Syracuse University Library
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Gerrit Smith Broadside and Pamphlet Collection

To the abolitionists of the State of New York, but more especially to those residing in the counties of Madison

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874.

Digital Edition.

This digitization project was supported by Regional Bibliographic Databases and Interlibrary Resources Sharing Program funds, awarded by the New York State Library.

Call number: Smith 703

REPUBLICAN MONITOR. - - Extra.

To the Abolitionists of the State of New York - but more especially to those residing in the counties of Madison and Onondaga who are unwilling to be saddled and bridled, and then mounted by a blind rider and rode from Dan to Beersheba and from Beersheeba to Dan again without knowing why or wherefore :

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Fellow-Citizens: - Permit one of your number - one who claims to be as much devoted to the cause of abolition as any among you - one who has labored as hard, and contributed as much, according to his strength to labor and his ability to contribute, for the advancement of that cause, as the most of you - to acquaint you with the proceedings of a meeting of abolitionists held in this village yesterday, and to submit a few of his own reflections to you, as to the propriety of the course prescribed by that meeting for you to pursue at the coming election.

As preliminary, however, to the account of the meetings doings, it maybe proper to inform you of the means used, and the pains taken, to get up the meeting itself - this will the better enable you to judge whether the whole does or does not in reality amount to a failure. For a week prior to the eventful day, the most active and untiring exertions were made to procure a great meeting - by letters and messages missive from officers of high and of low degree in the society, to every nook and corner of the county where an abolitionist was to be found, commanding him to come forth - by earnest and fervent, appeal, addressed to them, both in the public prints and in hand-bills scattered broadcast through the country, and posted wherever they would have a chance to meet the public eye, urging, in the most impassioned terms, a general turn out upon the momentous occasion. To show you that this is not an exaggeration, copies are here given of two of two of these appeals. The first is an editorial article

From the Union Herald of October 26.

"Anti-Slavery Meeting at Cazenovia. - Friends of the cause of the poor, oppressed slave, and especially, those friends who reside in the county of Madison ! We are not about to notify you, that the advocates of human rights intend to hold a meeting, at Cazenovia, on the last Wednesday of this month, for the purpose of discussing the merits of political action in connexion with Anti-Slavery; it is only to 'stir up your pure minds,' by putting you 'in remembrance' of this important, contemplated event, that you may not, m the hurry and bustle of business, overlook it, and thus be found guilty before the God of the oppressed. We feel jealous for you with a godly jealousy, and exercise a deep solicitude, that you may be present at this meeting, eguipped us the law and gospel direct, ready for every good word and work. And not only so, we are anxious you should EXERT ALL YOUR INFLUENCE to have others there. There ought to be, at least, 800 persons at the meeting. The circumstances connected with the event are of no ordinary character, and require extraordinary effort. - Should Abolitionists be neglectful of their duty at the approaching election, it will doubtless protract the sufferings of the oppressed slave, at least, twelve months loner. And where is the Abolitionist, who would knowingly be guilty of a course of conduct that would add to the miseries of car down-trodden brethren ? If, therefore, you would avoid so inhuman a part, let no ordinary circumstance keep you front the meeting. Be prompt, be efficient, and look to God to direct your footsteps, and crown your labors with success."

The second is a notice published in the Republican Monitor of this village, on the morning of the day previous to the meeting, in the following words:

"SPECIAL CALL.

"Abolitionists, beware, and come to the meeting TO-MORPOW without fail. Don't be hindered by mud, rain, snow, hail, or cold: blow high or blow low, the slave is in chains while you are at home comfortably seated by your fireside ; come and see if you are not under obligation to God and humanity to show yourselves abolitionists at the polls of election, as well as in the monthly concert and at antislavery meetings.

"F. RICE, Sec. Mad. co.

"Oct. 30, 1838. A. S. Society."

From the exertions thus made, it was undoubtedly the expectation of the movers, that a very great gathering of the people would be had - and to the end that so large a concourse might be accommodated with sitting, or at least standing room, arrangements were made for the use of one of our large churches, in the afternoon, if the smaller one in which they were to convene in the morning should not be found spacious enough.

