The voice of freedom. [volume], June 15, 1839, Image 2

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

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TUB VOICE OPFltE E D O M ,
the United Suites in mid when, with plain
common sense, he answered thnt. the 1 residency
was a station neither to be solicited nor refused, it
was sounded and resounded with trumpet tongue
as n prodigious exemplification of disintcredncss
utnl patriotic sell-devotion.
Mr f!Aiir,i nnd his friends, however, were
not satisfied with this nomination,' nnd just at the
close of the same year, lSil, a uongrcwioimi
1-1 ' . ...,...-.,..,.,1 V'..I.
pulpits of the churches. Professors of colleges
teach it as a lesson of morals. Ministers of the
Gospel seeli and profess to find sanction for it in
the Word of liod !
I can, therefore, no longer flatter myself with
the expectation that in the short rninnuut of my
life slavery will be abolished io the States of Virginia
and Maryland by their Legislatures, and witht he
consent of the people themselves ; nnd I have nev
er contemplated any other mode of abolition as
desirable or susceptible of receiving any coun
tenance from nn American ci'.rzen, faithful to hi
country, nnd friendly to the continuance of the
Union. So long as the people of those two States
shall be so decidedly averse to the general aboli
tion ot slavery, there is very little ground to hope
LIIUL X ut LUC 119111' i ui vuiutuuui m
lavorable to it among themselves.
That a change of scnljmcuton this subject will,
in the course of time, take place both in the btates
and in the District, I still hope, though I have lit
tle reason to hope that it will happen in my time.
The danger which I believe at this time most
imminently threatens the Union, arises from the
struggle of the States in which slavery has taken
too deep root to he peaceably eradicated, to preserve,
extend, and perpetuate that peculiar institution.
The principles assumed are so earnestly main
tained by them, that neither the People of the
free States nor Congress have any right to inter
fere in any manner with their institutions, is not
sufficient to serve their turn. They are continu
ally summoning the free Stales to sacrifice their
own principles, to sustain the institution of slave
ry. We have seen them call importunately upon
the free States far penal laws to punish their own
citizens for harboring or performing the offices of
common .humanity to fugitive--slaves. Wu have
witnessed a negotiation of seven years, claiming
IVoin a foreign Government indemnity for slaves,
liberated by shipwreck, beyond the jurisdiction of
the slave State itself, aud encroaching upon the
free jurisdiction of the foreign State. We have
seen the sacred protection of lue post office violated
with impunity, and with the avowed connivance
of the officer at the head of the Department, to
whom was committed the trust of that protection.
And wo- have' read resolutions of a slave State
Legislature threatening vengeance against a sister i
State should she
for merciless mini
one of her own citizens chartrod ' without proof, Senator from South Carolina, not only an ami
with conniving at a slave's escape The demand I lanlnl" and strict constructionist, but a nnlhliev,
for the enactment of penal laws in the free States, I1')' South Carolina supremacy oi the laws of the
to rivet the chains of the slave, has not always i Umon n W''"b' amied at all points against Ex-
been unsuccessful. The Legislature of the Su-'e j ecu live power and patronage, ami a compromiser
counter-nomination 01 mm, w""i""j---""
iivton, but, alter deliberate consideration, postpon
edns premature. Mr. Low.mikh shortly after
wnnU died, and the Legislature of South Caro
lina, always alert in the purpose of furnishing n
President for the United States, Delayed not lor-
rnal v to nominate Mr. UAi.uoiiN. 1 Ins nomina
tion was, indeed, not more unsuccessful than that
of Mr. Lowndks, hut it gave way only for a third
native of South Carolina, for whom a pledged
ticket of electors was chosen by the Legislature
of that State in November, 1SS2-1, who according
ly voted for Gen. JjIckso.v as President, and Mr
Cm.houn as Vice President of the United States.
