
of the slave, that, though the room accommodates nearly 600 persons,
hundreds were disappointed in their application for tickets. At an early
hour nearly all the seats were occupied, and at a little after seven o'clock,
Mr THOMPSON entered the room, attended by the committee and a num-
ber of his friends, and was received with loud acclamations by the assem-
bled company. On the motion of John Wigham Jun. Esq. Robert KAYE
Greville, LL. D., F.R. S., &c. &c. was called to the chair, and com-
menced the proceedings of the evening by the following address.
My Dear FRIENDS, I beg to thank you very cordially and gratefully for your kind-
ness in placing me in the chair on the present most interesting occasion. I cannot,
however, conceal from myself that you might have found individuals in many respects
better qualified to discharge the duties of the evening. At the same time, if I may be
permitted to speak for a moment of myself, I would say that, in two points of view, I
am justified in accepting this mark of your confidence. In the first place, I am not con.
scious of having ever flinched from my post in the hour of trial during the protracted
but glorious struggle for Negro emancipation; and, in the next place, I have ever been
ready, when opportunity offered, to support and stand by that friend and champion of
the cause in whose honour we are at this moment assembled. But in saying thus much,
I must bear my hearty testimony to the equal claims of those by whom I am supported
on either side,-men whose sentiments are as well known as their moral courage in
maintaining them.
It is impossible, my friends, to meet on an occasion like this without a crowd of asso.
ciations rushing upon the mind. We are carried back, in spite of ourselves, to the
commencement of that arduous struggle, or at least that portion of it in which we were
ourselves more immediately engaged; and it may not be altogether unprofitable to dwell
for a few moments upon the conflict we have passed through, and the condition in
which it has left us. Slavery, as connected with Great Britain, may be compared to
a many-headed monster,—a sort of Hydra, which, while it was the interest of a party
to cherish and defend, it was the duty of Christian men to annihilate. But with all the
efforts of the virtuous and humane, it was found impossible to reach at once the heart
of the monster. The only plan, then, was to attack the unclean beast in detail; and
after a long, long contest, which will be in the personal recollection of few present, one
of the heads was lopped off. That head was the slave trade. After a little rest came
a severer struggle, in the latter part of which we all had the honour and the privilege
to take a share. The head to be attacked bore the name of colonial slavery, and really
if it were possible, I should say it was an uglier head than the last. The neck was long
enough to allow each of us to have a fair blow, and having been in at the death, I can
truly say that, considering how it had been hacked and bewed, it is wonderful how
tenacious of existence it proved to be. The famous London surgeon, Sir Astley
Cooper, used to say that, in order to perform an amputation neatly, the operator should
have a lion's heart and a lady's hand. Now, in the amputation of the poor monster's
second head, there was abundance of lions' hearts,—aye, and of ladies' hands too; but
the ladies had lost their character: they had the lion's heart like ourselves, but they
had forgot the tenderness of touch, and, with a feeling for which I honour them, but
which I should be sorry to see them exhibit on other occasions, they manifestly enjoyed
the groanings and writhings of colonial slavery as it fell, never to be resuscitated. My
friends, there remains one other head, --comely, as some think, at a distance, but
forbidding when closely viewed; a strong family likeness pervades every feature ; they
call it apprenticeship ; and I do not hesitate to declare before this great assembly, that
I should like nothing better than to have a cut at it. Let me, however, drop all figu.
rative language, and state to you in a more serious manner, that, without presuming in
the slightest degree to doubt the sincerity of Government in regard to the fulfilment of
all the conditions of the act of emancipation, it is quite certain that the spirit of the act
is departed from in some of our colonial possessions. There is still much cruelty, much
hardship, and much evasion of the law, in Jamaica. The country is so extensive, that
it is impossible the interests of the apprentices can be efficiently watched over. The spe-


38
SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS.
cial magistrates are often compelled (having no choice) to partake of the hospitality of
the overseers; and without questioning the purity of their motives, it is easy to see how
difficult a part they must have to perform in consequence of such an intercourse. Even
now, when slavery is said to be abolished, I am informed, on good authority, that young
girls may be seen, chained two and two, working on the streets or roads, for trifling
offences. I could enter into numerous details, were it necessary; but I rejoice to see that
Mr BUXTON has promised to take up the question. Permit me only before I resume
the chair, to urge upon you, dear friends, the necessity of not allowing this subject to
sleep. If oppression shall be found, upon inquiry, to characterize the apprenticeship
scheme, we shall still have a duty to perform to our patient and suffering coloured
brothers and sisters.
Dr Greville's speech was greeted throughout with the loudest marks of approbation.
The view from the platform at this period of the proceedings was pe-
culiarly impressive. This erection was placed on the middle of the
northern side of the room opposite to the main entrance, so that the
tables, in four divisions, ranged from it, and the passage leading to it,
on either hand, to the ends of the hall. Immediately in front was the
splendid chandelier, illuminated with its zones of gas, with its brilliant
companions on either side ; and at either end of the room were the
magnificent mirrors in which the whole scene was reflected in two gorgeous
vistas of light and beauty. At the tables, and on the sofas that encir-
cled the room, were several hundreds of the most respectable citizens of
both sexes, the ladies being for the most part in appropriate evening
dresses. Individuals of all religious denominations, recognised among
Christians, composed the mingled assembly, and all appeared united-in feel-
ings of the strictest harmony and cordiality. A pleasing sensation of hilarity
and moral interest seemed marked on every countenance; and while youth
and beauty and elegance gave, by their preponderance, an air of graceful
gaiety to the scene, there were not wanting the silvery head and the lofty
brow to indicate that wisdom and intellect were not strangers to the ob-
jects of the festivity.