And now, as to the size of the meeting. When the writer of this article entered the church; which was after 12 o'clock, and of course after the meeting had organized and almost finished the business of the forenoon session, his first business was to count - don't smile, reader, at the idea of counting, so numerous an assemblage - for he did actually count the males composing the meeting, and found theirs to amount to the number of FORTY SEVEN!! Gerrit Smith was on the floor in a remote corner of the room addressing the chair upon some proposition which the writer did not understand at first, but which turned out to be a proposition in relation to the sort of ballots that abolitionists should be al-

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lowed to use. What the original proposition was, we are unable to state, nor is it material; it resulted in the adoption by a meagre vote, of a resolution offered by G. Smith, that two tickets only should he used by abolitionists at the polls - the one bearing the name of Luther Bradish for lieutenant governor, with the motto, "God hath made of one blood all nations of the Earth." - Bible; - and the other bearing the name of Thomas Dibble for member of assembly, with the motto, "All men are created equal." - Declaration of Independence. The meeting then adjourned to quarter past one o'clock, at the same place, nothing being said about a larger house.

On assembling in the afternoon, Mr. Gerrit Smith, from a committee appointed in the morning, reported the following resolutions :

"1st. Resolved, that, if it be right in the Administrationist to require of the candidate, for whom he votes, an attachment to the sub-treasury system, and if it be right in the Whig to require m the candidate, for whom he votes, opposition to that system - then, surely, it must be right in the Abolitionist to require in the candidate, for whom be votes, opposition to slavery : - unless, indeed, a question about the currency and about mere dollars and cents be of more importance than the unutterable woes of slavery and the priceless blessings of impartial and universal liberty.

"2d. Resolved, that it is a spurious religion, that bids us be silent about a system, which is killing the bodies and killing the souls of the millions of our enslaved countrymen; and that it is a spurious republicanism, which bids us vote for men who uphold that system.

"3d. Resolved, that it will be time enough for Abolitionists and Republicans and Christians to think of voting for Martin Van Buren, when he shall have repented of the sin of having pledged his official power towards upholding slavery in the District of Columbia - and time enough for them to think of voting for Henry Clay, when he shall have repented of the sin of being a slaveholder.

"4th. Resolved, that it is the public and satisfactory answers of the candidate to the questions put to him by the friends of universal liberty, and not merely the reputation of his being an Abolitionist, nor even the fact of arts being a member of an Anti-Slavery Society, which are necessary to his obtainment of their votes.

"5th. Resolved, that we deeply regret to learn, that the Abolitionists of Onondaga county, [with the exception of those of Skaneateles] have failed to adopt the system of questioning candidates, which is essential to the carrying out of abolition principles of political action ; and that we respectfully advise those erring brethren to exhibit for the future less of the calculating politician and more of the inflexible Abolitionist.

"6th. Resolved, that, inasmuch as the candidates for Governor, and Mr. Tracy one of the candidates for Lieutenant Governor, have given pro-slavery, instead of anti-slavery, answers to the public questions put to them by Judge Jay and Gerrit Smith; and, inasmuch also as the candidates for Congress, for Senate, and for Assembly have with the exception of Thomas Dibble, Esq. declined to give answers to the questions put to them by the President and Secretary of the Madison County AntiSlavery Society - we do hereby, with a compassionate sense of our duty to the poor crushed slave, and conscious of our accountability to God, solemnly promise, that, at the approaching election, we will not give our votes for either of the candidates for Governor - or for Mr. Tracy one of the candidates for Lieut. Governor - or for any of the candidates for Congress - or for either of the candidates for the Senate - or for any of the candidates for assembly, excepting Mr. Dibble - and this too whether any of them shall or shall not give answers hereafter; and we do further as solemnly promise, that, being entirely satisfied with the character of the answers of Luther Bradish, Esq. to the questions put to him by Judge Jay and Gerrit Smith, and as entirely satisfied with the answers of Thomas Dibble, Esq. to the questions put to him by the President and Secretary of the Madison County, Anti-Slavery Society, we will give Mr. Bradish our cordial support for the honorable office of Lieut. Governor to which he is nominated, and to fill which he is so abundantly worthy, and that we will as cordially contribute to promote the election of our upright fellow citizen, Mr. Dibble, to a seat in the Assembly.

