The Liberator (newspaper)/September 18, 1857/The Western Conventions

The Western Conventions.

Dear Mr. Garrison:

After the adjournment of the Binghamton Convention, I visited Windsor, a village fifteen miles from the New York and Erie Railway, and lectured on Saturday and Sunday. Our friends there think that my presence in the place at that time was opportune, for I found the Rev. Mr. Avery, of Syracuse, a superannuated clergyman, an agent of the American Colonization Society, advertised to lecture in the Presbyterian church on Sunday. It had been many years since I had listened to a discourse on that subject, and felt no little interest to know what kind of a dress our old enemy would appear in. Having no meeting myself at the hour when the Colonizationist was to speak, I went in and heard him. He spoke of the formation of the Society, and its objects being approved by Thomas Clarkson and other philanthropists, and especially by the colored people of Philadelphia and Boston. He called the Society the black man’s friend; said it presented to the poor injured sons and daughters of Africa an asylum in their own native land; that they could never be respected in America. A gentleman in Virginia had liberated three lots of slaves. Lot No. 1 he settled on a farm near him; lot No. 2 he sent to Philadelphia; and lot No. 3 was sent to Liberia. Of course, those in Virginia and Philadelphia were indolent, and failed to make a living; while the lot forwarded to Africa had flourished ‘like a green bay tree.’ ‘No,’ said he, ‘the black man cannot thrive in this country.’

He did not mention the fact that the Society was under the patronage of the South; that was kept from the audience for many reasons. The lecture was endorsed by the minister of the church, and an appeal made for funds in aid of ‘the good cause.’ How large the contribution was I did not learn, but one man was seen to put in five dollars.

At five o’clock, I held a meeting in the Methodist church, their minister having gone to the camp-meeting. My audience was very much larger than attended the Colonization lecture, and I never had a more attentive hearing. I took up the Colonization Society, and showed that it was the enemy of the colored people, bond and free; that it was supported by slave-holders and pro-slavery people; that it created and kept up prejudice against the free colored people; and informed the audience that Thomas Clarkson and all other friends of freedom had condemned the course and aims of the Society, and especially had it been repudiated by the colored people of Boston, Philadelphia, and other cities in the United States.

I brought before them the startling fact, that at the instigation of the Colonization Society of Maryland, the Legislature of that State had imposed a tax of one dollar upon the head of every free colored person in the State, and those who could not pay the tax were to be sold into slavery; that the enormous sum of $50,000 had been wrung from the poor defenceless free colored population of Maryland, to aid the Society whose agent had spoken to them that day.

The Presbyterian minister was present, and seemed not a little surprised at the revelations I made. Our old enemy is silently at work out here, and we must meet him. We ought to have a tract on Colonization. Our friends in Windsor regretted that I did not have such a tract with me.

This is, indeed, a glorious field for labor. Many of the people have never heard even the first principles of anti-slavery. But the agents must look to other sources for support. Our collections are magnificently small. All the money contributed at the Windsor meeting might have been put in one corner of a Lilliputian’s vest pocket, without attracting any attention. Truth seldom brings money. However, I found a hearty welcome at the home of Mr. Lambert Sanford, which I prized the more highly, being in such a dark region.

The Convention at Owego, though not numerously attended, left a good impression. Several copies of ‘The Pro-Slavery Compromises of the Constitution’ were taken by persons who will no doubt do good service with them. Subscribers were also obtained for the Standard. Yours, truly,W. W. B.