ABOLITIONISTS AND THIRD PARTIES: AN ADDRESS, DELIVERED IN BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ON 26 JANUARY 1842, in Melodeon HallMelodeon Hall, Boston, Massachusetts

Melodeon Hall, 539 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111

, 11 February 1841.

The Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society held its tenth annual meeting in Boston on 26 January 1842. Garrisonian abolitionist Francis JacksonJackson, Francis

A leading figure among Boston Garrisonians, Francis Jackson (1789-1861) was president of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society from 1837 until his death and secretary of the Boston Vigilance Committee in the 1850s. He presided over the 1841 Nantucket convention where Douglass launched his abolitionist career. Born in Newton, Massachusetts, Jackson moved to Boston as a young man to become a prosperous merchant and minor city government official. Jackson's considerable wealth was frequently put at Garrison's disposal to keep the Liberator in print. Lib., 22 November 1861; Stewart, William Lloyd Garrison, 128-31; ACAB, 3:386; NCAB, 2:318. A leading figure among Boston Garrisonians, Francis Jackson (1789–1861) was president of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society from 1837 until his death and secretary of the Boston Vigilance Committee in the 1850s. He presided over the 1841 Nantucket convention where Douglass launched his abolitionist career. Born in Newton, Massachusetts, Jackson moved to Boston as a young man to become a prosperous merchant and minor city government official. Jackson’s considerable wealth was frequently put at Garrison's disposal to keep the Liberator in print. Lib., 22 November 1861; Stewart, William Lloyd Garrison, 128-31; ACAB, 3:386; NCAB, 2:318. presided. During the afternoon session the Business Committee presented a series of resolutions which urged that moral suasion was superior to political action in the antislavery cause. In support of the Business Committee's resolutions, Nathaniel P. RogersRogers, Nathaniel Peabody

New Hampshire abolitionist Nathaniel Peabody Rogers (1794-1846) left a law practice in Plymouth to edit the Concord abolitionist weekly Herald of Freedom in 1838. He also worked to desegregate transportation facilities, promote temperance, and end capital punishment. In the mid-1840s Rogers quarreled bitterly with other Garrisonian abolitionists, charging that disunionism carried an implicit threat of war. Perry, Radical Abolitionism, 162-63; Mabee, Black Freedom, 116, 123; Robert Adams, "Nathaniel Peabody Rogers: 1794-1846," NEQ, 20:365-76 (September 1947); NCAB, 2:320. of New Hampshire reasoned that political action "as regards the abolition of slavery . . . is essentially military and compulsory" and that abolitionists could turn to politics only by repudiating the "moral and peaceful" means by which they "appealed to the conscience and heart of an inhuman slaveholding people." In rebuttal, Vermont abolitionist Jonathan Peckham MillerMiller, Jonathan Peckham

and black dentist Thomas JenningsJennings, Thomas

advocated antislavery political action. Maria Weston ChapmanChapman, Maria Weston

Maria Weston Chapman (1806-85), known as "Garrison's Lieutenant," was a forceful writer and editor of several antistavery periodicals. From a family of wealthy Bostonians who educated their daughters in Europe, she briefly supervised one of the nation's first female high schools. After marrying merchant [Henry Grafton Chapman]] in 1830, she became active in the abolitionist movement. When her husband died in 1842, abolition became the consuming work of her life. Chapman was a driving force in both the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and the American Anti-Slavery Society. Although she shunned public speaking, she served on committees and organized bazaars and other fundraising events for the Garrisonians. She also edited the annual report of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society, and she assisted in editing both the Liberator and the National Anti-Slavery Standard. Clare Taylor, Women of the Anti-Slavery Movement: The Weston Sisters (New York, 1995); Catherine Clinton, "Maria Weston Chapman," in Portraits of American Women, comp. G. J. Barker-Benfield and Catherine Clinton, 2, vols. (New York, 1991), 1:147-67; Jane H. Pease and William H. Pease, Bound with Them in Chains: A Biographical History of the Antislavery Movement (Westport, Conn., 1972), 28–59; Edward T. James et al., eds., Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary, 3 vols. (Cambridge, Mass., 1971), 1:324-25; DAB, 4:19. summarized their views in a letter published in the on 11 February: "It had been argued that [a] third party was a road to abolition and that so that end were attained[,] what signified the road? That governments

were necessary for the making of laws, and that the penalty annexed to breaking those laws should not give the government the character of physical force, rather than that of moral power. That if punishment were called force, the government of God himself was liable to the charge. That the interrogation [of political candidates] did but suggest to men to tell falsehoods, for the sake of securing the votes of the abolitionists. Whatever has been done for the cause has been done through political action." Douglass, Wendell PhillipsPhillips, Wendell

