POETRY.
TO THE NORTH STAR, AND ITS DISTINGUISHED EDITOR.
by a Trans-Atlantic Friend.
We watch for thy dawning, with joy, from afar;
With kindling emotion we hail thy first ray:
'Twill illumine our darkness, and guide us till day.
In which millions are groping in chains, without light,
Thou, bright star of beauty and hope, shalt arise,
Dispelling this midnight gloom, cheering all eyes.
Is checked by no danger, is stayed by no fear,
Though mighty thy foes are, and urgent thy need,
We charge thee, look upward! we bid thee Godspeed!
Unfurl Freedom's flag; blot out Tyranny's laws;
"God and the right!" be thy constant war-cry,
Till Oppression's hold ceases, and Slavery die.
Sound ye victory's trumpet, from cast unto west!
To the north say, "Give up;" "Keep not back," to thy south—
Jehovah hath said—Hear the words of his mouth.
For the North Star.
BADINAGE.
"Stand by the right!"
Echoes the West,
"With all our might!"
Starts up the South,
"Then will we fight!
But for the chains,
Hot blood shall lave,
Our chivalric plains,
But slavery we'll have,
There's for your pains."
"Where is your wit?
E'er you cry cry, Fight,
See where 'twill hit,—
Sometimes, in his fright,
The biter gets bit!"
North, West, and the world!
In our red stramps we'll lie,
With our banner unfurled,
While on mountain-top high,
Shall our smoke wreath be curled."
December, 1847.
From the Clarion of Freedom.
A PARODY.
by a Lady of New-Concord.
My toils surely none will dispute;
From the centre all round to the sea,
I'm degraded from man to a brute.
Am I out of humanity's reach?
Must I finish my journey a slave?
And ne'er hear the sweet music of speech,
But start at the sound of a knave?
That nabobs have seen in thy face?
Better bie from foul slavery's arms,
Than live in their shameful disgrace.
The beasts of the forest are free;
The fowls of the air have their rest;
But the black man, degraded is he,—
He's starved and most cruelly press'd.
Divinely bestowed upon men:
Liberty! gift from above,
How glad would the slave taste again!
His sorrows he then might assuage,
In pursuit of his pleasure and taste,—
Might learn from the wisdom of age,
And be free from the nabob's disgrace.
Is made of that most sacred word?
The black man is whipped to a gore,
While the pulpit resounds with "O Lord!"
And is it the tyrant that cries,
And calls on the name of our God?
Oh, yes; and behold with surprise,
The next moment his slave feels the rod.
Convey to this desolate heart
The wife of the down-trodden slave:
Ye tyrants, you forced us apart!
My daughters, I now of you crave;
The sons that were pride of my heart
Are suffering the toils of the slave—
Your tyranny forced us apart.
He whips me and scourges me still;
My labor he daily doth steal,
And sells me, his coffers to fill.
When I think of his pride and his pelf,
His cruel oppression and scorn,
I weep, and I say to myself,
I wish I had never been born!
I labor and toil for him still:
Alas! for the slave there's no rest—
The tyrant oppresses him still!
I know there's a calm resting-place—
It in the confines of the grave.
I pity the white man's disgrace;
Oh, Father, protect me, a slave!
From the Pensylvania Freeman.
SONG OF THE DYING SLAVE-GIRL.
Air—"Mary in Heaven."
But tenderest words thou gave to me;
I knew that others' love was false,
But never once I doubted thee.
All silently, like sweetest dreams,
Thy love upon mv spirit stole,
And rainbow hues and starry gleams
Were blent and woven round my soul.
But joyous in his halls I grew,
And bond or free was nought to me,
For thou wast near, and seemed so true.
By orange grove and murmuring stream
Thy low deep tones 'twas bliss to hear,
And music, more divinely sweet,
Has never fallen on mine ear.
Upon that dark despairing day.
When thou beheld me shrieking sold,
And cold and silent turned away!
I would have borne a thousand woes,
To turn one ill aside from thee,
And death's chill pangs had all been sweet,
If thou in love didst look on me.
With burning brain alone I weep,
The cold stars mock me from their heights,
And colder dreams disturb my sleep.
