Project Gutenberg's No Compromise with Slavery, by William Lloyd Garrison
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: No Compromise with Slavery
An Address Delivered to the Broadway Tabernacle, New York
Author: William Lloyd Garrison
Release Date: January 7, 2008 [EBook #24194]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NO COMPROMISE WITH SLAVERY ***
Produced by Jeannie Howse, Bryan Ness and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
book was produced from scanned images of public domain
material from the Google Print project.)
* * * * *
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Transcriber's Note: |
| |
| Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For |
| a complete list, please see the end of this document. |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
* * * * *
No Compromise with Slavery.
AN ADDRESS
DELIVERED
IN THE
BROADWAY TABERNACLE, NEW YORK,
FEBRUARY 14, 1854,
BY
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON.
NEW YORK:
AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY,
142 NASSAU STREET,
1854.
ADDRESS.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: An earnest espousal of the Anti-Slavery cause
for a quarter of a century, under circumstances which have served in a
special manner to identify my name and labours with it, will shield me
from the charge of egotism, in assuming to be its exponent--at least
for myself--on this occasion. All that I can compress within the
limits of a single lecture, by way of its elucidation, it shall be my
aim to accomplish. I will make a clean breast of it. You shall know
all that is in my heart pertaining to Slavery, its supporters, and
apologists.
Of necessity, as well as of choice, I am a "Garrisonian"
Abolitionist--the most unpopular appellation that any man can have
applied to him, in the present state of public sentiment; yet, I am
more than confident, destined ultimately to be honourably regarded by
the wise and good. For though I have never assumed to be a
leader--have never sought conspicuity of position, or notoriety of
name--have desired to follow, if others, better qualified, would go
before, and to be lost sight of in the throng of Liberty's adherents,
as a drop is merged in the ocean; yet, as the appellation alluded to
is applied, not with any reference to myself invidiously, but to
excite prejudice against the noblest movement of the age, in order
that the most frightful system of oppression ever devised by human
ingenuity and wickedness may be left to grow and expand to the latest
generation--I accept it as the synonym of absolute trust in God, and
utter disregard of "that fear of man which bringeth a snare"--and so
deem it alike honourable and praiseworthy.
Representing, then, that phase of Abolitionism which is the most
contemned--to the suppression of which, the means and forces of the
Church and the State are most actively directed--I am here to defend
it against all its assailants as the highest expediency, the soundest
philosophy, the noblest patriotism, the broadest philanthropy, and the
best religion extant. To denounce it as fanatical, disorganising,
reckless of consequences, bitter and irreverent in spirit, infidel in
heart, deaf alike to the suggestions of reason and the warnings of
history, is to call good evil, and evil good; to put darkness for
light, and light for darkness; to insist that Barabbas is better than
Jesus; to cover with infamy the memories of patriarchs and prophets,
apostles and martyrs; and to inaugurate Satan as the God of the
universe. If, like the sun, it is not wholly spotless, still, like the
sun, without it there is no light. If murky clouds obscure its
brightness, still it shines in its strength. If, at a seems to wane to
its final setting, it is only to reveal itself in the splendour of a
new ascension, unquenchable, glorious, sublime.
Let me define my positions, and at the same time challenge any one to
show wherein they are untenable.
I. I am a believer in that portion of the Declaration of American
Independence in which it is set forth, as among self-evident truths,
"that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Hence, I am an Abolitionist.
Hence, I cannot but regard oppression in every form--and most of all,
that which turns a man into a thing--with indignation and abhorrence.
Not to cherish these feelings would be recreancy to principle. They
who desire me to be dumb on the subject of Slavery, unless I will open
my mouth in its defence, ask me to give the lie to my professions, to
degrade my manhood, and to stain my soul. I will not be a liar, a
poltroon, or a hypocrite, to accommodate any party, to gratify any
sect, to escape any odium or peril, to save any interest, to preserve
any institution, or to promote any object. Convince me that one man
may rightfully make another man his slave, and I will no longer
subscribe to the Declaration of Independence. Convince me that liberty
is not the inalienable birthright of every human being, of whatever
complexion or clime, and I will give that instrument to the consuming
fire. I do not know how to espouse freedom and slavery together. I do
not know how to worship God and Mammon at the same time. If other men
choose to go upon all-fours, I choose to stand erect, as God designed
every man to stand. If, practically falsifying its heaven-attested
principles, this nation denounces me for refusing to imitate its
example, then, adhering all the more tenaciously to those principles,
I will not cease to rebuke it for its guilty inconsistency.
Numerically, the contest may be an unequal one, for the time being;
but the Author of liberty and the Source of justice, the adorable God,
is more than multitudinous, and he will defend the right. My crime is,
that I will not go with the multitude to do evil. My singularity is,
that when I say that Freedom is of God, and Slavery is of the devil, I
mean just what I say. My fanaticism is, that I insist on the American
people abolishing Slavery, or ceasing to prate of the rights of man.
My hardihood is, in measuring them by their own standard, and
convicting them out of their own mouths.
"Woe to the rebellions children, saith the Lord, that take
counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but
not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin.
That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my
mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh,
and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the
enact in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a
book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:
That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children
that will not hear the law of the Lord.
Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy
not unto us right things; speak unto us smooth things;
prophesy deceits; get you out of the way, turn aside out of
the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before
us.
Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel: Because ye
despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness,
and stay thereon:
Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to
fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh
suddenly, at an instant."
