and this joy was further augmented by the presents given them by numbers of the spectators, in order that they might be able to obtain a subsistence till such time as they could procure employment.
"These are the acts of a noble generosity that deserves to be remembered, and which, at the same time, testify that the inhabitants of Java begin to abhor the crying injustice of slavery, and are willing to entertain measures for its abolition."
To give currency to such ideas, even in Maryland, would
be fatal to what ministers call their "influence," and which
they everywhere value at a rather dangerous estimate; accordingly,
in the editorial columns prominence is given to the
following salve to the outraged sensibilities of the subscribers:
"SLAVE AUCTION IN JAVA.
"A brief article, with this head, appears on the fourth page of our paper this week. It is of a class of articles we never select, because they are very often manufactured by paragraphists for a purpose, and are not reliable. It was put in by our printer in place of something we had marked out. We did not see this objectionable substitute until the outside form was worked off, and are therefore not responsible for it."[1]
The habitual caution imposed on clergymen and public
teachers must, and obviously does have an important secondary
effect, similar to that usually attributed by Protestants to
papacy, upon the minds of all the people, discountenancing
and retarding the free and fearless exercise of the mind upon
subjects of a religious or ethical nature, and the necessity of
accepting and apologizing for the exceedingly low morality of
the nominally religious slaves, together with the familiarity
with this immorality which all classes acquire, renders the
existence of a very elevated standard of morals among the
whites almost an impossibility.[2]
In spite of the constant denunciations by the Southern*
- ↑ Organized action for the abolition of slavery in the island of Java, has since been authentically reported.
- ↑ Twice it happened to come to my knowledge that sons of a planter, by whom I was lodged while on this journey—lads of fourteen or sixteen—who were supposed to have slept in the same room with me, really spent the night, till after daybreak, in the negro cabins. A southern merchant, visiting New York, to whom I ex-*
