227

Art. VIII. Proceedings of the General Anti-slavery Convention held in London, 1840. [Reports of the Sun, Patriot, and Anti-slavery Reporter.]

WITHOUT waiting for the authenticated statement which

will be issued as soon as it can be satisfactorily prepared, we shall take advantage of the reports which have appeared in the public papers-we may name the Sun and the Patriot, as containing the most extended notices-to present to our readers an immediate account of the origin and proceedings of one of the most interesting and important assemblies ever convened. We are aware that errors are unavoidably incidental to newspaper reports; but those now before us will sufficiently serve our present purpose, as on the one hand of undoubted substantial accuracy, and on the other susceptible of amendment where their correctness may fail. The greater comparative utility of a prompt notice of the subject will fully justify our determination.

The British and Foreign Anti-slavery Society, the formation of which took place in the month of April, 1839, was early noticed in this journal, and commended to the readers of the Eclectic* in a manner which its subsequent proceedings have amply justified. With this Society has originated the scheme of a gathering which has created a lively interest in every quarter of the globe, and has produced a sensation, to use a technical phrase, of no slight intensity, even in a city so wearied with excitements as the metropolis of the British empire. A suggestion casually made at a meeting of the committee was the seed of this noble movement. The idea was promptly taken up, and, meeting with general concurrence, it was, after short but sufficient deliberation, converted into an element of action. Early in the autumn of last year a circular address was issued by the committee of the British and Foreign Anti-slavery Society, taking upon themselves the responsibility of inviting the friends of the slave in every land to assemble in London in the month of June, 1840, for the purpose of holding deliberations, and devising and adopting measures, conducive to the great object of extinguishing universally both slavery and the slave-trade. In this paper the committee were carefulas they have been in all their documents-to exhibit prominently that distinguishing principle of their constitution which restrains them to the use of moral, religious, and other pacific means for the attainment of their end; and this with the very proper view, of course, of providing against the contingent, and otherwise very possible introduction of questions involving the use of armed force. In papers subsequently issued, the committee explained their wish that the parties attending the convention should, generally speaking, be delegates from anti-slavery bodies; reserving to themselves,

*Sec Eclectic Review, vol. vi. p. 313.

of necessity, the power of admitting other persons, whose presence might be useful or important to the proceedings.

The announcement of this design created a wide and lively interest, not in Great Britain and Ireland only, but in France, the West Indies, and the United States; and it was soon found that it had taken a deep hold on the hearts of abolitionists throughout the world. It was not so much in the first instance, perhaps, that they saw so clearly what they would have to do as they did afterwards; but they felt that they were no longer to be a scattered body, existing as insulated individuals, or as scarcely less insulated societies, in distant regions of the world; but that at length they were to be one, manifestly united by a bond of brotherhood, and practically assured of each other's love, co-operation, and support. As a matter of generous impulse, at least, if not of rigorous calculation, it was certain to all that such an assemblage could not be without important, beneficial, and lasting results. The honorable

enthusiasm which was thus kindled in many hearts awoke also the lyre of a transatlantic bard* not meanly gifted with the fire of poesy, to whom we are happy to have an opportunity of rendering our critical homage, and from whom we shall again quote before we have done.

6

Yes, let them gather!-Summon forth
The pledged philanthropy of Earth,
From every land whose hills have heard
The bugle-blast of Freedom waking;
Or shrieking of her symbol-bird

From out his cloudy eyrie breaking.
Where Justice hath one worshipper,
Or Truth one altar built to her;
Where'er a human eye is weeping

O'er wrongs which Earth's sad children know,
Where'er a single heart is keeping

Its prayerful watch with human woe;
Thence let them come, and greet each other,

And know in each a friend and brother!'

As the period which had been fixed-the 12th of June-drew near, the interest attached to this unexampled gathering rose to a great height. Intelligence had been received that a numerous body of delegates, comprehending men of the first eminence, might be expected from the United States; that the anti-slavery societies formed in the emancipated British colonies in the West Indies had made similar appointments, in which were included the Rev. W. Knibb-a man whom the enemies of negro happiness will not permit to be obscure-and some persons who had recently been slaves; that there would be present various gentlemen who, by foreign travel, and in some cases by official situation, had be

J. G. Whittier. Linc ntitled The World's Convention, in the Antislavery Reporter, March, 1840.

come possessed of large stores of new and important information; and finally, that the originator of the anti-slavery movement in England, the venerated Thomas Clarkson, would, notwithstanding his great age and weak health, become the president of the convention. Who could resist so many attractions? Who that loved his species did not wish to take part in such an assembly? The anti-slavery societies in Great Britain and Ireland, and some bodies not strictly anti-slavery but sufficiently akin to it, did their part nobly in the appointment of delegates; and the committee were besieged with applications for the admission of other gentlemen, on the ground of the great interest they took in the proceedings. The number of persons expected to assemble, their several appointments having been reported to the committee, was five hundred and fifteen; of which number about a hundred were prevented by various causes from fulfilling their design. The convention actually consisted of four hundred and seven gentlemen. Of these three hundred and fifty-five were from different parts of Great Britain and Ireland; and fifty-two from the colonies or from foreign countries. Forty delegates represented the several American antislavery societies; and three the French anti-slavery committee. In addition to this general statement, we can scarcely content ourselves without putting on record the names of some of the more distinguished persons who formed part of this assembly; but the difficulty of knowing where to stop makes us forbear and we leave such of our readers as are curious in this matter to consult the list of delegates as printed in the papers before us. Suffice it to say that they were all determined friends of freedom, and honest lovers of their kind; and in this respect the elite of the countries from which they came.

