The voice of freedom. [volume], January 26, 1839, Image 1

About The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848

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T HE
V I C
OF
FIMBOM
ALLEN & POLAND, Publishers. Published under the sanction of the Vermont Jlnti-Slavery Society. CHAUNCEY L, KNAPP, Editor.
VOLUME I. MOJI'TPELIER, VERMONT, JANUARY 26, 1839. IVUMSIEU 4.
I
THE VOICE OF FREEDOM
Is nnhlisliHil evsrv Saturday morning, at 2 a yen, pay
able in advance If payment be delayed till the end of
the year, fifty Cents will be added.
Advertisements inserted at the usual rates.
Subscriptions, and all letters relating to business, should
be addressed to the ruDlisners ; leuurs running w uio tur
torial department, to the Editor. Communications intend
ed for publication should be signed by the proper name of
the writer. rosiae musi oe paiu m uu cuses,
Agents of the Vermont Anti-Slivery Society, and officers
of local anti-slavery societies throughout the state, are au
Hinri.Ml tn act. ah mrents fnr thin naner.
id" OiBce, one doosAVest from the Post-Office, State st.
P 0E TRY.
From the Essex Gazette.
TO GOVERNOR M'DUFFIE.
"The patriarchal institution of slavery."
Gov. M'DurriB.
King of Carolina! hail!
Last champion of Oppression's battle!
Lord of rice-tierce and cotton-bale!
Of sugar-box and humid cattle!
Around thy temples, green and dark,
Thy own tobacco-wreath reposes
Thyself, a brother Patriarch
Of Isaac, Abraham and Moses!
Vhy not? Their household rule is thine,
Like1 theirs; thy bondmen feel its rigor;
And thine, perchance, as concubine,
Some swarthy prototype of Hagar.
Why not? Like those ood men of old,
The priesthood is thy chosen station,
Like them thou payest thy rites to gold
And Aaron's calf of Nullification.
AH fair and softly must we then,
From Ruin's open jaws to save us,
Upon our own free working men
Confer a master's special favors?
Whips for the back chains for the heels
I look b for the nostrils of Democracy,
Before it spurns as well as feels
The riding of the Aristocracy !
Ho! fishermen of Marblehead!
Ho Lynn cordwainers, leave your leather,
And wear the yoke in kindness made,
And clank your needful chains together!
Let Lowell mills their thousands yield,
Down let the rough Vermonter hasten,
Down from the work-shop and the field,
And thank us for each chain we fasten.
Slaves in the rugged Yankee land!
I tell thee, Carolina, never!
Our rocky hills and iron strand.
Are free and shall be free forever.
The surf shall wear that strand away,
Our granite hills in dust shall moulder,
Ere Slavery's hateful yoke Bhall lay
Unbroken on a Yankee's shoulder!
No George M'Dufne! keep thy words
For the mail-plunderers of the city,
Whose robber right is in their swords;
For recreant priest and Lynch-Committee,
Go point thee to thy cannon's mouth,
And swear his brazen lips ore better,
To guard the "interests of the south,"
Than parchment scroll, or charter's letter.
We fear not. Streams which brawl most loud
Along their course, are often shallow ;
And loudest to a doubting crowd
The coward publishes his valor.
Thy courage has at least been shone
In many a bloodless southern quarrel,
Facing, with hartshorn and cologne,
The Georgian's harmless pistol-barrel.t
No, Southron! not in Yankee land
Will threats like thine a fear awaken
Her men, who on their charter stand
For truth and right, may not be shaken.
Still shall that truth assail thine ear
Each breeze, from northern mountains flowing,
The tones of Liberty shall bear
God's free "incendiaries" going!
We give thee joy! thy name is heard
With reverence on the Nova's borders:
And "turbaned Turk," and Poland's lord,
AndMetternich, are thy applsuders.
Go if thou lev'st such fame and share
The mad Ephesian's base example
The holy bands of Union tew,
And clap the torch to Freedom's temple!
Do this Heaven's frown thy country's curse
Guilt's fiery torture ever burning
The quenchless thirst of Tantalus,
And Ixion's wheel forever turning
A name, for which "the plainest fiend
Below" his own would barter never
These shall be thine unto the end
Thy damning heritage forever!
