Class_JfV^L PRESENTED BY TWENTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT PHILADELPHIA Jfemale l^ti-Jilateg JSfocidg, PHILADELPHIA: MBRRIHEW & THOMPSON, PRINTERS, Lodge street, north side of Pennsylvania Bank. I860; TWENTY-SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PHILADELPHIA Jfmsle ^nti-^Iatog &*adjr* PHILADELPHIA; MERRIHEW & THOMPSON, PRINTERS, Lodge street, north side of Pennsylvania Bank, I860, ^ mt% PHILADELPHIA: MERIilHEW & THOMPSON, PRINTERS. Corner of Lodge Street and Kenton Place. 1862. TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT PHILADELPHIA female luti-JIIakn) JkcietjL (SI PHILADELPHIA; MERR1EEW & THOMPSON, PRINTERS. Corner of Lodge Street and Kentoa PUve. 1862. £4- H i K l 3 3 OFFICERS FOR THE KNSUING YEAR- PRESIDENT, SARAH PUGH. VICE-PRESIDENT, SIDNEY ANN LEWIS. RECORDING SECRETARY, GULIELMA M. JONES. CORRESPONDING SECRETARY, MARY GREW. TREASURER, ANNIE SHOEMAKER. BOARD OE MANAGERS, LUCRETIA MOTT, HANNAH L. STICKNEY, ANNA M. HOPPER, SARAH H. PEIRCE, REBECCA S. HART, ROSANNA THOMPSON. 3T REPORT Measured by the rapid succession of important events in our national history 7 the last year has been a long one. At its commencement the gaze of the civil- ized world had been recently and suddenly fixed upon a great nation dismembered by internal convulsions; and the occupants of European thrones, and the dwell- ers in the humblest American homes, were asking with profound interest the same question, "What shall the end of these things be ?" " The end is not yet/' but the fast gathering portents of the times, the fast- fulfilling prophecy of former times, are suggesting the answer. Among the events of the opening year, was a re- markable coincidence of purpose manifested by two classes of American citizens who are usually con- trasted rather than compared. A mob of ruffians in the city of Syracuse, N. Y., excited to anger by the recurring anniversary of the Jerry rescue, at- tempted, by effigy burning, by profane and ribald orgies, mingled with mock prayer, to " put down Abolitionism, " and testify their devotion to the Con- stitution and the Union. At about the same time a society was organized in the city of New York, un- der the auspices of prominent clergymen, for the same object, which, adopting as its motto " God is our refuge and strength," issued an earnest appeal to the community to sustain slavery, to cease rebuking slaveholders, and to confront the evil teachings of the abolitionists " by the word of God." Nearly simultaneous with the action of these bodies, was the announcement of a plan, by the political leaders of the country, to harmonize the North and South, by amendments to the Federal Constitution, whereby the institution of slavery should be better secured. Now, by far different tokens do we toll the pulsa- tions of the popular heart. Proposals for the eman- cipation of the slaves, — slaves of rebels,-— slaves in rebel States,* — slaves in all the States,-— are made on the floor of Congress by men who never aspired to be anti-slavery reformers. On the spot where two years ago John Brown died a felon's death, judicially murdered by Virginia, while the North said Amen to the deed, our encamped battalions invoke the smiles of Heaven on his grave, and from the tree which overshadowed his gallows, carve memorials of his heroism to carry with them to their battle-fields. Northern soldiers who would have led him to that scaffold, now marching southward, utter their enthu- siasm in songs of honor to his name. And upon the " sacred soil " of Virginia another benefactor of the slave has this year stood, and told his audience of slaves that their right to liberty is inalienable, and ex- horted them to claim and keep that right ; and Virginia had no power to lead him to the gallows, for United States armies defended his right to stand there and to speak thus. The firing of South Carolina's guns upon Fort Sumpter, on the 12th of April, 1861, and the conse- quent proclamation of the President of the United States, summoning the militia of the country to sup- press that rebellion, inaugurated the war between the South and the North, which, through alternating defeat and victory on both sides, has continued to the present hour. In this controversy the South has sharply defined and boldly avowed its issue. Never, for one moment, has she concealed her pur- pose ; she has offered no compromise ; she has spurned all that has been offered to her. At the commencement, she announced that slavery was " the vital agent of the controversy;" that the foun- dations of her new Government were laid, that its corner stone rested, upon the doctrine that " Slavery is the natural and normal condition of the negro. *' Frankly acknowledging that, if the premises of the anti-slavery paity of the North were true, its con- clusion w r as inevitable, she boldly denied the premises, asserted that her right to enslave men was God-given, and marshalled her armies to defend it on the battle field. In this contest she enrols among her allies no lover of universal liberty ; she designates a 11 her oppo- nents by one name, — abolitionist. And in her conduct of the war she is equally uncompromising, availing her- self of all practicable means of conquering her enemy. Her Penates are demons, but in her eyes they are gods ; and as such she fights for them. 6 In the attitude assumed by the Federal Govern- ment towards her belligerent rebels, and the manner in which she conducts this war against them, is sig- nally displayed the result of a long habit of subjec- tion to the slave-power. While the South boasts that she is fighting for Slavery, the Federal Government dares not wage its war in the name of Liberty, but issues equivocal proclamations, which, in one para- graph, call Northern soldiers to crush the rebellion, and in the next, assure the rebels that the institu- tion which has caused the rebellion shall be respect- ed and protected. It strangely alternates its atti- tudes of fear and of authority. The knee, so long bent, straightens slowly and painfully ; the voice so long accustomed to sue, is half frightened at its own tones of command. With one hand it strikes its rebels ; and with the other offers them the old Con- stitutional shield for the protection of their weakest points against its own blows. Its first utterance was an asseveration of loyalty to the duty of restor- ing fugitive slaves; and in perfect harmony with this spirit of submission to its late master, were its instructions to its ministers abroad, that, in their intercourse with foreign governments, they should not allude to the origin or causes of our domestic difficulties, " and that they should indulge in no ex- pressions of harshness or disrespect, or even impa- tience, concerning the seceded States, their agents, or their people." Too weak, in its timidity, to use the weapon which would have cleft its path straight through to victory, it called on the people to throng their temples of worship, and pray to God to suspend the operation of His laws, and make it possible for them to continue in sin, without suffering its pen- alty. And thus far, with occasional exceptions, may be seen in the conduct of the war, as in the orjginal at- titudes assumed by the parties, the same contrast between the Federal Government and the leaders of the rebellion. While the South, like a foe bitterly in earnest, avails herself of all means of warfare at her command, and converts her slaves into soldiers, the North refuses the heartily proffered aid of her loyal colored citizens, and forbids them to join her armies. While the South forces into her service all Northern men found upon her soil, our government returns hundreds of slaves who have fled to its forts and camps for protection, and who would gladly fight under its banner. While the South assigned her prisoners of war to felons' cells, or compelled them to labor in her camps, the North bade hers to take the easy oath of allegiance to herself, and go in peace. A strange spectacle is presented to the w r orld by rebels in arms, for the defence of slavery, against their Government, repudiating its Constitu- tion, defying its laws ; and that Government seeking to conciliate them by hunting their slaves, and in its zeal surpassing even Constitutional requirements, and arresting and returning fugitives who had not escaped from one State to another, but were found on the soil of their own. The fact that slavery was the cause of this dis- s memberment of the nation, is obvious to all except- ing those who have shut their eyes to avoid seeing it. It is not only avowed by the instigators of the rebel- lion, but clearly discerned and unhesitatingly assert- ed by many a loyal slaveholder. Knowledge of the cause naturally suggests the cure ; and it is the un- willingness of our Government to accept the sugges- tion, which holds it in its present position of apparent weakness and embarrassment, which is tempting the scorn of foreign powers. Steadily and with all its force the United States Government is resisting the mighty influence which, slowly and surely, is drift- ing it towards the policy of emancipation. In each defeat or failure, it casts about helplessly for aid, and calls for all weapons but the only sure one which lies within its grasp. And ever this invisible power presses on it astern necessity, beneath which it trem- bles, and hesitates, and, perhaps unconsciously, moves towards its destiny. The indications of that destiny are increasing in numbers and in clearness. At the opening of the war, the Federal Government gravely announced that it was not designed to disturb the institution of slavery. But the «< irrepressible negro " would be an element in it. In the first encampment of Northern soldiers on Southern soil, he appeared, and from that hour to this, by his ever recurring pre- sence, has been asking that yet unanswered question, " What shall be done with him ?" Gen. Butler's first response to this question was an offer to suppress slave insurrections ; his second, an assertion that the slaves of rebels are contraband of war; his third, a declaration 9 that these Fugitives are « men, women, and children, houseless, homeless, and unprovided for," whose claim to protection is the same as that of any other " men, women, and children who, for their attach- ment to the Union, had been driven or allowed to flee from the Confederate States."* The response of Congress, to this question, in August last, was the enactment of a Jaw which set free from their masters' claim all slaves who had been used in any military or naval service against the United States Govern- ment, Now, in the Senate and the House, bills for the abolition of slavery in all the seceded States, are in- troduced, and earnestly advocated ; and Simon Came* ron, Secretary of War, tells the nation, that its wisest policy is to emancipate and arm the slaves* Fortress Monroe, sheltering a thousand fugitive slaves, Uni- ted States vessels-of-war, at Port Royal, welcoming to the protection of their flag hundreds of these poor outcasts of earth, tell, in tones too loud and clear to be misunderstood, of a mighty change in the nation's heart* Gen. Fremont's proclamation, de- claring free all slaves of rebels within his jurisdiction, and the enthusiasm with which it was received in the West and North, attested the same fact. And when the President of the United States strove to press back and hold down that rising tide in the popular heart, its next wave answered him by bearing Gen, Lane onward to a position far in advance of the anti- slavery policy of the rebuked and discarded com- * Gen. Butler's letter to Secretary Cameron* July 3Qtla>, 1S6L 10 mander in Missouri. That great voice of the people, the newspaper press, speaks in tones so strangely and so suddenly altered, that abolitionists scarcely recognize it. Still conservative in its utterances, still timid in its policy, there breathes through it a spirit of kindliness towards the slave which tells that the shock of this revolution set free some latent sym- pathy for the oppressed in the American heart. After thirty years of persecution and calumny of them- selves and their enterprise, abolitionists read with wonder, in prominent journals of this city, defences or apologies for both, and respectful tributes to men whose names had hitherto been used as a cry w T here- with to rally a mob ; and see with joy their own arguments and phraseology adopted by those jour- nals, and used as naturally as though they were their mother tongue. While we carefully note and rejoice in each indica- tion of progress in the right direction, we are fully aware of the imminent danger which threatens our nation. The danger which we apprehend and fear lies not in Southern fleets and armies, but in the Northern heart ; the evil we dread, is not an exhaust- ed treasury, but exhausted moral strength? which easily yields to a compromise with wrong ; not stag- nant commerce, but stagnant honor which leaps not up at the glorious name of Liberty, urging the sacri- fice of all meaner things in its behalf. The question is yet to be answered whether slavery has fatally poisoned the life-blood of the nation, or whether there is enough vitality left to enable it to survive 11 this critical hour, These days and weeks pass solemn- ly, for they go freighted with our Nation's destiny; a destiny soon to be revealed for our glory or our shame. It is a dark sign of the times that the party in power, the party whose sole distinction was its op- position to the extension of slavery., should, in such an hour as this, manifest a higher devotion to the Union than to Liberty ; that its only organ in Washington should advertise fugitive slaves ; that one of its most influential leaders should, apparently in complacent forgetfulness of four millions of slaves, assert that " freedom is always in the Union;" that the body to whom it has entrusted the administra- tion of the government should seem intent on repress- ing or thwarting all anti-slavery action in the army ; but these are not the only signs of the times which we discern. While the demon of slayery, in the garb of an angel of peace, stands tempting a trembling Government to conciliate, at all hazards, the partially loyal States, answering voices come from camp and council hall, from press and pulpit, whose tones of man- ly virtue 3nd righteous indignation are indications of strength which may resist the tempter and save the nation. The body of our army are in advance of their leaders. The resolution, formally adopted by the soldiers of Potter Co., Pa., declaring " that it was no part of the duty of the soldier to aid in re- turning fugitive slaves," and their earnest protest against engaging in so " revolting a work;" and the action of the Seventh Regiment of Massachusetts, who opened their ranks to let the flying slave pass 12 through, then quickly closed them against his pursuer, illustrate a feeling which very widely prevails among the rank and file of the Northern army. And among the brightening signs of the times we note the recent opposition to the foreign slave-trade, marked by the first capital conviction under the laws of the United States against this trade ; the order issued by the Government, prohibiting the use of the prisons of Washington as slave pens for the convenience or pleasure of slave traders or slaveholders ; and the facilities furnished to slaves escaping through the Northern states. We also record with grateful pleasure the fact that the Legislature of our own State, at its last session, maintained the honor of the Commonwealth by re- fusing to repeal the laws which protect the slave's right to freedom, when he is brought within her limits by his master. Whatever censure may be deserved by our present Administration, and however far its action may fall below the standard of the anti-slavery reformers, or even of the masses of the people, who draw freer breath in a purer atmosphere than that which per- vades cabinets and courts, it must never be forgot- ten that it is in advance of its predecessors, and that its existence is a result of aa improved tone of public sentiment. Now it struggles and gropes half blindly, because unwilling to look in the only direction whence light can fall on its path ; but if the power which created it sball prove strong enough to guide and sustain it in a righteous course, it will soon cease 13 from its folly in attempting to trace the rebellion to other causes than the existence of Slavery, and to suppress it by any other weapons than that of Eman- cipation. The folly of expecting to put down this rebellion without removing its cause, to preserve and secure our own liberty and prosperity without giving liberty to those whom we have enslaved, is equalled only by the meanness of wishing to do it, and the hypocrisy of asking God to assist us in doing it. This meanness and hypocrisy are keenly rebuked by the childlike confidence with which the slaves greet our advancing armies. In their eyes, our camps and forts are cities of refuge ; and our soldiers, many of whom never aspired to fulfil divine commissions, suddenly find themselves hailed as Heaven-sent an- gels of Liberty, whose appearance is the expected answer to the prayers of longing slaves. Here the instinct of the slave and slaveholder are the same. The President of the United States may reiterate his assurances that this war is not to be carried on for the purpose of emancipation ; one General may offer to suppress slave insurrections in Maryland, and another may proclaim to South Carolina that her pecu- liar institution shall not be disturbed by the Federal armies; it is in vaintheleadersof the rebellionstill de- signate them and their soldiers as " abolition hordes ;" our Colonels may vie with one another in their zeal to banish fugitive slaves from their camps, or to re- turn them to their masters ; the slave's intuition sees over all this an irresistible power guiding the revo- lution. The aged slave in the city of Washington 2 14 who, as she looked wistfully on the passing pageant of war, was told that those gleaming bayonets would not be charged in the cause of negro freedom, spoke with the heart of her race, as she answered, with faith far above her culture " they works better than they knows." There was a time when this nation might have crowned itself with glory in the emancipation of its slaves. In the hour of its prosperity and strength, moved by a high sense of justice and pure benevo- lence towards the wronged, it might have reached out its hand and lifted four million chattels up to manhood. That hour has passed. There was a mo- ment, a brief, golden moment, given to one man in this nation, in which he might have done a deed of justice so sublime, so glorious, that the world would have bowed before]him " as to one God-throned amid his peers. That moment has passed. Now, " To our cup of trembling The added drop is given, And the long suspended thunder Falls terribly from heaven." Now the nation who would not be aroused by loftier motives to execute justice, is urged to do so by the fear of its own immediate destruction. Now, when the decree of the abolition of slavery shall be wrung by God's stern providence from a reluctant people, our shouts of joy, our hymns of thanksgiving, will be for the slave alone. In the glory of that hour the nation will have no share. On the banner which it might have waved in exultant pride over 15 such a deed, its own finger has written ^Ichabod." While we mourn the departed glory, we rejoice in the vision of the slave's approaching deliverance. The aim of the abolitionists during the last thirty years has been to effect this deliverance peacefully, to redeem the nation from its sin, without this bap- tism of blood. This aim the nation has persistently and successfully opposed. Political parties have rival- ed each other in their efforts to resist it, and the church has used her wealth, her learning, her moral power, and the sanctity of her name, to thwart it. But though they succeeded in preventing the peaceful abolition of slavery, they failed in their attempt to hinder the working of the immutable law of the uni- verse — that national sin shall be followed by national suffering. Now, in the light of a new illustration of this law, they may read again the teachings with which they have corrupted the heart and seared the concience of this nation. Hopefully as the aboli- tionists pursued their aim of effecting peaceful emancipation, they never forgot the possibility of a failure, but they never doubted that, failing in this, there was no other alternative for the nation than disruption and the horrors of war, This they have constantly predicted, and now they gaze with more sorrow than surprise upon the fulfilment of those sad prophecies. Neither are they surprised by the charge that they are the cause of all these terrible tragedies. It is no new charge. The world has always made it against those who have disturbed its peace by rebuk- ing its sins. The world has always tried to believe 16 that a course of sin might be safely pursued, if the troublesome voices of reformers could be silenced. In so far as the utterance of truth causes discord by ex- citing violent resistance to it, on the part of those whom it offends, in so far and no farther have the abolitionists caused this war. Even the Prince of Peace, foreseeing such results from his uncompro- mising testimony to the truth, said, " I came not to send peace but a sword." The lessons of all the centuries past taught the abolitionists to read their country's future • those lessons teach them now that there is but one way in which this war can end in real peace. Hence they learn their responsibility and duty in the present crisis. They stand before this nation as the representatives of the slave, and until his chains are sundered, their duty is to pro- claim the truth with which they first startled the nation from its moral lethargy, and to urge them by every new consideration suggested by the events of these prolific hours. For thirty years they have been striving to achieve the redemption of the slave in time to save the land from civil war. That retri- bution has descended upon a people who oppressed " the widows and the fatherless, the stranger and the poor." Yet one more task is ours. In the dim future stands the angel of sterner retribution, wait- ing the nation's response to God's judgment-call. It is not yet too late to avert the terrible do0m of ser- vile war. To this end and with this hope we still pursue the work which has filled our hands and in. spired our hearts through so many years. 17 In this work, this Society has endeavored to per- form its share through those modes of operation which have always been found efficient in jnoral reforms ; the dissemination of truth by the press and the voice. Our Treasurer's Report will show that, during the last year, we have circulated our usual number of anti-slavery newspapers. It is the aim of the Com- mittee to whom this circulation is entrusted, to furnish these journals to those who are willing to read them, though not sufficiently interested in them to subscribe for them, and also to persons who can use them advantageously to our cause in their re- spective neighborhoods. Deeply impressed with the value of the organ of the American Anti-Slavery Society, the National Anti-Slavery Standard, and its importance as one of the means by which our enter- prise is to be consummated, we have devoted to its support a large portion of the profits of our last Fair. In no more direct and effective manner could we ap- ply those funds to the abolition of American Slavery. A portion of our funds we have directed to the same end, through their usual channel, the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, of which w T e are a constituent part. The Report of our Fair Committee will show the success which attended that department of our labor. The perfectly quiet security in which it was held, the utter absence of all opposing influences from without, strikingly contrasted it with the Fair of the previous year. Pecuniarily its results exceeded the expectations of its most sanguine friends, whoso 18 hopes for its succes3 were restrained by the commer- cial embarrassment of the time. The hope which pervaded all our hearts that it might be the last of our long series of Anti-Slavery Fairs, that the revo- lution of another year would usher in our victory and the slave's jubilee, invested the occasion with pecu- liar interest. A retrospective view of the anti-slavery enterprise from its initiation to the present hour, inspires us with gratitude, courage, and hope. The progress of that enterprise illustrates anew the power of truth to undermine gigantic institutions of wrong which have laid their foundations deep in the centuries. The success which has been granted to thirty years of anti-slavery labor, we receive with devout thanksgiv- ing. It is true that our hope of leading the slave, peacefully, out of his house of bondage has been dis- appointed, but the death blow of slavery has been struck, and the providence of God is leading the slave by another path to freedom. The efforts which failed to bring the whole nation up to the high moral plane, on which it could inaugurate peaceful emancipation, have succeeded in bringing a portion of it up to the point whence it could resist the further aggressions of Slavery. That resistance has evoked a war which is fast intensifying a sentiment in the Northern heart, which will ultimately demand the utter destruc- tion of Slavery. And thus by other weapons than those which the Anti-Slavery Societies of this land have wielded, by another warfare than that which they have waged, their work seems about to be fin- 19 ished. The countenance and aid which individual abo- litionists will give to this war, will be determined by their various theories of the rightfulness of violence in national defence. Many of those who believe such violence justified by a good cause, have rushed into the ranks of the Northern army, hoping to fight there the battles of the slave ; while others who believe that carnal weapons fit not Christian hands, still grasp the sword of the spirit, content to use that alone. The year which we close to-day has bereaved us of faithful coadjutors whose names will henceforth be to us as a cherished memory and an inspiration. One who allied himself to the anti-slavery cause in its earliest, darkest days, and who grew old in its most faithful service, has left us an example of single- ness of purpose, of unostentatious benevolence, and inflexible adherence to the right, such as the world rarely sees.* Another fulfilled the bright promise of a youth consecrated to the cause of the slave, by years of efficient, self-sacrificing toil in his behalf, ere she left us to die in a foreign land.f Leaving our record of the past, we commence an- other year, cheered by the bright vision of final victory looming up in the near future. Should that vision recede as we approach, leading us through years of toil ere we overtake it, the faith which has hitherto guided our enterprise will sustain us even unto the end. The tremulous joy with which the abolitionist anticipates the first notes of the jubilee * Francis Jackson. f Lucia Weston. 20 song, which he almost hears, will not unnerve his arm for longer conflict, should it be demanded of him. Though our hope should be deferred, and our eyes see not this salvation, we know that it will dawn in splendor on the world, when " the Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppress- ed." This day of our country's terrible trial is not wholly dark to us. Through its darkness gleams a hope that even this nation, " laden with iniquity;" that has called " evil good, and good evil;" that has trusted " in oppression andbecome vain in robbery;" that has " decreed unrighteous decrees " " to turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor," may yet, through the stern discipline of bloody conflict and mortal anguish, of desolated homes and broken hearts, be taught the lessons which it would not learn from gentler teachers ; and, in shame and sorrow, breaking the fetters it had fastened on its brother, find itself free to ascend the path to true national greatness ; and, regenerated by love of the justice it was forced to practise, shall stand, at last, glorious among the nations, a People exalted by Righteousness. 21 Philadelphia Female Anti- Slavery Society in account with Annie Shoemaker, Treasurer. 1861. DK. To subscription to N. A. S. Standard, 50 copies, $100 00 11 do Liberator, 10 " 25 00 " do A. S. Bugle 10 " 15 00 do London A. S. Advocate 5 copies, 5 00 Rent of room for Annual Meeting 11 Printing Annual Report, i( Advertising, Postage, &c. 4 mo. " Donation to Pa. A. S. Society, " " Albany A. S. office, 10 mo. " Donation to Pa. A. S. Society, 12mo." " " " " 1 ' To American A. S. Society, for support of N. A. S. Standard, 2d mo. 13th, 1862. Balance in Treasury, 1608 68 1861. CR. 2d mo. By Balance in Treasury " Sale of articles left from Fair of 1860, " Donations, " Member's Subscriptions, " Proceeds of the Fair of 1861 1608 68 Lydia Gillixgham, Auditor, 6 00 23 75 4 69 150 00 20 00 50 00 400 00 i 400 00 409 24 8335 42 8 25 6 00 71 00 1188 01 PENNSYLVANIA ANTI-SLAVERY FAIR. The Twenty-sixth Annual Fair was held in the Large Saloon of the Assembly Buildings, on the 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th of December, 1861. The receipts were $1,350. This sum far exceeds the expectations with which preparations for the sales commenced. Many who have heretofore worked with us in this department of anti-slavery labor, have been devoting their time and energies to the clothing and comfort of the soldiers in the armies of the country, to the sick and w T ounded in the hospitals, or to the destitute slaves who have sought refuge with the foes of their oppres- sors ; therefore, w 7 e were agreeably surprised to find so large a number, who, in addition to these labors, could bring their offerings in aid of the organization whose work will not be accomplished till "Liberty shall be proclaimed throughout the land, and to all the inhabitants thereof. 7 ' Valuable donations were received from numerous friends in the city ; also from Newtown, Wakefield, Wrightstown, Solebury, Bristol, Byberry, Abington, Upper Dublin, Chelton Hills, Germantown, Norris- town, Warwick Furnace, Kimberton, Coventry, Ken- nett, Longwood, Milton, Lancaster Co., Delaware Co., 23 Wilmington, Mullica Hill, Staten Island, N. Y., and Hingham, Mass. A generous donation of X20 was received from a friend in London. It is a great pleasure to report this success of our efforts ; the contributions and receipts being much larger than were anticipated. The unusually fine weather, the absence of opposition in the public mind, the throng of sympathizing friends, combined to make the time of the Fair a season of rare social enjoyment and gratification. Though the chains of the slave are not yet broken, the feeling that the time is not far distant when his shackles must fall, gave gladness and hope, almost assurance, that our labors would ere long be crowned with success, and the Jubilee song of enfranchised millions unite in the joyful ac- claim, " Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and good will to men." On behalf of the Committee, Sarah Pugii, Lucretia Mott, Mary Grew, Margaretta Forten. Philadelphia, January, 1862. # TWENTY-NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PHILADELPHIA Jftmak ^nfi-JJIaforg Storietg* PHILADELPHIA: MRRRIHEW & THOMPSON, PRINTERS. Coiner of Lodge Street and Kenton Place. 1863. TWENTY-NINTH ANNUAL KEPOBT OF THE PHILADELPHIA Jfmale ^nti-^Iakrg Stottdj. PHILADELPHIA: MBRRIHEW & THOMPSON, PRINTERS, Corner of Lodge Street a 1 id Kenton Plftce, 1863 8 75A OFFICERS FOR THE ENSUING YEAR. PRESIDENT, SARAH PUGII. VICE-PRESIDENT, SIDNEY ANN LEWIS. RECORDING SECRETARY, GULIELMA M. JONES. CORRESPONDING SECRETARY, MARY GREW. TREASURER, ANNIE SHOEMAKER. BOARD OF MANAGERS, LUCRETIA MOTT, HANNAH L. STICKNEY ANNA M. HOPPER, SARAH II. PIERCE, REBECCA S. HART, ROSANNA THOMPSON. Gift REPOET. In these dark days of the Republic, there is light in the dwelling of the slave. The mighty revolution which has changed the aspect of all things around us, and evoked a war which is striking fatal blows at com- mercial prosperity and domestic happiness ; which has bathed the land in blood and in tears, and which threatens our national existence, is slowly and surely destroying its own cause, the system of American Slavery. Of the four millions of slaves, to whose deliverance our life-long labors were pledged, more than three millions were, on the morning of the first day of January, 1863, declared by the highest law of the land, thenceforward and forever free ; and North- ern Abolitionists from Maine to Minnesota, joined with the Freedmen of the rice-swamps and cotton- fields from Carolina to Texas, in the glad shout of " Glory toXxod in the highest !" The day of America's jubilee has dawned at last ; and we who have watched and striven through the dark night of her despotism, now hail that dawning with joy and gratitude unut- terable ; and in faith and hope wait for the ascending of its sun to the zenith. It is a pleasant task to trace the tokens of our na- tion's progress during the past year. Some of the most unmistakable of these are found in the enact- ments of Congress. On the 25th of February, 1862, the House of Representatives passed, by a vote of eighty-three yeas, against forty-two nays, a bill for- bidding any person connected with the army or navy, on penalty of dismission from the service, to aid in the return of fugitive slaves to their masters ; and on the 10th of March following, the bill was passed in the Senate, by a vote of twenty-nine yeas against nine nays. Though, regarded abstractly, this prohi- bition on the part of a government fighting for the maintenance of free institutions against slaveholding rebels, seems less remarkable than the necessity for its utterance ; when viewed in connection with the past history of our nation, and the long-existing re- lations between the North and South, it is evidently a triumph of liberty. As such it was gratefully hailed by the abolitionists. A profounder gratitude, a higher joy was ours, when Freedom was proclaimed to every slave in the District of Columbia. That was the first ripe sheaf of the full harvest unto which the abolitionists, toiling in the patience of hope, for thirty years, had looked steadily forward, with soul-inspiring faith. We garnered it with unutterable, almost silent, joy ; conscious, even then, conscious now, that the greatness of the event, and its far-reaching influences, were but half compre- hended by the nation or by ourselves. Partly by reason of its greatness ; partly because of our assured faith through all those years of toil, that it would come. Our vivid anticipation had familiarized the reality. Yet we remember well, when it was accounted a bold action to sign a petition to Congress for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, when to circulate such petitions exposed the applicant to insult, and when the right of such petitioning was de- nied on the floor of Congress. There was one whose hoary head, and spotless life, and patriotic service, proved no shield against the scoffs and threats of the haters of Freedom ministering at her desecrated altars, when he stood there, the champion of that sacred right of petition ; one who, dying in those halls, forever associated his name with faithful service there, and went up to heaven with the words of his testimony against slavery upon his lips ; to await this hour when the scene of his conflict, the capital of our na- tion, should be purified from its pollution, and be newly and worthily dedicated to Liberty. The 16th day of April, 1862, will be remembered in years to come, as an epoch in our country's history. On that day, the President of the United States af- fixed his signature to the bill which declared i: That all 6 persons held to service or labor in the District of Co- lumbia, by reason of African descent, are hereby dis- charged and freed of and from all claim to such ser- vice or labor ; and, from and after the passage of this act, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for crime, whereof the party shall be duly convicted, shall hereafter exist in said District.' ' This bill had, on the third day of April, passed the Senate by a vote of twenty-nine yeas against fourteen nays, and on the eleventh of April it had been passed, in the House, by the overwhelming vote of ninety-two yeas to thirty- eight nays. The testimony to the safety and general beneficence of this act, borne by the abolitionists before its accom- plishment, was re-iterated by their opponents when the deed was done. The following comm«nt was made, not by an anti-slavery journal, but by a daily newspaper, edited by the clerk of the U. S. Senate, a man long well- known as a Democrat, and, until recently, a hearty opponent of abolitionists. " The emancipation of slaves in the District of Col- umbia was one of the most suggestive events of the age. It was an example and an illustration. The great idea of the past century, the idea which had As- sociated and identified itself with our institutions, was at last tried by a practical test. Good results came from it; none of the evils dreaded and prophesied have been manifested. It was a simple measure of legislative policy, and was established amid great op- position and feeling. Yet it was succeeded by no agitation, no out-breaks of popular prejudice. The District of Columbia is now a free Territory by the easy operation of a statute law— by what enemies of the measure called forcible emancipation— and yet the District of Columbia is as pleasant and prosperous as at any period of its history/' Thus transpired one of the great events of this age ; itself a prophecy of greater. It was speedily followed by the Congressional enactment which has for ever prohibited the existence of slavery in the Territories of the United States. On the 9th of May, 1862, the House of Representatives by a vote of eighty-five yeas to forty nays, passed a bill declaring, " That slavery, or involuntary servitude, in all cases whatso- ever, other than in punishment of crime, whereof the party shall be duly convicted, shall henceforth cease, and be prohibited forever in all the territories of the United States now existing, or hereafter to be formed or acquired in any way." On the 9th of June following, the bill passed the Senate by a vote of twenty-eight yeas to ten nays ; and, by the signature of the President, at once became the law of the land. If it were difficult to apprehend and fully realize the grandeur of the event, when the slaves of the Dis- trict of Columbia were made freemen, and freedom was assured to their posterity forever ; still more dif- ficult was it to measure the depth of meaning contained in the few, brief words engrossed on that parchment scroll which is the charter of freedom to our Territo- ries. When that vast territory stretching from the Mississippi Valley to the Pacific, now lying silent and beautiful in its " unshorn growth of centuries," shall be peopled by the rushing tides of emigration from the East ; when the loud murmur of looms and spin- dles shall mingle with the music of its streams and waterfalls ; when its hills shall be crowned with school houses and churches and legislative halls ; and along its valleys shall course the iron road; and commerce and art and manufactures