"ASA RAYMOND, Pres't.

"FORDYCE RICE, Sec'y. "

The report having been read, Mr. Fuller, a very worthy member, if not the President of the Skaneateles Anti-Slavery Society, rose ; and objected to the fifth resolution. He desired to know on what evidence the abolitionists of Onondaga county were thus charged, with a dereliction of duty, and to be thus summarily condemned without a hearing, - and by what authority this meeting, in another country, sat in judgment upon them. He remonstrated against this exercise of a right which did not belong to the meeting, and which, if it

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did, would have been performed in a manner less offensive, and more to accordance with the rule adopted by Christian churches, if the accused had been furnished with the charges and specifications on which they were to be tried, and notice given them to plead. If this courtesy had been extended to the abolitionists of Onondaga, peradventure they would have been able to show that they had performed their duty nearly, if not quite as well as their brethren in Madison. In behalf of the abolitionists of Skaneateles in particular, he would enter a plea of not guilty. The society in that place had addressed interrogatories to all the candidates - from some of whom they had received answers that were satisfactory, and from others none at all. He therefore was unwilling to receive stripes of which he was not worthy, even though they should be laid on by the hands of a brother. For information as to the manner in which the County Society had performed its duty, and for an explanation of the reasons why any portion of its duty was omitted, if such was the fact, he referred to the secretary of that society, whom he was happy to see in the house.

Being thus called upon, Mr. Clark, of Syracuse, the gentleman alluded to rose, and explained. His statement, as near as can be re-collected, (for no minutes were taken at the time,) was in substance as follows: - After adverting to the fact that a large majority of the abolitionists of Onondaga were of the Whig party, he stated that very soon after the adjournment of the legislature, it became a subject of inquiry among the abolitionists, who should be placed upon their tickets at the ensuing election. They were especially anxious to secure the services of a man in Congress, on whom the abolitionists could with entire safety place their confidence. Victory Birdseye was known to be an abolitionist - he was not only a member, but an officer of an abolition society. On him, therefore, the choice of the abolitionists fell - with him, they would be satisfied. - But here a difficulty presented. The whigs of Onondaga who were not abolitionists, were, (as well they might be,) extremely anxious to preserve the ascendancy which they then held in the county, and which they had gained but the year before. To effect this, they deemed it important, if not indispensible, to re-nominate for the assembly the same ticket that succeeded so triumphantly at the last election, and which had done so much honor to the county in the legislature. On this ticket was Mr. Birdseye. To give him up, therefore, was to endanger the success of the assembly ticket. - The abolitionists were inflexible in their determination to support none but an abolitionist for Congress. Thus situated, and both parties being desirous of contributing, like good citizens, to the welfare of their country by securing the success of the whip tickets, it was generously proposed on the one hand, and magnanimously acceded to on the other, that Mr. Birdseye should go upon the Congress ticket, and the name of some other gentleman who should be acceptable to the abolitionists, placed in his stead upon the assembly ticket, with an understanding that the formality of questioning candidates should in this case be waved. To this course, (Mr. Clark remarked) the abolitionists were advised by men who had proved their devotion to the cause of abolition by travelling in the mud from Utica to Peterboro on the memorable 21st of October, 1835, after being driven by a mob from that city ; and by all their acts from that day to the present. In further justification of the course adopted, Mr. Clark stated it as a fact well known to the abolitionists of Onondaga, and remembered with gratitude, that Mr. Birdseye was a distinguished member of the convention that framed our present state constitution - and that to him, probably, more than to any other man, were the colored men of this state indebted for whatever they enjoyed of the right of suffrage - he having introduced that clause which allows them to vote upon a freehold qualification, as a compromise between the many who were for excluding them altogether, and the few who contended for admitting them on the same terms as the whites.

