January 6, 1860
“With this number we commence the thirtieth volume of the Liberator. It has been a long, desperate, eventful, ‘irrepressible conflict’ with the most ferocious and satanic system of despotism now existing on earth; but, though the end is not yet, surely, it cannot be far distant – for the ‘battle waxes to the gate’; and all the signs of the times are indicating that a great revolution is at hand. Let there be a fresh consecration of means and efforts to secure a splendid triumph for freedom, and therefore to give peace and prosperity to our country.”
January 6, 1860
Derived from the New York Independent, here is the story of James Power, a native of Wexford, Ireland, twenty-three years of age, a stone-cutter by trade. He had been employed in Columbia for about nine months. “The only opinion he ever expressed against slavery was that it caused a white laborer in the South to be looked upon as an inferior and degraded man. But this was enough. The remark was reported to the Vigilance Committee, who immediately ordered the police to arrest him.” Then follows the story of his being whipped by negroes forced to do it, then a tarring, and finally being put on the negro car of a train, sent toward Charleston, with further threats. A Charleston prison he give relief.
January 13, 1860
The item from the Cincinnati Commercial says that thirty-six persons have arrived there, having been warned to leave Kentucky “for the crime of believing slavery to be a sin”. The movement for expelling the men arose from excitement over the John Brown foray.
January 13, 1860
Here there is comment on two poems by Whittier, both on the final page of this edition. “… we think there is not the same magnanimous recognition of the liberty-loving heroism of John Brown, which is found in many of the poet’s effusions relating to the war-like struggle of 1776, and ‘our revolutionary fathers’…….There is an apparent vidiousness or severity of imputation… which does not seem to be called for, though softened by some approving allusions in close juxtaposition….” The comment wonders why Brown is the subject of “special moral criticism and rebuke by the poet?”
January 13, 1860
Here is an account of the fall of the Pemberton Mills, in which seven hundred people were buried in the ruins, and two hundred lives were lost by fire.
January 13, 1860
Announcement of the debate to be at the Mercantile Library Association of Boston, January 16th. The question to be debated: “Has Garrisonian Abolitionism been of any practical service to the cause of freedom?
January 20, 1860
Sarah P. Remond, writing from London, describes how her sister, Mrs. Putnam, and friends had bought first-class tickets from Boston to Liverpool, but were not allowed to go to table with white passengers.
January 20, 1860
At a recent session of the Legislature there was an attempt to remove the word ‘white’ from the militia law. The Governor, (Banks), vetoed the measure. The House refused to override the veto. The word ‘white’ was then restored to the measure, and the bill passed with a vote of 170 to 1. The editor comments: “The colored citizens of Massachusetts are, therefore, still to be ostracized, in this particular, on account of their complexion.”
January 27, 1860
Whittier fells that in Garrison’s recent comments regarding his poems about Brown, has implied that he, Whittier, has relinquished previous strong pledges in abhorrence of war and violence. Here Whittier asserts his continuing belief that “we were under high moral obligations to use, for the promotion of our cause, moral and political action as prescribed in the Constitution of the United States…..I have seen no reason to doubt the wisdom of that pledge. Slavery was just what it is now, neither better nor worse, when we made it. If it is right and proper now to use forcible means in behalf of the slave, it was right and proper then…. I can only say that I dare not encourage who have not any scruple, to do what I regard as morally wrong.”
February 3, 1860
Written from Rome, Dec 24, 1859, there are extracts from a letter written to a friend in Boston. Commenting on news of the execution of Brown: “Of course I knew, from the moment of his capture, what his fate would be; the logic of slavery is stronger than the intellect or personal will of any man, and it bears all Southern politicians along with it. No martyr whose tragic story is writ in the Christian books ever bore himself more heroically than Capt. Brown; for he was not only a martyr, — any bully can be that, — but also a Saint – which no bully can ever be. ……John Brown came from a lineage; his life proves it – and his death. It is not for you or me to select the instruments wherewith the providence of mankind has the world’s work done by human hands; it is only for us to do our little duty, and take the good and ill which come of it.”