shall minister to its mighty pop- ulation,then may the generations who,one after another? grow up under the protecting power and fostering care of its free institutions ponder the meaning and the value of the word's which conferred on them a free press, a free pulpit, free speech, free thought, and all the wealth, material intellectual and spiritual, which these pro- duce ; and saved them from the perpetually renewed curse of slavery, which has smitten with blight and ruin so many States of this Republic. But who can faithfully portray the contrast ? The human intellect shrinks back, appalled, from the task ; and the heart takes up the cry, u Glory to God in the highest; on earth, peace, and good will to man !" These great deeds done for freedom are not the only evidences furnished by Congress of the growing love of liberty in the popular heart. The passage of the bill authorizing the President to enrol and receive into the army and navy of the United States vo lunteers of African descent, is a triumph over that mean and •?rieked prejudice against our colored fellow-citizens, so long cherished by the church and by the State. In retracing the course pursued by the President of the United States, during the year, we find indubita- ble evidence of some moral progress on the part of the people. It was with disappointment and pain that the friends of Liberty listened to his official declara- tion, in May, 1862, that Gen. Hunter's proclamation of freedom to the slanes in his Military Department, was null and void. It was with equal pain and disappointment that they listened for one word of public official pro- test against the barbarous policy of his agent, Gov. Stanley, in closing the schools for the emancipated slaves of North Carolina, and commanding the ren- dition of those freedmen to their former masters. But in less than two months afterwards, his earnest appeal to the Border Slaveholding States to accept the pro- posal for compensated gradual emancipation suggested by him to Congress in the month of March previous, was joyously hailed by us, as a ray of hope for the slave. Months rolled on, which might be counted as years in the intensity of our national life, and the momentous history which they were making, when the nation was startled by the memorable proclamation of the 22d of September, which declared " That on the 10 first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves in any State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free ; and the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recog- nize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. " The announcement, in the month of November, that the President had removed Gen. M'Clellan from the command of the Army of the Potomac, and had put Gen. Burnside in his place, indicated that the army was to be prepared to execute this policy of emanci- pation. The agonizing doubt, the painful alternations of hope and fear which were endured by the friends of Freedom during those three probationary months, are forgotten, and shall be no more remembered in the joy and glory of the crowning act of Abraham Lincoln's administration, which, on the morning of the first of January, 1863, indissolubly associated his name with America's day of jubilee. Not only in the Legislative and Executive depart- ments of our Government do we find tokens of the steady progress of the spirit of Liberty. The history of the Army and Navy during the war, shows signs of promise 11 equally bright. Officers in high station in both, who, at the commencement of the rebellion, were eager to dis- play their fidelity to slavery, are now to be found bear- ing the strongest testimony to its -enormous injustice, and its danger to the nation. General Hunter has taught us to forget some earlier deeds of his by those glorious words uttered on the 9th of May, 1862, declar- ing the slaves of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina thenceforward free. Gen. Butler has obliterated the re- cord made on his first entrance into Maryland, by his proclamation calling the free colored citizens of Louis- iana to arms, in defence of their homes, their wives, and their children, and of their country's flag; by his frank avowal of the radical change of his sentiments upon the subject of slavery, and his earnest exhorta- tions to his countrymen to take care, lest in their op- pression of the negro, they " be found fighting against God." The Secretary of the Navy has announced that the fugitive slave enlisted in the naval service, is safe within the protection of the U. S. Government. And volumes might be written of the thrilling narra- tives of slayes rescued by the brave hands and sympa- thetic hearts of our soldiers ; sometimes at the peril of the displeasure of their superior officers ; some- times, indeed, in open defiance of their inhuman com- mands. The manner in which the Proclamation of Emancipation has been received in the army, in differ cnt parts of .the country, indicates an improved tone 12 of feeling towards the colored man, and increasing clearness of perception respecting the real cause of the war. Although the influence of the Border Slave States has been justly regarded as a serious impediment to the progress of liberty, and to the efficiency of the Government in the suppression of the rebellion, we find, within some of these, decided movements toward the emancipation of their own slaves ; and we may reasonably hope that Missouri, Delaware, and West- ern Virginia will soon be numbered with the Free States of America. The recently awakened opposition to the foreign slave trade, which we noticed in our last Report, as evinced by the first capital conviction under the laws of the United States against this trade, was, soon after manifested by the unanimous consent of the Senate to a treaty negotiated by the Secretary of State, be- tween the British Government and our own, for the purpose of the suppression of the trade ; and by the conviction and sentencing to imprisonment for five years, of Albert Horn, charged with fitting out the steamer City of Norfolk, for that traffic. Another step of progress, another indication of a returning sense of justice in the American people, fraught with immense consequences to the victims of long-continued hate and oppression, is the recent de- cision of the United States Attorney-General, that 13 free men of color, born in the United States, are citi- zens of the United States. This is one act of atone- ment performed towards an outraged class of our countrymen, over which we heartily rejoice. Thus, during the eventful year, has the abolition- ist, in grateful joy, garnered the first sheaves from his long and patient sowing, accounting each an earn- est of the full in-gathering, and waited and listened for the command from heaven, " Thrust in thy sickle and reap, for the time has come for thee to reap ; for the harvest is ripe.'' We caught the sound of that voice, mingled with the jubilee shouts which burst from the lips of enfranchised millions on the morning which ushered in the new year. On that day an angel passed over our land, and entering the hovel of the slave, transformed it into a home. He stooped over a hundred thousand cradles, and breathed the breath of a new life into the souls of their unconscious occupants, and bade a hundred thousand mothers clasp, for the first time, free children in their arms. He touched the manacles of three million slaves, and they lay broken at freedmen's feet. Around that day had clustered the hopes of all lovers of liberty in the land ; for its coming their hearts had waited and longed, with hope and fear, with prayer and faith. The Proclamation of the President, announcing that the hour of Emancipation had come, awoke a response from the nation which confirmed the wisdom of the 2 14 decision that this was the weapon which, alone, could strike a mortal blow against the rebellion. The friends of the Union, the loyal men and women of the land, in the North and in the South, replied, "Amen: so let it be !" From ecclesiastical conven- tions, and legislative assemblies, from Union Leagues, from editorial chairs, and from pulpits, came their hearty responses of approbation and joy. While Northern abolitionists were holding meetings of thanks- giving for the dawn of the jubilee, the citizens of New Orleans, people who had been life-long slaveholders, crowded the largest building in their city, and with- out a dissenting voice, and with vociferous cheers, uttered their sentiments in the following language ; "Resolved, That we are prepared to sustain the Government of the Union in all measures adopted for the suppression of the rebellion : and that we fully approve the war measure set out in the Proclamation of the President, of Jan. 1st, 1863, as one called for by the exigencies of the contest, consummating at once an act of justice to one class, and inflicting, at the same time, on another class persisting in rebellion, the blow best calculated to reduce them to obedience to the laws." From the disloyal people of the North, the men whose sympathies are with the rebellion, and who are hoping for the defeat of our Government in this strug- gle, came a wail of lamentation and a cry that the Proclamation was illegal, unconstitutional, and its author a despot. And the armed leaders of the re- 15 bellion listened to it in fierce wrath, and poured out maledictions and threats of new vengeance. Unwit- tingly they testified that they were smitten between the joints of their harness. In our great joy over this announcement of the emancipation of three million slaves, we did not forget that it did not " proclaim liberty through- out all the land, to all the inhabitants thereof ;" nor were we unmindful of the fact that the full enforce- ment of the decree must depend, in great measure, on the future success of the United States armies. But we know that mighty moral revolutions are accom- plished by slow steps, though, seen in the retrospect of centuries, they seem the work of an hour. No joy was too great, no thanksgiving too fervent, for the proclamation which legalized the freedom of so large a portion of the slaves of the United States. Of those excepted from freedom by this proclamation, we have the testimony of General Butler, that of the 87,000 of them who are in Louisiana, nearly all were already freed by other edicts, and the testimony of an eye wit- ness, that the slaves of Norfolk and Virginia, believ- ing that the President had emancipated them, refused to work any longer for their former masters, without wages, and that, there being no power to compel them to do so, virtual emancipation has taken place even in those cities, where the President promised that " all things should remain as they were." 1G Time would fail us to record all the hopeful signs of the times, which have cheered us during the past year. We have heard testimonies to the danger and the injus- tice of slaveholding, from men in high places, who, in the days of the slaveholder's prosperity, cared little for his victim. "We have witnessed the establishment of an anti-slavery newspaper in South Carolina, and the reception, in Washington, of a colored man as the ac- credited minister of the Ilaytien Government. "We have seen the heroism of patriotic colored men ac- knowledged and rewarded by our Government. And Ave have echoed the shout of joy which arose from tropic isles, when the Government of Holland issued its decree that, on the first day of July, 1863, slavery in its colonies shall be forever abolished. But while we have rejoiced in these indications of the triumph of our cause, we have not been unaware of other and very different tokens of popular feeling, nor unmindful of the darker side of the past year's history. The fact is revealed, clearly and sadly enough, that this nation has not heartily repented of its sins against the slave. The attempts of Northern States to legislate against the ingress of colored per- sons seeking residence ; the repeated rendition by army officers of fugitive slaves to their rebel masters, even when these slaves had brought to our camps val- uable information respecting the rebel forces ; and 17 other similar facts, bear terrible witness that the pride of the nation is not yet humbled, nor its heart peni- tently desirous to make atonement to the victims of its oppression. It is with shame and sorrow that we record the fact that, in our own city, a Sergeant in the First Regiment of South Carolina Volunteers, a man who, willing to forget the accumulated wrongs of our Government toward himself and his race, and trust its promise of future protection and justice, volun- teered to fight in its defence, was insulted and as- saulted by men calling themselves American citizens. And the fact still remains, that in this city, crowded with churches, and richly adorned with the parapher- nalia of religion, there is not living Christianity enough tc overcome the prejudice which refuses to the colored man a seat in our railroad cars. In spite of all the scorn and injustice which our colored population have received from the American people, they are proving to-day their willingness and their ability to defend, on the battle-field, our nation- al existence. In the West and in the South, in camp, and on the field, military commanders have borne wit* ness to the value of their services. Information re- ceived from them has turned the tide of battle, and they have been actors in some of the most daring feats of the w T ar. The testimony to their courage, and prowess, and fidelity, comes from such officers as General Hunter and General Saxton. And these are is the men whose aid in the suppression of the rebellion this nation so long rejected with scorn. It is difficult to discern which is greater, the folly or the wicked- ness of this nation in its treatment of the colored man, bond and free, since the commencement of the rebel- lion. It might have taken counsel of the wiser in- stinct of the slaveholders. The mortal terror into which they were thrown by the proposal to arm the slaves in the defence of the United States, and by the conditional Proclamation of Emancipation, issued in September, clearly indicated the weapon which could reach the heart of the rebellion. Yet very slowly and very reluctantly is the North yielding up its prejudice on this subject, and acknowledging the value of a class of coadjutors whom it has long been accustomed to despise. Even during the heat of the conflict for our nation's life, while its soldiers were perishing on the field and in the hos- pital, and the stern call rang through the land for men to fill the vacant places, and Congress was pre- paring conscription acts for the dire emergency, the President was carefully elaborating plans for the col- onization in distant countries of large numbers of able-bodied, loyal citizens, who were eager to enlist in their country's defence. The events of the last two years have so clearly writ- ten the causes, proximate and remote, of the nation's calamity, and its perils at the present hour, that he 19 who runs may read thein. Now, politicians and states- men, conservative presses and timid* pulpits, are re- iterating the language which was prophecy on the lips of abolitionists thirty years ago. The people who heeded it not, then, may listen with more deference and intenser interest when a Democratic General tells them that slavery has caused the war which is costing them so much money and so many lives, and that only by its abolition can the North succeed ; they may ponder seriously the meaning of the words, when a Secretary of State warns them of "the danger to which the Federal connection with slavery is exposing the Republic," and assures them that "if the war con- tinues indefinitely, a servile war is only a question of time;" and that "the problem is, whether the strife shall be left to goto that point." There was a period when it seemed as if its own Constitution was to be a mill-stone on the neck of a mighty nation struggling in deep waters ; but that hour has passed. The danger now is that false peace and temporary finan- cial prosperity may be purchased by the sacrifice of the principles which are the basis of all noble na- tional life. The most dangerous, because most insidi- ous, foes of our country are not those who ride armed against her on the battle fields of Virginia and Ten- CD CD nessec, or steer piratical ships along southern coasts ; they arc the disloyal men of the North who secretly plot her destruction ; men who would barter anything 20 for place, and power, and gold, and in whose estima- tion principles of justice, human liberty, the law of right, are things so shadowy and unreal that they ac- count them the creations of a fanatic's brain. Of lit- tle moment to such men is it whether the nation main- tains or sacrifices her honor and integrity ; of little moment whether the freedom of millions of human beings be lost or won in this contest. Against these foes must the Republic defend herself, if she is to be saved. At the end of another year of anti-slavery work, and looking forward with hope and joy to its speedy completion, we see clearly revealed the duties which the present time demands of the abolitionists. It was their first task to rouse the nation from its slumber in moral death, to open its car to the cry of the slave ; and then to destroy, one after another, those subter- fuges beneath which a guilty Church and State sought to escape from the claims of justice. Their mission has been to stand before the American people, the representatives of the American slave. It is their mission still. They have sung paeans over every tri- umph of Liberty in the land ; they have shouted for joy to see the flag of their country wave protectingly over emancipated slaves ; they have gratefully ac- knowledged every deed wdiich the Government has done for Freedom. Yet they know that their own work is not done. Having been set for the defence of the slave's liberty, it is their solemn duty to re- 21 main at their post until his enfranchisement is accom- plished. At this crisis their duty is to watch, with eagle eye, every approach of danger, and to warn, with trumpet tone, the Government and the people against every course which may prove disastrous to Liberty. They must still urge their demand, in the slave's name, for universal emancipation. This, their peculiar work, they may not leave for easier tasks, nor delegate to other hands. In the performance of our share of this work, this So- ciety has devoted a considerable portion of its funds to the circulation of the National Anti-Slavery Standard, and other Anti-Slavery newspapers ; believing that in no more effective way could they aid in guiding aright the popular sentiment which must ultimately decide the fate of the nation. In various ways it has also uttered its testimony in hearty approval of every pro- gressive step on the part of our Government, and of earnest censure of each act of disloyalty to Freedom. Among its members, as among the members of all the Anti-Slavery Associations of the country, the call for aid, which has come to us from the newly emancipated slaves, has found an earnest response ; and one of our number, whose early youth was consecrated to the Anti-Slavery cause, and whose first labors in its be- half were performed in connection with this Society, went from us last summer, on a truly Christian mis- sion to the freedinen of Port Royal. Her faithful and valuable service here, is a sure pledge of her zeal 22 and fidelity, in any department of labor which she may find in South Carolina. The Port Royal experiment, as it has been called, has demonstrated, for those who need the demonstra- tion, that the slave is willing to work and able to take care of himself. It is not an enthusiastic abolitionist, but the Secretary of the Treasury, who tells us that the United States Government has received from the labor of the freedmen of these islands, more than it has expended in their maintenance. The experiment has been conducted on a sufficiently large scale, and has proved sufficiently successful, to convince the most incredulous of the safe practical working of the theory of immediate emancipation. Turning from the eventful past, we look with in- tense solicitude to our country's future, asking the question which none can answer, Shall the nation be saved by the stern discipline which she is enduring? One by one she has allowed the golden opportunities to pass by, when she might have arisen in the beauty and strength of righteousness, and, by one great act of penitence and of justice, taken the highest place among the nations of the earth. With gratitude to God we hail the slave's deliverance ; but with shame for our country we acknowledge that, with the reluc- tance of Pharaoh, she loosed her grasp upon the vic- tims whom she dared no longer hold. Will she yet, in an hour of strong temptation, pursue their hastily- retreating steps, and perish in a sea of blood ? God 23 has set the American people face to face, with the slave, saying : See in him whom you have hated, in- sulted, outraged, your only way of salvation : accept it or perish. " There are battles with Fate which can never be won." The only question is, will the nation surrender to God in time to escape destruction ? If lessons of re- tributive justice will teach wisdom, even the slave- holders may now learn it. For the blood of the slave, their own blood has been required ; the lands from which they have fled in terror, the lands tilled by un- requited labor, have been appropriated to the use of their rescued victims ; in their deserted halls sits the Northern abolitionist teaching the slave to read the declaration of Independence ; and in the forests and caves of Northern Alabama, white men have been hunted by blood-hounds put upon their track by offi- cers of the Rebel army enforcing their act of conscrip- tion. Verily the measure which they meted to the slave has been measured unto them ; and the cup which they gave him to drink, has been pressed to their own lips. Hopefully we await the developments of the future. The faith in Truth and the Right which has sustained us through the vicissitudes of thirty years of anti- slavery warfare, inspires us with courage in this solemn crisis, Above all the elements of political and moral confusion in the strife, we discern an omni- potent hand guiding this revolution, and we confident- ly trust that the fiery ordeal through which the nation 24 is passing, will prove to bo, not merely the just pen alty of sin, bub the merciful discipline which educates and saves a People. Surely we have almost come unto that hour which, through long and weary years, we have anticipated as a full recompense for all toil and sacrifice. Some who shared these anticipations with us, and who, from the commencement of our enterprise, have been its most loyal friends and staunch defenders, have, during the past year, finished their work, and passed from our sight.* The laborer has left the harvest white for his reaping ; the soldier has fallen on the field, as the shout of victory was breaking along the ranks. One of our own members, f who labored in this Society most faithfully for many years, has recently been added to that large number who, year after year, have fallen on the anti-slavery field, with their " last breath crying, Onward." "These all died in faith" that the Right must conquer ; and the memory of their unshaken fidelity to an unpopular and righteous cause is the rich inheritance which they have bequeathed to us. To the work which remains for us to do, we joyfully address ourselves : devoutly thankful for all that has been attained, and strong in faith that the hour of final victory is at hand, when the abolitionist may put off his armor, and sing, '• Jehovah hath triumphed, His people are free." * Henry Grew, Benjamin S. Jones, Warner Justice, t Elizabeth Carman, 25 THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, Whereas, On the twenty-second clay of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the Pre- sident of the United States, containing among other things, the following, to wit : " That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State, or desig- nated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever, free, and the Execu- tive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any effort they may make for their active freedom. That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people therein, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States, and the fact that any State, and the people thereof, shall, on that day, be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto, at elections, wherein a ma- jority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong counter^ 26 vailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State and the people thereof are not then in re- bellion against the United States !" Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and Government of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing the said rebellion, do, on this, the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and, in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaim, for the full period of one hundred days from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the States and parts of States wherein the people thereof respectively are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following to wit: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard Plaquemines, Jef- ferson, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans,) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Geor- gia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Ann ; and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Ports- mouth), and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if the proclamation were not issued. And, by virtue of the power and for the purpose 27 aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within the said designated States and parts of said States, are, and henceforward shall be, free ; and that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free, to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence, and I recommend to them that in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. And I further declare and make known, that such persons, of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States, to gar- rison forts, positions, stations and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in the said service. And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. [l. s.] Done at the city of Washington, this, the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States of America, the eighty-seventh. Abraham Lincoln. By the President : W. H. Seward, Secretary of State. ^8 Philadelphia Female And- Slavery Society in account with Annie Shoemaker, Treasurer. 1862. DR. To subscription to N. A, S. Standard, 50 copies, $100 00 do- Liberator, 10 do., 25 00 do. London A. S. Advocate, 5 copies, 5 00 Reut of Hall for Annual Meeting, 4 00 Printing Annual Report, 23 25 Donation to Pa. A. S. Society, 100 00 American A. S. Society, for support of N. A. S. Standard, 100 00 Advertising, 4 25 Postage on Reports, 2 00 2d mo., '63, To balance in Treasury, 160 21 $523 71 1862. CR. By Balance in Treasury, Sale of articles from Fair of 1861, Interest on Bequest of Phebe Jackson, Members' Subscriptions, $409 24 1861, 37 47 Jackson, 15 00 62 00 $523 *1 Lydia G ILLINGHAM fj A udi tor. ^u THIRTIETH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PHILADELPHIA Jfemalc ^nti-jWabetj Jcbcieig, PHILADELPHIA: MERRIHEW & THOMPSON, PRINTERS. No. 243 Arch Street. 1864. thirtieth: ANNUAL REPORT PHILADELPHIA Jfemale l^nti^kkrg Sforidg* PHILADELPHIA: MERRIHEW & THOMPSON, PRINTERS. No. 243 Arch Street, 1864, 1 d)ff\tm far f[je (Ensuing fm. SARAH PUGH. VICE-PRESIDENT, SIDNEY ANN LEWIS. RECORDING SECRETARY, GULIELMA M. JONES. CORRESPONDING SECRETARY, MARY GREW. TREASURER, ANNIE SHOEMAKER. BOARD OF MANAGERS, LUCRETIA MOTT, HANNAH L. STICKNEY, ANNA M. HOPPER, SARAH H. PEIRCE, REBECCA S. HART, ROSANNA THOMPSON. REPORT. A year ago we celebrated the Proclamation of lib- erty to three millions of American Slaves. A Peo- ple long captive and oppressed, stood, trembling with hope and fear, on the banks of a Red Sea, between whose parting waters lay their path to Freedom. Now, with firm step and heart elate, they are passing its midway depths ; and we, whose throbbing pulses have kept time to their march, think that we see the pillar of cloud behind them, — a sure protection from pursuing foes, — and already anticipate, with them, the speedily approaching hour when, safe on the farther shore, with perfectly-assured deliverance, they shall sing, " Thy right hand, Lord, is become glorious in power :" " Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the People which Thou hast redeemed ; Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation/ ' The intensity of national life in times like these, so crowd a year with important and wonderful events ; developing character, revealing hidden motive power, and proclaiming on the house-tops that which was " spoken in the ear in closets;" so hastens the suc- cession of causes and effects, that at each annual re- view we seem to have passed over a Decade. When the Thirty-Seventh Congress adjourned in March 1863, it had accomplished the abolition of sla- very in the District of Columbia, and its prohibition in the Territories ; it had decreed the confiscation of slaves of rebel masters, whether those masters were citizens of seceding or of loyal States ; and it had for- bidden all officers of the army or navy to aid in re- turning fugitive slaves to loyal or disloyal masters. A little later there were indications that the President had determined to arm the slaves whom he had freed. The past year has been bright with evidences of the Nation's progress towards a full apprehension of jus- tice to the colored man, and willingness to render him justice. The Government has authorized the organi- zation of Negro Regiments in the South as well as in the North, and now, in all its Military departments, from Maryland to Louisiana, slaves are being enrolled as free soldiers of the United States. It has, in a few instances, commissioned colored men for the offi- ces of Chaplain, Surgeon, and Recruiting Agent. It has given to its colored soldiers most solemn pro- mises of protection equal to that which it extends to their white brethren-in-arms, Gen. Hunter, from the Head Quarters of the Department of the South, has proclaimed that " the United States flag must protect 5 all its defenders, whether black or yellow/' and has declared his purpose of strict retaliation for every out- rage committed by the rebel government upon Negro prisoners of war. The Solicitor of the War Depart- ment announces, that " the faith of the Government is pledged to these officers and troops that they shall be protected, and it cannot and will not abandon to the savage cruelty of slave-masters a single officer or soldier who has been called on to defend the flag of his country, and thus exposed to the hazards of war/' And the President, in his General Order, July 30th, 1863, announced," u The Government of the United States will give the same protection to all its soldiers ; and if the enemy shall sell or enslave any one because of his color, the offence shall be punished by retalia- tion upon the enemy's prisoners in our possession." Among these indications of progress in our Gov- ernment, there are few more impressive than the de- cision of the Military Governor of Tennessee, upon the question of the rendition of a fugitive slave who was claimed by Christopher Woodall, a resident of that State. Executive Office, Nashville, November 13th, 1863. } " If the girl referred to is willing to return with Mr. Woodall, she should be allowed to go ; but, if not willing, she will not be compelled to go with him. Andrew Johnson, Military Governor." These words have a strange sound in the ears of those who have been accustomed to wait and watch, in agonizing suspense, through days and nights, for the decisions of United States Judges and Commis- sioners, upon fugitive slave cases in Northern cities ; and to listen, in more agonizing certainty, to the doom which they pronounced. With its promises and efforts to protect the emanci- pated slaves, and the freeborn negro soldier, our Government is offering them facilities for general edu- cation ; and commissioned teachers, ranking as lieu- tenants, alternate their lessons with those of the drill- sergeants. It is a fact significant of conscious strength, and one which will shine brightly on the pages of our country's history, that our Government, while car- rying on a great war, is able and willing to attend to the education of the slaves whom the war is emanci- pating. One more act of restitution to this robbed and outraged People was justly demanded ; and this act the Government has recently performed in the Port Royal District. After much effort by Gen. Sax- ton and other friends of the Freedmen, both in and out of the army, a decree has been obtained that the lands in that District which had passed from the pos- session of rebels into that of the United States, shall be sold at public auction, open to pre-emption at the government price of $1.25 per acre. Of these lands there are about 43,000 acres, besides 6000 acres, re- served for school funds, and this act of the Govern- ment enables thousands of these emancipated slaves to become freeholders. The joy with which its an- nouncement was received by the Freed People of the Islands is graphically portrayed by the editor of " the Free South," in his account of the Meeting held in St. Helena church, on the occasion ; but it may be more easily imagined than described. The importance of this measure to a just reorganization of labor and social life in the South can scarcely be over estimated ; and political economists and philanthropists will en- dorse the assertion of one of the most prominent journals of this city, that " next to the Proclamation of Emancipation, this is the wisest and most impor- tant measure yet adopted" for the accomplishment of this end. The Annual Message of the President was antici- pated with unusual anxiety, at the end of the year which will ever be remembered as the year of the Proclamation. The friends of Freedom hailed with joy the promise which it contained that the President would never yield the principle of the Proclamation ; and the assurance that he would regard the violation of it as "a cruel and astounding breach of faith/' Our dismembered Nation had great cause for thanks- giving that the time had come for a Proclamation of pardon to the Rebels, and that a condition of the of- fered pardon was fealty to " all proclamations of the President, made during the existing Rebellion, hav- ing reference to slaves, so long and so far as not 8 modified or declared void by decision of the Supreme Court." The Legislative department of our Government constantly indicates growing loyalty to Freedom. The early sessions of the present Congress were signally marked with evidences that a large portion of that body appreciated the mighty responsibility which God has laid upon it, and the rare opportunity given it to win a glorious and immortal name which shall be for- ever linked with the rescue of a country and the emancipation of its slaves. Principles which, a few years ago were enunciated there only by a few bold men, in the face of the most furious opposition, are now incorporated into resolutions and bills, which receive the approving votes of the majority in the Senate and in the House. Bills have been introduced, to repeal the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850 ; to declare all slaves, in Territories or State, free citizens, and to make their re- enslavement a crime; to prohibit the holding of persons in servitude except by contract ; for the equal payment of colored and white soldiers ; for the establishment of a Bureau of Emancipation ; and, best of all, a joint Resolution has been offered in the Senate, for an amendment of the Constitution which shall prohibit the existence of slavery within the lim- its of the Republic. And a motion to postpone in- definitely this Resolution was negatived by a vote of thirty-one to eight. The large majorities which have promptly and steadily negatived proposals of com- 9 promise with slavery for the suppression of the rebel- lion, show that the sagacity and moral strength which we have been accustomed to look for in a few honor- able and honored members only, are extending through the body. With such indication of progress in the various de- partments of the Government, we look confidently for signs of equal promise among the people, the Power which moves the Government. And here we cannot fail to notice a growing sense of justice towards the colored man, and an increasing willingness (in- spired by mingled motives, doubtless) to admit him to the ranks of the army. In this city, where the color- ed race, bond and free, have long been the victims of most cruel injustice and unchristian contempt, a Me- morial, signed by hundreds of our most conservative citizens, asking the Federal Government to organize black regiments in Pennsylvania, was last summer sent to Washington. And the Committee on Enlist- ments, in their Appeal to the citizens for pecuniary aid, tell us that though it would have been necessary, six months earlier, to support such an appeal by ar- guments for the propriety and expediency of such en- listments, that necessity has passed away. A prom- inent citizen and a Judge, in Maryland, writes to the Secretary of War, urging the enlistment of slaves. Similar testimony to this great change in popular feel- ing comes from the East and West, and from many loyal citizens of the South. The Republican journals 10 which denounced and ridiculed the first proposal of the measure, now advocate and applaud it. The most cursory reader of the daily newspapers cannot fail to perceive the entire change of their spirit and tone towards the colored people, both free and enslaved. The prompt and liberal response to the cry of the Freedmen for aid is another evidence of the re- generating process through which public sentiment is passing. In this city alone nearly one hundred thou- sand dollars have been contributed for their assistance. And this aid to the newly emancipated slave, which has been so freely offered throughout the whole North, has come not only from those who, for thirty years, have been pleading his cause and laboring for his re- demption, but also from those who, during nearly all those ye&rs, were deaf to those pleas, and active in striving to thwart those labors. God be thanked that they are willing to stretch out their hands, and grasp in fraternal kindness the toil-worn hand of the slave, now that the Angel of Liberty is leading him out of his long captivity ! The evidences of this change, so delightful to wit- ness, are far too numerous for record. One of the most marvellous is the fact that the organ of Boston conservatism suggests that the Massachusetts Legisla- ture should elect for chaplain a colored clergymen of that city, as a delicate and proper expression of pub- lic appreciation of the generosity and disinterested patriotism of the Massachusetts Black Regiments, 11 who declined to accept the additional pay voted them by the State Legislature. In reviewing the Nation's progress towards Free- dom, we must look into the Southern States. If, throughout the North, we have gathered