December 14, 1849
A petition calls for the State legislature to grant the vote to women. The editor includes a preface saying that “the denial of the elective franchise to women in this Commonwealth, on account of their sex, is an act of folly, injustice, usurpation and tyranny, which ought no longer to be persisted, in.”
December 14, 1849
Writing from London, Nov 23, 1849, Brown addresses his former master, Capt. Enoch Price, of St. Louis, Mo. His closing paragraph includes: “I will not yield to you in affection for America, but I hate her institution of slavery. I love her, because I am identified with her enslaved millions by every tie that should bind man to his fellow-man. The United States has disfranchised me, and declared that I am not a citizen, but a chattel: her Constitution dooms me to be your slave. But while I feel grieved that I am alienated and driven from my own country, I rejoice that, in this land, I am regarded as a man. I am in England, what I can never be in America, while slavery exists there. Sir, you may not be pleased with me for speaking to you in so plain a manner; but in this I have only done my duty. See that you do yours!.”
December 14, 1849
From the Boston Courier of Dec. 5, is an account of the arguments presented to the Court re. the Roberts case. The arguments made by Charles Sumner are here grouped under seven headings, all of which maintain that “the discrimination of children on account of color or race, in the public schools of Boston, is in the nature of caste, and is a violation of equality.” Sumner also recognizes that the colored citizens had originally requested such a separate school, but that they were now against separation. P.W.Chandler, arguing for the City, maintained that the legal right to make the decision rested with the school committee.
December 7, 1849
The Roberts case has just been argued before the Mass. Supreme Court. “…if the Bill of Rights in this State be not a dead letter, and the law not operative, and justice not outlawed — there can be no doubt, it seems to us, that it will be in favor of the plaintiff, and therefore against an odious complexional caste which ought not to be tolerated in any land, whether Christian or Pagan.”
November 30, 1849
Here is a memorial to the House and Senate of Massachusetts, calling for a repeal of all laws which enforce the observance of a day of the week as Sabbath or the Lord’s Day. “..it is contrary to the fundamental idea of a republican government, that conscience should be coerced into conformity by law, or that special rights and privileges should be given to a particular religious belief….”
November 9, 1849
Referring to his visit with the Mott’s, while in Philadelphia, Garrison acknowledges a special debt to them. Remembering their early work with Benjamin Lundy, and abolition, he then comments on their effect on his views of religion. He refers to his own early Calvanistic sentiments…. “..a believer in the clerical order and the organized church as divinely instituted , — a strict sabbatarian, so that I could strain at a gnat and swallow a camel, in regard to that observance, with as much facility as any Jew that ever lived, —yet they manifested a most kind, tolerant, catholic spirit, and allowed none of these considerations to deter them from giving me their cordial approbation and cheering countenance as an advocate of the slave. If my mind has since become liberalized in any degree—– I am largely indebted to them for the change.”
November 2, 1849
The letter to Garrison, is written from London, October 12, and, in part, tells the story of one encounter on board the ship going to England. There were four or five slaveholders on board, among them Judge Chinn, a Louisiana slaveholder, on his way to occupy his post as Consul to Naples. “This Judge Chinn had with him a free colored man as servant, and I was somewhat anxious to know what kind of protection he was to receive in traveling in this country, for you will recollect that I made application to the Hon. John M. Clayton, before leaving America, for a passport, which was refused me. So, upon inquiring of his servant, he showed me his passport, which proved to be nothing less than a regular passport from the hand of the Secretary of State. ……This proves conclusively, that if a colored person wishes the protection of the U. S. government in going into any foreign country, he must not think of going in any other capacity than that of a boot-black. The act of the government , in denying to its colored citizens the same protection that it extends to the whites, is more cowardly, and mean, if possible, than any act committed for years. But it is entirely in keeping with American republicanism…”
October 26, 1849
The article, with the above title, is from “The New York correspondent of the Washington Union.” Without including the statistics used to advance the author’s argument, here is the gist of what the article says: “The attention of the thinking men of the age has been attracted to the fact that the constant tendency of capital is to accumulate in magnitude at the expense of labor. Its efforts to enhance the rent which it annually exacts from industry are constantly strengthened by its success, and on every hand manifold evidences manifest themselves that poverty is increasing with fearful rapidity among the masses of the people, while individual fortunes are constantly swelling in magnitude….”
October 19, 1849
From the Dover Morning Star, an article title, Evidence of Grace - Southern Theology tells of the visit of Rev. Dr. Bullard, of St. Louis, who spoke to theological students at Andover. “….he spoke of the State of Missouri as a promising and important field for missionary labor, and urged some of those candidates for the ministry to enter it. But he added that none should think of entering that field until they were sure they had grace enough in their hearts to keep them entirely silent on the subject of slavery. When he first went there he found it almost impossible to restrain his indignant feelings as he saw the workings of the system, but had now gained grace to enable him to maintain a submissive silence.” ……The article’s final comment: “…the time cometh when such appeals will be answered by a burst of indignation, and the marching of a phalanx of Christian teachers to the land of despotism, whose tongues the grace of God shall set on fire with words that will melt off every fetter, and consume every tyrannic lash.”
September 28, 1849
From the New York Tribune comes an account of the proclamation of the Haitian President, Faustin Soulouque, as Emperor, under the name Faustin I. The article gives to the account of the events leading up to the proclamation a kind of “burlesque” quality, but concludes: “Ridiculous as it may seem, however, it is every word of it true, and it is a matter of very serious consequence to this unhappy island.”