A Visit To The United States In 1841 | Page 6

zealous and fearless abolitionist for half a century. He has been recently disowned by the "Hicksite Friends" for his connection with the newspaper called the "National Anti-Slavery Standard."
Early on the morning of the 10th, we left for Burlington by railroad, where we were most kindly received by our venerable friends Stephen Grellett and his wife. On the following day, we took tea with John Cox, residing about three miles from Burlington, at a place called Oxmead, where formerly that eminent minister of the Society of Friends, George Dillwin, resided. J.C. is now in his eighty-seventh year, enjoying a green and cheerful old age, and feeling all the interest of his youth in the anti-slavery cause. It was cheering and animating to witness the serene spirit of this venerable man, and deeply were we interested in the reminiscences of his youth. He well remembered John Woolman, whose former residence, Mount Holly, is within a few miles of Oxmead, and of whom he related various particulars characteristic of the simplicity, humanity, and great circumspection of his life and conversation. When John Woolman first brought the subject of slavery before the yearly meeting of the Society of Friends at Philadelphia, at a time when its members were deeply implicated both in slave-holding and in slave-dealing, he stood almost alone in his anti-slavery testimony, which he expressed in few and appropriate words. Some severe remarks were made by others in reply, on this and on successive similar occasions, when he introduced the subject, but such treatment provoked no rejoinder from John Woolman, who would quietly resume his seat and weep in silent submission.
He was not deterred by this discouraging reception from again and again bringing the subject before the next Yearly Meeting, and finally his unwearied efforts, always prosecuted in the "meekness of wisdom," resulted in the Society of Friends entirely wiping away the reproach of this abomination.
The great qualification of John Woolman for pleading the cause of the oppressed was the same which has been ascribed with equal truth and beauty to his contemporary and co-worker, Anthony Benezet: "a peculiar capacity for being profoundly sensible of their wrongs." The biographer of the latter has described another occurrence in the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting at a subsequent stage of this momentous controversy, which may prove an interesting counterpart to the foregoing relation.
"On one occasion during the annual convention of the Society at Philadelphia, when that body was engaged on the subject of slavery, as it related to its own members, some of whom had not wholly relinquished the practice of keeping negroes in bondage, a difference of sentiment arose as to the course which ought to be pursued. For a moment it appeared doubtful which opinion would preponderate. At this critical juncture Benezet left his seat, which was in an obscure part of the house, and presented himself weeping at an elevated door in the presence of the whole congregation, whom he thus addressed
- 'Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.' He said no more: under the solemn impression which succeeded this emphatic quotation, the proposed measure received the united sanction of the assembly."[A]
[Footnote A: Life of Anthony Benezet, by Roberts Vaux.]
Even the passing observer is aware how closely the Society of Friends is identified with the anti-slavery cause, and if such an one were to make this fact the subject of historical investigation, he would probably find it one of considerable interest. -- He would learn that some years before the call of Thomas Clarkson in his early manhood, by a series of distinct and remarkable Providences, into this field of labor, this Society in America had been pervaded by a noiseless agitation on the subject of slavery, which resulted in the abandonment of the slave-trade, in the liberation of their slaves, and in the adoption of a rule of discipline excluding slaveholders from religious fellowship; so that for many years past, the sins in question have been not so much as to be named among them, or the possibility of their commission hinted at, by any one bearing the name and professing the principles of a "Friend." The change described, was effected, not by "pressure from without," but by the constraining influence of the love of Christ. The chief instruments in the hands of Divine Providence in bringing about so remarkable a reformation, were John Woolman and Anthony Benezet, of whom the former was the earlier in the field and broke up the fallow ground, under circumstances of the greatest discouragement, of which the instance above related is an example.
The life of this ever-memorable man was a pattern of apostolic Christianity -- pure, patient, self-denying, meek. Love was the element he breathed. His heart not only yearned towards the oppressed of the human family, but his compassion extended to the brute