many trophies of the victory of our cause, which awaken unutter- able joy and gratitude, with what songs of exultation shall we hail its triumphs on Southern soil. A major- ity of the slaveholding States which were exempted in the President's Emancipation Proclamation, are preparing to abolish slavery within their borders. Maryland, by the voice of her Governor, and the vote of fifty-one against fifteen of the members of one branch of her Legislature, has declared that her in- terests demand the immediate adoption of the policy of emancipation. The Legislature of Weofom Vir- ginia has recently passed a bill calling a Convention for the abolition of slavery within the boundaries of the newly-erected State. Missouri, which a few years ago sent forth her border-ruffians to fight against Free- dom in Kansas, assembled in State Convention, and, on the first day of July, 1863, voted by a majority of fifty-one against thirty, for the adoption of an Act of Gradual Emancipation, which declares that Slavery shall cease to exist in Missouri on and after the 4th of July, 1870 ; with certain provisions and exceptions, one of which is that slaves over forty years of age shall remain enslaved during their lives. The contest in this Convention was between the advocates of Gracl- 12 ual and of Immediate Emancipation ; a memorable fact concerning a State which has been so strong a champion of slavery. Though the Radical Emancipa- tionists were defeated, they were not discouraged from further efforts to hasten the doom of the monster which was sucking the life-blood of their Common- wealth. These efforts will probably be successful, but, even if they should not, the rapid exodus of slaves into Kansas, now going on, and the other facili- ties of emancipating themselves which they are dis- covering, will, doubtless, make Missouri a Free State long before the year 1870. Tennessee, under the terrible discipline of the war, is learning new lessons on the character of slavery, and is growing in loyalty to the Union and to Freedom. Arkansas,, distancing her rivals in the race for Liber- ty, has in State Convention" adopted, with but one dissenting vote, an article of her new Constitution prohibiting slavery ; and, a few weeks hence, we shall doubtless hear the solemn Aye of her people, ratify- ing this Constitution and her returning fealty to the United States. Louisiana, from the hour when the Federal Govern- ment took possession of New Orleans, and loosened the grasp of her tyrant, has been steadily advancing in the knowledge of true political economy. It is most interesting to trace that advance, from that small convocation held, a year ago, in the parlor of St. Charles' Hotel, composed of planters, once the 13 magnates of the land, now bankrupt and helpless, sup- pliants to the Government against which they had rebelled, for protection and help in the cultivation of their estates, down to the time of the assembling of a Convention to elect delegates to represent Louisi- ana in a Convention of Union men of the Slave States, Had we not become somewhat accustomed to the startling developments of this wonder-working age, we should scarcely have believed the telegram which recently announced that these quondam repre- sentatives of the pride and powder of Louisiana had proposed the framing of a new Constitution which should forever prohibit the existence of slavery with- in the State. Who would have believed, a few years ago, a prediction that a " Freedom Convention of the Slave States " would be summoned to meet at Louisville, Kentucky, on the 22d of February, 1864 ? This mighty revolution in the State has moved the church. The church which, by virtue of its high name and claims, should ever be the leader of moral reforms, but which in every age has been dragged for= ward by those who, having learned her elementary lessons, must needs come out from her to practice them faithfully, now shares the inspiration of the times, and brings the influence of her words and deeds to the cause of Human Liberty and equal bro- therhood* The Convention of the Protestant Episco- pal Church of this State has at last repealed a " re- gulation," which has disgraced its journals for nearly 2 14 a hundred years, excluding the church of St. Thomas (a church composed of colored persons in this city) from representation in the Convention. This rule was re- scinded, in May last, by a vote of one -hundred and thirty-eight clergymen and eighty-four laymen, against nine clergymen and twelve laymen, A condition at- tached to the repeal was, that St. Thomas' Church should rescind an article in its Constitution, which asserted that only colored persons should be allowed any share in its government. We rejoice in being able to record another deed of practical Christianity done by the Episcopal clergy of this city. It is their protest against the " Defence of Slavery," issued by Bishop Hopkins of Vermont, a protest signed by Bishop Potter, and nearly all the Episcopal clergymen of Philadelphia. They who have watched the course of the A. B. C. F. M. for many years past, will ask no surer evi- dence of the rising tide of anti-slavery sentiment in the Nation, than the fact that that body was impelled, at its last Annual Meeting, to adopt resolutions ex- pressive of joy in the prospective overthrow of Amer- ican slavery. And from all the great branches of the American church, Protestant and Catholic, we hear from time to time earnest testimony against the sin which has wrought so great national suffering. On our last annual Thanksgiving Day, how many of our temples of worship received a new consecration, while from the preachers' lips, touched with fire from God's 15 altar, rose fervent pleas for universal justice, and the penitent cry, " We have been verily guilty concern- ing our brother;" and from the voices and hearts of congregated thousands burst the anthem, "May the Banner of Union, restored by Thy Hand, Be the Banner of Freedom o'er all in the land !" The Chief Magistrate of this nation is winning many laurel crowns, which, when this stormy period of his public life is passed, he may wear in peace during the remainder of his days, and bequeath to his chil- dren and his children's children ; but, among the hon- ors which are clustering round his name, there are few which will be a more precious memory in his last hours, than the fact that this Anthem of Thanksgiving and prayer for the slave's redemption was called " The President's Hymn." We cannot attempt to record half of the triumphs of Freedom which, during the past year, have glad- dened our hearts and strengthened our hands for a last struggle in our long warfare. We have seen that Proclamation which was ridiculed as a paper weapon, harmless against slavery as a Quaker gun, batter down the w r alls of many a slave prison, and transform its wretched inmates into United States soldiers, or free laborers, toiling for themselves and their fami- lies, with "none to molest or make them afraid/' We listened with wonder, almost with awe, to the murmur of praise which went up from St. Helena, on the Fourth of July, when an anti-slavery meeting of 16 colored people was held in the midst of those South Carolina plantations, and a little black boy read the Declaration of Independence to the freed slaves of the Island. Not less remarkable, as a triumph of the freedom of the Press, is the establishment of anti- slavery journals in several Southern cities ; or, as a sign of the times, is the fact that in the streets of Northern cities, the crowds which used to hound on the pursuers of fugitive slaves, now gather to honor negro regiments setting forth to war. The result of the elections in this State and throughout the North, and also in Delaware and Maryland, were sure pledges of the people to sustain the emancipation policy of the Government ; and were justly regarded as more important victories than those won on the battle-field. In the work of the campaign in several States, our townswoman, Anna E. Dickinson, performed most valuable service. The history of the past year has demonstrated for those who needed the demonstration, the capabilities of a race, which this Nation has held down with a strong hand, and then meanly taunted with its ina- bility to rise. They have proved their value of liber- ty, by the dangers braved and sufferings endured in their efforts to reach the army lines within which they had heard was their citadel of freedom. That they will labor, industriously and well, even when suddenly transferred from the condition of slaves to that of freedmen, and better and more industriously IT in consequence of the change, we have the testimony of Adjutant Gen. Thomas, in the Report of his Free Labor Experiment in Louisiana ; of the U. S. Tax Collector for Florida, and of the Superintendents and Teachers in the Sea Islands, And there is abun- dance of similar testimony to the eagerness with which these emancipated slaves desire, for themselves and their children, education in the rudiments of learning, and the comforts and conveniences of civilized life ; and their willingness to pay for these blessings so recently placed within their reach. When the Union forces took possession of Nashville, the ne- groes immediately established schools for themselves ; and in all our Military Departments where freedmen have been gathered, one of their first demands has been for a teacher. The colored man- has also proved his capabilities as a soldier. Who asks now in doubt and derision, "Will the negro fight?" The answer is spoken from the cannon's mouth ; it is written in sunlight on flashing steel ; it comes to us from Port Hudson's field of death, from Morris Island, and from those graves beneath Fort Wagner's walls, which the American people will surely never forget. By the terrible discipline of civil war, God is edu- cating this nation in a sense of justice, and in the knowledge of what constitutes its true safety. It has long tried to change the eternal laws of cause and effect, to inaugurate a policy whereby it might safely sin. But He, whose retributive justice is love, 18 is teaching it the folly of such efforts, and is purifying it with fire. And now from its Cabinet, its Army, its Legislative assemblies, its Pulpit, and its Press, comes the loud cry, a Slavery must die, that the na- tion may live." Brighter and brighter beams the revelation of that unwelcome truth on men's souls ; and the cry is echoed by reluctant lips ; and they who are striving with frantic energy, to disprove it, and to save from destruction the accursed thing which was working our ruin, are losing heart and hope, and trembling before their visions of the future. Who can doubt that the nation has learned much from the sharp teaching of Providence, when one Secretary of its Cabinet writes thus to another ? — " We cannot afford to wrong any class of our people. One poor man. colored though he be, with God on his side, is stronger, if against us, than the hosts of the rebel- lion."* From one of the most successful generals of the army, we have the testimony that " the North and the South can never live together in peace ex- cept as one nation, and that a free nation/ ' Dis- loyal and pro-slavery journals, impelled by a power which they recognise and hate, are fiercely crying out, " We know thee, who thou art!" and in muttered curses acknowledging that the days of slavery are numbered. One of the most remarkable illustrations of the moral changes wrought by the discipline of the war, * Secretary Chase to Secretary Stanton. 19 has been furnished by a venerable clergyman, whose name is. a tower of strength in that large and conser- vative portion of the church which he has long re- presented ; who, for thirty years past, has been an apologist for slavery, and an opponent of abolition- ists ; and who, now, in his old age, looking back on his past course, and looking around on the harvest which the nation is reaping from its own sowing, says, a I was wrong." Thank God for such tokens, of returning health in the church ! From the South, as well as from the North, comes earnest testimony to the expediency of justice. The Governor of Maryland, in his recent message to the Legislature of that State, says : " I believe, to-day, as I have done for years, that if we had long ago pro- vided for the gradual emancipation of the slaves of the State, we should now be, as regards all the mate- rial elements of public prosperity, far in advance of our present position." Members of Congress from Kentucky have declared that slavery is a violation of the law of God ; that it is " the life-blood of the re- bellion," and that the country will never prosper until it is destroyed. Mr. De Bow, in an argument published in his Review, and for which he was im- prisoned by the Rebel Government, shows by a formidable array of statistics, the advantages of free over slave labor; and the editor of the Nashville Union, watching the results of emancipation in the District of Columbia, advises the citizens to " act 20 honestly towards their slaves/' and offer them wages instead of the whip, as an inducement to labor. While the South is slowly learning this wisdom from lessons of stern retribution, she may also learn it by gentler teaching, if she will note the prosperity which follows quickly the advancing footsteps of Freedom. Already the giant hand of steam is urging the wheels of free labor in South Carolina ; and a Free School system, the corner stone of our Northern Commonwealths, has been established in Western Virginia. In watching the progress of the war, even a super- ficial observer is startled by the numerous instances of poetical justice which it furnishes. Slaveholders captured and guarded by United States' soldiers who, but yesterday, were their crouching, trembling slaves, have had abundant opportunities to test their favorite theory that human bondage is a divine institution. On the homestead of Henry A. Wise, the daughter of John Brown now teaches emancipated slaves. Beaufort, the pride of South Carolina's aristocracy, is rapidly passing into the possession of her Freedmen. Thus, by varied discipline, is God teaching a proud nation the immutability of His laws. His Providence is also teaching the safety of obedience to those laws. That question, asked a thousand times, exultantly by those who hoped to find in it an argument against emancipation, anxiously by some who were willing to risk the consequences of practical justice: " What 21 shall be done with the emancipated slaves?" is now being rapidly and explicitly answered. Dr. Bowen, of Tennessee, says : " As to the future of the negro, there need be no concern. For the most part the negroes will take care of themselves. They are all needed in the South for laborers, and soon there will be no prejudice against hiring them. Already it is found to be an obstacle in the way of enlistment, that planters were offering wages to their slaves, to keep them from going into camp." The Superintendents of the Sea Islands testify that the Freedmen there are, by the proceeds of their own labor, supplying the increasing demands of their civilized life, and opening a new market for Northern manufactories* And the recent sale of lands in South Carolina, by our Government, demonstrates the ability of the Freedmen to take care of themselves. These men and women, so recently penniless, not only availed themselves of their pre-emption right, and purchased at the government price, the acres which they had tilled ; but at the sale of the lands and houses in Beaufort, where the competition was earnest, and the property commanded prices greatly beyond its as- sessed value, they were the principal purchasers. All these moral problems, upon which the Nation has been and is still so painfully working, might have been easily solved, long ago, if the religion of this country had been worthy of its name. The simple yet profound philosophy of Christ's precepts, teaches 22 the lessons which this people must needs pass through the discipline of a civil war to learn. Nor are they, even yet, fully learned. Cheering as it is to look at the indications of moral progress which we have been reviewing, there is a darker side of the year's history from which we must not turn away. Our National Capital is still disgraced by the capture and rendition of fugitive slaves. Month after month we have read, with shame and sadness, the details of the arrest, im- prisonment, and torture, of these victims of slave- holding tyranny, until, at last, we hear, with relief, that " the colored refugees from the South are to be removed to the Virginia side of the Potomac," be- cause "they are not safe, in Washington, from the slave-catchers." And while these slave-catching statutes are respected by the government, any other provisions of the laws or Constitution are disregarded as "a military necessity," at the discretion of the President. It is mortifying to know that all Chris- tendom looks on while these deeds are done ; it is more painful to know that they are done. Another stain on our country's annals is its treatment of its colored soldiery. If the contempt and indignity with which some of these regiments have bee'n treated by officers of high rank in the army, who found it difficult to remember that they were soldiers, and not servants of white troops, must be regarded as an inevitable result of that unchristian prejudice against the negro, in which so many of those officers have been nurtured ; 28 it might at least have been expected that the Nation would not grudge the poor recompense of a soldier's pecuniary reward to the colored men who have met her foes on the battle-field, and died that she might live. Yet the pay, and the bounty, and the pension, which the Government has adjudged to be the white soldier's right, has not been awarded to the black one, though both have heartily volunteered, and both have been drafted into the country's service. This injust- ice, we confidently believe, our present Congress will prevent in the future, and, we trust, atone for in the past. In some of our Northern States, claiming to be Free, the cruel prejudice against the colored man has culminated in legislation most unjust to him, and dis- graceful to a civilized community. In Illinois colored men have been offered for sale at public auction, in consequence of failure to pay the fines imposed on them for going into that State and re- maining more than ten days. We see all around us sad evidences of the widely- extended influence which slavery has exerted in this Nation, influences' which have not wholly lo^t their power. The pew doors of our churches do not yet open freely to admit on equal terms the white and black worshippers. Our colored citizens are still de- nied the accommodations of our city railway cars. Occasionally, an individual is permitted to enter them, on sufferance ; usually they are refused admission, and 24 not unfrequently they are ejected, or insultingly told that they may stand on the outside platforms. At Camp William Penn, a few miles from this city, colored regiments are organized, and trained for the defence of the country, and from time to time go forth to the battle-field. The families of many of these soldiers reside in the city, and any frequent traveller on the road leading to the camp, may see hundreds of colored men and women walking thither to visit their sons, their husbands and their brothers, to many of whom they are soon to speak the words of a last fare- well. These are the people whom our City Railway Companies exclude from their cars. Our colored popu- lation promptly responded to the call for men to drive back the rebel invaders of Pennsylvania ; they go willingly in the face of death, and worse than death, to bear their part in the fierce struggle for the Nation's life. Is it tli us that Philadelphia should requite them ? A careful review of the past will help us to appre- ciate our present danger. It is the danger which is always incident to an enterprise approaching its con- summation ; the belief, on the part of its advocates, that the work so nearly finished is already done ; that the final victory, which may be depending on the is- sue of one more struggle, is already won. The Anti- Slavery cause has won such glorious victories within the last three years ; that its " time-worn and battle- worn friends," who for thirty years past have been "hoping against hope," may in the fulness of their 25 joy believe that all is won* But slavery is not yet destroyed, either by Presidential Proclamations or by the law of the land. A period of great peril to the Nation is at hand. The question of the recon- struction of the Republic, the re-union of the North and South, is soon to test the wisdom and virtue of this People. Then the Tempter will come in the beautiful guise of an Angel of Peace, and will call In- justice and Wrong by the gentle name of Compromise. Already we see the fore-shadowing of this hour of trial. The suggestions, contained in the President's Proclamation of Amnesty, that the Supreme Court may modify or declare void his Proclamation of Eman- cipation and the " Acts of Congress passed during the Rebellion, ;with reference to slaves :J' " and that the future destinies of the Freedmen may be placed, with some protecting restraints, in the hands of the return- ing States, are sufficient warnings against the pleasant delusion that the cause of Liberty is safe beyond all peril. The most dangerous foes of the North are the traitors within her own borders. The rebel invaders of Northern States may be driven from our soil ; the hosts of the Slave Power may be conquered, and lay down their arms ; but these Northern sympathizers with treason, and champions of slavery, will never cease their insidious warfare until the dethroned mon- ster is dead and buried beyond hope of resurrection. In this National crisis, sleepless vigilance is the duty of all the friends of universal Freedom, They must 26 watch with jealous care, every movement of the Gov- ernment, and sound an alarm when danger is descried. The Government, in all its Departments, will need all the strength which can be infused into it by the most distinctly expressed public sentiment, to enable it steadfastly to resist the combined influence of the pro-slavery politicians of the North and the Conspi- racies of slave-holders now actively at work in some of the repentant States preparing to return to the Union. The work of the Abolitionists is not yet done. We must not forget, in this hour of our joy over broken fetters and falling chains, in this hour of our hope of speedy discharge from our long warfare, the early vows which bound us to the cause of the American slave until its complete and final triumph should be won. Yet a little while longer we must stand before the Nation as the representatives of the Slave, and demand for him in the name of Humanity, in the name of Justice, all that we would, in similar circum- stances, demand for ourselves. We must demand lib- erty, full and unconditional, for him now ; and such amendment of the United States Constitution as will banish Slavery from the Republic forever. During the process of re-organization of the Union, we must watch with Argus eyes for the stealthy approach of our foe, in the form of national compromises with wrong ; and bid the People take warning from the fatal mistake of the tounders of our Government. We have long been inured 27 to the tasks of detectives, and to whatever obloquy has attended these tasks. We must continue them a little longer, though at the risk of being called grum- blers whom nothing will satisfy, even by those who are more than half converted to our cause. Nothing will satisfy us but full justice to the Slave ; though we rejoice and give thanks for every step taken to= wards it. The attention of this Association, during the past year, has been directed to the work of memorializing Congress and our State Legislature in behalf of the slave's emancipation, and the rights of the colored man. Early in the year the following Remonstrance was presented to both Houses of the Pennsylvania Legislature. The Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society re- spectfully remonstrate against the adoption of a law to prevent the migration into this State, of colored persons, or any other class of unoffending people ; and earnestly beseech your Body to save the State from the disgr&ce of such an unconstitutional and in- human enactment. We have adopted for circulation the Petition issued by the u Women's National Loyal League/ asking for the abolition of slavery throughout the United States ; and through the efforts of our mem- bers a very large number of signatures have been obtained. We have continued, as in former years, to circulate the National Anti-Slavery Standard, and The Liberator, as widelv as our Treasurv would 28 allow ; and to disseminate anti-slavery truth, by the various means in our power. Thirty 'years' experi- ence confirms our confidence in the weapons which we adopted at the commencement of our warfare. The completion of our third Decade is almost simultaneous with that of the American Anti-Slav- ery Society. As a constituent part of that Society, we recently celebrated, with our coadjutors, the Thirtieth Anniversary of the birth of our enter- prise, and reviewed the history of this Association from its organization to the present time. Words are too weak to express our gratitude for the expe- rience of the past, the triumphs of the present, the hopes of the future. Every year has been marked with some tokens of the advancement of our cause. In the darkest hours we have ever seen the pillar of fire which was leading it steadily onward, through all difficulties, over all opposition. On each of our Anniversaries we have set up a stone of memorial that " hitherto hath the Lord helped us." The last year has revealed, too clearly for doubt, the fact that this war between the North and the South, is a war between Freedom and Slavery. The South purposed and avowed this from the be- ginning of the rebellion. The North came, slowly and reluctantly, to a perception and acknowledg- ment of the fact. But now the united voice and action of Church and State, of Conservatives and Radicals, attest it ; and the organs of despotism in 29 Europe can no longer, with any pretence of sincer- ity, affect to disbelieve it. Neither can they any longer conceal it from the honest masses of the British people, who are now eagerly stretching out their hands in fraternal sympathy with us in this struggle. The cheering tones of their brotherly greeting ring out to us from across the Atlantic, and with them mingle voices from France, and Italy, and Germany, shouting their All Hail ! to the de- fenders of Liberty in the United States of America. On the records of the triumphs of Freedom in 1863, stands the emancipation of the 45,000 slaves of Surinam, who, in virtue of a decree of the States General of Holland, passed on the 8th of August, 1862, obtained their freedom on the 1st of July last. The year upon which we enter to-day, lies before us, bright with promise. The path of our just cause shines brighter and brighter as it approaches its perfect day. We confidently trust that this shall be the year of its complete triumph, and that a national decree of universal emancipation will con- summate our labors. Many signs of the times in- dicate the fulfilment of this hope. The slaves whom the President's Proclamation or the Acts of Confis- cation did not reach, are rapidly emancipating themselves. State governments have little power to hold them, and the Federal Government has almost ceased to exert its authority to stay their 30 flight to freedom. They have lost their value as property in the Border States. The hope of re- viving the system of slavery is failing in the hearts of its advocates ; and the people of the North are daily growing stronger in their determination to crush the rebellion by destroying its cause. Prom- inent journals ; once conservative of slaveholding in- terests, now advocate such amendment of the Con- stitution as will prevent the recurrence of the terrible scenes of the last three years, by prohibit- ing forever the existence of slavery in the land. Some who greeted with us the dawn of this Day of Jubilee, no longer watch, on earth, the glory of its ascending sun. One who, with youthful ardor labored earnestly with us, and one who in extreme age proved by her deeds of charity,* how well she remembered " those in bonds," have finish- ed their work.* Others,! faithful unto death in the cause of the slave, have also heard the summons, "Come up higher!" We stand a little longer in the ranks where they have fallen, awaiting the hour when we shall hear the signal of our discharge in the victorious shout, " All is lost to Slavery ; All is won to Freedom !" * Caroline Wise Dickerson, Martha Gillingham. t Amos Gilbert, William Bernard, 31 Philadelphia Female Anti- Slavery Society in account with Annie Shoemaker. Treasurer. 1863, DR. To subscription to A, S. Standard, 50 copies $125 00 " " Liberator, 10 copies 30 00 u Advertising , 4 38 11 Rent of Hall for Annual Meeting .. 5 00 11 Postage 1 52 11 Printing Annual Report 29 50 11 Women's Loyal League Association 5 00 11 Rent of Room for Stated Meetings , 4 00 2d mo., 1864. Balance in Treasury 47 91 ?252 31 1863. CR. By Balance in Treasury , $160 21 11 Annual Subscriptions 69 00 " Donations at Annual Meeting 6 00 " Sale of goods from Fair of 1861 17 10 §252 31 Lydia Gillingham, Auditor, THIRTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE yjpTLTE Jfemale |utfi-£Skbcrg Swrietg, February, 1S65. P H I L A D E LPHI A : MERRIHEW & SON, PRINTERS, 243 Arch street. 1865 THIRTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE immjmsMWA Jftmalt ^rft-SIairerj Sntidg. February, 1865. PHILADELPHIA: MERRIHE'W & SON, PRINTERS, 243 Arch street. 1865. >jS>i 33 '°1 &*/*■ ff/ &1j*>v. Often, cw. «****-»»*''' Mms for tjje ©nailing fm. PRESIDENT, SARAH PUGH. VICE-PRESIDENT, SIDNEY ANN LEWIS. RECORDING SECRETARY, GULIELMA M. JONES. CORRESPONDING SECRETARY, MARY GREW. TREASURER, ANNIE SHOEMAKER. BOARD OF MANAGERS. LUCRETIA MOTT, HANNAH L. STICKNEY, ANNA M. HOPPER, SARAH H. PEIRCE, REBECCA S. HART, ROSANNA THOMPSON. REPORT. The swiftly moving panorama of the last two years has brought before us a succession of events so grand and wonderful, that our eyes are bewildered as we gaze, and our hearts overwhelmed with emotions which struggle in vain for utterance. In the midst of our fulfilled prophecies, our answered prayers, we stand astonished, and reverently exclaim, " What hath God wrought !" A year ago to-day, as we recounted the triumphs of our cause, we deplored the continued ex- istence and the evil effects of the Fugitive Slave Sta- tute of 1850, in which our National legislation reached the acme of its shame. To-day we must look back- ward to find it ; and, as we look, we see following it in rapid procession other dark forms of its kindred, gone to share its unhallowed grave. These are vic- tories won against the Slave Power, whereby our Na- tional Statute Book is cleansed, and partial justice awarded to an insulted and injured race ; yet they are almost forgotten in the grander triumphs over which we sing paeans to-day. And while, with quivering lip and full heart, we take up the song, " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth good-will to ransomed slaves and a repentant Nation I" we only half realize the meaning of the words, " Maryland is Free;" "Louisiana has abolished Slavery;" " In Arkansas slaveholding is declared a felony !" "Free Missouri greets her sister, Pennsylvania!" These words, these shouts of glorious victory, have rung through the land since the last year opened upon us. How they have thrilled our souls they only can know who have battled, through half a life-time, against a gigantic system of wrong supported and nourished by the State and the Church. It was in the month of March, 1864, that Arkansas adopted, by an immense majority, a Constitution for- ever prohibiting slavery. Of the 17,000 votes cast in that election, only two hundred were in the nega- tive. And within the last three months, the holding or selling slaves in that State has been judicially de- clared to be "a crime amounting to a felony." In that portion of the old State of Virginia now in the possession of the forces of the United States, and under a loyal State government, a Convention was also held in March, for the purpose of re-modelling the Constitution of the State, which, on the 10th day of that month, decided, with only one dissenting vote, to adopt the following provisions : "First. Slavery and involuntary servitude, except for crime, is hereby abolished and prohibited in this State forever. Second. Courts of competent jurisdiction may ap- prentice minors of African descent, on like conditions provided by law for apprenticing white children. Third. The General Assembly shall make no law establishing or recognizing property in human beings/ ' On the 5th of September the new Constitution of Louisiana was adopted ; which declares that " Slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly con- victed, are hereby forever abolished and prohibited throughout the State. The Legislature shall make no law recognizing the right of property in man." The old Constitution of Louisiana restricted the power of voting to " white male citizens ;" the new one de- clares that " the Legislature shall have power to pass laws extending suffrage to such persons, citizens of the United States, as by military service, by taxation to support the Government, or by intellectual fitness, may be deemed entitled thereto." Quick following these glad tidings came the herald of Maryland's redemption, calling us to share in the joy and thanksgiving of fifty thousand slaves made freemen, by the voluntary act of the people of that State, on the first day of November. How heartily Philadelphia responded to that call, let her daily journals, on the morning, and her celebration on the evening, of that memorable day testify. We strove to express our grateful joy in the formula of Resolu- tions, congratulating our sister State upon her redemp- tion from the curse which had so long oppressed her ; but we felt how far transcending all description was the grandeur of the event ; how much more intense than any words the emotion it inspired. No more shall the accursed system be a wall of partition be- tween the States which God has joined together ; no more shall Maryland's returning slaves, re-captured on our soil, shake off the dust of their feet against us, as they cross, in anguish, our southern border, testi- fying to the injustice and cruelty of Pennsylvania ; but, henceforward, both repentant Commonwealths shall strive together to make atonement for the past. While our hearts were still throbbing with this new emotion, a voice from the far West called aloud, "Bless me also !" and Free Missouri stretched her hand across the mountains, and grasped the hand of Pennsylvania in fraternal embrace. This offering to Freedom made memorable the opening year, for it was on the eleventh day of January, 1865, that the people of the State of Missouri, in Convention assem- bled, by a vote of sixty against four, ordained that thereafter slavery should cease to exist in that State, and that "all persons held to service or labor as slaves are hereby declared free." Tennessee has avowed her purpose to consecrate anew the 22d of February, by sealing the doom of the accursed system on her soil ; and West Virginia, whose Constitution limited its existence to twelve years, has, within the last few days, through her Legislature, abolished it forever. Even the glory of all these triumphs of Liberty is eclipsed by one far greater. Henceforward the most sacred day in American history, whose anniversary shall be the Sabbath of our year, will be the 31st of January, 1865. On that day it was decreed by the Congress of the United States, " That the following articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be valid to all intents and purposes as a part of the said Constitution, viz. : Article 13£A, Section 1st. Neither slavery nor in- voluntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the L^nited States or any place sub- ject to their jurisdiction. Section 2d. Congress shall have power to enforce this Article by appropriate legislation." This Amendment, adopted by the Senate, on the 8th of April, 1864, by a vote of thirty-eight ayes and six nays, was finally approved by the House of Rep- resentatives on the 31st ult., by a vote of 119 ayes and 56 navs. 8 The wild applause which followed the announce- ment of the vote, the shouts of members on the floor, mingling with the cheers of men and women in the galleries, was the acclaim of a Nation ringing through its Capitol. We wait the voice of the State Legislatures, through whom the people will once more speak, pronouncing, as we confidently believe, the final doom of American Slavery. And as we wait, our souls are thrilling with the tumultuous meeting of the memories of thirty years and the great facts of the present hour. We look back to the beginnings of our enterprise, so weak in the outward appearance ; so strong in the might of indwelling Truth and Right- eousness. We live again through its days of dark- ness and storm ; we clasp again the hand which res- cued us when struggling with the waves ; we hear again the voice which, in the darkest hour, whispered, "Lo ! I am with you always, even unto the end." Although this one great victory includes our lesser triumphs, these are worthy of record, as indicating the steps of our National progress during the year. The closing days of the first session of the Thirty- Eighth Congress will be memorable by the repeal of all the statutes providing for the recovery of fugitive slaves ; by the prohibition of the Domestic Slave Trade ; and by their decree that henceforward there shall be no exclusion of witnesses, on account of color, in the Courts of the United States. With these en- actments of righteousness we have, also, to record the recent passage, by the Senate, of the Resolution giving freedom to the wives and children of colored soldiers. The names of those Senators,* by whose persistent efforts these triumphs of freedom were won in Con- gress, and whose fidelity to the cause of Human Lib- erty, through long and weary years when the name of abolitionist was odious in the land, have proved the strength of their devotion to the Right, will be re- membered with honor and gratitude by the genera- tions who are to enjoy the peace won through such struggles and such triumphs. To present a full record of the progress which the Anti-Slavery cause has made during the last year, would be to write the history of a Nation in its po- litical, social and religious life. ^That renovating process, working steadily in the Nation's heart, reveals itself everywhere around us. We hear it in the new inspiration which the pulpit has caught ; we read it in the strange and welcome utterance of the press ; we feel it in the atmosphere which pervades every social circle and every public assembly. Since our last anniversary, the dying hand of Slavery has loosed its grasp of the judicial sceptre of the Na- tion ; and the Angel of Liberty holds and guards it now. Beneath that sceptre a black man stands an * Hon. Henry Wilson and Hon. Charles Sumner, 10 accredited lawyer in the Supreme Court of the United States. In our last Annual Report we recorded the fact that we had memorialized the Legislature of our own State against the adoption of a measure, proposed in that body, to prevent the immigration of colored per- sons into the State. He would be a bold man who would now dare to propose such a measure in the Legislature of Pennsylvania. The citizenship of the black man is asserting itself; and his rights are de- manding the respect so long denied them. Our Na- tional Government has wisely ceased to aid schemes for colonizing a useful class of its own citizens ; and has justly determined that the protection of its pass- ports shall extend over the colored man, equally with the white. The events which have startled and glad- dened our souls during the past year, when contrasted with the condition of this nation four years ago, ex- ceed the enthusiast's wildest dream of progress. Look- ing down the vista of those four years, what eye could have seen the jubilant celebrations of the First of August, in the city of Washington and on the soil of South Carolina ? What ear could have heard the voice of a Vice-President elect of the United States saying to the assembled slaves of Nashville, " With the past history of the State to witness, the present condition to guide, and its future to encourage me, I do hereby proclaim freedom, full, broad, and unconditional, to 11 every man in Tennessee/' What ear, listening ever so intently, could have caught the strange sound of the voices of slaves suddenly made free, — of an out- cast race which had suddenly found a home, as they burst into rapturous song : " My country ! 