The Liberator

THE LIBERATOR.

A NEW LEAGUE.

London, March 6th, 1847.

Dear Garrison:

You will see, if you see our London newspapers, that there has been a very numerous meeting of some of the leading noblemen and gentlemen of England—men of high standing in the scientific, literary and political world—on the subject of the heartless extinction of the republic of Cracow, and its absorption into and under the leaden despotism of Austria; heartless, soul-crushing Austria. The object of their resolutions is to express their own, and to draw forth the expression of the moral sentiment of mankind, against the conduct of the mind-crusher of the world. I hope that America, or those in America who feel the importance of expressing their abhorrence of injustice, and of thus strengthening public opinion in favor of truth and right, will give forth their utterance against this great sin.

Public opinion is daily increasing in strength and influence, and the expression of it nationally, or by leading men in nations, and particularly upon international subjects, is rapidly increasing in potency, and consequently in utility.

The personal intercommunication of the subjects of these despots with nations that are more advanced in moral and political freedom is greatly increasing, and whatever opens to freemen a clearer perception of the principles of freedom, and strengthens them to the expression of those sentiments in the presence and hearing of the slaves of despotism, finds willing auditors in them; much more willing than they dare avow; and from whom the sentiment will pass to their children, and fructify in the regions of the north of Europe, when the instruments who had sown the sentiment have forgotten that they had done so.

This is peculiarly the time when knowledge is running to and fro in the earth. A more enlarged scheme of action has been conceived to promote the cause of national love and of universal progress. A 'people's international league' has been formed to promote the unity of humanity, in aid of which it seeks the unity of nations. The sentiment,' says their address, 'enthusiastically responded to by the human instincts of a Roman audience, even in Rome's most corrupt days, Christian England has yet to extend and apply to international interests. We are a nation, and nothing that concerns other nations do we deem foreign to us. Through good and evil report, to this principle we must firmly adhere, if we would have our claim of 'teaching the nations how to live' held for more than an idle boast. It is not enough that we have established, and are resolute to further and maintain, our own freedom and nationality. Our wishes and endeavors must tend to secure the same blessings for other countries. As no man will reach heaven who seeks to reach it alone, so no nation will ever develope the highest and most enduring forms of national life, while it is contented to remain the passive and uninterested spectator of the onward and upward struggles of kindred people.'

Acting upon this view, I have been reviewing the progress made in England and America during the last forty years; and in a letter of mine to Douglas Jerrold's Weekly Journal, a paper which has a large circulation, and is doing an immensity of good in England, I have recently reviewed that progress, as I had done in a letter to you published in the Liberator within the last few months.

In adapting that letter to the atmosphere in which it was to be read, I took an opportunity of doing you and your friends that justice, which your and their exertions in the cause of liberty and human progress and of the slave, so justly entitled you. I send you, by the same mail which will convey this letter, a copy of Douglas Jerrold's Weekly Newspaper of last Saturday, because you will see in it what will be to you gratifying evidences of the progress you and the cause of anti-slavery are making in England.

There are several instances in which this subject is alluded to; and with us and our press, it is never alluded to but to be contemned. This a great thing for a man to be able to say, in whose day the slave-trade was so popular in one of the principal towns and ports of this country, that an abolitionist, known to be so, was not only frowned upon by the rich and influential, but was in danger of personal violence.

Now, we have not only got rid of the slave-trade—converted the legislature amongst whom were some of the richest owners of slaves—abolished slavery—paid twenty millions of money, and emancipated our slaves; but have turned the current of public sympathy from the support of slavery into an abhorrence of the system, and made our whole people a nation of abolitionists.

So completely are our people changed, that even your reverend Doctors, the keepers of Jim Crow pews,' are obliged to profess themselves as the opponents of slavery, in order to obtain for themselves a social standing when they come here. Now when they come, they find themselves standing foot to foot with black freemen, not only claiming but exercising equal rights on the platform, and beating back by the sheer force of intellect the Reverend and hypocritical Doctors.

I inclose the Address of the Council of the International League, which we commend to the perusal of those who desire progress.

Yours, faithfully,

EDWARD SEARCH

[For this Address, see our last page.]