Deserted, sold, cast off by thee.
My hour of rest I know is nigh;
My heart is broken, but its prayer
Is raised for thee e'en while I die!—S.
A PRETTY THOUGHT.
The winter of the spring,
And ever upon old Decay,
The greenest mosses cling.
Behind the cloud the starlight lurks,
Through showers the sunbeams fall;
For God, who loveth all his works,
Has left his hopes will all.
THE COLORED CONVENTION.
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON A NATIONAL PRESS.
The Committee on a "National press and printing establishment for the people of color," made the following report on the importance and practicability of such an undertaking:
"It being admitted that the colored people of the United States are pledged, before the world and in the face of heaven, to struggle manfully for advancement in civil and social life, it is clear that our own efforts must mainly, if not entirely, produce such advancement. And if we are to advance by our own efforts, (under the divine blessing,) we must use the means which will direct such efforts to a successful issue.
"Of the means for the advancement of a people placed as we are, none are more available than a press. We struggle against opinions. Our warfare lies in the field of thought. Glorious struggle! Godlike warfare! In training our soldiers for the field, in marshalling our hosts for the fight, in leading the onset, and through the conflict, we need a printing press, because a printing press is a vehicle of thought—is a ruler of opinions.
Among ourselves we need a press that shall keep us steadily alive to our responsibilities, which shall constantly point out the principles which should guide our conduct and our labors, which shall cheer us from one end of the land to the other, by recording our acts, our sufferings, our temporary defeats, and our steadily approaching triumph, or rather the triumph of the glorious truth "Human Equality," whose servants and soldiers we are.
"If a press be not the most powerful means for our elevation, it is the most immediately necessary. Education of the intellect, of the will, and of character, is, doubtless, a powerful—perhaps the most powerful means for our advancement; yet a press is needed to keep this very fact before the whole people, in order that all may constantly and unitedly labor in this, the right direction. It may be, that some other means might seem even more effectual than education; even then a press will be the more necessary, inasmuch as it will afford a field in which the relative importance of the various means may be discussed and settled in the hearing of the whole people, and to the profit of all.
"The first step which will mark our certain advancement as a people, will be our Declaration of Independence from all aid except from God and our own souls. This step can only be taken when the minds of our people are thoroughly convinced of its necessity and importance. And such conviction can only be produced through a press, which shall show that although we have labored long and earnestly, we have labored in too many directions and with too little concert of action; and that we must, as one man bend our efforts in the one right direction in order to advance.
"We need a press also as our banner on the outer wall, that all who pass by may read why we struggle, and what we struggle for. If we convince the world that we are earnestly and resolutely striving for our own advancement, one half the battle will already be won, because well and rightly begun. Our friends will the more willingly help us; our foes will quail because they have lost their best allies—our own inertness, carelessness, strifes, and dependence upon others. And there is no way, except through a press—a national press—that we can tell the world of our position in the path of human progress.
"Let there be, then, in these United States, a printing press, a copious supply of type, a full and complete establishment, wholly controlled by colored men; let the thinking writing man, the compositors, pressmen, printers' help—all, all, be men of color; then let there come from said establishment a weekly periodical and a quarterly periodical, edited as well as printed by colored men; let this establishment be so well endowed as to be beyond the chances of temporary patronage; and then there will be a fixed fact, a rallying point, towards which the strong and the weak amongst us would look with confidence and hope from which would flow a steady stream of comfort and exhortation to the wear strugglers, and of burning rebuke and overwhelming argument upon those who dare impede our way.
"The time was when a great statesman exclaimed, 'Give me the song-making of a people, and I will rule that people.' That time has passed away from our land, wherein the reason of the people must be assaulted and overcome. This can only be done through the press. We have felt, and bitterly, the weight of odium and malignity wrought upon us by one or two prominent presses in this land; we have felt also the favorable feeling wrought in our behalf by the anti-slavery press. But the amount of the hatred against us has been conventional antipathy; and of the favorable feeling, has been human sympathy. Our friends sorrow with us, because, they say, we are unfortunate! We must batter down those antipathies; we must command something manlier than sympathies. We must command the respect and admiration due men, who against fearful odds, are struggling steadfastly for their rights. This can only be done through a press of our own. It is needless to support these views with a glance at what the press has done for the down-trodden among men; let us rather look forward with the determination of accomplishing through this engine, an achievement more glorious than any yet accomplished. We lead the forlorn hope of human equality; let us tell of its onslaught on the battlements of hate and caste; let us record its triumph in a press of our own.