'tis of thee, Sweet land of Liberty, Of thee I sing." The care which the Nation, in the midst of its mortal struggle, is bestowing upon its Freedmen, is indicative of moral growth. We hail with joy the recent act of the Government which has invested Gen. Saxton with complete control of the affairs of the Freedmen in all the Port Royal Islands, " and thirty miles inland, and all the coast of Georgia and Florida in our possession." The fact that the superintendence and government of these newly emancipated slaves is committed to such men as Gen. Saxton and Reuben Tomlinson, whose fidelity to the interests of the colored race is well proven, is surely some evidence of a National purpose to execute justice, long delayed. And not only through the Government, but directly from our citizens, has sympathy and aid been extend- ed liberally to these rescued victims of tyranny. From the North, and East, and West, have these offerings come, not only in large gifts of money, but in the richer gifts of self-sacrificing missionary labor. On many a plantation where, lately, the slave toiled in 12 ignorance and fear, now sit his friends and teachers, who have left their Northern homes to devote them- selves to the arduous labor of his intellectual and moral training. Men and women, in the freshness of youth, in the strength of riper age, have given them- selves to this w r ork with zeal and alacrity worthy the high mission. Among these are many new friends of the slave, and many who espoused his cause long ago, and faithfully adhered to it through its dark days. Some of our own fellow-laborers have entered this new field, and are diligently and faithfully performing the duties of Superintendents or Teachers in the South, or filling important posts in Freedmen's Associations in the North. Corresponding to the moral progress of the State, do we find the progress of the Church. Doors at which enslaved millions long knocked, in vain, are opened to them now ; pulpits, long silent, eloquently plead their cause ; and ecclesiastical bodies no longer riven by anti-slavery discussions, admit their claims, and demand justice in their behalf. The General Conference of the Methodist Church, which assembled in this city in May last, amended its General Rule on Slavery, so that it should forbid all slaveholding, or buying or selling slaves, by the members of that Church. This amendment was adopted by one hun- dred and ninety eight, affirmative, against eight, nega- tive, votes. Churches of other denominations through 13 out the North have, also, by their utterances proved that, in the light of our Revolution, they have read their past delinquencies and their present duties. He who runs may read unerringly the signs of the times, which are now revealed to our wondering eyes. Not only in Philadelphia do regiments of colored soldiers march through the streets, receiving the ap- plause of the citizens, but in the city of New York, where, eight months previously, "the African race (in the language of the New York Times) were literally hunted down like wild beasts,*' the 20th Regiment of United States Colored Troops " marched through the gayest avenues and business thoroughfares/ ' and were " everywhere saluted with waving handkerchiefs, descending flowers, and with the acclamations and plaudits of countless beholders." *The chief literary institution of New York, in the person of its presi- dent, welcomed them : fashionable ladies of New York presented them " a gorgeous stand of colors ;" and in an address signed by their own hands, said to these colored soldiers, "Remember that it is an emblem of love and honor from the daughters of this great Metropolis, to her brave champions in the field ; and that they will anxiously watch your career, glorying in your heroism, ministering to you when wounded and ill, and honoring your martyrdom with benedic- tions and tears." Well might the New York journals 14 say that " such developments are infallible tokens of a new epoch." Not less wonderful was the sight of Frederick Douglass delivering a public lecture in the city of Baltimore. Maryland's escaping slave returning, after years of perilous exile, to proclaim to her citizens the principles of Universal Liberty and Human Brotherhood ! In 1835, George Thompson came to this country to plead the cause of Freedom. From the hour of his arrival to that of his departure, he was followed by insult and persecution. Hotels refused him shelter ; the press reviled him; the church denounced him; mobs hunted him from city to city ; until, to save his life, he was obliged to depart from our shores. In 1864, he came again ; he lands in Boston, and the Governor of Massachusetts hastens to do him honor. The city which sought his life welcomes him with a public ovation. New York and Philadelphia open and fill their largest public edifices to grace his recep- tion. His progress through our Northern States is a series of ovations. Towns and villages which once drove him from their borders, crowd their halls and churches to listen to his words. Newspapers, which vied with one another in slandering him, are eloquent in his praise. Churches, which anathematized him, speak his name with benedictions. A university of his own church crowns him with her laurel. In the 15 chief city of a Slave State, he addresses an applaud- ing audience. He goes to Washington, and the Hall of the House of Representatives opens to receive him ; Representatives, Senators, and Members of the Cabi- net gather around him; and the President of the United States bids him welcome to the Country and the Capital. Witnessing these things, we realize, as never before, the moral Revolution through which we are passing ; for, in the eyes of this Nation, George Thompson represents the American slave. From these bright pages, in the history of our Nation's new life, we reluctantly turn away: but a faithful chronicle of the year must contain facts which it is painful to contemplate. It has been truly said that " the Nation's record, upon the simple question of paying its negro soldiers, will never be referred to with pride, by any one who is either just or generous.' ' The call of the President for black troops has been responded to with ardent loyalty and heroic sacrifice by freemen and escaping slaves. The peril which these men go to meet, is not only that which the brave white soldier confronts : wounds, death on the battle field, or the fate of a prisoner of war. " Murdered by their captors;" " returned into slavery;" is the record of the fate which they contemplate as possibly theirs, when they enlist in their country's service. Yet they march, unflinching, to the field. It is a little thing to requite such service with money. It 16 surely is not much to recompense with the pay award- ed to the white soldier, the more perilous service of the black one. Standing together for the Nation's defence, their legal status equal, they have not yet received equal justice at the hands of the Government, even in the matter of pecuniary reward, which is wholly within the control of the Government. For the tragedy of Fort Pillow, for the still more terrible fate of some who have fallen into the hands of their en- raged masters and captors, what recompense or atone- ment can be offered ? The promise of equal protec- tion with the white soldier has not been kept towards these long-suffering men. Whatever may be said con- cerning the impracticability, the inexpediency, or the inhumanity of "retaliation/' on the part of our Government towards the Rebels, one thing is certain, that no discrimination, in that respect, can be justly made between the white and colored soldiers. We regret to record the fact that it has been made, and made in favor of the white man. From Generals in the Army, and Statesmen in the Cabinet, comes the sad confession that the Nation has failed to do justice to her colored soldiers. As a natural consequence of this failure, those soldiers and their officers have been exposed to the insults of their white comrades ; insults from which neither their own bravery nor the uniform of the United States was sufficient to protect them. And these are the men who, on many a bloody field, 17 have been foremost in rushing to the post of danger, and the last to leave it, These are the men of whom our generals testify that braver soldiers were never led into battle* When the history of this war shall be fully written, the valor, the heroism, and the un~ exampled patience of the black man, will illumine many a page ; and in that light will be clearly revealed the tardy justice which the Nation meted out to him. The injustice towards our colored population, prac- tised by the citizens, and permitted by the courts, in Philadelphia, which we have been obliged annually to record, still exists. It is with grief and humiliation that we state this fact, so disgraceful to our city, that our colored fellow-citizens are excluded from most of our railway cars. Neither Christianity nor true Democracy has yet sufficiently inspired this com- munity, to dissipate the unholy prejudice which mani- fests itself in this injurious form. Public sentiment enables the Railway Companies and the Courts to defy the legal obligation resting upon all these Com* panies, as common carriers, to carry passengers with- out distinction of color. The outrages which have been committed in our cars, during ihe last year, suggest the need of missionaries of a purer religion than that in which such a community has been educated. A father, carrying his sick child, in haste to reach his home ; mothers with their infants in their arms; weary-footed men and women returning from IS the business and labors of the day, in the heat of summer, and the storms of winter, have been refused admission to the cars, or compelled to stand on the platforms, and have, also, in some instances, been violently ejected from them. During the last year, unusual efforts have been made in defence of the rights thus resisted, and not wholly without success. A few individuals adopted the plan of visiting the meetings of the Presidents and the Directors of the Railway Companies, and urging upon them the claims of our colored population to the use of their cars. They were received and listened to with respect; and they pursued this labor with untir- ing assiduity. Many other persons made their pro- tests in the cars ; never losing an opportunity of de- fending the rights of an insulted colored citizen to the use of a public conveyance. Some resorted to pro- secutions before the courts, which, we regret to say, were rarely sustained by those who should have been the ministers of justice. The Statistical Association of the Colored People of Pennsylvania, addressed a circular to the Board of Presidents of the City Passenger Railroads, remon- strating against this injustice, and asking for redress. Our own Society, also, in November last, issued an Appeal to the Directors of these Companies, a copy of which was sent to each President, with a request that it should be presented to the Board of Directors. 19 From one of these a reply was received, promising attention to the subject ; and repeated verbal assu- rances were given by another that his influence, rela- tive to the question, was always given in favor of the equal rights of the citizens to use the cars, irrespective of class or complexion. The subject has been kept before the public by our newspapers, both editorially and by correspondents. Narratives by eye-witnesses, of illegal and inhuman treatment of men and women, by conductors or pas- sengers, have been published with indignant rebukes, week after week. That all these measures were, in some degree, efficacious, we have cheering evidence in the fact that, on the 10th of January, the stockholders of the Phila- delphia and Darby Railroad Company unanimously decided "that no discrimination ought to be made in the use of the public cars, to the exclusion of any person, except such as is intended to secure good behaviour and general comfort ;" and requested their Board of Directors to adopt such regulations as should thereafter permit colored persons to ride in their cars. The Directors at once obeyed the wish thus expressed, and opened their cars to all our citizens. About the same time the Manayunk and Fifth and Sixth Street Companies abolished the odious distinction upon their lines ; and the Ridge Avenue Company yielded so far as to admit colored passengers into some of the cars on their road, 20 We regret to say that, within the last few days, the Fifth and Sixth Street Company has disgraced itself, and violated its charter, by announcing that after the 10th inst., the order admitting colored persons to their cars shall be rescinded, except on special cars to be appropriated to their use. On the 13th of January, a public meeting of citizens was held to discuss the subject, and take further measures respecting it. A very large audience as- sembled; and the speakers represented nearly all classes of our citizens, radical and conservative. The expression of opinion was emphatic and unanimous ; and from its direct influence, and the labors of the Committee appointed as its representative, we antici- pate new triumphs over this cruel form of prejudice against a large class of our loyal, patriotic citizens. Our city railway Companies, feeling, doubtless, the pressure of public sentiment, have recently resorted to what they call a vote of the people, as a test of this question ; and instructed their Conductors to receive the ballots of all persons riding in the cars, on the 30th and 31st days of January, upon the question : " Shall colored persons be allowed to ride in all the cars?" Of these votes, the Conductors were, neces- sarily, the inspectors and judges. The Directors could not be unaware that the proceeding was a mock- ery; it is strange that they could suppose that an 21 intelligent community would be misled by so trans- parent a delusion. There is another battle to be fought, and another victory to be won, against this spirit of prejudice,, before Philadelphia will deserve the name of a Chris-* tian city. In our temples of religion the black man is still compelled to kneel apart from his fellow- worship- pers, when they bow in prayer to Him who is " no re- specter of persons. " But there are pulpits here, whose occupants are earnest and faithful in rebuke of this unchristian practice; and we cherish the hope that this bitter fruit of slavery will die with the tree which bore it. The work of our Society, during the past year, has been, in common with all Anti- Slavery Associations, to exhort and entreat the Nation to cleanse itself thoroughly from its sin of oppression, and leave no stain upon its banner. We have memorialized Con- gress in behalf of the Constitutional Amendment; and also petitioned that body to "require, as a condi- tion of the return of the revolted States to the Union, the adoption of a Republican form of Government, in so far as this : that there shall be no distinction in the conditions of citizenship, or the rights of citizens, based on the existence or non-existence of African blood." A portion of our funds has, as usual, been devoted to the circulation of the National Anti-Slavery Standard, and the Liberator. We have carefully 22 watched each national event, in its influence upon the slave's interests; joyfully according honor to the Government, for every deed done for freedom. The real nature of the struggle in which the abolition- CO ists have been engaged during the last thirty years, is now better understood by the people of the United States than ever before. God's voice, in the thunders of war, has pierced deaf ears ; His lightnings have flashed into closed eyes, which would neither hear nor see outraged humanity, in the person of the American slave. At last, the nation is learning that in the rights of the slave their own were represented ; and that as his cause was lost or won, humanity was vanquished or victorious. For there has been nothing new in our contest but its form. It is the old battle between Democracy and Aristocracy, waged in every land, " bequeathed from bleeding sire to son," through countless generations. On one side, the rights of Man, as Man ; on the other, the usurped privileges of tyrants. The shock of the conflict has upheaved kingdoms and overturned thrones ; its fury has de- stroyed nations ; and the world has resounded with the shouts of its victors and the cries of its vanquished. In this country, for more than a quarter of a century, its combatants have been the slaveholders and their allies on one side, and on the other the Abolitionists. On one side was the denial of man's inalienable right to freedom ; on the other, its absolute assertion. In 23 this struggle we pledged ourselves to the use of moral weapons alone, firmly believing in their power to gain this new conquest in the long warfare. This faith was justified when, in the autumn of 1860, the re- generated public opinion of the Northern States issued its mandate to the Slave Power, — " Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther ;" and the South shrieked, in anger and ill-concealed terror, " The Government is in the hands of Abolitionists ; we will dissolve the Union !" In the year 1853 the Attorney General of the United States announced : " If there be any pur- pose more fixed than another in the mind of the President and those with whom he is accustomed to consult, it is that the dangerous element of Abolition- ism, under whatever guise or form it may present itself, shall be crushed out, so far as his administration is concerned." And throughout the length and breadth of the land, the people cried, "Amen ! so let it be ;" and Church, and State, and mob ; pulpit, press, and drawing-room, were eager rivals in the execution of this purpose. In 1864, one of the leading journals of our enemies thus testifies to the result of the struggle ; " Is it not a fact that the Abolitionists command all the power of the North ? It is. Is it not a fact that we Democrats are unable to wrench that power out of their hands ? It is. Is it not a fact that the power of the South must, per force, give way to the power of the North ? It is. And is it not a fact that the 24 Abolitionists are determined to carry out their princi- ple, as first conceived by themselves, and as now en- forced on the entire country by the resolve of the rebels to subdue the North ? It is. It is, therefore, a fact, that slavery is doomed. We, the Democracy, do not like this ; but our dislike can effect nothing. There are facts before us, and, nolens volens, we must accept them. The Abolitionists have won the game." In this result we see only the triumph of principles; of Truth over Falsehood, of Right over Wrong ; a victory which will be universal, because "the earth is the Lord's," and He is "the Governor among the Nations." " His right hand, and His holy arm, hath gotten Him this victory." Bright shines the Star of Hope on our new year. All is not yet won for Freedom ; but each day, dawn- ing with new victories, foretells the swiftly approach- ing hour when American Slavery shall give up the ghost. Illinois, Maryland, Rhode Island, Massachu- setts, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Michi- gan, Missouri, Maine, Ohio, and Virginia, have ratified its doom.* All honor to Maryland, who so recently washed her robes, and received her consecration at the altar of Liberty ! Her eager hand was the first to seize the pen to sign this death-warrant, though while, with * Since the presentation of this Report, Indiana, Nevada and Wisconsin, have ratified the amendment. 25 unwonted fingers, she slowly traced the letters, Illinois followed quickly, and first completed her signature. With hope and faith, and joy and gratitude, we wait for the last. Quickly upon the footsteps of emancipation have followed the "fruits of righteousness " promised to those who execute justice towards the oppressed. In Louisiana, a common-school system, that great educa- tor of a Free People, is established ; in Missouri this blessing is extended to a class of its children hitherto denied it; and a steady stream of immigration is pouring into Maryland, to enrich her population, and " build her old waste places." The danger to the Nation which is now to be feared and avoided, lies in the path of reconstruction. The madness of the Slave Power, which sought the over- throw of the Government, and which accomplished the secession often States from the Union, has armed the Nation with weapons for the defence and maintenance of Liberty, which it has not before possessed since the adoption of our Federal Constitution. These ten States are asking, or will soon be asking, re-admission to our Union ; and the voice of the people, through the Congress of the United States, will prescribe the conditions of their return. Once before in the history of this Nation, its Representatives assembled solemnly to deliberate and decide upon conditions of Union, and to seal the destinies of coming generations. Sitting 3 26 in judgment upon Slavery, holding its doom in their hands, they did not execute its death-sentence ; but, for the sake of peace, of conciliation, of Union, they gave it what they regarded as a short lease of life. The terrible consequences of their fatal mistake have culminated in the tragedy of our civil war. To-day, the Providence of God gives the Nation another op- portunity to decide this momentous question, and to retrieve, partially, the mistakes of the past. With the lessons of eighty years to warn and guide them, with the consciousness that the extraordinary power which resides in the Federal Government to-day, will soon pass from it, perhaps never to return, will they repeat the error of the fathers, and fail to establish universal liberty, and hedge it about with every possi- ble defence ? If they have read those lessons ; if they are not deaf to the voice of God in his warnings, and insensible to the mercy which gives them this opportu- nity of salvation, they will require of every revolted State which would return to this Union a form of State Government which shall secure, by his own right of suffrage, the liberty of the black man. Only with this weapon in his hand can he be safely left in a community of proud, defeated tyrants, so recently his masters. Now the United States can protect him with its military power. The moment that those revolted States are admitted into the Union, he must pass under the control of their governments, and the shield 27 of Federal authority can no longer come between him and the cruel oppression which, in countless forms, they may inflict, without reducing him to chattel slavery. In enfranchising a race, in restoring the liberty it has so long wickedly withheld, the Nation is surely under the highest obligation to restore with it that safeguard of freedom which it regards as so necessary to the protection of its white citizens. In its hour of repentance and restitution, a noble and generous People would hasten to offer every atone- ment in its power, and would mourn over the impossi- bility of full reparation. We rejoice to believe that in both Houses of Con- gress there are men who will urge the Nation to the full measure of its duty in this respect ; and we record, with pleasure, the fact that the necessity of protecting the enfranchised slave with the suffrage, has been ably and eloquently defended by a Representative of our own State and city.* We rejoice, too, that among the daily journals of our city there are staunch champions for Freedom, and the rights of man, irrespective of color. Of these, the Press, the North American, and the Evening Bulletin, deserve honorable notice. The duty which yet remains for the abolitionists to perform, is to stand at their posts a little longer, * Hon. Wm. D. Kelley. 28 Watching with jealous care the interests of the slave, until his last fetter shall be broken, and the Constitu- tional prohibition of Slavery shall become the law of the land. It was this jealousy for his interests, this fidelity to his cause, which created a diversity of opinion and sentiment among us relative to the last Presidential election. Those who feared to entrust the protection of the slave's rights to the care of Abraham Lincoln and his Cabinet, withheld from him their support ; and those who believed that the inter- ests of Freedom would be safe under his administra- tion, advocated his re-election. Our work is almost done. As we look into each other's faces to-day, our hearts involuntarily exclaim ; " The Lord is risen indeed !" Fit greeting for this glad anniversary ! Some whom we miss from our ranks are, doubtless, mingling in our joy. Two Valiant champions of Freedom,* whose names will occupy an honorable place in our Congressional annals, for their fidelity to the Anti-Slavery cause in its martyr-age, have, during the past year, finished their earthly labors and gone to their reward. And he whose name shines brightly on a more glorious page of History,f first in the roll of signatures to the Declaration of Anti-Slavery sentiments, proclaimed in this city in 1833, has filled up the measure of his * Joshua E. G-iddings and Owen Lovejoj. t Thomas Whitson 8 29 well-spent days, and bowed his hoary head in death, just as the trumpet-blast of victory burst upon his ear. From these seats to-day, we miss familiar faces of fellow-laborers, who, on our last anniversary, greeted, with us, the bright promise of the opening year. The most venerable of our band,* whose heart beat warm and true towards the oppressed, has passed away. And one who was not a less faithful and earnest co- adjutor of ours, because her name is not enrolled in our Association,! has left us, in the prime of life, to mourn her departure and cherish her memory. And many, many, more the year has borne from us, of illustrious or unknown names, who, in camp, or field, or hospital, have given their lives to the cause of Human Liberty, content to die that the Nation might truly live. These, our fellow-laborers, who have received their discharge before us, wait in heaven as we on earth, with ear attent, to catch the first tones of our new, unflawed Liberty Bell, (sweetest music that ever went up to God from America,) which shall " Ring out the darkness of the Land ; King in the Christ that is to be." * Sarah Jackson. t Elizabeth EL Newbold. 30 Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in account with Annie Shoemaker, Treasurer. 1864. DR. 2d mo. To Rent of room for Annual Meeting $ 5 00 " Advertising 1 90 11 Subscription to N. Anti-Slavery Standard (50 copies) 125 00 11 Subscription to Liberator (10 copies) 30 00 4th mo. " Printing Annual Report 38 81 11 Postage 2 40 11 Donation to Penn. Anti-Slavery Society 50 00 11 Rent of room for stated meetings 9 00 2d mo., 1865. By balance in Treasury 73 39 $335 50 1864. CR. 2d mo. By balance in Treasury $47 91 " Members' subscriptions 63 50 " Sale of articles from Fair < 1 50 3d mo. " Donations from various persons 17 00 11 Donation from Miss Sturch, of London (£20) 167 09 10th mo. " Sale of articles from A. S. Office S 50 2d mo., 1865. Dividend on 20 shares of Stock of Penn'a. Hall Association 30 00 8335 50 Lydia Gillingham, Auditor. CONGRESSIONAL VOTE. The vote in the House of Representatives, in Congress, Jan, 31st, 1865, upon the adoption of the joint resolution proposing an Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing and prohibiting slavery within the jurisdiction of the United States, was as follows : yeas 118 (Democrats 16, in Italic.) Messrs. Allison, Iowa, Ames, Mass., Anderson, Ky., Arnold, Illinois, Ashley, Ohio, Bailey, Pennsylvania, Baldwin, Michigan, Baldwin, Massachusetts, Baxter, Vermont, Beaman, Michigan, Blane, Maine, Blair, West Virginia, Blow, Missouri, Boutwell, Mass., Boyd, Missouri, Brandagee, Conn., Broomall, Pennsylvania, Brown, West Virginia, Ambrose W. Clark, N. Y., Freeman Clark, New York, Cobb, Wisconsin, Coffroth, Pennsylvania, Colfax, Indiana, Cole, California, Creswell, Maryland, Davis. Indiana, Davis, New York, Dawes. Massachusetts, Deming. Connecticut, Dixon, Rhode Island, Donnelly, Minnesota, Driggs, Michigan, Dumont, Indiana. Eckley, Ohio, Eliot, Massachusetts, English, Connecticut, Farnsworth, Illinois, Frank, New York, Ganson, New York, Garfield, Ohio, Gooch, Massachusetts, Grinnell, Iowa, Griswold, N. Y., King, Missouri, Knox, Missouri, Littlejohn, New York, Loan, Missouri, Longyear, Michigan, Marvin, New York, McAllister, Pennsylvania, McBride, Oregon, McClurg, Missouri, Mclndoe, Wisconsin, Miller, New York, Morehead, Pennsylvania, Morrill, Vermont, Morris, New York, A. Myers, Pennsylvania, L. Myers, Pennsylvania, Nelson, New York. Norton, Illinois, Odell, New York, O'Neill, Pennsylvania, Orth, Indiana, Patterson. New York, Perham, Maine, Pike, Maine, Pomeroy, New York, Price, Iowa, Radford, New York, Randall, Kentucky, Rice, Massachusetts, Rice, Maine, Rollins, New Hampshire, Rollins, Missouri, Schenck, Ohio, Scofield, Pennsylvania, Shannon, California, Sloan, Wisconsin, Smith, Kentucky, Smithers, Delaware, Spalding, Ohio, Starr, New Jersey, Steele, New York, Stearns, Pennsylvania, Thayer, Pennsvlvania. Hale, Pennsylvania, Herrick, New York, Higby, California, Hooper, Massachusetts, Hotchkiss, New York, Hubbard, Iowa, Hubbard, Connecticut, Hubbard, New York, Hutchins, Ohio, Ingersoll, Illinois, Jenckes, Rhode Island, Julian, Indiana, Kasson, Iowa, Kelley, Pennsylvania, Kellogg, Michigan, Kellogg, New York, Thomas, Maryland, Tracy, Pennsylvania. Upson, Michigan, Van Valkenburg, N. Y. Washburne, Illinois, Washburne, Massachusetts. Webster, Maryland, Whaley, West Virginia, Wheeler, Wisconsin, Williams, Pennsylvania, Wilder, Kansas, Wilson, Iowa, Windham, Minnesota, Woodbridge, Vermont, Worthington, Nevada, Teaman, Kentucky. KAYS 56 — ALL DEMOCRATS. J. C. Allen, Illinois, W. J. Allen, Illinois, Ancona, Pennsylvania, Bliss, Ohio, Brooks, New York, Brown, Wisconsin, Chanler, New York, Clay, Kentucky, Cox, Ohio, Cravens, Indiana, Dawson, Pennsylvania, Denison, Pennsylvania, Eden, Illinois, Edgerton, Indiana, Eldridge, Wisconsin, Finck, Ohio, Grider, Kentucky, Hale, Missouri, Harding Kentucky, Harrington, Indiana, Harris, Maryland, Harris, Illinois, Holman, Indiana, Johnson, Pennsylvania; Johnson, Ohio, Kalbfleisch, New York, Kernan, New York, Knapp, Illinois, Law, Indiana, Long, Ohio, Mallory, Kentucky, Miller, Pennsylvania, Morris, Ohio, Morrison, Illinois, Noble, Ohio, O'Neil, Ohio, Pendleton, Ohio, Perry, New Jersey, Pruyn. New York, Randall, Pennsylvania, Robinson, Illinois, Ross, Illinois, Scott, Missouri, Steele, New Jersey, Stiles, Pennsylvania, Strouse, Pennsylvania, Stuart, Illinois, Sweat, Maine, Townsend, New York, Wadsworth, Kentucky, Ward, New York, White, J. W., Ohio, White, 0, A., Ohio, Winfield, New York, Ben. Wood, New York. F. Wood, New York. ABSENT OR NOT VOTING 8 — ALL DEMOCRATS. Lazear, Pennsylvania, McKinney, Ohio, Leblonde, Ohio, Middleton, New Jersey, Marcy, New Hampshire, Rogers, New Jersey, McDowell, Indiana, Voorhees, Indiana. THIRTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT PH I LADELPH IA Jjemale |mti-^Iairerg pj&neijr, February, 1866. ; PHILADELPHIA: 5IEREIHEW & SON, PRINTERS. 24:) Arch Street. 1866. THIRTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT PH I LADELPH IA Jfemak |wti-J$Iateg Swcietg, February, 1866, ' ; * PHILADELPHIA : M ERR I HEW & SON, PRINTERS 243 Arch Street 1866, f - Officers for the Ensuing Year. PRESIDENT, LUCRETIA MOTT. VICE-PRESIDENT, SIDNEY ANN LEWIS. RECORDING SECRETARY. GULIELMA JONES. CORRESPONDING SECRETARY. MARY GREW. TREASURER, ANNIE SHOEMAKER, BOARD OF MANAGERS. LUCRETIA MOTT, HANNAH L. STICKNEY- ANNA M. HOPPER 5 SARAH H. PEIRCE. REBECCA S. HART, ROSANNA THOMPSON- REPORT. The amended Constitution of the United States declares that slavery is forever prohibited under its jurisdiction ; and, to-day, no human being in this na- ' tion wears the legal fetters of a slave. Over this great victory of our cause, we would rejoice with fit anthems of praise : but language fails to portray the magnitude of the triumph, or to reach the heights and depths of our glad thanksgiving. A year ago to-day we recorded the names of twelve States whose Legis- latures had ratified this doom of slavery. To-day we record the fact that its ratification is completed by twenty of the loyal States of the Republic, and offi- cially announced, by the Secretary of State, as the law of the land. And since this announcement, New Jersey, who last year refused her sanction to the charter of freedom, has done works meet for repent- ance, and placed her name by the side of the illustri- ous twenty. In our review of the year, whose close is crowned with this grand event, we can recount many triumphs of our cause, each of which we hail with grateful joy- We could scarcely comprehend the full meaning of the words which flashed along our telegraphic wires, (more marvellous than the electric messenger which bore them,) announcing that South Carolina had abolished slavery by a Convention of her people. We were startled with strange joy when we read that in the city of Charleston, Mr. Redpath, of Boston, and Mr. O'Donnell, of Philadelphia, were re-organizing the public schools, and opening them to white and colored children on equal terms ; that in Savannah a negro market-house had been converted into a school-room for the freed children; that a Convention of the colored people of South Carolina could assem- ble in its proudest city, and issue their " Declaration of Rights and Wrongs, their loyal Resolutions and their earnest Appeal to the White Inhabitants of the State," asking that their manhood shall be recognized, and that they shall be governed by the laws which govern white men. Fit tokens and trophies of this new dispensation are the facts that Capt. Robert Small returns to Charleston with his u Planter/' to participate in the flag-raising at Fort Sumpter ; that the bell of the slave mart of Charleston is presented, as a relic, to Wendell Phillips ; and that William Lloyd Garrison speaks from the slave auction block of South Carolina ! In the results of the November elections, we see the expressed purpose of the people to relinquish nothing already won for freedom; and from some party leaders and presses we hear the avowed determina- tion to win further conquests. Such progress has our glorious cause made in the land, that the Chief Jus- tice of the Supreme Court of the United States ad- vocates equal suffrage of white and colored citizens. 5. Two years ago we counted among the victories of our cause, the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. To-day we may add to that record the Act of Congress endowing those freedmen with the suffrages of freemen, for, though not yet the law T of the land 1 , its passage in the House of Representatives by the vote of one hundred and sixteen yeas against fifty-four nays, and the sure anticipation of its pas- sage in the Senate, call upon us to swell the shout of grateful joy which went up from the Capitol when that vote was announced, and was echoed and re- echoed throughout the land. Tennessee kept her promise of celebrating the 22d of February by the adoption of the Amendment to her State Constitution, whereby slavery is forever jirohibited on her soil ; and Florida has recently, by act of convention, recorded her assent to its abolition in that State. Illinois has cleansed her statute book from the dark stain of its infamous " black laws," which almost disproved her claim to be a free State. The review of the past year furnishes us with sig- nal instances of poetical justice, such as are rarely witnessed in the world's history. Charleston, the stronghold of slavery, which, in its pride and strength, defied the world, and trampled the black man under its feet, heard its doom in the martial tread of a regiment of South Carolina negroes, the first United States soldiers who entered its streets masters of the city. And, to-day, ex-Governor Wise protests in vain against the occupancy of his Virginia 1* estate by the daughter of John Brown and her negro pupils. Many incidents have passed under our observation during the year, which, if possessing no great intrin- sic importance, are worthy of notice as indicators of public sentiment. Among these is the appointment of colored men to offices never assigned to them hith- to, and the action of various ecclesiastical bodies in admitting colored men as delegates to their convo- cations, or in the adopting* of resolutions advocating their political rights. Especially worthy of notice are the earnest words in which the Young Men's Christian Association of New York deplore their past unfaithfulness to the slatfe, and pledge them- selves, henceforward, to the cause of freedom. Among the most cheering tokens of the progress o£ our cause, the most signal triumphs of freedom, we must record the action of our present Congress. The assembling of this body was, for months, anticipated with intense solicitude by the friends and enemies of human liberty ; each party tremulous with hope and fear. " Will Congress stand firm ?" asked the anx- ious abolitionist. " Congress must dare to be brave," exhorted Massachusetts' fearless Senator. It is with triumphant joy that we now respond, " Thus far Con- gress has stood firm, has dared to be brave." Its opening was bright with promise. The steadfastness with which the House refused admission to Represen- tatives of Rebel States, and the prompt introduction in the Senate and the House, on the first day of the session, of various bills for the maintenance of equal justice towards the black man, foreshadowed an era of legislation unknown in our Congressional history. The records of the votes in both Houses, from week to week, upon bills and resolutions touching the rights of the colored population of the South, show how well this promise has been kept. The passage of the Bill to enlarge the powers of the Ereedmen's Bureau, by a vote of thirty-seven ayes against ten nays, in the Senate, and in the House (with amendments which the Senate will probably confirm,) by one hundred and thirty-six yeas against thirty- three nays ;* the passage of the bill for the protection of persons in their civil rights, without regard to color or race, by a vote in the Senate of thirty-three yeas against twelve nays, and its reference, in the House, to the Judiciary Committee, and the evident determination of both Houses to obtain an amendment to the Con- stitution, which shall guard the freedman's right of suffrage, we hail with joy. But thus far, the crown- ing glory of this Congress is the act by which it is about to secure the freedom of the emancipated slaves of the District of Columbia. We trust that before its session closes, it will do yet greater deeds for free- dom, and prove itself worthy to represent a really free people. This retrospect of victories, this joyous retracing of the steps by which God has led our enterprise on * Since this Report was presented, this Bill has been ve- toed by Andrew Johnson. 