The Glorious First of August
Of all the days in the year, our boasted Fourth of July is the most unpropitious for assembling the people together, to consider the claims of our enslaved population, and to advocate the cause of impartial liberty. It is a day consecrated to rant, noise, revelry, hypocrisy, and dissipation ; and although it has been, to some extent, redeemed from utter prostitution by the temperance reformation, and from gross profligacy by religious sectarian celebrations, still it is unquestionably the most demoralizing and impious, in the general manner of its observance, of all the days in the year. …………………………………………………
The First of August —The day on which eight hundred thousand slaves instantly became freemen — is rapidly approaching; and abolitionists, throughout the land, should spare no pains to celebrate it in a manner that will mightily advance their sacred enterprises………
(Liberator, July 8, 1842, pg 3)