In making these remarks, your Committee do not forget or underrate the good service done by the newspapers, which have been, or are now, edited and published by our colored brethren. We are deeply alive to the talent, the energy, and perseverance, which these papers manifest on the part of their self sacrificing conductors; and as the proprietors are poor, their papers have been jeoparded or slopped for the want of capital. The history of our newspapers is the strongest argument in favor of the establishment of a press. These papers abundantly prove, that we have all the talent and industry requisite to conduct a paper such as we need; and they prove also, that among 500,000 free people of color, no one man is yet set apart with a competence for the purpose of advocating with the pen our cause and the cause of our brethren in chains. It is an imposition upon the noble-minded colored editors; it is a libel upon us, as a free and thinking people, that we have hitherto made no effort to establish a press on a foundation so broad and national that it may support one literary man of color and an office of colored compositors.
The importance and necessity of a National Press, your Committee trust, are abundantly manifest.
The following plan, adopted by the Committee of seven, appointed by the Convention with full power, is in the place of the propositions proposed by the Committee of three:
1st. There shall be an Executive of eleven persons, to be denominated, The Executive Committee on the National Press for the Free Colored People of the United States, viz:
2d. Massachusetts—Leonard Collins, James Mars; Connecticut—Amos G. Beman, James W. C. Pennington; Kentucky—Andrew Jackson; New York—J. McCune Smith, Chas. B. Ray, Alex. Crummell; New Jersey—E. P. Rogers; Pennsylvania—Andrew Purnell, George B. Vachon; of which Committee James McCune Smith, of New York, shall be Chairman, and Amos G. Beman, of Connecticut, Secretary.
3d. The members of this Committee residing in the city of New York, shall be a Financial Committee, who shall deposit, in trust for the Executive Committee, in the "New York Seaman's Bank for Savings," all the funds received by them from the Agents.
4th. No disposition shall be nude of the funds by any less than a two-thirds majority of the whole Committee.
5th. The Committee shall hold stated meetings once in six months, and shall then publish an account of their proceedings, the receipts, and from whom all sums are sent to them by the Agents.
6th. The Rev. J. W. C. Pennington, of Connecticut, shall be the Foreign Agent of the National Press; and the Agents shall always be ex-officio members of the Committee.
7th. The remuneration of the Home agent shall be twenty per cent.; of the Foreign agent thirty per cent., on collections made.
8th. The meetings of the Committee shall take place in the city of New York.
9th. The Agents shall report and remit to the Committee, at least once a month for the Home, and once in two months for the Foreign agent.
10th. Members of the Committee, from any two States, may call an extra meeting thereof by giving the chairman and secretary thirty days' notice.
Respectfully submitted,
J. McCUNE SMITH,
G. B. WILSON,
WM. H. TOPP.
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ABOLITION.
The committee appointed to draft a report respecting the best means of abolishing slavery and destroying caste in the United States, beg leave most respectfully to report: That they have had the important subjects referred to them under consideration, and have carefully endeavored to examine all their points and bearings to the best of their ability; and from every view they have been able to take, they have arrived at the conclusion that the best means of abolishing slavery is the proclamation of truth, and that the best means of destroying caste, is the mental, moral and industrial improvement of our people.