See speech of Gov. M'Dufne to an artillery company in
Charleston, S. C.
tMost of our readres will recollect the "chivalrous" af
fair between M'Dufne and Col. Cummings, of Georgia,
some years ago, in which the parties fortified themselves
with spirits of hartshorn and Eau de Cologne.
The following lines appeared in the' Evening Post Some
days ago, and are transferred to our columns for their great
beauty, philosophy, religion, and poetry, all combined in
the inspiration that produced such a striking picture of that
marvel and mystery Maw. JV. Y. American.
MAN.
The human mind that lofty thing !
The palace and the throne
Where reason sits, a sceptered king,
And breathes his judgment tone.
Oh ! who with silent step shall trace
The borders of that haunted place,
Nor in his weakness own
That mystery and marvel bind
That lofty thing the human mind I
The human heart that restless thing !
The tempter and the tried
The joyous, yet the suffering
The source of pain and pride ;
The gorgeous thronged the desolate,
The seat of love, the lair of hate
Self-stung, self-deified !
Yet do we bless thee, as thou art,
Thou restless thing the human heart !
The human soul that startling thing 1
Mysterious and sublime !
The angel sleeping on the wing
Worn by the scoffs of tiin
The beautiful, the vcil'd, the bound,
The earth-enslaved, the glory-crowned,
The stricken in its prime I
From heaven in tears to earth it stole,
That startling thing the human soul
And this is man Oh! ask of him,
The gifted and forgiven
While o'er his vision, drear and dim,
The wrecks of time are driven,
If pride or passion in their power,
Can ohain the tide or charm the hour,
Or stand in place of heaven ?
lie bends the brow, he bows the Vnee
Creator, Father ! none but the '."
ANTI-SLAVERY.
From The Friend of Man.
SPEECH Of ALVAN STEWART, Eiq
The following is a report of three different
speeches or parts of the same, delivered, by Alvan
Stewart, Esqr., of Utica, N. Y., before a joint
committee of the Senate and House of th
legislature of Vermont, raised to inquire into the
propriety of reporting and passing resolutions ad'
dressed to Congress, praying that body to abolish
the internal slavetrade between the states, slavery
in the District of Columbia, and in the territories
of the United States, and to prevent the admis
sion of new slave states and Texas into the Un
ion, by special request and invitation from the
Vermont State A. S. Society, on the 25th, 26th
and 27th of October, 1838. Mr Stewart address
ed the Committee as follows.
Honorable gentlemen of the Joint Committee
You are clothed with power lor the most exal
ted purposes : not to enquire into the propriety of
a bridge over a river, the .suitableness ot granting
a bank charter, in this or that town, of Increasing
or diminishinsr the tax on this or that district of
country ; no, your duty extends to eight times
as many people as those who constitute this sov-
reign and independent statej who are your coun
trymen, yoiir brethren Volir fellow beings, born in
the republic, not to its rich inheritance; but Its or
phanage; not to its glory, but us dishonor; not to
its rich treasures of knowledge and religion, but
its utter intellectual bereavement and heathenism;
not to its liberty and independence; but its slavery
and loss of all things; not to its bright and glori
ous hopes, but its blackness of darkness,in despair.
In behalf of two and a half millions of your
wretched fellow men, found in your own glorious
but disgraced country, the cry for pity, hope and
merrv is wafted in every southern wind which
blows over the lands of chains and tears, and has
brought to Vermont the deep lamentations of the
unpitied, the unwept, and the unmourned.
To what tnend should the slave sooner go Man
to the freeman ot these vales and mountains f
The dark unbroken wilderness, which half a
century since covered this beautiful land, was not
removed by a generation of unpaid slaves no,
the white man alone was the pioneer. The stur
dy birch, the majestic elm, the solid beech, the
noble maple, the hated massive hemlock and the
cloud-propping pine.the Anakims of the vegetable
kingdom, have lallen belore the Ireemen ot Ver
mont, and made the earth to tremble in their dying
groans, I e middle and aged men, turn to your
early remembrance, when the vallies and hills at
midnight were illuminated with the funeral piles
of the forest giants: who was high priest, who
presided at the sacrifice f 1 he sunburnt and hard
knuckeled freeman of Vermont, stood in his som
bre linen frock, his sacerdotal robes, and perform
ed the duty. No unpaid slave ever heard the
cruel sound of the master's horn call his unrested
imbs from his pile of straw to his misereble toil
n Vermont. No ; your mountains would have
held their breath, and refused an echo to that hated
sound. Vermont was the first born child after
the revolution. Although it came into the con
federacy amidst storms and tempests, which low
hred upon her birth; yet she was born perfect, in
all her limbs, her moral faculties showed that the
Declaration of Independence was her noble de
sire. She was not like her next sister, Kentucky,
who came misshappen, limping, half made up with
rickets, before her birth and ever since. Yes,
those moral rickets, slavery, has sadly disfigur
ed that sister, and her unwillingness to be cured
of her complaint, proves that her mind is as badly
affected as her body detormed. 1'oor Kentucky
is not ashamed to steal, but too proud to work, and
too dishonest to pay those who do !
