The Ohio star. [volume], October 04, 1852, Extra, Image 1

About The Ohio star. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1830-1854

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RAVENNA, MONDAY, OCT OBER 4, 1852-
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DOCUMENTS FOR THE TIMES.
: THE IXSTITCTIO OF SLAVERY.
HON. HORACE MANN,
OI . JCACBOaSETTS, '
tn the House of Repretmtatites, Augitt 17, 1852.
TBK BUG.
Mi CHiiBMin: On former occasions, I have expressed
mvselfsomsrhaU length on ths relations which th free
States are made to bur to slavery, that I did hot propose at
this session to present an; further vivs apon that subject.
Bat the ban which the late Baltimore Conventions hare
haughtily proclaimed against free discoaaioa; the recent
though, aa I believe it will bs found, the temporary silencing
of my friend, Mr. Sumuer,at the other end of thia Capitol,
who has long desired to apeaa, and the atill later choking
down of the gentleman from Connecticut, CM r. Cleveland,
on ttris torn, hare Indued me to reeonaider and to change
an detarattnatten. 1 am willing to be reasoned with, and
always grateful when, for good cause, I am convinced; bat
when an attempt is made to take from me all option in re
ard w my exercise of a clear right, I and a sufficient motive
tn exercising that right in the mere act of disobedience.
TBS TatOSrECT.
1 must begin by taking a brief retrospect. ' The w against
Mexico was waged to rob that sister Republic of her free ter
ritory, for the si.ke of widening the domain and eonflrmln
the despotism of l very. On the subject of the robbery, the
country was dirided into Whigs and Democrata. On the
wisked uses to which the territory robbed was i to oe put, It
was dirided Into North and South. Fourteen of the nFteen
Northern Statea passed resolutions, most of them unaat
aously, or nearly so, i favor of excluding slavery by posi
tive law from whatever territory we might acquire. The
Soutu did not then ask for any legislative permission to ex
tend slavery there. But in pursuance of the doctrine of the
atreat ordinance of 1787, the North demanded legislative ex
clusion. Every body at once foresaw that this question
would be involved in the next Presidential election. It was
remarkable, and certainly the historian will remember it,
k.i..iji..m.iiiirtha South came out in favor of the
Northern doctrine; for the principles of universal liberty are
o congenial to the human heart, that It is difficult to eon--iva
of ne or six millions of peopbi In any agj or country
of'tira tVii.-U, without a single man among them ready to as
nmai tha ehamnionshio of freedom. It is still more remar
kable that any Northern man should have ventured to es-
,,. . nfslsverv. One. however, was found, capa-
rr.nrriin it. It was strange that he should have been of
New England lineage. It waa thrice strange that a man ed-
.-a .Z-tit honored, br a neonle who had themselves
been rescued from U the curses of slavery, and blessed with
all the exuberant blessings of freedom, by the ordinance of
1787, should have proposed to open hair a continent au toe
h.aanai hi. neonle hail eacaDed and to shut it out from all
the blessings he and they had enjoyed. But such a man waa
found. General Cass thought so irasely of his party at the
North, that he supposed he could carry them against slavery
restriction. If so, then their union with the pro-slavery
South would make a triumphant majority: and hence the
wea-knowu Nicholson letter. Bat that letter recoiled upon
him, and in the canvass of 1848, overthrew him. The origi
nal tnmntnii.-m. however, still remained, and acted with in
creased force. The South stood firm. Tbey were a compact
body of abolitionists, though the thingthey desired to abolish
wa hninnn freedom. Thev snoke out plainly, and offered
nnii..nniim( atui their vntiw to the Northern man, whig or
democrat! who would moat thoroogly bend or break himself
to their purposes. Under the lead of General Cass, many of
. , . 1.. a.a4 asul lluaurlwl Hilt liTsJ tl
rta i Mfiintrr&Lie nm wore owiuwii nsu uwawsw
ih T.h r iKSft. no Northern Wbic yielded to their en
ticements. Od that day, bowerer, Mr. Webster, in the Se
aate of the United States, offered to abandon the ordinance
rtnart itun Vnnwn the, "Wilmflt Proriao.1 He offered
to give an additional dare State to Texae beyond what ahe
eould claim onder the nnconslitutional resolutions of anexa
tion; he offered to support, "to the folleat extent." that most
atrocious fugitive alare bill, then before the Senate, by which
.11 ntnm.hAnM Affluni. And th MTcnteen tboasand post
master of the United States were tobjmadejodir.es, and, to
be invested with power over human liberty, and to give each
one eft -en, not local, but unlimited jurisdiction throughout
the United States, and he offered to give $?00,000,C00 to tortify
and perpetuate the institution of slavery, by removing from
ihn Sonthern Stales the dreadful element ef the free colored
xmnnliition. Two hundred millions of dollars a profusion
and a prodigality magnificently Webster ian! I am here only
reterring loiacis wuicu, mm mwryuwy -wu"
history.
Here, then, we see that the two conspicuous leaden of tin
Northern Democrats and Wbiga planted themselves upon
Southern ground. When the race lor the Presidency consis
ted In adhssiou to th slave power alone, it was not to be ex
MwtaH thMAnmnettitoni would be few. Mr. Buchanan forth
with caused it to be understood, that on his part he was will
ing to run the line or 36 deg. 30min the Missouri compro
mise line, so called through -to the Pacific Oceon, and sur
render to slavery all upon its Southern side. Mr. Dallas,
imtVic Pmident under Mr. P lk. in his letter to Mr. Bry-
ran, of Texas, went further, and proposed to incorporate the
compromise measures, and the fugitive alave law itself, into
ahe Constitution, so as to put their repeal beyond the power
or a wortnern majority, senator jsuugnusa iuuuwcu. no
suzared his pill. He told the South, that we had cotton lands,
and rice lands, and tobacco lands enough; but alas, said he,
we want more lands for sugar; by which the Sooth perfectly
indoraEood that if thev would makehim President, the an-
aexation of Cuba should be their reward. This is the same
gentlemen who has lately said, in a secret session of the Se
nate, that If the Sandwich Islands should be annexed to this
country, and ft question ahould arise about excluding slavery
from them by law, he would vote against it. During this
time; affairs were ripening for the Baltimore nominations.
Mr. Fillmore offered to the South, the Army and Navy to
catch a poor fugitive, where only a constable po$e was need
d. Mr. Webster trumped up false treasons by scores
atralnst Northern anti-slavery men. . The resident travelled
Nor n and South matting speeches redolent of pro-slavery.
The Secretary travelled still mow, nuUmg pra-nlwrery epeaeh-
M wherever oe went, uenaimy we reason wj uj ui me
above-named parties did not get a nomination at Baltimore,
wasBotbeeauseofwhatthelaw calls lackem, or "want of
reasonable diliigenee en their part.
TM VV(tTIMOBK CONVBMTIOlfS BESOLT1HO AGAINST FBSB
; Diacossioif. , ....
f eome- new to the Baltimore Conventions themselves,
which were held in June last. Every one knows that the
arreat question of human slavery, had s controling influence
in these bodies, and determined then- results.
by fire a crime? How much greater the crime of preventing
millions of men from having a bouse they can call their
owe? Is concubinage a crime? In this Union, ail the adult
portion of more than tare a millions of people aro now forced
to live in ft state of concubinage. Is it a crime to abandon
innocent females to the lasts of guilty men, witbbut the
slightest protection of law? In this country, a million and a
halt oi females constantly are so abanuoned; and toe rear
ing of dark skinned beauties for the harems of republic
sultans is a svsteruaiize and legalized business. Is it a
crime to break asunder all the ties of human affection, to
tear children from the arms of their parents, and parets from
each other! There is no conjugal, or parental, or filial
affection among more than three millions of people m this
land, wbieh is sacrid from such violations. Is it a crime to
let murder and all other offences go unpunished! There is
no form of crime which a while man may not commit against
a slave with entire impunity, if he will take the precaution
to let none but alaves witness it. The darkening of the in
tellect, the shrouding of a soul m the gloom of ignorance,
the forbid ng of a svirtt which Ood mane in nis own image
to commune with its Maker, is more than a common crime;
it is sacrilege; it is sacrilege of sacrileges. It -is a crime
which no other nation on this earth, civilized, heathens, or
barbarian, even committed to the extern that it is now com
mitted here. And yet this locking of the temple of knowl
edge against a whole race, this drawing or an imp netrnoie
Teil between tne seui 01 man ana ais whct, ,uis reucui m
against all that God has done to reveal Himself to His off
spring through the work of nature and the revelations of
His providence, is enacted into laws, guarded by terrable
penalties, and administered by men who call themselves
Christians, as though Jesus Christ could have subscribed or
execute such laws. It is a crime onrpeakble to deprive
men of the Gospel, and of freedom to interpret it; bnt the
slave code does tbie, by w it bold in g letters from the slaves
and thus postpone the true eitfruchisement and salvation,
of his soul to another life , when he can no longer be any use
to his earthly master. Would it be a crime to practice some
demoniee art, by which the growth of the body and limbs
should be arrested in child boodi and the victims should be
left with only infantile powers to contend with eoii, aaked-
Beea. Hunger, ana au the nosts or pain; Tnen it is a mn
nixelv greater crime to inflict weakness and ignorance noon
teose glorious faculties of the mind, by watch atone its pos
sessor can solve the mighty problems of future destiny, of
eternity, andoftba soul's weal of woe. I repeat, then, that
worst forms ot all the crimes which a human being can
csmmit theft, robbery, adultery, Incest, sacrilege, and
whatever else there it that inflicts wide wasting ruin upon
society, and brings the soul of man to perdition the word
slavery is the synonym of them all. Analyze slavery, snd
you will una its ingredients to consist of every crime. De
fine any crime, and you will find it incorporated in slavery
and aggravated by it.