The president, on closing his address, called upon the Rev. C. ANDER-
son to give thanks; after which, tea and coffee were served with much
activity, under the superintendence of the different stewards. This being
over, a brief season was allowed for those of the company who felt so
disposed to move about and enjoy a little friendly chat, or exchange a
merry repartee with their acquaintances in different quarters of the room.
So many availed themselves of this permission, however, that the pas-
sages became crowded, and those who occupied them were obliged to
move in one direction, so that the whole assumed the order of a promenade.
The band in the orchestra meanwhile struck up some of our most fa-
vourite national airs, and continued to lend the aid of their inspiring
strains so long as the company continued to move. At length the chair-
man resumed his seat, and the moving mass gradually sunk down into
order by each returning to his former place. The business of the evening
was then resumed by the Rev. W. L. ALEXANDER of North College Street
Chapel being called upon by the chairman to read the Address to Mr


40
SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS.
rous and even barbarous manner in which you, our beloved friend and trusted repre-
sentative, have been treated by these republicans of the West; we would nevertheless
rejoice in your having engaged in that mission, and congratulate you on the important
results which you have been enabled to effect in that country in reference to the ob-
ject that carried you thither. We thank you for having so ably, so zealously, so pru-
dently, and in a spirit so truly Christian, represented to our brethren on the other side
of the Atlantic our views and feelings in regard to this important subject. We offer
our thanksgivings to God on your behalf, in that you have been preserved and pro-
tected amid the many labours you were called to endure, and the threatening dangers
to which you were exposed. We rejoice with you on account of the auspicious circum-
stances in which you left the cause of Liberty in that vast and powerful Continent. And
we pray that the seed you have there sown with much difficulty, and even at the peril
of your life, may be watered by the dews from heaven, and may grow up and bring
forth an abundant harvest of blessing to mankind, and of glory to God.
It has afforded us the sincerest pleasure to see you again, and to welcome you back
to the scene of your former exertions and triumphs; and now that we are about once
more to part, we would solemnly and affectionately commend you to the God of all
grace, in whose service you have been labouring, and by whose blessing your labours
have been crowned with such gratifying success. That He may watch over you and
keep you in health and happiness for many years,—that He may abundantly bless you
in your future engagements and undertakings,—that He may bestow his peculiar favour
upon your partner in life, and the children he has given you,—that He may be the
breaker up of your way and the guide of your path,_that He may comfort you with
the privileges and enjoyments of his reconciled presence,—and that when His wise and
all-gracious purposes with you here are finished, He may receive you with the com-
mendation of a faithful servant, into the rest and glory of heaven, are the objects,
dear and honoured friend, of our earnest desire and unceasing prayer on your behalf.
With these desires and prayers we will follow you whithersoever it may please Provi-
dence to direct your steps ; and while we remember you, we will not forget the cause
in which you have been engaged, and with which your name is now inseparably con-
nected. In the spirit of our holy religion, and in obedience to one of its express prea
cepts, we will seek to “ remember those that are in bonds, as bound with them;" and
pledged as we consider ourselves to be by the most solemn obligations to continued
exertion in this great enterprise of Christian benevolence, we would take occasion from
all that you have recently detailed to us, to go forward with increased alacrity and
zeal, believing that the time is not far distant when our principles shall be acknow-
ledged wherever the Bible is revered, and when from every nation in Christendom
the foul blot of slavery having been washed away, the liberated bondsman shall cease
to groan, and, rising from the degradation into which he has been plunged, shall (to
use the words of the eloquent Curran) “ stand redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled
by the irresistible genius of UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATion.”
The Rev. ARCHIBALD LIDDELL, of Lady Glenorchy's Church, on moving
the adoption of this address, spoke as follows:-
MR CHAIRMAN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,—It is my intention in rising to move that
the address which you have just now heard read be presented to Mr George Thompson,
as expressive of the sentiments, wishes, and prayers of this meeting on behalf of that
gentleman-(Cheers)—and I am quite sure that I shall best consult the feelings and
wishes of every individual now present, in making the observations which I shall sub.
mit to you as brief as possible; knowing as I cannot but know, and feeling as I
certainly do, that the great object which we have before us in a meeting of this kind,
is not so much to hear addresses from individuals we are in the habit almost weekly of
hearing, but to listen to the sentiments which may fall from the lips of the gentleman
on whose account we are principally convened. (Applause.) I rise, then, to move
the adoption of the address on two grounds and for two reasons : the first is, because I
approve of the object to which that address points; and, second, because I entirely
concur in the sentiments contained in it with respect to the individual for whom it is
meant, and to whom it will unanimously, I hope, be presented. (Cheers.) And
what is the object to which that address points ? The object is the abolition of slavery
throughout the world. (Great applause.) It is not very long ago, in the recollection
of almost every one here present, since I could not have uttered the sentiments I am
now about to express, without the painful consciousness that these would not be


SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS.
