The Liberator (newspaper)/September 18, 1857/The Twenty-Fourth National Anti-Slavery Bazaar

The Twenty-Fourth

National

Anti-Slavery Bazaar.

The undersigned again call on all interested in their cause,—the cause of Freedom, so deeply important, not only to the three millions of American slaves, but to the American nation and to entire humanity,—for immediate aid, by contributions of money and materials, and by purchase at the next Bazaar; to be opened in Boston,

On the 17th of December.

Contributions of money at the present time will enable members of the Committee now in Europe to add to the attractions of the exhibition still further, and, in consequence, to increase the funds; which are to be expended, as heretofore, by the American Anti-Slavery Society, in awakening the whole country, through its newspapers, books and various agencies, to the necessity of extinguishing slavery.

Our principle is too well known to need more than a mere statement. It is, immediate, unconditional emancipation, without expatriation, and by peaceful means. From a growing conviction of the justice and necessity of this work, for the good and honor of all concerned, every measure possible to be taken will inevitably spring without delay. Our funds, therefore, will be devoted to the primary work of arousing and engaging the public mind; which, as fast as it awakens, never fails to find a way to work its will,—through church action, by agitation and withdrawal,—by state action, through the customary political channels, or by the profounder policy of creating others,—by legislative and judicial changes,—by individual efforts in the manumission of slaves and the protection of fugitives,—by economical measures prompted by the greater advantages of free labor,—by humane feelings creating a preference for its products.

What we ask of the citizens around us, just awakening to some one or other of the manifold aspects of this great question, is, to enable us to continue the use of the means that have proved so efficacious in their own case, and to sustain the primary cause of whatever Anti-Slavery effects they observe and desire to promote.

Let those who labor for an Anti-Slavery national and State administration, furnish voters with the only sufficient motive to any Anti-Slavery effort, by working with us, so to excite the love of liberty, that every man shall take the risk of trampling down slavery wherever it meets him.

Let them that pity the hunted fugitive, who sees in every Northern man a betrayer, bound to that base function by the great organic law of his country, take the means most effectual to turn the betrayer into the protector, by helping us every where to awaken a stronger sentiment than compassion for the millions who cannot fly: of whose case it was so truly said by a New England poet of the earlier time, before school-books were expurgated by slavery— ‘Their wrongs compassion cannot speak.’ Let all take warning to co-operate with us, from those earlier days when slavery, instead of dying out, as was prophesied, began to grow stronger, because there was then no such fountain head of moral power as we commend to the attention of the whole land to-day.

We do not make this appeal in a sectional spirit as Northern-born, interfering with matters that do not concern us. We make it in grateful acknowledgment of the benefits we have received from the anti-slavery cause, desiring to communicate them to others. We have all been connected personally with the system of slavery. One has known the evil power of its money temptations; another has felt its political despotism; another its perverting social influence; another its corrupting ecclesiastical bondage; another yet has been identified by Southern birth and education with the slaveholders, and sustained the legal relation of ownership to the slaves; while not unfrequently among our most efficient members have been the wives of slaves, driven from us by the operation of laws from which we cannot protect them, and which make us liable to ruinous fine and crushing imprisonment, as they have done our associates erewhile. But we all, with one accord, testify to the truth of the anti-slavery principles, and entreat the aid of all whom this appeal reaches, to deliver the country from such a despotism, by their promulgation.

Contributions may be addressed to Mrs. Chapman, 21 Cornhill, Boston, or to the other members of the Committee, at their respective homes.

• MARIA WESTON CHAPMAN,
• MARY MAY,
• ABBY KELLEY FOSTER,
• LOUISA LORING,
• L. MARIA CHILD,
• ELIZA LEE FOLLEN,
• ANNE WARREN WESTON,
• ANN GREENE PHILLIPS,
• SARAH SHAW RUSSELL,
• FRANCES MARY ROBBINS,
• HELEN E. GARRISON,
• ANN REBECCA BRAMHALL,
• SARAH H. SOUTHWICK,
• MARY WILLEY,
• ABBY FRANCIS,
• ANNA SHAW GREENE,
• MARY GRAY CHAPMAN,
• ELIZABETH GAY,
• HENRIETTA SARGENT,
• SARAH RUSSELL MAY,
• CAROLINE WESTON,
• SUSAN C. CABOT,
• MARY H. JACKSON,
• SARAH BLAKE SHAW,
• LYDIA D. PARKER,
• ELIZA F. EDDY,
• EVELINA A. S. SMITH,
• ELIZABETH VON ARNIM,
• AUGUSTA KING,
• ELIZA H. APTHORP,
• JUSTINE de PEYSTER HOVEY,
• MATTIE GRIFFITH.