' Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Duke University Libraries https://archive.org/details/legionofliberty01ames THE AND FORCE OF TRUTH, Containing the thoughts, words, and deeds, of some prominent Apostles, Champions and Martyrs. SECOND EDITION. SUPER HANC PETR AM -EDJFICAEO. { e shall know the Truth , and the Truth shall make you free. — Jesus Christ. Illustrated with Engravings*. W 130930 Sold at the office of the American A. S. Society, 143 Nassau-st. New-York, and at the offices of the other Anti-Slavery Periodicals and Depositories. J u 2 6.4 b' ' H */*?/?/ ' ri. If/ {&/■ ■> , Q $A 0 0 %UfcuJ - &kiLutl I / * ADVERTISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. In this Legion of Liberty, the smaller pamphlet “ Liberty,” is in* eluded with additions, amounting in all to more than five hundred distinct authorities, besides many incidentally introduced ; they are arranged in divisions according to the nations, subjects, &c. By observing this order, the reference to any individual name will not be difficult. Here is arrayed a host of witnesses and advocates for liberty and humanity, and against slavery and texas. If any of the testimony is false let it be disproved, if any of the reasoning is erroneous, let the error be exposed. The interest and magnitude of the theme, the number and weight of the authorities, and the uni- ted force of the facts and appeals will prove a doubly-twisted three- fold cord, not quickly broken. The work comprises about four hundred pages, fifty pictures, and nearly three-fourths of a million of ems. of closely printed letter press. A smaller pamphlet or tract could be made from any of its divisions. The sterotype plates will be sold at cost or loaned to any responsible publisher. The book is offered by the quantity at tho mere cost of paper, press work, and binding, so that it may be with- in the reach of all; and those favorably disposed can purchase a number for distribution ; a moderate effort would place a copy in every family. Price, 25 cts single, $2,50 per dozen, $16,00 per 100 in paper covers. 37J do $3,75 do $24,00 do in muslin. LIST OF THIS ‘LEGION OF LIBERTY. Frontispiece, the World. Title page, the Rock of Truth, Ad verlisement, Freedom’s Wreath. 1. Division, Statesmen and Jurists. Thomas Jefferson, Arms of the United States, Luther Martin, Elbridge Gerry, Liberty Coin, “ Bell, U. S. Constitutions, U. S. Law, versus Slave Trade, George Washington, John Adams, Gilbert Mottier La Fayette, Thomas Jeiferson, Pennsylvania Act, 1780, Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Rush, Anthony Benezet, Patrick Henry, John Jay, Joel Barlow, Samuel Adams, Thaddeus Kosciusko, Horatio Gates, William Pinkney, Warner Miffin, William Eaton, William Ray, Janies Riley, De Witt Clinton, James Madison, „ James Monroe, Samuel L. Mitchell, Alexander Hamilton, Nathaniel Chipman, James Wilson, Daniel D. Tompkins, Andrew Jackson, Joseph Siory, Daniel Webster, N. Y. Legislature, 1820, William Wirt, John Randolph, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, Gov. Randolphj William Yates, Nathan Sandford, Peter A. Jay, Robert Clark, James Kent, Abraham Van Vechten, Jonas Platt, David Buel, Hezekiah Niles, Myron Holley, John C. Spencer, Henry Clay, John Quincy Adams, Duff Green, Joseph Ritner, Charles Simmons, Charles Ridley, John Black, Charles Hammond, B. Franklin Wade, Alexander Campbell, St. George Tucker, Cassius M. Clay, James McDowell. Thomas F. Marshall, William Dunlap, Horace Greely, William Cullen Bryant, Charles King, John Neal, William Leggett, Orestes A. Brownson, William H. Seward, Luther Bradish, Jabez D. Hammond, Reuben H. Walworth, William Jay, ' Charles Francis Adams, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Thomas Morris. 130930 LIST OF THIS LEGION OF LIBERTY. II. Religious and Moral. Presbyterian Synod, Me'lhodist Episcopal Church. Samuel Hopkins, Jonathan Edwards, Elias Hicks, Jesse Torrey, Jr. John Kendrick, William Perm, Elias Hicks, Timothy Dwight, Eliphalet Nott, James T. Woodbury, Evan Lewis, Edward C. Dclevan, Robert J. Breckenridge, Francis Wayland, Alonzo Potter, William E. Charming, III. The Female Phalanx. A. S. Con. of American Women, Abby Kelley, Boston Female A. S. Society, Hannah F. Gould, Elizabeth Margaret Chandler, Prudence Crandall, Lucre*. ia Mott, Maria Weston Chapman, The Dutchess De Broglie, Lydia H. Sigourney, Lydia Maria Child, Sarah M. Grinike, Angelina E. Grimko, Female A. S. So. Putnam Co. III. Femaie A. S Iowa Society, Drusi.la Unthank, Andover Female A. S. Society, Providence “ “ « Darlington, Eng. 11 “ Elizabeth Pease, Francis Harriet Whipple, Female A. S. Soc. Dorclies. Mass, do Emancipation So. Mass., Afcigr-i' Adams, Eliza Lee Follen, IV. Regular ‘-Abolitionists- The Temple of Liberty, American Anti-Slavery Society, New-Engiand do do, Ohio do Convention, Ohio Western Reserve do, Lewis C. Gunn, William Lloyd Garrison, Gerrit Smith, William Rawle, David Paul Brawn, Francis Jackson, G ’orge Bradburn, William Goodeli, Joshua Leavitt. Elizur Wright, Jun. Slave Representation, Alvan Stewart, Henry Peterson, Thomas Earle, Beriah Green. Nathaniel Culver, Richard Hildreth, J. Blanchard, S. B. Treadwell, Henry C. Wright, Thomas Pyne, James H. Gibbon Charles Marriot, Arnold Buffuin, Samuel J. May, John Quincy Adams, Charles Stewart, Henry B. S 'anion, Samuel Lewis, Leicester King, Leicester A. Sawyer, James G. Birney, Lewis Tappan, James C. Jackson, J. W. Pillsbury, Amos Dresser, Charles Oicott, Ja mes Brown, Charles C. Burleigh, Wendell Phillips. Francis Gillette, Samuel II. Cox, LIST OF THIS LEGION OF LIBERTY. John N. Maffit, John N. T. Tucker, Ellis Gray Loring, George F. Simmons, Charles T. Torrev, George Bourne, Spencer Kellogg, Stanley P. Hough, Amos A. Phelps, Erasmus D. Hudson, William Henry Burleigh, Oliver Johnson, J. Kennaday, G. P. Morris, N. P. Willis, John G. Whittier, William B. Tappan, .< hn Pierpont, Henry W. Longfellow, James Cannings Fuller, Isaac T. Hopper, Hiram Wilson, John E. Godfrey, Freeborn Garretson, B. Stanton, Edward Smith, Orson S. Murray, James Silk Buckingham, Joseph C. Lovejoy, Abel Brown, Charles Van Loon, William L. Chaplin, Pennsylvania Hall, Elijah P. Lovejoy, Solomon Southwick, Wesley Bailey, John A. Collins, Linneus P. Noble, Joseph C. Hathaway, Frederick Douglas, Stephen S. Foster, V. United States Slavery. James H. Dickey, George Whitfield, John Rankin, William Dickey, Augustus W T attles, Cases of Cruelty, Charles Ball, Theodore D. Weld, Horace Moulton, Sarah M. Grimke, John Graham, William Poe, Privations of Slaves, John Woolman, James K. Paulding, Stephen Sewall, Colman S. Hodges, Joseph Ide, Phineas Smith, Philemon Bliss, James A. Thorne, Joseph John Gurney, David Walker, “ Amalgamation,” Customs of our “ Patriarchs” and “ Chivalry,” Moral and Political Map of U. S. Toussaint Louverture. VI. African Character. Mungo Park, John Ledyard, Herodotus, C. F. C. Volnev, Alexander H. Everett, Archbishop Sharp, Omichand, Toussaint Louverture, Phillis Wheatley, Cinquez and Amistad Captives, Simeon S. Jocelyn & Co. Nathaniel Southard, Wash. Madison of the Creole, William Eustis, John T. Norton, Nathaniel Paul, Mrs. Anne Paul, Charles Lenox Remond, Samuel E. Cornish and Theodore S. Wright On Colonization, J. Miller McKim, James Forten and Jacob Oson, LIST OF THIS LEGION OF LIBERTY. Delcnda est Texas. Benjamin Lundy, (Gen. Gaines’ trespass,) Mexican Decrees for Universal Freedom, Texas Constitution against Freedom, President Guerero, John Quincy Adams, Tlie Mexican Anns, The London Patriot, William B. Reed, National Intelligencer, Edward J. Wilson, G. L. Pos'.lelhwaite, New-York Sun, N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Wilkinson's and Burr’s trial, African Slave Trade and Texas, British Commissioners Report, (Bartow’s Case.) Detroit Spectator, American Citizen, Liberia Herald, Daniel Webster, William Jay, The British Parliament, Barlow Hoy, Daniel O'Connell, Col. Thompson, Fowell Buxton, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Robert Owen, Thomas Branagan, Joseph Sturge, William E. Channing, Commonwealth of Mass., Nathaniel P. Rogers, David Lee Child, Edwin W. Goodwin, Joshua R. Giddings, John Maynard, Zebina Eastman, Gamaliel Bailey, A. S. Standard, William L. McKenzie, La Roy Sunderland, J. B. Lamar, Archibald L. Linn, William Slade, British Emancipator, G. W. Alexander, George Bradburn, Edmund Quincy, Pawtucket Chronicle, Cleveland Journal, Legislature of Vermont, Gen. Assembly of Ohio State, A. S. Society of Pennsylvania, A. S. Convention of N. Y. State, Philadelphia Gazette, Friend of Man, Pres. Jackson’s Inconsistency, William B. Tappan, Southport American, Edward Everett, Mass. Legislature, 18-13 The Free American, The Liberator, The Liberty Press, New-York American, Mexican Side, New-York Tribune, Pittsburg Gazette, Lynn Record, Richmond Whig, Hoonsocket Patriot, Hampshire Republican, William H. Burleigh, Louisville Journal, State of Rhode Island, Legislature of Michigan, John Quincy Adams, Seth M. Gates, William Slade, William B. Calhoun, Joshua R. Giddings, Sherlock J. Andrews, Nathaniel B. Borden, Thomas C. Chittenden, John Mattocks, Christopher Morgan, J. C. Howard, Victor Birdseye, Hiland Hall, Tims. A. Tomlinson, Slanley A Clark, Chas. Hudson, Archibald L. Linn, Thos. W. Williams, Ti n. Smith, Dav. Bronson, Geo. N. Briggs, Petition to Congress. LIST OF THIS LEGION OF LIBERTY. VII. Scenes in British Eman- cipation in the West Indies. Joseph H. Kimball, James A. Thome, Joseph Hamilton, William H. Anderson, John Jay, Orville Holley, $2,000 Anonymous, Historical Evidence of Immediate Emancipation, Appendix to da, Howe Peter, John Scoble, Victoria Regina, Jean Pierre Boyer, Simon Bolivar, Columbia, Uraguay, India, VIII. Great Britian. Act of King William IV. William Biackstone, Granville Sharp, Thomas Clarkson, William Wordsworth, William Wilberforce, William Pitt, Edmund Burke, John Courtaney, Charles James Fox, Phillip Francis, Mr. Huddlestone, Samuel Whitbread, Thomas Erskine, George Grenville, William Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, John Milton, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison, Robert Burns, Tobias Smollett, Thomas Day, S. J. Pratt, William Cowper, William Roscoe, Hannah More, James Montgomery, Robert Southey, Thomas Campbell, Erasmus Darwin, John Howard, Good Samaritan, Humanity, by S. J. Pratt, William Seward Hall, Freedom’s Sun, Percy Bysche Shelley, George Noel Byron, John Milton, Robert Pollock, James Grainger, George W. F. Howard, Thomas Pringle, A. Carlisle J. Addison, James Thomson, John Bowring, John Angel James John Locke, Adam Smith, William Sinclair, William Maclure, Jeremy Bentham, Frances Wright, William Thompson, John Mason Good, John Stewart, William Jones, Edward L. Bulwer, Henry Brougham, Thomas Fowell Buxton, Elizabeth Heyrick, Harriet Martineau, Benjamin Godwin, Edward S. Abdy, Westminster Review, The Slave Trade, Edinburgh Review, James Grahame, Jonathan Dymond, George Combe, James Cropper, George Thompson, William Best, Charles Dickens, Edinburgh Review, Foreign Quarterly Review. LIST OF THIS LEGION OF LIBERTY. IX. Religious Testimony. London Evangelical, George Fox, Society of Friends, James Beattie, William Robertson, William Warburton, Rev. Dr. Primatt, “ “ Peckard, John Wesley, Adam Clark, Thomas Scott, Samuel T. Coleridge, James Stephens, Lord Nugent, Dr. Lushington, Andrew Thompson, Rowland Hill. Grotius, X. Ireland. John Philpot Curran, Henry Grattan, Maria Edgeworth, Thomas Moore, Daniel O'Connell, Jonathan Swift, Erin Go Bragh, Daniel O’Connell, Theobald Matthew and 70,000 other Irishmen, Richard M. Johnson, Jame3 Haughton, Robert R. Madden, XI. Other Countries. Catholic Saints and Fathers, G. Seidensticker, Conrad Frederick Stollmeyer, Dominic Soto, Pope Gregory XVI. British Residents of Gibraltar, Malta, &c. Musheer Ahmed Bashaw Bey, James Richardson, Austria, Russia, XII. France. Marselloise Hymn, Charles dcs Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, George le Clerk Buffon, H. Gregoire, The Abbe Raynal, Jaques Pierre Brissot, Hyppolite de Saint Anthoine, F. De la Mennais, L. Aime Martin, M. De Tocgueville, Justin Perkins in Persia, History of Abolition. XIII. Holy Biblb. Moses, Job, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jesus Christ, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. James, St. John. APPENDIX. The Progress of Cruelty, Slave Laws, Slaves of Slavery, B. W. Leigh, F. W. Pickens, William Harper, Robert Wickliffe, George McDuffie, John C. Calhoun, James H. Benton, Henry Clay, Waddy Thompson, James Hamilton, Mordecai M. Noah, James Watson Webb, Henry A. Wise. THE IMAGE AND SUPERSCRIPTION. ADVERTISEMENT. Sine Libertate nihil bonum est, nihil erpetendum hominibus . — Plutarch. This Legion of Liberty is a continuation of the pamphlets “Liberty,” published within the last five years, which should have been generally distributed. “ Liberty” comprised authorities for the most part prior to the organization of the “ Abolitionists,” this second division contains more of those who are technically 60 called; it should be read in connection with the other, without which it is incomplete. It will be found to include nearly every variety of the branches of its prolific theme; and of views, reason- ing, facts, style. See. These brief extracts are principally taken from the Anti-Slavery periodicals and publications, of which they give a general glimpse, and to which those willing to prosecute the subject are referred. While by the common law of Nature we should be free as our original elements, and by the written law of our constitutions and statutes, we boast as our birtli-right, of freedom, civil and religious, freedom of speech and of the press; still on this really practical and vitally important subject, which mainly regulates our legisla- tion and morals, our political economy and national (want of,) prosperity and influence; the total enslavement of nearly three mil- lions of our fellow human beings, the wretched victims of tyran- ny on their own native soil ; here we stand convicted to our con- sciences and to the world, as the abject slaves of slavery. The pulpit is muzzled, it cannot speak; the press is fettered, it cannot move; the right arm of the law is manacled, it cannot stretch forth to maintain its own authority and supremacy. The defence of Li- berty, “ that holy principle, whose name is on every lip, on every coin, on every badge of the land,” excites persecution in the church, proscription in the state, and infamy and outlawry in the social and domestic relations; and for all these outrages perpetra- ted in a land governed by public opinion, the signal cry is “ Anti- Slavery ! Abolition !” alias Freedom ! Justice! The severe pecuniary distress and general bankruptcy, has at last convinced all classes that the credit system implies corresponding debt; the day of reckoning foreseen by men of sound views haa 2 ADVERTISEMENT. come with aggravation proportioned at compound interest to its procrastination. The signs of the times manifestly declare that the generation is born which will also witness the death of slavery in these United States. Whether this human Augean stable, must be swept by a deluge of blood, or whether by a pure wholesome stream from Freedom's fount, the conversion of slaves into citizens, depends upon the sovereign people. The great Arbiter of events has left this yet in the control of his free agents. The varied scenes of horror, when the dread day of retribution shall arrive, the mas- sacres, the wholesale rapine, the protracted tortures, the anarchy of a civil and a servile war; — no mortal has had the temerity to anticipate or imagine; — but it is written, “With what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again.” In arguments anil facts, appeals to sympathy and equity, the abo- litionists have with them the Universe. The hvdra-headed mon- ster oppression shrinks instinctively convulsed from the reflection of its own hideous features, and by fraud, falsehood and violence, by lynch-law and gag-law, writhes to shun the exposure, but every plea and pretext ventured by it, or its infamous tools, in- evitably recoils. “The slave” say they, “has less care and more ease than the master;” then it is only fair that they should change conditions; which party would object ? — “ The slave is more com- fortable and better provided for than the Northern Laborer;” — then alt the battles and speeches, and writings, and preaching, and prayers for liberty are vain and false. To test this, propose to the free yeo- manry and mechanics of the North, that they and their families for- ever, be elevated to the state of utter bondage of the South. “ But the Abolitionists have put the cause of emancipation back half a cen- tury.” — Not yet, for then the seven new 7 slave states should be nulli- fied, and the two millions increase of slaves be liberated. Within the last half century, the number of full blooded slave states has doubled, and the number of full blooded and half blooded slaves quadrupled. This frightful, this tremendous increase, gives the lie direct to the shameless, hypocritical pretence, that the present race of slave-mongers are guiltless, that the system was entailed on them, and they are not responsible. What measure has been at- empted or suggested to prevent or restrain this geometrical ratio of increase. Is it the insane acts of the enslaved states of the south, and dough brains of the north, in smuggling in the recogni- tion of Texas, and attempting the amalgation of this worthy sister republic! a recognition which signed the death warrant of the union, which only waits annexation to be irrevocably sealed. Is it the Colonization Society, the Jesuitical engine of perpetual ban- ishment to its colored victims, whose freedom here might be dan- gerous to the “peculiar institution;” — banishment! a cruel word, which even the rude Romans would not allow in their penal laws. This society which until lately perverted the sympathies and para- lysed the energies of the few real friends of the oppressed, for the first sixteen of its most palmy and prosperous years, could by fraud or force effect the expulsion of only 2,162; this in sixteen years, while the increase of the colored slaves is 60,000 each year. ADVERTISEMENT. Why not liberate and colonize them, where they were horn and their fathers before them; here, where there services are needed, where, it is said, their labor is indispensable, without the enormous expense of transportation, and sacrifice of human lives in acclima- tion and hardships. Emancipation to be effectual must be general throughout the union; all compensation is encouragement except on condition that the system be annihilated. Were Maryland, for instance to declare itself a free state, most of her colored inhabi- tants would be torn from their relations and homes, where proximi- ty and intercourse with the free states is some check to cruelty, and domestic employment and old attachment renders their condi- tion comparatively endurable, to be driven to the plantations of the south west, to be whipped and starved to death on those human slaughter grounds; it would be, to lessen the evil in its mitigated, and extend it in its aggravated forms. The haughty ancient domin- ion, the mother of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Patrick Hen- ry, the Randolphs, and other staunch abolitionists, is compelled to obtain a livelihood by this noble means, the breeding' of slaves for the human shambles, the trafficing in the nerves, hearts, and souls of her own colored sons and daughters, in whose veins frequently courses her best blood, and thus save “ the slaves from advertising for runaway masters.” And while this domestic slave trade is th* staple business of the South, the foreign still rages with similar hoi rors, which only the extinction of its cause, the market for slaves, can suppress. Since nothing but ev il can possibly flow either di- rectly or remotely from this polluted source, slavery; instead of shutting the eyes like the idiot, frightened at his own shadow, and hiding the head in the dust like the stupid ostrich before destruc- tion, why not grapple with the mortal foe like men, like freemen ! In lieu of any other or better plan, the following suggestions are offered : Of the public lands a part were originally ceded by some of the old states, for the purpose of paying the national debt, which be- ing accomplished, they should have reverted to the donor states; the rest were purchased by money from the public treasury, of which the proportion of the northern states would be about three- fourths. This domain being the common property of the com- mon people, the most equitable and sure mode of dividing it among* its owners, would be by an amendment of the constitution, to dis- tribute the annual proceeds among the states in ratio of their rep- resentation, for the perpetual support of common schools in each state ; the principal to be invested in internal improvements or loaned for banking purposes, the state being security for principal and fj percent interest; the interest to be appropriated and applied to common schools according to some plan of organization, of which the state of New -York probably presents the best model. As we have, and can have no established religion like the church-and- state despotisms, it is indispensable that we should have an estab- lished system of education, to ensure the general intelligence of the people, without which a republic is but a name. The public revenue should be raised directly by a tax on all property, that each may pay according to his ability, and know the amount he pays; ADVERTISEMENT. and for what purpose. If the Chartists of Great Britain can bo starved into compelling their oppressors to abolish the monstrous corn laws, we could be liberated from customs and tribute, and have free commerce, and each pay directly his just share of the necessary public expenses. The North is implicated in the guilt, the odium, and the responsi- bility of southern slavery, and perhaps it would be a fair way of compromise to let the North raise one-half the amount, and the South the other half. Of any thing contributed through or by the general government, the north would pay three times as much as the south, that being about their relative ratio of support of go- vernment. But as, notwithstanding the implication of the North, it might be difficult to be persuaded that it has so much to do with Southern slavery as to submit to direct taxation for abolition; and as the “ Public Bands,” is, and is likely to be a vexed question, per- haps it will be better to waive any other disposition of them, and ap- ply them to the extinction of human bondage, thus meet the south half way and make a compromise, not of principle, which is im- possible, but in order to agree about the best means to attain it. The British Nation paid in 1834, $8,000,000 towards remunerating the AVest India Planters for about 800,000 slaves; this ratio would make for two and three-fourth millions of slaves in the United States, about $300,000,000. If the public lands were pledged to secure a fund of the amount of $200,000,000, the north would pay three- fourths, or $150,000,000, being half of the whole; each Southern state willing to become free could tax all its property, including slaves, to supply the other half. If this estimate be thought too low, be it recollected that the approximation from a paper credit currency towards a specie basis has condensed the value of money some fifty per cent, since the purchase of slaves by the British, which is the rate of their valua- tion here proposed; and in the event of abolition by the United States, there would be but few other buyers even at the lowest rates. Besides, the real estate of the south would then be enhanced at least one half, and its representation greatly extended, for instead of “ three-fifths of other persons,” they would have the suffrage of the whole five-fifths; the entire union would be no longer ruled by the representatives of slaves, nor the south by martial and mob law. It might perhaps be more equitable and convenient for both the North and the South, if the nett proceeds of the lands were pledged towards a fund of $200,000,000 with 6 per cent interest theron, for a term of twenty years, and then if found inadequate, the deficien- cy to be supplied by the general government, and the surplus lands to revert to the people of the Union. The immense national do- main should, if well managed, produce a large revenue; we see great and growing states, as Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana, carved out, but where are the proceeds of the spoils of the poor Indian, the rightful proprietor from time immemorial; — shared among the agents, squatters, and speculators. If the amount realized from the public lands, could be so large that one half would compensate the south, it were highly desirable that the other moiety be applied to universal education, including those liberated. Advertisement. it is here proposed, that “We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, ensure do- mestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessing-s of liberty to ourselves i and «ur posterity do ordain and establish this,” ADDITIONAL AMENDMENT TO THE IT. S. CONSTITUTION. Article XIII. §*I. The public lands of the United States shall be pledged and appropriated as a fund on the part of the United - States towards remunerating the slave states for the release of their slaves. § 2. Slavery is utterly and forever abolished throughout the Uni- ted States, their territories, and domains; in all of which there shall be no disfranchisement or privilege on account of color or I race, and any thing and every thing in any constitution or statute to the contrary is forever null and void. § 3. The United States will hold no intercourse by treaty, alli- ance, or commerce, with any nation, state, or people, that tolerates human slavery within its jurisdiction. The words in the constitution, art. I, § 2, “ three-fifths of all other persons,” and the 3d clause, sect. 2, Art. IV, will thus be- come a dead letter. Any slave state unwilling - to unite in this amendment and become free, can of course secede; it will leave a larger share of the land fund for the others. As to the 3d section. We certainly have a right to say with whom we will associate, trade, or form alliances; and after we i have done justice ourselves, to ask others to do likewise. The United States law of 1820, declares, not only that every citizen, but every person found engaged in the foreign slave trade shall be adjudged a pirate and shall suffer death. Besides, we should have to decline but few acquaintances, Spain and Portugal, Brazil & Co. If the united North would only say one word, “ Ay!” would but hold up its hand in token of assent, would deposit its ballot in token of its decision, such an amendment might be adopted; the flaming fire-brand of discord which threatens general conflagra- tion and chaos, be converted into the beaming torch of amity and unity. By this retrograde stride, the patriot and the philanthropist, the friends of justice and humanity would be set at liberty to at- tempt, in some degree, to repair the evils, the errors, and the crimes accumulated for more than half a century by the bloody dynasty of slavery. Then might be realized, as is yet reversed, the aspira- tion of La Fayette in his farewell address to Congress, after he had achieved our emancipation, “ May this great monument rais- ed to Liberty, serve as a lesson to the oppressor, and an example i to the oppressed;” then instead of being a warning beacon, we might become a guiding luminary to the nations of the earth ; then no longer would the lines of Byron on Napoleon’s failure, be ap- plicable to the United States of America: •' A single step into the right had made This ‘Land’ the Washington of worlds betrayed ; A single step into wrong has given It’» name a scoff to all the winds of heaven !” J. R. A. 2 * THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. FREEDOM’S WREATH. » We’ll search the earth, the air, the sea, To cull a gallant Wreath for THEE ! And every field for freedom fought, And vale, and shore, and mount, where aught. Of Liberty could ere be found, Shall be our blooming harvest ground — From victor’s arch, from martyr’s pall, Triumphal or funereal, For law, and equal rights, and life, Who won or fell in holy strife. FREEDOM S WREATH. In garlands, Laurels hang upon Thermopylae and Marathon ; And on Philippi’s fatal field, The Cypress mourns thy broken shield ; On Runimede the fragrant Rose, On Bannockburn the Thistle grows ; And on the banks of Boyne, its leaves Green Erin’s Shamrock wildly weaves ; Though prostrate now, brave Poland’s Oak, To tyrants bent not till it broke ; In France, in sunny France, we’ll get The Fleur-de-lis and Violet , From consecrated mound and vale Of Huguenot and Liberal. Old Bunker-Hill and Yorktown’s shore Will yield green Bays till time’s no more ; And Sea-Grass and the Corals grow Below Atlantic Seas, below The waves of Erie and Champlain, In rostral trophies round the slain. Tobacco's pungent leaves proclaim Of martyred men a continent, That Indians nought but death could tame. Stem Freedom’s mighty monument. The Cactus thrives in Mexico; Colombia bears the Cacao ; Swarlh Hayti’s stubborn isle supplies Its Palm-tree towering tow’rd the skies, From which to pluck to fill thy crown, Some branches worthy thy renown ; On sad Bengal’s ensanguined plains The ancient Banyan yet remain ; In Italy and Hungary, The Vine in air spread clusters free ; O’er all uprears the ’ncrested Dove, Her Olive, pledge of Peace and Love. The Level, Shield and Jewel fair, Badge of Equality you wear ; The tri-colored band, red, white, and blue. Combines the fervent, pure, and true. Aye may the Chaplet flourish bright, Reflecting like the heavens thy light; With glory, aye thv brow he bound, VV :t:i glory, aye thy head be crown’d, While Earth, and Air, and Sky, and Sea, Yield up their glorious Wreath to THEE . qM ala^^JL Si Monumentum quczris , circumsptce. His Country 13 m3 Monument THE LEGIOX OF LIBERTY. I THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. A PART OF THE ORIGINAL AS DRAFTED BT JEFFERSON, AND SUPPRES- SED by Southern influence. He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty, in the persons of a distant peo- ple who never offended him ; capturing and carrying them into sla- very in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their trans. portation thither. This piratical warfare — the opprobrium of infidel powers — is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain. De- termined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us,* and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them ; thus pay- ing off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another. [* This society will never, in any way, countenance the oppressed, in vindicating their rights by resorting to physical force. — Constitu- tion of the American Anti-Slavery Society, Art. Ill,] THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. Pkilanthrophy imploring America to release the Slave and 7 ev ivc Liberty. LUTHER MARTIN. The Genuine Information delivered to the Legislature of Maryland. The report was adopted by a majority of the convention, but not without considerable opposition. It was said, that we had just as. sumed a place among independent nations, in consequence of our opposition to the attempts of Great Britain to enslave vs ; that this opposition was grounded upon the preservation of those rights, to which God and Nature entitled us, not in particular, but in common with all the rest of mankind. That we had appealed to the Sv. preme Being for his assistance, as the God of Freedom, who could not but approve our efforts to preserve the rights which he had thus imparted to his creatures; that now, when we scarcely had risen from our knees, from supplicating his aid and protection — in form- ing our government over a free people, a government formed pre- tendedly on the principles of liberty and for its preservation — in that government to have a provision not only putting it out of its power to restrain and prevent the slave-trade, even encouraging that most infamous traffic, by giving the states power and influence in the Union in proportion as they cruelly and wantonly sport with the rights of their fellow-creatures, ought to be considered as a so- lemn mockery of, and insult to, that God whose protection we had then implored, and could not fail to hold us up in detestation, and render us contemptible to every true friend of liberty in the world. It was said, it ought to be considered that national crimes can only be, and frequently are, punished in this world by national punishments; and that the continuance of the slave-trade, and thus giving it a nation- al sanction and encouragement, ought to be considered as justly expo- sing us to the displeasure and vengeance of him, who is equally Lord of all, and who views with equal eye, the poor African slave and his American master ! LIJTHER MARTIN. It was urged that by this system, we were giving the general gov- ernment full and absolute power to regulate commerce, under which i general power it would have a right to restrain, or totally prohibit I the slave-trade : it must, therefore, appear to the world absurd and disgraceful to the last degree, that we should except from the exer- i cire of that power, tiie only branch of commerce which is unjustifiable in its nature, and contrary to the rights of mankind. That on the contrary we ought rather to prohibit expressly in our constitution, ; the further importation of slaves ; and to authorize the general go j i vernment from time to time, to make such regulations as should be , thought most advantageous for the gradual abolition of slavery, and the emancipation of the slaves which are already in the states. That slavery is inconsistent with the genius of republicanism, and 1 1 has a tendency to destroy those principles on which it is supported, j as it lessens the sense of the equal rights of mankind, and habituates i I us to tyranny and oppression. _It was further urged, that by this i system of government, every state is to be protected both from foreign invasion and from domestic insurrections ; that from this consideration, it was of the utmost importance it should have a pow- er to restrain the importation of slaves, since in proportion as the number of slaves was increased in any state, in the same propor- tion the state was weakened and exposed to foreign invasion, or do- mestic insurrection, and by so much less it will be able to protect it- self against either ; and therefore will by so much the more, want aid from, and he a burthen to, the union. It was further said, that as in this system we were giving the general government a power, under the idea of national character, or national interest, to regulate even our weights and measures, and have prohibited all possibility of emitting paper money, and passing insolvent laws, &c., it must appear still more extraordinary, that we should prohibit the govern- ment from interfering with the slave-trade, than which nothing could so materially affect both our national honor and inierest. These reasons influenced me both on the committee and in convention, most decidedly to oppose and vote against ihe clause as it now makes a part of the system. At this time we do not generally hold this commerce in so great abhorrence as we have done. When our liberties were at slake, we warmly feit for the common rights of men. The danger being thought to be past, which threatened ourselves, we are daily grow- ing more insensible to those rights. In those states who have re- strained or prohibited the importation of slaves, it is only done by legislative acts which may be repealed. When those states find that they must in their national character and connexion suffer in the disgrace, and share in the inconveniences attendant upon that detestable and iniquitous traffic, they may be desirous also to share in the benefits arising from it, and the odium attending it will be greatly effaced by the sanction which is given it in the general go- vernment. With respect to that part of the second section of the first article, which relates to the apportionment of representation and direct taxa- tion, there were considerable objections made to it, besides the great LUTHER MARTIN. objection of inequality. It was urged, that no principle could justi- fy taking slaves into computation in apportioning the number of representatives a state should have in the government. That it in- volved the absurdity of increasing the power of a slate in making laws for freemen, in proportion as that state violated the rights of freedom. That it might be proper to take slaves into consideration, when taxes were to be apportioned, because it had a tendency to dis. courage slavery ; but to take them into account in giving represen- tation tended to encourage the slave-trade, and to make it the inter- est of tlie slates to continue that infamous traffic. That slaves could not be taken into account as men, or citizens, because they were not admitted to the rights of citizens, in the states which adopted or continued slavery. If they were to be taken into account as property, it was asked, what peculiar circumstance should render this property (of all others the most odious in its nature) entitled to the high privilege of conferring consequence and power in the go- vernment to its possessors, rather than any oilier : and why slaves should, as property, be taken into account rather than horses, cattle, mules, or any other species ; and it was observed by an honorable member from Massachusetts,* that he considered it as dishonorable and humiliating to enter into compact with the slaves of the south- ern states, as it would with the horses and mules of the eastern. * ELBRIDGE GERRY. The idea of property ought not to be the rule of representation. Blacks arc property, and are used to the southward as horses and cattle to the northward ; and why should their representation be in- creased to the southward on aeount of the number of slaves, than horses or oxen to the north ? — Secret debates of the Convention for forming the U. S. Constitution, 1787. “LIBERTY.” THE IMAOE AND SUPERSCRIPTION ON EVERY COIN ISSUED BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT ALL THE LAND UNTO All THE INHABITANTS THEREOF. CSS BfSCBIFTION ON THE BELL IN THE OLD PHILADELPHIA GTaTSHOOU, WHICH WAS BONG JDLY 4, 1776, AT THE SIGNING OP THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 3 “LIBERTY/' THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- ness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their powers from the just consent of the governed, &c. [See the whole declaration, signed by the delegates of all the original states, and adopted as the basis of all the Stale Constitu- tions.] THE UNITED STATES’ CONSTITUTION. Amendment. 1 . Congress shall make no law respecting an es- tablishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances. VIRGINIA. The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments. MottO — “So ALWAYS TO TYRANTS.” N. Y. CONSTITUTION — INDIANA G. WASHINGTON. NEW YORK CONSTITUTION. Ever} - citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right ; and no law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech, or of the press. INDIANA. There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in this state, othewise than lor the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted. Nor shall any indenture of any negro or mulatto, hereafter made and executed out of the bounds of this stale, be of any validity within this state. — [Ohio and Illinois are similar.] THE SLAVE-TRADE DECLARED TO BE PIRACY BY THE LAW OF THE UNITED STATES, 1820. If any citizen of the United States, being of the crew or ship’s com- pany of any foreign ship or vessel engaged in the slave-trade, or any person whatever, being of the crew or ship’s company of any ship or vessel owned in the whole or part, or navigated for, or in behalf of, any citizen or citizens of the United States, shall land, from any such ship or vessel, and on any foreign shove seize any negro or mulatto, not held t.o service or labor by the laws of either »>F the states or terri- tories of the United States, with intent to make such negro or mulatto a slave, or shall decoy, or forcibly bring or carry, or shall receive such negro or mulatto on board any such ship or vessel, with intent as aforesaid, such citizen or person shall be adjudged a PIRATE, and on conviction thereof, before the circuit court of the United States, for the district wherein he may be thought or found, shall suffer DEATH. GEORGE WASHINGTON. The benevolence of your heart, my dear Marquis, is so conspicuous on all occasions, that I never wonder at fresh proofs of it; but your late purchase of an estate in the colony of Cayenne, with a view of emancipating the slaves, is a generous and noble proof of your hu- manity. Would to God, a like spirit might diffuse itself generally into the minds of the people of this country ! But I despair of seeing it Some petitions were presented to the Assembly at its last session, for the abolition of slavery ; but they could scarcely obtain a hearing. — Letter to Lafayette. I hope it will not be conceived from these observations, that it is my wish to hold the unhappy people who are the subject of this letter, in slavery. I can only say, that there is not a man living, who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it; but there is only one proper and effectual mode by which it can be accomplished, and that is, by the legislative authority ; and this, as far as my suffrage will go, shall not be wanting . — Letter to Robert Morris. GEORGE WASHINGTON. I never mean, unless some particular circumstance should compe me to it, to possess another slave by purchase ; it being among my firs ivishes to see some plan adopted by which slavei-y in this country may b abolished by law. — Letter to John F. Mercer. Because there are, in Pennsylvania, laws for the gradual abolition slavery, which neither Maryland nor Virginia have at present ; t which nothing is more certain than that they must have, and at period not remote. — [Reasons for depreciation of southern lands in letter to Sir John Sinclair.] Cambridge, February 2S, 1776. Miss Phillis, — Your favor of the 26th of October, did not reach my hands till the middle of December. Time enough, you will say, to have given an answer ere this. Granted. But a variety of impor- tant occurrences, continually interposing to distract the mind and with- draw the attention, I hope will apologize for the delay, and plead my excuse for the seeming, but not real neglect. I thank you most sin- cerely for your polite notice of me, in the elegant lines you enclosed ; and however undeserving I may be of such encomium and panegyric, the style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your poetical talents ; in honor of which, and as a tribute justly due to you, I would have published the poem, had I not been apprehensive, that, while I only meant to give the world this new instance of your genius, I might have incurred the imputation of vanity. This, and nothing else, determined me not to give it place in the public prints. If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near head-quarters, I shall be happy to see a person so favored by the Muses, and to whom nature has been so liberal and beneficent in her dispensations. I am, with great respect, your obedient humble servant. — Letter to Phillis Wheatley. [Jin Jlfrican.] Observe good faith and justice towards all nations, cultivate peace and harmony with all ; religion and morality enjoin this conduct; and can it be that good policy does not equally enjoin it ? It will be worthy of a free, enlightened, and, at no distant period, a great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence. Who can doubt that, in the course of time and things, the fruits of such a plan would richly repay any temporary advantages which might be lost by a steady adherence to it? Can it be, that Providence has not connected the permanent felicity of a nation with its virtue? The experiment, at least, is recommended by every sentiment which ennobles human nature. Alas ! is it rendered impossible by its vices ? — Farewell Address. Upon the decease of my wife, it is my will and desire that all my slaves, which I hold in my own right, shall receive their freedom. To emancipate them during her life, would, though earnestly wished, be attended with such insuperable difficulties, on account of their inter- mixture by marriages with the dower negroes, as to create the most fearful sensation, if not disagreeable consequences from the latter, while both descriptions are in the occupancy of the same proprietor ; if JOHN ADAMS LAFAYETTE. not being in my power, under the tenure by which the dower negroes are held to manumit them. And, whereas, among those who will receive their freedom according to tliis clause, there may be some, who, from old age, or bodily infirmities, and others, who, on account of their infancy, will be unable to support themselves, it is my will and desire that all who come under the first and second descriptions, shall be comfortably clothed and fed by my heirs while they live ; _ and that such ■of the latter description as have no parents living, or if living, are unable or unwilling to provide for them, shall be bound by the Court until they ■shall arrive at the age of twenty-five years : and in case where no record can be produced whereby their ages can be ascertained, the judgment of the Court upon its own view of the subject, shall be adequate and final. The negroes thus bound, are by their masters and mistresses to be taught to read and write, and to be brought up to some useful occupation, agreeably to the laws of the commonwealth of Virginia, providing for the support of orphans and other poor children. And l"do hereby expressly forbid the sale or transportation out of the said commonwealth, of any slave I may die possessed of, under any pretence whatever. And 1 do, moreover, most pointedly and most solemnly enjoin it upon my executors, hereafter named, or the survivor -of them/to see that this clause respecting slaves, and every part thereof be religiously fufilled, at the epoch at which it is directed to take place, without evasion, neglect, or delay, after the crops which may then be on the ground are harvested. Particularly as it respects the aged and infirm, seeing that a regular and permanent fund be established lor their support, as long as there are subjects requiring it, not trusting to The uncertain provisions to be made by individuals. — ■Washingten , s Will. JOHN ADAMS. The day is passed — the 4th of July, 1776, will be a memorable ■epocha in the history of America, It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to Almighty God. It ought to be solemnized with pomp, shows, & c., from one end of the ■continent to the other, from this time forward for ever! You will think me transported with enthusiasm ; but I am not. I am well aware of the toil, and blood, and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Decla- ration, and support and defend these states ; yet through all the gloom, I can see the rays of light and glory.— I can see that the end Is worth more than all the means ; and that posterity will triumph although you and I may rue, which I hope we shall not — Letter, Philadelphia, July ■5th, 1776. Great is Truth — great is Liberty — great is Humanity; and they must and will prevail. — Letter to a friend. LAFAYETTE. While I am indulging in my views of American prospects, and American liberty, it is mortifying to be told that in that very country, a large portion of the people are slaves ! It is a dark spot on the face of the nation. Such a state of tilings cannot always exist *3 THOMAS JEFFERSON. I see in the papers, that there is a plan of gradual abolition of slavery in the district of Columbia. I would be doubly happy of it, for the measure in itself, and because a sense of American pride makes me recoil at the observations of the diplomatists, and other foreigners, who gladly improve the unfortunate existing circumstances into a general objection to our republican, and (saving that deplorable evil) our matchless system. THOMAS JEFFERSON. The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions ; the most unremitting despo- tism on the one part and degrading submissions on the other. Our 1 children see this and learn to imitate it ; for man is an imitative animal. This quality is the germ of all education in him. From his cradle to his grave he is learning to do what he sees others do. If a parent could find no motive either in his philanthropy or his self-love, for restraining the intemperance of passion towards his slave, it should always be a sufficient one that his child is present. But generally it is not sufficient. The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives loose to his worst passions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such circumstances. And with what execration should the statesman be loaded, who permitting one half the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms those into despots, and these into enemies, destroys the morals of the one part, and the amor patri® of the other. For if the slave can have a country in this world, it must be any other in preference to that in which he is born to live and labor for another: in which he must lock up the faculties of his nature, contribute as far as depends on his indi- vidual endeavors to the evanishment of the human race, or entail his own miserable condition on the endless generations proceeding from him. With the morals of the people, their industry also is destroyed. For in a warm climate no man will labor for himself who can make' another labor for him. This is so true, that of the proprietors of slaves- a very small proportion indeed are ever seen to labor. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath ? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep for ever; that considering numbers, nature, and natural means only, a revolution of the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation, is among possible events : that it may become probable by supernatural interference ! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest. What an incomprehensible machine is man ! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment, and death itself, in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment be deaf to all those motives whose THOMAS JEFFERSON. power supported him through his trial, and inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose. But we must wait with patience the workings of an overruling Providence, and hope that that is preparing the deliverence of these our suffering brethren. When the measure of their tears shall be full — when their tears shall have involved heaven itself in darkness — doubtless a God of justice will awaken to their distress, and by diffusing a light and liberality among their oppressors, or at length by his exterminating thunder manifest his attention to tilings of this world, and that they are not left to the guidance of blind fatality. I am very sensible of the nonor you propose to me, of becoming a member of the society for the abolition of the slave-trade. Y ou know that nobody wishes more ardently to see an abolition, not only of the trade but of the condition of slavery ; and certainly nobody will be more willing to encounter every sacrifice for that object. But the influence and information of the friends to this proposition in France will be far above the need of my association . — Letter to M. Warville, Paris, February, 1788. Dear Sir, — Your favor of July 31st was duly received, and was read with peculiar pleasure. The sentiments breathed through the whole, do honor to both the head and heart of the writer. Mine, on The subject of the slavery of negroes, have long since been in possession of the public, and time has only served to give them stronger root. The love of justice and the love of country plead equally the cause of these people ; and it is a moral reproach to us that they should have pleaded it so long in vain, and should have produced not a single effort, — nay, I fear, not much serious willingness to relieve them and ourselves from our present condition of moral and political reprobation. It is an encouraging observation, that no good measure was ever proposed which, if duly pursued, failed to prevail in the end. We have proof of this in the history of the endeavors in the British Parlia- ment to suppress that very trade which brought this evil on us. And you will be supported by the religious precept, “ be not weary in well doing.” That your success may be as speedy and complete, as it will be honorable and immortal consolation to yourself, I shall as fervently and sincerely pray as I assure you of my great friendship and respect. ■=— Letter to Edward Cole, Esq., dhiptsl 25, 1814. PREAMBLE TO THE PENNSYLVANIA ACT, 1780. W e conceive that it is our duty, and we rejoice that it is in our power, to extend a portion of that freedom to others which has been extended to us, and relieve from that state of thraldom, to which we ourselves were tyrannically doomed, and from which we have now every prospect of being delivered. It is not for us to inquire why, in in the creation of mankind, the inhabitants of the different parts of the earth were distinguished hy a difference of features and complexion. It is sufficient to know, that all are the work of an Almighty hand. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. We find in the distribution of the human species, that the most fertile, as well as the most barren parts of the earth are inhabited by men of different complexions from ours, and from each other ; from whence, wc may reasonably, as well as religiously infer, that He, who placed them in their various situations, hath extended equally his care and protection to ali, and that it bccometh not us to counteract his mercies. We esteem it a peculiar blessing, granted to us, that we arc this day enabled to add one more step to universal civilization, by removing, as much as possible, the sorrows of those who have lived in undeserved bondage, and from which, by the assumed authority of the kings of Great Britain, no effectual legal relief could be obtained. Weaned by a long course of experience from those narrow prejudices and partiali- ties we had imbibed, we find our hearts enlarged with kindness and benevolence towards men of all conditions and nations; and we con- ceive ourselves, at this particular period, extraordinarily called upon by the blessing which we have received, to manifest the sincerity of our professions, and to give a substantial proof of our gratitude. And whereas, the condition of those persons who have heretofore been denominated negro and mulatto slaves, has been attended with circumstances which not only deprived them of the common blessing they were by nature entitled to, but has cast them into the deepest afflictions, by an unnatural separation and sale of husband and wife from each other, and from their children ; an injury, the greatness of which, can only be conceived by supposing that we were in the same unhappy case. In justice, therefore, to persons so unhappily circum- stanced, and who, having no prospect before them, wherein they may rest their sorrows and their hopes, have no reasonable inducement to render the service to society which they otherwise might, and also, in grateful commemoration of our own happy deliverance from that state of unconditional submission, to which we were doomed by the tyranny of Britain. Be it enacted, That no child Hereafter born shall be a slave, &e. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. LIbi Libehtas, ibi Patuia Where Liberty dwells, thei e is my country. Two other societies were also established in Philadelphia about this period, founded on the principles of the most refined humanity; < ne “/or alleviating the miseries of / tublic prisons,'” and the other, “foi promoting the abolition of slavery, the relief of free negroes unlawfully held in bondage, and the improvement of the condition of Ike African race.” — Of each of these, Dr, Franklin was president. He had as early as the year 1772, strongly expressed his abhorrence of the traffic in slaves, as appears by his letter of the 22d August, in that year, to Mr. Anthony Benezet, inserted in the first part of his Private Correspondence. According to S tuber's account, Dr. Franklin’s name, as president of the Abolition Society, was signed to the memorial presented to the House of Representatives of the United States, on the 12th of Feb- ruary, 1789, praying them to exert the full extent of power vested in BENJAMIN RUSH ANTHONY BENEZET. them by the Constitution, in discouraging the traffic of the human species. This was his last public act. — Memoirs by Wm. Temple Franklin. ' To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States : From a persuasion that equal liberty was originally the portion, and is still the birthright of all men, and influenced by the strong ties of humanity and the principles of their institution, your memorialists con- [ ceive themselves bound to use all justifiable endeavors to loosen the bands of slavery, and promote a general enjoyment of the blessings of • freedom. Under these impressions, they earnestly entreat your serious attention to the subject of slavery ; that you will be pleased to counte- nance the restoration of liberty to those unhappy men, who alone in this land of freedom, are degraded into perpetual bondage, and who amidst the general joy of surrounding freemen, are groaning in servile subjection — that you will devise’means for removing this inconsistency from the character of the American people — that you will promote mercy and justice toward this distressed race — and that you will step to the very verge of the power vested in you for discouraging every species of traffic in the persons of our fellow men. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, President. Philadelphia, Feb. 3, 1790. [ Federal Gazette, 1790.] BENJAMIN RUSH. The [cruel] master’s wealth cannot make him happy. — The suffer- ings of a single hour in the world of misery, for which he is preparing himself will over balance all the pleasures he ever enjoyed in this life — and for every act of unnecessary severity he inflicts on his slaves, he shall suffer tenfold in the world to come. His unkind behaviour is upon record against him. The gentle spirits in heaven, whose happiness consists in expressions of gratitude and love, will have no fellowship with him. His soul must be melted with pity, or he can never escape the punishment which awaits the hard-hearted, equally with the impenitent, in the regions of misery. — Paradise of Neirro Slaves. About the year 1775, I read a short essay with which I was much pleased, iji one of Bradford’s papers, against the slavery of the Africans in our country, and which, I was informed, was written by Thomas Paine. This excited my curiosity to be better acquainted with him. \Ve met soon afterwards at Mr. Aitkens’ bookstore, where I did homage to his principles and his pen on the subject of the enslaved Africans. He told me it was the first piece he had ever published here. — I possess one of his letters written to me from France upon the subject of the aboliton of the slave-trade. — Letter to Cheetham, July 17, 1809. ANTHONY BENEZET. I can with truth and sincerity declare, that I have found amongst the negroes as great variety of talents, as among a like number of whites 7 and I am bold to assert, that the notion entertained by some PATRICK HENRY. r> ; " that the blacks are inferior in their capacities, is a vulgar prejudicjit® founded on the pride or ignorance of their lordly masters, who ha\i 11 kept their slaves at such a distance as to be unable to form a rig' judgment of them. PATRICK HENRY. hftto Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the pried of chains and slavery ? Forbid it, Almighty God ! — I know not whal course others may take ; but as for me, give me liberty, or give mi" death ! Hanover, January 18, 1773. Dear Sir, — I take this opportunity to acknowledge the receipt of! Anthony Benezet’s book against the slave-trade: I thank you for it It is not a little surprising, that the professors of Christianity, whose! chief excellence consists in softening the human heart ; in cherishingl and improving its finer feelings, should encourage a practice so totally 1 repugnant to the first impressions of right and wrong. What adds to 1 the wonder is, that this abominable practice has been introduced ini the most enlightened ages. Times, that seem to have pretensions to- boast of high improvements in the arts and sciences, and refined morality, have brought into general use, and guarded by many laws, a species of violence and tyranny, which our more rude and barbar- ous, but more honest ancestors, detested. Is it not amazing, that at u time, when the rights of humanity are defined and understood with precision, in a country, above all others, fond of liberty, that in such an age, and in such a country, we find men professing a religion the most humane, mild, gentle and generous, adopting a principle as re- pugnant to humanity, as it is inconsistent with the Bible, and destruc- tive to liberty? Every thinking, honest man rejects it in speculation how few in practice from conscientious motives! Would any one believe that I am master of slaves, of my own pur- chase ! I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living here without them. I will not, I cannot justify it. However culpable my conduct, I will so far pay my devoir to virtue, as to own the excel- lence and rectitude of her precepts, and lament my want of-conformity to them. I believe a time toill come, when an opport unity will be offered to abolish, this lamentable evil. Every thing we can do is to improve it, if it happens in our day ; if not; let us transmit to our descendants, together with our slaves, a pity for their unhappy lot, and our abhor- rence for slavery. If we cannot reduce this wished for reformation to practice, let us treat the unhappy victims with lenity. It is the furthermost advance we can make towards justice, it is a debt we owe to the purity of our religion, to show that it is at variance with that law, which warrants slavery. I know not where to stop. I could say many things on the subject j a serious view of which gives gloomy perspective to future times ! — Letter to Robert Pleasants. I repeat it again, that it would rejoice my very soul that every one Y 1 jilt inti ,0 it mi JAMES MONROE JOHN JAY JOEL BARLOW. ' my fellow beings was emancipated. As we ought with gratitude - admire that decree of heaven, which has numbered us among the - fee, we ought to lament and deplore the necessity of holding our Allow men in bondage. — Debate in Virginia Convention. JAMES MONROE. We have found that this evil has preyed upon the very vitals of the -;. : nion ; and has been prejudicial to all the states in which it has >isted. — Speech in the Virginia Convention. JOHN JAY. The state of New York is rarely out of my mind or heart, and [ n often disposed to write much respecting its affairs; but I have so ’•tie information as to its present political objects and operations, that!' • am afraid to attempt iL — An excellent law might be made out of the jennsylvania one, for the gradual abolition of slavery. Till America Annes into this measure, her prayers to heaven will be impious. This e a strong expression hut it is just. Were I in your legislature, I ; ould present a bill for the purpose with great care, and I would never • ease moving it till it became a law, or I ceased to be a member. I ; elieve God governs the world, and I believe it to be a maxim in his : in our court, that those who ask for equity ought to do it. — Letter Tj j'-oiri Spain, 1780. ■. Our society has been favored with your letter of the first of May : r Lst, and we are happy that efforts so honorable to your nation are : raking in your country to promote the cause of justice and humanity ■ dative to the A Ricans. That they who know the value of liberty, and re blessed with the enjoyment of it, ought not to subject others to averv, is like most other moral precepts, more generally admitted in . ieory than observed in practice. This will continue to be too much - re case while men are impelled to action by their passions rather nan by their reason, and while they are more solicitous to acquire -. ’ealth than to do as they would be done by. Hence it is that India -. nd Africa experience unmerited oppression from nations who have ; ,een Ions distinguished by their attachment to their civil and religious berties, but who have expended not much less blood and treasure in : iolating the rights of others than in defending their own. The Unit'd tates are far from being irreproachable in this respect. It undoubi- dly is very inconsistent with their declarations on the subject of 'oman rights, to permit a single slave to be found within their juris- iction ; and we confess the justice of your strictures on that head. — . . etter to an English Abolition Society from the Manumisicn Society of • 'Tew York. JOEL BARLOW. Nor shall I strain The powers of pathos in a task so vain. As Afric’s wrongs to sing, for what avails To harp for you these known familiar tales ; To tongue mute misery, and re-rack the soul With crimes oft copied from that bloody scroll, SAMUEL ADAMS KOSCIUSKO, Where slavery pens her woes, tho’ ’tis but there We learn the weight that mortal life can bear. The tale might startle still the accustom’d ear, Still shake the nerve that pumps the pearly tear Melt every heart and through the nation gain Full many a voice to break the barbarous chain. But why to sympathy for guidance fly, (Her aid ’s uncertain and of scant supply,) When your own self-excited sense affords A guide more sure, and every sense accords? Where strong self-interest join’d with duty lies, Where doing right demands no sacrifice, Where profit, pleasure, life expanding fame League their allurements to support the claim. ’Tis safest there the impleaded cause to trust, Men well instructed will be always just. Tyrants are never free, and small and great, All masters must be tyrants soon or late ; So Nature works, and oft the lordling knave Turns out at once a tyrant and a slave. Struts, cringes, bullies, begs, as courtiers must. Makes one a God, another treads in dust, Fears all alike, and filches whom he can, But knows no equal, finds no friend in man. Ah, would you not be slaves with lords and kings? Then be not masters, there the danger springs. Equality of right is Nature’s plan, And following nature is the march of man. — Enslave her tribes ! What, half mankind emban, Then read, expound, enforce the rights of man ! Prove plain and clear, how Nature’s hand of old, Cast all men equal in her human mould 1 Their fibres, feelings, reasoning powers the same, Like wants await them, like desires inflame ; Write, speak, avenge, for ancient sufferings feel, Impale each tyrant on their pens of steel, Declare how freemen can a world create, And slaves and masters ruin every state . — The Columbiad. SAMUEL ADAMS. “His principles on the subjeet of human rights, carried him far beyond the narrow limits which many loud asserters of their men liberty have prescribed to themselves, to the recognition of this right in every human being. One day the wife of Mr. Adams returning home, informed her husband that a friend had made her a present of a female slave. Mr. Adams replied in a firm decided manner, ‘ She may come but not as a slave, for a slave cannot live in my house ; if she comes, she, must come free .’ She came, and took up her free abode with the family of this great champion of American liberty, and there she continued free and there she died free.” — Rev. Mr. Mien, Uxbridge, Mass. KOSCIUSKO. General Kosciusko, by his will, placed in the hands of Mr. Jefferson a sum exceeding twenty thousand dollars, to be laid out in the purchase of young female slaves, who were to be educated and emancipated. The laws of Virginia prevented the will of Kosciusko from being carried into effect. — Auroi-a, 1S20. HORATIO GATES WILLIAM PINKNEY. HORATIO GATES. A few days ago, passed through this town, the Hon. General Gates and lad} - , on their way to take possession of their new and elegant seat on the banks of the East river. The general, previous to leaving Virginia, summoned his numerous family and slaves about him, and amidst their tears of affection and gratitude, gave them their freedom ; and what is still better, made provision that their liberty should be a blessing to them. — Baltimore paper, Sept. 8, 1790. WILLIAM PINKNEY. Sir, — Iniquitous, and most dishonorable to Maryland, is that dreary system of partial bondage, which her laws have hitherto supported with a solicitude worthy of a better object, and her citizens by their practice countenanced. Pounded in a disgraceful traffic, to which the parent country lent her fostering aid, from motives of interest, but which even she would have disdained to encourage, had England been the destined mart of such inhuman merchandise, its continuance is as shameful as its origin. Wherefore should we coniine the edge of censure to our ancestors, or those from whom they purchased? Are not we equally guilty'! They strewed around the seeds of slavery — ire cherish and sustain the growth. They introduced the system — zoe enlarge, invigorate, and confirm it. That the dangerous consequences of this system of bondage have not as yet been felt, does not prove they never will be. At least the experiment has not been sufficiently made to preclude speculation and conjecture. To me, sir, nothing for which 1 have not the evidence of my senses is more clear, than that it will one day destroy that rever- ence for iibertv, which is the vital principle of a republic. While a majority of your citizens are accustomed to rule with the authority of despots, within particular limits; while your youth aro reared in the habit of thinking that the great rights of human nature are not so sacred but they may with innocence be trampled on, can it be expected that the public mind should glow with that generous ardor in the cause of freedom, which can alone save a government like ours from the lurking demon of usurpation? Do you not dread the con- tamination of principle? The example of Rome shows that slaves are the proper, natural implements of usurpation, and therefore a serious and alarming evil in every free community. With mijch to hope for by a change, and nothing to lose, they have no fears of consequences. Despoiled of their rights by the acts of government and its citizens, they have no cheeks of pity, or of conscience, but are stimulated by the desire of revenge, to spread wide the horrors of desolation, and to subvert the foundation of that liberty of which they have never participated, and which they have only been permitted to envy in others. But where slaves are manumitted by government, or in consequence of its provisions, the same motives which have attached them to tyrants, 4 WARNER MIFFLIN WILLIAM EATON. when the act of emancipation has flowed from them, would then attach them to government They are then no longer the creatures of despo- tism. They are bound by gratitude, as well as by interest, to seek the welfare of thatcountry from which they have derived the restoration of their plundered rights, and with whose prosperity their own is in- separably involved. All apostacy from these principles, which form the good citizen, would, under such circumstances, be next to impossible. — Speech in the Maryland House of Delegates , 1789. WARNER MIFFLIN. In a pamphlet, entitled “ Observations on the American Revolution ,” published by order of Congress, in 1779, the following sentiments are declared to the world, viz : “The great principle (of government) is and ever will remain in force, that men are by nature free; as accountable to him that made them, they must be so; and so Ions as we have any idea of divine justice, we must associate that of human freedom. Whether men can part with their liberty, is among the questions which have exercised the ablest writers ; but it is concluded on all hands, that the right to be tree can never be alienated — still less is it practicable for one generation to mortgage the privileges of another.” Humane petitions have been presented to excite in congress benevo- lent feelings for the sufferings of our fellow-citizens under cruel bondage to the Turks and Algerines, and that the national power and influence might be exerted for their relief; with this virtuous application I unite, but lament that any of my countrymen, who are distinguished as men eminently qualified for public stations, should be so enslaved by illiberal prejudice as to treat with contempt a like solicitude for another class of men still more grievously oppressed. I profess freely and am willing my profession was known over the world, that I feel the calls of humanity as strong towards an African in America, as an American in Algiers, both being my brethren; especially as I am informed the Algerine treats his slave with more humanity; and I believe the sin of oppression on the part of the American is greatest in the sight of the Father of the family of mankind. WARNER MIFFLIN. Kent County, Delaware, 2d of 1st mo. 1793. WILLIAM EATON. [The Tunisians had captured nine hundred and twenty Sardinian slaves, of whom General Eaton thus makfs mention:] “Many have died of grief, and the others linger out a life less tolerable than death. Alas — remorse seizes my whole soul when I reflect, that this is indeed but a copy of the very barbarity which my eyes have seen in my own native country. And yet we boast of liberty and national justice. How frequently in the southern states of my own country, have I seen weeping mothers leading the guiltless infant to the sales with as deep anguish as if they led them to the slaughter; WILLIAM RAY RILEY DE WITT CLINTON. and yet felt my bosom tranquil in the view of these aggressions on defenceless humanity. But when I see the same enormities practised upon beings whose complexions and blood claim kindred with my own, 1 curse the perpetrators, and weep over the wretched victims of then- rapacity.. Indeed, truth and justice demand from me the confession, that the Christian slaves among the barbarians of Africa, are treated with more humanity than the African slaves among professing Chris- tians of civilized America ; and yet here sensibility bleeds at every pore for the wretches whom fate has doomed to slavery .” — Letter to liis viife. WILLIAM RAY. Are you republicans? — away ! ’Tis blasphemy the word to say. You talk of freedom ? Out for shame ! Your lips contaminate the name. How dare you prate of public good, Your hands besmear'd with human blood ! How dare you lift those hands to heav’n Aiid ask or hope to be forgiven ? How dare you breathe the wounded air, That wafts to heaven the negro's prayer? How dare you tread the conscious earth, That gave mankind an equal birth ? And while you thus inflict the rod, How dare you say there is a God That will, injustice, in i the skies, Hear and avenge his creature’s cries? " Slaves to be sold,” hark, what a sound ? Ye give America a wound, A scar, a stigma of disgrace. Which you nor time can e’er efface , And prove, of nations yet unborn, The curse, the hatred, and the scorn ! The Horrors of Slavery, or Tars of Tripoli CAPTAIN RILEY. Strange as it may seem to the philanthropist, my free and proud- spirited countrymen still hold a million and a half of human beings in the most cruel bonds of slavery ; who are kept at hard labor, and smarting under the lash of inhuman mercenary drivers; in many instances enduring the miseries of hunger, thirst, imprisonment, cold, nakedness, and even tortures. This is no picture of the imagination. For the honor of human nature, I wish likenesses were no where to be found! I myself have witnessed such scenes in different parts ot mv own country ; and the bare recollection of them now chills my blood with horror.- — Riley's Narrative. ***By referring to Otis’s Botta, Vol. I. Book, 3d page, 105, it will be seen that the first blood spilled in Boston, Massachusetts, for American Indeoendence, was th&t of a man of colour. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. DE WITT CLINTON. PATRIA CARA, CARIOR LIBERTA5. Dear is my Country, Liberty is Dearer, Was the motto of the arms of De Will Clinton, inscribed gen - rally in front of the works of his extensive library. As early as 1797, in the New-York Legislature, he devoted his at. tention to the gradual abolition of Slavery. In the Senate of New-York, 1809-11, he introduced laws to pr vent kidnapping, or the farther introduction of slaves, and to pun. ish those who should treat them inhumanly. As Governor of the State of New-York, in his speech to the Le. gislature, Jan. 4, 1820, while on the subject of filling the vacancy in the United States Senate, he says, alluding to the Missouri ques- tion : “ Nor can I conceal on this occasion, the deep anxiety which I feel on a subject now under the consideration of the General Govern- ment ; and which is unfortunately calculated to, produce gcographi. cal distinctions. Highly important as it is to allay feelings so inaus- picious, yet I consider the interdiction of the extension of slavery, a paramount consideration. Morally and politically speaking, Sla- very is an evil of the first magnitude ; and whatever may be the con- sequences, it is our duty to prohibit its progress in all cases wh to such prohibition is allowed by the Constitution. No evil can result from its inhibition, more pernicious than its toleration ; and I ear- nestly recommend the expression of your sense on this occasion, as equally due to the character of the State and the prosperity of the empire.” JAMES MADISON. 1 he United ''n es having been the first to abolish, within the ex- tent of their authority, the transportation of the natives of Africa into slavery, by prohibiting the introduction of slaves, and by pun- ishing their citizens participating in the traffic, cannot but be grati- fied by the progress made by concurrent efforts of other nations to- ward a general suppression of so great an evil. They must feel at the same time, the greater solicitude to give the fullest efficacy to their own regulations. With that view, the interposition of Con- gress appears to be required by the violations and evasions which, it is suggested, arc chargeable on unworthy citizens, who mingle in the slave trade under foreign flags, and with foreign ports ; and by collusive importations of slaves into the United Slates, through ad- joining ports and territories. I present the subject to Congress, with a full assurance of their disposition to apply all the remedy which can be afforded by an amendment of the law. The regulations which were intended to guard against abuses of a kindred character in the trade between the several states, ought also to be more effect- ual for their humane object . — Message to Congress, Dec. 3, 1816. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. JAMES MONROE. It is the cause of serious regret, that no arrangement has yet been finally concluded between the two governments, to secure, by joint co-operation, the suppression of the slave trade. It was the object of the British government, in the early stages of the negotia tion, to adopt the plan for the suppression, which should include the concession of the mutual right of search by the ships of war of each party, of the vessels of the other, for suspected offenders. This was objected to by this government, on the principle that as the right of search was a right of war of a belligerant towards a neutral power, it might have an ill effect to extend it by treaty, to an offence that had been made comparatively mild, to a time of peace. Anxious, however, for the suppression of this trade, it was thought advisable, in compliance with a resolution of the House of R presentatives, founded on an act of Congress, to propose to the British government an expedient which should be free from that ob- jection. and more effectual for the object, by making it piratical. In that mode, the enormity of the crime would place the offenders out of the protection of their government, and involve no question of search, or other question, between the parties, touching their respective rights. It was believed, also, that it would completely -suppress the t ale in the vessels of both the parties, and by their respective citi- zens and subjects, in those of other powers with whom, it was ho- ped, that the odium which would thereby be attached to it, would produce a corresponding arrangement, and by means thereof, its entire extirpation forever. A convention to this effect was concluded and signed in London, on the thirteenth day of March, one thousand, eight hundred, and twenty-four, by plenipotentiaries duly authorized by both governments, to the ratification of which certain obstacles have arisen, which are not yet entirely removed. The difference be- tween the parties still remaining has been reduced to a point not of sufficient magnitude, as is presumed, to be permitted to defeat an ob- ject so near to the heart of both nations, and so desirable to the friends of humanity throughout the world . — [Message to Congress, Dec. 7, 1824. I have no hesitation to declare it as my opinion, that tho Indian title was not affected in the slightest circumstance by the compact with Georgia, and that there is no obligation on the United States to remove the Indians by force. The express stipulation of the com- pacts that their title should be extinguished at the expense of the United States, when it may be done peacebh / and on reasonable con- ditions, is a full proof that it was tfee clear and distinct understand- ing of both parties to it, that the Indians had a right to the territory, In the disposal of which they were to be regareded as free agents. — Special Message, April 1, 1824. 4 * THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. SAMUEL. L. MITCHELL By the wise policy of our [New-York] legislature, the shackles of feudal bondage have been knocked off, and our citizens, who feel nothing of vassalage or servitude, act with the spirit of freemen. — The abrogation of the laws of entails and of primogeniture, has had the most happy effect in rendering easy the division and alienation of real property, whereby the natural right of every man to a cer- tain part of .the earth’s surface, which, in former times, had been violently and unjustly wrested from the greatest part of those who had advanced much above barbaric rudeness, is restored, arid with it that mediocrity of condition which hears with honest indignation the “ monstrous faith of many made for one.” 7’hc allodial and socage tenures of our lands, by giving free scope to purchasers, and undi- vided protit to cultivators, have paved the way to more virtue and happiness, than all the mines of Peru and Mexico ever have afforded. Upon calculations and estimates fairly made, it appears that the profits of plantations must be enormous to support a slave cultivation. The income of a rice, an indigo, a sugar or a tobacco estate, has been great enough in the newly cultivated lands of some of the Southern States and West India Islands, to admit of this mode of management. But at present the profits seem not so prodigious as they have heretofore been. The dearness of West India sugars, the prohibition of new importations of slaves in some places, and the introduction of the plough instead of the hoe, all indicate the decline' of slavery, and all prove it to he less and less the true interest of the planters to conduct their business in the old way. Where the pro- duce of a farm is bread — corn, flax, hemp, grass, and live stock, the profits are moderate, and the labor of free men is generally prefer- red, as most consistent with good economy : accordingly, in the northern states, slavery is entirely abolished. It appears from the great depreciation and frequent manumissions of slaves in this state, that our fellow citizens are becoming convinced of the same truth by experience. Upon taking a survey of the slave-hold ■ rs with whom I am acquainted, I find those who have the greatest numbers to be men of considerable hereditary estates in land, or of a handsome ca- pital acquired by manage or bequest, but I cannot name an instance of a man of small property ever getting rich upon the profits of slave-labor. Therefore the kitchen establishments of those who keep fifteen or twenty negroes, are not to be considered as matters of re- venue, but of expense, just after the manner of a stud of supernu- merary horses, kept either to indulge the pride or gratify the preju- dice of their owner. It is to a Sbnviction of the impolicy and ex- pensiveness of this kind of service, rather than to any rporal or re- ligious consideration on the subject, that the decline of slavery is- principally to be attributed. — Oration before the New-York State' Agricultural Society, Jan. 10. 1792. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. ALEXANDER HAMILTON. “ In one of your gazettfes, I find an association against the slavery of negroes, which seems to be worded in such a way as to give no of- fence to the moderate men in the southern states. As I have ever been partial to my brethren of that color, 1 wish, if you are in the socie- ty, you would move, in your own name, for my being admitted on the list.” — Letter to Hamilton, from La Fayette. This association, emanating from one previously formed in Phila- delphia, was composed of individuals, of whom the most active were members of the society of Friends. At its second meeting Jay was chosen president, and a committee raised, of which Hamilton was chairman, to devise a system for effecting its objects. Believing that the influence of such an example would be auspici- ous, he proposed a resolution that every membe*of the society should manumit his own slaves. He never owned a slave ; but on the contrary, having learned that a domestic whom he had hired was about to be sold by her master, he immediately purchased her freedom. — Life by John C. Hamilton. NATHANIEL CHIPMAN. Notwithstanding the antiquity of Slavery, and confirmed as it is, and has been, by the civil institutions of so many countries, we can- not hesitate to say, it is supported by no right, no principle, acknow- ledged by the laws of Nature ; that it is inconsistent with all natural right ; — the right of personal liberty, of personal security, and of private property, — all are violated or rather annihilated in the person of the slave. Not only does it violate rights and principles allowed natural, but it fails in that safe and sure test of every law of Nature, and of all civil institutions as founded in those laws, its tendency to promote the general interest and happiness of the society where it prevails, as well as of mankind in general. Its general tendency is, in every just view, directly the reverse, — so generally is this now understood, that to attempt the proof, would be as tedious as it is un- necessary. Stiil there is an important distinction between this and other kinds of property. The right of the master in the slave is truly a mere •civil and not a natural right. The right of the owner in the common, Co v 1 may say, natural subjects of property is a natural right and is ■"• i vy here respected and supported by the laws of Nature as well as -jf soi-wty. The right of the master ceases the moment he passes with Inis slave into a country or state, where there is no law or cus- tom to support it; or unless, as in the United States, there is some provision :c protect his property in the slave accompanying him. So a slave escaping into such a slate becomes free, unless a provision have been made, enabling the master to reclaim him. But if a slave •owner remove with his slave into a state to reside where there is no law to protect his right, it ceases at once, and the slave becomes ipso facto free; because the laws of that state protect all men alike in their natural rights. — Principles of Government. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. Patrick Henry. — Another thing will contribute to bring general emancipation about. Slavery is detested. — We feel its fatal effects. We deplore it with all the pity of humanity. I repeat it again, that it would rejoice my very soul that every one of my fellow beings was emancipated. As we ought with gratitude to admire the decree of Heaven, which has numbered us among the free, we ought to lament and deplore the necessity of holding our fellow-men in bondage. DANIEL D. TOMKINS. To devise the means for the gradual and ultimate extermination from amongst us of slavery, that reproach of a free people, is a work worthy the representatives of a polished and enlightened nation. Allow me here to observe, that the law which authorizes the trans- portation of slaves convicted of ofic.-.ces, is very generally considered impolitic and unjust. * Impolitic, because it cherishes inducements in the matter, to whom alone these unfortunate creatures can look for friendship and protection, to aggravate, to teuint, or to entrap the slave' into an error — to operate upon his ignorance or his fears, to confess a charge, or to withhold from him the means ot employing counsel for defence, or of establishing a reputation which is frequently the only shield against a criminal allegation. This inducement will be pecu- liarly strong, where the slave is of that description, the sale of which is prohibited ; for a conviction will enable the master to evade that restriction, and to make a lucrative disposition of what might other- wise be a burthen to him. It is unjust, because transportation is added to the full sentence whichmay be pronounced upon others. To inflict less punishment for the crimes of those who have always breathed the air of freedom, who have been benefited by polished society, and by literary, moral, and religious instruction and example, than to the pas- sions and frailities of the poor, untutored, unrefined, and unfortunate victims of slavery, is a palpable inversion of a precept of our blessed Redeemer. The servant “that knew not, and did commit things worhty of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes ; for unto whom- soever much is given, of him shall he much required.” — Speech to JVeio York Legislature, Jan. S, 1812. ANDREW JACKSON. [On December, 18, 1S14, Genrai. Jackson issued in the French language the following.'] Address to the Free People ok Color. Soldiers ! When on the banks of the Mobile, I called you to take up arms, inviting you to partake the perils and glory of' your white fellow-citizens, I expected much from you ; for I was not ignorant that you possessed qualities most formidable to an invading enemy. I knew with what, fortitude you could endure hunger and thirst, and' all the fatigues of a campaign. I knew well how you loved your native country, and that you had, as well as ourselves, to defend what man holds most dear — his parents, relations, wife, children, and' JOSEPH STORY DANIEL WEBSTER. property. You have done more than I expected. In addition to the previous qualities I before knew you {o possess, I found, moreover, among you a noble enthusiasm, which leads to the performance of great tilings. Soldiers ! The President of the United States shall hear how praiseworthy was your conduct in the hour of danger, and the Repre- sentatives of the American people will, I doubt not, give you the praise your exploits entitle you to. Your general anticipates them in applauding your noble ardor. ' f he enemy approaches ; his vessels cover our lakes ; our brave citizens are united, and all contention has ceased among them. Their only dispute is who shall win the prize of valor or who the most glory, its noblest reward. By Order. THOMAS BUTLER, Aid-de-camp. JOSEPH STORY. The President of the United States, is also authorized to employ our armed vessels and revenue cutters to cruise on the seas for the purpose of arresting all vessels and persons engaged in this traffic in violation of our laws ; and bounties as well as a moiety of the cap- tured property are given to the captors to stimulate them in the dis- charge of their duty. Under these circumstances, it mightwell be supposed that the slave- trade would in practice, be extinguished— that virtuous men would by their abhorrence, stay its polluted march, and nicked men would be overawed bv its potent punishment. But unfortunately the case is far otherwise. We have but too many melancholy proofs from unques- tionable sources, that it is still carried on with all . the implacable fero- citv and insatiable rapacity of former times. Avarice has grown more subtle in its evasion ; and watches and seizes its prey with an appetite quickened, rather than suppressed, by its guilty vigils. American citizens are steeped up to their very mouths (1 scarcely use too bold a figure) in this stream of iniquity. They throng the coast of Africa under the stained flags of Spain and Portugal, sometimes selling abroad “their cargoes.of despair,” and sometimes bringing them into some of our southern ports, and there under the forms of the law de- feating the purposes of the law itself, and legalizing their inhuman but profitable adventures. I wish I could say that New England and New England men were free from this deep pollution. But there is some reason, to believe, that they who drive a loathsome traffic, “and buv the muscles and the bones of men,” are to be found here also. It is to be hoped the number is small ; but our cheeks may well burn with shame while a solitary case is permitted to go unpunished . — From Judge Story's Chirge to the Grand Jury of the U. S. Circuit Court, in Portsmouth , A’. H., May Term, 1820. DANIEL WEBSTER. If there be, within the extent of our knowledge and influence, any participation in this traffic in slaves, let us pledge ourselves upon the Jtf. Y. LEGISLATURE VV. WIRT J. RANDOLPH. Rock of Plymouth, to extirpate and destroy it. It is not fit that ti land of the pilgrims should bear the shame longer. Let that spot l. purified, or let it be set aside from the Christian world ; let it be pi out of the circle of human sympathies and human regards; and It civilized men henceforth have no communion with it. I invoke those who till the seats of justice, and all who minister £ her altar, that they exercise the wholesome and necessary severity o the law. I invoke the ministers of our religion, that they proclaim it denunciation of those crimes, and add its solemn sanction to th authority of human laws. If the pulpit be silent, whenever or whet ever there may be a sinner, bloody with this guilt, within the hearm; of its voice, the pulpit is false to its trust. NEW YORK LEGISLATURE. jW tin ■V: bHe> On the 20th day of January, 1820, the following preamble and re solutions were taken up in the senate (having passed the house) of the New-York Legislature, and unanimously passed. [Mr. Van Buren who was then in the senate of that state, voted in favor of them.] Whereas, the inhibiting the further extension of slavery in .the' 4 United States, is a subject of deep concern to the people of this state : and whereas, we consider slavery as an evil much to be deplored, and that every constitutional barrier should be interposed to prevent its] ** further extension ; and the constitution of the United States clearly! ; 5 gives congress the right to require new states, not comprised within 1 the original boundary of the United States, to make the prohibition of slavery a condition of their admission into the Union : Therefore, Resolved, (if the honorable senate concur therein) That our senators] I 1 be instructed, and our members of congress be requested, to oppose 1 the admission as a state into the Union, of any territory not comprised : ! as aforesaid, without making the prohibition of slavery therein an in- ! dispensable condition of admission. WILLIAM WIRT. k Slavery was contrary to the laws of nature and of nations and that i : 1] the law of South Carolina, concerning seizing colored seamen, was R unconstitutional. * * * * Last and lowest, afeculum of beings tlL called overseers — the most abject, degraded, unprincipled race — 1 f“ always cap in hand to the dons who employ them, and furnishing materials for their pride, insolence, and love ' of dominion . — Life of Patrick Plenry. ! , JOHN RANDOLPH. Dissipation, as well as ■power or prosperity hardens the heart, but avarice deadens it to every feeling* but the thirst for riches. Avarice alone could have produced the slave-trade. Avarice alone can drive, as it does drive, this infernal traffic, and the wretched victims, like so many posthorses, whipped to death in a mail coach. Ambition has its cover-sluts, in the pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war; but where are the trophies of avarice? The handcuff, the manacle, 1 ti THOMAa JEFFERSON RANDOLPH. ind the blood-stained cowhide ! What man is worse received in society ‘for being a bat'd master ? Who denies the hand of a sister or daughter *0 such monsters ? — nay, they have even appeared in “ the abused diape of the vilest of women.” I say nothing of India or Amboyna — it Cortez, or Pizarro. — Southern Literary Messenger. [In March, I S 16, John Randolph submitted the following resolution o the House of Representatives:] “'Resolved, That a committee be Appointed, to inquire into the eitistence of an inhuman and illegal raffle of slaves, carried on in ana through the District of Columbia, nd to report whether any, and what measures are necessary for put- ing a stop to the same.” “ Virginia is so impoverished by the system of slavery, that the lbles will sooner or later be turned, and the slaves will advertise lor , unaway masters.” “ Sir, I neither envy the head nor the heart of that man from the iforth, who rises here to defend slavery upon principle.” — Rebuke of Idward Everett, in Congress, 1820. “ 3. I have upwards of two thousand pounds sterling in the hands f Baring, Brothers & Co., of London, and upwards of one thousand ounds of like money in the. hands of Gowan and Marx ; this money leave to my executor, Wm. Leigh, as a fund for earring into execu- on my will respecting my slaves.” “I give to my slaves their freedom, to which my conscience tells me Aaey are justly entitled. It lias a long time been a matter of the deepest egret to me, that the circumstances under which 1 inherited them, and , he obstacles thrown in the way by the laws of the land, have prevented 3 iv emancipating them in my lifetime, which it is my full intention to a in case I can accomplish it.” • The codicil goes on to make provision for his servants John and ife, and for Juba and his wife, and another woman : — “And I 5rebv request (says he) the General Assembly (the only request that 'ever preferred to them,) to let the above named and such other of my d and faithful slav> s as desire it, to remain in Virginia; recommend- 2 tiiem each and all to the care of my said execute- , who I know is 0 wise, just and humane to send them to Liberia, or any other place Africa or the West Indies.” — Cod. Jan. 1826. THOMAS JEFFERSON RANDOLPH. 1 agree with gentlemen m the necessity of arming the state for ternal defence. I will unite with them in any effort to restore con- lence to the public mind, and to conduce to the sense of the safety 1" our wives, and our children. Yet sir, I must ask, upon whom is fall the burden of this defence? not upon the lordly masters of their mdred slaves, who will never turn out except to retire with their milies when danger threatens. No, sir; it is to fall upon the less ealthy class of our citizens ; chiefly upon the non-slaveholder. I have lown patrols turned out where there was not a slaveholder among them, id this is the practice c r the country. I have slept in times of alarm lietly in bed, withw.c having a thought of care, while these indi- I GOVERNOR RANDOLPH. victuals, owning none of this property themselves, were patrolling tinder a compulsory process, for a pittance of seventy-five cents per twelve hours, the very curtilage of my house, and guarding that pro- perly, which was alike dangerous to them and myself. After all, this is but an expedient. As this population becomes more numerous, it becomes less productive. Your guard must be increased, until finally its profits will not pay for the expense of its subjection. Slavery has the effect of lessening the free population of a country. The gentlemen has spoken of the increase of the female slaves being a part of the profit ; it is admitted : but no great evil can be averted, no good attained, without some inconvenience. It may be questioned, how far it is desirable to foster and encourage this branch of profit. It is a practice, and an increasing practice in parts of Vir- ginia, to rear slaves for market. How can an honorable mind, a patriot, and a lover of his country, bear to see this ancient dominior, rendered illustrious by the noble devotion and patriotism of her sons in the cause of liberty, converted in one grand menagerie, where men are to be reared for the market, like oxen for the shambles. Is it better, is it not worse, than the slave-trade ; that trade which enlisted the labor of the good and wise of every creed, and every clime, to abolish it V The trader receives the slave, a stranger in language, aspect and man- ner, from the merchant who has brought him from the interior. The ties of father, mother, husband and child, have all been rent in twain ; before he receives him, his soul has become callous. But here, sir, individuals, whom the master has known from infancy, whom he has seen sporting in the innocent gambols of childhood, who have been accustomed to look to him for protection, he tears from the mother’s arms, and sells into a strange country, among strange people, subject to cruel taskmasters. He has attempted to justify slavery here, because it exists in Africa, and has stated that it exists all over the world. Upon the same prin- ciple, he could justify Mahometism, with its plurality of wives, petty wars for plunder, robbery and murder, or any other of the abominations and enormities of savage tribes. Does slavery exist in any part of civilized Europe? No sir, in no part of it.— Speech in the Virginia Legislature. GOVERNOR RANDOLPH. The deplorable error of our ancestors in copying a civil institution from savage Africa, has affixed upon their posterity a depressing bur- den, which nothing but the extraordinary benefits conferred by our happy climate, could have enabled us to support. We have been far outstripped by states, to whom nature has been far less bountiful. It is painful to consider what might have been, under other circumstances, the amount of general wealth in Virginia, or the whole sum of com- fortable subsistence and happiness possessed by all her inhabitants. — Address to the Legislature of Virginia, in 1S20. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. WILLIAM YATES. By the freehold qualification now affixed to the right of voting by colored citizens of the state of New-York, a large number of the people of the state, who, from 1777, when the old constitution was formed, for forty-five years had enjoyed the right of voting, on the same terms as white citizens, were disfranchised. The odious prin- ciple of making discriminations among men, on the ground of color, was established ; and, by engrafting it into the fundamental law of the state, a monument of injustice has been reared, which will take years to demolish. The convention of 1821, contained as large a number of men of the first order of mind and attainments, as any similar body ever as- eembled in the United State_s. And it is a trait worthy of notice, in the members of that assembly, that the most respectable, the purest and best, were found on the side of the colored people. It would be invidious, perhaps, to discriminate among the living, though we could point to such men as a Chancellor Kent, a Jay, and Van Rens- selaer. But in regard to the dead, many of the worthiest and ablest in that body are now of that number. And of these are Jonas Platt, and Win. W. Van Ness, both, when living. Justices of the Supreme Court, Rufus King, long a senator of the United States, and Abra- ham Van Vechten, in life the well known patriarch of the New-York Bar, all of whom, and others who might be named, advocated the rights of the people of color. The first vote was 63 to 59 for pre- serving their rights . — Rights of Colored Men. NATHAN SANFORD. Here there is, but one estate — the people. And, to me, the only qualification seems to be, their virtue and morality. If they may be safely trusted to vote for one class of rulers, why not for all ? The principle of the scheme now presented, is, that those who bear the burdens of the state shall choose those that rule it ; and we wish to carry it almost as far as our male population. It is the scheme which has been proposed by a majority of the committee, and they think it safe and beneficial. PETER A. JAY. It was not expected that this right of suffrage was in any instance to be restricted, much less was it anticipated, or desired, that a sin- gle person was to be disfranchised. Why,, sir, are these men to be excluded from rights which they possess in common with their coun- trymen ? What crime have they committed for which they are to be punished ? Why are they, who were born as free as ourselves, natives of the same country, and deriving from nature and our po- litical institutions the same rights and privileges which we have, now to be deprived of all those rights, and doomed to remain for ever as aliens among us ? We are told, in reply, that other states have set us the example. It is true that other states treat this race of men with cruelty and injustice, and that we have hitherto manifested to- wards them a disposition to be just and liberal. Yet even in Vir- 5 THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. ginia and North Carolina, free people of color are permitted to vote, and if I am correctly informed, exercise that privilege. In Penn- sylvania, they are much more numerous than they are here, and there they are not disfranchised, [altered in 1838,] nor has any incon- venience been felt from extending to all men the rights which ought to be common to all. ROBERT CLARKE. Free people of color are included in the number which regulates your representation in congress, and I wish to know how freemen can be represented when they are deprived of the privilege of voting for representatives. The constitution says, “ representatives and di- reot taxes shall be apportioned among the different states, according to the inhabitants thereof, including all fi^e persons,” &c. All colors and complexions are here included. It is not free “ white” persons. No sir, our venerable fathers entertained too strong a sense of justice to countenance such an odious distinction. Now, sir, taking this in connexion with the declaration of independence, I think you cannot exclude them without being guilty of a palpable violation of every principle of justice. We are usurping to ourselves a power which we do not possess ; and by so doing, deprive them of a privilege to which they are, and always have been, justly entitled — an invaluable right — a right in which we have prided ourselves as constituting our su- periority over every other people on earth — a right which they have enjoyed ever since the formation of bur government — the right of suf. frage. And why do we do this? Instead of visiting the iniquities of these people upon them and their children, we are visiting their mis- fortunes upon them and their posterity unto (he latest generation. Li this very house, in the fall of 1814, a bill passed, receiving the approbation of all the branches of your government, authorizing the governor to accept the services of a corps of 2000 free people of color. Sir, these were times which tried men’s souls. In these times it was no sporting matter to bear arms. These were times when a man who shouldered his musket, did not know but he bared his bosom to re- ceive a death wound from tiie enemy ere he laid it aside ; and in these times, these people were found as ready and as willing to volunteer in your service as any other. They were not compelled to go, they were not drafted. .No, yourpride had placed them beyond your com- pulsory power. But there was no necessity for its exercise ; they were volunteers ; yes sir, volunteers to defend from the inroads and ravages of a ruthless and vindictive foe, that very country which had treated them with insult, degradation, and slavery. Volunteers arc the best of soldiers ; give me the men, whatever be their complexion, that willingly volunteer, and not those who are compelled to turn out ; such men do not fight from necessity, nor from mercenary mo- tives, but from principle. Such men formed the most efficient corps for your country’s defence in the late war ; and of such consisted the crews of your squadrons on Eric and Champlain, who largely con- tributed to the safety and peace of your country, and the renown of ■ her arms. Yet, strange to tell, such are the men whom you seek to degrade and oppress. THE LEGION OE LIBERTY. JAMES KENT. There was much difficulty in the practical operation of the princi- ple involved in the use of the word white. What shall be the crite- rion in deciding upon the different shades of color. The Hindoo and Ciilnese are called yellow — the Indian red — shall these be excluded, should they come and reside among us ? Great efforts were now making in the Christian world to enlighten and improve their condi- tion, and he thought it inexpedient to erect a barrier that should ex- clude them for ever from the enjoyment of this important right. He was disposed, however, jo annex such qualifications and con- ditions as should prevent them from coming in bodies from other states to vote at elections. Slavery existed in this stale at the time of the revolution, and yet it was not recognized in the constitution. There was no such thing known in the constitution of the non-slave-holding states, with the exception of Connecticut, as a denial to the blacks of those electoral privileges that were enjoyed by the whites. In Europe, the distinc- tion of color was unknown. The judges of England said, even so long ago as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, that the air of England was too pure for a slave to breathe in. The same law prevails in Scot- land, Holland, France, and most of the other kingdoms of Europe. ABRAHAM VAN VECHTEN. We are precluded from denying heir citizenship, by our uniform recognition for more than forty years — nay some of them were citi- zens when tills state came into political existence — partook in our struggle for freedom and independence, and were incorporated into the body politic at its creation. As to their degradation, that had been produced by the injustice of white men, and it docs not be- come those who have acted so unjustly towards them, to urge the result of that injustice as a reason for perpetuating then- degradation The period has elapsed when they -were considered and treated as tlie lawful property of their masters. Our legislature has duly re- cognised their unalienable right to freedom as rational and accounta- ble beings. This recognition, and the provision made by law for the gradual melioration of their condition, bv necessary implication, ad- mit their title to the native and acquired rights of citizenship. Do our prejudices against their color destroy their rights as citi- zens ? Whence do those prejudices proceed ? Are they founded in impartial reason, or in the benevolent principles of our holy religion ? Nay, are they indulged in cases where the services of men of color are desirable ? Do we not daily see them working side by side with white citizens on our farms, and on our public highways ? Is it more derogatory to a white citizen to stand by the side of a citizen of color in the ranks of the militia, than in repairing a highway, or in labor- ing on a farm ? Again, are not people of color permitted to par- ticipate in our most solemn religious exercises — to sit down w’ith us at the same table to commemorate the dying love of the Saviour of sinners ? This will not be denied by any one who has been iri the habit of attending those exercises, and those religious solemni- THE LEGION OF LIEEETT. ties. And what is the conclusion to which this fact directs us ? Is it not that people of color are our fellow candidates for immortality. ■ and that the same path of future happiness is appointed for them anct ] us — and that in the final judgment the artificial distinction of color j will not be regarded ? How then can that distinction justify us in taking front them any of the common rights which every other free citizen enjoys? There is another, and to my mind, an insuperable objection to the . exclusion of free citizens of color from the right of suffrage, arising from the provision in the constitution of the United States, “ that the citizens of each state shall be enticed to all privileges and immu. nities of citizens in the several states.” The effect of this provision is, to secure to the citizens of the other states, when they come to reside here, equal p ivileges and immunities with our native citizens. Suppose, then, that a free citizen of color should remove from tho state of Connecticut into this state, couid we deny him the right of suffrage when he obtained the legal qualification of an elector ? Is not the constitution of the United S' ate? paramount to ours on the subject ? It was expected by a considerable portion of the people of this 6tate, that the right of suffrage would ho extended, but he had not heard that it was expected or desired (except by some of the citizens of New-York,) that any of the present electors of this state should be disfranchised. lie should, therefore, vote for striking out tho word white in the amendment before the committee, in order to re- serve inviolate the present constitutional rights of the electors. JONAS PLATT. Our republican text is, that all men are born equal, in civil and political rights ; and if this freehold proviso be ingrafted into our con- stitution, the practical commentary will be, that a portion of our fiee citizens shall not enjoy equal rights with their fellow citi- zens. All freemen, of African parentage, are to be constitutionally degraded : no matter how virtuous or intelligent. Test the principle, sir, by another example. Suppose the proposition were, to make a discrimination, so as to exclude the descendants of German, or Low Dutch, or Irish ancestors ; would not every man be shocked at tho horrid injustice of the principle ? It is in vain to disguise the fact, we shall violate a sacred principle, without any necessity, if we re- tain tiiis discrimination. We say to this unfortunate race of men, purchase a freehold estate of .^250 value, and you shall then be equal to the white man, who parados one day in the militia, or performs a day’s work on the highway. Sir, ic is adding mockery to injustice. We know that, with rare exceptions, they have not the means of purchasing a freehold ; and it would be unworthy of this grave con- vention to do, indirectly, an act of injustice, which we are unwil- ling openly to avow. The real object is, to exclude the oppressed and degraded sons of Africa ; and, in my humble judgment, it would better comport with the dignity of this convention to speak out, and to pronounce the sentence of perpetual degradation on negroes and THE LEC-IO>' Or LIBERTY. I'nei: posterity for ever, than to establish a test, which wc know they cannot comply with, and which we do not require of others. But, sir, we owe to that innocent and unfortunate race of men, much more than mere emancipation. We owe to them our patient and persevering exertions, to elevate their condition and character, by means of moral and religious instruction. As a republican states- man, I protest against the principle of inequality contained in this proviso. As a man and a father, who expects justice for himself and his children, iu this world ; and as a Christian, who hopes for mercy in the world to come : I can not, I dare not, consent to this unjust proscription. 9 DAVID BUEL, Jun. There are, in my judgment, many circumstances which will for •ever preserve the people of this state from the vices and degradation of a European population. The provisions made for the establish- ment of common schools, will in a few years extend the benefit of education to all our citizens. The universal diffusion of information will forever distinguish our population from that of Europe. Virtue and intelligence are the true basis on which every republican govern- ment must rest ; where these are lost, freedom will no longer exist. The diffusion of education is the only sure means of establishing lhese pillars of freedom. I feel no apprehension for myself or my posterity, in confining the right of suffrage to the great mass of such a population. The farmers of this country will always out-number all other portions of our population. And I refer to the -general reasoning adopted by the writers of the "Federalist, to demons') ate tire wisdom of the provisions in our na- tional constitution, in regard to the qualifications of electors and elected. Those illustrious statesmen have most satisfactorily shown :t tube a prominent f ire in the conslitu.ion of the United States, and one of its greatest excellencies, that orders and classes of men would nor, and ought not, as such, to bo represented: that every citizen, qualified by Ids talents and virtues, should bo eligible to a real in either branch of the national legislature, without regard to his occupation or class in society. And it was predicted and expected that men of every class and profession, would find their way to the legislature of the union. The framers of the constitution placed their confidence in the virtue and intelligence of the great mass of tho American people. It was their triumphant boast to have formed a government without recognizing or creating any odious distinctions, ur giving any particular preference to any particular class or order of men . — Debates in the New-Yorle Convention , 1821, KEZEKIAH NILES. T is expressly provided (Art. iv. Sec. 2.) by the constitution of the United States, '• that the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states.” This is a very simple, plain, and imperative sentence. Free blacks and mulatloes are citizens in ail the states, I believe, east of the Dela- ware, as well as in the states northwest of the river Ohio, and they 5* THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. cannot be dispossessed of the right to locate themselves where they please. 11 The constitution of the United States equalizes the privileges of . the citizens of the states, without respect to color, or the countries from whence they may be derived. This principle must be main- j - tained. The few free blacks and mulattoes in the United States are ; | 1 not to be considered. — It is the disfranchisement of citizens who are citizens, and cannot be disfranchised. Shall we open the door to what may become the foulest proscriptions ? — Niles Register, 1S20. Dealing in slaves has become a large business ; establishments are made in several places in Maryland and Virginia, at which they are J sold like cattle ; these places of depute are strongly built and well supplied with thumb-screws and gags, and ornamented with cow-skins and other whips often times bloody. — Vol. 35. MYRON HOLLEY. It has become fashionable with many, of late, to’degrade the word political into a signification narrow, sordid, grovelling, selfish, and personal. This is because those, who have chiefly controlled politi- cal action, have betrayed it to services charaotized by these epithets. It should have, and may have, a much higher meaning ; and must be practically restored to its best significance, or the memory of our fathers and the hopes of their children will perish. Principles do not take effect without agency. In this life, men have, at least for a time, power to set them up, and power to cast them down. Under neglect, they become useless. Local interest and personal ambition, often unite to set them aside. Hence the maxim, that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. This price we have not paid. We have been devoted to less valuable engagements. The consequence is, our liberties are greatly impaired. The first step, towards their reparation and confirmation, is a thorough survey of the foundation on which they rest. This foundation is composed of the doctrines of ’76 . — Rochester Freeman. JOHN C. SPENCER. The very insertion of the clause (1st, Art. 1st Sect. 9,) showed that without it the power of Congress would have been complete and unlimited ; and the restriction of the power being confined to the states then existing, demonstrated that the power of congress over new states was perfect and uncontrolled. He was happy to be able to quote higher authorities for this construction. In the debate in the Pennsylvania Convention, which will be found in 4th Hall’s American Law Journal, the venerable Judge Wilson had given a lu- cid and satisfactory explanation of this clause : he declares that it is intended to restrict the power of Congress over the old states until 1808 ; that after that period the migration and importation of slaves | could be prohibited altogether, and that in the meanwhile no new ' state would be admitted without prohibiting the introduction of slavery. He states the clause to have been the result of compromise between : J. C. SPEJJCER. the north and the south, and he congratulates his colleagues on hav ing obtained so much. Authority more decided can hardly be ex- pected, especially when it is recollected that it is a contemporaneous exposition of the intention of the framers of the constitution, being made in the year 1787, by one of the most distinguished in that band of illustrious statesmen. In addition to this, we have the testimony of the venerable patriot, John Jay, in a letter lately made public, which is equally explicit. And that exalted statesmen (Rufus King,) whom we have lately, with unexampled unanimity, elected to the senate of the United States, has not only given evidence the most clear and decisive to the same point, but has presented a mass of in- valuable facts, which show that there could have been no other inten- tion in the minds of the framers of the constitution, than that which has been ascribed to them. If, then, the plain and obvious meaning of the words themselves required the sanction of authority, we have it from men who were actors in the scene, and who were intimately acquainted with men and the events of the day. Shall it (the south-western territory,) be doomed to the foul stain of slavery, or shall it be the abode of freedom and independence ? It was purchased by the common fund of the nation, to which the state of New- York has contributed more than §100,000,000. Shall we and our children be excluded from its common and equal enjoy- ment ? That this will be the inevitable effect of allowing slavery there, is easily shown. Those who have had any acquaintance with the slave-holding states, know perfectly well that there exists among them but two classes of society, the very wealthy and respectable, and the poor, servile and degraded ; that in them, the most useful portion of our citizens which we call the middle class is unknown ; labor being confined to the blacks, shares in the contempt and degradation of those who perform it, and the consequence is that personal labor is despised — the imme- diate effect is that a white man must, either be the owner of slaves, or must become degraded to their level, or below it. Such is the uni- form and constant effect in those states where a large portion of the population consists of slaves. If, therefore, slavery be admitted into this portion of the union, it will be a virtual exclusion of the northern emigrant. The state of Illinois and the territory of Missouri, con- trasted only by the one rejecting slavery and the other practically ad- miting it, offered a practical proof of the correctness of these remarks. Would it not then be unjust in Congress to pass any law which, by its operation would exclude the northern inhabitants from the common and equal enjoyment of a property purchased by a common fund? I go further than the gentleman from Delaware, (Erastus Root,) on this subject. He says that the adoption of the Declaration of In- dependence in this state constitution, renders slavery unconstitutional. I contend that the first act of our nation, being a solemn recognition of the liberty and equality of all men, and that the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were inalienable, was the corner stone of our confederacy, and is above all constitutions, and all laws. ■ — Speech in New-York Legislature, 1820. HENRY CLAY — JOHN Q. AEAM3, HENRY CLAY. As a mere laborer, tire slave feels that he toils for his master, and not tor himself; that the- laws do not recognise his r apacity to acquire and hold property, which depends altogether upon the pleasure of his proprietor, and that all the fruits of his exertions are reaped by othefs. He knows that, wb tiler sick or tveil, in times of scarcity or abun- dance, his master is hound to provide for him by the all-powerful influ- ence of self-interest. He is generally, therefore, indifferent lo the adverse or prosperous fortunes of his master, being contented if he can escape his displeasure or chastisement, by a careless and slovenly performance of his duties. That labor is best, in which the laborer knows that he will derive the profits of his industry, and his employment depends upon his dili- gence, and his reward upon his assiduity. lie (hen has every motive to excite him to exertion, and to animate him in perseverance. He knows that if ho i.' troatt-d badly, he can exchange his employer for one who will better estimate his service ; and that whatever ho earns is his, to be distributed by himself as he pleases, among his wife and children, and friends, or enjoyed by himself. In a word, lie feels that he is a free agent, with lights, and privileges, and sensibilities; Wherever the option cxisis to employ, at an equal hire, free or slave labor, the former w ill be decidedly preferred, for the r< aeons already assigned. It is more capable, more diligent., more faithful, and in every respect more worthy of confidence. It is believed that nowhere in the fanning portion of the United States would slave labor he generally employed, if the proprietor were uot tempted to raise slaves by the high price of the southern market, which keeps it up iu his own. [Speaking of an attempt more than thirty-five years ago, io adopt gradual emancipation in Kentucky, Mr. Clay says:] VrC were cv: rpoVvered by numbers, and submit! d to the d vision of the majority w :h ■ grace -.v! . i !. the mle.dnty, in -a republic, should over yl M to such .a decision. 1 have tu.'.v.riheioss rev.r e*.?::!, and never shall ceacv, to regret a decision, the of which hate been, to place us in the rear of our neighbors, v. ho are exempt Horn slavery, in the state of agriculture, the progress of 'manufactures, the advance of improvement, and the general prosperity of society . — Address before Iks Colon ization S&ei sly. JOHN G.UINCY ADAMS. Not three days since, Mr. Clayton, of Georgia, called that species of population (via. slaves) tho machinery of the South. Now that machinery had twenty odd representatives* in that hall, — not elected by the machinery, but by those who owned it. And if he should go back to the history of this government from its foundation, it would he easy to prove that its decisions had been affected, in general by tess [■* There are now twenty-five odd representatives— that is, representatives ef si 3 res ] DUFF GREEN JOSEPH RITNER. majorities than that Is ay, he might go further, and insist that that very representation had ever been, in fact, the ruling power of this government. The history of the Union lias afforded a continual proof that tliis representation of property, which they enjoy, as well in the election of President and Vice President of the United States, as upon the floor of trie House of Representatives, has secured to the slaveholding states the entire control of the national policy, and, almost without exception, the possession of the highest executive office of the Union. Always united in the purpose of regulating the affairs of the whole Union bv the standard of the slaveholding interest, their disproportion- ate numbers in the electoral colleges have enabled them, in ten out of twelve quadriennial elections, to confer the Chief Magistracj' upon one of their own citizens. Their suffrages at every election, without ex- ception, have been almost exclusively confined to a candidate of their own caste . — Speech in Congress, Feb. 4, 1S33. GENERAL DUFF GREEN. W e are of those who believe the South has nothing to fear from a servile war. We do not believe that the abolitionists intend, nor could they, if they would, excite the slaves to insurrection. The dan- ger of tins is remote. We believe that we have most to fear from the organized action upon the consciences and fears of slaveholders themselves ; from the insinuations of their dangerous heresies into our schools, our pulpits, and our domestic circles. It is only by alarming the consciences of the weak and feeble, and diffusing among our own people a morbid sensibility on the question of slavery, that the aboli- tionists can accomplish their object. Preparatory to this, they are now laboring to saturate the non-slaveholding states with the belief that slavery is a sin against God ; that the “ national compact” involves tile non-slaveholders in that sin ; and that it is their duty to toil and suffer, that our country may be delivered from what they term its blackest stain, its foulest reproach, its deadliest curse. — Southern Review. JOSEPH RITNER. Last, but worst of all, came the base bowing of the knee to the dark spirit of slavery. For the preservation of tliis last and most cherished article of our national political creed, the sacrifice of which has not yet been com- pleted, it is our duty to make all possible effort. To ascertain what have been, nay, what are the doctrines of the people of this slate, on the subject of domestic slavery, reference need only be made to the statute book and journals of the legislature. They will be found imprinted in letters of light upon almost every page. In J, Smith’s Laws, 493, is found an “act for the gradual abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania,” with a preamble which should be printed in letters of geld. This is the first act of the kind passed in any part of the Union, and was nobly put forth to the world, in the year 1780, JOSEPH RITNER. in the midst of the straggle for national freedom. This just doctrine was, through a long course of years, adhered to and perfected, till slavery ceased in our state. And finally, in 1S27, the following open avowal of the state doctrine, was prefaced to the act “ to prevent cer- tain abuses of the laws relative to fugitives from labor.” “ The traffic in slaves, now abhorred by all the civilized world, ought not in the slightest degree to be tolerated in the state of Pennsylvania.” — Pam- phlet Laics, page 485. Not only has Pennsylvania thus expelled the evil from her own bor ders, but she has on all proper occasions, endeavored to guard her younger sisters from the pollution. On the 19th of December, 1S19, the following language was unanimously made use of by the legisla- ture, and approved of by the governor, on the question of admitting new states into the Union, with the right of holding slaves. “ That the senators and representatives of this state, in the congress of the United States, be, and they are hereby requested to vote against the admission of any territory as a stats into the U: a, unless the further introduction of slavery or involuntary servitude, ■. ::c pt for the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly con- victed, shall be prohibited, and all children born within the said terri- tory after its admission into the Union as a state, shall be iiee, but may be held to service until the age of twenty-five years.” The preamble to this resolution, too long to be cited at large, is worthy of all consideration at the present juncture. On the much discussed question of slavery in the District of Colum- bia, there never has been any thing like hesitation. On the 23a of January, 1819, the legislature passed a resolution instructing our representatives in congress to advocate the passage of a law for its abolition ; and the voice of public opinion, as expressed through the press, at meetings, and in petitions, has been unchanging on the subject. These tenets, then, viz : opposition to slavery at home, which, by the blessing of Providence, lias been rendered effectual ; opposition to the admission into the Union of new slaveholding states; and opposition to slavery in the District of Columbia, the very hearth and domestic abode of the national honor — have ever been, and are the cherished doctrines of our state. Let us fellow-citizens, stand by and maintain them unshrinkingly and fearlessly. While we admit and scrupulously respect the constitutional rights of other states, on this momentous subject, let us not, either by fear or interest, be driven from aught of that spirit of independence and veneration for freedom, which has ever characterized our commonwealth. Above all, let us never yield up the right of free discussion of any evil which may arise in the land or any part of it : convinced that the moment we do so, the bond of union is broken. For the union being a voluntary compact to continue together for certain specified purposes, the instant one portion of it succeeds in imposing terms and dictating conditions upon another, not found in the contract, the relation between them changes, and that which was union becomes subjection. — J Mes- sage to Pennsylvania Legislature , 1836. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. CHARLES SIMMONS. If no more than one in ten of the 1,244,000 slaves who are sup- posed to bo “ merchantable” should be crushed annually under the horrid system, and be cut oft’ from no more than ten years upon an average, and if we suppose this time to be worth no more than 25 cents each working day, or 78 dollars a year, it amounts to a pecu- niary loss of over ,$97,000,000 annually. But it is quite possible that this estimate of one in ten is too low by half ; for we can scarcely conceive any thing more crushing to both body and mind, than slavery, with its shocking cruelties. 62,200 recruits, at §>600 each §137,320,000 41,466 overseers, cost §>400 each, 16,586,400 By 124,400 premature deaths, 97,032,000 Other expenses, 16,586,400 §>167,524,800 The impoverishing, evil tendency and effects of slavery are to be seen in the wide spread bankruptcy, the diminished value of estates, the worn out plantations, the prostration of the currencies, the mise- rable state of society, and other evils which are now severely expe- rienced in slave states, and others, according to the nature and ex- tent of their governmental and commercial connections with them. It is said the slave states of this union are now indebted to the peo- ple of the state of New-York alone, about §>100,000,000 — a large majority of which will probably remain forever unpaid. Verily 1 the robbery of the wicked shall destroy them.’ Should any think the above estimate of the impoverishing tendency and effects of slavery exaggerated, I ask them to read over Mr. Preston’s speech, delivered a few years since at Baltimore, on his return from his northern tour, in which lie contrasted the staie of the north with the south. I ask them to cast an eye to the present contrast between New-York and Virginia — or Ohio and Kentucky. Thus it appears, that without calculating the congressional ex- penses occasioned by slavery — its baneful influence upon -the morals and manners of the nation — the loss of the time of slaves while in jail, or in recovering from horrid scourgings, and without reckoning the gain on estates by emancipation, we have an annual loss by means of slavery, of over §>167,000,000 .— Annual cost of Slavery. CHARLES RIDLEY “ By his last will and testament, he emancipated all his slaves. The number is variously estimated at, from two hundred and fifty to up- wards of four hundred ! ! It is understood, that all of them, who have attained the age of twenty-eight years, are to be free immediate- ly — such as are over forty-five, to have some provision made for their support, out of his estate. Those of the younger class are to be free, the males at twenty-eight years of age, and the females at twenty, five. Taking all things into view, we consider it one of the most praise- THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. worthy deeds that we can recollect, of the kind, in the annals of oui country. Gen. Ridgely has long been known as a very influential • character in Maryland. For several years, he acted as governor of the state ; and few men have taken upon themselves a greater share of the burthen of public business than he has done. He was often heard to express his uneasiness at the circumstance of keeping so many of his fellow-creatures in unlimited and heredf • tary bondage ; and, we have good grounds to suppose that it was a sense of religious, as well as moral and political duty, that prompted ' him to the performance of this just, humane, and pious deed.” — G. IF E. Aug. 1829. JOHN BLACK. Surely the writer must deserve well of slave-holders, who has en- deavored to wipe off their reproach, and reconcile slavery with Chris- tianity. But if he has actually succeeded, will not the Bible be the loser ? Will not deists triumph ? Sensible deists and bible defenders have heretofore agreed on some first principles. That there is such a thing as moral justice — that there is such a thing as virtue, and that there is an eternal and irreconcilable difference between moral right and wrong. That whatever subverts or destroys these princi- ples cannot be a revelation from God. I confess, much as I love the Bible, and if I know my own heart, I love it, my faith in its being tlie revealed will of God, would be sorely shaken if I believed that it approved of slavery, tyranny, despotism, or the destruction of the rights of man. Certain I am, that in language clear as noon day, it condemns all these. THEODORE SEDGWICK. I have ever thought the protestations of the southern people against a free discussion of the subject of slavery, as being an improper in- terference with their “ peculiar institutions” as wholly destitute of foundation in law, in the constitution, or in proper practices of a free government. And as I take this right to be unquestionable, and the opposition to it as slavish and odious ; in my own person I shall ever defend it, and I will here take the liberty of stating the grounds upon which, in my opinion, the defence ought to be put — a subject which I fear is not thoroughly understood. The constitution is a charter of freedom ; the freedom of the press, and of speech, are the great pillars upon which the whole fabric rests. But this is not all. The constitution in providing for its amendment, has by that act alone guarantied the fullest discussion of every principle contained in it — for, how can any thing be amended without being considered, and how can anything be considered without being discussed ? It is not true, that slavery is the “ peculiar institution” of the south ; it is our institution also, we have allowed it ; we have con sented that slave property shall be represented ; that it shall in part choose our representatives, senators, and president ; it is a part of the compact. But it is a part, an article of the constitution that T. SEDGWICK. may be amended ; and it is clear, that every attempt to abolish sla- very is virtually an endeavor to amend the constitution. Abolition meetings, therefore, can have no other design than to induce the slave-holding states to consent for our mutual benefit to abolish this part of the compact, and thus ensure emancipation. There are other grounds upon which it is impossible to consider the discussion of American slavery as unconstitutional, or opposed to the principles which bind us together. Slavery in every form is anti-democratic, not, to be sure, according to the creeds or slang of party, but accord- ing to those eternal principles, which will survive all party. And I must confess, that I long since hoped, that this question might have been so treated, as to be removed from all party influence, and com- mitted to that great mass of democratic citizens of all parties, in whose hearts the fire of liberty is ever burning, however much their judgments may for a while be confounded by party intrigue, attach- ments, and appeals. Nor do I believe that abolition doctrines will make any sure progress, till this can be effected — till slavery is con- sidered in its true light, as an old poison left in the veins ; as foster- ing the worst principles of aristocracy, of pride, and aversion to la- bor ; as therefore the natural enemy of the poor man, the oppressed man, the laboring man. In this sense, it is not a fanciful question about the equality of the black and white races, never perhaps to be settled to the satisfaction of all, but whether absolute dominion over any creature in the image of a man, be a wholesome power in a free country ; whether this be a school in which to train the young re- publican mind ; whether slave blood and free blood can course healthi- ly together in the same body politic. With the true lovers of free- dom, therefore, of democratic government, of the race of man, rich or poor, high or low, and the sincere haters of oppression, and of every degree of privileged inequality and cruelty, there can be no question about the right to discuss slavery. Whatever may be pre- sent appearances, and by whatever names party may choose to call tilings, this question must finally be settled by the democracy of the country. It is plain to me, therefore, that the subject ought for the present at least to be transferred from congress to the great body of the people, on account of their superior purity, disinterestedness, and reasonableness, great a solecism as that may appear; and treated with that reason, moderation, and generosity which is due to our southern brethren, in the unhappy predicament in which they are placed ; and in such a way, that the pestilent spirit of party, which in the United States is poisoning the minds of the people, perverting their judgments, and degrading the nation in the eyes of the whole civilized world, may not touch it. 6 THE LEGION OF LIBERTY CHARLES HAMMOND. “ In three years, the slave population of Mississippi increased from 10,000 to 1G0,000 slaves ! at an average cost of at least $1,000 each ! making the debt for slaves alone, in three years, swell to $90,000,- 000 ! ! From 1833 to 1837, cotton bore an exorbitant high price. This, together with the increased force, induced the planter to direct all his energy to its cultivation, relying upon purchasing every arti- cle of consumption. He neglected to raise his corn and pork ; he had to purchase more mules, horses and ploughs, open more lands, and increase his hills with the merchants, whom he totally neglected to pay. When the crash came in May, 1838, all the paper held against the planter by the merchants or nearly all, was transferred to the banks, or sued upon by the merchants. The crowds of busi- ness in the different courts delayed judgment, and when judgment was at last obtained, the sheriff! and marshals could find nothing scarcely to levy upon. Bankruptcy and min among some of tho merchants were inevitable ; and in their fall they crushed the hanks. “A change has taken place. By a late decision in the federal court aL Jackson, Mississippi, all contracts for slaves since May, 1833, are made null and void, the new constitution forbidding the in- troduction of slaves for sale. Two-thirds of the present debt of the state is for slaves bought since May, 1833 .” — U S. Gaietle. The facts disclosed are of immense importance, in wnatever light they may be viewed. Their bearing upon the trade, and business of the country, is full of instruction. But their political developments are of most interest. With this revival of the domestic slave trade, sprang up the fury of the south against all movements that touched the character of slavery. It became the era of new and strange doc- trines, which have been pushed to sad extremities. These have been mainly directed against freedom of opinion, and unrestrained dis- cussion. The wide spread they have taken has filled many hearts with sorrow and apprehension. It has swelled some with deep in- dignation. But the doctrine has gained force, until it has become a kind of Sibboleth in polilical party. All at once here is a revulsion. Tiie veil is rent assunder — and tile uniting and conflicting interests stand exposed in open view. The slave trade was first. The slave breeders were pleased with a ready market, at good prices. The slave dealer rejoiced in his profits. The cotton grower felt delight at tiie gainsome expansion of his cot- ton fields. The merchants of the Atlantic cities counted u > the per cents upon (heir sales, and their profits on exchanges. The bank gloried in becoming cotton traders. Of a sudden, all these lumina- tions are extinguished. In their stead, we have tho hideous crowd of debtors and creditors, described, by the correspondent of the United States Gazette. Of these, the slave trader stood foremost in exulta- tion. But here conies a new expounding of the law. The slave trader loses his debt. His bonds and mortgages are declared void, because the product of an illegal trade. And the slaves subjected to that illegal trade, are (or should be) made freemen, by the law that is violated THE LEGION OF LIBEKTY. B. FRANKLIN WADE. He would like to know what clause in the constitution denied to any inhabitant of this state the right to petition. He held the right to be inherent. It belonged to those opposed to the exercise of this right, to show the grounds upon which they based their doctrine ; it was a monstrous doctrine to deny to any human being the right to petition. Did they base it upon the ground, that the colored popu- lation were not voters ? The same objection could be urged against receiving the petition of females. We taxed their property, and sub- jected them to ail the pains and penalties of our laws ; how, then, can we deny them the right to petition ? He had early imbibed and believed the doctrine, that the object and end of all good government was to protect the weak against the strong, the virtuous against the vicious ; and while he saw one hu- man being oppressed, he would assert the right of that individual to petition for redress. That right, as he had said before, and as others had ably argued, was existent in all countries, in common law, and prior and superior to all written constitutions. Some have argued that blacks are inferior to the whites : if so, their right to petition and claims to protection were the stronger. He was in favor of the rights of man : and if the granting of an act oi incorporation to a few individuals '■> establish a school for the lauda- ble purpose of elevating the moral and intellectual character of those who were so unfortunate as to differ from us in color, was to favor abolitionism, he should stand obnoxious to that charge. He would point gentlemen to that instrument [Declaration of Independencej hanging on the wall, aud say to them, if they will trample its just and holy precepts and principles beneath their feet, tear it down, and efface it from existence, for it was there only as an evidence and a monument of their degradation 1 — Speech in the Ohio Senate, 1839. ALEXANDER CAMPBELL. I am neither an apologist for American slavery, nor an advocate of ins'ant and universal emancipation ; but I am for doing justice to master and to servant, and for having them to do justice to one an- other; I ain for approaching hv an oc’ined plain- a ; hit which, to attempt in any other way would, in my opinion, be a great injury to master and servant, and would increase rather than diminish the grievances and evils, political and moral, so generally complained of. I am, above all, for having Christians (to whom alone I address myself on this subject) who have servants to carry out all the injunc- tions given to them in the New Testament, and thus to promote the present and the future happiness of those whose eternal destiny is in a great measure entrusted to them ; and in case of neglect of duty in any instance, I am for having them called to an account for it by those who watch for their souls as they shall have to answer for it in the great day of accounts. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. ST. GEORGE TUCKER. “ Slavery not only violates the Laws of Nature, and of civil soci cty ; it also wounds the best forms of Government : in a Democra cy, where all men arc equal, slavery is contrary to the spirit of the Constitution.’’ — Montesquieu. Among the blessings which the Almighty hath showered down on these states, there is a large portion of the bitterest draught, that ever flowed from the cup of affliction. Whilst America hath been the land of promise to Europeans, and their descendants, it hath been the vale of death to millions of the wretched sons of Africa. The general light of liberty, which hath here shone with unrivalled lustre on the former, hath yielded no comfort to the latter, but to them hath proved a pillar of darkness, whilst it hath conducted the for- mer to the most enviable state of human existence. Whilst we were offering up vows at the shrine of Liberty, and sacrificing he- catombs upon her altars ; whilst we swore irreconcilable hostility to her enemies, and hurled defiance in their faces ; whilst we adjur- ed the God of Battles to witness our roso'ution to live free, or die, arid imprecated curses on their heads who refused to unite with us in establishing the empire of freedom, we were imposing upon our fellow men, who differ in complexion from us, a slavery, ten thou- sand times more cruel than the utmost extremi y of those grievan- ces and oppressions of which we complained. Such are the incon- sistencies of human nature ; such the blindness of those who pluck not the beam out of their own eyes, whilst they can espy a mote in the eyes of their brother ; such that partial system of morality which confines rights and injuries to particular complexions ; such the effect of that self-love which justifies or condemns, not accord- ing to principle, but to the agent. Had we turned our eyes inward- ly when we supplicated the Father of Mercies to aid the injured and oppressed ; when we invoked the Author of Righteousness to attest the motives, and the justice of our cause; and implored tho God of Battles to aid our exertions in its defence, should we not have stood more self-convicted than the contrite publican ? Should we not have left our gift upon the altar, that we might be first recon- ciled to our brethren whom we held in bondage ? Should we not have loosed their chains and broken their fetters ? Or if the diffi- culties and danger of such an experiment prohibited the attempt du- ring the convulsions of a revolution, is it not our duty to embrace the first moment of constitutional health and vigor to effectuate so desirable an object, and to remove from us a stigma, with which our enemies will never fail to upbraid us, nor our conscience to re- proach us. If ever there was a cause, if ever an occasion, in which all hearts should be united, every nerve strained, and every power exerted, sure- ly the restoration of human nature to its inalienable rights is such. — Dissertation on Slavery, Virginia. THE LEGION OF LIBERT" CASSIUS M. CLAY. The tide of black population, which under the law of 1833, and the more stringent amendments of 1840, was turned away from our land, is to sweep with more than Etnajan desolation among us. The blacks are to kur^- on to that fast approaching crisis, when they shall out-number the whites. The elysian pros- pect of South Carolina civilization, woos us in the distance — each city, and town, and village, and cross-road, shall boast its maga- zine of arms ; not to repel a foreign invader, but to crush domestic insurrections — the night owl shall arouse the timid female and the restless husband from their turbid dreams — the one to grasp in bit- ter mockery that bible, in whose boundless and infinite promises of mercy and support, no vestige of hope or alliance can now be found ; tile other to seize those arms upon which he nightly slumbers ; not with the vain expectation of successful defence, but with the despond- ing purpose of selling life as dearly as possible. To make way for this most glorious consummation, our free white laborers are to be driven out ; our manufactories, already too incon- siderable, are to be destroyed ; our cities are to crumble down, our rich fields are to grow sterile, our frequented places to be deserted, our morals to be still more corrupted, more universal debauchery to exist among our male whites, more mulattoes to stand as eternal curses, before the lovely eyes of our wives, our daughters, our moth- ers; most damning monuments of our self abasement and crime, di- luting the boasted purity of our saxon biood, with those who in our holy regard for the dignity of mankind, we will not allow to aspire to the common name of men. The flush of anger and petty tyran- ny is forever to disfigure the bright faces ef our little-ones ; educa- tion must perish among the people, idleness and unbridled passions must characterise the rich ; poverty and contempt for labor degrade the poor; our state must dwindle away yet more in political impor- ance, till we shall become the contempt of mankind, with the onlv consolation that we most richly deserve i*c — blindly rushing into a secondary oriental civilization, to fall by the Yankee arm, as the multitudes of haughty Chinese, were mowed down by British pow- er. And all this for what purpose ? That a class of men whom the General Government has pledged millions of men and money to bring to the gallows, may grow rich by feeding on the very vitals and life biood of our devoted state ! Is not this monstrous ? Are we already so infatuated — has retribution so soon overtaken us — have the gods already maddened us for destruction ? Is this indeed the de- liberate voice of Kentucky — Has she made up her mind that her re- presentatives should do this deed — Is she not ashamed by the gaze of Christendom — Is she utterly blinded to self-interest — Does she defy the stern mandates of religion — Does she spurn all the experi- ence of wise men, coming down to us from all ages, and trample un- derfoot all that is redeeming in philosophical morality or Heathen Mythology ? 6 * THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. JAMES M’DOWELL If our ancestors had exerted the firmness which, under higher ob- ligations, we ourselves are called upon to exert, Virginia would not, at this day, have been mourning over the legacy of weakness and of sorrow that has been left her — she would not have been thrust down — down in a still lowering relation, to the subordinate post which she occupies in the Confederacy, whose career she had led — she would not be withering under the leprosy which is piercing her to the heart. Who that looks to this unhappy bondage of an unhappy people, in the midst of our society, and thinks of its incidents or its issues, but thinks of it as a curse upon him who suffers it ? You may place the slave where you please — you may oppress him as you please — you may dry up to the uttermost, the fountain of his feelings, the spring of his thought — you may close upon his mind every avenue of knowledge, and cloud it over with artificial night — you may yoke him to your labors as the ox which liveth only to work, and worketh only to live — you may pul him under any process which, without destroying his value as a slave, will debase and crush him as a rational being — you may do this, and the idea that he was born to be free, will survive it all. It is allied to his hope of immorality— it is the etherial part of his nature, which op- pression cannot reach ; it is a torch lit up in his soul by the hand of Deity, and never meant to be extinguished by the hand of man. It. has been frankly and unequivocally declared, from the very commencement of this debate, hy the most decided enemies of aboli- tion themselves, as well as by others, that this property is an “ evil'' —that it is a dangerous property. Yes, sir, so dangerous has it been represented to be, even by those who desire to retain it, that we have been reproached for speaking of it otherwise than in fire- side whispers — reproached for entertaining debate upon it in this hall ; and the discussion of it with open doors, and to the general ear, has been charged upon us, as a climax of rashness and folly, which portend issues of calamity to thecountry. It is, then, a dan. gerous property, held at the certain and declared risk of involving, from any act of imprudence in us or its owners, the repose and se- curity of our people. — Speech in ihe House of Delegates of Vir- ginia, 1832. THOMAS F. MARSHALL. I have said that I considered negro slavery as a political misfor- tune. The phrase was too mild. It is a cancer — a slow, consum- ing cancer — a withering pestilence — an unmitigated curse. I speak not in the spirit of a puling and false philanthropy. I was born in a slave Slate — I was nursed by a slave — my life has been saved by a slave. To me, custom has made the relation familiar, and I see nothing horrible in it. I am a Virginian by descent. Every cross in my blood, so far as I can trace it, in the paternal or maternal line, is Virginian. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. GENERAL BENNETT. Chief of the Mormon city of Nauvoo, Illinois. I gave slavery a full and fair investigation years ago — I swore in my youth that my hands should never be bound, my feet fettered, nor my tongue palsied — I am the friend of Liberty, universal liberty, both civil and religious. I ever detested servile bondage. I wish to see tlie shackles fall from the feet of the oppressed, and the chains of slavery broken. I hate the oppressor’s grasp and the tyrant’s rod ; against them I set my brows like brass, and my face like steel ; and my arm is nerved for the conflict. Great God ! lias it come to this, — that the free citizens of the sove- reign state of Illinois, can be taken and immured within the walls of a Missouri penitentiary for twelve long years, for such a crime as God would regard as a virtue ? Simply for pointing bondmen to a state of liberty and law 4 WILLIAM DUNLAP. Negro slavery, the curse of a portion of the United States of America, is a subject that cannot be passed over in silence by any historian of New-York ; particularly when we reflect that its aboli- tion has been one, and not the least efficient of the causes of the prosperity and greatness of the empire state. In 1562, Sir John Hawkins, with the aid of Sir Lionel Duchet, Sir Thomas Lodge, and Sir William Winter, fixed the stigma upon England, of introducing the slave trade, as a branch of commerce at this early period, among the inhabitants of that trading country. This trade in the blood, lives, and liberties ofhuman beings, was then, and has since been excused, and attempted to be justified, by stating that the negroes were benefitted by being kidnapped, chained, confined in floating prisons, of the most loathsome description, murdered if re- sisting, subjected to disease and death, to the cool mercantile calcu- lation of the number per hundred to be thrown over-board, and to endless labor and stripes, on their arrival in America, inasmuch as the survivors were transported to a land where they would become civilized, and taught the lessons of Christianity. Such aiguments reconciled princes and nations, to this most inhu- man of all the practices which have disgraced civilized man. Such was the theory. In practice the negro was treated as a brute, and by law prohibited from being taught either in a school, or the church. That guilt which the state of slavery engenders, is chargeable to tlie master of the slave. To possess unlimited power over a human being, makes the possessor a tyrant ; he is corrupted by its influence, while the subject of his power is debased. The tyrant may be mer- ciful and kind, and the slave may be grateful. It has been so in empires and in families : but when so, it is from causes adverse to ty ranny and slaver) 7 ; their influence is ever the same. The slave only works from the fear of punishment, and neglects his labor as much as possible. When he refrains from exertion, lie THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. only resumes a portion of that which has been forced from him Every traveller who passes from a state where labor is performed bi freemen, for their own profit, into a state where it is performed by slaves, will at once be struck by the contrast on the face of eveiy thing produced by labor. Another evil is, that employing slaves t( work, makes labor disreputable. The white man prides himself upor his idleness . — History of New-York. HORACE GREELY. The supreme court of the United States has just pronounced the mosti important decision which has proceeded from its bench for many, years — perhaps ever. In a case arising between Maryland and Penn- sylvania, it has declared that the right of a slave-holder to capture, secure and return his fugitive slave, under the well known clause of the federal constitution, is absolute and illimitable — that the free states have no discretion as to its exercise, no protection against its abuse. All laws securing to the citizen of a free state claimed as a slave a trial by jury, all free state legislation designed to prevent abuses of the slave-holder’s constitutional right of reclamation, are hereby declared null and void, and the trial by jury law of this state. ' as well as that of Pennsylvania, is henceforth a dead lc-ttcr. This judgment was pronounced by Justice Story of Massachusetts, and . concurred in by all the judges except John M’Lean of Ohio. Two ■ or three of the justices read separate opinions, varying somewhat the grounds of the decision, but concurring, as we understand, in all the ■ conclusions above recited. This tremendous decision brings the great question of freedom or slavery home to all our doors. There is not a man in the free states who is not affected by it — whose personal liberty is not invaded and endangered by it. The constitution knows no distinction of white, i black and intermediate colored persons ; it says nothing expressly of slaves ; it speaks only of ‘ persons held to labor or service in one state escaping into another.’ Now if a negro may be apprehended in this city and carried by mere force to Virginia, to some one who claims him as an escaped slave or servant, then any of us — then Gov. Seward, Justice Thompson, or Justice Story, may be so taken. Where is the safeguard against abuse ? Where the protection to freemen ? The N. Y, State law of 1840, extending the right of trial by jury to persons claimed as ‘ fugitives from labor or service,’ af- forded such protection. By that law a slave-holder was required to prove his property in a man or woman claimed by him, as much as in a horse or monkey. Even before the passage of that law, a slave- holder was always required to verify his legal right before a justice of the peace, who approved it or set the arrested person at liberty. — The Tribune , March 12, 1842. THE LEGION OF LIEERTY. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. The Pennsylvania case, lately decided by the supreme court of the United States, has excited very justly, the alarm and animadversion of every legal mind. Once give the power to a man to seize a fel- low-man, and bind him into slavery without responsibility anywhere, and Lhe government of the United States turns the community into one of kidnappers and robbers. A man appears in New-York, seizes a man and carries him into Maryland, and sells him as a slave or murders him. This man is indicted and apprehended if he can bo found ; if not, there is an end to the matter. The law might be ap- plied to Justice Story himself, in his proper person, under the idea that he was a person held to labor or service in another state, under the constitution itself and had escaped therefrom. If nothing more could have been done in the late Pennsylvania case, when before the supreme court of the United States, the judges of that court, belonging to the free states, ought to have solemnly protested against, such a decision, for their own personal safety. ■ The very idea of an irresponsible man, without morals, character, house, home or location, habitation or name, coming into the state of New-York, and making an affidavit that any person is held to ser* vice or labor in another state, be he white, black, or red ; and on such an affidavit, reeking as it may be with falsehood, perjury, and every abomination, and on such a proceeding as this, or upon no proceeding at all — that a citizen of this state may be seized, kidnap, ped, and hurried away from his wife, children, and family, into a distant country, there to be consigned to slavery, or murdered at the tender mercies of their conspirators, strikes the mind with horror, and it cries out with feelings of indignation, that this is the offspring of sin and death. A law of such a character as this, is the law of barbarians. It is not the law of a people who have declared to the world, that all mankind have certain inalienable rights, amongst which are the rights of liberty, security and happiness. There is no security in such laws as these, of happiness, or liberty under them. Supposing a white man is carried away under this law of seizure, without a trial by jury ? it is true that in most of the slave-holding states his color is prima facie, a declaration that he is free ; but sup. pose he is unfortunately tinctured with the Indian, New South Wales or Negro blood, he is declared by his color to be prima facie a slave, and must prove his freedom, while he is locked up in prison. He ia first deprived of liberty unjustly, and then prevented by the same law from proving his liberty, because a slave cannot appear in a court of justice ; being treated not as a person, but as a dead chattel. The system of selling men for prison fees, is one that deserves the detes. tation of all righteous men. First, commit the greatest outrage upon a man that can be, without murdering and maiming him, lock him up in prison, prevent him from proving his freedom, and then sell him because he has no proof of his freedom — we have grounds to fear that some persons have been seized north of Mason and Dixon’s line, and then carried south of it and treated in this manner by some gam- bling, disappointed, unprincipled negro-catcher, merely to make a THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. raise of a small sum of money, to squander in dissipation upon the sale of his victim. There is no other way than lo try the question by a jury, in the first instance, when tire man is seized, and the ques- tions to be tried are : 1st. Is the man complained of, the same indi- vidual he is charged to be ! 2d. Is ‘he a person that owes labor or service in another state, under the law^hereof, and escaped there, from ? This provision in the act of congress applies to all persons white, black and red, and wherever the right of trial by jury is se- cured lo one color of persons in the state, it is to all others. — New- Yorlc Evening Post, May, 1842. CHARLES KING. It must be obvious to the most careless observer, that the horror which used to thrill through all sound hearts at the bare mention of disunion can no longer be excited. We have heard o much and so often from the south — upon the slightest occasion — of threats of sepa- ration, of calculating the value of the union, and of die south’s ability to exist by herself and for herself- — that the north has been forced, as it were, to reflect upon what would be the issue of such a breaking up of our republic ; and, sooth to say, reflection has brought the conviction to very, very many minds, that if calculation of sec- tional pride and power must determine this great political and social problem — the north — the free states — the horticultural, manufactur- ing and commercial states, would gain power, wealth, and impor- tance by cutting loose from the weaker and dependent south, now ad- mitted to an equality with them. This conviction of reason, moreover, is, in some ardent minds, ex- asperated almost into a passionate desire, by the insolence and intole- rance of the slave representatives in congress. It is to feelings of this sort that we are to ascribe in part the peti- tion presented by Mr. Adams, which has occasioned the violent de- bate in the house, asking for a dissolution of the union, rather than longer submission to unequal, oppressive, overbearing legislation, dic- tated by southern interest, and carried by the cohesion of the com- mon bond of slavery. And what was thus formally embodied by these petitioners, is float- ing loosely and largely among the elements that go to make up pub- lic opinion in the north. Repulsed at first because of the loyally to the union, which enters into the education and hopes, as it were, of every northern man — it comes again and again, at such successive manifestations of southern intolerance, to force an entrance, and at each attempt finds resistance more and more feeble N. Y. American. JOHN NEAL. I am opposed to the annexation of Texas or any other state or ter- ritory in which slavery exists, to the United States ; believing slave- ry to be one of the greatest afflictions that a people, or any portion of a people, can labor 'under. I myself am not an abolitionist, in the common meaning of the THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. term — in other words, I am not a friend to immediate, universal, and unconditional emancipation ; bill that, like the great majority of those with whom I associate, or correspond, either at home or abroad, either in New-England or at the south, I recognize the existence of slavery as a curse— a curse at all times, and under all circumstances: that in common with multitudes of our generous brethren at the south, I find such to have been the settled opinion of our country at the form- ing of our constitution : that I see no reason for abandoning that opinion, and as little for adopting that which has lately been promul- gated at the south — namely — that slavery there is a blessing ; and that, therefore, I am so far an abolitionist as to hope for the final emancipation of every human being — and I will even add the sooner the better : provided that emancipation be effected legally, peaceably, and with the consent of all parties interested. This, I believe, may be had in time ; and had even from the slave-holders of the south. WILLIAM LEGGETT. The opinions of the southern people themselves, with respect to the perfect right which every American citizen possesses, to discuss the subject of slavery, have undergone a world-wide change in the course of a few years. If they will look into the writings of Jefferson and Madison, they will find that those great men, though southerners and slaveholders, not only did- not claim any such right of interdicting the subject as is now set up, but exercised it very ticely themselves. If they will turn to the record of the debate which took place in congress in 1790, on the question of committing the memorial of the Society of F ; kilos against the slave-trade, they will find that Mr. Madison ex- plained tin: obligations of the federal compact, in a very different man- ner from that which it is the fashion of the present day to interpret them. They will find that, in the review which he entered in'o of the circumstances connected with the adoption of the constitution he very clearly showed that the powers of congress were by no means as limit- ed as it is now contended that they -are. They will find that, in speak- ing of the territories of the United States, he expressly declared, from his knowledge, as well of the sentiments and opinions of the members of the convention, as of the true meaning and force of the terms of the compact, that there “ congress have certainly the power to regulate the subject of slavery.” It is fortunate that .Madison and Jefferson did not lnv to this day, or they would have been denounced as abolitionists, fanatics, and incendiaries, and every thing else that is bad. Lieu- tenant Governor Robinson would no doubt have honored them with a place in his message, as ring-leaders of his “organized band of conspirators.” But though Madison and Jefferson are gone, the spirit which ani- mated them still glows in many a freeman’s bosom ; while one spark of it remains, the South will storm and rave in vain, for it never can induce the northern states to give up freedom for the sake of union ; to give up the end for the sake of the means ; to give up the substance for the sake of the shadow -. — The Plaindealer. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. ORESTES A. BROWNSON. Why the wishes and claims of this parly, the slaves, amounting to nearly half the population of these Stales, should not have some weight in this question, I am unable to understand. They are the injured the oppressed, and the wronged party, — and their claim to the sympathy and assistance of their fellow-beings in other parts of the land, by all lawful means, to remove this heavy load from them, and restore them to liberty, seems to me at least as well founded, as the claim of the masters, that no such means should be urged for this purpose. If the master may say to the North, you are interfer- ing with my domestic relations, my rights of property, and the es- tablished laws of the slave states — the slave may say to the master you are interfering with the domestic relations which God and na- ture have ordained, those of husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, by separating one from another in your abomina- ble traffic — you are interfering in my rights of property, in depriv- ing me of a just remuneration for my labor in the shape of wages, and allowing me to make the most I can from the exercise of my intellectual and physical capacity — you are interfering with the es- tablished laws of God, humanity and justice, in depriving me of my freedom, and holding me as property. What is the competency of the people of the North, who are op- posed to slaverjq to form an opinion upon this subject. It seems to me, it is that of a most enlightened, calm and disinterested tribunal, as much so, as that of the Judges on the bench of a Court of Jus- tice. They have the facts and the moral law before them, upon which to found their decision. Their prejudices, if they have any, would be to sustain slavery, if possible, consistently with justice and humanity, from feelings of sympathy and respect for their white brethren of sister states, from the intercourse of business and poli- tics which connect them together, and from a love of harmony and attachment to the Union. If therp is, then, any bias upon this sub- ject in the minds of Northern men, it must be in favor of the exist- ing system ; and if they oppose it, it must be from the most upright and humane motives. Now how is it at the South ? They cannot be considered as im- partial and disinterested judges in this matter. They may have more minute information upon the subject, know more of the prac- tical details of slavery — but they are under a very strong influence, almost an overwhelming one, to support the present state of things right or wrong. Their properly consists to a very great extent, of slaves, and all their habits, associations, modes of t hinking, business, and even character have been formed under the influence of Slavery. They are the parties, witnesses, judges and jury in their own case. How then can we expect a fair, candid, and just decision from them in this ease ? — Boston Quarterly Review. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. I could not, to save the commerce of the state, or even the peace of the country, subscribe to the faith prescribed to me ; I cannot be- lieve that a being of human substance, form and image, — endowed with the faculties, propensities and passions common to our race, and having the same ultimate destiny, can, by the force of any human constitution or laws, be converted into a chattel or a thing, in his free will, and of the power of cultivating his own mind and pursu- ing his own happiness ; a property beginning with his birth, andrcach- ing over and enslaving his posterity. I cannot believe that that can be stolen which is not and cannot be property ; and although such principles may be adopted, and become the basis of institutions and laws in other countries, I cannot believe that any such community has the right to extend the operation of such institutions and laws so as to affect persons within the jurisdiction and under the protection of other nations. The provision in the Constitution of the United States, directing that fugitives from labor or service, escaping from one state into another, shall be given up on demand to the person to whom such labor or service is due, whatever be its effect, is a limi- tation of the sovereign rights of the states. I cannot believe that the provision can be extended beyond its letter and precise application, and so as to make the constitution fix a definition of crime at variance with the common law adopted by all the states, and with the juris- prudence of the civilized world. Opposed to such a faith, I find the guarded language of the constitution, the principles of natural jus- tice, the impulses of philanthropy, the instructions of religion, the sentiments of an enlightened age, the constitution of this state, which I am bound to maintain, and the spirit of the laws it is my duty to execute. The august congress of statesmen who laid the foundation of the constitution, most emphatically declared that all men are born free and equal and have inalienable rights, inconsistent with every form of slavery. A citizen of Virginia, who was not only the most re- nowned of the patriots who engaged in the establishment of the con- stitution, but who is, by the general consent of mankind, acknow- ledged to have exhibited the most perfect character our nature has ever reached, manumitted all his slaves as an act of conscientious duty. Another, who was second only to Washington in the great number of statesmen that Virginia has given to our country, pleaded the prejudices of birth, education and association as an apology for the opinions entertained by his fellow-citizens, that human beings may be the subjects of property, as much as their horses and cattle. When I recall these circumstances, I must be allowed to indulge a belief that I have not fallen from the faith of the founders of the con. etitution. Of what use to the citizens of New-York is the Virginia slave ? The moment the vessel reaches the open sea, he is no longer a slave. The law of nations throws its protecting arm around him, and will vindicate any injury to his person, or abridgment of his liberty. The legislature will decide whether the trial by jury shall be relin- 7 L. BRADISH. quished ; and whether a state which acknowledges no natural ine. quality of men, and no political inequality, which may not ultimate, ly he removed, shall wrest that precious shield from those only whose] freedom is assailed, not from any wrong doing of their own, but be- i cause the greatest of all crimes was committed against their ances- tors. Taught as we have been by the founders of the constitution, and most emphatically by the statesmen of Virginia, wc cannot re- J nounce the principle that all men are born free and equal, nor any of its legitimate consequences. I cannot believe that a being of human substance, form and image, ; — endowed with the faculties, propensities, and passions, common to our race, and having the same ultimate destiny, can, by the force of' any human constitutions or laws, bo converted into a chaltle or a thing, in which another human being like himself can have property, depriving him of his free will, and of the power of cultivating his own mind, and pursuing his own happiness ; a property beginning • with his birth, and reaching over and enslaving his posterity. I can- not believe that that can be stolen, which is not, and cannot be, pro- j, perty. LUTIiER BRADISH. I am, in favor of abolishing all distinctions in the constitutional rights of the citizens of this stale, founded solely on complexion. The stale of New-York, by its repeated legislative acts, has already pronounced her judgment., and declared her own policy, on the sub- ject of slavery. Within her own borders, she has alrcadj' proclaimed universal emancipation ; and lias ranged herself among the free States. I would abide by the compromises of the constitution. But I •would not extend them. If something be due to others, much is also due to ourselves, to our own principles, and our own institutions. So utterly am I opposed to slavery in all its forms, so great an evil, both moral and political, do I consider its existence in our country, that I would not, beyond the clear requirements of the federal con- stitution, either directly or indirectly, nearly or remotely, lend to it the sanction of our state legislation. Nor can I view the existence of this great moral and political evil, as is sometimes pretended, as the exclusive affair of the states where it exists. It touches too vi- tally the national interests and national character, not to be a sub- ject of deep and legitimate interest to every citizen who loves his country and its honor. But while I would leave to the states where this evil exists the exclusive duty, as it is their exclusive right, to act in this matter, I would reserve to all, and beyond a peradventure or a doubt, the right of its free discussion. And although in the “ con- summation most devoutly to be wished,” I rely under a controlling Providence, mainly upon the ultimate just views, generous impulses, and high moral sentiment of the slave-holder himself, yet to induce him to early action, I would not cease to address to him, as brother to brother, ever}' consideration that a burning patriotism could sug- the legion or liberty. gest, every inducement that an enlightened philanthropy could m spire, every argument and sanction that an elevated morality and holy religion could supply. JABEZ D. HAMMOND. Oct . 24, 1S14. A law, also was passed for raising two regiments of colored men for three years, among whom slaves might be en- listed by consent of their masters, who were to be manumitted on being honorably discharged. Thus it seems that that unfortunate class of men were not deemed unworthy of shedding their blood, in defence of a country, and a people which had degraded and oppres- sed them. Could it have been anticipated that Col. Young, who ably and zealously advocated this bill, would have been found in the convention of 18*21, supporting and probably by his influeuce, pro- curing to be inserted in the amended constitution a clause which was intended forever, there to degrade this trodden-down race of men, to whose aid he now, in this time of imminent peril, resorted ! — His- tory of Political Parties of N. Y. RED BEN H. WALWORTH- It is frequently the case, that the question to be tried relates mere- ly to the identity of the person claimed as a fugitive slave or appren- tice, he insisting that he is a free native bom citizen of the State where he is found residing at. the time the claim is made, and that he has never been in the Stat" under -whose laws his services are claimed — can it for a moment be supposed that the framers of the constitution intended to authorize the transportation of a person thus claimed to a distant part of ;he Union, as a slave, upon a mere summary examination before an inferior magistrate, who is clothed with no power to compel the attendance of witnesses to ascertain tlie truth of the allegations of the respective parties ! — Whatever others may think upon this subject, I must still be permitted to doubt whether the patriots of the revolution who framed the constitution of the United Stales, and who had incorporated into the Declara- tion of Independence, as one of the justifiable causes of separation from our mbther country, that the inhabitants of the colonies had been transported beyond seas for trial, could ever have intended to sanction such a principle as to one who was merely claimed as a fugitive from servitude in another State. I am one of those who have the habit of believing that the State legislatures had general powers to pass laws on all subjects, except those in which they were restricted by the constitution of the Uni- ted States. -I have looked in vain among the powers delegated to congress by the constitution, for any general authority to that body to legislate on this subject. It certainly is not contained in any ex- press grant of power, and it does not appear to be embraced in the general grant of incidental powers contained in the last clause of the constitution relative to the powers of congress . — Opinion in the N. Y. Court of Errors. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. HON. WILLIAM JAY. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE FREE STATES. The advocates of slavery and the tools of party, are continually tell, ing us, that “ the North has nothing to do with slavery.” A volume might be filled with facts, proving the fallacy of this assertion. There ia scarcely a family among us, that is not connected by the ties of friend- ship, kindred, or pecuniary interest, with the land of slaves. That land is endeared to us by a thousand recollections — with that land wa have continual commercial, political, religious, and social intercourse. There in innumerable instances, are our personal friends, our brothers, ' our sons and our daughters. How malignant and foolish then is the falsehood, that the thousands and tens of thousands of abolitionists among us, are anxious to see that land reeking in blood ! But the more intimate are our connections with that land, the more exposed are we ■ to be contaminated by its pollutions; and the more imperatively are we bound to seek its real welfare. Let it then sink deep in our hearts, let it rest upon our consciences, that in every wicked and cruel act of the Federal Government in be. half of slavery, the people of the North have participated, — we might almost say that for all this wickedness and cruelty, they are solely responsible ; since it could not have been perpetrated but with the ; consent of their representatives. Vast and fertile territories, which might now have been inhabited by a free and happy population, have by northern votes been converted, to use the language of the poet, into “ A land of tyrants, and a den of slaves.” By northern Senators, have our African slavers been protected from the search of British cruisers. By northern representatives, is the American slave-trade protected, and the abominations enacted in the Capital of the Republic, sanctioned and perpetuated ; and northern men are the officiating ministers in the sacrifice of constitutional li. berty on the altar of Moloch. But representatives are only the agents of their constituents, speaking their thoughts, and doing their will. The people of the North have done “this great wickedness.” When they repent, when they love mercy, and seek after justice, their representatives will no longer rejoice to aid in transforming the image of God into a beast of burden — then will the human shambles be overthrown in the Capital — then will slavers, “ frightened with des- pair,” no longer depart from the port of Alexandria, nor chained cofries parade the streets of Washington. Then will the powers of the Federal Government be exercised in protecting, not in annihilat- ing the rights of man ; and then will the slaveholder, deprived of the countenance of the free States, as he is already of nearly all the rest of the civilised world, be led to reflect calmly on the character and tendency of the institution he now so dearly prizes, and seek his own welfare and that of his children in its voluntary and peaceful aboli- tion. — Jay's View. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. The time appears to have arrived when it is proper to look to the cause of the difficulties which have taken place in the progress of the General Government, forsome years past. Through all the con- tests of the political parties which have taken place, one fact is visi- ble ; and that is the steady ascendancy of the slave-holding princi- ples. This fact can be accounted for only in one way. — It is the basis of representation in the popular branch of the Legislature, which establishes that ascendancy. Twenty-five representatives, elected by the citizens of the slaveholding States, in addition to the number which they are entitled to by their free population, have, for ten years past, controlled the destinies of the country. Twenty- five electoral votes, gained to the masters from the chains of two millions of human beings, and held forth as the prize to that indi- vidual and that party which will consent to make the greatest sac- rifices of principle to obtain them, are sufficient to decide the char- acter of the government policy. . This has been submitted to with- out great murmuring, up to this time; but there are many indica- lions to prove that it will not be so any longer. The free States have a right to be heard on this point, because the original com- promise, which was made upon this subject in the Constitution, and which let in this enormous power, has in its practical effect, been wholly favorable to the slave States, and without any benefit at all to them . — Report to the General Court of Mass. COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty-Three. Ri solves, concerning an amendment to the Constitution of the | United . States. Resolved, That the following amendment to the Constitution of the United States be and hereby is recommended to the considera- tion of Congress, to be acted on according to the fifth article : The third clause of the second section of the first article shall read in the words following : 11 Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States, which are or may be included within this Unon, ac- cording to their respective numbers of free persons. The actual en- . numeration shall be made within two years from the date of the adop- tion of this amendment, in the manner provided by the Constitu- i tion, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such man- ner as the Congress shall by law direct. The number of represen- tatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one representative.” Resolve c7, That his Excellency the Governor be requested to transmit a copy of the aforegoing resolves and the proposed amend- ment to each of the senators and members of the House of Repre- sentatives of this commonwealth in the Congress of the United States. Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor, be requested to trans- mit a copy of the same resolve and amendment to the executive of the United States and of the several States. 7 * THE LEGIOH OF LIBERTY. THOMAS MORRIS. I rejoice, that the abolition of slavery throughout the civilized World, is no longer problematical ; it seems to be almost universally . conceded, that this stupendous fraud upon a portion of the human race is fast drawing to a close, and the great question with us is truly, what measures are best suited to accomplish this desirable end in the United States. In our otherwise free and favored country, slavery seems to have erected its strongest hold, and is not only striving to govern the councils of the country, the press and the pulpit ; but even mind itself is attempted to be made subject to its rules ; and I should almost despair of successful resistance, did I not see embo- . died in the cause of freedom more moral worth, more talent, more patriotism, more love of country, more devotedness to principles, than is embodied in any other cause in the United States. Yes. I repeat it, the gentlemen who are now, in our own country, engaged in the anti-slavery cause, seem, to me, to possess more moral worth, more talent, more patriotism and love of country, than any other body of itfen in the United Stales, not even' excepting the public councils of the nation. It is true they arc yet in the minority ; but if I am not mistaken, in every age and country of the world in which men have been compelled, by oppression, to strike for freedom, they have been at first but few in number and a persecuted race. But where they ■ have been sincere, making truth and justice their guide, success has universally been the final result of their efforts. With us the slave has no power of action, nor can we consent that his freedom shall be the purchase of his own arm ; a merciful Providence, in order to prevent such dreadful catastrophes in our beloved country, has brought to his rescue, and united for his deliverance, the warmest hearts and soundest heads of the nation ; and they present to the world the new, strange and cheering phenomenon, of men enjoying all the blessings of liberty themselves, yet willing to devote their time, their means, their all, to procure for the oppressed and down-trodden slave, those natural rights to which he is entitled, and which we promised to all men as the chief corner stone of our republican edifice. The moral power of such men is sufficient for this work, but that moral power must operate by means ; and the elective franchise is the great, if not the only means to make it effectual. Political action is necessary to pro- duce moral reformation in a nation ; and that action with us can only be effectually exercised through the ballot box. And surely the bal- lot-box can never be used for a more noble purpose than to restore and secure to every man his inalienable rights. It seems to me to be almost an impossibility, that a man can be in favor of perpetuating American slavery, and yet be a friend to the principles of our govern- ment. If the ballot-box, then, is honestly and independently used, it alone will soon produce the extinguishment of slavery in our country. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged : and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. To preach deliverence to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TESTIMONY. PRESS i TER LIN SYNOD of New York and Philadelphia, 1787. The Svnou of New York and Philadelphia, (1787,) do highly appiove of the general principles in favor of universal liberty that pre- vail in America, and the interest which many of the states have taken in promoting the abolition of slavery. They earnestly recommend it to all the members belonging to their communion, to give those per- sons who are at present held in servitude, such good education as to prepare them for the better enjoyment of freedom. And they more- over recommend that masters, whenever they find servants disposed to make a just improvement of the privilege, would give them a pecu- liurn, or grant them sufficient time, and sufficient means of procuring their own liberty at a moderate rate ; that thereby they may be brought into society with those habits of industry that may render them useful RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TESTIMONY. citizens. And finally, they recommend it to all their people to use the most prudent measures, consistent with the interests and the state of civil society in the countries where they live, to procure eventually the final abolition of slavery in America. Advice given by the Assembly, in relation to Slavery, in 1815. “ The General Assembly have- repeatedly declared their cordial approbation of those principles of civil liberty which appear to be recognized by the Federal and State governments, in these United States. They have expressed their regret that the slavery of the Africans and of their descendants still continues in so many places, and even among those within the pale of the Church ; and have urged the Presbyteries under their care, to adopt such measures as will secure at least to the rising generation of slaves, within the bounds of the Church, a religious education ; that they may be prepared for the exercise and enjoyment of liberty, when God, in Ins providence may open a door for their emancipation. W “A full expression of the Assembly's views of Slavery, in 1818. “We consider the voluntary enslaving of one part of the human race by another, as a gross violation of tire most precious and sacred rights of human nature ; as utterly inconsistent with the law of God which requires us to love our neighbor as ourselves ; and as totally irreconcilable with the spirit and principles of the gospel of Christ, which enjoin that ‘all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.’ Slavery creates a paradox in' the moral system — it exhibits rational, accountable, and immortal beings in such circumstances as scarcely to leave them the power of moral action. It exhibits them as dependant on. the will of others, whether they- shall receive religious instruction ; whether they shall know and worship the true God ; whether they shall enjoy the ordinances of the gospel ; whether they shall perform the duties and cherish the endear- ments of husbands and wives, parents and children, neighbors and friends ; whether they shall preserve their chastity and purity-, or regard the dictates of justice and humanity. Such are some of the vonsequeHC.es. of slavery; consequences not imaginary, !>tat which con- nect themselves with its very existence. The evils to which the slave is always exposed, often take place in their very worst degree and form ; and where.all of them do not take place, still the slave is deprived of his natural rights, degraded as a human being, and exposed to the danger, of passing into the hand of a master who may inflict upon him all the hardships and injuries which inhumanity and avarice may suggest. “ We enjoin it on all Church Sessions and Presbyteries to discoun- tenance, and as far as possible to prevent all cruelty, of whatever kind, in the treatment of slaves ; especially the cruelty of separating husband and wife, parents and children ; and that which consists in selling slaves to those who will either themselves deprive those unhappy people of the blessings of the gospel, or who will transport them to METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH S, HOPKINS, D. D. places where the gospel is not proclaimed, or where it is forbidden to slaves to attend upon its institutions. The manifest violation or dis- regard of this injunction, ought to be considered as just ground for the discipline and censures of the Church. And if it shall ever happen that a Christian professor in our communion shall sell a slave who is also in communion with our Church, contrary to his or her will and inclination, it ought immediately to claim the particular attention of the proper Church judicature ; and unless there be such peculiar circum- stances attending the case as can but seldom happen, it ought to be followed without delay, by a suspension of tire offender from all the privileges of the Church, till he repent and make all the reparation in his power to the injured party .” — Digest of the General Assembly, page 341. METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. There is only one condition previously required of those who desire admission into these societies, a desire to flee from the wrath to come, and to be saved from their sins. But wherever this is really fixed in tire soul, it will be shown by its fruits. It is therefore expected of all who continue therein, that they should continue to evidence their desire of salvation, by doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind, especially that which is most generally practised, such as — “ the buying and selling of men, women, or children, with an intention to enslave them." Of slavery. — Question . — What shall be done for the extirpation of the evil of slavery ? Answer 1. — We declare that we are as much as ever convinced of tlie great evil of slavery ; therefore, no slaveholder shall be eligible to any official station in our Church hereafter ; where the laws of the state in which he lives will admit of emancipation, and permit the liberated slave to enjoy freedom. Answer 2. — When any travelling preacher becomes an owner of a slave or slaves, by any means he shall forfeit his ministerial character in our Church, unless he execute, if it be practicable, a legal emanci- pation of such slaves, conformably to the laws of the state in which he lives . — Doctrine and Discipline. SAMUEL HOPKINS, D. D. Are you sure your slaves have a sufficiency of good food, in season ; and that they never want for comfoi table clothing and bedding ? Do you take great care to deal as well by them in these tilings, as you would wish others would treat your own children, were they slaves in a strange land ? If your servants complain, are you ready to attend to them ? Or do you in such cases frown upon them, or do something worse, so as to discourage their ever applying to you, whatever they may suffer, having learned that this would only be making bad worse? Do you never fly into a passion, and deal with them in great anger, deciding matters respecting them, and threatening them, and giving sentence concerning them, from which they have no appeal, and perhaps proceed to correct them, when to a calm bystander you appear more fit to be confined in a bedlam, than to have the sovereign, uncon- JONATHAN EDWARDS. (Tollable dominion over your brethren, as the sole lawgiver, judge, and executioner? Do not even your children domineer over your slaves? Must they not often be at the beck of an ungoverned, peevish child in the family ; and if they do not run at his or her call, and are not all submission and obedience, must they not expect the frowns of their masters, if not the whip ? If none of these tilings, my good sir, take place in your family, have we not reason to think you a most singular instance ? How common are things of this kind, or worse, taking place between masters and their slaves? In how few instances, if in any, are slaves treated, as the masters would wish to have their own children treated, in like cir- cumstances ? How ic\v arc fit to be masters ? To have the sovereign dominion over a number of their fellow men, being his property, and wholly at his disposal ; who must abide his s atence and orders, how- ever unreasonable, without any possibility of relief ? But are we at the same time making slaves of many thousands of our brethren, who have as good a right to liberty a- • rselv s, and to whom it is as sweet as it is to us, and the contrary a> >V dful ! Are we holding them in the most abject, miserable slate of slavery, without the least compassionate feeling towards them or their posterity , utt< rly refusing to take off the oppressive galling yoke! Oh, the shocking, the intolerable inconsistency ! And tliis gross, barefaced inconsistency is an open, practical condemnation of holding these our brethren in slavery ; and in these circumstances the crime of persisting in it becomes unspeakably greater and more provoking in God’s sight ; so that all the former unrighteousness and cruelty exercised in this practice, is innocence, compared with the awful guilt that is now contracted. And in allusion to the words of our Saviour, it may with great truth and propriety be said, “If he bad not thus come in his Providence, and spoken unto us, (comparatively speaking,) we had not had sin. in making bond-slaves of our brethren ; but now, we have no cloak lor our sin.” — Dialogue on . African Slavery, 177G, republished 1785, by the JV. F. Manumission Society, whose president was John Jay. JONATHAN EDWARDS. The eradication, or even the diminution of compassion, tenderness, and humanity, is certainly a great depravity of heart, and must be followed with corespondent depravity of manners. And measures which lead to such depravity of heart and manners, cannot but he extremely hurtful to the state, and consequently are extremely impolitic. African slavery is exceedingly impolitic, as it discourages industry. Nothing is more essential to the political prosperity of any state, than industry in the citizens. But in proportion as slavt s are multiplied, every kind of labor becomes ignominious ; and in fact, in those of the United States, in which slaves are the most numerous, gentlemen and ladies of any fashion disdain to employ themselves in business, which in other states is consistent with the dignity of the first families and first offices. In a country filled with negro slaves, labor belongs to them only, and a white man is despised in proportion as he applies to ELIAS HICfcS — -JESSE TURKEY, JR. it. Now how destructive to industry in all of the lowest and middle classes of citizens, such a situation, and the prevalence of such ideas will be, you can easily conceive. The consequence is, that some will nearly starve, others will betake themselves to the most dishonest practices, to obtain the means of living. As slavery produces indolence in the white people, so it produces all those vices which are naturally connected with it ; such as intem- perance, lewdness, and prodigality. These vices enfeeble both the body aiul the mind, and unfit men for any vigorous exertions and em- ployments, either external or mental ; and those who are unfit for such exertions, are already a very degenerate race ; degenerate, not only in a moral, but a natural sense. They are contemptible too, and will soon be despised even by their negroes themselves. Slavery lias a most direct tendency to haughtiness also, and a domi- neering spirit and conduct in the proprietors of the slaves, in their children, and in ail who have the control of them. A man who has been bred up in domineering over negroes, can scarcely avoid con- tracting such a habit of haughtiness and domination, as will express itself in his general treatment of mankind, whether in his private capacity, or in any office, civil or military, with which he may be ves'ed. Despotism in economics naturally leads to despoti-sm in politics, and domestic slavery in a free government is a perfect solecism in oilman affairs. — The Injustice and impolicy of the slave-trade and of the slavery of the Africans — a Sermon in New Haven, Sept. 15, 1791. ELIAS HICKS. lVe, in an enlightened age, have greatly surpassed, in brutality and injustice, the most ignorant and barbarous ages ; and while we are pretending to the finest feelings of humanity, are exercising unpre- cedented cruelty. We have planted slavery in the rank soil of sordid avarice; and the product has been misery in tire extreme. The slavedealer, the slaveholder, and the si ave driver are virtually the agents of the consumer. Whatever we do by another, we do ourselves. JESSE -TORREY, Jr. To enumerate all the horrid and aggravating instances of man- stealing, which are known to have occurred in the state of Delaware, within 'Vne recollection of many of the citizens of that state would require a volume. In many cases, whole families of free colored people have been attacked in the night, beaten nearly to death with clubs, gagged and bound, and dragged into distant and hopeless 'captivity ; leaving no traces behind, except the blood from their wounds. During tli| last winter, the house of a free black family was broken open, and its defenceless .inhabitants treated in the manner just men- tioned, except that the mother escaped from their merciless grasp, while on their way to the state of Maryland. The plunderers, of whom there were nearly half a dozen, conveyed their prey upon horses; and the woman being placed on one of the horses, behind, improved an JOHN KENRICK. opportunity, as they were passing a house, and sprang off. Not daring to pursue her, they proceeded on, leaving her youngest child a little farther along, by the side of the road, in expectation, it is supposed, ; that its cries would attract the mother; but she prudently waited until morning, and recovered it again in safety. From the best information that I have had opportunities to collect, in travelling my various routes through the states of Delaware and Maryland, I am fully convinced that there are, at this time, within the jurisdiction of the United States, several thousands of legally free people of color, toiling under the yoke of involuntary servitude, and transmitting the same fate to their posterity! — Domestic Slavery anil Kidnapping. JOHN KENRICK. “ The Hon-ors of Slavery .” — To invite attention to this melancholy • subject, and to excite sympathy for the suffering, is the object of this publication. The compiler firmly believes that his countrymen stand • exposed to the righteous rebukes of Providence for this glaring incon- sistency and inhumanity ; that whether they shall be tried at the bar of reason, the bar of conscience, or the bar of God, they may justly be condemned out of their own mouths; and that all their arguments, and all their fightings for liberty, may be produced as evidence, that as a ; people, they do unto others as they would not that others should do unto them. The suffering and degraded sons of Africa are groaning under bondage in a land of boasted freedom,— nay, groaning under oppression from the hands of men who would probably involve a whole nation in war and bloodshed — or even set the world on fire, rather than submit to a fiftieth part of the violation of natural rights which they inflict on the African race. Whenever the government of the United States shall come to the righteous and consistent determination, that all the inhabitants shall be free, it is believed that no insurmountable obstacles will be found in the way of its accomplishment. Whether it would be just, and equal, and eligible, to take money from the public treasury to redeem African slaves, may possibly become a question for the consideration of con- gress. It may not, however, be amiss for the people to inquire whether it would be more just and equitable to continue to withhold from more than a million (now two millions) of our fellow beings those essential blessings, without which we ourselves should consider life insupportable. If it should be pleaded that the powers of the general government are too limited to ensure the personal, civil, and religious liberties of all ; can a doubt be entertained of the readiness of the people, when they fairly understand the subject, to enlarge those powers to any extent necessary for the attainment of an object of such transcendant importance? To say “they would not,” would be to utter a most shameful libel against a majority of the freemen of the United States. — The Horrors of Slavery. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. WILLIAM PENN. ‘•Amongst the many insfanccs of the humanity of his character, we must reckon his attention to the civilization and instruction of the Indians ; and the same care extended to the poor neglected Af- ricans, who were employed at that time as slaves in the province. It was not then deemed infamous to traffic in slaves ; but some of the Quakers at their yearly meeting for Pennsylvania, held in 1688, perceived its iniquity, and resolved that the buying, selling, and holding men in slavery, was inconsistent with the tenets of the Chris- tian religion ; and in consequence of these opinions had begun to treat their slaves as the children of the universal parent, and joint heirs of the same hopes of a glorious immortality. “ A meeting was appointed particularly for them, to be held once every month ; and as a further security for their comfort and improve- ment, a legislative act was proposed in their favor. Marriage tvas encouraged among them, and they were induced by precept and ex- ample to lead an orderly, sober life. But in these excellent resolu- tions, he had the mortification to meet with some opposition.” — Pris. cilia Wakefield. ELIAS HICKS. In the pride of our own hearts, we are endeavoring to be exalted through the cruel oppression of our fellow creatures. Our poor fel- low creatures are held in the most cruel bondage all their lives, while some are feasting on the result of their labors, and becoming en- riched from them, even by the sweat and blood of their fellow crea- tures against their will. And they are forced to it by their cruel masters. Now let us seek for the root of all this. Had man been rational in all his actions, it never could have been the case. For when we consider that Almighty goodness has dispensed to every one a mea- sure of his grace and of his Holy Spirit, whereby we arc to profit, how astonishing it appears that a fellow creature could ever put his hand out to bring into bondage another fellow creature ! But it is all founded in iniquity, tradition, and custom. Look at this deeply, m}’ dear friends, for we are deeply in debt. And when I look round sometimes, I feel as if it were almost im- possible for the people of this land to clear themselves of this iniqui- ty. It has been of so long continuance, and they have brought them- selves so deeply in debt, that it seems as if they could never make reconciliation for their injustice ; and especially so, as it regards the professing people called Quakers. How could they ever have con- sented to hold a slave, to buy or sell one, or to live by a neighbor who had one, without bearing testimony against him ? Could they ever do it without relinquishing their principle ? While the light of truth in the heart was their guide as well as their profession, they never could ; for every one must acknowledge that this oppression is founded in iniquity, ungodliness andsin. And we must be astonished how a person, professing what we as a society profess, could for one moment lay his power upon a fellow creature, and by dint of the 8 ELIAS HICKS. sword, keep him under his power, and drive him to his work with- out giving him a reward. You must know that the sword has ope- rated, or there never would have been a slave ; it was by the power of the sword that they were brought under, and into this oppression ; and so it is the dread of the sword that keeps them there. For were a slave to believe for a moment, that the sword would not be exer- cised upon him, he would be no longer a slave — he could not be one. Here then, we see the force of tradition and custom, as Jesus de- clared concerning the Scribes and Pharisees — “ Thus have ye made the commandments of God of none effect by your traditions.” Now what could operate upon those, who have seemed to be some- what willing minded, and who are professing as we do, to lead them to hold a fellow creature for a moment in slavery ? It is the dread- ful consequence of tradition, by which the commandments of God are made of none effect. Now pause, dear friends and people. What is our condition ? Are we strengthening the hands of the oppressor ? If so, we are guilty ; for the partakers of that which has been procured by robbery and stealing, are considered as bad as the principal actors. Now this is a small matter, when compared with taking away the free agency of our fellows, which is every thing to them — it is the source of all their joy and pleasure. They are thus reduced to miserable, abject animals, without any privilege to think or act for themselves. How the robber and the thief sink on a comparison with the oppres- sor ! For the thief goes silily, and gets a little from his fellow crea- ture, but does not hurt his person, and perhaps gels but a portion ot what the other enjoys ; and sometimes the other is as well without, it as with it.- And how is it with the robber ? lie does not want to do an act of violence, if he ran get his prey ; and when the property is given up, he leaves the owner 10 get more, or enjoy what ho may have left. But let us look on the other side at the injustice and cruelty which is manifested towards our fellow creatures, when we destroy the liberty of those to whom God has given a choice. Here we see that a crea- ture rises up before G-od Almighty, and presumes to lake away the free agency of a fellow creature, and to bring him into a stale of slavery and oppression, and to destroy his will. And if he should exert it a little, what comes next ? The sword or the lash 1 How many there are, who, for speaking their own will a little, have fallen dead before their masters. I want us to go into an examination for ourselves, that we may see what wonderful power tradition has, among ihose, even, who have seen ibis oppression to be superfluous. Yet being long in tho practice of seeing it, and having grown up from the cradle in the midst of it. they fall into and become amalgamated with those who are gifdty of it. And so it is they continue using the produce of their poor miserable fellow creatures, who are dying daily. For their suf- fering is like a slow torment to bring them to their end, like that which cruel tyrants of the earth have sometimes devised, to cause their victims to be a great while under torture, instead of taking their life suddenly. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. TIMOTHY DWIGHT. From the Poem “ Green field Hill,” dedicated to John Adams. Oil wing’d by thought I seek those Indian isles, Where endless spring with endless summer smiles ; Where fruits of gold untir'd Vertumnus pours. And Flora dances o’er undying Sowers ; — There, as I walk through fields as Eden “gay, And breathe the incense of immortal day, Ceaseless I hear the smacking whip rebound — Hark ! that shrill scream ! those groans of death resound ! See those throng’d wretches pant along the plain, Tug the hard hoe, and sigh in hopeless pain 1 Yon mother loaded with her sucking child, Her rags with frequent spots of blood defil’d, Drags slowly fainting on ; the fiend is nigh, Rings the shrill cowskin, roars the tiger cry. In pangs the unfriended suppliant crawls along, And shrieks the prayer of agonizing wrong. Why glows yon oven with a sevenfold fire ? Crisp’d in the flame behold a man expire 1 Lo! by that vampyre’s hand, yon infhnt dies; Its brains dash’d out beneath its father’s eyes ! Why shrinks yon slave with horror from his meat ? Heavens! ’tis his flesh the wretch is forced to eat 1 IV hy streams the life blood from that female throat ? She sprinkled gravy on a guest’s new coat 1 Why crowd those groaning blacks the docks around ? Those screams announce, that cowskins’ crackling sound. See that poor victim hanging from the crane, While loaded weights his limbs to torture strain. At each keen stroke, far spouts the bursting gore, And shrieks and dying groans fill all the shore. Around in throngs his brother victims wait. And feel in every stroke their coming fate ; While each with palsied hands, and shuddering fears, The cause, the rule, the price of torment bears. Hark, hark, from morn to night the realm around, The cracking whip, keen taunt, and shriek resound. O’crcast are all the splendors of the spring, Sweets court in vain ; in vain the warblers sing. Illusions all 1 ’tis Tartarus round me spreads His dismal screams and melancholy shades, The damned, sure, here clank th’ eternal chain, And waste with grief, *or agonize with pain. A Tartarus new ! emission strange of hell, Guilt wreaks the vengeance, and the guiltless feel, The heart not formed of flint here all things rend, Each fair a fury, and each man a fiend, From childhood train’d to every baleful ill, And their first sport to torture or to kill. THE LEGION OF LBERTY. ELIPHALET NOTT. “ Whatever tends to divert the attention of any community from honest industry, and to substitute any other plan of operations for a livelihood, is an enemy to the race. Slavery does this, as its object is to tax the sweat and sinew of its victims, that its institutors and abettors may live without labor, and spend their time in idleness and luxury ; it is therefore, »an enemy to the peace and prosperity of any people among whom it exists ; it is contrary to the order of nature, and the laws of our being and benevolence would invite to labor for its removal. In proof of his position, the Dr. clearly exhibited the striking contrast in prosperity and happiness which is so conspicuous between those sections of the world where slavery exists, and labor is avoided as direputable, and those where universal freedom and li- berty reign. He pointed out the greater security for property and life, where honest labor and freedom dwell, than where an important portion of the people live upon the unrequited toil of those who groan under the yoke of interminable servitude. In the one these great interests are made safe by a healthy public sentiment, and the en- forcement of salutary laws ; in the other, attempts are made to secure them by the private operation of the pistol, the dirk, and the bowio knife. 4 Oh ! for a lodge in some vast wilderness,’ he cried, ending with, 1 1 would not have a slave to till my ground, to carry me and fan me while I sleep and tremble when I wake, for all the gold which sinews bought and sold have ever earned ! No ! dear as freedom is, and in my heart’s estimation prized above all price, I would much rather be myself the slave, and wear the bonds, than fasten them on him.’ At the conclusion of this beautiful extract from Cowper, which was uttered in Dr. Nott’s peculiar, emphatic and eloquent manner, a loud burst of applause and cheering succeeded. *■ He then declaic.1, that notwithstanding these sentiments, he would not say a word to encourage the disturbance or severance of the constituted relation and connection which formed the Union, or interfere in the least degree with the rights of independent States. Although slavery was contrary to the eternal and immutable laws of our being, and therefore, retarded and opposed our true interests as a nation, yet if we of the North had, in the origin of our govern- ment agreed to give a ‘ pound of flesh' let us give it to the full ex- tent of the bond ; yet, let not those who choose to maintain this un- natural and unpropitious 1 institution,’ exact of those who reject it, any greater concessions in its favor, than is contained in that 4 bond.’ Do they contend that we shall not interfere with their 4 rights ?’ then let them not interfere with our 4 rights,’ or complain if we use our 4 speech’ or our 4 press’ in declaring the truth concerning this unpro- fitable institution, for these are our birth-i rights’ and firmly guaran. teed inviolate too by this same 4 bond of union." — Address to the A'ew-York State Agricultural Society, Sept. 1841. J. T. WOODBDRT E. LEWIS E. C. DELEVAN. JAMES T. WOODBURY. We can vote slavery down in Columbia and in our territories. “But,” it is objected, “ it will dissolve the Union.” Mr. Bimey says, the South never will do it, for they cannot support themselves, and we are more liable to go there and fight, to keep their slaves in subjection. The slaves, if they are freed, will not come here, their labor is wanted in the South. The South do not hate the black skin with which God has covered them, as we do. “But O they smell bad.” No bad smell while they are slaves ; they are about the persons of their masters and mistresses, and nurse their children, and do not scent them with the bad smell, — but as soon as they are free — bad smell. EVAN LEWIS. Much has been said by the advocates and apologists of slavery, about the danger of emancipation — that it would be accompanied or followed by insurrections, massacres, and servile war. Now no sane man desires to turn loose upon society, a horde of ignorant men, either white or black, without the salutary restraints of law. We wish to see the assumed right of property in human flesh abolished, and the laws made for the protection, as well as for the government and re- straint, of every man of every nation and color. To place every man under the protection of the law, and to abolish that licentiousness and tyranny which are now tolerated, would be to restore society to its natural order, and give every man an interest in the preservation of the peace and harmony of the community. All fear of hostility and temptations to excite insurrections, or to shed the blood of the white men, would bo banished with the removal of the cause which produce them. In all cases where the experiment has been tried, [in the West Indian Islands,] our reasoning from the nature of man, and the in- fluence which just treatment will always exert on his moral character, has been proved by universal facts . — Genius of Universal Emancipation. EDWARD C. DELEVAN. I am si ad to say that I have already joined the “ Anti-Slavery So- ciety.” I ha# long felt that it was my duty to do so, and I have only been deterred by the fear of injuring the cause of Temperance, with which cause you know my name has in some measure been identified. I have, in fact, been practising that kind of expediency, which I have been so ready to condemn in others, with regard to the cause of Tem- perance. I have joined the “ Anti-Slavery Society,” for the reason that l believe it to be doing about all that is now attempted for the relief of our country from the sin of slavery, for that slavery, as it now exists in these United States is a high handed sin I have no doubt. Other societies may be doing much for Africa, and for the elevation of free colored people ; but, for the final relief of our beloved country and our enslaved brethren, your society, among human instrumentalities, now seems to me the only hope. That the Anti-Slavery Society may be 8 * THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. the instrument under God, by kind arguments and Christian entreaty, not only of enlightening the public opinion of the north as to the sin and evil of slavery, but, what is of still greater moment, of affecting the hearts of our Christian brethren of the south and leading them as a matter of interest, as well as duty, to rid themselves of a curse, and our country of its deepest stain, shall be my daily prayer. — Letter to G err it Smith. ROBERT J. BRECKENRIDGE. Just and equal ! what care I, whether my pockets are picked, or the proceeds of my labor are taken from me? What matters it whether my horse is stolen, or the value of him in my labor be taken from me? 1 Do wc talk of violating the rights of masters, and depriving them of their property in their slaves? And will some one tell us, if there be • any thing in which a man has, or can have, so perfect a right of property, as in his own limbs, bones, and sinews ? Out upon such folly! The man who cannot see that involuntary domestic slavery, as it exists among us, is founded upon the principle of taking by force that which is another’s, has simply no moral sense. We utter but the common sentiment of mankind when we say, none ever continue slaves a moment after they are conscious of their ability to retrieve their freedom. The constant tendency for fifty years has been to accumulate the black population upon the southern states; 1 already in some of them the blacks exceed the whites, and in most of them increase above the increase of the whites in the same states, . with a ratio that is absolutely startling ; [the annual increase in the • United States is sixty thousand ;] the slave population could bring into action a larger portion of efficient men, perfectly inured to hardships, to the climate, and privations, than any other population in the world ; and they have in distant sections, and on various occasions, manifested already a desperate purpose to shake off the yoke. In such an event we ask not any heart to decide where would human sympathy and earthly glory stand ; we ask not in the fearful words of Jefferson, what attribute of Jehovah would allow him to take part with us ; we ask only — and the answer settles the argument — which is like to be the stronger side? Nature, and reason, and religion unite in their hostility to this system of folly and crime. How it will end, time only can reveal ; but the , light of heaven is not clearer than that it must end. — v3/i%|ii Repository , Jan. 1834. FRANCIS WAYLAND. Its effects must be disastrous upon the morals of both parties. By presenting objects on whom passion can be satisfied without resistance and without redress, it cultivates in the master, pride, anger, cruelty, selfishness, and licentiousness. By accustoming the slave to subject his moral principles to the will of another, it tends to abolish in him ALONZO POTTER WILLIAM E. CHANNING. all moral distinction, and thus fosters in him, lying, deceit, hypocrisy, dishonesty, and a willingness to yield himself up to minister to the appetite of his master — Moral Science. ALONZO POTTER. Brethren, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. This is the argument on which I would rely, in asking your charity this evening. The neglected and ill-fated race for whom I plead, are brethren with us of one family. The hand of the Creator may have imprinted on their features, a hue and complexion less delicate than ours. Man’s rapacity may have torn them from their native land, and reduced them to the condition of slaves and menials here. And weighed down by oppression, bereft of hope, and having none to care for their souls, they may, too often, have sunk into vice and debase- ment. But, my friends, standing in this holy place — in his immediate presence, who has made of one blood all the nations of the earth, and given his Son to be a ransom for the inhabitans of every one alike ; I can listen to no such facts as an excuse for apathy or avarice. If this unfortunate people have a physical nature less perfect than ours, God forbid that this, their misfortune, should be imputed to them as their crime. Still they have all the attributes of men — “ the same organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions. They are fed with the same food, hurt with tire same weapons, subject to the same diseases, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer,” that a white man is. — Discourse before the African School Society, Schenectady N. Y. WILLIAM E. CHANNING. With the free we are to plead his cause. And this is peculiarly our duty, because we have bound ourselves to resist his efforts for his own emancipation. We suffer him to do nothing for himself. The more, then, should be done for him. Our physical power is pledged against him in case of revolt. Then our moral power should be exerted for Iris relief. His weakness, which we increase, gives him a claim to the only aid we can afford, to our moral sympathy, to the free and faithful exposition of his wrongs. As men, as Christians, as citizens, we have duties to the slave, as well as to every other member of the community. On this point we have no liberty. The eternal law binds us to take the side of the injured ; and this law is peculiarly obligatory, when we forbid him to lift an arm in his own defence. There is, however, there must be, in slaveholding communities a large class which cannot be too severely condemned. There are many we fear, very many, who hold their fellow-creatures in bondage, from selfish, base motives. They hold the slave for gain, whether justly or unjustly they neither ask nor care. They cling to him as property, and have no faith in the principles which will diminish a man’s wealth. They hold him, not for his own good or the safety of the state, but with precisely the same views with which they hold a laboring horse, that is, for the profit which they can wring from him. They will not hear a word of his wrongs ; for, wronged or not, they will not let him THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. go. He is their property, and they mean not to be poor for righteous- ness’ sake. Such a class there undoubtedly is among slaveholders ; how large their own consciences must determine. We are sure of it ; for under such circumstances human nature will and must come to this mournful result. Now, to men of this spirit, the explanations we have made do in no degree apply. Such men ought to tremble before the rebukes of outraged humanity and indignant virtue. Slavery, upheld for gain, is a great crime. He, who has nothing to urge against eman- cipation, but that it will make him poorer, is bound to immediate eman- cipation. He has no excuse for wresting from his brethren their rights. The plea of benefit to the slaye and the state avails him nothing. He extorts, by the lash, that labor to which he has no claim, through a base selfishness. Every morsel of food, thus forced from the injured, ought to be bitterer than gall. His gold is cankered. The sweat of the slave taints the luxuries for which it streams. Better were it for the selfish wrong doer of whom I speak, to live as the slave, to clothe him- self in the slave’s raiment, to eat the slave’s coarse food, to till his fields with his own hands, than to pamper himself by day, and pillow his head on down at night, at the cost of a wantonly injured fellow- creature. I know it will be said, “You would make us poor.” Be poor, then, and thank God for your honest poverty. Better be poor than unjust. Better beg than steal. Better live in an almshouse, better die than trample on a fellow-creature and reduce him to a brute, for selfish gratification. What ! have we yet to learn that “ it profits us nothing to gain the whole world, and lose our souls ?” Slavery must fall, because it stands in direct hostility to all the grand movements, principles, and reforms of our age, because it stands in the way of an advancing world. One great idea stands out amidst the discoveries and improvements of modern times. It is, that man is not to exercise arbitrary, irresponsible power over man. To rc. strain power, to divide and balance it, to create responsibility for its just use, to secure the individual against its abuse, to substitute law for private will, to shield the weak from the strong, to give to tho injured the means of redress, to set a fence round every man’s pro- perty and rights, in a word, to secure liberty, — such, under various expressions, is the great object on which philosophers, patriots, philan thropists, have long fixed their thoughts and hopes. It is remarkable, and one of the happy omens of the times, that even absolute govern, ments have reached, in a measure, this grand idea. They present themselves as the guardians of liberty. They profess their desire and purpose to sustain equal laws, under which all men, from the highest to the lowest, shall find effectual protection for their rights. The dis- tinguished Prussian historian, Raumer, in his letters on England, main- tains, that his own government, w'hich foreigners call despotic, does not rest on private will, and that it ensures, on the whole, greater freedom to the subject, than the British people can boast. Thus des- potism does homage to the great ideas and spirit of our times ; and yet in the midst of this progress, in the face of this universal reverence for human rights, the slaveholder stands apart, and sets up his claim to ownership of his fellow-creatures, THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. DOCTOR CHANNING. The great evil [of Slavery] is, the contempt and violation of human rights, the injustice which treats a man as a brute, and which breaks his spirit to make him a human tool. It is the injustice, which de- nies him the means of improvement, which denies him scope for his powers, which dooms him to an unchangeable lot, which robs him of the primitive right of human nature, that of bettering his outward and inward state. It is the injustice, which converts his social connec- tions into a curse. Here, perhaps, the influence of slavery is most blighting. Our social connections are intended by God to be among our chief means of improvement and happiness; and a system, which wars with these, is the most cruel outrage on our nature. Other men’s chief relations are to wife and children, to brother and sister, to beings endeared by nature, and who awaken the heart to tenderness and faithful love. The slave’s chief relation is to his owner, to the man who wrongs him. This it is, which above all things determines his lot, and this infuses poison into all his other social connections. This destroys the foundation of domestic happiness by sullying female pu- rity, by extinguishing in woman the sense of honor This violates the sanctity of the marriage bond. This tears the wife from the hus- band, or condemns her to insult, perhaps, laceration in his sight. This takes from the parent his children. His children belong to another, and are disposed of for another’s gain. Thus God’s great provisions for softening, refining, elevating human nature are thwarted. Thus social ties are liable to be turned into bitterness and wrong. An ecclesiastical document, which appeared not long ago in soma of our papers, is a strong illustration of the influence of slavery on the relations of domestic life. It confirms, what we have often heard, that the slaves are commanded to matry or live together, for the pur- pose of keeping up the stock of the estate. It shows us, too, that when slaves are sold at a distance from their original homes, they are commanded to give up their wives or husbands whom they have left, and to serve the estate by forming new connections. Against this tyranny one w T ould think, that the slave would find some protection in his religious teachers. One would think, that the Christian minister would interpose, to save the colored member of the church from be- ing forced to renounce the wife from whom he had been torn ; that he would struggle to rescue him from an adulterous union, against which his affections as well as sense of duty may revolt. But, according to this document, an association of ministers decreed, that the slave sold at a distance, from his home, was to be regarded as dead to his former wife ; that he was not be treated in this concern as a free agent ; that he was not to be countenanced by the church in resisting hismaster’s will. The document is given below. What a comment on Southern institutions ! It shows how religion is made their tool, how Chris- tianity is used to do violence to the most sacred feelings and ties, that the breed of slaves may be kept up. It shows us, that this iniquitous system pollutes by its touch, the divinest, the holiest provision of God for human happiness and virtue. — Charming's Remarks on the Slavery Question. THE LEGIOH OF LIBERTY. A. S. CONVENTION OF AMERICAN WOMEN. Address, Philadelphia, May 17, 1838. By the constitution of the United States, the whole physical power of the north is pledged for the suppression of domestic insurrections, and should the slaves, maddened by oppression, endeavor to shake off the yoke of the task-master, the men of the north are bound to make common cause with (he tyrant, and put down, at the point of the bayonet, every effort on the part of the slave for the attainlinent of his freedom. And when the father, husband, son, and brother shall have left their homes to mingle in the unholy warfare, “ to be- come the executioners of their brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands,” will the mother, wife, daughter, and sister feel that they have no interest in this subject ? Will it be easy to convince them that it is no concern of theirs, that their homes are rendered deso- late, and their habitations the abodes of wretchedness ? Surely this consideration is of itself sufficient to arouse the slumbering energies of woman, for the overthrow of a system which thus t hreatens to lay in ruins the fabric of her domestic happiness ; and she will not be de- terred from the performance of her duty to herself, her family, and her country, by the cry of “ political question.” But admitting it to be a political question, have we no interest in the welfare of our country? May we not permit a thought to slray beyond the narrow limits of our own family circle, and of the pre. sent hour ? May we not breathe a sigh over the miseries of our countrymen, nor utter a word of remonstrance against the unjust laws that are crushing them to the earth? Must we witness “the headlong rage or headless folly,” with which our nation is rushing onward to destruction, and not seek to arrest its downward course ? THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. Shall we silently behold the land which we love with all the heart- varm affection of children, rendered a hissing and a reproach through. >ut the world, by this system which is already “ tolling the death, tell of her decease among the nations?” No ; the events of the last wo years have “ cast their dark shadows before,” over-clouding the iright prospects of the future, and shrouding the destinies of our rouutry in more than midnight gloom, and we cannot remain inac- ive. Our country is as dear to us as to the proudest statesman, and he more closely our hearts cling to “ our altars and our homes,” the nore fervent are our aspirations that every inhabitant of our land nay be protected in his fireside enjoyments by just and equal laws ; .hat the foot of the tyrant may no longer invade the domestic sanc- uary, nor his hand tear asunder those whom God himself has united >y the most holy ties. Let our course, then, still be onward ! Jus- ice, humanity, patriotism, every high and every holy motive urge is forward, and we dare not refuse to obey.” Mary S. Parker. Maria YV. Chapman, Catharine M. Sullivan, Susan Paul, and others. ABBY KELLEY Offered the following resolution, which was adopted ; Whereas, a vast portiou of the wealth of the north has accrued, md is still accruing, from the slave system, either directly in the lolding of slaves, by northern citizens, or indirectly by our social and lormnercial intercourse with slave-holding communities; therefore, Resolced , That we are very deeply implicated in the sin of using rar brother’s service without wages, and of holding in our hands the rains of oppression ; consequently it is our duty to bring forth fruits neet for repentance, by laboring devotedly in the service of the ;poded, and by contributing with unsparing liberality to the treasury if the slave. BOSTON FEMALE A. S. SOCIETY. Wc call on you in the prevailing name of our common Christianity, uid by the power of freedom upon your own souls, to resolve the de- iverance of the captive, and to labor immediately for its fulfilment, father yourselves together as societies or as individuals, we entreat rou ; and increase by combination every power you possess, for the service of freedom. Where two or three, even, are gathered together •vith this holy purpose, there is his spirit in the midst of them who lame to proclaim deliverance. Let us hear your voices of encourage- oent from the utmost limits of Massachusetts ; and depend on us to :heer ami encourage your hopes of speedy emancipation for the Mnerican slave, if the sight of earnest and devoted labor on our part :an produce that effect. THANKFUL SOUTHWICK, Pres. Anne Warren Weston, Sec. pro. tern. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. HANNAH F. GOULD. Who is thy Neighbor ? I Thy neighbor! Yonder toiling slave, Fetter’d in thought and limb, Whose thoughts are all beyond the grave Go thou and ransom him. Whene’er thou mect’st a human form Less favor’d than thine own, Remember ’tis thy neighbor worm, Thy brother, or thy son. O pass not, pass not heedless by ; Perhaps thou canst redeem The breaking heart from misery ; Go share thy lot with him. ELIZABETH MARGARET CHANDLER. The Domestic Slave-trade . — This is the most indefensible, as well as the most detestible feature in the system of slavery. It will not admit of even an attempt at justification. There are many who profess to deplore the existence of slavery, who yet consider its abolition im- practicable, or unjust to the owners of slaves, or dangerous to the j community. Others again, will descant largely on the blessings and advantages of slavery to those who are favored with the enjoyment of its benefits, ending with a declaration that their situation, if restored to freedom, would be infinitely more deplorable. But none of these rea- sons can be urged in behalf of this shameful traffic. It is a guilt and an . infamy for which our country has no excuse. If her slave population was entailed upon her against her will, and cannot now be j$ot rid of, she is at least, under no compulsion to permit herself to be disgraced by this infamous traffic. Slave Produce . — One would suppose that the bare knowledge of the terrible price at which those cherished comforts have been procured, would cause a woman to turn shuddering and loathingly away, as though they were infected with a taint of blood. And the curse of blood is upon them ! Though the dark red stain may not be there visibly, yet the blood of all the many thousands of the slain, who have died amid the horrors and loathsomeness otthc slave-ship — been hurled by rapacious cruelty to the yawning wave, or sprang to its bosom in the madness of their proud despair — of those who have pined away to death beneath the slow tortures of a broken heart, who have perished beneath the tortures of inventive tyranny, or on the ignominious gibbet — all this lies with a fearful weight upon this most foul and unnatural system, and that insatiable thirst for luxury and wealth in wliichit first originated, and by which it is still perpetuated. PRUDENCE CRANDALL. Think of our country’s glory, Ail diinm’d with A trie’s tears — Her broad dag stain’d and gory With the hoarded guilt of years ! Think of the frantic mother, Lamenting for her child, Till falling lashes smother Her cries of anguish wild ! Think of the prayers ascending Yet shriek’d, alas ! in vain, When heart from heart is rending Ne’er to be joined again. Shall we behold, unheeding. Life’s holiest feelings crush’d ? When woman’s heart is bleeding, Shall woman’s voice be hush’d? Oh, no ! by every blessing That Heaven to thee may lend — Remember their oppression, Forget not, sister, friend. E. M. Chandler's Works . TO PRUDENCE CRANDALL. Heaven bless thee noble lady, In thy purpose, good and high ! Give knowledge to the thirsting mind, Light to the asking eye ; Unseal the intellectual page, For those from whom dark pride, With tyrant and unholy hands, Would fain its treasures hide. Still bear thou up unyielding, ’Gainst persecution’s shock, Gentle as woman’s self yet firm And moveless as a rock ; A thousand spirits yield to thee Their gushing sympathies, The blessing of a thousand hearts Around thy pathway lies. E. M. C. PRUDENCE CRANDALL. This enterprising and philanthropic young lady has been tried and eonvicted by a court in the state of Connecticut, after all the usual ormalities of examining witnesses, hearing counsel, and the delivery ef a charge from his honor the judge, of — readers what do you suppose? lot of stealing nor breaking the peace and dignity of the state — but of caching young women to read and write. Truly this is a very enlight- ened age! and Connecticut, so far-famed for her colleges, and 3eminaries of learning, has taken the lead in causing her light to shine ! ! jury of that enlightened state, has convicted one of her daughters of endeavoring to impart literary instruction to females ! Truly, “ where he light that is in us becomes darkness, how great is that darkness ! !” 9 THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. LUCRETIA MOTT. The support of the iniquitous system of slavery at the south, is dependent on the co-operation of the north, by commerce and manu . faetures, as well as by the consumption of its products ; — therefore despising the gain of oppression, we reccomrnend to our friends, by a candid and prayerful examination of the subject, to ascertain^if it be not a duty to cleanse our hands from this unrighteous participa- tion, by no longer indulging in the luxuries which come through this polluted channel ; and in the supply of the necessary articles of food • and clothing, Ac. that we ‘ provide things honest in the sight of all men,’ by giving the preference to goods which come through requited , labor. MARIA WESTON CHAPMAN. The memory of a gracious deed, Of justice, or of love, 1J How many a swelling heart shall heed, Of differing nation, name and creed ! How many a soul approve ! Come, sire ! come, mother ! bring your gift To aid the suffering slave ! Let wife and husband’s generous thrift Unite hiu bleeding form to lift, And from oppression save. Come, little children, kneeling by! Devote what God hath given ! And raise your little hands on high. Till freedom hath the victory, And earth becomes like heaven. Nor time nor space absorbs the rays; The radiance onward streams : The kindly deed of present days, Though centuries interpose their haze, O’er all the future gleams. We are not of those who dread moral influences from other lands. We feel that all nations, as sharers of a common nature, should be united in every good purpose, and that the country of La Fayette is not entirely foreign to Americans. We observe with intense interest, the progress of other countries towards emancipation, for when our own shall have the painful distinction of being the only slave-holding nation of Christendom, the success of our endeavors to throw off the curse of slavery cannot be far distant. We deem there is nothing unfeminine in aiding our husbands, brothers, and sous, to support the principles they have adopted, es- pecially while the cause lacks numerical strength. But every day adds to the number of its supporters. The moral strength of the TSf LEGION OF LIBERTY. country is arousing from slumber, aud God defend the right ! — Letter to the Dutchess De Broglie. She was for some years most intensely interested in the plans which the philanthropists in France were attempting to carry into operation, for the diminution of the horrors of slavery in the French islands ; and still more, for the removal of slavery itself from those portions of the French possessions. Nor were her labors, and those of her distinguished husband’s in vain. A decided impression has been male on the public mind in France, and the day cannot be far distant when the abolition of slavery, either gradual or immediate, will take place in the French islands. — Robert Baird. LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY. Oh ! if to Afric’s sable race A fearful debt we justly owe, If heaven’s dread book record the trace Of every deed and thought below— And if for them the Christian prayer Imploies of God to guide and save, Then let these helpless suppliants share From mercy’s store the mite they crave. Touch deep for them the pitying breast, Bid bounty’s stream flow warm and free For who can tell arnon: he blest, How sweet their hai, of praise may be ? LYDIA MARIA CHILD. In oi^r to show the true aspect of slavery among us, I will state distinct propositions, each supported by the evidence of actually existr ing laws. 1. Slavery is hereditary and perpetual, to the last moment of the slave’s earthly existence, and to all his descendants, to the latest posterity. ' 2. The labor of the slave is compulsory and uncompensated ; while the kind of labor, the amount of toil, and the time allowed for rest, are dictated solely by the master. No bargain is made, no wages given. A pure despotism governs the human brute ; and even his covering and provender, both as to quantity and quality, depend entirely on the master’s discretion. 3. The slave being considered a personal chattel, may be sold, or pledged, or leased, at the will of his master. He may be exchanged for marketable commodities, or taken in execution for the debts, or taxes, either of a living, or a deceased master. Sold at auction, “either individually, or in lots to suit the purchaser,” he may remain with his family, or be separated from them for ever. SARAH M. GRIMKE ANGELINA* E. GRIMKE. 4. Slaves can make no contracts, and have no legal right to any property, real or personal. Their own honest earnings, and the lega- cies of friends, belong, in point of law, to their masters. j 5. Neither a slave, nor free colored person, can be a witness against ' any white or free man, in a court of justice, however atrocious may have been the crimes they have seen him commit • but they may give testimony against a fellow-slave, or free colored man, even in cases affecting life. G. The slave may be punished at his master’s discretion — without trial — without any means of legal redress, — whether his offence be ' real or imaginary : and the master can transfer the same despotic power to any person, or persons, he may choose to appoint. ' 7. The slave is not allowed to resist any free man under any cir- cumstances: his only safety consists in the fact that his owner may bring suit and recover the price of bis body, in case his life is taken, or his limbs rendered unfit for labor. J 8. Slaves cannot redeem themselves, or obtain a change of masters, though cruel treatment may have rendered such a change necessary „ for their personal safety. 9. The slave is entirely unprotected in his domestic relations. 10. The laws greatly obstruct the manumission of slaves, even where the master is willing to enfranchise them. 1 1. The operation of the laws tends to deprive slaves of religious instruction and consolation. 1 12. The whole power of the laws is exerted to keep slaves in a slate [: of the lowest ignorance. 13. There is in this country a monstrous inequality of law and right. What is a trilling fault in a white man, is considered highl^riminal in the slave ; the same offences which cost a white man a few dollars only, are punished in the negro with death. 14. The laws operate most oppressively upon free people of color. — Appeal in favor of that class of Americans called Africans. / / SARAH M. GRIMKE.