The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition - Thomas Clarkson
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He then argued the question on the ground of policy. He showed, by a
number of official documents, how little this trade had contributed to
the wealth of the nation, being but a fifty-fourth part of its export
trade; and he contended that as four-sevenths of it had been cut off by
His Majesty's proclamation, and the passing of the foreign slave bill in
a former year, no detriment of any consequence would arise from the
present measure.
He entered into an account of the loss of seamen, and of the causes of
the mortality, in this trade.
He went largely into the subject of negro-population, in the islands
from official documents, giving an account of it up to the latest date.
He pointed out the former causes of its diminution, and stated how the
remedies for these would follow.
He showed how, even if the quantity of colonial produce should be
diminished for a time, this disadvantage would, in a variety of
instances, be more than counterbalanced by advantages, which would not
only be great in themselves, but permanent.
He then entered into a refutation of the various objections which had
been made to the abolition, in an eloquent and perspicuous manner; and
concluded by appealing to the great authorities of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox
in behalf of the proposed measure. "These precious ornaments," he said,
"of their age and country, had examined the subject with all the force
of their capacious minds. On this question they had dismissed all
animosity--all difference of opinion--and had proceeded in union; and he
believed, that the best tribute of respect we could show, or the most
splendid monument we could raise, to their memories, would be by the
adoption of the glorious measure of the abolition of the Slave Trade."
Lord Howick was supported by Mr. Roscoe, who was then one of the members
for Liverpool; by Mr. Lushington, Mr. Fawkes, Lord Mahon, Lord Milton,
Sir John Doyle, Sir Samuel Romilly, Mr. Wilberforce, and Earl Percy, the
latter of whom wished that a clause might be put into the bill, by which
all the children of slaves, born after January 1810, should be made
free. General Gascoyne and Mr. Hibbert opposed the bill. Mr. Manning
hoped that compensation would be made to the planters in case of loss.
Mr. Bathurst and Mr. Hiley Addington preferred a plan for gradual
abolition to the present mode. These having spoken, it appeared on a
division, that there were for the question two hundred and eighty-three,
and against it only sixteen.
Of this majority I cannot but remark, that it was probably the largest
that was ever announced on any occasion, where the House was called upon
to divide. I must observe, also, that there was such an enthusiasm among
the members at this time, that there appeared to be the same kind and
degree of feeling, as manifested itself within the same walls in the
year 1788, when the question was first started. This enthusiasm, too,
which was of a moral nature, was so powerful, that it seemed even to
extend to a conversion of the heart; for several of the old opponents of
this righteous cause went away, unable to vote against it; while others
of them staid in their places, and voted in its favour.
On the 27th of February, Lord Howick moved, that the House resolve
itself into a committee on the bill for the abolition of the Slave
Trade. Sir C. Pole, Messrs. Hughan, Brown, Bathurst, Windham, and Fuller
opposed the motion; and Sir R. Milbank, and Messrs. Wynne, Barham,
Courtenay, Montague, Jacob, Whitbread, and Herbert (of Kerry), supported
it. At length the committee was allowed to sit _pro forma_, and Mr.
Hobhouse was put into the chair. The bill then went through it, and, the
House being resumed, the report was received and read.
On the 6th of March, when the committee sat again, Sir C. Pole moved,
that the year 1812 be substituted for the year 1807, as the time when
the trade should be abolished. This amendment produced a long debate,
which was carried on by Sir C. Pole, Messrs. Fuller, Hiley Addington,
Rose, Gascoyne, and Bathurst, on one side; and by Mr. Ward, Sir P.
Francis; General Vyse, Sir T. Turton, Mr. Whitbread, Lord Henry Petty,
Messrs. Canning, Stanhope, Perceval, and Wilberforce on the other. At
length, on a division, there appeared to be one hundred and twenty-five
against the amendment, and for it only seventeen. The chairman then read
the bill, and it was agreed that he should report it with the amendments
on Monday. The bill enacted, that no vessel should clear out for slaves
from any port within the British dominions after the 1st of May, 1807,
and that no slave should be landed in the colonies after the 1st of
March, 1808.
On the 16th of March, on the motion of Lord Henry Petty, the question
was put, that the bill be read a third time. Mr. Hibbert, Captain
Herbert, Mr. T.W. Plomer, Mr. Windham, and Lord Castlereagh, spoke
against the motion. Sir P. Francis, Mr. Lyttleton, Mr. H. Thornton, and
Messrs. Barham, Sheridan, and Wilberforce supported it. After this the
bill was passed without a division[A].
[Footnote A: S. Lushington, Esq., M.P. for Yarmouth, gave his voluntary
attendance and assistance to the committee, during all these motions,
and J. Bowdler, Esq., was elected a member of it.]
