REPORT

OF THE

TWENTIETH NATIONAL

ANTI-SLAVERY BAZAAR.

BOSTON:

J. B. YERRINTON & SON, PRINTERS

1854.

REPORT.

The brightness of the New Year of 1854 did not fall without its shadows on the community of which we make a part. The storm of the 28th and 29th of December, unprecedented in severity, for many years, had brought to some homes actual bereavement or severe pecuniary loss, to many, serious annoyance, inconvenience and anxiety, and to all, that subduing, saddening influence which is experienced, however temporarily, when any “great outrages of weather” unsettle the thoughtless security as to life and safety, that usually pervades the public mind. For several days, the mails were stopped, and almost all communication with the environs of Boston cut off. When tidings could arrive, and nearly every hour brought fresh intelligence of peril, disaster or shipwreck, and the very aspect of nature herself seemed redolent of melancholy suggestion, it certainly would not be unnatural if, in some minds, the whole coloring of thought assumed a graver and more sober hue. This has been the case with ourselves. The Bazaar of 1853 has closed with what we are entitled, in our circumstances, to estimate as brilliant success, the receipts being four thousand two hundred and fifty-six dollars; and yet we feel impelled to a more thoughtful and serious train of remark than may, at first view, appear natural or appropriate. To the minds of most persons, the mention of a Ladies’ Bazaar suggests ideas of a purely gay and festal character; of an occasion, where it is well if the gaiety and festivity do not degenerate into mere thoughtlessness and frivolity. How it may be in Bazaars designed for the support of popular charities, we are unable to say; but, when we are speaking of one whose funds are devoted to the sustentation of the American Anti-Slavery Society, we assure all who are willing to listen, that ours is grave work, performed in any but a thoughtless and irresponsible spirit.

Let us recal, for a moment, the written records of thought and feeling that accompany the exquisite and beautiful donations of which the Bazaar is made up. These latter suggest only ideas of taste, and skill, and elegant leisure, and abundant wealth; and the looker-on can hardly do else than associate such brightness of coloring and harmony of tint, with the glow of health and happiness. But with these suggestions, do the facts accord? Far from it. From the homes of actual poverty, from young girls painfully earning their own bread, and yet saving something to purchase the material that shall be fashioned into the gay clothing, never to be worn for their own decoration, from the chambers of sickness and languor, and hopeless disease, from Asylums for the Blind, from schools that charity has established for the help of the wholly indigent,—​it is from sources like these, that very great and valuable assistance is obtained. True, the gifts of the happy and the prosperous are here also; the glittering ornament, that has graced many a gay pageant; the exquisite picture, in which the painter has made real his happiest conception, or recalled some favorite scene; the admired and successful volume, fresh from the hands of its author. The minister of religion, the philosopher, the artist, and the poet, have given us of their best, have freely contributed that spiritual and ideal wealth, whose price is above rubies. But all these gifts, however diverse their source, come to us with words of the most earnest encouragement, with assurances of exhaustless sympathy, and promises of continued support. Much of the help thus given, by deed and word, is sent from other lands. To the moral beauty of the contribution, it adds not a little, in our eyes, that such is the case. The fact itself furnishes a most invigorating testimony to the truth of the principle on which the Anti-Slavery enterprise is based. By a spontaneous conviction, overmastering nationalities, and usage, and creed, and language, men differing world-wide in all beside, are laboring together in the promulgation of the cardinal doctrine of our Anti-Slavery creed, that under no conceivable circumstances, can one man hold another as goods and chattels.

We have barely indicated the sources and the motives, from, and by which, the donations to the Bazaar are obtained. Suffer us, on behalf of the immediate managers and promoters of this effort, to assure these generous donors, that they are received in a spirit not wholly unworthy of the great work to which they are consecrated. Our distant friends cannot know the difficulties and discouragements that, at every step, beset such an undertaking as ours. It is the twentieth Bazaar that has just closed. The interest afforded by novelty and a spirit of adventure has long since died away. The number of Abolitionists in the city which sent back Thomas Sims is necessarily small; and, of that small number, only a few are so situated as to give to the Bazaar much earnest and effective labor. Many of the Committee do not reside in Boston, and several of its most efficient members are absent from the country.

Within the last two years, two of those who have been co-workers with us almost from the beginning of the conflict, have passed onward to a higher service. The example of a long life, devoted to deeds of self-sacrificing beneficence, the memory of beauty and genius, and gifts still more excellent than either beauty or genius,—​these are all that remain to us.

Of the thousand petty toils, and wearying annoyances, and uncongenial duties that attend the Bazaar, we will not speak. They would be burdensome under any circumstances; for buying and selling, even when viewed as a prelude to getting gain, is not in itself an interesting occupation. Neither do we dwell on the misunderstandings and misrepresentations, and absence of popular sympathy, to which our position exposes us.

Why, then, do we refer to all this? Not, certainly, for the purpose of discouraging or saddening a single heart that has ever bade us God speed.