8 from its feeble beginning, its day of small things, to its present position, where it gloriously illustrates that power whereby one can chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, naturally suggests the in- quiry, " Is the triumph of our cause complete?" May we put off our long-worn armor, lay down the weapons of our warfare, and exchange the battle-cry ior the victor's song ? Is American slavery really abolished ? Legally it is. Is freedom secured to our four million slaves ? A survey of the situation shows us, slavery forbidden by our Federal Constitu- tion, a crime throughout the land ; the Rebel States, one after another, forced to yield a reluctant assent to the decree, as a condition of their return to rep- resentation in Congress, and to State sovereignty ; the spirit of slavery asserting itself in the legislation of these conquered provinces, breathing through their press, rife in the hearts of their people. They propose and enact " negro codes," in which many features of the old slave code reappear. South Car- olina transfers the lash from the hand of the master to the judge ; provides that failure to do a task shall be evidence of indolence, and indolence shall be suf- ficient cause for the discharge of a servant, or, if the master chooses, for complaint to the judge, " who may cause to be inflicted suitable corporeal punishment" or may impose fines, at his discretion ; forbids ser- vants to absent themselves from their masters' prem- ises, or to invite visitors thereto, without permission ; forbids a servant who has left one master from mak- ing a contract with another, without a certificate from the first, and then enacts that if found without em- ployment he shall be punished by imprisonment and hard labor. This code also imposes a penalty on any person who shall entice a servant to leave his mas- ter. Mississippi proposes a code entitled "An Act to Confer Civil Eights upon Freedmen, and for other purposes;" in which the "other purposes" are plainly manifested. Among its provisions is a re- quirement that " every freedman. free negro and mulatto shall, on the second Monday of January, 1866, and annually thereafter, have a lawful home or employment:" yet the same statute makes it illegal for him to reside in a any city, town or village, with- out a license from the Mayor thereof;" outside of any city, town or village, without a license from "the Member of the Board of Police, of his beat;" thus making his right to live anywhere, except as a ser- vant, dependent upon the caprice of some city mayor or village police officer. It authorizes a negro serv- ant to bring a suit against his master, but forbids him to produce any testimony in the case from any but white persons. The ordinance relative to the emancipated negroes of Opelousas, Louisiana, justly designated " a savage ordinance," decrees that no negro or freedman shall be allowed to come within the town without special permission from his employer; that every negro found on the street after ten o'clock at night, without 10 a written pass from his employer, shall be punished : that no negro or freedman shall be permitted to rent or keep a house within the limits of the town, under any circumstances ; or shall be permitted to reside within the town, excepting in the service of some white person or former owner. It forbids all public meetings of negroes or freedmen, and all preaching or exhorting by them to congregations of colored per- sons, without special permission from the Mayor or President of the Board of Police ; prohibits all freed- men, not in the military service, from bearing fire- arms or any kind of weapons ; from selling or barter- ing any article of traffic within the town, without written permission from his employer, or the Mayor, or President of the Board of Police; declares the pro- visions of the Act applicable to freed persons of both sexes ; and, in a spirit worthy of itself, ordains that it shall " take effect from and after its first publica- tion.' ' These specimens of the laws by which the South proposes to govern the freedmen, sufficiently explain the unwillingness of the Legislature of Mississippi to ratify the second clause of the Constitutional Amend- ment, which declares that " Congress shall have power to enforce this Article by appropriate legisla- tion ;" and, also, the eagerness of the Provisional Governor of South Carolina to prove, from the lan- guage of the Secretary of State, that " Congress could not attempt, under the authority given by this Amendment, to pass laws for the government of the 11 Freedmen in their free state." Very significant is his suggestion to the Legislature of South Carolina, that it would be well in adopting the proposed Amend- ment, to place on record the construction which had been given to it by the executive department of the Federal Government." In the same tone and spirit, Gov. Humphreys, of Mississippi, officially announces that, "under the pres- sure of Federal bayonets, urged on by the misdirected sympathies of the world, the people of Mississippi have abolished the institution of slavery;" but that this negro race, "turned loose upon society," "can- not be admitted to political equality with the white race." Gov. Holden, of North Carolina, acknowl- edges that the " right to hold property, to read his Bible, and other privileges, belong to the governed race ; but beyond that, he left all to be decided by the people of the governing race." And Gov. Jenkins, in •his recent message to the Georgia Legislature, says of the Freedmen, " The necessity of subordination and dependence should be riveted on their convictions." The press of the South reiterates these sentiments, mingled with stronger utterances of hatred towards the negro race ; protesting against Congressional Legislation for their protection ; asserting that this is a white man's government, to be administered solely by white men ; denouncing all attempts to invest the black man wit]}, political rights ; and very plainly in- timating what shall be his fate when the military power of the United States shall be withdrawn from 12 Southern soil, and their own militia forces organized, and their authority as States acknowledged. That the people of the South are truly represented by such a press, we have abundant proof in their own explicit language respecting their colored population. Time would fail us to record this testimony. These Resolutions of a public meeting of planters in South Carolina are a fair specimen of it : Resolved, That if inconsistent with the views of the authorities to remove the military, we express the opinion that the plan of the military to compel the freedman to contract with his former owner, when de- sired by the latter, is wise, prudent, and absolutely necessary. Resolved, That we, the planters of the District, pledge ourselves not to contract with any freedman, unless he can produce a certificate of regular dis- charge from his former owner. Resolved, That under no circumstances whatsoever will we rent land to any freedmen, nor will we permit them to live on our premises as employees. What is this second Resolution but an insolent re- pudiation of the decree of the United States that the slave shall be and thereby is discharged from his former owner ? And what do they all express but a determination to retain the essence of slavery, with- out the name ? These revelations of the fact that the spirit of slavery still lives and is cherished throughout the South, prepare us to hear, without surprise, the state- ments of Government officials and other eye-witnesses respecting the outrages continually perpetrated upon lb ihe freedmen by the State militia and others of the white populace. These terrible details are of the same character as those which we used to record as the legitimate results of the system of slavery ; and they will inevitably exist until the spirit of that insti- tution is more thoroughly subjugated. Herein lies the danger of the Freedmen. First, in the determination of the slaveholders to regain power, and establish a system of serfdom or peonage which shall include many of the elements of slavery with- out the name. '" They have," in the language of one well qualified to testify, " simply changed their base from the battle-field to the ballot-box, believing, as they very frankly admit, that greater triumphs await them there than they could ever hope for in the field." The testimony of Carl Schurz's report is that " the emancipation of the slaves is submitted to only in so far as chattel slavery in the old form could not be kept up. But, although the freedman is no longer considered the property of the individual master, he is considered the slave of society, and all independent State legislation will show the tendency to make him such. " I desire," he says, " not to be understood as saying that there are no well-meaning men among those who were compromised in the rebellion. There are many, but neither their number nor their influ- ence is strong enough to control the manifest ten- dency of the popular spirit." Gen. Howard, in a re- port to the President of the operations of the Freed- men's Bureau, says, that the majority of the property L4 holders are seeking " some substitute for slavery." The "Free Southerner," published at Hampton, Vir- ginia, assures us that * ; were it not for the protection of the Freedmen's Bureau, the colored people would be worse off than when in slavery." In the light of all this testimony it is easy to understand why Gov. Worth desires, that the Bureau shall be removed from North Carolina, and the negroes left to the justice of the State Courts. But the strongest proof of this determination on the part of the South, is found in the evidence which we have adduced • of the existence of the old slave- holding spirit ; and especially in their proposed or enacted legislation respecting their colored popula- tion. In view of this overwhelming proof, the fol- lowing Resolutions sound in our ears as a cry for help : — Resolved, By the colored citizens of Vicksburg, that we view with alarm the efforts now being made by the men in power in Mississippi to nullify the "Proclamation of Emancipation." Resolved, That it is our firm conviction, and we hereby put it on record, that, should Mississippi be restored to her status in the Union under her amended Constitution as it now stands, her Legislature, under pretext of guarding the interests of the State from the evils of sudden emancipation, will pass such pro- scriptive laws against the freedmen as will result in their expatriation from the State, or their practical re-enslavement. A second cause of alarm for the freedman's safety lies in every indication that the United States Gov- w eminent will not effectually secure and maintain the personal liberty which the Federal Constitution now declares to be his. Among these, is the President's plan of Reconstruction, which w r ould restore to the rebels their State authority and representation in Congress, without investing the freedmen with the protection of the ballot. In harmony with this plan, the colored troops are being withdrawn from Southern States, and State militia organized and officered with men who were prominent in the rebel army. By instructions from Washington, Maj. Gen. Terry has been obliged to restrict the operations of the Freed- men's Court at Richmond to civil cases exclusively, leaving the negro to be tried, upon criminal charges, by the State courts. And, months ago, it was announced that all cases relating to freedmen in Louisiana would be turned over to the State courts. The same spirit which endangers the liberty of the colored race in the South, exists in the North. At its behest, Connecticut, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa denied citizenship to the negro ; and Rhode Island banished his children from her public schools. At its behest, Philadelphia insults her colored popu- lation by closing against them the doors of her city railroad cars, and the pews of her churches. This survey of the condition of our four million clients, reveals to us the fact that the triumph of our cause, though immensely great, is not completed ; and sugggests the inquiry, What is needful to its completion? Evidently, this. The bestowal upon 16 tue emancipated slave of sufficient political liberty for the protection of his personal liberty. Under our form of government, the ballot in the hand of the freedman is essential to this liberty. Under other governments, where standing armies enforce the behests of a sovereign or legislature, the personal freedom of an emancipated race might be protected without this safeguard against their conquered masters. But where, theoretically, the expressed will of the people is law, and, practically, the ex- pressed will of the voting population is law, and where each State has, within Constitutional limits. much independent power of legislation, the colored population of the South, wrested from their masters' grasp by the violent hand of war, and made legally free by a Government which those masters hate, will be helpless victims of tyranny, if left without an American citizen's protection — a voice in making the laws which shall govern them. A priori reason- ing would demonstrate this ; and Southern attempts at legislation already illustrate it. The essential importance of thus securing the freedom proclaimed by the Constitution cannot be better expressed than in the language of Mr. Trumbull, in his speech in the Senate of the United States on the citizenship of the negro* " The announcement of great truths in the funda- mental law are of little consequence while they who are to be affected by them are denied the means of availing themselves of their benefit. Of what avail 17 was the immortal declaration that all men are created free and equal, that they are endowed by their Cre- ator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; and that, to secure these rights, governments are insti- tuted among men, to the millions of African descent in this land, who, for generations, were subjected to a bondage the most abject and cruel the world has ever known? Of what avail was that other declara- tion that the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens of the several States, to a citizen of Massachusetts who, for undertaking to assert a Constitutional right in the court, had to flee from South Carolina to escape per- sonal violence ? Of what avail will the great act abolishing slavery be, if the late slaveholding States, by unequal, oppressive and tyrannical legislation shall still be permitted to deny to those of African descent the great essentials of freedom ?" The next question which naturally presents itself to our consideration is this : In view of the educa- tion which the war has given to the American people, and the progress which they have made towards a true appreciation of liberty ; and in view of the splendid victories which our cause has won, may we not leave the completion of its triumph in the hands of the Nation ? If this Nation were truly regene- rated ; if, humbly repentant for its guilt concerning its enslaved brother, it were eager to make atone- ment for the past, by doing full justice to him now ; then might we entrust to its keeping the vital interests of those whose advocates we so long have been, confident that the transition period between 18 slavery and freedom would be quickly and safely passed under its guidance, and our enterprise glo- riously consummated by its willing hands. But suf- ficient evidence of this penitence and regeneration is not found in the fact that the shock of war has over- thrown the system of slavery, nor in the people's loud Amen ! responsive to its doom. Great and marvellous as is this change, thrilling our souls with grateful joy that our eyes have seen and our ears heard it, it is yet not enough to convince us that the freedman's interest may be safely left to the Nation's guardianship. It is not enough that the people who have decreed his emancipation acknowledge his just claim to liberty ; not enough that they have dis- covered that slavery is a national curse ; not enough that parties, associations or churches assert that, being emancipated, he ought to be invested with the suffrage of a freeman ; the guardianship of his rights, the defence of his liberties, can be safely entrusted only to those who will persistently demand, in the name of justice and humanity, that his tyrants shall not be restored to Federal or State power, until that weapon of protection, the ballot, be placed in his hand. The Military Department of the Government has never evinced a hearty willingness to deal justly with the negro troops. Notwithstanding the tribute to their valor, paid by many officers who have led them ; notwithstanding the testimony of Gen. Grant, that, " for guard and picket duty, on the march and in an assault," they are " surpassed by no soldiers in the 19 world, and equalled by very few;" they have been grudgingly paid far less than white troops ; and, in many cases, bounties have been entirely withheld from them. That the interests of the freedmen cannot be safely entrusted to the President's guardianship, he has given abundant proof. His plan of reconstruc- tion, as set forth in his instructions to the people of North Carolina and Mississippi, provides that the rebellious States may be restored to their Constitu- tional relations to the Federal Government, without giving citizenship to the negro. He claims and exercises the power of appointing Provisional Gov- ernors in those States ; of demanding, as a condition of return to the Union ; the ratification of the Con- stitutional amendment abolishing slavery, and repu- diation of the rebel debt ; yet will not add this most important requisition of justice for the black man. It was no conscientious fear of exceeding his Con- stitutional powers that held him back from doing a noble deed which his heart panted to do, and which would have given his name a place in history by the side of the martyred and immortal Lincoln ; he openly deplores the agitation of the negro-franchise question in Congress. He has proved faithless to the black soldier, refusing him the bounty declared to be his due by the Attorney-General of the United States ; he can and does interfere between white rebels and the penalties to which Congressional legislation dooms them ; yet will not interfere 20 between the loyal black man and the injustice done to him. He tells the negro that liberty consists in "the glorious privilege of work;" and he pardons hundreds of unrepentant rebels, who go out from his presence to concentrate their hate and wreak their vengeance upon that unarmed, defenceless negro. No wonder that he wins encomiums from Southern pulpits, press and people, and that they give thanks for a President who " stands between" them " and the Radicals," " to curb the fanaticism of the North !" Shall Abolitionists trust him ? May we leave our work to be finished by the Re- publican Party ? That party numbers among its ad- herents and among its leaders men who will demand absolute justice for the colored man, and who will not sacrifice his right of citizenship to any scheme of re- construction or any dream of power. But its State Conventions and its principal organs endorse and sustain the policy of the President ; and either evade the question of negro suffrage, or openly avow, as does the New York Tribune, that while they will ad- vocate such suffrage as a measure of justice, they will not insist upon it as a condition of return to the Union. Even the Republican State Convention of Massachussetts announced that it had " no theory of suffrage to propose." And The Press of this city, in one breath, praises the speech of Senator Doolittle, in support of the President's reconstruction policy, and in the next, exults over the passage, by the House 21 of Representatives, of the bill extending suffrage to the colored men of the District of Columbia.* The Convention of the Radical Republicans of Wis- consin, held in September last, stands in bold relief among these Conventions of the party, and rebukes their timidity by its fearless speech, and earnest pledges of fidelity to the cause of the black man's real freedom. We shall scarcely be asked to leave our work in the hands of the American Church. Though her voice has a truer tone to-day than it has had through the years of our long conflict ; though, in the mighty revolution which has rolled the nation onward, she has made moral progress; here agerness to recall her Southern members whose hands are still red with the blood of the slave, proves that she does not " remem- ber those in bonds as bound with them." The churches of this city present a sad spectacle of inconsistency between their professions and practice, by refusing to exert their influence to open the doors of our city railway cars to our colored population. This class of our people who are thus daily insulted in our streets ; whom our churches hasult with their " negro pews ; '' whom our politicians insult with arguments against their fitness to use the ballot ; whom our President insults by denying them a soldier's full recompense for a soldier's full work, have borne themselves, since the commencement of the war, with dignified patience * Since this Report was presented, " The Press" has taken a b old and manly position against the President's course, 22 and unswerving loyalty to the Government. Brave on the battle field, industrious and peaceable on the plantation, eagerly seeking knowledge for themselves and their children, they have refuted the slanders of their enemies, who predicted that they would revolt against order and law, and rush to revenge their wrongs upon their oppressors. In the North and the South, they have assembled in Conventions, and by resolutions, remonstrances and appeals to the people, have stated their grievances and asked for redress in manly and earnest tones. The forbearance and for- giveness of injuries characteristic of this persecuted, slandered race; was fitly illustrated by that scene in the audience-chamber of the President, where three emancipated slaves consecrated their new found lib- erty, by interceding for the pardon of their rebel master. Verily, this nation will cover itself with in- famy if it deals not justly with these defenceless ones who, in the hour of its fiery trial, returned to it good for evil, blessing for cursing. We are sometimes asked to resign our work and our responsibility to the Freedmen's Aid Society. This organization, whose ranks are filled with the be- nevolent men and women of the country, some of whom are just awakened from their long slumber over the wrongs of the slave ; and some of whom have been his faithful champions in the dark days of our enter- prise, is doing a noble work nobly. They are feed- ing, clothing, educating the freedmen whom slavery has plunged into the deepest poverty and ignorance. 23 reaching out a strong hand to uplift them from their debasement, and fit them for freemen's responsi- bilities and duties. And the American Freedmen's Aid Union, at a meeting held in New York in May last, adopted resolutions recognizing the colored man's right to the suffrage of a freeman. Vast and import- ant as this work is, it is not the work to which, as abolitionists, we are pledged, viz. : the completion and security of the slave s freedom. To effect this, the freedman, whose legal fetters are broken, must be armed with the ballot before his tyrants are again clothed with State or National authority. A free- man has been well defined as " one who is possessed of all his natural rights, and endowed with civil rights sufficient for their protection/ ' Such civil rights we must demand and obtain for the colored race in the South, before our work will be done. We may not yet sit down with folded arms, trusting in the develop- ments of the future. We have faith that the future, the near future, is rich with harvests which await our reaping, to be added to those already garnered. But our business is with the needs and dangers of to-day; and we have no right to any faith in the future, which is not accompanied with zealous labor in the present. " Faith without works is dead." During the past year this Society has received an accession of twenty members ; and has performed its work by thg. same instrumentalities hitherto used to influence public sentiment. By circulating the Na- tional Anti-Slavery Standard and The Liberator, and 24 contributing to their support ; by the expression ot our doctrines through the press ; by petitions to Con- gress ; and by words of remonstrance, warning, ap- proval oi censure, as passing events demanded, we have endeavoured to do our part in the great work of converting the Northern heart to a sense of its obli- gations to those whom it has so long oppressed ; and to a steadfast purpose to fulfil those obligations. The National Anti-Slavery Standard is now the only organ of our Anti-Slavery Societies : and we regard its sup- port and circulation as an important part of our work, in this perilous national crisis, when its vigilance as a watchman, and its fidelity in warning and rebuke are so greatly needed. To all who are faithfully laboring in this behalf in any field and under any name, we extend our cordial greeting. We offer our tribute of thanks to that band of faithful men in both Houses of Congress who are battling for the right, and in whose steadfastness we see a promise of success. To The Liberator, our pioneer journal, the morn- ing-star of our enterprise, we bid an affectionate and regretful farewell; rejoicing that it lived to record the ratification of the Constitutional prohibition of American slavery ; rejoicing that its Editor still lives to reap the harvests of his early sowing, and to bless the world by his voice, his pen and his life. At the commencement of the year which we close to-day, our hearts beat high with hope that its revo- lution would witness a glorious celebration of the 25 American jubilee ; that the top-stone of our temple o freedom would be laid with shoutings and Hosannas ; and that we, discharged from this service, should look abroad over the vast field of humanitary labor and a*k, " Lord ! what wilt thou have me to do ? Sud- denly and in quick succession came the tidings of the capture of Richmond, and of Lee's surrender ; and the nation, electrified with joy, uttered its thanksgiv- ing through pealing bells, booming cannon, hymns of praise, and solemn words of prayer. In that ecstatic hour, while all faces were turned upward to the heav- ens which smiled in brightness, came that thunder bolt which transfixed the nation with terror and griefc Abraham Lincoln fell by the assassin hand of slavery. Then men knew that American slavery was not dead, A wail of lamentation deep and loud went up from the hearts of the millions of slaves and freedmen who mourned a friend and deliverer slain. The nation braced itself against the shock ; the grand machinery of popular government paused not an instant ; and, while the people buried their martyred President with the highest funeral honors which a people can bestow, the tears of affection, his successor vowed to carry on the work which he had begun. The hopes which he excited, the anxiety with which the friends of free- dom watched his course, the fading of those hopes, the downward progress as the months rolled on, un- til he who had promised to be the negro's Moses proved his betrayer, are now inwrought with our country's history. Doubtless we took counsel of our fervent 8 26 wishes rather than of our cooler reason, when we ex- pected that the national decree declaring fcjavery abolished would at once annihilate the system bo in- wrought with the nation's heart and life, and that the transition from slavery to actual freedom would he rapid and brief. The official promulgation of that decree was the signal of our triumph, over which rejoiced with joy unutterable. We looked southward and saw the land strewed with unlocked festers - broken chains; and when the tear* of joy w}ii<-u veiled our eyes had fallen, we saw the enraged and defeated tyrants fastening with eager haste new bonds upon their victims. We will nor pause to portray our disappointment in impotent words of regret ; w< m\\ meet the demands of the present hour with the strength and courage which has borne us through the past; looking hopefully to the future with unshakei faith that He, who with a mighty hand and tr. of the Egypt of their bondage, will turn back th^ii pursuers, and guide them safely through their peril- ous passage to perfect freedom. Philadelphia Female Anti- Slavery Society in account with Annie Shoemaker, Treasurer. 1665. FIR. To Rent of Room for Annual Meeting $ 5 00 " Printing Annual Report 52 10 u Subscription to Liberator (10 copies) 35 00 " " N. Anti-Slavery Standard (50 copies) 150 00 u Rent' of room for stated meetings 9 00 " " Ll M special meetings 1 00 ' Advertising in Ledger 5 00 1866. Balance in Treasury 9 09 $266 19 1865. CR. By balance in Treasury $73 39 " Members' subscriptions... 124 80 " Donations.. 68 00 $266 19 Lydia Gillinoham. Auditor. THIRTY-THIKD ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PHILADELPHIA Jfemaie ^nli-^Iaberg JSoaetj). February, 1867. PHILADELPHIA: MERRIHEW & SON, PRINTER S No. 243 Arch Street. 1867. THIRTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT PHILADELPHIA Jraale lutti-JIIatog ibrieig* February, 1867. PHILADELPHIA: MERRIHEW & SON, PRINTERS, No. 243 Arch Street. 1867. £44 V b' *i 3 3 of Officers for the Ensuing Year, PRESIDENT, LUCRETIA MOTT. VICE-PRESIDENT, SIDNEY ANN LEWIS. RECORDING SECRETARY, GULIELMA JONES. CORRESPONDING SECRETARY, MARY GREW. TREASURER, ANNIE SHOEMAKER BOARD OF MANAGERS, LUCRETIA MOTT, HANNAH L. STICKNEY, ANNA M. HOPPER, SARAH H. PEIRCE, REBECCA S. HART, ROSANNA THOMPSON. REPORT. In these revolutionary times, "when the weeks and months pass heavily freighted with great events, we commence each year with hope that, before its close, our work will be completed, and our Society justified in ceasing to exist. And though the hour of the American slave's full redemption has not yet struck, we believe it is nigh ; and still hope that the year which we commence to-day will usher in its glory. In our last Annual Report we greeted with joyous All Hail ! the Act of Congress endowing the colored men of the District of Columbia with the suffrages of freemen ; for the bill had been passed in the House of Representatives, and our glad faith predicted its speedy passage in the Senate. The passage of the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, and the Civil Rights Bill, at that time nearly completed, and the apparent deter- mination of Congress to protect the colored man's rights against the violence and cunning of his op- pressors, inspired us with hope that they might be found equal to the demands of the hour. The Lost Opportunity of 1865 they could not hope to regaip. There was a time when the defeated, humbled South, awed by the power of their antagonists in the field, would have accepted any terms of pardon and restora- tion to the rights of the States which the United States Government might have imposed for the pro- tection of the recently-enslaved race. Had the Thirty-eighth Congress seen, "with clearer vision, the glorious opportunity which God had given it to uplift two races by enacting equal and absolute justice for both ; had it been inspired by stronger faith in prin* ciples, and more disinterested love of righteousness, it would have finished in peace the work of emancipa- tion begun in Avar, and made its name immortal in the annals of legislation. But it let the golden moment -pass, never to return, and left the work, which Humanity demanded at its hands, to be done by its successors in circumstances of far greater diffi- culty, and against stronger opposing forces. The weakness of Congress and the treason of the acting President revivified the spirit of the rebels, and a new campaign was soon organized under the leader- ship of Southern diplomatists and Andrew Johnson, for the purpose of winning back all that the slave- power had lost upon the battle-field. Into this new contest, which the fidelity of the Thirty-eighth Con- gress might have saved us from, the Nation and its Thirty-ninth Congress entered. The Freedmen's Bureau Bill, which w r as on its passage through Congress at the date of our last Report, received the veto of the President ; and the effort in the Senate to sustain the bill, against the veto, failed for want of two votes. The Civil Rights Bill met a better fate. Both Houses successfully resisted the opposition of the President to this measure, and carried the bill over his veto. This triumph of Congress over the spirit of despot- ism was hailed with thunders of applause in the Senate chamber and hall of Representatives, and with no less hearty delight by the friends of freedom throughout the land. Another bill, to continue in force the bill establishing the Freedmen's Bureau, was sustained, in opposition to another veto, near the close of the session. Our confident hope that the Senate would speedily complete the work which the House began, and invest the colored men of the Dis- trict of Columbia with power to protect themselves with the ballot, was disappointed ; and the first session closed with that duty unperformed. To this neglect was added still more reprehensible action. Bills were passed by both Houses, creating the States of Nebraska and Colorado, under Constitutions which excluded colored persons from exercising the right of suffrage. The action of the President prevented the consummation of the deed, by his veto of one bill, and his withholding the other, which was pre- sented for his signature at the close of the session. But Andrew Johnson joined hands with Congress, to restore Tennessee to her forfeited rights as a sovereign State in the Union, and to permit her to exclude from the rights of citizenship a class of men who had been true to the Union when she had been false to it ; who had fought for the Government when she was fighting against it ; who had borne up our country's flag in their dying hands, when she was striving to trample it under her feet. The votes of 6 twenty-eight Senators against four, and one hundred and twenty-five Representatives against twelve, ad- mitted Tennessee, and the President had no veto for this act. The cause of Human Liberty was yet more severely wounded in the house of its friends, when the Re- publicans in Congress carried by large majorities the resolution proposing an Amendment to the Federal Constitution, providing that, whenever the right of suffrage shall be denied by any State " to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participa- tion in rebellion or other crime, the basis of repre- sentation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens, twenty-one years of age in such State." The first section of the pro- posed amendment declares all persons, born or natu- ralized in the United States, and subject to the juris- diction thereof, to be citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. The avowed purpose of the proposers of this amendment is to offer a powerful motive to the Southern States to give the ballot to the colored man. The amendment itself says to them : When you shall be restored to a posi- tion of power in the Government, against which you have rebelled and warred, the Nation who survived and conquered in that deadly conflict, with the help of your victim race, will, in the hour of her prosper- ity, deliver up her helpless allies into your hands, to be clothed with the rights of citizenship, if you deem the boon we offer sufficient compensation therefor ; or to be denied such rights, and to be placed again under the control of laws made by white men alone, if such shall be your sovereign will. To appreciate fully this breach of faith with a class of men who battled bravely under the United States flag in the hour of the Nation's extreme peril — this ingratitude to God for our great deliverance from that peril — we must recollect that it was in the power of Congress to propose an amendment to the Constitu- tion which would endow the colored man with the full rights of citizenship, and enable the Federal Govern- ment to protect him in their full exercise, and thus deliver him out of the hand of his tyrants, enraged by their defeat on the battle-field. It was also in their power to enact the law which Hon. Charles Sumner proposed in the Senate, February 5th, 1866, and urged with all the zeal and eloquence of his noble soul : a statute declaring that, in the States recently declared to be in rebellion, " all persons shall be equal before the law, whether in the court-room or at the ballot-box ;" and that this statute " shall be the supreme law of the land, anything in the Constitu- tion or laws of any such State to the contrary not- withstanding. " It was in their power to seize a glorious opportunity, which the revolution had fur- nished them, to give law to the insurgent States, and wholly wrest from their cruel grasp the helpless 8 millions whom they had trampled in the dust, and uplift those innocent victims of tyranny — those faithful, heroic allies of the United States Govern- ment to the position of American citizens, guarded and crowned with all the high prerogatives of such citizenship. God and humanity demanded this at their hands ; and, instead thereof, they practically declared that the country and the Government belong to the white man ; and that the colored man is to be legislated for, and otherwise disposed of, in such manner as may best serve the fancied interests of the white race. The Federal Constitution does not suggest the disfranchisement of any portion of the people of the States, and the conclusion is legiti- mate that all the rights and immunities of citizens flow from acknowledged citizenship. Congress pro- poses to amend the document by adding a clause which, while it declares all persons, born or natural- ized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdic- tion thereof, to be citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside, intimates that, by incurring a certain loss in representation, any State may exclude from the right of suffrage a large class of its loyal citizens, and that, without such loss, it may exclude another and larger class. With deep regret, we record the fact that Pennsylvania gave her consent to the ratification of this injustice. Thus ended the first session of the Thirty-ninth Congress, which opened with such brilliant promise. The vital question in the contest between the spirit 9 of slavery and the spirit of liberty in this nation, viz., Shall the Negro be allowed to protect his free- dom with the ballot ? they surrendered to their antagonists. During the recess came that memorable struggle at the polls, when the men of the North arose in their might, and pronounced their Veto on Andrew Johnson and all his works, and said to Radicalism in Congress, " Be of good cheer; the victory shall be yours, if ye faint not. ,? When Congress re-assembled in December last, they came armed by the People with new power. If, during their previous session, they had hesitated and feared to do the bold deeds for freedom which their hearts prompted, lest they should not stand justified at the People's Tribunal in the approaching Autumn, that fear and doubt was wholly dissipated, and December found them free to inaugurate the wisest measures for securing justice to the colored race which they could devise. God, in His infinite mercy to the Nation, had given them another ample opportunity to atone for some past errors, by wise and just legislation and action; and, once more, our hearts beat high with hope that the disgrace of our country was to be effaced, and the loyal millions, so long the victims of the nation's cruelty, were to be endowed with their rights as freemen and citizens. Their earliest w r ords and deeds confirmed this hope. On the 13th of December, the Senate took up the bill, so long postponed, which gave the ballot to the colored men of the District of Columbia, and passed 10 it by a vote of thirty-two yeas to thirteen nays. On the 8th of January, this bill, having been vetoed by the President, was passed by both Houses over the veto.