Volume IV Part 14 (1/2)

The feeling of the community towards these people, and the contempt with which they are treated, are indicated by the following notice, lately published by the proprietors of a menagerie, in New York.

”The proprietors wish it to be understood, that people of color are not permitted to enter, _except when in attendance upon children and families_.” For two s.h.i.+llings, any white scavenger would be freely admitted, and so would negroes, provided they came in a capacity that marked their dependence--their presence is offensive, _only_ when they come as independent spectators, gratifying a laudable curiosity.

Even death, the great leveller, is not permitted to obliterate, among Christians, the distinction of caste, or to rescue the lifeless form of the colored man from the insults of his white brethren. In the porch of a Presbyterian Church, in Philadelphia, in 1837, was suspended a card, containing the form of a deed, to be given to purchasers of lots in a certain burial ground, and to enhance the value of the property, and to entice buyers, the following clause was inserted, ”No person of _color_, nor any one who has been the subject of _execution_, shall be interred in said lot.”

Our colored fellow-citizens, like others, are occasionally called to pa.s.s from one place to another; and in doing so are compelled to submit to innumerable hards.h.i.+ps and indignities. They are frequently denied seats in our stage coaches; and although admitted upon the _decks_ of our steam boats, are almost universally excluded from the cabins. Even women have been forced, in cold weather, to pa.s.s the night upon deck, and in one instance the wife of a colored clergyman lost her life in consequence of such an exposure.

The contempt poured upon these people by our laws, our churches, our seminaries, our professions, naturally invokes upon their heads the fierce wrath of vulgar malignity. In order to exhibit the actual condition of this portion of our population, we will here insert some _samples_ of the outrages to which they are subjected, taken from the ordinary public journals.

In an account of the New York riots of 1834, the _Commercial Advertiser_ says--”About twenty poor African (native American) families, have had their all destroyed, and have neither bed, clothing, nor food remaining. Their houses are completely eviscerated, their furniture a wreck, and the ruined and disconsolate tenants of the devoted houses are reduced to the necessity of applying to the corporation for bread.”

The example set in New York was zealously followed in Philadelphia.

”Some arrangement, it appears, existed between the mob and the white inhabitants, as the dwelling houses of the latter, contiguous to the residences of the blacks, were illuminated and left undisturbed, while the huts of the negroes were singled out with unerring certainty. The furniture found in these houses was generally broken up and destroyed--beds ripped open and their contents scattered in the streets.... The number of houses a.s.sailed was not less than twenty. In one house there was a _corpse, which was thrown from the coffin, and in another a dead infant was taken out of the bed, and cast on the floor, the mother being at the same time barbarously treated_.”--_Philadelphia Gazette_.

”No case is reported of an attack having been _invited_ or _provoked_ by the residents of the dwellings a.s.sailed or destroyed. The extent of the depredations committed on the _three_ evenings of riot and outrage can only be judged of by the number of houses damaged or destroyed. So far as ascertained, this amounts to FORTY-FIVE. One of the houses a.s.saulted was occupied by an unfortunate cripple--who, unable to fly from the fury of the mob, was so beaten by some of the ruffians, that he has since died in consequence of the bruises and wounds inflicted ... For the last two days the Jersey steam boats have been loaded with numbers of the colored population, who, fearful their lives were not safe in this, determined to seek refuge in another State. On the Jersey side, tents were erected, and the negroes have taken up a temporary residence, until a prospect shall be offered for their perpetual location in some place of security and liberty.”--_National Gazette_.

The facts we have now exhibited, abundantly prove the extreme cruelty and sinfulness of that prejudice against color which we are impiously told is an ORDINATION OF PROVIDENCE. Colonizationists, a.s.suming the prejudice to be natural and invincible, propose to remove its victims beyond its influence. Abolitionists, on the contrary, remembering with the Psalmist, that ”It is HE that hath made us, and not we ourselves,” believe that the benevolent Father of us all requires us to treat with justice and kindness every portion of the human family, notwithstanding any particular organization he has been pleased to impress upon them. Instead, therefore, of gratifying and fostering this prejudice, by continually banis.h.i.+ng from our country those against whom it is directed, Abolitionists are anxious to destroy the prejudice itself; feeling, to use the language of another, that--”It is time to recognize in the humblest portions of society, partakers of our nature with all its high prerogatives and awful destinies--time to remember that our distinctions are _exterior_ and evanescent, our resemblance real and permanent--that all is transient but what is moral and spiritual--that the only graces we can carry with us into another world, are graces of divine implantation, and that amid the rude incrustations of poverty and ignorance there lurks an imperishable jewel--a SOUL, susceptible of the highest spiritual beauty, destined, perhaps, to adorn the celestial abodes, and to s.h.i.+ne for ever in the mediatorial diadem of the Son of G.o.d--_Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones_.”

No. 13.

THE ANTI-SLAVERY EXAMINER.

CAN ABOLITIONISTS VOTE OR TAKE OFFICE UNDER THE UNITED STATES CONSt.i.tUTION?

”The preservation, propagation, and perpetuation of slavery is the vital and animating spirit of the National Government.”

NEW YORK: AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, 142 Na.s.sAU STREET

1815.

INTRODUCTION.

The American Anti-Slavery Society, at its Annual Meeting in May, 1844, adopted the following Resolution:

_Resolved_, That secession from the present United States government is the duty of every abolitionist; since no one can take office, or throw a vote for another to hold office, under the United States Const.i.tution, without violating his anti-slavery principles, and rendering himself an abettor of the slaveholder in his sin.

The pa.s.sage of this Resolution has caused two charges to be brought against the Society: _First_, that it is a _no-government_ body, and that the whole doctrine of non-resistance is endorsed by this vote:--and _secondly_, that the Society transcended its proper sphere and const.i.tutional powers by taking such a step.

The logic which infers that because a man thinks the Federal Government bad, he must necessarily think _all_ government so, has at least, the merit and the charm of novelty. There is a spice of arrogance just perceptible, in the conclusion that the Const.i.tution of these United States is so perfect, that one who dislikes it could never be satisfied with any form of government whatever!

Were O'Connell and his fellow Catholics non-resistants, because for two hundred years they submitted to exclusion from the House of Lords and the House of Commons, rather than qualify themselves for a seat by an oath abjuring the Pope? Were the _non-juring_ Bishops of England non-resistants, when they went down to the grave without taking their seats in the House of Lords, rather than take an oath denying the Stuarts and to support the House of Hanover? Both might have purchased power at the price of one annual falsehood. There are some in this country who do not seem to think that price at all unreasonable. It were a rare compliment indeed to the non-resistants, if every exhibition of rigid principle on the part of an individual is to make the world suspect him of leaning towards their faith.

The Society is not opposed to government, but only to _this_ Government based upon and acting for slavery.

With regard to the second charge, of exceeding its proper limits and trespa.s.sing on the rights of the minority, it is enough to say, that the object of the American Anti-Slavery Society is the ”entire abolition of slavery in the United States.” Of course it is its duty to find out all the sources of pro-slavery influence in the land. It is its right, it is its duty to try every inst.i.tution in the land, no matter how venerable, or sacred, by the touchstone of anti-slavery principle; and if it finds any one false, to proclaim that fact to the world, with more or less of energy, according to its importance in society. It has tried the Const.i.tution, and p.r.o.nounced it unsound.