LETTERS AND ADDRESSES BY GEORGE THOMPSON, DURING HIS MISSION IN THE UNITED STATES, From Oct. 1st, 1834, to Nov. 27, 1835. DIVINITY SCHOOL LIBRARY. HARVARD UNIVERSITY BOSTON: No. 25, Cornhill. 1837. NOTE. A volume has preceded the present one-published by Mr. KNAPP, at 25, Cornhill, Boston-containing the Lectures of GEORGE THOMPSON in England, with a full report of the discussion between Mr. Thompson and Mr. Borthwick, the pro-slavery agent, held at the Royal Amphitheatre, in Liverpool. In noticing that volume, the editor of the American Quarterly Anti-Slavery Magazine most happily remarks: "Whoever has listened to the rapturous, impetuous, cataract eloquence of George Thompson, will not so much wonder that his reporters have failed fairly to write him down, as that they did not give up in utter despair. These speeches are not George Thompson; yet, like pictures of rainbows, forked lightning, and the starry concave, there is something of glory in them which will do very well till you compare them with the original. We remember that before we heard our friend lecture, or dreamed of his coming to this country, we used to wonder whether his printed controversy with Borthwick were not an improvement upon the spoken one. We advise the American public, for their own credit, first to buy the book and then recall the man.' The sketches of Mr. Thompson's Lectures in the United States, contained in the following pages, do not furnish the reader with any adequate conception of his eloquence and pathos yet they are deemed too valuable, and are too closely connected with the history of the anti-slavery cause in the United States, to be left scattered through the pages of a newspaper. The letters are fine specimens of epistolary writing-full of thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.' Boston-1837. WM. LLOYD GARRISON. INTRODUCTION. It was deemed a sublime spectacle when the youthful LAFAYETTE left his native land for a foreign shore, and perilled his fortune, ease, reputation and life, in order to espouse the cause of a brave but injured people, in their unequal struggle for liberty. An example of patriotism so rare, so full of high-wrought chivalry, and so opposite to the dictates of human selfishness and prudence, could not fail to excite the admiration of the world, even before the termination of the generous and daring adventure. In the eye of mercy, in the judgment of charity, in the estimation of piety, and ultimately in the decision of mankind, far more of moral sublimity attended the embarkation of GEORGE THOMPSON for these shores, and still higher courage, devotion, fortitude and integrity were required in the prosecution of his great anti-slavery mission among us. Let this assertion be tested by a comparison of circumstances, objects and situations. The people, whose cause Lafayette espoused, were respectable, intelligent, enterprising and heroic. He was not required, therefore, to make any sacrifice of respectability, or incur any odium or ridicule, arising from their condition. -They were not enslaved: no chain ever galled their limbs, uo whip was brandished over their heads, no driver followed at their heels, no laborious task was assigned them, no knowledge was withheld from their minds, no robbery of their wages was attempted, no parental or filial relation was violated, no restriction was placed upon their egress or ingress, no claim of property in their persons was set up, no traffic was carried on in any of their bodies. Hence, the injustice from which they were to be delivered was, comparatively speak ing, less than the weight of a feather. They in whose behalf George Thompson pleaded, were degraded unenlightened-servile; and were universally the objects of derision, hatred and persecution. Hence, it required one to make himself like Christ on earth, of no reputation,' to identify himself with them. -They were ranked & treated as pieces of merchandize and as cattle; were chained, whipped, driven, tasked, plundered, forbidden to learn even the alphabet, sold in private and in public, cruelly restricted as to locomotion, and subjected to a bondage as brutal as it is interminable. Hence, whatever concerns the whole man, for time or eternitywhatever of value is seen in the sanctity of marriage, in the impartial administration of justice, in the protection of law, in the prevalence of christianity-was bound up in the struggle for their emancipation |