On Wednesday, the 18th, Lord Howick, accompanied by Mr. Wilberforce and
others, carried the bill to the Lords. Lord Grenville, on receiving it,
moved that it should be printed, and that, if this process could be
finished by Monday, it should be taken into consideration on that day.
The reason of this extraordinary haste was, that His Majesty, displeased
with the introduction of the Roman Catholic officers' bill into the
Commons, had signified his intention to the members of the existing
administration, that they were to be displaced.
This uneasiness, which, a few days before, had sprung up among the
friends of the abolition, on the report that this event was probable,
began now to show itself throughout the kingdom. Letters were written
from various parts, manifesting the greatest fear and anxiety on account
of the state of the bill, and desiring answers of consolation. Nor was
this state of the mind otherwise than what might have been expected upon
such an occasion; for the bill was yet to be printed. Being an amended
one, it was to be argued again in the Lords. It was then to receive the
royal assent. All these operations implied time; and it was reported
that the new ministry[A] was formed; among whom were several who had
shown a hostile disposition to the cause.
[Footnote A: The only circumstance, which afforded comfort at this time,
was, that the Hon. Spencer Perceval and Mr. Canning were included in it,
who were warm patrons of this great measure.]
On Monday, the 23rd, the House of Lords met. Such extraordinary
diligence had been used in printing the bill, that it was then ready.
Lord Grenville immediately brought it forward. The Earl of Westmoreland
and the Marquis of Sligo opposed it. The Duke of Norfolk and the Bishop
of Llandaff (Dr. Watson) supported it. The latter said, that this great
act of justice would be recorded in heaven. The amendments were
severally adopted without a division. But here an omission of three
words was discovered, namely, "country, territory, or place," which, if
not rectified, might defeat the purposes of the bill. An amendment was
immediately proposed and carried. Thus the bill received the last
sanction of the Peers. Lord Grenville then congratulated the House on
the completion, on its part, of the most glorious measure that had ever
been adopted by any legislative body in the world.
The amendment now mentioned occasioned the bill to be sent back to the
Commons. On the 24th, on the motion of Lord Howick, it was immediately
taken into consideration there, and agreed to; and it was carried back
to the Lords, as approved of, on the same day.
But though the bill had now passed both houses, there was an awful fear
throughout the kingdom lest it should not receive the royal assent
before the ministry was dissolved. This event took place the next day;
for on Wednesday, the 25th, at half past eleven in the morning, His
Majesty's message was delivered to the different members of it, that
they were then to wait upon him to deliver up the seals of their
offices. It then appeared that a commission for the royal assent to this
bill, among others, had been obtained. This commission was instantly
opened by the Lord Chancellor (Erskine), who was accompanied by the
Lords Holland and Auckland; and as the clock struck twelve, just when
the sun was in its meridian splendour to witness this august act, this
establishment of a Magna Charta for Africa in Britain, and to sanction
it by its most vivid and glorious beams, it was completed. The ceremony
being over, the seals of the respective offices were delivered up; so
that the execution of this commission was the last act of the
administration of Lord Grenville; an administration, which, on account
of its virtuous exertions in behalf of the oppressed African race, will
pass to posterity, living through successive generations in the love and
gratitude of the most virtuous of mankind.
Thus ended one of the most glorious contests, after a continuance for
twenty years, of any ever carried on in any age or country. A contest,
not of brutal violence, but of reason. A contest between those who felt
deeply for the happiness and the honour of their fellow-creatures, and
those, who, through vicious custom and the impulse of avarice, had
trampled under foot the sacred rights of their nature, and had even
attempted to efface all title to the divine image from their minds.
Of the immense advantages of this contest I know not how to speak;
indeed, the very agitation of the question which it involved has been
highly important. Never was the heart of man so expanded; never were its
generous sympathies so generally and so perseveringly excited. These
sympathies, thus called into existence, have been useful in the
preservation of a national virtue. For anything we know, they may have
contributed greatly to form a counteracting balance against the
malignant spirit, generated by our almost incessant wars during this
period, so as to have preserved us from barbarism.
It has been useful also in the discrimination of moral character; in
private life it has enabled us to distinguish the virtuous from the more
vicious part of the community[A]. It has shown the general
philanthropist; it has unmasked the vicious in spite of his pretension
to virtue. It has afforded us the same knowledge in public life; it has
separated the moral statesman from the wicked politician. It has shown
us who, in the legislative and executive offices of our country, are fit
to save, and who to destroy, a nation.