II. Notwithstanding the lessons taught us by Pilgrim Fathers and
Revolutionary Sires, at Plymouth Rock, on Bunker Hill, at Lexington,
Concord and Yorktown; notwithstanding our Fourth of July celebrations,
and ostentatious displays of patriotism; in what European nation is
personal liberty hold in such contempt as in our own? Where are there
such unbelievers in the natural equality and freedom of mankind? Our
slaves outnumber the entire population of the country at the time of
our revolutionary struggle. In vain do they clank their chains, and
fill the air with their shrieks, and make their supplications for
mercy. In vain are their sufferings portrayed, their wrongs rehearsed,
their rights defended. As Nero fiddled while Rome was burning, so the
slaveholding spirit of this nation rejoices, as one barrier of liberty
after another is destroyed, and fresh victims are multiplied for the
cotton-field and the auction-block. For one impeachment of the slave
system, a thousand defences are made. For one rebuke of the
man-stealer, a thousand denunciations of the Abolitionists are heard.
For one press that bears a faithful testimony against Slavery, a score
are ready to be prostituted to its service. For one pulpit that is not
"recreant to its trust," there are ten that openly defend slaveholding
as compatible with Christianity, and scores that are dumb. For one
church that excludes the human enslaver from its communion table,
multitudes extend to him the right hand of religious fellowship. The
wealth, the enterprise, the literature, the politics, the religion of
the land, are all combined to give extension and perpetuity to the
Slave Power. Everywhere to do homage to it, to avoid collision with
it, to propitiate its favour, is deemed essential--nay, _is_ essential
to political preferment and ecclesiastical advancement. Nothing is so
unpopular as impartial liberty. The two great parties which absorb
nearly the whole voting strength of the Republic are pledged to be
deaf, dumb and blind to whatever outrages the Slave Power may attempt
to perpetrate. Cotton is in their ears--blinds are over their
eyes--padlocks are upon their lips. They are as clay in the hands of
the potter, and already moulded into vessels of dishonour, to be used
for the vilest purposes. The tremendous power of the Government is
actively wielded to "crush out" the little Anti-Slavery life that
remains in individual hearts, and to open new and boundless domains
for the expansion of the Slave system. No man known or suspected to be
hostile to "the Compromise Measures, including the Fugitive Slave
Law," is allowed to hope for any office under the present
Administration. The ship of State is labouring in the trough of the
sea--her engine powerless, her bulwarks swept away, her masts gone,
her lifeboats destroyed, her pumps choked, and the leak gaining
rapidly upon her; and as wave after wave dashes over her, all that
might otherwise serve to keep her afloat is swallowed by the
remorseless deep. God of heaven! if the ship is destined to go down
"full many a fathom deep," is every soul on board to perish? Ho! a
sail! a sail! The weather-beaten, but staunch ship Abolition,
commanded by the Genius of Liberty, is bearing toward the wreck, with
the cheering motto, inscribed in legible capitals, "WE WILL NOT
FORSAKE YOU!" Let us hope, even against hope, that rescue is not
wholly impossible.
To drop what is figurative for the actual. I have expressed the belief
that, so lost to all self-respect and all ideas of justice have we
become by the corrupting presence of Slavery, in no European nation is
personal liberty held at such discount, as a matter of principle, as
in our own. See how clearly this is demonstrated. The reasons adduced
among us in justification of slaveholding, and therefore against
personal liberty, are multitudinous. I will enumerate only a dozen of
these: 1. "The victims are black." 2. "The slaves belong to an
inferior race." 3. "Many of them have been fairly purchased." 4.
"Others have been honestly inherited." 5. "Their emancipation would
impoverish their owners." 6. "They are better off as slaves then they
would be as freemen." 7. "They could not take care of themselves if
set free." 8. "Their simultaneous liberation would be attended with
great danger." 9. "Any interference in their behalf will excite the
ill-will of the South, and thus seriously affect Northern trade and
commerce." 10. "The Union can be preserved only by letting Slavery
alone, and that is of paramount importance." 11. "Slavery is a lawful
and constitutional system, and therefore not a crime." 12. "Slavery is
sanctioned by the Bible; the Bible is the word of God; therefore God
sanctions Slavery, and the Abolitionists are wise above what is
written."
Here, then, are twelve reasons which are popularly urged in all parts
of the country, as conclusive against the right of a man to himself.
If they are valid, in any instance, what becomes of the Declaration of
Independence? On what ground can the revolutionary war, can any
struggle for liberty, be justified? Nay, cannot all the despotisms of
the earth take shelter under them? If they are valid, then why is not
the jesuitical doctrine, that the end sanctifies them, and that it is
right to do evil that good may come, morally sound? If they are valid,
then how does it appear that God is no respecter of persons? or how
can he say, "All souls are mine"? or what is to be done with Christ's
injunction, "Call no man master"? or with what justice can the same
duties and the same obligations (such as are embodied in the Decalogue
and the gospel of Christ) be exacted of chattels as of men? But they
are not valid. They are the logic of Bedlam, the morality of the
pirate ship, the diabolism of the pit. They insult the common sense
and shock the moral nature of mankind. Take them to Europe, and see
with what scorn they will be universally treated! Go, first, to
England, and gravely propound them there; and the universal response
will proudly be, in the thrilling lines of Cowper,
"Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs
Inhale our air, that moment they are free!
They touch our country, and their shackles fall!"