The election of Mr. Calhoun as Vice Presi
. I . II I I ! ' , ' . I" . I
dent men succeeded, nnu, oy a common oi in
Carolina party, under his auspices, with another
Southern, or the old irgmia party, till then Ins
most bitter opponents, marching under the lead ol
Mr. Vm. II. Chawfoi:i, at ihe election ol Da
cembcr, !Si28, they seemed to have attained tin
summit of their ambition, hy placing natives ol
South Carolina in both the offices of President
and Vice President, with the distinct under, land
ing that the succession to the highest station was
to ho, after four, or, at most, after eight years, in
the same line.
13 n c now came the fable of the milkmaid's pail.
Not one year of Gen. Jackson's administration
had passed away before Mr. Calhoun found him
self involved m a personal controversy Willi the
leroie. chieftain, for having, some twelve years
lefoiv, been much inclined to punish him hy a
military tribunal for his exploits in the Seminole
war. The General had just made the discovery,
timely advice of some of Mr. Calhoun's
old adversaries, but recent associates in the achieve
ment of raising the two South Carolinians to the
two highest dignities of the Union. An expla
nation and a rupture ensued. The Vice I'rcsiden-
persist in refusing to deliver upl'T wa.3 no longer in the line oi succession. Mr.
ixhniont. not a fm'niive slave. hm I Calhoun resigned the oluce, and came hack a
of Ohio, at their very last session, at the demand
of the Legislature of Kentucky, enacted a law for
the delivering up of persons claimed as fugitive
slaves by the fiat of a single magistrate, and de
nying to the arrested party the benefit of a trial
by jury, and' made it an offence punishable by fine
and imprisonment to obstruct or impede the pro
cess. It is a'lso a notorious fact that the same
Legislature, by a majority devoted to the present
Administration of the General Government, dis
missed from their service, as a member of the Sen
ate of the United States, an individual of their
own party, for no oilier cause than that he adhere d
to the principles of the Declaration of Independ
ence, and spurned a proffered pledge of servility
to the peculiar institutions.
The policy of the South with regard to the af
fairs of the Union is exclusively devoted to that
object. That was the impulse under which they
effected the dismemberment of Mexico, and the es
tablishment of the Republic of Texas. A part of
that plan, as yon now know, was to annex to this
Union the new Republic, with an additional belt
of live degrees of latitude across this Continent to
the South Sea. Had that plan been consumma
ted, a territory sufficient for the foundation often
Slates with the new brand of irrevocable slavery
upon their brows wxiu-hk lave been brought to sit
like an incubus upon the nation, and. nothing less
than the inextinguishable- energies ot lneedoui
could have saved you from the reiiistituted curse
of slavery upon- yourselves It may serve as con
solation and encouragement to. you, under the con
temptuous treatment of your petitions, that, slight
ed as they were, they averted for a time that im
pending ruin. I say for a time ; for you will do
well not implicitly to trust that ostensible with
drawal by the Republic of Texas of her solicita
tion for the annexation of herself to this Union:
The fraud and duplicity with which that whole
project was conducted from the first mission of Mr.
Anthony Butler to Mexico, and the confidential
letters of the late President to the Secretaries of
Arkansas ami Florida.,, down to the last session of
Congress, when-all your petitions against this mer
etricious amalgamation w.erc laid, unheard and un
read, upon the table, are still at work, and with
exertions as active as ever. At the late session of
Congress, the whole South, and the Administra
tion part of the North, combined to suppress all de
bate and all discussion uporj,thc subject of Texas ;
but if the projected annexation had been-honestly
and fairly abandoned, there could have been no
possible motive then for refusing to-hear, to con
sider, and to answer, the petitions against it. The
present purpose of the Carolina party apparently
looks, however, to a double process of Texiau
amalgamation and of separation from tho North.
