The rights of all. [volume], May 29, 1829, Image 1

About The rights of all. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1829-18??

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Fljr 2Ugljf<s o? SWII
VOL- 1.
From the Journal of the Times.
BENJAMIN LUNDY.
The hitory of this individual will fur
nish a theme for the admiration and grati
tude of posterity. If wc survive him, he
shall not lack a biographer He has done,
and is doing, more for his country than
a host of every day patriots. There is no
another man in the twenty-four states.who
would endure his voluntary privations and
sacrifices in the cause of philanthropy, as
exhibited for the last half dozen years. He
is one of those rare spirits who rise up in
the lapse of many centuries, to adorn and
elevate mankind. We have never met
with a more extraordinary being ; nor one,
who succeeded so well ingrafting his feel
ings upon our own.
If VV ilberforce deserves the acclama- '
tions of the British people for first advoca '
ting the suppression of the slave trade in
ti e colonies, Lundy should reap a greater
harvest of applause from his countrymei
’Fhe former never hazarded his life, never
lost an hour’s repose, never suffered a sin
gle hardship, never missed a dinner, by ;
tmy tkinflf I*o nr did 10 accomuUj 14
his node object. Le presevertd7jtiS|
true, till he was victorious ; but the Strug
gle was short, and the deprivation nothing.
The latter has endured hunger , & thirst,
and cold-slept on the damp earth—ex-.
pended his own resources—repeatedly lisk
cd his life—and has toiled for years in
the great cause of emancipation.
We are all partially acquainted with
some of the events of his life, and we think
it ought to be known. It is time that jus
tice should mingle with praise, and the
trumpet of fame stir up the emulation of
the good and wise..
Benjamin Lundy is a member of the
Society of Friends. He was born in Sus
sex county, New Jersey, about the year
88, and when a youth repaired to the
state of Ohio. After serving an appren
ti'eship to a saddler, he established him
self in business in the town of w heeling.
By economy and industry, he accumula
ted in a few’ years a snug property, but af
terwards met with some reverses of fortune.
—Wheeling was then a great thorough
fare of slavery. The daily spectacle of
a drove of negroes, manacled like wild
beasts, bareheaded, barefooted, and half
clad, alike in the severity of winter and
the intensity of summer, and goaded for
ward to their more southern destination
by monsters in human shape, melted the
heart and roused the indignation of the
tender Lundy. It haunted him in his
dreams at night; it followed him in his
daily avocations; “ the iron entered his
soul.” He was conscious that something
should be done to break the fetters of des
potism—but what could an insignificant,
ill-taught individual, like himself, achieve ?
He was comparatively unknown; his edu-
* RIGHTEOUSNESS EXALTETII A NATION,* SIN IS A REPROACH TO ANY PEOILE-”
KEW-TORE, E'A'2 2®. 162®.
cation had been limited; a thousand ob
sticles towered in his path; on every side
were darkness and doubj, enough to appal
the stoutest heart. But the spirit oi be
nevolence urged him onward, and he was
moved as by an invisible power.
llis first effort was to form an anti-slave
ry society, to co-operate directly with oth
ers that migh be organized in various parts
of the country He succee ' in his de
sign, with the exception of extending the
operations of the society beyond his own
district or state.
Having at this time made some unfortu
nate speculations, and being now deter
. mined not to relax his efforts in behalf of
the oppressed until death, he closed his
business, and at the age of thirty began
to learn the “ art and mysteiy” of print
ing. He soon acquired an insight into
his new vocation, and immediately issued
proposals for a monthly publication, to be
devoted to the cause of the African. There
was so much of novelty and wild enthusi
asm m bis new pursuit, that his friends
deemed it a matter of kinkness not to en
courage the proposed publication. Six
subscribers, however were obtained, when
Oisi made its mwcaratice. —-
Alis subscription fisi ' increased, « ‘.d
he was gabled to proceed in his perilous
enterprize. After the expiration of seven
months, he removed his paper to some
I part of Tennessee, for the purpose ot car
rying the war—not exactly into Africa—
but among Africans, and for their libera
tion. He continued here about three
' years, when he mingrated to the city of
Baltimore, as a place better adapted to fa
l vor his intentions, where he established
the Genius of Universal Emancipation,un
der many embarrassments. This paper is
’published weekly, and is too well known
to need particular notice.
