From Mr. Henry B. Blackwell, Boston. From Mr. F. B. Sanborn, Concord. From Charles A. Greene, M. D., Boston. From Mrs. Catharine S. B. Spear, Passaic, N. J. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. DANVERS AND THE ABOLITIONISTS. The Anti-Slavery Commemorative Meeting of April 26th, 1893, whose proceedings, with Letters and Sketches, are published in the following pages, was originally designed to be of chiefly local concern, having its place in a general course of lectures for the earlier part of the year, under the auspices of the Danvers Historical Society. The deepening and widening interest that was felt in it, however, soon led to larger plans, and hence the more public character which the occasion finally assumed. Circulars of invitation were sent to hundreds of friends, scattered through various New England and other states, who were known to have been specially identified or in sympathy with the greatmovement for emancipation, but particularly, so far as their names and addresses could be ascertained, to those among the living who were earliest and most earnestly devoted to the cause. The favorable responses that came from all quarters were as prompt and numerous as they were hearty and gratifying, and the result was a Reunion that witnessed the presence of a surprisingly large number of members of the Abolition parties and organiza tions of former days, some of whom were among the most conspicuous and distinguished advocates of freedom for the slave a half century or more ago. It was a most impressive assemblage of the veterans; and those of the audience who had not shared in the labors or participated in the scenes of the momentous struggle, had a rare opportunity of seeing and hearing men and women who had been among the foremost in the fight and whose names will not be lost to the coming generations. Whoever of the throng had attended the memorable Anti-Slavery meetings of forty or fifty years before, could but have been struck with the remarkable reproduction or renewal, now, of their essential spirit, their salient features, and their peculiar characteristics and con comitants. A whole generation had elapsed from the time when the final victory was won, but here again were the old voices in both speech and song, the same old battle words and love of truth and justice, and the same unconventional ways, free and independent spirit, and intense interest and enthusiasm, with which some of us were familiar in the days when the strife was hottest and when the veterans knew so well how to do and dare for the right. But for the absence of all signs of angry dissent or violent opposition, one might almost have fancied himself transported back to the abolition meetings of the long ago which were so full of purpose, eloquence and life as to make well nigh all others seem tame and meaningless in comparison. The Anti-Slavery enterprise, in its whole inception and aim, its progress and development, and its ultimate success, was, as has often and truly been said, one of the grandest moral movements in the centuries; and in view of the fact that it belongs to the history of our own country, while its effects and influences reach out, more and more, far beyond our territorial limits, it would seem that here indeed is a matter for inquiry and consideration on the part of such of our American societies as profess to be, or are supposed to be, devoted to the study of the past, however little, as yet, they have given their attention to it. No subject, no event, no epoch, no chapter of our national annals, can more properly claim their thought and research, and none can more abundantly reward investigation. But especially desirable and important is it, to gather up the necessary materials for the story, while so many of the real actors in the drama still survive and are able to give their testimony and relate their personal experience or recollections in relation to it. Such contributions are of exceptional and incalculable value. In the not distant future they may not be given as now, and it is plainly the duty of our societies, large or small, older or younger, to do what they can and may to procure and put on record facts or memories of the conflict which are more or less likely to be forgotten or neglected, but which should be made to live and fulfil their appropriate ministry. The Danvers meeting, while of course it rehearsed much that was already well known, had also the merit or distinction of eliciting much that was fresh and new, and thus of helping, in some humble way, to the desired result. Many of those who were there, thirty years after the Proclamation of Emancipation by President Lincoln, must have realized that they were gaining some better view and sense of the nature of slavery and of the power that contended against it and brought it to destruction, than they had had before they came together. Nor was the meeting less helpful to this end because it was so free and popular in its spirit and abounded so much in personal allusions and remembrances and earnest sentiment and feeling, instead of being occupied with some formal and labored historical or philosophical disquisition on the general subject. It answered its purpose best, because it was so vivid a life-picture of what it sought to recall and commemorate. As such, it was a true and genuine study of history itself. Nor this alone. It was marked by moral lessons of the highest import and value. As there has been no greater service of man and God in our age than that which broke the chains of the three millions of our oppressed and degraded fellow-beings in the South, clothed them with the rights and immunities of American citizenship and made the nation free in fact as it was in name, so it was now seen, anew, what a noble thing it is for souls to consecrate themselves to a righteous cause and live for others; and it was seen, once more, that such devotion or work is never in vain, that no enmities or hostilities can avail to defeat it, that God is in it, and that in his own good time it shall vindicate itself and gloriously triumph. It was worth the while, for young and for old, to see and hear the confessors who had so loved the truth and who had so loved liberty for all, whose faith had known no fear and whose word had not been silenced, who had bravely met the frowns and jeers and persecutions of the world, and had still toiled on in trust and hope, and conquered at last. While the many were in quest of money, or pleasure, or office, or popularity, or power, or fame, these were willing to be poor, to forego the usually coveted privileges and delights of life, and to be of no reputation, yes, even to suffer, and if need were, to die, if only through their labors and stripes and sacrifices some comfort or deliverance might come to the trampled and the weary ones. Object lessons they were and are, to inspire men with more faith in the power of truth, and with increased zeal for personal excellence and for the universal weal. It is these and such as these, who have made it easier for others to believe and not to doubt, to hold to the right against whatever odds, to keep in sight the lofty ideals and to obey the heavenly vision, and still to press on until the cross is exchanged for the crown. It was good to be there, at the commemoration scene; and the eager and unflagging attention of the audience to all that was said, and the vehement and prolonged applause which followed Mr. Garrison's very able and fine address and all the speeches that succeeded it, as well as Mr. Bartlett's poem and the songs of the Hutchinsons, showed how deeply their hearers entered into the the spirit of the occasion, and how well they seemed to take to heart the moral instruction and incentives of the hour. And it was meet that such a Reunion should take place in Danvers itself. The old town was one of the early centres of earnest and active anti-slavery sentiment, and it lost none of its interest in the work of reform in subsequent times, but steadily and progressively gave its voice and vote in its behalf in the later days of the Free-Soil and early Republican parties. Not long after Mr. Garrison entered upon his great crusade, he found here, in the South Parish (now Peabody), as well as in the North, a respectable number of warm-hearted friends and sympathizers, most of whom continued to the last to give him their strong support, while some of them eventually connected themselves with political parties, the better to compass the object in view. The earliest distinct trace of them in South Danvers takes us back to the year 1831, when Isaac Winslow and his family, from Maine, were residing there, and when Joseph Southwick (one of the delegates to the Philadelphia Convention that founded the American Anti-Slavery Society of 1833) came with his family from the same State to reside with them, the two Quaker families being closely related to each other by marriage, and the Southwicks being descended from settlers in Danvers of about two hundred years before. Additional information concerning this interesting |