First, as respects slavery: Your committee find this monstrous crime, this stupendous iniquity, closely interwoven with all the great interests, institutions and organizations of the country; pervading and influencing every class and grade of society, securing their support, obtaining their approbation, and commanding their homage. Availing itself of the advantage which age gives to crime, it has perverted the judgment, blunted the moral sense, blasted the sympathies, and created in the great mass,—the overwhelming majority of the people,—a moral sentiment altogether favorable to its own character and its own continuance. Press and pulpit are alike prostituted, and made to serve the end of this infernal institution. The power of the government, and the sanctity of religion, church and state, arc joined with the guilty oppressor against the oppressed; and the voice of this great nation is thundering in the ears of our enslaved countrymen the terrible fiat, You shall be slaves, or die! The slave is in the minority, a small minority; the oppressors are an overwhelming majority. The oppressed are three millions; their oppressors are seventeen millions. The one is weak; the other is strong. The one is without arms, without means of concert, and without government; the other possesses every advantage in these respects; and the deadly aim of their million musketry, and loud-mouthed cannon, tells the down-trodden slave, in unmistakeable language, he must be a slave or die. In these circumstances, your committee are called upon to report as to the best means of abolishing slavery. And without pretending to discuss all the ways which have been suggested from time to time by various parties and factions,—though, did time permit, they would gladly do so,—they beg at once to state their entire disapprobation of any plan of emancipation involving a resort to bloodshed. With the facts of our condition before us, it is impossible for us to contemplate any appeal to the slave to take vengeance on his guilty master, but with the utmost reprobation. Your committee regard any counsel of this sort as the perfection of folly, suicidal in the extreme, and abominably wicked. We should utterly frown down and wholly discountenance any attempt to lead our people to confide in brute force as a reformatory instrumentality. All argument put forth in favor of insurrection and bloodshed, however well intended, is either the result of an unpardonable impatience or an atheistic want of faith in the power of truth as a means of regenerating and reforming the world. Again we repeat, let us set our faces against all such absurd, unavailing, dangerous and mischievous ravings, emanating from what source they may. The voice of God, and of common sense, equally point out a more excellent way, and that way is a faithful, earnest and persevering enforcement of the great principles of justice and morality, religion and humanity. These are the only invincible and infallible means within our reach with which to overthrow this foul system of blood and ruin. Your committee deem it susceptible of the clearest demonstration, that slavery exists in this country, because the people of this country will its existence. And they deem it equally clear, that no system or institution can exist for an hour against the earnestly expressed will of the people. It were quite easy to bring to the support of the foregoing proposition powerful and conclusive illustrations from the history of reform in all ages, and especially in our own. But the palpable truths of the propositions, as well as the familiarity of the facts illustrating them, entirely obviate such a necessity.
Our age is an age of great discoveries; and one of the greatest is that which revealed that this world is to be ruled, shaped and guided by the marvelous might of mind. The human voice must supersede the roar of cannon. Truth alone is the legitimate antidote of falsehood. Liberty is always sufficient to grapple with tyranny. Free speech, free discussion, peaceful agitation—the foolishness of preaching these, under God, will subvert this giant crime, and send it reeling to its grave, as it smitten by a voice from the throne of God. Slavery exists because it is popular. It will cease to exist when it is made unpopular. Whatever, therefore, tends to make slavery unpopular, tends to its destruction. This every slaveholder knows full well, and hence his opposition to all discussion on the subject. It is an evidence of intense feeling of alarm, when John C. Calhoun calls upon the North to put down what he is pleased to term "this plundering agitation." Let us give the slaveholder what he most dislikes. Let us expose his crimes and his foul abominations He is reputable, and must be made disreputable. He must be regarded as a moral leper—shunned as a loathsome wretch—outlawed from Christian communion, and from social respectability—an enemy of God and man, to be execrated by the community till he shall repent of his foul crimes, and give proof of his sincerity by breaking every chain and letting the oppressed go free. Let us invoke the press and appeal to the pulpit to deal out the righteous denunciations of heaven against oppression, fraud and wrong; and the desire of our hearts will soon be given us in the triumph of liberty throughout all the land.
As to the second topic upon which the committee have been instructed to report, the committee think the subject worthy of a far wider range of discussion than the limited time at present allotted to them will allow. The importance of the subject, the peculiar position of our people, the variety of interests involved with questions growing out of it, all serve to make this subject one of great complexity as well as solemn interest.
Your committee would therefore respectfully recommend the appointment of a committee of one, whose duty it shall be to draft a full report on this subject, and report at the next National Convention.