You will understand who 1 mean by the Caroli
na party. You are aware thatwilhin a few years
a political seel or faction has arisen in the State
of South Carolina under tho guidance of a very
small number of highly talented, ambitious, and
disappointed men, of that class of politicians, the
natural production of all greal Republic.;, and char
acterized nearly two thousand years-since by a ho
man historian in four words 1 Satis eloquentitc
sapient io: paruin' Llouuent, not wise. '1 he first
disclosure of their aspirations was by an ostenta
tious and nersevenng attempt to supplant Virgin
ia as the leading State of ihe Union. When the
line of Virginia Presidents was evidently diawina
to a close, immediately nficr the second election
of Mr. Montiok, the Legislature ol South Caroli
na, converted into a caucus, gravely nnd ardently
held a debate which of two citizens of South Car
olina. Mr. William Lowndes or Mr. John C. Cal
houn, w.is to bo the successor to the Presidency,
at tho next election, then four years distant m time,
After a heated discussion, and an arduous canvass
the friends of Mr, Low.vdrp prevailed at this cau
cus by a majority of not rr.orc 'than one or two
votes; but it was universally understood Unit me
pretensions of Mr,. Calhoun, then under forty
years of age, were second only to those of Mr
tOW.NDHs, and thai one or the other of them must,
beyond all question, bo the next President of the
United Slate's, The Legislature of South Caro
lina, therefore, in 1321, ruminated, Jour years in
advance, Mr. William Lowndri for President ol
between the American system and the separate
sovereignty of South Carolina.
In the mean time, the- operation of slavery on
the pojitics of this Union was assuming a new as
pect. Denmark Vesey's projected mutiny of a
lew slaves at Charleston had some years before
been smothered in blood. The Southampton in
surrection in Virginia, while illustrating the hap
py stale of contentment of the condition of the
slaves in vho South, nnd their nfloctioiinle grati
tude for the kind treatment of their masters, left
upon the latter a deep impression of terror at the
danger always impending over their heads. The
debates in the Legislature of Virginia upon the
proposition of Mr. I ikk.ias Juffkhson Kandoli'ii
for the gradual abolition of slavery upon the plan
recommended by his granilfai!cr, in the Memoir
ol his hie, written by himself, were soon followed
by ihe Dissertation upon Slavery hy Professor
Di:v, of William and Mary College, under the
form of a review of those debates.
This work forms a new era in the history of
the United Strrtes, and of North American politics
and morals. It is tho clearest and -most striking
illustration of the essential cv.immed'cable nature
of slavery ever exhibited. It is worthy of having
been devised by the tortured spirits of Milton's
Pandemonium.' it is tho offspring of Despair,
bidding defiance Io the -find, of lloavoiv.
It begins by abjuring the self-evident truths of
the Declaration oi' Independence, and with them
the elementary truths of the Christian dispensa
tion ihe natural equality of mankind. It main
tains that the African is a different nnd inferior
race lo the While European, and boun and destin
ed by Katuro to live in subjection under him.
You' will perceive that this position, laid ns the
basis of an nrgument to sustain the institution of
slavery, denies to the colored man the possession
of an immortal soul. This must, indeed, necessa
rily and unavoidably be the foundation of every
theory to justify slavery. For if,
4 The soul, secure in its existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger, and defies its point,'
ihe soul of one man can never be made the prop
erty of another. It is the soul that constitutes
the man ; and, by the laws ol INalnre and ol fea
ture s God, you cannot make a human being your
slave without depriving him of his immortal soul,
and degrading him to the level of the grazing ox.
The teacher of the new school of William and
Mary and his followers tell us that this 1ms been
done already; that God yes, they use the name
of God ! has made two varieties of tho-Jminan
race one to be masters, and ihe other to bo slaves
one to loll upon down, and dream of moral phi
losophy, the other lo be beasts of burden to pam
per tho idle and worthless existence of their mas
ters. I pass over tho revolting character of this
first principle; the irreconcilable opposition to the
vital principle of Christianity, to do unto others as
you would that they should do unto you ; ils flal
contradiction to that express declaration of Divine
inspiration, that 'God hath made of one blood all
nations of men;' its reliance upon brutal physi
cal force as the ultimate arbiter of the rela'ions
between man and his brother man ; I set aside all
these considerations, hut ask you, fellow-citizens,
for one moment to reflect deeply deeply to re
flect upon the impending consequences of ibis
new theory upon this Union, and upon the free
institutions of that portion of it yet in llic enjoy
ment ot freedom.