responded to, at least unanimously, by a large assemblage even of the inhabitants of
Edinburgh. It is not above four or five years ago, since the cause of slave emancipa-
tion was a cause which required to be debated ; since the principles involved in the
great object which is now far advanced were principles disputed, and when even the
individual to whom the address is about to be presented bad to bear much obloquy and
scorn in this very city, in which he is now met with the friends of immediate abolition,
by whom he is surrounded, to receive their congratulations, in the hope that they
may be the means of urging him forward in that course of philanthropy on which he
has so gloriously entered. (Great applause.) That slavery is a sin, that slavery is
opposed to the sentiments which the Bible expresses, are positions which were disputed
even in Protestant Edinburgh. And what was the reason of this ? We need not go
far to search for the reason. A philosopher in his study, a Christian rising from the
perusal of his Bible, could not have uttered the sentiment that slavery is not a sin, and
that slavery is not inconsistent with the principles of the gospel; but we know full
well, possessing, as each of us does, a degraded sinful human nature,--we know full
well that the opinion which we form on any subject is not an opinion formed by our
calm, deliberate, and dispassionate judgment, but made up of feelings and interests
which have themselves their sources in sin, and which it is the object of the gospel to
annihilate ; and such, I believe, was the case in reference to Great Britain on the sub-
ject of slavery. . I speak as regards Great Britain nationally, not of any persons
individually, our interests nationally were found bound up with the question of slavery.
We actually, although professing to be Christians, found ourselves bound hand, foot,
and tongue in reference to slavery as to its unscriptural character, and also as to its
most debasing and unbumanizing tendencies; and I believe that the reason why we
are now emancipated from such preconceptions and such prejudices, is to be sought for
and found in the fact, that the Christian population of these lands, after having examined
the subject of slavery in connection with every principle of the gospel, with which, it
was alleged, that pernicious system was identified, felt that the nation must, if not
solicitous of experiencing more of the judgments of the infinitely holy and just Jehovah,
throw off the fetters which our forefathers and ourselves had cast on the bodies and
souls of our negro brethren, inust “ loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy
burdens, break every yoke, and let the oppressed go free !” And there is no one senti-
ment in which I more cordially concur than in that which I heard uttered, and which
many now present may have heard uttered (by Mr THOMPSON at the meeting in the
Waterloo Rooins), not many days ago, that the reason why slavery is abolished is not
the operation of political causes, or the transpiring of political events, but the blessing
of the Almighty resting on many a fervent and importunate prayer, ascending from
many an humble heart in these lands, whom he had blessed with “ the liberty where-
with Christ maketh his people free :” I believe that in answer to many such suppli-
cations arising from the low and the elevated of our country, Jehovah made certain
political revolutions the channels through which his blessing was to fall upon the outcast,
polluted, and man-abandoned sons and daughters of Africa. We must give to Jehovah
the glory that is due to him—“Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name,
be the glory!" I trust and pray that Great Britain has stopped in time to save herself
from the further displeasure of the justice-loving God, in reference to slavery in the
British Colonies. (Great applause.) It may be that the judgments of God may yet
be felt by us as a nation in consequence of having tolerated so long such an evil ; as I
do verily believe that the judgments of God on nations will be experienced and felt in
consequence of so foul a stain as that of slavery. Now, slavery, according to the
recorded opinion of the British public, expressed legally through the representatives of
the people in their House of Parliament, as well as by the upper House of Parliament,
and having had the necessary sanction given to it by the executive authority of the land
- I say slavery, in the recorded opinion of our country, is now terminated, as that which
has long and sadly disgraced the British name. (Immense cheering.) But unques-
tionably, although this is the case in reference to Britain, the Christianity on which
we profess to found our opinion of the heinousness of slavery, calls upon us not to
stop here, calls upon us to proceed to express our opinion wheresoever we find sentiments
entertained different from those which we believe to be founded on the word of God.
This forms the proper answer which every one of us ought to be prepared to give, in
however small or large a circle it may be our duty, or privilege, or pain to move, and
in which it may be asked—“ What have we to do with slavery in the United States
of America ?” Let all such persons know that the gospel requires us to speak out,
wheresoever we find any thing inconsistent with the word of God in the conduct of our


SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS.
43
dent persuasion, that mighty is this portion of truth as well as every other, and that it
will prevail,--that America, recently descended from ourselves, bearing much of our
nation's virtue, if we have any, and, I fear, still more of our iniquity; freed from every
thing that degrades, and blessed in the possession of every thing that truly ennobles,
shall flourish as the home of liberty to the nations of the Western Hemisphere, shall
become all that our own Britain now is to its surrounding world, and the generations
that shall rejoice in its prosperity. (Loud cheers.) These being my sentiments, I
beg to move that the address recently read be adopted, as expressive of the sentiments,
feelings, and wishes we entertain towards the gentleman whom we have this evening
met to honour.
