In July, 1832, Angelina, accompanied
by a friend, set out to make her promised visit to
Hartford. Her journal, kept day by day, shows
her to have been at this time in a most cheerful frame
of mind, which fitted her to enjoy not only the beautiful
scenery on her journey, but the society of the various
people she met. At times she is almost like a
young girl just out of school; and we can hardly wonder
that she felt so, after the monotonous life she had
led so long, and the uniform character of the people
with whom she had associated. She visited New
Haven, with its great college, and then went to Hartford,
where a week was pleasantly spent in attendance on
Catherine Beecher’s classes, and in visiting
Lydia Sigourney, and others, to whom she had brought
letters. After examining Angelina, Catherine gave
her the gratifying opinion that she could be prepared
to teach in six months, and she at once began to try
her hand at drawing maps., and to take part in many
of the exercises of the school. She could, however,
make no definite arrangement until her return to Philadelphia;
but she was full of enthusiasm, and utilized to the
very utmost the advantages of conversation with Catherine
and Harriet Beecher. She was evidently quite
charmed with Harriet’s bright intellect and pleasant
manner, and refers particularly to a very satisfactory
conversation held with her about Quakers. The
people of this Society were so little known in New
England at that period, that Angelina and her friend,
in their peculiar dress, were objects of great curiosity
where-ever they went. Catherine Beecher accompanied
them back to New Tork, and saw them safely on their
way to Philadelphia. But when Angelina mentioned
to Friends her desire to return to Hartford and become
a teacher, she was answered with the most decided
disapprobation. Several unsatisfactory reasons
were given “going among strangers” “leaving
her sisters,” “abandoning her
charities,” &c., the real one probably being
the fear to trust their impressionable young member
to Presbyterian influence. And so she must content
herself to sink down in the old ruts, and plod on in
work which was daily becoming more insufficient to
her intellectual and spiritual needs. Her chief
pleasure was her correspondence with her brother Thomas,
with whom she discussed controversial Bible questions,
and various moral reforms, including prison discipline;
but only once does she seem to have touched the question
of slavery, which absorbed the public mind to such
a degree that there was scarcely a household throughout
the length and breadth of the land, that did not feel
its influence in some way.
In 1832 the most intense excitement prevailed throughout the South,
especially in South Carolina, where Mr. Calhoun had just thrown down the
gauntlet to the Federal government. In this Angelina expresses some
interest, though chiefly from a religious point of view, as she regards all the
important events then taking place as signs of the times, and congratulates
herself and her brother that they live in such an important and interesting
era, when the laws of Christianity are interwoven with the system, of education,
and with even the discipline of prisons and houses of refuge. In one of
her letters we find the following:
“I may be deceived, but the
cloud which has arisen in the South will, I fear,
spread over all our heavens, though it looks now so
small. It will come down upon us in a storm which
will beat our government to pieces; for, beautiful
as it may appear, it is, nevertheless, not built upon
the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus
Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.
We may boast of this temple of liberty, but oh, my
brother, it is not of God.”
In this letter she speaks of being much interested in Ramseys Civil and
Ecclesiastical Polity of the Jews, and mentions that they were studying
together, in the family, Townsends Old Testament, chronologically arranged,
with notes, a work in twenty-eight volumes. She adds:
“Will not the study of the Bible
produce a thirst for the purest and most valuable
literature, as, to understand it, we must study the
history of nations, natural history, philosophy, and
geography.”
In another letter she says:
“I am glad of thy opinions,
but I cannot see that Carolina will escape. Slavery
is too great a sin for justice always to sleep over,
and this is, I believe, the true cause of the declining
state of Carolina; this the root of bitterness which
is to trouble our republic. I am not moved by
fear to these reflections, but by a calm and deliberate
consideration of the state of the Church, and while
I believe convulsions and distress are coming upon
this country, I am comforted in believing that my
kingdom is not of this world, nor thine either, I
trust, beloved brother.”
To this letter Sarah adds a postscript,
and says: “My fears respecting you are
often prevalent, but I endeavor not to be too anxious.