Vermont has penetrated to the central line, be
tween the equator and the pole, and on the outer
line of the nation, m the lar north, last year sent
up her resolutions to Congress against slavery ;
those resolutions were truly the moral aurora bo-
realis, the true northern lights, to alarm the proud,
terrify the wicked, enlighten the ignorant, yea, to
intimidate those rickety imps and monsters, who
feed and gorge themselves on human flesh and
blood,
Vermont in presenting those noble resolutions
to an American Congress, in face of so much
leagued malice and cruelty, appeared like an an
gel of mercy walking upon the high places of the
earth. Who might not, on that day, have covet
ed the honor of a birth-place in your state ? If
seven cities of antiquity contended each, for the
honor of being the birth place ot Homer( then
may the man of Vermont be justly proud that his
state was the birth place of those resolutions, and
stood in the front rank of humanity, and first as a
state which mounted the parapets of slavery.
Vermont before her existence as a state, had
tasted of oppression. She struggled into exis
tence under twelve acts of ontlawry passed a
gainsther, by the state of New York.
You had a double war for your independence,
yes, treble, with the British Empire and the states
of New York and New Hampshire, each claiming
jurisdiction over you. Your mountains and for
ests were your abiding auxiliaries in these con
tests, these mountains, the native abodes of liberty,
the oldest citadels of humanity, the blessed homes
of struggling, persecuted and unsubdued freedom.
Look at this state in its infancy, sixty years ago,
with but 5,000 men, who could handle the axe or
the sword, tearing down the forest, an unacknowl
edged community, contending for an existence
while England, New York and New Hampshire
sought to take it away. Yet Vermont, the real
Switzerland of America, came into existence when
political and personal liberty were prized next af
ter the salvation of the soul, as the greatest good
human authority could confer, Slavery, in no
form, ever sprouted on this soil. Physicians as
sert, that certain persons are predisposed to certain
diseases, so I may say of the citizens of this state,
on the great question of humanity, now pending
before the American people, they have a predispo
sition to join against any cause or question in
which liberty is threatened with destruction or
overthrow ; to range herself against the oppres
sor( and with the oppressed lb sent herself by the
side of the' p'ristwe and lock arms with him who
is ready to perish, one Is ready to say to the
bondman, "Entreat me not to leave thee.or to re
turn from following after thee, for whither thou
goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will
lodge; thy people shall be my people, thy God
shall be my God ; where thou diest I will die, and
there will 1 be buried ; the .Lord do so to me, and
more also, if aught but death part me and thee."
Ihe resolutions, adopted by the legislature oi
Vermont, addressed to Congress, last year, cover
ing the extent of ordinary constitutional action, on
the part of the confederacy, cheered the heart hi
the philanthropist, and firmed humanity herself
with a new power to march to the terrible contest
between the forces of light and darkness truth
and falsehood, liberty and slavery. In the char
acter and spirit of those resolutions the slavehold
er must have seen shadowed cut, in Coming days,
his indictment, trial and ijnal overthrow, lhen
he saw a sovereign state march into the field
Then the slaveholder found out the falsehood of
the addlc-hcdded charge',tha't th" abolitionists were
only a few, decayed old women, subject to hyster
ics, and a few moon-struck, fanatical men, who
nursed and fed themselves on visions, and spent
their time in trances, or lost themselves by diving
into the mysteries of prophecy, and second sinit,
or in writing. commentaries upon Mormon Dibles.
