Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; the story of his life told by his children: volume 1

[443] Just God! and shall we calmly rest,
     The Christian's scorn,—the heathen's mirth,—
Content to live the lingering jest
     And byword of a mocking Earth?
Shall our own glorious land retain
     That curse which Europe scorns to bear?
Shall our own brethren drag the chain
     Which not even Russia's menials wear?

The truth is, that had Thompson and Stuart had a pro-slavery message to deliver, their nativity would have been forgotten, or made to emphasize their support of the ‘peculiar institution.’ They would have been cheered and feted instead of mobbed. It was the human nil a me alienum¹ which made them ‘foreigners,’ as it had already, in the eyes of slaveholders and their apologists, denationalized the abolitionists of the North. Now² let each show, in a few words, his care to avoid the special opposition aroused against him, and both the American and the Christian scope of his mission. Thus Charles Stuart, in the circular appeal, already mentioned, to the³ English friends of humanity and religion ‘on behalf of the colored Manual Labor School’ (London, November 1, 1833):

The sympathy and the aid of Great Britain are not invited⁴ with even the remotest view of interfering with the political establishments of the United States; for with these we have nothing—and ought to have nothing—to do. But for the purpose of giving our cordial countenance and encouragement to all which is truly honorable amongst them—to all that confirms and purifies their power and their happiness; for the purpose of uniting in the glorious effort which the real patriots amongst themselves are making to extirpate the prejudice and the slavery which tarnish their honor and blight their prosperity.