Your committee would further recommend the adoption of the following resolutions as embodying the sentiments of the foregoing report:
Resolved, That our only hope for peaceful emancipation in this land is based on a firm, devoted and unceasing, assertion of our rights, and a full, free and determined exposure of our multiplied wrongs.
Resolved, That, in the language of inspired wisdom, there shall be no peace to the wicked, and that this guilty nation shall have no peace, and that we will do all that we can to agitate! agitate!! agitate!!! till our rights are restored, and our brethren are redeemed from their cruel chains.
All of which is respectfully submitted.
Frederick Douglass,
Alexander Crummell,
John Lyle,
Thos. Van Rensselaer.
REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA.
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
We, the representatives of the people of the commonwealth of Liberia, in convention assembled, invested with authority for forming a new government relying upon the aid and protection of the great Arbiter of human events, do hereby, in the name and on behalf of the people of this commonwealth, publish and declare the said commonwealth a free, sovereign and independent state, by the name and title of the Republic of Liberia.
While announcing to the nations of the world the new position which the people of this Republic have felt themselves called upon to assume, courtesy to their opinions seems to demand a brief accompanying statement of the causes which induced them, first to expatriate themselves from the land of their nativity, and to form settlements on this barbarous coast, and now to organize their government by the assumption of a sovereign and independent character. Therefore we respectfully ask their attention to the following facts:
We recognize in all men certain natural and inalienable rights; among these are life, liberty, and the right to acquire, possess, enjoy and defend property. By the practice and consent of men in all ages, some system or form of government is proven to be necessary to exercise, enjoy and secure these rights; and every people has a right to institute a government and to choose and adopt that system or form of it, which, in their opinion, will most effectually accomplish these objects, and secure their happiness, which does not interfere with the just rights of others. The right, therefore, to institute government, and all the powers necessary to conduct it, is an inalienable right, and cannot be resisted without the grossest injustice.
We, the people of the Republic of Liberia, were originally the inhabitants of the United States of North America.
In some parts of that country, we were debarred by law from all the rights and privileges of men; in other parts, public sentiment, more powerful than law, frowned us down.
We were everywhere shut out from all civil office.
We were excluded from all participation in the government.
We were taxed without our consent.
We were compelled to contribute to the resources of a country which gave us no protection.
We were made a separate and distinct class, and against us every avenue to improvement was effectually closed. Strangers from all lands, of a color different from ours, were preferred before us.
We uttered our complaints, but they were unattended to, or only met by alleging the peculiar institutions of the country.
All hope of a favorable change in our country was thus wholly extinguished in our bosoms, and we looked with anxiety abroad for some asylum from the deep degradation.
The Western coast of Africa was the place selected by American benevolence and philanthropy, for our future home. Removed beyond those influences which depressed us in our native land, it was hoped we would be enabled to enjoy those rights and privileges, and exercise and improve those faculties which the God of nature has given us in common with the rest of mankind.
Under the auspices of the American Colonization Society, we established ourselves here, on land acquired by purchase from the lords of the soil.
In an original compact with this Society, we, for important reasons, delegated to it certain political powers; while this institution stipulated that whenever the people should become capable of conducting the government, or whenever the people should desire it, this institution would resign the delegated power, peaceably withdraw its supervision, and leave the people to the government of themselves.
Under the auspices and guidance of this institution, which has nobly and in perfect faith redeemed its pledges to the people, we have grown and prospered.
From time to time, our number has been increased by emigration from America, and by accessions from native tribes; and from time to time, as ci cumstances required it, we have extended our borders by the acquisition of land by honorable purchase from the natives of the country.
As our territory has extended, and our population increased, our commerce has also increased. The flags of most of the civilized nations of the earth float in our harbors, and their merchants are opening an honorable and profitable trade. Until recently these visits have been of a uniformly harmonious character, but as they have become more frequent, and to more numerous points of our extending coast questions have arisen, which it is supposed can be adjusted only by agreement between sovereign powers.
For years past, the American Colonization Society has virtually withdrawn from all direct and active part in the administration of the government, except in the appointment of the Governor, who is also a colonist, for the apparent purpose of testing the ability of the people to conduct the affairs of government, and no complaint of crude legislation, nor of mismanagement, nor of mal-administration, has yet been heard.