Uut these noble minded men of the teouth, whose
minds soared into the lofty regions of chivalry,
where womenwhipping is one of the most dis
tinguished features or employments of that chival
ry, (for except in those peculiarly gay and gallant
regions women are not whipped) through John C.
Calhoun, the prince of nullification raised the cry,
that before the Vermont resolutions were Consid
ered, by the Senate, a string of resolutions, all split
out of orie log, and by Mr. Calhoun, must first be
considered, as a counter statement, to those from
Vermont, as a sort of breakwater to prevent their
consequence! Ihus the culprit, arraigned by
Vermont, was determined to open his cause, intro
duce his evidence and sum up his cause, and make
the most of his argument, before the prosecution
was heard, and thus foreslal the judgment of the
court. I have no doubt, this new and improved
mode adopted by the slaveholders in Congress, of
trying a criminal, would relieve the gallows lrom
bending under the weight of many a pirate, arid
the state prison from the confinement of many a
scoundrel. These highly cultivated slaveholders
deny the slave's right to petition on any subject,
any more than mules, dogs or horses. On the
ground that slaves have no rights to be violated.no
matter what is done to the slave, by any one, he
as a slave having no right, nor any interest in any
rights, which can be violated, therefore he can not
as a slave assume to ask for the redress of any in
juries because he the slave has nothing which can
be injured. He has nothing which can be the sub
ject of legislative address, on his own prayer, for
to aumu it, wouia De aamiinng mere was some
thing the master had not crushed and destroyed,
in appropriating the slave to himself. The slave,
says the master, can not petition for himself for
any thing, therefore the freeman can ask no great
er right for the slave than the slave could for him
self, therefore the freeman can not petition for him.
And if it be right to deny the petition of the slave,
in person, or the freeman for hiin, therefore it
must be right to deny the petition of a sovereign
state, who asks for the same thing, yea, the whole
nation, if it ask for any thing in behalf of the
slave who has nothing, and is entitled to nothing,
on the ground, that the nation is agent for the state,
who is agent of the freeman, who is agent of the
slave, or nothing ; this whole , matter resting on a
legal nothing, no matter how high you pile con
siderations upon nothing, and extend the bounda
ries of nothing, to nothing it must come at last.
In this bark-mill circle southern mind revolves,
on the question of slavery. We know not which
most to wonder at, the gross inhumanity it mani
fests, or the shallow logic by which they affect to
maintain this proposition. Let us examine for a
moment one of the prominent reasons, why there
appears to be such a numerous and active force
upon the floor of Congress, ready to contend for
propositions, which for absurdity are only exceed
ed by their cruelty, and seem to mock all the pre
tensions which civilization and Christianity ever
claimed in their advancement of the human race.
The American Congress is, without doubt, an
anomaly as a deliberative body, in the civilized
world. In that most august representative body
of twenty-four sovereign and independent states,
are twenty-eight members elected in consequence
of two and a quarter millions of slaves existing
in one part of the nation, from whence these twen
ty eight members come, not to represent them but
to oppose any plan, or project, which might tend
to the benefit of those slaves, to whose very num
bers these twenty eight members were indebted
for their seats. By counting five slaves as three
whito or free persons, as the basis of congression
al representation, these twenty eight members of
Congress hold their seats as the chattel represent
atives, or as the representatives of things and not
of men, and possess or claim the power to silence
their chattel or thing-constituency, when it asks
or seeks to become a man-constituency, and also
claim the high prerogative of silencing their as
sociate members of Congress, who would seek to
elevate the chattel constituency of the twenty
eight to the man basis. The twenty eight claim
that it is a distinct portion of their official duty to
countervail the sympathy and humanity of the
age, when it shall manifest a desire to elevate
their constituents to the common right and privi
leges of mankind. These twenty eight men come
to represent nothing but the congregated absurdi
ties and all the marked moral obliquities of this
period of the world. Let it not be supposed I
am a stranger to the fact, that the twenty eight as
sert that three fifths of their slave3 are added to the
rest of the population, as a constitutional rule, for
the purpose of fixing the basis of representation,
the same as women and children are counted at
the North, for the purpose of fixinc the rate.l
These twenty eight men come, as a sort of
body guard to lust, laziness, unpaid wages,
ignorance, heathenism, the rights of the lash, a
malgamatlon, prostitution, the shooting down un
paid laborers, for leaving their employments, di