In person, Lundy is diminutive and
slender. He would be the last man, by
his appearance, that we should select for
a reformer. Instead of being able to with
stand the tide of public opinion, it would
seem doubtful whether he could sustain a
temporary conflict with the winds of heav
en. And yet he has explored nineteen of
the twenty-four states —from the Green
! Mountains of Vermont to the I anks of the
Missisippi —multiplied anti-slavery socie
ties in every quarter —put every petition
in motion relative to the extinction of sla
very in the District of Columbia—every
where awakened the slumbering sympa
thies of the people —and begun a work,
the completion of which will be the salva
tion of his country.
His heart is oi a gigantic size. Every
inch of him is alive with power. He com
bines the meekness of Howard with the
baldness of Luther. No reformer was ev
er more devoted, zealous, persevering, or
sanguine. He has fought single handed
against a host, without missing a blow, or
faltering a moment; but his forces are ra-
pibly gathering, and he will yet free our
land.
It should be mentioned, too, that he has
sacrificed several thousand dollars in this
holy cause, accumulated ny unceasing in
dustry. Yet he makes no public appeals,
but goes forward in the quietude and reso
luteness of his spirit husbanding his little
resources from town to town, and from
state to state. “I would not ” —he said
to us some months since—“ I would not
exchange circumstances with any person
on earth, if! must thereby relinguish the
cause in which I am enlisted.”
By a latter before us we learn, that with
in a few months he has travelled about
twenty-four hundred miles, of which up
wards of sixteen hundred were performed
on foot !— -luring which lime he has held
nearly fifty public meetings. Rivers and
mountains vanish in his path ; midnigh
finds him wending his solitary way over
an unfrequented road ; the sun is antici
pated in his rising. Never was moral sub
limity of character better illustrated.
NEW CZTtf TZkWSR
SOCIETY.
-- held
on Tuesday evening in the Brick Church,
Beekman-steet, John Watts, M. D. one of the
Vice Presidents in the chair.
After a short address by the Rev. Mr. He
wit, explaining the objects of the meeting,
Hugh Maxwell, Esq, District Attorney for
this city, offered the first of the resolutions be
low, which he supported in a very powerful
and eloquent address. Having been brought,
he said,'in the discharge of his official duties,
into constant connexion with the courts, he
was prepared to say, that the number of com
plaints presented in the city for criminal offen
ces, was not less than 5,000 perannum; three
fourths of which had their orig ; n in intemper
ance. The number of parties was of course
10,000. There were on an average six wit
nesses to each case ; 50,000 in all ; more than
half of whom were under the influence of in
toxicating liquors, at the time the occurrences
took place, concerning which they were called
to certify. He had assisted in twenty trials
for murder, and was satisfied that every one of
the perpetrators committed their ciimes under
the inflnence of intoxication.
The meeting was then addressed, in a man-'
ner that kept up a deep interest in the subject,
by Daniel Frost, Jun. Esq. of Canterbury,
Conn. Rev. Dr. Beecher, of Boston, Rev.
Mr. M’ Ilvaine, of Brooklyn, and Rev. Mr.
He wit, of Andover, Mass.
The following resolutions were adopted by
the meeting. Wc commend them to the se
rious attention of every reader.
Whereas, it has become evident from the
concurrent testimony of Judicial officers, mag
istrates, civilians, physicians, and intelligent
citizens generally, who have made themselves
acquainted with the subject, that the use of
intoxicating liquors is the occasion of almost
all the flagrant crimes, and to a most alarming
extent, of the immoralities, the pauperism,
misery,diseases and premature deaths, so mul
tiplied throughout our country, therefore,
NO. 1.