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This letter was written in
England in the summer of 1809, and read by
Mr. Thompson at the Anniversary of the
Glasgow Emancipation Society in that year.
My dear
Thompson,--I am very sorry to say no to your pressing request, but I cannot come to
Glasgow; duty takes me elsewhere.
My heart will be with you though, on the 1st of August, and I need not say how much pleasure it would give me to meet, on that day especially, the men to whom my country owes so much, and on the spot dear to every American Abolitionist as the scene of your triumphant refutation and stern rebuke of
Breckinridge.
I do not think any of you can conceive the feelings with which an American treads such scenes.
You cannot realize the debt of gratitude he feels to be due, and is eager to pay to those who have spoken in behalf of humanity, and whose voices have come to him across the water.
The vale of
Leven, Exeter Hall,
Glasgow, and
Birmingham are consecrated spots,--the land of
Scoble and
Sturge, of
Wardlaw and
Buxton, of
Clarkson and
O'Connell, is hallowed ground to us.
Would I could be with you, to thank the
English Abolitionists, in the slave's name, for the great experiment they have tried in behalf of humanity; for proving in the face of the world the safety and expediency of immediate emancipation; for writing out the demonstration