As the complex and infinite meaninc of the word God can
not be adequately understood, until you analyze it and deride
and subdivide it, and give to it the thousand names of om
nipresence, of infinite justice and holiness, and benevolence,
of all sanciities and verities and benignities, of all energies
and beauties, of all wisdom and all law; so when yon pen
etrate and lay open the infinite meaning of the word slave
by, it resolves itself into all crimes and cruelties, all debace
ments and all horrors. The telescope of the aanomer
resolves the star dust of the universe into refulgent systems
that glorify their maker ; the telescope of the moralist re
solves the Tartarean cloud of slavery into all the impieties
and wickedness that deform humanity. .
now, oeiween tuesetwo great antagonisms, oetweenuod
and the Right on one side, and Slavery and the Wrong on the
other, these two Baltimore Conventions have chosen the lat
ter. They have said to Evil, be thou my God. They have
voted to annul God's laws. They have resolved that discus
sions on the great questions of human freedom, which in
volves the whole question of free agency and human account
aouiiy, ana ine entire plan ana order of the Divino govern
ment shall be silenced.
- So much for the intrinsic nature of slavery, which the
Baltimore Conventions have weded as their bride. Now let
us look at some of the collateral wrongs, the self-stultifica
tion and atheism, for which slavery ih thia country is re
sponsible, and which those conventions, therefore, have
sanctioned and ratified, and declared their purpose to con
tinue. .
point, they were outshone by hia effulgence. His im
mortal theme was Libenj liberty for the natioaa, lib
erty for thi people. Once that word was enough to
electrify men's hearts, ay, to aAe the atoaes in tbe
streets crv out for joy. But, bjvthe compromise of
l-0. and "this infernal alave law, and tbe efforts of po
li'ical leaders and parties to sustain thm, the people
had been demoralized; their sentiments had been de
bauched. To thousands and hundreds of thousands the
cry of the Rights of Man had become an odious cry.
To hail liberty in the East, while we were propagating
in tKp'Wpvt- tn rrt-piTe with honors a fugitive
latter. In this manner tbey transact their exchange, without from Austrian bondage, while our hands were thrusting
seeing one anot'ier, or without tbe least instance of dishon I back fugitives into a tenfold direr bondage at the boutb.
est y or peraoiuuBuen on euuer siue."-
rtow, contrast mis picture with tee honesty oi tne oiacx
men in this country, or of the white men either, Contrast
it with tbe fact of our infinite mercantile frauds from tbe
forgery of custom-house invoices, through adulteration and
false weights, and false measures, down to tbe shower of lies
which Is so so often rained upon his goods by the last retailer,
affirming them to be what he knows tbey are not, and make
rtc,' as he says, with the native tribes on the banks of the
Nicer, without ever bavins violated the charter which pre
scribed the mode of trafic :
M At a certain time of th year," saya Dr. Shaw, " they
(the Moors.) make this journey in a numerous caravan carry
ing along with them coral and glass beads, bracelets of horn.
knives, scissors, and such like trinkets, wnen tney arrive
at the place appointed, which is on such a day of tLe moon.
they find in tbe evening several different heaps of gold dust,
lying at a small distance from each other, asainst which the
Moors place so many of their trinkets as they j.dge will be
taken tn exchange for them. If the Nigritians the next
morning approve of the bargain they take up the trinkets and
leave the gold dust, or else make some deduction from the
wrrp mntmrliinnR nn nalnable and so flagrant that even
partisan blindness could not hut see them. Kossuth
owed labor and service to Francis Joseph, of Austria,
just as much as Thomas Sims awed it to John Potter,
of Georgia. Why should the 4ne be cheered and the
other chained? Why should the Mississippi bring Kos
mth.frf for frnm. And the Acorncarrv Sims back to
your uruwmpuiwuinioi.anuieB uere, ana wmu bondaee7 Kossuth had committed treason leninonsanu
it tniirht havA ruaan hut fnw miv.fMlina ,Kam I . c it l Tin
Mr. Mason. The gcntlemau most not understand me as
being aa enemy to tbe African race; but I look upon them as
being an entirely different people. If the effect of civiliza
tion is to make men dishonest, we had bettar not try to civ
ilize the Africans. .
Ann ntni itnn Aimim mr iww t
Mr.Mann. Andnow.as tbe areumeot is. that God or- I thousands of her subjects. VThysnouia ne oe acreen-
ne meaus oicivilixing and ebns I ea Deoma a rampart oi American
l ramnart
who killed Gorsuch, under the law of self preservation,
and in defence of life, liberty, and home, should be lg
nominously hong on the gallows? ' ,
These were questions that no deafness could
avoid hearing, and when heard, no sophistry could
answer, Freedom is one; slavery is antipode; and
therefore the protection of the -iugitive Kossuth,
and the surrender of thefugrlive slave can never be
reconciled. Hence it was, that in puoiic assem-
dained American slavery aa the meaus of civilixing and ebris
tianizing Ainca, let as see wnat kind and style or civiliza
tion and Christianity it is wbieh our example proffers them.
Tbe most conspicDoos features in the civilisation of this
country, are, that it holds more than three millions of human
beings in ruthless bondage, that the spirit which governs
the country, baa lately annexed slavehohling Texaa, because
slaveboldinir : that it haa despoiled Mexico or her
richest provinces, in the bone of making them slaveholdina
also ; and that it has attempted to rob Spain of Cuba, and
anil means to do it ; that two millions of our white chil
dren are growing up without schools ; that intemperance is
a common vice among the people, and not an uncommon one blics, amone public men, throughout the newspa
imonr rulers: and that in our - itiea the rich and stronir I ' . ' . .. & , , r
live upon tbe poor and tbe weak, almost aa much aa in the Per nre4. wberever tne spirit 01 slavery preaonu-
waters on wh en they are situated, the great nsnes eat up tatea, mere ivossuia was uenounceu. x mi, iuiwuc
the little ones. When some one asked John Jacob Astor m.hUr mr Arcnram directs me to add. that.
how so many men found business in the city of New York, I , i,- i,. ,.,,. f. ,nrs.i,ip
his reply wa. : "They cheata one an other, and they calls among our public men, there were a few Honorable
that business." The wealthy have more houses than they exceptions, of which Mr. Webster was one. But,
can uve id, tne costliest lurnitore, wararoDea, equipages, li
braries, and all that art and nature can produce, while thou
sands oi tne children or the same lie avenly ather, around
tbem are horseless and shelterless, naked and hungry.
Such is tbe type of the civilisation which our example prof
fers lo Africa.
And how do our "lower law" apologists for slavery dispose
of American coastwise slave trade among tbe facts of their
What a vast
WE RKCOONISX SLAVE KATXOlf S WITH AX.ACHITT.
When a nation is born Into the world, possessing attri
butes and prerogatives of nationality, it is the moral duty of
existing nations lo welcome it into the brotherhood of the hu
man family. Such recognition of a new sovereignty tends
to increase commerce, to forefend war, and to diffuse tbe
blessings of knowledge, science, and the arts. It becomes,
therefore, a duty. Yet, what is the posture in which this
Government stands to Liberia and Haiti? Croat Britain,
with France, Prussia, and other continental nations, have ac
knowledged their existence.. We refuse, and stand aloof.
And this for no other reason than to gratify a colorphobia
which dreads equity as the hydrophobia does water. Writers
on national law call nations a moral enlitv. We find color a
moral entity and repudiate ila claims. Contrast the alacrity
of this Government in recognizing slavebolding Texas, with
its utter refusal, for a quarter of a centurv in one case, and
for half a century in the other, to recognize the Free Soil gov
ernment of Liberia and Hay ti. This is one of tbe collateral
wrongs growing out of the repugnance of slavery to do jus
tice to tbe colored man anywhere; and thetaint of this moral
disease at the South spreads its infection over the North.
OOD EOKEOttDJLINED SLA VEST?
Mark a great sign and proof of the depravation of tbe pub
lie intellect, originating in the same proline source of wrong.
The blasphemous argument has been put forth, that God fore
ordained and instituted African slavery amongst us for tbe
ultimate and consequentisl purpose of carrying civilization
and Christianity into Africa. Not only baa tbe logic of ihe
politician and the ethics of the moralist been corrupted into
this falsity, but even the divine, with Ihe preservative power
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in his hands, has endeavored
to reconcile our people to the erimsa aiid curses of slavery
by this impious argument. They maintain that God has
looked with complacency upon all the atrocities of the Afri
can slave trade; that the groans and agonies of the Middle
Passage have ascended aa a sweet-smelling savor before His
throne; that he has seen with approval, within the last three
centuries, forty millions of native Africans; yes, sir, forty
millions, for that is the estimated number almost doodle the
entire population of this country, and more than one-third
more than the present population of Great Britain and Ire
land put together ofnative Africans, torn from their homes
and driven through gates of fire and realm, nr tnm,r
bondage and to death: that, durln? .11 thi. rwriiul V. i....
looked with delight upon the most friichirul forms of war. the
pillage and conflagration of cities, and wholesale murders,
and man-stealing worse than murder, not only raging along
tbe eastern and western shores of that devoted continent, but
at times extending their ravages and havoc twelve or thirteen
hundred milea inland; and that His benign providence is
being fulfilled by the successful prosecution ofthe slave trade.
though for every thousand human victims in Africa, it is es
timated that only three hundred finally reach their earth-bom
hell of Cuban or Brazilian sugar or cotton fields. Now,
tnat uoc sent out staves irom Ainca to America, a', this in-
times over, asainst the House of Hapsburg. Why
should he be sheltered in our anna from the penalties of
treason, while ihe Government here sets all the loul
ministers of the law to make constructive treasons for
the punishment of innocent men? Kossuth had rebel
led against Austria, and hod caused the death of tens of
SiS? .T :STB,LlMo bagB under it when as
mixch entitled to his liberty TOuSor I, vrhether that
law has not some bearing on a practical ques.-ion. Are
not the Baltimore edicts before the country? nd have
they no practical tiearing, when their very purpose is to
suppress free speech; and when that purpose has been
executed again and again? and the attempt has been
made here, within the last half hour, upon me, to en
force it?
LOWER J.AW DIT1XE9.