Every Briton, indignant at the monstrous claim, will answer, in the
emphatic words of Brougham: "Tell me not of rights; talk not of the
property of the planter in his slaves! I deny the right--I acknowledge
not the property! The principles, the feelings of our nature, rise in
rebellion against it. Be the appeal made to the understanding or to
the heart, the sentence is the same that rejects it." And Curran, in
words of burning eloquence, shall reply: "I speak in the spirit of the
British law, which makes liberty commensurate with, and inseparable
from, the British soil--which proclaims, even to the stranger and the
sojourner, that the ground on which he treads is holy, and consecrated
by the genius of universal emancipation. No matter in what language
his doom may have been pronounced; no matter what complexion an Indian
or an African sun may have burnt upon him; no matter in what
disastrous battle his liberty may have been cloven down; no matter
with what solemnities he may have been offered upon the altar of
Slavery; the first moment he touches the sacred soil of Britain, the
altar and the god sink together in the dust--his spirit walks abroad
in its own majesty--his body swells beyond the measure of his chains,
and he stands redeemed, regenerated and disenthralled, by the
irresistible genius of universal emancipation."
Again--take these slaveholding pleas to Scotland and from the graves
of the dead and the homes of the living, they shall be replied to in
thunder-tones in the language of Burns: "A man's a man, for all that."
"Who would be a traitor knave?
Who would fill a coward's grave?
Who so base as be a slave?
Let him turn and flee!"
Pass over to Ireland, and there repeat those excuses for Slavery, and
eight million voices shall reply, in the words of Thomas Moore:
"To think that man, thou just and loving God!
Should stand before thee with a tyrant's rod,
O'er creatures like himself, with souls from Thee,
Yet dare to boast of perfect liberty!
Away! away! I'd rather hold my neck
By doubtful tenure from a Sultan's beck,
In climes where liberty has scarce been nam'd,
Nor any right but that of ruling claim'd,
Than thus to live where boasted Freedom waves
Her fustian flag in mockery over slaves!"
And the testimony of O'Connell, in behalf of all Ireland, shall pass
from mouth to mouth: "I am an Abolitionist. I am for speedy, immediate
Abolition. I care not what caste, creed or colour, Slavery may assume.
Whether it be personal or political, mental or corporeal, intellectual
or spiritual, I am for its instant, its total Abolition. I am for
justice, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the
living God." "Let none of the slave-owners, dealers in human flesh,
dare to set a foot upon our free soil!" "We are all children of the
same Creator, heirs of the same promise, purchased by the blood of the
same Redeemer--and what signifies of what caste colour or creed we may
be? It is our duty to proclaim that the cause of the negro is our
cause, and that we will insist upon doing away, to the best of our
human ability, the stain of Slavery, not only from every portion of
this mighty empire, but from the whole face of the earth." "Let the
American Abolitionists be honoured in proportion as the slaveholders
are execrated."
Pass over to the Continent, even into Papal-ridden Italy, and there
urge the popular pleas in defence of slaveholding, and, from the
Vatican, Pope Gregory XVI. shall reply: "We urgently invoke, in the
name of God, all Christians, of whatever condition, that none
henceforth dare to subject to Slavery, unjustly persecute, or despoil
of their goods, Indians, Negroes, or other classes of men, or to be
accessories to others, or furnish them aid or assistance in so doing;
and on no account henceforth to exercise that inhuman traffic, by
which Negroes are reduced to Slavery, as if they were not men, but
automata or chattels, and are sold in defiance of all the laws of
justice and humanity, and devoted to severe and intolerable labours."
Proceed to Austria, and there defend the practice of reducing men to
Slavery, and the Austrian code shall proclaim: "Every man, by right of
nature, sanctioned by reason, must be considered a free person. Every
slave becomes free from the moment he touches the Austrian soil, or an
Austrian ship."
Finally, enter the Tunisian dominions, and there urge the claim of
property in man, and Musheer Ahmed Bashaw Bey shall reply: "We declare
that all slaves that shall enter our kingdom, by land or by sea,
shall be free; and further order, that every one born a slave in our
dominions shall be considered as free from the very instant of his
birth, and that he shall neither be sold nor bought."
Thus do I prove that, in regard to personal liberty--the right of
every man to the ownership of his own body--even Italy, Austria and
Tunis are in advance of this boasted Republic, and put it to open
shame!
III. The Abolitionism which I advocate is as absolute as the law of
God, and as unyielding as His throne. It admits of no compromise.
Every slave is a stolen man; every slaveholder is a man-stealer. By no
precedent, no example, no law, no compact, no purchase, no bequest, no
inheritance, no combination of circumstances, is slaveholding right or
justifiable. While a slave remains in his fetters, the land must have
no rest. Whatever sanctions his doom must be pronounced accursed. The
law that makes him a chattel is to be trampled under foot; the compact
that is formed at his expense, and cemented with his blood, is null
and void; the church that consents to his enslavement is horribly
atheistical; the religion that receives to its communion the enslaver
is the embodiment of all criminality. Such, at least, is the verdict
of my own soul, on the supposition that I am to be the slave; that my
wife is to be sold from me for the vilest purposes; that my children
are to be torn from my arms, and disposed of to the highest bidder,
like sheep in the market. And who am I but a man? What right have I
to be free, that another man cannot prove himself to possess by
nature? Who or what are my wife and children, that they should not be
herded with four-footed beasts, as well as others thus sacredly
related? If I am white, and another is black, complexionally, what
follows?
"Does, then, th' immortal principle within
Change with the casual colour of the skin?
Does matter govern spirit? or is mind
Degraded by the form to which 'tis joined?"
What if I am rich, and another is poor--strong, and he is
weak--intelligent, and he is benighted--elevated, and he is depraved?
"Have we not one Father? Hath not one God created us?"
"How rich, how poor, how abject, how august,
How complicate, how wonderful is man!
Distinguished link in being's endless chain,
Midway from nothing to the Deity!
A beam ethereal, sullied and absorpt;
Though sullied and dishonoured, still divine!"
Such is man, in every clime--above all compacts, greater than all
institutions, sacred against every outrage, priceless, immortal!