The Rev. William Peddie, of Bristo Street Church, in seconding the
motion, said,
Mr CHAIRMAN,—After what has fallen from the reverend gentleman who has just
sat down, very little remains for me to say in support of the resolution; if, indeed, it
were necessary to say almost anything in moving the adoption of an address, which, I
believe, most truly represents the sentiments and feeliugs of this large and respectable
meeting, and of thousands besides in Edinburgh, in reference to our eloquent and dis-
tinguished guest. (Great applause.) Sir, I make no doubt that that gentleman es-
teems the pure reward of an approving conscience, and more especially the approbation
of the God whom he serves, far above the most sincere and profuse praises which could
possibly be lavished upon him by us; but there is something exceedingly gratifying,
stimulating, and strengthening to every rightly constituted mind in receiving the
hearty commendations of his fellow-men; and it is our duty, engaged as Mr THOMP-
son is in an arduous struggle in our cause, in the cause of liberty, in the cause of
Christianity, to sustain and to cheer him on in his efforts; it is our duty to give him all
the benefit he can possibly derive from our good wishes, our admiration, and confi.
dence; and it is our duty to testify these feelings as loudly, at least, as his opponents
on the other side of the great waters have breathed out their feelings of indignation,
and hatred, and defiance. (Cheers.) Sir, it has sometimes been said, that the greatest
benefactors of our race, the men who have done the greatest amount of good in behalf
of their species, have had few, while they lived, to observe and applaud their efforts,
that they have passed on in obscurity and silence, if not under a cloud of contempt, to
the grave ; and that then, too late, the world has awakened to a sense of their merits,
and, after killing them with neglect, has garnished their sepulchres. (Hear, hear.)
If this be the case, and the remark might be verified by many sad illustrations, I con.
ceive we are doing honour to ourselves in shewing that we are not insensible to the
merits of our friend, by heaping on him expressions of our regard now while he is
yet with us, while his day of exertion lasts; and long, long may it last! and dis-
tant and serene be the hour when his sun sinks in the night of death! (Immense ap-
plause.)
If he will permit me to say it, much as we admire his eloquence, and who that has
ever listened to it has not admired it ? there are other qualities of his character on
which we gaze with still more delight. His devoted attachineat to freedom, his pure
and ardent philanthropy, the holy enthusiasm with which he has given himself body
and mind to the redressing of the wrongs of the slave ; above all, the moral fortitude
which has led him to expose himself to danger, and even to the hazard of life in that
cause--these are the qualities of the man which command our most unfeigned admira-
tion. To the patriot, who pleads and who bleeds for the liberties of his country, we
readily give our meed of applause ; but, in the view of a justly-thinking mind, the
Christian philanthropist must take rank among his fellow-men high above the mere pa-
triot. The purest patriotism is commonly alloyed with selfishness; it is necessarily
mixed up with ideas of personal interest, of friends, of property, and individual rights ;
the benevolence of the patriot is confined to one country, to one clime, to one people,
and these his own ; but the spirit of the Christian philanthropist takes a higher flight,
it embraces a wider range, it looks upon all mankind as brethren, and pleads for equal
rights and equal happiness to all, irrespective of kindred, of country, of colour; and
such a philanthropist is George Thompson. (Tremendous cheering.) The cause which
he has espoused is the cause not of faction, nor of party, nor of any individual—it is
the common cause of mankind; it is the cause especially of that portion of mankind
who have hitherto been the most injured and oppressed, who have in a great measure
heen cast out of the common sympathies of their brethren.' Are those who are the


SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS.
special objects of his benevolent exertions ignorant, degraded, demoralized ? Are they,
as our opponents say, sunk below the ordinary level of humanity ? So much the more
excellent, so much the more praiseworthy, so much the more like the benevolence of
the Son of God, is that philanthropy, which, looking upon them in their low and lost
estate, burns with an unquenchable desire to raise them from among the ruins of slavery,
and to place them in a condition to enter upon the career of human improvement,
abreast of the other civilized portions of mankind. · (Loud applause.) Are they in.
considerable in their numbers ? No. There are as many of these persons in the
United States of America alone as there are inhabitants in Scotland; they are nearly
as numerous, if I mistake not, as were the whole inhabitants of the United States at
the time when they threw off the yoke of Britain (Hear, hear)—and if, as the instru-
ment of breaking that yoke, a Washington has been enshrined in the grateful affections
of his country, if his name has been emblazoned in deathless characters in the page of
history, ought not a Thompson to have a niche in the temple of fame, for his noble
efforts to work out the redemption of a people, not less numerous, as deserving, and ten-
fold more oppressed, than were the Americans at that period? (Long continued cheers ?)
Sir, it must be to us all matter of sincere regret that, in the sentiments with which
we regard Mr THOMPSON, so many of our professing Christian brethren on the other
side of the Atlantic do not participate. They account him their enemy because he has
told them the truth. It must be matter of still deeper regret that the cause of which
he is the champion, has encountered such furious opposition in America. But, Sir, in
the very fury and violence of that opposition, we may ‘mark a token for good, grounds
for encouragement and for hope. We may with confidence conclude from it that the slave
system is, in the opinion of its friends, in peril, and that some symptoms of coming de-
liverance begin to brighten the sky of the slave. It is when men find themselves beaten
in argument that they burst into passion. (Cheers.) It is when they are unable to
maintain their cause by fair means that they resort to foul. (Hear, hear.) When
the devil comes down in great wrath we may be sure his time is short. (Great cheer-
ing.) The state of things, which the friends of the slave would have most reason to
dread, would be a dead calm in America on the subject of slavery. But, Sir, I am
persuaded, that, through the instrumentality of our honoured friend and his noble co-
adjutors, a ferment has been excited in that country, which will never be allayed until
every slave is a freeman, and every coloured man is hailed by the white as a friend and
a brother. (Vehement applause.) I have great confidence, Sir, in the energy of the
American character. There are many minds in that country who, now that they have
been disencumbered of prejudice, will rest neither day nor night till they have disabused
their brethren of the same prejudice, and won their cause. I have great confidence in
the mass of Christianity and moral worth which does exist in that land, however taint-
ed, and however clogged in its operations by the sin of slavery. I have great confidence
in the power of the truth, or rather in that Omnipotent arm, which is able to apply the
truth, with irresistible effect, to the consciences and hearts of men, and which will
one day gloriously rule the world by the truth as it is in Jesus.