Now. sir I do not believe in preaching against theo
retical and distant sins, and letting real and present
ones escape. I do not believe in denouncing Hindoo
suttees, because they are on the other side of the globe,
and defending the extension of slavery in onr own
land. That sin has the beguiling defence of office and
profits not less than ours. But that sin destroys only
ihe body; ours the souL The modem clergymen of the
'lewer law" school can select some monster of the
Old Testament Darius, Nebuchadnezzar, or Jeroboam
and hold them up for execration, while they suffer
the greater moral monsters of their own parishes to es
cape with impunity. They have no mercy for Jeroboam,
old hanker though he was, because he "drove Israel
from following the lord, more especially as there was
" THI INTERDICT AND THE CONTEST.
And now, notwithstanding the infinite evil and wrong
of slavery, intrinsic in it, and inseparable irom it ; not
withstanding die virus with which it poisons all onr
free institutions its exclusion of independent commu
nities irom the brotherhood of the Union ; its hardening
the nation's heart against all people struggling for
"berty ; its atheist making ; its attempt to transfer the
W j , fWe Enlish code of high treason into our law ;
and all its debasement of-the republican sentiment of
this country ; notwithstanding all this, the Baltimore :
Conventions decree that the subject of slavery shall be
gjtated among us no more forever. ,
, Look at the comprehensiveness of this interdict. It
embraces all subjects. It forbids the political econo
mist from discussing the relative productiveness of free
soil and slave labor. It forbids the educationist from
demonstrating that a slave-holding people must always,
from the necessity of the case, be an ignorant people
a people divided not only into castes of wealth, but also
into castes of intelligence. It forbids genius from pre
senting Truth in the glowing similitudes of fiction ; and
that divine hearted woman, the authoress of " Uncle
Tom's Cabin," is under the Baltimore ban. It forbids
the poet, whose lips from olden days have been touched
no chance fur the Presidency, nor any tariff nor 8le of, 1.Uf. cof fmoff the hemnly altar from ever
dry goods to tne South to tempt him. JBut tney lorget . . " 'i.
that each and all ofthe worst sinners whose names thusiasm for liberty. It strikes out all the leading chap-
blacken tne page ot history haa their accompanying
- . - 1.1 . 'tyjr : a.
aa to the newspapers, if you saw one to-day, filled
with the veriest servility towards the slave power,
you might be sure it would revile and defame Kos
suth to-morrow. Or. if vou saw one column reek
ing with abuse of Kossuth, you would be sure to
find a nro-slaverv nsan in the next. Even at the
impious argument? In 1820, Virginia had a slave population door of this House, after Kossuth had been invited
of 425,153. According to ratio of increasing the whole alave to te Capitol, he was stopped and insulted. Some
population of the United States, her slaves, in 1850 should e !i. - , , aort1II
have amounted to 800,000. But the actual number was on- of the more simple ones avowed their reasons.-
1x473,528, that is 300,000 less than the proportionate natural They said, if we sympathize with the oppressed in
lucretmr. i uu nnmoer, or u leaai mosi oi mem, must nave I the- nmnn of a Hiinranan now. we mav De cauea
tn this Smith for ant I r . . , f
upon to sympathize with the oppressed in tne per
son of three millions ot Atricans. Compare tne tn-
been sent to the South for sale.
Id 1633. Professor Dew. of William and Marv CoUere.said
that Virginia exported her own native population, at the rate
of 6000, for which she received $1,200,000 annually."
So in 1820, the slave population of Maryland was 107,398.
Making all due abatements for manumissions andescanes.
this number shonld have increased, in thirty years, to nearly
umphal "Proirress" of Kossuth in the free States,
such as no Roman consul, returning from foreign
conquests and laiden with spoils, ever knew, with
200,000. But in I850,it was 200,366. The difference has gone the feeble, and grudged, and stinted honors paid him
to the remorslsss South. And doiAtlesa, in most of these in the of bondage. Slavery made the contrast,
eases, members of families have been torn asunder man . , . . , . , tv .u
from woman, parents from children. n.. tthuuu. wvchuu, uic i,nuC.. rr.
Tbe same slave trade is carried on from North Carolina. I ot Kossuth were smpathizers with Southern slave
The slaves are borne from the less rigorous bondage of the rV- an(j therefore with Francis Joseph and Nicho-
IVi-irttMnn Misram fitataa tn nwara nnrelMiinir nriann.hmtu I . J '
Northern sieve States to a more unrelenting prison-house.-
It this, also, in furtherance of God's gracious purpose of
Our christian it v assures the Trial by Jury, and the Creat :
Writ of Freedom, to ourselves but disfranchises and out
laws, and puts beyond the pale ot numan sympathy, an entire
race of a different color. But when have we sent io Africa a
colony of Americans to teach them the arts ? When a Las
Casas to teach them Christianity? The missionaries we have
sent them have been rum and fire-arm 8. The arts we nave ;
taught them, have been those of treachery and man-stealing.
In what we took and in what we gave we indicted upon
them a double curse. And yet Doctors of Divinity and politi
cal aspirants dare tell us that God looked down through the
vista of ages, and seeing this frightful form of civilization
afar off, with all its attendant ministers of vengeance and wo
and death, bade tbe gory demon advance I .
SLAVERY SHOWING ITS TEETH.
Mr. PoLK.f interrupting.) I ask the gentleman from Mas
sachusetts to paint me the condition of the black race in the
non-slaveholding States.
Air. MfjNit. At the proper time l will attend to tnat sub
ject. It does not belong to my present course of argument.
Mr. JroLK. 1 insist upon it now sir.
(Loud cries of "order!" "order!")
Mr. Manic. If the gentleman will show me what right he
has to insist upon it, I will obey him. but not until he does.
Mr. Polk. I consider the attack which tbe gentlemen is
making upon the South as unworthy of a member upon ths
floor. ;
. (Renewed cries of 'order!")
Mr. Ma pin. The gentleman from Tennessee must not, in
the first place, forbid our discussing the subject of slavery
Mr. Polk. 7 forbid nothing bnt slanders upon the institu
tions of tbe South.
(Shonts,of "Order!")
Mr. Manx. And then when we get a chance to discuss it,
undertake to determine upon what topics discussion shall be
bad.
Mr. Polk. I say that a gentleman upon this floor has no
right to perpetrate such vile slanders upon the South when
he does not hold himself personally responsible
(Louu snouts oi "Uruer I"
las.
The person of this truly noble Hungarian has
departed from our shores; but he has left behind
him a spirit that will never die. He has scattered
seeds of liberty add truth, whose flowers and fruit
will become honors and glorious amaranthine. I
trust he goes te battle for the right, not with the
tongue and pen alone, but with all the weapons
that freedom can forge and wield. Before the Di
vine government I bow in reverence and adoration;
but it tasks all my philosophy and all my religion
to believe that the despots of Europe have not exer
ted their irresponsible and other tyranies too long.
It seems too long since Charles was brought to the
axe, and Louis to the guillotine. Liberty, human
ity, justice, demand more modern instances. The
time has fully come when the despot, not the pat
riot, should feel the executioner's steel or lead.
The time has fully come when if the oppressed de
mand their inalienable and Heaven-born rights of
their oppressors, and this demand is denied, they
should say, not exactly in the language of Patrick
Henry Give me liberty or give -me death," that
was noble language in its day, but we have now
reached an advanced stage in human development,
and the time has fully come when the oppressed if
their rights are forcibly denied them, should say to
the oppressors : "Give me liberty, or I will give you
death!"
slavery debauches public sentiment.
I have said one of the collateral consequences of
slavery in this country has been to deprave, corrupt,
and debauch public sentiment. When, before, in
the history ofthe world, has it ever happened that
temptations, and their casnistry for self-defence, just
as much as the offenders of our day. They forget that
when posterity looks backwards upon great crimes, as
thev stand out in historic relief, tbey are seen in their
foul nakedness and deformity, and without any of the
palliations or pretexts by which their wickedness was
softened to the tempted eye of the perpetrator. They
forget that it will be as true of the crimes of our day,
as of ancient ones, when the evanescent circumstances
of the seduction have passed by that then they, too,
will stand out in the foreground of the historic canvass,
in their full proportions, and their native deformity,
hideous, unmitigated, and execrable. Had not Ananias
and Sap phi ra a temptation every whit as strong to keep
back from the apostles a part of the price of their pos
sessions, as though they had been offered a sinecure
chaplaincy in the Navy for defending the fueitive slave
law? We have historic proof that Benedict Arnold at
tempted to justity his treason, on the ground that he
was seeking the best good of the colonies, just as his
followers in our times seek to iustiiv themselves bv
1 the far less plausible plea of saving the Union.
. I know it is said, that if the doctrine of the "Higher
1 Law" is admitted, all laws will be set at naught, and
civil government be overthrown. All history refutes
this; for, of all the men who have ever lived, those who
contend for the higher law of Uod have universally been
the most faithful and obedient, when human laws were
coincident with the divine. That identical principle in
our nature, which makes us true to the will of God.
makes us also true to all the just commands of men.
FALSE INTERPRETATIONS OP LAW.
Another consequence ot most evil portent has grown
out oi the late political enthusiasm for slavery I mean
a false interpretation of the law of treason. Sir, vou
know, and we all kuow, that under the bloody reigns of
.British tyrants, treason by construction was the sreat en
gine of political and personal vengeance. Under the
old doctrine of constructive treason, if living lips dar
ed to preach, the gospel of freedom, they were forced
to preach, the doctrine of abject submission to ungodly
laws, for the heads they belonged to were decapitated
and borne on soldiers pikes through the streets ot cities,
and hung up to fester and rot at all "the citv gates. I
could occupy the day with the recital of instances, where
the purest innocence and the noblest virtues tell a sacri
fice to a forced and arbitrary construction of the law
of treason. Having lately looked through those Eng
lish cases, I now declare that they were not one whit a
greater outrage upon tne Ingush law, than was Judge
Kane's charge to the jury in the Christiana cases.
