Antislavery movements -- United States; Slavery -- United States
"For your movement on behalf of the slave, I have profound respect. I
assure you of my unfeigned sympathies and of my earnest prayers. In my
view, you deserve the high esteem of all who love and serve God.
Nothing would be deemed by me a greater honor than co-operation with
you actively in your work of faith and your labor of love. With full
consent of all that is within me, do I range myself among those who
deem American slavery not a sad misfortune, but a heinous crime: a
crime all the more heinous, because justified and even perpetrated by
men who call themselves the servants of Christ.
"I am, madam, yours respectfully,
[Illustration: (signature) William Brock]
The Frugality of Slaveholding.
There is nothing in the universe that can deserve the name or do the
work of valid LAW but the commandment and the ordinance of the living
God. All human enactments, adjudications and usages not founded on
these, are of no legal force, and should be trampled under foot. The
practice of slaveholding, for this reason, can never be legalized, and
all legislative or judicial attempts to sustain it are rebellion
against God, and treason against civil society. To teach otherwise,
would be to set up other gods above Jehovah, to promulgate the
fundamental principle of atheism, and proclaim war against the
liberties of mankind.
[Illustration: (signature) Wm. Goodell]
"Ore Perennius."
I ask no prouder inscription for my humble tomb, than "Here lies the
Friend of the Oppressed."
[Illustration: (signature) David Paul Brown Sept. 28, 1859]
The Mission of America.
BRUNSWICK, Maine, September 30, 1853.
MISS JULIA GRIFFITH,
My Dear Madam, your letter of September 23d I have received. I regret
exceedingly that it is not in my power to furnish the article you have
done me the honor to solicit, for the "Autographs for Freedom."
Particularly do I regret this now, when the great conflict between
aristocracy and democracy is about being renewed all over the
continent of Europe, and when despots are pointing with exultation to
the unparalleled enormities of our "peculiar institutions," and the
friends of republican equality, in all lands, are disheartened by our
example. Would the slaveholders of the south but consent to place
those who till their lands, under the protection of wholesome and
impartial law, and pay them honest wages, it would ere long cause
human rights to be respected in every corner of the globe. It should
be the mission of America, by the silent influence of a glorious
example, to revolutionize all despotisms. We have a vast continent to
subdue and to adorn, and we need the aid of millions more of willing
hands to accomplish the magnificent enterprise. With much esteem I am
truly yours,
[Illustration: (signature) John S. C. Abbott.]
[Illustration: Lewis Tappan, esq. (Engraved by J. C. Buttre)]
Disfellowshipping Slaveholders.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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