By this sure test, every institution, every party, every form of
government, every kind of religion, is to be tried. God never made a
human being either for destruction or degradation. It is plain,
therefore, that whatever cannot flourish except at the sacrifice of
that being, ought not to exist. Show me the party that can obtain
supremacy only by trampling upon human individuality and personal
sovereignty, and you will thereby pronounce sentence of death upon it.
Show me the government which can be maintained only by destroying the
rights of a portion of the people; and you will indicate the duty of
openly revolting against it. Show me the religion which sanctions the
ownership of one man by another, and you will demonstrate it to be
purely infernal in its origin and spirit.
No man is to be injured in his person, mind, or estate. He cannot be,
with benefit to any other man, or to any state of society. Whoever
would sacrifice him for any purpose is both morally and politically
insane. Every man is equivalent to every other man. Destroy the
equivalent, and what is left? "So God created man in his own
image--male and female created he them." This is a death-blow to all
claims of superiority, to all charges of inferiority, to all
usurpation, to all oppressive dominion.
But all three declarations are truisms. Most certainly; and they are
all that is stigmatized as "Garrisonian Abolitionism." I have not, at
any time, advanced an ultra sentiment, or made an extravagant demand.
I have avoided fanaticism on the one hand, fully on the other. No man
can show that I have taken one step beyond the line of justice, or
forgotten the welfare of the master in my anxiety to free the slave.
Why, citizens of the Empire State, did you proclaim liberty to all in
bondage on your soil, in 1827, and forevermore? Certainly, not on the
ground of expediency, but of principle. Why do you make slaveholding
unlawful among yourselves? Why is it not as easy to buy, breed,
inherit, and make slaves in this State, compatible with benevolence,
justice, and right, as it is in Carolina or Georgia? Why do you
compel the unmasked refugee from Van Dieman's Land to sigh for "a
plantation well stocked with healthy negroes in Alabama," and not
allow him the right to own and flog slaves in your presence? If
slaveholding is not wrong under all circumstances, why have you
decreed it to be so, within the limits of your State jurisdiction?
Nay, why do you have a judiciary, a legislative assembly, a civil
code, the ballot box, but to preserve your rights as one man? On what
other ground, except that you are men, do you claim a right to
personal freedom, to the ties of kindred, to the means of improvement,
to constant development, to labour when and for whom you choose, to
make your own contracts, to read and speak and print as you please, to
remain at home or travel abroad, to exercise the elective franchise,
to make your own rulers? What you demand for yourselves, in virtue of
your manhood, I demand for the enslaved at the South, on the same
ground. How is it that I am a madman, and you are perfectly rational?
Wherein is my ultraism apparent? If the slaves are not men; if they do
not possess human instincts, passions, faculties and powers; if they
are below accountability, and devoid of reason; if for them there is
no hope of immortality, no God, no heaven, no hell; if, in short, they
are, what the Slave Code declares them to be, rightly "deemed, sold,
taken, reputed and adjudged in law to be chattels personal in the
hands of their owners and possessors, and their executors,
administrators and assigns, to all intents, constructions, and
purposes whatsoever;" then, undeniably, I am mad, and can no longer
discriminate between a man and a beast. But, in that case, away with
the horrible incongruity of giving them oral instruction, of teaching
them the catechism, of recognising them as suitably qualified to be
members of Christian churches, of extending to them the ordinance of
baptism, and admitting them to the communion table, and enumerating
many of them as belonging to the household of faith! Let them be no
more included in our religious sympathies or denominational statistics
than are the dogs in our streets, the swine in our pens, or the
utensils in our dwellings. It is right to own, to buy, to sell, to
inherit, to breed, and to control them, in the most absolute sense.
All constitutions and laws which forbid their possession ought to be
so far modified or repealed as to concede the right.
But, if they are men; if they are to run the same career of
immortality with ourselves; if the same law of God is over them as
over all others; if they have souls to be saved or lost; if Jesus
included them among those for whom he laid down his life; if Christ is
within many of them "the hope of glory;" then, when I claim for them
all that we claim for ourselves, because we are created in the image
of God, I am guilty of no extravagance, but am bound, by every
principle of honour, by all the claims of human nature, by obedience
to Almighty God, to "remember them that are in bonds as bound with
them," and to demand their immediate and unconditional emancipation.
I am "ultra" and "fanatical," forsooth! In what direction, or
affecting what parties? What have I urged should be done to the
slaveholders? Their punishment as felons of the deepest dye? No. I
have simply enunciated in their ear the divine command, "Loose the
bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, break every yoke, and let
the oppressed go free," accompanying it with the cheering promises,
"Then shall thy light rise obscurity, and thy darkness be as the
noon-day. And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy
soul in drought, and make fat thy bones; and thou shalt be like a
watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not. And
they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou
shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be
called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell
in." Yet, if I had affirmed that they ought to meet the doom of
pirates, I should have been no more personal, no more merciless, than
is the law of Congress, making it a piratical act to enslave a native
African, under whatever pretence or circumstances; for in the eye of
reason, and by the standard of eternal justice, it is as great a crime
to enslave one born on our own soil, as on the coast of Africa; and
as, in the latter case, neither the plea of having fairly purchased or
inherited him, nor the pretence of seeking his temporal and eternal
good, by bringing him to a civilized and Christian country, would be
regarded as of any weight, so, none of the excuses offered for
slaveholding in this country are worthy of the least consideration.
