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Show 72 ~~COSD DA \"-:llOJtSJl'liG SESSION. all its plainness, upon the conscience, why, we are very imprudent; be1:ause, forsooth, a great excitemelll wi!l ensue. Sir, slavery will not be overthrown without excitement, a most tremendous excitement. And let me say, there is too n!uch quietude in this city. It shows that the upholders of this wicked .system have not yet felt that their favorite sin has been much endangered, You need, ami must have, a moral earthquake, to startiP, if it were possible, even the. dea~ who are slumbering in their gr:wes. Thia sluggish state of the pub!Jc muul betokens no moral reformation. The more stagnant the waters, the mightier must be the hurricane to give salubrity to the atmo· sphere, ami heahh to the people. Your cause will noL prosper here-the philosophy of reform forbids you to expe~t it-until it excites popular ~umult, and brit~gs down upon it a shower of brickbats and rotten eggs, and Js threatened wtth a coat of tar and fe~thers. How was it in New-England, as the trutl.1 began to affect the conse~ences of the people? Why, sir, that whole sect1on of country was rocked to its very ctntre, and violence was everY: where aw~~ened. t_owanls the active friends of the helpless and bleedmg slave. 1 hen, str, our cause began to nuke swift proo-ress like that Christi~nity of which it is a part, in apostolic and martyt· tim~s. 'so it must be. \~ilh you here, as a matter of dire ami unavoidable necessity; beca~se Jt ~~~otto b~ supposed that the jacobinical spirit of slavery, and the atroctous spmt of preJUdtce, are less prevalent here than they were in distant New-Engla:u]. One more rem:1rk I would make. There is too much colonizationism here I s_ee handbills posted about the city, adv~trtising that there will be a debate i~ thts place, next week, on the suhject of colonization. Can it be nossible that any man at thir:~ day \~ill have the audacity to come forward, pnbiicly, as an advocat~ for that wtcked scheme 1 [••[ am that man," exclaimed Doctor Sle1gh, who was one of the audience.] Then I blush for that man'· I blush for him as a man, a Christian! [" He is not an American," excl:umed a colored ~~n.J-It looks well, indeed, for a foreign adventurer to ~or~e here, ~nd JOin a band of haughty and tyrannical conspirators, itt ban1~h111~ one-stxth _Part of our own fellow citizens to an uncivilized and pes.ule?tml coast. ~1r, let every advocate of the colonization societv, who ma1.nta1ns the propnety or. duty of tr~nsporting our colored. collntry"'men to Afn~a, on account of thetr complexiOn, be regarded as an en em v to his spec1es and a libeller of God." · ~V. \V. SLEIGH then rose, and asked permission to mal<e a few remarks, wh1ch was ~ranted, an~ he was invited upon the platform. In reply to a not~ requesting ~ror:'- htm a copy of his remarks for publication, the following commumcat10n was re~eivcd. Although, in chronolo(Jical order, it doe~ no~ all bel?ng here, we st11l publish it in this place, enti~e, ~s this is the particular Wish of the author. 285 RACE STREET, May 31st, 1838. To Samuel Webb, Esq. Sir-I~ c?mpliance with your request, I herewith send you a statement of all I sa1d m your late H::tll, and what gave rise to the same. Believe me yours very sincerely, \V. \V. Su:IOH. Having, out of curiosity, visited the late "Pennsylvania Hall" on Tues~ ay, May 15th. 1838_, ~nd having heard one of the speakers, ,;hom I W3S Informed was i\.Jr. 'V1iham Lloyd Garrison, observe that "h~ wondered any Rt-:MARKii OF W. W. SLt-;1011. 73 man at the present day would have the audacity to come forward and advocate colouization, and particularly a "foreign adventurer!" I immediately, audibly, and emphatically, said, " I Al\f TI1A"r MAN." Mr. Garrison then continued, "I blush for that man-that fOreigner-who dares come to America to send Americans from their homes," &c. &c. "\Vhen this gentloman had terminated his speech, I requested to be heard in my own vindication, upon which I was invited to take my stand on the platform, when I spoke to the following eiTect : Ladies and Gentlemen-I would be the last man to interrupt the proceedings of any assembly, and particularly so large a one as this, met for the purpose of advocating the principles of liberty, and the cause of the colored man; but having been personally alluded to by the speaker who has just sat down, and by him denounced as a foreign adventurer come to America to turn Americans out of their own land, I fp,lt it my duty to solicit the· privilege \vhich you have now courteously granted me, of s:1ying a few words vindicatory of mysclf.-Lad!cs and Gentlemen, I am not an enemy to liber .. ty-1 am not an enemy to the colored man; I am an advocate of the one, and the friend of the other :-and it little became the speaker to cast in my face thal I was a "foreign adventurer," and, much less, so to misrepresent my actions as to say I wanted to turn or transport Americans from their own lam!! When he visited England, his having been a foreigner was not thrown in his face. True, I am from England, where " Slaves c:mnot b~athc--! If thci•·lungs inhale out• ai1·, that moment lhcv nrc f1·cc; They touch Out' count•·y nmlthei1• shackles fail!"* But what could [expect from one who did not spare his own countrymanthe tried and unremunerated friend of the black, DAviD PAUL BnowN, Esq.; but heaped upon that talented gentleman unlimited abuse !-or from a man who has just told you," he hates CAU'flON1 PRUDENCE, and JUDlCIOUSNESS !" I thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen, for your kindness in hearing me. The next day I addressed the following letter to the chairman of the meeting in the Hall, the contents of which will sufficiently expb.in the reasons which led to my so doing. 285 RAcE STREET, May 15th, 1838. To the Cl.ail'man of the ~[ct:ting in ' 1 l'cnnsyh·ania Hall." Sir-Having been yesterday (through your courtesy) on the platform, when a notice was read, on·ering your Hall for discussion this day on the subject of colonization, and as such was evidently t.lirected to me, [ feel it my duty, most respectfully, to enter m.y protest (as an advocate for colonization) against any of its friends sanctioning, by their voice, any such hasty, cursory, partial, and indefinite investigation as this proposes to be, on a subject of such importance. Moreover, I am convinced that it is only by such inadequate measures, that abolitionism can be, for a moment, sustained: and were l to consent, thus abruptly, to enter upon its discussion, without order-withotlt regulations-without system-without admitted evidenr. e, and without knowing whom I would have the honor of debating with, I would he acting in that very way which I consider has hitherto tended much to the delusion of the public. The misrepresentation of colonization, and the promotion of erroneous and destructive views on the question of slavery-besides the absence of my friend, Mr. Elliott Cresson, who has kindly offered to furnish me with such documentary evidence as is in- 111~ e!:!t~~~0'~~:J~=~hi1~1:~r~~i~=~~~~::ll~~ill~~;;, ~~.~l~~\1~:-~~;m~l~~~:~.d, l1is nat in~ eountry, 10 |