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606      DOUGLASS' MONTHLY.      FEBRUARY, 1862
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REV. J. SELLA MARTIN IN LONDON.
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[From the London Record, Nov. 25, 1861.]

The Hon. ARTHUR KINNAIRD, M.P., and Mrs. Kinnaird invited a number of friends to their residence, 2, Pall-mall East, on Friday evening, to hear a statement on the subject of slavery by the Rev. J. Sella Martin, a colored minister from Boston, U. S., now on a visit to England.  Additional interest attached to the occasion from the fact that Mr. Martin, who is now the intelligent and educated pastor of a congregation in Boston, Massachusetts, was formerly a slave in the Southern States.

Among those present were Sir John Login, Sir F. Halliday, late Lieut.-Governor of Bengal; Lady Peto, Admiral and Miss Vernon Harcourt, Sir John Kennaway, Lieut. Verney, Major and Mrs. Straith, Hon. and Rev. Leland Noel, the Misses Noel, Dr. G. H. Davis, Rev. Henry and Mrs. Allon, Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Hamilton, Rev. H. T. and Mrs. Lumsden, Rev. T. and Mrs Nolan, Miss Portal, the Misses Wilson; Revs. A. Boyd, G. S. Drew, T. Alexander, S. Garratt, Dr. Edmond, Dr. Hoole, Newman Hall, H. Stevens, W. B. Mackenzie, W. Niven, Prebendary Burgess, James Davis, Mr. A. Haldane and the Misses Haldane, Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Hankey, Mr. and Mrs. Philip Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Powell, and Miss Powell, Mr. Rudall and Miss Rudall, Messrs. R. C. L. Bevan, James Farish, R. N. Fowler, H. Roberts, B. Ranyard, J Macgregor, S. Morley, T. H. Forcham, &c., &c.  Sir John Lawrence, Rev. W. Arthur, and Rev. G. Osborn, were unexpectedly prevented from being present.

The company having assembled in the drawing room,

The Hon. ARTHUR KINNAIRD introduced Mr. Martin by reading the following letter from the Rev. E. N. Kirk:

'BOSTON, U.S., July 16, 1861.

'DEAR FRIEND:——It is long since we met, but I have never lost sight of you and your labors for our glorious Master.

'Allow me to introduce to you, and to commend to your Christian confidence, my friend, the Rev. J. Sella Martin, of this city.  Being unknown to the brethren of Britain, he needs this line of commendation.  He will tell you of our affairs, and you may confidently commend him to all who love our Lord Jesus as a faithful minister of the Word.

'Yours most affectionately,
   'EDW. N. KIRK.
'Hon. Arthur Kinnaird, London.'

Mr. KINNAIRD then made a few remarks on the causes of the lack of sympathy with which the present struggle in the United States is regarded in this country, observing that the language of Mr. Seward, President Lincoln's Minister of State, the course taken by the U.S. Government with respect to the right of search, &c., were among the chief things which had tended to alienate the people of this country.  With a view to the diffusion of information, so desirable at the present time, he had asked Mr. Martin to state his views on

(1) The present position of the Federal Government.

(2) The objects of the war, and its probable issue.

(3) The state of public opinion, of the press, &c., in the North with reference to slavery; and 

(4) The state of feeling in the South, among both white and colored population, and the probable influence of the war on slavery.

Referring, then, more immediately to the last-named point, Mr. Kinnaird concluded by expressing his fervent hope, that the issue of the war might be to enable the American people to wash their hands of that most iniquitous and deplorable system.  (Applause.)

The Rev. J. SELLA MARTIN then came forward and delivered a lengthened and able address, touching more or less on each of the above-named topics.  Having opened with a grateful acknowledgment of English sympathy
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for the negro race, he expressed his belief that the apparent indifference to the cause of the North in this country, and, on the other hand, the irritability awakened in the North by the harsh criticisms of the English press, were the fruit of mutual misunderstandings.  This was especially the case in regard to the opinion entertained in England as to the extent of anti-slavery feeling in the North——a feeling much deeper, and more widely spread than we supposed.  He illustrated at some length the proposition, that the origin of the war was the desire of the South to have slavery supreme; pointing out, in much detail, how for years past the slave States, notwithstanding their inferiority in population, extent, and wealth, had exercised predominant power in the Legislature, Administrative and Executive departments of the country.  Thus, out of eighteen Presidents, twelve had been from the South, and six only from the North.  At length the Northern people found that slavery was asking too much.  The passing of the Fugitive Slave Law, and the slaveholding assault on the Hon. Charles Sumner on the floor of the Senate Chamber, were among the things which roused the North to resistance.  Then came the war in Kansas, where, in fact, the first battle between slavery and freedom was fought; the North having, by this time, come to an united sentiment, that slavery should not be established in that territory.——The growth of anti-slavery feeling in the North was evidenced by the constant rescue of fugitive slaves; the adoption by eleven States of Personal Liberty Bills, securing these fugitives trial by jury; and the refusal of the use of gaols for their detention.  Coming then more immediately to the question of the war, Mr. Martin denied the truth of the representation, that it was a fratricidal war; it was no more a fratricidal war than any other war.  But whatever it was, the South began it, and let any horrors attaching to it be added to its guilty head.  (Hear, hear.)  There was, indeed, war before the actual outbreak; every white man going South was subjected to Lynch law and other atrocities, and slavery was, in fact, a chronic state of war.  If one war would put an end to continual war, good service would be done to the cause of humanity.  (Hear, hear.)  The cause for which the South had gone out of the Union, and for which it was now fighting, was to maintain slavery, and none other.  It was in allusion to slavery that the Southern Vice President, Mr. Stephens, had profanely used a Scripture simile——'The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner,' (sensation,) an application wicked beyond expression.  (Hear, hear.)