In the Declaration of Independence, the natu
ral equality of mankind and the natural rights of
man are declared lobe self-evident truths ; and
from these truths aro inlorred, as equally self-evident,
that Governments are instituted among men
.to secure these rights; that Governments derive
their powers only from the consent of the govern
ed ; and that, whenever any form of government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right
of the People to altor or lo abolish it, and to in
stitute another government to secure the same ends
in ils stead.
Let us waive the question now whether these
principles arc true or false, whether they are. self-
evident or controvertible, ihe signers ol the
Declaration of Independence, and the People in
field them to be self-evident. So they declare,
with an appeal to the Supreme Ruler of the world
for their sincerity ; and it is upon the basis of
.i - i , . i , . i , .
ineso principles, ami oi tnem alone, that they de
clare the People of the thirteen Colonies absolv
ed from their allegiance to the British Crown,' re
leased from their duties as subjects of the British
Empire, nnd constituting one People of thirteen
united, free, and independent Slates.
Upon these principles their Union had been
formed, and washy them declared perpetual. Up
on these principles the Constitution of tho United
States nnd those of all the separate Slates have
been professedly founded. They have been con
sidered us the immovable and eternal foundation
of all our political institutions, and we have glo
ried in ihem as first introduced under our auspi
ces to the admiration nnd emulation of the world
of man. We have all known that there was an
other theory of the human government, founded
upon the supposed unlimited and illimitable nalure
of constituted power that the issue of the seven
years' war of our Independence, was precisely the
conflict between these two theories of government,
the theory of human rights and the theory of con
stituted power that the cause of Great Britain
in that war was staked upon the theory of power,
and our cause upon the theory of right. And
when our fathers were tauntingly asked, how. they
could, for seven long year?, endure the unuttera
ble miseries of their country under the devasta
tions of a combined civil, foreign, and savage war,
for a three-penny tax upon tea, they answered, as
their Congress, alter the close of the contest, on
the 21th of April, KK3, had reminded them:
Let it he remembered, thai it has rrer hnu the
pride and lnat of ' America, that, the rights for
irmch ihe contended tene llic rights of hitman na
ture:
The rights of human nature! .Such was the
loctrine of 177(, and such the doctrine of 17SU ;
nit now, ask President Di:w what arc the rights
of human nature, and he will tell you that slave
ry was the mother of civilization. Ask Chnncel-
or II a it rn it what are the rights of human nature,
and he will tell you that man has a natural aver
sion to labor, and that ho will not work unless you
ike him a slave.
The point of view in which I call your atten
tion to these doctrines is th"ir open and undis
guised npostwy from the principles of the Decla
ration of Independence. By Chancellor flAaiTK
they are directly and explicitly attached with
long argument from the old Tory school,
lo prove
inrr.'
In my la.--
tnorities nov
try practice
them 'falsi
sonhi
ict
or uninean
lay against me principles
Independence new vamped
letter I showed you that all the nu
nddueed as precedent-' oi'parliamenl
to sustain the refusal of Congress to
read or consider petit. or., were from a rule m the
House of Commons by which they refused to re
ceive petitions "'jainst the stamp act and ihe tea
tax. Wc have now the Uritish arguments of that
'in ni-1 1 i,m r.l.io rd'llw. 1 Iw-Li rA
and brought forth to
prove the lawfulness of slavery. The inference
from which is irresistible, that, in the view of the
slaveholders themselves, the principles of the Dec
laration of Independence are as fatal to the insti
tution of slavery as they were to the tyranny of
Lii-eat jntam over the Colonies. Pov, the peo-
pie oi an tne primitive soutiicrn States were par
lies to the Declaration of Independence, to the
Uevoliitionary war, to the Constitution of the
United States. Four delegates from the State ol
Virginia, pledged their lives, their fortunes, and
their sacred honor to the principles proclaimed in
tho Declaration, nnd to the perpetual union foun-
isrn for a sneer upon the self-evident truth that
nil men are born free and equal for a cavil upon
the averment that life, liberty, and the pursuit of
Happiness are among their inalienable rights lor
a ludicrous distortion of the learned Doctor's par
allel between free men and fat oxen for a .physi
ological treatise to prove ' that the negro race, from
their temperament and capacity, are peculiarly
suited to bo slaves, and to be the happiest of men
in that condition ;' for proofs from Holy Writ
that negroes arc of the accursed race of Ham,
doomed to be slaves to the end of time ; that Abra
ham had slaves, and that Joseph himself was a
slave under ihe old covenant, aud Onesimus a
slave under the new just as Shtolvlda conclu
sively argued against Las Casas, that the Span
iards had an unquestionable right to extirmiuate
the Indians, because God commanded the children
of Israel to exterminate the idolatrous nations of
Canaan. All this, as Chancellor Haki'eu candid
ly admits, is sufficiently common-place ; but, says
he, we are sometimes driven to common-place.
