On looking into the case, he would advise the
clergy not to go to trial — to settle — or, if they
couldn’t to ‘leave it out’ to a reference of
‘orthodox deacons.’”
We will quote from the same sheet his indignant and touching satire on the
funeral of those public officers who were killed by the explosion on board
the
Princeton, together with the President’s slave; an accident which
reminds us how closely slavery is linked with the government of this nation.
The President coming to preside over a nation of free men, and the
man who stands next to him a slave!
“I saw account,” says he, “of the burial of those
slaughtered politicians. The hearses passed along, of
Upshur,
Gilmer,
Kennon,
Maxcy, and
Gardner —
but the dead slave, who fell in company with them on the deck of the
Princeton, was not there. He was held their equal by the impartial
gun-burst, but not allowed by the bereaved nation a share in the
funeral.” … “Out upon their funeral, and upon the
paltry procession that went in its train. Why didn’t they enquire for
the body of the other man who fell on that deck! And why
hasn’t the nation inquired, and its press? I saw account of the scene
in a barbarian print, called the Boston Atlas, and it was dumb on the absence
of that body, as if no such man had fallen. Why, I demand in the name of
human nature, what was that sixth man of the game brought down by that great
shot, left unburied and above ground — for there is no account yet
that his body has been allowed the right of sepulture.” …
“They didn’t bury him even as a slave. They didn’t assign
him a jim-crow place in
that solemn procession, that he might follow to wait upon his enslavers in
the land of spirits. They have gone there without slaves or waiters.”
… “The poor black man — they enslaved and imbruted him
all his life, and now he is dead, they have, for aught appears, left him to
decay and waste above ground. Let the civilized world take note of the
circumstance.”
We deem such timely, pure, and unpremeditated expressions of a public
sentiment, such publicity of genuine indignation and humanity, as abound
everywhere in this journal, the most generous gifts a man can make, and
should be glad to see the scraps from which we have quoted, and the others
which we have not seen, collected into a volume. It might, perchance,
penetrate into some quarters which the unpopular cause of freedom has not
reached.
Long may we hear the voice of this Herald.
But since our voyage Rogers has died, and now there is no one in New England
to express the indignation or contempt which may still be felt at any cant
or inhumanity.
When, on a certain occasion, one said to him, “Why do you go about as
you do, agitating the community on the subject of abolition? Jesus Christ
never preached abolitionism:” he replied, “Sir, I have two
answers to your appeal to Jesus Christ. First, I deny your proposition, that
he never preached abolition. That single precept of his —
‘Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them’
— reduced to practice, would abolish slavery over the whole
earth in twenty-four hours. That is my first answer.
