Wendell Phillips, Theodore C. Pease, Speeches, Lectures and Letters of Wendell Phillips: Volume 1

[97] him.since then he might be led to do what even his father deems inhuman, namely, return his “venerable relative” into slavery to save a Union! Does Dr. Dewey indeed think it “extravagant and ridiculous to consent” to return one's mother to slavery? On what principle, then, it has been well asked, does he demand that every colored on submit patiently to have it done? Does his Bible read that God did not make of one blood all nations?

Yes, we have antislavery feeling and character enough to humble a Dewey; we want more,--want enough to save a Sims,--to give safe shelter to Ellen Crafts. “Hide the outcast, bewray not him that wandereth,” is the simplest lesson of common humanity. The Commonwealth, which, planted by exiles, proclaimed by statute in 1641 her welcome to “any stranger who might fly to her from the tyranny or oppression of their persecutors,” the State which now seeks “peace in liberty,” should not content herself with this: her rebuke of the tyrant, her voice of welcome to the oppressed, should be uttered so loud as to be heard throughout the South. It should not be necessary to hide the outcast. It ought not to be counted merit now that one does not lift hand against him. O no I fidelity to ancient fame, to present honor, to duty, to God, demands that the fugitive from the oppressions of other lands should be able to go up and down our highway in peace,--tell his true name, meet his old oppressor face to face, and feel that a whole Commonwealth stands between him and all chance of harm.

God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts!

How coldly, often, does the old prayer fall from careless lips How sure to reach the ear of Him, who heareth the sighing of the prisoner, when it shall rise, in ecstasy of gratitude, from the slave-hut of the Carolinas, or from the bursting heart of the fugitive, who, after deadly peril, rests at last beneath the shadow of her protection!