The act, in both cases, is essentially the same--equally inhuman,
immoral, piratical. Oppression is not a matter of latitude or
longitude; here excusable, there to be execrated; here to elevate the
oppressor to the highest station, there to hang him by the neck till
he is dead; here compatible with Christianity, there to be branded and
punished as piracy. "He that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he
be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death." So reads the
Mosaic code, and by it every American Slaveholder is convicted of a
capital crime. By the Declaration of Independence, he is pronounced a
man-stealer. As for myself, I have simply exposed his guilt, besought
him to repent, and to "go and sin no more."
What extravagant claim have I made in behalf of the slaves? Will it be
replied, "Their immediate liberation!" Then God, by his prophet, is
guilty of extravagance! Then Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the
Declaration of Independence, and all who signed that instrument, and
all who joined in the Revolutionary struggle, were deceivers in
asserting it to be a self-evident truth, that all men are endowed by
their Creator with an inalienable right to liberty! The issue is not
with me, but with them, and with God. What! is it going too far to
ask, for those who have been outraged and plundered all their lives
long, nothing but houseless, penniless, naked freedom! No compensation
whatever for their past unrequited toil; no redress for their
multitudinous wrongs; no settlement for sundered ties, bleeding
backs, countless lacerations, darkened intellects, ruined souls! The
truth is, complete justice has never been asked for the enslaved.
How has the slave system grown to its present enormous dimensions?
Through compromise. How is it to be exterminated? Only by an
uncompromising spirit. This is to be carried out in all the relations
of life--social, political, religious. Put not on the list of your
friends, nor allow admission to your domestic circle, the man who on
principle defends Slavery, but treat him as a moral leper. "If an
American addresses you," said Daniel O'Connell to his countrymen,
"find out at once if he be a slaveholder. He may have business with
you, and the less you do with him the better; but the moment that is
over, turn from him as if he had the cholera or the plague--for there
is a moral cholera and a political plague upon him. He belongs not to
your country or your clime--he is not within the pale of civilization
or Christianity." On another occasion he said: "An American gentleman
waited upon me this morning, and I asked him with some anxiety, 'What
part of America do you come from?' 'I came from Boston.' Do me the
honour to shake hands; you came from a State that has never been
tarnished with Slavery--a State to which our ancestors fled from the
tyranny of England--and the worst of all tyrannies, the attempt to
interfere between man and his God--a tyranny that I have in principle
helped to put down in this country, and wish to put down in every
country upon the face of the globe. It is odious and insolent to
interfere between a man and his God; to fetter with law the choice
which the conscience makes of its mode of adoring the eternal and
adorable God. I cannot talk of toleration, because it supposes that a
boon has been given to a human being, in allowing him to have his
conscience free. It was in that struggle, I said, that your fathers
left England; and I rejoice to see an American from Boston; but I
should be sorry to be contaminated by the touch of a man from those
States where Slavery is continued. 'Oh,' said he, 'you are alluding to
Slavery though I am no advocate for it, yet, if you will allow me, I
will discuss that question with you.' I replied, that if a man should
propose to me a discussion on the propriety of picking pockets, I
would turn him out of my study, for fear he should carry his theory
into practice. 'And meaning you no sort of offence; I added, 'which I
cannot mean to a gentleman who does me the honour of paying me a civil
visit, I would as soon discuss the one question with you as the other.
The one is a paltry theft.
'He that steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands'--
but he who thinks he can vindicate the possession of one human being
by another--the sale of soul and body--the separation of father and
mother--the taking of the mother from the infant at her breast, and
selling the one to one master, and the other to another--is a man whom
I will not answer with words--nor with blows, for the time for the
latter has not yet come.'"
If such a spirit of manly indignation and unbending integrity pervaded
the Northern breast, how long could Slavery stand before it? But where
is it to be found? Alas! the man whose hands are red with blood is
honoured and caressed in proportion to the number of his victims;
while "he who departs from evil makes himself a prey." This is true,
universally, in our land. Why should not the Slave Power make colossal
strides over the continent? "There is no North." A sordid, truckling,
cowardly, compromising spirit, is everywhere seen. No insult or
outrage, no deed of impiety or blood, on the part of the South, can
startle us into resistance, or inspire us with self-respect. We see
our free coloured citizens incarcerated in Southern prisons, or sold
on the auction-block, for no other crime than that of being found on
Southern soil; and we dare not call for redress. Our commerce with the
South is bound with the shackles of the plantation--"Free-Trade and
Sailors'-Rights" are every day violated in Southern ports; and we
tamely submit to it as the slave does to the lash. Our natural,
God-given right of free speech, though constitutionally recognised as
sacred in every part of the country, can be exercised in the
slaveholding States only at the peril of our lives. Slavery cannot
bear one ray of light, or the slightest criticism. "The character of
Slavery," says Gov. Swain, of North Carolina, "is not to be
discussed"--meaning at the South. But he goes beyond this, and adds,
"We have an indubitable right to demand of the Free States to suppress
such discussion, totally and promptly." Gov. Tazewell, of Virginia,
makes the same declaration. Gov. Lumpkin, of Georgia, says: "The
weapons of reason and argument are insufficient to put down
discussion; we can therefore hear no argument upon the subject, for
our opinions are unalterably fixed." And he adds, that the Slave
States "will provide for their own protection, and those who speak
against Slavery will do well to keep out of their bounds, or they will
punish them." The Charleston _Courier_ declares, "The gallows and the
stake (_i.e._ burning alive and hanging) await the Abolitionists who
shall dare to appear in person among us." The Colombia _Telescope_
says: "Let us declare through the public journals of our country, that
the question of Slavery is not and shall not be open to discussion;
that the system is too deep-rooted among us, and must remain forever;
that the very moment any private individual attempts to lecture us
upon its evils and immorality, and the necessity of putting means in
operation to secure us from them, in the same moment his tongue shall
be cut out and cast upon the dunghill." The Missouri _Argus_ says:
"Abolition editors in slave States will not dare to avow their
opinions. It would be instant death to them." Finally, the New Orleans
_True American_ says: "We can assure those, one and all, who have
embarked in the nefarious scheme of abolishing Slavery at the South,
that lashes will hereafter be spared the backs of their emissaries.
