John W. Lewis to Frederick Douglass, April 15, 1854
LETTER FROM JOHN W. LEWIS.
MOORE'S FORKS, Clinton Co., N. Y.,
April 15th, 1854.
MY DEAR FRIEND DOUGLASS:—Bad, mud-
dy roads, on account of the breaking up of
the season, and a worn-out body, after sev-
en months' hard labor in the anti-slavery
cause, seemed to justify my taking a little
rest at my home. I am now again on the
tramp a little recruited. Yesterday morning
I left my horse and carriage at home, and
took the cars—after being hurried on a few
hours, over the Vermont, Central and Og-
densburgh Railroad, to this place, I am en-
joying the hospitable home of the Rev.
Benjamin Bundy, an old and tried friend of
the slave. He, with his estimable lady and
family, are of the true anti-slavery sort.—
You know, friend Douglass, something of
the blessing of a good anti-slavery family,
urbane, benevolent and kind to one wearied
in this enterprise. It is a blessing to a
community to have a right kind of a minis-
ter to advocate the great enterprise of the
day. I assure you, sir, anti-slavery in this
community, is no milk and water affair. Al-
though it is a part of the old Empire State,
once trod by the tyrant power of slavery, it
is redeeming itself from the guilt of the
foul system, by a sincere, devoted advocacy
of the principles of impartial freedom.—
This region abounds in interesting
legends of Indian history, and at Caugh-
nawaga, an Indian village, are quite a body
of that ancient aboriginal race. On board
the train of cars on which I rode, were sev-
eral of the tribe; they attracted much at-
tention from many of the passengers, who
are accustomed to the refinement of city
civilised life; and yet, in point of many civ-
ility, they might well put many of the re-
fined flirts, or proud aristocrats, to the blush.
There was an ease of manner and a courtesy
in them that pleased me much. I felt glad
that there was one class of human beings on
this continent, from whose hearts could flow
out, spontaneously, pure, human nature.—
They have not yet learned the tricks of mod-
ern refinement. As I looked on these sons
of the forest, and thought of the wrongs
done them and the African, by the proud
Anglo-Saxon, how much of their blood had
stained American soil, I felt glad that there
is a "God whose justice will not sleep for-
ever." Not far from this place is Plattsburgh,
in this county, where the great battle was
fought in the last war between Great Britain
and the United States. It was through
this region that Lord Provost and his de-
feated army retreated, before the elated
Americans. In 1776, Americans fought
for liberty. In 1812, they again fought to
defend it. In 1854, Solomon Northup came
into this community, and before an audience
in this town, a few days ago, to rehearse the
talk of his wrongs and suffering in slavery,
under the same government that did such
mighty deeds for freedom. Surely, if the
American nation is eminent in anything else,
she is not eminent for consistency. Her pro-
fessions of freedom are all a mockery in the
eye of infinite justice.
I left Vermont on Fast Day, the 15th inst.
I had no heart in it. I could not see the
pleasure of the Great Supreme in it, amidst
the political and ecclesiastical hypocrisy un-
der executive direction. Fast and Thanks-
giving days are old New England customs.—But the moral degeneracy of the present
generation, makes those old, time-honored
relics of Puritan simplicity, a complete
burlesque on their practice. With a Fast at
one side of the year, and Thanksgiving at
the other, they think to cheat the Almighty
into fellowship with them. But with his
character unchanged, vain are their efforts
in this. The Jews were very tenacious in
holding their fast, and observing their holy
days. But God told them, by the old proph-
et, he would not hear; "their hands were
full of blood. In their fasts they smote with
the fist of wickedness, and exacted all their
labors." Now, were the Jews sinners above
all men? I tell you nay. We read that men
will
"Steal the livery of Heaven,
To serve the Devil in."
Our Governor Robertson is a national
Democrat. His sympathies are with the
slavery-corrupted Administration of this gov-
er[n]ment. His political principles bind him
to the base Compromise of 1850, with its
fugitive slave clause. And he was opposed
to Vermont holding up the writ of habeas
corpus, or trial by jury, in opposition to that
atrocious measure. He would allow the
Green Mountain State to be the hunting-
ground of the Southern despot. He would
silently see every panting fugitive chained
back to the ear of despotism, and bleeding
hearts wrung in anguish, with no sympathy
to God's poor, then sit down in the Executive
Chamber, and write a pious proclamation to
people of the State, to observe the 15th day
of April, 1854, as a day of fasting, humilia-
tion and prayer to Almighty God, for His
divine blessing. American Christianity has
too little humanity to bring the soul in true
humility before God; it is a burlesque on the
apostolic or primitive age of the church. I
have no sympathy with the Fasts or Thanks-
givings of Church or State, while both will
hoodwink truth, and unscrupulously crush
the poor colored man, woman or child, to
the earth, and "smite with the fist of wick-
edness." I have no doubt but some good
Christians stepped out on their individuality,
and laid the offering of their heart on the
divine altar that day—an offering that will
have an influence in this important crisis, in
the anti-slavery enterprise. But this will
not justify the church, as a body, in its base
indifference to the emancipation and enfran-
chisement of the poor Africans whom she
has so long abused and crushed. If every
minister in our country was a Henry Ward
Beecher, to make the ears of the people
tingle by the power of truth, we might hope
that their consciences might wake up to duty
and right; but, like priest, like people, is an
old adage. And it is too much the case now,
for sham politics and sham christianity are
taught for genuine now-a-days.
Yours as ever,
For impartial freedom,
JOHN W. LEWIS.