hear!] Secondly, by persuading slaveholders of the
wrong they commit; but this would have little effect
so long as they bought their cotton. [Hear, hear!]
And the third and most feasible way was, by making
slave labor unprofitable, as compared with free labor.
[Hear!] When the Chinese first began to emigrate to
California, it was predicted that slavery would be
‘run out’ that way. He hoped it might
be so. [Cheers.] The reverend gentleman then reverted
to his previous visit to this country, seventeen years
ago, and described the rapid strides which had been
made in the work of education—especially
the education of the poor—in the interval.
It was most gratifying to him, and more easily seen
by him than it would be by us, with whom the change
had been gradual. He had been told in America
that the English abolitionists were prompted by jealousy
of America, but he had found that to be false.
The Christian feeling which had dictated efforts on
behalf of ragged schools and factory children, and
the welfare of the poor and distressed of every kind,
had caused the same Christian hearts to throb for
the American slave. It was that Christian philanthropy
which received all men as brethren—children
of the same father, and therefore he had great hopes
of success. [Cheers.]”
* * * *
*
My remarks on the cotton business of Britain were
made with entire sincerity, and a single-hearted desire
to promote the antislavery cause. They are sentiments
which I had long entertained, and which I had taken
every opportunity to express with the utmost freedom
from the time of my first landing in Liverpool, the
great cotton mart of England, and where, if any where,
they might be supposed capable of giving offence; yet
no exception was taken to them, so far as I know,
till delivered in Exeter Hall. There they were
heard by some with surprise, and by others with extreme
displeasure. I was even called proslavery,
and ranked with Mrs. Julia Tyler, for frankly speaking
the truth, under circumstances of great temptation
to ignore it.
Still I have the satisfaction of knowing that both
my views and my motives were rightly understood and
properly appreciated by large-hearted and clear-headed
philanthropists, like the Earl of Shaftesbury and
Joseph Sturge, and very fairly represented and commented
upon by such religious and secular papers as the Christian
Times, the British Banner, the London Daily News and
Chronicle; and even the thundering political
Times seemed disposed, in a half-sarcastic way, to
admit that I was more than half right.