TIMOTHY DWIGHT. From the Poem "Greenfield Hill," dedicated to John Adams. Oft wing'd by thought I seek those Indian isles, ELIPHALET NOTT. "Whatever tends to divert the attention of any community from honest industry, and to substitute any other plan of operations for a livelihood, is an enemy to the race. Slavery does this, as its object is to tax the sweat and sinew of its victims, that its institutors and abettors may live without labor, and spend their time in idleness and luxury; it is therefore, an enemy to the peace and prosperity of any people among whom it exists; it is contrary to the order of nature, and the laws of our being and benevolence would invite to labor for its removal. In proof of his position, the Dr. clearly exhibited the striking contrast in prosperity and happiness which is so conspicuous between those sections of the world where slavery exists, and labor is avoided as direputable, and those where universal freedom and liberty reign. He pointed out the greater security for property and life, where honest labor and freedom dwell, than where an important portion of the people live upon the unrequited toil of those who groan under the yoke of interminable servitude. In the one these great interests are made safe by a healthy public sentiment, and the en. forcement of salutary laws; in the other, attempts are made to secure them by the private operation of the pistol, the dirk, and the bowie knife. Oh! for a lodge in some vast wilderness,' he cried, ending with, I would not have a slave to till my ground, to carry me and fan me while I sleep and tremble when I wake, for all the gold which sinews bought and sold have ever earned! No! dear as freedom is, and in my heart's estimation prized above all price, I would much rather be myself the slave, and wear the bonds, than fasten them on him. At the conclusion of this beautiful extract from Cowper, which was uttered in Dr. Nott's peculiar, emphatic and eloquent manner, a loud burst of applause and cheering succeeded. "He then declared, that notwithstanding these sentiments, he would not say a word to encourage the disturbance or severance of the constituted relation and connection which formed the Union, or interfere in the least degree with the rights of independent States. Although slavery was contrary to the eternal and immutable laws of our being, and therefore, retarded and opposed our true interests as a nation, yet if we of the North had, in the origin of our government agreed to give a pound of flesh, let us give it to the full extent of the bond; yet, let not those who choose to maintain this unnatural and unpropitious institution, exact of those who reject it, any greater concessions in its favor, than is contained in that bond.' Do they contend that we shall not interfere with their rights?" then let them not interfere with our rights, or complain if we use our ' speech' or our 'press' in declaring the truth concerning this unprofitable institution, for these are our birth- rights' and firmly guaran. teed inviolate too by this same bond of union."-Address to the New-York State Agricultural Society, Sept. 1841. J. T. WOODBURY-E. LEWIS-E. C. DELEVAN. JAMES T. WOODBURY. We can vote slavery down in Columbia and in our territories. "But," it is objected, "it will dissolve the Union." Mr. Birney saya, the South never will do it, for they cannot support themselves, and we are more liable to go there and fight, to keep their slaves in subjection. The slaves, if they are freed, will not come here, their labor is wanted in the South. The South do not hate the black skin with which God has covered them, as we do. "But O they smell bad." No bad smell while they are slaves; they are about the persons of their masters and mistresses, and nurse their children, and do not scent them with the bad smell, but as soon as they are free-bad smell. EVAN LEWIS. Much has been said by the advocates and apologists of slavery, about the danger of emancipation that it would be accompanied or followed by insurrections, massacres, and servile war. Now no sane man desires to turn loose upon society, a horde of ignorant men, either white or black, without the salutary restraints of law. We wish to see the assumed right of property in human flesh abolished, and the laws made for the protection, as well as for the government and restraint, of every man of every nation and color. To place every man under the protection of the law, and to abolish that licentiousness and tyranny which are now tolerated, would be to restore society to its natural order, and give every man an interest in the preservation of the peace and harmony of the community. All fear of hostility and temptations to excite insurrections, or to shed the blood of the white men, would be banished with the removal of the cause which produce them. In all cases where the experiment has been tried, [in the West Indian Islands,] our reasoning from the nature of man, and the influence which just treatment will always exert on his moral character, has been proved by universal facts. -Genius of Universal Emancipation. EDWARD C. DELEVAN. I am glad to say that I have already joined the "Anti-Slavery So ciety." I have long felt that it was my duty to do so, and I have only been deterred by the fear of injuring the cause of Temperance, with which cause you know my name has in some measure been identified. I have, in fact, been practising that kind of expediency, which I have been so ready to condemn in others, with regard to the cause of Tem perance. I have joined the "Anti-Slavery Society," for the reason that I believe it to be doing about all that is now attempted for the relief of our country from the sin of slavery, for that slavery, as it now exists in these United States is a high handed sin I have no doubt. Other societies may be doing much for Africa, and for the elevation of free colored people; but, for the final relief of our beloved country and our enslaved brethren, your society, among human instrumentalities, now seems to me the only hope. That the Anti-Slavery Society may be the instrument under God, by kind arguments and Christian entreaty, not only of enlightening the public opinion of the north as to the sin and evil of slavery, but, what is of still greater moment, of affecting the hearts of our christian brethren of the south and leading them as a matter of interest, as well as duty, to rid themselves of a curse, and our country of its deepest stain, shall be my daily prayer.