James T. Crozier to Frederick Douglass, September 10, 1856

LETTER FROM JAMES T. CROZIER.

DEHI, Delaware County, Iowa,

Sept. 10th, 1856.

MR. EDITOR:—It is with no small feeling of surprise, and joy, that I find you assuming, as the Radical Abolitionist, the position in the present political crisis which you now occupy. And, sir, I can assure you, that this feeling is shared by hundreds who, although, like myself, Radical Abolitionists, see in the course pursued by you the only course to secure the ultimate result at which we all aim.

And however much your motives may be impugned, and Pryn-ed into, rest assured that it is the course which every man, having more than one idea in his head at a time, would expect of you, as one of the leaders of a party desiring to secure the interests of the slave, and the surest and speediest means of educating the American people up to the proper enthusiasm in their love for liberty, and hated of oppression, which is necessary before the final triumph of abolition principles can be even dreamed of as near.

Some of the good people of this party seem to think that the present change of Northern sentiment is due to the untiring efforts of the Radical Abolitionists. Would that this were so, we might glory in a triumph of our own.—But all who read must know that it is almost entirely due to the monstrous system of iniquity which for the first time, conscious of its own strength, and confident of success in the present campaign, has thrown off the mask behind which it has effectually screened itself and its intentions from the observation of the great mass of their countrymen for the last fifty years, and now boldly casts the gauntlet, and proclaims, in thunder tones, its determination to make slavery universal.

Read the issue as set forth in all the papers of the South. What do they proclaim, but that slavery has an equal right with freedom, not only in Territories, but throughout the Union. Your friend, Samuel Fuller, asks, with great complacency, What does the Radical Abolitionist gain, in principle, by the election of Fremont? We answer that he gains the principle that the cursed institution, which has blighted with a blast of desolation one half of our Union, which has subverted the whole theory of free government in all its Territory, shall

not be extended beyond its present limits. But, answers Mr. Fuller, in despair, "between Abolitionism and non-extension, a great gulf is fixed," to which he dolefully adds, "which can never be bridged."

Why, Mr. Editor, we, Republican Abolitionists, are endeavoring to build that very bridge; and the signs of the times are, that the piers are rapidly rising in each of the Northern States; and the stringers which shall reach from the abutment already laid in Maine to the strong one we have erected in Iowa, and shall fill in in November, already find a central resting place in Vermont, and will soon be placed in one uninterrupted structure, which shall arise as the hope of freedom. And unless some Radical Abolitionism, as represented by Samuel Fuller, who like the boy who wanted his supper all at once, and entirely of sweet cake, and couldn't get it, wherefore, in his wisdom, he went supperless to his bed—or, unless some fanatical Americanism which, to carry its ends, in its wisdom associates itself in the interests of the very party in whose bosom the foreign and Catholic influence have found a wel[come?] for the last twenty years—unless, I say, [illegible] [interests?] shall defeat our aims, with no [illegible] of good for themselves, our [illegible] be the structure over which [illegible] thousand will be made, even [illegible] temple of Radical Aboli[tionism.?]

[illegible] a little, and ask, [illegible] of Buchan[an] [illegible] the principle that [illegible] upon the [illegible] of the Ter- [illegible] we shall for [illegible] emigration [illegible], however, [illegible] is the only [illegible] slavery has [illegible] Nebraska; [illegible] as [illegible] than in Kan[sas] [illegible] this is the ver- [illegible] treasure have [illegible] the slavehold[er] [illegible] taken possession in Nebraska; and were the alarm to be raised there, more men would march to the border ruffian camps, than freedom could possible muster.—Ask Iowa what she shall gain or loose by the election or defeat of Fremont? She will reply,

that by his election, peace and continued prosperity will be secured; that with his defeat and four years reign of Buchanan, she will be on the North and West bounded by slavery, cut off from settlement on the fertile plains of Nebraska; and that with the powerful pro-slavery interests in her own borders already she, too, will shortly sink into the lap of slavery, and the boundary of freedom be set upon the Mississippi. Yet, Mr. Editor, let the telegraph but give the fatal announcement that Buchanan is elected, and in less than ten days will the Governor of Nebraska issue his proclamation forbidding the transit of armed bodies through that Territory "To intermeddle with the domestic affairs of Kansas;" and the militia (of Missouri) would greedily enroll themselves to enforce law and order. Where, then, (with four years of misrule,) do you find room to hope for freedom?

A party already rampant with exultation over the success of its principles which shall have received the sanction and approval of the majority of the nation, will push its advantage until within four years Kansas and Nebraska shall both be admitted as slave States. Then surely is the light of freedom extinguished—while slavery, extending itself like the fabled serpent in Sumner's speech stretches out its slimy, palsying coils from the Gulf of Mexico to the northernmost border, an eternal and insurmountable barrier to the enterprize of free labor, the rights of the press, of freedom of speech, and the inveterate enemy of free schools. And yet, men like Gerrit Smith and William Goodell, (of whom I first learned to respect the principles of "equal rights to all persons,") sit quietly by upon the highest pinnacle of principle and say to the masses, "Give us all that our long experience in reasoning on the abstract principles of human rights, has taught us to demand as right, and give it all at once!— Otherwise, we will not assist you in reaping the benefit of a practical application of the greatest principle of all, (in immediate necessity;) and we will even endanger the prospects of freedom for the whole future! Come up to the light which we enjoy, else we at least step between you and what little light you have; and if in the confusion of the sudden eclipse, both your light, and ours, go out, we shall have the satisfaction of feeling"—what? that we have not sacrificed our principles? no—but the pride of saying that we have not stooped from our high position to secure their adoption one by one.

Have not Mr. Smith and Mr. Goodell, even in devoting themselves to the work, been al-

most a lifetime in acquiring for themselves that just balance of moral principles which now enables them so clearly to perceive truths which, when once recognized, seem so self-evident, that they at once demand of the whole political brotherhood to recognize them without further investigation? Let them occupy their proud position; it is truly gratifying to see them do so. But let them not repeat the insinuation, that they should morally degrade themselves or prove recreant to the highest sense of duty or the most rigid anti-slavery principles, should they reach the active helping hand to that "Young American" army which, throwing aside the chaff of old fogy partizanship, has rapidly educated itself up to the ground upon which the gentlemen themselves had scarcely stood in their youth. Let them not suppose that this party is composed of the same elements of parties of bygone days, and even a bygone generation, who have sought abolition interest but to betray and abuse the confidence reposed in them. No—no! Thousands of young men who are Radical Abolitionists swell its ranks and increase its prospects for future glory. 'Tis not the whole of the political world who are willing to be made martyrs of, even for the truth and success; and a small taste of the emoluments and honors of that success will by no means so craze the brains of this party that they will forget the principles upon which they triumphed.

We have here in Iowa, presses which are as rabid in defense of slavery as are the Richmond Enquirer, or the Charleston Mercury, and hosts of government harpies and blood-suckers to back them. A defeat in November will multiply them indefinitely; and the pro-slavery influence already large, powerful and active, will again inevitably triumph. And if, on enquiring the cause of this defeat, we can point it to the inactivity, apathy and indifference of the Radical Abolitionists, shall we not, with truth, have cause to say, that the gods of Freedom have forsaken its temples, while, through their neglect, we are sacrificed upon the altars of Despotism.

Truly your friend,

JAMES T. CROZIER.