The Liberator

BENJAMIN LUNDY.

We have had the unspeakable satisfaction of receiving a letter and circular from this determined and veteran champion of liberty, the former dated at Smithfield, Kentucky, 5 mo. 26th, 1834, and the latter at Nashville, Tennessee, 5 mo. 9th. It is pretty generally known that he went some time since on a tour to Mexico. He is about to return to that country: the object of his visit is, to make some arrangements, in connexion with others, to test the superiority of free labor in producing sugar, cotton, and rice in that country. During his first visit, he was long detained by the cholera and other impediments; he travelled several hundred miles, on foot and alone, in the Texas country; he returned to the western country upon some business, before he could finish his arrangements; but we learn that he has every prospect of success, and that he is going back with that view, &c. He expects to be at home this summer or fall.

From his interesting circular, which, as a whole, is not written for the public eye, we venture to make the following stirring and truly characteristic extract:

I cannot willingly close this communication, without adverting more particularly to the recent noble efforts of the friends of our cause in the United States. After the long struggle which I have personally experienced; while, for a time, the whole moral hemisphere presented a perfectly rayless gloom; while the foes of our cause were bold and outrageous, and its friends more timid than the 'stricken deer;' while the voices of those were louder than the roar of the tempest, and the sometimes encouraging, sometimes dissuasive tones of these were heard in whispers;—after witnessing a long, dreary, and stormy night of persecution and toil,—every moment of which it was necessary to guard with the most intense care the flickering lamp which I had placed upon the 'hill' of public observation,—it gladdens my heart, beyond the power of expression, to behold the wonderful and extremely favorable change in public sentiment, which has at length taken place. Thousands are now marshalling under the sacred banner; and tens of thousands are throwing off the incubus with which they were spell-bound, resolving to cleanse their hands from the foul pollution of despotism, and repent of their wickedness in practising, or even tolerating the heinous sin of oppression, cruelty and crime. I repeat it, it rejoices my heart beyond measure to witness these things; and in the fervor of brotherly affection—in obedience to the warmest feelings of an overflowing heart—I say to the noble-minded philanthropists who have so truly embraced our righteous cause: Go on, brethren and valiant coadjutors in the great work of Christian philanthropy! Though the powers of darkness may be leagued against you—though hell may rage and vent its spite—though you may be assailed by the darkest frowns of a corrupt world, on the one hand, and the scoffs and sneers of ignorance and depravity, on the other; though you may for a season be literally overwhelmed and borne down by the surges of popular corruption;—fear not for the issue, nor yet swerve a hair's-breadth from the position you have taken. When the violence of the tornado shall have passed away, and the moral atmosphere is relieved from its agitation, its vapor and storm, then will you discern that you still remain unscathed, and that the fiery bolts have fallen harmlessly around you. Then will you feel your strength renewed; and your confidence in the justice of our holy cause will animate you to continued labor and perseverance. Hold on, I beseech you, in pleading the cause of the poor, the oppressed, and despised. My heart is with you; and although I may be individually absent from my post for a season, I trust that Divine Providence will, ere long, enable me to return to the charge, and labor with you, shoulder to shoulder, until the horrible 'Bastile' of American slavery shall be prostrated in the dust. I never can abandon the cause until this arm becomes nerveless, and this heart ceases its pulsation. I feel as confidently assured, and as positively certain, of ultimate success in the total abolition of slavery in America, as I am that the sun will rise to-morrow, or that the heavens and earth exist, provided its advocates continue firm, steady, and persevering. My rallying word, therefore, is 'onward,' and my motto, 'Fiat Justitia, Ruat Coelum.'