The Liberator Files

March 26, 1858

Almost two full pages are given to an address in the Masssachusetts House of Representatives, by John A. Andrew, “remonstrating against” the Dred Scott decision.

March 19, 1858

Here is an account of the votes in both the House and the Senate, acting in support of the Joint Special Committee, asking for the removal of the Judge, for the “unwarrantable part he took in the rendition of Anthony Burns, and for his contumacious violation of the law of Massachusetts, by which he is forbidden to hold the office of Judge while acting as a Slave Commissioner”.  The votes are strongly in support of removal.   The editor comments:  “It only remains for the Governor and the Council to respond affirmatively, (and they will, undoubtedly,) and the sovereignty of the people will be vindicated.”

March 12, 1858

Report of the gathering at Faneuil Hallall, in commemoration of the 87th Anniversary of the Boston Massacre, and in memory Crispus Attucks.  William C. Nell chairs the meeting, and speaks, along with speeches by Rock, Parker, Phillips, Remond, and Garrison.
Letters of regret from people who cannot be present include Higginson, and Whittier.
Garrison, in his speech, comments on peace and violence.  “While I say that I believe God has called us all to peace - slaveholders as well as slaves, — while I believe in the peace principle, as divine and omnipotent, — nevertheless, I admit, that if any men have a right to fight for liberty with deadly weapons, they are to be found on the Southern plantations; for no wrongs are like theirs…. if Washington and his compatriots were justified in taking up arms,…by the same inexorable logic…those who are enslaved in our country today would also be justified in resorting to armed resistance, and in breaking their chains over the  heads of their oppressors….”

January 29, 1858

There is a column about a Special Meeting of the School Committee, in Providence, in which there is debate about “colored schools”. In another column the editor comments on the weakness of arguments against abandoning those schools.

January 8, 1858

A Boston correspondent of the New York Post, indicates that he has heard from Sumner’s own lips that he has no intention of resigning his seat in the Senate.  This in spite of the fact that he has received “letters from South Carolina, warning him that the ‘honor’ of that chivalric State would require her sons to shed more of his blood, if he took his seat at this session’.”

January 1, 1858

Several articles tell of a continuing slave trade, focusing especially on Cuba, and also on the French trade.

January 1,  1858

An article from the Worcester Spy calls attention to the composition of the  Senate committees.  “… the six great leading committees all have chairmen, and a majority of their members  from the slaveholding States…. The remaining committees are constituted generally with the same strong Southern aspect, one of them having every member from the slaveholding States.”   The article provides population statistics to indicate that the slave holding states profit from a large discrepancy in their favor.

January 1, 1858

A letter, addressed to “The Christians of the U.S. of North America Who Labor for the Abolition of Slavery”, from the Synod of the Free Evangelical Church of the Canton of Vuad in Switzerland. It offers sympathy, and encouragement “for the cause you uphold, namely, the emancipation of the slaves throughout the length and breadth of your great republic”.

December 25. 1957

Notice of Rock’s failing health, his general declining condition.  He hopes to “gain relief from a change of climate”, and “he asks the generous to aid him”. Donations can be left at the anti-slavery office.

December 11, 1857

William Cooper Nell calls again for abandonment of separate schools for colored children, including in his appeal, reference to an article in the Providence Journal, which speaks of the proficiency of colored children in a school in that city. Nell asks,  “Why should such scholars be denied the facilities of schools in their respective districts, and be compelled to congregate into an exclusive school?….”