The Liberator

The First of August.

The fifth anniversary of a past event in the world's history—the deliverance of the West India slaves—is at hand. It is fitting that it should be welcomed and celebrated with hearts full of grateful remembrances and glad anticipations.

The iron tongue of Time, that proclaimed at midnight, from the cathedral towers of the Antilles, that slavery was no more within their borders, at the same time sounded the knell of slavery throughout the world. The peace and joy with which the boon of freedom was received by the long-suffering bondmen gave to the winds the fears which coward conscience had conjured up to scare men from the right, and prove a glad earnest of the blessings that would yet crown that act of righteousness. Every year that has since rolled by free from bloodshed and violence, has been an angel messenger of good tidings of great joy to those pining in bondage, and to those who feel as if bound with them in their chains. Though they need no proof from history or experience that the Right is ever the Expedient, and that it can never be unsafe to do righteously and to love mercy, still they rejoice to have such a demonstration with which to silence the weak or wicked cavillings of the simple or of the callous. De Tocqueville has well remarked, that slavery is one of those institutions which may exist for a thousand years, if no one questions its rightful existence, but cannot endure long after the question has once been asked. When the question has not only been asked but answered; when the problem has not merely been proposed but solved: the practical triumph of the truth involved in it cannot be very remote. Revolutions never go backwards—and of all the revolutions that the world has ever seen, the one that is now in progress for the overthrow of the most gross and hateful form of human oppression, is the most certain of a prosperous issue,—though it may be after much toil and tribulation. The most healthful influences of the age are on its side. The circle of fire is ever closing more and more narrowly upon the scorpion system, and it will ere long be driven, from very shame and despair, to sting itself to death with a blessed suicide.

Under whatever aspect we may regard the West India Emancipation, it is an event that deserves our hearty joy and glad commemoration. Whether we look upon it merely as the deliverance of Eight Hundred Thousand of our fellow-men from the woes of slavery, or whether we view it as only one of the earlier victories of the revolutionary struggle in which we are engaged, auspicious of still higher and more glorious successes yet in store for the champions of Freedom; it well deserves to be freshly remembered and joyfully commemorated. It is not often that the American abolitionists have an occasion for a general Thanksgiving. Though the joy that always attends upon those that are laboring for the cause of odious truth, waits ever upon their steps, still their satisfaction arises more from the consciousness of having done their duty, and from the perception of the gradual but certain impression they are producing upon the general mind, than from palpable and obvious triumphs. But here is a record of the results of anti-slavery labors, that he that runs may read—touching the success of which the wayfaring man though a fool (and such there are) need not err. The story is written with the beams of a tropical sun upon the heavens themselves. It is the very poetry of statistics—the very romance of facts. There is no room for fair doubt or just hesitation. The riddle which the Sphinx of slavery had proposed to mankind,—all vain attempts to solve which she threatened to visit with death and devastation, is now read, and she will be soon reduced to dash out her own brains in rage and despair.

While awaiting, and doing what we can to hasten, this happy event, it is right—it is wise—to refresh ourselves once in a year by assembling ourselves together and holding a glad Jubilee in memory of the sublime doings of the First of August, 1838. From such a joyful communing one with another we shall derive fresh strength and new encouragement for the prosecution of our long, but never tedious, conflict with our own slavery. We do not the less feel the iron of the chains of our own countrymen in our souls, that on one day we meet to rejoice over the shivering of the fetters of the disenthralled West Indian. We rejoice the more in his deliverance because we see in that event a happy omen of the redemption of our own bondmen.

It is well done, therefore, on the part of abolitionists in various parts of the country, the setting apart this day for celebrations of a festival character. It becomes us to rejoice with those that do rejoice, as well as to weep with those that weep. Let all the friends of the American slave meet together on that happy anniversary by neighborhoods, by towns or by counties. Besides the benefit their own spirits may derive from the occasion—great good may be done to many others. The novelty of the measure, and the mode of celebration—the attractions of the blue sky, the overarching groves, 'God's first temples'—the processions, the addresses in the open air, may attract many who have held themselves aloof from the vulgar anti-slavery lecture. The good seed of anti-slavery truth may, perchance, fall into good ground, which will bring forth abundantly. The degree of ignorance which prevails in the community on the subject of slavery generally, and of the W. Indian emancipation in particular, is truly astonishing, except to those who know how carefully the school, the political and religious prints, and the pulpit, have been guarded from the pollution of freedom. Much general truth can be embodied in addresses on the specific subject of West India emancipation. It is a text that admits of an extensive commentary—though care should be had to make the great event that will be the occasion of our meeting the prominent and marked topic of discourse. If arrangements have not yet been made by the abolitionists in any town for the due celebration of this illustrious day—let no time be lost in making them. Let the friends in every town decide whether they will have a Pic Nic of their own, or whether they will join with those in some other place who have a celebration on foot. The more there are, however, the better. Fortunately, we are not dependent on this occasion on the tender mercies of parish committees or of selectmen for a place of meeting. The groves, the hill-sides, the river-brink, are open to all. Let the beneficent influences of this occasion be as widely diffused as possible. Let the country be alive on the first of August with parties flocking together to spend a long and happy day in innocent festivity, and a joyful interchange of congratulations and of hopes. The abolitionists of Boston intend celebrating the day by a Pic Nic at Dedham, with the friends in that and the neighboring towns. There is to be a large gathering of the abolitionists of Middlesex at Lowell. Another meeting will be held at Weymouth. Others will, no doubt, be arranged in due time. There is yet time for arrangements to be made everywhere—let them not be neglected. Nothing can be more simple or less troublesome than a Pic Nic need to be. It is merely a collecting of friends to pass away a pleasant day in some pleasant grove, each one bringing with him his proportion of the necessary refreshments for a day of pleasure. Let the plans of the abolitionists be so laid and so carried out, that there may not be an ear in New-England or the free States, (aye, or the slave States either,) that may not hear the story of the great deliverance that was accomplished on the First of August.—E. Q.