Both had iu view the same object, to put down agitation
for freedom, and Lord Jeffrey's expositions, were as
plausible as Judge Ivane s.
under our Constitution, its framers defined that offence
in the lollowing words:
Treason asainst the United States shall consist
only in levying war against them : or in adhering to
their enemies, giving them aid and comfort."
Judge Kane says, that whatever would make a man
an accessory to the crime, in any other felony, makes him
a prtnctpal in this ; when the very intent ot a new defi
nition of our Constitution was so far to abrogate the
&ngliRh law. I he emphatic word only, in our dehm-
tion, expressly excludes the accessory. It is only the
man who levies the war, or the man who adheres to the
enemies of the country, who is, or, under our Constitu
tion, can be a traitor. " The other interpretation opens
the door to all the constructive treasons known to the
Now. I say, sir, that to impute any such cruel-hearted and
simpleton-minded scheme to our All-wise and benignant
rather in Heaven, is wild and wanton impiety and blasphe-
I my. lNoparallei can be loundin heathen mythology where.
Isucn snort signteo louy ana crime naveoeen enargea upon
any of the bloody gods of all their pantheons. The very
hypothesis is founded on an inversion of history, and it pre-
(supposes lor us conception a perversion oi me numan intellect.
CAUSE OF AFBICAJf BABDABISX THE SLAVS TBADS, C.
The system of enslaving Africans was commenced in an
I cient times by the Egyptians and the Aiabs, and carried on in
later periods by the Moors, was that for the sake of carry
ing Christianity iuto Africa? Iu modern times, tbe same
system, with unspeakable aggravations, has been prosecuted
by all the commercial nations of Europe and of this conti
nent, r rom time immemorial, tneraore, Ainca has been
made the hunting ground of the man-stealer. For thirty or
tony centuries, mance anu mammon nave wreaicea tneir ven
najority of theirmembers, pro-slavery or anti-slavery y"'be conceivable co cf crime on the one hand, and of suffering
an overmastering motive and end. In the Democratic ton- l th other- that him iw-nvirfenM h im hMt f
vention, the pro-slavery sentiment was nearly unanimous. friends in the shape of men, century after century, for the
Its members had been sold into that perdition oy roundabout purpose of carrying Christianity and civilization
money or the ambition for office. Yet even j tney were neia int0 Africm( iQ gome remote age, we know not when; this is
in check by the apprehended voice ofthe people behind Dem. the blasphemous doctrine we are made to hear from the po-
If they did not recoil from the crime, they feared its Ph- mcBl rostnl!n the lecture-room, and, incredible, to relate,
ment. In the Whig Convention, the men who were ready to froin the pulpit itself !
Bacrmcoi uuhwi, - - n
was a largo majority, and might hava nominated their most
ultra pro-slavery candidate on the first ballot. They oould
bave effected thia just as easily as they effected their pro-slave-rv
araanization and appointed a committee on credentials who
3 .i -i ... .1 -n,ml,a. nn ManlntinnB
exemaea mu'owtmj iucui '
who accepted a Southern platform prepared for them before
hand by Southern hands. But these Belshaiiars, too, like
him of old, saw the hand-writing upon the wall, and they
knew that with such a candidate, they were doomed to utter
and remorseless defeat before the people. In both Conven
tions, however, the spirit of slavery was so strong and so
badly brave, aa to carry the resoluiions I am about to read.
The Democratic Convention resolved to
"abide by and adhere to a faithful execution of the acts
known as the compromise measures, settled by the last Con
gressthe act reclaiming fugitive slaves from service inclu
ded." " ' ".
And further, they '
Th.t h wries of acts ofthe Thirty-first Con-
r.. commonly known as the compromise or adjustment, i mnee aDon that devoted land
(the act for the recovery of fugitives from labor included ) are crimea and calamities, conflagration, pestilence, brutal
received and acquiesced in by tbe Whigs of the United States ity and havoc, have been poured over it in crimson floods.
aa a final settlement, in principle and substance, of ttie sub- xo confine our views within the three past centuries alone,
ecu to which they relate." And we who can adequately conceive tho effects of robbing a eonti
deprecauallfunheragttationoftheqnestionsthussettled.as nent of forty millions of people in ao brief a period, with all
dangerous to our peace, and will discountenance all efforts to q,, warSj devastations, cruelties and treacheries, which
continue or renew such agitation, whenever, wherever, or stand out as the terrific incidents of such a stupendous crime?
turnover made.1 Not has thia storm ot wrath extended itself upon the coasts
.. . . otrraAQl and ihsahity. - . ; . alone. As 1 said beibre, theseman-hunting forays and rava
May, what an outrage ia this! Does not onr Constitution ges have swept inland for twelve or thirteen hundred miles,
nmvide aeainat "abridging the freedom of speech or of the further than from the Atlantic to tbe Mississippi aa far aa
' nraas1" Why secure this freedom in the organic law, ifthe from the Gulf of Mexico to the great lakea. Suoh haa been
tvrannv of a social law can abolish it? Of what value is that tue diffusive character of this continent-overwhelming crime.
Drovision in the Constitution, which secures the free exer- And it is in this that we find the cause of Africa's degreda
cise of religion if social intolerance and bigotry, acting in an tion, not the hopea of her redemption. The white man haa
nnleialiieS way, can destroy ill Yet, here are two conven- created the very barbarism which he now impiously uses be-
B ..t.-ih.ii tn ,n Af our consuitntions. whether fnn. Heaven as an excuse for the crime of ereatinff it. For-
State or National, invested with no powers, legislative judi- I eign intercourse engrafted the full developed vices and crimes
.1.1 .....mm. eninina together for day, and then scat- I of civilization, which as they now profanely contend, the
,.j aaA .nnk in individual obscurity: yet lifting up their I further sin of slavery is to supply. The cause ot African
Diicmy voices against the mightiest impulses ofthe human I barbarism was slavery; and, according to the argument, the
t-eart, against history and Providence, against the fiat and I remedy is slavery. The white man clutches the profits, while
the spirit of God bimsell; resolving tnat moiimnu aiiau do
dumb in regard to the greatest of human wrongs; and resol
ving, also, that a law passed by a Republican Government,
jjt as barbarous and tyrannical as was ever made by any des
. potism ahall be consecrated in its wickedness, and remain
eternal. .
Two Baltimore Conventions, assuming to quench the eter
nal spirit of liberty that spirit which -was a part ofthe in
spiration or the prophets of old, when they commanded the
tyrants of the earth to "undo the heavy burdens and let the
'oppressed go free:" that spirit which gave all its heroism and
splendor to the classic land ot Greece, and made its memo
ries immortal; that spirit which gave to Rome its eollosal
proportions of physical and intellectual grandeur; that spirit
which, in the darkest night of the world's history, climbed
The Chaibiuii. The gentleman from Tennessee is out of I the leading men of a Republic, and the leading or
gans ot public sentiment supported by their wealth,
bave become abettors and champions of slavery!
Yet Buch is the morally hideous spectacle our coun
try now exhibits.
When before, in the history of the world, have
the most influential minds in the community la
bored and striven to blot out, theoretically, and
practically, the ineffacable distinction between a
man and a brute, bet ween a human soul and an
inanimate chattle, to plant and enroot in our civil
policy a vast, expanding system, in which con
science, reason, the capacities of religion, and the
inborn convictions accountably are made subserv
ient and secondary to the bones and muscles, and
put upon auction blocks as incidents to the poor
that perishes? When before, in all our history,
have men in eloquence and power ever traverced
the country, and scatered letters and speeches,
like the flakes of a snow-storm, and subdue and
harmonize the public mind to such stupendous
wrongsl When be. ore, since the Mayflower cross
ed the ocean with bea precious burden, has any
one minister of the Puritan stock ever dared or even
desired to put on priests robes and enter the house
of God, to defend slavery or to palliate it? . Sir,
such things were never known before. It is a
new spectacle for men and angles. It must give a
new joy to the world of darkness.
he throws off the wickedness upon God. But what kind of a
God does he give tbe Mack man, vtho suffers equally both
Irom disease ana remeay i
Mr. Mason. I desire to ask the gentleman from Massa
chusetts a single question. 1 wisn to call nis attention to
thrtfnetwhich I learn from the history of the race, that the
three millions of negroes in the United Stateswho are slaves'
are in a better condition, physically and morally, than any
three millions of th j African race that have existed since we
have anv authentic accounts of them. I ask the gentleman
whether he does not consider the improvement in the moral
and physical condition of these negroes, su&icient to oun
terbalance the evils which necessarily grow out of the insti
tution of slavery?
Mr.Mann. That is a ratr question, and tarn ready to an-
order and must take his seat.
Mr. Harris, of Alabama. I rise to a question of order, and
1 wish to have the question decided. The gentleman from
Musachnsettshas now been, for the last three-quarters of
an bour,assailing the established institution, or one-hnir of
tbe union existing institutions, exisimg under tne uonstt
tution of the United States. I ask if that be in order ? I call
him to order upon tbe ground that it is not in order, and I
want th is question decided by tbe Chair.
The Chairman. me cnair wiu state mat tne lamuae or
debate upon these bills is very great, and is very ifiicult in
deed
Mr. Folk, (interrupting.) I would at k the Chair one other
question. Is it right that the genueman from Massachusetts
snould assail an tnstltiuon oi toe aoutn, wun wuicn we are
all connected, in a manner that is insulting in its character,
when he does not hold himself responsible fur his insults?
Mr. Fowler. 1 rise to another question oi order, my ques
tion of order is this, that when the gentleman from Massa-
setts is using his privilege, he shall be allowed to go on.
and that this House snail sustain tne vnair in allowing oim
to go forward with his remarks.
Tne cnairman. l ne gentleman irom massacuusens, tmr.
Mann,) will proceed.
Mr. Polk. He has no right to state falsehoods about one
half of the nation
(shouts of "Order!")
Mr. Meade. 1 cau tor tnereadinK ot tne Jist rule.
Mr. John W. Howe. I call ior the reading of the two plat
forms. (Great laughter.)
The Chairman. The Chair has decided that the genueman
from Massachusetts is in order and will proceed.