Mr Peddie then concluded with cordially seconding the adoption of the Address,
and sat down amidst a burst of applause which lasted for some time.
The Chairman having put the question,-Is it the pleasure of this meet-
ing that this Address be adopted ? the whole assembly rose to their feet,
and gave utterance to the loudest plaudits in testimony of their concur-
rence in the sentiments therein expressed. He then affixed his signature
to the roll, and turning to Mr THOMPSON, spoke as follows:-
MY DEAR FRIEND,—It is my privilege, as Chairman, to present you with
this Address, which has just been so cordially and unanimously agreed to by this
great meeting. It is my privilege, Sir, to have signed that document; and it is my
additional privilege, as Chairman of this meeting, to express, individually, that
there is not a sentiment in the address with which I do not concur from the bottom of
my heart. There has been, Sir, a definition of gratitude, which I have somewhere met
with, in which it is stated that, “gratitude is a lively anticipation of future favours."
(Laughter.) But that, Sir, is not the gratitude of this meeting. The gratitude of
this meeting I know and feel is of a purer kind ; and I know also, that if, in the Pro.
vidence of God, you shall be called upon to take a further part in the cause of Uni-


SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS.
* 45
versal Emancipation, we may justly anticipate, from what you have done, what you will
do, and that, you will be a faithful servant. (Great applause.) My Dear Friend, I
present you with this Address with inexpressible pleasure, and I hope that you may be
spared for many years, and be permitted to finish your course in the glorious character
of a faithful servant. (Cheers.)
Mr THOMPSON then rose, and was received with vehement applause.
Mr CHAIRMAN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,- It is not a scene like this, however
glittering and delightful, that is calculated to render me fluent, or assist me to language
in which appropriately to express the feelings with which my heart overflows. Those
who know me best will bear witness, that it is in moments like the present that I am in
danger of failing to give utterance to the thoughts which crowd upon the mind. To
prepare an address of thanks in anticipation of a scene like this, is what I never yet
could do, although I never yet succeeded in acquitting myself under such circumstan-
ces to my own satisfaction. I do not, however, believe that those who now surround me
- the kind and confiding friends by whom I have been cherished and surrounded-desire
me to be very diffuse in my expression of thanks. (Cheers.) I shall, therefore,
promptly quit a topic to me of all others the most unmanageable, although I might per-
haps be pardoned, if, on such an occasion, I ventured to speak somewhat largely of
myself. (Cheers.) I beg those around me to accept my assurance of sincere esteem,
and of my unabated attachment to that cause, as the advocate of which they now ho-
nour me. To me, this season, though one of exquisite and pure enjoyment, is one of
trembling and alarm. There is room to fear, 'when greeted by sounds and sights like
these, that the head may become intoxicated—the heart proud and self-complacent-and
that, after all, some act may be committed calculated to alienate the confidence and af.
fections of these practical friends. I am reminded, Sir, that I am but man—that I am a
young man_having all the frailties and feebleness common to our nature; and, that to
me therefore, applies the salutary caution of Holy Writ-“ Let him that thinketh he stand-
eth take heed lest he fall.” I desire ever to fear-since fear is a conservative princi.
ple—and we are all most likely to walk safely when we are most distrustful of ourselves,
and most dependent upon the wisdom and power of God. (Loud cheers.) I am much
affected when I look back upon the history of my acquaintance with this city. I came
amongst you a stranger—without name, without fortune, without influence. You, Sir,
who now fill the chair, were one of the first whose hands I grasped in Edinburgh ; by
your side sits one under whose roof I was received and cherished, and on either side
are those who were among the first to counsel and to cheer. Years bave rolled away,
but they have only deepened the regard we at first contracted for each other. You
have multiplied your proofs of kindness and friendship, while my heart has been draw.
ing closer and closer in love and gratitude towards you. (Loud cheers.) In addition
to the fostering friendship of yourself, Sir, and those immediately about you, I have been
upheld by the smiles and plaudits of hundreds and thousands of the best portions of
the population of this city, and this brilliant assembly is an overwhelming proof that
my friends are daily multiplying, and that the cement which binds us to each other is
only made stronger hy age. (Cheers.) It is delightful to know that ours is no mer.
cenary attachment-we love each other for the truth's sake. Our hearts are knit to-
gether, blended and welded into one, by the high principles of religion. We are
united by one common object. We know each other, and love each other; because we
can together weep, and work, and pray, in behalf of the suffering and enslaved. The
address I have received at your hands points to the late victorious struggle in the cause
of freedom for our Colonies. It was in that struggle we became acquainted, and it
was our triumph in that struggle which led to our union for the overthrow of slavery
throughout the world. (Cheers. Ours is no party attachment. We meet not here
to applaud and sustain each other as Whigs or Tories, Voluntaries or friends of Es-
tablishments—No! we stand firm, united, and inseparable—irrespective of creeds and
dogmas—upon the broad, and universally recognised principles of humanity, morality,
and religion. (Immense applause.) I have not time, Sir, to dwell upon the many
topics introduced into the able and very flattering address which you have just presented
to me. Upon one, however, I may crave permission to say a word. The address ex.
presses gratitude to God for my deliverance from the many dangers to which I was
exposed, while pleading the cause of the slave in America. With that part of the ad-
dress I most devoutly concur : my preservation from the many plots devised for my de-
struction calls for my deepest gratitude, and lays me under the most solemn obligations


SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS.