Let them send out their men to Louisiana; they will never return to
tell their suffering, but they shall expiate the crime of interfering
in our domestic institutions, by being burned at the stake." And
Northern men cower at this, and consent to have their lips padlocked,
and to be robbed of their constitutional right, aye, and their natural
right, while travelling Southward; while the lordly slaveholder
traverses the length and breadth of the Free States, with open mouth
and impious tongue, cursing freedom and its advocates with impunity,
and choosing Plymouth Rock, and the celebration of the landing of the
Pilgrims upon it, as the place and the occasion specially fitting to
eulogize Slavery and the Fugitive Slave Bill!
"Now, by our fathers' ashes! where's the spirit
Of the true-hearted and th' unshackled gone?
Sons of old freemen! do we but inherit
Their _names_ alone?
"Is the old Pilgrim spirit quenched within us,
Stoops the proud manhood of our souls so low,
That Passion's wile or Party's lure can win us
To silence now?"
Whatever may be the guilt of the South, the North is still more
responsible for the existence, growth and extension of Slavery. In her
hand has been the destiny of the Republic from the beginning. She
could have emancipated every slave, long ere this, had she been
upright in heart and free in spirit. She has given respectability,
security, and the means of sustenance and attack to her deadliest foe.
She has educated the whole country, and particularly the Southern
portion of it, secularly, theologically religiously; and the result
is, three millions and a half of slaves, increasing at the appalling
rate of one hundred thousand a year, three hundred a day, and one
every five minutes--the utter corruption of public sentiment, and
general skepticism as to the rights of man--the inauguration of Mammon
in the place of the living God--the loss of all self-respect, all
manhood, all sense of shame, all regard for justice--the Book styled
holy, and claimed to be divinely inspired, everywhere expounded and
enforced in extenuation or defence of slaveholding, and against the
Anti-Slavery movement--colour-phobia infecting the life-blood of the
people--political profligacy unparalleled--the religious and the
secular press generally hostile to Abolitionism as either infidel or
anarchical in its spirit and purpose--the great mass of the churches
with as little vitality as a grave-yard--the pulpits, with rare
exceptions, filled with men as careful to consult the popular will as
though there were no higher law--synods, presbyteries, general
conferences, general assemblies, buttressing the slave power--the
Government openly pro-slavery, and the National District the
head-quarters of slave speculators--fifteen Slave States--and now, the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the consecration of five
hundred thousand square miles of free territory forever to the service
of the Slave Power!
And what does all this demonstrate? That the sin of this nation is not
geographical--is not specially Southern--but deep-seated and
universal. "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint." We
are "full of wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores." It proves,
too, the folly of all plasters and palliatives. Some men are still
talking of preventing the spread of the cancer, but leaving it just
where it is. They admit that, constitutionally, it has now a right to
ravage two-thirds of the body politic--but they protest against its
extension. This in moral quackery. Even some, whose zeal in the
Anti-Slavery cause is fervent, are so infatuated as to propose no
other remedy for Slavery but its non-extension. Give it no more room,
they say, and it may be safely left to its fate. Yes, but who shall
"bell the cat?" Besides, with fifteen Slave States, and more than
three millions of Slaves, how can we make any moral issue with the
Slave Power against its further extension? Why should there not be
twenty, thirty, fifty Slave States, as well as fifteen? Why should not
the star-spangled banner wave over ten, as well as over three millions
of Slaves? Why should not Nebraska be cultivated by Slave labour, as
well as Florida or Texas? If men, under the American Constitution, may
hold slaves at discretion and without dishonour in one-half of the
country, why not in the whole of it? If it would be a damning sin for
us to admit another Slave State into the Union, why is it not a
damning sin to permit a Slave State to remain in the Union? Would it
not be the acme of effrontery for a man, in amicable alliance with
fifteen pickpockets, to profess scruples of conscience in regard to
admitting another pilfering rogue to the fraternity? "Thou that
sayest, A man should not steal, dost thou steal," or consent, in any
instance, to stealing? "If the Lord be God, serve Him; but if Baal,
then serve him." The South may well laugh to scorn the affected moral
sensibility of the North against the extension of her slave system. It
is nothing, in the present relations of the States, but sentimental
hypocrisy. It has no stamina--no back-bone. The argument for
non-extension is an argument for the dissolution of the Union. With a
glow of moral indignation, I protest against the promise and the
pledge, by whomsoever made, that if the Slave Power will seek no more
to lengthen its cords and strengthen its stakes, it may go unmolested
end unchallenged, and survive as long as it can within its present
limits. I would as soon turn pirate on the high seas as to give my
consent to any such arrangement. I do not understand the moral code of
those who, screaming in agony at the thought of Nebraska becoming a
Slave Territory, virtually say to the South: "Only desist from your
present designs, and we will leave you to flog, and lacerate, and
plunder, and destroy the millions of hapless wretches already within
your grasp. If you will no longer agitate the subject, we will not."