There is a practice in the Catholic Church, which, Protestant as we are, attracts our sympathy. Any suffering, no matter how earthly its character, any labor, however mundane and common-place, becomes ennobled and sanctified, if removed from the category of common duties, and performed as a religious offering. Let it be so with this annual Bazaar. The prayers and blessings interwoven with so many memorials of patient toil, the gifts that enrich it, alike of the high and the low, the happy and the sorrowing, the self-sacrifice that marks every step of its progress, the weariness, care and anxiety that are its necessary attendants, let us, as it were, cast them all upon the altar of our faith, remembering, as we do so, the words, “To do good and communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”

From the following towns and cities in Great Britain, large and valuable donations were received:—​Liverpool, Bristol, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Perth, Dublin and Cork.

We have peculiar pleasure in the reception of the Liverpool Box, as it is the first we have ever received from that town. The close connection, too, that exists between Liverpool and the United States, renders it doubly valuable. Probably no town in the United Kingdom is so pro-slavery in its sympathies as Liverpool, and hence, by help from such a quarter, we are the more encouraged. We are aware how much we owe to the influence of the Rev. Francis Bishop, whose travels a year or two since in this country, contrary to the usual experience of English gentlemen, particularly clergymen, seems but to have deepened his horror of American Slavery, and called forth his most strenuous efforts for its extinction.

The Bristol Box included collections from Cheltenham, Gloucester, Bridgwater, Bath, Frenchay, Chatham, Southampton, Isle of Wight, Yarmouth and Chudleigh. As usual, almost all the articles were pretty and well chosen, and some, particularly elegant and valuable. This was especially the case in respect to the Honiton Lace. A great part of it, (and several very handsome articles were received besides those contained in the Bristol box,) was sold on the very first morning the Bazaar opened. A very beautiful Honiton Lace Pin Cushion, with the word Liberty formed in the work, the gift of the lace-maker, was greatly admired, and sold readily. The Basket Work was eagerly sought for, and, indeed, most of the Bristol articles found a good market.

Our Newcastle friends have again called us to mind. The congregation of the Rev. George Harris, though occupied with the erection of a new church, and unusual claims on their charity, in consequence of the prevalence of cholera in their town, have yet remembered those who are forbidden, by law, to worship God according to their own consciences, and whose worldly estate is such, that pestilence in their midst is esteemed a boon instead of a curse.

Leeds and Manchester have made their usual generous response to our call. All the little objects of taste and art, pictures, books, &c., contained in the Leeds box, and the Papier Maché in that from Manchester, were much valued. We should return our thanks in an especial manner to Mr. Wilson Armistead, of Leeds, for books and tracts that actually reached us. We are not the less grateful for a larger and more valuable collection which it was not our fortune to receive. The vessel in which they were sent from Glasgow was shipwrecked, and the packages lost.

In respect to the very costly and elegant collection sent from London, by Mrs. Massie, we have to regret that it should have arrived so late. Notwithstanding our utmost exertions, we were unable to obtain the box from the Custom House till the evening of the 29th, and the Bazaar closed on the 31st. The very pretty box from Cork was displayed at the same time, and the effect of their arrival was at once evinced in the greatly increased receipts; but still, as our first two days are always the best in respect to sales, we could not but regret that so many valuable and beautiful articles should have been absent at the opening. It is almost impossible to do full justice to the boxes arriving under such circumstances. They must necessarily be unpacked and examined under great difficulties. Mrs. Massie’s full and ample lists were a great assistance; but as such beautiful crochet work as that we received from Cork, is hardly known in this country, we should have been glad had our Cork friends affixed their own prices. The magnificent Ottomans in the London box, were the admiration of all beholders, but we were able to dispose of only one. The other has been carefully reserved for another sale. The beautiful Silvered Glass also met with its due appreciation, and sold readily, no specimens so fine having been offered before in Boston. But the crowning glory of the London Contribution were the very exquisite engravings presented by Thomas Agnew, Esq., of Manchester. The subjects are—​“The Independents asserting Liberty of Conscience before the Westminster Assembly, 1644,” and “The Royal Agricultural Society of England.” In the former, most of the faces are portraits which have been taken at great expense and trouble from original paintings, and in the latter, the portraits are those of living individuals. Both of these attracted very great attention, and the first named was purchased by Mr. Wendell Phillips, as were also the valuable portraits of Sir Humphrey Davy, John Dalton, Esq., and Rev. Dr. Massie. “The Royal Agricultural Society” will be sure to find a ready sale next year, as it would, we think, have done this, had it been received in sufficient season, as will also the beautiful “English Lake Scenery.”

To the Rev. Dr. Massie, the Bazaar is much indebted for a little work, very tastefully got up, entitled, “Slavery, the Crime and Curse of America.” A large number of copies having been received for gratuitous distribution, the Committee have circulated them as extensively as was possible, and, as far as might be in their power, have endeavored to bring the work before the notice of members of pro-slavery evangelical churches, (if we may be allowed to depart so far from the original meaning of words, as to place them in such a collocation.)

Two of our Scotch boxes, those from Edinburgh and Glasgow, arrived in ample season, and having time for a very careful and thorough examination, we are prepared to speak of their contents in terms of high eulogy. The beautiful Embroidered Muslin, Shawls and Scarfs of different patterns, Dress Pieces, and some very elegant Aprons, are the articles that occur to us on the Glasgow table as peculiarly saleable. On the Edinburgh table, one beautiful Prize Plaid Shawl, with rose, thistle and shamrock worked upon it, and two Scarfs of the Murray pattern, were greatly admired. Scarfs of this description were in great request, and we could have sold many more than we did.