Yours,
true New Englander loves. I have no time to give you a detailed account of Mr
Thompson's address. It was listened to with deep, often breathless attention; and
not a sentiment escaped his lips, although he spoke with matchless rapidity, to which
any friend of man or of America could object.
R.
East Abington, Oct. 15. 1835.
P.S. I was happy to hear, as we were coming out of meeting, several invitations
given to Mr THOMPSON by the people of the adjoining towns, to come thither also and
address them. I mention this, that you city folks may know the spirit of the country
people is rising.
Mr THOMPSON then proceeded to give a deeply interesting account of a riot in the
town of Concord, New Hampshire, where he narrowly escaped falling into the hands
of a murderous mob. As we regret that we are not able to report this part of Mr
THOMPson's address, we extract from the Liberator, an amusing and interesting
letter upon the same subject. It is from the pen of the American Quaker poet, who
was the friend and companion of Mr Thompson upon that occasion.
LETTER FROM MR WHITTIER.
“ Boston, 9th, 9th mo. 1835.
“Dear Friend,„In my hasty meeting with thee on 2d day last, I had not an oppor-
tunity to comply with thy request, viz. to furnish thee with a verbal account of the
disturbances in Concord, N. H. on the night of the 4th inst. A friend has just handed
me the Boston papers, containing some incorrect statements, in reference to the
affair, and therefore in extreme haste I write thee a line in explanation, that thou
mayst have the whole of it. A regular meeting of the Concord Anti-Slavery Society
was announced on the morning of the 4th inst. and it was stated that GEORGE THOMP-
SON and myself were expected to be present and address the audience. This annunciation
of myself was altogether unknown to me until late in the evening. I am, heart and
soul, an Abolitionist, but by no means a speaking one. Had a meeting been held,
I should have certainly attended it, for I am democrat enough to love the friends of
freedom and equality everywhere. However, the select men, alarmed by certain
belligerent appearances in the street, thought proper to close the doors of the Town
Hall, and thus prevent the intended meeting. But the sovereign mob were not to be
put off thus easily. They had gathered together for a mob_they had drunk themselves
into a state of remarkable patriotism—they had come to the rescue of the Constitution
and the laws of the land—they had sworn vengeance against the Abolitionists, and
vengeance they meant to have. Just at dusk, in company with C. Hong, a member
of the Society of Friends, and J. H. KIMBAL, Editor of the Herald, I passed near
a large multitude congregated in the principal street of the town. The good people
were lashing each other into a fine phrenzy—cursing the Abolitionists, as Federalists,
&c. The cry was raised “ To George Kent's and the wine in his cellar! Fearing an
attack upon our friend's house, we turned to go back and give warning of the danger.
But our friends, the mobites, followed us, and insisted that I, notwithstanding my Quaker
coat, must be the identical incendiary and fanatic, Geo. THOMPSON. A regular
shower of harmless curses followed, and soon after another equally harmless shower of
stones. These missiles were hurled with considerable force, and might have done us
some injury, had not those who projected them, been somewhat overdone by their
patriotic exertions in drinking destruction to the Abolitionists.
In order to escape this somewhat unique attempt to Macadamize us—this granite
specimen of the hospitality of the Granite State-we entered the house of the Hon.
Wm. A. Kent, who, together with the Rev. Mr THOMAS, the Unitarian Clergyman,
and an Abolitionist, assured the stormy and somewhat obstreperous multitude without,
that they had mistaken their man, and that GEORGE THOMPSON was not in the house.
After some little delay the cry of " Onward” was given, and the unwieldy mass moved
up the street to the beautiful mansion of Geo. KENT, Esq. Here they commenced
shouting at the top of their voices, as if they expected the solid walls of the edifice
before them to fall like those of Jericho. Their yells at this period were absolutely
infernal. For miles around they “ made the night hideous.”
" It was as if the fiends that fell
Had pealed the banner cry of Hell !"
After throwing a few stones at the house and after poisoning the very atmosphere


48
SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS. :
around them with obscenity and blasphemy, those “ friends of the Constitution and
the rights of our Southern brethren” retired. Geo. Thompson on the first appear-
ance of the mob left the house and proceeded by a back street towards the town, and
did not return until they had left the premises of our friend KENT. After parad.
ing the town for an hour or two, refreshed with “ Deacon Giles' best,” and provided
with drums, fifes, &c. they once more returned, and once more, to use the words of
Milton,
"A furious noise environed us
Of owls and cuckoos, asses, apes, and dogs,"
and then these guardians of constitutional rights retired upon their laurels :-
“ The King of France with fifty thousand men,
Marched up the hill, and then marched down again.”
From two o'clock until nearly sunrise, the glorious rescue of the Constitution from
the onslaught of the Abolitionists, was celebrated by the discharge of cannon! We
left our kind and warm-hearted friends, GEORGE KENT and his lady, with their ami-
able and excellent visitors, early in the morning in company with Rev. Mr PUTNAM
of Dunbarton; and all further proceedings, although unknown to myself, will doubt-
less be officially published in a glorious and glowing deseription of the preservation of
the Union-by a mob!
