June 27, 1845
Here is a report of a special meeting of the Primary School Committee, to consider “the petition of a number of colored citizens, praying that ’separate schools for colored children be abolished — and that said children be permitted to attend the schools in their several districts.’” …. The Chairman, Mr. Ingraham, reports that the majority of the committee believes the request was a right of the petitioners…. “But, as the Grammar School Committee had not acted on the subject, therefore, ‘Resolved That in accordance with the foregoing report, it is inexpedient to grant the prayer of the petitioners.,’”……Some of the discussion immediately centers on the claim by some that separate schools contribute to the “degradation” of the black man below the white. Rev. W.W. Patton says: “It is morally wrong to maintain this condition, if it degrades the colored child. The white child looks upon and despises the colored child as of an inferior order of beings, as long as these things continue; this we all know, this we have all experienced.” …….Dr. Charles Phelps argues for the petitioners, pointing out the success of other towns, Salem, New Bedford, which have previously abandoned separate schools. “By making a discrimination among the children of our citizens, we aim a blow at one of the fundamental principles of our whole system of Public Schools.” Phelps: “It is unlawful for us to exclude these children from the public schools, nothing can make it expedient for us to continue in wrongdoing …. We might add another step, and yield to prejudice the power to separate the children of the poor and the rich, or the children of the mechanic or the professional man.”
There follows discussion about whether or not there is prejudice in the community. There is an example given of churches which do not welcome colored people in their pews ….There is reference to a picture of the Battle of Bunker Hill, and there was no objection to a colored man being in that picture; there is reference to the fact that colored and white fought side-by-side in the armies of the revolution. There is discussion of whether or not colored citizens are satisfied with arrangements for separate schools, to which one response says: “No respectable colored person feels them to be other than a grevious wrong and insult.” There is an assertion that many colored parents are keeping their children from attending the separate schools “because they would not be degraded”. Some say that it is a policy “of the majority to quietly hush up this question”….
Finally a vote is taken , and by 55 to 12 the resolution passes.
There follows a letter to Garrison, from H. I. Bowditch, with his personal account of the meeting.
June 20, 1845
“General Jackson expired at the Hermitage on Sunday, the 8th inst. It is said he retained to the last his senses and intellect unclouded; and in the language of pious cant it is added, that ‘he expired with the utmost calmness, expressing the highest confidence in a happy immortality through a Redeemer’. He has been an awful curse and scourge to the country, and his death, therefore, will be any thing but a public calamity. But, as bad as he was, there will be no lack of panegyrists to try make his career appear illustrious. But in vain … in vain!”
June 13, 1845
From the Providence Republican Herald, there is an unsigned letter to the Editor. ”I have always been an advocate for the infliction of Capital Punishment for the crime of murder, but I must say, the deplorable use made of the law recently, has entirely changed my mind on the subject. Since the philanthropists of England have undertaken an examination of the subject, they have ascertained that more than one hundred and fifty have been executed in England, within a few years, who have been proved innocent after their death …… you may say there is not the same danger in our country; but, sir, the danger is becoming great here …..”
June 13, 1845
From the Putney (Vermont) Perfectionist …. “Garrison is a bigot on the subject of slavery. Any deviation from his views of the morality of that and certain other outward acts, calls forth from him anathemas like those hurled from Rome. But he is unspeakably ‘liberal’ on the subject of religion, tolerating, and complimenting in various indirect ways, every thing —- from Sabbatarianism to infidelity.” ….. “It becomes all who are advocating the cause of human liberty, to beware of these men, who, while professing to aim a blow at slavery, are stabbing Christianity at the heart, and thus crushing the hopes of the oppressed…..”
May 9, 1845
Here is notice that the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass will soon be published, and includes here the Preface, written by Garrison. “The subject and the author of the Narrative is too well known, too highly admired, and too deeply beloved by abolitionists to render any commendation of his highly reflective mirror of slavery necessary at our hands. In addition to the interest contained in the incidents, and the pleasure to be derived from the perusal of the many noble, manly and eloquent passages of the narrator, the value of the work is greatly enhanced by a Preface from the pen of Mr. Garrison….”
May 2, 1845
From the Baltimore correspondent of the Atlas, comes a notice that Torrey, imprisoned, has been sick for a week past, “but is again at work”. He has visitors, and is as comfortable as the institution will allow, and “bears his imprisonment with patience.”
May 2, 1845
“The Concerts given by these charming vocalists in this city,, at the Melodeon, on Monday and Wednesday evenings, were attended by a throng of admiring listeners, and elicited as usual applause.” They are praised for their ” determination to espouse the cause of human freedom.”
April 18, 1845
Gray lists names, and qualities of five recently emancipated slaves, from Louisiana, who are now in Boston. They seek employment and homes. All are females, ages from 12 to 31. All were emancipated by the Louisiana Sec. of State.
April 4, 1845
Under the title, A Northern State with Southern Principles, here are extracts “from a Columbus, Georgia, paper, copied with high approval by the New Hampshire Gazette. Truly, the South must do all the singing for New Hampshire — the political singing, we mean.” There follow the extracts, which the editor believes justify the heading given to this item.
March 28, 1845
A notice that Gov. Briggs has appointed Thursday, April 3rd, to be fast day. The editor makes fun of the day: “There is no more religion in the appointment of an annual fast, than in the annual recurrence of a political election….. The time for holding the annual fast in this State always is April. It is, at best, an April fool’s day business.”
