George W. Ritchie to Frederick Douglass, November 29, 1852
Frederick Douglass, Esq., Cor. Secretary of N. Y. State A. S. Society: Dear Brother:—My first quarterly report, as agent of the N. Y. State A. S. Society, should have been made at the commencement of the present month; but a variety of circumstances—sickness a portion of the time being one of them—has prevented my making it out till now.
I have labored in Oneida, Herkimer, Madison, Tioga, and Broome Counties—have delivered forty-three addresses—attended eight regular conventions—obtained twenty-five subscribers for Frederick Douglass' Paper, and collected one hundred and forty-five dollars and eighty-nine cents. These results are not as favorable as I could desire; yet when all things are taken into consideration, they are perhaps as much as could have reasonably been expected. For, nearly one month of the time, I was confined at home by a violent attack of sickness; but for which, more, of course, would have been accomplished. Providence, however, has ordered it as it is. As I look out upon the harvest and behold its greatness, and the fewness of its laborers; as in imagination I hear the wail of the oppressed, the groan of the bereaved slave mother, and the shriek of the maiden whipped for her love of virtue; as I read the history of God's dealings with slaveholding nations, scattering them like chaff before the storm of his indignation; and as I behold the apathy which now yet exists in the mass of the people of this nation on the subject of slavery, I confess, that were it not for the divine promises touching the future triumph of truth over error, my soul would sink within me. Thank God! it is His will that the truth shall triumph. The earth is yet to be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.—Let us therefore rejoice that we are permitted to labor, though in the face of trials and tribulations, for the bringing in of such a time.
Allow me a few words in reference to the field of the Society's labors, and what I think ought to be done.
1. And first—of the size of the field. The field which the Society proposes to cultivate is the State of New York—a field far more extensive than at first thought seems to strike us, stretching as it does from the shores of the Atlantic to [those of] Lake Erie; and from the borders of Canada to those of Pennsylvania, and containing forty-six thousand square miles of territory. The population of the State is now more than three millions ([3,007,000]) a number larger than that of the population of the United States, at the time of the Declaration of Independence, within some 300,000 of as many as were in the nation when the first census was taken in 17[90], and considerably more than half of the population of England, when William and Mary ascended the throne of the British Empire. It is the population of a nation. A nation is the field of the Society's labors.
2. Next—of the condition of the field—Were we to make the number of meeting-houses and church steeples pointing heavenward the basis of our estimate of the condition of our field of labor, we would arrive, doubtless, at a far more flattering result than if we should make works of love and deeds of mercy the basis. The entire vote for President, at the late election, will not vary much from 325,000 in this State. Of these, some 25,000 have only been cast for the anti-slavery candidates! If the 25,000 we add 75,000, as the number of those who are anti-slavery in feeling, but who voted for Scott to keep Pierce out, or for Pierce, to keep Scott out, and 75,000 is certainly high enough, we shall have 100,000, as the number of political abolitionists and anti-slavery sympathisers, or less than one fifth of the whole number of voters! Of course, if we examine the vote of particular portions of the State, a still greater barrenness is observable. Columbia County, with some 8,000 voters, only cast 7 votes for the Free Soil candidates.—Greene County has a population of over 55,000, about 6,000 of whom vote, yet she only had 16 Free Soil voters. [Ulster] County has a population of 60,000, her Free Soil vote is only [26]. Oswego County has probably done the [best], her population is over [62,000] with probably some 10,000 voters, her Free Soil vote is 2[...], little more than one [...].
H[...] better state of things exist in this State [...] is remembered that [...]. Anti-Slavery wheat cannot be reaped where little else than pro-slavery tares are sown. I have visited places within the period included in this report, where I was assured that some four years had elapsed since an anti-slavery lecture had been heard. In the village of Chenango Forks, situated on the borders of Broome and Chenango Counties, I was unable to find anything better than a "Seward Whig." You may judge how much he cared for the anti-slavery cause, from the fact, that when the friends in Binghamton sent him the handbills containing my appointment for a lecture in the place, he very carefully packed them away under his counter, where, on my going to the place to meet the appointment, I found them 'guilty of as little agitation as the "Union Committee" could have desired.