vorcing husbands and wives, separating parents
and children, the selling men, women and chil
dren, by private contract or by public outcry ; yea,
the right of vending unborn generations ; yes, the
exalted privilege, peculiar to the slaveholder, of
selling his own children, his own brothers and sis
ters, cousins, nephews and neices, into the most
miserable slavery, and all and every the right of
dueling, chivalry, assassination, murder and gen
erally all and every and each of the multiplied
rights embraced within the circle of the most un
bounded inhumanity
These twenty eight congressmen are the chos
en gladiators, to dispute every inch of ground,
which the humanity of Congress may desire to
occupy. These are the men, whose votes are em
ployed to gag the House of Representatives of
the nation, These are the twenty eight men to
lead the House on the forlorn hope of suppressing
debate, and take the liberties of the nation by
storm, and lead them into captivity without the
hope of ransom. These are the men, elected dif
ferently from all the rest, not to faror but to resist
ill measures offered by those, for the benefit of
their thing-constituency ; these are the men, who,
under the pretence of preserving order and quiet,
in the glory of representatives, produce wild cha
os and primeval night, amidst their maniac screams
of Order ! Order ! ! ORDER ! ! ! These are
the men, who, with horrid oaths, at their private
boarding houses, on the 21st December, 1S37,
swore that "if any man from the North (as vour
able Slade had done) should bring in a resolution,
or a law, to abolish slavery in the District of Co
lumbia again, they would put him to death ! ! "
1 heir notions of government maybe inferred
from their favorite maxim, that "slavery is the
corner-stone of our republic." If slavery be "the
corner stone," it is not difficult to predict of what
materials the side, and end walls of this edifice
would be created, if these twenty eight gentlemen
were allowed to .remodel the fabric of American
institutions. lhere are six republics on this
continent, in North and South America, which
are without these "corner stones," so much valued
by these far-seeing politicians.
Besides the peculiar duties which have been as
signed to the twenty eight thing-representatives,
theyare expected to do a certain amount of bullying,
hectoring, gasconading, threatening, dueling, rifle
trying, pistol-practising, so as to compel from north
ern members, their profound respect for the pecu
liar institutions of the South. They, the twenty
eight, are mechanically, SS the clock strikes the
hour, at least one hundred times, in a session of
Congress, to threaten to split the Union all to
shivers; and at least on one hundred different
questions, from the question whether d dead horse,
killed in the late war, should be paid for, up to
that of the abolition of slavery.
They, the twenty eight, are ex-officio the war
dens, and keepers of the wedges and beetles, by
which nicy win unuenaiie to sput tne union, in
to pieces or parts to suit purchasers, from a stale
down to a school district.
The great slave wedge, we are assured by these
nation-splitters, would easily rive and sunder the
Union, from the capes of the Delaware to the
mandan towns. If these men will sacrifice the
Union for their love of slaverv. we will sacrifice
slavery for our love of the Union. We hope by
the goodness of an overruling Providence, that
we shall be able to add two and a half millions
of new votaries and supporters of a republican
lorm oi government, who having tasted all the
ills which may be practised under It. mav
also enjoy all the blessings which by any possi
bility it may confer.
( To be Continued.)
The Middletown Convention
The "Charter Oa'.i" for December contains the proceed
ings of the Connecticut State Convention held at Middle
town, December 5th. The officers of the meeting were
as follows:
George Sharpe, of Abington, Presulent,
George Read, of Deep Riverj
Jacob F. Iluber, of Middletown,
A. M. Collins, of Hubbard,
Uriel Tuttle, of Torringford,
D. P. Janes, of New London,
Gaylord Wells, of Harwinton,
A. P, Williams, of Farmington,
V. Presidents,
Secretaries,
Interesting letters wero read to the Convention, from
Rev J. Hawes, and I. N. Sprague; of Hartford, proving
that the holv cause of abolition has lost none of its hold
upon the best hearts by our recent movements. Mr.
Sprague says,
'Within a week 1 have received anew impulse, and
become more sensible than ever of the insidious charac
ter and growing influence of slavery, from learning, from
what I think is an authentic source, the following painful
fact; that an esteemed classmate of Unquestionable pietv
and uncommon amiableness, and who publicly declaimed
against slavery, has now become a professor in a southern
institution, and has felt himself obliged to purchase and
own one or more slaves, to screen himself, not from the
charge of being an abolitionist; but from the charge of
not pctjectly sympathizing with Southern Institutions,
I need not add, that this conduct, in a favorable and talen
ted son and brother, has had the effect to close the eyes
and ears of relatives at the North.