May we take the liberty of inserting here, that a handsome Highland Shawl, in which the colors are simply blue and white, would, at the next Bazaar, find a ready purchaser? Such an one has been inquired for with praiseworthy perseverance for several years, and we would gladly, by-and-by, be able to supply the demand.

We are grateful to our Edinburgh friends for some very good Autographs. Those written particularly for the occasion, by the venerable James Montgomery, were received with very great pleasure.

Owing to some unfortunate mistake in Great Britain, the abundant and beautiful collection of our Perth friends did not reach us till the second week of the Bazaar. The box was finally sent to New York, instead of Boston, and it was only by great exertion on the part of Mr. Gay, that it arrived in season. The missing box had been waited for with so much anxiety, that its appearance was hailed with the utmost delight. The abundance, variety and beauty of its contents, fulfilled our warmest expectations. The Travelling Bags, Tidies, Affghan Blankets, Crocheted Collars, Book and Flower Stands, were highly acceptable. Perhaps here is a fitting place to remark, that no Drawing-Room Cushions, however beautiful, are as saleable with us as they have been. As we are able to furnish beautiful Tidies to accompany the Cushions, said Cushions last a most unreasonable time, and hence our supply this year somewhat exceeded the demand.

We must not omit to make mention of many towns that contributed generously, through the Scotch boxes. Contributions from Reading, Bolton, Leigh, Chelmsford, Leeds, Nottingham, Maidstone and Sheffield, were included in the Edinburgh collection; from Kinross, Milnathorb, Cumrie and Crieff, in that of Perth; from Auchterarder and Montrose, in that of Glasgow.

We must not forget Dublin, which, apart from the De La Rue box, furnished, in the judgment of the Committee, the most attractive table with which it has ever presented us. Besides the usual supply of pretty and useful articles for ladies’ and children’s wear, a very handsome Bronze was greatly admired. Fish Scale Bracelets and Brooches, very pretty and tasteful, were something entirely new. The bog oak ornaments, sea weed baskets, and a great variety of toys and small articles, made this box very saleable. Of the De La Rue assortment, we need say nothing. The mere name is sufficient to commend the workmanship to the patronage of our public. The friends who contribute to the purchase are assured that in no way can they invest their money more wisely. Speaking of contributions for this fund, a friend writes, “The most affecting of these is £1 9½ pence from a young school-mistress in Waterford, made up of shillings, sixpences and half-pence contributed by her little pupils and herself.”

The Dublin box also contained handsome donations from Henry Fearncombe, of Wolverhampton, England, and from various ladies in Clara, Waterford, Wakefield and Lyons’ Mills.

The Ladies’ A. S. Society of Clogher, County Tyrone, sent a number of pretty and useful articles, besides a donation in money, which we shall acknowledge in another place.

In the multiplicity of cares devolving upon the managers and saleswomen, they hardly find time to suitably advertise some of their most valuable property. It is owing to this cause, we think, that two valuable works presented by Mr. R. D. Webb, of Dublin, remain unsold. We insert his note respecting them, in hope of still finding a purchaser, as, unlike many of our wares, these lose nothing by delay.

“Prudhon, Revolutions de Paris, 15 tom. 8vo. Par. 1789-93.

This very curious book is in fact a series of papers on the events of the day, published from time to time through these five eventful years. It is edited throughout in the most ultra revolutionary spirit, and justifies all the wildest and most shocking acts of the Terrorists. I believe such a set as the present to be extremely rare, and that from the nature and period of the publication, it must be so. Although connected with booksellers for the last thirty years, I have never seen another copy. This book would be an interesting addition to a public library. The present copy belonged to the late Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, (Ireland,) the Right Hon. John Dogherty.

I should mention that the volume was illustrated with cuts of a very rude kind, representing some of the most terrible and ferocious acts of which they treat.”

“Martialis Epigrammata. Venet. 1495.

This edition will be found to be particularly described in Burnet’s Manuel du Libraire, and the prices which it brought at various sales range from sixty francs in the earlier to one hundred and five francs for copies more recently sold. With the exception of a few of the first leaves, which are stained, the present copy is in beautiful condition, being almost as fresh and clear as if printed last year. It is bound in Russia.”

The other volumes, of a more popular character, included in Mr. Webb’s donation, sold readily, as did many copies of anti-slavery poetry, for which we are indebted to the kindness of Miss Ireland, of Belfast. Mr. Webb will be pleased to learn that the same liberal appreciator of Art who purchased, last year, two of the Water Colour Drawings by Varley, completed his own collection, and our content, by the purchase of the third this year. All were sold at the prices marked by the President of the Irish Royal Academy.

But among all the encouraging items of which we ought now to take note, none are more cheering than the tokens of sympathy received from our friends and associates in France. Not one of the valuable and beautiful donations received from them, but comes charged with the earnest prayers and benedictions of the giver, for our cause and its advocates. We entreat the Pastor Martin and the Pastor Monod, with their families, to receive the assurance of our deep gratitude for their valuable contributions.