There is no sense, no principle, no force in such an issue. Not a
solitary slaveholder will I allow to enjoy repose on any other
condition than instantly ceasing to be one. Not a single slave will I
leave in his chains, on any conditions, or under any circumstances. I
will not try to make as good a bargain for the Lord as the Devil will
let me, and plead the necessity of a compromise, and regret that I
cannot do any better, and be thankful that I can do so much. The
Scriptural injunction is to be obeyed: "Resist the devil, and he will
flee from you." My motto is, "No union with slaveholders, religiously
or politically." Their motto is "Slavery forever! No alliance with
Abolitionists, either in Church or State!" The issue is clear,
explicit, determinate. The parties understand each other, and are
drawn in battle array. They can never be reconciled--never walk
together--never consent to a truce--never deal in honeyed
phrases--never worship at the same altar--never acknowledge the same
God. Between them there is an impassable gulf. In manners, in morals,
in philosophy, in religion, in ideas of justice, in notions of law, in
theories of government, in valuations or men, they are totally
dissimilar.
I would to God that we might be, what we have never been--a united
people; but God renders this possible only by "proclaiming liberty
throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof." By what
miracle can Freedom and Slavery be made amicably to strike hands? How
can they administer the same Government, or legislate for the same
interests? How can they receive the same baptism, be admitted to the
same communion-table, believe in the same Gospel, and obtain the same
heavenly inheritance? "I speak as unto wise men; judge ye." Certain
propositions have long since been ceded to be plain, beyond
contradiction. The apostolic inquiry has been regarded as equally
admonitory and pertinent: "What concord hath Christ with Belial? or
what fellowship hath light with darkness?" Fire and gunpowder, oil and
water, cannot coalesce; but, assuredly, these are not more
antagonistical than are the elements of Freedom and Slavery. The
present American Union, therefore, is only one in form, not in
reality. It is, and it always has been, the absolute supremacy of the
Slave Power over the whole country--nothing more. What sectional
heart-burnings or conflictive interests exist between the several Free
States? None. They are homogeneous, animated by the same spirit,
harmonious in their action as the movement of the spheres. It is only
when we come to the dividing line between the Free States and the
Slave States that shoals, breakers and whirlpools beset the ship of
State, and threaten to engulf or strand it. Then the storm rages loud
and long, and the ocean of popular feeling is lashed into fury.
While the present Union exists, I pronounce it hopeless to expect any
repose, or that any barrier can be effectually raised against the
extension of Slavery. With two thousand million dollars' worth of
property in human flesh in its hands, to be watched and wielded as one
vast interest for all the South--with forces never divided, and
purposes never conflictive--with a spurious, negro-hating religion
universally diffused, and everywhere ready to shield it from
harm--with a selfish, sordid, divided North, long since bereft of its
manhood, to cajole, bribe and intimidate--with its foot planted on
two-thirds of our vast national domains, and there unquestioned,
absolute and bloody in its sway--with the terrible strength and
boundless resources of the whole country at its command--it cannot be
otherwise than that the Slave Power will consummate its diabolical
purposes to the uttermost. The Northwest Territory, Nebraska, Mexico,
Cuba, Hayti, the Sandwich Islands, and colonial possessions in the
tropics--to seize and subjugate these to its accursed reign, and
ultimately to re-establish the foreign Slave Trade as a lawful
commerce, are among its settled designs. It is not a question of
probabilities, but of time. And whom will a just God hold responsible
for all these results? All who despise and persecute men on account of
their complexion; all who endorse a slaveholding religion as genuine;
all who give the right hand of Christian fellowship to men whose hands
are stained with the blood of the slave; all who regard material
prosperity as paramount to moral integrity, and the law of the land as
above the law of God; all who are either hostile or indifferent to the
Anti-Slavery movement; and all who advocate the necessity of making
compromises with the Slave Power, in order that the Union may receive
no detriment.
In itself, Slavery has no resources and no strength. Isolated and
alone, it could not stand an hour; and, therefore, further aggression
and conquest would be impossible.
Says the Editor of the Marysville (Tenn.) _Intelligencer_, in an
article on the character and condition of the slave population:
"We of the South are emphatically surrounded by dangerous
class of beings--degraded, stupid savages--who, if they could
but once entertain the idea that immediate and unconditional
death would not be their portion, would re-enact the St.
Domingo tragedy. But the consciousness, with all their
stupidity, that a ten-fold force, superior in discipline, if
not in barbarity, would gather from the four corners of the
United States and slaughter them, keeps them in subjection.
_But, to the non-slaveholding States, particularly, we are
indebted for a permanent safeguard against insurrection._
Without their assistance, the while population of the South
would be too weak to quiet that insane desire for liberty
which is ever ready to act itself out with every rational
creature."
In the debate in Congress on the resolution to censure John Quincy
Adams, for presenting a petition for the dissolution of the Union, Mr.
Underwood, of Kentucky, said:
"They (the South) were the weaker portion, were in the
minority. _The North could do what they pleased with them_;
they could adopt their own measures. All he asked was, that
they would let the South know what those measures were. One
thing he knew well; that State, which he in part represented,
had perhaps a deeper interest in this subject than any other,
except Maryland and a small portion of Virginia. And why?
Because he knew that to dissolve the Union, and separate the
different States composing the confederacy, making the Ohio
River and the Mason and Dixon's line the boundary line, _he
knew as soon as that was done, Slavery was done_ in Kentucky,
Maryland and a large portion of Virginia, and it would extend
to all the States South of this line. _The dissolution of the
Union was the dissolution of Slavery._ It has been the common
practice for Southern men to get up on this floor, and say,
'Touch this subject, and we will dissolve this Union as a
remedy.' _Their remedy was the destruction of the thing which
they wished to save_, and any sensible man could see it. If
the Union was dissolved into two parts, the slave would cross
the line, and then turn round and curse the master from the
other shore."