In view of these facts, this institution, the American Colonization Society, with that good faith which has uniformly marked all its dealings with us, did, by a set of resolutions, in January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-six, dissolve all political connection with the people of this Republic, return the power with which it was delegated, and left the people to the government of themselves.
The people of the Republic of Liberia, then, are of right, and in fact, a free, sovereign and independent State, possessed of all the rights, powers and functions of government.
In assuming the momentous responsibilities of the position they have taken, the people of this Republic feel justified by the necessities of the case, and with this conviction they throw themselves with confidence upon the candid consideration of the civilized world.
Liberia is not the offspring of grasping ambition, nor the tool of avaricious speculation.
No desire for territorial aggrandizement brought us to these shores; nor do we believe so sordid a motive entered into the high considerations of these who aided us in providing this asylum.
Liberia is an asylum from the most grinding oppression.
In coming to the shores of Africa, we indulged the pleasing hope that we would be permitted to exercise and improve those faculties which impart to man his dignity; to nourish in our hearts the flame of honorable ambition; to cherish and indulge those aspirations which a beneficent Creator had implanted in every human heart; and to evince to all who despise, ridicule and oppress our race, that we possess with them a common nature, are with them susceptible of equal refinement, and capable of equal advancement in all that adorns and dignifies man.
We were animated with the hope, that here we should be at liberty to train up our children in the way they should go; to inspire them with the flame of a lofty philanthropy, and to form strong within them the principles of humanity, virtue and religion.
Among the strongest motives to leave our native land—to abandon forever the scenes of our childhood, and to sever the most endeared connexions, was the desire for a retreat where, free from the agitations of fear and molestation, we could, in composure and security, approach in worship the God of our fathers.
Thus far our highest hopes have been realized.
Liberia is already the happy home of thousands, who were once the doomed victims of oppression, and if left unmolested to go on with her natural and spontaneous growth; if her movements be left free from the paralyzing intrigues of jealous ambition and unscrupulous avarice, she will throw open a wider and yet a wider door for thousands, who are now looking with an anxious eye for some land of rest.
Our courts of justice are open equally to the stranger and the citizen for the redress of grievances, for the remedy of injuries, and for the punishment of crime.
Our numerous and well attended schools attest our efforts and our desire for the improvement of our children.
Our churches for the worship of our Creator, everywhere to be seen, bear testimony to our piety, and to our acknowledgment of His Providence.
The native African, bowing down with us before the altar of the living God, declare that from us, feeble as we are, the light of Christianity has gone forth, while upon that curse of curses, the slave trade, a deadly blight has fallen, as far as our influence extends.
Therefore, in the name of humanity, and virtue, and religion,—in the name of the great God, our common Creator and our common judge, we appeal to the nations of Christendom, and earnestly and respectfully ask of them that they will regard us with the sympathy and friendly consideration to which the peculiarities of our condition entitle us, and to extend to us that comity which marks the friendly intercourse of civilized and independent communities.
From the New York Advocate and Guardian.
A STANDARD-BEARER HAS FALLEN.
As God's ambassador, but yesterday
Was standing at his post, and words of truth
Fell from his lips with solemn earnestness,
As from a dying man to dying men.
To-day those tender tones are bushed in death!
The loved, the good, the gifted, speaks no more.
His lyre is tuned in other worlds than this;
His earthly toils all left to other bands.
Reform in all its forms has suffered loss.
Virtue no firmer advocate e'er knew,
Her bleeding cause has few such friends to lose—
Who from the sacred altar shall arise,
To fill the breach, and utter "all the law."
