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like tliat against which we protested . Now we uttered no threat , but a warning derived from the past , and we believe our warning to be perfectly accurate . If men sink in misfortune , and are subjected to galling language , they will not forget that language at times when trouble and disorder endow the lowest orders with great but transient powers . We have no retractation to make on that head ; but if the employing class of Bradford are moving amongst their fellowcountrymen of the working class , with a sincere and frank determination to aid them , and not to coerce them , no writing from a distance can counteract the beneficial effect of such brotherly co-op eration .
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POLICY AND SPEECHES OF THE ANTISLAVEKY LEADERS . We groan under the weight of discussions on universalism . To be something general and nothing in particular , is the ambition of the modern publicist . Congealed , as we have been , within the frozen ch-cles of petty parties , there is something to applaud in the more catholic aspirations of these days , did not the universalist mistake the way of realizing his object . He modifies , qualifies , and tampers with his own truth , so as to make it acceptable to everybody : whereas he should keep his truth one , clear , and intact , and study the arts of making it understood by everybody . The form of error here pointed out is chiefly European . The more direct and dashing propagandism of our American brethren is commonly exempt from the sin of qualification . There are , indeed , spread over the States groups of sentimental and transcendental Reformers , who do the universal with so much . success , that they go the length , theoretically , of obliterating the distinctions which certain sectarian Naturalists have set up , between man and the " brute creation . " But our Anti-slavery friends are utterly free from this
fault . They raise a noble and generous , a frank , explicit , and unchangeable cry for the emancipation of the negro population . For this they deserve applause , sympathy , and what of help can be rendered from the uttermost bounds of the earth . But we cannot say that they are equally meritorious in point of rhetorical skill . Jn the remarks lately submitted , in this journal , on the Temperance advocacy , the chief friends of that cause have failed , as the writer expected they would , to
distinguish the difference between criticism with a contempt and criticism with a sympathy . There is more hope that the friends of the Abolition of negro slavery will judge these papers in a different spirit . In the face of that terrible opposition which the friend of the negro confronts in America , it would be a , crime to write one word intended to discourage Lloyd Garrison , Henry C . Wright , Wendell , Phillips , and others , whose valorous Immunity redeems America in the eyes of the patriots of Kurope .
But an humble , a distant , yet an earnest interest in the same cause , entitles us to analyze the nature of that advocacy which , by excess of denunciation , hushes ( he voice of reason and Immunity in ; i roar of antagonism , and enables unrighteous interest to set tip ; i somewhat plausible , defence of its appalling cupidity . In treating this . subject , we shall not hesitate to ground our argument on : i reference to the Anti-Slavery
literature of America . The most disparaging invective , the bit / eres / , personal ( lenuneiulion , are the characteristics of that literature . It is not necessary to quote many instances . The allegation will not be denied . On the contrary , there is more reason to fear that the invective im < l the denunciation will be defended . lOrrors of policy and errors of speech will be both held up for imitation . ( Harrison would have Kossuth ally himself to the
Anti-Slavery party suid denounce halt ol America , although KosHuth ' s cuiise demanded ait aggregategiympafhy of the States , It , might he an error of judgment . in the Hungarian not . to confine his appeal to the I'Yee States , but , ( jjirrison and his friends proceed in lonjr letters * articles , and speeches , reported in the liberator , to write Kossuth down . ( iurrisou represents him ( Kossuth ) us corrupted mid terrified by slavery ' s influence—as playing the part of a political Cain !*
Apparently wounded , as well be might , he by this species of unexpected antagonism , the Kx- << overnor declares that . he Will never interfere in the question . Struck at by the enemies of freedom in America , and nlruck at by I lie ^ iflaid ^ f freedom there , the gnat Magyar is destroyed \ $ t ^ lTih ^** r \ 4 iilSii'Ui disheartening spectacle , an , ^ rijjta--7 > F 7 |^ flJ »! r ^ i < l jwitriotH . ( Jarrison and Weu-. - ' -, / iuSii PhMli ^ W ^ J \ ns ( -ieiit , i <) iis enthusiasm , do the y /^* T (^ ' ^ lff ^ W « wWrH . The eloquent chief is barely r % i&w %£ ? m ^ mw" »*• |<> »*'' li (! iiii - llt h ° i ' l () pO * ftiii ^ fiw ;^ M | y ^» ni « i »'' ' <| ' wh ( : i 1 '"¦ ' ""' '" ° ' \ -WSPlni tl ^ liCHU- ^ fiSJlH his career and mars bis