Mr. Meade. The 31st rule prohibits all discussion of this
question in this house, except upon a proposition to which it
isermane. l asa ior tne reaaing oi tue ruie.
The Chairman. The Chair has already decided that tbe
gentleman from Massachusetts is not - ut of order, in pursu
ing this course of remark. If that decision is not saisfactory,
the Chair trusts some gentleman will appeal from it.
Mr. Harris, of Alabama. i appeal irom tnat tiecision.
Mr. Camnbell. of Ohio. Very welL Let us try it on the
question of order presented by those who bave been in the
habit of dragging every possible question into debate here.
We will see woetner mere lb not oiuer places in mis country
decision ofthe Chair. I hold the gentleman
I Campbell equally responsible ; ana i pronounce him the
same vile slanderer as the gentleman from Massachusetts,
who makes these charges.
(Cries of "Order!")
The 31st rule was then read by the Clark as follows :
"When anv member is about to speak in debate, or deliver
anv.matter to the House, he shall rise from his seat, and re
spectfully address himself to 'Mr. Speaker,' and shall confine
himself to the question under debate, and avoid personallity."
Mr. Mann continued : Mr. inairman, tor myseli, i do not
I regret this interruption. But I did not think it possible even
after tbe Baltimore edict had gone forth, even after a Senator
(had been silenced at the otner end oi tne uapit. l, ( Mr. Sum
ner,) and also a Representative on this floor, (Mr. Cleveland,)
very t
e course
I of making a speach, and was rightfully entitled to the floor,
and was in order, mat a cozen uieu aiiumu buui up uere, bo
hostile to hearing the words of truth and soberness, when
spoken in relation to the institution of slavery, as to try to
galeis me down
I had spoken of tbe cause of Africa's demoralization and
barbarism. 1 had spoken of tbe type of civilization which
TBE BIOHES LAW.
Another collateral effect which slavery has produc
ed, is the promulgation from the Halls of Congress, and
also from what in such cases, is not the sacred, but
trip rtrnlnnc desk that there ia nn "Hicher Law" than
Mr. Polk. I take the responsibility, and appeal from the the Constitution, or than any interpretation which any
xision ofthe Chair. I hold the gentleman from Ohio Mr. I ., r!,.. , r k , j,rin. i.
nothing less than palpahle and flagrant atheism. If 1
am bound to obev anv human law or constitution, as
my paramount rule of duty, thenceforth that rule bo
comes my supreme arbiter, judge, and god; and I am
compelled, by logical necessity, to abjure, renounce,
and depose all others. There cannot be two supreme
rules of right. If I acknowledge myself bound by the
divine law. and that comes in conflict with the human
law, then I must disobey the latter. But if the human
law he the Hipher Law. and if it conflicts with God's
law. then I am bound to disobey the law of God. If
the "Hierher Law." then we. on takinz our seats in this
House, and all magistrates and legislators, when en
tering upon the duties of their respective offices, ought
not to take an oath before God to support the Constitu
tion, but ought lo swear by the Constitution to support
that tirst, and Uod alterwards; provided it is convenient.
I sav. then, that this doctrine which is one of the off
shoots of slavery that there is no hieher law than the
law of the State, is palpable and practical atheism.
And vet it is rjerfectlv w. II known lo all who hear me.
it is proposed to offer her as an example, and I had shown an(J ro all who frequent the purlieus of Congress, that
a inin. hni.hts and sheltered itself In the fastnesses of Alpine I ewer it. According to the laws of noDulation. which govern
. . - l.uMaihlln ivrnntflr Whifth.at annth.r time. I K..1....... ..:. hai s. msnv inhnhifnila nnnr aa
mouninmo, 111.. --; : '
found protection within the dykea of Holland, barring out
the rage of the ocean, and the more remorseless rage of des
potic men; that spirit which has given to England, and to
English history, all their undisputed claims to renown, and
to the gratitude of mankind,and which, when persecuted and
j-.-. Kr..inn- crossed the Atlantic, spread itself over
thia onen continent, and having been nursed by more than soon filled by others, according to the laws of natural in
. 1 . . -liau-tnlif. nnw hiai. alaafi. I i-i a- K ai.i.t.k tK. 1 .
two nunoreayears oiouMs1D."""r i , i . ;
nee to the world this God-like spirit of liberty, immortal,
invulnerable and indestructable, two ephemeral Baltimore
Conventions undertake to ban; Xerxes chaining the Hele
apont was wisdom personified compared with them; ay, it
would be too dignified and honorable an illustration to com
pare them to two old male Mrs. Partingtons, mopping out
the Atlantic!
Why did not these insane men propose to do something
which is at least cone-ivablel Why did they not propose to
to turn back the order of physical events, rather than to
violate the more infrangible and irresistable laws of moral
progress? Why did they not order the oak back into the
acorn, or tbe bird back into its shell, or the earth itself back
into its first geological epoch, rather than to order Unenfran
chised spirit or the nineteenth centurv back into the gloom
and bondage ofthe dark aces ofthe world? Whv did thev
not lilt up tun wana 01 their arriganee and audacity towards I between the moral and physical condition of the DiacK race
barbarous nations, Africa has as many inhabitants now, as
it would have bad if .be robber had never invaded her do
main, and stolen away her children. Among barbarous
tribes, the population presses upon tne means ot subsistence.
It tends to increase taster tnan tne means oi snosistencc in
crease. Remove a part of the great family from the table
whence they are supplied, and their vacant places will be
crease. Therefore, we nave not aiminisnea tne number of
suffering, degraded, ana demoralized beings in Atnca, by one
unit, in conscquence.of taking a portion of their ancestors
from them.
- Mr. Mason. What would have been the condition of these
three millions of negroes, ha! not their ancestors been
brought to this country? Would they not, by degradation
and starvation, have gone out ot existence i
Mr Mann. Thev would never have come Into existence;
but their places amongst us would have been occupied by a
whit, nnnnlaiion of our own race, or of some race kindred
to our own. Other men would have been substituted for
ffh.m whit, for blacks, freemen for slaves.
Mr. Mason. Are not onr slaves better off, both morally
and physically, than any three millions of negroes ever were
inAfrica? " "
Mr.Mann. Before the gentleman institutes a comparison
how imDious was the argument which would attribute to
I the All-good and the All-powerful, such a tardy, cruel, circu
itous meiuou UI euetaaug iiei icicunuivu, wuicu, alter
waiting through slow centuries of agony and crime, would
send her such a civilization by such messengers ! I have
only to add that before I would accept any encb theology as
this, I would seek my creed among the old mytbologiea of tbe
heathen. In this hideous doctrine, which slavery has now
forced upon that public intellect which it had before depraved,
there is material sufficient for eight anti "Bridgewater Trea
tises," all du-proving the wisdom, the power, and the good
ness of uod.
Another obvious consequence of the existence of slaverr
in this country, has been the criminal remissnessof the Gov-
ters from the book of the moralist. It puts its seal
upon the lips of the minister of Christ, when be would
declare' the whole counsel of God, and forbids him ever
again to preach from the text " Whatsoever ye would
that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them."
All worldly prosperity, education, genius, morality, re-.
ligion, truth are struck out of these Baltimore conven
tions in their maniacal paxtizanship.
rrai 1. 1 . i a'- 1 I . .1
1 ne nouiesi uiea wuum oua uas evor scat mtu tue
world. patriots, reformers, philanthropists, apostles.
and Jesus Christ himself, are on the side of freedom.
Tyrants, usurpers, traitors, men stealers, the wholesale
murderers and robbers of nations, are on the side of
slavery. The Baltimore Convention enlists under the
banners of the latter. They affiliate with the Housa of
Happsburgh, and with Nicholas; with the King of
Naples and with the " Prince-President " of France.
One might almost have supposed that they had plaga- .
nzed their resolves irom the -fans mmutcur, where that
ape who mimics the imperial grandeur he cannot com
prehend, records his tyrannical decrees against freedom
of speech. Louis Napoleon decreed free discussion
out of existence in France. Six hundred men at Bal
timore decreed the same thing for this country. The
ape succeeded ; they fell.
And how are these resolves to be construed, provided
new questions respecting slavery arise, or questions
already started are precipitated upon us ? Snould an
attempt to annex Cuba, in order still further to aggran
dize the slave power, be made and if General Pierce
should be elected, such attempts doubtless will be made
or should a new State, with a slave constitution, from
California, apply for admission ; or should Mexico be
again dismembered to form new slave territory and new
slave States ; in the occurrence of these events, or of
either of them, how are the9e Baltimore resolutions to
be then construed? We know perfectly well what
claim will be set up It will be said that the new events
come within the terms of the prohibition the casus
faederit and bind the nation to silence. It will be
claimed that the resolutions cover not only all subjects,
but all time ; and enslave our children as well as our
selves. WHY THE OLD PARTIES INTERDICT DISCUSSION.
I have exposed the character and extent of those
resolutions. Let me now expose their motive.
I charge upon those Conventions the base motive
of attempting to silence discussion by force as in
this House and in the Senate the same spirit once
rejected petitions, and would now silence debate
because they are conscious they eannot meet it by
argument. The fugitive slave law, for instance, is
assailed by the jurist, because it is unconstitutional;
by the patriot because it disgraces the country in
To exclude all possibility of constructive treason, the eyes of the civilized world; by the reliuious
. . a" ' :. r . a: : . . r I . . ... ' y . &
man, because it is unchristian, and by every one
who has the sentiment of humanity in his bosom,
for it is unheard-of cruelty. The upholders o
that law can answer no one of these arraignments.
Their only resource, therefore, is the dastardly de
nial of discussion and free speech. Like Louis
Napoleon, who, having no possibility of reply to the
accusation of treachery, perjury, and usurpation,
forbids the accusation to be made. Among all
our constitutional judges, and among all those mock
judges called commissioners, there is not one who
has met the arguments against the unconstitution
ality ot tins law. 1 bey entrench themselves behind
worst days of English judicial tyranny the very door a feehle rampart of precedents as their only defence.