'As a pastor I am happy in being connected with a peo
ple whose sentiments generally, on this subject, accord
with my own. We regularly observe the Anti-Slavery
Concert, at which we have recently commenced ta'iing up
monthly collections for the cause.
lours Heaped fully,
I. N. Sprague, Pastor."
The position occupied by Dr. Hawes among the minis
ters of Connecticut.makes the expression of his sentiments
at this time sufficiently important to call for the whole of his
excellent letter. We have great hopes from the churches
of Connecticut, while such a spirit is found among her
ministers.
Hartford, Dec. 4, 1838.
'To Mr. A, M, Collins, President of the Board of
Managers of the Hartford Anti-Slavcrv Society.
Dear Sir, I .ate last evening I received the notice of
my appointment, by the board of which you are President,
to attend as delegate, the State Anti-Slavery Convention,
to be holden at Middletown on the 5th and fith instant.
My engegements for the week are such, that it will not be
in my power to fulfil the appointment. When I joined
the American Anti-Slavery Society; a year since, I intima
ted that it mieht not bo in mv power; pressed continually
by the cares of a numerous congregation, to serve the
cause of anti-slavery to the extent of my wishes. So I
have found it; and I have sometimes felt as u it were wrong
for me to retain my connection with a society whose in
terests I am so little able to promote by active efforts,
But my lack of service has not arisen from any want of in
terest in the cause, but from" circumstance beyond my
aontrol, In the cause of anti-slavery I feel a growing
Interest. &s!so a growing confidence in itl final triumph. I
may meet with temporary chee'ss, and sometimes move on
more slowly than at others.hut its course is surely onward,
just as surely as truth is mighty and must prevail,
The great object of the anti-slavery movement is, to
make men belieee, and to act as if they believed, that to,
hold human beings al brute beasts, as goods and chattels
to be bought and sold; is a great sin against humanity and
against God, and like other sins should be renounced with
otit delay. This object is so benevolent in its aim, sot
based on truth and righteousness, that it must sooner or Ian
tcr commend itself to the consciences of all serious, re-,
fleeting men, and engage the influence of the whole Chris
tian community in its favor. Let the friends of anti-slavery
then, taV.e ecu rage. Let them be strong in the Lord,
& in the power of his might; & seeking wisdom from1 above
to guide them in their measures, their triumph is certain.
Right and God are on their side; and what surer pledge
can they have of ultimate success?
The friends of anti-slavery ore placed in a position of
deep and peculiar interest. Owing to the reckless vio
lence and unprincipled opposition of their enemies, they
are called to contend, not merely for the rights of the poor,
down-trodden slave, but for their own rights as citizens and
as men; nay, for the very existence of libeity in our
land. It is a solemn fact, one of deep and awful import.
and obvious to all reflecting minds, that slavery in this
country is fast poisoning the true spirit of freedom) is op
erating to form a nation of slaves, willing to part with
their own birthright, and to sacrifice the great fundamen
tal principles of our national compact. The question now
is, not simply whether the slave shall be free, but wheth
er those who wish him to be free shall enjoy the common
rights of citizens, or be treated as they have been in nu
merous instances, as outlaws and folont. I would fain
hope that the friends of anti-slavery In our country have
been raised up for a crises like this; that they will throw
thewselves in the breach, and rescue the spirit of freedom,
now faint, gasping; and ready to die, from the perilous
position in which it is placed.
As I understand that you and several of the friends of
the cause in this city, expect to attend the meeting at Mid
dletown, my prayer is, that the blessing of God may be
with you and all the members of the convention, and that
all the deliberations and measures of that body may be
characterized by a spirit of wisdon. and love,
Affectionately, Yours;
"J. Hawes."
RESOLUTIONS.