To Madame and Monsieur Geoffroy, St. Hilaire, to Madame De Tourgueneff, to Madame Brenier, to Madame De Stael, to Mademoiselle Lecomte, to Madame Meynieu, to Mademoiselle Wild and Madame Juillerant, to Mesdames Byrne and Power, to Madame De Chaune, to Madame Belloc, to the family of the great and good Arago, in particular, and to many others, not less deeply interested in our cause, we beg leave to express that sense of grateful obligation which will impel us to constant energy and fidelity in its service. In the midst of the persecution and violence we are so often obliged to witness and to meet, how much do we not owe to those friends who give us, from time to time, to feel the consolation of influences so kindly and gracious as those which come to us from France!

We will not attempt to enumerate the exquisite articles in China, Bronze, Buhl, Ivory and Leather; the Drawings, Pictures, Photographs, Toys, and petits objets of every variety, that made up the Paris collection. We think the French box, of this year, the most elegant and attractive that Mrs. Chapman has ever forwarded. A gift from Mrs. F. G. Shaw, of the wood work of Sorrento, redolent of olive groves and orange bowers, furnished Christmas and New Year’s presents that were entirely novel, while Mrs. Follen’s contribution from London was rich in Pictures, Books, and the prettiest possible Toys.

We have alluded to the donations of the absent members of our Committee, simply for the purpose of showing that while we are holding out our hands to the whole world for help, we are performing a condition essential to securing the aid of others, helping ourselves, and also, “remembering those in bonds as bound with them,” as well abroad as at home.

We now come to the detail of an event, at which we are greatly grieved, and where we are sure all Abolition hearts will sympathize with us.

That a heavy pecuniary loss should have been sustained by a Cause so poor as ours, of course we deeply regret, but that is nothing to our sorrow that the most unwearied labor and generous devotion of time and money should be met with entire failure and disappointment.

Madame C. B. Hunt, a most earnest friend of the slave, resident in Stuttgart, Wurttemberg, not satisfied with her own private contribution to his cause, but anxious for some public expression of German sympathy, undertook, almost alone, to procure the presentation of this subject to the public, in connection with collections for the Bazaar. Her exertions were very ably seconded by Pralat Kapff, a clergyman of high standing, who introduced the subject to his congregation in a very impressive manner. The work was highly successful. German artisans contributed articles and fabrics unknown in this country. German ladies of rank sent rare articles from their family repositories. Authors gave their own volumes, and artists beautiful views of the Wurttemberg Alps and adjacent scenery. Madame H. writes as follows:—​“It would be gratifying to Mrs. Stowe to know that‘Uncle Tom’ had so successfully performed his mission, that notwithstanding all the disadvantages your agent, as an unknown foreigner, had for bringing the cause before the public, still, from many distant places, as soon as the Bazaar was pointed out as a means of assisting in the emancipation of the oppressed, trifles were forwarded, some of them evidently from people in very humble life. Amongst others, I ought perhaps to mention the way in which I received the portraits of the Prince and Princess of Wurttemberg. They must have been sent by the donor, Philip Schmabried, of Munclingen, the day after he saw the advertisement, and I have no doubt they were in his eyes the greatest ornament of his humble dwelling.‘Is the sender a frame-maker, or has he a shop?’ I asked the carrier who brought them.‘Lord bless you! he is only a peasant, and he took them down from his walls,’ was the answer. I only hope they may find a purchaser who will recognise in them the hidden moral worth that they certainly possess, when one calls to mind the value persons of that class set upon such ornaments for their dwellings.”

This precious box, the object of so much care and industry, and obtained under so many disadvantages, was wrecked in the steamer Humboldt, near Halifax. This fact supplies the apology for the non-appearance at the Bazaar of several articles mentioned in our advertisements.

It only remains to us to proffer to Madame Hunt and her coadjutors, the assurance of a gratitude proportionate to their exertions. Their labor has been lost to the promotion of the Bazaar, lost to the treasury of the slave, but the fresh motive to hope and encouragement it has supplied to our hearts, can never be lost; and as to their own souls, it shall in no wise lose its reward.

The contributions of the American abolitionists are in amount about the same as in previous years. Horticultural Hall is so entirely inadequate in size, that we can hardly allow our country friends any room for separate tables, and this circumstance is naturally somewhat discouraging in its tendency. We hope it may be in our power to make more ample arrangements another year. Several of our most active Ladies’ Societies have chosen to assist us by contributions of money, rather than articles,—​a mode equally useful and acceptable. Other towns propose shortly the holding of Fairs at home, the proceeds of which are to be devoted to the American Society. The greater part of our goods that remain unsold are forwarded to these sales. Our foreign friends will perceive that this arrangement prevents the necessity of any sacrifice of merchandise on our part, and much enlarges the sphere of our operations.