This maintenance of slavery would involve the necessity of re-opening the African slave-trade, without which the supply of slaves could not be kept up; for, such was the wear and tear of the sugar, rice, and cotton plantations, that the average life of the slave was not more than nine years.  (Hear, hear.)——The Southern slaveholding interest aimed at making slavery supreme on the American continent, embracing, not only their own States, but the Brazils, the Spanish possessions, Central America and Mexico; and in view of this ambitious project, the North resisted for its own existence.  (Hear, hear.)——It might be asked, why not let them (the Secession States) go?  For the same reason that England would not let Ireland go——that London would not let Marylebone go.  The moment the right of Secession was conceded, all government became impossible.  Mr. Martin next argued that the war now waged by the Federal Government was essentially an anti slavery war.  (No.)  At all events, if they were not fighting avowedly to put down slavery, it was enough for him that they were fighting slaveholders.  (Hear.)  To show the tendencies of the war, he called attention to the Act of the last Congress, by which every slave, whose master was a rebel, was confiscated by the fact of rebellion.  He pointed also to the reception and protection of 800 fugitives in Fortress Monroe.  The reply of the Washington Government to the inquiry of
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General Butler, as to what he was to do with the slaves who had escaped from loyal masters, was to the effect that the substantial rights of loyal masters would be best protected by receiving such fugitives, as well as fugitives from disloyal masters, into the service of the United States.  A record was directed to be kept showing the name and description of the fugitives and other necessary facts.  Upon the return of peace, Congress 'would (it was said) doubtless provide for all the persons thus received into the service of the Union, and for a just compensation to loyal masters, but nothing was said of returning the fugitives to the condition of slavery.  Wherever, therefore, the Northern army went, it went as an emancipator.  (Hear, hear.)  He repeated his strong conviction of the anti-slavery feeling of the North, and his earnest hope and anticipation that, not only would the rebellion be put down, but that its cause would be abolished.  Whichever of the belligerents 'whipped' the other, this would, he believed, be the result.  The South could only win by calling in the assistance of the slaves, and this assistance could, he believed, only be obtained by the masters giving them their freedom.  If a compromise should take place, slavery would take care of itself.  An insurrection among the slaves for their own freedom would only have the effect of turning both North and South down upon them.——After bearing warm testimony to the generous reception accorded to himself, as an escaped slave, by the people of Massachusetts, the Rev. gentleman closed with a fervid peroration.

The address, of which we give but an outline, was characterized by a degree of earnestness and power which bespoke the man who felt deeply, and who had studied closely the history of his native country, and the still wider bearings of the question at issue on the well being of the negro race.  In the course of the conversation which ensued,

Dr. DAVIS, Secretary of the Religious Tract Society, expressed, on behalf of the company, the interest which they had felt in Mr. Martin's statement, and still more in the man who made it.  (Applause.)  The Doctor proceeded to comment on the causes to which the present state of feeling in England may be attributed.  The cotton interest in this country had not the remotest sympathy with the slavery of the South.  (Hear, hear.)  He believed that the strength of the slave trade had been the stars and stripes of the Union, and that, in the overruling Providence of God, the present secession would be one of the steps toward emancipation.  (Hear, hear.)  The sole reason of the want of English sympathy towards the Federal Government was, that that Government had never spoken on this subject of slavery, and that, instead of speaking as we desired, one of the last acts of which we heard was the removal of Fremont from his command.  (Hear, hear.)

These remarks were followed by up Mr. John Macregor and the Rev. W. Chambers, the latter adverting more particularly to the extensive ramifications of the Democratic or pro-slavery  party in the North, as well as in the South, and to the fact that Mr. Lincoln, the nominee of the Republicans, only owed his election to the division in the ranks of the Democrats in support of Douglas and Breckinridge respectively.

Mr. SAMUEL MORLEY expressed his surprise that the Christian men of America had not spoken out as could be wished on this question of slavery.

Lieut. VERNEY illustrated the effect produced on the minds of British naval officers by the American restrictions on 'the right of search,' and the difficulties and risks thus occasioned to our African squadron.

In reply to Mr. R. N. FOWLER, Mr. Martin state that General Fremont's removal must, he believed, be attributed to causes wholly irrespective of his well-known freedom proclamation.

After some further conversation of a deeply interesting character, the proceedings were closed with prayer by the Rev. H. Allon.
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Transcription Notes:
Reviewed, heading was swapped, now fixed