I think I can account for the mob at Concord. It was not any abstract hatred of
Abolition principles—for they are the principles of Jeffersonian democracy—and those
upon which the Constitution of New Hampshire rests. Not any particular hatred of
Geo. THOMPSON—the mob had never seen him-never heard him. Nomit was
got up, without a question, for political effect—to convince the South that the hard-
working democracy of New Hampshire was hand and glove with the slaveholding
democracy of Virginia and the Carolinas to enable Ritchie of the Enquirer to point
exultingly to the “ putting down of the fanatics,” by the friends of Van Buren.
In this State ancient federalism has put on the harness with HARRISON Gray Oris at
its head-Otis, the man whose parricidal arm was withered when he raised it against
his country in the hour of her extremest need to enable the Richmond Whig to assure
his slave-holding patrons that the professed friends of Daniel Webster are ready to
cast him aside and unite, in supporting the slaveholder's candidate_Judge White.
Consequently the Abolitionists are exposed to two fires. Both of the great political parties
are cursing us "by bell, book, and candle,” in eager competition with each other-
for political effect--to gull the South. It will not avail. The South will not be de-
ceived. The slaveholder sees the true nature of the Northern mobs and Anti-Abo-
lition Meetings. He asks for more—he demands legislative action. This he cannot
have.- Who dares in the Legislature of Massachusetts to attempt the resurrection of
the OLD SEDITION LAW from its grave of ignominy—to call it out from its abode
of curses to fetter the free soul of New England ? No one. What, then, will all these
wire-worked and heartless Anti-Abolition movements here amount to ? Depend upon
it, they will but accelerate the cause of universal Emancipation !
In haste, truly thy friend, John G. Whittier.
Mr THOMPSON, after giving various other instances of the exhibition of popular
feeling towards himself and the friends of Abolition, resumed his seat amidst repeated
cheers.
At the close of Mr Thompson's address, the business of the evening was
relieved by another brief period of relaxation, during which fruit was
handed round and conversation freely indulged in, the band in the mean
while playing some of the most spirit-stirring and favourite of our na-
tional airs. Business having been again resumed, Mr THOMPSON once more
presented himself to the meeting, and said,
Mr CHAIRMAN-I should feel that I had not done my duty on this joyous occasion, if
I did not, before parting, bring under the notice of those who hear me a name indis-
solubly connected with the cause of Immediate and Universal Emancipation—a name
which, through coming ages, will be dear to every friend of humanity and freedom-the
name of William LLOYD GARRISON—(Tremendous cheering)—the talented, the heroic
the uncompromising, the successful champion of the inalienable rights of man. (Renewed
plaudits.) I may not hope to do justice to the name I have mentioned—the moral


SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS.
49
worth, the unbending integrity, the deep devotion to the cause of liberty, the almost
unparalleled sacrifices, and the unexampled achievements of William Lloyd GAR-
Rison, demand a tongue more eloquent than mine, though human eloquence could not
be coupled with a warmer affection than that which I cherish for my beloved friend.
(Cheers.) It is with sorrow and indignation equally mixed that I call to mind the
cruel injustice done to the character of this inestimable man when his name was first
made known in this country. We were taught to regard him as a madman, an incen-
diary, a pestilent fellow, the fit companion of felons, the guilty inmate of a dungeon.
I confess that my own mind was poisoned, and many others besides myself were led to
think of WilLIAM LLOYD GARRISON as of one scarcely fit to live the fomenter of
sedition and bloodshed. I thank God I now know this man. I have watched him,
looked into his spirit, mixed with those who have known him from his youth up, I have
laboured with him, have heard him in public and in private, have seen him in his most
unbended hours, know the estimation in which he is held by thousands in his own land,
have talked with great numbers who have been converted by his writings, I have, more-
over, read with a jealous eye all his works within my reach, and the result of the whole
is, a deep conviction in my mind that there breathes not a purer, nobler, more exalted
friend of the human race than William LLOYD GARRISON. (Great cheering.)
