The Liberator

ANTI-SLAVERY WORK IN MARLBORO'

FRIEND Garrison: On Monday of this week I went to Marlboro' to give three anti-slavery lectures. This is one of the towns in which a great amount of efficient labor has been performed for freedom. Here the Unitarian clergyman presided and spoke truly and earnestly at the indignation meeting which was held by the freemen of Marlboro' on the passage of the Fugitive Slave Bill. Some of the conservatives of the parish thereupon tried to excite a feeling of dissatisfaction against this minister, and moved to effect his dismissal, which effort only served to show their weakness and the strength of the sentiment for truth and justice in the Unitarian parish. They were defeated, and Mr. Alger triumphantly sustained. For this result he was doubtless greatly indebted to the despised radicals, who have been breaking up the fallow ground so faithfully for the past twenty years. There is a liberal spirit in Marlboro' which is far in advance of the prevailing sentiment of most of the towns in Massachusetts. The lecturer at once can tell what the feeling of a place is on addressing the people, or going into their places of business. There is a magnetism which the speaker feels as keenly as the audience do that which a master mind exercises upon the multitude. Give to the reformer an audience imbued with sympathy for the true and the just, and he cannot but speak eloquently. Among the places where the anti-slavery lecturer meets an appreciable audience, Marlboro' is doubtless to be ranked. There is also in this town a remarkable spirit of enterprise, and an effort, both general and current, to get knowledge. Books of a sterling character, such as Emerson's and Carlyle's and Macaulay's writings, are read more readily than in most places, and there is less of the flash publications of such men as Gleason and Dodge in circulation than is generally found. Marlboro' is a beautiful town, rich in its agricultural resources, its farms usually well managed, with neat and commodious buildings, its people industrious and rapidly increasing, and its wealth very generally diffused. There is a marked difference, for instance, between Marlboro' and Concord. Old Concord is an aristocratic, stand-still place. The few rich men there discourage the growth of the town, and live in and for themselves. Consequently, no mechanical or manufacturing business flourishes in Concord, drawing young men thither, and adding to the population and prosperity of the place. Not so with Marlboro'. The democratic idea and practice prevail there. Not far from one hundred shoe manufactories are in successful and active operation in this town. An enterprising and prudent young man stands a good chance of getting up in the world there. All this I remarked while going my anti-slavery rounds during the day. I was interested in the people and in the meetings. In one thing I was, however, disappointed. I did not succeed in getting a subscriber for the Liberator in Marlboro', though I asked a good many to subscribe for it. Some sixty copies of the Era are taken in Marlboro', and I am persuaded that many who take that paper would be instructed and interested still more in the cause of freedom by taking the Liberator. Why will not the readers of the Liberator exert themselves for its circulation as the readers of the Era do to enlarge the list of that paper? Could not the year 1853 be commenced by a reduction in the price of the Liberator to two dollars, and by an effort on the part of its readers to add a thousand names to the subscription list? The light of one free paper ought to shine into ten thousand New England homes. So it would, if every one who reads and approves would try to extend its circulation.

While I was in Marlboro', I found a generous home with one of the few anti-slavery Irishmen who are citizens of the United States. When I resided in Concord, he was one of my best and truest friends, and the anti-slavery cause has no warmer or more self-sacrificing supporter than he. Give me the love and support of such men, and Daniel Webster is welcome to his rich and fawning retainers. The love of one such man outweighs the approbation of all the aristocratic nabobs in the land. He reads the Liberator with a zest that is truly apostolic. I am inclined to think that friend Garrison has more such friends, i. e., 'rich poor men,' than any other man. And better stock in the Bank of Humanity than this cannot be found.

A word now in reply to the Practical Christian. I have not hesitated to express my desire, when lecturing this fall, that Horace Mann might be elected Governor of the Old Commonwealth. I have also expressed the hope that each and every abolitionist who could conscientiously do so would vote for Horace Mann. A year since, I voted for the noble Palfrey, and should have voted for Mann this year, had I not lost my vote by removing to Cambridge. Whenever I have had a chance to vote for a thoroughly uncompromising reformer, I have done so, and always expect to. I have faithfully and searchingly exposed the folly and criminality of the Free Soilers in agitating only at the time of an election, and for a party victory. I have shown how they ought to sustain the great and fundamental work which the American Anti-Slavery Society and its auxiliaries are so faithfully carrying forward. I have pointed out how by so doing they would secure right and reliable political action; and I have shown how there might thus be union and harmony in this momentous work between all the workers and co-workers. All this I have presented as my view, and as such it has been received. I have never yet been employed to preach the views of Andover or of Hopedale, and I doubt the pecuniary ability of either of these schools of the prophets to hire me for such a purpose. I stand by my own conscience, and shall obey her law. As I understand it, the only test of membership in the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society is this—No compromise with oppression. To it, I say amen with all my heart; and if I have been false to this great principle, I know it not. God grant now union, harmony and earnest co-operation on the part of all who abhor oppression and love liberty, that we may win the great battle before us, and join with angels in the choral song with which God's universe will be made vocal when the American slave becomes a free man!

Yours fraternally,

DANIEL FOSTER.

Cambridge, Dec. 2d, 1852.