And here we pause to ask, whether such an explanation as this should not have exonerated the abolitionists of Onondaga from the censure cast upon them in the resolution? - whether it should not have induced the author to withdraw it ? Surely, surely, it would have caused the heart of a Tiberius to relent. But not our modern Tiberius. The resolution was not withdrawn. On the contrary, when the gentleman from Onondaga took his seat, Mr. Gerrit Smith rose, and occupied the floor till the shades of evening began to gather round him, in the delivery of a speech which appeared to have been prepared for some other occasion; and which might well have caused the inquiry, whether he had not brought the wrong one from home with him. It certainly had no perceivable connection with the subject matter of the resolution. With the exception of some eloquent thrusts at the system of America Slavery, and a newspaper column or two of extracts from the messages of southern governors, and from the speeches of certain Doctors

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of Divinity in defence of that system, all which had become familiar as household words to many of his hearers, it was one unbroken strain of hard, and bitter, and vindictive denunciation, poured without mercy upon the head of every public man, and every candidate for public office, who would not consent to "jump into the mold which abolitionists in their wisdom have constructed." This is his figure, not ours. - Upon its intolerable arrogance the reader is left to make his own comments. In the course of his harrangue, he prayed most fervently to God - most impiously it seemed to us - that Victory Birdseye especially might be defeated - and added a wish that he had a thousand votes to give against him. In his abuse of one of the candidates who had refused to "jump into his mold," he even descended so low as to rake up from the polluted Argus that oft repeated morsel of blackguardism, "he is not a good enough Morgan for us till after election," - and to other equally low and unseemly witticisms.

When at length, he came to a dose and took his seat, a member rose and moved that the 5th resolution be laid upon the table. This drew Mr. Smith upon his feet again, who insisted upon its, pass consenting, however, to an amendment that should exonerate the abolitionists of Skaneateles from the flagellation to which all the rest of our brethren in that county had rendered themselves obnoxious. This amendment of the original resolution we have included in brackets. The question on laying upon the table was taken and declared to be lost - not more than half a dozen voting either way.

Mr. Dana now rose and read five or six mild, well drawn. resolutions, which he offered as a substitute for the whole of those before the meeting. To these Mr. Smith objected, and expressed a hope that Mr. Dana would withhold there, which he consented to do. Mr. Smith now called for the question upon the - final passage of the 5th resolution, and it passed!

The resolutions were now called up in their order and passed upon. As a substitute for the 4th, B. T. Clarke, Esq. of Cazenovia, offered the following:

Resolved, That as Christians, as Republicans, and as Patriots loving our country, and - as intelligent observing citizens, we are not ignorant of the great Political Men and Measures of the day ; nor are we so absorbed in our views of slavery that we are destitute of all opinion and feeling upon many other subjects of importance to our country : Therefore, where there are no candidates particularly acceptable to us as abolitionists, we will vote agreeably to our preferences, and exercise like men our rights and duties at the polls.

The manner in which this was choked down by Mr. Smith, would commend him to the South, as a worthy colleague of a Claiborne or a Patton, rather than to the North as a champion of free discussion, or as a man confiding in the justice of his cause and the force of argus meat to sustain it. Without giving a moment's time for reflection, he moved its immediate refection - its rejection so promptly and unanimously as to "sting the mover to the s quick," and teach him a lesson not to be for gotten ! It was of course rejected, though, as in all the other cases, by a very small vote.

And now permit us to ask, what is there in the above resolution, that should have bro't down upon the mover such a gust of indignation, and that too from a man whose perfect command of ideas, and of language to clothe them in, would at any time enable him in a few moments to point out its faults, and perhaps induce the mover to withdraw it? It did not deserve such treatment. Its bright contrast with the insulting, inquisitorial 4th resolution was so striking that he at once saw the danger of exhibiting them side by side. Again - even if it had faults, was it decorous in Mr. Smith, who had been indulged with the floor for almost the entire afternoon, thus to pounce upon the man who offered it ? - to apply the gag in this manner upon those who had listened to him so long? Fellow abolitionists of Onondaga, it is for you to answer these and similar questions growing out of these proceedings for yourselves. Your brethren of Cazenovia, and of Madison county, have and will answer for themselves. They will not receive the shackles upon their limbs, nor the gag in their mouths, let who will present them. They were born free, and with their free limbs and free tongues they will defend their birthright while their lives last.

We hope and trust that you will show by your conduct next week, that you respond to the sentiments of the resolution so unceremoniously choked down by Mr. Smith, by exercising, like men, your rights and duties at the polls.

A FREEMAN YET.

Cazenovia, Nov. 1, 1838.