3. What is necessary to be done? Once, Madison and Oswego, which have done themselves so much honor by triumphantly electing Gerrit Smith to Congress, were as densely pro-slavery as Greene and Ulster.—What has wrought the change? Anti-slavery agitation, by means of lectues, conventions, and publications. Whatever a man soweth, that shall he also reap, is just as full of encouragement to sow the seeds of truth, as if warning against sowing unrighteousness. Let agitation then be continued and increased all over the State. To do this, lecturers should be multiplied. There is room in this State for a dozen or more energetic and talented lecturers, each of whom could spend from one to two months in a county, visiting every one of its villages and towns. Let the lecturers go forth "two and two together" [...] of vote, and not single-handed and [illegible].
Cheap, and well-written and well-adjusted tracts embodying anti-slavery facts, statistics and arguments and appeals, should be scattered like the leaves in Autumn, by the lecturers and friends.
[...]iduous efforts to introduce newspapers [of the] right stamp should also be made.—Containing as it does political abolitionism, in a purer state than it is to be found in any others, Frederick Douglass' Paper should be the first sought to be introduced.
And lastly, in every county there should be at least one anti-slavery society. Where there is a sufficient number of friends, every town should be organized. Each of these should hold at least two meetings in the year, to which some one or more of the State Society's lecturers should go.
4. But how is all this to be accomplished? Where can so many lecturers be obtained? and if obtained, how can they be supported? To print tracts will also cost money, and how can we get it? Let me say, in reply, that I feel confident, that if the right principle is adopted, and proper means used, ten dollars can be obtained for anti-slavery purposes where one now is. Let the State Society appear before the community as a missionary body, as in point of fact it is. Let every lecturer be regarded as he ought to be, as a missionary. If there is a missionary on earth, the anti-slavery lecturer is one. The friends of the anti-slavery cause ought to contribute as regularly to the friends of an anti-slavery society as they do to any professedly missionary society. Indeed, contributions to the former are far more important than to the latter. Unless the cause of freedom triumphs in this nation, in the abolition of slavery, the nation is lost; and with it is lost the ability to bless the world. Besides, it is a lamentable, yet an instructive fact, that as a nation, we are every year making, by means of slavery, more heathen than all of our missionaries are the means of converting from the ranks of heathenism abroad!—Hence it is that I regard anti-slavery societies as the most important missionary societies. And hence it is that I would endeavor to appeal to the missionary spirit which exists in the State. Were the Executive Committee of the State Society to send forth an appeal to every anti-slavery man in the State, I have not the least doubt that the means of sustaining one or two lecturers would be the result, without any additional effort. I may be mistaken, but such is my belief.
Every lecturer sent forth by the society, would, of course, be able to do something in the way of collections; though he ought not to be made to depend upon what he himself may be able to collect. Many places in the state need anti-slavery labor, where not a cent scarcely can be collected; and where, indeed, no effort ought to be made to take collections. And these, in fact, are the places that stand the most in need of such labor.—They are the regions of heathenism and darkness, so far as an anti-slavery spirit is concerned.
Lastly—by organizing as many counties, and towns as possible, more friends for the cause can be obtained. These organizations of their hearts were in the cause, would of course be willing to, and would adopt means to raise funds.
These remarks may not be the thing wanted; yet they may be the means of exciting your own mind, or the mind of some one else to devise a better plan than I should have been able to indicate. If so—I shall be satisfied. Let us then, by all means, have some plan for the multiplication of conventoins, lectures, and anti-slavery influences.—It is folly to depend upon any merely political organization. The political party simply reaps the harvest, the seeds of which are, and must be sown by the anti-slavery societies. But for the labors of Mr. Garrison and his associates in the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, and in the American Anti-Slavery Society, who believes that the little state of Massachusetts would have given so handsome a free soil vote as she has? And had New York possessed, for the last half dozen years, an active and energetic society, far superior results would have been realized.
I remain, dear brother,
Yours for the slave,
Geo. W. Ritchie.