Boston-born and Harvard-educated Wendell Phillips (1811-84) ranked second only to Garrison in influence in the American Anti-Slavery Society in the 1840s and 1850s. Bored with the legal profession and influenced by his antislavery fiancee, Ann Terry Greene, Phillips dedicated himself to abolitionism beginning in 1837. A highly gifted orator, Phillips was in demand as a lecturer even in nonabolitionist circles. Besides abolition, Phillips championed woman suffrage, prohibition, penal reform, Indian rights, and legislative protection for workers. When Garrison retired from the presidency of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1865, Phillips assumed the post and led abolitionists until passage of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. James Brewer Stewart, Wendell Phillips: Liberty's Hero (Baton Rouge, La., 1986); Irving H. Bartlett, Wendell Phillips: Brahmin Radical (Boston, 1961); DAB, 14:546-47. , George BradburnBradburn, George

Son of a woolens manufacturer in Attleboro, Massachusetts. George Bradburn (1806-80) trained for the Unitarian ministry, but subsequently devoted his energies to championing numerous secular reforms. Bradburn also acted as an agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1839, and he attended the World's Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840. He was not a strict Garrisonian however, opposing all propositions in favor of dissolving the Union and favoring political means to accomplish the abolition of slavery. Bradburn represented Nantucket as a Whig in the state legislature (1839- 42), where he led the successful effort to repeal Massachusetts's antimiscegenation law. In the 1840s he lectured for the (Garrisonians and traveled with Douglass on many occasions. He later joined the Free Soil party and edited two Free Soil newspapers, the Pioneer and Herald of Freedom and the True Democrat. In addition to abolitionism. Bradburn supported women 's rights, temperance, pacifism, and an end to capital punishment. Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Eleventh Annual Report: Presented to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society by its Board of Directors (Boston, 1843 ), 44, 90-91; idem. Twelfth Annual Report: Presented to the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (Boston. 1844), 34; George Bradburn, A Memorial of George Bradburn, comp. Frances H. Bradburn (Boston, 1883). , and Ellis Gray LoringLoring, Ellis Gray

then challenged these arguments, and a resolution condemning political action was adopted. The Business Committee's resolutions appear in ., 4 February 1842. Rogers's resolutions are printed in , 11 February 1842. See also Merrill and Ruchames, , 3 : 47n.; Mabee, , 117.

I am no debater, Mr . President,¹Francis Jackson. and I dislike to feel called upon to dispute the gentleman last up.²Probably Jonathan Peckham Miller of Vermont.., 4 February 1842. But it happens so that we differ, for once. The great difficulty with third party³"Third party" refers to the Liberty party, which nominated James G. Birney and Thomas Earle for president and vice-president at an organizational convention in Albany, New York, in April 1840. Dwight Lowell Dumond, (Ann Arbor, 1961), 296-97. is, that it disposes men to rely entirely on political, and not on moral action. (The preceding speaker explained, that he did use and appreciate moral action.) I stand corrected, Mr. President. My friend says, however, that all that has been accomplished for this cause has been accomplished through the instrumentalities of political action. I do not believe it. I ask you what this Legislature has done, that has caused you to recognize my humanity?

Yet there are those in Massachusetts who do recognize it, and treat me like a man and a brother. I ask, was it political action that removed your prejudices, and raised in your minds a holy zeal for human rights? No one will say this. (Applause.) I have seen something of the operation of third party in the town where I have been lately. It declares there, that all who are conscientiously opposed to voting at all, are pro-slavery men. The gentleman says, so we do but gain our point, it is no matter by what road. I differ, and I presume this audience would differ. As to what the gentleman says about family government, and governments in general, we are not here as a Society to say any thing about these things. Then, again, he says we had better not ask political candidates

what they think about abolition, for it only tempts them to pretend to be abolitionists. Now I had rather take my chance about that, than be obliged to take a man I know nothing about, upon the mere nomination of the third party. Why, when I see men I know have never been active abolitionists, setting up other men who were never before heard of in the cause, and no questions asked, I inquire, why am I to suppose this man is an abolitionist, any more than the candidate of the other parties?

Then, again, look at the root of this third party. Those who were active once in the cause, and begun to find out that it led to more sacrifice than they wanted to make, got it up when they found their plans to put down the old Society failed. Much as I respect the sincerity of some who are engaged in it, I see that the plan itself, to begin with, is only new organization⁴"New organization" refers to the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, formed in 1840 when some 300 members of the American Anti-Slavery Society protested the leadership of William Lloyd Garrison. The new group had close ties to the Liberty party, organized the same year. Dumond, Antislavery, 285-87. new organized.