Yes, from the Declaration of Independence, you
cannot start one step without being driven to
common-place; to the common-place of immemo
rial tyranny; to the connnon-phicedivine right of
kings ; to ihe coimnou-place logic and morality of
the Jesuits ; to the common-place thumb-screws
and faggot-fires of tho holy inquisition. To all
this'commrn-place must be driven whoever under
takes to justify the iustiiution of slavery by de
crying the principles of the Declaration of Inde
pendence. Put how far has this counter revolutionary prin
ciple of the South extended how far is it extend
ing ? My countrymen ! I wish nottoalarmyour
fears for the continuance of the Union ; but you
must look at things as they are. I have said that
the renunciation of the principles of tho Declara
tion of Independence is a virtual withdrawal from
the Union. There can at least be no possible at
tachment to the Union entertained by those who
have renounced those principles no community
of feeling-with those who' retain and ad 1 1 ere to
them. The two sets of principles separate the
souls of m-a wider than the distance of the poles
from each other.
I think there can be no question that the servile
system of principles (by which I understand the
doctrine? urged by President Dew and Chancel
lor ! I Aii.v I-'.,';, in opposition to the system of prin
ciples proclaimed in the Decoration of Irak pe'n
dence) pervades tho who''' Sink- of South Caro
lina, aud forms the basis of tho system of policy
p'.irsnej a
that Sfate
!hm-;v, Willi his
in:" eloquence, ms
himself, hi
nature, ami
lory; with
duct, a in.
I recommended by '.lie l.'-sidm.g men o!
At the head of them is J ' x C. Cal-
aug'tine temperament, his da.sh-
confidonci
idently a compromise; in my estimation an hon-.
est and honorable compromise ; but whatever of
divine the Executive Committee of the American.
Anti-Slavery Society perceive ii tho immediate
emancipation of the British Colonial slaves, I do
not understand them as considering the payment
of the twenty millions of pound? Stirling to indem
nify tho owners of the slaves as partaking any
share of that divine authority.
If I umler.Mand correctly the sentiments of the
Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery
Society, they approve and applaud the par
liamentary process so far as it extends to emanci
pation ; but reject, not without indignation, that
part of the British precedent which grants, at the
expense of the nation, an equivalent to the dispos
sessed proprietor.
For myself, fellow-citizens, I freely confess that,
believing as I do that freedom is a natural and in
alienable right of man, and that, by the laws of
Nature and of Nature's God, on immortal soul
cannot bo made a chattel, I am yet disinclined lo
make of these opinions articles of a religious creed
with the pretension to impose it upon others. If
asked whether I consider it a sin to hold a fellow-,
creature in bondage for life, I might answer that it
would be so in me ; but I am not commissioned to
denounce the judgment of God upon those who
differ from me in religious belief, whether upon the
slavery question or upon any other. I have heard
from my Master the injunction, ' Judge not, that
ye be not judged,' and from more than one of his
Apostles, the question, Who art thou that judgest
another man's servant, or another ? The days of
denouncing prophesy are past ; and when I see,
that slavery has been permitted by Almighty God
to exist from the earliest periods of history, sacred
or profane, down to the present day, though I look
forward with earnest hope and intense desire to
tho day when it will be banished from my coun
try and from the world, I have no vocation for the
exercise of force or constraint, or injustice, even
for the liberation of the slaves.
