John W. Lewis to Frederick Douglass, January 1, 1855
For Frederick Douglass' Paper.
LETTER FROM JOHN W. LEWIS.
ST. ALBANS, Vt., Jan. 1, 1855.
MY DEAR FRIEND DOUGLASS:—Here we are, standing on the first end of another year. 1854 has gone off to join her sister years before the flood. As it passed out of time, stern old winter gave us a furious blast as a parting token of the old year[.]—Well, it has gone, and leaves behind it, in the minds of poor mortals, many reflections of sad, as well as pleasing incidents, of the past. The new comes on, bringing with it signs giving hope for the future. Yet me-thinks, had we a prophetic eye, we should feel sad amidst joy at seeing the genius of liberty struggling with the spirit of slavery. Still, even then we could hope, for the holy angelic anthem chanted over Judea's plains, still vibrates on many a generous soul. The sentiment, "On earth peace, good will to men," will live so long as the Infinite God has a Gospel on earth to bless the human race. The world needed a Messiah. God, in love, sent one. He raised the platform of universal benevolence. He formed the band of universal brotherhood. Eighteen centuries have passed, and yet among men, how little good will is found on earth. Man is too selfish to be religious, too capricious to be philanthropic, too ambitious to allow the spiritual anthem from Judea's plain move
him along to the great channel of Gospel love—hence, be a slave to his own will, enslaves his brother—and with unblushing affrontery to high heaven, professes belief in the doctrines of the Bible. If ever there was a nation of hypocrites on earth, it is the American nation; and spiritual hypocrisy is the most detestable.
But my dear Douglass, I took up my pen to wish you a happy New Year; and I wish it may be one of brave conflict with spiritual and political wickedness. I know it is a sort of common-place phrase, still it is a New England annual custom. It is a sort of friendly salutation, and from the depth of my soul, I wish you a happy New Year. Thank God the old one was not without its happy incidents and results. But man lives to be happy; the desire is interwoven in every fibre of his nature. When he loses sight of his happiness, he loses sight of his noble manhood. O, how I wish I could whisper into the ear of every poor slave this giving a happy New Year—and had the prophetic eye to see him rising up from chattelism to manhood, the year to me would be a happy one, though it be spent in a prison; for true happiness does not consist so much in abundance, in prosperity, as in the noble consciousness in doing good, even though it be in adversity. The great difficulty is, we do not always estimate happiness in its true light.—We have a queer set of Christians in this country. They will get so Methodistical or Baptistical as to hold their watch-meetings, and be so shouting happy, as to pray out the old year and shout in the new; yet, never a word about humanity during the whole year. Truth has suffered too much in the hands of such professors of religion. Unless it be directed into a different channel, it will be of little real benefit to men in promoting a spiritual nature in them. The milk and water Christianity of the American church North, has compelled the noble few friends of humanity to take strong ultra ground against the insolent spirit of American slavery; and it is difficult to determine which has been the most denunciatory to the ministry and church, or the political demagoguesim of the nation. At any rate both have been unsparing in the opposition; and it is rather humiliating to the genius of Christianity, that while Christians could get happy in theory, circumstances in the nineteenth century, in 1855, made it necessary to get up an anti-slavery excitement on the Fugitive Slave Law and Nebraska Bill, to effect a reformation sufficient to convert the church and the ministry, to bring them to duty to God and their fellow-men. If the country is now brought to a crisis on this great question, I most cheerfully wish you a happy New Year in seeing the downfall of despotism, squatter sovereignty, ecclesiastical monopoly, and the triumph of the noble sentiments set forth in the spiritual anthem on Judea's plains,—"On earth peace, good will to men."
Yours truly,
JOHN W. LEWIS