* Bills providing for the admission of Nebraska and Colorado as States in the Union, amended by a "fundamental and perpetual condition," that within those States there shall be no abridgment or denial of the exercise of the elective franchise, or of any other right, to any person, by reason of race or color, excepting Indians not taxed," were passed by both Houses in the month of January. Each of these bills received the veto of the President, and one of them (providing for the admission of Nebraska) was sustained against the veto by a very large number of votes. And among the deeds done for freedom by the Thirty-ninth Congress, we joyfully record the prohibition, in all the Territories of the United States, of the denial of the elective franchise " on account of race, color, or previous condition of servi- tude ;" and also the passage, by the House of Repre- sentatives, of " an Act to explain and enforce the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States;" which forbids the sale of any per- son, as a punishment for crime, or under any pre- tence. The most important legislation of the session has been the passage of the Reconstruction Bill. * This bill was not that which was passed by the House in its first session, but one which was introduced in the Senate, a few days later. It was passed by the House December 14th, by a vote of 118 yeas to 46 nays, 11 A bill to provide a temporary military government of the insurrectionary States was reported, on the 6th of February, to the House, by Mr. Stevens, from the Committee on Reconstruction, and subsequently passed by a vote of 109 yeas, against 55 nays ; an amendment, offered by Mr. Blaine, providing for the re-admission of said States to Congressional repre- sentation on certain conditions, having been voted down by 95 nays against 69 yeas. This bill w T as returned from the Senate, with some important modifications, and with an additional section, pro- viding : — " That when the people of any one of the said rebel States shall have formed a Constitution for their government, in conformity with the Constitution of the United States in all respects, framed by a Convention elected by the male citizens of said State, twenty-one years old and upwards, of whatever race, color or previous condition, who have been resident in said State for one year previous to the day of said election, except such as may be disfranchised for par- ticipation in the rebellion, or for felony at common law; and wheu such Constitution shall provide that the elective franchise shall be enjoyed by all such persons as have the qualifications herein stated for electors of delegates ; and when such Constitution shall be ratified by a majority of the persons voting on the question of ratification, who are quali- fied as for delegates ; and when such Constitution shall have been submitted to Congress for examination and approval, and Congress shall have approved the same ; and when said State, by a vote of its Legislature, elected under said Con- stitution, shall have adopted the amendment to the Con- stitution of the United States, proposed by the Thirtj-ninth Congress, and known as Article XIY. ; and when said article shall have become a part of the Constitution of the United State.3, said State shall be entitled to representation in Congress, and Senators and Representatives shall be admitted therefrom on their taking the oath prescribed by law, and then and thereafter the preceding sections of this Act shall be inoperative," 12 To the bill, thus modified, the House added a pro- vision that, until the rebel States shall be admitted to representation in Congress, any civil government existing therein shall be deemed provisional only, and " subject to the paramount authority of the United States, at any time, to abolish, modify or supersede the same." In this form the bill was passed in the House by 125 yeas against 46 nays, and in the Senate by 35 yeas against 7 nays. The President went through the form of vetoing the bill, and it was immediately passed over the veto, in the Senate, by 38 yeas against 10 nays, and in the House by 135 yeas against 10 nays. The Thirty-ninth Congress has been made memor- able by the fact that one member of the House of Representatives was brave enough, on his own re- sponsibility, in the presence of the House, and before the American People, to impeach Andrew Johnson, acting President of the United States, of high crimes and misdemeanors in office ; and to offer a Resolution instructing the Judiciary Committee to inquire into the truth of his accusations. This was done on the 7th of January, 1867, by James M. Ashley, of Ohio ; and the Resolution was adopted by the House, by a vote of 108 yeas against 38 nays. The record of the Thirty-ninth Congress being closed, the question naturally arises, Is the slave's freedom completed and secured ? Congress has cer- tainly labored towards this end ; and a large number of its members' have earnestly desired to accomplish 13 it. They have enacted laws for the security of the personal and political rights of the colored men of the South 5 they have made it a condition of the return of the rebel States to representation in Con- gress, that the white and the black man shall stand side by side at the ballot-box ; and they have decreed that until that return, those rebellious States shall be under the control of the Federal government. Bub they have left the execution of all their laws in the hands of a man who responded to them with his veto ; who declared the men who were most zealous in their enactment to be traitors and assassins ; a man who, sitting in the presidential chair, gave aid and comfort to the murderers in the New Orleans massacre ; who revoked a military order which forbade the public whipping of colored men and women in North Caro- lina ; who proclaimed peace when there was no peace ; and w T hose stern purpose is to restore to State sover- eignty and Congressional Representation, rebels fresh from the battle-field, so unrepentant of their treason that they still make it unsafe for loyal white men to dwell on their soil, and still treat the negro with insult and cruelty, and who openly boast that they will yet win by diplomacy what they failed to win by the sword. Is the Southern negro's freedom safe under the protection of such an Executive officer ? Of Andrew Johnson it may be said that his treachery to his party, his disloyalty to his country, his treason to Humanity have risen to such colossal magnitude that the name of Jefferson Davis dies out of men's thought* 2 14 It was in the power of the Thirty-ninth Congress to impeach and depose this occupant of the presiden- tial chair, and they neglected the opportunity. Will their lenity towards him incline him to execute their laws ? Let the character of his last veto message answer. Let us suppose the provisions of the Reconstruction Bill complied with, to the letter. Will the freedom of the Southern negro then be secure ? The South, restored to State sovereignty, will no longer be with- in the control of the Federal government, excepting for the enforcement of the requirements of the Fed- eral Constitution ; and each State may, at pleasure, change her Constitution and deprive the negro of the ballot which she was compelled to give him in order to obtain her State Sovereignty ; for this condition is not made " fundamental and perpetual/' as it is in the bill which admitted Nebraska into the Union. Or, without such Constitutional change, Southern in- genuity will not find it difficult to evade the obligation by the passage of laws which will, really though not ostensibly, disfranchise the colored man. An indi- cation of what may be expected of those States is furnished in North Carolina, where negro men and women are publicly whipped in the most cruel manner, for slight offences, in order to disqualify them for voting at some future day ; there being a law of that State which deprives a person, who has been publicly whipped, of the right to vote. The temper and spirit of the leading white classes 15 in the rebel States is a continual warning to us not to trust the freedom of their colored population to such protection. The testimony of Gen. Howard is that the large body of Southern men " disbelieve in freedom for the negro;" that "they surrender slavery inch by inch and piece by piece ; but they will not give it up altogether, until constrained to do it by the power of freedom itself." P. Bonested, Special Inspector for Kentucky and Tennessee, in an official report to Gen. Howard, presents "sixty cases of outrage, in a limited district and period, unparal- lelled in their atrocity and fiendishness," committed upon freedmen and friends of the freedmen ; cruelties "for which, (he states,) in no instance, as developed by the testimony, is there the least shadow of excuse or palliation." And then he adds : " I regret to say that these cases constitute but a portion of the cata- logue of cruelties. Of the offences reported, there has been but one arrest by the civil authorities. The arm of the civil law has, however, been brought in requisition, quite recently, to release and protect offenders." Officers of the Freedmen's Bureau in Louisiana testify to similar treatment of the negroes there, by the State militia and the civil authorities. The unrepentant spirit of the rebels is clearly indi- cated in such acts as the unanimous adoption, in the Georgia Legislature, of a resolution expressing their "respect for the character and services of the illustrious prisoner of Slate, Jefferson Davis;"- and by the appointment of such rebels as Lee and Sernme 16 to professorships in Southern colleges. A legiti- mate result of one of these appointments recently taught the North what degree of protection the colored man might expect when left to the judicial protection of Reconstructed Rebels. A black man in Lexing- ton, Virginia, was shot and killed by one of Lee's pupils. The murderer defended himself, on his ex- amination, by saying that the negro had " insulted " him. Witnesses testified to this fact ; and the Judge decided that " the laws of Virginia have always re- cognized the difference between the white man and the black; that a white man may protect himself from negro insults ; and that though the deed was clearly proven, it was the result of the insult, and he should discharge the defendant from custody." The statutes for the government of freedmen, enacted in many of the rebel States, differ very little from the old slave Jaws. The statutes of Louisiana forbid freedmen employed on a plantation to leave it for the purpose of visiting their friends, and prohibit their friends from visiting them ; declare unemployed freedmen w 7 ho have not made contracts during the first ten days in January, " vagrants," and provide for selling them to planters for one year, or compell- ing them to work upon the public roads or levees without contract or fair wages, unless the "vagrant" can give security for good behavior in such a sum as any Justice may choose to demand. This code also provides for the punishment of persons for "tamper- ing with, enticing away, harboring, or feeding, or Be- 17 creting laborers^ se?*vants, or apprentices." It requires th'at freedmen shall carry passes. Mississippi legislates for her freedmen thus : "Be it enacted, That all the penal and criminal laws now in force in this State, defining offences and prescribing the modes of punishment for crimes and misdemeanors com- mitted by slaves, free negroes, or mulattoes, be and the same are hereby re-enacted and declared to be in full force, and effect against freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes, except so far as the mode and manner of trial and punish- ment have been changed or altered by law." The Florida Legislature has put the colored popu- lation of that State entirely at the mercy of the white citizens, by arming the latter and disarming the former ; by prescribing the lash as a penalty for trifling offences ; by enacting that " failure to perform work assigned to him," ''violation of contract," "dis- respect to the employer or his agent," shall be crimes for which negroes may be sold into servitude for one year. In Kentucky, Judge Harbeson pronounces the Civil Rights Bill unconstitutional, and asserts that a law of Congress cannot annul the laws of that State. In view of such legislation and decisions, we hear without surprise that in North Carolina six hundred negroes, some of whom were twenty-one years of age and supporting themselves, were seized by the police, torn from their homes, and bound out as apprentices by the County Court;- and that in Georgia a colored missionary, preaching to the people of his own race, and amply sustained by the Georgia Equal Rights Association, which receives its funds from the North, 18 was arrested as a vagrant, and sentenced to the chain-gang for twelve months. It is true that the practical operation of some of these infamous statutes is occasionally interrupted by the officers of theFreedmen's Bureau, or the military forces of the United States, where their power is sufficient for successful interference ; but not the less on this account does such legislation clearly prove that the negro's freedom will be utterly sacrificed if left in the keeping of rebel States. From the trage- dies of Memphis and New Orleans, voices of agony cry to us in warning and appeal, and adjure us by all that is sacred in human liberty, by all that is dear to human hearts, to complete the deliverance of the American Slave. We may not shut our eyes and ears against the unwelcome testimony that slavery has not actually wholly ceased to exist in the land from which it has been legally and constitutionally banished. The loyal Southern men who, at the peril of their lives, assembled in this city, a few months since, and ap- pealed to the North to stand by them in their fierce conflict against despotism, solemnly declared that the negro in the South has, "by the severest penalties, been made a serf in the name of freedom." Gen. Hamilton, Provisional Governor of Texas, says: "Let us not flatter ourselves that slavery no longer exists.'' In Maryland, a sheriff advertises the public sale, for six months, of a negro man, convicted at the 19 October term, 1866, of the Anne Arundel county Cir- cuit Court for larceny, and sentenced by the court " to be sold as a slave." And we hear of negroes sold as slaves in Alabama, at prices which indicate an ex- pectation, on the part of the buyers, of being able to hold them. In other Southern States, also, planters, relying on the fatal exception in the Amendment which prohibited slavery, and upon the public senti- ment around them, are supplying their plantations with laborers by purchasing men and women sold for crime, and working them under the lash as slaves. For a remedy for all this we look in vain to the Executive Department of our Government. In that quarter there is no more desire to do justice to the freedmen than there was a year ago when Gen. Sax- ton was removed from his post in South Carolina, because of his stern loyalty to freedom, and his vigi- lant care of the black man's rights; and when the Government cruelly broke its promise to the Sea Island Freeclmen, who implicitly trusted its assurances respecting the homes which they were so industrious- ly creating. Nor can we rely on the Judicial branch of the Federal Government in this great conflict be- tween the spirit of slavery and the spirit of Liberty. Recent decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States have startled the Nation, awakening alarm among the friends of freedom, and inspiring with joy the rebels and their Northern allies. The colored man's right to the ballot is now gener- ally conceded by the loyal Northern press ; and the 20 necessity of its exercise by the legally emancipated slave, in order to secure his personal freedom, is far more extensively felt and acknowledged than it was a year ago. During the last year Philadelphia has been the seat of two memorable Conventions. One was composed of loyal men of the South, vrho came hither to find an atmosphere in which they might freely speak the burning thoughts which they had found it unsafe to utter at home. They came to tell the North their experience of despotism, and to confer with one an- other respecting the most efficient method of resisting it. The other was composed of unrepentant rebels and their allies, who gathered for the purpose of making a demonstration which should overawe the loyal citizens of the North and strengthen Andrew Johnson in his policy. The reception which Philadelphia gave to these two Conventions may be regarded as a fore- shadowing of the fate of the two principles which they represented. This is the deliberate, solemn testimony of those loyal men whose lives had been spent in the presence of the system of slavery, and who knew whereof they affirmed : " There can be no safety for the country against the fell spirit of sla- very, now organized in the form of serfdom, unless the government, by national and appropriate legisla- tion, enforced by national authority, shall confer on every citizen in the States we represent the American birthright of impartial suffrage and equality before the law." 21 Yet Northern politicians, delegated to welcome them, besought them to repress their official utterance of this testimony. Of those politicians Gov. Hamil- ton thus speaks : " When we met in Convention, we loyal men of the South, expected no obstruction to an outspoken expression of feel- iug. Judge of my surprise and disappointment when I found here a few Northern men who thought more of their own election to Congress than they did of alleviating our condition at home. They said that if we expressed ourselves in an open manner they feared they would lose their elec- tions in the North. But we have no such fears. We are anxious to do impartial justice to all men; placing ourselves upon the broad rock of eternal truth." We quote one more witness, eminently qualified to testify on this subject. Henry Winter Davis writes : " The negro population must be recognized by the Presi- dent and Congress as an integral part of the people of the State, in the view of the Constitution of the United States, without whose concurrence and full participation in power no State government will be recognized in any State which rebelled ; or it will remain ostracised and outcast for another generation, and the enemies of the government will wrest it from those who saved it." Congress, by its recent action, responds to the truth of this testimony. Bat the ballot can be secured to the freedmen, only by the Federal Constitution and an Executive Officer loyal to that Constitution. To obtain such amendment of the Constitution as will secure it is the work of the present hour. The Forti- eth Congress has already assembled. The People's voice has bidden it go forward in the work of exe- cuting justice for the negro. If it would justify itself to the Nation which has elected it, to Humanity which waits with eager hope for its action ; if it is 22 not wholly blind to its tremendous responsibility and glorious privilege, it will faithfully use the grandest opportunity which the Providence of God ever gave a Nation's Legislature to decree and establish righte- ousness. It will present to the People, for their ratification, such an Amendment to the Constitution as will give the ballot to the negro and enable the Federal Executive power to defend him in the exer- cise of it ; and it will remove from the Presidential office the man who has defied its laws and betrayed the Nation. To urge upon the people and their representatives this duty of securing by Constitutional decree the right of the freedman to protect himself by the ballot is the present duty f Abolitionists. Our work will not be done until the millions, for whose redemption from bondage we have toiled, and prayed, and fought against principalities and powers, and spiritual wick- edness in high places, are delivered out of the control of their masters and brought within the full protec- tion of the power of the United States. For this, irreversible guaranties must be demanded, and until these are obtained we are pledged to the faithful ad- vocacy of their cause, and may not leave this for other work. No schemes of reconstruction which will leave their highest right of citizenship at the mercy of State legislation or action, after the South- ern States shall be restored to sovereignty, will we accept in their name ; no endowments of land ; no bounteous gifts of education, needful as these are, and 23 blessed in the giving and receiving, will satisfy our demand in their behalf. We demand of the Nation that these victims of its own injustice shall be invested with a freeman's power to protect their own freedom. Nor can we delegate our work to any political press or party, marvellous as has been the moral growth of 6ome of these during the past year. The constant temptation of a political party is to sacrifice its prin- ciples to its existence. Martyrdom for its faith is no part of its creed or practice. An impending election confuses its moral perceptions and paralyses its best purposes. We have found leaders of the Republican party in the House of Representatives yielding to the temptation to vote for the admission of Tennessee ;* and in the Senate we saw the entire body of Radical members, excepting Charles Sumner and B. Gratz Brown, following Senator Wade in the same path of compromise with wrong. We have heard the Tribune, and other organs of the Republi- can Party, advocate reconstruction on the basis of the Constitutional Amendment, which allowed the exclusion of the freedman from the ballot-box ; and we dare not leave the negro's cause in their hands. We hail with joy all the tokens of the Nation's moral progress which the last year has revealed. We give thanks for every onward, upward step which Con- * The twelve members of the House who voted in the negative were Messrs. Alley, Benjamin, Boutwell, Elliot, Higby, Jencks, Julian, Kelley, Loan, McClurg, Paine, and Williams. 24 gress has taken ; and gratefully record the decision of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, and the legisla- tive action of Nebraska and Tennessee, conferring suffrage on the colored men of those States ; the pro- posal in the Missouri Senate to banish the word "white" from the Constitution of that State ; and the declaration of the South Carolina Legislature that the colored people of that State shall be admitted to the enjoyments of the same civil rights as those of the white population. We rejoice in the fact that the issues in the great contest are more and more sharply defined ; that the monstrous treachery of Andrew Johnson, and the rejection by the rebels of the terms proposed in the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, have elicited from Congress requi- sitions of higher justice for the freedmen. Our sym- pathetic condolence with the Radical party in Mary- land, over their defeat, was quickly turned into congratulation that that defeat elevated them to a higher platform, whence they unfurled the banner of 11 impartial suffrage and equal law r s," and proclaimed that though beaten they were "not conquered. " Among the signs of the times which mark the pro- gress of public sentiment, we notice the election of colored men to the Legislature of Massachusetts, and the nomination of Wendell Phillips for Congress in the city where, a few years ago, the slave-power, im- personated in a brutal mob, sought his life. A Convention of Southern gentlemen, very recent- ly slaveholders, listening with respectful attention to 25 the arguments and exhortations of Frederick Doug- lass and Anna Dickinson was not only a thrilling scene, but a fact of great national significance. During the past year we have pursued our work in joyful hope that its full consummation is at hand, and cheered with rich harvests from earlier sowing. The chief instrumentality upon which this Society has, during this year, relied for the promotion of our cause, has been the National Anti-Slavery Standard, and towards the support and circulation of that journal our funds have been mainly appropriated. Conducted with great ability, uncompromisingly ad- vocating and persistently demanding absolute justice and, consequently, full citizenship for the legally emancipated slave, that journal has a strong claim upon every abolitionist and every friend of the freedman, for liberal support. The most radical members of Congress testify to the importance of its influence. The success of our Festival of the Friends of Freedom, held in the month of January, enables us to increase our contribution to its support, either directly, or indi- rectly through our own State Society. We have sent to Congress petitions for such amendment to the Con- stitution as is necessary to complete the freedom of those for whom we have so long labored: and we have from time to time uttered through the press our protest against injustice on the part of the Govern- ment, or our grateful acknowledgment of triumphs won for freedom. The exclusion of colored persons from our city 26 railroad cars, oga'nst which this Society and many of our fellow-citizens have for manv years remonstra- ted, is still suffered by public opinion and not pre- vented by our courts. We could fill these pages with thrilling narratives of cruel outrages perpetrated upon colored men and women, by our city Railroad Com- panies, through their employees, during the past year. One of the most wanton of these outrages was prac- tically sanctioned by Judge Thompson, in the Su- preme Court at Nisi Prius. when he granted a non- suit in the case, on the ground that the Railroad Company was not responsible for the injuries sus- tained by the colored woman at the hands of their car driver and conductor. A committee of gentlemen appointed at a public meeting, held in this city two years ago, remonstrated with the Directors of the Companies, and appealed to Mayor Henry, in one case of ejection of a colored man from a car. The Mayor explicitly informed them that he did not sympathize with their efforts, for he did not wish " the ladies of his family to ride in the cars with colored people" Possibly he was not fully conscious that he was thus condemning Axe ladies of other families to be pushed with brutal violence from the cars to the street pavement. The appeals of the Committee to the Railway Companies seemed to be attended with little better results, and according to the published testimony of Mr. Benja- min Hunt, the Committee themselves " failed to be true to their trust when tried by the test of party 27 politics." On this subject the churches and clergy of this city have signally failed in their duty. Eager, zealous, prompt to do battle against the running of our city cars on Sunday, they have scarcely been disturbed by this wicked and cruel practice of excluding their fellow-citizens and fellow-christians from those cars on account of their complexion. Had they made half the effort to abolish this practice, which they have made to prevent the running of Sunday cars, it would have ceased long ago. Bat the steady though slow improvement in public opinion has, during the last winter, influenced our State Legislature, and the Senate has passed a bill prohibiting, under severe penalties, the exclusion of any person, on account of color or race, from any passenger car belonging to any Railway Corporation in this State ; or the com- pelling of any person, on such account, to occupy any particular part of said cars. The passage of this bill in the House and its ratification by our Governor are confidently expected, and we trust that Philadelphia will very soon cease to be a disgraceful exception among Northern cities in this regard.* Our criticism of the course of the clergymen of our city, relative to this matter, would be incomplete if unaccompanied with honorable notice of a few who have been faithful found among the faithless. Three clergymen, whose names are connected with three different ecclesiastical sects, but whose works prove * Since this Report was presented, this bill has become a law. 28 that they all belong to that church wherein is known neither Jew nor Greek, bond or free, " but all are one in Christ Jesus," have made their pulpits places for the rebuke of popular sins and the advocacy of un- popular righteousness. The persecuted colored man of this country has reason to remember and to bless the names of Rev. William H. Furness, Rev. B. F. Barrett, and Rev. Phillips Brooks. Grateful acknowledgements are also due and are freely rendered to The Press and Evening Bulletin of this city for their faithful advocacy of the right of the colored population to the use of our railway cars, and their burning rebukes of the manner and wicked- ness of the denial of this right. Nor do we forget the honored names of men who in another field have fought valiantly for the freedom of the slave, and for the full protection of that free- dom ; who, in our legislative Halls, have resisted schemes of injustice, and have urged with untiring persistence the claims of the w r eak and helpless. We have frequently recorded upon the pages of our Re- port the names of such members of Congress ; but the roll of honor now, happily, numbers too many for us to transcribe them all, and to select a few would be invidious. The thanks of abolitionists, and the blessings of those Yfho were ready to perish, rest upon them. We rejoice in the widely-extended benevolence which has supplied the treasuries of the Freedmen's Associations ; and in the abundant labors of those 29 Associations, which seek not only to feed and clothe the freedman, but to educate him to perform the high duties of citizenship. From our stand-point of to-day, looking backward and forward, joy, gratitude, hope and faith struggle with one another for utterance. The triumphs of our cause loom up so grandly before us ; the dawn of America's jubilee has burst with glory so transcendant upon our sight, that our long warfare against slavery almost seems as u a dream when one awaketh." In these triumphs we see the promise of complete vic- tory. Joy and gratitude inspire us with strength for the work which yet remains for us to do. Memories of fellow laborers who toiled with us through days of darkness and peril, and who hailed with us the glori- ous dawning before they passed away, bid us be faith- ful unto the'end. One valued member of this Society, a true friend of the slave, an earnest champion of Truth and Right, has, since our last anniversary, heard the call, " Come up higher!" and passed away, leaving in many hearts precious memories of her noble life.* And one who, in the earlier years of our enterprise, was abundant in labors with us, has faithfully finished her earthly course, and received the reward of a commission to nobler service. f The complete and final victory of our cause is cer- tain. We believed this in its darkest days ; we are not less assured of it, now, when faith is changing to sight. The light which, from around and above us, * Mary C. Wright. t Sarah Lewis. 30 is poured upon our path, throws its beams far into the future, and in that light we see our beloved coun- try purged from all stains of oppression, emancipated from all bonds of caste, regenerated by supreme love of justice, ruling itself in righteousness, and sending up to heaven, from every hill and valley across the broad continent, the acceptable worship of a " People whose God is the Loud." Philadelphia Female Anti- Slavery Society in account with Annie Shoemaker, Treasurer. 1866. DR. To Rent of room for Annual Meeting $ 5 00 " Printing Annual Report 45 50 " Advertising 95 " Subscription to National Anti-Slavery Standard, (50 c °P ies ) 150 00 " Rent of room for Stated Meetings 9 oo 2d mo., 1867. Balance in Treasury 403 21 $618 66 1866. DR. By Balance in Treasury , g 9 qo " Members' Subscriptions gg qo " Donations 29 qq " Sale of Articles left from Fair 95 " Donation from Pa. A. S. Society 100 00 1st mo., 1867. Proceeds of Festival 403 62 $618 66 Lvdia Gillixgham, Auditor. 81 REPORT OF THE FESTIVAL COMMITTEE. The Committee appointed by the Philadelphia Female Anti- Slavery Society to make arrangements for a Festival of the Friends of Freedom, to be held in the month of January, 1866, respectfully report: That the evening of the 17th of January was selected for the occasion : and two hundred and fifty circulars were distributed in the City and County, requesting contributions of money and provisions ; and two thousand circulars of invitation were printed for distribution. Applications were personally made some of the Caterers of this city, several of whom promptly responded by offers of liberal assistance and generous supplies. Mr. J. W. Price, Messrs. Johnson and Osborne, and Mr. William Dorsey re- lieved the Committee of a large share of labor in the Refresh- ment Department of the Festival ; and many friends of the cause, in the country, and a few in the city, sent liberal contributions of provisions and money. The Festival was held on the evening of the 17th of January, in National Hall, Market Street; and, though the weather was very inclement, so large a number of persons were in attendance that, but for the great size of the hall, the guests would have been uncomfortably crowded. The managers were gratified with the result of their efforts. The brilliantly lighted hall with its pictured ceiling, and walls hung with the well known banners which have adorned so many of our Anti-Slavery Fairs ; the tastefully arranged table, with its central ornament of a pyramid of flowers, (the gift of Mr. Abraham L. Pennock, Jr., of this city,) produced a fine spectacular effect; while the instrumental music of the Delmonico Cornet Band, and the songs of Miss Elizabeth Greenfield and her pupils, and the exhibition of the Stereorama by Mr. Edward Parrish and Dr. Hunt, (to the great enjoyment of those who crowded the ante-room,) were added to the social pleasures of the evening. 32 Among the objects of interest which graced the occasion \x\s the table upon which was signed the Anti-Slavery " Declaration of Sentiments," in December, 1833. in the Adelphi Building in this city, at the formation of the American Anti-Slavery Society. This valuable historical relic was iutrodaced to the notice of the audience in a few eloquent words by George Thompson. In an interval between conversation and music, the assembly was addressed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, J. Miller McKim and Lucy Stone. Letters were read from Hon. Schuyler Colfax and Hon. John W. Forney, expressing their regret for the necessity of decliuing our invitation to the Festival. The abolitionists, young and old, seemed to enjoy heartily this rare opportunity of general social intercourse with so many fel- low laborers ; and from several absent friends of the cause let- ters have since been received by the Committee, expressing their great disappointment that the deep snow and violent wind-storm on that day and evening prevented their attendance on the oc- casion. The pecuniary results of the enterprise are regarded by your Committee as ample compensation for the labor involved; and as sufficient encouragement for similar efforts in future. The Receipts were .... $'389 97 Expensese . . . . 291 85 Leaving a net profit of . . 403 62 The experience of your Committee in the management of this Festival has taught them how the expenses might be greatly re- duced if a similar occasion should occur in the future. Mary Grew, Chairman. THIETT-FOUBTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PHI LADELPHI A d male SUti-JilaiOT JktiefiL February, 1868. PHILADELPHIA: MERRIHEW & SON, PRINTERS. No. 243 Arch Street. 18G8. THIETY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT PHI LADELPHI A jjtmak ^nti-SHaittj §&mtth February, 1868. PHILADELPHIA: MERRIHEW & SON, PRINTERS, No. 243 Arch Street. 