If the abolition of slavery is ever to be effected
in this country, it must be either by force, that is,
by a civil and servile war, o, by the consent of tho
olfi?vs of the slaves. All the abolitionists and
all ihe nnii-slavcry societies totally disclaim all in
tention or purpose to employ or io -sanction the
employment of force, and complain with rcasoil.
that the imputation of any such thing to them 13
a slander. Immediate emancipation, therefore, is
in their porpo.-e to be eflected, with the consent ol"
the masters, and without indemnity to them. In
what page of the volume of human nature they
found the recipe for this l al.-,am to the sore of sla
very, or in what cell in the imagination it was de--
never-dotiLtmg -.oisii.itnci in j vised, l know not. 1'ii-tNKr.ix, u is said, made
-uiif-ri.cial acquaintance. wit:i human the discovery that an fllasion ol oil will smooth
his no acquaintance with human his- the mountain waves of a stormy sea ; but no phi
.is never-hesitatin'r versatility of con- losonhcr has vet appeared, to make the experiment
lis ludicrously sincere claims to censis-1 of pouring it into ihe summit of a smoking era-
OtlLtil!!!'
of
si;- premature
n
ixc tiiuiio nnd by whoie authority they spoke.
ded on those principles. To renounce those prin
ciples is virtually lo withdraw from the Union,
and it is my dclilierntc and settled opinion ihat
upon no oilier principles can tins Union be main
tained. You have perhaps not been aware of
these paliuodial recantations of the principles of
our Revolution, and are still less aware how ex
tensively they are prevailing among the slavehold
ers of the South, but contemporaneous with them
has been the assumption of a new and extraordina
ry attitude towards the Union itself. It was un
der ihe influence of this new slave-bred and slave
breeding creed that ihe State of South Carolina
arrayed herself in armour, formely undertook to
nullify a law of Congress, nnd l ad defiance to the
Government of tho Union, V lrcmia was not then
quite ready lo join her, but, with very doubtful
onstitutKinal authority, sent an amUissador to ne
gotiate with her, and afterwards assisted in con
siimmating that compromise, which, by the sacri
fice of the American system, and of your in
terest, gave nn equivalent for the retreat from nul
lification and the return of South Carolina to the
pale of the Union.
The remarkable feature of that compromise was
that it was a transaction exclusively confined to
the slaveholding portion of the Union, and to the
slaveholding representation in Cqjigross. It was
concocted between two Senators, one from South
Carolina, and the other from Kentucky, both
slaveholders, both in violent opposition to the Ex
ecutive Administration then also headed by n
slaveholder, and was adopted by him, and svpt
through the House of Representatives by a whirl
wind, in glaring violation of that article of the
Constitution which provides that all bills for rais
ing revenue shall originate in that House. It was
strictly a bargain of slaveholders among them
selves, in which the industry and the interest of
the free portion of tho nation were neither con
sulted nor considered, but were bound hand and
foot, and laid prostrate at the feet of the peculiar
institutions.
But the ambition of the South Carolina party
was not yet satiated. Tho phantom of abolition
was advancing upon them, aud swelling lo gigan
tic dimensions as she advanced. The people of
1 1 . i- , i . . . . .
iireat isritain were piling petition upon petition to
Parliament for the abolition of slavery in the Brit
ish Colonies, and Parliament was gradually ami
reluctantly yielding to the irresistible flood of the
tide. The sympathies of language, of sentiment,
ol opinion, and especially of freedom, wore cros
sing the Atlantic with every breeze, and spreading
over ihe congenial atmosphere of a soil whence
they had been first exhaled. Slavery in the Brit
ish Colonies was abolished by iho reformed Par
liament of a European Monarchy abolished up
on the very principles of our own Declaration of
Independence -abolished, because irrcfragably, ir
reconcilably contrary to the natural lvirhts of
mankind.
