Some Recollections of Our Antislavery ConflictMay, Samuel J. (Samuel Joseph)
History
Some Recollections of Our Antislavery Conflict
May, Samuel J. (Samuel Joseph)
Antislavery movements -- United States
Mr. Lunt here broke out again. “Be careful, sir, what you say. The
committee will not submit to it.” Mr. Bond replied: “I certainly have
no wish to say anything unpleasant to the committee, but I cannot
help regretting the course that has been taken to withhold a full
hearing from the parties interested. They came here through their
memorial, which had been received by the Legislature and referred to
this committee, and I expected that the committee would have allowed
them to say what they pleased, using proper language. If they state
their case improperly, it will injure them and not the committee. I
may be wrong, but I regret to see the grounds given for the gentlemen
and their friends to say they have been denied a hearing. The action
on this question here is of immense importance in the influence it may
have, not only upon those who have appeared before the committee, but
upon the Legislature, the community, the Commonwealth, and the whole
country.” When Mr. Bond had closed, instead of proffering to us a
further hearing, the committee broke up without a formal adjournment,
the Chairman immediately retiring, conscious, as it seems to me he
must have been, of the very general indignation which his conduct had
excited. Just as he was leaving, Mr. Moseley, one of the committee,
said to him, “I am not satisfied with your course. You have been wrong
from the beginning. I will not sit again on such a committee.”
The large audience retired from the hall murmuring their astonishment,
shame, indignation at the conduct of the Chairman. Many gentlemen and
ladies, who had never shown us favor before, came to assure us that
they had been led, by what they had heard and seen that afternoon, to
take a new view of the importance of the great reform we were laboring
to effect.
Nothing, however, gratified us so much as seeing Dr. Channing approach
Mr. Garrison, whom until then he had appeared to avoid, shake him
cordially by the hand, and utter some words of sympathy. From that time
until his death the larger portion of his publications were upon the
subject of slavery, increasing in earnestness and power to the last.
The conduct of the committee, especially the Chairman, was severely
censured next day in the Senate by Hon. Mr. Whitmarsh, and other
members of that body. Reports of our interviews were published
and republished throughout the Commonwealth, and called out from
almost every part of it condemnatory comments. Many were brought
over to the antislavery faith, and our party became not a little
significant in the estimation of the politicians. Governor Everett’s
too evident inclination to yield to the insolent demands of the
slaveholding oligarchy damaged him seriously in the confidence of
his fellow-citizens, and, if I remember correctly, at the very next
election he was beaten by the opposing candidate, whose sentiments on
slavery were thought to be more correct than his.
HON. JAMES G. BIRNEY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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