1867. A A C\ Officers for the Ensuing Year. PRESIDENT, LUCRETIA MOTT. VICE-PRESIDENT, SIDNEY ANN LEWIS. RECORDING SECRETARY, GULIELMA JONES. CORRESPONDING SECRETARY, MARY GREW. TREASURER, ANNIE SHOEMAKER. BOARD OF MANAGERS, LUCRETIA MOTT, HANNAH L. STICKNEY, ANNA M. HOPPER, SARAH H. PEIRCE, REBECCA S. HART, ROSANNA THOMPSON. REPORT. An important element of success in any conflict is a correct estimate of the forces to be opp -sed. A careful survey of the situation is a profitable study at the close of one year of labor and the commence- ment of another. It is wise to look all our difficul- ties and dangers in the face, and recount all our victories ; neither exaggerating or "under-estimating one or the other. Thus shall we be able to enter intelligently, hopefully and valiantly on the work before us. Our ardent hope outran our judgment when we fancied that the close of four years of war would consummate our work and the glorious triumph of human freedom in our land. Dazzled by the brightness which burst upon us ; over- whelmed with the joy and gratitude with which we hailed the jubilant proclamation that the destruc- tion of American Slavery was decreed by the high- est law of the land, we verily thought, as we saw that giant Upas tremble, and heard the deafening crash of its fall, that leaf and twig, fruit and blossom, mighty trunk and wide-spreading root, would speed- ily wither and die. Now, after two years of watch- ing and earnest effort to complete its destruction, as we see the vigor with which it strives to send new roots into the soil where it lies, as we feel the pois- onous miasma with which it fills the air, we do not account our deep and loud rejoicings over its fall premature or excessive ; but do all the more heartily give thanks that the death-blow was no longer de- layed. The conflict between Slavery and Freedom which was fought with steel and fire, on fields of blood, for four years, is now transferred to another arena. In Congress and State Legislatures, in Courts, on Platforms and in Pulpits ; in our streets and market places, it is still going on. The weapons are changed ; the conflict is the same. The question which agitates this entire country is simply this : Shall the colored man possess and enjoy his freedom, and his rights as a man ; or shall he be deprived of a portion of such freedom and rights, on account of his color ? The statement of the question seems sufficient to show its absurdity, and would be so if men were not drunken with power and pride, and thus debased in intellect as well as in heart. Yet such has been the vitiating influence of slavery upon this people, that, to-day, this is the question which their leaders are discussing, and before which political parties stand trembling. The progress of the cause of freedom during the past year has been marked by many events worthy of record. We are yet so unaccustomed to the new order of things that we read with surprise as well as delight the report of public meetings of colored and white men in Savannah, in Charleston and in Columbia, assembled for the purpose of discussing questions of state and national polity. Such meet- ings have been held in nearly all the Southern States ; and the rights of the black man have been formally, if not cheerfully, acknowledged in resolu- tions and addresses. Testimony of negroes in a suit where both parties were white has been admitted in a court in Vir- ginia for the first time, by virtue of a new law of that State. An important decision by Chief Justice Chase has set free from a new form of slavery, called apprenticeship, a certain child in Maryland, and thereby established a legal claim to freedom from similar bonds on the part of thousands of other colored children in that State. In the City of Charleston, the right oi colored persons to use the street cars has been decreed and maintained, and even in New Orleans colored men sit on a grand jury. But the most cheering indica- tion of progress in the South is found in the char- acter and action of the Conventions called by the people, in accordance with the Eeconstruction Laws of Congress, for the purpose of forming Constitu- tions for the Southern States. It is true that the elec- tion of the large majorities of loyal delegates to these 1* 6 Conventions was, in many instances, the result of the fact that the white aristocracy, in their pride and anger, refused to vote; but this only insured to the Conventions a higher moral tone, and threw the power of the State, for the hour, into the hands of the friends of the black man's freedom. If these aristocratic rebels should persevere in this mani- festation of their dignity a few months longer, the loyal people of those States, whice and black may be able to adopt, by large majorities, Constitutions which shall acknowledge the equal right of all men, without distinction of color, to protection of law, and to citizenship. It seemed a promise for good, as well as a memorable instance of poetic justice, that the Convention of Alabama, composed as it was of judges, lawyers, planters and merchants of the State, members of her former legislatures, offi- cers and privates of the rebel army, and colored men whom all these classes had trampled under their proud feet, held its sessions, day after day, in the very building where, seven years ago, the Confede- rate Congress sat and announced that slavery was the corner-stone of their new government ; and defied the moral sense of the world. We hail as cheering signs of the times the an- nouncement that the National An ti- Slavery Stand- ard is publicly offered for sale in Baltimore and New Orleans ; that it goes regularly to these cities, and to Charleston, Kichmond, Nashville Memphis and Mobile; that black men have been appointed to clerkships in the Custom House at New Orleans; that the National Council Union League of Ameri- ca demands " universal manhood suffrage ;" and that many presses, both in the north and the south, echo that demand. The music of that old slave- auction bell of Beaufort, which now calls freed children to school, is ringing out a glorious promise for the future. We listen to catch its glad new tones, and while we respond with fervent thanks- giving, there is borne to us along the electric wires, the thrilling message, u Brazil is free I" Our review of the year does not furnish so many tokens of progress in the North as we have some- times been able to record. A victory which, in our last Annual Eeport, we announced as nearly won, has been accomplished. We rejoice to record the fact that our city is no longer disgraced by the ex- clusion of her colored citizens from her railway cars. On the 22d of March, 1867, Gov. Geary signed the bill passed by our Legislature, requiring all railroad companies in this State to carry all persons without distinction of color, and imposing a heavy penalty npon any officer or agent of such companies who should require colored persons to occupy any par- ticular seats on account of their complexion. For the honor of Philadelphia, we regret that her reli- gion was too corrupt or to weak to wipe out this blot upon her fame, without the interference of State legislation. For the honor of Pennsylvania's Judiciary, we regret that the decisions and interpe- trations of common law were not a sufficient protec- tion for the rights of the weak and helpless ; but as the pulpit and the bench failed to enforce this simple justice, we rejoice that the legislature of the State put its hand to the work, and accomplished it so thoroughly. We welcome, as a valuable auxiliary to the cause of freedom, The Morning Post, a daily paper estab- lished in this city within the last year. Its indepen- dent attitude towards all political parties, its just and fearless criticism of men and principles, and its brave defence of the rights of the colored man, have elevated it to a moral plane seldom occupied by a daily newspaper. While we rejoice in every victory won, and promptly hail every new token of coming triumphs, we cannot, ought not to, overlook the fact that the spirit and temper of the Southern Rebels has not been changed by their defeat in battle. When they surrendered their cannon to Gren. Grant, they did not surrender their hearts to the just claims of their slaves, nor did they feel or say, " We. are verily guilty concerning our brother." Yielding to force which they could no longer resist, they retired from that contest in sullen pride and hate, determined to renew it in another arena, as soon as possible. And they have renewed it, and are carrying it on with the same zeal and persistency and cruelty, the same utter disregard of justice and truth that character- ized their slaveholding, and made them, in their treatment of prisoners taken in war, a disgrace to civilization. This spirit and purpose is so plainly known and read of all men that it seems scarcely necessary for us to array facts in its proof. Already, with unblushing insolence, are they appealing to the Supreme Court of the Nation for a decision against the constitutionality of the legis- lation of Congress, on the ground that they were not participants in it. It has been said, with great truth and force, that " it would be impossible to find another instance in history in which the pro- moters of an organized rebellion, having appealed to the sword, and suffered decisive defeat, have sub- sequently been permitted to arraign the authority of the conqueror, and plead, with all the forms of law, for the issues which they had striven to uphold on the battle-field." They have sternly set themselves to resist all efforts to protect the freedom of the colored man ; they not only deny his right to the ballot, but they loudly declare that nothing but military force shall ever induce them to submit to what they call "negro supremacy ;" by which they mean the exercise of the suffrage by colored men. Towards those freed- men who attempt to exercise this right, and towards 10 their friends who claim it for them, these rebels " breathe out threatening and slaughter." The Memphis Appeal says : "The rescue of the South from the utter damnation that seems about to fall upon and overwhelm us all, is only to be effected by restoring the powers of the government to the hands of white men ; and denying to the negro , now and for- \ ever, without exception or qualification, the right to vote. To effect this only do we struggle. " Between us and the black man there can be no other relation than that of patron and client, unless he is fool enough to make himself a danger and a nuisance in the State, If he will keep his proper place we will to the utmost of our power and influence secure to him his fiee- dom and his civil rights, and none shall oppress or make him afraid, if we can prevent it. If he is not content with that it may be that he will by and by have to be content with less ; and if so } he may thank those for it who have misled him. " To give these ignorant, stupid sans-culottes the right to vote in municipal affairs, and to elect the mayors and alder- dermen of cities, is a union of villainy and absurdity so des- picable that it would provoke a sardonic smile on the countenance of Beelzebub. To any who has given them that right we would vote nothing but a halter ; for, compared with it, robbery and murder are laudable acts and merito- rious services done the Commonwealth." The Mobile Advertiser says : " The detestable work of the herd of adventuring scound- rels and ignorant negroes assembled at Montgomery is com- plete, and the 'abomination of abominations,' as it came from their hands, is to be submitted, in the shape of a mon- strous thing named a constitution, to what its fiendish au- thors call the suffrages of the people." 11 The Charlottesville (Va.) Chronicle, comments thus on the result of the election in that State in October last : " By Tuesday's work the negroes have set their seal to their doom. There is no longer any peace. The question now is, who shall occupy and rule the teiritory between forty and thirty-two degrees north latitude — the blacks or the whites." The Lynchburg Virginian, on the same occasion, utters a similar threat : " It only remains for the white people of Virginia to look to their interest and labor to protect it. They should con- cert measures without delay to fill the State with white la- borers from the North and from Europe. They must crowd the negro out. They must rid the state of an element that will hinder its prosperity ; an element that, under the influ- ence of base white demagogues — themselves without pro- perty — would tax the property of others to relieve them- selves of obligation to educate their children and care for their paupers." The Lynchburg News recommends the persecution of the freed men of Yirginia in the following lan- guage: "We are gratified to learn that one hundred and fifty negroes, employed at the Wythe Iron Mines, all of whom voted the straight-out Radical ticket, were discharged on Tuesday by the owner of the works. This is precisely the step which every employer should take." The Petersburg ( Va.) Index joins the merciless hunt, and cries: " Send them adrift unhesitatingly. Let them learn how 12 unsatisfactory are the husks upou which the Eadicals would have them feed. They will soon weary of the diet, and then, when they have proved repentance, let them return and be assisted in their efforts to become worthy people. But the offence has been grievous, aud the penance should be severe, and the conversion must be proved by works. Until it is established they should be shunned as enemies." "Let no man sleep under your roof, break your bread, drink of your cup, who has spoken at the polls in favor of that party which would despoil your house, embitter your crust with slavery, and fill your cup with the poison of hu- miliation" These are specimens of the teachings of the Southern press, and after reading them we are not surprised when an eye-witness in Alabama writes : " The persecution here is frightful. No Northern men can believe it. You have nothing of the kind by which you can make any comparison." Nor are we greatly astonished by the statement that in the South, " since the surrender in 1865, over eight thousand loyal white and black men have been wantonly murdered, and no efforts made by the civil authorities to arrest and punish the murderers." This spirit of slavery, for such it is, incited a furious mob to assault and attempt to take the life of Hon. Wm, D. Kelley, while he was addressing a meeting of citizens in Mobile. Of its recent manifestations in Tennessee, Cap- tain Kirk, commander of a company of State Guards, stationed in Madison County, writing to Gen. Cooper, says : k,/ No union man, black or white, can live here in peace and safety." At Jackson, in that State, a thousand armed men took possession of the polls, on the day of the election in September, drove away the State Militia, seized the certificates of the Freedmen, overawed the judges of the election and drove the commissioners from the town. From Kentucky similar testimony comes. A friend of the colored people writes from Evansville, Indiana, to a religious paper in the North : "We read, almost daily, of murders, arsons, and robber- ies perpetrated against the rights of colored persons in the Southern States ; but there are outrages perpetrated in the State of Kentucky, of which as yet nothing has been pub- lished. I refer to the fact that colored persons, mostly children and youth, are held as slaves in that State." " These children are not called slaves, (this is an ugly word) but ap- prentices. To all intents and purposes they are slaves ; only they are treated, if possible, with greater cruelty than they were before the war." " All along this Ohio river border are parents whose children are thus held in bondage in Kentucky. Many of the fathers were soldiers in the Union army ; and they dare not venture across the river after their children." Gen. Grant's Eeport as Secretary of War, stated that " apprenticeship in Maryland still holds large numbers of colored children in virtual slavery. The evils and cruelties resulting from this system, sanctioned by the State laws, are matters of con- stant complaint. As many as two thousand cases have been presented in a single county." 2 14 It is to be hoped that the decision of Chief Jus- tice Chase on one of these cases, which we have cited, will be applied for the emancipation of these "thousands. 11 In keeping with such manifestations of spirit and purpose, is the law which was passed by the Legis- lature of Louisiana about a year ago, providing for public schools for white children of the city of Baton Eouge, and enacting that no property within the limits of that city should be taxed for the sup- port of " any other school." These are the people who demand that the Freedmen's Bureau shall be abolished, who persecute to the extent of their power the teachers of the Freedmen's Associations, and who accuse the negro of stupidity and igno- rance. But their fear of the power of the North and the increasing intelligence of the negroes of the South, keeps pace with their wrath ; and they are already seeking fresh victims for their tyranny when those whom they have so long oppressed shall be wholly rescued from their grasp. The U. S. Vice Consul at Havana has informed our government that he has reason to believe " that an extensive scheme is on foot for the introduction of Coolie la- bor in the South. ?? And these wretched creatures have actually been brought from Cuba to New Orleans, and are employed on the plantations of Louisiana. This record of evidence that our Nation is not 15 yet converted to the love of justice, is not wholly confined to the South. There is a long list of out- rages on the rights of the colored man, which can- not be attributed to the rage of a defeated army and a conquered people. The people of the North, who owe their victory on the battle-field, and, conse- quently, their national existence to-day to the aid of their colored soldiery, are guilty of acts of injus- tice and meanness towards those loyal and magnani- mous coadjutors, which we blush to record. During the last year, the voters of Ohio have rejected a State Constitutional Amendment which their Legisla- ture had proposed, which would have given to col- ored men the power to exercise their right of suf- frage. Kansas followed the bad example, and stained her name with the same deed of injustice. New Jersey, by her Legislature, was in advance of both, in adding to her shame by voting to continue the disfranchisement of her colored citizens. The resolution which proposed to establish negro suf- frage was defeated by a majority of fifteen mem- bers, of whom thirteen were Republicans. In the results of the October and November elections, the Republican Party reaped a bitter harvest of their own sowing. The ballots which would have saved them from defeat they had, in their pride or their cowardice, withheld from the hands of their colored fellow-citizens. No wonder that a shout of joy and a yell of defiance went up from all Rebeldom in re- M sponse to the returns of those elections. No wonder that they insulted Ohio and Pennsylvania by con- gratulating one another that these States u lie be- tween Massachusetts and Louisiana ;" and exclaimed, in their joy, " As to the black suffrage question, both parties, Democratic and Eadical, met in com- mon accord to wipe it out." And in proportion to the aid and comfort which the results of these elec- tions furnished the rebels in the South, were the difficulties which they placed in the path of her few loyal sons who are struggling to save her from utter ruin, and to secure to her colored population the freedom which she is madly striving to wrest from their eager grasp. The same spirit which withholds the ballot from the colored man, prompted the cruel decision of Judge Agnew, in the Supreme Court of Pennsylva- nia, in the case of the Philadelphia and West Ches- ter Eailroad Company versus Mary B. Miles. This decision sustained the Company in forcibly ejecting a colored person from their cars, because she claimed and exercised the same right to choose a seat which is claimed and exercised by white travellers ; and refused to occupy a seat designated as proper for colored persons. The opinion delivered by the Judge is equally remarkable for the sophistry by which he endeavors to enforce his decision, and the cruelty with which he taunts our colored citizens with their exclusion from civil and political offices. 17 Happily, the act of our Legislature at its last session (subsequent to the commencement of this suit, which was carried by appeal to our Supreme Court) pre- vents the recurrence of such judicial wrong ; but the odium of this injustice will cling to our Supreme Court, and especially to Judge Agnew, until they shall obliterate its memory by " works meet for re- pentance." We notice, with surprise and sorrow, that one or two members of our State Legislature seem to be seeking odious notoriety by proposing the repeal of the law which opened our city cars to the use of the colored people. At the opening of the session, Mr. Wallace, of Clearfield Co., proposed, in the Sen- ate, an act repealing the act of March 22, 1867 ; and, at a somewhat later period, Mr. Deise, of Clin- ton Co., reported to the House, from the Judiciary Committee, the following bill : " Be it enacted, That the act approved March 22d, 1867, entitled 'An act making it an offence to exclude negroes from railroad cars/ is hereby repealed. " This bill was immediately referred back to the Judiciary Committee, by a vote of forty-two ayes (Republican) and thirty-nine nays (Democrats). On the same day, Mr. Deise reported, from the Commit- tee, another bill prohibiting negroes from riding in our cars. Mr. Mann, of Potter Co., stated that " the majority of the Committee had not agreed to the bill ; but that the Democrats who were on the Com- 18 mittee had happened to find themselves in power, in consequence of the necessary absence of some of the Kepublicans." He thought that the bill ought to be recommitted, and this was done. We do not believe that our Legislature will enact this injustice by statute, or that it will withdraw from the victims of a cruel and vulgar prejudice the protection which it extended to them a year ago. For the honor of our State, and for the sake of justice, we call upon them to go forward in the work thus begun, and abolish the odious distinctions of race and color, which are still made in our public schools. It is time that Pennsylvania should cease from the dis honesty and meanness of taxing a portion of her citizens for the support of high schools and schools of other grades to which they are not permitted to send their own children. This cursory view of the present condition of our country will help us to estimate the dangers which threaten our cause, as well as to mark the triumphs which it has achieved. No one can overlook the danger which confronts the freedman in the deter- mined purpose of his quondam master to reduce him to some form of slavery ; for this is an obvious peril, though by no means the greatest. The com- batants, defeated on Southern battle-fields and put to flight at Gettysburg, might be easily vanquished in the new arena where they have marshalled their forces, if the zeal and courage of the whole North 19 would oppose to them as solid a front now as it did then. Nor in that case should we be much alarmed by the rebellious spirit of the Border States, dis- played in Maryland's demand for compensation for her slaves, and Delaware's veto (uttered through her Supreme Court) of the Civil Eights bill of the last Congress, and Kentucky's heavy majorities in favor of the enemies of freedom. The exorcism of the de- mon of slavery is necessarily attended by struggles such as these. But there are other dangers which, perhaps, we did not anticipate, and which we must calmly look in the face. One of these is the action and present attitude of the Supreme Court of the United States. The decision of the Chief Justice, in April last, which recognized the rights of States which had re- belled and seceded from the Federal Government, to enter suits as States before that Court, alarmed all thoughtful friends of freedom. From present indica- tions there is reason to fear that this Court, if not prevented by Congress, will be induced by Andrew Johnson to declare the Eeconstruction laws of that body unconstitutional. Another source of danger to our cause and our country is the defection from high principle and the timidity of the Eepublican party. The comment of the venerable Thaddeus Stevens upon the results of the I? all elections, was : "The Eepublicans have been acting a most cow- ardly part, and have met a coward's fate." It seems 20 as though a moderate degree of intelligence was suf- ficient to convince that party that its strength lay- in its fidelity to the rights of the colored man, and that no course could be so nearly fatal to itself as the attempt to occupy a neutral position, or to adopt halfway measures, relative to the question which is agitating the whole country. Yet, notwithstanding the entreaties of their Southern allies, that they would not fail to secure the establishment of equal politi- cal rights throughout the Union ; notwithstanding the earnest warnings of some of the most prominent members of the party, that they would be defeated on any other platform, and the pathetic appeals for justice from the colored defenders of the nation's life, the majority of the party have shrunk from boldlv meeting this issue. The Union League of this city contents itself with admitting the necessity of negro suffrage in the South, and lacks either the justice or the courage to demand it for the colored man of the North. The apparent willingness of the party to nominate for the Presidency a man whose moral and political principles are almost unknown, because he is regarded as an available candidate, is an indication of moral weakness, which is severely rebuked by the noble reply of the colored men in Virginia to an agent of the Eepublican Congress- ional Committee, who endeavored to convince them that if they voted for a certain Radical candidate they would suffer defeat : " We will take defeat with 21 this man rather than victory with a man we cannot trust." The party might have learned a valuable lesson from the result of the election in Tennessee, last summer, when they triumphed by the aid of the votes of freedmen, whom no threats could terrify and no bribes or flatteries win to the opposite party. But as only honest men learn that " honesty is the best policy," so only just men learn that justice is the highest expediency. The Proceedings of the Fortieth Congress thus far enable us to form an estimate of the moral strength of the leaders of the Eepublican party, and consequently of the degree of confidence which abo- litionists may safely repose in them. At the date of our last Annual Eeport we were looking, hopefully and anxiously, for such prompt and efficient action from this body as should correct the mistakes and supply the deficiencies of the Thirty-Ninth Congress. Especially did we, in common with a large part of the nation, look to them to impeach and depose the traitor President, Andrew Johnson. They assem- bled and adjourned twice before the Judiciary Com- mittee of the House, to whom was referred the duty of examining the charges on which Mr. Ashley had impeached the President, were ready to make their report. On the 25th ef November that Committee reported that, in their opinion, Andrew Johnson was " guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors," and ought to be impeached by the House. After long 22 and earnest discussion, during which his violations of law, his defiance of the authority of Congress, and his active sympathy with rebels against the Govern- ment, were clearly set forth, the vote of the House was taken, on the 7th of December, upon the ques- tion of his impeachment, and the result was, ayes 57, nays 108, sixty-five Eepublicans voting in the negative. Thus, after a long and spirited conflict with the President, consisting of rigid legislation on one side, responded to by vetoes on the other ; laws promptly enacted over his vetoes, and met by his obstinate refusal to execute them; arrogant and insolent threats from the Executive, and much brave talking by the legislators, Congress surrendered to Andrew Johnson. What defence those sixty- five Republic- ans have to offer for this cowardly betrayal of a peo- ple's trust the nation waits to hear. For any defence which will satisfy hearts loyal to freedom, it will wait in vain. Those members of Congress who zea- lously advocated the impeachment of the President, and earnestly labored to accomplish it, will be re- membered and honored as true patriots, who scorned to sacrifice their country's prosperity to schemes of personal ambition or party success. Much of the legislation of the Fortieth Congress has been eminently favorable to freedom, and that fact excited hope that that body would not fail to provide for the execution of its laws. Very early in 23 its first session a joint resolution was passed by both. Houses suspending all proceedings in reference to payment for slaves drafted or received as volunteers in the military service of the United States. In July, a bill providing that persons in the District of Columbia shall be eligible to office, without distinc- tion of race or color, was introduced in the Senate by Mr. Sumner, was passed by both Houses, and sent to the President for his signature. Within the next ten days Congress adjourned, and the bill thus failed to become a law. On the 21st of November, the first day of the present session, Mr. Sumner asked leave to introduce an exact copy of this bill, and in December it was again passed by both Houses. The adjournment for the holidays left this unfortu- nate bill again in the President's pocket ; and when the Senate reassembled the question whether or not it had become a law by the President's failure to re- turn it, was referred to the Judiciary Committee, and has not yet been answered. In March, 1867, a bill was passed by large ma- jorities in both Houses, providing for the election of delegates to Conventions to be held in the South, for the purpose of forming State Constitutions. This bill required that all male citizens of the United States over twenty-one years of age should be regis- tered as voters for such delegates, in their respect- ive counties or parishes. The President, true to his rebel sympathies, vetoed this bill, and it immediately 24 became a law by the requisite two-thirds majorities in both Houses. In July another Supplementary Reconstruction Bill, of great importance, was passed, which received from Andrew Johnson the same characteristic response, and by the prompt action ot Congress became a law in the usual way. This bill invested the General of the U. S. Army with all powers of suspension, r^tnoval, appointment and detail of all civil and military officers in the dis- loyal states ; and gave the same authority (subject to the approval of the General) to District Comman- ders. In December, the House, in response to that portion of the President's Message which recom- mended the repeal of the Reconstruction laws, passed a Resolution affirming their necessity, and pledging itself never "to take one retrograde step from its advanced position in promoting the cause of equal rights, nor to deviate from its fixed pur- pose of protecting all men as equal before the law." In January, 1868, the Reconstruction Committee reported, and the House adopted, another bill, limi- ting the power of the President, and requiring the General of the Army to enforce all the provisions ot the Reconstruction laws. This bill is now pending in the Senate. Still more radical measures have been proposed in Congress, and attempts made to secure the freedom of the colored man from the violence or cunning of his enemies, by the protec- tion of the Federal Constitution. Resolutions and 25 a bill have been introduced and referred to the Judiciary Committees, proposing an amendment to the U. S. Constitution, which should declare that all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the States wherein they reside ; and making all such citizens electors. Thus has Congress sought to fetter by legislation the power of the President as much as possible. A far wiser and more manly course would have been to impeach and depose him, and thus relieve the Nation, wholly and forever, from his treasonable machinations. All their vigilance and ingenuity will fail to counteract wholly his evil influence ; for while he is permitted to occupy the office of Presi- dent, the Constitution of the United States makes it impossible for Congress to legislate him out of power. Thus far, the Fortieth, like the Thirty-ninth Congress, has failed to perform the important work which the Nation had a right to expect from it. It has neither deposed Andrew Johnson,* nor adopted a proposed Amendment to the Federal Constitution securing the freedom of the colored man of the South by establishing his right of suffrage. All that it has done by legislation may be undone if it shall be left * Since this Report was presented, Andrew Johnson has been impeached by the House of Representatives. 3 unsecured by the Constitutional seal. Its record is not yet complete ; and we will hope that before its adjournment it will do this deed of justice to the millions of our freedmen, and win the benediction of all true friends of liberty. During the past year twenty -one States have rati- fied the Constitutional Amendment noticed in our last report, which provides for the reduction of the basis of representation, in any State, in proportion to the number of male citizens over twenty-one years of age, who shall be denied the right of suf- frage by the State; and on the 11th of January, a Eesolution declaring this Amendment valid was in- troduced in the Senate, and referred to the Judiciary Committee. It is due to the colored people of the South that we sho :ld record the fact that, during this transition period from slavery to freedom, their conduct has been marked by wisdom and patience which was scarcely to be expected from a long-enslaved people. All that the persecutions, the taunts, and the pre- dictions of their enemies could do to provoke them to violence, was done, but to the disappointment of fierce Southern editors who had reiterated their loud alarms, the uprisings never came, and the victims of their hate patiently wait and trust that the Gov- ernment will do them justice. Abundant testimony in their favor is borne by impartial witnesses in the South, by Judge Underwood in Yirginia, and Judge 27 Fraser in Florida, the latter of whom testifies to the admirable manner in which some of these newly emancipated slaves performed the duties of jurymen. With unswerving fidelity they have cast their votes (when allowed to use the ballot) for the true friends of freedom, una wed by threats and unseduced by bribes, which were freely used to win their votes for the opposing candidates, or to deter them from casting them in favor of their friends. Thus they have fully disproved the charge that they had not sufficient intelligence to discern between the claims of opposing candidates. We have the testimony of the officers of the Freedmen's Bureau, that the ma- jority of recipients of their bounty are not colored persons. It is a rare thing for a President of the United States to bestow honors or offices upon men of the proscribed complexion. But when Andrew Johnson offered the position of Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau to three Northern colored men, successively, they instantly fathomed his mo- tive and scorned to become his tools. Our annual retrospect and inquiry into the present condition of our great cause necessarily leads us to the contemplation of the work before us. The gi- gantic system of American slavery, which laid its foundations so deep and reared its battlements so high that it defied the moral forces of the nineteenth century, has been overthrown by those forces, amidst the convulsions of war ; and beneath its mighty ruins 28 the Republic is struggling for its life, and the freed - men for the full realization and security of their freedom. The spirit of slavery still lives in our land, and wages a fierce conflict with the spirit of liberty. On the side of the former are the disappointed rebels of the South and the Democratic party of the North. On the side of the latter are all the hearts that beat in sympathy with justice, ail the noble instincts of humanity, all the strength which inheres in a righteous cause. The contest may be fierce and long, but who can doubt the result ? There is little danger that slavery, by its true name, can ever be restored in this nation. The North would spring to arms to prevent that; the South is too sagacious to attempt it. And if the anti-slavery men and women of the country stand faithfully at their posts, and vigilantly perform their duty, the frantic efforts to restore it under other names, and to rob the freedman of the very essence of his freedom, which now convulse the South, will be utterly defeated, and the world shall behold the American slave standing up a Max, full-panoplied with all the defences of an American citizen. The contest will not cease, and our work will not be done, until his freedom is thus established and se- cured beyond peril. All theories of reconstruction which fail to provide for this, will fail to secure peace for the nation. The true Christian, the true patriot, must demand without ceasing that the black man's right to defend his freedom by the ballot shall be 29 secured to him by the Federal Constitution, and not left to the poor protection of the laws or Constitutions of restored rebel States. One of the great daily journals of the North, — a newspaper which, from the commencement of the anti-slavery enterprise, mani- fested an intense hatred to it, and which annually used to supply inspiration to the mobs which assaulted our meetings, — has recently renewed the old cry that politics do not belong to the pulpit. No true minister of the Gospel, in the pulpit or out, will be moved by the adjurations or frightened by the ridicule of such editors. When it is a part of a nation's politics to oppress a large portion of its citizens, it is the especial duty of Christian ministers to cry aloud in rebuke of such wrong. In a country where the people compose both the church and the government, if they do not inspire their politics with their religion, they are un- faithful to their religion ; and if such inspiration does not exorcise the iniquity of oppressing the weak, their religion is of little worth. In pursuance of our work which events so clearly mark out for us, we use and trust our old instru- mentalities. We seek to promote a correct public sentiment, and inspire zeal for righteousness in the hearts of the people, by publishing and proclaiming the truth, and the just demands of the colored man. Our chief agency in this work is the National Anti- Slavery Standard, to sustain and circulate which our labors are principally devoted. Of the copies of this 30 journal which we have circulated during the past year, a large number have been sent to Southern men, and to teachers of the freedmen. We receive frequent testimonies to the value and usefulness of the paper, from persons to whom it is sent. The Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Festival, held under the direction of our own and the State Society, was a pleasant and profitable reunion of abolitionists, and it resulted in pecuniary success. To all who are working, in our own or in other fields, heartily and faithfully, to complete the en- franchisement and promote the elevation of the millions for whom we labor, we cordially extend our fraternal greeting. In the work which remains to be done we press hopefully forward, encouraged by the rich experience of the past, the trophies of glorious victories all around us, and the brightness with which faith gilds the future. At the close of each year we mark the vacant places which the death-angel has made in our ranks. Of our own members, the oldest* and the youngest have passed away since our last anniversary. One whose fidelity to anti-slavery principles, and unabated interest in them, even in extreme age, will long be remembered by those who knew her well; and one who craved the privilege of laying a child's offering on the altar of the slave's freedom. And the year has borne away from us * Mrs. Elizabeth Le B. Wright. 31 three faithful coadjutors who witnessed the inaugura- tion of our enterprise, and who, at nearly fourscore years of age, stood honored patriarchs in our ranks.