Richmond Enquirer,
September 27, 1831
Will our readers inform us, whether Garrison’s “Boston Liberator” (or Walker’s appeal) is circulated in any part of this State? It is a nuisance, which ought to be arrested. If our fellow-[p. 102] citizens of Massachusetts cannot aid us in this work, we must make a vigorous effort to do it for ourselves. We receive the following pledge from the Boston Statesman with great pleasure:
There is a paper printed in this city called the Liberator devoted to the abolition of slavery. It is said that many of these papers have been circulated among the slaves of the Southern States, and have tended, in some degree, to promote that rebellious spirit which of late has manifested itself in different parts of that section of our country.--It is but justice to ourselves to inform our fellow citizens of the South, that any effort to create disaffection among their slaves would meet the unqualified disapprobation of almost every individual in New England. The inhabitants of the Eastern States believe the South is anxious to rid itself of the curse of slavery, as the East is to see the accomplishment of that event, and all the people of the East wish to do is, to co-operate with the South in devising the best method to effect this desirable result. It is impossible to restrain [in] all instances, the folly of men who possess more zeal than discretion; but of this we do fell assured, that everything that can be done will be done, by the citizens of New England, to suppress the misguided efforts of those short-sighted and fanatical persons who would violate all the principles of justice, honor, and humanity, under the garb of philanthropy.
This fanatic Garrison says in one of his last papers that a great effort will be made in various parts of the country, to petition Congress at its approaching session, to abolish slavery in the district of Columbia, over which that body has entire control.
And he adds, “that a committee of twelve has been appointed in the City of Washington, to distribute petitions in the District, and in the first Ward of the City, upwards of 300 names were signed in a few days.” But Congress will take warning by the late events in the South, by the rumors in the District itself, how they rashly venture upon so delicate a subject.—The citizens of New Haven have just set them an admirable lesson; when in a full town meeting, to take into consideration the scheme of establishing a Negro College, alongside of old Yale, they came almost unanimously to the following resolutions:
“Resolved, By the Mayor, Alderman, Common Council, and Freemen of the City of New Haven, in city meeting assembled, that we will resist the establishment of the proposed College in this place, by every lawful means.
[p. 103]
“Resolved, That inasmuch as slavery does not exist in Connecticut, and wherever permitted in other States, depends upon the municipal laws of the State which allows it, and over which neither any other State, nor the Congress of the United States, has any control; that the propagation of sentiments favorable to the immediate emancipation of slaves, in disregard of the civil institutions of the States in which they belong, and, as auxiliary thereto, the contemporaneous founding of Colleges for educating colored people, is an unwarrantable and dangerous interference with the internal concerns of other States, and ought to be discouraged.”
Henry Irving Tragle, The Southampton Slave Revolt of 1831: A Compilation of Source Material (Amherst, MA: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1971), 101-103.