We have received, in various ways, valuable assistance from the following places:—​Boston, Springfield, Milford, Fitchburg, Leicester, Duxbury, Blackstone, Concord, Salem, Lynn, Fairhaven, Fall River, Danvers, Roxbury, Cummington, Weymouth, Cambridge, West Cambridge, Raynham, Dorchester, Hingham, and Leominster, of Massachusetts; Rochester, Troy, and Staten Island, New York; Portsmouth, Concord, Weare, and Amherst, New Hampshire; Portland, Maine; Randolph, Vermont; and Brooklyn, Connecticut.

A great proportion of the articles contributed were of a useful character, and the more necessary on that account, so many of our foreign importations belonging entirely to the domain of taste and art. Visitors occasionally say, “It is a pity you have not a larger variety of useful and cheap articles.” To such we would reply, it is almost impossible, with our scanty accommodations, to give such goods due prominence; a good deal of clothing suitable for charitable purposes was necessarily overlooked on the present occasion. We propose, another year, if possible, to have tables devoted to the sale of particular goods, to have the articles so systematically arranged, that the business of bargain and sale may be greatly facilitated.

We owe special acknowledgments to Rochester, Portsmouth, and Portland, for the very neat and beautiful ladies’ work sent from those places. It is very well suited to the Boston demand. To our Troy friend, we return our best thanks for “needle-work which is needle-work,” and which proved eminently profitable to the Bazaar. The very tasteful articles, sent by Mrs. Howe, of Cambridge, sold at once. Among our American objects of taste, we must instance the beautiful Lamp Shades, made by Miss Francis, of Cambridge, and Miss Bradford, of Duxbury; the ingenious and tasteful Leather Work, by Mrs. Bramhall and her friends, and the magnificent Bronze Vases, presented by Dr. Dix. To Mr. John P. Jewett, we are greatly obliged for his generous gift of many popular Anti-Slavery works. A Herbarium, from Miss Wilbur, of Rochester, on which great time and care had been expended, we regret to say, was unsold; but we feel not the less obliged by the kindness that prompted the gift. We find such things are in little demand, people preferring to make their own collections.

We are indebted to Pictou, Nova Scotia, for a few very nice articles.

Mr. Edmund Jackson’s annual gift of twenty-five boxes of excellent Soap, found, as usual, an immediate sale, as did much of the Britannia, Glass and Japaned Ware, so generously presented by Messrs. Morey & Ober, P. F. Slane, Kanes & Johnson, E. N. Cate, and J. C. Wyman, to whom we would beg leave to return our very sincere thanks.

We would also proffer them to Messrs. F. A. Sumner & Co., for their loan of china, and to the friends who so liberally supplied the refreshment table. The Committee feel, likewise, that they are again indebted for such kindness and personal assistance as materially lightened the burden of their labors, to Mr. Daniel T. Curtis.

They are also very sensible of the courtesy of the gentlemen of the Horticultural Society’s Committee. It is as a simple act of justice, that we would refer to the services Rev. Samuel May, General Agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Not ourselves, only, but the whole American Society, are his debtors. It would have been with extreme difficulty that the Bazaars of the last two or three years could have been held at all, had it not been for the most generous devotion of time and strength on his part.

We feel that we have given a very imperfect record of the gifts and labor which have secured to the Bazaar so gratifying a measure of success; but, in view of the difficulty of recalling such a multiplicity of details, we know that our omissions will be pardoned.

An unusually large number of visitors and purchasers were in attendance, during the first week; but on the second, the very terrible storm to which we have referred, proved most seriously detrimental. Commencing on the night of the 28th, it continued, with unabated violence, through the next day and night, leaving the streets almost impassable, and completely precluding all access to numbers of the country friends, who had postponed their visits till the Bazaar’s second week. In the opinion of excellent judges, our receipts were diminished not less than $500, by this cause. As the Hall had been engaged, and all arrangements made, in prospect of closing on the 31st, it was not thought best to depart from the original intention.

When we take into account the storm, disappointments and hindrances, in respect to the arrival of boxes, and the absence of the Liberty Bell, which circumstances rendered it inconvenient to issue, and then remember that our receipts have exceeded those of last year by $200, we have occasion to feel that we have great reason for hope and encouragement.

While money-making is our primary object, we yet manage to secure collateral results of a very agreeable, as well as useful character. The Bazaar furnishes an occasion, on which Anti-Slavery people of all shades of opinion, the pro-slavery world and the Poco curante, all meet together, and from the conflict of sentiment and exchange of ideas that ensue, it cannot be but that good is evolved. Much social enjoyment and much serious business are compressed into the ten days through which the Bazaar continues, and many friends from a distance make their annual visit to Boston at this season. Opportunities are also given for the direct inculcation of Anti-Slavery truth. On various evenings, addresses of a most earnest and argumentative character were given by Messrs. Garrison, Quincy, Foss, and Pillsbury.

After so long an absence from the scene of her early labors, as Mrs. Child’s residence in New York has occasioned, we hailed her presence as a helper with the liveliest satisfaction. We participated in the great pleasure she must have experienced in comparing our present Bazaar with the first Anti-Slavery Fair, held in the December of 1834, owing its origin entirely to the personal labors and contributions of herself and Mrs. Ellis Gray Loring. In every point of view, the reminiscence is full of encouragement.