What could the slaveholder do with his own
chalice returned to his own lips ? He started back
in horror from the draught, and turning round
called with imploring voice upon Slpulvf.da, and
IIobbes, and Sir Robert Filmeu, and Dr. John
son, and So.i.Mii Ji-.wNs,. for a doctrine of despot-
tency ; with the memory
vancemcnl in early youth of his grasping ambi
tion of Ins blasted hopes and his mortifying dis
appointments. This is precisely the man to ac
quire, under the effervescences of a southern sun,
ill n t ascendency over the intellect of his contempo
raries which confers a Pythagorean authority over
his disciples, arid settles every question among
them by the simple formula of ' He said it.' And
such an ascendency lie has acquired, with the ex
ception of a few intelligent nice, unable to keep
pace with him in the sud-lwmess and rapidity o!
his political pirouettes, but who cannot susiaiu
themselves long in opposition to any of his circum
volutions. When this revolution of sotnimout shall have
been completed, when the whole South shall have
been weaned from the self-evident truths of the
Declaration of Independence, ;md reconverted to
the faith that slavery is not only conformable to.
but sanctioned by, the laws of Nature and of Na
ture s God, then will be the lime lor separation
from the fanatics of the North, and for the organ
ization of the Southern Confederacy, founded up
on the principles of perpetual and irremediable
lavery, an( lor the annexation ol lexas, and ol
as much as can be conquered of Mexico to the
same.
That this is and has fur years been the policy
of the South Carolina parly, cannot admit of a
doubt. And lo the purposes of this party, noth
mg would so effectively administer as the immc-
tliatc abolition of slavery in the District ol Colum
bia, if it could le now effected.
Now, earnestly as I desire that abolition, as
soon as it can possibly be eflected with justice to
the inhabitants of the District, and with safety to
the peace and preservation ol the Union, am
not prepared to stake my responsibility as a Rep
resentativo of the People upon a measure which,
lor tho immediate emancipation of five-orsix thou
sand slaves out of three millions, would, as I be
lieve it would, imminently hazard both. The
whole South and South-west, not only in Con
gross, but in the nation, are united nsraiust it.
Nothing less than the union of the whole North
and North-west, both in and out of Congi ess, could
possibly accomplish it even in Congress. The
President has given pledges in advance, both be
fore and since his election, that he would inter
pose his veto against such a bill should it ever be
arried by majorities i.i both Houses of Congress.
To expect that majorities of two-thirds of both
Houses now, or for many years to come, would
vote for this measure naainst the Presidential ne"--
itivc, would bo nothing short of insanity. What,
then, is the meaning of that immediate abolition
which the American Anti-Slavery Society has
made the test of orthodoxy to llieirpolitieal church?
A moral nnd physical impossibility!
I am not aware that any one of the petitions
which were committed by you to my charge re
quired the immediate abolition of slavery in the
District or the Territories ; but in the recent re
port of the Executive Committee of the Amer
ican A. S. Society. I'observe that tho friends of
free institutions are congratulated thai the doctrine
01 immediate rmuncwat inn is now established on
a basis from which it cannot be dislodgodt either
by the malice of its enemies, or tho unfaithfulness
of its friends. They consider the keystone of this
divine argument as placed in its eter'ial home by
the parliamentary liberation of the slaves in ihe
British Colonies.
But if the example of British parliamentary
emancipation is to be considered as having solved
this question upon a divine foundation, you will
please to observe that an essential part of it is In
payment of one hundred millions f dollars to the
owners of those emancipated slaves by way of
indemnity for the loss of their propo tn, as it had
been held to bo under the preceding laws, nnd ns
it is held to be by the laws of our slaveholding
States, i This parliamentary emancipation was cv-
j for to extinguish the volcano within it.
