The Natick Resolution; or, Resistance to Slaveholders/Appendix
APPENDIX.
SPEECH OF HON. HENRY WILSON,
From the Boston "Liberator" of Jan. 31, 1851.
Mr. Chairman, and Ladies and Gentlemen:
I suppose the reason why you, Mr. Chairman, who have the good fortune to preside over this joyous festival of the friends of liberty, assembled here to-night, have called upon me, is because I have the good fortune, or perhaps the misfortune, to preside over one branch of the "assembled wisdom" of the "great and General Court." On taking the chair, sir, you quoted the words of the great dramatist, that "some men were born great, some achieved greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them." Now, sir, surrounded as you are, on either hand, by men who "were born great," and by men who have "achieved greatness," I am surprised, and this audience will be more surprised, that you should call upon one who has simply had "greatness thrust upon" him, to mar the festivities of this occasion, by inflicting a speech upon those who have been charmed by the glowing eloquence of the gifted and brilliant orators [Mr. Thompson and Mr. Phillips] who have addressed us. Our friend Phillips said, that he wished "to have a little scream from every one." You must, sir, have acted upon that hint in calling upon me. [Laughter.]
At a late hour this afternoon, I learned that the friends of freedom were to have a meeting here to-night, in honor of William Lloyd Garrison. I am here to-night, sir, to express my love for the great cause your guest has advocated for twenty years through the columns of the Liberator, [hear! hear!] and my profound admiration and respect for his self-sacrificing and unfaltering devotion to it, amid obloquy and reproach. It is my misfortune, perhaps, to differ from him on many important questions. Differing, however, from him as I do, I have ever honored him for his unshrinking zeal and unwavering fidelity to the cause of liberty and progress. [Applause.] For twelve years I have read the Liberator; and, sir, if I love liberty, and loathe slavery and oppression, if I entertain a profound regard for the rights of man all over the globe, I owe it, in a great degree, to the labors of William Lloyd Garrison. [Prolonged applause.] I am not ashamed to acknowledge the debt of gratitude I owe him for his labors in behalf of three millions of men, and no fear of censure, ridicule or reproach shall deter me from expressing, on all fit and proper occasions, my respect and admiration for the man. [Applause.] Sir, the unceasing labor he has given to the cause of liberty and humanity for these twenty past years will cause his name and his memory to be cherished and revered ages after the stone which shall lie upon his grave shall crumble and mingle with the dust. [Hear! hear!] And when that great day comes, as surely it will come,—for God reigns,—when three millions of men, held in slavery in this republic, shall be free, the friends of liberty will acknowledge, what many now deny, the patriotism of William Lloyd Garrison. [Cheers.]
I came here, also, to-night, sir, to listen to the voice of one of the most gifted orators of the old world, whose eloquent tones are still ringing in our ears. You have alluded, Mr. Chairman, to the jealous feelings of our countrymen to foreign interference. Sir, I am an American—with American sympathies, feelings, and prejudices. I love my country, with all her faults, with a supreme devotion. I go for my country now, at all times, and on all occasions, and in every contest. Sir, I love not England. [Sensation.] I am not dazzled by her splendor or awed by her power, although the sun never goes down on her possessions, and her flag floats over her citadels of power in the four quarters of the globe, and upon every sea. But, sir, I honor the friends of liberty and progress in England, whose efforts for the last thirty years, in the cause of human progress, have never been surpassed by the efforts of any class of men in any portion of the civilized world. [Hear! hear!] Yes, sir, I undertake to say here, to-night, that in no part of the world, and in no age of the world, and by no race in the world, have greater efforts been made for human progress and human liberty, than have been made during the last thirty years in Old England. [Applause.] Her reformers have achieved the most brilliant victories. Among all her brilliant intellects, who have linked their names with the great ideas of Progress, no name shines more brightly than the name of George Thompson. [Applause.] As an American, loving the good name of my native land, jealous of its honor and its fame, I have felt the deepest mortification, that in the city of Boston, in old Faneuil Hall, the man who has stood up fearlessly in England and supported American principles, and defended the American name, should be received by men, calling themselves American Democrats, with ridicule and denunciations. [Applause.] His name is indissolubly linked with those great measures of reform which have for their object the elevation and improvement of the people of England. His voice has been raised in behalf of the millions of British India; and for West India emancipation,—the noblest act in the annals of British history,—his labors were freely given. His labors have been such, since he left our shores fifteen years ago, as should have given him, in Faneuil Hall and every where, a warm and hearty welcome. [Applause.] And, sir, as an American, loving my country, cherishing the great fundamental principles on which its institutions are founded, I come here to-night, and give him the same cordial welcome to America, that I would extend to the men who have nobly struggled on the lost fields where Liberty has been cloven down. [Sensation.] And as he may be called upon in a few months to leave us, I trust that when he goes, there will be none, at least in Massachusetts, who will censure him for laboring to blot from our country the sin and shame of slavery. [Much enthusiasm.]
Sir, allusion has been made to-night to the small beginnings of the great anti-slavery movement, twenty years ago, when the Liberator was launched upon the tide. These years have been years of devotion and of struggles unsurpassed in any age or in any cause. But, notwithstanding the treachery of public men, notwithstanding the apostacy for which the year 1850 was distinguished, I venture to say, that the cause of liberty is spreading throughout the whole land, and that the day is not far distant when brilliant victories for freedom will be won. We shall arrest the extension of slavery, and rescue the Government from the grasp of the Slave Power. We shall blot out slavery in the National Capital. We shall surround the slave States with a cordon of free States. We shall then appeal to the hearts and consciences of men, and in a few years, notwithstanding the immense interests combined in the cause of oppression, we shall give liberty to the millions in bondage. [Hear! hear!] I trust that many of us will live to see the chain stricken from the limbs of the last bondman in the republic! But, sir, whenever that day shall come, living or dead, no name connected with the anti-slavery movement will be dearer to the enfranchised millions than the name of your guest—William Lloyd Garrison. [Prolonged applause.]
Such were the sentiments of Henry Wilson in 1851. Are they not his sentiments to-day?