1- - L. . 1 r. r a-1 .I..... : . a 1 . . 1 1. I Taiatra-ai Kntririna Aa.iAa- I a. Kaa ...,-.:...: 1 1
which the framers of our Constitution intended to lock
and double lock, and fasten impregnably.
And again ; the doctrine of accessories and the rela
tion of accessories to principals, was a part of the
hanglisn common law. l hat common law, these United
States necr adopted, as has been decided again and
again, ana therelore there can be no accessories in
treason, by construction.
And besides all this, the seventh section ot the Iugi
tive slave law provides a penalty for very act which a
man can commit in assisting the escape of a slave ; so
that, if any such act were treason before, it is no longer
so ; lor no legal principle is better settled than that when
a subsequent statute reduces the penalty provided in a
aaaaav.aaa waa.;, aaaaj previous ItCC IS SO TSF TepeaieO, eVCQ
without any repealing words. On any ground, there
fore, the charge of Judge Kane is only inferior in
monstrousness to the law whose inherent atrocity he
sought to aggravate.
A similar attempt to create constructive treason was
made in the Syracuse cases ; but the air of Western
JNew York, being more electric with freedom, had a
salutary effect upon the health of the court. Would to
Heaven that these bealth.ul breezes ot the country
could reach and sweep away the judicial miasma that
stagnates upon our Atlantic cities.
f be district attorney at Syracuse, having rendered
himself obnoxious by the inordinate zeal with which
Judge Noggins decides it to be constitutional, be
cause Judge Scroggins had decided it to be so. And
wnen we look, back to Judge acrogstns for light,
we find he decided it to be constitutional, because
Judge Sprig-gins had held it to be so. Chief Justice
Shaw, of Massachussetts, whom I regard as one of
tne ablest judges who ever administered the com
mon law, any where, . virtually admitted, in the
suns case, that it the qt.estion ot the constitution
ality of this law were a new one, the affirmative
could not be sustained. I repeat, then, it is das
tardly order to keep silence, because they cannot
meet discussston. JNecessity is their only defence,
" and what necessity,
The tyrant's plea excuse their devilish deed.
UKCONSTITUTIONALITy.
Let me state in a few simple propositions the
unconstitutionality of the fugitive slave law, which
nas oeen so mucn elaborated elsewhere :
Excepting the Army and Navy, the Constitution
of the United States declares that "no person shall
ne deprived ot Me, liberty, or property.
wuuuui uue pruvessoi taw. iz also aeciares tnat
"in suits at common law, where the value in con-
he pursued the suspected in the rescue cases, at that t roversy shall exceed $20, the right of trial by.jury
city, l was giau to see it statea m newspapers tnat tbe suau oe preservea."
ladies of the place had a meeting, and sent him a pre
sent of thirty pieces of silver. They were three-cent
pieces, however ninety cents in the whole ! The
ancient Judas got larger pieces. Such, however, is now
the rivalry to nil his place, that the competitors must
content tnemseives wun smaller coin.
It was said also, that when Jerry, the alleged fugitive
in that rase, reached Her Majesty's dominions, he put
the irons with which he had been " dressed " into a
nice box and sent them to President Fillmore. When
the signer ofthe fugitive slave law unboxed these irons,
and unwrapped them, and first took in the full signifi
cance ot their meaning, it must have presented a scene
Now, every case of claim for an alleged slave ne
cessarily involves both the question of liberty, and
the question of property.
By the constitution of every free State in this
Union, every person within it is presumed to be a
free man; or, in other words, there is never any
jn-jma facie presumption that any man within it is a
slave. Every man is presumptively free until pro
ved to De otnerwise. it tne civil condition or status
of slavery is to be fastened upon any one, it must
be done by the decission of a tribunal having juris-
cance ot. tneir meaning, it must nave preseniea a scene l j- " 1:1 . . . . , -
worthy of the highest art of the historic painter! I Action over liberty and property that is, by court
trust it so happened that they were received and opened
at a uaDinet meeting.
SLAVERY PROSTITUTES OUR LEADING MEN.
And under this prolific head of the collateral conse
quences of slavery, I say again, and finally, where else,
since the light of the Christian era first dawned upon
and jury. The prima facie evidence that a man is free
entitles him to the tribunal and the trial of a free
man. But under this fugitive slave law, a man's
prima facie right to the tribunal and the trial of a
free man is taken away, not by court and jury, but
by a complaint and warrant. A claimant demands
a human being presumptively tree as his slave, and
the world, has it everbeen known tnat tne leading men that mere aeman( is ma(Jc to cancc, the Dresum,
isVnZfafrPS and self-ownership, to take him
there is no butt of ridicule so common here, nothing
which so readily and so frequently raises the loud
laugh that speaks the vacant mind."
Sir, it is of fearful omen, when the laws of men are
made, even in theory, to take precedence and override
the laws of God. And the last aggravation is added to
this iniquity, when the politician disguises himself be
neath the earb of a priest, and cloaks his wickedness
under the show of religion.-
No person feels a profounder reverence, or would
njav a sincerer hnmaire to a Godly, sin-avoidine sin-
exposine priesthood, than myself. But I have no ade-
Switzerland, or at the States General of Holland.
Look at France at the period of the great revolution,
when in her maddened throes for liberty, after fifteen
centuries of oppression, one of her first acts was the
recognition of the natural and universal freedom of man.
Look at the South American Republics, composed as
they mainly were of Catholics, who for ages had been
inured to bodily and menial thraldom, and amongst
whom slavery was an existing institution, as it was
here when our Declaration of Independence was pro
mulgated, yet by a noble act of moral heroism they cast
the incubus away. Yes, I repeat, ours is the first Re
public since Christ died for men whose leaders have
disowned and deserted the principles of their govern
ment, and become the willing champions of the most
remorseless of despotisms.
Sir, I may as well remark here as anywhere, in order
to make any honest misconstruction ot my views im
eminent in suppressing the slave trade on the coast of Africa. nUate words to express my abhorrence for the clerical
UTaa hava, a-a-riicaaat ta, antnr into trpaatiAtt with Tvll rnntn u frav. I . . . , .- - : -1 C
' - , , - - ' - i hypocrite, win whom religion i ueiiuajt a sttlluiiiiu-
ernments to secure so desirable an end ; and authentic docu- 1 ,Z' . " -..-fc-.tion of the bodv but on-
ments, aeveioping me norrors oi mis traiuc, anu proving : r: , 7 ,'- r- ; tK. tl...(;..n
a a...;i: . -a.; k. i i. i I lv n kind of nnlicv of insurance against the retribution
AillBriCtlaa-UUlat urcivuaua oata-aa aaa aau oatgaagecu au u, uaivaoiu I J a -j . . , . , .
on the files of the State Department for years, and through 1 ra another world for sins committed in mis, accoinpan-
possible, that when I speak of the all comprehending of this trial that is, you can abolish that trial for
1 - . , A , .1 - I I lt a 1. : 1 .. a , ., thar, h aaa,a,;aa!Aa,a- I
wickedness ot slavery wnen i say mat ii is in reia- aii imo ua ui - ..a Uj ---i--....v-ia. 1Ca.
tion to the crimes and wrongs of men what the Pri- islation you can abolish it in all cases whatever.
mum Mobile was in the ancient systems of astronomy Where, then, is that right to a trial by jury which
and all-encircling and all-upholding concave, within the constitution declares "shall be preserved!"
which every wrong and every crime has its natural The law then palpably is unconstitutional, be
home when I affirm this, I affirm it of the system or -. .J f -rm. n,-8umDtive!T free the
institution of slavery. And to this 1 wish to add what . , . . , . - , ,. j ; f i
all history ptoves-that good men may be implicated in right to be tried as a freemar; and it is because
a bad system as in the English hierarchy, which I the Baltimore Conventions cannot answer this ar
regard as a vicious system of church government ; and gument, that they forbid its promulgation,
yet how many super eminently great, and good, and And besides this, the proofs which the law pro
pious men it has produced ; or, as in the Catholic reli- vides for and declares conclusive are abhorrent to
whole presidential terms, unnoticed. On such an appalling
crime as this, whose suDDTession has been within our reach.
the national conscience has been benumbed into torpidity and
paralysis, by tbe existence oi slavery among us.
B.OSBUTU aUlU blaaLVaKHX.
Look at another instance where slavery has depraved the
popular sentiment of the country. Under the generous and
chivalric lead of Mr. Clay, with what enthusiasm did we
nan tne birth ot tne &outn American ttepuoiica ; What bo
sannahs did we ahout forth for the emancipation of Greece!
now deep tne sign ot tne nation's neart woen roland atrug-
gieo in neraeaiu-agon , ana Dreainea ner last : .vensolate
ied all the while by knavish tricks on the part of the
insured to cheat the Divine insurer out oi xiis pre
mium. Mr. Sutherland. I ask the gentleman from Massa
chusetts whether it is possible that the higher law of
God can come in conflict with the Constitution?
Mr. Mann. I think it would be better to ask wheth
er the Constitution comes in conflict with the higher
Mr. Snthorlanrl. I ask the gentleman if every Amer
ican citizen does not obey the higher law of God when
aa 1848. this Congress sent resolutions congratulating France he ob rt of the Constitution? And can any
on.herMasma Cnarta of " liberty, eaualitv. and fratemitv." I ""i-ju 1J ' -i : . - , i.
A returns and the Pleiades, and attempt to move round the
constellations of the heavens as you would move round the
hands on the dial-plate or a clock! Such hallucinations
would be at least within the limits of human conception, and
would therefore be free from the folly and atheism of attempt
ing to stifle the voice of freedom discuccing freedom.