With very earnest and peculiar emotions of interest, the Committee welcomed the presence and sympathy of Mrs. Stowe. We are very grateful for the kindness with which she placed at our disposal the very beautiful plate, presented her by friends of the slave in Great Britain. Placed in the centre of the Hall, it attracted much attention, and, of course, admiration. The Letter of the Women of England, with its 576,000 signatures, was placed close by, bearing ample testimony to the universality of the Anti-Slavery spirit in that Kingdom. We trust its gentle and persuasive words may yet fulfil their holy mission.

One of Cumberworth’s exquisite statuettes in bronze, was included in the French collection. It represented a woman of color, with two white children on her lap. Nothing could be more striking and effective than the expression of the whole group. Its price was one hundred dollars. Various friends, visiting the Bazaar, combined in its purchase, and presented it, as “a mark of their respect and esteem,” to Wendell Phillips, Esq.,—​some of them not uniting in all his Anti-Slavery opinions, but highly appreciating his personal character and entire devotion to the service of that race, which Cumberworth has so charmingly idealized.

Here, with thanks and blessings for all who have lent us the help of their word, or deed, or silent sympathy, we would gladly stop. We know that any words of counsel or encouragement from us, are, on this side the Atlantic, not needed. The field of conflict and duty lies clearly before all other eyes as before ours, and on its perplexities or involvements, we have no light that may not be equally shared by all.

It is not exactly thus with our coadjutors in Great Britain. Private correspondence assures us that there, the position of the Society with which the Bazaar stands identified, is not wholly apprehended, or even when apprehended, accepted without much reservation and distrust. By incessant pains and promulgation, we have at length made men understand, partially, at least, the catholicity and breadth of our platform; that on it, men and women of all nations, and conditions, and creeds, and politics, can meet in harmonious action, ignoring, for the time, all other differences of opinion, and united, so far as their Anti-Slavery life is concerned, by the recognition of the sin of Slavery, under all circumstances, and the duty, consequently, of its immediate abolition. Charges, grossly injurious and untrue, have been alleged against us. It has been said that, on this platform, we have brought irrelevant and extraneous topics, and have endeavored to make use of the time and instrumentalities of the Society, for the inculcation of opinions foreign to the objects of our association. These charges have their foundation either in enmity to the great principles that we represent, or in the strangest misapprehension. The dominant sects of the country can hardly understand that certain great, and, in their eyes, all-important doctrines, are no more to be asserted as truths on our platform, except incidentally, than are the converse propositions. Their members can enforce and illustrate Anti-Slavery truth in whatever way they please; but if smaller and more heretical bodies, represented in our councils, choose to use the same liberty, by speaking in their own theological tongue, the Society holds itself responsible for neither. It does not forbid the believer in endless punishment to urge repentance on slaveholders and pro-slavery men, by all the motives drawn from his own tremendous creed; neither has it aught to object when the preacher of a universal salvation enforces the same repentance, by alluding to the mercies that will, as he thinks, be extended to all. It is vulgarly said, “It takes all sorts of people to make a world.” It takes all sorts of sects, and creeds, and parties, to make up a pro-slavery world; and hence, when we rally for the slave’s liberation, common sense calls on us to unite all sects, and creeds, and parties in an Anti-Slavery fellowship. To make their arguments and appeals effective, people must necessarily use such as are real and influential to their own convictions; but if the slave’s redemption be not their end, but simply the inculcation of their own theories on other subjects, be such theories right or wrong, then are the parties thus offending guilty of great and highly blameable dishonesty. Against such, the Society guards itself as effectually as a liberal interpretation of parliamentary rules will admit. We believe no Society, of so entirely popular a character, ever sinned less in respect to extraneous topics.

But another objection is presented, where the difficulty, intrinsic in the nature of the case, is, of course, more perplexing, and far less easy of solution. The enemies of the American Anti-Slavery Society have changed their ground. “It is not an Infidel Society, but a Society that has a great many Infidels in it.” To look at this matter fairly, requires a wider view than many of our British friends are able to take. Their own agitation for the abolition of West India Slavery offers nothing analogous to the state of things that has obtained for the last twenty years in this country. No institutions, either civil or ecclesiastical, were the least affected in Great Britain by the abolition of West India Slavery. Half a dozen other questions—​questions, too, religious rather than political—​have involved important modifications of what may be called the institutions of the country. The Tractarian controversy, the Papal aggression, (so called,) the disruption of the National Church of Scotland, afford instances of our meaning. But West India emancipation did not go down to the very marrow of things, as do these questions. It was a noble struggle with a mighty moneyed interest, and too great credit cannot be awarded to British Abolitionists. But, we repeat, their situation differed very widely from ours. The Constitution of our country, as expounded by its authorized interpreters, has provided, by the most careful and astute arrangements, for the continuance and perpetuity of Slavery. All our civil institutions are, therefore, in some sense, based upon it. Having no national ecclesiastical establishment, we cannot affirm the same of the American Church, in the same absolute and positive sense, that we do of the State; and yet it is virtually and actually so. The voters and the church members are the same persons. The men who vote for the Fugitive Slave Bill on a week day, and avow themselves ready to carry out its requirements, are the same men who sit down at the Lord’s table on Sunday.

