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own past testimony to the duty of the Church—the importance that in his later years he should not recede; asked him to respond to our address by speech, or letter, and to countenance the movement among his neighbours. I left him, convinced that some personal matter was the stumbling block, and regretting to see his name withdrawn, when it might have seasonably aided the slave and influenced many English admirers. I was introduced to the loyal Union League of Philadelphia, at their club house, and an impromptu conversazione was organized. Perhaps fifty members gathered in, and I was urged to deliver some account of our English anti-slavery sentiments and sympathy with Americans in their present conflict. The presence of Mr. Rylance was useful, and we were welcomed and assured of their co-operation in gathering an audience for the following evening. One of their number unequivocally affirmed that slavery was the cause of the struggle, and that peace could not be anticipated but by the abolition of the evil. He appealed to the other members if any of them held another opinion-all assented.

The assembly convened to hear the English address was numerous, and composed of many most respectable citizens, some of them occupying offices of great responsibility as I was told. They gave a cordial reception to the sentiments, and welcomed the assurance that the British nation had not abandoned the cause of emancipation; though some of the aristocracy and the journals, which represented hereditary antipathies to the Democratic Republic, would wish to sympathize with a slave-holding oligarchy. They evinced their grateful pleasure when informed how the Emancipation and Union and Emancipation Societies of London and Manchester had been organized, to cherish a sympathy and extend widely a correct knowledge of the aspects of the question and struggle now distracting America. The movement in France, from which had emanated the first

address, and the measures taken to elicit a suitable response from England, and the consequent conference in Manchester, were severally explained; and the assurance given that the working classes in Britain strongly resisted the appeal for recognition from the South, and cordially encouraged the North in anti-slavery policy, and in giving freedom to the millions heretofore held in bondage. The race from which Americans have descended are represented by the Nonconformist and Evangelical churches, from which, in England, still comes forth the plea for oppressed and enslaved Africans. When the address had been presented, the presiding minister requested as many present as were clergymen to stand up, and thus signify their reception of what had been delivered to "ministers and pastors in the United States of America." Nearly fifty venerable and accredited clergymen answered to the call before the assembly: Episcopalians, Episcopal Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, and others, were included, and a large number came forward to salute the deputation at the conclusion. Resolutions were moved and seconded by Baptist, Episcopalian, and Presbyterian ministers, which were expressive of entire harmony with the address, and of thanks to the bearers of the message, who had travelled so far in their mission. It was announced that a subsequent meeting would be held, of clergymen alone, to determine whether a response, specially for Philadelphia, should be adopted, and in what terms. I left, however, by the same night's midnight train for New York; and if a reply has been forwarded, it has not yet reached its destination.

The language of patriotism, from the pen of Dr. Brainerd, and published by his sympathizing friends at Philadelphia, may be accepted as a response, though not formally so intended :

"Our Southern brethren had a right to manage their own affairs in their own way, within the limits of the

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Constitution; to take their own time and mode to regulate their relations to the coloured race, leaving the press of the land free. This right was awarded to them, not alone by the Constitution, but by the solemn declaration of the President and a resolution of Congress. It was endorsed by the sentiments of ninety-nine hundredths of the North, who, claiming liberty to speak and write their honest opinions of slavery, as did Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin, would still have abhorred any and every attempt to enforce by violence their views upon the South. The whole North, almost before a blow was struck, protested its respect for every Southern right. But all would not avail; something more was wanting.

"If we could have consented to stultify the conscientious suffrages of the great majority, as to planting slavery, with its fetters and manacles, on the free soil of our territories; if we could cheerfully have agreed to stand as sentinels through all time, to drive the escaping slave back to his bondage; if we could conscientiously have commended a system which shuts out four millions of our fellow-men, in our own land, from reading God's Word, from lawful marriage, from family integrity and purity, and from the right to fair wages for their toil; if we could have cherished at the capital the shambles where men and women are bought and sold, and could have heard the slave-dealer's lash on bleeding flesh without pity; if we could have disgraced labour by contempt, and flattered the pride of those who grow rich on the uncompensated industry of other men; if we could meekly have allowed the slave lords of the South, accustomed to rule over menials, whom they had by force degraded to their feet, to rule through all time over us, there would have been no war.

"If we could have allowed our fellow-citizens at the South to be tarred and feathered, because they were true to their country; if we could have permitted our mints, arsenals, forts, and vessels to be seized, our generals to be bribed to treason, and our soldiers on the frontiers surrendered as prisoners to those whom they had gone to protect; if we could have allowed our country's flag to be trampled in the dust by traitors, and our garrisons to be hailed out of our own burning forts by bursting shells; had we borne this submissively, there would have been no war.

"But would peace in these circumstances have marked our virtue or our corruption? our glory or our infamy? Our war is the proper protest of justice and humanity, against injustice, cruelty, and perfidy. It is the struggle of right and philanthropy, against outrage, oppression, and bloody treason.

"We have received from ages gone by the fruits of man's long struggles for civil and religious liberty, and the right of self-government; we have received a broad, beautiful, and healthful country, to every foot of whose soil we have an equal claim as citizens; we have received a civil constitution, which embraces the concentrated wisdom of the sages of the Revolution; and we have taken up arms to declare that no traitor hand shall cut the telegraphic wire on which these blessings are passing down to other generations. The cry of humanity, from ages to come, has called us to this bloody strife. It is simply a defence of our own institutions."

The testimony borne by all classes with whom I conversed, of the worth, loyalty, and integrity of the coloured people, in the midst of whom Dr. Brainerd lives, as securely for his property as he could in any circle of society, gave assurance that they are worthy of all equal privileges in the eye of law with their fellow-citizens.

During my stay in Philadelphia, the Rev. B. F. Morris, son of a late Senator of the United States, accompanied me to an hospital camp, about fifteen miles from the city. His mission was to inquire for and visit wounded or sick men from his own state, inquire into their wants and minister to their comfort and instruction as the delegate from the Christian Commission. My desire was to examine the entire establishment, and see the condition of the men. I was most courteously received by the authorities, was shown into every department, from the kitchens and stores to the dispensary and operating hall. One of the assistants deputed to conduct me had been manager in a Virginian plantation, whose converse revealed to me facts and phases of slavery which cannot be written. I was much surprised

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at the conveniences, I might call them luxuries, of the whole establishment, though but a wooden fabric and a temporary hospital.

I was truly gratified with my visit to this vast and yet growing city, and thankful for the generous hospitality with which I was entertained. I arrived in New York early next morning, and prepared for other work, grateful to a merciful Providence for the abundant goodness which had attended all my intercourse and journeyings, as a stranger from a farland, but a messenger of peace and liberty.

I arrived at the Astor House, Broadway, and secured my room for the time I should be here engaged. I found, however, my old tormentors ready to give me every token of attention. As there were no mosquito curtains to guard the bed from their attacks, I was thankful to have been seasonably and warmly invited into a suburban villa, ten miles up the Hudson.

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