. sir, to resoi'o Lliu- -. . j ucauun seau dc oiscusseo
nevermore, is to resolve the memories of all the heroes, and
martyrs, and saints, whosenames make all the bright pagea
of human history, into sternal oblivion. It is to resolve the
history ofthe American Revolution, and of all its actors,
into forgetfulness. It is to resolve the noblest faculties and
aspirations of the human soul into non-existence. Under
any lair and legitimate constructions of such a resolvo, it
embraces tbe whole meaning and force cf that infamously
celebrated decree of tie French Convention, that "Tuere ia
no God." 1 do not say mis Dy way oi i..", .a..u,.aj-
v..-. .nai in Africa, he must mbb what has caused their degra
dation at home. Remember the awful facts that forty mil
lions of the best of them aelected men and women within
thelast three centuries, have been torn from home, and that
these ravages have not been eonlinad tothe eastern and west
Ma, aihaaa-jaaa halt hflVa, nitarraaa inlands SO that lhC COUntrV USA
bled at eve'rv oore at every vital organ and concieve, if
mortal imagination can conoive, what effect this, of itself,
aaaaaaat haawa, in mutTinia and keeninar a neonle barbarian. And
after all, what has been the social condition ofthe inferior
trihaaji. who have had less communication, and been less cor
rupted oy tne "lOWer laW" nations I iraveiero lanuaata aaca
tnat, generauy speaKing, iney are a inuu, uut-ata,, a,,. .u
nennle not flararresnive and Dredatorv. land-robbing and man-
hunting, like the British in India, or ourselves on this conti
nent. Thev are contented, comoanionable. bome-loving.
and unwarlike. Some of the early Christian Fathers, as
In one of the European revolutions of that year, on the banks
of the Danube, a young man sprang, at a single bound, from
comparative obscurity to universal fame. His heroism or
ganized armies. His genius created resources. Heabolish
ed tbe factitious order of nobility, but bis exalted soul poured
tneeeiestiai icnor oi me gous mrougu ten muuons oi peasant
hearts, and made them truly nohle. Though weak in all but
theenergiea of thi soul, yet it took two mighty empires to
break down bis pow :r. When he sought refuge in Turkey,
the sympathies of the civilized world attended his exile, lie
was invited to our snores, ne came, ana spoxe as men nev
er before spake. It was Byron's wish that he could con
dense all the raging elements of his soul
" into one word,
And that one word were lightning."
Kossmh found what Byron in vain prayed for; for all
good result come from discussing these immaterial ab
stractions? Is not the spirit of the Constitution in ac
cordance with the higher law! Can you point to a
clause in the Constitution which, when fulfilling to the
best of my ability, would make me violate the higher
law of God?
Mr. Mann. That is not to the point.
Mr. Sutherland. It is the very point. You and oth
ers I say it with all possible respect disturb the har
mony of this House and the country by trying to get up
issues upon abstract questions of morality, which have
nothing whatever to do with the proceedings of this
Hiaiiaia. nr with correct public sentiment. It I should
undertake to make an issue between you and me upon .
the subject of slavery, it would De wrong, i ei you get
ment, or to impart greater emphasis to a Pe"- J the gentleman must well know, were Africans; and there is
because it is literally and strictly true; for the mst aao neney- 1 every reason to believe that Christianity would have spread
olentGodwbo sits upon tne mrono oi iu y "! southward from the Mediterranean into Africa, auite as fast
himself be silenced, neiere tne cry sgaiuai. """'J l as northward into Enrone. and would even have encountered
less opposition from the stern and nnvleldinr nature of the
people, but for the demoralizing elementa injecud through
every vein ann artery or their system by the stronger na
tlona of tbe earth.
Mr. Mason. I think thegentleman might give many 1fher
reasonsinan tue one wmcn ne nas named, wny tne Airtcana
bave not become more civilized. I think- he might find rea
sons for it in the hiBto ry of the race for the last thousand
years, and in the history of the missionaries who bavetlone
amonEstthem. Tbe Catholics have been therefor several
hundred years! and have established churches, but have al
ways abandoned tbem; although 1 see by the last reports
that thev are trying it again. I think the gentleman could
find a mason for it in the nature of the black man. as made
by his Crentor. He is not capable or susceptible of any of
Injustice of slavery can be quelled.
WHaT SLAVERY IS.
rn Let ns see, for a moment, what is the nature or the bur
den that this Baltimore Convention has taken upon them
selves. By forqidding us to speak upon a given subject,
and see if duty does not require us to speak upon it. Tney
leave us no option;and if the discussion shall prove unpala
table they may think themselves for provoking it- Let me
inquire, then, whether it be not demonstrable that tho re
lation of slavery between man and man comprehends, per
petuates, multiplies, and aggravafea all formes of crimes
which it is possible for a human being to commit. Is the
stealing, even of a shilling, a crime? Slavery steals all that
roan can call Mb own: and la not the whole greater than a
rypbery, wnicn la da-ftned lo be tne taking or any
hie words were lightning; not bolts, bat a lambent I up here and attempt to make this issue before tho coun-
at.maa waii-k ka nniiMal tnlA maan't hnnrtx: nrtt in kill I l-i-ar Vrtii ftaat nn nn immaterial QUOstlOn of morality,
but to animate witn a more exaiteo ana a atvtner me. wnicn simpiy tcnas wi;iwMwua.1uiUU,aijJ
In cities where the vast population went forth to hail cal benefit.
him; in academic halls, where the cultivation of elo- Mr. Mann. I hope the gentleman will not interrupt
quence and knowledge is made the business of life; in me further. His argument would have answered just
those great gathering places, where the rivers of people as well in the time of Herod, the Tetrarch, when he is-
have their confluence, he was addressed by tne most elo- I sued tne order ior tue muimi ui au iiaiaaaoaa aa.aaac,
quent men whom this nation ot orators could select. two years of age. The murderers doubtless got ten
More than five hundred of our selectest speakers spoke I dollar commission fees for the deed. So those who
speeches betore him, which they had laboriously prepa- massacrea tniny-six iuou imirai..
replies, in eloquence, in pathos, in dignity, in exalted And our Pilgrim fathers were driven into exile by the
sentiment, excelled them all. f or their most prolound nigner law oi incrumum mi "-a- - .. jv.
philosophy, he gave them deeper generalizations; he admit this doctrine, there is n enormity actual or con-
-.1 J .uJ? a- -a a . J : '-a I : Ul !.:!. . t l.a. aaaaa-naat aaataaal anal illatlifiaaal nn.
out-circuiiea meir wiaesi rangea ot inougnt, ana in me i ceiTnuio, nmvii aaaaaj aa i.-. a. j
away from a freeman's tribunal of court and jury,
and to carry him for trial before a slave tribunal
that is, a commissioner. It is replied that the de
cision of the commissioner that he is a slave, and
not a free man, proves that he had no right to the
tribunal and the trial ot a tree man; 1 retort, that
before an unbought, unbribed, freeman's tribunal.
there might have been a contrary decision; but you
prejudged him to be a slave, by carrying him belore
a slave tribunal, and you robbed him of the first
right of a free man, by depriving him of a freeman's
tribunal and trial, t or him, and tor bis case, you
abolish the trial by jury. And if by virtue of such
complaint and warrant you can deprive any persoa,
in any tree State, ot trial Dy jury, you can by the
same rule deprive all the men in all tbe tree btates
oion. which I believe to be an untrue form of Christi
c . ' , . ,f ; i .1 i i
anity, and yet in no religion nave mere ueeu origiuer
examples of purity and benificence. In battling to
nvnrrtime the moral wrongs and errors into which a
man has been born, the moral sentiments, like the intel-
reason. to common sense, and to the common law.
It provides that evidence taken in a Southern State,
at any time or place which a claimant may select,
... . ' i i ' - r i - l
Wlttiout any notice, or any pussitiiiuy oi Knowledge
nnhle stri vines thev reach a sublimity of virtue propor
tioned to the depths ot vice irom wnicn iney spouj.
But this does not prevent bad systems from producing
their natural fruits on the mass of men.
POSITION OF THE FREE SOIL PARTY,
i- w homia. ' thf.v lucome victorious, and in their on the part ofthe person to be robbed and enslaved
Uy ll, li I ,a , tao iaauaaua;obaaaa.j a . u 1 1 1 a. VI ui bvui a ia ail J
place where it is to be used, and there spring upon
its victim, as a wild beast springs from its jungle
upon the passer-by; and it provides that this evi
dence, thus surreptiously taken and used, shall be
Kr,A Tina, hnvinir shown what a mighty wrongslavery conclusive Drool ot the tact ot slav.-ry and ot escape
is, in and of itselt ; Having snown wiiat raraienu
basement, cruelty, and practical atheism it generates
and diffuses, let me as tt it me pouuoai r ice rai i""iy
do not go to the uttermost verge that patriot, moralist,
or Christian can go, when it consents to let slavery re
main where it is ? There is an endeavor to make up a
bly away from home to Maryland, as a slave, by the
uuiumyauiu ai me expense ot tue United States, :
he was set adrift and left to find his way back as , ,
uc nium.
Of the first eight Persons doomed tn alavaai-ar i,n. .
der this law, four were free men. :
When this dreadful law waa first broarW. it :
was said that we might rely upon the intelligence , v
and integrity of the Southern courts to send into
the land of freedom no certificates that would doom
men to bondage unless founded upon competent
and undoubted testimony. But in the case of Dan
iel, who was tried before Mr. Commissioner Smith,
at Buffalo, the claimant never carried a single wit-
ness betore the court that made tn record of slave
ry and of escape. The Southern court made the
record on affidavits only, and then gave the 'claim- .
ant a certified copy of it, without ever seeing or
hearings witness in the case.. These affidavits ,.
were given by nobody knows whom, and sworn to
by nobody knows whom perhaps not sworn to at .
an, out iorgad tor the occasion; yet on signt oi
them the commissioner pronounced Daniel to be a
oiovo. ii aiterwards turned out on a Hearing De
fore Judge Conkling of the U. Statea court, that -
there never had been one particle or scintilla of ev
idence before the commissioner on which his ten
dollar certificate of slavery was founded.
in anotner case, in Philadelphia, Commissioner '
Ingraham decided some point directly against law : '
and authority ; and when a decision of a indirn of
the United States court was produced against him,
he coolly said, he differed from the iudere. made
out the certificate, pocketed the ten dollars, and
sent a numan being into bondage. 1 here could be
no appeal from this iniquity, for the law allows
none.
