James R. Johnson to Frederick Douglass, March 20, 1852
The Convention, Fair, &c.
Brother Douglass:—Our recent gathering has been a glorious one. How much the ladies have sold, we have not yet been informed. Their good arrangements deserved to meet with much success. One result of our meeting it is cheering to record, namely, we have duly organized "THE NEW YORK STATE ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY."
That doctrine of the Constitution which the Society adopted, that there can be no legal Slavery, will accomplish more good by its promulgation as one of the fundamental principles of Abolitionists, than centuries of splendid speech-making, though anti-slavery, which repudiates, or even obscures that truth. No disparagement of past labors is here intended; but we have now come to precisely that position in the great battle against Slavery, when the motto "Slavery cannot be legalized," needs to be repeated, and repeated, and to float on every banner, until the people shall regard it as it is—as an axiom. The objection of some of our friends to placing it in the constitution of the Society, caused me to see more clearly the importance of making it prominent. If the common notion is, that all that is statute is legalized, it is high time to publish a better system of teaching on the philosophy of Law.
When law is Law, defending right,
Sustain such law with all your might,
But when the statute spurneth MAN,
Then spurn it boldly as you can.
That statute which spurneth man as Slavery does, is not LAW. Grateful am I that this common sense doctrine is distincly stated in the Constitution of our Society. Thanks
to WILLIAM GOODELL for writing it in that document.
We have not time nor space to sketch Brother Goodell's speech when sustaining his position. Such a radical exposition of the nature and scope of Law, is worth more than mountains of gold. My heart exclaimed—O that all the lawyers and judges, and officials of government, and doctors of divinity, and especially, all the youth of our nation, could hear it!
More ample opportunity would have been given, if the Ladies had not wanted the hall, that they might proceed with the business of the Fair. Rev. R. R. Raymond of Syracuse made a first-rate speech last evening.—As we are neighbors, when I get an opportunity to make a call at home, Brother R. and myself may compare notes on the question of Church and Missionary relations to pro-slavery organizations. A man who stands where he does, and possessing the frankness of his nature, must advance; and let him be placed where some of us have been, when the [illegible] of the eclesiastical corsets were felt, and his whole being must be changed, or he himself would be a "come-outer" of the most [radical] type. If he needs it, and if the cause of truth requires that he should have such experience, God may so manifest his love to him, as to permit the fiery furnace to be heated for him, even seven times hoter than it is wont to be heated. I have strong expectation that this beloved brother will soon occupy a place on the Anti-Slavery Platform, which will be so conspicuous, that the power of his popular gifts will be extensively felt by the pro-slavery apologists,
Yours truly,
J. R. Johnson.
Rochester, March 20th.