— ANGELINA E. GRIMKE. Let them protest against the use of the national prisons for the iniquitous purpose of confining slaves, and free people of color taken up on suspicion of being runaways. Let Northerners petition for the abolition of slavery in the territory of Florida, and the entire breaking up of the inter-state slave-trade. Let them respectfully ask for an altera- tion in that part of the constitution by which they are bound to assist the South in quelling servile insurrections. Let them see to it that they send no man to congress who would give his vote to the admission of another slave state into the national Union. Let them protest against the injustice and cruelty of delivering the fugitive slave back to his master, as being a direct infringement of the Divine command. Deut. xxiii, 15, 16. Let them petition their different legislatures to grant a jury trial to the friendless, helpless runaway, and for the repeal of those laws which secure to the slaveholder his legal right to his slave, after he has voluntarily brought him within the verge of their jurisdiction, and Tlis LEGION OF LIBERTY. For the enactment of such laws as will protect the colored man, woman, and child, from the fangs of the kidnapper, who is constantly walking aboht in the northern states, seeking whom he may devour. Let the northern churches refuse to receive slaveholders at their communion tables, or to permit slaveholding ministers to enter their pulpits. Let those northern ministers who go to the South “Cry aloud and spare not, lift up their voices like a trumpet and show the people their trans- gressions, and tlie house of Jacob their sins — let them refuse to countenance the system of slavery by owning slaves themselves. Let northern men who go to the South to make their fortunes, see to it, that those fortunes are not made out of the unrequited labor of the slave. Let northern merchants refuse to receive mortgages or take slaves, seeing that this is a virtual acknowledgement that man can hold man as property. Let them carefully avoid participating in any way in the African slave-trade. Let northern manufacturers refuse to purchase the cetton for the cultivation of which the laborer has re- ceived no wages. Let the grocer refuse to buy the sugar and rice of the South, so long as “ the If re of the laborers who have reaped down their fields is kept back by fraud.” Let the merchant refuse to receive the articles manufactured out of slave-grown cotton, and let the consumer refuse to purchase either the rice, sugar, or cotton articles, to produce which has cost the slave his unpaid labor, his tears, and his blood. Every Northerner may in this way bear a faithful testimony against slavery at the South, by withdrawing his pecuniary support. Female Anti-Slavery Society Putnam Co., Illinois. Why should women, so efficient as co-workers with men in every benevolent and virtuous cause, suffer their energies to lie dormant while nearly three millions of our countrymen, crushed and bleeding and writhing in agony, are lifting up imploring hands and pleading with us for help ; nay, while many of our own sex are imbruted, scourged, tortured, manacled, torn from their families, bereaved of their children, deprived of protection for their own persons, made subject to every evil that renders life a burden : while, as far as law and custom can effect it, they are denied the support and consola- tions of the gospel. It is obvious to every attentive observer that slavery is the great crying sin of our country ; it is the greatest moral and political evil that afflicts our nation and blots its fair fame ; it is certainly the most galling and debasing physical evil that ever degraded man. Then should it claim our first attention. Did we but reflect for a moment that every day’s delay sends hundreds of our brethren mourning to an untimely grave . — Western Citizen. Female Anti-Slavery Association op Henry County, Iowa. As women of free republican America, we believe the freedom of speech and the right of petition are as sacredly guaranteed to us by our government ; and that liberty in this way to exert a moral in- fluence is, by the same authority and the concurrent voice of nature and reason, emphatically proclaimed to be our birth-right ; and that 9 * THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. is intelligent and accountable beings, it is our duty thus to act, es- pecially in regard to subjects of vital importance to the welfare of our country. The Globe contains the remarks of Mr. Rayner, a representative from N. Carolina, in which women are represented as the worst and most dangerous part of creation. But it seems he could not call to mind any of the noble and virtuous deeds of those of our sex in olden time — no recollection of Miriam, one of the associate leaders of an- cient Israel ; nor of Deborah the prophetess, who judged that nation and delivered it from its enemies. His memory has failed him in re- gard to the important services rendered to the captive Jews by Esther the Queen, in delivering them from their enemies, through her in. tercessions with Ahasuerus the King, and also in regard to the re- markable manner in which Rome was once saved by female virtue. By the instigation of Valeria, sister of the famous Valerius Publico- la, the women joining their efforts wrought upon the feelings and sensibilities of Rome’s inveterate enemy, (just as we desire to do by our petitions on those of the negroes’ enemies,) and ultimately ef- fected that which all Rome’s ministers of religion failed to accom plish. * * * We forbear a further exposure of the numerous revolting, indecent and cruel acts before us, of even a more flagitious and disgraceful character, the bare recital of many of which, would shock that true modesty and propriety which women abolitionists of the north are de- sirous to bring into repute, and establish among the people. We would by no means insinuate that southern women are all of this class, for we doubt not, there are many whose sense of propriety, were it not on account of personal safety, would prompt them to join us in our efforts. Such we esteem as our beloved sisters, and earnest, ly hope that the time may soon arrive, in which they may, without endangering their lives, publicly espouse our cause. DRUSILLA UNTHANK, Secretary. [The firmness of Queen Isabella enabled Columbus to present a new world to the old and change the destinies of both. Catharine 1st. by her address, effected the treaty of Pruth, and saved the Russian army and empire. Mary W. Montague, by introducing inoculation from the east into Europe, saved the health and lives of millions, having first tried it on her own child. Madame Tallien from her solitary dungeon, inspired the men of France with the energy to di- vert the guillotine from the wholesale slaughter of virtuous citizens to the necks of misguided rulers. And recently, when the monument of Bunker Hill had for years been languishing in premature dilapi- dation, the ladies of Boston, by a single effort, furnished the com- plement.] — Petition to the N. York Legislature, that married wo- men be entitled to their own ■property. ANDOVER FEMALE A. S. SOCIETY. We feel that woman has a place in this God-like work, for wo- man’s woes, and woman’s wrongs, are borne to us on every breeze that blows from the south, — woman has a place, for she forma a part THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. in God’s created intelligent instrumentality to reform the world. Gol never made her to be inactive — nor in all cases to follow in the waka of man. When man proves recreant to his duty, and faithless to his Maker, woman, with her feeling heart, should rouse him — should start his sympathies — should cry in his ear, and raise such a storm of generous sentiment, as shall never let him sleep again. We be- lieve God gave woman a heart to feel — an eye to weep — a hand to work — a tongue to speak. Now let her use that tongue to speak on slavery. Is it not a curse — a heaven-daring abomination ? Let her employ that hand, to labor for the slave. Does not her sister in bonds, labor night and day without reward ? Let her heart grieve, and her eye fill with tears, in view of a female’s body dishonored — a female’s mind debased — a female’s soul forever ruined ! Woman noth- ing to do with slavery ? Abhorred the thought ! ! We will pray to abhor it more and more. Is not woman abused — woman trampled upon — woman spoiled of her virtue, her probity, her influence, her joy ! and this, not in India — not in China — not in Turkey — not in Africa — but in America — in the United States of America — in the birth-place of Washington, the father of freedom, the protector of woman, the friend of equality and human rights ! We are under many obligations to Rev. Charles Fitch of Boston, for a powerful discourse, one week since, on the abominations of slavery. He made this direful system appear more abominable than robbery, drunkenness, murder, or even the basest forms of licenti- ousness, considered singly and alone. Slavery is to be deprecated, more than any of these. And why ? Because it is the burning, blasting, withering focus of them all. Nothing so foul, but slavery fosters it — nothing so unclean, but slavery revels in it — nothing so contemptible, but slavery covers it — nothing so murderous, but sla. very perpetrates it. Who will say, language is adequate to set forth the horrors of such a system! Its abomination verily beggar descrip- tion ! To realize them, is to be speechless in the depths of inexpres- sible feeling. ELIZABETH EMERY, President. Mary P. Abbott, Rec. Secretary. providence ladies a. s. society. Resolved, That we act as moral agents and Christians fearlessly in this cause — thinking and acting in view of our accountability to our Maker— remembering that our rights are sacred and immutable, and founded on the liberty of the gospel, that great emancipation act for women. We further resolve, that we will not be turned aside from the object we have espoused, by the intimidations of ridicule, or the intoxicating flatteries of men and women, whose god is their selfish ness, nor be cajoled into a selfish conceit of our superiority over the millions of females in our country, whose unuttered and unutterable cries of agony from oppression, will, as they rise to heaven, shake terribly our guilty land ; but we will turn our eyes, for example and imitation, to those philanthropists in Europe and America, who, through self-denial and persecution, have become pioneers in the cause THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. of emancipation, some of whom we have seen face to face ; am while they command our reverence, they call forth our gratitude ai women for the shadowing out they have given of our rights, by mean! of the full light which their benevolent efforts have shed on th< equality of the rights of man. Sarah Pratt, Secretary. THE LADIES OF DARLINGTON, To the Ladies A. S. Association of New-England. We rejoice in the victory which the long protracted struggle of Great Britain has achieved, in having at length succeeded, to a great extent, in breaking the fetters of slavery in her own colonies. But our object is universal freedom — the breaking of every yoke, the de- liverance of the oppressed, of every kindred, and tongue, and peo- ple, and nation. We regard, therefore, with feelings of the deepest sorrow, the existence of slavery and the slave trade, with all their attendant abominations, in the southern states of America. Odious as such a system must be, under any circumstances, its existence is doubly deplorable and culpable in a land calling itself free, and amongst a people professing the Christian name. So glaring an in- consistency must injure the cause of Liberty in the world at large, whilst it affords to the espouser of infidelity his most cogent argu. ment against our holy religion. The heart-stirring addresses of George Thompson have been emi- nently instrumental, in this country, in awakening feelings of ab- horrence towards American slavery. We cannot better convey to you our sentiments on the subject than by saying they are in unison with his. We contemplate, with peculiar delight, lire powerful and sulutary influence you must exert over public feeling, by the faithful and fear- less testimony you bear against the prejudices, corruptions, and op- pressions which disgrace your nation. Truth and humanity, reason and revelation, are on your side. Your cause must, therefore, even- tually triumph. We would encourage you to persevere with unre- mitting energy, in the use of all Christian efforts, until the meridian splendor of that glorious day, which shall witness the last link to be broken which binds the slave — until all the odious distinctions found- ed on color shall be buried in oblivion, and the injured sons of Africa in your land restored to the full enjoyment of ali the rights and pri- vileges of humanity. Elizabeth Pf.ase, Jesse Elizabeth Wemyss. FRANCES HARRIET WHIPPLE. • If our gospel teachers will not lead us, we must lead them 1 I speak with all deference — and yet I repeat, emphatically — we must lead them ! To begin, we must ponder the right way — and, having ascertained, we must pursue it, fearlessly, undeviatingly. Kindly re- monstrating with opposers — bearing opposition and abuse with a THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. 1 meek and quiet spirit but at the same time, yielding no opinion, conceding no principle, withholding no truth, which conscience tells us it is right to hold and maintain, Such a course of conduct will have its authority. One after another will notice, inquire, listen, and finally believe. There are, perhaps, not far from a million of our sisters — sisters by the universal affinity of our race — sisters by every principle of love taught by Him whom we profess to follow — now in slavery. Sla- very ! Have ye pondered the word ? Do ye knovv what it means T Think what it is to hold home, kindred, friends — even honor and virtue, at the mercy of a man who may assume, if he do not pos- ses ; unlimited power — and who is a miracle, if he be not a tyrant ! You have heard of the human market — of the measured nutriment — of the cruel task— of the knotted scourge — of the darkened soul ! But have you known the peculiar, the monstrous aggravations, which attend the slavery of woman ? Have you brought home the subject to your hearts ? or, rather, have you gone, with your whole soul, to the subject, and scanned every form of horror it presents ? If you have not, it is time you should do so ; and as their sister — and yours — as a follower of the same blessed teacher — as an aspirant to the same glorious promises — I feel it an imperative duty, on the present occasion, to urge on you the necessity of thought, of action, of de- liberate, firm, but energetic action ! This is no longer a matter of choice, of taste, or of convenience. Duty — stern, uncompromising duty, calls to action ! Hesitation, unwillingness are crime — we can not be, at once, idle and innocent ! All can do something ; and it hut one word be spoken, like the good kernel, falling on good ground, it may bring forth fruit an hundred fold ! ‘ Let your light shine before men.’ Light is, in its very nature dif- fusive. One after another will catch a glimpse — a ray — a beam. The darkness of midnight will gave way. The dawn will brighten — the morning star arise — the sun appear, the sun of truth, peace, li- berty, — making glorious the day of equal, universal freedom ! This is no idle, no poetic speculation ! Such a day must come ; and, to hasten it, to bring it within the view of this generation, — would any sacrifice be too great — any labor too severe ? Now, beloved, though I never saw, may never see you, yet my spirit is joined to yours by ties stronger than neighborhood-society, or even consanguinity, ever wrought ! We are united in the bonds of common persecution, common scorn. We are united in one common labor to promote one single, glorious object ! Reason, Conscience and Religion, Hand, Heart and Soul, strengthen, elevate, and spiri- tualize the tie ; and, never having looked upon each other, we feel that we are sisters. — Appeal io American Women. DORCHESTER, MASS. A. S. SOCIETY. 1 What has woman to do with slavery V We are ashamed and sorry to say — woman has much to do with slavery. Women are slave-holders. Women are apologists for slavery. Women are slaves. Women, too, are the greatest sufferers. Therefore, woman has to do THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. with slavery — women should be interested. We all, in a greater or less degree, exert an' influence on those around us. Let us, then, who believe slavery is wrong, come out against it, and by our influence, our efforts, our prayers, hasten on the great work ot' emancipation. That women’s influence is felt, none can deny. How important, then, that her influence should be given on the side of truth, of jus- tice, and of mercy. O, my friends, how can we meet those down- trodden fellow-beings at the bar of God, if we refuse to plead their cause against an ungodly nation ? How can we look calmly on, and see immortal souls, the purchase of a Saviour’s blood, made a thing of merchandize — bought and sold, regardless of all social and na tural ties? SARAII BAKER, Corresponding Sec. • APPEAL Of the Massachusetts Female Emancipation Society, to the Friends of Universal Liberty. Respected Friends, — Although the same Heaven-descending pri- vileges are enjoyed by us as in former years, the millions of human beings who are “ held as goods and chatties” in our southern stales, still groan under the pressure of their woes. Robbed of that, which alone can render life a blessing, they ask for our aid. Parents plead in behalf of themselves and their eliil. dren, — children for mercy to be extended to their aged parents, brothers for sisters, sisters for brothers, and, added to all this is the cry of thousands of innocents, who as in the days of Herod are sa- crificed on the altar of*sla.very to gratify the love of p \. er and gold. Yes, let us remember this last fearful item ; no ' ss than two hun- dred helpless infants are daily seized by the rapacious slave-holder, counted among his sheep and swine, “ to bo sold to the highest bidder.” Because of the sorrows of these, who are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, do we appeal to you at this time for sympathy and prayer in their behalf. It were needless to recapitulate particular in- stances of suffering and wo, for had we all the varied scenes of out- ward misery before us, that are witnessed through the length and breadth of our southern territory, we should even then have but a faint picture of the work of death produced by this worst foe of the human race. May, 1842. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. ABIGAIL ADAMS. (The Mother of John Quincy Adams.) I wish most sincerely, there was not a slave in the province ; it al- ways appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me, to fight ourselves, for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have. You know my mind upon this subject . — Letter to her husband, John Adams, dated Boston, Garrison, Sept. 22d, 1774. ELIZA LEE FOLLEN. When for the rights of man you ngnt, And ail seems lost and friends have fled, Remember in misfortune’s night, New glories rest on virtue’s head ; Duty remains, though joy is gone ; On final good then fix (hinc eyes, Disdain all fear and though alone, Stand ready for the sacrifice. Though every bark of promise sink, And hope’s last fragment fall, And y°u that mystic cup must drink, Which cures all pain, which comes to all ; Yet justice, banished, hated, slain, Is with you in the holy strife — Says to your soul we meet again, And promises eternal life. CONSTITUTION OF THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. Art. II. — The object of this Society is the entire abolition of slavery in the United States. While it admits that each state in which slavery exists, has, by the Constitution of the United States, the exclusive right to legislate in regard to its abolition in said state, it shall aim to convince all our fellow-citizens, by arguments addressed to their understandings and consciences, that slaveholding is a heinous crime in the sight of God, and that the duty, safety, and best interests of all concerned, requires its immediate abandonment, without expatriation. The Society will also endeavor, in a constitutional way, to influence con- gress to put an end to the domestic slave-trade, and to abolish slavery in all those portions of our common country which come under its control, especially in the District of Columbia, — and likewise to prevent the extension of it to any state that may be. hereafter admitted to the Union. Art. III. — This Society shall aim to elevate the character and con- dition of the people of color, by encouraging their intellectual, moral, and religious improvement, and by removing public prejudice, that thus they may, according to their intellectual and moral worth, share an equality with the whites, of civil and religious privileges . NEW-ENG. A. S. SOCIETY OHIO A. S. CONVENTION. NEW -EN GLAND ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. The constitution and the laws have left us the means to spread and to carry into efffcct the doctrine of human rights, of universal liberty. The law, at least, in the free states, allows the use of all means, except those which our own conscience would forbid ; the constitution of the New-England Anti-Slavery Society permits no others than such as are sanctioned by law, humanity, and religion. It is enough that we have freedom to speak and to print ; freedom peacefully to assemble, and associate, to consult, and to petition the government of the Union as well as the legislature of every state, and thus by individual and united exertion, to act upon the public mind. Thus armed with ail the legitimate weapons of truth, we feel bound in conscience never to lay them down until the principle that man can hold property in man is effaced from our statute books, and held in abhorrence by public opinion. After the most careful examination, we are convinced that slavery is unjust in itself, and cannot be justified by any laws or cir- cumstances; that it wars against Christianity, and is condemned by the Declaration of our Independence. We are convinced that it is injurious to every branch of industry, and more injurious still to the mind and character both of the master and the slave. Its existence is the chief cause of all our political dissensions; it tends to unsettle the groundwork of our government, so that every institution, founded on the common ground of our Union, is like an edifice on a volcanic soil, ever liable to have its foundation shaken, and the whole structure consumed by subterraneous fire. The danger of a servile and a civil war is gaining every year, every day ; for the annual increase of the slave population is more than sixty thousand ; and every day about two hundred children are born into slavery. As the more northern of the slave states, seeing the advantages of free labor, dispose of their slaves in a more southern market, and by degrees abolish servitude, the whole slave population, and with it the danger of a terrible revolu- tion are crowded together in the more southern states. Under all these threatening circumstances, what have the southern states, what has congress done, to avert the impending calamity from the Union ? Congress, which has full and exclusive power to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and in the territories, and to abolish the domestic as well as the foreign slave-trade, shrinks from touching the subject. OHIO ANTI-SLAYERY CONVENTION. The influence of slavery upon slaveholders and the slave states are, an abiding sense of insecurity and dread ; the press cowering under a censorship; freedom of speech struck dumb by proscription ; a standing army of patrols to awe down insurrection ; the mechanic arts and all vigorous enterprise crushed under an incubus ; a thriftless agriculture, smiting the land with barrenness and decay; industry held up to scorn; idleness a badge of dignity ; profligacy no barrier to favor ; lust emboldened by impunity; concubinage encouraged by premium, the high price of the mixed race operating as a bounty upon amalgamation ; 10 THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. prodigality, in lavishing upon the rich the plundered earnings of the poor, accounted high-souled generosity ; revenge regarded as the refinement ot honor ; aristocracy entitled republicanism, and despotism chivalry ; sympathy deadened by scenes of cruelty rendered familiar; male amiableness transformed into fury by habits of despotic sway; conscience smothered by its own unheeded monitions; manhood effeminated by loose-reined indulgence, and a pervading degeneracv ot morals and manners, resulting from a state of society where power has no restraint, and the weak have none to succor. OHIO WESTERN RESERVE A. S. CONVENTION. Slavery existed in this country prior to the revolution : and when our fathers had achieved our national independence, they had yet to lament over the galling servitude in which a large portion of the in- habitants were held. They looked upon this stale of things with the deepest regret, and uniformly spoke of it in tunes of unmingled con- demnation and shame. They counted with certainty the speedy abo- litibn of slavery throughout the states, and under this expectation carefully refused to recognise the fact of its existence in the consti- tution of the country. The revolution was essentially a strife for prin- ciple, and it produced in the American mind a most magnanimous and elevated sense of the value of liberty, of the importance of inan as man. and of the sacredness of those rights of which by virtue of his manhood he is endowed. But, wherever advantage was not taken of this favorable state of things to strike a death-blow to slavery, slavery in its turn produced its legitimate effect by extinguishing this •sense of the right and of the priceless value of freedom. Tnrce gene- rations of her doomed and suffering victims have passed away, and slavery has extended its baleful empire over thirteen states, contain- ing a territory exclusive of Texas. Throughout all this vast region, once a free soil, slavery is now the one and paramount law. Here, like a demon, the genius of slavery sits enthroned with the cup of her abominations in her hand, siaying her hetacombs of victims and martyrs, dealing death and tor- ture to all who are suspected, even in thought, of questioning her di- vine sovereignty. And not content with a dominion over one-half of the republic, so absolute as to set at defiance constitution and law, while siie daily violates the sacred right of citizenship in the persons of all upon whom she can lay her blood}’ hands, unless they acknovv. ledge her paramount right ; not content with the abject homage paid her as promptly as exacted by the citizens of the north, her creatures now, notwithstanding the words of the grant giving congress legis- lative power ‘ in all cases whatsoever,’ boldly deny the authority of the nation to do away slavery in territories under the national control. THE LECIOX OF LIBERTY LEWIS C. GUNN. No scheme of colonization, either to Africa, to Hayti, or to any distant place in our own country, is called for, or expedient ; but, on the contrary, it would be absolutely injurious to the south, in withdrawing her laborers — to the slaves, in removing them from the influence of civilized, enlightened, and pious men — and to the slave- holders, in leading them to believe “ there is a lion in the way.” We, therefore, oppose every such scheme, and every thing that re- cognizes, even indirectly, either the danger or inexpediency of the full and immediate emancipation of every bondman. Not a day, not an hour longer would we see the image of God defaced, and hear the cries of the wronged. We would see every man, from this time forward, walking forth, not as a slave, with fear and trembling, but erect as he was made, with his face heavenward, and his counte- nance beaming forth the happiness of freedom, and reminding us of Kim, in whose image, it is said, man was created. WILLIAM L. GARRISON. If at any time he had exceeded the bounds of moderation, the monstrous turpitude of the times had transported him. Nor did he transcend the example of Christ, who, when he had to deal with people of like manners, called them sharply by their proper names — such as, an adulterous and perverse generation — a brood of vipers — hypocrites — children of the devil, who could not escape the damna- tion of hell. The crime of slave-holding is so atrocious, so contrary to every principle of humanity and every law of justice, so terrible in its results, and so impious in its claims, that no language can pro- perly describe it. An able reviewer has forcibly said, “ it excites ideas of abhorrence beyond our capacity of expression, and must be subject of mute astonishment and speechless horror.” The old syren song is gradualism ! Prepare men to receive, at some distant day, that which is theirs by birthright ! Prepare hus- bands to live with their wives, and wives to be indissolubly allied to W. L. GARH1S0K. their husbands ! Prepare parents to cherish their own children ! Prepare the laborer to receive a just recompense for his toil ! What sort of honesty or humanity is this ? “ Set free” — from what? Not, surely, from the restraints of law, or the obligations of society ; but from irresponsible power, usurped dominion, tyrannical authority. A heathen could exclaim, “ let justice be done though the heavens fall.” Shall an American patriot do less ? Whatever is contrary to humanity should be destroyed. There cannot be union where there is not equity, nor equity where there is oppression. To talk of pre- ferring a human compact above all the requirements of Heaven, is infatuation. Is it possible, that, by ceasing to shed innocent blood, we shall take away the cement of our National Union ? Dare any man, professing to believe in Christianity, say that there can be any object so dear as to justify cruelty, robbery, licentiousness and soul murder ? The thought is blasphemy ! But no such alternative is presented to us ; and if it were, none but practical atheists would hesitate to exclaim — “ Honesty before policy 1 Justice before expe- diency ! Innocency before union !” What is the sentence which Great Britain has passed upon the colo- nization society ? It is one of utter condemnation ? What is the language of such men as Lord Suffield, and Zachary Macaulay, and Fowell Buxton, and James Cropper, and William Allen, and Daniel O’Connell, and last but first of all, William Wilberforce ? — Hear it ! — “ We feel bound to affirm, that our deliberate judgment and con- viction are, that the professions made by the Colonization Society, of promoting the abolition of slavery, are altogether delusive. To the destruction of slavery throughout the world, we are compelled to say, that we believe the Colonization Society to be an obstruction. — While we believe its pretexts to be delusive, we are convinced that its real effects are of the most dangerous nature. It takes its root from a cruel prejudice and alienation in the whites of America against the colored people, slave or free. — That society is, in our es- timation, not deserving of the countenance of the British public.” Slaveholders and their northern abettors have affected to sneer at the labors of women in the anti-slavery enterprise, but they really trembled in view of these labors. For what good cause had ever been heartily espoused by women, that has not ultimately triumphed over all opposition ? The emancipation of eight hundred thousand slaves in the West Indies is mainly owing, under God, to the quenchless devotion, and tireless zeal, and indomitable perseverance of the wo- men of England. The slave system in this country will find in the women of America most formidable antagonists. — Speech in Penn sylvania Hall. Would to God this (July 4th,) were truty — what it is not, though lying lips declare it to be — the Jubilee of Freedom! That jubilee cannot co'rne, so long as one slave is left to grind in his prison-house. It will come only when liberty is proclaimed throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof. O the * fantastic tricks’ which the American people are this day ‘ playing before high heaven’ ! O their awful desecration of an anniversary, which should be sacred to jus- tice, equality, and brotherly love ! O their profane use of the sacred W. L. GARRISON. name of Liberty ! O their impious appeals to the God of the op- pressed, for his divine benediction, while they are making merchan- dize of his image 1 Do they not blush ? Nay, they glory in their shame ! Once a year they takespecial pains to exhibit themselves to the world, in all their republican deformity and Christian barbarity, insanely supposing that they thus excite the envy, admiration and applause of mankind. The nations are looking at the dreadful spec- tacle with disgust and amazement. However sunken and degraded tire}* may be, they are too elevated, too virtuous, too humane, to be guilty of such conduct. Their voice is heard, saying, — ‘ Americans! we hear your boasts of liberty — your shouts of independence — your declarations of eternal hostility to every form of tyranny — your as- sertions that ail men are created free and equal, and endowed by their Creator with an inalienable right to liberty' — the merry peal of your bells, and the deafening roar of artillery ; but, mingling with all these, and rising above them all, we also hear the clanking of chains ! the shrieks and wailings of millions of your own countrymen, whom you wickedly hold in a state of slavery as much more frightful than the oppression which your fathers resisted unto blood, as the tortures of the inquisition surpass the stings of an insect ! We see your banner floating proudly in the breeze from every flag-staff and mast-head in the land ; but its blood-red stripes are emblematical of your own slave-driving cruelty, as you apply the lash to the flesh of your guilt- less victim, even the flesh of a wife and mother, shrieking for the res- toration of the babe of her bosom, sold to the remorseless slave-specu- lator ! We catch the gleam of your illuminated hills, every where blazing with bonfires ; we mark your gay processions ; we note the number of your orators ; we listen to the recital of your revolutiona- ry achievements; we see you kneeling at the shrine of Freedom, as her best, her truest, her sincerest worshippers ! Hypocrites ! liars ! adulterers! tyrants! men-steaiers! atheists ! Professing to believe in the natural equality of the human race,— yet dooming a sixth portion of your immense population to beastly servitude and ranking them among your goods and chatties ! Professing to believe in the exis- tence of a God, — yet trading in his image, and selling those in the shambles, for whose redemption the Son of God laid down his life ! professing to be Christians,- — yet withholding the Bible, the means ol religious instruction, even the knowledge of the alphabet, from a be- nighted multitude, under terrible penalties ! Boasting of your de- mocracy. — yet determining the rights of men by the texture of their hair, and the color of their skin ! Assuming to be ‘ the land of the free and the home of the brave,’ — yet keeping in chains more slaves than any other nation, not excepting slave-cursed Brazil ! Prating of your morality and hpnesty, — yet denying the rites of marriage to twenty-five hundred thousand human beings, and plundering them of all their bard earnings ! Affecting to be horror-struck in view of the foreign slave-trade, — yet eagerly pursuing a domestic traffic equally cruel and unnatural, and reducing to slavery not less than seventy thousand new victims annually ! Vaunting of your freedom of speech and of the press — your matchless constitution and your glorious union, yet denouncing as traitors, and treating as outlaws, those who have 10 * THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. the courage and fidelity to plead for immediate, untrammelled, uni. versal emancipation Monsters that ye are ! how can ye expect to escape the scorn of the world, and the wrath of heaven ? Emanci- pate your slaves, if you would redeem your tarnished character, — if you would obtain forgiveness here, and salvation hereafter ! Until you do so, * there will be a stain upon your national escutcheon, which all the waters of the Atlantic cannot wash out !’ We are accused of using hard language. I admit the charge. I, for one, say in extenuation, that I have not been able to find a soft word in the English tongue to describe villainy, or identify the perpe- trator of it. The man who makes a chattel of his brother — what is he f The man who keeps back the hire of his laborers by fraud— what is he? They who prohibit the circulation of the Bible — what are they ? They who compel two millions of men and women to herd together, in promiscuous intercourse, like brute beasts — what are they ? They who sell mothers by the pound, and children in lots to suit purchasers — what are they ? I care not what terms are ap- plied to them, provided they do apply. If they are not thieves, if they are not adulterers, if they are not tyrants, if they are not men* stealers, I should like to know what is their true character, and by what names they may be called. GERRIT SMITH. I love the free and happy form of civil government under which I live : not because it confers new rights on me. My rights all spring from an infinitely nobler source — from the favor and grace of God. Our political and constitutional rights, so called, are but the natural and inherent rights of man, asserted, carried out and secured by modes of human contrivance. To no human charter am I indebted for my rights. They pertain to my original constitution. The right of free discussion is among our inherent right's. When, therefore, we would defend this right, let us not defend it so much with the jealousy of an American — a republican — -as though it were but an American or a republican right, and could claim no higher origin than human will and human statutes; but let us defend it as men, feeling that to lose it is to lose a part of ourselves ; let us de- fend it as men, determined to maintain, even to their extreme boun- dary, the rights and powers which God has given to us for our use- fulness and enjoyment ; and the surrender of an iota of which is treason against Heaven. It is not to be disguised, that a war has broken out between the North and the South. Political and commercial men are industri- ous by striving to restore peace ; but the pease, which they would ef- fect, is superficial, false and temporary. True, permanent peace can never be restored, until slavery, the occasion of the war, has ceased. The sword, which is now drawn, will never be returned to its scabbard, until victory, entire, decisive victory is ours or theirs ; not, until that broad, and deep, and damning stain on our country’s escutcheon is clean washed out — that plague spot on our country’s GERRIT SMITH. honor gone forever ; — or, until slavery has riveted anew her present chains, and brought our heads also to bow beneath her withering power. It is idle — it is criminal, to hope for the restoration of peace, on any other condition . — Speech at forming the N. Y. Anti- Slavery Society at Peterboro, 1835. During the twenty-two years of the existence of the Colonization Society, not so many slaves have been emancipated and given to it for expatriation, as are born in a single week. As a proof that the sympathies of the south are all with the slave-holding and real cha- racter of this two-faced institution, and not at all with the abolition purposes and tendencies, which it professes at the north, none of its presidents, (and slave-holders only are deemed worthy to preside over it,) has ever contributed from his stock of slaves to swell those bands of emigrants, who, leaving our shores in the character of “ nui- sances,” are instantly transformed, to use your own language, into “ missionaries, carrying with them credentials in the holy cause of Christianity, civilization, and free institutions.” I add, that we of the north must feel concerned about slavery in the slave states, because of our obligation to pity the deluded, hard- hearted, and bloody oppressors in those states : and to manifest our love for them by rebuking their unsurpassed sin. And, notwithstand- ing pro-slavery statesmen at the north, who wink at the iniquity of slave-holding, and pro-slavery clergymen at the north, who cry, « peace, peace” to the slave-holder, and sew “ pillows to armholes,” tell us, that by our honest and open rebuke of the slave-holder, we shall incur his enduring hatred ; we, nevertheless, believe that “ open rebuke is better than secret love,” and that, in the end, we shall en- joy more southern favor than they, whose secret love is too prudent and spurious to deal faithfully with the objects of its regard. I have a somewhat extensive acquaintance at the north ; and I can truly say, that I do not know a white abolitionist, who is the reputed father of a colored child. At the south there are several hundred thousand persons, whose yellow skins testify, that the white man’s blood courses through their veins. Whether the honorable portion of their parentage is to be ascribed exclusively to the few abo- litionists scattered over the south — and who, under such supposition, must, indeed, be prodigies of industry and prolificness — or whether anti-abolitionists there, have, notwithstanding all their pious horror of “ amalgamation,” been contributing to it, you can better judge than myself. It appears to me highly improbable, that emancipation would be followed by the migration of the emancipated. Emancipation, which has already added fifty per cent, to the value of estates in the British West Indies, would immediately add as much to the value of the soil of the south. Much more of it would be brought into use ; and, notwithstanding the undoubted truth, that the freedman performs twice as much labor as when a slave, the south would require, in- stead of any diminution, a very great increase of the number of her laborers THE LEGION OF LIBERTY* The slave-holders of the soutn represent slavery as a heavon-born institution — themselves as patriarchs and patterns of benevolence— and their slaves, as their tenderly treated and happy dependents. The abolitionists, on the contrary, think that slavery is from hell— that slave-holders are the worst of robbers — and that their slaves are the wretched victims of unsurpassed cruelties. Now, how do abo- litionists propose to settle the points at issue ? — by fanciful pictures of the abominations of slavery to countervail the like pictures of its blessedness ? — by mere assertions against slavery, to balance mere as* sertions in its favor? No— but by the perfectly reasonable and fair means of examining slavery in the light of its own code — of judging of the character of the slave-holder in the light of his own conduct — and of arguing the condition of the slave from unequivocal evi* dences of the light in which the slave himself views it. To this end we publish extracts from the southern slave code, which go to show that slavery subjects its victims to the absolute control of their erring fellow men — that it withholds from them marriage and the Bible . that it classes them with brutes and things— and annihilates the dis. tinctions between mind and matter. To this end we republish in part, or entirely, pamphlets and hooks, in which southern men ex. hibit, with then - own pens, some of the horrid features of slavery. Some of the advertisements of this class identify the fugitive slave by the scars, which the whip, or the manacles and fetters, or the rifle had made on his person. Some of them offer a reward for his head ! — and it is to this same end, that we often refer to the ten thou, sands, who have fled from southern slavery, and the fifty fold that number, who have unsuccessfully attempted to lly from it. flow unutterable must be the horrors of the southern prison-house, and how strong and undying the inherent love of liberty to induce these wretched fellow beings to brave the perils which cluster so thickly and frightfully around their attempted escape? That love is indeed undying . — Letter to Henry Cloy, WILLIAM RAWLE. In the month of March, 1818, upon the decease of Dr. Caspar Wistar, another of the Spartan band, Mr. Rawlc was unanimously elected president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, and so con- tinned until the hour of his death. How deeply he commiserated in the condition of the unhappy bondsmen, a life of generous devotion to the melioration of that condition abundantly shows. His struggles in behalf of those who were incapable of struggling for themselves, were constant and unwearied. In such a contest, which he nobly sustained for upwards of forty years, what could sup. port him ? Nothjng but the buoyant consciousness of undeviating rectitude. For such unceasing efforts what could reward him ? Nothing but the cheering smiles of approving heaven, here, and its measureless glories hereafter. The objects of his bounty were those from whom he could expect no return ; they were of the proscribed and outlawed race ; and even when asserting their violated riguts, he himself, in the eye of their oppressors, was often condemned to share THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. in their odium, and almost partake of their penalties. It required no ordinary mind, no common place influences, thus at the same time to encounter the shafts of prejudice and pride in behalf of a class of men, who, fettered themselves, could impart no aid to the conflict, no consolations to the vanquished — no trophies to the victor. What laurels shall spring from the barren and arid soil of Africa ? What reward shall her benighted and enslaved children bestow, to requite past exertion, or stimulate to renewed efforts, while every where con. fronted by danger — every where disheartened by dismay ? For such devotion there can be but one motive, and that is, humanity ; three can be but one recompense, and that is the blessing of the bleeding and broken heart, upon which the soul shall be wafted to the bosom of its God. His doctrines upon this subject, which were the doc- trines of Franklin, of Lafayette, of Rush, of Wilberforce, may be scoffed at by some — condemned by others — they may not have been safe doctrines to live by, but they were safe to die by ; and, for my single self, I should ask no prouder inscription for my humble tomb, than — HERE LIES THE FRIEND OF THE FRIENDLESS AFRICAN. David Paul Brown. FRANCIS JACKSON. If a large majority of this community choose to turn a deaf ear to the wrongs, which are inflicted upon their countrymen in other por- tions of the land— if they are content to turn away from the sight of oppression, and “ pass by on the other side” — so it must be. But when they undertake in any way to impair or annul my right to speak, write, and publish upon any subject, and more especially upon enormities, which are. the common concern of every lover of his country and his kind — so it must not be — so it shall not be, if I for one can prevent. Upon this great right let us hold on at all hazards. And should we, in its exercise, be driven from public halls to private dwellings, one house at least shall be consecrated to its preservation. And if, in defence of this sacred privilege, which man did not give me, and shall not (if I can help it) take from me, this roof and these walls shall be levelled to the earth, let them fall if they must ; they cannot crumble in a better cause. They will appear of very little value to me, after their owner shall have been whipt into silence. Mobs and gag laws, and the other contrivances by which fraud or force would stifle inquiry, will not long work well in this communi- ty. They betray the essential rottenness of the cause, they are meant to strengthen. These outrages are doing their work with the reflect ing. Happily, one point seems already to be gaining universal as- sent, that slavery cannot long survive free discussion. Hence the ef- forts of the friends and apologists of slavery to break down this right. And hence the immense stake, which the enemies of slavery hold, in behalf of freedom and mankind, in its preservation. The contest is therefore substantially between liberty and slavery. As slavery cannot exist with free discussion — so neither can liberty breathe without it. Losing this, we, too, shall not be freemen in deed, but little, if at all, superior to the millions we now seek to emancipate. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY The Anti-Marriage Law of Massachusetts GEORGE BRADBURN. That such a law (prohibiting marriage) a law, so utterly derogate ry to all those principles of freedom and equality, which every Nei Englander, at least, is supposed to reverence — a law, which gradual! human rights by the hue of the skin, which would brand with infam more than one of America’s statesmen and most eloquent orators which tramples in the dust the divine institution of marriage, and It! galizes the most high-handed robbery of the innocent and the help less — that such a law should be suffered to remain so long on the sta tute book of Massachusetts, I regard as among the facts destined, a , once, to task the credulity, and excite the wonder and reprobatio: of posterity. Posterity may find some excuse, perhaps see some rea son, for the conduct of our puritanical fathers, in breaking the neck of heretics, and putting men and women to death for “ the sin ot witchcraft.” Some palliation of that conduct may be found in tb general darkness of the age, m which those fathers lived. But hovy posterity can palliate or excuse the continuance, by men living among the lights of the present age, of a statute so odious, so unjust, am so ridiculously absurd and contemptible withal, as the one in ques tion, it is quite impossible to conceive. But the fact, that, when re spectable women, moved bv the wrongs inflicted by this law, advem tured to pray for its repeal, t ! ;< y were answered with 'ibald jests, with sar- casms, lampoons, and sneers, were denounced as affecting with the ‘ insanity of fanaticism,’ tauu'cd with seeking to ann ;l a ‘ statute of decencyq’ and assailed, diree y, openly, and unbiushingly, with im- putations even upon their vir.ue, not only by ge.it leinen, so called, 1 standing in their places as members of the Massachusetts house of representatives, but also in the deliberate, printed reports drawn up by the chairmen of grave legislative committees — this is a fact, cal- culated more than all others perhaps, to excite in posterity, if indeed posterity can be made to credit it, deep feeling; of surprise, of amaze- 1 ment, of indignant, burning reprobation. But posterity will do jus-! tice to both the object and the motives of the petitioners. And when ‘ future historians shall form an estimate of the manners and morals of the age,’ those petitioners, having declined availing themselves of the ‘opportunity,’ which the chairman of one of the committee just alluded to, with liberality almost peculiar to himself, was disposed to ‘ afford’ them, ‘ to remove their names from the rolls on which they are written,’ they will be honorably set down as among tile few, that were willing to do something, not less for the reformation of those 1 manners and morals,’ than for the extension to all of the enjoy- ment of equal rights and privileges ; while their traducers, too insig. nificant to be 1 damned to everlasting fame,’ though not too impotent, perhaps, to have aided somewhat as well in corrupting the ‘ manners and morals of the age,’ as in perpetuating that corruption, will be passed over, and allowed to sink quietly into oblivion. i\\u THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. GEORGE BRADBURN. If we should be involved in a war, and obliged to expend an ah iost countless sum in carrying it on, the south has very politely in- ■rmed us, that if we will furnish the men, she will furnish the of- fers ; and the expenses may come out of the pockets of those who ave the money. Not satisfied, however, with requiring us to sup- ;rt the American siave trade, we are also called upon to support the frican, and to let the stripes and stars of our boasted republic float n furled to the breeze, at the mast-head of every pirate-craft which en g a t? e d m the nefarious traffic. We are as a nation committed in dunce of slavery ; and wo could not, under present circumstances, truly ana consistently represented in European courts, by any but lose identified with slave-holding interests. But why is it that we must not let our flag be invaded, in order to ;sist in putting a stop to the slave trade ? Why, Uncle Sam’s dig- it}' must not be touched ! Uncle Sam has so much dignity, that he fill not suffer any one to inquire who is sailing under his colors, ncle Sam will be satisfied with nothing short of giving his dignity, Ud his power, and his name, to the support of a trade -which is at ar with every principle of humanity and justice, and is determined ) let foreign nations know it. WILLIAM GOODELL. The National Government is Governed by Slavery. — In the •ery organization of that government the slave power exerted a colliding influence. It scoured to i'self the preponderancy, which i has ever since main'aincd, in the apportionment of representatives u Congress. By this means, the slave states send, at present, one mndred representatives, though their white population entitles them o only seventy-five. They have twenty-six senators in congress, vhen the principle of equal representation would give them but thir- :een. They have one hundred and twenty-six electoral votes for jresident, when they would have but eighty-eight were they placed m an equal and just footing with the free slates. This power is the ccret of northern sycophancy to the south. Tiie exercise of the slave power over the nation, through the general government and for its own purposes is seen the following particulars. .. On every disputed question, either of political economy, or in re- erence to the supposed interests of the slave states, the constant and tommonlv successful argument urged in and out of congress for the ast forty years has been the threat of dissolving the union. 2. In jiving shape to our naturalization, militia, and post office laws, and n the government of the federal district, no effort has been spared to legrade the free people of color. 3. 1 The vast domain acquired, by be purchase of Louisiana, lias, under authority of congress, been locked with slaves, except so much of it as is north of 38 1-2 de- crees of north latitude.’ Seven new slave states have been added to he union. 4. In the District of Columbia, slavery has been estab- ished by laws of congress, believed to be unconstitutional, and ag- fra vated by additional enactments from time to time, and peculiar i:ips bavfl been given for rendering the district what it is, the W. GOODELL. grand centre of the domestic slave trade between the states. Laws - have also been made by which freemen, suspected of being fugitives from slavery, are seized and sold in the District of Columbia as slaves, unless they can prove their freedom while incarcerated in a dungeon, and this too by the judgment of a tribunal directly interested in their condemnation and sale. 5. The federal government has negociated with Great Britain and Mexico, for the surrender of fugitive slaves. 6. Florida, while a Spanish Province, was invaded, by authority of the federal government, in time of peace, for the purpose of destroy- ing a fort of fugitive slaves. 7. Compensation for fugitive slaves who had taken refuge on board of British ships of war has been ob. tained by the federal government from Great Britain. 8. Efforts have been made by our government to recover slaves shipwrecked on Bermuda and elsewhere. 9. The American slave trade, coast-wise and over land, is prosecuted under special protection of the general government. Some of these slaves are entirely white ! 10. The federal government, in its intercourse with Great Britain has mani- fested a settled and persevering duplicity, in regard to the suppression of the African slave trade — totally evading and declining all propo- sitions for assisting in its efficient suppression. 11. It has winked at the illegal importation of African slaves. 12. It has covertly aided the colonization society, (managed by slave-holders) in its work of ridding the slave states from the troublesome presence of free people of color. 13. It has made efforts to prevent the abolition of slavery in the Island of Cuba, and even intimated its readiness to engage in a war to prevent it ! 14. It has manifested a marked hostility to the government of Hayti, refusing to acknowledge its independence, Brough the measure was manifestly required by the commercial in terests of the country, — and it has exerted its influence at the Con- gress of Panama, to prevent the South American Republics from re- cognizing Hayti as a new state. 15. It has successfully managed to bring about a recognition of Texas, under circumstances calculated to plunge the country in a Mexican war. 16. It has put forth per- severing and varied efforts to effect the annexation of Texas to the United States. 17. Florida has been purchased because it was a re- fuge for fugitives. 18. The Seminole war has been waged and prose- cuted for the same reason. Inferences. — 1. That the slave power in congress is the predomi- nating and ascendant power. 2. That its power is vigilantly and suc- cessfully exercised in the support of the slave system. 3. That in the prosecution of this work, it holds all the other interests of the country to be of minor importance. 4. That this work is carried on with little or no remonstrance or opposition on the part of the repre- sentatives and senators of the non-slave-holding states. And, of course. 5. That the liberties as well as the interests of northern freemen, so far as the action of the general government is concerned, are at the mercy of a slave power, which always holds its own interests para- mount to all others. — Anti-Slavery Lecturer. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. JOSHUA LEAVITT. The ascendency of the slave-power in the councils of the nation, obtained through the ill-advised concessions of the federal constitu- tion, and strengthened by a long series of usurpations on the one hand, and of surrenders on the other, is unjust, dangerous to the union, and incompatible with the preservation of free government ; and is the principal cause of the political and financial evils under which we groan ; and thus the only hope of relief is in a united de- termination of the friends of freedom, to employ all wise and lawful means for the extinction of slavery itself. The first point is the fact of the ascendancy of the slave power in the general government. It controls all national appointments. No man has been or can be elected president, but a slave-holder, or a man fully approved by the slave-holders. Slave-holders have been vice-presidents since 1820 ; and presidents of the senate since 1800 ; thus securing the casting vote in the senate. Since 1822, none but a slave-holder has been speaker of the house. A majority of the su- preme court are from the slave states. Every member of the cabi- net is either a slave-holder or a devoted supporter of the slave power. It controls the national diplomacy. For six years, the chief busi- ness of our minister at London, was to urge the British government to pay for certain shipwrecked slaves, set at liberty by the old habeas corpus ; and at length the sum of £25,000 was gained for the slave- holders, a sum just about equal to the expense of the mission ; and this while the boundary question and other important matters were chiefly overlooked. We have now six foreign embassies engaged in looking after the interests of the tobacco planters. Slavery controls the legislation of Congress. No act has been passed, no course of legislation adopted but with the consent of the slave power. And no demand of the slave-holders has ever been successfully resisted, how- ever injurious it might be to other interests, contrary to the constitu- tion, hostile to the principles of liberty and justice, or derogatory to the national honor. Slavery holds the nation as a subjugated king- dom, and allows the government to exercise its functions only in strict subserviency to the will of the dominant power. 2. This ascendancy has been gained through the ill-advised con- cessions of the constitution, and strengthened by a series of usurpa- tions and submissions disgraceful to the nation. Let it be borne in mind that all the concessions to slavery were purely gratuitous. Slavery had no claims to be considered. It was not an interest of the nation, it added nothing to the national wealth, the national strength, or the national honor, but is a mere damage to them all, and is in no sense entitled to be regarded as an interest, but as an enemy. For these concessions, the slave-holders rendered no equiva- lent. They pressed their claims, not by argument or by persuasion, but by bullying ; and the constitution pacified them, as a man would pacify a highway robber who with a pistol at his breast demands his purse, and at length by a “ compromise” takes up with half the amount. Our fathers never would have yielded as they did, but for the belief then generally entertained that slavery would be of tem- 11 J. LEAVITT. porary duration, and that the future tendencies would all be in favor of liberty. The result does honor to their good feeling, rather than their wisdom. They overlooked the moral axioms, that the tolerance of sin leads to corruption, and that usurpation ever grows by sub. mission and is never satisfied. 3. That these concessions are wholly unjust in their operation, as between the two sections of the country, may be seen from a slight examination of one of them. THE FEDERAL RATIO. By the constitution, the slave-holding states are allowed to be rep- resented for three-fifths of the number of their slaves. This is an unjust law, because slaves are not in law persons in those states, they neither sustain the relations nor exercise the functions of per- sons, they do not possess the prerogatives nor bear the respon- sibilities of persons, nor contribute as persons to the common wealth or strength, and therefore have no right to be considered as persons in the apportionment of political power. Representatives represent only people, freemen. The south has 3-8 millions of peo- ple and 100 representatives, tire north 7 millions and 142 represen- tatives. The south is only entitled to 75 representatives, and by re- curring to the history of the country it will be found that these 25 representatives of slaves have in fact determined nearly every im- portant question of the government. Look at the bearing of this on particular stales. Pennsylvania has 937,877 free inhabitants, and 19 representatives. Virginia has nearly 200,000 less, and 21 representatives, when she is only entitled to 16. This is a specimen. The representation in the senate was originally equal, but is now greatly changed. The senate was divided between the north and south (Delaware then being always reckoned with the north until 1819) thus 1789 North, 16 Senators, representing each 123,000 South, 10 “ “ “ 125,000 1820 North, 22 “ “ “ 228,000 South, 22 “ “ “ 125,000 1839 North, 26 “ ' “ “ 269,000 South, 26 “ “ « 145,757 The admission of Louisiana, in 1812, and the going over of Dela- ware to slavery, produced this tie, of which the Missouri compro- mise was the first fruits — the full harvest of infamy and woe is yet to be reaped. The electoral vote for president is composed of both these ratios, and combines the injustice of both. Pennsylvania has 30 votes for president ; the six -states, of S. Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mis- sissippi, Louisiana and Kentucky, wiLh a free population nearly 200,000 less, has 52 votes. Their number, in proportion to their free population, would be 26, or just one-half. Had the division ol the states remained as it was when the constitution was adopted, and had the increase in the proportionate number of the free and slave J. LEAVITT. slates kept pace with the increase of free population, the free states would now have 36 senators instead of 26 ; and were a right appor- tionment made, the electoral vote would stand 178 N. to 101 S. in- stead of 168 to 126. The 45 electoral votes gratuitously conceded to slaver}', are enough to govern all elections, by being judiciously employed in balancing the parties of the north, so as to keep tnem all in subserviency to the slave interest, whenever that comes in com petition with the interest of the country. Ohio, with 202.453 votes, has 21 electors ; while Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina. Alabama and Mississippi, with 211,939 voters, have 76 electors. Massachusetts, with 74,594 votes, has 14 electors ; North Carolina and Alabama, with 74,000 votes, have 22 electors ; and Virginia and South Carolina, with 83,000 votes, have 34. In the distribution of the surplus revenue, in 1837, the slave states managed to get the electoral ratio established as the rule of appor- tionment. In consequence, six of the slave states, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Kentucky, became entitled to $6,754,588 ; while Pennsylvania, with a population of nearly 200,000 more, had only $3,823,358. New-Jersey received $3,20 to each free person, Georgia $4.80, South Carolina $5.27, Louisiana $6, and Massachusetts two dollars and ninety-two cents. 4. It is easy to show that this element of our political institutions is both dangerous to the union and incompatible with a free govern- ment. The possession of unjust and irresponsible power always in- toxicates, and those who hold it become infatuated, and extend their encroachments in an increased ratio, until they become intolerable, and drive the oppressed to revolution. Such is the history of the past. Such is the career now running by the slave-power in this country. Its gags, its post-office restrictions, its political intolerance, its inter- ference with every political and financial interest, will, if not checked by constitutional means, drive the people of the north to a revolution, for which the responsibility will chiefly rest upon such northern states- men as [Proffit,] Van Buren, Webster, Buchanan, &c. who vie with each other in efforts to bind the north at the chariot wheels of the slave-power. 5. Time fails, to illustrate, in detail, the extent to which slavery is the cause of our political and financial evils. In politics, it em- barrasses all our diplomacy with foreign nations. It sacrifices the national honor. How it looks, to see a government professedly free chiefly occupied in securing and extending the interests of slavery ! It binds us helpless and trembling at the feet of the nation with which we are chiefly in contact. It enslaves the public press, that old “palladium of liberty.” It controls public offices. It inflames parties at the north, so that its pendulum power can be employed to keep them vieing with each other in self-degradation and servility.— The Emancipator. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. ELIZUR WRIGHT, Jun. Friends and fellow laborers, the enemy now stands openly before us. His foot is on the neck, of 2,500,000 of our fellow-men. He asserts his right to maintain his position, and to increase the number of his victims. He begs no longer any favors from the circumstances o^be case, he talks no more about a hard necessity : he boldly avows slavery to be the best condition of the laborer, tVithout qualification of color or clime. He madly threatens more closely to shut out the light of eternal life from the imprisoned soul, as if the dark and fana- tical mixture of Christianity and heathenism, under an even increas. ing load of stripes and chains, were less likely to breed insurrection and servile war than the kind influences of free and genuine chris. tianity combined with the mild and equitable government of law 1 Such is the enemy that we find rampant amidst our free institutions defended on all sides by fortifications built out of our flattery or neg- lect. Is there a man that loves his country or his race who will not now take the side of freedom ? Is there a woman ? Is there a child ? The work is plain. Let abolitionists plant in every free breast a holy horror of the sin of slavery, by exposing in the light of truth its nature and tendencies. This will cut off the supply of enterprise and talent and sanctity that has yearly flowed to the south to prop up the unhallowed system. It will purify the church ; it will abolitionize southern travellers and residents in the north instead of permitting them to diffuse the power of slavery among us. It will lay slave-holders under an embargo, surround them, as the moral in- valids of the universe, with a cordon sanitaire. It will confine the contagion to the spot of its origin, as the pest house of human na ture. Who can doubt, with such treatment a speedy recovery ' Let the abolitionists see to it that the rights of humanity, and the high privileges of our country are secured to our colored brethren who are free. Let them smile upon their laudable endeavors to ele. vate themselves, and wash off the marks of the degrading chain and scourge. Let them trample on the cord of caste and dare to treat men according to their deserts and not according to the mean and guilty prejudices. of an oppressive nation. Let them throw open to deserving colored youth — the mechanic’s shop, the farm, the count- ing house and the halls of education. Of what use is freedom if it does not open the door to manhood ? Let it be remembered that the practicability and safety of our ad. vice to the slave-holders is no longer a matter of question. They said to us, let us wait and see the result of the emancipation of 800,000 British slaves. Well, we have seen the result, and it ve- rifies all our predictions, — if those may be called predictions, which are but the plainest teachings of common sense. Is there a rational hope of putting a peaceful end to slavery by any other means than a thorough change of public opinion ? If not we call upon all who love their country, their fellow men, and their God to join us. If we have failed in energy, if we have lacked wisdom, if there are men who are ready to carry this cause onward faster and further than we have done, let them come forward and give their country the benefit of their superior powers. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. THE SLAVE REPRESENTATION. The American Congress is, without doubt, an anomaly as a de liberative body, in the civilized world. In that most august repre- sentative 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, whence these twenty-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 numbers these twenty-eight members were indebted for their seats. By counting five slaves as three white or free persons, as the basis of congressional representation, these twenty-eight mem- bers of Congress hold their seats as the chattel representatives, or as the representatives of things and not of men, and possess or claim the power to silence their chattel or thing constitutency, when it asks or seeks to become a man-constituency, and also claim the high pre- rogative of silencing their associate members of Congress, who would seek to elevate the chattel constituency of the twenty-eight men 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 then - constituents to the common rights and privileges of mankind. These twenty-eight men come to represent nothing but the congregated absurdities and all the marked moral obliquities of this period of the world. These twenty-eight men come, as a sort of body guard to lust, la- ziness, unpaid wages, ignorance, heathenism, the rights of the lash, amalgamation, prostitution, the shooting down unpaid laborers for leaving their employments, divorcing husbands and wives, separating parents and children, the selling men, women and children, by pri- vate contract or by public outcry ; yea, the right of vending unborn generations ; yes, the exalted privilege, peculiar to the slave-holder ; of selling his own children, his own brothers and sisters, cousins, nephews and neices, into the most miserable slavery, and all and every the right of duelling, chivalry, assassination, murder and ge- nerally all and every and each of the multiplied rights embraced within the circle of the most unbounded inhumanity. These twenty-eight congressmen are the chosen gladiators to dis- pute every inch of ground, which the humanity of Congress may desire to occupy. These are the men, whose votes are employed 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 differently from all the rest, not to favor but to resist all mea. sures 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 chaos and pri- meval night, amidst their maniac screams of Order ! Order ! OR- DER ! ! 1 — Alvan Stewart. 21 * THE LEGION OF LIBERTY, ALVAN STEWART. The enemies of our noble sentiments and elevated intentions, have resorted to the old heathen track of misrepresentation, and by adding to our code views never promulgated by us, by charg- ing us with intentions never harbored, with expectations never cherished, and as remote from the mind of an abolitionist, as in- fidelity is from the conscience of piety, as meanness is from gene- i rosity, as bigotry is from charity, as truth from falsehood, as free- l dom from slavery. They would fain make us unfit for this world. We are not judged by evidence drawn from our own declarations or acts, but by acts which our wily adversaries prophecy, we will do or commit at some future period of time ; and thus they lift the curtain which shuts from all mortal eyes, except prophets, the great unbounded future ; and by looking down the vale of lime, they behold us engaged in the diabolical and blood thirsty work of procuring laws passed to abolish slavery in the district of Co lumbia, and the slave territories, and in this way knocking the fet. ters from the bondman, which our adversaries call treason, ealeu- j lated to dissolve the Union. What. Union ? I doubt not that some of these union patriots would take your life, and mine, and every member of this convention, and in so doing, think they had done their master a service, and lift up their hand for eternal and unmitigated slavery to every colored man, woman and child, in the United Stales, and throw into the same pile all who differed with them in sentiment to promote the interest of their master. These are the patriotic Unionists, who secretly wish to dissolve the union, by permitting the great cancer to grow on the neck of the union without attempting its cure or removal. These 1 are the friends of the union, who are willing to see two and a half millions of men, women and children, sacrificed to the demon of slavery, according to the written provisions of the constitution, which these unionists seem to suppose unalterable. These unionists are willing to destroy us, because we are not terrified at the roaring of the slave-holders ; because we feel for two and a half millions of men, women and children, who are now being offered at the shrine 1 of cruelty, lust and avarice. These lovers- of the union refuse to hear the loud lamentations of bitter sorrow and hopeless grief ; which, like the voice of a mighty flood, ascends day and night from every plantation, every factory, every corn-field, every rice-field, every to- bacco-field, every cotton-field, and every kitchen of eleven (thirteen) states ; and penetrates the ear of God. The slaves never held a convention on the subject of their wrongs; they never met to petition for a redress of grievances, or to remon- strate against the manifold injuries by which they are broken down. No, his petition was never read within the walls of legislation. Solemn thought. Even to us who for a moment, have become his mouth-piece to tell his wrongs to the world, and demand his redress ; we, even we, white skin republicans, appear to be on the eve of losing our rights as white men, from having, from the deepest im. •wises of humanity, become the slave’s organ, to explain to an un- THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. feeling world, the wrongs inflicted upon him. If white men in non. slave-holding states encounter so much noise, violence and injury, in barely pleading the cause of the slave, before those who have no in. terest in the slave’s body, and whose only interest is to cringe and flatter the master of the slave, what must be the condition of the poor slave left to plead his own cause against his own master ; that master who is fed sumptuously every day, and clothed in purple and fine linen, by the unpaid labor of that slave ? When will the glut- ton, the wine bibber, the adulterous, the avaricious, listen to the voice of the unaided slave ? HENRY PETERSON. What calls for the suppression of our principles ? What is it that demands that we should abandon all our measures for the liberation of the helpless captive ? Ay ! what is it that claims the extermina- tion of the Seminole, the expulsion of the Cherokee, the unmolested power to imbrute the oppressed slave ? “ The integrity of the Union.” If it be true, that these states cannot remain united without the con- stant sacrifice of right ; if every cause which is pure and holy must be immolated in its bloody temple ; if it be not a means for effecting good, but a tremendous agent of fraud, and all manner of wicked, ness ; — let the Union be dissolved. If degradation be a sufficient reason for withholding liberty, it necessarily follows, that those who enjoy then- libertv, and are not- withstanding ignorant and degraded, may rightfully be made slaves. Then the same principle which would keep the ignorant population of the south in bondage, would, if carried out, reduce to servitude the ignorant population of the north. But in truth, if a class of men be degraded, it is the very reason why they should not be slaves If an individual is so crippled that he can hardly move, would you weigh him down witlfi chains to make him move faster ? The objec- tor must have a very high opinion of slavery as a teacher, when he argues that it is much better than liberty to improve the mind and manners. It does, however, seem rather singular that the colored people should have been so long under the tuition of the first, with- out appearing the least better fitted for liberty than when they began their education — and therefore I am most decidedly an advocate for a change of masters. A man must have liberty before he can learn how to use and ap- preciate it. You might as well expect to teach him to breathe with- out air, as learn him how to enjoy his freedom while a slave. These sensible objectors must be descendants of that very wise old lady, who advised her son “ never to go into the water until he knew how to swim.” If education were merely theoretical, the case would be different ; but practice must always go along with theory. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY THOMAS EARLE. I am convinced that if slavery were abolished in the south, the rise in the value of real estate in five years would more than com- pensate the price of the slave. Moreover, the improvement in morals, ' in order, in peace of mind, would be far greater than any pecuniary considerations. Look at the want of energy, industry, science, lite- L rature, and improvement in the south compared with the north, and i see if you can hesitate as to the advantages. Look at the homicides i and other immoralities in public men, judges, and presidents of col. leges and literary institutions. Read the accounts of slaves killed by masters, and of masters killed by slaves, and contrast it with the fact, that in six and a half years of freedom in two of the British West Indies, and two and a half years in the remainder not a sin- gle white man has been killed by one of the African race ; and see if you can hesitate as to the just and expedient course. So great is my attachment to the union, that for the sake of per. petuating that union without any accompanying oppression to be committed by us of the north, I should be willing to waive any ques- , tion of the strictest right, and see the whole of the public lands ap. propriated through a change of the constitution, to the extinction of slavery ; and such I believe would be the sentiment of a vast majori- ty of the people of the north. There are no people on earth so disposed as slave-holders to inter- fere with the policy of other countries. This is a natural result of the system itself, for slavery is the greatest known interference of one class of men with the rights and interest of others, and those who practice the greater will not be likely to hesitate at the less. As this was true of the slave-holders in the tyrannical republics of Sparta and of Rome, where human beings were required to kill each other for the amusement of the aristocracy, so it is true of the slave-holders of this day. The institutions, religious and political, not only of the northern states, but of England, Mexico, Texas, France, China, and Africa, are the constant subjects of the solicitude and care of our southern slave-holding brethren. They could pass resolutions and furnish money in aid of South America, Texas, Greece, and Poland. They will, through our secretary of state, request the Pacha of Egypt not to oppress the Jews of Damascus. They would pro- testantize France, christianize India, and civilize Africa ; yet they would deny us the right of attempting by moral suasion to convert themselves to our views of Christianity. BERIAH GREEN. What is American slavery ? What are its inherent tendencies, and what its necessary effects ? What are its victims doomed to suf- fer under its influence ? It finds them, as the creatures of God, re fleeting his image. It finds them endowed with reason, and forbids them to walk in the light of its principles. It finds them formed with the power of conscience, and forbids them to bow to its dictates. It finds them gifted with free-will, and forbids them to act according to B. GREEN. their choice. It finds them the children of the skies, and forbids them to make provision for their immortality. It finds them exalted and dignified by the image of God, which they bear, and does its ut. most to degrade them to a level with the beasts which perish around them. In its inherent and necessary tendency it strikes at the very vitals of their humanity. It strives to obliterate every characteristic feature and property of their human nature. And what is the language of our brother Lovejoy’s blood ? It speaks of the frightful impartiality of slavery in multiplying the vie- thus of its murderous malignity. What does it care for the barriers which were designed to separate the slave states from the free ? What does it care for any variety of complexion ; what for powerful talents and exalted station ; what for the elevated character, extensive use- fulness, or general confidence, for which any American citizen may be distinguished ? It contemns the most important relations and the most sacred offices. From its snake-like grasp, no sanctuary can aft ford any protection. To all, without the least respect for the cord of caste or the distinctions of society, it offers one and the same alter- native — to subserve its interests, or stand exposed to the heaviest in-, juries it can inflict. This alternative, in a proclamation “ breathing out threatenings and slaughter,” it has put into the open mouths of myriads of criers from Georgia to Maine. And, alas, to what num- bers of our fellow-citizens has not this been a terrible alternative ! Thousands upon thousands have given up their birth-rights ; have consented to bow down to the Moloch, “ besmeared with blood of hu- man sacrifice and parents’ tears,” which demanded at their hands the sacrifice of every thing dear and precious in our civil, social, and religious institutions ! Among these are to be recorded a large ma- jority of those to whom the powers of the press were confided. On the one hand, they have refused to record and to publish the frightful ravages which slavery was multiplying, especially its fearful encroach- ments on the inheritance of freemen ; and on the other, they have taxed their utmost ingenuity to frame and circulate the most deceit- ful apologies for any of its excesses which might break upon the pub- lic attention. They have done what they could to protect and en courage the monster, while gnawing with unwearied tooth upon the vitals of the republic. To such conductors of the press must, in multiplied instances, be added those to whom was entrusted the sword of the magistrate. From the heads of law-abiding, public-spirit'ed, and useful citizens, who, while exposed to the greatest injuries, had the strongest claims upon their countenance and aid, they have withdrawn the shield of their protection. Often have they been known to be the instigators and abettors of the intoxicated rabble, whom they have virtually led on to the wildest excesses and the most intolerable outrages. In their official stations, they have played the tyrant ; — avowing maxims, and advancing doctrines, and setting up pretensions, obviously and radically subversive of the whole frame-work of our government. The sword which they had sworn to use in defence of freedom, they have, without blushing for their perjury and perfidy, offered to employ in the service of sla- very. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. NATHANIEL COLVER. The real owner of every slave is known. God is the owner of every slave (man) and eveiy slave (man) is the God-appointed guar- dian of himself; and both the owner and guardian are ever present to claim the restoration. But brother Davis justifies the slave-holders, because southern laws forbid emancipation. Then southern laws are infamously wicked; and better for every Christian in the south to die a martyr’s death than endorse their guilt. If it would be wicked to hold slaves, were there no such laws, then those laws cannot make it right. Is my brother a protestant ? Then, he should remember that neither popes nor le- gislators can grant effectual “ indulgences” to sin, nor abrogate the ’ command of God to “ let the oppressed go free” and to “ break every yoke.” The plea of such an indulgence will not avail him in the great and trying day. Strange logic this ; — man-stealers are not inan- stealers, because, forsooth, the law protects them in doing the deed. So God will curse both it and those who avail themselves of its sane- 1 tions to do wickedly. Poverty is better than guilt. God can smile upon the poor ; but he I will ever frown upon the oppressor. Your slaves are poor, very poor ; 1 — the state in which you hold them allows them to own nothing, not even themselves, their wives, or their children. Rich, indeed, would they count themselves, were they but possessed of what you would be, if divested even of all your chatties, — Liberty ! In the name of justice, what right has the slave-holder to continue to be rich upon the continued robbery of the poor slaves, who, by the infamous and admitted kidnapping of others, have been subjected to their power. Such an argument as this, will do for them who have forgotten God and justice, but it is surprising that it should ever have found utterance from a Christian. Most freely do I admit that there are many kind-hearted and hu- mane men who hold slaves — as kind to their slaves as the relation will allow them to be, and that their kindness dashes the bitter cup of slavery with transient sweets, but still, slavery is a bitter cup. Under the most favorable circumstances, its bitterness is not neutra lized by the admixture of personal kindness, while to millions it is a cup of unmingled gall. It has been represented that the slaves are well treated, happy, contented and attached to their masters, but is it so ! ! Ask the north star which has guided so many of them to the land of liberty, where their weaiy, toil-worn, whip-scarred limbs have found a resting place, in Canada ! The slaves well treated and contented ? What means the shaking of the south at the fluttering of every leaf? Their vigilance committees ? Their muzzling of the press and the freedom of speech ? So confident are the south of the unnatural and dangerous structure of their society, that the chival- rous sons of the south have become slaves. Yes, their magistrates and ministers must bow down and ask master mob, what publica- tions they may read ! — Discussion with J. Davis. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. RICHARD HILDRETH. Slavery is a continuation of the state of war. It is true that one of the combatants is subdued and bound ; but the war is not termi- nated. If I do not put the captive to death, this apparent clemency does not arise from any good will towards him, or any extinction on mv part of hostile feelings and intentions. I spare his life merely because I expect to be able to put him to a use more advantageous to myself. And if the captive, on the other hand, feigns submission still he is only watching for an opportunity to escape my grasp, and if possible to inflict upon me evils as great as those to which I have subjected him. W ar is justly regarded, and with the progress of civilization it comes every day more and more to be regarded, as the very greatest of social calamities. The introduction of slavery into a community, amounts to an eternal protraction of that calamity, and a universal diffusion of it through the whole mass of society, and that too, in its most ferocious form. Now every plantation in the slave states is to be looked upon as the seat of a little camp, which overawes and keeps in subjection the surrounding peasantry. The master claims and exercises over his slaves all the rights of war above described, and others yet more ter- rible. Consider too that this infliction is not limited to a single neigh- borhood, as in the case of an invading army, but is scattered and dif- fused over the whole extent of tire country ; nor is it temporary as in the other case, but constant and perpetual. It is by taking a view like this, that we are enabled to form a primary, general, outline idea of the social condition of a slave-holding community. Considering slaves merely as property, there are two grievous in- fringements upon the master’s liberty. But consider them as men, and the infringement upon the master’s freedom of action is still more intolerable. I am deprived by law of the capacity to be benevolent and just. I am ready to confer upon a fellow being the highest boon which man can give or receive ; — but the laws do not permit me to confer it. Perhaps the slave is my own child. No matter ; he shall remain a slave to the day of his death, unless I can obtain as a par- ticular grace and favor, a special permission to set him free. Is this liberty ? Is not the servitude of the father as miserable almost as that of the son ? The authors of these laws have plainly perceived that the natural dictates of humanity are at war with the institution of slavery ; and that if left to their own operation, sooner or later, they would ac- complish its overthrow. To perpetuate the slavery of the unprivileg- ed class, they have fettered up those sentiments of the human heart, which are the foundation of morality and of the charities of life. For the sake of brutalizing others, they have sought to barbarize themselves. Liberty of opinion, liberty of speech, and liberty of the press do not exist in the southern states of the American Union, any more than under any other despotism. No doubt there are some subjects which may be very freely discussed there ; but the same is the case THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. under all despotisms. Any body may freely discuss at Rome or Mos. cow, the merits and demerits of American slavery. The only pro. hibited subjects are, the plans of government and systems of policy upheld by the pope or the czar. Instead however of saying that the masters and the slaves are equally happy, the idea might be more clearly and distinctly expres- sed by saying, that both masters and slaves are equally miserable. 1 Slavery is an invention for dividing the goods and ills of life into two separate parcels, so as to bestow all the ills upon the slaves, and all the good upon the masters. So far as regards the slaves, this at- tempt is successful enough. The miseries of life are concentrated upon their heads in a terrible mass. But as respects the masters, the experiment fails entirely . — Despotism in America. J. BLANCHARD. All can see, at a glance, that a slave’s virtues are of little earthly use to him. Honesty and industry in business will not bring him wealth, nor can dishonesty and idleness sink him into a lower poverty than that which belongs to the condition of a slave. For no man can be poorer than he who does not own himself. Intelligence, talents, refinement, all that constitutes the glory of a civilized man, are but so many curses to one doomed to slavery for life. Every thing that quickens his sensibilities, only makes him the more alive to the misery and degradation of his condition ; for it is only while he forgets that he is a man, that he can be contented as a slave. Who then can reduce man to this terrible state, or retain him in it, and not justly dread the denunciations of God against oppression ? When he strips his slave of the safe-guards of virtue, and the attri- butes of humanity, he usurps for himself the prerogatives of God ! Nay, worse still. He demands of the slave a submission not claimed by God ; and enforces it by means which are never resorted to by the Devil! For Jehovah never governs his rational creatures by mere will ; and Satan never coerces, though he tempts men to serve him. The slave-holder does both. The rule of life to the slave is locked up in the owner’s breast. He knows not to-day what submissions he may be called to on the morrow. Thus he has no fixed rule or law of life. & B. TREADWELL. One-sixth part only of the human family are white. Five-sixths of the whole human race, are by the hand of our Common Parent, complexioned from the olive to the copper color, and from the cop- per color, still darker. The aristocratic principles, of what is eom- monly called prejudice against color, exhibit not only the wickedness, but the extreme folly of our entertaining, and deliberately cherishing such feelings against people who happen to be somewhat differently complexioned to ourselves, that we cannot extend to them even the common civilities, hospitalities, or the charities of life. This won- derful monster in human nature, is nothing more nor less than hateful THE LEGION OE LIBERTY. mstocratic caste. To say the least of it, it is anti-republican, un- reasonable, unkind, illiberal, not to say unchristian and wicked. The guilty conscience of the slave-holder, while he holds his vam. tire grasp upon his human prey, dares not allow him to give them lie least possible means of knowing and avenging their wrongs, any note than the pirate himself dares put his bloody implements into the lands of his ill fated victims. But when the slave-holder draws the ron from the soul, lets go his grasp, and sets his slaves at full liberty o breathe their native air of freedom, as their benevolent Creator de- signed them to do, they leap for joy, and at once rally around him is their best friend, and bury their past wrongs forever. They can hen begin to learn, and to appreciate the invaluable boon of civil li- icrty, and like men raised from the dead, to the astonishment of all, • they are seen walking uprightly .” — American Liberties and Ameri- ■ose of refreshing the memories of the people with the great funda- nenlal principles on which the government is erected, that every nan may he reminded of the sound and solid foundation of our re- nibiican edifice, and, keeping them as the apple of the eye, may lold them up in holy defiance of all political aspirants, who may be lisposed to elevate themselves at the expense of the rights of others. !:i doing this, we have professed not to be supremely selfish. We lave hoped to see the tlu'oues of foreign despotism subverted by these irinciples of right. We have thundered them in the ears of all na- ions, till the earth rang again. This is the noise that ye have heard 'or more than half a century. We have sympathized with the valiant Poles and struggling Greeks, and it was our principles of indepen- ience which prompted such sympathy. But must we forget the ap- dication of these principles to the cruelly oppressed in our own coun- ry ? Must we bow with reverential awe, orrather with recreant ser /llity, before tire haughty “ throne of iniquity,” erected on the bo- lies and souls — the most precious rights — the groans and tears of nillions of our own fellow-citizens, thousands of them being of ‘the posterity” of that generation of Americans, who resisted unto food the principles and the impositions of tyrants, and established his republic “ to secure to themselves and to their posterity, the dessings of Liberty ?” Let the nation retract her pretensions to all political piety, and re- ■cind her declaration of those holy principles, and stand out before Sod and mankind the unblushing advocate of despotism, the object >f Jehovah’s wrath and of the world’s scorn, — or honestly apply hose principles to every provision of her constitution — that it may >e purified of all the pollution, which has been imposed on it, and 12 THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. stand forth to the eyes of all nations, as the most righteous and bes of all constitutions, and to the eye of Him, who made all men cqua and endowed them with the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit o happiness, as a worthy transcript of Ilis owndioly constitution oi government. THOMAS PYNE. Sad were it, and deep the national disgrace, and more fearful tb transgression of driving away, or of leaving in ignorance the poo Indian. May a better lot await them — those, alas ! who have littli cause of gratulation in this day of thanksgiving, — since they see tbei land overrun with strangers, — the graves of their fathers violated, am themselves doomed to a precarious life 1 How greatly indeed havi they learnt the vices — how little of the blessings of civilization How has the banner which bears the inscription of the Piince of Peace, become to them often the token of persecution and of death If national crimes provoke divine judgments, have we nothing U fear from the avenging spirit beneath whose eye the savage is not for- gotten ? Certainly now at length the enlightened and the favored should arise for their rescue. I regard the voluntary tenure of men contrary to their consent in hopeless and hereditary bondage as decidedly sinful. I regard the purchase and sale of human beings, the denial to them of the mar riage-tie, the forcible separation of parents and children, the compel, sory requirement of them to labor without wages, and by the stimulus of the whip, the keeping ihem in ignorance, — possibly to the ruin of their souls, for the sake of retaining authority over them,— as awful breaches of the rules of justice and mercy. I doubt not there are many benevolent people among the whites of the south. Some I am ever proud and happy to esteem my friends — I speak not therefore against these, but against the system of slavery. The territories of the United States and the district of Columbia are under the influence of Congress — a Congress returned from every part of the union. Surely, then, in these regions the evil might be more and more fully petitioned against. Especially does it appear a dreadful and most ominous fact that Columbia, the place in wiiicii meet the Congress of, if we believe what we hear, the freest people ou earth, should be the greatest slave-market in America, perhaps ir. tile world. By memorials, then, to the legislature, by the return of men attached to freedom, — universal freedom, — and by the influence of moral suasion, should the disinterested and patriotic citizens of America seek a removal from among them of l he oppressive laws. The whole of the civilized world, I believe I may say, now expects of America that she should cherish the savage, and that she should liberate the slave. THE LEG I0>" OF LIBERTY. CIRCULAR OF THE AMERICAS' A S. SOCIETY, May, 1842 We common ! to every person who is friendly to (he abolition of haverv. lo gird on the strong' h of principle, and come up, speed:!}', n aid of our great purpose. Let there be no waiting for each other; nit prompt action in each, and it will necessarily be simultaneous, fhe public sentiment of the nation is alive, and sensitive to impres- sion from the principles of equal justice. Every day develops this en- :ou raging fact, and assures us that any amount of labor we can bring nto the held, will receive a just reward. By the weeping and suffering of the millions of our fellow-beings ,ve call on the country Lo tnvake from its inaction, and commence a vigorous campaign for the 1 ensuing year. Friends, whoever you be, whether members of anti-slavery societies or not, call meetings, and read this circular, without delay. Read it in the social circle — read u to your neighbors — press it on every conscience, and weary not in your efforts 'o make it productive of the best results. Signed, on behalf of the committee. J. H. GIBBONS, Chairman. L. M. Child, Rec. Secretary. CHARLES HARRIOT There is one expedient by which (house of these articles of slave- labor might be continued, and yet the amount of suffering be greatly diminished. Let those who think they cannot relinquish them, send a deputation of their members lo purchase slaves, raise sugars, Ac. fir tire use of friends only ; these persons would be responsible, their breasts would contain some portion of the milk of human kindness, and the poor blacks would no longer groan under the iron hand of despotism. We should then be only supporting slavery in its mildest, instead of its harshest form. It is a common observation that your sex have an extensive influ- ence over the conduct of ours. It is also a truth, though one that man in his fancied superiority may reluctantly admit, that a very large proportion of all the morality and piety that exist in tire world is communicated through the medium of your instructions. This would not excite surprise, were we to reflect that the human mind during the period when it is most susceptible of impressions, and when the impressions it receives are most durable, is almost exclu- sively under your control. These observations arc general, but it is believed they are peculiarly applicable to the females of the Friend’s Religious Society, which has seen and had the candor to admit the importance of your station. Your social and general duties have been enlarged, in a degree un- known elsewhere ; and may be still further enlarged until the society reap all the advantages that they might derive from your just and equal co-operation in its labors. The domestic economy of your household depends chiefly on you, and there are numbers among you, who have long refused to partici- pate in the gain of oppression. Your example is exceedingly im- TIIE LEGION OF LIBERTA'. portent Think on ‘ho distressed siluation of unprotce'er! females — on the sufferings of iufanev. R 'fleet that the course you pursue, may involve in its consequences the happiness, of thousands. I ap- peal to you in their behalf, shall I appeal in vain ? —On declining the use of the products of since labor. ARNOLD JBUFFUM. From Philadelphia to Harrisburgh we pass through one of the finest and most fertile countries in the world. Here is “ No tawnv Afric doom’d to woes — To cruel toils and countless blows, Beneath a tyrant’s hand ; Bin all are equal — all are free, — The patriot sons of liberty, H ' ; equal happy land.” Here Nature, wise legislation, and good husbandry, seem to have united in preparing the homo of plenty, freedom, virtue and happi- ness. Had not the anti-slavery principles of Franklin, Rush, Bene- zet, Wooiman, and their coadjutors, produced the abolition of sla- very here, these delightful fields would now have been blighted with the withering influence of slavery’s curse, and moral desolation would have swept over this fair land as with a besom of destruction; and we may bless the God of mercy that “ Friends” had not then learned that they were too good to associate with other advocates of human rights, in promoting the deliverance of their fellow-heirs of immortal glory, from the crushing, soul-destroying influence of slavery. Among our travellers was a gentleman from Texas, who is a mem- ber of the national legislature, and one who assisted in the formation of the constitution, which prohibits the importation of slaves from Africa, and provides for the importation of slaves from these United States ; seeming to regard the United Slates as sunk to a state of bar- barism and degradation so low that she will tolerate foreigners in com- ing to her shores to buy, and steal, and carry oft' into hopeless sla- very, her own children, in whose veins may be coursing the blood of the proud aristocracy of our country. We had much conversation upon this Subject; his wife and child, and child’s nurse (a very black slave) were with him, and the whole subject of slavery was very freely and fully canvassed, with all its pollutions ; in which canvass his wife took a part, and still maintained, notwithstanding slave- holders’ wives have to behold their husband’s children among the slaves, that she liked the system because it relieved them from the necessity of doing any more work than they might choose. SAMUEL J. MAY. If fidelity to the sacred principles of civil and religious liberty, and of sound morality, public and private, demanded of our puritan fore- fathers so great exertions and sacrifices as they made, surely the far grosser violations of these same principles, which we see at this day in our country, demand of us at least as great exertions, and, if need THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. be, as great sacrifices of persona! comfort, to the extent even of our lives. I am ashamed that there are men and women, aye, professed Chris- tians and Christian ministers, too, in our country, who would have it thought, that a man must suffer injury in his own person, or his own rights before he can reasonably complain — that it is therefore no grievance, no concern of mine, that there are millions of my fellow beings, my countrj-men, who are trodden down into the dust, who are denied every tiling that makes this life pleasant, and are shut out even from the light of Heaven. I am heartily ashamed, I am sin- cerely grieved that there are such men and women, professing Chris- tians too, in our land ; but, it is notorious that there are such, many such in this commonwealth, aye, among the lineal descendants of the Pilgrims. To such, therefore, it is necessary to show, which can too easily be done, that we are ourselves most seriously molested, by the system of slavery and its abettors, in the exercise of our civil and religious liberties. Although we of the north are citizens of this republic, and as such must be partakers in the prosperity or adversity of the nation ; although we see that from the beginning, the institution of slavery has been a fruitful source of evil to our body politic ; although we must of course share in the disgrace, that is brought upon us by this glaring inconsistency between our professions and our practices — and must ere long suffer with the rest of our guilty countrymen under the inflictions of the Almighty’s hand, if his hand be not shortened that he cannot vindicate the unchangeable laws of his moral government. The most cruel constraint that could be imposed upon us,- — is to be compelled to be partakers of other men’s sins, compelled to acquiesce iu a system of abominable wickedness, compelled to be silent in view of the greatest wrongs man can inflict upon his fellow. Rather than submit to this who would not wear the chain himself? Yet this is the constraint which the abettors of slavery in our land would fasten upon us. Highly important as I deem the theological questions, that have been, and still are, in controversy between us and our orthodox brethren, I cannot consider them by any means so important as the great moral principles, on which is based the 'kingdom of Christ — the kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy in the holy spirit. I cannot regard doctrines, which loo often play round the head but come not to the heart, so truly evangelical as those which stir men up to labor and to suffer in the cause of humanity. And when I see any one zealous and firm in advocating and maintaining the great moral, beneficent principles of the gospel, him I desire to embrace as a brother in the Lord, let him be of what sect he may. The more I have contemplated this subject, the more clearly have I been brought to perceive, that in our country the true righteous must be anti-slavery. For the crying sin of our nation is the sin of slaverv. 32 * HIE EEC ION or LIBERTY. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. It seems to me that all we abolitionists* ought to demand of any one, as t he condition of receiving oar support, is, evidence that lie is heartily opposed to slavery, and deems its abolition of paramount importance to the welfare or our country, and the cause of humani- ty. Such evidence we certainly have received from Mr. Adams. No other public man in the country has had either the opportunity or the power to make known and felt his determined hostility to the despo- tism that oppresses one-sixth part of the population of the land. No other man would have been permitted to do, if any other had had the courage to attempt what lie has done. We cannot be grateful enough that such a man was in Congress just at the time when he espoused the cause of our insulted petitions. His venerable age-— his high of- ficial and personal character — his intimate acquaintance with every part of the history of our country — his abundant store of pertinent facts — and his unequalled adroitness- in the conduct, of a legislative debate — these were all needed to sustain him in the bold position he took in that moment of imminent peril . — Samuel J. May. CHARLES STEWART. The whole demeanor of the French to us (British delegates to their anti-slavery convention,) was strikingly kind, and bespoke the most generous confidence. They are jealous indeed of o-ur power, and perhaps may unite with your government in rejecting the mutual right of search ; but their appreciation of you as a Slave-holding and a slave-trading republic, will not be the less emphatically condemna- tory and contemptuous. You arc beginning to stand alone among civilized nations, the most hypocritical, tyrannical and ferocious of all. The Anglo-Saxon blood, of which you boast, blushes at its al- liance with you. Meanwhile, the march of liberty is onward. The advocacy of itsJ friends, and the opposition of its enemies, alike advance it. Man is i not made for eternal falsehood. Multitudes, indeed, destroy them-) selves and perish everlastingly, but amidst the chaos, truth is grow- ing — love is perfecting— liberty is reviving; and other multitudes arc returning to God and totbeir brother* Onward then, onward, brethren beloved, abolitionists of Ihe United States 1 — God is with you. Hu. man nature, where not smother d by ten-fold corruption, is with you. The cry of the oppresse.d and poor, which God heareth is with you — truth, law, love, freedom, justice, purity, peace, all are with you, and nothing is against you but the blindest and darkest delusion of perdition, armed for the moment with the tyrant’s power, and steeled j for the moment with the tyrant’s heart, but the power of the tyrant is doomed, and the heart of the tyrant mast relent or perish. Yes, I love to look forward to the United States, a few years hence, as free, as brave, as generous, as enlightened, as just, as powerful, the loathsome leprosy of slavery east of; then shall you be a purifying light, not a scorching meteor to the world, a balm not a blain. THE LEGIOX OF LIBERTY. 1 feel persuaded that before the close of 1343, a measure of eman. clpation will be completed by the French government ; not perfect as it should be, but better, I trust, than our English crazy and crimi- nal slave apprenticeship system ; more immediate liberty, and more certain!} 7 providing for freedom, eventually and thoroughly. HENRY B. STANTON. Congress, is the only law-making power for the district. The question then is, has it power to make a law abolishing slavery there ? All its power over the district, is derived from the constitution ; and it gives it ‘ exclusive legislation mall cases whatsoever.’ Is the case of slavery excepted ? No. Then of course it is included in the grant of power. In the preamble to the United States constitution, one of the rea- sons assigned for its formation is, ‘ to establish justice.’ The eman- cipation of the s’ave is not to wrest from any rightful owner his pri- vate property, but is to establish justice between the slave and his master. It is giving to the slave what is ‘ just and equal,’ — his own body : — himself. It is saying that the slave’s body and mind are his : and that he has a right to them. When congress abolishes slavery, it establishes justice between two men, — giving to the slave his own, and taking from the master what never, in justice, belonged to him. To give the slave personal ownership, is, however, far from full jus- tice to him. Tha* would demand of the master full compensation — not merely saying to him, ‘ rob the slave no longer, but pay him for past robberies.’ And, indeed, has congress no right to do this ? What! a government no power to do justice between its subjects? No power to keep one portion from robbing another ? Such a go- vernment is a mockery 1 a nullity 1 But, in the abolition of slavery, congress would no nothing more in regard to private property, than is done in every legislature in the uation. Laws are made every where, regulating transactions be- tween persons adjusting the relative claims of different classes ; employers and employed ; guardians and wards ; masters and ap- prentices j the exercise of professions ; and the prosecution of trades. All such laws (and certainly they are no curiosity 11 affect the rights and property of individuals ; and they are designed so to affect them as ‘ to establish justice.’ And, the repeal of tire old law of eniail- ments, and the enacting of the statute of limitations : — ihe regula- tion by law of the alienation of property, its transmission by descent, and by will, the saving who shall and who shall not bo heirs, and how it shall be divided among them : — all these statutory provisions most seriously affect the right of private property. And yet, who ever doubted the power of legislation to do such acts ? And slavery has been abolished in New Work, and other states, by statute ! This has never been considered as any violation of private property. Man’s superior right to himself, over the claims of another, is self-evident. It stands pre eminent among the essentials of his moral nature. His right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. V, THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. ARNOLD BUFFUM. 'That man must be beside himself, who expects a great association to transact all its concerns precisely in accordance with his views. Men’s minds will differ as to the detail of operations in any great work, and when we are united in the object and in the general prin- ciples which are to govern our measures we must submit, not all to one mind, but each one to the decisions of the body, and such as are not willing to do this, had better stand aloof from all associations- For my own part, however, during the little that remains to me of life my resolve is fixed, that I will not desert the cause of the op. pressed, whether aided by friends or opposed by enemies ; so long as my brother is in bonds, I will co-operate with such Christian philan- -hropists as pursue the course of action most in accordance with my own views without expecting or even desiring that in all the details any individual preference should be gratified. There is a potency in the truth, and there is a susceptibility in the human mind to the power of truth, which gives an assurance firm and unwavering, that the God of the oppressed will prosper our cause and crown it in our country with the same triumphant success which has demonstrated that it is his own work in the deliverance of 800,- 000 human beings from slavery in the British Colonies. When I have spread before the yeomanry of Indiana and Ohio a detail of the encroachments which the spirit of slavery has made and is making upon their rights and security, they seem to wake up as from the sleep of death, and all agree that such encroachments must be resisted". When I state that if a man should come here from a slave state, to take my coat from me, he must first obtain a precept and an officer of this state to serve it ; and that before he can get my coat, he must obtain the verdict of a jury of twelve men in his favor, but if he will lake the coat and body too, he has no occasion for precept or officer. SAMUEL LEWIS. The proceeds of the public lands have been distributed among the states in such a ratio that a single slave-holder, with a hundred slaves, is entitled to receive as much as sixty-one non-slave-holding freemen. Nor was the slave interest satisfied with even this large concession. In 1836, a surplus of thirty-six millions was ascertained to exist in the national treasury, and congress passed an act for its distribution among the states according to this partial and unjust rule. In the same year the Florida war commenced. This war had its origin in the aggressions of the whites upon the Indians, in attempts to recapture the slaves, who were alleged to have taken refuge among them. The number of these fugitives was said to be about five hun- dred. In 1837 an arrangement for peace was concluded, but the war was soon after renewed, because that arrangement did not stipulate for the surrender of the fugitives claimed, many of whom had inter- married with the Indians. New circumstances of atrocity marked the renewal of the war. Bloodhounds were imported from Cuba, as fit auxiliaries of American troops. Osceola, the gallant chief of a S. LEWIS. fallen race, was decoyed within the power of an American general, under a flag of truce and then treacherously made prisoner. This war or lather slave hunt, is not yet ended. It has been prosecuted at a cost of forty millions of dollars. The last instalment of the surplus revenue, amounting to nine millions of dollars, yet remains unpaid to the states. These nine millions, and thirty-one millions more have been sunk in the swamps of Florida, for the ignoble and unconstitutional purpose, of reducing five hundred unfortunate per- sons, claimed as fugitive slaves, to bondage. And whose was the money thus shamefully squandered ? Whose was the army thus dishonorably employed ? Whose was the flag, renowned on every sea and every shore, disgracefully floating over bloodhounds and men in common pursuit of miserable negroes and savages ? It was the money it was the army; — it was the flag of the people of the United States. Thus has the slave power prostituted the energies and resources of the nation to the vilest of purposes, without constitu- tional authority . — Address of Ohio Liberty Convention, Dec. 1842. LEICESTER KING. Who could have predicted that after Washington had declared it to be “ among his first wishes, to see some plan adopted by which slavery in the country might be abolished by law,” that “ it certain- ly might, and assuredly ought to be effected, by legislative authority ; — ” after Jefferson had expressed his hopes of a total emancipation of the slave, in which all the prominent statesmen of the day con- curred ; after a majority of the states had passed laws in conformity to these senfiments ; and while the civilized nations of the earth were uniting to suppress it within their own territorial limits, and to ar- rest its progress abroad by the most severe penalties known to crimi- nal law ; to which this government had also yielded its assent ; — that the flag of our country would be prostituted to its protection on the seas, and its power exerted, its treasury exhausted, its policy changed, and the blood of its citizens lavished, in sustaining the system at home. * To the principles embodied in that address, I yield my hearty con- currence. They are those I have long entertained and strenuously advocated, both in public and private life. They are such as were advocated by Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and every statesman during the revolutionary struggle, and the early days of the repub- lic, when self-interest, sectional animosities, and personal aggrandize- ment, quietly yielded to public virtue and the general good. They siand forth conspicuously in every public document, emanating from the patriots of the revolution, the founders of the republic, the fra- mers of our constitution, and in the writings of public men, until they became blended with party politics, and were found conflicting with the action and policy of the government, and sectional interests, when it was deemed necessary and expedient to proscribe them and their advocates, by representations as unfounded in truth, as cruel and unrighteous in principle, as the measures resorted to to effect the object, have been vindictive, oppressive, lawless, and disgraceful to the American character. THE LEC ION OF LIBERTY. LEICESTER A. SAWYER. Let us suppose a thorough reform of this institution to be prosecuted, till nothing wrong should be left. What would be removed ? And what would remain ? The marriage relation would be restored to its integrity, the laborer entitled to a compensation equal to the value of liis labor, the rights of personal liberty, of property, and of con- science, all acknowledged ; laws prohibiting instruction repealed, ar- rangements for extehding the advantages of common and liberal edu- cation as widely as possible, adopted and prosecuted with vigor, and parents, the natural guardians and masters of their children, desig- nated to this office by the providence of God, allowed by the civil authority to exercise all the appropriate duties of the parental rela- tion, in the government and instruction of their children, and to make what provision they can for their temporary and elernal wel- fare. In such a reform, slavery will indeed be corrected ; its abuses 1 will be removed, but it will be by the entire subversion of the insti- tution itself. Those who are now in slavery might still, in some cases, be servants ; but they would not be slaves. An equitable ap- prenticeship to business is not slavery ; an equitable domestic servi tude is not ; no person who enjoys the rights of property and of per sonal liberty, can justly be considered a slave. — Dissertation on Sn vitude. JAMES G. BIRNEY. There would be no danger of personal violence to the master from emancipation, brought about by Christian benevolence. Such an ap- prehension is the refuge of conscious guilt. Emancipation, brought about on the principle above mentioned, I hesitate not to say, would, in most instances, where the superior intelligence of the master was acknowledged, produce on the part of the beneficiaries, the most entire j and cordial reliance on his counsel and friendship. 1 do not believe that I have any warmer friends than my manumitted slaves — none, I am sure, if sacrifices were called for, who would more freely make them, to promote my happiness. The injustice which the slave feels as done him in taking the avails of his labor, leads him to take clandestinely, what he persuades himself he is entitled to. He has comparatively no character to lose, no ulti- mate object, for the attainment of which, the building up of a good character would contribute. As a freeman, character would be essen- tial to him — his earnings would be his ; his house, his furniture, his comforts would be his — his wife, his children would be his ; the appre- hension of forcible separation would depart, and he would have every motive that ordinarily influences men to build up a good name for worth and honesty. The depredations on the masters’ property by slaves, I should suppose, are tenfold what they would be by the same slaves made freemen. — Reply to (lueries of some Friends, 1835. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. JAMES G. BIRXEY. Ki Inapping is carried on in this country to a great extent, — in some parts of it, almost without the necessity of secrecy or conceal, rnent. Scores of unsuspecting colored persons, born free, are an- nually spirited away from the free states, and sold into slavery in the south. This trade (for it now deserves that name,) the legitimate off- spring of slavery, finds large material in the states north of the Ohio. A law-abiding people under honest rulers must in the long rua be a safe and prosperous people. If their laws should any of them be unsuitable, they will in due time be made what they ought to he. But a people whose rulers and leaders have cast off reverence for human laws — always preceded by casting off reveience for laws of still higher obligation — such a people cannot be in a more pitiable and hopeless condition. There is much reason to fear, on a review of our domes- tic history for the last twelve or fifteen years, that our poor country is fast falling, if she has not already fallen into this condition. We l ave so long practised injustice, adding to it hypocrisy, in the treat- ment of the colored race, both negroes and Indians, that we begin to regard injustice as an element — a chief element — the chief element in our government. Now, no government which admits injustice as an element can he a harmonious one or a permanent one. Harmony is the antagonist of injustice, ever has been, and ever will be ; that is, so long as injustice lasts, which cannot always be, for it is a lie, a semblance, therefore, perishable. True, from tire imperfection of man, his ambition and selfishness, injustice often finds its way inci- dentally into the administration of public affairs, and maintains i s footing a long time, before it is cast out by the legitimate elements of government. Our own slave s'a'es, especial!} 7 the more souther*) of them, in which the number of slaves is grea cr, and in which, of course, t he sentiment of injustice is stronger than in the more northern ones, are to be placed on the list of decaying communities. To a philosophic observer, they seem to be failing back on the scale of civilization. Even at their present point of retrogression, the cause of civilization and human improvement would lose nothing by their annihilation. The question no .v for the north finally to decide is — shall the slave states draw us down with them, and both perish, or shall we, by a decided conjunct exertion of virtuous energy, save ourselves and them from destruction. When I say this question is not yet finally decided by the north. I am not unaware that the north lias been for a long time approaching — of la'e rapidly — to a fatal decision. LEWIS TAPPAN; Resolved , That the thanks of the friends of humanity and liberty are due to the eloquent and gifted men and women, who, by then- pens and tongues have portrayed the wrongs of the enslaved, and tlie blessings of liberty ; who have vindicated the rights of the bond, the fugitive and the free ; and have thus infused into the literature of the day, the principles of freedom, humanity and justice. That those ministers of the gospel, and missionaries of the cross, and those churches of the Lord Jesus Christ, of different denomina- THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. tions, who have, in opposition to a time-serving ecclesiastical policy and hardness of heart against the claims of suffering humanity, open- ly and fearlessly proclaimed the law of Lhc living God and the claims of their fellow men, with reference to the crying sins of slavery and prejudice against color, which pollute the sanctuary, dishonor rcli- gion, and disgrace the nation — are entitled to the warmest sympathy and the thanks of their fellow Christians, as they have, wo doubt not, received the approving smile of that Saviour who came to preach the gospel to the poor — to heal the broken hearted, to preace delive. ranee to the captives — and to set at liberty them that are bruised. — Resolutions at the A. S. Society, 1842. JAMES C. JACKSON. That portion of this nation known in the “ Lexicon Verborum" of the aristocracy of church and state, by the soubriquet of the “ the common people,” is, by far, the most morally intelligent class. They stand in a far more favorable position. They can read, think, act, speak without subjecting themselves to a crucifixion. With lit- tle of winch the world would value, theystand ready to look at Truth for its own sake, and are not ready to be .dictated in their rcli. gion, without a show of resistance ; that I am right, is manifest from the fact that the largest number by far, of the abolitionists is taken from their ranks. It is true novv-a-days as in Christ’s lime that the common people hear the truth gladly. Their collections are sufficient to show them that it is. only in conforming to truth that their rights and interests are to be maintained, and that Lhey must cieave to a truth when their minds perceive it. Dulness of concep lion or perception is not the failing of any considerable portion of the American people. It is the want of the heart to enforce the truths they see ; and that of no class can it be said, with more pro- priety that the truth they perceive they cast behind them, than of the doctors of divinity and clergy of the United States. It is to the peo- ple, and not to men clothed with prerogative, that we are to look for the deliverance of the slave. Let us carry our noble cause to the people, and let the clergy and the politicians alone ; when the people are converted, we shall find these gentlemen not lacking. The motto is, “ Wake up tiie People 1” J. W. PILLSBURY. Slavery is of two kinds — voluntary and involuntary. The former is endured by white men. Not a few smother truth in their bosoms, not daring or caring to utter it, lest it should turn to their disadvan- tage, They feel uneasy, but from various motives, some of them very sordid, they preserve silence. This is slavery. But whatever may be the kind of slavery, if there is any desire for freedom, it is not without its manifestations. Men talk of contentment in slavery — but it is idle. Those who talk so, betray a deplorable want of knowledge of human nature. Man was made to be free — to breathe free air — to move his limbs freely, and to exercise freely all his phy- THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. sical and menial powers ; and from the right exercise of these flows his enjoyment. What makes any person contented ? Not present fruition. Man’s happiness is chiefly in prospect. He has not yet reached it ; but the reward is before him, and he is cheered on. Rob the future of hope, and he is truly wretched. Such is in reality the condition of the colored slave. His future prospect is nought but hopeless, cheerless toil. Men will think, and speak, and write upon all subjects of morali- ty and duty, even when intimidations are held out, and a thousand hecatombs of human victims are demanded for the altar. Let in- quiry be crushed in one direction, and who will give it security in another. Who shall decide for us what to speak, and think, and write, when once we have admitted the right of others to control us ? Our security is not the shuffling out of sight great moral subjects, questions of right and duly ; but in freely investigating, fuily under- standing, and cheerfully obeying them. We must know our duty - , and follow it, wherever it leads, or the government of a righteous God is so constructed as to give us no protection. AMOS DRESSER. I took the opportunity thus offered to declare fully my sentiments on the subject of slavery. Whilst I told them I believed slave-hold- ing to be inconsistent with the gospel, and a constant transgression of God’s law, I yet said, that in bringing about emancipation, the interests of the master were to be consulted as well as those of the slave. And that the whole scheme of emancipation contemplated this result, that the slave should be put in possession of rights which we have declared to be inalienable from him as a man ; that he should be considered as an immortal fellow-being, intrusted by his master with the custody of his own happiness, and accountable to him for the exercise of his powers ; that he should be treated as our neighbor and our brother. In reference to my demeanor towards the slave, [that in the few instances in which I had casually conversed with [them, I had recommended quietness, patience, submission ; leach- ing them to “ render good for evil,” and discountenancing every scheme of emancipation which did not, during its process, look for its success in the good conduct of the slaves whilst they remain such, and to the influence of argument and persuasion addressed to the un- derstandings and consciences of slave-holders, exhorting them to obey God in doing justice and showing mercy to their fellow-men. What I bad done, I had done openly. There was no law forbid- ding what I had done. I had contracted no guilt that the law con- sidered such — my intentions had been those of kindness to all — I had no secret feelings of guilt, arraigning me before the bar of my con- science, for any mean or clandestine movement. In addition to this, too, among my triers, there was a great portion of the respectability of Nashville. Nearly half of the whole number, professors of chris- lianity, the reputed stay of the church, supporters of the cause of benevolence in the form of Tracts and Missionary Societies and Sab. 13 THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. balh-schools, several members, and most of the elders of the Presby. terian church. I was condemned to receive twenty lashes on my bare back, and ordered to leave the place in twenty-four hours. The sentence being again repeated, it was received with great applause, accompanied by stamping of feet and clapping of hands. I knelt to receive the pu- nishment which was inflicted by Mr. Braughton, the city officer with a heavy cow-skin. The commotion was only appeased by the sound of the instrument of torture and disgrace on my naked body. I had been assured that my trunk with all its contents, as they were taken out, should be returned to me. But Mr. Hunt, editor of the Banner, set himself busily to work to secure in his own hands, my journal, sketch-book, business and private letters, &c. 1 found it necessary to leave the place in disguise, with only what clothing I had about my person ; leaving unsold property to the amount of nearly three hundred dollars, and sacrificing at least two hundred on my barouche, horse, &c. which I was obliged to sell. Of my effects at Nashville, I have heard nothing since my return, though I have frequently written to my friends concerning them. CHARLES OLCOTT. The grand Scriptural perversion mainly relied on for the justifica- tion of human slavery among Christians, and upon the strength of which the bloody abomination has been permitted to exist and flourish among them more than four hundred years, is in the false translation and false construction of the 44th, 45lh and 4tkh verses of the 25th chapter of Leviticus. The friends of human slavery always first re. sort to this celebrated passage as a triumphant vindication of their bloody idol. The special object of the distributive part of the address was, to regulate and establish the custom of free foreign service in the nation,' and to prevent its abuse by the customary clause at the end of the 1 statute, forbidding masters to take advantage of their power as such to wrong their servants; vide Lev. 19: 13; and 25; 17, 43; Mai. 3 : 5, — and other passages. This view of the subject is strongly cor, roborated by the fact, that 'as soon as foreigners of any description' become settled in Israel by proselyteism and conversion to the true faith, they become adopted Israelities, entitled to all the rights and! privileges both spiritual and temporal of native Israelities, and as such were as much * brethren’ and ‘ children of Israel’ as the rest were.i None of the Hebrew servants really ‘sold themselves,’ as they are customarily described to have done, but like other free servants con- tracted or hired out their lime, labor and skill for wages. That none of them could possibly have been property or slaves, is clear from the, context of the Levitical Law, as has been abundantly shown by other writers ; and even without this additional proof, it is a sufficient jus- tification of this construction in favor of universal liberty and justice, > that different nations frequently employ different forms of expression to convey the same ideas. .0 & ID Itf ill fif 21 ar 1 to of ali k f: in ini i WE fall till Sh ri KOI till low) fact THE LEGIOX OF LIBERTY. JAMES BROWN. If the union were dissolved, or the south were to secede from it, the mutual rights and duties of the slave-holding and the non-slave- holding states under the federal constitution would cease. The free states, instead of being as they now are, the hunting-grounds of fu- gitives from slavery, would become, in fact, what our 4th of July orators, by a trope more resembling irony than metaphor, represent as “ the asylum of the oppressed.” A confederacy of slave-holding states would be a new thing under the sun. Slavery cannot stand alone, but must lean on freedom for physical strength to uphold it, and I doubt not but that long ere this, the south would have been involved in all the horrors of a servile war, if the slave had not been taught by his master that the fleets and armies of the nation, the mi- litia of the north, were a standing army pledged to suppress his in- surrectionary efforts. A nation isolated from freedom, in which the laboring class, the bone and muscle of the country, is enslaved, is marked out by the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, as a doomed and devoted land. To avoid the horrors of servile war, it must rely on a mercenary army to uphold its tottering institutions, and as a neces- sary result, the oppressor himself becomes the oppressed victim of a military despotism. For slavery, therefore, to threaten to secede l.from freedom, is like the clay threatening to separate from the iron, or the pauper to dissolve connection with his parish. Whatever difference an American congress may, in its protective ] tariff wisdom, have discovered between the foreign and domestic slave- trade, the one is piracy equally with the other, in the criminal code 1 of Heaven, and the infant soul that is nailed to the cross of slavery at its birth, cries in thunder tones to heaven, that some other reason I be rendered for its enslavement, than that the baleful star of its na- tivity threw it into the fangs of one who was signed with the sign of the cross at an American baptismal fount. If it is not a mere figure of speech, a mere “ rhetorical flourish” for a human being to say, my hands and my feet, my head and my heart, my body and my soul, then the slave-holder stands confessed a man-stealer. “ How much better,” asks the Saviour of our race, in tremendous emphasis, “ how much better is a man than a sheep ?” When that question is answered, I can tell the haughty and chival- rous slave-holder, to whom northern patriotism and northern piety T bend so obsequiously, how much more abominable, in the etiquette f of the sanctuary, is the man thief than the sheep thief . — American Slavery. CHARLES C. BURLEIGH, v Upon its own testimony, slavery is the most monstrous embodi- ment of the spirit of selfishness the world ever saw. What defini- i.tion can we give of selfishness — what idea can we form of that spirit to which the gospel is utterly and entirely opposed, that is not em- * braced in slavery ? So far from doing to the slave what he would t exact for himself, he takes from him all that he lias — nay, takes him from himself — and crushing together by overwhelming oppression, THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. every interest both of soul and body, of the past, the present, and the future, throws the whole man into his coffers. Lay now this system by the side of Christianity — lay the great doctrine of Christian brotherhood — of universal equality, of impartial love, by the side of the enormous exactions, and wrongs, and usurpations of slavery — can there be a doubt of their perfect antagonism ? Is not the one ut. teriy unlike and subversive of the other ? Slavery is opposed to chris. tianity, in the highest degree. It assails it at the foundation. WENDELL PHILLIPS. The southern slaves are retained in the condition of bondage only in obedience to the national will ; and as soon as the nation, as a na- tion — and as soon as t he chiistiari church of this country as a church, rise up in their strength, and power, and moral greatness, and de- clare that slavery s’ all cease, that moment slavery will cease ; and its abolition might Lake piace to-morrow. If this be tin- fact, how red is the blood upon our skirts, and how deep is the dye of the guilt of those who do not make the removal of this sin and curse a part of their continual effort. But let us open our own bosoms, and then ask ourselves what have been our own re- lations to this American system of wrong and oppression ; let us open our own bosoms and ask ourselves by whom is slavery sustaincdl It is by the phalanx of the strength of numbers — by the force of pub- lic opinion — by the voice of the intelligent and the virtuous — by the voice of the church — by the consent of Christians — by the legislation of the country, and by our national policy. And hence, when all these things are combined to characterize slavery as a national sys- tem, we are justified in adopting the resolution that it well deserves to be called the American system. When we presented ourselves before the sisterhood of nations, we were bound, by all those principles which called upon us to break our own bands, to stand up in the defence of the rights of man ; but when the choral song of humanity was sung, and was ringing amid the earth, and when the gentle flowofit.s softest music coursed through every heart, who then broke its harmony ? Who now is called upon to destroy the union and concord of nations to the tune of liberty ? It is Mr. Cass, who is obliged to refuse to enter into the national agreement for the abolition of the slave trade. It is enough to con- demn any man. with all who have the honor and the pride of their country at heart. I speak not of him as a man — but as a represen- tative, whose actions have become public property, and upon which all may express their opinion. When the quintuple treaty was signed in Fiance, who was it that refused to agree to its provisions ? Was it Constantinople, whose slave marts are filled with human beings ? Was it Algiers? No; but the refusal comes from the American minister, who represents the boasted republic of the New World — whose vaunted freedom sounds throughout the civilized world. Look at, another instance. What has been our conduct in refer* encc to Hayti and Texas? Hayti, which is free, and has won her independence by a struggle which was as glorious and as noble as THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. FRANCIS GILLETTE. The question is not simply whether three millions of our “ coun .rymen in chains,” and their posterity, shall continue to bleed at tvery pore, under a system of legalized despotism, among the fiercest, :he basest, and the most relentless, that ever smote humanity — a des- potism which strikes, with deadly aim, at the souls and hearts of its victims, that it may clutch their bodies more securely, and degrade .hem to its own sordid and infamous purposes. The question stops not with the bond, it reaches the free, and admonishes us of yokes and fetters forging for our own necks and limbs. It is, in short, whether the slaves of this country are to become freemen, or the freemen, slaves — whether Liberty or Slavery shall prevail through out the United States ; for God has decreed, that the nation which persists in enslaving, shall itself be enslaved. He warns us of our impending doom, by the storms of popular fury, which burst over . ihe laud, as forerunners of dark and desolating judgments. The Freedom of Speech, the Liberty of the Press, the Right of Petition, — all our rights as freemen, are imperiled. Is this then the time to yield our position, and retire from the field of united resistance ? No ; as men, as patriots, as Christians, we cannot, we dare not. Our hearts are fixed ; our purpose is steadfast. With the constitution of our country for our shield ; with the truth of Him, whose attributes are justice and mercy, for our sword, we are resolved never to give over the contest, till death shall paralyze our efforts, or the land be t cleansed from the pollutions cf slavery as clean as after the deluge left it. SAMUEL H. CGX. There is a manifest difference between principles abstractly ana absolutely viewed, and their application to particular cases ; these may be qualified and even palliated, just for the same reason that they may be aggravated also, by circumstances. That slavery, the sys- tem identically of our own country, is intrinsically and pre-eminent- ly wrong, is at variance with the everlasting righteousness of the moral empire of God, or, as the lawyers say, is malum in se, is a proposition of almost self-evident truth. I know that all masters are not equally cruel, covetous, or obdurate ; and that all slaves are not equally abused : nay, that some are treated comparatively well and kindly, and are comparatively happy. But what of this as it re- spects the conscience ? It. is all one system. Every owner of a slave, upholds the system — lends it the awful sanction of his practice, his influence, and his name ; and is, like a temperate drinker, (as it re- spects another grand moral interest of reform,) a mighty obstacle to the ascendancy of correct sentiment and coirect action in the com- munity. I am more struck with the similarities of injury, than with the seeming exceptions of favor, in the privations and degradations of the slaves. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. JOHN NEWLAMD MAFFIT What hath Africa done, that her children should blacken bcneatl a heavier, more lasting curse, than ever rested on any other nation' What hath she done to thee, great America, that thou boldest he: sons, her daughters, her feeble infants in bondage, and refusest tc let them go ? To erase from being, is to inflict but a momentarj pang — while to enslave generation after generation, from the earliest dawn -of life’s clouded day to its dark going down, is to entail torture in such a fearful shape, as to make it bear no imaginary similitude to everlasting wo. The day is past, when any attempt may be ex- pected to vindicate slavery on philosophical or religious principles Ii is a horrible wrong, unjustifiable, impeached by every noble feel, ing that throbs the bosoms of the collective race of humanity. Christiar America! I must close my plea in behalf ofenslaved millions, by charg- ing home upon the capitol — upon legislative halls in slaveholdiug state — upon magistrals and people — upon army and navy — upon plain mountain, and river, the deep, and as yet irreversible stain of slavery JOHN N. T. TUCKER. W hile professing to be the friend of the slave, I should employ} I agents to buy, sell, whip, torture, cutoff the cars, dig out the eyes,: j chop up the bodies, separate parents and children, husbands and! wives, raise mulattoes, sell mv mula'to children, and commit all and singular the ten thousand published and unpublished abominations i that grow out of the system of slavery, as, with the same profes-j sion, to cast a vote for the election to law-making and law-artminis- I tering offices, men who do these things, or apologise for their doing in others. To me it appears very plain, that I could not remain a true member of a pro-slavery political party, and maintain unblemished! my profession of republicanism, philanthropy, patriotism. Nor do I see how I could sustain the relalion of a true friend of a pro-slavery, ‘ degenerate’ church, ami maintain unblemished my profession of hu- manity, benevolence, purity, or religion. The ohlv difference, to' my mind, between those professed abolitionists who go along with ?j their pro-slavery political parlies, and those making the same pro. | fession, who go along with their religious parties, is, that the former a; act most consistently. They wisely regard tiie divine assurance,, ■ : that 1 reformation should begin at the house of God,’ which is the ' church of God. 1 Ye arc God’s building.’ The politician waits tc- I see this reformation begin in its appropriate place. ELLIS GRAY LORING. In the history of our country, just so far as we have adhered tc 1 great principles of abstract right, our country lias been great anc 1 glorious; and just so far as we have disregarded the principles of ; theoretic right for the sake of expediency and safety, we have been - THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. involved in disgrace and disaster. Imprisonment for debt has been abolished; the results have been good. To do right [y, is true prudence. The best policy is to be just, and there is at least a presumption that we shall find it safe. But we are called upon to prove the expediency of agitating this question. Now, if we show that slavery is a great wrong, and that we only mean to use peaceable mean's for its removal, it is the business of our oppo- nents to show that our course is inexpedient. Perhaps the most com- mon objection is, that our efforts will dissolve the union. There are alwavs apparent dangers opposed to doing right. The course of duty is certainly not. strewed with flowers. It sometimes abounds with sacrifices and is full of suffering. But it is, on the whole, the path of peace. But what would the south gain, by a dissolution of the union? Will she gain exemption from anri-slavery discussions and anti-sla- very doctrines ? Mr. Preston, of South Carolina, admitted, on the floor of congress, that all the literature of the world, the whole reli- gious sentiment of Christendom, all philosophy, were opposed to sla- ver}-. Do our southern friends intend to shut all this out ? Will they draw about them a cordon sanitaire to exclude the literature and philosophy and religion of all the rest of mankind ? This is some- what difficult in the nineteenth century. Mr. Preston gave an ac- count of the origin of the anti-slavery mania abroad. It begun with a few obscure individuals in England. Now, said he, a man cannot be in the cabinet who is not an abolitionist. So in France. The officers of anti-slavery societies in France, are cabinet ministers. GEORGE F. SIMMONS In these, as in all others, the right to liberty remaining unalie liable, nothing but the strongest considerations of public good can authorize its being any longer suspended. Or if insuperable practi- cal difficulties present themselves in the way of legislation, and eman- cipation continue to be forbidden by law, then the master, holding such an one in his dependence, must regard him as a freeman, must give him tbe fruits of his labor, must secure him in his domestic rights, must protect him from all wrong, and afford him opportunity, while he lives, to answer the ends of life, and to prepare to enter another, and less oppressive world. Nothing less than this can pos- sibly be deduced from tbe golden rule of Christian morals. Nothing less than this can be proposed to you as your duty, except by one strangely deluded, or by one who cares more for your opinion than for truth. The principle on which slavery is founded is entirely overthrown by the fundamental principle of Christian morality. Christianity makes all men our brethren. Slavery makes men our tools. And the fallacy of its principle is fully allowed here as well as elsewhere. I do not appeal to the majority of slave-holders, because the majori- ty of this class, as well as of other classes, is bad, and is not to be trusted to discern and confess truth through the cloud of interest ; but I appeal to that minority of magnanimous, honorable and be- THE LEG10S Of LIBERTY, nevolent men, in whom the golden principles of the community art) treasured up, and who deserve to be considered the voice of the com- munity in all questions of justice and equity . — Sermon at Mobile , 1840. CHARLES T. TORREY. There are many here (in Washington,) who abhor slavery, and are not afraid, at all times, to avow it ; and the number is increasing. Yet here, too, the vile and dastardly spirit of slavery is seen, in every day life, continually. A father, an excellent, pious man, has just been sold, by one deemed an upright citizen, from his children and wife. The man is over fifty years of age. His family are free, but he, it is to be feared, will be the victim of the slave-trade, in New- Orleans. A poor woman, spurred on by the hope of liberty, has earned and paid $260 of the $400 demanded for her freedom, and last week was sold to the trader for $300, as a slave for life, by the man — the monster — who has pocketed her life’s earnings ! A refined and kind-hearted women told me (and she mentioned it as proof of his regard for her !) that her husband had sold an excellent girl to the trader for a trivial piece of impertinence, scarcely deserving a repri- mand 1 ‘ But,’ said she, ‘ if these negroes are not made to know their place, what can we do with them, you know’ ! I have seen a woman, apparently as refined, as lady-like, ay, and as white as any women in Scituate — an humble Christian too, but, alas 1 a slave — in this district, held by the laws of congress, clasping her hands in an- guish too deep for words, because she was made the sport of a ty- rant’s lust ! And then the contempt of the poor, the disregard of feelings, the denial or undervaluing of their virtue and services, the petty and malicious infringements upon their rights, right s that even a slave may possesss, convenionally, though not by law — with which I almost daily become acquainted, or see illustrated in life, fill me with new and ever increasing abhorrence of the slave system. And the despotic control which slavery exercises over our government, and the measures of intimidation, flattery, party seduction and dictation, by which that control is maintained, as they are more clearly scon and understood, strengthen my conviction that the paramount po- litical duty of freemen is to overthrow the system of slavery. Nothing, next to the diffusion and power of ‘ pure religion and un- defiled before God and the father,’ among its inhabitants, do I so much desire, as to sec them, with the same zeal and intelligence that animated and guided our fathers in the first revolution, engaged with equal unanimity in this second and more glorious revolution, which is but the completion of the work of the first, in giving to all the in- habitants of the land those inalienable, heaven-derived, law-guarded rights, which the first contest secured to a portion, only, of the people. This is the great contest of our age. GEORGE BOURNE. Men may travel to the south, and so far as slavery is concerned may continue in a dead sleep until they return ; but wakeful and in- THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. luring persons may witness in every varying occurrence, such facts s these ; and thev put to instantaneous silence, all the silly trash vhich the southern profligates, and their northern infatuated coad- uto f s vociferate respecting the amalgamation of the white and co. ored races. I date not publish the particulars of the bleaching manufactory ; ,at some general views will unravel what southern women know or lonnivc at or encourage, that they may pass their days in compara- ive sloth and voluptuousness. The language of the Prophets Joel end Amos here rightly may be applied ; and in all the sacred solern- iitv of divine inspiration, they furnish a clue into the slave-trader’s abvrinth. “ They have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a rarlot, and a girl for wine that they may drink.” Joel 3 : 3. “ A nan and his father will go in unto the same maid, to profane my holy lame.” Amos 2:7. * * * * It will probably be alleged, that these exposures are so utterly scan- lalous, that they ought not to be published. If slavery were like any other unnatural system of turpitude, accurately known and therefore avoided by all good men, and abandoned only to the lowest profligates md incorrigible villains, the plea peradventure might be admitted. On the contrary, slavery exercises its ruthless despotism over the United S.ates of America. It controls all our congressional legisla- tion. It domineers in all ecclesiastical proceedings. It silences the Christian ministry. It nullifies evangelical doctrine and discipline. It is a stony hearted and iron armed monster, which from the halls of legislation, the benches of justice, and even the pulpit of the sanc- tuarv, brandishes his whip of scorpions burning with fire and brim- stone ; and threatens to sweep away with his besom of destruction, all that is equal in right, holy in practice, and Christian in authority. — Picture of Slavery. SPENCER KELLOGG. There is a cruel and wicked prejudice in the hearts of mankind against the poor, especially the laboring poor. In consequence of this, there are few who, obeying the instructions of the Saviour, have ever tested the influence of a familiar intercourse with them. In this respect, as in others, it is more blessed to give than to re- ceive ; and, however incredulous a fashionable world may be on this point, I hesitate not to affirm that there are benefits resulting to our- selves in honoring this principle, which no intercourse with the rich can confer. In social in f ercourse the brightest results to ourselves and others flow from mingling with all classes ; and it is obviously our privilege and duty to seek to annihilate, in the circles where we have influence, that prejudice to which I have referred. This prejudice in this country is most b-tler against the colored people, and, by many great surprise is expressed that it should exist. It is said that no such prejudice exists in England ; and great blame is attributed to our countrymen, as though, in this particular, they are sinners above all men. Such views are superficial. Toe prejudice which in this THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. country is directed against co’or, is directed against it secondarily, as the badge of a lowly and servile condition. It is really the condi- t'on which gives rise to the prejudice ; and as the color indicates an enslaved and oppressed people, the prejudice naturally falls upon that, and all who bear it. Introduce to an American circle a colored man from China, Spain, or even the East Indies, and his color is no badge of servitude or degradation ; he is accordingly welcomed aud honored. The English, whose freedom from prejudice we are wont to commend in unmeasured terms, possess this prejudice as truly as Americans : but with them it is not directed against color. STANLEY P. HOUGH. A new bait is now offered, by the colonization society. Men are not required to bite at the bare hook. Ii is now a missionary colony, an African civilization effort, a plan to Christian:/ the entire conti- nent, &.c. This is the new position. And we pronounce it as false in this as in any of its former professions. Has the col zation socie- ty any where in part or parcel a single shred of any thing that per. tains to the enterprise of Christian missions ? There is surely noth, ing of this found in any attempts which are made to transport across the Atlantic, scores and hundreds of newly-emancipated half-heathen slaves. These colonists have in their stale of bondage had enough to do with Christianity that tolerates slavery to have taught them most heartily to despise such a religion. And the further claim that is set up for Liberia, that the colonial influence will prove favorable to Af. rican missions is answered in a word by the direct testimony of the missionaries laboring there, and by the recent dissensions and litiga- tions between the Methodist missionaries aud the colony 7 . AMOS A. PHELPS. There was one delightful characteristic of the Maine A. S. Con- vention. It was this, that while they were calling for the immediate emancipation of the slave from the oppression of His thraldom, every individual seemed resolved on beginning the work at home, first by proclaiming to the free colored man, from that time forth, so far as they were concerned, an immediate, entire and everlasting emanci- pation from the hateful and wicked oppression of prejudice, and re- cognizing in every colored man a neighbor and a brother in the ful- lest sense of the terms ; and second, by putting a brand of utter in- famy on tlie man who goes from the midst of a free community into the midst of slavery and there becomes a slave-holder. O what an amount of guilt is resting on northern men in relation to this matter ! Not that southern men are innocent — God forbid — but oh, how have northern men, representing as they have done the sentiment of the community from which they came — how have they, by just becom- ing slave-holders themselves, given the testimony of the entire north in favor of slavery, and thus endorsed and propped up the whole sys- tem— with all its guilt and woes, and blood, more effectually than any and every 7 other class of the community beside. Let the respon- THE LEGIOX OF LIBERTY. ;ibilitv and guilt then be rolled like great mountains on the shoulders of every such man. Let a brand of infamy deep, indelible, mark that man as an object of utter abhorrence. E D. HUDSON. Much self-denying missionary labor is needed ; 1. To keep the friends from becoming drowsy and rusty. 2. To re-convert those who have the name of abolitionists, but are dead, the seed having sprung up, but for lack of earth and moisture, withered. 3. To gain access to those who stuff their ears with cotton, and dazzle their eyes with slave-holder’s tinsel, and steel their hearts with negro hatred. 4. To employ the aid of anti-slavery circulating libraries, to con- vert those who will not attend lectures, and to establish a permanent and growing influence in each of their respective fields of operation. Let the friends now see that anti-slavery libraries are put into Sab- bath schools and district schools for circulation, and they will reap a rich reward. WILLIAM HENRY BURLEIGH. Toil and pray ! Groweth flesh and spirit faint ? Think of her who pours her plaint All the day — Her — the wretched negro wife, Robbed of all that sweetens life — Her — who weeps in anguish wild For the husband and the child Torn away 1 Nature’s ties, Binding heart with kindred heart, Rent remorselessly apart — Tears and sighs, Shrieks and prayers unheeded given, Calling out from earth to heaven — All that speaks the slave’s distress — All that in his cup doth press Agonies — Wo and blight, Broken heart and palsied mind, Reason crushed and conscience blind, Darkest night Shutting from the spirit’s eye, Light and glory from on high — Think of these and falter not ! Toil — until the slave is brought Up to light THE LEGION OF LIBER 1 i . OLIVER JOHNSON. Hark ! a voice from heaven proclaiming, Comfort to the bleeding slave ; God has heard him long complaining, And extends his arm to save : Frond Oppression Soon shall find an endless grave. See ! the light of truth is breaking Full and clear on every hand ; And the voice of Mercy, speaking, Now is heard through all the land ! Finn and fearless, See the sons of Freedom stand. Lo ! the nation is arousing, From its slumbers, long and deep ; And the church of God is waking, Never, never more to sleep, While a bondman, In his chains remains to weep. Long, too long, have we been dreaming, O’er our country’s sin and shame ; Let us now, the time redeeming, Press the helpless captive’s claim, Till exulting, He shall cast aside his chain. J. KENNADAY. When Heaven shall seal the dread oppressor’s doom, Those dead from these dark chains shall come. Wrath shall no more delay, Mercy her tears shall stay, When broken hearts shall healing know, And God fold up the veil of wo — Then Afric, shall thy sun arise, And Freedom’s flame flash brightly through thy skies GEORGE P. MORRIS. Our hearts are bounding with delight, ’Tis freedom’s jubilee ! For right has triumphed over might, The bond again are free. Hurrah ! Hurrah ! Let the welkin ring To justice and Liberty Paeans we sing ! THE LEGION OF LIBERTY N. P. WILLIS. And we are free— but is there not One blot upon our name ? Is our proud record written fair Upon the scioli of fame ? Our banner floateth by the shore, Our Hag upon the sea — But when the fetter'd slave is loos’d, We shall be truly free. JOHN G. WHITTIER. What ! shall we henceforth humbly ask as favors. Rights all our own ? In madness shall we barter, For treach’rous peace the Freedom nature gave us God and our charter? From each and all, if God hath not forsaken Our land and left us to an evil choice, Loud as the summer thunder-bolt shall waken A people’s voice ! Oh, let that voice go forth ! the bondman, sighing By Santee’s wave, in Missisippi’s cane, Shall feel the hope within his bosom, dying, Revive again. Let it go forth ! The millions who are gazing Sadly upon us from afar shall smile, And, unto God devout thanksgiving raising, Bless us the while. Oh. for your ancient freedom, pure and holy, For the deliv’rance of a groaning earth, For the wronged captive, bleeding, crushed and lowi Let it go forth ! 14 V B. TAPPAN JOHN PIERPONT H. W. L. WILLIAM B. TAPPAN. Could your grtefs, wretched slaves ! could your injuries speak, Oh, God ! what a tale to unfold ; Blush, blush, guilty Europe ! shroud, manhood, thy cheek, Weep, weep for the passion of gold. Yet that here , where our symbol the wild eagle flies Oh, shame ! writhes the African’s soul — • That on fields bought by freedom, an outcast he dies, Time ! veil it — ’twill darken thy scroll. My country ! that plighted’st to freedom thy troth, Redeem it ! — thou art not yet free ; On, eternity’s page thou recordest thine oath, ’Tis broken 1 there’s slavery with thee. JOHN PIERPONT. Quench, righteous God, the thirst, That Congo’s sons hath curs’d— The thirst for gold ! Shall not thy thunders speak, Where Mammon’s altars reek, Where maids and matrons shriek, Bound, bleeding, sold? Cast down, great God, the fanes, That, to unhallowed gains, Round us have risen— Temples whose priesthood pore Moses and Jesus o’er, Then bolt the black man’s door, The poor man’s prison 1 HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. In dark fens of the Dismal Swamp The hunted negro lay ; He saw the fire of the midnight camp And heard at times a horse’s tramp, And a bloodhound’s distant bay. Where hardly a human foot could pass, Or a human heart would dare, On the quaking turf of the green morass, He crouched in the rank and tangled grass; Like a wild beast in his lair. A poor old slave, infirm and lame ; Great scars deformed his face : On his forehead he bore the brand of shame, And the rags that hid his mangled frame Were the livery of disgrace. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. JAMES CANNINGS FULLER. Having a great desire to see the imported cattle on Henry Clay’s lantation, I went thither. On approaching the house, I saw a co- jred man, to whom I said, “ Where wert thou raised ?” “ In Wash- lgton.” “ Did Henry Clay buy thee there?” “Yes.” “ Wilt thou how me his improved cattle ?” He pointed to the orchard, and said re man who had charge of them was there. As I followed his di- ection, I encountered a very intelligent-looking boy, apparently ight or nine years old. I said to him, canst thou read ?” * “ No.” Is there a school for colored people on Henry Clay’s plantation?” No.” “ How old art thou ?” “ Don’t know.” In the orchard I ound a woman at work with her needle. I asked, “ How old art hou ?” “A big fifty.” “ How old is that ?” “Near sixty.” “How aany children hast thou?” “Fifteen or sixteen.” “Where are hey ?” “ Colored folks don’t know where their children is; they are ent all over the country.” “ Where wert thou raised ?” “ Wash ngton.” “ Did Henry Clay buy thee there ?” “ Yes.” “ How ma. ly children hadst thou then ?” “ Four.” “ Where are they ?” “ I lon’t know. They tell me they are dead.” The hut, in which this ‘ source of wealth” lives, was neither as good, nor as well-floored as ny stable. Several slaves were picking fruit in the orchard ; I asked me of the young men whether they were taught to read on this plan- ation, and they answered no. I fo nd the overseer of the cattle with i short-handled, stout whip, which had been broken. He said it inswered both for a riding whip, and occasionally “ to wipe off” the laves. ISAAC T. HOPPER. Tales of Oppression, No. 29. If any human being is to be despised above all others as an enemy to the human race, it is a slave hunter regardless of the sighs, groans, and tears of his fellow men. Levin Smith was a slave in Maryland. He had a wife and several children who were free. In the year 1802, his master sold him to one of those speculators in human beings, who were in the practice of buying slaves for the southern market. He lived in Delaware. Levin went to live with his wife and children in the district of South- wark, and commenced the business of sawing wood to support his family. His wife took in washing. I instructed him to inform me if he should hear of his master being in the city. He had not been in Philadelphia more than a month, when his master, having dis- covered his place of residence, went there in pursuit of him. Levin was seized in his bed about break of day, his hands tied, and he con. veyed to a vessel, where the captain informed them that he must wait until the store in which some goods were deposited should be opened. Levin’s wife followed her husband to the vessel ; and some of her friends, who lived near then- residence, being informed of what was THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. doing, ran to my house to solicit my assistance, I dressed myselfas quickly as possible, where I was informed that they had taken Levin to a small tavern near by ; and upon arriving there, I found a considerable crowd before the door. I inquired of the landlord where the persons were who had a colored man in custody, but he refused . to give me any information ; when one of the company about the door called out — “ They are up s', airs in the back room.” The land- lord stood in the door, and seemed disposed to prevent me from going in ; but I pushed myself by him, and immediately went to the cham- ber, where I found Levin, with his hands lied together, guarded by five or six men. I inquired what they were going to do with the man. The words had scarcely escaped my lips, when as many as could get hold of me, seized me with great violence, hoisted the window and and threw me out. I fell upon empty casks that lay in the yard, and at the time, did no! feel at all hurt. I knew perfec' y well that if the man was not immediately res. cued, they would force him on board tire sloop and carry him off. I therefore determ ned to prevent it, if possible. As soon as I re- covered from the fall, I went round to l he front door that I had en- tered but a few minutes before, and proceeded up stairs to the door of the chamber from whence I had just been so unceremoniously ejected. I found it locked, so that I could not gain admittance. I then returned to the back-yard, got on the top of a high board fence, i and from that upon the pent house, and in through the window, to a < room adjoining that in which the party were. I took a small pen- d knife out of my pocket, opened it, and holding it in my hand, threw I open the door. Upon entering the room, among the kidnappers, I exclaimed, “ I will see if you will get me out so soon again 1” I had no intention of using my knife, for any purpose but to cut the cord with which the poor captive was bound ; and I did that before the | j company could recover from the consternation which my second ap- ' pearance among them seemed to produce. Immediately upon cutting 1 the cords that bound the man, I told him to follow me, and ran , down stairs as fast as I could, with him after me. A wretched, mot- I ley company pursued us, calling “ Stop thief!” until we arrived at , I the office of William Robinson, a justice of the peace, near half a mile from the place whence we started. I informed him of the cir- cumstances of the case ; how the man, Levin, was originally a slave in Maryland, and had been sold to a citizen of Delaware, who had , removed him to that state, by means of which he became free. No person appeared to claim the man, and the magistrate drew up a state- ment of his case, to which lie annexed his name, and the names and residences of the Acting Committee of the Abolition Society ; with a request, that if any person should attempt to deprive Levin of his liberty, one of them should be informed of it. He was never after molested. I returned home and took my breakfast, not. being aware that I had received any injury by the fall. But upon attempting to rise from the table, I was suddenly seized with a violent pain in my hack, which continued for several days, with such severity as to inca- pacitate me for attending to business. I have never entirely recovered from its effects . — National Anti-Slavery Standard. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. HIRAM WILSON. Having spent most of two years among those noble spirits who have colonized themselves from the slavery of the land of liberty and equal rights, to the universal freedom that flows from the monarchy of the Queen in Upper Canada, I can judge something of the suffer- ings of those who have self-denial enough to labor among them. Br Wilson’s picture is far from being highly wrought. He is one of those noble spirits who refused to crouch to the aristocracy of the D. D’s. of Lane Seminary, and who sought that pure, free atmosphere, more congenial to his feelings, which is the vital breath of the insti- tution at Oberlin. As soon as he had completed his education, he started for Canada, to seek out the victims of American oppression, guided thither by the unerring rays of the polar star. AA'ith valise in hand, he walks sometimes 50 miles in a day, through mud and mire, snow and rain. When his appetite reminds him of the demands of nature, he opens his valise, and there he finds the staff of life, carefully deposited in one end, by the hand of an affec- tionate wife — a help-meet indeed for him — possessing the same untir- ing- zeal for the outcasts as himself. When the shades of night begin to fall about him, he generally finds himself made ‘ mighty welcome’ at the humble cot of some poor refugee. After having sought out all the places where it would be practicable to establish schools, the nest thing is to obtain teachers to supply them. To find a sufficient number properly qualified, free from prejudice, willing to engage in such self-denying labors with little or no compensation, is indeed no small task. To obtain them, he goes to Oberlin (the residence of noble spirits) the distance of 2 or 300 miles. Part of his journey thither is by water, and part by land. After having obtained teachers, the next thing is to do something toward remunerating them. To do this, he visits different parts of the states, and lays before the people the cause of God’s suffering poor. AY hat he collects in this way, he divides among the teachers, according to their necessities, sharing also with them himself. AA r hile he received a salary, the teachers shared it with him. Now he has no salary, he is obliged to share with them in what he collects. — A\ r ai. RAYAI ONI). JOHN E. GODFREY. It has been, for many years, and still is, a practice to imprison colored citizens from the free states who arrive in Southern ports, whether in the capacity of seamen or otherwise : or to require a bond of the master of the vessel that they still remain on board, and for their good behavior. It is of no consequence how dark or how light these persons may be — how ignorant or how intelligent — how vile or how respectable — how poor or how rich — whether they have been of no benefit to their country, or have shed their blood like water in its service — all aie alike treated, and obliged to suffer imprisonment if they set their foot upon the shore. To the monstrous injustice of this course, and to the open disre- gard of that clause of the constitution which declares that “the citi- 14 * THE LEGION OF LIEEETY. zen of each state shall he entitled to all the privileges and immunities of the citizens in the several states,” which is manifested by it, no particular attention seems to have been paid by either the people of the south or of the north until last December. In February last some of the most respectable merchants in New- York, who full aggrieved in consequence of this course pursued to- wards colored seamen in their employ at the south, petitioned for re- lief or remuneration from Congress, for the vexation and expense to which they had been subjected by it. At the same time 222 colored seamen petitioned that they might be protected in their lawful busi. ness and constitutional rights when they visited southern ports, as citizens of the United States, setting forth that it is frequently ne- cessary for them to visit those ports. When these petitions were presented some slave-holder raised the question of reception, another member moved that that question be laid upon the table, and that, was the end of the petitions ! This is the course that the United States government pursues in regard to the dearest rights of American citizens. And the question which is to be settled, by the free people of the country, is, whether they will hereafter support a ‘ Whig’ or a ‘ Democratic’ party that professes to “ maintain the pure and glorious principles of the con- stitution and of the Declaration,” while it allows the citizens of one state to be imprisoned in another, and refuses even to hear their pe- titions when they ask them for redress ; or whether they will be rep- resented by men who will act in accordance with their professions and protect the constitutional rights of every American citizen ? — Bangor Gazette. FREEBORN GARRETSON. As I stood with a book in my hand, in the act of giving out a hymn, this thought powerfully struck my mind, ‘ it is not right for you to keep your fellow creatures in bondage ; you must let the op- pressed go free.’ I knew it to be that same blessed voice which had spoken to me before—tiil then I had suspected that the practice of slave keeping was wrong ; I had not read a book on the subject, nor been told so by any. I paused a minute and then replied, ‘ Lord, the oppressed shall go free.” And I was as clear of them in my mind, as if I had never owned one. I told them they did not belong to me, and that I did not desire their services without making them a com- pensation. I was now at liberty to proceed in worship. After sing- ing, I kneeled to pray. Had I the tongue of an angel, I could not fully describe what I felt : all m 3 ’ dejection, and that melancholy gloom which preyed upon me, vanished in a moment, and a divine ,4 sweetness ran through my whole frame. It was God, not man, that taught me the impropriety of holding slaves : and I shall never be able to praise him enough for it. My very heart has bled, since that, for slave-holders, especially those who made a profession of religion ; for I believe it to be a crj’ing sin. b,-'r THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. B. STANTON. Notwithstanding- then any discouragements with which we meet, [ think we have reason to believe that the progress of the cause is onward. And although we may seem to gain but little, yet our duty is to persevere in well doing, and we have the assurance that in due time we shall reap if we faint not. Every scheme of expatriation to separate the colored from the white population of the U. S. has its origin in an unholy and anti-christian prejudice, ther tendency will be only continual evil . — Free Labor Advocate. EDWARD SMITH. Barnsville is one of the most pro-slavery places I know ; I use the word pro-slavery, as synonymous with being opposed to abolition. Some who give tone to society are living on the blood and sweat of slaves ; Maryland slave-holders, who in tbe-days of other years trans- muted their negroes into Ohio lands, and there may be sotne also from Virginia of the same kind. These cry out terribly against abolition, and well they may, for we are bringing their sins to light, as they think before the time ; but we think not, but in time for them to re- pent and be saved from the wrath to come. Some of my old friends at St. Clairsville, had pressed me on a for. mer occasion to sta}' and preach for them the next time I might come to the place ; they did not want, they said, to hear me lecture on slavery, but were very anxious to hear me preach once more ; but I concluded, as they did not wish to know me as an abolitionist, and they gave evidence of this by not coming to the lecture, I would not be known by them as a preacher : for I thought I could do persons no good who were so prejudiced . — Spirit of Liberty. ORSON S. MURRAY. In all ages of the church, persecution has defeated its own objects. When the church has been so pure as to be persecuted, the persecu- tion has re-acted upon Satan’s kingdom. On the other hand, when the church has grown corrupt and would not bear sound doctrine, and has herself persecuted those who raised their standard of holiness above hers, she has always thereby exposed her own corruptions, and made the shame of her own nakedness to appear. Their cry is, “ away with him.” I have seen no pretension that Foster was not perfectly mild and Christian in his demeanor, and per- fectly truthful in his charges. The difficulty is, the church and ministry cannot bear the truth, and they are determined they will not. Stephen S. Foster feels impelled, in imitation of Christ, Ste- phen, Paul, and a host of others, “ of whom the world was not worthy,” to declare the truth to them, “ whether they will hear or forbear.” So he goes quietly and peaceably among them, and com- mences preaching. This they pronounce to be disorderly, and call in the violence of the state to crush it. The state of New-IIamp- shire, whose worthy son (Atherton) was the mover of the gag-law of congress, has undertaken the case. — Vermont Telegraph. THE LEGION OP LIBERTY. JAMES SILK BUCKINGHAM. So imperfect are their notions of freedom as the “ natural and inalienable right of every man” according to the terms of their own declaration of Independence that they scarcely consider it a blot, that the several states of the union, should hold so many thousands of their fellow men in unjust and unwilling bondage. But what per* haps is most surprising of all is, that so large a number of the clergy, and especially those of the Episcopal church, including those who call themselves evangelical, should be not merely palliators of the state of slavery, but advocates for its continuance, and deprecators of all public discussion or agitation on the subject ; so that if the re- publicans understand civil and political liberty but imperfectly, the Christian professors understand the liberty of religion and justice still less. The longer we remained in Washington, the more vve saw and heard of the recklessness and profligacy which characterize the man- ners both of its resident and fluctuating population. The practice of carrying arms on the person is no doubt one rea son why so many atrocious acts are done under the immediate influ- ence of passion. A medical gentleman resident in the city told me he was recently called to see a young girl who had been shot at with a pistol by one of her paramours, the ball grazing her cheek with a deep wound, and disfiguring her for life ; and yet nothing whatever was done to the individual, who had only failed by accident in his intention to destroy her life. In this city are many establishments where young girls are collected by procuresses, and one of these i was said to be kept by a young man who had persuaded or coerced all his sisters into prostitution, and lived on the wages of their in famy. These houses are frequented in open day, and hackney coaches may be seen almost constantly before their doors. In fact, the total absence of all restraint upon the actions of men here, either legal or moral, occasions such open and unblushing dis. plays of recklessness and profligacy as would hardly be credited if mentioned in detail. Unhappily, too, the influence of this is more or less felt in the deteriorated characters of almost all persons who come often to Washington, or live a long period there. Gentlemen from the northern and eastern states, who before they left their homes were accounted moral, and even pious men, undergo such a change at Washington by a removal of all restraint, that they very often come back quite altered characters ; and while they are at Washington, con- tract habits, the very mention of which is quite revolting to chaste and unpolluted ears. JOSEPH C. LOVEJOY. There can be no doubt that the existence of slavery in this district has much to do with creating such a state of things as this; and as Washington is one of the great slave-marts of the country, where buyers and sellers of their fellow creatures come to traffic in human flesh, and where men, women, and children are put up to auction THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. and sold to the highest bidder, like so many head of cattle, this brings together such a collection of speculators, slave-dealers, gam- blers, and adventurers as to taint the whole social atmosphere with their vices. Even the clergy maintain a profound silence on the subject of these enormities, and never mention the subject of slavery in the states where it exists, except to apologize for it or to uphold it, and to dep- recate all the “schemes,” as they call them, of the abolitionists for hastening the period of its annihilation. So tolerant are the clergy of the south on this subject, that as was shown in the resolutions of the Episcopal Methodist Conference in Georgia, they publicly declare their belief “ that slavery, as it exists in the United Slates, is not a moral evil,” and if so, of course they are not called upon to remove it . — Liberty Standard. ABEL BROWN. My spirit cannot rest so long as my brethren are crushed by the iron lioof of oppression. — Mr. Jones made many statesments that show conclusive^ that the Methodist, Baptist, and Congregational missionaries, among those tribes of Indians, sustain and uphold negro slavery ; and that the missions among the Cherokee, Creek, and Choctaw Indians, may be truly called slave holding missions ! ! The men who have in charge the missionary treasury keep, as far as possible, these innoceiit crimes of robbery, theft, and murder out of the sight of the dear brethren who so freely give their money to spread the gospel. They do this, that they may not offend slave- holders. One reason for this conclusion, may be seen by a simple statement of facts. In the Baptist church, there are over 125,000 members that are slaves, and not more than 10 or 12,000 slave-hol- ders ; but this latter class have all the money — therefore, our boards are very careful to keep peace with the masters, even though the slaves are crushed to death. They (the slaves) are not good for any thing — they have no money. I would suggest the propriety of send- ing out a missionary to labor for the conversion of the missionaries among the Indians in the south-west. — Tocsin of Liberty. CHARLES VAN LOON. This movement (of disunion) takes advantage of the “ tide in the affairs” of our country. Men other than abolitionists — politicians aroused by the late superlative insolence of the slave power, are be- ginning to inquire with anxious solicitude, whether the political eco- nomy of such a union as now exists, between the antagonist institu- tions and interests of the north and south ; be not altogether false and absurd — merchants and mechanics, groaning under the pressure of the times — remembering with bitterness, the toil earned, millions sunk in the bottomless gulf of slavery — have grown sick and weary of the connexion. Men, we repeat, other than technical abolitionists, have begun to look with disgust upon this unnatural union of slavery and freedom — this union of a living, breathing being, with a lifeless reeking carcass. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. We might consider moreover ; whether the accomplishment of this object, would not be more difficult, than abolition, is under the union, of slavery itself. Whether it would not cost more, to secure this means, than to go on under existing institutions, to the attaintment of the grand end. And then we must determine whether this object can be effected, consistently with that moral character, and peaceful spirit, which have ever been the glory of our cause. — Ibid. WILLIAM L. CHAPLIN. Mob in Cincinnati . — How fallen — pitifully fallen — incurably dis. graced — the “ Queen of the West 1” Queen of mobs and mother of lawless violence and blood ! Nothing more natural. A few weeks since her dastardly authorities allowed slave-holders to violate the sanctity of her enclosure by organizing a ferocious mob to insult and injure the friends of freedom — to destroy the grea palladium of rights and just liberty — to assault and outrage the inoueiisive colored people — to hold the city with its entire population for nearly a week in al%rm and consternation from their unrestrained malignity and licentious- ness. Why should not the “ Bank barons,” — shin plaster gentry take their turn ? Why should not any class of citizens fall victims to the same relentless spirit, from whatever cause its ungoverned passions might become exasperated ? If precious interests may be disregarded, and unbought rights be trampled upon in the person of the poor, or the black man, why may they not be trodden down with impunity in the case of the rich or the white man ? The question need not be put ; it is impertinent. All history, experience, and ob- servation teach, that, if we tamely acquiesce in perfidy and outrage practised upon innocent sufferers, we, ourselves, shall sooner or later inevitably become their victims. Not a slave can be held in the United States without putting in peril the freedom and just rights of every other man. Not a mob can be tolerated and allowed to escape “ unwhipt of justice,” in any neighborhood of the country without endangering our whole civil fabric. Not one instance of palpable in- justice can be spread upon our statute book, without exposing to con- tamination and rottenness the entire system of legislation. Undoubtedly the last in the ugly series of Cincinnati mobs, like its predecessors, will find here and there its flimsy apologist. Let the time be long before any other city shall attempt to rival her “ bad pre-eminence .” — American Citizen. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. PENNSYLVANIA HALL. “ A number of individuals of all sects, and those of no sect, — of all parties, and those of no party — being desirous that the citizens of Philadelphia should possess a room, wherein the principles of Liber, ty , and Equality of Civil Rights could be freely discussed, and the evils of slavery fearlessly portrayed, have erected this building, which we are now about to dedicate to Liberty and the Rights <*f Man. The total cost of the building will be about 40,000 dollars. This has been divided into two thousand shares of twenty dollars each. A majority of the stock-holders are mechanics, or working men, and (as is the case in almost every other good work,) a number are fe- males. The building is not to be used for anti-slavery purposes alone. It will be rented from time to time, in such portions as shall best suit applicants, for any purpose not of an immoral character. It is called “ Pennsylvania Hall,” in reference to the principles of Pennsylvania, and our motto, like that of the commonwealth, is “Virtue, Liberty, and Independence.” This edifice was erected on the south-west corner of Sixth and Cherry-streets, and was opened on the morning of the 14th of May, 1838, to a vast concourse of the friends of freedom from the city and country; through that and the three succeeding days, there were a variety of addresses and free discussions on Lyceums, Temperance, wrongs of the Aborigines, appeals of Women, and other efforts for the cause of Universal Liberty. On the evening of the 17th, it was assailed and burnt by a cowardly gang of ruffians. The fire compa- nies with their engines had come early upon the ground, but not a drop of w-ater was tin-own upon the Hall, till its destruction was en- sured beyond possibility of prevention. Till then, the firemen con- fined their efforts to preserving the surrounding buildings, and such of their number as were disposed to play upon the object of attack, were prevented from doing so by the mob. The blow has been aimed at the universal rights of man ! The sacrifice of a beautiful temple dedicated to liberty, and bearing the motto of our state, Virtue, Liberty and Independence,” has been made to Southern Slavery — to a system whose advocates un. blushingly declare that the laborer should every where, at the north as well as the south, in Pennsylvania as well as in Carolina, be made the property of the employer and capitalist. The 1st of August, 1842, in Philadelphia. In the annals of violence in this country, we have no recollection of any thing more cowardly and disgraceful. Cowardly, because the objects of assault were weak and defenceless ; and disgraceful, because, if they had been more formidable, and greatly the aggres- sors, such a mode of punishment could bring with it no honor or ap- plause. It is too obvious, that in a country even as enlightened as this, the moral force of the public opinion is not strong enough to arrest this evil. We suspect that the evil will scarcely find a corrective, until it shall come to be understood as the settled law and practice, that the loss be paid by the city or place of the outrage. — Albany Argus. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. ELIJAH P. LOVE JOY. I know that I have the right freely to speak and publish my senti ments, subject only to the laws of the land for the abuse of that right. This right was given me by my Maker, and is solemnly guaranteed to me by the constitution of these United States, and of this state. What I wish to know of you is, whether you will protect me in the exercise of this right, or whether, as heretofore, I am to be subjected to personal indignity and outrage. I have a family who are dependent on me, and this has been given as a reason why I should be driven off as gently as possible. It is true, I am a husband and a father ; and this it is that adds the bit. terest ingredient to the cup of sorrow I am called to drink. I am made to feel the wisdom of the Apostle’s advice, “It is better not to marry.” I know, that in this contest I stake not my life only, but that of others also. I do not expect my wife will ever recover from the shock received at the awful scenes through which she was called to pass at St. Charles. I am hunted as a partridge on the mountains. I am pursued as a felon through your streets ; to the guardian power of the law I look in vain for that protection against violence, which even the vilest criminal may enjoy. Yet think not that I am un- happy. Think not that I regret the choice that I have made. I have counted the cost, and stand prepared freely to offer up my ail in the service of God. Yes, I am fully aware of all the sacrifice I make, in here pledging myself to continue this contest to the last. (Forgive these tears, I had not intended to shed them, and they flow, not for myself, but for others.) But I am commanded to for. sake father and mother, and wife and children, for Jesus’s sake, and as his professed disciple, I stand pledged to do it. The time for fulfilling this pledge in my case, it seems to me, has come. I dare not flee away from Alton ; should I attempt it, I should feel that the angel of the Lord with his flaming sword was pursuing me wherever I went. It is because I fear God, that I am not afraid of all who oppose me in this city. No, the contest has commenc- ed here, and here it must befinished. Before God and you all, I here pledge myself to continue it, if need be, till death ; and if I fall, my grave shall be made in Alton . — His last speech before Martyrdom THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. SOLOMON SOUTHWICK. One of the grandest exhibitions of moral sublimity, to be found in history, either sacred or profane, was that of Elijah P. Lovejoy, ad- dressing the stern and hostile multitude at Alton, who had assem- bled a few days before his glorious martyrdom, to pass a resolution for banishing him from that city, without the spirit or the forms of law, justice or equity. Without indictment, trial or conviction, by any legal or authorized tribunal, he was to be sent into exile. It was on the seventh night of November, 1837, that Mr. Love- joy was murdered at Alton, (Illinois,) whilst defending the liberty of the press, the right to the peaceable possession of his own property, and the sacred cause of suffering humanity, against an infuriated mob. Previously from three to four or five thousand men of Alton, and the vicinity, including the virtuous and orderly — if any such there were — with the vicious, disorderly and lawless — had assembled for the unhallowed purpose of sacrificing an honest man, a good citizen, a true patroit and republican, and a faithful servant of God. Such was the man, who with the same unshaken faith, and unsubdued re- solution, with which Abraham was ready to sacrifice his beloved son at the command of his Heavenly Father ; did nobly and glorious sa- crifice, not the life of his son, but his own heart’s blood, his own vital spirit, in defending from violation the sacred freedom — (not the un. hallowed licentiousness) — of the press ; in defending, not merely his own rights and his own property, but the rights and property of every citizen in this union, and of every man throughout the world. Well may we exclaim, that a greater than Alfred, Aristides, or Cicero ; yea, a greater than Abraham was here ! He will live in the memory of the enlightened, liberal, just and righteous, of all ages to come ; and so long as the chords of the hu- man heart shall vibrate to the voice of Liberty, her pilgrims shall be seen bending over his tomb and bedewing it with then- tears. 15 THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. WESLEY BAILEY. If the South would abolish slavery, she would be entitled to about 16 more members in Congress. Every slave would be reckoned a “ free person,” and count one in the basis of representation ; whereas now lie counts but “three fifths” of a “person.” She would upon the same principle be entitled to an additional number of electoral votes in the choice of President and Vice President of the United States likewise exemption from taxation on slave property, and in the dis- tribution of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands, would re- ceive the additional sum of the allowance for 16 members of Con- gress. In a -political point of view, she would therefore be the gainer ; and in a moral point of view, she would gain the favor of the Most High, and cease to be the scorn and derision of the civi- lized world. How gladly would the North see the South augment her civil and moral power by ceasing to make merchandize of the image of God. Oh how easy the South might make herself great, would she but execute judgment and justice to the oppressed. May God in his mercy dispose her heart so to do — Liberty Press. JOHN A.' COLLINS. While your State is made a hunting ground for the southern kid. napper ; while the physical force of the entire State is pledged to put down an insurrection among the slaves, should l hey seek to imi- tate our revolutionary sires, and endeavour to secure their “ inaliena- j ble” rights by resisting their masters ; while your representatives in I Congress are forced to recognize and-treat the one hundred southern delegates in your national legislature, who live by the worst form of plunder, as good republicans ; while your religion disregards the claims of the captive, and bolts its doors against his advocates; while your colored inhabitants are denied the rights of citi- lizenship; while two and a half millions of j'our fellow-coun- trymen are, by general consent, held in the most absolute and degrading bondage, by which they are daily plundered in the fruits of their toil, and robbed of the ownership of their own per- ' sons ; denied the right of marriage and of the education of their chil- dren ; shut out from the light of science, the knowledge of the Bible, and from the hopes and consolations of the gospel — while these, and many other things equally subversive of all the rights of man, are continually done, will you be indifferent or inactive to the claims of the bleeding captive ? Shall we relax our efforts in consequence of the indifference of the mass, or of the opposition of our opponents ? Shall outraged nature cease to feel ? Shall Mercy’s tears no longer flow 1 Shall ruffian threats of cord and steel — The dungeon’s gloom — th’ assassin’s brow. Turn back the spirit roused to save The truth — our country — and the slave ? Let there be a gathering from the east, west, north and south. JOHN A. COLLINS. The responsibilities of our cause should be taken from the few, and assumed by the many. The whole country should be completely and efficiently organized. The floating sympathy for the slave, ab- sorbed by the sects and parties, would be brought to bear efficiently against the Moloch of slavery, if the friends in every parish, town, county and State, should associate together. — Facts demonstrate, beyond a cavil, that in those places where the associations have been allowed to pass away as useless, the interest in the cause has propor- tionately diminished ; and it also holds true, that where the organi- zation have been regarded as a successful auxiliary to our cause — an invaluable means to the accomplishment of a glorious end, the spirit, zeal and efficiency of the abolitionists have been increased. Our relations to both Church and State, which are and have ever been arrayed against our movements, are such at the present time as to demand of all true hearts that sacrifice and self-denial neces- sary to convince all those opposed to this enterprise, that we regard the inalienable rights of our colored brothers and sisters, weighed down with chains at the South and at the North, with an inhuman and proscriptive prejudice, more than the interest of sect or party. Let the old and young — the rich and the poor — the farmer and the day laborer — the mechanic and the manufacturer — the merchant and tlie capitalist — the teacher and the physician feel this to he a cause which involves great interests to their country and themselves. In a word, let them consider that it is, emphatically, their cause. LINNEUS P. NOBLE. We have labored to infuse humanity and freedom into the parties with which we have acted ; but we have labored in vain. We have hoped against hope ; we have borne and forborne, till hope has fled, and forbearance ceased to be a virtue. We abandon the “ Demo- cratic” party, because, false to its faith, it has become the ally of the most odious monopoly that afflicts the brotherhood of man. We renounce the “ Whig” party, because, on its elevation to power, it has basely bowed the knee to the dark spirit of slavery. Need we waste time to prove that the late administration was chained to the car of the slave power ? Shall we insult your understandings by accumulating evidence that the present administration is struggling to win even greener laurels in the race of servility and infamy ? — That the party defeated in 1840 is striving to regain power by pros- trating itself still lower at the footstool of the Slaveocracy, is the boast of its leaders; while those in authority attempt no conceal- ment of their intention to regain their position by the same debasing means. Divided in every thing but this, let them unitedly glory in their shame. Repudiating their sham democracy and whigism, we elevate the standard of Liberty, and invite all that is pure and patri- otic in the land to gather around it. Congress must consecrate the Federal District to Freedom, and destroy those slave prisons which overshadow the home of our na- tional sovreignity. It must sever the jugular vein of the slave-sys- tem by inhibiting the inner state commerce in men. It must repeal THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. the unconstitutional act of 1793, which would fain authorize the man-mastiff to cross our free fields^ when howling’ on the track of human game. It must abolish slavery in Florida and welcome it and the territories of the north-west to the Union, while it refuses admission to any State whose Constitulion tolerates property in man. It must indignantly reject the proffered alliance with Texas. It must cherish free labor and provide a market for its products. It must enforce the doctrine that slavery is the creature of State law, and cannot be extended beyond its local boundaries. It must with, draw the support of national legislation and diplomacy from sla. very ; and, so far as possible, release the people of the free Slates from all obligation to sustain the tottering system. — Address of the New-York State Liberty Convention , Jan. 1842. JOSEPH C. HATHAWAY. The exertions of the Society had extended over ten northern States, and had made great progress in the West. The publications of the society were never so widely circulated as at present. The eight or ten lecturing agents have been constantly employed, and as many as ten thousand meetings have been held, attended by at least two hundred thousand persons. The Report felicitates the Society upon the influence of the Society upon the State of New- York, as proved by the recent course of the Legislature with regard to the slave-fugitive question ; and congratulates the friends of a’oo. ' litionism, that the Empire State is not yet at the feet of Virginia. It considered that both political parties in this country were pledged to the support of slavery, and took the ground, strongly, that anti- slavery men must not strengthen either of these parties by their co- operation. — Annual Report of the American A. S. Society, read May 9, 1843. FREDERICK DOUGLAS It has been imagined that the slaves of the South are not aware I of the movements made on their behalf, and in behalf of’luunan freedom, every where throughout the northern and western States. This is hot true. They do know it. They know it from the mo- ment that the spark was first kindled in the land. They knew it as soon as you knew it, sir, in your own New England. Did not petitions by thousands, immediately go forth for the abolition of sla- very in the District of Columbia, and in the territories, and for the overthrow of the internal slave trade ? Heard we not that ? And in the curses of our masters against the abolitionists, did we not feel instinctively that these same abolitionists were our friends ? And in every form of opposition in the great cause, did we not hear it? Prior to this movement, sir, the slave in chains had no hope for deliverencc — no hope of any peace or happiness within the vale of tears. Darkness and despair rested gloomily upon his prospect, and not a ray of light was thrown across. But when he heard of this movement, hope sprang up in my mind, and in the minds of many. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. STEPHEN S. FOSTER. It is a well established fact, that the slave system derives essential support from the nominally free Slates. Let the fostering care of the north be withdrawn, and it could not survive a single year. This the South herself is forced to admit. ‘‘ The dissolution of the Union,” said Mr. Underwood, of Kentucky, in a recent debate in Congress, “ was the dissolution of slavery, and any sensible man could see it.” Said Mr. Arnold of Tennessee, in the same debate, “ Suppose the dissolution to be peaceably affected, what had the South to depend upon 7 All the crowned heads were against her. A million of slaves were ready to rise, and strike for freedom, at the first tap of the drum. They were cut loose from their friends at the North, (friends that ought to be, and without them the South had no friends.) whither were they to look for protection 7” It is equally certain, that the main channels through which northern influence flows to the South for this evil purpose, are the great national par- ties. political and ecclesiastical. Slavery is protected by northern bayonets, through the agency of the federal government ; and is sanc- tified, in the eyes of the people, by admission into northern pulpits- To break up these channels, then, and give the influence of the North a new and opposite direction, should be the chief aim of the abolitionists. If the dissolution of the Union be the dissolution of slavery, it is their duty to dissolve the Union — to cut theconnecting links, political and ecclesiastical, between the North and South, and leave the South to do justice to those whom she has deeply injured, or reap alone the bitter fruit of her oppression, in the blood and car- nage of a second revolution. But this can never be done at a sin- gle stroke. The work of dissolution must begin with individuals; or rather, it has already begun with individuals, and must be fol- lowed up by associations. The most daring among us must advance and plant the standard in its true position, and cal! upon their asso- ciates to rally around it. In this way, and in this way only, can the work be speedily accomplished. There is now among the laboring classes a deep and increasing sense of the injustice and impolicy of slavery, which is destined soon to burst forth, like the uncapping of a volcano. Already are they weary of its burdens — they are outraged, almost beyond endurance, by its insolence — they are sick of the heartless promises of whig and democratic politicians — they are disgusted with the solemncaut and hypocritical professions of pro-slavery priests ; and it now remains for the abolitionists, by a united and juudicious movement, based on the principles of perfect equality, to secure their confidence, and through their co-operation to abolish at once, throughout our whole land, the foul system of oppression and wrong, which has so long tarnished its honor, and blighted its prosperity. Slavery has done the laboring classes in this country far greater harm than intemper- auce, and they are beginning to realize it ; and thousands of them are now ready to sign a pledge of total abstinence from all that sus- tains it. 15 * “Hail Columbia ! Happy Land ! ! J” AUTHENTIC ACCOUNTS OF UNITED STATES’ SLAVERY. “ A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring ~orth good fruit. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” JAMES H. DICKEY. In the summer of 1822, as I returned with my family from a visit to the Barrens of Kentucky, I witnessed a scene such as I never witness- ed before, and such as I hope never to witness again. Having passed through Paris, in Bourbon county, Ky., the sound of music (beyond a little rising ground) attracted my attention ; I looked forward and saw the flag of my country waving. Supposing that I was about to meet a military parade, I drove hastily to the side of the road ; and having gained the top of the ascent, I discovered (I suppose) about forty black men all chained together after the following manner ; each of them was handcuffed, and they were arranged in rank and file. A chain, perhaps forty feet long, the size of a fifth-horse-chain, was stretched between the two ranks, to which short chains were joined, which con- nected with the handcuffs. Behind them were, I suppose, about thirty women in double rank, the couples tied hand to hand. A solemn sad- ness sat on every countenance, and the dismal silence of this march of GEORGE WHITFIELD. despair was interrupted only by the sound of two violins ; yes, as if to add insult to injury, the foremost couple were furnished with a violin apiece ; the second couple were ornamented with cockades, while near the centre waved the republican flag carried by a hand literally in chains. I perhaps have mistaken some punctilios of the arrangement, for “my soul was sick,” my feelings were mingled and pungent. As a man, I sympathized with suffering humanity ; as a Christian, I mourned over the transgressions of God’s holy law ; and as a republi- can, I felt indignant to see the flag of my beloved country thus insult- ed. I couid not forbear exclaiming to the lordly driver who rode at his ease along side: “Heaven will curse that man who engages in such traffic, and the government that protects him in it.” 1 pursued my journey til! evening, and put up for the night. When 1 mentioned the scene I had witnessed, “Alt!” cried my landlady, “ That is my brother.” From her I learned that his name is Stone, of Bourbon county, Kentucky, in partnership with one Kinningham of Paris ; and that a few days before he had purchased a negro woman from a man in Nicholas county ; she refused to go with him ; he attempted to compel her, but she. defended herself. Without further ceremony, he stepped back, and^bv a blow on the side of her head with the butt of his whip brought her to the ground ; he tied her, and drove her off GEORGE WHITFIELD. As I lately passed through your provinces in my way hither, I was sensibly touched with a fellow-feeling for the miseries of the poor negroes. Whether it be lawful for Christians to buy slaves, and thereby encourage the nations from whom they are bought to be at perpetual war with each other, I shall not take upon me to determine. Sure I am it is sinful, when they have bought them, to use them as bad as though they were brutes, nay worse ; and whatever particular exceptions there may be (as I would charitably hope there are some) I fear the generality of you, who own negroes, are liable to such a charge; for your slaves, I believe, work as hard, if not harder than the horses whereon you ride. These, after they have done their work, are fed and taken proper care of ; but many negroes when wearied with labor on your plantations, have been obliged to grind their corn after their return home; Your dogs are caressed and fondled at your table ; but your slaves, who are frequently styled dogs or beasts, have not an equal privilege. They are scarce permitted to pick up the crumbs which fall from their master’s table. Not to mention what numbers have been given up to the inhuman usage of cruel taskmasters, who, by their unrelenting scourges have ploughed their backs, and made long furrows, and at length brought them even unto death. When passing along I have viewed your plantations cleared and cultivated, many spacious houses built, and the owners of them faring sumptu- ously every day, my blood has frequently almost run cold within me, to consider how many of your slaves had neither convenient food to eat nor proper raiment to put on, notwithstanding most of the comforts you enjoy were solely owing to their indefatigable labors . — Letter to the inhabitants of Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, 1739. JOHN RANKIN. JOHN RANKIN. In connexion with their extreme suffering occasioned by want o clothing, I shall notice those which arise from want of food. As th making of grain is the main object of their mancipation, masters wil sacrifice as little as possible in giving them food. It often happen, that what will barely keep them alive, is all that a cruel avarice wil allow them. Hence, in some instances, their allowance has beer reduced to a single pint of corn each, during the day and night. Anc in some places the best allowance is a peck of corn each during the week, while perhaps they are not permitted to taste meat so much a; once in the course of seven years, except what little they may be abk to steal ! Thousands of them are pressed with the gnawings of cruel hunger during their whole lives — an insatiable avarice will not grani them a single comfortable meal to satisfy the cravings of nature 1 Such cruelty far exceeds the powers of description ! The slaveholder has it in his power to violate the chastity of his slaves. And not a few are beastly enough to exercise such power. Hence it happens, that in some families it is difficult to distinguish the free children from the slaves. It is sometimes the case, that the largest part of the master’s own children are born, not of his wife, but of the wives and daughters of his slaves, whom he has basely prostituted as well as enslaved. His poor slaves are his property, and, therefore, must yield to his lusts as well as to his avarice! He may perpetrate upon them the most horrid crimes, and they have no redress! The wretched slave must, without a murmuring word, give up his wife, or daughter, for prostitution, should his master be vile enough to demand her of him! It must be a horrid crime for any state to give one man such power over another, and such crime has every slaveholding state committed. I am far from wishing to intimate that this power is generally so grossly exercised as it might be. Some slaveholders are, doubtless, as chaste as any other people, and conscientiously endeavor to preserve the chastity of their slaves; but I wish to show the extent of the power with which they are vested, and the shocking manner in which it is sometimes exercised. In this place I will further remark, that slavery not merely puts the chastity of the slave in the power of the master, but also exposes it to attacks from every lecherous class of men. Slaves cannot bear testi- mony against people that are white and free — hence a wide door is opened for the practice, both of violence and seduction, without detec- tion ; and the consequences of this are exceedingly manifest in every slaveholding country — every town and its vicinity soon become crowded with mulattoes. In this respect slavery is the very sink of filthiness, and the source of every hateful abomination. It seems to me astonish- ing that any government, much more that, of the United States, should sanction such a source of monstrous crime as slavery evidently is! A wealthy citizen of Georgia purchased, on shipboard, six African girls, ■who probably were directly from Africa, and having brought them home, he put them into the hands of his overseer, and ordered him to assign tnem a certain portion of labor during each day of the week, JOHN RANKIN. and in case they should fail (o perform it, he was commanded to give them a considerable number of lashes each, and add the remainder of the task to the next day’s labor, and in case they should fail to perform the whole, he was ordered to add to the number of lashes in proportion to the failure, and still to add the deficiency to the next day’s labor, and thus lie was daily to increase both the labor and stripes in case of failure. The overseer, hard-hearted as he was, expostulated with him, and assured him that the labor was more than the girls were able to perform, but he swore with a tremendous oath that they should do it or die. The poor creatures commenced the dreadful task, but being unaccustomed to such labor, their hands were soon worn to the quick ; this they endured with patience, and did all they could to perform what was assigned them, but they were totally unable to accomplish it ; they failed on the first day, and received the ciruel lashes. The next morning, with sore backs and bleeding hands they attempted the enlarged task — their hoehandles were soon made red with their innocent blood — they labored with great assiduity, but they could not perform the un- reasonable task, and consequently received the enlarged number of lashes. On the third morning they commenced again, but the task was so much enlarged that all hope of performing it was entirely precluded, and the enormously increased number of lashes became certain— the unhappy creatures despaired of life, and concluded that they must inevitably die under the torturing lash, unless they could despatch themselves in some other method. This appeared to be the only means of escaping the most terrible cruelty. Hence they formed and executed the dreadful design of hanging themselves. The horn blew for dinner, all started to their huts, but these unfortunate girls lingered behind, and unobserved by the rest of the company turned aside into a thicket, and there all six hanged themselves ! They were soon missed, and search was quickly' made for them — they were im- mediately' found, and the cruel master enraged by the disappointment and loss, made every possible exertion to bring them back to life, that they' might again fall under the weight of his vengeance ! but all his attempts were in vain — their souls were gone into an awful eternity, and had their eternal destiny unalterably fixed ! And being exceed- ingly exasperated on finding that they had escaped from his hand, he ordered a hole to be dug for them, and caused them to be tumbled into it like mere animal carcasses, while he vented the most awful impre- cations upon them ! And the overseer was ordered to exact from the rest of his slaves what labor he intended them to perform. A certain citizen of Kentucky purchased a piece of furniture, and after he brought it homp, his wife unfortunately broke some small part of it, and thaf in the presence of a neighboring gentleman ; she never- theless charged it upon a black girl of about seventeen years of age. The girl honestly declared her innocence, but the mistress persisted in her charge against her. At length the brutish master seized the poor unfortunate girl, drew her clothes up over her head, hanged her by them to the limb of a tree, and in that shameful position whipt her several times very severely. By the extremity' of torture she was sometimes forced to say that she did break the furniture, but in the DISCUSSION IN LANE SEMINARY. moment of respite, she would honestly deny it again — and this subjected her to more torture. Fortunately for the poor girl the gentleman whc was present when the mistress broke the furniture, happened to be passing by — he paused in amazement at the shocking scene — he soon 1 discovered the cause of the cruelty — indignation overcame him — he approached the brutish master and told h.m that his own wife had broken the furniture in his presence, and declared that if he did not cease from torturing the poor girl he would give him as much as he had given her — with this the.shameless monster thought it necessary to comply, and for that time the poor girl was released from his torturing hand. The gentleman who rescued the girl and stated this fact, is now a resident of the state of Ohio, and is known to be a man of truth. “In the county of Livingston, Ky., near the mouth of the Cumber- land, lived Lilburn Lewis, a sister’s son of the venerable Jefferson. He, who ‘ suckled at fair Freedom’s breast,’ was the wealthy owner of a considerable number of slaves, whom he drove constantly, fed sparingly, and lashed severely. The consequence was, they would run away. This must have given to a man of spirit and a man of business great anxieties until he found them, or until they had starved out and returned. Among the rest was an ill grown boy about seventeen, who having just returned from a skulking spell, was sent to the spring for water, and in returning let fall an elegant pitcher. It was dashed to shivers upon the rocks. This was the occasion. It was night, and the slaves all at home. The master had them collected into the most roomy negro house, and a rousing fire made. When the door was secured, that none might escape, either through fear of him or sympathy with George, he opened the design of the interview, namely, that they I might be effectually taught to stay at, home and obey his orders. All things being now in train, he called up George, who approached his master with the most unreserved submission. He bound him with cords, and by the assistance of his younger brother, laid him on a broad bench, or meat block. He now proceeded to whang off’ George by the ancles!! It was with the broad axe! — In vain did the unhappy victim scream and roar! He was completely in his master’s power, i Not a hand amongst so many durst interfere. Casting the feet into the fire, ho lectured them at some length. Fie whacked him off below the knees! George roaring out, and praying his master to begin at the other end ! He admonished them again, throwing the legs into the fire! Then above the knees, tossing the joints into the fire ! Fie again lectured them at leisure. The next stroke severed the thighs from the body. These were also committed to the flames, i > And so off the arms, head, and trunk, until all was in the fire ! Still protracting the intervals with lectures, and threatenings of like punish- ment in case of disobedience, and running away, or disclosure of this tragedy. Nothing now remained but to consume the flesh and bones ; and for this purpose the fire was briskly stirred, until two hours after midnight. WILLIAM DICKEY.” A member of Lane Seminary, from Alabama, speaking of the cruelties practised upon the slaves, said — “At our house it is so LETTER TO MR. TAPPAN. common to hear their screams from a neighboring plantation, that we think nothing of it. The overseer of this plantation told me one day, he laid a young woman over a log, and beat her so severely that she was soon after delivered of a dead child. A bricklayer, a neighbor of ours, owned a very smart young negro man, who ran away ; but was caught. When his master got him home, he stripped him naked, tied him - up by his hands, in plain sight and hearing of the academy and the public green, so high that his feet could not touch the ground ; then tied them together, and put a long board between his legs to keep him steadv. After preparing Lu?n in this way, he took a paddle, bored it full of holes, and commenced beating him with it. He continued it leisurely all day. At night his flesh was literally pounded to a jelly. It was two weeks before he was able to walk. No one took any notice of it. No one thought any wrong was done.” “Mr. , of Missouri, amongst others, related the following: — “ A young woman who was generally very badly treated, after receiving a more severe whipping than usual, ran away, In a few days she came back, and was sent into the field to work. At this time, the garment next her skin was stiff like a scab, from the running of the sores made by the whipping. Towards night, she told her master that she was sick, and wished to go to the house. She went ; and as soon as she reached it, laid down on the floor exhausted. The mistress asked her what the matter was? She made no reply. She asked again; but received no answer. ‘I’ll see,’ said she, ‘if I can’t make you speak.’ So taking the tongs, she heated them red hot, and put them upon the bottoms of her feet ; then upon her legs and body ; and, finally, in a rage, took hold of her throat. This had the desired effect. The poor girl faintly whispered, ‘Oh, missee, don’t — I am most gone;’ and expired.” W e want no other commentary on the state of feeling in that com- munity than this. The woman yet lives there, and owns slaves. A. Wattles. LETTER TO MR. TAPPAN. But let me turn your attention to another species of cruelty. About a year since, I knew a certain slave who had deserted his master, to be caught and for the first night fastened in the stocks. In those same stocks from which at midnight I have heard the cries of distress, while the master slept, and was dreaming perhaps of drinking wine and of discussing the price of cotton. On the next morning he was chained in an immoveable posture, and branded in both cheeks, with red hot stamps of iron. Such are the tender mercies of men who love wealth, and are determined to obtain it at any price. There was, some time since, brought to trial in this town, a planter residing about fifteen miles distant, for whipping his slave to death. You will suppose of course that he was punished. No sir, he was acquitted, although there could be no doubt of the fact. I heard the tale of murder from a man who was acquainted with all the circum- stances. “ I was,” said he, “ passing along the road near the burying ground of the plantation, about nine o’clock at night, when I saw several CASES OF CRUELTY SCENE IN GEORGIA. lights gleaming through the woods — and as I approached, in order to see what was doing, I beheld the coroner of Natchez with a numbei of men, standing around the body of a young female, which by the torches seemed almost perfectly white. On inquiry I learned that the master had so unmercifully beaten this girl that she died under tha operation. And that also he had so severely punished another of his slaves that he was but just alive. — Letter to Mr. Tappan from Natchez, 1831. CASES OF CRUELTY. Mr. William Ladd, known as a friend of colonization and an oppo- nent of Anti-Slavery Societies, and not likely, therefore to exaggerate, but rather to soften the harsh features of the system, alludes publicly to the following, among other horrors which he has witnessed: A gentleman of his acquaintance, was offended with a female slave. He seized her by the arm, and thrust her hand into the fire, and there he held it until it was burnt off. “ I saw,” said Mr. Ladd, “ the withered stump,” — Address at Colonization Society of Massachusetts, 1833. “ Mr. Sutcliff, an English Quaker, who travelled in this country, relates a case very like that of the Kentucky girl, only that the catas- trophe was more shocking. A slave owner, near Lcvvistown, in the state of Delaware, lost a piece of leather. He charged a little slave boy with stealing it. The boy denied. The master tied the boy’s feet, and suspended him from the limb of a tree, attaching a heavy weight to his ancles, as is usual in such cases, to prevent such kicking and writhing as would break the blows. He then whipped ; the boy confessed ; and then he commenced whipping anew for the offence itself. He was a kind master, and never whipped the lad again, for he died under the lash ! Then the slaveholder’s own son, smitten with remorse, acknowledged that he took the leather. “ An honorable friend, who stands high in the state and in the nation, was present at. the burial of a female slave in Mississippi, who had been whipped to death at the post by her master, because she was gone longer of an errand to ihe neighboring town, than her master thought necessary. Under the lash she protested that she was ill, and was obliged to rest in the fields. To complete the climax of horror, she w r as delivered of a dead infant before her master had com- pleted his work 1” — Child's Despotism of Freedom. Scene in Georgia. — The two convicts were hung together ; and after they were quite dead, a consultation was held amongst the gentlemen, as to the future disposition of Billy, who, having been in the house where his master was murdered, and not having given immediate in formation of the fact, was held to be guilty of concealing the death ; and was accordingly sentenced to receive five hundred lashes. I was in the branches of a tree close by the place where this court was held, and distinctly heard its proceedings and judgment. Some went to the woods to cut hickories, whilst others stripped Billy and tied him to a tree. More than twenty long switches, some of them six or seven feet in length, had been procured ; and two men applied the rods at SCENE XN GEORGIA. :he same time, one standing on each side of the culprit ; one of them xsing his left hand. I had often seen black men whipped, and had dwavs, where the iash was applied with great severity, heard the suf- ferer cry out and beg for mercy ; but in this case, the pain inflicted by ,hese double blows of the hickory was so intense, that Billy never ittered so much as a groan ; and I do not believe he breathed for t lie rpace of two minutes after he received the first strokes. He shrunk us bodv close to the trunk of the tree, around which his arms and legs vere lashed; drew his shoulders up to his head like a dying man, and rembled, or rather shivered, in ail his members. The bmod flowed roin the commencement, and in a few minutes lay in small puddles it the root of the tree. 1 saw flakes of flesh as long as my finger fall hut of the gashes in his back ; and 1 believe he was insensible during ill the time that he was receiving the last two hundred lashes. When .he whole five hundred had been counted by the person appointed to xerform this duty, the half-dead body was unbound and laid in the hade of the tree upon which I sat. The gentlemen who had done the ■vhipping, eight or ten in number, being joined by their friends, then tame under the tree, and drank punch until their dinner was made •eady, under a booth of green boughs at a short distance. After dinner, Billy, who had been groaning on fixe ground where he ■vas laid, was taken up, placed in the cart in which Lucy and Frank had xeen brought to the gallows, and conveyed to the dwelling of his late naster, where he was confined to the house and his bed more than hree months, and was never worth much afterwards, while I remained n Georgia. Certainly those who were hanged well deserved their punishment, xut it was a very arbitrary exercise of power to whip a man until he ■vas insensible, because he did not prevent a murder which was coi 1 - xiitted xvithout his knowledge ; and I could not understand the right xf punishing him because he was so weak or timorous, as to refrain Tom a disclosure of the crime the moment it came to his ears . — Life if Charles Ball. [Those who a.d desirous of witnessing a further exposition ot the legitimately bitter fruits of Slavery, are referred to ! ‘ American Slavery as it is ; — Testimony of a Thousand V»'itnesshs,’' for sale at the Anti-Slavery Depositories.] aMhKUJA.i'. a-a if »S THEODORE D. WELD. The case of Human Rights against Slavery has been adjudicate* in the court of conscience times innumerable. The same verdict has always been rendered — “ Guilty!” the same sentence has always beer pronounced, “Let iL be accursed!” and human nature, with hu million echoes, has rung it round the world in every language unde; heaven, “ Let it be accursed ! Let it be accursed ! !” His heart i; false to human nature, who will not say “Amen.” There is not i man on earth who does not believe that slavery is a curse. Humas beings may be inconsistent, but human nature is true to herself. Sht has uttered her testimony against slavery with a shriek ever since the monster was begotten ; and till it perishes amidst the execration* of the Universe, she will traverse the world on its track, dealing hei bolts upon its head, and dashing against it her condemning brand. We repeat it, every man knows that slavery is a curse. Whoever denies this, his lips libel bis heart. Try him ; clank the chains in his ears, and tell him they are for him ; give him an hour to prepare his wife and children for a life of slavery; bid him make haste and get ready their necks for the yoke, and their wrists for the cofflt chains, then look at his pale lips and trembling knees, and you have Nature’s testimony against slavery. We will prove that the s'aves in the United Slates are treated with barbarous inhumanity ; that they are overworked, underfed, wretch- edly clad and lodged, and have insufficient sleep; that tliay are often made to wear round their necks iron collars armed with prongs, to drag heavy chains and weights at their feet while working in the field, and to wear yoks, and bells, and iron horns ; that they are often kept confined in the stocks day and night for weeks together, made to wear gags in their mouths for hours or days, have some of their front teeth torn out or broken off, that they may he easily detected when they run away ; that they are frequently flogged with terrible severity, have red pepper rubbed into their lacerated flesh, and hot AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT 13 brine, spirits of turpentine, &c. poured over the gashes to increase the torture ; that they are often stripped naked, their backs and limbs cut with knives, bruised and mangled by scores and hundreds of blows with the paddle, and terribly torn by the claws of cats, drawn over them by their tormentors ; that they are often hunted with blood hounds and shot down like beasts, or torn in pieces by dogs ; that thev are often suspended by the arms and whipped and beaten till they faint, and when revived by restoratives, beaten again till they faint, .and sometimes till they die ; that their ears are often cut off, their eyes knocked out, their bones broken, them flesh branded with red hot irons; that they are maimed, mutilated and burned to death over slow fires. All these tilings, and more, and worse, we shall prove, by the testimony of scores and hundreds of eye witnesses, by the testimony of slave-holders in all parts of the slave states, by slave- holding members of congress and of state legislatures, by ambassa- dors to foreign courts, by judges, by doctors of divinity, and clergy- men of all denominations, by merchants, mechanics, lawyers and physicians, by presidents and professors in colleges and professional seminaries, by planters, overseers and drivers. We shall show, not merely that such deeds are committed, but that they are frequent ; not done in corners, but before the sun ; not in one of the slave states, but in all of them ; not perpetrated by brutal overseers and drivers merely, but by magistrates, by legislators, by professors of reli- gion, by preachers of the gospel, by governors of states, by “gen- tlemen of property and standing,” and by delicate females moving in the “ highest circles of society.” Tiberius, Claudius, and Caligula, began the exercise of their power with singular forbearance, and each grew into a prodigy of cruelty. So averse was Caligula to bloodshed, that he refused to look at a list of conspirators against his own life, which was handed to him ; yet afterwards, a more cruel wretch never wielded a sceptre. In his thirst for slaughter, he wished all the necks in Rome one, that he might cut them off at a blow. Domitian, at the commencement of his reign, carried his abhor- rence of cruelty to such lengths, that he forbad the sacrificing of oxen, and would sit whole days on the judgment-seat, reversing the the unjust decisions of corrupt judges ; yet afterwards, lie surpassed ■ even Nero in cruelty. Commodus began with gentleness and conde- scension, but soon became a terror and a scourge, outstripping in his atrocities most of his predecessors. Maximinus too, was just and gener- ous when first invested with power, but afterwards rioted in slaughter with the relish of a fiend. History has well said of this monarch, ‘the change in his disposition may*readiiy serve to show how dan- gerous a thing is power, that could transform a person of such rigid virtues into such a monster.’ AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT IS. HORACE MOULTON. One slave, who was under my care, was whipped, I think one hun- dred lashes, for getting a small handful of wood from his master’s yard without leave. I heard an overseer boasting to his master that he gave one of the boys seventy lashes, for not doing a job of work just as he thought it ought to be done. The owner of the slave ap- peared to be pleased that the overseer had been so faithful. The apology they make for whipping so cruelly is, that it is to frighten the rest of the gang. The masters say, that what we call an ordi- nary flogging will not subdue the slaves ; hence the most cruel and barbarous scourgings ever witnessed by man are daily and hourly in. flicted upon the naked bodies of these miserable bondmen ; not by masters and negro-drivers only, but by the constables in the common markets and jailors in their yards. It is very com.- m for masters to say to the overseers or drivers, “ put it on to then;,” ■■ don’t spare that fellow,” “ give that scoundrel one hundred lasb.es,” &c. Whipping the women when in delicate circumstances, as i!kv sometimes do. wi'hout any regard to their en- treaties or the entreaties of their nearest friends, is truly barbarous. If negroes could testily, they would tell you of instances of women being whipped until they have miscarried at the whipping-post. I heard of such things at the south — they are undoubtedly facts. Chil- dren are whipped unmercifully for the smallest offences, and that be- fore their mothers. A large proportion of the blacks have their shoul- ders, backs, and arms all scarred up, and not a few of them have had their heads laid open with clubs, stones, and brick-bats, and with the butt-end of whips and canes — some have had their jaws broken, others their teeth knocked in or out ; while others have had their ei#s cropped and the sides of their cheeks gashed out. Some of the poor creatures have lost the sight of one of their eyes by the careless blows of the wliipper, or by some other violence. But punishing slaves as above described, is not the only mode of torture. Some tie them up in a very uneasy posl.ure, where they must stand all night, and they will then work them hard all da} r — that is, work them hard all day and torment them all night. Others punish by fastening them down on a log, or something else, and strike them on the hare skin with a board paddle full of holes. This breaks the skin, I should presume, at every hole where it comes in contact with it. Others, when other modes of punishment will not subdue them, cat-haul them — that is, take a cat by the nape of the neck and tail, or by the hind legs, and drag the claws across the back until satisfied. This kind of punishment poisons the flesh much worse than the whip, and is more dreaded by the slave. Some are branded by a hot iron, olhers have their flesh cut out in large gashes, to mark them. Some who are prone to run away, have iron fetters riveted around their ancles, sometimes they are put only on one foot, and are dragged on the ground. Others have on large iron collars or yokes upon their necks, or clogs riveted upon their wrists or an- cles. Some have bells put upon them, hung upon a sort of frame to an iron collar. AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT IS. Another dark side of slavery is the neglect of the aged and sick. Many when sick, are suspected by their masters of feigning sickness, and are therefore w'hipped out to work after disease lias got fast hold of them ; when the masters learn, that they are really sick, they are in many instances left alone in their cabins during work hours ; not a few of the slaves are left to die without having one friend to wipe off the sweat of death. When the slaves are sick, the masters do not, as a general thing, employ physicians, but “ doctor” them them- selves, and their mode of practice in almost all cases is to bleed and give salts. SARAH M. GRIMKE. A highly intelligent slave, who panted after freedom with cease- less longings, made many attempts to get possession of himself. For every offence he was punished with extreme severity. At one time he was tied up by his hands to a tree, and whipped until his back was one gore of blood. To this terrible infliction ho was subjected at intervals for several weeks, and kept heavily ironed while at Ilia work. His master one day accused him of a fault, in the usual terms dictated by passion and arbitrary power ; the man protested his innocence, but was not credited. He again repelled the charge with honest indignation. His master’s temper rose almost to frenzy; and seizing a fork, he made a deadly plunge at the breast of his slave. The man being far his superior in strength, caught his arm, and dashed the weapon on the floor. His master grasped at his throat, but the slave disengaged himself, and rushed from the apartment. Having made his escape, he fled to the woods ; and after wandering about for many months, living on roots and berries, and enduring every hardship, he was arrested and committed to jail. Here he lay for a considerable time, allowed scarcely food enough to sustain life, whipped in the most shocking manner, and confined in a cell so loath- some, that when his master visited him, he said the stench was enongh to knock a man down. The filth had never been removed from the apartment since the poor creature had been immured in it. Although a black man, such had been the effect of starvation and -suffering, that his master declared he hardly recognized him — his complexion was so yellow, and his hair, naturally thick and black, had become red and scanty ; an infallible sign of long continued liv- ing on bad and insufficient food. Stripes, imprisonment, and the gnawings of hunger, had broken his lofty spirit for a season ; and, to use his master’s own exulting expression, he was “ as humble as a dog.” After a time he made another attempt to escape, and was absent so long, that a reward was offered for him, dead or alive. He eluded every attempt to take him, and his master, despairing of ever getting him again, offered to pardon him if he would return home. It is always understood that such intelligence will reach the runaway ; and accordingly, at the entreaties of his wife and mother, the fugi- tive once more consented to return to his bitter bondage. I believe this was the last effort to obtain his liberty. His heart become fouebed with the power of the gospel ; and the spirit which no in- AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT IS. flictioris could subdue, bowed at the cross of Jesus, and with the language on his lips — “ the cup that my father hath given me, shall I not drink it ?” submitted to the yoke of the oppressor, and wore his chains in unmurmuring patience till death released him. The master who perpetrated these wrongs upon his slave, was one of the most influential and honored citizens of South Carolina, and to his equals was bland, and courteous, and benevolent even to a proverb. JOHN GRAHAM. After the blessing was asked at the breakfast table, one of the ser- vants, a woman grown, in giving one of the children some mo- lasses, happened to pour out a little more than usual, though not more than the child usually eats. Her master was angry at the pet- ty and indifferent mistake, or slip of the hand. He rose from the table, took both of her hands in one of his, and with the other be- gan to beat her, first on one side of her head and then on the other, and repeating this, till, as he said on sitting down at table, it hurt his hand too much to continue it longer. He then took off his shoe, and with the heel began in the same manner as with his hand, till the poor creature could no longer endure it without screeches and raising her elbow as it is natural to ward off the blows. He then called a great overgrown negro to hold her hands behind her while he should wreak his vengeance upon the poor servant. In this posi- tion he began again to beat the poor suffering wretch. It now be- came intolerable to bear ; she fell, screaming to me for help. After she fell, he beat her until I thought she would have died in his hands. She got up, however, went out and washed off' the blood and came in Joefore we rose from table, one of the most pitiable objects I ever saw till I came to the south. Her ears were almost as thick as my thand, her eyes awfully blood-shotten, her lips, nose, cheeks, chin, and whole head swollen so that no one would have known it was Etta -—and for all this, she had to turn, round as she was going out and thank her master! WILLIAM POE. Beniamin James Harris, a wealthy tobacconist of Richmond, Vir. o-inia, "whipped a slave girl fifteen years old to death. While he was whi 'ping her, his wife heated a smoothing iron, put it on her body in various places, and burned her severely. The verdict of the coro. ner’s inquest was, “ Died of excessive whipping.” He was tried in Richmond, and acquitted. I attended the trial. Some years after, this same Harris whipped another slave to death. The man had not done so much work as was required of him. After a numbei of pio trailed and violent scourgings, with short intervals between, the slave died under the lash. Harris was tried, and again acquitted, because none but blacks saw it done. The same man afterwards whipped another slave severely, for not doing 1 work to please him. Af^ei ie- pealed" and severe floggings in quick succession, for the same cause, AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT IS. the slave, in despair of pleasing him, cut off his own hand. Harris soon after became a bankrupt, went to New-Orleans to recruit his finances, failed, removed to Kentucky, became a maniac, and died. PRIVATIONS OF SLAVES. By confining the slaves to the southern states, where crops are raised for exportation, and bread and meat are purchased, you doom them to scarcity and hunger. It is proposed to hem in the blacks where they are ill fed. — Alexander Smyth. Speaking of the condition of slaves, in the eastern part of that state, the report says, — The master puts the unfortunate wretches upon short allowances, scarcely sufficient for their sustenance, so that a great part of them go half starved much of the time. — Gradual Emancipation Soc. N. Carolina. The slaves down the Mississippi, are half-starved, the boats when they stop at night, are constantly boarded by slaves, begging for something to eat. — Tobias Boudinot. A few years since, he was at a brick yard in the environs of New- Orleans, in which one hundred hands were employed ; among them were from twenty to thirty young women, in the prime of life. He was told by the proprietor, that there had nut been a child born among them for the last two or three years, although they all had husbands. — Hon. H. Clay. JOHN WOOLMAN. Many of the white people in these provinces, take little or no care of negro marriages ; and when negroes marry, after their own way, some make so little account of those marriages, that, with views of outward interest, they often part men from their wives, by selling them far asunder ; which is common when estates are sold By execu- tors at vendue. Many whose labor is heavy, being followed at their business in the field b}' a man with a whip, hired for that purpose, — have, in com- mon, little else allowed them but one peck of Indian corn and sotne salt for one week, with a few potatoes. (The potatoes they common- ly raise by their labor on the first day of the week.) The correction ensuing on then disobedience to overseers, or slothfulness in business, is often very severe, and sometimes desperate. Men and women have many times scarce clothes enough to hide their nakedness — and boys and girls, ten and twelve years old, are often quite naked among their masters’ children. Some use endeavors to instruct those (ne- gro children) they have in reading ; but in common, this is not only neglected, but disapproved. # JAMES K. PAULDING. The sun was shining out very hot — and in turning the angle of the road, we encountered the following group : first, a little cart drawn by one horse, in which five or six half naked black children AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT IS. were tumbled like pigs together. The cart had no covering, and they seemed to have been broiled tosleep.Behind the cart marched three black women, with head, neck and breasts uncovered, and without shoes or stockings : next came three men, bare-headed, and chained together with an ox-chain. Last of all, came a white man on horse back, carrying his pistols in his belt, and who, as we passed him, had the impudence to look us in the face without blushing. At a house where we stopped a little further on, we learned that he had bought these miserable beings in Maryland, and was marching them in this manner to one of the more southern states. Shame on the state of Maryland ! and I say, shame on the stale of Virginia ! and every state through which this wretched cavalcade was permitted to pass! I do say, that when they (the slave-holders) permit such flagrant and indecent outrages upon humanity as that I have described ; when they sanction a villain, in thus marching half naked women and men, loaded with chains, without being charged with any crime but that of being black, from one section of the United States to another, hundreds of miles in the face of day, they disgrace themselves, and the country to which they belong. — Letters from the South, First Edition. STEPHEN SEWALL. I was witness to such cruelties by an overseer to a slave, that he twice attempted to drown himself, to get out of his power: this was on a raft of staves, in the Mobile river. I saw an owner take his runaway slave, tie a rope round him, then get on his horse, give the slave and horse a cut with the whip, and run the poor creature bare- footed, very fast, over rough ground, where small black jack oaks had been cut up, leaving the sharp stumps, on which the slave would frequently fall ; then the master would drag him as long as he could himself hold out; then stop, and whip him up on his feet again — then proceed as before. This continued until he got out of my sight, which was about half a mile. But what further cruelties this wretched man, (whose passion was so excited that he could scarcely utter a word when he took the slave into his own power,) inflicted upon his poor victim, the day of judgment will unfold. I have seen slaves severely whipped on plantations, but this is an every day occurrence, and comes under the head of general treat- ment. I have known the case of a husband compelled to whip his wife. This I did not witness, though not two rods from the cabin at the time. I will now mention the case of cruelty before referred to. In 1820 or 21, while the public works were going forward on Dauphin Is- land, Mobile Bay, a contractor, engaged on the works, beat one of his slaves so severely that the poor creature had no longer power to writhe under his suffering : he took out his knife, and began to cut his flesh in strips, from his hips down. At this moment the gentle- man referred to, who was also a contractor, shocked at such inhu- manity, stepped forward, between the wretch and his victim, and ex- AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT IS, claimed, ‘ If you touch that slave again you do it at the pent of your life.’ The slave-holder raved at him for interfering between him and his slave ; but he was obliged to drop his victim, fearing the arm of rj^- friend — whose stature and physical powers were extraordinary. COLMAN S. HODGES. I have frequently seen the mistress of a family in Virginia, -with whom I was well acquainted, beat the woman who performed the kiteheti work, with a stick two feet and a half long, and nearly as thick as my wrist ; striking her over the head, and across the small of the back, as she was bent over at her work, with as much spite as you would a snake, and for what I should consider no offence at all There lived in this same family a young man, a slave, who was in the habit of running away. He returned one time after a week’s absence. The master took him into the barn, stripped him entirely naked, tied him up by his hands so high that he could not reach the floor, tied his feet together, and put a small rail between his legs, so that he could not avoid the blows, and commenced whipping him. He told me that he gave him five hundred lashes. At any rate, he was covered with wounds from head to foot. Not a place as big as my hand but what was cut. Such things as these are perfectly com- mon all over Virginia ; at least so far as I am acquainted. General- ly, planters avoid punishing their slaves before strangers. JOSEPH IDE. I have never actually witnessed a whipping scene, for they are usually taken into some back place for that purpose ; but I have often heard their groans and screams while writhing under the lash ; and have seen the.blood flow from their torn and lacerated skins after the vengeance of the inhuman master or mistress had been glutted. Mrs. T , had a female slave whom she used to whip unmercifully, and on one occasion, she whipped her as long as she had strength, and after the poor creature was suffered to go, she crawled off into a cel- lar. As she did not immediately return, search was made, and she was found dead in the cellar, and the horrid deed was kept a secret in the family, and it was reported that she died of sickness. This wretch at the same time was a member of a Presbyterian church. Towards her slaves she was certainly the most cruel wretch of any woman with whom I was ever acquainted — yet she was nothing more than a slaveholder. She would deplore slavery as much as I did, and ofien told me she was much of an abolitionist as I was. She was constant in the declaration that her kind treatment to her slaves was proverbial. Thought I, then the Lord have mercy on the rest. She has often told me of the cruel treatment of the slaves on a plantation adjoining her father’s in the low country of South Carolina. She says she has often seen them driven to the necessity of eating frogs and lizards to sustain life. AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT IS. PHINEAS SMITH. Avarice and cruelty constitute the very gist of the whole slave sys. tern. Many of the enormities committed upon the plantations will not be described till God brings to light the hidden things of darknesas then the tears and groans and blood of innocent men, women ana children will be revealed, and the oppressor’s spirit must confront that of his victim. An overseer by the name of Alexander, notorious for his cruelty, was found dead in the timbered lands of the Brassos. It was sup- posed that he was murdered, but who perpetrated the act was un- known. Two black men were however seized, taken into the Prai- rie and put to the torture. A physician by the name of Parro t fr< m Tennessee, and another from New-England by the name of Anson Jones, were present on this occasion. The latter gentleman is now the Texan minister plenipotentiary to the Unit d States, and resides at Washington. The unfortunate slaves bc:,.g stripped, and all things arranged, the torture commenced by whipping upon their bare backs. Six athletic men were employed in this scene of inhumanity, the names of some of whom I well remember. There was one of the name of Brown, and one or two of the name of Patton. Those six executioners were successively employed in cutting up the bodies of these defenceless slaves, who persisted to the last in the avowal of their innocence. The bloody whip was however kept in motion till savage barbarity itself was glutted. When this was accomplished, tRe bleeding victims were re-conveyed to the inclosure of the mansion house where they were deposited for a few moments. ‘ The dying groans however incommoding the ladies, they were taken to a back shed where one of them soon expired.’ The life of the other slave | was for a time despaired of, but after hanging over the grave for months, he at length so far recovered as to walk about and labor at light work. These facts cannot be controverted. They were dis- closed under the solemnity of an oath, at Columbia, in a court of justice. I was present, and shall never forget them. The testimony of Drs. Parrott and Jones was most appalling. I seem to hear the death-groans of that murdered man. His cries for mercy and pio- testations of innocence fell upon adamantine hearts. The facts above stated, and others in relation to this scene of cruelty came to light in the following manner. The master of the murdered man commenc- ed legal process against the actors in this tragedy for the recovery of the value of the chattel, as one would institute a suit for a horse or an ox that had been unlawfully killed. It was a suit for the recove- ry of damages merely. No indictment was ever dreamed of. Among the witnesses brought upon the stand in the progress of this cause were the physicians, Parrott and Jones above named. The part which they were called to act in this affair was, it is said, to examine the pulse of the victims during the process of torture. But they were mistaken as to the quantum of torture which a human bejiirr n?n undergo and not die under it. AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT IS. PHILEMON BLISS. I hare seen a woman, a mother, compelled, in the presence of her master and mistress, to hold up her clothes, and endure the whip of the driver on the naked body for more than twenty minutes, and while her cries would have rent the heart of any one, who had not hardened himself to human suffering, her master and mistress were conversing with apparent indifference. What was her crime ? She had a task given her of sewing which she must finish that day. Late at night she finished it ; but the stiches were too long, and she must be whipped. The same was repeated three or four nights for the same offence. I have seen a man tied to a tree, hands and feet, and receive 305 blows with the paddle on the fleshy parts of the body. Two others received the same kind of punishment at the time, though I did not count the blows. One received 230 lashes. Their crime was stealing mutton. I have frequently heard the shrieks of the slaves, male and female, accompanied by the strokes of the paddle or whip, when I have not gone near the scene of horror. I knew not their crimes, excepting of one woman, which was stealing four potatoes to eat with her bread ! The more common number of lashes inflicted was fifty or eighty ; and this I saw not once or twice, but so frequently that I can not tell the number of times I have seen it. So frequently, that my own heart was becoming so hardened that I could witness with comparative indifference, the female writhe under the lash, and her shrieks and cries for mercy ceased to pierce my heart with that keenness, or give me that anguish which they first caused. It was not always that I could learn their crimes ; but of those I did learn, the most common was non-performance of tasks. I have seen men strip and receive from one to three hundred strokes of the whip and paddle. My studies and meditations were almost nightly interrupted by the cries of the victims of cruelty and avarice. JAMES A. TIIOME. In December of 1833, I landed at New-Orleans, in the steamer W . It was after night, dark amWainy. The passengers were called out of the cabin, from the enjoyment of a fire, which the cold, damp atmosphere rendered very comfortable, by a sudden shout of, ‘ catch him — catch him — catch, the negro.’ The cry was answered by a hundred voices — • Catch him — kill him ! After standing in the cold water for an hour, the miserable being began to fail. We observed him gradually sulking — his voice grew weak and tremulous — yet he continued to curse ! In the midst of his oaths he uttered broken sentences. — ‘ I did’nt steal the meat — I did’nt steal — my master lives — master — master lives up the river — (his voice began to gurgle in his throat, and he was so chilled that his teeth chattered audibly) — I did’nt — steal — I did’nt steal — my — my master — my — I want to see my master — I did’nt — no — my mas — you want — you want to kill me — I did’nt steal the’ — His last words could just be heard as he sunk under the water. During this indescribable scene, not one of the hundred that stood AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT IS. around made any effort to save the man until he was apparently drowned. He was then dragged out and stretched on the bow of the boat, and soon sufficient means were used for his recovery. The brutal captain ordered him to be taken off his boat — declaring, with an oath, that he would throw him into the river again, if he was not immediately removed. I withdrew, sick and horrified with this ap. palling exhibition of wickedness. Upon inquiry, I learned that the colored man lived some fifty miles up the Mississippi ; that he had been charged with stealing some ar- ticle from the wharf ; was fired upon with a pistol, and pursued by the mob. In reflecting upon this unmingled cruelty — this insensibility to suf. fering and disregard of life — I exclaimed, 1 Is there no flesh in man's obdurate heart V One poor man, chased like a wolf by a hundred blood hounds, yelling, howling, and gnashing their teeth upon him ■ — plunges into the cold river to seek protection ! A crowd of spec, tators witness the scene, with all the composure with which a Ro. man populace would look upon a gladiatorial show. Not a voice heard in the sufferer’s behalf. At length the powers of nature give way ; the blood flows back to the heart — the teeth chatter — the voice trembles and dies, while the victim drops down into his grave What an atrocious system is that which leaves two millions of souls, friendless and powerless — hunted and chased — afflicted and tortured and driven to death, without the means of redress. Yet such is the system of slavery ! JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY. Comforts of the negroes. Nothing can be farther from my wish, than to heap abuse on the slave-holders of the southern states. Those with whom I have become acquainted, are amiable and benevolent men, and I give them full credit for kindness and consideration in the treatment of their slaves. I am very much mistaken, if, under the circumstances, happiness is not the exception — discomfort the general rule. Ignorance of his own nature and destiny, is the only condition, as I believe, in which a slave can he permanently comfortable. But the infractions of com- fort, to which the slaves of North America are liable, are too noto. rious to be disputed. The treatment of them, as it regards food and raiment, must and will depend, not merely on the dispositions, but on the means of their masters. The want of ready money, in the slave-holder, often bears more severely on the slave than the want of kindness. Again, we well know that masters are sometimes driven for many months from their properties, by the insalubrity of the lo- cation, and that the slaves are left under the care of overseers — per- sons of sufficiently low grade, to be induced to risk their lives, for a pecuniary compensation. This must he a fruitful source of suf- fering. In order to form a correct view, however, on the present subject, it is enough for me to recur to scenes which I have myself witnessed. Although, in travelling through some of your slave states, I have AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT IS. often observed the negroes well clad, and in good bodily condition, their general aspect has not appeared to me to be that of happiness. Seldom have I seen anything among them, like the cheerful smile of tire peasant of Jamaica ; and sometimes, they have been half-naked, and wretched in their demeanor. When I saw large companies of black people following either the masters who owned them, or the merchants who had bought them, to some distant state, the lame ones compelled to keep up with their associates, and yet limping be- hind from very weakness — when, in one of the sea islands of South Carolina, I look on a gang of them, ginning cotton, working as if they were on the tread wheel, their sweat falling from them like rain, and the overseer sitting by, with his cow-hide alongside of him — when, in the negro jail at Charleston, I was surrounded by a large number of negroes, who had been sent thither, without any intervention of law or magistracy, but at the sole will of their holders, to be punished on the tread wheel, or with whipping (not exceeding fifteen lashes,) according to directions on an accompanying ticket — u'hen, lastly, in the iron-grated depot at Baltimore, I visited the poor creatures who had been sold away from their families and friends, and were about to be transmitted, on speculation, like so many bales of cotton or worsted, to the far-distant South — when these scenes passed, one af- ter another, in review before me, it was impossible for me to think highly of the comforts of your enslaved negroes. DAVID WALKER. The Pagan, Jews and Mahometans try to make proselytes to their religions and whatever human beings adopt their religions they ex- tend to them their protection. But Christian Americans, not only hinder their fellow creatures, the Africans, but thousands of them will absolutely beat a colored person nearly to death, if they catch him on his knees, supplicating the throne of grace. This barbarous cruelly was by all the heathen nations of antiquity, and is by the Pagans, Jews, and Mahometans of the present day, left entirely to Christian Americans to inflict on the Africans and their descendants, that their cup which is nearly full may be completed, I have known tyrants or usurpers of human liberty in different parts of this coun- try to lake their fellow creatures, the colored people, and beat them until they would scarcely leave life in them ; what for ? Why they say “ The black devils had the audacity to be found making prayers and supplications to the God who made them ! ! !” Yes, I have known small collections of colored people to have convened together, fur no other purpose than to worship God Almighty, in spirit and in truth, to the best of their knowledge ; when tyrants, calling them- selves patrols, would also convene and wait almost in breathless si- lence for the poor colored people to commence singing and praying to the Lord our God; as soon as they had commenced, the wretches would burst in upon them and drag them out and commence beating them as they would rattle-snakes — many of whom, they would beat so unmercifully, that they would hardly be able to crawl for weeks and sometimes for months. — Appeal. 17 THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. “ AMALGAMATION !” What is slavery? It is a system of general licentiousness ! whole- sale amalgamation ! The Western Luminary, a Kentucky paper, says, “ universal licentiousness prevails among the slaves. Chastity is no virtue among them ; its violation neither injures female charac- ter in their own estimation, or that of their master or mistress : no instruction is ever given, no censure pronounced. I speak not of the | world : I speak of Christian families generally.” James A. Thome of Kentucky, says, “ It is a well known fact that the slave lodgings, (in villages) are exposed to the entrance of strangers every hour of the night, and that the sleeping apartment of both sexes are common." The Synod of South Carolina and Georgia in their Report, Dec. 1833, stated as follows : “ Chastity in either sex, is a rare virtue. Such is the universality and greatness of the vice of lewdness, that to those who are acquainted with slave countries, not a word need be said ; all the consequences of this vice are to be seen, not except, ing infanticide itself.” The Rev. J. D. Paxton, of Virginia, (now missionary in Palestine,) says, “ The condition of the females is such (under irresponsible absolute power of their owners) that promises, and threatening.?, and management can hardly fail to conquer them. They are entirely dependent on their master.” Hear, hear, ye northern mothers, who have slave-holding sons! “And that licen- tiousness prevails to a most shameful extent, is proved from the ra- pid increase of mulattoes !” The law is all on the side of the mas- ter or white, for “ any slave, male or female, or any negro, bond or free, to resist or strike a white person in Georgia, he or she shall have their ears cropt.” (Stroud’s Law, page 97.) In Kentucky they shall have 30 lashes on their bare back. In Georgia, for the first of. fence any punishment not extending to life or limb, and death for the second offence. (Prince’s Digest, 450.) Public opinion at the south favors licentiousness and amalgamation. Mr. Madison avowed that “the licentiousness of Virginia planta- tions, stopped just short of destruction ; and that it was understood that the female slaves were to become mothers at fifteen.” Thomas Jefferson Randolph declared in the Virginia House of Delegates, that “ Virginia was one grand menagerie, where men are to be reared for market, like oxen for the shambles;” “ and that some of the best blood of Virginia runs in the veins of their slaves.” Miss Martineau, in her “ Views of Society in America” says, a southern clergyman declared “ that the very general connexion of white gentlemen with their female slaves, introduced a mulatto race whose numbers would become dangerous, if the affections of their white parents were permitted to render them free ; and many were waiting until the amalgamation of the races should involve a suffi- cient number to put an end to slavery” ! ! — Furthermore, “ the wife of a planter in the bitterness of her heart declared, that a planter’s wife was only “ the chief slave of the harem,” Hear, hear ! ye mo- thers, who think it would be a pretty thing for your daughters to marry slave-holders, and have slaves to wait upon them : “ Every young man in New-Orleans, early selects a beautiful quadroon girl AMALGAMATION. for his mistress, and establishes her in one of those pretty peculiar houses, whole rows of which may be seen in the ramparts !” How is it with northern young men who go to the south, and “ buy them- selves female domestics, as is of every day’s occurrence.” This ia one of the peculiarities of the southern institutions. It is a very con- venient, fashionable, and profitable way of increasing their stock of human chatties ! Hear Mr. Gholson of Virginia, in the Legislature of that State, Jan. 18, 1831, reported in the Richmond Whig. “It has always been considered by steady, old fashioned people, that the owners of land had a reasonable right to its annual profits ; the owner of orchards to their annual fruits; the owner of brood mares to their product ; and the owner of females slaves to their increase ! and I do not hesitate to say that in their increase consists much of our wealth 1” Henry Clay, before the Colonization Society, in 1829, says, “ It is believed that nowhere in the farming portion of the United States, would slave labor be generally employed, if the proprietor were not tempted to raise slaves by the high price of the southern mar- ket, WHICH KEEPS IT UP IN HIS OWN.” In 1836, 40,000 slaves were sold out of Virginia at an average price of §600. Rev. J. W. Douglass, of Fayetteville, N. C. says, upwards of 60,000 passed through a little western town for southern market, in 1835. What a speculation for slave breeders ! and temp- tation for Yankees who go to the south to get money, and buy fe- male domestics! 1 S, A. Forral, Esq. says “ negresses when young and likely, are often a matter of speculation, 800 or 1000 dollars be- ing obtained for them. It is an occurrence of no uncommon nature to see a Christian (?) father sell his own daughter and the brother his own sister by the same father 1” A northern merchant, while on a business tour at the south, lately wrote a letter to his partners saying “ he had seen a young woman sold at public auction for seven thou- sand and five hundred dollars 1” The purchaser, a young man, de- clared he would give ten thousand dollars rather than lose her ! Whether the sale was made “ on northern account” wc are not in- formed. Perhaps wives, mothers and daughters at the north may try to be- lieve that their husbands, sons and lovers, are proof against the en- ticements and destructive influences of the “peculiar institutions of the south ?” How is it ? do we not hear them pleading for them ; telling what a good institution slavery is ; sanctioned by the Bible : a good old, oriental patriarchal system of concubinage ? And if decency would permit, facts might be adduced to show how northern men are implicated in the slave-holding licentiousness of the south, that would make the ears of northern mothers and wives tin- gle. Thomas Jefferson says, “ that man must be a prodigy, who, surrounded by such circumstances, can retain his manners and morals undepraved.” Would not northern churches, wives, mothers and daugh- ters, do well to be jealous of those who go from the north into the “ den of sorrows,” the slave-holding states ? Can a man go upon hot coals and his feet be not burned ? — Charter Oak. AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT IS, The tender mercies of the vnclccd are cruel. Customs of the modem “ Patriarchs” and “ Chiyai.ry” of “ the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave !” ■ COLUMBIA ! COLUMBIA! GLORY ARISE ! !» AMERICAN SLAVERY AS IT IS. The officer of Justice ! arresting a helpless female fugitive in N. Y. What has the North to do with Slavery l 17 * The custom m Washington, Capitcl of U. S Southern Court of Law and Equity. Cruel and unusual punishments shall not be . S. Con. SOUTH' TN PATRIARCHS AND CHIVALRY. Letting the THE LEGION OP LIBEBTY, Take them lack ; 1 am faithful to my brethren and my God. With the scenes of Anglo-Saxon tyranny and baseness, contrasts as an Oasis, this of Afric-American magnanimity. While the name and memory of Napoleon Bonaparte will be execrated, ever venerated will be those of TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE. The George Washington of St. Domingo, gave union, energy, and a wise constitution, to his countrymen. By his bravery he re- pelled every foe, and put an end to civil and insurrectionary wars. When Bonaparte sent an immense armament, in 1802, to bring the people back to the old yoke, he was firmly seated in their affections, and relying in him, they bid defiance to their invaders. Seven years previous to this, Toussaint sent his sons, to Paris for education. They were put under the care of a tutor, named Coisnon. Bonaparte used this man as a tool to prepare the boys for his purpose. The tutor and his charge having been sent out with Le Clerc, Cois- non wrote saying, “the first Consul sends by me your two sons, and certain important despatches. Your sons will be with you to-morrow, provided you will give me your word that in the result of your not complying with the wishes of the first Consul, they shall be safely returned with me to the Cape.” Toussaint gave his word, and, on the morrow, the boys, accompanied by Coisnon, were with their fond parents. Toussaint had now a choice of three things. He might break his word and keep his sons ; he might comply with the wishes of Bonaparte and keep them ; or he might send them back. He would neither break his word, nor sell his country, and therefore chose to send them back. THE AFRICAN CHARACTER. MUNGO PARK. 1 was fully convinced, that whatever difference there is between the ue^ro and the European, in the conformation of the nose, and the color of the skin, there is none in the genuine sympathies and characteristic feelings of our common nature. At Sego I should have been under the necessity of resting among the branches of the tree. About sunset, however, as I was preparing to pass the night in this manner, and had turned my horse loose, that he might graze at liberty, a woman, returning from the labors of the field, stopped to observe me. Perceiving that I was weary and de- jected, she inquired into my situation, which I briefly explained to her ; whereupon, with looks of great compassion, she took up my saddle ami bri.!' _• and told me to follow her. Having conducted me into her hut, she lighted a lamp, spread a mat on the floor, and told me I might remain there for the night. Finding that I was hungry, she went out, and soon returned with a very tine lish, which being broiled upon some embers, she gave me for supper. The women then resumed their task of spinning cotton, and lightened their labor with songs, one of which must have been composed extempore, for I myself was the sub- ject of it. tt was sung by one of the young women, the rest joining in a kind of chorus. The air was sweet and plaintive, and the words .iterally translated, were these: “ The winds roar'd, and the rains fell , Tiie poor white man, faint and weary, Came and sat under our tree. — He has no mother to bring him milk ; No wife to grind his corn. CHor.cs. “ Let us pity the white man ; X o mother has he to bring him milk. No wife to gTind iiis com.” Trifling as this recital may appear, the circumstance was highly affecting to a person in my situation. I was oppressed with such unexpected kindness, and sleep fled from my eyes. Mr. Pa^ k having travelled in company with a eoffle of thirty-five slaves, thus describes Iris feelings as he came near the coast. : “Al- though I was now approaching the end of my tedious and toilsome journey, and expected in another day to meet with countrymen and friends, 1 could not part with my unfortunate fellow-travellers, — doomed as I knew most of them to be, to a life of slaver}' in a foreign MUNGO PARK. land, — without great emotion. During a peregrination of more than five hundred miles, exposed to the burning rays of a tropical sun, these poor slaves, amidst their own infinitely greater sufferings, would com- miserate mine, and frequently, of their own accord, bring water to quench my thirst, and at night collect branches and leaves to prepare me a bed in the wilderness. We parted with mutual regret and bless- ings. My good vvishes and prayers were all I could bestow upon them, and it afforded me some consolation to be told that they were sensible I had no more to give. On the other hand, it is impossible for me to forget the disinterested charity, and tender solicitude, with which many of these poor heathens, from die sovereign of Sego, to the poor women who at different times received me into their cottages, sympathized with my sufferings, re- lieved my distress, and contributed to my safety. Perhaps this acknowledgement is more particularly due to the female part of the nation. Among the men, as the reader must have seen, my reception though generally kind, was sometimes otherwise. It varied according to the tempers of those to whom I made application. Avarice in some, and bigotry in others, had closed up the avenues to compassion ; but I do not recollect a single instance of hard-heartedness towards me in the women. In all my wanderings and wretchedness, I found them uniformily kind and compassionate; and I can truly say, as Mr. Ledyard has eloquently said before me : — “ To a woman I never addressed myself in the language of decency and friendship, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. If I was hungry or thirsty, wet or ill, they did not hesitate, like the men, to perform a generous action. In so free and so kind a manner did they contribute to my relief, that if I was thirsty, I drank the sweeter draught ; and if I were hungry, I ate the coarsest meal with a double relish.” Adanson, who visited Senegal, in 1754, describes the negroes as sociable, obliging, humane, hospitable. “Their amiable simplicity,” says he, “ in this enchanting country, recalled to me the idea of the primitive race of man ; I thought 1 saw the world in its infancy. They are distinguished by tenderness for their parents, and a great respect for the aged.” Robin speaks of a slave at Martinico, who having gained money sufficient for his own ransom, preferred to purchase his mother’s freedom. Protart, in his history of Loango, acknowledges that the negroes on the coast, who associate with Europeans, are inclined to licentious- ness and fraud ; but he says those of the interior are humane, obliging, and hospitable. Golberry repeats the same praise, and rebukes the presumption of white men in despising “nations improperly called savage, among whom we find men of integrity, models of filial, con- jugal, and paternal affection, who know all the energies and refine- ments of virtue ; among whom sentimental impressions are more deep because they observe, more than we, the dictates of nature, and know how to sacrifice personal interest to the t-ies of friendship.” THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. HERODOTUS. Of the fame of Egypt’s wisdom all have heard — of the gigantic size of her eternal pyramids — the splendor of her twenty thousand cities — of Thebes with her hundred gates and superb palaces and temples — of the wisdom of her laws and policy — of her mighty con queror Sesostris, who drew Kings at his chariot wheels and left monumental inscriptions of his prowess from Ethiopia to India ; all this is well known, but many will be startled to be told that Egypt- ancient, renowned, victorious Egypt, the mother of science and arts, both ancient and modern, was inhabited by negroes ; that the Egyp- tians were in fact black, curly headed negroes ! Startle not, gentle reader, you shall have the best of testimony — that of an eye witness — no other than the father of history, HERODOTUS. “ The priestesses of Dodona assert, says he, “ that two black pi- geons flew from Thebes, in Egypt, one of which settled in Africa, the other among themselves, which latter resting on the branch of a dead tree declared with a human voice, that here, by divine ap- pointinent, was to be an oracle of love.” Herodotus accounts for this fable, by supposing that the fabled pigeons were two Egyptian priestesses carried away from Egypt as he had been told at another temple, by the Phenicians. “ The name of doves was probably given them because, being strangers, the sound of their voices might to the people of Dodona seem to resemble the tone of those birds, and the circumstances of their being black explains to us their Egyptian origin. Herod, 2 book. Again, in speaking of the Colchians, a people of Asia, he says, “ The Colchians certainly appear to be of Egyptian origin.” Having interrogated both nations on this point, the Egyptians were of opinion that the Colchians were descended of part of the troops of Sesostris, (their ancient conqueror and King.) To this I am also inclined, be- cause they are black and have hair short and curling." In remarking on the second quotation from Herodotus, Volney says, “ It shows that the ancient Egyptians were real Negroes, of the same species with all the natives of Africa ; and though, as might be expected, after mixing for so many ages with the Greeks and Ro- mans, they have lost the intensity of their first color, yet they still retain strong marks of their original conformation.” — Journal and Luminary. ALEXANDER H. EVERETT. ALEXANDER H. EVERETT. Sir, we are sometimes told that all these efforts will be unavailing- that the African is a degraded member of the human family — that ; man with a dark skin and curled hair, is necessarily, as such, inca pable of improvement and civilization, and condemned by the vice o' nis physical conformation, to vegetate for ever in a state of hopeles. barbarism. Mr. President, I reject, witli contempt and indignation this miserable heresy. In replying to it, the friends of truth and hu manity have not hitherto done justice to the argument. In order ti prove that the blacks were capable of intellectual efforts, they havi painfully collected a few imperfect specimens of what some of then have done in this way, even in the degraded condition which the] occupy at present in Christendom. Sir, this is not the way to trea the subject. Go back to an earlier period in the history of our race See what the blacks were and what they did three thousand years ago, in the period of their greatness and glory, when they occupied the fore front in the march of civilization — when they constituted ir fact the whole civilized world of their time. Trace this very civiliza tioa, of which we are so proud, to its origin, and see where you wil find it. We received it from our European ancestors: they' had i' 1 from the Greeks and Romans, and the Jews. But, Sir, where die the Greeks and the Romans and the Jews get it? They derived ilj from Ethiopia and Egypt, — in one word, from Africa. Moses, vvt are told, was instructed in all the learning of the Egyptians. The founders of the principal Grecian cities, such as Athens, Thebes, and! Delphi, came from Egypt, and for centuries afterwards, their descend- ants returned to that country, as the source and centre of civilization.; There it was that the generous and stirring spirits of the time — Hero- dotus, Homer, Plato, Pythagoras, and the rest, made their noble voy- ages of intellectual and moral discovery, as ours now make them in England, France, Germany, and Italy. Sir, the Egyptians were the masters of the Greeks and the Jews, and consequently of all the modern nations in civilization, and they had carried it very nearly as far — -in some respects, perhaps, a good deal further than any subse- 1 quent people. The ruins of the Egyptian temples laugh to scorn the architectural monuments of any other part of the world. They will be what they are now, the delight and admiration of travellers from ail quarters, when the grass is growing on the sites of St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s, — the present pride of Rome and London. Well, Sir, who were the Egyptians? They were Africans : — and of what race? — It is sometimes pretended, that though Africans, and of Ethiopian extraction, they were not black. But what says the father of history, who had travelled among them, and knew their appearance, as well as we know that of our neighbors in Canada? Sir. Herodotus tells you that the Egyptians were blacks, with curled hair. Some writers have undertaken to dispute his authority, but I cannot bring myself to believe that the father of history did not know black from white. It seems, therefore, that for this very civilization I of which we are so proud, and which is the only ground of our present SHARP A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD L’OUVERTURE. claim of superiority, we are indebted to the ancestors of these very blacks, whom we are pleased to consider as naturally incapable of civilization . — Speech at Massachusetts Colonization Society, Feb. 7, 1833. ARCHBISHOP SHARP. That Africa, which is now more fruitful of monsters, than it was once for excellently wise and learned men, — that Africa, which formerly afforded us our Clemens, our Origen, our Terlullian, our Cyprian, our Augustin, and many other extraordinary lights in the Church of God, — that famous Africa, in whose soil, Christianity did thrive so prodigiously, and could boast of so many flourishing churches, — alas ! is now a wilder- ness. “The wild boars have broken into the vineyard, and ate it up, and it brings forth nothing but briers and thorns,” to use the words of the prophet. And who knows but God may suddenly make this church and nation, this our England, which, Jeshurun-like, is waxed fat and grown proud, and has kicked against God, such another example of vengeance of this kind. — Speech in House of Commons. A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD. The sum of five thousand pounds sterling, stands invested for the mutual benefit of two very excellent institutions in London — the Magdalen Asylum and the Foundling Hospital. It was bequeathed to them by one OMICHAND, a black merchant in Calcutta, who left many equally liberal donations to other charitable institutions in all parts of the world. Another. — A poor negro walking towards Deptford, Eng., saw by the road side an old sailor of a different complexion, with but one arm and two wooden legs. The worthy African immediately took three halfpence and a farthing, his little all, from the side-pocket of his tattered trowsers, and forced them into the sailor’s hand, while he wiped the tears from his eye with the corner of his blue patched jacket, and then walked away quite happy . — Shollo and Reuben Percy's Anecdotes. TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE. Citizen Consul, — Your letter, of the 27th Brumaire, has been transmitted to me by Citizen Le Clerc, your brother-in-law, whom you have appointed Captain General of this island, a title not recognised by the Constitution of St. Domingo. The same messenger has restored two innocent children to the fond embraces of a doting father. What a noble instance of European humanity! But, dear as those pledges are to me, and painful as our separation is, I will owe no obligations to my enemies, and I therefore return them to the custody of their jailers. Y ou ask me, do 1 desire consideration, honors, and fortune ? Most certainly I do, but not of thy giving. My consideration is placed in the respect of my countrymen, my honors in their attachment, my fortune in their disinterested fidelity. Has this mean idea of personal aggrandizement been held out in the hope that I would be induced thereby to betray the cause I have undertaken ? The power I possess has been as legitimately acquired as your own, and nought but the 18 PHILLIS WHEATLY. decided voice of the people of St. Domingo shall compel me to relin- quish it. It is not cemented by blood, or maintained by tbe artifices of Euro- pean policy. “ The ferocious men whose persecutions I put a stop to,” have confessed my clemency, and I have pardoned the wretch whose dagger has been aimed at my life. If I have removed from this island certain turbulent spirits, who strove to feed the' flames of civil war, their guilt has been first established before a competent tribunal, and finally confessed by themselves. Is there one of them who can say that he has been condemned unheard or untried ? And yet these mon- sters are to be brought back once more, and, aided by the bloodhounds of Cuba, are to be uncoupled and hallooed to hunt us down and devour us ; and this by men who dare to call themselves Christians. — Letter to Bonaparte, 1803. “He was born a slave in St. Domingo, 1745. In his youth he was noted for his benevolence and tender feeling towards brutes, and his stability of temper. By assiduity he leamt to read, write and cipher, this, and his regular and amiable deportment, gained the esteem of his master, whom he saved in the revolution of 1791. That he never broke his word was proverbial. His unlimited power he n-ever abused. The French general, being unable to corrupt, abducted him to a dungeon in France, where he perished in 1803.” — History of Hayli. Godwin, in his admirable Lectures on Colonial Slavery, says : “ Can the West India Islands, since their first discovery by Columbus, boast a single name which deserves comparison with that of Toussaint L’Ouverture?” He is thus spoken of by Vincent in his Reflections on the State of St. Domingo: “Toussaint L’Ouverture is the most active and indefatigable man, of whom it is possible to form an idea. He is always present wherever difficulty or danger makes his presence necessary. His great sobriety, — the power of living without repose, — the facility with which he resumes the affairs of the cabinet, after the most tiresome excursions, — of answering daily a hundred letters, — and of habitually tiring five secretaries — render him so superior to all around him, that their respect and submission almost amount to fanaticism. It is certain no man in modern times has obtained such an influence over a mass of ignorant people, as General Toussaint possesses over Iris brethren of St Domingo. He is endowed with a prodigious memory. He is a good father and a good husband.” Toussaint, Thou hast left behind Powers thfit will work for thee ; air, earth and skies ; There’s not a breathing of the common wind That will forget thee ; thou hast great allies. Thy friends are exultations, agonies, And love, and man’s unconquerable mind. Wordsworth. PHILLIS WHEATLY. No more America, in mournful strain, Of wrongs and grievance unredressed complain ; No longer shalt thou dread the iron chain Which wanton Tyranny, with lawless hand, Has made, and with it meant t’ enslave the land. HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. Should yon, my lord, while you peruse my song, Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung, Whence flow these wishes for the common good, By feeling hearts alone best understood, I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate Was snatched t'rom AfriC’s fancied happy seat : What pangs excrutiating must molest, What sorrows labor in my parent’s breast ! Steeled was that soul, and by no misery moved. That from a father seized his bate beloved. CINQUEZ AND THE AMISTAD CAPTIVES. Thirty-eight fellow-men from Africa, after having been piratically kidnapped from their native land, transported across the seas, and subjected to atrocious cruelties, have been thrown upon our shores, and are now incarcerated in jail to await their trial for crimes al- leged by their oppressors to have been committed by them. They are ignorant of our language, of the usages of civilized society, and the obligations of Christianity. Under these circumstances, several friends of human rights have met to consult upon the case of these unfortunate men, and have appointed the undersigned a committee to employ interpreters and able counsel, and take all the necessary means to secure the rights of the accused. It is intended to employ three legal gentlemen of distinguished abilities, and to incur other needful expenses. Simeon S. Jocelyn, Joshua Leavitt, Lewis Tam>an. “ The Africans had just arrived at Havana, probably under Amer * can colors. But whether they came under American or Spanish colors, it was piracy to bring them there. It was in violation of the laws both of this country and of Spain. Violation of law and the rights of the Africans was continued in another vessel, by their ille- gal imprisonment. Don Euez became another jailor and received the robbed or stolen property, even by the Spanish laws, knowing it to be such, with an intention to work them for life. They rise for free- dom and for Africa ; not for blood, nor for booty.” “ Those blacks, when they left Havana, and were sailing on God’s broad, free ocean, where in a state of involuntary durance and forced servitude ; while the elements and every thing around them were re- dolent of freedom, they alone were prisoners and slaves. They were bound by no parole of honor, they had made no compact, and they were morally and by the laws of action usually recognized by chris. tian natives, justified in setting themselves free. They were forcibly and wrongfully restrained of their libeity, and under such circum- stances, had a right to regain it even by the destruction of their en- slavers. These blacks nobly resolved to achieve their freedom ; they gained it at the hazard of their lives. They obtained it, and it is theirs ; and we have no right to take it away from them. By the common opinion of patriots in all times and in all countries, those who make a generous and successful struggle to throw off the chain of slavery are noble and great, and entitled to admiration ; and we THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. Bee not why Joseph Cinquez, who conceived and executed the design of liberating himself and fellow prisoners from their captivity, and who aroused and stimulated them to regain their liberty, and steer their bark for the shores of their native Africa, is not as much enti- tled to the appellation of a great, generous and patriotic man, as was William Tell, whose praises have been the theme of every pen and tongue. They both strove for the same noble end, for the same noble reason.” “ On the fifih night, the captain being asleep on a matrass on deck, with his mulatto slave by his side, was attacked by this chief, with a sugar knife. The first blow did not inflict great injury, for after re. ceiving it, he called to Antonio, also his own slave, and a cabin boy, to get some bread and throw it among the negroes, hoping thereby to pacify them. He was overpowered and slain by Joseph. “ About two days after the rising they had a heavy gale, which drifted them into the Bahama channel. Here they boxed about again, but saw no vessels ; at last, being out of water, the negroes ordered Montcz to make the nearest land, which proved to be the island of St. Andrews. Here the negroes met no one. After this Montez steered for New-Providence, but the negroes were not disposed lo land. By this time Joseph had learned to steer, and he took the helm in the day, leaving one of the white men to steer at night. Every night Joseph slept near the helm, and had two of the most trusty negroes by his side watching, and ready to awake him on the least alarm. Joseph lived abstemiously during the whole trouble, and insisted on the most perfect obedience to his orders. The only food eaten was portioned out by his hand, and not a box of the cargo opened but under his direction. He divided the spoil, taking the smallest portion for himself. He was the master spirit on board; every thing felt his influence.” The marshal committed Joseph Cinquez, the leader, and 38 others, as named in the indictment, for trial before the circuit court at Hart, ford, holden on the 17th Sept. 1833. — IV. Y. Papers. Washington, March 9, 1841. The captives are free ! The part of the decree of the district court, which placed them at the disposal of the President of the United States to be sent to Africa is reversed. They are to be discharged ; from the custody of the marshal — free. The rest of the decision of the courts below, is affirmed. “Not unto us — not unto us, &c.” — J. Q. ADAMS. THE LEGION OF LIBEKTY. NATHANIEL SOUTHARD. The great work of abolishing slavery in Ncw-York is finished. The legislature closed ils session on Wednesday of last week, May 26th, 1841. In the midst of the hurrv at the close of the session, they found time to wipe off the last stain of slavery from our statute- books. The law, as it was before, made southern despotism a travel- ling institution, and not “peculiar” to those states in which one-half the inhabitants are made free plunder for those who are “ nursed, educated, and daily- exercised in tyranny.” The home citizen of New- York was not permitted to force his neighbor to work without wages, to turn woman into a beast of burden, and rear her teller infants for the flesh-market. But let the New-Yorker buy a Georgia plantation, and suck wealth from the blood of plundered laborers, he could pol- lute our soil, insult our citizens, and disgrace our state, by openly scourging his human-cattle in our streets, and our laws would pro- tect him in it, provided he lived part of the year in a slave state. While we rejoice at this triumph of truth and humanity, let us re- new our efforts to scatter light, in the joyful hope that the darkness of slavery will flee before it, and the sun, as it shines across our broad country, from ocean to ocean, shall cease to look on a slave. More Slaves Fighting for Liberty. The public mind is again excited by a case somewhat like that of the Amistad. The slaves are free, but not on American soil. This republic was the house of their bondage, and they were victims of the American slave trade, which a distinguished Virginian law-ma- ker, once declared was worse than the foreign. On the 27th of October, the brig Create, of Richmond, left Vir- ginia, with 135 slaves for New- York. They had been out 11 days, when they made a desperate effort to gain their freedom, their leader was a slave named WASHINGTON MADISON. They first shot tlie mate, about 9 o’clock, at night. He alarmed the captain, who had “ turned in.” Both escaped up the rigging, and concealed them- selves at the main-top. Mr. Hewell, the man who dared to claim these men as property, was on board. He shot one of them dead, and ‘ fought afterwards like a tiger,” as the Ncw-Orleans Picayune expresses it, till lie was himself killed. The mate was discovered the next day in his hiding place, and compelled to navigate the vessel to the British island of New-Providence, where one or two cargoes of slaves have been previously liberated. Nineteen of them, who had taken part in the rebellion, were confined as criminals, but the go- vernor would not send them to America at present. The rest were set free, and most of them went directly to Jamaica. May the Lord make their liberty, thus violently taken, a blessing to them. Truly, all friends of the slave-holders, should labor to overthrow the horrid system which hurrid Mr. Hewell to such a terrible death. This case will excite much wrath towards Great Britain, but we think it will not lead to war. Youth’s Cabinet , 18 * THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. WILLIAM EUSTIS. The colored soldiers in Rhode Island formed an entire regiment, and they discharged their duly with zeal and fidelity. The gallant defence of Red Bank, in which the Black Regiment bore a part, is among the proofs of their valor. Among the traits which distin- guished this regiment was then devotion to their officers. When their brave Colonel Green was afterwads cut down and mortally wounded, the sabres of the enemy only reached him through the bodies of his faithful guard of blacks, whom he was not ashamed to call his chil- dren. They hovered over him to protect him — every one of them was killed. The venerable Dr. Harris, of New-Hampshire, adds; there was, a regiment of blacks in the same situation — a regiment of negroes fighting for our liberty and independence — not a white man among them but the officers — in the most dangerous and responsible position. “ Had they been unfaithful, or given way before the enemy, all would have been lo.-t. Three times in succession were they at. tacked with most desperate fury by well disciplined and veteran troops, and three times did they successfully repel the assault, and thus pre- serve an army. They fought thus through the war. They were brave and hardy troops. JOHN T. NORTON. There are not many colored people in England, but I see one or more every day. And where do you think I see them ? The first that I saw was a mulatto woman walking arm in arm with a gentle- man in Hyde Park. The next was an African man, entirely at home in an omnibus filled with white gentlemen and ladies. The next was an elegantly dressed and beautiful young lady, sitting by the side of a white lady, on terms of perfect equality, in one of the most splendid coaches in Hyde Park, with liveried servants. Yesterday, whilst riding in an omnibus in Regent-street, a colored young woman beckoned to the driver, and he stopped and opened the door at once. She did not get in, as she found it was not going where she wished to go. This afternoon I attended the church in Blackfriars, former- ly Rowland Hill’s. The largest and most respectable and solemn au- dience was present that I ever witnessed — the sexton told me four thousand. On looking around, I saw a head and face that marked the purest African descent. Was he perched up in a corner? No: he was in a pew, near the middle of the church. On my walk home, I saw a black man with an elegantly dressed white lady leaning on his arm, and immediately following them, a white and black gentle, man arm in arm. I followed them a little, and soon, on coming to another street, the lady shook hands cordially with the two black gentlemen, (for they had every appearance of such,) and they both put their arms into the white gentleman’s and walked on. What I , noticed most particularly in all these cases was, that not the least at- tention was attracted. I could not perceive that an individual besides myself, knew that there was any difference in the colors. So it ought to be. The character, the character alone, should be the test. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. NATHANIEL PAUL. We are bold to affirm that the Christian, the patriot, and the gen tleman will esteem others according to their moral worth. If so- briety, industry and prudence characterizes their conduct, it follows as a necessary consequence, that they will be respected by men pos- sessing like virtues. I cannot therefore believe, that our cause is altogether so hopeless in this country, as is pretended, nor will I yet despair of our ulti- mate success, in obtaining the object of our desire, an equal stand- ing with the rest of community. And with an eye to this mark, as long as the vital fluid courses through the channels, that nature’s God has provided, and I have a voice that can be heard, feeble as that voice may be, it shall be raised to encourage every descendant of Africa, to press his way through every obstacle, until this object is obtained, and he finds his standing firmly established upon this hallowed ground. The time has been, when the sight of a Quaker or a Baptist, was more obnoxious to a New-England Puritan, than a black face is now to a Southern Nabob, and yet they have out- lived the storm and now are quite as respectable as their neighbors. Permit me to urge upon your attention, by every consideration that is connected with the present and eternal welfare of your offspring, the importance of their education. I do not mean to insist on their be- ing instructed in the higher branches of classical literature, except in certain cases, where a child manifests a genius and taste for science, but I mean in its elementary branches — I mean that education, which shall enable your children to transact with accuracy, the com- mon business of life ; and of such importance do I view this subject, that had I children, and found it necessary, I would rise before the dawn of the morning, and the midnight watches should find my hands employed ; I would eat but a scanty allowance of bread and water, and wear the coarsest attire, rather than fail of accomplish- ing so desirable an object; I would break through every obstacle, and place my children as soon as they were capable of receiving instruc- tion, at some hallowed fountain, from which issues forth the streams of useful learning. The law of custom has hitherto confined us to a narrow sphere of action ; and many even now seem unwilling that we should arise above it, but as long as the agricultural and mechanical branches of business are within our reach, why should we not avail ourselves of their benefits. No branches of business are more respectable; and no class of citizens are more useful and independent, we would there- fore urge on you the importance of placing your sons, at a proper age, in a situation where they may obtain a knowledge of some one of the various branches of mechanical art ; or with the agriculturist to learn to till the earth, and gather its precious fruits ; and let your daughters learn to use the needle, and to lay their hands to the spin- dle, and their hands hold of the distaff, to make fine linen for their covering, and girdles for the merchant . — Address on the Abolition of Slavery in New-York. Mr. Paul was of respectable parentage so far as exemplary con NATHANIEL PAUL. duct and moral worth may be said to constitute genuine respecta. bility. His father partook of the hardships of the revolution of ’76, but not of all the blessings of liberty secured to his white country, men. He came to Albany in 1820, and to the latest period of his mortal existence, he never lost sight of the interests of the colored people. He promoted their moral and religious instruction, inculcated habits of industry, order, and sobriety, and taught them to respect themselves. He travelled not less than five thousand miles in collect- ing funds to pay off the debt incurred by the erection of the Hamil- ton street (Baptist) Church, in which he officiated as pastor. Many of the free colored people of Ohio, who were in 1829, ex- pelled by the cruel and oppressive laws of that state, had effected a promising settlement in Upper Canada. Mr. Paul repaired to this new colony, to aid in the early establishment of moral and religious institutions. Sir John Colburn strongly urged him to visit England, and make known the situation of his people, and secure the interest of the home government on their behalf. This mission to England promised favorably ; the society of friends at Bristol, agreed at once to raise one thousand pounds, for the benefit of the Wilberforce colon}', but news arriving that the settlers were in a disorderly stale, the subscription was discontinued. Though he experienced a pecu- niary loss by this mission, philanthropy gained. During his sojourn in England, he assiduously opposed the enormous pretensions of the American colonization society, until the arrival of Mr. Garrison, by whom the triumph was consummated, and the monster colonization prostrated in G. Britain. In 1832, Mr. Paul was summoned to give evidence on the subject of slavery, before a select committee of the House of Commons ; his evidence was regarded by that honorable body as highly satisfactory and important, and contributed to the abo- lition of West India slavery. — Life , by Mrs. Anne Paul. CHARLES LENOX REMOND. What does the American Union mean ? Nothing more than this, that the twenty-six states of America are joined together in govern ment and civil rights. The union is but a parchment document, and as there is no hill so lofty that it may not be surmounted, no space of ocean so boundless that it may not be traversed, there is nothing more possible than that the union might be dissolved. But is it pro- bable ? Suppose that the union were dissolved to-morrow, by what power or agency, let me ask, would it be possible for the holders to retain their slaves greater in number than themselves ? [Loud cries of ‘ hear, hear.’] To whom should the slave-holders look for sympa- thy, co-operation, and support, in their endeavors to keep these wretches in bondage ? Mill they look to the free states ? Certainly not, for the very deed of dissolution precludes the possibility of that. "Will they look to Mexico ? No; for the Mexicans regard them with an eye of the rankest jealousy. Will they look to Canada ? The thought is absurd. "Will they look to the West Indies ? What ! ask men who are themselves but just liberated to aid in forging chains for C. L. EEMOND. other wretches ! Who will believe it ? Spain is the only land to which they can torn their eyes ; but Spain has her own foes to trou- ble her, and the demon of slavery lurks within her own confines. Where, then, will they look for sympathy, and whither will they fly for aid? (Hear.) The moment when the American union is dis- solved, that instant the power of the slave-holder is prostrated in the dust. Hopeless, helpless, friendless, they become an isolated class of beings, having nothing to depend on but their own strength, and that is weakness indeed. Then will rouse the crushed worm, turning on its torturer, and, in the fierce indignation of outraged men, the slaves will demand the right of measuring arms with their masters. [Immense cheering.] I do not think I shall myself live to see that day, but that such would be the effect of a dissolution of the American union 1 feel con- fidently assured, (hear.) Where is the man, who, if asked to become a slave, would not hurl back the offer indignantly in the teeth of the oppressor ? Nay, where is the woman — where the child ? The slaves of the United States are men, women, and children ; and that they are as worthy this appellation, nay, worthier, perhaps, than the denizens of more favored lands, is amply testified by their patient and enduring conduct under contumely and outrage, for they, like your- selves, have preferred rather to suffer wrong, than to do wrong. — Speech at Dublin. SAMUEL E. CORNISH, AND THEODORE S. WRIGHT. The Colonization society was scarcely known to have been or- ganized, before its object was protested against, in a public meeting of the free colored people of Richmond, Va. Not long after, (in August, 1817,) the largest meeting ever yet held of the colored peo- ple of the free states — the number being computed at 3000 — came together m Philadelphia, to consider the colonization scheme. Mr. James Forten, a man distinguished not only for his wealth and suc- cessful industry, but for his sufferings in the revolutionary war, pre- sided at its deliberations. After ample time allowed for duly consi- dering every benefit which colonization held out to the colored people, there was not a single voice in that vast assembly which was not raised for its decisive, thorough condemnation. Meetings of a similar kind were held in Washington city, in Bal- timore, New-York, Providence, Boston, — indeed, in all the cities, and in most of the large towns, throughout the free states. The ab- horrence which was generally expressed of the whole scheme proved, that those to whose acceptance it was offered regarded it but as little more merciful than death. From the earliest period of those public meetings up to this tune, we fearlessly assert, that no credible testi- mony can be adduced, showing, that there has been any abatement in the repugnance of the colored people to colonization. In January, 1839, a large public meeting was held in this city, at which the fol- lowing expression of sentiment was unanimously given : S. E. CORNISH AND T. S. WRIGHT. “Whereas, we, the people of color, citizens of New. York, fee and know that the American ‘ Colonization society’ is the source whence proceed most of the various proscriptions and oppressions un der which we groan and suffer ; — and believing, that the most efficient remedy we can apply, is, to reiterate the sentiments which we have, at all timesand places, heretofore entertained and expressed — thereby show- ing, that our present opposition is not of late origin, but of as long stand- ing as the existence of the scheme itself ; and believing also, that when our opinions are known, the blighting influences of that un- hallowed offspring of slavery cannot so successfully be exercised against us : — we therefore, in solemn meeting assembled, do delibe. rately and unanimously enter our protest against the whole scheme.” The colonization scheme was set on foot, and is yet maintained by slave-holders, with the view, as they have not been backward to de- i clare, of perpetuating their system of slavery, undisturbed. From the first, no very high expectations seem to have been entertained, that an enterprise, so unnecessary, so unnatural, so condemned by the most elemental truths of political economy, so profitless, so peril- ous, bearing about it so little of hope, so much of despair, would commend itself strongly to that class of the community to which it purported solely to be addressed. But little reliance appears to have been placed on obtaining their voluntary consent to exchange for the fens and morasses of barbarous and heathen Africa, this, the country of their fathers for generations, and of their own nativity — where land was abundant and cheap — where labor was in demand and its rewards sure — where education could be obtained, albeit, for the most part, with difficulty — where the common ordinances of religion, as well as its higher institutions were established — where every in- terest had the promise of advancement — and where, notwithstanding they were called to suffer many ills brought on them by others, they might yet live in hope, that the dark cloud of slavery which had so - long obscured the free principles asserted by our governments, would one day pass away and permit these principles to shine in all their warmth and effulgence, if not on themselves, on no very distant generation of their descendants. Whatever individual exceptions there may exist among slave-holders on the score of goodness and gentleness, yet as an embodied interest, they know no retiring ebb when moving upon objects connected with their atrocious system. The political history of the country, from the time when South Carolina and Georgia refused to enter the union, unless the traffic in human flesh should be secured to them for twenty years, proves this. Their struggle and their triumph on the Missouri question proves this. Their fierce onset — guilefully laid aside, not abandoned — to add Texas to our territory, with the audaciously 1 avowed purpose of strengthening and perpetuating the slave-system, proves this. Prejudice 1 What is it ? Lexicographers tells us, it is a decision of the mind formed without due examination of the facts or argu- ments which are necessary to a just and impartial determination. And prejudice against color ! What does this mean ? You who are sensible — learned men. Pray, instruct us in this mystery of slave. S. E. CORNISH AND T. S. WRICHT. lolding pliilosophy — scarcely spoken of in Britain, wholly unknown md unfelt among the learned, the wise, the refined of France and he other nations of Europe. Can prejudice exist against that which las in it nothing of the moral or the intellectual ? Is it a down right ibsurdity to say of men, that they are prejudiced against sound or jght — against the earth, or the sea, or the air, or light ? And is it less one to say, that they are prejudiced against color ? But an existing state of things does not imply, that it is to be per- nanent, much less perpetual. Not very long ago, throughout Eu- ope, there was a strong prejudice existing against the Jews. In flany respects, they were as evil-entreated as we are. They were lot unfrequently banished from the countries in which they were born nd brought up. Then - persecutors had all the advantage of the ar- ;ument based on ‘‘ existing” prejudice : and it is no means unlikely, hat the most religious of them may have advanced it, out of pure ompassion to these unhappy people, and in order to reconcile to their wn consciences what, without some pretext of good, would have ppeared an act of injustice and cruelty. But this prejudice against be Jews shows no signs of perpetuating itself. It is rapidly giving ,'ay before the influence of a religious and philosophical age ; the ews are fast acquiring civil privileges ; are aspiring to a higher tone f character and morals, and beginning to be esteemed, as other men re, according to their merits. But in what light are their persecu- ors viewed ? Either as exceedingly wicked or foolish, and often oth. Besides, where are the proofs of warm regard for our happiness on be part of colonizationists ? Have they aided and encouraged us in ae education of our children ? No ! They say we ought not to be ncouraged to this, because it would induce us to remain here. Have hey sought to secure to us those political and civil privileges and ights, without which, in their own case, they would look on them- elves as grievously oppressed ? No 1 They say our prdsent disa. ilities “ ought to be maintained in all their rigor.” Have they pe- iled for us then - fives, or their persons, or their reputations, or their roperty ? If so, say when, — where. Have they protected and com- arted us when assailed by the most brutal persecutions ? Tell us the ccasions ; we can recall none such. Have they once rebuked the Ave-holder, our envenomed enemy, for his pitiless oppression of our rethren ? No ! But they have made of him an ally in the work of snevolence projected for us, — and to show him with what entire good rith they intend to perform their part of the covenant, they have nited with him in proclaiming to the world, that we are “ of all escriptions of our population the most corrupt, depraved and aban- oned.” — Colonization considered. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. JAMES FORTEN. Our venerable and beloved James Forten died on (he 4th March 1842. The vast concourse of people, of all classes and complexions numbering from three to live thousand, that followed his remains t< the grave, bore testimony to the estimation in which he was univer sally held. Our wealthiest and most influential citizens joined in th( procession ; and complexional distinctions and prejudices seemed, fo: the time, to be forgotten, in the desire to pay the last tribute of re spect to the memory of departed worth. The minister, Mr. Doug lass, a well educated man of color, dwelt very appropriately upoi the solemn occasion of their assembly. In estimating some of the most sinking features of his character his wide-reaching benevolence was first mentioned. Every effort ti meliorate man’s condition, found in James Forten a warm supporter If he felt a deeper interest in the anti-slavery and temperance efforts than in others, it was because they involved the interests and desti I nics of our unoffending, but persecuted class, with which he wai i particularly identified. IJis opposition to slavery, and zeal in the cause of human liberty, never tired or diminished. He felt it to bi a duty and a pleasure to give his warm and liberal support to thai band of self-sacrificing men, that had organized to labor for the re demption of his brethren in bonds. Just before speech failed him, hi desired his love to be given to Mr. Garrison, and all his abolitior friend's. He sustained the temperance reform, not only for the vas good it was accomplishing to all, but because it promised to lift u; many of his own brethren from their degradation, and take out of the mouths of the enemies of liberty their objections to the colorei man’s freedom. — J. MILLER McKIM. JACOB OSON. I would have those propagators to suppose themselves in foreigr lands, of strange tongues, without a record of their forefathers, stoler away when young and never knew even their father. Put to hare labor with scanty meals and a driver over them with his lash, am ] nothing for their labor, and taught tlr=.v they were nothing, nor evet could be any thing but vagabond slaves, and kept in this state fron generation to generation. How would they appear in four hundrec years? — perhaps as tarnished as we are, perhaps their craniumf i might somewhat be resembling the ape. But be that as it may, they would be as rough as marble before it came to the polishers’ hands Now what can such arguers think ? Would they not say if thej were oppressed and made tributary that all men were created equa and by their Creator were endowed with certain unalienable rights life and liberty; would they not say that God made of one blood al nations to dwell on the earth, and that he was no respecter of persons' THE LEGIOX OF LIBERTY. REMONSTRANCE OF SOME FREE MEN, STATES, AND PRESSES, TO THE TEXAS REBELLION, AGAINST THE LAWS OF NATURE AND OF NATIONS. Ruthfess Rapine, Righteous Hope defies. “Ye serpents ! ye generation of vipers! ! How can ye escape the damnation of hell! ! !” 1843. Sold at the Patriot Office, No. 9 Exchange st. Albany. Six cts. single; 50 per dozen ; $3 per hundred ; $25 per thousand. 19 LIST OF THIS LEGION OF LIBERTY. Delenda est Texas. Benjamin Lundy, (Gen. Gaines’ trespass.) Mexican Decrees for Universal Freedom, Texas Constitution against Freedom, President Guerero, John Quincy Adams, The Mexican Arms, The London Patriot, William B. Reed, National Intelligencer, Edward J. Wilson, G. L. Pos lelhwaite, New-York Sun, N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, Wilkinson's and Burr’s trial, African Slave Trade and Texas, British Commissioners Report, (Bartow’s Case,) Detroit Spectator, American Citizen, Liberia Herald, Daniel Webster, William Jajr, The British Parliament, Barlow Hoy, Daniel O’Connell, Col. Thompson, Fowell Buxton, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Robert Owen, Thomas Branagan, Joseph Sturge, William E. Charming, Commonwealth of Mass., Nathaniel P, Rogers, David Lee Child, Edwin W. Goodwin, Joshua R. Giddings, John Maynard, Zebina Eastman, Gamaliel Bailey, A. S. Standard, William L. McKenzie, La Roy Sunderland, J. B. Lamar, Archibald L. Linn, William Slade, British Emancipator, G. W. Alexander, George Bradburn, Edmund Quincy, Pawtucket Chronicle, Cleveland Journal, Legislature of Vermont, Gen. Assembly of Ohio State, A. S. Society of Pennsylvania, A. S. Convention of N. Y. State, Philadelphia Gazette, Friend of Man, Pres. Jackson’s Inconsistency, William B. Tappan, Southport American, Edward Everett, Mass. Legislature, 1843. The Free American, The Liberator, I The Liberty Press, New-York American, Mexican Side, New-York Tribune, Pittsburg Gazette, Lynn Record, Richmond Whig, Hoonsocket Patriot, Ham pshire Republican, William H. Burleigh, Louisville Journal, State of Rhode Island, Legislature of Michigan, John Quincy Adams, Seth M. Gates, William Slade, William B. Calhoun, Joshua R. Giddings, Sherlock J. Andrews, Nathaniel B. Borden, Thomas C. Chittenden, John Mattocks, Christopher Morgan, J. C. Howard, Victor Birdseye, Hilandliall, Thos. A. Tomlinson, Stanley A. Clark, Chas. Hudson, Archibald L. Linn, Thos. W. Williams, Tru. Smith, Dav. Bronson, Geo. N. Briggs, Petition to Congress. TEXAS AND MEXICO. But the prime cause, and the real object of this war, a-e not dis- tinctly understood by a large portion of the honest, disinterested, and well-meaning citizens of the United States. Their means of obtain- ing correct information upon the subject have been necessarily limited ; and many of them have been deceived and misled by the misrepresen- tations of those concerned in it, and especially by hireling writers of the newspaper press. They have been induced to believe that the in- habitants of Texas were engaged in a legitimate contest for the mainte- nance of the sacred principles of liberty, and the natural, inalienable rights of man : — whereas, the motives of its instigators, and their chief incentives to action, have been, from the commencement, of a directly opposite character and tendency. It is susceptible of the clearest demon- stration, that the immediate cause, and the leading object of lliis contest, originated in a settled design, among the slaveholders of this country, ( with land specidators and slave-traders,) to wrest the large and valuable territory of Texas from the Mexican Republic, in order to re-establish the SYSTEM OP SLAVERY ; to open a vast and profitable SLAVE MARKET therein ; and ultimately to annex it to the United States. And further, it is evident— nay, it is very generally acknowledged — that the insurrectionists are principally citizens of the United States, who have proceeded thither for the purpose of revolutionizing the country ; and that they are dependant upon this nation, for both the physical and pecuniary means, to carry the design into effect. Whether the national legislature will lend its aid to this most unwarrantable, aggressive attempt, will depend on tl-e VOICE OF THE PEOPLE, expressed in their primary assemblies, by their petitions and through the ballot boxes. The land speculations, aforesaid, have extended to most of the cities and villages of the United States, the British colonies in America, and the settlements of foreigners in all the eastern parts of Mexico. All concerned in them are aware that, a change in the government of the country must take place, if their claims should ever be legalized. The advocates of slavery, in our southern states and elsewhere, want more land on this continent suitable for the culture of sugar and cotton : and if Texas, with the adjoining portions of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Chihuahua, and Santa Fe, east of the Rio Bravo del Norte, can be wrested from the Mexican government, room will be afforded for the redundant slave population in the United States, even to a remote period of time. Such are the motives for action — such the combination of interests — such the organization, sources of influence, and foundation of authority, upon which the present Texas Insurrection rests. The resi- dent colonists compose but a small fraction of the party concerned in it. The standard of revolt was raised as soon as it was clearly ascer- tained that slavery could not be perpetuated, nor the illegal specula tionsin land continued, under the government of the Mexican Republic. The Mexican authorities were charged with acts of oppression, while the true causes of the revolt — the motives and designs of the insurgents BENJAMIN LUNDY. j — were studiously concealed from the public view. Influential slave- holders are contributing money, equipping troops, and marching to the scene of conflict. The land speculators are fitting out expeditions from New York and New Orleans, with men, munitions of war, pro- visions, See., to promote the object. The Independence of Texas is declared, and . the system of slavery, as well as the slave-trade (with the United States,) is fully recognized by the government they have set up. Commissioners are sent from the colonies and agents are appointed here, to make formal application, enlist the sympathies of our citizens, and solicit aid in every way that it can be furnisbc d. The hireling presses are actively engaged in promoting the success of their efforts, by misrepresenting the character of the Mexicans, issuing inflammatory appeals, and urging forward the ignorant, the unsus- pecting, the adventurous, and the unprincipled, to a participation in the struggle. Under the erroneous construction of the treaty with Mexico, General Gaines was authorized to cross the boundary line with his army ; to march seventy miles into the Mexican territory ; and to occupy the military post of Nacogdoches, in case he should judge it expedient in order to guard against Indian depredations ! And further : he was likewise authorized to call upon the governors of several of the south- western states for an additional number of troops, should he consider it necessary. From the Pensacolo Gazette. “ About the middle of last month, General Gaines sent an officer of the United States arrr.v into Texas to reclaim some deserters. lie found them already enlisted in the Texian service to the number of two ho ndred. They still wore the uniform of our army, but refused, of course, to return. The com- mander of tite Texian forces was applied to, to enforce their return ; hut his onlv reply was, that the soldiers might go, but he had no authority to send them back. This is a new view of our Texian relations.” The following decrees and ordinances are translated from an official compilation by authority of the government of Mexico. Extract from the Law of October 14th, 1323. Article 21. Foreigners who bring slaves with them, shall obey the Laws established upon the matter, or which shall hereafter be estab- lished. Decree of july 13, 1824. Prohibition of the Commerce and Traffic in Slaves. The Sovereign General Constituent Congress of the United Mcxi can States has held it right to decree the following: 1. The commerce and traffic in slaves, proceeding from whatever power, and under whatever flag, is forever prohibited, within the terri- tories of the United Mexican States. 2. The slaves, who may be introduced contrary to the tenor of the preceding article, shall remain free in consequence of treading the Mexican soil. BENJAMIN LUNDY. 3. Every vessel, whether national or foreign, in which slaves mar be transported and introduced into the Mexican territories, shall be confiscated with the rest of its cargo — and the owner, purchaser, cap- tain, master, and pilot, shall suffer the punishment of ten years’ con- finement. The Constitution of Coahuila and Texas, promulgated on the 11th of March, 1S27, also contains this important article : “ 13. In this state no person shall be born a slave after this Consti- tution is published in the capital of each district, and six months there- after, neither will the introduction of slaves be permitted under any pretext.” [Translated from page 149, Vol. Y, Mexican Laws.] Decree of President Guerrero. Abolition of Slavery. The President of the United Mexican States, to the inhabitants of the Republic — Be it known: That in the year IS29, being desirous of signalizing tire anniversary of our Independence by an act of national Justice and Beneficence, which may contribute to the strength and support of such inestimable welfare, as to secure more and more the public tranquility, and reinstate an unfortunate portion of our inhabitants in the sacred rights granted them by nature, and may be protected by the nation, under wise and just laws, according to the provision in article 30 of the Constitutive act ; availing myself of the extraordinary faculties granted me, I have thought proper to decree : 1. That slavery be exterminated in the republic. 2. Consequently those are free, who, up to this day, have been looked upon as slaves. 3. Whenever the circumstances of the public treasury will allow it, the owners of slaves shall be indemnified, in the manner which the laws shall provide. Mexico, loth Sept. 1S29, A. D. JOSE MARIA de EOCANEGRA. [Translation of part of the law of April 6th, 1S30, prohibiting the migration of citizens of the United States to Texas.] Art. 9. On the northern frontier, the entrance of foreigners shall be prohibited, under all pretexts whatever, unless they be furnished with passports, signed by the agents of the republic, at the places whence they proceed. Art. 10. There shall be no variation with regard to the colonies already established, nor with regard to the slaves that may be in them : but the general government, or the particular state government, shall take care, under the strictest responsibility, that the colonization laws be obeyed, and that no more slaves be introduced. 19 * BENJAMIN LUNDY. Colonization Laws of Coahuila and Texas. Art. 3J. The new settlers, in regard to the introduction of slaves, shall be subject to laws which now exist, and xohicli shall hereafter be made on the subject. Art. 36. The servants and laborers which, in future, foreign colonists shall introduce, shall not, by force of any contract whatever, remain bound to their service a longer space of time than ten years. Given in the city ofLeona Vicario, 28th April, 1832. JOSE JESUS GRANDE, President. In the course of my observations, I have several times asserted, that it was the intention of the insurrectionists to establish and perpetuate the system of slavery, by “constitutional” provision. In proof of this, I now quote several paragraphs from the “constitution” which they lately adopted. This extract is taken from that part under the head of “ General Provisions,” and embraces all that relates to slavery. Texas Constitution. Sec. 8. All persons who shall leave the country for the purpose of evading a participation in the present struggle, or shall refuse to partici- pate in it, or shall give aid or assistance to the present enemy, shall forfeit all rights to citizenship, atid such lands as they may hold, in the republic. Sec. 9. All persons of color, who were slaves for life previous to their emigration to Texas, and who are now held in bondage, shall remain in the like state of servitude, provided the said slave shall be the bona fide property of the person so holding said slave as aforesaid. Congress shall pass no laws to prohibit emigrants from the United States of Jlmerica from bringing their slaves into the republic with them, and holding them by the same tenure by which such slaves were held in the United States ; nor shall congress have the power to emancipate slaves; nor shall any slaveholder be allowed lo emancipate his or her slave or slaves, without the consent of congress, unless he or she shall send his or her slave or slaves without the limits of the republic. No free person of African descent, either in whole or in part, shall be permitted i to reside permanently in the republic, without the consent of con gress ; and the importation or admission of Africans or negroes inio this republic, excepting from the United States of America, is for ever prohibited and declared to be piracy. Sec. 10. All persons, {Africans, and the descendants of Africans, and Indians excepted,) who were residing in Texas on the day of the Decla- ration of Independence, [a great portion of the native Mexican citizens are, of course, excluded,] shall be considered citizens of the republic, and entitled to all the privileges of such. All citizens now living in Texas, who have not received their portion of land in like manner as colonists, shall be entitled to their land in the following proportion and manner : Every head of a family shall be entitled to one league and “labor” of land, and every single man of the age of seventeen and upwards, shall be entitled to one third part of one league of land. BENJAMIN LUNDY. The period has indeed arrived — THE CRISIS IS NOW — when the wise, the virtuous, the patriotic, the philanthropic of this nation, must examine, and reflect, and deeply ponder the momentous subject under consideration. Already we see the newspaper press in some of the free states, openly advocating the system of slavery, with all its outrages and abominations. Individuals occupying influential stations in the community at large, also countenance and encourage it, and even instigate the vile rabble to oppose, maltreat, and trample on the necks of those who dare to plead the cause of the oppressed. At the ensuing session of our national congress, the great battle is to be fought, that must decide the question now at issue, and perhaps even seal the fate of this republic. The senators and representatives of the people will then be called on to sanction the independence of Texas, and also, to provide for its admission, as a SLAVEHOLDING STATE, into this Union. These measures will positively be proposed, in case the Mexican government fails to suppress the insurrection very soon, and to recover the actual possession of the territory. A few of our most eminent statesmen will resist the proposition with energy and zeal ; but unless the PUBLIC VOICE be raised against the unhallowed proceeding;, and the sentiments of the people be most unequivocally expressed in the loudest tones of disapprobation, they will be unable to withstand the influence and power of their antagonists. Arouse, then ! and let your voice be heard through your primary assemblies, your legislative halls, and the columns of the periodical press, in every section of your country! Citizens of the United States! — Sons of the Pilgrims, and disciples of Wesley and Penn ! — Coadjutors and pupils of Washington, Jeffer- son, and Franklin! — Advocates of freedom and the sacred “ rights of man /” — Will you longer shut your eyes, and slumber in apathy, while the demon of oppression is thus stalking over the plains consecrated to the genius of liberty, and fertilized by the blood of her numerous martyrs ? — Will you permit the authors of this gigantic project of national aggression, interminable slavery, and Heaven-daring injustice, to perfect their diabolical schemes through your supineness, or with the sanction of your acquiescence ? If they succeed in the accomplish- ment of their object, where will be your guarantee for the liberty which you, yourselves enjoy? When the advocates of slavery shall obtain the balance of power in this confederation ; when they shall have corrupted a few more of the aspirants to office among you, and opened an illimitable field for the operations of your heartless land-jobbers and slave-merchants, (to secure their influence in effecting the unholy purposes of their ambition,) how long will you be able ta resist the encroachments of their tyrannical influence, or prevent them from usurping and exercising authority over you ? ARISE IN THE MAJESTY OF MORAL POWER, and place the seal of condem- nation upon this flagrant violation of national laws, of human rights, and the eternal, immutable principles of justice . — National Enquirer of Philadelphia. JOHN Q,. ADAMS. JOHN Q. ADAMS. During the late war with Great Britain, the military and naval com- manders of that nation, issued proclamations inviting the slaves to repair to their standards, with promises of freedom and of settlement in some of the British colonial establishments. This, surely, was an interference with the institution of slavery in the states. By the treaty of peace, Great Britain stipulated to evacuate all the forts and places in the United States, without carrying away any slaves. If the government of the United States had no authority to interfere, in any way, with the institution of slavery in the states, they would not have had the authority to require this stipulation. It is well known that i 1 this engagement was not fulfilled by the British naval and military commanders ; that, on the contrary, they did carry away all the slaves whom they had induced to join them, and that the British government inflexibily refused to restore any of them to their masters ; that a claim of indemnity was consequently instituted in behalf of the owners of the slaves, and was successfully maintained. All that series of transactions was an interference by congress with the institution of slavery in the states in one way — in the way of protection and support. It was by the institution of slavery alone, that the restitution of slaves enticed by proclamations into the British service could be claimed as property. But for the institution of slavery, the British commanders could neither have allured them to their standard, nor restored them otherwise than > as liberated prisoners of war. But for the institution of slavery, there could have been no stipulation that they should not be carried away as property, nor any claim of indemnity for the violation of that engagement. But the war power of congress over the institution of slavery in the states is yet far more extensive. Suppose the case of a servile war, complicated, as to some extent it is even now, with an Indian war; suppose congress were called to raise armies ; to supply money from the whole Union to suppress a servile insurrection : would they have no authority to interfere with the institution of slavery? The issue of a servile war may be disastrous. By war, the slave may emancipate himself ; it may become necessary for the master to recognise his , emancipation, by a treaty of peace ; can it, for an instant, be pretended that congress, in such a contingency, would have no authority to • interfere with the institution of slavery, in any way, in the states ? Why, it would be equivalent to saying, that congress have no consti- tutional authority to make peace. I suppose a more portentous case, certainly within the bounds of possibility. — I would to God I could say not within the bounds of probability. You have been, if you are not now, at the very point of a war with Mexico — a war, I am sorry to say, so far as public rumor is credited, stimulated by provocations on our part from the very com- mencement of this Administration down to the recent authority given to General Gaines to invade the Mexican territory. It is said, that one of the earliest acts of this Administration, was a proposal made at a time when there was already much ill-humor in Mexico against tire JOHN Q. ADAMS. United States, that she should cede to the United States a very large portion of her territory — large enough to constitute nine states equal in extent to Kentucky. It must be confessed, that, a device better calculated to produce jealousy, suspicion, ill-will, and hatred, could not have been contrived. It is further affirmed, that this overture, offensive in itself, was made precisely at the tune when a swarm of colonists from these United States were covering the Mexican border with land-jobbing, and with slaves, introduced in defiance of the Mexican laws, by which slavery had been abolished throughout that republic. The war now raging in Texas is a Mexican civil war, and a war for the re-establishment of slavery where it was abolished. It is not a servile war, but a war between slavery and emancipation, and .every possible effort has been made to drive us into the war, on the side of slavery. And again I ask, w’hat will be your cause in such a war? Aggres- sion, conquest, and the re-establishment of slavery, where it has been abolished. In that war, sir, the banners of freedom will be the banners of Mexico ; and your banners, I blush to speak the word, will be the banners of slavery. And how complicated? Your Seminole war is already spreading to the Creeks, and. in their inarch of desolation, they sweep along with them your negro slaves, and put arms into their hands to make common cause with them against you, and how far will it spread, sir, should a Mexican invader, with the torch of liberty in his hand, and the standard of freedom floating over his head, proclaiming emancipation to the slave, and revenge to the native Indian, as he goes, invade your soil? What will be the condition of your states of Louisiana, of Mississippi, of Alabama, of Arkansas, of Missouri, and of Georgia? Where will be your negroes ? Where will be that combined and concentrated mass of Indian tribes, whom, by an inconsiderate policy, you have expelled from their widely distant habitations, to embody them within a small compass on the very borders of Mexico, as if on purpose to give that country a nation of natural allies in their hostilities against you? Sir, you have a Mexican, an Indian, and a negro war upon your hands, and you are plunging yourself into it blindfold ; yon are talking about acknowledging the independence of the republic of Texas, and you are thirsting to annex Texas, ay, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas, and Santa Fe, from the source to the mouth of the Rio Bravo, to your already over-distented dominions. Five hundred thousand square miles of the territory of Mexico would not even now quench your burning thirst for aggrandizement. Great Britain may have no serious objection to the independence of Texas, and may be willing enough to take her under her protection, as a barrier both against Mexico and against you. But, as aggrandize- ment to you she will not readily suffer it ; and, above all, she will not suffer you to acquire it by conquest and the re-establishment of slavery. Urged on b} T the irresistible, overwhelming torrent of public opinion, Great Britain has recently, at a cost of one hundred millions of dollars, which her people have joyfully paid, abolished slavery throughout all her colonies in the W est Indies. After setting such an example, she will JOHN Q.. ADAMS. not — it is impossible that she should — stand by and witness a war for the re-establishment of slavery ; where it had been for years abolished, and situated thus in the immediate neighborhood of her islands. She will tell you, that if you must have Texas as a member of your confederacy, it must be without the trammels of slavery, and if you will wage a war to handcuff and fetter your fellow-man, she will wage the war against you to break his chains. Sir, what a figure, in the eyes of mankind, would you make, in deadly conflict with Great Britain : she fighting the battles of emancipation, and you the battles of slavery; she the benefactress, and you the oppressor of human kind 1 In such a war, the enthusiasm of emancipation, too, would unite vast numbers of her people in aid of the national rivalry, and all her natural jealousy against our aggrandizement JN T o war was ever so popular in England, . as that war would be against slavery, the slave-trade, and the Anglo- Saxon descendant from her own loins. As to the annexion of Texas to your confederation, for what do you want it ? Are you not large and unwieldy enough already ? Do not two millions of square miles cover enough for the insatiate rapacity of your land-jobbers ? I hope there are none of them within the sound of my voice. Have you not Indians enough to expel from the land of their fathers’ sepulchres, and to exterminate? What, in a prudential and military point of view, would be the addition of Texas to your domain ? it would be weakness and not power. Is your southern and southwestern frontier not sufficiently extensive ? not sufficiently feeble? not sufficiently defenceless ? Why are you adding regiment after regiment of dragoons to your standing army? Why are you struggling, by direction and by indirection, to raise per siiltum that army from less than six to more than twenty thousand men ? A" war for the restoration of slavery, where it has been abolished, if successful in Texas, must extend overall Mexico; and the example will threaten Great Britain with imminent danger of a war of colors in her own islands. She will take possession of Cuba and Porto Rico, by cession from Spain, or by the batteries from her wooden walls ; and if you ask her by what authority she has done it, she will ask you, in return, by what authority you have extended your seacoast from , < the Sabine to the Rio Bravo. She will ask you a question more per- plexing namely — by what authority you, with freedom, independence, and democracy upon your lips, are waging a war of extermination to forge new manacles and fetters, instead of those which are falling from the hands and feet of man. She will carry emancipation and abolition with her in every fold of her flag ; while your stars, as they increase in numbers, will be overcast with the murky vapors of op- pression, and the only portion of your banners visible to the eye, will be the blood-stained stripes of the task-master ? Little reason have the inhabitants of Georgia and Alabama to com- plain that the government of the United States has been remiss or neglectful in protecting them from Indian hostilities; the fact i3 directly the reverse. The people of Alabama and Georgia are now suffering the recoil of their own unlawful weapons. Georgia, sir, Georgia, by trampling upon the faith of our national treaties with the JOHN Q. ADAMS. Indian tribes, and by subjecting them to her state laws, first set the example of that policy which is now in the process of consummation by this Indian war, In setting this example, she bade defiance to the authority of the government of the nation ; she nullified your laws; she set at naught your executive guardians of the common constitu- tion of the land. To what extent she carried this policy, the dungeons of her prisons and the records of the Supreme Judicial Court of the United States can tell. To those prisons she committed inoffensive, innocent, pious ministers of the gospel of truth, for carrying the light, the comforts, and the consolations of that gospel to the hearts and minds of these unhappy Indians. A solemn decision of the Supreme Court of the United States pronounced that act a violation of your treaties and your laws. Georgia defied that decision ; your executive government never carried it into execution ; the imprisoned mission- aries of the gospel were compelled to purchase their ransom from per- petual captivity, by sacrificing their rights as freemen to the meekness of their principles as Christians ; and you have sanctioned all these outrages upon justice, law, and humanity, by succumbing to the power and the policy of Georgia, by accommodating your legislation to her arbitrary will ; by tearing to tatters your old treaties with the Indians, and by constraining them, under peine forte et dure, to the mockery of signing other treaties with you, which, at the first moment when it shall suit your purpose, you will again tear to tatters and scatter to the four winds of heaven, till the Indian race shall be extinct upon this continent, and it shall become a problem, beyond the solution of antiquaries and historical societies, i chat the red man of the forest was. [The Arms on the coin of the Mexican Republic, are Freedom's Eagle destroying the Serpent — Tyranny ; and its reverse bears the Cap of Libeiitv, diffusing its radiance universally .] LONDON PATRIOT WILLIAM D. REED. THE LONDON PATRIOT. The British public ought to be made aware of what is going on ? present in Texas ; of the true cause and the true nature of the contes « between the Mexican authorities and the American slave-jobbers. Texas has long been the Naboth’s vineyard of brother Jonathar For twenty years or more, an anxiety has been manifested to push bao the boundary of the United States’ territory, of which the Sabine rive is the agreed line, so as to include the rich alluvial lands of the delt i of the Colorado, at the head of the Gulf of Mexico. There are strongc (j passions at work, however, than the mere lust of territory — deepe interests at stake. Texas belongs to a republic which has abolishei slavery ; the object of the Americans is to convert it into a slaveholdin; state ; not only to make it. a field of slave cultivation, and a marke for the Maryland slave-trade, but, by annexing it to the Federal Unioi to strengthen in congress the preponderating influence of the southerf ' slaveholding states. This atrocious project is the real origin and cause of the pretender ' contest for Texian independence — a war, on the part of tire Unitec States, of unprovoked aggression for the vilest of all purposes.