From a communication received from a friend in Poughkeepsie, dated Nov. 23d, we copy the following extract:
* * * * "I presume before this you have received the sad news of the death of that truly devoted friend of the cause of moral purity, Rev. Charles Van Loon. You will, I know, pardon me for intruding so much on your time, but I felt constrained to give vent to my full heart, in penning a few lines relative to the departure of one whose loss is so deeply felt by this community, and by others. He was taken last Sabbath, just before the time for evening service, and died about 12 o'clock the same night. He preached in his usual impressive manner, on Sabbath morning, from the text, 'I am not alone, for the Father is with me.' In his closing remark upon death, he said the Christian was not alone. 'Hark,' said he, 'what voice is that I hear? It is the receding voice of the watchman just before the morn, saying, All's well, all's well. Oh, I felt as I held his cold hand while being paralyzed by the chill of death, and looked upon that beautiful face as the change of death was passing over it, if those lips could speak, they would say, 'All's well;' but that was not permitted: he was speechless from the time he was taken until the last. He was taken with paralysis, occasioned by disease of the heart, but breathed his last calmly, without a struggle, so we could hardly believe he had gone. He was to have preached in the evening from the text, 'We all do fade as a leaf,' and said, as the congregation were about leaving, 'Remember, my friends, the withered leaf will preach to you this evening.' Oh, it seemed prophetic; for how emphatically it did preach.
"But his work was done, and well done. There was no man that would so fearlessly speak the whole counsel of God, and reprove sin, all sin, as he. The people of this village can bear testimony to that. I ever felt satisfied in sitting under his ministry, that I was listening to one who made no compromises, and who would do his duty, regardless of consequences. He thought not a moment about worldly expediency, but when he heard the voice of his Master saying, 'This is the way; walk ye in it,' he conferred not with flesh and blood, but went forward. The oppresed, the fallen and exposed of every class, have lost a friend indeed. Oh, that we may be anew consecrated to that work to which he was so devoted.
"Rev. H. G. Ludlow, in an affecting manner, pronounced an eulogy upon him as a man and a Christian, and such an one as I never heard before. He said he 'was a nobleman in every sense of the word; he was truly a holy man. Never did I know a man like Charles Van Loon. May his spirit fall on us all.' He was so affected that he could hardly proceed.
"Mr. Waldo feels his loss deeply; they sympathized with each other in the moral reforms of the day, and were like brothers. While he gazed upon that lovely countenance, cold in death, it seemed as if his heart would break. We never shall look upon his like again, nor can his pulpit be filled by another like him. You will excuse my saying so much, but you know not how we loved him. His poor, afflicted widow is almost heart-broken, and a wide circle of bereaved friends will deeply mourn their loss." * * E. W.
It will be recollected that our departed brother was one of the speakers who addressed our late meeting at Troy, where address has doubtless been expected ere this in our paper. The brief notes taken of it would have been given with the proceedings of the meeting but for the fact that we relied on a personal promise received, that the address should be furnished entire for our pages. We had anticipated in reception, and feared that illness caused the delay, up to the receipt of the above painful announcement. This address contained a better, more conclusive argument in favor of legal enactments for the suppression of vice, than any we have yet beard, and appealed most persuasively to the consciences of the legislators, several of whom were providentially present to hear it. The claims of the cause in its several departments were pleaded with the earnestness of one whose words were but the simple utterances of the heart; and the closing appeal to the friends present to hold on their way, taking encouragement from the indications of Providence and the promises of God, would not, probably, have been couched in stronger terms, had the speaker been fully aware that he was speaking to us as an association for the last time.
Beloved friends of moral purity, in the solemn assembly, in the social circle, we shall hear his voice no more. With the friends of temperance, and the friends of the slave, we may well wear the badge of sorrow. More cause have we than they, for our efficient advocates are fewer among the teachers in Israel. The dear departed was not only a faithful champion in the cause, but a brother in adversity. We well remember his words of encouragement and sympathy, when the trial hour was darkest. "Learn," said he, "to sail complacently upon troubled waters, knowing that the Lord of the storm is above them;" and once and again, by precept and example, has he bid us "to tread the thorns down," and press onward.
We cannot contemplate his early exit without deep emotion; and yet we rejoice that he has gained the bliss of eaven, and that he was so long spared to do good.
Are we not admonished on every hand by the voice of sudden death? Many, during the past year, who, to human view, could ill be spared from their posts of labor, have suddenly obeyed the summons to depart hence. Who among the living shall be next to fall? Who of us, in view of the coming shaft, would be ready to respond with sweet composure, "My Master's time is mine?"