In another case, before Mr. Commissioner Hal-
lett, of Boston, where white persons were exam
ined, on a charge of rescuing an alleged slave, he
admitted this foreign evidence of a State court,
taken in secret against the native-born citizens ot
a free State.
And yet, with all these abominations on the face
of the law, and after this long train of outrages in
its administration, tne Baltimore Whig resolutions,
which, perhaps, are the leas iniquitous of the two,
declare that the law shall not be modified, unless
" time and experience" ahall demonstrate some
abuse of its powers. How low down must these
men live, that they do not call what has already
happened an abuse 1 "-:
A story is current respecting the origin of this
law, for whose authenticity I cannot personally '
ouch ; but it certainly carries verisimilitude on its
face. The bill is said to have been concocted by a '
Southern disunionist, anxious for some pretext to
break up the Republic, and who therefore prepared
a bill so unconstitutional, so abominable and nend- -'
ish, that, as he believed, even the recklessness of
Northern servility must spurn it. He would
then make its rejection his war cry for disunion.
But, alas !. he had not fathomed the baseness of
Northern politicians. What a Southern "fire-eater"
thought too unrighteous for any human being to
touch, the Northern aspirants for the Presidency
adopted " with alacrity," and rolled aa a sweet
morsel under their tongues. ISow, both Whig and
Democratic Conventions re-affirm the law, and at
tribute to it a sacredness and a permanency un
known to the Constitution itself.
Sir, when I survey, one after another, the horrid
features of this law its palpab le violation both of
the letter and the spirit of the Constitution; its
contempt and defiance of that great organic law
the Declaration of Independence, and of the whole
spirit and acts and lives of our revolutionary fath
ers ; its repugnance to all the noblest maxims and
principles of the British Constitution, consecrated
and hallowed as these have been from age to age
by patriot's struggles and martyrs' blood ; its) fab
rication oi sucn a cooe oi evidence aa was never
before placed on the statute-book of any civilized
nation ; its provisions for deciding conclusively the
question of a man's liberty, in what is to him a
foreign State, and before what is to him a foreign
tribunal, without the possibility of his appearing
there to confront witnesses, or even of knowing
what the conspirators against him are doing ; its
peremptory orders to seize a man and the unspeak
ably precious question of his freedom and self
ownership, " in a summary manner," when even
robbers, pirates and murderers, must have notice of
their accusation, adequate time to prepare for de
fence and counsel for assistance ; its bribing mag
istiates to decide against liberty, and in favor of
slavery, and its creation of a set of officers, some
of whom have so decided ug to prove themselves
capable of accepting a bribe ; its execution of the
dreadful sentence without appeal or writ of error -its
repudiation of the statute of limitations, (the
policy of which is recognized by all civilized na
tions, not only in case of debt, but in regard to the
title of real estate, and even in regard to crimes )
so that a master who has abandoned his slave for
forty years can come and pluck him from wife and
children, from home, property, and friends ; and
when, further, I see the practical workings of this
law ; free northern citizens carried into bondage
southern professors in the art of kidnapping, chas
ing the shrieking fugitive from all his hidinl places
and his altars ; monster lathers pursuing the chil
dren of their own loins, aa lately happened in New
York, to seU them into slavery; the virtuous wo
man hunted by the lecher, from whose whips and
- 11 T-fTl M fT tlVlO lias flaCLa-1 a J 1 . ... V
tl. A r ik J guuty embrace;
... i,lu peaceaoie citizens
amongst us, surrounded by self-flamed comfort and
iiTSfilii!!? endearingrelation. :
-a. -a... .UW llWo, OUt , rcpUDl,c
" --j, ""u me tost birth-right of
freedom-thus re-enacting the scenes of the Hu
guenot flight under Charles IX ; and, as the crown
ing cruelty of the whole, an entire race of free
people, of innocent people, of nennl
tors fought and fell in the battles of the Revolu
tion, ana wno nave as much right, not merely to
security and protection, but to the feeling of secu
uty and protection, under our Government, as you
or I when I see these people, filled with conster
nation and dismay for themselves and for their
children, tremble when they look around them
upon the earth, lest some tiger, in human shape,
should spring from his ambush and seize them, and
plunge them into slavery's hell, and trembling
when they look upward into the sky, because God
seems to have forsaken them ; sir, when I con
template all these things, I am compelled, though
against the common faith, to acknowledge evidence
of supernatural inspiration in the hearts of men.
But it is infernal and diabolical inspiration, whose
evidence I recognise. Sir, this fugitive slave law
was not made by man alone ; for unaided, total de
pravity is not equal to all its atrocities. Place the
law and the Baltimore edicts side by side, the
command and the prohibition together. " You
shall chase the fugitive, but yon shall not speak "
As in the days of the early Christians, or like the
x-ugnra rainers, in me times ot Uie non conform
ists, we may hold our meetings only in dens or
caves, or in the most secret recesses of our dwell
ings, with doors locked and guarded. Once the
bloodhounds were muzzled ; now the bloodhounds
are let loose and freemen are muzzled.
THS BALTIHORS BE80LUT10NS.
Sir, when any humane and intellioone mnn
fleets upon the attributes of this law, and then
turns to the fiat of the Baltimore Conventions,
that it shall not be agitated or discussed, he cannot
but tremble with an agony of indignation and con
tempt. These resolves are so subversive, not onlv
- n .i:n:n. t r .ii i . . V
' " vi ou aiuuia.ii government ; they
are so audacious and yet so impotent ; they assume
so imperial an air, while yet they are more imbe
cile than an idiot's gibberish, that the. great poet
of our language, whose mind supplies redundant '
images lot all things Tile and mean, has but one
passage that befits the vileness of the law. To
borrow his words, these Baltimore resolutions are a
from slavery. It does not submit the sufficiency of
the evidence to the judgement ofthe tribunal; but
it arbitrarily niakeB it conclusive whether sufficient
or not. It abolishes the common law distinction
between competency and credibility. Indeed, it
false issue for the country, and for the tribunal of history I abolishes the elementary idea of a court of justice
ltseu, consiuereu a iriuunai wuose mnciions arc,
first and chiefest, to hear both sides, and then to
discern between truth and falsehood. The heathen
emblem of justice was that of a goddess, holding
ballances in her hand, and weighing with holy ex
actness all conflicting- probabilities and testimonies.
The true emblem of this law would be that of some
thi Biihiect. Freesoilers are charged with inter
fering with slavery witnin tne jurisdiction ot me states
where it is. We would not have it profane free terri
tory. We would not allow it to double its present do
main; we wouia not miow n iu uiasi. wiw unuieiciis nuu
innumerable woes, two thirds of our territorial area on
the Pacific coast, as it has already two thirds on the
lal-.a:- 'Fkaaa iaa aall aa al ll 11 ,-a, H ml O Ann. tn talA nnrll.
ment that, with only about three slaves to a square mils Glossin lawyer, clutching at ton dollars as a bribe
over au your territory, yuu, (cuuemcu ui Biavu ana trampling mo micw maiioaaa-v. ua.uw
states, must have more space, because you are becom- What would the Southern gentlemen who hear
ing suffocated by so close crowding, we simply reply, mej ,ayi jff while attending to your duties in this
that we cannot admit that argument, because it devotes Hall, a miscresnt in any Northern city or State,
the whole world to inevitable very. For, if you ith t knowledge or possibility of knowledge on
?m:1h.tg,C your part . hou.nowbe suboiiing witness?, to
slaves to a .quare mile, and the argument for further obtain evidence that your house, your plantation,
..o,,n...a. nnat vnnnion will come back upon us. or cotton crop was his, and by and by should make
Yielrlina attain, the argument will speedily recur again. I his appearance on your premises demanding instant
It will be never-ending, still-beginning pretext lot possession, and, in case of refusal, or demur, ehould
. , .. . 1 . 1 I.I la.ll Kaaa,m vataaf- I . ' ... ... ...
extension, until mo wnuit. """7' " , : drag you betore some ten dollar magistrate,1-read his
reulm of slavery-even the , free Slate. bein iengulphed fJth, proof while you ,re to be dumbt
on 3S '.urf.cae oi the gFop. whre she c set h And yet this fugitive slave law is much more at
foo, trovious than that would be, as liberty U more pre-
1 cious man pen.
What is the following fling at the "Higher Law," hut ex- I
plichaiheism?- . ,, J TH rmv' "" lw-
"wnennmninsei.jwi..wi. The cruel fruits ot this law have been such as
" blRhtiangM babe,
Ditch-delivered by a drab."
Justice and gratitude, however, demand that I
should say, that there were sixty-seven members
of the Whig Convention who stood out bravely
A a . ,1.. I a : a a 1 .. . .1 . v i . -
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the freedom of speech. In the Democratic Con
vention there seems to have been scarcely a whis
per oi aissenc.
Sir, 1 cannot dui acknowledge tnat the events I
have recited have an ominous look for the cause of
freedom. It seems as though the black cloud which
has settled down over Europe waa extendm. it.
gloomy folds across the country, to envelop in
darkness and despair, the last hopes of liberty upon
earth. But I have infinite faith in God
truth. I believe that cloud to be surcharged with
lightnings which will yet blast the oppressor. And
after the lightnings and the storm have passed,
then shall come the day of universal freedom and
joy- -
use aa those Baltimore Convention were to
the Constitution of the Utited States, to the Decla
ration of Independence, to humanity, and to God,
yet when we come to scan theit proceedings more
closely, we find they are amenable to a power they
refused to acknowledge. H was there as in the
ancient mythology ! the) gods decreed, but there
was an inexorable fate standing behind the gods,
and controlling their decrees. That irresistible
fate, which bound the Conventions as with a
spell, and hemmed in their desires and aptitudes
for wrong, which waa a will within their will, was
the genius of northern anti-slavery.
There waa at least half a dozen candidates,
which the Democratic Convention vastly preferred
to the one they finally took up with ; and there was
at least one. whom the Whiff Convention, under
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