To abolish Slavery, under such circumstances, is tantamount to a revolution. True, the Abolitionists pray and labor that it may be a bloodless one; but just so far as their weapons are spiritual, just in proportion as their warfare lies in the realm of ideas, will be the amount of the evil with which our foreign friends find fault, and which we are called upon to correct. This, it is out of our power, in any direct way, to accomplish. Inwoven as Slavery is with every institution of the country, the earnest discussion of its abolition must almost of necessity connect itself with a parallel discussion of the great doctrines underlying the whole civil and ecclesiastical fabric. We repeat, that this is not the fault of the Anti-Slavery Society, but something inherent in the nature of the case. Hence it is that the Abolitionists have looked so carefully to their foundation principles, the sinfulness of Slavery under all circumstances, the duty of its abolition at all hazards. It is in no rash or thoughtless spirit that they have initiated opinions that have convulsed, and are destined still more mightily to shake this whole nation. True, they began in ignorance whither their path might lead, ignorant of almost every thing but that it is safe to do right,—​safe for the State, safe for the Church, safe for one’s own soul.

We apprehend that now is the very time to have faith in God; to say that, having him for our refuge, “we will not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.”

It has been the every-day prayer of the churches of Puritan Christendom, that the Lord “would overturn, and overturn, and overturn,” preparatory to the coming of His kingdom. To such of their members as offered this prayer in sincerity and truth, and not as mere idle words, it should not come with an overwhelming terror and astonishment, when the salt that has lost its savour is being cast out and trodden under foot. If, with a few insignificant exceptions, the churches of America are the strongholds of oppression, slaveholding and slave-hunting forming no bar to communion with any sect, the revelation of such facts, and the recognition of the real character that they imply, must almost of necessity involve a parallel theological warfare.

If any evils pertain to such discussion, wo be to them by whom the offence cometh! Read the earlier remonstrances of the Abolitionists with the American Church. They contained no denial that she was “the very pillar and ground of the truth,” till her own inhuman and profligate declarations made it a duty to Christianity for us to declare her no longer in our eyes its exponent. This naturally leads to wider discussions, with which we, as Abolitionists, have nothing to do.

Of one thing we can most sincerely assure our British friends: they incur no shadow of responsibility for any belief or unbelief that may prevail in this country. The sole results of the National Bazaar, with exceptions too trifling to be enumerated, go to the support of the National Anti-Slavery Standard, and the maintenance of the Anti-Slavery Office in the city of New York. The Editors of the Anti-Slavery Standard are Messrs. Sydney H. Gay and Oliver Johnson; Mr. Edmund Quincy, Corresponding Editor. Both as an Anti-Slavery and a literary paper, it sustains a deservedly high character, and cannot, we believe, be justly censured for any important departure from the great principles of mutual respect and toleration on which the members of the Society have bound themselves, in their associated capacity, to proceed. We challenge investigation on this point, and we beg all parties feeling themselves aggrieved, to state in the columns of the paper the very words and phrases at which they take umbrage, and not to dwell in generals.

Let us hurriedly present one other consideration. The religious tenets professed by an overwhelming majority of the churches of the United States, almost without an exception by the churches in the slaveholding States, (leaving the Catholics entirely out of the question,) are those denominated evangelical. Hence the increased temptation to support Slavery under which members of those sects labor. The liberal sects (to use popular phraseology) are small, and comparatively insignificant bodies. There are not more than half a dozen Unitarian congregations, to our knowledge, south of Mason and Dixon’s line. When we take into account the difference of belief in respect to church fellowship that exists between Orthodox and liberal churches, it is very easy to see why the latter should find it much easier than the former to coöperate with the Anti-Slavery Society. The theory of the one sect is, that the church is a society of good men, (of the regenerate,)—​of the other, that it is a society of men seeking to become such. With the one party, the sacrament is a seal of their acceptance; with the other, only a means of grace. One is bound to defend the personal Christianity of its communicants, the other not at all. Hence the difficulty that an Orthodox man finds in acting with us, unless he be prepared to take the great step of coming out, and being separate from churches which we denounce as apostate. The Unitarians and Universalists, holding very different views in regard to church fellowship, have very little temptation, religiously, to be untrue to the slave. It is from fashion, and commerce, and worldly considerations, that their temptations arise.

We have said this, to show that it is not from any sympathy existing between the Anti-Slavery Society and any one sect more than another, that so many of its prominent members and agents are either members of the liberal sects, or belong to none at all.

To remedy this evil in the eyes of the evangelical Anti-Slavery churches of Great Britain, we would respectfully urge it upon them to care not for the heresies of a portion of the Abolitionists of this country, but to concern themselves energetically, and at once, with that Practical Infidelity which is sapping the foundation of every Orthodox sect in this country. Christianity and slaveholding cannot exist together. Anti-Slavery as is the public sentiment of Great Britain, it must rise infinitely higher, before it can tell upon the churches of this country. An apostate Abolitionist from the pulpits of Boston, fresh from the defence of the Fugitive Slave Law, is welcome to the Anti-Slavery pulpits par excellence of Great Britain. Such Anti-Slavery as this can never accomplish the work.