unsullied fame . Because he does not pronounce their war-cry as well as his own , they sow distrust of his integrity , and doubts of his bravery . They declare that the Slave States can have no real sympathy with the Hungarian advocate , and will neutralize his influence , and they ( the Abolitionist party ) do what they can to diminish his influence in the Free States , and thus play into the hands of the Slaveholders . Whereas the Abolitionists might have regretted that Kossuth did not see his way clear to denouncing the legislative slavery taint of America , and proceeded to show , what is really the case , that all the speeches of the great
orator on American possessions of interest in the cause of freedom abroad , were but magnificent satires on the toleration of slavery at home . By this more patient and catholic policy , Kossuth would have been a power in the hands of the Abolitionists , while they would have augmented his just influence . The more masterly the eulogy of freedom is pronounced , and the more the love of it is commended to the pop ular instinct , the more is augmented the most powerful argument that can be addressed to the human intellect—the argument of consistency in favour of freedom for all . Every act of Kossuth ' s life , every word spoken by him , was a blow
struck at American slavery . But by denouncing him and lowering his influence , his friends were put at issue with the advocates of the nesrro cause , and their influence began also to be abridged : because Kossuth ' s friends saw no capacity in them to accept the opportunities of the hour , but rather an impetuous disposition to make war upon all who did not full in with their notions of duty , and act precisely as they would have them . The antagonisms of the Abolitionists was saying practically to Kossuthif you will not help us as we prescribe we will not help you . If you do not aid us personally to strike off the fetters of the black slave we will rivet faster the fetters
of the Hungarian peasant . This was not intended , but -it was done . This was not said in so many words , but this was the result of the Liberators' policy . It was in effect to say , that Hungary must groan in Austrian bondage to the last hour of American injustice . This was the practical answer given to Kossuth by Lloyd Garrison ' s disparaging parallel between O'Connell and Kossuth , which appears in-the Liberator . The world will think that the noble suppliant deserved a different response . Magyar bravery and sacrifices for freedom ought to have been sure and unqualified passports to the hearts of tho ^ e who have chanted so many brave lays in honour of liberty . How much more wisely conceived were the lofty words with which Ralph Waldo Emerson welcomed the Magyar Chief to Concord : —
" Far be it from us , sir , any tone of patronage ; we ought rather to ask yours . We know the austere condition of liberty—that it must be reconquered over and over again ; yea , day by day ; that it is a state of war ; that it is always slipping from those who boast it , to those who fight for it ; and you , the foremost soldier of freedom , in this aye—it is for us to crave your judgment—who a re we . that toe should dictate to you ?"
But let us puss from the question of policy to one of speech . In the Liberator of June 29 th last ( a paper which we took up at random to see what was going on ) , llenrv C . Wright thus . speaks in allusion to the course taken by the religious bo'dies of America with reference to slavery : " The great religious bodies have more openly than ever confederated with thieves , and become partakers with adulterers . '" If , after so many years of experience , Mr . Wright pens these words , and Mr . Garrison publishes them , the inference is , that this is not the worst , specimen of this style of writing thut could be selected . The epithets " thieves" and " adulterers "
are properly applicable only to those whom the law brands wifh these ollences , and to apply them without qualification or modification to bodies of men , especially to religious bodies of men , is utterly to ignore ! the law and propriety . We say propriety advisedly . Propriety in this case will be smiled at , scorned at . But mark the result . The moment the advocate of humanity entirely ignores law and propriety in his assaults on wrong , his opponents ant free to act in the same way in ( heir self-defence , and forthwith argument is drowned in torrents of niutuul epithets , criminative and recriminative-. and . what is worse , the slaveholder mid
the jtistilier of slave-holding , is relieved from the defence of ( heir acts , and is enabled to juin issue upon the tone and . spirit of their assailants' language ; and in what . should be the solemn issue of a great argument the public only . see a furious personal scandal . If the Abolitionist intend to fight the . slave-holding party all this is intelligible . Hoiuidless invective , unappeasable rage , and excited feeling , me perhaps the necessary preludes to war ; but if slavery is to be exterminated by the nobler art h of reason and humanity , the criminative tone of the Abolitionists is not ho intelligible as one could wish it . The great riiHgiouc . bodieH art ) powerful bodivWi JDowtf
Mr . Wright speak of them to outrage them , or to co vert , them to sounder views ? To tell them that th confederate with thieves , and partake with adultere ^ is to outrage them and set their faces against the Ab * * litionists' cause for ever . Are the Abolitionists able t * defy the great religious bodies ? If so , it matters not what Mr . Wright says of them . But if their influ ence is great , and necessary for Abolition to succeed it is merely delaying the day of emancipation thus to ad dress them . "Do they not deserve it ? " v ™ „„ " vti v . kikj v *» vfc *»« - " - ^ \ j u * . *^ v uuv VAV / OVi VC It I On