The Lord is omnipotent, and although I fear His sword
is unsheathed against America, I believe He will remember
His own elect, and shield them.... Do the planters
approve or aid the Colonization Society? There
have been some severe pieces published in our papers
about it.”
At this time that is, during
the summer of 1832 Sarah lived a more than
usually retired life, and her diary only records her
increased depression of spirits, and her continued
painful experiences in meeting. She would gladly
have turned her back upon it all, and sought a home
elsewhere at the North, or have returned to Charleston,
but she dared not move without divine approbation,
and this never seemed sufficiently clear to satisfy
her.
“Surely,” she says, “though
I cannot understand why it is so, there must be wisdom
in the decree which forbids my seeking another home.
Most gladly would I have remained in Charleston, but
my Father’s will was not so.”
And again she says,
“But while the desire to escape
present conflict has turned my mind there [to Charleston]
with longing towards my precious mother, all the answer
I can hear from the sanctuary is, ‘Stay here;’
and Satan adds, ‘to suffer.’” According
to Sarah’s own views, she had thus far made
little or no progress towards the great end and aim
of her labors and sacrifices, the securing of her eternal salvation; and the
amount of misery she managed to manufacture for herself out of this thought, and
her many fancied transgressions, is sad in the extreme. Years afterwards,
in a letter to a young friend, she says,
“I have suffered the very torments
of the fabled hell, because my conscience was sore
to the touch all over. I would fain have you spared
such long, dark years of anguish.”
And to another friend, concerning this portion of her life, she writes,
“Much of my suffering arose
from a morbid conscience, a conscience
which magnified infirmities into crimes, and transformed
our blessed Father in heaven into a stern judge, who
punishes to the uttermost every real or imaginary
departure from what we apprehend to be his requirements.
Deceived by the false theological views in which I
was educated, I was continually lashed by the scorpion
whip of a perverted conscience.”
During the winter of 1832-33, the
time of both sisters was much taken up in nursing
a sick woman, whose friendless position stirred Angelina’s
sense of duty, and she had her removed to Mrs. Frost’s
house. She and Sarah took upon themselves all
the offices of nurse, even the most menial. They
read to her, and tried to cheer her during the day,
sat up with her at night, and in every way devoted
themselves to the poor consumptive, until death came
to her relief. Such a sacrifice to a sense of
duty was all the more admirable, as the invalid was
unusually exacting and unreasonable, and felt apparently
little appreciation of the trouble she gave.
Angelina, being in the same house, was more with her
than Sarah, and she could scarcely have shown her
greater attention if the tenderest ties had existed
between her and her charge.
This was only one among the many similar
acts of self-abnegation which were dotted all along
Angelina’s path through life; she never went
out of her way to avoid them, but would travel any
distance to take them up, if duty pointed her to them;
and in accepting them she never seemed to think she
was doing more than just what she ought to do, although
they were generally of the kind which bring no honor
or reward, except that sense of duty fulfilled which
spreads over hearts like hers such sweet content.
From many passages in the diaries, it is evident that, as the agitating
questions of the time were forced upon the notice of Sarah and Angelina, their
thoughts were diverted from the narrow channel to which they had so long been
confined; and, in proportion as their interest in these matters increased, the
cords which bound them to their religious society loosened. Angelina, as
we have before remarked, never stood in the same attitude as Sarah towards the
Society. To the latter, it was as the oracle of her fate, whose decrees
she dared not question, much less disobey. It represented to her mind the
divine will and purposes, which were wisdom entirely, and could only fail
through the pride or disobedience of sinners like herself. Angelina, on
the contrary, regarded it as made up of human beings with human intellects, full
of weakness, and liable to err in the interpretation of the Lords will, and,
while praying for guidance and strength, believed it wise to follow her own
judgment to a great extent. She could not be restrained from reasoning for
herself, and would often have acted more independently, but for her affection
for Sarah. The scales, however, were slowly falling from Sarahs eyes,
though it was long before she saw the new light as anything but a snare of
Satan, who she felt sure was bound to have her, in spite of all her struggles.
