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Abolitionists and Third Parties: An Address Delivered in Boston, Massachusetts, January 26, 1842

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ABOLITIONISTS AND THIRD PARTIES: AN ADDRESS, DELIVERED IN BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ON 26 JANUARY 1842

The Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society held its tenth annual meeting in Boston on 26 January 1842. Garrisonian abolitionist Francis Jackson 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. Rogers 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 Miller and black dentist Thomas Jennings advocated antislavery political action. Maria Weston Chapman summarized their views in a letter published in the Liberator 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

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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 Phillips, George Bradburn, and Ellis Gray Loring then challenged these arguments, and a resolution condemning political action was adopted. The Business Committee's resolutions appear in Lib., 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 w h o 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

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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.

Creator

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895

Date

1842-01-26

Description

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

Publisher

Yale University Press 1979

Collection

Liberator

Type

Speeches

Publication Status

Published

Source

Liberator