health, and in consequence of the great pressure of
engagements on himself, their stay in this country
would be necessarily short. But he hoped they
would accept of the expression of thanks they offered,
and their apology for not being in a condition to
meet their kindness as they would desire. When
they were about to set out from Andover, a friend
of theirs expressed his astonishment that they should
enter upon such a journey in the delicate state of
Mrs. Stowe’s health. The Scotch people,
he doubted not, would be kind to them—they
would kill them with kindness; and he feared it
would be so. It was from Glasgow the idea of the
invitation they had received had originated; and well
might it originate in that city, for when had been
the time that Glasgow was not in earnest on the subject
of freedom? They had had hard struggles for liberty,
and they had been successful, and the people in the
United States were now struggling for the same privilege.
But they labored under circumstances greatly different
from those in Great Britain. Scotland had ever
been distinguished for its love of freedom. [Great
applause.] The religious denominations in the United
States—to a great extent, give few and
feeble expressions of disapprobation against the system
of slavery. Two denominations had never been
silent—the Old Scotch Seceders, or Covenanters,
and the disciples of William Penn—not one
of their number, in the United States, owns a slave.
Not one can own a slave without being ejected from
the society.[A] In fact, the general feeling was against
slavery; but to avoid trouble, the people hesitate
to give publicity to their feelings. Were this
done, slavery would soon come to an end. Great
sacrifices are sometimes made by slaveholders to get
rid of slavery. He went once to preach in the
State of Ohio. He found there a little log house.
Inside was a delicate woman, feeble and with white
hands. She seemed wholly unaccustomed to work.
Her husband had the same appearance of delicacy.
They were very poor. How had they come into that
state? They belonged to a slave State, where they
had formerly possessed a little family of slaves.
They had felt slavery to be wrong. They set them
free, and with the remainder of their little property
tried to get their living by farming; but like many
similar cases, it had been one of martyrdom.
The Professor then proceeded to make some very practical
remarks on the character of the fugitive slave law,
after which he said that the prosperity of Great Britain
in a great measure resulted from the products of slave
labor. American cotton was the chief support of
the system. We must, both in Britain and America,
get free-grown cotton, or slavery will not, at least
for a long time to come, be abolished. What he
would impress on the minds of Christians was unity
in this great work. Let slaveholders be ever
so much opposed to each other on other topics, they
were unanimous in their endeavors to support slavery.
But let the prayers of all Christians and the efforts
of all Christians be united; and the system of oppression
would speedily be destroyed forever.