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Tribute to Clarkson and Wilberforce.

THE names of CLARKSON and WILBERFORCE will, to the end of time, be watchwords in the mouths of the friends of bleeding humanity. Venerable men! they live, as yet, to receive the benedictions of a grateful people! Would they were present on this occasion, to receive our individual thanks and gratulations! How would their dim eyes rekindle with light, and their feeble pulse rise to a strong vibration, and their almost passive hearts beat joyfully with emotion, could they see a portion of that persecuted people, for whom they have toiled for so long a period, assembled together under such happy auspices, presenting such an appearance of comfort, safety and pleasure, to celebrate a deed which they, under God, successfully consummated! Were they before me, I would address them after this manner :

Benefactors of mankind! thrice welcome to the shores of America! welcome to the land in which the infant Liberty was born, whose tread is now shaking the nations! welcome to a seat with those for whose improvement and protection you have spent a long life, enduring shame and reproach, perilling your health and reputation and lives, seeking no reward but the approbation of your consciences and the smiles of Heaven, never tiring in your arduous labors, never faltering in feebleness of faith, never diverted from the object of your pursuit! Suffer me to present to you a worthy portion of my down-trodden colored countrymen. Others may shun their presence, and pour contempt upon them, but I am sure that CLARKSON and WILBERFORCE are too noble to treat them with indignity. To you the color of their skin is nothing: it is enough that they have souls that they are rational beings-that they belong to the same common family, and are the children of one com

mon Parent. The scorn which separates them from society but serves to increase your attachment for them. Venerable men! they appreciate your goodness-your toils to effect their deliverance - all that you have done and suffered in behalf of their race. Forgive the feebleness of language, the imperfection of speech. They feel the poverty of words; they can give you nothing but the pressure of the hand, the tear of gratitude, the broken benediction of a full heart. Their prayers for your preservation and happiness are constantly ascending to the God of the needy. Encouraged by your example and countenance, they have risen up from the dust, and are making rapid progress in virtue, in knowledge, and in piety. The evidence is before you, and you will not desire a richer reward for your labors.

Your fame is broader than the Atlantic, and shall be as enduring. It shall blossom and bear fruit in every clime, among every tribe and nation, to the latest posterity. It shall be a living impulse to move the moral world. It is not founded upon rapine and conquest, like an Alexander's or Napoleon's, but upon benevolence and equity. You have not, like them, desolated the earth, and sacrificed thousands of human beings upon the altar of your ambition, but have actively sought to stop the shedding of blood, break the yoke of oppression, and prevent the destruction of human life. You have not, like the priest and the Levite, passed by on the other side, and left the victim of thieves-poor, bleeding Africa-to perish; but, like the good Samaritan, have endeavored to heal her wounds and restore her to health.

As yet, your names are not familiar to the lips of her benighted children; but when the light of civilization and Christianity shall illumine her vast empire, and a river of knowledge, deeper and more fruitful than the Niger or the Nile, shall flow throughout her borders, then shall they recognize you as their noblest benefactors, and offer up

incense to God for having raised you up to vindicate their

cause.

These things I say, not because you court the applause of men, nor because I hope to gratify your vanity, or thereby secure your esteem. Praise to a good man is scarcely less painful than censure. They are reflections which are naturally suggested in tracing the relation of cause and effect- an active and laborious career of philanthropy and piety.

To you, respected sirs, I am personally, and, doubtless, by reputation, unknown. Cherishing, however, the same abhorrence to oppression, the same love of justice, the same attachment to freedom, the same desire to extricate the enslaved from their terrible condition, as yourselves; I have resolved, through divine assistance, and stimulated by your example, to dedicate my life—all that I have, all that I hope to be, to the cause of human liberty. Humble as have been my efforts, I have thus early drawn upon me the maledictions of a large portion of my countrymen, and, like yourselves, been misunderstood, calumniated, threatenedbranded as a madman and fanatic, and deemed worthy of death. If I have not yet experienced enough to put my sincerity and endurance to the test, I feel no desire to shrink from any additional trials or perils. In your patient submission under reproach, your perseverance through every obsta cle, your fearless avowal of the truth, your uncompromising spirit of justice, your willingness to lay down your lives in this great cause, your final and glorious triumph over the enemies of injured Africa; and above all, in the examples of the Son of God, and the apostles and prophets, and the martyrs to truth in all ages, I derive all the encouragement and confidence I can need in any situation or under any trials in which I may be placed; and if I prove recreant to my pledge, if I swerve for a moment from the path

of duty to avoid reproach or conciliate the ill-will of any living being, I shall deserve the curse of mankind, as I surely shall receive the retribution of Heaven. No reproaches, no dangers shall deter me. Wherever Providence may call me, my voice shall be heard in behalf of the perishing slave, and against the claims of his oppressor. With you I feel that, in such a task, it is impossible to tire: it fills my mind with complacency and peace. At night, I lie down with composure, and rise to it in the morning with alacrity. I never will desist from this blessed work.

Sannet to Chomas Clarkson.

CLARKSON! among the wise, the great, the good,
The friend of MAN, whate'er his caste or clime,
Thy memory shall be hailed with gratitude -

Thy labors honored to the end of time!

Thine was a soul with sympathy imbued,

Broad as the earth, and as the heavens sublime;

Thy godlike object, steadfastly pursued,

To save thy race from misery and crime.

Mourn, England! for the loss thou hast sustained,
And let the nations of the earth lament,

With spirit broken, and with grief unfeigned;
And to her tears let LIBERTY give vent;

A star of glory has in darkness waned

No more on earth survives the good man eloquent.

Vindication of the Liberator.

BITTER enemies and lukewarm friends represent the Liberator as an incendiary publication. I am willing to admit the propriety of the designation. It is, unquestionably, kindling a great fire; but it is the fire of sympathy and holy indignation against the most oppressive system on earth, and will burn up nothing but the chaff. That fire is spreading from house to house, from village to village, from city to city, from State to State. The East is glowing, as if a new sun had risen in splendid radiance; and the West has caught its beams, and is kindling with new intensity. Even the dark Atlantic, as far as the shores of old England, shows a luminous path of light, and the philanthropists of that country are rejoicing as they gaze upon it. Like a vestal fire, may this never cease to burn. Let those throw water upon it, who will-love to God and man shall feed it, and prevent its extinguishment.

But the Liberator is said to be destructive in its character and tendency. That charge, also, I admit is true. It is putting whole magazines of truth under the slave system, and I trust in God will blow it into countless fragments, so that not the remnant of a whip or chain can be found in all the South, so that upon its ruins may be erected the beautiful temple of freedom. I will not waste my strength in foolishly endeavoring to beat down this great Bastile with a feather. I will not commence at the roof, and throw off its tiles by piecemeal. I am for adopting a more summary method of demolishing it. I am for digging under its foundations, and springing a mine that shall not leave one stone upon another. I leave colonizationists to pick up the leaves which are annually shed by the Bohon Upas of our land, with the vain hope of exterminating it; but as for myself, I

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