ger came. He was stopped, and told
that he could not be allowed to enter the body of the church, there
being a place up in the gallery for coloured people. The man
remonstrated, and said he had been invited to take a seat in Mr.
So-and-so's pew. "Yes," they replied, "we are aware of that; but public
feeling is against it, and it cannot be allowed." The stranger turned
round, burst into tears, and walked home.
Mr. Johnson, of the _Tribune_, told me that two or three years ago he
and thirty or forty more were returning from an Anti-slavery Convention
held at Harrisburgh in Pennsylvania. They had left by railway for
Philadelphia at 3 o'clock in the morning. At a town called Lancaster
they stopped to breakfast. In the company were two coloured gentlemen,
one of whom was a minister. They all sat down together. Soon the
waiters began to whisper, "A nigger at table!" "There is two!" The
landlord quickly appeared, seized one of the coloured gentlemen by the
shoulder, and asked him how he dared to sit down at table in his house.
The company remonstrated, and assured him that those whose presence
appeared to be so offensive were very respectable men, friends of
theirs, whom they had invited to sit down. It was all in vain. The
landlord would hear nothing; "the niggers must go." "Very well," said
the rest of the company; "then we shall all go." Away they went, and
left the refined landlord to console himself for the loss of a large
party to breakfast. They had to travel all the way to Philadelphia
before they could break their fast.
The same gentleman told me that he believed if a white man of any
standing in society in New York were now to marry a coloured lady,
however intelligent and accomplished, his life would be in danger,--he
would be lynched for having committed such an outrage upon "public
opinion." And yet the boast is ever ringing in our ears, "This is a
free country--every one does as he pleases here!"
On the 24th of March I called upon Dr. Spring. He is an Old School
Presbyterian, and a supporter of the Colonization Society. In the
course of conversation reference was made to State Churches.
_Myself._--"You see, Doctor, State Churches are the curse of the
British Empire, just as slavery is the curse of your country."
_The Doctor._--"Ah! so it is; and yet we can do nothing to remove them.
Here is our slavery,--we can't touch it; and you cannot touch your
Established Church. Do you think you will ever get rid
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