What this country now needs, in the opinion of the
writer, is a revival of Abolitionism, and to that
end, as one of the instrumentalities that would be
serviceable, he holds that the old National Anti-Slavery
Society should be restored. The most of the men
and women that made that institution so useful and
honorable, have passed from the scenes of their labors,
but a few of them are left, and they and such as may
feel like joining them, should meet and unfurl the
old standard once more. There may be new associations
looking to very much the same ends, but better the
old guard under the old name. It would carry
a prestige that no newer organization could command.
It would create a measure of confidence that would
be most strongly felt. The principles and policies
it should urge are few and simple.
First: Let it declare that the colored man in
this country must be permitted to enjoy all his rights
under the Constitution as it is, both political and
personal.
Second: Let it declare that all forms of servitude,
including the denial of political self-government,
under the flag, as well as under the Constitution,
must cease.
And then let it go to work for the results thus indicated,
in the spirit and with the confidence of the old-time
leaders. The Society should be revived and re-established,
not for a single campaign only, or for the rectification
of such oppressions as are now in sight, but for all
time. It ought to be made a permanent institution.
It should be so arranged that the sons would step
into the ranks as the fathers dropped out and that
new recruits would be constantly enlisted. Thus
reorganized the grand old institution would be an invaluable
watchman on the walls of Freedom’s stronghold.
The exhortation to which it should listen, is that
of the poet Bryant when he says:
“Oh
not yet
Mayst thou unloose thy corslet,
nor lay by
Thy sword, nor yet, O Freedom,
close thy lids
In slumber, for thine enemy
never sleeps.”
ANTI-SLAVERY ORATORS
George William Curtis, in one of his essays, says
that “three speeches have made the places where
they were delivered illustrious in our history—three,
and there is no fourth.” He refers to the
speech of Patrick Henry in Williamsburg, Virginia,
of Lincoln in Gettysburg, and the first address of
Wendell Phillips in Faneuil Hall.
If it was the purpose of Mr. Curtis to offer the three
notable deliverances above mentioned as the best and
foremost examples of American oratory, the author
cannot agree with him. In his opinion we shall
have but little difficulty in picking out the three
entitled to that distinction, provided we go to the
discussion of the slavery question to find them.
That furnished the greatest occasion, being with its
ramifications and developments, by far the greatest
issue with which Americans have had to deal.