Of the many anxious days spent by the committee in making the various arrangements necessary to the satisfactory entertainment of so many friends, and the orderly conduct of such important proceedings, we shall say nothing, beyond bearing our cheerful testimony to the general care and skill which were exercised throughout. We pass on to the meeting of the convention. The place selected for it-and it was well chosen and admirably arranged was Freemasons' Hall. From one of the papers before us we take the following account of the opening of the convention.

The Hall was densely occupied with delegates, and a considerable number of ladies (including a band of distinguished female abolitionists from the United States) as spectators, before the appointed hour on Friday; and shortly after it the venerable CLARKSON entered, supported by William Allen, Joseph Sturge, and an American delegate, to open the convention, and to be installed as its president. The sight of this hoary champion of freedom was deeply affecting. Bowed down and trembling beneath the weight of years, he seemed to claim the sympa

thy due to the feeble; while the remembrance of his unbending principles and unfailing constancy strangely blended with this feeling the admiration due to a hero. The convention received him standing, with reverence rather than applause. A lady and a child accompanied him to the platform. And who were these? The former was the widow of his son, the latter his grandchild, the sole inheritor of his name and male representative of his house. With beautiful simplicity and pathos Mr. Sturge presented the lad to the convention, and said,

"I hope I shall not be wounding in the slightest degree the delicacy of his widowed mother, in saying, that it is the dearest wish of her heart that her beloved and darling child should devote his life to the cause in which our dear friend has now worked for more than half a century. It is an interesting fact, which I did not know till last night, that this is the birth-day of the youthful Thomas Clarkson, who is now nine years of age. I believe that, in venturing to give expression to the prayer of my heart that the blessing of God may rest upon him, and that, with the descent of the mantle of his venerable and venerated ancestor, a double portion of his spirit may rest upon him, it will be responded to by my friends who surround me. When many of us are removed to that bourn where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest, and where the distinctions of clime and color will be swept away for ever, may he see that the divine blessing has rested upon our exertions, and behold that happy day when the sun shall cease to rise upon a tyrant, or set upon a slave!'

There was not a heart in the assembly that did not respond to this aspiration, and scarcely an eye that was not suffused with tears. It was a scene of thrilling domestic interest. For a moment the convention was like a family, and its members recollected only that they were husbands, parents, and children.

'Mr. Clarkson's address on opening the convention was highly appropriate, and delivered with much energy. He called affectingly to mind that he was one, and the only survivor, of the little company who formed the committee for promoting the Abolition of the Slave-trade in the year 1787. And truly did he address to the assembly sentiments worthy of that noble band. Most heartily would the whole of them have joined in the language so fervently uttered by their venerable representative:

;

I

I have been permitted to come among you; and I rejoice in it, if I were only allowed to say in this place in reference to your future labours, take courage, be not dismayed, go on, persevere to the last you will always have pleasure from the thought of having done so. myself can say with truth, that, though my body is fast going to decay, my heart beats as warmly in this sacred cause now, in the 81st year of my age, as it did at the age of 24, when I first took it up. And I can say further with truth, that if I had another life given me to live, I would devote it to the same object. So far for your encouragement and perseverance.''Anti-slavery Reporter, June 17.

It added unspeakably to the interest of these introductory proceedings that they were not accompanied by the clapping of

hands and stamping with the feet which all but uniformly supply to a popular English audience the mode of testifying applause. Silence had been particularly requested in consideration of the feelings of Mr. Clarkson in his age and weakness; but if the granting of this request was advantageous to him in preventing excitement, it was at least equally so to the assembly in giving scope for those deep emotions which thrilled every heart almost to ecstasy, and which could have been experienced only in silence. The noise of tumultuous applause would have drowned them in the very moment of their birth. During the delivery of Mr. Clarkson's address the coup d'ail of the convention was extremely interesting; and we do not wonder that the professional enthusiasm of Mr. Haydon was so kindled by it as to fix on it for the scene of the historical painting on which he is understood to be engaged.

Before quitting the introductory proceedings of the convention we feel inclined to notice one incident more. Mr. Henry Beckford, an African ebony black, and a delegate from an anti-slavery society in Jamaica, was introduced to the president, and, after cordially shaking hands with him and with his grandson, addressed the assembly as follows:

I am desirous of returning thanks to Almighty God, who has been so kind and merciful as to look with compassion upon those who were confined in slavery, and to restore us to our liberty. I rejoice to see here the root of that society (referring to Mr. Clarkson) by whose instrumentality this has been effected. You have heard of slavery-I have felt it I have seen the blood shed by it. I have seen my brethren and sisters confined in ropes and chains; and, O! how my soul rejoiced to see the day when we were restored to freedom. Slavery brings a man down to the level of the beasts. The slave-owner regards the slave no more than the cattle which he turns out in his fields to feed. O! may we not rejoice that when we return no one can say to us Where have you been this long time!' I rejoice to meet you here. I come here as a freeman. I shall remain so. I shall return as such to my native land and friends. O look on me, and work on! I was a slave twenty-eight years. O look on me, and work on, until every man and woman are as free as I am this dayuntil slavery is abolished throughout the world!'-Patriot, June 17.

Among the topics which engaged the early notice of the convention was slavery in the United States. Messrs. Birney, Stanton, Phillips, Colver, and other Americans who spoke on this subject, all did themselves in their treatment of it the highest honor. It was evident that they felt as Americans keenly alive to the painfulness of their position, while exposing in the face of so many nations the shame of their country; but they did make nevertheless a full and faithful exposure of the enormities perpe