-Letter to Gerrit Smith. ROBERT J. BRECKENRIDGE. Just and equal! what care I, whether my pockets are picked, or the proceeds of my labor are taken from me? What matters it whether my horse is stolen, or the value of him in my labor be taken from me? Do we talk of violating the rights of masters, and depriving them of their property in their slaves? And will some one tell us, if there be any thing in which a man has, or can have, so perfect a right of property, as in his own limbs, bones, and sinews? Out upon such folly! The man who cannot see that involuntary domestic slavery, as it exists among us, is founded upon the principle of taking by force that which is another's, has simply no moral sense. We utter but the common sentiment of mankind when we say, none ever continue slaves a moment after they are conscious of their ability to retrieve their freedom. The constant tendency for fifty years has been to accumulate the black population upon the southern states; already in some of them the blacks exceed the whites, and in most of them increase above the increase of the whites in the same states, with a ratio that is absolutely startling; [the annual increase in the United States is sixty thousand;) the slave population could bring into action a larger portion of efficient men, perfectly inured to hardships, to the climate, and privations, than any other population in the world; and they have in distant sections, and on various occasions, manifested already a desperate purpose to shake off the yoke. In such an event we ask not any heart to decide where would human sympathy and earthly glory stand; we ask not in the fearful words of Jefferson, what attribute of Jehovah would allow him to take part with us; we ask only-and the answer settles the argument-which is like to be the stronger side? Nature, and reason, and religion unite in their hostility to this system of folly and crime. How it will end, time only can reveal; but the light of heaven is not clearer than that it must end. -African Repository, Jan. 1834. FRANCIS WAYLAND. Its effects must be disastrous upon the morals of both parties. By presenting objects on whom passion can be satisfied without resistance and without redress, it cultivates in the master, pride, anger, cruelty, selfishness, and licentiousness. By accustoming the slave to subject his moral principles to the will of another, it tends to abolish in him ALONZO POTTER-WILLIAM E. CHANNING. all moral distinction, and thus fosters in him, lying, deceit, hypocrisy, dishonesty, and a willingness to yield himself up to minister to the appetite of his master-Moral Science. ALONZO POTTER. Brethren, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. This is the argument on which I would rely, in asking your charity this evening. The neglected and ill-fated race for whom I plead, are brethren with us of one family. The hand of the Creator may have imprinted on their features, a hue and complexion less delicate than ours. Man's rapacity may have torn them from their native land, and reduced them to the condition of slaves and menials here. And weighed down by oppression, bereft of hope, and having none to care for their souls, they may, too often, have sunk into vice and debasement. But, my friends, standing in this holy place in his immediate presence, who has made of one blood all the nations of the earth, and given his Son to be a ransom for the inhabitans of every one alike; I can listen to no such facts as an excuse for apathy or avarice. If this unfortunate people have a physical nature less perfect than ours, God forbid that this, their misfortune, should be imputed to them as their crime. Still they have all the attributes of men-"the same organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions. They are fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer," that a white man is.Discourse before the African School Society, Schenectady N. Y. WILLIAM E. CHANNING. With the free we are to plead his cause. And this is peculiarly our duty, because we have bound ourselves to resist his efforts for his own emancipation. We suffer him to do nothing for himself. The more, then, should be done for him. Our physical power is pledged against him in case of revolt. Then our moral power should be exerted for his relief. His weakness, which we increase, gives him a claim to the only aid we can afford, to our moral sympathy, to the free and faithful exposition of his wrongs. As men, as Christians, as citizens, we have duties to the slave, as well as to every other member of the community. On this point we have no liberty. The eternal law binds us to take the side of the injured; and this law is peculiarly obligatory, when we forbid him to lift an arm in his own defence. There is, however, there, must be, in slaveholding communities a large class which cannot be too severely condemned. There are many we fear, very many, who hold their fellow-creatures in bondage, from selfish, base motives. They hold the slave for gain, whether justly or unjustly they neither ask nor care. They cling to him as property, and have no faith in the principles which will diminish a man's wealth. They hold him, not for his own good or the safety of the state, but with precisely the same views with which they hold a laboring horse, that is, for the profit which they can wring from him. They will not hear a word of his wrongs; for, wronged or not, they will not let him |