Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

48 LETTERS.
REMINISCENCES OF DR. CHANNING BY MRS. CHITLD, WRITIEN AFTER HIS DEATH AND PUBLISHED IN HIS MEMOIRS.
I shall always recollect the first time I ever saw
Dr. Channing in private. It was immediately after
I published my "Appeal in favor of that class of
Americans called Africans," in 18833. A publication
taking broad anti-slavery ground was then a rarity.
Indleed, that was the first book in the United States of
that character; and it naturally produced a sensation
disproportioned to its merits. I sent a copy to Dr.
Channing, and a few days after he came to see me at
Cottage Place, a mile and a half from his residence
on Miit. Vernon Street. It was a very bright sunny
day; but he carried his cloak on his arm for fear of
changes in temperature, and he seemed fatigued with
the long walk. He stayed nearly three hours, during
which time we held a most interesting conversation
on the general interests of humanity, and on slavery
in particular. He told me something of his experience in the West Indies, and said the painful impression made by the sight of slavery had never left
his mind. He expressed great joy at the publication
of the "Appeal," and added, "The reading of it has
aroused my conscience to the query whether I ought
to remain silent on the subject. He urged me never
to desert the cause through evil report or good report.
In some respects he thought I went too far. He
then entertained the idea, which he afterwards discarded, that slavery existed in a milder form in the
United States than elsewhere. I was fresh from the
bloody records of our own legislation, and was somewhat vehement in my opposition to this statement,
and he sought to moderate my zeal with those calm,
wise words which none spoke so well as he.