Resolved, That all slave-holding is sin, only sinrand
that continually, in all lands, under all circumstances; and
therefore to defend or apologize for it, under any circumstsn
ces, is to bo a partaker in the evil deeds of slaveholders,
Resolved, That the anti-slavery cause is eminently a
Christian cnterprisej and as such claims the sympathy, the
prayers, and the co-operation of all who value the princi
ples and spirit of Christianity,
Whereas we believe that Christianity is from above, and
slavery from beneath, and that therefore the toleration of
slavery in the church is attempting a union between Christ
and Belial-
Resolved, That all Christians of every denomination,
are bound, after due admonition, to withdraw all religious
connection with slave holders, as well as with those minis
ters and churches, who attempt to justify slavery on Chris
tian principles.
Resolved, That if it bo improper to mingle religion with
politics, so much as to voto for laws against man-stealing,
then we ought not to vote for laws aeainst Aorse-stealinz
or any other crime forbidden by our reilgion;
liesolved, lhat as Abolitionists, m giving our votes for
Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Senators, and Representa
tives; in our State Legislature, and for Representatives in
the Congress of the United Slates, we will give them, ir
respective ol party, to those men of good moral character,
and those only, who will sustain the principles of impartial
freedom;
Resolved, That the time has arrived, in which it is our
duty, to let all men; know that we will not, on any con
sideration, give our votes for a man to be the next Presi
dent, or Vice President of these United States, who is a
slave holder, or an apologist fnr slavery.
Resolved, That the customary and frequent appointment
of persons who are slaveholders as ministers from this
country to foreign courts, lias a decided influence in degra
ding the American name and character abroad, and in cov.
ering w ith reproach our republican institutions and our
boasted regard for liberty and equal rights among the na
lions of the civilized world.
Resolved, That all efforts for the abolition of the slave
trade must bo vain, so long as slavery exists, we earnestly
entreat the philanthropists of Great Britain to urge their
government to opeil a negotiation with this government,
and with those of all other slavehloding nations, for the
immediate and entire abolition of slavery itself, as the only
sufficient means of abolishing the slave trade.
Resolutions were also passed, requiring the Executive
Committee to take measures to circulate petitions, to ascer
tain the sentiments of candidates for office, to publish the
names of those members of Congress and Assembly who
have dishonored their station by voting against human
rights. Also a strong resolution against colonization, and
another disclaiming all legal or moral obligation to deliver1
up fugitives from slavery.
From the Colored American.
Great Anti-Colonization Electing in Xew York
January Sth the 24th anniversary of the bat
tle and victory of the " American army " at New
Orleans our brethren, the colored citizens of this
city, observed as a "fit occasion " to reiterate their
sentiments and feelings, and stamp their veto on
the motives and doings of the American col.miza
tionists on the " dark deeds of pro-slavery infiw
ence " and pro-slavery men.
The evening was serene and beautiful apna
rently sent and suited by " kind Hcaveri " to thd
accommodation and purposes of the meeting.
The audience was large veky lakge beyond
any thing we have seen, and made up of the most
intelligent and worthy of our people.
William P; Johnson was unanimously elected
President of the meeting, and Messrs. Z". S. Bar
bary, W S. Hodges, Henry Davis and Samuel
Hardenburgh, Vice Presidents, Augustus Wash
ington, James Fields, and Francis P. Graham ac
ted as Secretaries.
Prayer by the Kev; Timothy Eato objects of
the meeting by the President reading of " Pra
amble " &c. by Dr. Smith.
The Preamble read as follows !
Whereas, we, the people of color, citizens ot
New York, feel and know that the American
Colonization Society is the source whence pro
ceed most of the various proscriptions and oppres
sions under which we groan and suffer: and be
lieving that the most elilcient remedy we can ap
ply is, to reiterate the sentiments which we haw
at all times and places heretofore entertained and
expressed thereby showing that our present op
position is not of late origin, but of as long stand
ing as the existence of the scheme itself ; end be
lieving also, that where our opiniofts are known,
the blighting influence of that unhallowed offi
spring of slavery cannot, so successfully, be exer-1
cised against us we, therefore, in solemn meeting
assembled, do deliberately and unanimously eiitef
our protest against the u-hole scheme, as anti-rc'
publican, anti-chrislian, and anti-humane.
The following resolutions were then offered :
By James M'Cune Smith, M. D. r -
1. Resolved, That. the first principle of rrpufc
lican government is, " that all men are l(y nature
free and equal," and that th A msriMi' coloniza
tion Society, by denying that theolA'0 lran can