Witlujhe most sincere belief m the integrity of
your intentions, and with reverence for the benev
olence and purity of your purposes, let me ask
those of you, my friends, who believe the imme
diate emancipation of ihe slaves of this country,
with the consent of their masters, without indem
nity, and without the use of force, a practicable
thing, whether the success of your moral suasion
upon the minds of the slaveholders hitherto has
been encouraging to your hopes or expectations of
ultimately prevailing upon them to give up at once
their opinions and iheir property ? Have you con
verted; rnany to the true faith of immediate eman
'ipation. without indemnity ? Is the fctitpcr with
which your afg-tnn.euts are received; nay, is the
temper with which they are urged, of bttt char
acter which conciliates, acquiescence, a;)d ripenst
hesitancy into conviction ? Willi win a 4 fcelkig
towards you is the heart of the slaveholder im-. .
pressed ? With what feelings are your hearts
impressed towards the slaveholder? 'Do men
gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles V You
appeal, with exultation, lo what you consider, per
haps prematurely, the successful result of the im
mediate emancipation- of slaves in the British Col
onies; and yet you cavi! the- conditions ; you re-,
ject all idea of indemnity to the nnrSteaJe.r as.
you style him, at the very time when you are pe
titioning his representative to liberate hi3 sJuves..
If one hundred millions of dollars have been cheer
fully, magnanimously paid by the People of Great
Britain lor ihe liberation of SOO.OOO slaves, four
times that sum at least, would be required of the
People of ibis Union to liberate the slaves held in
bondage here, at the same rate of indemnity. But,
at the present market price of slaves, that would
not amount to one-third part of indemnity for the
value lost. And how was the emancipation of
slaves in the British Colonies accomplished ? By
act of Parliament an assembly in which the col
onists had no representation. In direct contradic
tion is the principle upon which our Revolution
was founded. If the question had been submit
ted to the decision of the Legislative Assemblies
of the Colonies themselves, do you imagine that
any such emancipation would have been effected,
even for twice or thrice the amount of tho indem
nity allowed by Parliament ?
One of the petitions transmitted to ine at the lole session
of Congress to ha presented to the House of Representa
tives, signed by Jolin Jay nnd 43 citizens of New York,
nravcil that Congress would nronose an amendment to tho
Constitution of the United States, or the refusal to admit
any new slave State into the Union. The petitiou did not
specify the mode of amendment desired, but I have log
been of opinion, that, if the olyect is ever to be attained
peaceably, and with Ihe consent of the slaveholders, of
w ilicli I hao but a very faint lione, it must be by that pro
cess, and never will ho accomplished by any other ; and I
took tho occasion, when asking leave of tho House to pre
sent Ihe petition, to includo in the request the permission
also to prt-sent thren resolutions of amendment to the Coti
slitution : 1. l'roviding that after given day, all children
born in the United Slates should be free. 2. That, with
the exception of Florida, no Stale, tho Constitution of
which would sanction the institution of slavery, should ev
er be admitted into tho Union ; and, 3d That after a giv
en day there should bo neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, unless in punishment for crime, at the Seat of
Government of the Union. The llouso refused mo tho
permltsion to present cither the petition or the resolutions.
The petition was afterwards admitted, with many hun
dreds more, to the Clerk's table, by the general order of
the House of tho lth of February, but the resolutions
were never received ; and. if thov had been, must havo
been laid on the table by the g."g resolution of the 12th of
I)e-,-eitder, tS:!S,
I have not been Mirpiiscd to fintl in tho Emancipator a
'notice thai mv resolutions were not satist'ictory to the pe
titioners at whose su'.'gi'slion I had prepared them fur pre
sentation. Thev are in no w ire and not. in the remotest
degree responsible for them. I. had no expectation tMt
mv resolution would bo received hy tho House. 1 knov
they would not be discussed. 1 piesented them rather to.
tho pclttwilirs, as compt ising the only niodo ill which I
believe the abolition of slavery could possibly Uo effected
without violence and without injustice.
I lament the Ivmprr mutually rankling botweon tho slave
holders and the abolitionists, and am convinced that, o
long as it exists in this Union, or even in the District of