Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes
This filthy enactment [the Fugitive Slave Law] was made in the nineteenth century, by people who could read and write. I will not obey it, by God.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882, Poet & Essayist, Journal, July 1851
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The Mystery was for many years the only Black Newspaper in America.
The issue of slavery which had been suppressed in Congress for the first decades of the nation broke out when Missouri statehood was considered. By previous agreement, slavery was not even discussed in Congress but the time period elapsed. Tallmadge not only proposed that no more slaves could come into Missouri {613176} but most shocking to the Southerners was that every person born in the new state would be free at the age of 25. In a generation, there would be no more slavery in Missouri and there would be no economic compensation for slave owners at all. The House of Representatives accepted the amendment, but it failed in the Senate. At that time, Senators were not elected by voters but were appointed by the state legislators and the Southern slave states had a disproportionate share of the senate from a population point of view. But what this quotation shows clearly that a majority of the country in 1819 were opposed to slavery and were willing to end it without compensation.
Johnson was then Vice President.
The Mormons were in Missouri at the time. Phelps was warning the church members essentially not to get involved with the slavery issue. The Mormon Church tended to support the institution of slavery at that time although Mormons themselves did not own slaves. However, we should remember that the Mormons themselves were a very persecuted group and Phelps and other Church leaders probably didn’t want their members alienating the non Mormons more than they already did by their existence. This was very similar to the Roman Catholic Church leaders at the time. The Catholics were also a persecuted minority and the Catholic Bishops often supported slavery—especially in the South to try and avoid hostility from the power structure and the majority. Some individual Mormons and individual Catholics were much opposed to slavery. See {629158} and {629154} for more on the Mormons and slavery. Later, Smith altered his early view.
As an entertainer she had toured much of the world and seen American slavery and that of some other nations. She became a staunch abolitionist and like entertainers in the 20th and 21st centuries she used her celebrity to give anti-slavery lectures and perform for audiences where she donated the proceeds of the event to the abolition cause. She is a particularly interesting political figure in that she seems to be one of the first entertainers to perform for a social cause and become an activist.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.