vOn " Is it not , true ? " you observe . What has that to do ' with the question ? Is the Anti-Slavery Society a s ciety for administering to slaveholders the public censure that the Abolitionist members consider they de serve ? or is it a society for winning freedom for the poor slave ? Have the anti-slavery advocates undertaken the eternal task of saying all that is true , or the more practical duty of doing all that is good ? If the real business in hand is the gratification of indi gnant feeling by denouncing and punishing oppressors , let the
endless and barren task be avowed—let the poor slave receive due notice that he may no longer grow sick by hope deferred . But if the object be the single and honourable one we have been led to believe , of winning deliverance for Afric ' s helpless children , then all this shouting of thieves and adulterers is worse than a crime —it is an error ; it is a melancholy waste of opportunit y . Considering the men and their humane motives , it is honest , conscientious , and well intended , but fatal to success nevertheless . There is a noble aphorism of Mazzini's , which , indeed , only noble souls can carry out— " Let us anathematize none , but strive to direct
all aright . " Of what infinite value to the anti-slavery cause would be the practice of this maxim ! You say this is too much to expect . Is it so ? Remember , that although unusual moral genius is required to speak well against slavery , yet Abolitionists can display examples of such genius . Who more cautioua than Channing ?—who more self-possessed than Fol-] in ?—who more quiet and patient than Prudence Crandall ? ( who opened a school for coloured girls ; her history is given , in the Martyr Age . ) Who more genei * ous to her foes , more devoid of selfish fear for herself , than Angelina Grinke ?—or Maria Chapman ? And is not Harriet Beecher Stowe greater than them all ?—she whose Uncle Tom ' s Cabin has charmed the
Old World and the New . In that inimitable book , as marvellous for its wisdom a s its humour and pathos , which you read in alternate smiles and tears , you find the most magnificent plea for Afric ' s dark sons and daughters which human genius has yet put on record ; but you find no invective there . Its aim is too high for calling names—its tone is too solemn for epithets . It does not mistrust its own power to extort a verdict . It wastes no time in pronouncing sentence itself ; it draws from the soul and intellect of the reader a douhle and enduring condemnation of slavery in every form . You mig ht have taken Webster ' s Dictionary , and
extracted every denunciation in the English language , and poured them from the hig hest altitud e of indignation , a rhetorical douche , on the head of Slavery , and it would not have produced half the effect , nor onetenth of the effect , of the quiet and temperate : doquence of this wise , moderate , and genuine book . * Before we close this argument , which we hope to «<> in another paper , Mr . Lloyd Garrison shall bo hcun 1 in his own defence ; and we will endeavour to explain t >« law , which is higher than earnestness , which outfit o govern sj ) eech .
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OHOHflE DAWHON . We believe we are breaking no confidence in divulging fact , which will interest several of our readers nt a <»« a " ^' It , in well known to most ; of them , Unit ««> rj , ' « -l "" *^ may bo considered the founder of a sect in liirininf ^ J . ' ^ ' an unquestionably be is tho Master of a chapel in w '' ^ tho moHt Catholic doctrines of Christianity rcwivo ^ fullest utterance . It is natural that , for such ll I ) r <' 11 ' ' ' ^ the members of tho congregation should conceive iU > ^ found esteem , and warm jxti'Monal affection . > " ^ case ; and an attempt in rnado to express that , fw nj ^ ^ the presentation of a portrait of their respected Mn *> '
his wife . i ( KirL'rt The idea originated with some ladies of " « ' ';"'' " , lion , who have mumitfecl the whole matter Wlt ^^^ ability and delicacy . There are cimiinHlun «« H wl" « ^ < ier IJjjh method of f . oHtifyhitf <¦•> <¦•»• ' alfoction o >
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• Our contemporary , tho Kxaminor , HityH , lhll ' () I ) 0 , m linh edition published ' by Mr . HoHWorth ih U »» < V ^^ Mu ' h Hide of the channel in tho Halo of wlucli ;(( l | , l ,, to has direct , interest .. 11 is a well printed octavo , * ( Jl () tlio library shelf , and sold at a price llkl 'V . ' ( . i lirkc , U "' imoh ! . exacting Iovoi-h of cheap hl . erat . uro . -iv . jrl , , . publinber , ndvort . iHOH that the authored has () lll | , cH | , in hi « « , < lil . ioriH . Wo ItuhI , the public wil F (|( , I 1 | , t in which Miu Wlowo is really coneormul , an < l '"' orlM is cleared up , w » > clmo to lolwve m & *¦ edition .
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H 3 £ Wi [*« 4 | yfyr , rol . XX 11 : — -No . 8 . Jb ' ob . 530 , 1862 .
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900 THE L E ADER , [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 18, 1852, page 900, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1952/page/16/
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