* The memory of their disinterested and untiring labors for humanity are their monuments in our hearts. By the death of one of these veterans of our host,f the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society has lost its be- loved and venerated President, with whose presence and counsels it has been blessed for so many years. The summons of his Lord found him at his post of duty, and he received it as a welcome to his home. While we deeply mourn our loss, we will cherish the great bequest of his Christian example. Of him it shall be remembered that, when the flying slave was hunted through our streets, his doors were ever open to shelter the poor outcast from sympathy ; that when the cupidity of the market-place and the cowardice of the church suffered Pennsylvania to be the hunting- ground of kidnappers, he was always found, steadfast and brave, by the side of the helpless victim, an earnest champion and sympathizing friend. To his large heart human suffering never appealed in vain. To his quick sense of justice the sophistry of wrong was clearly exposed, and in his presence selfishness and meanness stood abashed. Walking in his steps, it is ours to finish the work which he began and faith- fullv continued. The hour of its consummation, we a ? * James Mott, Isaac Winslow, Jacob Peirce. t James Mott. 32 trust, is at hand. Then shall mingle with the last notes of our jubilee song, fervent thanksgivings that upon us was bestowed the high privilege of being workers in the grandest moral reform of the nine- teenth century. Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in Account with AifNiE Shoemaker, Treasurer. 2d nio., 1867. DR. To Subscription to National Anti-Slavery Standard (50 copies) $150 00 " Donation to Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society 100 00 " Rent of room for Annual Meeting 2 00 u Rent of room for Stated Meetings 9 00 iC Printing Annual Report 47 75 " Advertising Annual Meeting 3 40 " Expenses of Festival, 1st mo., 1867 8 00 2d mo., 1868. Balance in Treasury 318 06 Total $638 21 2d mo., 1867. CR. By Balance in Treasury .... $408 21 '-* Members' Subscriptions 71 00 " Contribution from M. L. D 4 00 " Festival of 1st mo., 1867 5 00 " ^Festival of 11th mo., 1867 150 00 Total S638 21 * The Festival was held under the joint auspices of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society and the Female Anti-Slavery Society ; the greater part of the proceeds were given directly to the American Anti-Slavery Society. THIKTY-FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT PHILADELPH I A female ^itii-Jilaberp JSbcietn. ** — -'I ^ — y ^ ^ February, 1869. PHILADELPHIA : MERRIHEW & 'SON, PRINTERS, No. 243 Arch Street. 1869. THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT PHILADELPHIA Jfemale ^tttf-J&Iateg J§0cbig* February, 1869. PHILADELPHIA : MERRIHEW & SON, PRINTERS, No. 243 Arch Street. 1869. EM Officers for the Ensuing Year. PRESIDENT, LUCRETIA MOTT. VICE-PRESIDENT, SIDNEY ANN LEWIS, RECORDING SECRETARY, GULIELMA JONES. CORRESPONDING SECRETARY, MARY GREW. TREASURER, ANNIE SHOEMAKER. BOARD OP MANAGERS, LUCRETIA MOTT, HANNAH L. STICKNEY, ANNA M. HOPPER, SARAH H. PEIRCE, REBECCA S. HART, ROSANNA THOMPSON. REPORT. During another year we have watched the fierce struggle between the opposing principles of Liberty and Despotism, which has convulsed the Nation and threatened its life. During another year we have held on our way, taking our part in that contest, the result of which is to determine the weal or woe of this Republic. The fourth decade of our Society's existence is half completed ; and we are still looking forward, with hope and faith, to the hour when those for whom we have so long labored shall be securely invested with the rights of men, and our work be ac- complished. As we glance backward through those thirty-five years, and then look over our field to-day, we find no language vivid enough to describe the glorious victories of our cause ; or to express our gratitude and joy over the marvellous deliverance which our God has wrought for an oppressed people. In one of the proudest of those States* where, a few years ago, a colored skin marked a man as a chattel, we have recently seen one colored man in- augurated Lieut. Governor of the State, and another * Louisiana. elected a Representative in Congress ; in another of those States, f we have heard a political party, as- sembled in Convention, declare that they will never "recognize any distinction of race or color," in " education, the ballot, or other civil or political right." In the city of Washington we have seen a National Convention of colored men assemble, from the North and South and East and West, and, day after day, discuss political questions, while the press of the country, Republican and Democratic, reported their proceedings in respectful language. For the first time in our Nation's history, the colored men of the South have been legally recognized as voters in a Presidential election. Louisiana, through her Legislature, prohibits " any distinction in the treat- ment of persons, on account of color, on the public conveyances, places of entertainment or of public re- sort, within her commonwealth. Massachusetts puts a colored man, once a Virginia slave, into the jury box of her Superior Court. Maine and Missouri utter their rebuke of the treachery which refused to convict Andrew Johnson, by sending Hannibal Hamlin and Carl Schurz to the United States Sen- ate. Minnesota and Iowa have abolished all politi- cal distinctions on account of race or color, in those States. In the District of Columbia, in our Terri^ tories, and in nineteen States, colored men are, legally, in possession of the ballot, — the American citizen's seal of freedom. t Mississippi. The triumph of the Republican party in the Oc- tober and November elections was hailed by every liberty-loving soul as a triumph for Humanity. On one side of this fierce contest was arrayed the despot- ism of the country, north and south; its unchristian hatred of the colored man ; its vulgar prejudice of race ; its contempt for the rights of the poor and the oppressed. The enraged and defeated rebels of the South (not the less rebels because defeated,) joined hands with the leaders of the Democratic party in the North, and gave them their heartiest sympathy and such help as they had to give. The men whose ideal corner-stone of a Nation was the right of slave- holding ; the men whom the moral atmosphere of slavery had so corrupted and debased that Anderson- ville and Libby became possibilities in the nineteenth century, in a land called civilized, rushed to that party's platform as to an ark of safety. On the other side were gathered the friends of uni- versal freedom and equal rights, who see, in every human being, not nationality but Manhood ; and those who, though not having attained to this idea of human brotherhood, have learned to abhor the wickedness of chattel slavery ; and those who, though not having even learned this lesson in morals, have seen their country's life endangered by the monstrous system, and have resolved that every trace of it shall be eradicated from the land forever. On which side of this conflict were enlisted the prayers of the oppressed colored people and the loyal white men of the South, on which side rested the hopes of all true souls and the benediction of God, who can doubt ? It was a hard-fought battle, and when the result seemed doubtful, every friend of freedom trem- bled ; but when, in an agony of fear, at the eleventh hour, a cry arose in the Democratic camp, " Let us change the name on our banner that we may save our principles !" a shout of joy from the opposing host rang through the land ; for they knew that the day was won. If these events, which we record with grateful joy, constituted a fair representation of our review of the year, and of the present situation of our cause, we might congratulate one another upon the consumma- tion of our work, close the records of our society and depart to other fields of labor. But the most cursory examination shows us that the hour of the slave's complete enfranchisement has not yet come. The glorious triumphs won are, we doubt not, heralds of the final triumph ; but they are not to be mistaken for it. All that has been gained is yet to be made secure, and to that work abolitionists are pledged. Slavery is dead in law. Dead by the Constitution of the United States. Congress has declared the colored man a citizen of the United States, and in- cluded him in its bill of Civil Rights. All this, and all that we have recorded during the last few years of victories won, have been extorted, one by one, from the Government, since that hour of peril when the Nation gave its reluctant consent that her colored sons should fight the battles which saved her life. Each concession to the right which she has made, each deed of justice done, has educated the people upward, and made the next step in the same direc- tion easier ; but in no hour of the Nation's distress or rejoicing has she fully repented of her sins against the race whom she enslaved, nor been truly converted to the love of righteousness. At each step, since the first burst of loyal indignation against the rebellion of the South, when righteous displeasure against the slaveholders created a brief sympathy with the race to which their victims belonged, has the Nation hesi- tated and faltered, and asked what degree of justice towards the colored man would be absolutely neces- sary for its own safety. Political parties ever keep a sensitive finger on the Nation's pulse ; and the He- publican Party, when, at the Chicago Convention, last May, it declared Negro suffrage in the South a doctrine of its platform, thought it necessary to an- nounce through, at least, one of its radical organs, that this measure was absolutely necessary for the safety of Union men, white and colored, in the rebel States. In the Southern States the spirit of slavery still lives and rages. Most appalling and heart-rending testimony to this fact is constantly published in Northern and Southern journals. Assassinations of loyal men, white and colored, by night and day, have been so frequent in the South during the past year that Committees appointed to investigate them, offi- 8 cially report that it is impossible to number them with any approach to accuracy. The New Orleans Republican, The Nashville Republic, The Frankfort (Ky.) Commonwealth, and many other Southern journals, narrate the cruelties perpetrated on the helpless negroes, in defiance of law, and sustained by public sentiment, stronger than law. We read of preachers shot in the pulpit, or followed to their homes and brutally murdered; of innocent men dragged from their beds at midnight and tortured to death ; of women driven from the school-houses where they were quietly teaching little children to read, and allowed only the alternative of scourging or flight ; of homes destroyed by fire while the occu- pants were thankful if they escaped the assassin's knife ; of tragedies so terrible that we sicken at the narration, and ask if the arm of our Government is palsied. The Special Committee appointed by the Texas Constitutional Convention to inquire into and report upon the alleged prevalence of lawlessness and vio- lence in that State, report that they found great difficulty in obtaining testimony, partly from the un- willingness of gentlemen to testify, and partly from their fear of assassination if they should do so. Therefore, they say that they are confident that their report presents a very imperfect view of the actual violence and disorder in that State. They obtained proof of nine hundred and thirty-nine homicides in the State, during the period between June, 1865, and 9 June, 1868. The Committee say: "In our statistics we have not embraced assaults with intent to kill, rapes, robberies, whipping of freedmen, and other outrages, many of which are found to be most cruel and wanton ; such a summary would impose an al- most endless task." Gov. Warmouth, of Louisiana, reports one hundred and fifty murders in the county parishes of that State, in the period of six weeks ; and among these murderers were recognized ex-justices of the peace and constables. Union men, appealing for help, declared that without protection it would be impossi- ble for them to remain in the county parishes of the State. Gen, Sibley, in his official report of the massacre at Camilla, Georgia, in September last, says that no action whatever had been taken by the civil authori- ties towards bringing the guilty parties to punish- ment. Gov. Bullock, of that State, in his recent message, says : " The fact that there is not in Geor- gia adequate protection for life and property, and the free expression of political opinion, is so well known and understood as not to need argument, or the presentation of evidence which has reached me from many portions of the State." The recent action of the Legislature of Georgia, in expelling, by the vote of a large majority, the twenty-nine colored members of that body, and the ineffectual protest of Gov. Bullock against this high- handed defiance of the Reconstruction laws, furnish 10 startling evidence that the spirit of slavery lives and reigns in Georgia. The brutal murder, publicly and in open day, of the Hon. B. F. Randolph, member of the South Carolina Senate, bears similar testimony for that State. And from Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and other States, we hear the same terrible reports of cruel outrages on innocent victims, and bold defiance of State and National law. In the United Senate, last December, Hon. George S. Julian stated that hundreds of persons are still held in slavery in Kentucky. Even in Maryland we have the testimony of Judge Bond that " the negro is not looked upon as a man with human capacities or rights." With such a moral atmosphere pervading the South, the question naturally arises, " How can the colored man maintain his personal freedom, or use the ballot, which is legally his ?" Southern newspapers, in- spired by the very soul of Slavery and the Rebellion, answer this question. They tell us that it is and shall be through fire and blood that the freedman shall walk to the polls ; that if he dare to exercise a freeman's right to vote according to his own choice, he shall do so at the peril of starvation for himself and his family, unless speedier vengeance overtakes him. Where the opening of a Registration office is a signal for an assault of rebels upon their loyal neighbors, and for the murder of Registrars ; where armed ruffians take possession of the polls, applauded by the popular press, it seems bitter mockery to tell 11 the colored man that he is invested with the right of suffrage. The same cruel threats addressed to the negro ; the same contempt for human rights which filled the Southern press a year ago, breathes through it still. The Richmond Enquirer again proclaims that if the negroes will refuse to vote for their old masters, they shall be driven from employment. The Meridian (Miss.) Mercury says : "With the skull and cross-bones of the "lost cause" before us, we will swear that this is a white man's government. We must make the negro under- stand we are the men we ivere when we held him in abject bondage ; and make him feel that when for- bearance ceases to be a virtue, he has aroused a power that will control him or destroy him." Even the Republican Banner, published at Tusca- loosa, Alabama, claiming to be an organ of the Re- publican party there, says : " Let it be distinctly borne in mind that the Re- publican Banner will strenuously oppose the rights of negroes voting in any election in this State. Be- lieving as we do, that this class of citizens are not capable of exercising the right of voters, we shall hereafter advocate the repeal of that portion of the Constitution which gives this class the right to vote, and urge its adoption at the next meeting of the Legislature." " We are for white men doing the voting and hold- ing office, and none others ; and if the white men cannot rule the country upon Republican principles without the aid of negro votes, let the country go, and give it up to the disunionists and those who sym- pathise with them." 12 While the spirit of slavery thus incarnates itself, and utters its voice in the South, Andrew Johnson occupies the Presidential chair in Washington, and, defying law and public sentiment, aids with sympa- thetic heart and liberal hand the enemies of liberty. Yet, with all these forces arrayed against the freedmen, we account it a grand triumph that he has won the legal right to hold the ballot ; and when we see him, with the zeal of a benefactor of his race, with a hero's courage and a martyr's constancy, con- fronting peril and death to exercise a freeman's right, we are re-assured that the day of his full deliverance draws nigh. We are frequently asked, what more we demand of the Government, on behalf of the colored race of the South. Declared free by Executive Proclama- tion and Federal Constitution ; endowed by Congress with the ballot; made eligible to State and National offices, and elected to fill them ; what more could the most vigilant and exacting abolitionist require ? Our reply is that we demand the Nation's bond of security for all this. By the heavy price of its purchase — the blood of a hundred battle-fields, the anguish of be- reavement silently endured in thousands of homes, and the heritage of taxation of the bread of a genera- tion yet to come; by the accumulated wrongs of two centuries crying aloud for atonement; by the untold value of all that has been won for the colored man of the South, and by the fearful perils which confront him to-day, we demand the strongest pledge of his i 13 safety ; the surest protection of his rights which the Government can give, viz., a provision of our Fede- ral Constitution which shall make the colored man politically equal with the white man, throughout the Nation. Without this he holds his new-born citizen- ship, even his personal freedom, by a precarious tenure. The enactments of one Legislature may be repealed by its successor, or rendered nugatory by courts. The decrees of Congress relative to the Con- stitutions of Reconstructed States, may be modified or rescinded by the opposite party when it comes into power, or at the pleasure of the party which enacted them. But when the colored man's right of suffrage shall be protected by the United States Constitution, he cannot be deprived of it without the consenting voice of three-fourths of the States of the Union. The fierce hatred towards him which prevails in the South ; the determination plainly manifested by his late masters to reduce him to a new form of slavery without its name, shows how little he can rely for protection on the governments of the Reconstructed States. It may be said that a strong party, friendly to freedom, is in possession of the Federal Govern- ment ; that it has secured for its candidate the presi- dential office, and that, in its keeping, the rights of all men will be safe. To this confident assertion we reply, first, that the party now in power may, in a few years, be suc- ceeded by its lately defeated opponent. It is an alarming fact that the loyalty of the nation, aided 2 14 by the military prestige of its candidate, secured for the Republican Party a majority of only 300,000 among four million votes. When we consider the character of the party which to-day boasts so strong a minority, we cannot fail to see in it a formidable foe to the cause of freedom. Its platform, adopted at its last National Convention, declared the Recon- struction Acts of Congress to be " unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void." Raising the senseless cry of "negro supremacy," to frighten the ignorant por- tion of its constituency, its organs plainly declare that in the event of its success it u will undo all that the traitorous and usurping Radical Congress has done in the matter of the Southern States." They have united in the cry that " this was intended to be, and must always remain, a white man's government." During the Presidential campaign, this party was the relentless persecutor of the colored man ; in the south driving him from the polls when it could not com- mand his vote, and in the North raising the cry of hi Nb negroes in the Public Schools." So insensible to justice or honor has it become, that it was not ashamed to inscribe this anti-democratic, anti-chris- tian, demand upon the banners which it paraded through the streets of Philadelphia on the day pre- ceding the October elections. That such a party has received the endorsement of Wade Hampton, of Toombs and Semmes, and other prominent rebels, is no cause of surprise. We respect the sagacity of Wade Hampton when he declares, as he did in a 15 public meeting in Charleston last August, that he ''wanted nothing else " of the party, after they had pronounced " the Reconstruction Acts of Congress unconstitutional, revolutionary and void." That, he says, was his " plank on the platform ;" and he ex- presses his willingness " to wait in patience until that party should be triumphant, and apply the remedy in their own good time. ,, It is easy to foretell what would be the fate of the colored man, should the Democratic Party obtain pos- session of the Government before his rights are secured by the Federal Constitution. Our second reply is, that the Republican Party ha3 not proved itself worthy to be trusted with the keep- ing of those rights ; and that in their hands he is not safe without this Constitutional protection. It did not dare to vitalize its platform with an Article assert- ing the equal political rights of all men, without distinction of color ; and, as a very natural conse- quence of this timidity, sections of the party in differ- ent States have been guilty of the gross injustice of opposing the negro's efforts to obtain his rights as a citizen. Of that platform, Judge Bond said that he- feared that it would hinder rather than help the cause of freedom in Maryland, and Thaddeus Stevens wrote, " It is like most of the Republican platforms for the past six years, lame and cowardly." The Richmond WJiig exults over it thus : " The latest platform of the very party under whose auspices reconstruction is being carried on, recognizes the States now in their 16 practical relations with the Government, as having the exclusive control over suffrage within their bor- ders. Whenever Congress admits the Southern States into the Union, their rights will, even in Radical con- templation, be the same. The Chicago platform will cover them as it now covers the others; and they can call Conventions and regulate suffrage to suit them- selves. They will do it ; and thus the same questions which the Radicals pretend to wish to settle, and which they have declared reconstruction should settle, will remain open. So their pretended reconstruction is no finality, no settlement, no pacification. r One of the principal Republican organs said, apologeti- cally, that the article relating to suffrage was accepted by the Chicago Convention, because they thought it best "to defer to the desires" of some members of the party, " and to win the elections with General Grant ; and after that advocate a new Amendment of the Constitution, preventing the States from any un- just restrictions upon suffrage." A result of this mis- erable compromise with injustice appeared in November when the Republican State ticket in Missouri was elected by about fifteen thousand majority, and negro suffrage was defeated by fifteen or eighteen thousand ; and the strongest Republican districts of St. Louis gave the largest majorities against it. In January the Kansas Legislature followed the example, and indefi- nitely postponed a resolution allowing negroes to vote. The same spirit of compromise between justice and what politicians call availability, which constructed 17 the platform of the party, also nominated its candi- date for the Presidency. Gen. Grant was chosen to represent the party, when scarcely a man in the whole nation knew whether he held its principles or not ; when many of its leaders really believed that he would accept a nomination from either party. His future course, whatever it may be, can never relieve them from the responsibility, which they then assumed, of hazarding the cause of freedom for the sake of their party's success. It is a significant fact that in that grand procession of the Nation's soldiers and sailors, which Philadel- phia saw and hailed with grateful heart last Autumn, the colored veterans of the war were not represented. What did it indicate ? That the tenth Article of the Republican platform means that "of all who were faithful in the trials of the late war, there were none entitled to more especial honor than the [white] brave soldiers and seamen who endured the hardships of campaign and cruise, and imperilled their lives in the service of their country ?" Or did it indicate that a powerful and really grateful party was afraid openly to honor the colored hero, lest by so doing they should endanger the election in Pennsylvania ? An examination of the records of Congress during the past year, shows the same struggle between the Conservative and Radical elements of the Republican Party that was witnessed in its convention. With the knowledge that assassination of loyal men was unchecked in the South, with the cries of the perse- 9* 18 cuted freedmen in their ears, and their prayers for succor presented to the Senate and House, Con- gress was in session many months, during the past year, before either House could be induced to take efficient measures for their protection. With the Legislature of Georgia defying the Reconstruction laws, and expelling their regularly elected colored members, a Republican Congress assembled in Sep- tember, merely to adjourn, and saw no reason for holding a session in October or November. The action of the House of Representatives in the impeach- ment of Andrew Johnson was hailed with joy by all the friends of freedom ; and the action of the Senate in refusing to convict him, not only awakened their indignation against the Seven whose treachery won for them a notoriety of infamy ; but it aroused seri- ous alarm in loyal hearts, and mightily encouraged Southern rebels and their Northern allies. The passage in the House of the bill to repeal the Tenure of Office Act, excited distrust of the wisdom or the integrity of the ruling party there. This bill- is pending in the Senate, where, also, a bill has been introduced and referred to the Judiciary Committee, which provides that military government shall be re- vived in Georgia ; and that the act of the Legislature of that State, expelling its colored members, shall be null and void. On the Thirtieth of January, 1869, a deed was done for freedom which made the day an epoch in our country's history. The House of Representatives 19 crowned itself with honor, and made glad the hearts of the lovers of liberty, by the passage of the follow- ing. Resolution : Be it Resolved, That the following Article be pro- posed to the Legislatures of the several States, as an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be held as part of said Constitu- tion, viz : Article 1 — Section 1. The right of any citizen of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State, by rea- son of race, color, or previous condition of slavery, of any citizen or class of citizens of the United States. Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this Article. This Resolution received the affirmative vote of more than two-thirds of the members ; yeas 150 ; nays 42. On the Ninth day of February the Senate proved itself equally faithful to the cause of liberty by adopting, by a vote of 40 yeas against 16 nays, the following Resolution, which adds to the Amendment proposed by the House, the right to hold office, and the prohibition of tests of citizenship, based on nativ- ity, property, education or creed. In this modifi- cation of its own Resolution the House will undoubt- edly concur : Be it Resolved, etc., Two-thirds of both Houses concurring — That the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States as Amend- ments to the Constitution of the United States, either of which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legis- 20 latures, shall be held as a part of said Constitution, viz : Art. 15. No discrimination shall be made in the United States, among the citizens of the United States, in the exercise of the elective franchise, or in the right to hold office in any State, on account of race, color, nativity, property, education or creed. Art. 16. The second clause, first section, second Article of the Constitution of the United States, shall be amended to read as follows : Each State shall appoint, by a vote of the people thereof, qualified to vote for Representatives in Congress, a number of electors equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress ; but no Senator' or Representative, or person holding an office of profit or trust under the United States, shall be appointed an elector, and the Congress shall have power to prescribe the man- ner in which such electors shall be chosen by the people.* For this chief work of the session, this first step towards the affixing of the Nation's seal upon the slave's charter of freedom, we have looked with anxious hope and earnest prayer ; working for its * Since this Report was presented, the House has refused to concur in this modified resolution ; the Senate has receded from its amendments, and both Houses have adopted, by more than two-thirds majority, the following: " The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." This amendment will now go to the State Legislatur s for ratification. 4 21 accomplishment by all the means in our power; and we welcome it with unutterable gratitude to Him who has led us, step by step, from the beginning of our enterprise, to this hour of our last struggle for com- plete victory. In reviewing the course of Congress during the year, we gladly bear witness to the fidelity and zeal with which some of its members have served the cause of freedom. The name of Charles Sumner has been so long linked with such service in the Senate, .that it is scarcely necessary to say that, from the open- ing hours of each session to its close, he is vigilant and prompt in the use of every opportunity to present and advocate the claims of the colored man to all the rights of a freeman and citizen. And there are other members of the Senate and House, who deserve honorable notice on the pages of Anti-Slavery Ee- ports, and grateful remembrance in the hearts of their countrymen. On the first day of the present session, William D. Kelly and John M. Broomall of our own State, George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, and several representatives from other States, initiated the great work of the session, by presenting Bills and Resolutions designed to secure suffrage to all men without distinction of color. The records of Congress show their faithful championship of this measure; nor theirs alone. George W. Julian, Samuel Shellabarger, James M Ashley, and others in the House and Senate, have done good service in the cause of freedom. 22 Every consideration of justice to the colored man, and of national safety and prosperity, urge the ratifi- cation of this Amendment, which Mr. Boutwell justly calls " the last of the great measures of reconstruc- tion. " To stop short of this would be to leave that work unfinished and to jeopard the safety of all that has been won. The adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, while it declared the black man a cit- izen of the United States, left his citizen's right of suffrage in the hands of the white man, to be given or withheld as the latter might choose. It was a violation of the fundamental principles of our gov- ernment, and an insult to the colored man, intensi- fied by the memory of his record during the deadly struggle for the Nation's life. Steadily, step by step, our National Legislature has reached that plane of justice upon which it sees and acknowledges the colored man's rights to full citizenship, and is ready to endow him with the strongest govern- mental protection of an American citizen. If by the treachery of the people this deed should fail of accomplishment^ or be delayed until the compro- miser's "more convenient season," it will be a stain upon our Nation's history forever. It will be another wound wantonly inflicted on that suffering race whose tears and blood have cried unto God against us through many generations. It will be another proof, added to the many which America has furnished to the world, that she is practically infidel to the fun- damental principles of her own Declaration of Inde- 23 pendence. But we look not for defeat, but victory, in this final struggle of our cause. We are not un- mindful of the danger which threatens us, in the ven- omous activity of the Democratic Party, in the apathy, or worse than apathy of a portion of the Republican Party and of the church. We know that another bat- tle is to be fought, but we see around us most cheer- ing indications of success. The voice of the Repub- lican press has a truer and clearer tone than ever before. Its most influential journals are demanding the ratification of this Amendment, and are urging the party to work for this end with all its strength. During many years it was the duty of Anti-Slavery Societies to rebuke the pro-slavery character of the Northern press generally. It is a far pleasanter duty which we perform to-day, in paying our tribute to the fidelity with which a large portion of it is serv- ing the cause of freedom. It is impossible for us to record here the names of all the daily and weekly journals whose faithfulness we would gladly acknow- ledge, but it will not be invidious to mention, among the daily papers of our own city, The Morning Post, ever true to the principles of equal rights, quick to sympathize with oppressed humanity, and brave and faithful in criticising the errors and rebuking the faults of its own party ; The Press, able and earnest in its advocacy of the doctrine of the pending Consti- tutional Amendment ; also, The Pveniyig Bulletin and The Evening Telegraph, who have given the measure their editorial support. 24 Another cheering indication is the fact that the leaders of the Republican Party are becoming aware that the establishment of negro suffrage throughout the country will be necessary to its success in the next Presidential election. This strengthens our hope of the ratification of the pending Amendment, and also of the passage of Mr. Sumner's Bill, which pro- poses to secure the same result by Congressional en- actment. If any evidence were needed, on the part of the colored people of the country, to show that they are not behind the masses of their white brethren in their fitness to use the ballot, their conduct during the last eight years has furnished it. Their readiness to bear their share of the burdens of the war, their patient waiting for justice at the hands of the Government, their manly and dignified protest against the outrage of which the Georgia Legislature was guilty, the high moral and intellectual tone of their political Conventions, eloquently plead their cause with the Nation, and will testify to the Nation's sin, if that plea shall be disre- garded. This cursory review of the year, and of the present situation of our cause, brings us to the consideration of the work before us. The weapons with which we began this moral warfare we have never changed. Our foe has met us on various fields and in various disguises, and our mode of attack and defence have varied with the demands of the hour ; but our weapon has always been the application of truth to the human 25 conscience and heart. In the dissemination of the fundamental truth of the Reform which we sought to accomplish, this Society has mingled its labors with the American and Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Socie- ties. During the last year its efforts have been prin- cipally devoted to the support and circulation of the National Anti-Slavery Standard. To this object the proceeds of the Festival of The Friends of Freedom, recently held by our own and the State Society, were appropriated. This journal, the only one in the coun- try especially devoted to the advocacy of the colored man's claim to all the rights of citizenship, is not only doing a mighty work in the cause of his freedom, but is performing the office of an educator of the Nation, enlightening its conscience and quickening its moral sense. Far beyond the circle of its own readers its influence is carried by other journals, both daily and weekly, which re-publish, for their readers, its power- ful editorials. Among all classes of the people, from the unlettered freedman of the South, to the States- man of the Senate, we hear the most cordial testimony to the value and the influence of this organ of the American Anti-Slavery Society. We have continued to memorialize Congress and our State Legislature in behalf of the complete en- franchisement of the colored man, and to testify, as we have had opportunity, against the unchristian spirit of caste, which the church denounces as "hea- then," in Hindostan, but has baptized with the name of " an ordination of Providence," in America. 26 The work which remains for us to do, is to press upon the conscience of the Nation the truth which the present hour demands. It is ours to guard with un- slackened vigilance every right of the freedmen. The secret of the success of Abolitionists has been that they have never compromised a principle for the sake of success. We still demand absolute justice, as far as governments can confer it, for our clients. The work immediately before us is to do our part in creating a public sentiment which shall compel the Legislatures of at least three-fourths of the States to ratify a Constitutional Amendment securing the col- ored man in all a citizen^ rights. To this end we may well toil with the fervor and courage of the heart of youth, and the calm faith, born of long and rich experience, w 7 hich never doubts the final result. At the close of each year we recall the names of some of our fellow-laborers who have finished their earthly work and passed onward to the duties of a higher life. Two members of this Association, who were with us a year ago, are among this number. One* w T ho has for many years labored with us, and onef who has borne a most faithful testimony against slavery, during a long life, and who, recently, had recorded her name in mem- bership here. The year has been marked by the Na- tion's bereavement of a true son and faithful servant, whose latest breath was spent in pleading the cause of the oppressed, and in teaching a People lessons of * Anna M. Giilingham. f Hannah W. Steel. 27 true statesmanship. The colored man of the South, struggling to maintain his right of citizenship ; the mother, lately a slave, bending with unutterable rap- ture over the face of her free-born child ; the youths and maidens assembled around that long-desired, and, to them, long forbidden tree of knowledge, have reason to remember with benediction the name of Thaddeus Stevens. The path before us is brightly illumined with promise of the speedy consummation of our enterprise. We go forth upon it, inspired and strengthened by gratitude and joy for victories won ; by hope that the year which we commence to-day will be the last year of our work, and by a solemn purpose that, with the help of Him who has been our pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, we will walk steadfastly unto the end. Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, in account with Annie Shoemaker, Treasurer. Dr., 2d ino. 1888. To rent of room for Annual Meeting $ 2 00 " rent of room for Stated Meetings, 9 00 " subscriptions to N. A. S. Standard 50 copies, 150 00 " printing Annual Report, 53 66 " postage, 5 72 " advertising, 4 70 " donation to A. S. Standard, 100 00 2d mo. 11, '69. " balance in Treasury, 230 93 $556 06 Cr. 2d mo. 1868. By balance in Treasury,... $318 06 11 members' subscriptions, 88 00 11 festival, 150 00 §556 06 Lydia Gillixgham, Auditor. le tl t 1 : r c LE D 'I