Knowing him and loving him myself, I naturally desire that you should know him and
love him also : and, as to know him is to love him, I shall to-night endeavour to bring
you acquainted with him, and then submit a resolution which has been placed in my
hands. Mr Thompson then went into a minute and deeply affecting history of the la-
bours and sufferings of this distinguished advocate of the oppressed. After tracing him
from his birth to his connection with the amiable and indefatigable friend of the Negro,
Benjamin Lundy, whom he joined in the conduct of a newspaper called the Genius of
Universal Emancipation, Mr Thompson stated, that for writing an article condemna-
tory of the slave-trade as carried on in America, and introducing the name of an india
vidual who had participated in the horrid traffic, Mr GARRISON was indicted for a libel,
and, being found guilty, was thrown into a jail in Baltimore, there to remain until he
paid a fine of a thousand dollars,—that ARTHUR TAPPAN of New York paid the fine
and redeemed Mr GARRISON, who immediately commenced lecturing upon the subject
of abolition, and in January 1830 put forth the first number of the Liberator newspa-
per. Mr THOMPSON described the effect produced by the lectures of Mr GARRISON
and the publication of the Liberator, and noticed particularly, the great service rendered
to the cause by Mr GARRISON's “ Thoughts on African Colonization.” Mr THOMPSON
also intimated, amidst loud cheering, his intention of going fully into the merits of the
Colonization Society in a lecture to be devoted to that subject as desired, and which, he
trusted, he would have an opportunity of delivering on some future occasion. Mr
THOMPSON spoke in the highest terms of the prudence and sound judgment of Mr
GARRISON, and expressed his full belief that the course Mr GARRISON had pursued
was the one best calculated to promote the great object he had in view. He (Mr
THOMPSON) knew no man by whose counsel he could more readily walk than Mr GAR-
RISON's. He had invariably found him thoughtful, cautious, and enlightened in refe-
rence to the adoption of any new measure ; and he could sincerely say that he had ne-
ver known him err in his advice. After expressing a hope, which was loudly cheered,
that Mr GARRISON would one day afford his many affectionate and admiring friends in
Scotland the pleasure of seeing him,
· Mr THOMPSON proposed the following resolution, which was received
with the most enthusiastic applause :-
· Resolved, That this meeting do express their deep sense of the debt which the friends
of Universal Emancipation owe to William LLOYD Garrison of Boston, Massachu-
setts, who, through years of reproach, and danger, and persecution, has remained the
undaunted, unwearied, and Christian-minded champion of the cause of his suffering and
enslaved countrymen.
The motion was seconded by the Rev. CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON, who
spoke nearly as follows:-
Mr CHAIRMAN, --There is certainly no one present who can remain uninte-
D


50
SOIREE IN ASSEMBLY ROOMS.
rested or unaffected by the account we have just heard of Mr Garrison. I had not
intended saying a single word this evening ; but when requested by you, Sir, before
Mr Thompson rose, to second this motion, I felt then, and more so now, that I must
not, could not, merely second it. I happen to be one of those who, in this city, heard
Mr GARRISON referred to in the manner described, and it was in this way my at.
tention was first directed to his character and exertions. With both, however, I soon
became fully and accurately acquainted, and 1 afterwards had the pleasure of his ac-
quaintance in London, as well as the gratification of conveying him down to Westmin-
ster Abbey to attend the funeral and the grave of WILBERFORCE. (Cheers.) I can
therefore bear witness to the artless and child-like simplicity of his character; but now
that we have had his whole example and exertions set before us, I cannot help feeling
that the most solemn responsibility stands connected with our being made so fully ac-
quainted with his entire history. Example is more powerful than precept; and I do
hope that all present, and more especially the young amongst us, will here observe the
noble consequences resulting from a most stedfast and unflinching adherence to mercy
and truth in the path of duty, and an entire renunciation of the baneful, the cursed
doctrine of expediency as applied to morals. (Great applause.)
In reference to Mr Garrison, however, there is still another consideration which
demands our most serious and immediate regard. Let us observe the position in which
he now stands, and ours also in connexion with him. We approve of his exertions,
and desire to encourage him. We, as a nation, have abolished slavery, and he speaks
of us as “the only land of the free.” But let us not forget, Sir, that the Americans
are most sensitively alive to every evil or defect in our proceedings, and the appren-
ticeship, as it has been called, remains. (Hear, hear.) They watch over the evils
said to be resulting from our proceedings in the West Indies, and it is well for us that
they do so. Hence every evil, cruelty, or defect, the anti-abolitionists of America
will glean up and insert in their newspapers, and these paragraphs will circulate
throughout every State of the Union. I was, therefore, pleased to hear you, Sir,
our Chairman, allude to this apprenticeship, and that, too, as the only remaining
head of a monster-that it must be dealt with as the other heads of the slave trade, and
slavery itself has been—it must be cut off. While such enormities are still practised,
are we to be deluded by the mere change of a word? More especially when such cruel-
ties are sufficient to banish the very terms of apprentice and apprenticeship from our
English vocabulary. (Cheers.) But, then, Sir, in the mean while, in what a state
or position does this system place Mr GARRISON, the uncompromising abolitionist of
America-weakening his hands, as well as preventing the force and consistency of re-
monstrance on our part ? I should not be at all surprised if soon, in an American news.
paper sent across to us, we should find an article, headed in capital letters, with these
words, “ BRITISH APPRENTICESHIP versus AMERICAN SLAVERY," taunting us with
our inconsistency. The town of Birmingham has already, I rejoice to say, taken up
the subject, and spoken out on the cruelties perpetrating under the prostituted name of
Apprenticeship, and I trust that our attention will immediately be directed to this re-
maining evil. (Cheers.)
Approving, therefore, as I do, of the motion just made by our valued friend Mr
THOMPSON, as some feeble token of our admiration of Mr GARRISON's generous, he-
roic, and praiseworthy example and exertions, I beg leave most cordially to second it.
(Renewed applause.)
The Resolution was then put from the Chair and carried unanimously.
On the motion of W. Beilby, Esq. M.D. thanks were voted by acclama-
tion to the Committee and Stewards, for the admirable arrangements that
had been made for the accommodation of the meeting, and for the excel-
lent skill with which the whole had been conducted. Mr WIGham jun.
in the name of the Committee and Stewards, acknowledged the vote.
On the motion of the Rev. W. ANDERSON of Loanhead, seconded by
Mr THOMPSON, thanks were voted to Dr GREVILLE for his excellent con-
duct as Chairman, which the latter duly acknowledged.