The exclusion of Dr. Prime from the platform of the British Bible Society was a triumph of Anti-Slavery principle; but the rarity of such an event was shown by the strong feeling with which it was received by the religious public of this country, who really seemed to think it a cause for war between the two nations. We again repeat, it is for the churches of Great Britain to take strong and effective action on this subject, and that speedily. It is necessary to their own vitality, which must speedily perish before the blighting influence of pro-slavery fellowship. “What communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial?”

We will add a few words more on the general question, and close a paper already too long.

The intellect of the civilized world is convinced as to the enormity of the system we are attacking. A new and unique mode of defence is beginning to obtain in some quarters. The sins and sufferings of Slavery are conceded, but Abolitionists are urged to patience—​by what consideration, think you? Because God is patient with the sins and sufferings He witnesses! “He is patient, because he is eternal,” says St. Augustine.

We must confess that, to speak of the Maker and Governor of all things, the self-existent and Omniscient, “whose kingdom is where time and space are not,” whose methods and sovereignty are in so many instances inscrutable, as waiting patiently for the evolution of His own all-perfect purposes, and thence inferring that it is the duty of His creatures to look with patience on scenes of wrong and outrage which they could not contemplate patiently as borne for one day by themselves, is a species of cant, the impiety of which is equalled only by its inhumanity.

With the heart of the nation, colder and harder than marble, and a mere handful of men awake to the Slave’s terrible wrongs, and striving to create some sympathy for them, this miserable talk of patience, and of judicial calmness in summing up the arguments on all sides of the question, and of scientific surveys of the whole field of conflict, appears to us extremely out of place.

“It is good to be always zealously affected in a good thing,” is a maxim eminently safe to follow. The best stand-point from which to consider this question is that which the Slave occupies. We can but imperfectly approach to that, but perplexities become easy of solution in proportion as we do so. If we will but remember how much education, and temperament, and the providential arrangements of life, have had to do with the formation of our own most cherished opinions, we shall be better able to exercise the virtue of a perfect toleration. We mean by this, the allowance of the same rights to others, in matters of religion, that we claim for ourselves. This sentiment is easily assented to, but it covers a great deal of ground. It implies that an individual has a perfect right, not only to believe, but to teach and promulgate as earnestly as he pleases, whatever he thinks true. It does not bind us to read or to hear, to give him one sixpence of our money nor one hour of our time, or to do otherwise than regret that he holds opinions we consider untrue. Further than this, an enlightened toleration forbids us to go. Earnest rebuke and moral indignation belong to wrong-doing, and not to erroneous opinion. It is a confusion of mind on these points that has led to all the persecution and religious hatred that the world has ever witnessed. A life devoted to the service of God and man, is the best testimony we can bring to the truth of our own creed, and the best rebuke to the errors of that of another.

That the people living in the nineteeth, and not in the sixteenth century, may attain to this knowledge, is our earnest prayer; that the Abolitionists have already done so, is our hope.

A. W. WESTON.

Weymouth, January 16, 1854.

DONATIONS AND RECEIPTS.

DONATIONS TO THE TWENTIETH NATIONAL ANTI-SLAVERY BAZAAR.

MONEY RECEIVED BY MRS. CHAPMAN, IN PARIS,

AND EXPENDED THERE FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE BAZAAR.

BY A. W. WESTON.

MONEY CONTRIBUTED IN PARIS

FOR THE PURCHASE OF THE BRONZE GROUP OF THE “PETITS BLANCS.”

DONATIONS IN MONEY TO THE BAZAAR,

RECEIVED THROUGH THE LEEDS AND DUBLIN BOXES.

MERCHANDIZE RECEIVED FOR THE BAZAAR.

PARCELS RECEIVED IN THE BAZAAR BOXES.

COMMITTEE

OF THE

National Anti-Slavery Bazaar,

FOR 1854.

The ANTI-SLAVERY BAZAAR, for 1854, will be held Christmas Week, in Boston, Mass.

Its receipts are devoted to the Abolition of Slavery in the United States, through the instrumentality of the American A. S. Society.

To this end, they are chiefly expended in the maintenance of “The National Anti-Slavery Standard,” a weekly newspaper, and the support of an Anti-Slavery Office in the city of New York.

From all friends of this cause, superior to all others in magnitude and importance, the Committee would respectfully and earnestly solicit assistance.

Donations of money or merchandize are alike acceptable.

Pictures, Books, Needlework, Toys, in fine, almost all articles of taste or utility, are suitable contributions.

All merchandize intended for the Bazaar should be forwarded so as to reach Boston by the 1st of December.

It should be sent direct to Boston, and not to New York, unless in case of emergency.

The Committee would take this opportunity to return their thanks to Mr. William P. Powell, of Liverpool, for his kindness in forwarding the Boxes of the Bazaar that has just closed.

Transcriber’s Note

Misspelled words were not corrected. A missing comma in a table and a missing end quotation mark in the text were added.

In the title of the Committee in the last table, the words “National Anti-Slavery Bazaar” are displayed using a blackletter-family font in the original. It appears in bold if the user’s interface does not have a blackletter-family font installed.