AN EXTRACT.
There is a heresy—a most death-dealing heresy—prevalent among both white and colored people in this land, in regard to the abolition of slavery. It may be best expressed in the language of its own choice, to wit: "Slavery will be abolished just when the Lord shall will its abolition." That white persons, especially pro-slavery ministers, and hypocritical Lectors of Divinity, should use this miserable cant, does not excite my surprise as much as my indignation; but that colored persons should be gulled and lulled into a state of indifference about their rights on such a plea, fills me with unmingled mortification. It is a delusion and a snare, to think that Almighty God will undertake for ourselves. His work is done; ours alone remains to be done.
God's work, is as complete in the moral and intellectual elements of creation as it is in the physical works of creation, and we give as much right to expect that he will make the corn to grow and give us an abundant harvest, without effort on our part, as to expect that we shall be a free and happy people, without effort on our part. If there be one thing in our people which I abominate more than another, it is their everlasting praying for blessings which they are unwilling to labor for. Remember, when a slave, I used to pray that the Lord would give me freedom. I prayed thus three years, and was as far from freedom in that way the third year as the first; and I might have prayed in slavery till this time, had I not "prayed with my heels." Our works must be consistent with our prayers, otherwise they are an abomination before God. We shall redeem the slave at the South, and obtain equal rights at the North, just so soon as we have faithfully used these means which God and Nature have placed within our reach, and not before. The days of miracles have passed. Truth, Love and Justice are the instruments of salvation, and "he only is free whom the Truth makes free." The Almighty will not make the ignorant intelligent, the degraded respectable, the drunken sober, nor the indolent industrious. In these respects man is to work out his own salvation, and God will bless him in the effort.
RUGGLE'S WATER-CURE.
Although many of your readers have been made acquainted with Dr. Ruggles skill in detecting the symptoms of disease by the sense of touch, and of the happy results that have attended his application if the water treatment in remarkable cases, I should deem it a privilege to be allowed, through the columns of your paper, to state, for the information and encouragement of such as may be suffering from scrofulous humor, the result of his treatment in the following case:
My son, ten years of age, inherited this debilitating disease from his mother. From his infancy, I had resorted to the remedies of the regular physicians, and the various quack medicines in use, without avail. In the summer of 1845, his symptoms became more alarming. Nausea, vertigo, inflammation of the bowels, and extreme weakness of the nervous system, were among the symptoms which deeply concerned the family for his future prospects. At this time he was examined by Dr. Ruggles, who considered him a good case for the cure. I at once placed him under his care, where he remained about seven months, during which time he had a painful crisis, which commenced on the trunk of his body, and extended down the legs to the feet and toes, which became inflamed and swollen to more than twice their ordinary size; the color of his feet changing alternatively from a red to a purplish hue. They finally became suppuarated, in which state they continued about six weeks, the humor exhaling from the sides of his feet and the ends of his toes, leaving the system entirely free from the disease. Since leaving the cure, he has grown as fast as could be desired, and continues in the enjoyment of good health.
Northampton, Dec. 16, 1847.
Anti-Slavery Movement in Virginia.—The Louisville Examiner announces the commencement of a movement in Virginia, for Emancipation. It is made by responsible persons—mostly slave-holders. This movement will answer the purpose, at best, of causing inquiry and agitation. We know that many persons in Virginia are anxious for Emancipation, in fact, unless it does take place, a large part of Virginia threatens to become a wilderness.
The Examiner, speaking of this movement, says:
"The first important circumstance to be noticed is, that this step has been taken by slaveholders themselves. The chief actor is the Rev. H. Reffner, D. D. He is well known personally or by character, throughout Virginia and Kentucky, as an able Divine of the Presbyterian Church, and one of the learned men of the South. With him are associated S. McD. Moore, John Letaher, David B. Curry, Jas. G. Hamilton, George A. Barker, J. H. Lacy, Echols Jane, John R. Gordas, J. Fuller, Jr., D. El Moore, and John W. Fuller. All these are men of character, and nearly all of them are known slaveholders."