Against the growing coolness towards her Society she did struggle and pray in
deepest contrition. At one time she writes,
“Satan is tempting me strongly
with increased dissatisfaction with Friends; but I
know if I am to be of any use it is in my own Society.”
And again: “I beseech thee,
O God, to fill my heart with love for the Society
of Friends. I shall be ruined if I listen to Satan.”
But all this was of no avail. Angelina was growing in knowledge, and
was imparting to Sarah what she learned. The evidence is meagre, but there
is enough to show that the ruling topics claimed much of their attention during
that summer, and that Angelina, especially, drew upon herself more than one
reproof from Catherine Morris for the interest she manifested in matters
entirely outside of the Society. In the spring, she writes in a letter to
Thomas:
“The following proposition was
made at a Colonization meeting in this city:
is it strictly true? ’No two nations, brought
together under similar circumstances with those under
which the Africans have been brought into this country,
have amalgamated.’ Are not the people in
the West Indies principally mulatto? And how
is it in South America? Did they not amalgamate
there? Did not the Helots, a great many of whom
were Persians, etc., taken in battle, amalgamate
with the Grecians, and rise to equal privileges in
the State? I ask for information. Please
tell me, also, whether slavery is not an infringement
of the Constitution of the United States. You
Southerners have no idea of the excitement existing
at the North on the subjects of abolition and colonization.”
This shows only the dawning of interest
in the mighty subject. The evidence is full and
conclusive that at this time neither Sarah nor Angelina
had formed any decided opinions concerning either of
the societies mentioned above, or contemplated taking
any active part whatever in the cause of freedom.
In February, 1834, occurred the famous
debate at Lane Seminary, near Cincinnati, presided
over by Dr. Lyman Beecher, which, for earnestness,
ability, and eloquence, has probably never been surpassed
in this country. A colonization society, composed
in great part of Southern students, had been formed
in 1832 in the seminary, but went to pieces during
the debate, which lasted eighteen evenings, and produced
a profound sensation throughout the Presbyterian Church,
and even outside of it. President Beecher took
no part in it, standing too much in awe of the trustees
of the institution to countenance it even by his presence,
although he had promised to do so.
The speakers were all students, young
men remarkable for their sincerity and their energy,
and several of them excelling as orators. Among
the latter were Henry B. Stanton and Theodore D. Weld,
both possessing great powers of reasoning and natural
gifts of eloquence. Of Theodore D. Weld it was
said, that when he lectured on temperance, so powerfully
did he affect his audiences, that many a liquor dealer
went home and emptied out the contents of his barrels.
Those who remember him in his best days can well believe
this, while others who have had the privilege of hearing
him only in his “parlor talks” can have
no difficulty in understanding the impression he must
have made on mixed audiences in those times when his
great heart, filled from boyhood with sorrow for the
oppressed, found such food for its sympathies.
It is no disparagement to the many
able and eloquent advocates of the anti-slavery cause,
between 1833 and 1836, to say that public opinion
placed Weld at the head of them all. In him were
combined reason and imagination, wide and accurate
knowledge, manly courage, a tender and sympathetic
nature, a remarkable faculty of expression, and a fervent
enthusiasm which made him the best platform orator
of his time. As a lecturer on education, temperance,
and abolition, he drew crowded houses and made many
converts. The late Secretary Stanton was one of
these, and often mentioned Mr. Weld as the most eloquent
speaker he had ever heard; and Wendell Phillips, in
a recent letter, says of him: “In the first
years of the anti-slavery cause, he was our foremost
advocate.”
Of Henry B. Stanton, a newspaper reporter
once said in excuse for not reporting one of his great
anti-slavery speeches, that he could not attempt to
report a whirlwind or a thunderstorm.
With such leaders, and with followers
no less earnest if less brilliant, it is not surprising
that the Lane Seminary debate arrested such general
attention, and afterwards assumed so much importance
in the anti-slavery struggle. The trustees, fearing
its effect upon their Southern patrons, ordered that
both societies should be dissolved, and no more meetings
held. The anti-slavery students replied to this
order by withdrawing in a body from the institution.