The declaration of Mr. Underwood as to the entire dependence of the
slave masters on the citizens of the nominally Free States to guard
their plantations, and secure them against desertion, is substantially
confirmed by Thomas D. Arnold, of Tennessee, who, in a speech on the
name subject, assures us that they are equally dependent on the North
for _personal protection_ against their slaves. In assigning his
reasons for adhering to the Union, Mr. Arnold makes use of the
following language:
"The Free States had a majority of 44 in that House. Under the
new census, they would have 53. The cause of the slaveholding
States was getting weaker and weaker, and what were they to
do? He would ask his Southern friends what the South had to
rely on, if the Union were dissolved? Suppose the dissolution
could be peaceably effected (if that did not involve a
contradiction in terms), what had the South to depend upon?
_All the crowned heads were against her. A million of slaves
were ready to rise and strike for freedom at the first tap of
the drum._ If they were cut loose from their friends at the
North (friends that ought to be, and without them, the South
had no friends), _whither were they to look for protection_?
How were they to sustain an assault from England or France,
with the cancer at their vitals? The more the South reflected,
the more clearly she must see that she has a deep and vital
interest in maintaining the Union."
These witnesses can neither be impeached nor ruled out of Court, and
their testimony is true. While, therefore, the Union is preserved, I
see no end to the extension or perpetuity of Chattel Slavery--no hope
for peaceful deliverance of the millions who are clanking their chains
on our blood-red soil. Yet I know that God reigns, and that the slave
system contains within itself the elements of destruction. But how
long it is to curse the earth, and desecrate his image, he alone
foresees. It is frightful to think of the capacity of a nation like
this to commit sin, before the measure of its iniquities be filled,
and the exterminating judgments of God overtake it. For what is left
us but "a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation"? Or
is God but a phantom, and the Eternal Law but a figment of the
imagination? Has an everlasting divorce been effected between cause
and effect, and is it an absurd doctrine that, as a nation sows, so
shall it also reap? "Wherefore, hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful
men that rule this people: Because ye have said, We have made a
covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the
overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us; for
we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid
ourselves: Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Judgment will I lay to
the line, and righteousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep
away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the
hiding-place: And your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your
agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it."
These are solemn times. It is not a struggle for national salvation;
for the nation, as such, seems doomed beyond recovery. The reason why
the South rules, and North falls prostrate in servile terror, is
simply this: With the South, the preservation of Slavery is paramount
to all other considerations--above party success, denominational
unity, pecuniary interest, legal integrity, and constitutional
obligation. With the North, the preservation of the Union is placed
above all other things--above honour, justice, freedom, integrity of
soul, the Decalogue and the Golden Rule--the Infinite God himself. All
these she is ready to discard for the Union. Her devotion to it is the
latest and the most terrible form of idolatry. She has given to the
Slave Power a _carte blanche_, to be filled as it may dictate--and if,
at any time, she grows restive under the yoke, and shrinks back aghast
at the new atrocity contemplated, it is only necessary for that Power
to crack the whip of Disunion over her head, as it has done again and
again, and she will cower and obey like a plantation slave--for has
she not sworn that she will sacrifice everything in heaven and on
earth, rather than the Union?
What then is to be done? Friends of the slave, the question is not
whether by our efforts we can abolish Slavery, speedily or
remotely--for duty is ours, the result is with God; but whether we
will go with the multitude to do evil, sell our birthright for a mess
of pottage, cease to cry aloud and spare not, and remain in Babylon
when the command of God is, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be
not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."
Let us stand in our lot, "and having done all, to stand." At least, a
remnant shall be saved. Living or dying, defeated or victorious, be it
ours to exclaim, "No compromise with Slavery! Liberty for each, for
all, forever! Man above all institutions! The supremacy of God over
the whole earth!"
* * * * *
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Typographical errors corrected in text: |
| |
| Page 7: Eurpean replaced with European |
| Page 9: justication replaced with justification |
| Page 26: appaling replaced with appalling |
| |
| On page 16 there is a partially blocked word in the |
| scanned image. From the context it is very likely that |
| the word is 'demand': |
| |
| "I have not, at any time, advanced an ultra sentiment, |
| or made an extravagant ----nd. I have avoided |
| fanaticism on the one hand, fully on the other." |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
* * * * *
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of No Compromise with Slavery, by
William Lloyd Garrison
*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NO COMPROMISE WITH SLAVERY ***
***** This file should be named 24194.txt or 24194.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/1/9/24194/
Produced by Jeannie Howse, Bryan Ness and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
book was produced from scanned images of public domain
material from the Google Print project.)
Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.
Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project
Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you
do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is
subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
redistribution.
*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
http://gutenberg.org/license).
Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic works
1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works. See paragraph 1.E below.
1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the
collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an
individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in
a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check
the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning
the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
States.
1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
copied or distributed:
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
1.E.9.
1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked
to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
Gutenberg-tm License.
1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or
distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
that
- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is
owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments
must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
License. You must require such a user to return or
destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
Project Gutenberg-tm works.
- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
of receipt of the work.
- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the
Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
1.F.
1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
your equipment.
1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGE.
1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with
the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy
is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
opportunities to fix the problem.
1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any
provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists
because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
people in all walks of life.
Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at
809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
[email protected]. Email contact links and up to date contact
information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
page at http://pglaf.org
For additional contact information:
Dr. Gregory B. Newby
Chief Executive and Director
[email protected]
Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
Literary Archive Foundation
Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
status with the IRS.
The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To
SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
particular state visit http://pglaf.org
While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
approach us with offers to donate.
International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
works.
Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily
keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
http://www.gutenberg.org
This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
