'There is not a sane man in the free states, who does not wish the
world rid of slavery.' This Mr. B. states as his conviction, page 15.
Perhaps it is correct, but if so, there are a great many _insane_ men
in the free states, or a great many who have a very strange way of
manifesting their wishes. The fact is notorious, that Northern men who
remove to the South, almost uniformly become slaveholders the moment
their convenience or pecuniary interest can thereby be promoted.
On page 20, Mr. B. accuses Garrison of having written placards to stir
up a mob against him, when he lectured in Boston, in behalf of
colonization. A charge more utterly false was never made, and it
requires a great exercise of charity to believe that Mr. B. did not
know its falsehood. It will have been seen that Mr. Thompson
challenged proof of the accusation, but none was produced except the
word of the accuser--evidence on which, any reader who compares his
assertions in several other instances, with facts, will place very
little reliance.
Another of Mr. B's accusations against 'some of the friends of the
Anti-Slavery Society,' is, that they procured a writ to take the two
'African princes,' who had been sent to the Maryland Colonization
Society to be educated, and that Elizur Wright was the instigator of
the measure, on pretence that the boys had been kidnapped. See page
20. The truth of this matter as given in the Emancipator, on Mr.
Wright's authority, is that, on learning that two native African boys,
supposed to be slaves, were on board a schooner in New York harbor,
bound for Baltimore, Mr. Wright made inquiries on board, and could
only learn that they were brought from Africa by a passenger, and
consigned to some one in Baltimore. To make sure of the means of
prosecuting a legal inquiry, a writ was obtained, but as soon as Mr.
W. discovered that the lads were sent to this country to be educated,
he ordered the officer _not to serve it_.
The next slanderous charge uttered by the reverend delegate is, that
Elizur Wright tried to stir up a mob to liberate a fugitive slave
confined in New York prison. The story of course is wholly false.
In the second evening's discussion, Mr. B. says, page 34, the
admission of a clause into the Constitution prohibiting the abolition
of the slave trade for twenty years, 'was one of the brightest virtues
in the escutcheon of America,' A dark escutcheon, then, must be hers,
if the protection of the slave trade for twenty years is the
'brightest' spot on it. The 'importation of such persons,' &c.
(meaning slaves,) 'shall _not_ be prohibited prior to 1808,' says the
Constitution, 'The brightest virtue in her escutcheon!' exclaims Mr.
Breckinridge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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