[Footnote A: I have had occasion to know many thousand persons in the
course of my travels on this subject, and I can truly say, that the part
which these took on this great question was always a true criterion of
their moral character. Some indeed opposed the abolition, who seemed to
be so respectable, that it was difficult to account for their conduct;
but it invariably turned out, in the course of time, either that they
had been influenced by interested motives, or that they were not men of
steady moral principle. In the year 1792, when the national enthusiasm
was so great, the good were as distinguishable from the bad, according
to their disposition to this great cause, as if the divine Being had
marked them, or, as a friend of mine the other day observed, as we may
suppose the sheep to be from the goats on the day of judgment.]
It has furnished us also with important lessons. It has proved what a
creature man is! how devoted he is to his own interest! to what a length
of atrocity he can go, unless fortified by religious principle! But as
if this part of the prospect would be too afflicting, it has proved to
us, on the other hand, what a glorious instrument he may become in the
hands of his Maker; and that a little virtue, when properly leavened, is
made capable of counteracting the effects of a mass of vice!
With respect to the end obtained by this contest, or the great measure
of the abolition of the Slave Trade as it has now passed, I know not how
to appreciate its importance; to our own country, indeed, it is
invaluable. We have lived, in consequence of it, to see the day, when it
has been recorded as a principle in our legislation, that commerce
itself shall have its moral boundaries. We have lived to see the day
when we are likely to be delivered from the contagion of the most
barbarous opinions. They who supported this wicked traffic, virtually
denied that man was a moral being; they substituted the law of force for
the law of reason: but the great act now under our consideration has
banished the impious doctrine, and restored the rational creature to his
moral rights. Nor is it a matter of less pleasing consideration, that,
at this awful crisis, when the constitutions of kingdoms are on the
point of dissolution, the stain of the blood of Africa is no longer upon
us, or that we have been freed (alas, if it be not too late!) from a
load of guilt, which has long hung like a mill-stone about our necks,
ready to sink us to perdition.
In tracing the measure still further, or as it will affect other lands,
we become only the more sensible of its importance; for can we pass over
to Africa; can we pass over to the numerous islands, the receptacles of
miserable beings from thence; and can we call to mind the scenes of
misery which have been passing in each of these regions of the earth,
without acknowledging that one of the greatest sources of suffering to
the human race has, as far as our own power extends, been done way? Can
we pass over to these regions again, and contemplate the multitude of
crimes which the agency necessary for keeping up the barbarous system
produced, without acknowledging that a source of the most monstrous and
extensive wickedness has been removed also? But here, indeed, it becomes
us peculiarly to rejoice; for though nature shrinks from pain, and
compassion is engendered in us when we see it become the portion of
others, yet what is physical suffering compared with moral guilt? The
misery of the oppressed is, in the first place, not contagious like the
crime of the oppressor; nor is the mischief which it generates either so
frightful or so pernicious. The body, though under affliction, may
retain its shape; and, if it even perish, what is the loss of it but of
worthless dust? But when the moral springs of the mind are poisoned, we
lose the most excellent part of the constitution of our nature, and the
divine image is no longer perceptible in us; nor are the two evils of
similar duration. By a decree of Providence, for which we cannot be too
thankful, we are made mortal. Hence the torments of the oppressor are
but temporary; whereas the immortal part of us, when once corrupted, may
carry its pollutions with it into another world.
But, independently of the quantity of physical suffering, and the
innumerable avenues to vice, in more than a quarter of the globe, which
this great measure will cut off, there are yet blessings, which we have
reason to consider as likely to flow from it. Among these we cannot
overlook the great probability that Africa, now freed from the vicious
and barbarous effects of this traffic, may be in a better state to
comprehend and receive the sublime truths of the Christian religion. Nor
can we overlook the probability that, a new system of treatment
necessarily springing up in our islands, the same bright sun of
consolation may visit her children there. But here a new hope rises to
our view. Who knows but that emancipation, like a beautiful plant, may,
in its due season, rise out of the ashes of the abolition of the Slave
Trade, and that, when its own intrinsic value shall be known, the seed
of it may be planted in other lands? And looking at the subject in this
point of view, we cannot but be struck with the wonderful concurrence of
events as previously necessary for this purpose, namely, that two
nations, England and America, the mother and the child, should, in the
same month of the same year, have abolished this impious traffic;
nations, which at this moment have more than a million of subjects
within their jurisdiction to partake of the blessing; and one of which,
on account of her local situation and increasing power, is likely in
time to give, if not law, at least a tone to the manners and customs of
the great continent on which she is situated.
Reader! Thou art now acquainted with the history of this contest!
Rejoice in the manner of its termination! And, if thou feelest grateful
for the event, retire within thy closet, and pour out thy thanksgivings
to the Almighty for this his unspeakable act of mercy to thy oppressed
fellow-creatures.
THE END.
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