Some went over to Oberlin; others, and
among them the two I have named entered
the field as lecturers and workers in the cause they
had so ardently espoused.
In September, 1834, Sarah and Angelina
were gratified by a visit from their brother Thomas,
who was on his way to Cincinnati, to deliver an address
on Education before the College of Professional Teachers,
and also to visit his brother Frederic, residing in
Columbus, whom he had not seen for sixteen years.
As Angelina had not seen him since her departure from
Charleston in 1829, the few days of his society she
now enjoyed were very precious, and made peculiarly
so by after-events. The cholera was then for
the second time epidemic in the West, but those who
knew enough about it to be prudent felt no fear, and
the sisters bade farewell to their brother, cheered
by his promise to see them again on his way home.
He delivered his address in Cincinnati, started for
Columbus, arrived within twelve miles of it, when,
at a wayside tavern, he was seized with cholera.
His brother, then holding a term of the Supreme Court,
was sent for. He at once adjourned court and
hastened to Thomas with a physician. He was already
speechless, but was able to turn upon Frederic a look
of recognition, then pressed his hand, and died.
Angelina, writing of her brother’s
death, says: “The world has lost an eminent
reformer in the cause of Christian education, an eloquent
advocate of peace, and one who was remarkably ready
for every good work. I never saw a man who combined
such brilliant talents, such diversity and profundity
of knowledge, with such humility of heart and such
simplicity and gentleness of manner. He was a
great and good man, a pillar of the church and state,
and his memory is blessed.”
In a letter written in 1837, referring
to her brother’s visit to Philadelphia, Sarah
says: “We often conversed on the subject
of slavery, and never did I hear from his lips an
approval of it. He had never examined the subject;
he regarded it as a duty to do it, and he intended
devoting the powers of his mind to it the next year
of his life, and asked us to get ready for him all
the abolition works worth studying. But God took
him away. My own views were dark and confused.
Had I had my present light, I might have helped him.”
Angelina bore her testimony to the
same effect. Referring to Thomas in a letter
to a member of her family many years after his death,
she says:
“He was deeply interested in
every reform, and saw very clearly that the
anti-slavery agitation which began in 1832 would shake
our country to its foundation. He told me in
Philadelphia that he knew slavery would be the all-absorbing
subject here, and that he intended to devote a whole
year to its investigation; and, in order that he might
do so impartially, he requested me to subscribe for
every periodical and paper, and to buy and forward
to him any books, that might be published by the Anti-Slavery
and Colonization societies. I asked whether he
believed colonization could abolish slavery. He
said: ‘No, never!’ but observed;
’I help that only on account of its reflex influence
upon slavery here. If we can build up an intelligent,
industrious community of colored people in Africa,
it will do a great deal towards destroying slavery
in the United States.’”
The loss of her brother almost crushed
Sarah, although she expresses only submission to the
Lord’s will. It had the effect of closing
her heart and mind once more to everything but religion,
and again she gave herself fully and entirely to her
evangelical preparation. She expresses herself
as longing to preach the everlasting Gospel, and prays
that she may soon be called to be a minister, and be
instrumental in turning her fellow sinners away from
the wrath to come. Later, in the early part of
1835, after having re-perused her brother’s works,
she solemnly dedicated herself to the cause of peace,
persuading herself that Thomas had left it as a legacy
to her and Angelina. She resolved to use all
her best endeavors to promote its advancement, and
daily prayed for a blessing on her exertions and for
the success of the cause. This at least served
to divert her thoughts from herself, and no doubt
helped her to the belief which now came to her, that
at last Satan was conquered, and she was accepted
of God.
If she could only have been comforted
also with the knowledge that her labors in the ministry
were recognized, her satisfaction would have been
complete, but more than ever was she tormented by the
slights and sneers of the elders, and by her own conviction
that she was a useless vessel. There is scarcely
a page of her diary that does not tell of some humiliation,
some disappointment connected with her services in
meeting.