— July 6, 1836. WILLIAM B. REED. One of the complaints made by the Texians is that the Mexican t government will not permit the introduction of slaves, and one of the | first fruits of independence and secure liberty (unnatural as is the 1 paradox) will be the extension of slavery, and both the domestic and i foreign slave-trade, over the limits of a territory large enough to form five states as largo as Pennsylvania. Such being the result what becomes of any real or imaginary balance between the South and the North — the slaveholding and non-alaveholding interests? Five ! or moro slaveholding states, with their additional representation, i thoroughly imbued with southern feeling, thoroughly attached to what l the South Carolina resolutions now before us, call “the patriarchal institution of domestic slavery,” added to the Union, and where is the security of the North, and of the interests of free labor ?• — These 1 are questions worth considering — the more so, as the war fever which! is now burning in the veins of this community, and exhibiting itself in all the usual unreflecting expressions of sympathy and resentment, has disturbed the judgment of the nation, and distorted every notion 1 of right and wrong. Let the Texians win independence as they can. 1 • That is their affair, not ours. But let no statesman that loves his country think of admitting such an increment of slaveholding popula- tion into this Union. Pie (Mr. R.) could not but fear that there was a deep laid plan to admit Texas into the Union, with a view to an increase of slaveholding representation in congress; and while he viewed it in connexion with the growing indifference perceptible in some quarters, he could not but feel melancholy forebodings . — Speech in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, June 11th, 1836. TEXAS. The following document, considering the avouched character of the gentlemen v^hose names are signed to it, and attest its truth, is entitled to a place in our columns : — National Intelligencer. TO THE PUBLIC. We will not dwell upon the false assurances made to us by men professing to be the accredited agents of Texas in this country. At a time when the cause of Texas was dark and gloomy, when Santa Anna seemed designed to carry desolation over the whole country, those men were prodigal of promises, and professing to be authorized to speak in the name of the Texian Government, made assurances of ultimate remuneration, which they knew at the time to be false, and which time proved to be so. We now state that our personal observation and undoubted infor- mation enabled us fully to perceive, 1st. That the present population of Texas seemed wholly incapable of a just idea of civil and political liberty, and that, so far as the extension of liberal principles is con- cerned, it is of but little moment whether Mexico or Texas succeed in the struggle. 2d. That the mass of the people, from the highest functionary of their pretended government to the humblest citizen (with but few ex- ceptions,) are animated alone by a desire of plunder, and appear totally indifferent whom they plunder, friends or foes. 3d. That even now there is really no organized government in the country, no laws administered, no judiciary, a perpetual struggle going on between the civil and military departments, and neither having the confidence of the people, or being worthy of it. These facts and others sufficiently demonstrate to us that the cabinet was deficient in all the requisites of a good government, and that no one in his senses would trust himself, his reputation, or his fortunes, to their charge or control. Charged with treason, bribery, and usur- pations, weak in their councils, and still weaker in power to enforce their orders, we perceived at once that we must look for safety and proper inducements elsewhere. W e then turned our eyes to the army, and a scene still more disheartening presented itself ; undisciplined, and without an effort to become so ; not a roll called, nor a drill ; no regular encampment ; no authority nor obedience ; with plundering parties for self-emolument, robbing private individuals of their property. We could see nothing to induce us to embark our fortunes and destinies with them. With these views and facts, we could but sicken and wonder at the vile deceptions which had been practised upon us ; yet we are told that this people had risen up in their might to vindicate the cause of civil and religious liberty. It is a mockery of the very name of liberty. They are stimulated by that motive which such men can only appreciate — the hope of plunder. They are careless of the form of government under which they live, if that government will tolerate licentiousness and disorder. Such is a brief, but we sincerely be- lieve, a faithful picture of a country to which we were invited with so much assiduity, and -such the manner in which we were received and treated. 20 NEW-YORK SUN. We might multiply facts in support of each proposition here laid down, to show the miserable condition of things i% Texas, and the utter impossibility that a man of honor could embark in such a cause with such men. Should it be rendered necessary, we may yet do so ; but for the present we will pause with this remark, that if there be any, now, in Kentucky, whose hearts are animated with the desire of an honorable fame, or to secure a competent settlement for themselves or families, they must look to some other theatre than the plains of Texas, We would say to them, Listen not to the deceitful and hypocritical allurements of land speculators, w ho wish you to fight for their benefit, -and i oho are as liberal of promises us they are faithless in perform- ance. We are aware of the responsibility which we incur by this course. We are aware that we subject ourselves to the misrepresen- tations of lured agents and unprincipled landmongers ; but we are willing to meet it all, relying upon the integrity of our motives and the correctness of our course. EDWARD J. WILSON, G. L. POSTLETH WAITE. Lexington, Sept. 10, 1830. NEW-YORK SUN. Extract from General Houston’s letter to General Dunlap of Nash- ville — “ For a portion of this force toe must look to the United Stales. It cannot teach us too soon. There is but one feeling in Texas, in my opinion, and that is to establish the independence of Texas, and to be attached to the United States .” Here, then, is an open avowal by the commander-in-chief of the ' Texian army, that American troops will be required to seize and sever this province of the Mexican republic, for the purpose of uniting it to ours ; and this avowal is made by a distinguished American citizen, in the very face of that glorious constitution of his country, which wisely gives no power to its citizens for acquiring foreign territory by conquest, their own territory being more than amply sufficient to gratify any safe I ambition ; and in the face, too, of the following solemn and sacred 1 contract of bis country with the sister republic which he would cis- ! I member : “There shall be a firm, inviolable, and universal peace, and a true ; I and sincere friendship between the United States of America, and the United Mexican States, in all the extent of their possessions and terri- tories, between their people and citizens respectively, without distinction of persons or places.” In the earlier days of our republic, when a high-minded and honor- j able fidelity to its constitution was an object proudly paramount to every mercenary consideration that might contravene it, an avowed design of this kind against the possessions of a nation with whom the j United States were at. peace, would have subjected its author, if a citizen, to tire charge of high treason, and to its consequences. When Aaron Burr and his associates were supposed to meditate the conauest NEUTRALITY. of Mexico, and attempted to raise troops in the southern states to achieve it. the}' were arrested for treason, and Burr, their chief, was tried for his life. But now, behold ! the conquest of a part of the same country is an object openly proclaimed, not in the letters of Genera! Houston alone, but by many of our wealthiest citizens at public ban- quets, and by the hireling presses in the chief cities of our Union. The annexation of a foreign territory to our own by foreign conquest, being thus unblushingly avowed, and our citizens, who are integral portions of our national sovereignty, being openly invited and incited to join the crusade with weapons of war, it becomes an interesting moral inquiry — what is there in the public mind to excuse or even to palliate so flagrant a prostitution of national faith and honor in these days, any more than in the days that are past ? The answer is ready at hand, and is irrefutable. An extensive and well organized gang of swindlers in Texas lands, have raised the cry, and the standard of “Liberty!” and to the thrilling charm of this glorious word, which stirs the blood of a free people, as the blast of the bugle arouses every nerve of the warhorse, have the generous feelings of our citizens responded in ardent delusion. But, as the Commercial Advertiser truly declares, “Never was the Goddess of American liberty invoked more unrighteously;” and we cannot but believe that the natural sagacity, good sense, and proud regard for their national honor, for which our citizens are distin- guished in the eyes of all nations, will speedily rescue them from the otherwise degrading error in which that vile crew of mercenary hypo- critical swindlers would involve them. The artful deceivers, however, have not relied upon die generosity and noble sympathy only of our fellow citizens, for they insidiously presented a bribe to excite their cupidity also. NEUTRALITY! Next the Texian revolution. "Was it not laughable to see diese Texians, all of them, generally speaking, slaveholders; adhering to the constitution of 1324. one article of which emancipates all the slaves in Mexico ! Was it not laughable to see them proclaiming a consti- tution, of which, eleven years ago, the Americans in Texas had pro- hibited the proclamation by the Mexican authorities there, under the heaviest threats ! — What, man of common sense can believe in this humbug 1 None, gentlemen ; none but those that have risked their thousands in this" country ; and thev, whoever they may be, feign to believe it. The statements made throughout the United States, of tyranny and oppression on the part of Mexico toward the American citizens in Texas, are slanderous falsehoods, fabricated to create and nurture the worst prejudices and jealousies. The Americans in Texes have had their own way in every case, and on every occasion ; and whenever there happened a legislative act that was, from any cause, repugnant to the feelings of the people of Texas, it was silenced at once. In short, if there has existed a good cause of complaint in Texas, it was that* men were too much their own masters, and too little under the restraint of any law. Any allegation to the effect that the Mexican government had deceived citizens of the United States in relation to GENERAL WILKINSON. promises of lands first made to them, is false, and I defy any one to show a forfeiture of title to lands, when the conditions of Ike grant had been fulfilled by the settler. Now, sir, as to the war: here I will ask Americans, (except the speculators,) how many military incursions, insurrections, and rebel- lions, avowedly for the purpose of snatching Texas from its proper , owners, will, in their mind, justify Mexico in driving from its territories, 1 j the pirates that would thus possess themselves of the country ? Be it remembered, that these revolutions have never been attempted by the resident citizens of Texas, but in every case by men organized in the United States for the purpose and coming from afar : why, a single provocation of this nature were ample justification ; but Texas has, • [ from the time of the adjustment of the boundary by Wilkinson and Ferrara, experienced seven or eight. The Americans (I mean the regulars) and Texians, appear to understand each other perfectly. The neutrality is preserved on the part of General Gaines, by allowing all volunteers, and other organized ,1 corps destined for Texas, to pass in hundreds and thousands undis- turbed, but keeps in check any attempt on the part of the native Mexicans and Indians, to act against the Texians. The Texians are allowed to wage war against a friendly power, in a district of country claimed by the United States. The prisoners of war taken by the Texians are ignorant to which party they are subject. The American general claims the country only from Mexico, but has no objections to i the carrying on of war against Mexico in the district he claims! Pray, sir, let Americans speak honestly, and let them say whether any gov- ernment has, within the last century, placed itself in so ridiculous a light? — not only ridiculous, but contemptible. Will not any honest ' man confess at once that General Gaines, or any authority clothing him with the discretion so indiscreetly used, would never have dreamed 1 of the like against a government able and ready to defend itself, and punish such arrogance? What is Europe to say to this ? Will not 'I Mexico complain ? And will there be no sympathy for her ? — Letter I to the Editors of the New-York Commercial Advertiser, dated JVacog- doges, Texas, September 14, 1S36. [Alas, for our national degeneracy and infamy ; — In 181 1, the sus- picion of being accessory to this horrible outrage against the laws of nature, and of nations, led a to distinct charge in the trial for treason of] GENERAL WILKINSON. Chap.ge Y. — That he, the said James Wilkinson, while commanding the army of the United States, by virtue of his said commission, and being bound by the duties of his office to do all that in him lay, to discover and to frustrate all such enormous violations of the law as tended to endanger the peace and tranquillity of the United States, did, nevertheless, unlawfully combine and conspire to set on foot a military expedition against the territories of a nat'on, then at peace with the United States. Specification, He, the said James Wilkinson, in the years 1805 and THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND TEXAS. 1S06, combining and conspiring with Aaron Burr and his associates, to set on foot a military expedition against the Spanish provinces and territories in America. — H'ilkinson's Memoirs, Vol. II. THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE AND TEXAS. By a treaty between Great Britain and Spain, for the suppression of the slave-trade, concluded in 1S17, the British government was authorized to appoint commissioners to reside in Cuba, who, with Spanish commissioners, were to form a court for the adjudication of such ships as might be seized with slaves actually on board. The British commissioners from time to time make reports to their government, which are laid before Parliament, and published by their direction. The following are extracts from a report, dated 1st January, 1836. “Never since the establishment of this mixed commission, has the slave-trade of the Havana reached such a disgraceful pitch as during the year 1835. By the list we have the honor to enclose, it will be seen that fifty slave vessels have safely arrived in this port during the year just expired. In 1833, there were twenty-seven arrivals, and in 1831, thirty-three; but 1835 presents a number, by means of which there must have been landed upwards of fifteen thousand negroes. “In the spring of last year an American agent from Texas pur- chased in the Havana two hundred and fifty newly imported Afiicans, at two hundred and seventy dollars a head, and carried them away with him to that district of Mexico — having first procured from the American Consul here certificates of their freedom. This, perhaps, would have been scarcely worth mentioning to your lordship, had we not learned, that within the last six weeks, considerable sums of money have been deposited by the American citizens in certain mer- cantile houses here, for the purpose of making additional purchases of bozal negroes for Texas. According to the laws of Mexico, we believe such Africans are free, whether they have certificates of freedom or not ; but we doubt much whether this freedom w ill be more than nominal under their American masters, or whether the whole system may not be founded on some plan of smuggling them across the frontier of die slave states of the Union. However this may be, a great impulse is thus given to this illicit traffic of the Havana ; and it is not easy for us to point out to government what remonstrances ought to be made on the subject since the American settlers in Texas arc almost as independent of American authority as they are of Mexico. These lawless people will doubtless, moreover assert, that they buy negroes in the Havana with a view to their ultimate emancipation. " We thought the first experiment to be of little consequence — but now that we perceive fresh commissions arriving in the Havana for the purchase of Africans, we cannot refrain from calling your lordship’s attention to the fact, as being another cause of the increase of the slave-trade in the Havana.” The foregoing throws light on the following recent article in the Albany Argus : — 20 * TEXAS AND SLAVERY. “The fate of Henry Bartow, late of the Commercial Bank of this city, has been at length definitely ascertained. The agent sent out by the bank has returned, and states that Bartow died at Marianne, near Columbia, in Texas, on the 30 th of June last, of the fever of the country, after an illness of about four weeks. He had purchased a farm on the Brassos, and, in company with a native of the country, I had commenced an extensive plantation, and sent $10,000 to Cuba for the purchase of slaves. We grant that Texas would present us an immense territory of rich soil, and would be another brilliant star in our standard. On the other hand she would give us her quarrel with Mexico — add to our unwieldly slave incumbrance — and give the balance of power to the southern and southwestern states. We much question whether the United States should ever add more states to the confederacy. Already we are rent by the fiercest internal dissension. The North and South, the East and West, have their local feelings — which are becoming more strong and definite every day. As it is, we are in constant and hourly danger of splitting, The time must come ulti- i mately, and when it does it will be with terrible power. Why then should we burthen ourselves with still another local interest that must . tend rapidly to hasten this result ? But another strong reason against such an annexation is the fact that it is a slaveholding country. The northern people differ relative i to the expediency of interfering with this subject; but they all admit that it is an evil, dangerous to our safety as a nation. It is univer- sally acknowledged that the slave population may ultimately become unmanageable by rapid increase; and when it does we may expect to see re-enacted the fearful, blood-curdling scenes of the West Indies. < It is obvious, therefore, it would be highly impolitic to add such a slave market as Texas to the Union. — Detroit Spectator. Were any further proof wanting to convince those at all conversant with the subject, that Texas will speedily become a great slave mart, the following articlefrom the Liberia Herald, will furnish it. We have proved, time and again, by the most indubitable testimony, (and the fact should be kept constantly before the people,) that the great cause which led to the rupture between the inhabitants of Texas and the mother country, was a determination on their part to traffic in slaves, q which is strictly forbidden by the constitution of Mexico. How northern men, therefore, who profess to be opposed to slavery, can with any degree of consistency lend their influence in behalf of Texas, is more than can be accounted for. The fact is, they are not opposed to slavery; and we unhesitatingly declare, that every one who has taken the pains to inform himself of the first cause i of the Texian in- surrection, is at heart a slaveholder, if he is in any manner aiding the cause of the insurgents. By “defending Texas,” he is “ upholding” and virtually justifying the enslavement of his brother, and his cry of liberty, is the very quintessence of hypocrisy. Shall Texas be admitted into the Union? That is the question DANIEL WEBSTER. now. Her independence has already been recognized by our govern- ment; but it is yet to be decided whether this nation is to be cursed with an extension of its slave territory. What say you, freemen of the North? Shall Texas be admitted into the Union? Will you willingly hug a viper to your.own bosoms ? There is but one alter- native left you — inundate congress, at its next session, with remon- strances against the admission of Texas, or you sign at once the death warrant of American freedom. Efforts are already being made for the admission of Florida as a slaveholding state. Should these efforts prove successful — but may heaven forbid it! — should Texas also be admitted, the slaveholding states would outnumber the free states — there being already thirteen slave to thirteen free states. And Texas alone is sufficiently large for, and probably will ultimately be divided into, some six or eight states. The liberty of the free states would exist only in name, were they to be outnumbered by the slave states. In such an event, a darker cloud would hang over the United States than ever did before : and wo to that “fanatic” who might then talk of the abolition of slaver}-, even in the District of Columbia! We might then expect to see all the horrors of slavery — horrors to which those of the French revolution bear but a feeble comparison — visited upon the heads ol all who might dare to raise their voice in behalf of their down-trodden colored brethren ! Shall Texas be admitted into the Union? We again ask. Free- men, will you willingly submit to the manacles of slavery ? If you would not, arouse from your slumbers, and thunder in the ears of the tyrants who are already forging chains for you and your children, your determination still to be free . — From the American Citizen. Slave Trade . — We have learned that great calculations are already making by slavers on the coast, on the increased demand and ad- vanced price of slaves which it is confidently anticipated will take place on the erection of Texas into an independent government. It has been rumored that offers have been made by a commercial house in New Orleans, to a slaver on the coast, for a certain number of slaves, to be delivered in a specified period ; and the only circumstance which prevented the consummation of the bargain was, that the slaver refused to be responsible for the slaves after they should be put on board. These facts, we think are, important to be known, as the Christian and philanthropic world may learn from them what they are upholding when they are defending Texas . — Liberia Heratd. DANIEL WEBSTER. But when we come to speak of admitting new states, the subject assumes an entirely different aspect. Our rights and our duties are then both different. The free states, and all the states, are then at liberty to accept, or to reject. When it is proposed to bring new members into this politi- cal partnership, the old members have a right to say on what terms VY I L Li AM JaY. such new members are to come in, and what they are to bring along with them. In my opinion, the people of the United States will not consent to bring a new, vastly extensive, a slaveholding country, large enough for half a dozen or a dozen states, into the Union. In my opinion they ought not to consent to it. Indeed I avn altogether at a loss to conceive, what possible benefits any part of this country can expect to derive from such annexation. All benefit, to any part is at least doubtful and uncertain; the objections obvious, plain, and strong. On the general question of slavery, a great portion of the community is already strongly excited. The subject has not only at- tracted attention as a question of politics, but it has struck a far deeper toned chord. It has arrested the religious feelings of the country ; it has taken strong hold on the consciences of men. He is a rash man, indeed, little conversant with human nature, and especially has he a very erroneous estimate of the character of the people of this country, who supposes that a feeling of this kind is to be trilled with, ordespised. It will assuredly cause itself to be respected. It may be reasoned with, it may be made willing, I b lieve it is entirely willing to fulfil all existing engagements, and all existing duties, to uphold and defend the con- stitution, as it is established, with whatever regrets about some provi- sions, which it does actually contain. But to coerce it into silence, — to endeavor to restrain its free expression, to seek to compress and confine it, warm as it is and more heated as such endeavors would inevitably render it, — should all this be attempted, I know nothing even in the constitution, or in the Union itself, which Mould not be endangered by the explosion which might follow. I see, therefore, no political necessity for the annexation of Texas to the Union ; no advantages to be derived from it ; and objections to it, of a strong, and in my judgment, decisive character . — Address in Niblo's Garden, 1S37. WILLIAM JAY. Fc-llow citizens, a crisis has arrived in which we must maintain our rights, or surrender them for ever. I speak not to abolitionists alone, but to all who value the liberty of our fathers achieved. Do you ask what we have to do with slavery ?- — Let our muzzled presses answer — • let the mobs excited against us by merchants and politicians answer — let the gag laws threatened by our governors and legislatures answer, let the conduct of the National Government answer. In 1820, Mexico and Columbia being at war with Spain, proposed carrying their armies into Cuba, a Spanish colony. These republics bad abolished slavery within their own limits, and it w as feared that if they conquered Cuba they would give liberty to the thousands there enchained. And what did our liberty-loving government do? Why they sent on special messengers to Panama to threaten our sister republics with war if they dared to invade Cuba. Nor was this all ; a minister was sent to Spain, and ordered to urge upon the Spanish monarch the policy of making p^ace with his revolted colonies, lest if the war con- tinued, n arly a million of human beings should recover and enjoy the THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT TEXAS. rights of man. What have we to do with slavery ? Is it nothing that nineteen Senators were found to vote for a bill establishing in ever post town a censorship of the press, and that a citizen of New Yor>. gave a casting vote in favor of the abomination, and has received as his reward, the office ofPresident of the United States ? Is it nothing that our own representatives have spurned our petitions at the man- date of slaveholders ? What have we to do with slavery ? Look at the loathsome community, just sprung into being on our southern border, the progeny of treason and robbery, a vile republic, organized for the express purpose of re-establishing slavery on a soil from which it had been lately expelled ; and providing for its perpetual continu- ance by constitutional provisions, and daring to insult us, with the offer of a monopoly of its trade in human flesh. — Yet northern specu- lators and politicians in conjunction with slaveholders, are now plotting to compel us to receive this den of scorpions into our bosom, to admit Texas into our confederacy, with a territory capable of furnishing eight or nine more slave states, and by thus giving to the enemies of human rights, an overwhelmning majority in congress, to subject this northern country to the dominion of the South ; and perhaps before long, to cause the crack of the whip and the clank of chains to re-echo on our hills, and our fields to be polluted with the blood and tears of slaves. To effect a speedy union with Texas, endeavors are now making to involve us in a war with Mexico, and when the unholy alliance shall have been consummated, then farewell to republican freedom, to Christian morals, to happiness at home, or to respect abroad. This fair land, once the glory of all lands, will become a bye word, a re- proach. and a hissing to all people, and we and our children will ba taught by bitter experience, what the North had to do with slavery. — Address, July 4, 1837. THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT. Texas. Mr. Barlow Hot rose to call the attention of the House to the pre- sent state of affairs in the Texas. — The importance of that territory was well known to all who were acquainted with its geographical position. Mr. Huskisson, aware that the United States would be desirous to annex the Texas to their territory, laid it down as a maxim, that Great Britain should on no account allow America to extend her boundary in the direction of Mexico. — It was notorious that an enor- mous importation of slaves took place into the Texas, and if this system were allowed to continue, all the sums which we had expended in endeavoring to suppress the traffic in slaves would have been thrown away. If we did not co-operate with Mexico in endeavouring to preserve the Texas for Mexico, and thus to prevent the importation of slaves into the Mexican territory, we had better at once withdraw our fleet from the coast of Africa, and abandon Sierra Leone. The United States, appeared to be acting a faithless part; they kept the boundary question open both with respect to Mexico and Great Britain. If they had not some sinister motive for keeping the question THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. 3pen, it ought to have been settled long since, as it would have been, it' the United States had accepted the mediation of the King of Holland. It was not the standard of liberty and independence which was raised in the Texas, but the pirate’s flag, under cover of which the slave-trade was carried on. We had interfered in the affairs of Holland and Belgium, Portugal and Spain ; why, then, should we not remonstrate in a friendly manner with the United States upon the conduct which they were pursuing with regard to the Texas ? Mr. O’Connel thought that humanity was indebted to the Hon. Member for bringing this question before the Plouse. It was only by the expression of public opinion that we could hope to check the pro- gress of one of the most horrible evils the human inind could contem- plate — viz. the formation of eight or nine additional slaveholding states. The revolt of Texas was founded on nothing else but the abolition of slavery by the Mexican government. In 1824, the Mexican govern- ment had pronounced that no person after that period should be born a slave. In 1829 they went further, and air h h d slavery, and immediately followed the revolt of the landholders, who hud settled themselves in Texas. Who could contemplate without horror the calculation, as in the case of stocking a farm, what was the necessary complement of men and women, and when they would be ready and ripe for the market ? It was a blot which no other country but America had ever yet suffered to stain its history — no nation on the face of the earth had ever been degraded by such crimes, except the high-spirited North American Republic. Talk of the progress of democratic principle! No man admired it more than he did. What became of it when its principal advocates could not be persuaded to abstain from such species of traffic as this? Texas had speculated on it. Colonel Thompson asked whether it was not the fact that all the inhabitants of this province were Americans, and not Mexicans? It had been said in former times, ubi Roinane vincis, iki habitus; and with equal truth it might now be said, that where an American con- quered there he carried slavery as a necessary oflife . — March 9th , IS37. FOWELL BUXTON. If the British Government did not interfere to prevent the Texian territory from falling into the hands of the American slaveholders, in all probability a greater traffic in slaves would be carried on du- ring the next 50 years, than had ever before existed. — The war at present being waged in Texas, differed from any war which had ev- er been heard of. It was not a war for the extension of territory — it was not a war of aggression — it was not one undertaken for the advancement of national glory ; it was a war which had for its sole object the ob- taining of a market for slaves. — (Hear, bear.) He would not say that the American Government connived at the proceedings which had taken place ; but it was notorious that the Texians had been supplied with munitions of war of all sorts by the slaveholders of the United States — (hear, hear.) MEXICO. ANTONIO LOPEZ DE SANTA ANNA. I do not conceive how you can preserve the title of citizen of a nation at peace, harmony and friendship with Mexico, while, at tho same time, you endeavor to do her all the harm in your power, and to cut off from her a part of its territory, by means you have era. ployed with such singular activity. This species of impudence with which you represent yourself as a citizen of the United States, ex- cites vivid recollections that your countrymen first commenced the war ; introduced disorder into Texas and still maintain it, in scan- dalous violation of the treaties which should, in good faith, unite tha two nations. But leaving this examination to the criticism of the civilized world, which is ignorant neither of the origin, nor the ten- dencies of the usurpation of Texas, I will quickly show you, that you are mistaken, and that too, greatly, in supposing Mexico defi- cient either in strength or the will to maintain her incontestiblo rights. We have fully weighed the actual and the possible value of th* territory of Texas, the advantage accruing to Mexico by retaining it in possession, and still more by the precarious situation to which she would find herself reduced were she to permit a colossus to arise within her own limits, always ready to advance, and covetous to ob- tain new acquisitions by the rite title of theft and usurpation : but even were the soil of Texas a mere desert of sand, unproductive save of thorns to wound the foot of the traveller, this plain, useless, sterile and unproductive, should be defended with energy and constancy, under the conviction that the possession of a right imposes upon a na- tion the necessity of never abandoning it, with shame and disgrace to her name. I promised in Texas, beneath the rifles of the tumultuary (tumul- taricus) soldiers, who surrounded me, that I would procure a hear- ing for their commissioners from my Government, and would exer- cise my influence to prevent, for the time being, a fatal struggle ; ind this promise, whose object was to secure, without molestation, the retreat which the Mexican army had already commenced, and which I learned with the greatest sorrow from General Wall, natu- THE LEtMON OF LIBERTY. rally remained without effect, from sad consideration as prisoner ; be. cause the aggressions of the Texians removed even the possibility of lightening the evils of war, and because they failed themselves, in then - promises-, they annulled the resolutions of him whom they called their cabinet, they caused me violently to disembark from the schooner Invincible; and abandoned me to the excited passions of one hundred and thirty recruits just arrived from New-Orleans. In a different point of view, the question of Texas involves another of the greatest importance to the cause of humanity — that of slavery. Mexico, who has given the noble and illustrious example of renounc. ing to the increase of her wealth, and even to the cultivation of her fields, that she may not see them fattened with the sweat, the blood and the tears of the African race, will not retrocede in this course ; and her efforts to recover a usurped territory will be blessed by all those who sincerely esteem the natural and impracticable rights of the human species. The civilized world will not learn without scandal, that the in- habitants of the United States, infringing their own laws, and vio- lating the most sacred international rights, support for a second time, a usurpation which they have commenced, and constantly supported, abusing and mocking the generosity with which the Mexicans be- stowed upon their countrymen rich and coveted lands, and invited them to enjoy the benefit of their institutions. If Mexico should receive such hostility from those who call themselves her friends, she will treat them as enemies in the field of battle, she will repel force with force, and she will appeal to the judgment of the Universe upon such an aggression, as unjust as it would be violent. ROBERT OWEN. I have seldom seen any public character except the late Mr. Jef- ferson, so apparently determined to examine any system to its first principles, as General Santa Anna. He wished to commence his examination with the first principles of the system, with the laws of our nature that he might be sure whether the base was sound or not, upon which the superstructure was erected. I left him with the im- pression that he had good talents for command, and that he was truly desirous of contributing to the prosperity of the country. GEORGE M’DUFFIE. If any consideration could add to the intrinsic weight of these high inducements to abstain from any species of interference with the domestic affairs of a neighboring and friendly State, it would be the tremendous retribution to which we are so peculiarly exposed on our South Western frontier, from measures of retaliation. Should Mexico declare war against the United States, and aided by some great European power, hoist the standard of servile insur- rection in Louisiana and the neighboring States ; how deep would be our self-reproaches in reflecting that these atrocious proceedings received even a colorable apology from our example, or from the un- lawful conduct of our own citizens ! ANTI-TEXAS. There is one question connected with this controversy, of a defin- ite character, upon which it may be proper that you should express an opinion. You are, doubtless, aware that the people of Texas by an almost unanimous vote, have expressed their desire to be ad- milted into our Confederacy, and application will probably be made to Congress for that purpose. In. my opinion, Congress ought not even to entertain such a proposition in the present state of the con- troversy . — Extract from the Message of Gov. M’Diiffie . to the Leg- islature of South Carolina, 1836. THOMAS BRANAGAN. At the present crisis, no subject can be presented to the public eye more deserving of their serious attention than slavery ; our pros- perity, nay, our very existence as a nation depends upon the question before us, viz : 'Whether new slave-holding states, particularly Texas, shall be annexed to the American republic, till the planters of the South gain the sole sovereignty, as they ever have held the balance of power by a preponderating influence in congress, or not ? For instance, every cargo of slaves transported by the citizens of the South, and every additional slave state, not only enhances their riches, but increases their political influence ; for, according to the constitution, five slaves in the South are equal to two citizens in the North, with respect to the rights of suffrage. Slavery depends on the consumption of the produce of its labor for support. Refuse this produce, and slavery must cease. Say not that individual influence is small. Every aggregate must be com- posed of a collection of individuals. Though individual influence be small, the influence of collected numbers is irresistible. The number of representatives of slaves, alias southern property, has already increased to twenty-five, and they are urging the annexa- tion of new slave states. These considerations alone should causa our representatives to be on the alert, even laying aside the princi- ples of natural justice, moral rectitude, and the super-excellent pre- cepts of revelation, which inculcate, “ that we should do to all men whatever we would that they should do unto us, and that we should love our neighbors (or all mankind) as ourselves.” We certainly have increased in luxury, avarice, and systematical cruelty, since the epoch of our independence, more than any other nation ever did in the same number of years ; for what Rome was in her decline, America is inker infancy. We look with a supercilious glance upon personal virtue and national honor, while we are ena- moured with riches. We suffer ambition to monopolize the rewards that should be conferred on virtue ; nay, we supinely behold our fel- low citizens, not only enslave and murder thousands of their inno- cent, unoffending fellow creatures periodically, but we permit them, by this unjust and unwarrantable medium, to gain not only riches to fill their coffers, but also political influence in our national councils, the permanent right of suffrage and sovereignty. For it is a lamen tabic fact, that for every two slaves the dealers in human flesh smug gle from Africa, or breed, they gain the same influence at elections, 21 THOMAS BRANAGAN. as a free citizen inherits in his own person ; and a planter that pur chases two hundred negroes, not only replenishes his purse thereby but also gains one hundred and twenty times as much influence ir the nation, as the virtuous and honorable pal riot who nobly refuses to prostitute his political and religious character, by participating it such unparalleled duplicity, hypocrisy, and villany. Is such in. equality consistent with a republican form of government; is it con- L sistent with justice, generosity, or even common sense ? No ; it is a canker that eats, and will of itself eventually destroy our consti. tution. If there was no other enemy to excite our fears and alarm our sensibility, this surely is sufficient. No less than sixty odd thou- sand slaves annually increase the representation. If your slavers wish to effect a counter revolution in the minds ol your injured fellow citizens, you must first cause them to unlearn what they learned in “ the times that tried men’s souls you must destroy their memories ; you must draw a mighty. veil before their in- tellectual eyes, to screen the tragical end of slavery in the now re- public of Hayti ; you must consign every copy of the Rights of Man, and every other patriotic work, disseminated over the face of the earth, to the flames ; you must destroy the liberty of the press, that glorious privilege of freemen ; you must finally destroy our post offi. ces, and every conduit and vehicle of intelligence. Before you can fetter the understanding and blind the eyes of your fellow citizens, you must accomplish all these things and many more. I think and believe, that to sanction and support slavery in Texas, is a national crime that would have disgraced Sodom and Gomorrah. My mind is much affected by the case of the injured Indians, and by the Texas mania ; for sure I am, unless the friends of freedom strain every nerve, the tyrants of the south will gain their objects, as they have two or three times before. [Under the Mexican government slavery has been totally abolished in Texas, and elsewhere. The Tcxian rebels could have effected nothing but for the assistance of the southern states, (backed by northern doughfaces,) who have as fully waged the treasonable, pira- tical war they excited, as if it had been by them formally declared. The number of principled men in Texas is too small to redeem the country and their cause from the fathomless abyss of misery, degra- dation, and infamy into which this unprecedented establishment and perpetuation of slavery must inevitably plunge them, as well as the 'United States. The slave-mongers, slave-politicians, slave-presses, | and slave-senators, have foisted the recognition of the independence of that slave region, and are urging its incorporation into the United States as rapidly as possible. The monstrous outrage against the laws of-nature and of nations, unsurpassed by the blackest page of history, is fast tending to its fatal consummation !] The diabolical principle, which confers such a super-abundance of the paramount rights of suffrage and sovereignty upon a part of the citizens, accordingly as they enslave and torture their fellow men, to the great injury of the virtuous and honorable part of society — this : infernal practice must be abolished, or the union must be dissolved, that is, if the spirit of ’76 is not completely obliterated from the THOMAS BEANAGAK. ircasts of the citizens of lie north ; for it is not only an insult to ■ommon sense, but degrading them to cowards, to suppose, that they rill tamclv see their sacred inalienable rights infringed by the exten- sion of slavery. Twelve amendments have been made to the constitution. Why jot amend the principle alluded to ? The constitution has provided vays and means to amend its own defects. Why not embrace this institutional privilege, and eradicate this shameful inequality ? Is s not more eligible to accommodate any misunderstanding that may -xist between the different states, in this way, than to do it by the force of arms ? Surely this would produce anarchy and intestine jommotion ; and who, in such an event, will be the greatest sufferers ? ( answer, and I shudder while I answer, the Oppressoi's ! For how ;ould they stand with injured innocence behind them, — their infirriated dares ; and virtuous patriotism before them, — their insulted fellow Citizens ? Is a diversity of color a certain proof of a diversity of species ? No. This argument, if it could prove any thing, would prove too much. It will be found, upon investigation, that there are among the nations of mankind, no less than four or five principal colors ; not to say any thing of the various intermediate shades, which ap- proach more or less towards each of them. What ! are there four or five species of human beings ? Is each of the four great quarters of the world inhabited by a distinct species of men? Are there to be found even in the same quarter of the world, human beings of dif- ferent kinds ? Besides it appears to' be a fixed law of nature, which operates in all parts of creation, that, if two animals of a different species pair, the offspring is unable to continue its species. Do not a black Afri- can and a white American, in instances innumerable, unite ? Cer- tainly ! Is the mulatto incapable of marriage? No, he is as capa- ble of continuing his own coioi-, as his white father is of continuing his. An irrefragable proof this, that the black and the white inhabi- tants of our globe constitute one species of beings. Whence the immense sums, which proprietors of plantations, and of negroes and mulattoes, receive annually, and spend in magnifi- cence and luxui'y ? Whence is all this great treasuie ? How is it raised ? By the sweat, the blood, the tears, torments, the lives of your poor, hungry, naked, oppressed slaves. Are they so infinitely advantageous to you ? And can you refuse ; can you delay to hear the cry of then - oppression, their sweat, and their blood ? Have you not, as a nation, been long distinguished and famous, for a free, inde- pendent, generous spirit ? Is your constitution civil and l-eligious, your glory among the nations of the world ? Do you suffer no slavery at the North ? Why do you allow it elsewhere ? Do you, year after year, concert the best measures which your wisdom can devise, for the prospei-ity and happiness of your white citizens at home and abroad ? Why overlook, neglect, and oppress, your black subjects ? Is there, can there be, such merit in one color, and such demerit in another ? Is industry a source of wealth to a nation ? Slavery must be the WILLIAM E. CHANNING. grand impoverishes for it is an encouragement to idleness, and a de. preciator of labor. Does virtue consolidate and strengthen a nation? Slavery, and its concomitant vices, must enervate, if not subvert it. How shamefully slavery exposes and endangers the virtue of females, I forbear to say ; delicacy would shudder at the recital. The female who in theory or practice is an advocate for slavery, cannot be a vo taxy or a friend to chastity. — The Guardian Genius. JOSEPH STURGE. I Is General Santa Anna’s real crime in the eyes of the American slave- owner is his enforcing the abolition of slavery throughout the Mexi- can Republic, when they were looking to seize Texas as a market for 1 their slaves. This object was publicly avowed by them years ago. In the de- bates in the Virginia Convention, in 1829, Judge Upsher said, “ If it should be our lot, as I trust it will be, to acquire the country of ' Texas, their price (the slaves) will rise again.” We are told by the advocates of the Tcxian scheme, as a caution I not to interfere ; that the cause of emancipation has retrograded in the United States, *■ owing to the intemperate zeal of the Northern abolitionists.” I need not remind the friends of emancipation in Eng. 1 1 land, that this was ever the favorite assertion of the slave-holders and their advocates, during the struggle for negro freedom in the ; British West India Colonies; nor yet record the opinion of American : gentlemen, most accurately informed on the subject, that the bold and strenuous efforts of the Northern abolitionists, in denouncing this plague-spot of their social and political system, have, within the last : four years, done more towards effecting its extinction than the oxer, v tions of the previous half century. The slave-owners of the South j know this full well. Such, then, being the fearful plan for erecting the new state of ' Texas, by giving new life and energy to a system of crime and in. ! justice, which in many of the neighboring states is sinking under its 1 inherent rottenness, it becomes the duty of every real abolitionist, whether in England or America, to warn his countrymen against being decoyed within the sphere of its contaminating influence. The country is designed to be the “ home of the slave,” and to be peopled by a traffic more hideous than the African slave trade itself. WILLIAM E. CHANNING Wars with Europe and Mexico are to be entailed on ns by the an. nexation of Texas. And is war the policy by which this country is to flourish ? Was it for interminable conflicts that we formed our Union ? Is it blood shed for plunder, which is to consolidate our in. etitutions ? Is it by collision with the greatest maritime power, that our commerce is to gain strength ? Is it by arming against ourselves the moral sentiments of the world, that we are to build up national honor ? Must we of the North buckle onmur armor, to fight the bat- tles of slavery ; to fight for a possession, which our moral principles WILLIAM E. CHANNINC. an I iust jealousy forbid ns to incorporate with our confederacy ? In attaching Texas to ourselves, we provoke hostilities, and at the same time expose new points of a';aek to our foes. Vulnerable at so many points, we shall need avast military force. Great armies will re- quire great revenues, and raise up great chieftains. Arc we tired of freedom, that we are prepared to place it under such guardians ? Is the republic bent on dying by its own hands? Docs not every man feel, that, with war for our habit, our institutions cannot be pre- served ? If ever a country were bound to peace, it is this. Peace is our great interest. In peace our resources are to be developed, the true interpretation of the constitution to be established, and the inter- fering claims of liberty and order to be adjusted. In peace we are to discharge' our great debt to the human race, and to diffuse freedom by manifesting its fruits. A country has no right to adopt a policy, however gainful, which, as it may foresee, will determine it to a ca- reer of war. A nation, like an individual, is bound to seek, even by sacrifices, a position, which will favor peace, justice, and the ex- ercise of a beneficent influence on the world. A nation, provoking war by cupidity, by encroachment, and, above all, by efforts to pro- pagate tlie curse of slavery, is alike false to itself, to God, and to the human race. The annexation of Texas, I have said, will extend and perpetuate slavery. It is fitted, and, still more, intended to do so. On this point there can be no doubt. ,\s far back as the year 1829, the an- nexation of Texas was agitated in the Southern and Western States; and it was urged on the ground of the strength and extension it would give to the slave-holding interest. In a series of essays, as- cribed to a gentleman, now a senator in Congress, it was maintained, that five or six slave-holding states would by this measure be added to the Union ; and he even intimated that as many as nine States as large as Kentucky might be formed within the limits of Texas. In Virginia, about the same time, calculaiions were made as to the in- creased value which would thus be given to slaves, and it was even said, that this acquisition would rise the price fifty per cent. Of late the language on this subject is most explicit. The great argument for annexing Texas is, that it will strengthen “ the peculiar institu tions” of the south, and open a new and vast field for slavery. Nor is the worst told. As I have before intimated, and it cannot be too often repeated, we shall not only quicken the domestic slave- trade ; we shall give a new impulse lo the foreign. Tiiis, indeed, we have pronounced in our laws to be felony ; but we make our laws cobwebs, when we offer to rapacious men strong motives for their violation. Open a market for slaves in an unsettled country, with a sweep of sea-coast, and at such distance from the seat of government that laws may be evaded with impunity, and how can you exclude slaves from Africa ? It is well known that cargoes have been landed in Louisiana. What is to drive them from Texas ? In incorporat- ing this region with the Union to make it a slave-country, we send the kidnapper to prowl through the jungles, and to dart, like a beast of prey, on the defenceless villages of Africa ; we chain the help- less, despairing victims ; crowd them into the foetid, pestilential slave. * *21 N. P. ROGERS. ship ; expose them 1o the unutterable cruelties of the middle passage, and, if they survive it, crush them with perpetual bondage. I now ask, whether, as a people, we are prepared to seize on a neighboring territory for the end of extending slavery ? I ask, whether, as a people, we can stand forth in the sight of God, in the i sight of the nations, and adopt this atrocious policy ? Sooner perish ! 1 1 Sooner be our name blotted out from the record of nations 1 COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, 1838. ** Resolves against the annexation of Texas to the United States. , “ Whereas a proposition to admit into the United States, as a con- t stituent member thereof, the foreign nation of Texas, has been re- L commended by the legislative resolutions of several Slates, and ( brought before Congress for its approval and sanction : and whereas such a measure would involve great wrong to Mexico, and other wise be of evil precedent, injurious to the interests and dishonorable to the character of this country ; and whereas its avowed objects are doubly fraught with peril to the prosperity and permanency of this Union, as tending to disturb and destroy the conditions of those com- promises and concessions entered into at the formation of the Consti- tution, by which the relative weight of different sections and interests was adjusted, and to strengthen and extend the evils of a system 1 1 which is unjust in itself, in striking contrast with the theory of our institutions, and condemned by the moral sentiment of mankind : and whereas the People of these United States have not granted to any or all of the departments of their Government, but have retained in themselves, the only power adequate to the admission of a foreign na- tion into this confederacy ; therefore, “ Resolved . That we, the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, do, in the name of the People of Massa- ! chusetts, earnestly and solemnly protest against the incorporation of Texas into this Union ; and declare that no act done, or compact made, for such purpose, by the Government of the United States, will be binding on the States or the People. “ Resolved, That his excellency the Governor be requested to for- ward a copy of these resolves, and the accompanying report, to the Executive of the United States, and the Executive of each State; and also to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress, with a request that they present the resolves to both Houses of Con- gress.” NATHANIEL P. ROGERS. We should not be surprised, if by reason of this slave-holding, our nation should get involved in a war with Mexico — with all the re- maining tribes of American Indians our Christianity has spared, and Great Britain besides, backed up by the sympathies of the whole Christian world. If it should, the Republic will be in an enviable predicament. British steamers and war craft cover the ocean. We haje Canada on the North, Aboriginality and Mexico on the West D. L. CHILD. The West Indies on the south, with 3.000,000 dark allies, dispersed upon the plantations, to facilitate and further a visit to the “ Patriot States,” — and New Brunswick beyond the pine woods of the disputed territory. To meet all this, we have a bankrupt treasury — a corrupt and confounded people — tire “ peculiar institution,” to inspirit us, and Texas to help us, as an ally. There is not a people under heaven, that could sympathize with us in such a contest, but the Republic of Texas. Texas is a Republic, to be sure, and almost the only one on earth, besides ours. Her Republican sympathy would out weigh that of monarchy and despotisms, on the other side. But then it would not work to much purpose for us, against the pressure of the British steamer. It would not avail us greatly as a counter propulsion. It might inspire our hearts, with enthusiasm to fight for slavery and equal rights, — but it would not waft artillery, like the floats of the British steam ship, or guard us from the tomahawk of the universal west, which such a war would call back against us from all the re- gions of Indian banishment, where revenge has been sharpening its edge, and hushing the animosities of the hostile tribes in one over whelming enmity to the race, that has outraged their love of home and native land, and fathers’ graves. And if we fall in such a war- fare, it would be glorious enough — however unfortunate for the cause o & Liberty. Slavery has been troublesome to us, ever since we were a nation. But we have seen but the beginning of sorrows. It can- not remain well with us. It were in impeachment of the equal ways of Providence, if such a nation as this has been, can have prosperity, or experience any thing but signal retribution. To have enslaved hu inanity, under circumstances like these, is no light transgression, and brings with it, naturally, no light retribution. And our solemn statesmen.— when it burst upon us, can no more devise relief or es- cape, than Belshazzar’s wise men could help him in his extremity, or read the writing on the wall. — Herald of Freedom DAVID LEE CHILD. What authority had president Jackson to commence the war in Texas? Not a jot more than Gen. Gaines. His power, in respect to making war upon a foreign nation, is restricted by the constitu- tion to the repelling of invasions ; and he cannot, without a violation of the constitution, and his oath, march a man beyond the limits of the Union. If it be true, as there appears no reason to doubt, that he has done this, he ought by law to be impeached, and expelled from office, and then punished by fine and imprisonment, or given up to the injured nation to be punished by them for any murder or robbery, which the troops may commit in pursuing his orders. He has no more right to enter Mexico, seize property and slay inhabi- tants, whether Indians or others, than any citizen of the United States has to go into Great Britain and do it. Such acts will be rob- bery, piracy, or murder, and ought to be punished accordingly. The power of declaring war is vested exclusively in the congress of the United States ; and there cannot be a lawful war, and one which shall confer upon those taking part in it, the rights of war, E. W. GOODWIN. without such declaration. Supposing Com. Porter, when he entcree the town of Foxardo, in the Island of Porto Rico, — or Aaron Burr, when he entered Texas, thirty years ago, had been taken with their officers and men ; would they not have been put to death agreeably to the law of nations. So would Gen. Jackson and his men, when, in two instances, they deliberately marched into Florida, and seized the towns and possessions of Spain. If the constitution had been supported, and the laws of the land faithfully executed, on either of those occasions, we should not now have had a president who would have ventured to issue an order to invade a friendly country and be- gin a war ; nor a general who would dare to obey it, nor a subordi- nate officer, who would not throw up his commission, nor a soldier who would not throw down his arms at the frontier, and refuse, as they might lawfully and dutifully do, to be the instruments of usur- pation, and the perpetrators of crime. And where are the remonstrances of the press, and the meetings of the people ? Where are the friends of universal peace, and above all, where is the Christian priesthood? And you merchants, ship- owners, and underwriters, where are you ? Know you not that this presidential measure is fatally opposed to the purest devotion to self- interest that ever chilled a half-penny heart? Awake, arise; it is not (only) a breach of the constitution. There is a breach in t^j etrong-box. If any circumstance could enhance the intrinsic wickedness of the executive proceedings, it is the end and object at which they are aiming. It is to PROPAGATE SLAVERY, or in other words, perpetual robbery, rapine, and murder throughout a vast and beauti- ful region, now, by the laws of Mexico, perfectly free. It is to open a new and interminable slave-market to the old slave-breeding sinners of Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and other old slave states, and to flesh-mongers every where. It is to bring into this Union, for the benefit of nullifiers, five to ten new slave states, each with a Conslitulion, not only establishing slavery, but also forbidding their own legislatures ever to abolish it. This is a provision of the new constitution of Texas, formed since the strug- gle for liberty commenced ! The old or Mexican constitution of Texas abolisl-.ed slavery forever! And the free states are willing to pay three fourths of the taxes (as they ever must so long as they arc raised on consumption) to sup- port a war for these objects; for, remember if war exists, ‘ appropria- tions must be made to carry it on.’ EDWIN W. GOODWIN. Texas. — A correct idea of the importance, magnitude, and power of that nation, for which such an anxiety is expressed that it may be united with this country, may be obtained from the fact that the whole vote for President at the late election, was 10,084 ; only about one-ninth as many votes as were cast at our late presidential election in the single stale of Illinois. The national debt of this immense people is .$11,602,127, includ* J. R. GIDDINGS. mg the appropriation of the last congress, and §1,000,000 of bonA hypothecated by Gen. Hamilton. This, upon an average, is abou* eleven hundred and sixty dollars to each voter at the late election. It is a very reasonable conclusion then, that the people of Texas are anxious to form a new connection in business, especially if the pro. posed partner has some money or credit. “ By Art IV. Sect. 2, of the Constitution, fugitives from justice are to be delivered up on demand, to the state from which they fled ; so that Texas, if annexed to the United States, would be left without a corporal’s guard !” — Tocsin of Liberty. JOSHUA R. GIDDINGS. Our constituents are asked to engage in a war with one of the most powerful nations of the earth, in order to enable the slave-dealers of the south to carry their slaves out of the territory and jurisdiction of the slave stales under the flag of our common country. They insist upon the privilege of involving our constituents, the free people of Ohio, in the disgrace and expense of maintaining what Mr. Jeffer- son calls “ an execrable commerce in human beings.” Against these abuses our constituents have remonstrated. Conscious that they are unconstitutional infringmenls of their rights, they have year after year sent their petitions here, praying in the most respectful manner that they may be relieved from these oppressions and from such un- constitutional taxation. They have approached congress in the most respectful manner, and in the most unexceptionable language have asked that these abuses may cease. These petitions have been treated with contempt and the most insulting epithets applied to the people who have thus dared to approach their servants. When petitioning for the protection of their constitutional rights, they have been falsely represented as attempting to invade the rights of others. When they have asked relief from taxation for the support of slavery, they have been represented as attempting to interfere with the vested rights of others. When they have asked congress to repeal the laws of their own enacting, they have been held up to the country and the world, as seeking for unconstitutional objects which congress had no power to grant. — Letter to the Members of Congress, March 5, 1842. Resolutions offered by Mr. Giddings, for which he was censured by a majority of the house. Resolved, That slavery, being an abridgement of the natural rights of man, can exist only by force of positive municipal law, and is ne- cessarily confined to the territorial jurisdiction of the power creat- ing it. Resolved, That when the brig Creole, on her late passage forNew- Orleans, left the territorial jurisdiction of Virginia, the slave laws of that state ceased to have jurisdiction over the persons on board said brig, and such persons became amenable only to the laws of the United States. Resolved, That all attempts to exert our national influence in fa Z. EASTMAN. vor of the coastwise slave trade, or to place this nation in the atti tude of maintaining a “ commerce in human beings,” are subversive of the rights and injurious to the feelings and the interests of the free states; are unauthorized by the constitution, and prejudicial to our national character. MR. MAYNARD. Under the pretence of preventing any Indian disturbances, while the Texian soldiers and citizens are in the service against the Mexi- cans, the Secretary of War has put Gen. Taylor in command of a body of U. S. troops, and sent him to that republic, with discretionary powers ; and every one who knows how General Gaines managed be. fore, under similar circumstances, and how such matters were con- ducted by Gen. Jackson, in Florida, will of course understand, that this is equivalent to sending an army of 2,000 men, to the aid of Texas. Under the same pretence before, our army was marched some 200 miles into Mexican territory, If I remember rightly, and if necessary, no doubt will be again . — Madison Abolitionist STARTLING FACTS. The late three years’ war with England, the most powerful nation in the world, cost the United States about $90,000,000. The three years’ war in Florida, with a remnant tribe of Seminole Indians and a few runaway Negroes, has cost us $40,000,000, oi nearly half the whole expense of our war with England ! ! ! The war against the miserable Indians and Negroes, was wickedly commenced, has been ingloriously conducted, and threatens to be in- terminable ? There is not, in the history of wars among civilized nations, a parallel for the wantonness, imbecility and corruption which distin- guishes this dishonorable, infamous crusade . — Albany Evening Journal. ZALMON EASTMAN. So it appears to be a plan already Matured, that troops are to be conveyed from this country directly into the territory of Mexico, without setting a foot on the soil of Texas. Remember, that the original contest with Mexico, was not com- menced for liberty, but for the purpose of introducing slavery into Texas, and for wresting that territory from Mexico, that it might be joined to the United States to strengthen the slave power here. And remember also, that the sympathy manifested for the people of Texas, and all this violation of neutrality and the laws and usages of na- tions, is not sympathy for the oppressed, nor for the extension or pre- servation of liberty, but is sympathy for the oppressor, and these plans are carried out for the sake of strengthening the chains of the slave, and for extending the dominion of slavery . — Genius of Liberty. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. ( GAMALIEL BAILEY. The report of the invasion of Texas by Mexico, is confirmed. Many of our newspaper^ never tire in eulogizing the spirit of the Texians on this occasion. The conduct of a certain portion of our citizens in relation to the belligerents deserves notice. A meeting has been held in Cincinnati, to sympathize with the revolted province ; a similar one in Philadel- phia. Meantime, open efforts are made to enlist the people of the United States in a crusade against Mexico. The National Intelli- gencer coolly announces that ‘‘ a company of seventy emigrants, well armed and equipped, left Mobile on the 24th ultimo for Texas, on an exploring expedition.” A correspondent of the Daily Message, writing from New-Orleans, March 26th, says — that “ fresh recruits are marching from every quarter to aid them (the Texians,) in their glorious struggle. Last Sunday the steamship Neptune left this port with two hundred fearless and gallant spirits. May the God of bat- tles crown their efforts with speedy and brilliant success.” Why have we no president’s message to repress these hostile de- monstrations towards a power, with which we are at peace ? Here are armed bands marching from this country against Mexico, in vio- lation of good faith and of the .laws of the Lhiited States, and yet John Tyler, whose oath of office binds him to “ take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” looks on and is silent ! We all know how prompt was the executive with its proclamation, when the hos- tility of our northern borderers was likely to interrupt the friendly re- lations with Great Britain. But circumstances alter cases. Eng. land is a formidable, Mexico a feeble, power. We were afraid of the former ; but most valiantly do we bully the latter. Besides, slavery had nothing to gain from irruptions into Canada ; so a pro-slavery government was most scrupulous in fulfilling the obligations imposed by the laws of nations. But, having every thing to gain by tha separation-of Texas from Mexico, the government which it controls, connives at the most flagitious aggressions by our citizens on that friendly state ! And yet this government, after having permitted many of its citizens to inflict outrage after outrage on Mexico, affects a saint-like countenance, and complains of the hostility of our neigh- bor ! Most perfidious ! “ And thus I clothe my naked villiany, And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.” Some wretched trucklers to the powers that be, are apt to repre- sent opposition to the administration of the government as treason against the country. Poor fools ! they should be slaves to the grand Turk. It is because we love our country — its honor, its interest — that we abhor the government, as it has long been administered. It does not represent the people of the United States. It is the expo- nent and instrument of one interest — the tool of a single class. That interest is slavery, that class is made up of slave-holders and their northern menials. Let the government be redeemed from this degra- dation, and be controlled by the constitution, interpreted in the light ANTI-TEXAS. t the Declaration of Independence, and then may wc expect ti .ee this republic respecting the rights of ail mankind, acting with even handed justice towards all nations, the weak, as well as powerful.— The Philanthropist. NATIONAL A. S. STANDARD. Let abolitionists be on their guard, and not be deceived by quieting rumors. We have it from high authority, too well informed to be mis taken, that the slaveholders were never more intent upon their favorite plan of annexing Texas than at the present moment. They arc doubt less ready to spring the trap at any favorable moment. Let not aboil tionists be lulled to sleep by the disclaimer of General Hamilton, vvht says he would rather not have Texas belong to the United States. Cah have covered themselves with meal before now to catch old rats. Neithei let them be too sure that the rumored mediation of France and Englanc between Mexico and Texas is going to avert the danger of annexation. It is indeed'tlifficult to foretell what will be the result of all this plot ting and underplotting ; but one thing is certain — abolitionists ham need to keep wide awake ; for no single event involves such disastrow consequences to the cause of freedom, as this. Let the opinion of the free States be earnestly and persevering]} expressed in the form of petitions and the action on the State legisla- tures on Congress. There is need of this. Be not lulled into false security. Will anti-slavery papers copy the articles which we have from the New-York American? Prevention is much easier than cure. We trust the English and Irish abolitionists will keep themselves well in- formed on this important question, and will see that John Q. Adams’s Address at Braintree is extensively circulated. — L. Maria Child. WILLIAM L. MACKENZIE. The intrigues of the United States slave-owners it was, which con- verted Texas into a place of bondage in the man of color. Honest Mexico had made it free alike to all men in 1829, and for this offence has southern vengeance and European diplomacy continued to strike at the tranquillity of her devoted population ever since, while it is whis- pered that Cass, the agent of the south in Paris, was not unfriendly to Louis Phillipe’s villainous attack. Again, Cuba was about to seek independence, and offer equal liber- ty to all its inhabitants some years ago. But it is well known that Messrs. Clay and Adams in 1827, and Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Van Ness in 1829, made the most urgent remonstrances to old Spain against permitting such a step. The south was ready to tender the aid of the arms of the great American republic to crush a struggle for freedom, which might end in yielding an asylum to a Virginia mulatto slave. Not content with the gains of their own serfs, the THE LEGION OF LIEERTY. avarice of man is such, that of 177 slave ships which arrive every vear in Cuba, five-ninths are owned and fitted out in this Union un- der the fostering care of its government, and their guilty gains are truly enormous. Compare the conduct of the slave power at Washington to Texas, and to Canada. Scattered along an extensive line, without muni- tions of war, without provisions, almost without clothing, pursued by the English forces on one side, and by the troops under the com- mand of General Scott on the other, during a most severe and stormy winter. Such was the situation of the Canadian republicans in 1838. The Texians were slave-owners fighting to re-establish slavery on a soil from which it had been recently banished by the Mexicans ; the American government gave them every possible aid and assistance. The Canadian Patriots fought for liberty to all, and no negro slavery could be expected to crown their triumphs McKenzie’s Gazette June, 1840. LA ROY SUNDERLAND. Meetings in favor of Texas and against Mexico, have been held in : every southern and south-western city. Upwards of fifty thousand dollars in money and munitions have been subscribed for the Texians. And it is said, that several have already left this city for Texas, in order to engage in the war against Mexico. Who can witness these efforts to support and extend slavery, and not feel a blush of indignation for this boasted republic ! And look, too, at the prodigality with which the slave-holders pour out their • money, and for the basest of purposes, while the cause of human rights, at the north, languishes for the want of support. — N. Y. Watchman. The south never will give the slave up until the North is converted to our doctrines. While the north regards the colored man as it now does, it would be a Herculean, a desperate enterprise for the south to undertake the emancipation of the slave. The north must make its peace with the “ free colored man,” before the south can emancipate the slave. It would not save the country, or free the slave, to enact the abolition of slavery by congress, and by every state general court in the union, without a moral change in the white population to- wards the black, and the consequent revolution of feeling in the black towards the white man. Nothing can effect this change but the ac- tion and prevalence of anti-slavery societies and principles. — Anti. Slavery Manual. Change of Opinion. — Mr. J. B. Lamar, formerly warmly and ac- tively engaged in the support of the Texian cause, is not disposed, it appears to pursue the same course at present. In a letter to the Sa- vannah Georgian, he says, that “ time, reflection, and a more en- lightened conscience, convince him that any interference with the war in Texas, by citizens of one of the United States, is a violation 22 THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. of the laws of our own country, and inconsistent with our interests and the doctrines we hold of like conduct in others towards us ; and he must therefore in justice to himself, not only decline the appoint- ment, (to which he had been called by a meeting, held in Savannah, of friends of that cause,) but refuse to contribute to the object in any way whatever .” — Boston Daily Mail ARCHIBALD L. LINN. Recent events have satisfied me that new and serious attempts are to be made to accomplish the annexation of Texas to this Union. One of the principal instruments in the scheme is to be found in the character of the present mission to Mexico, and, as no higher in- terests can be involved in our foreign intercourse than the political considerations which belong to this mission, I feel it my duty to ad- vert to them at the earliest opportunity. Whoever would look back upon the history of our relations with Mexico in reference to the province of Texas — of the first settle- ment of that provice— and of the men who and the influences which produced the revolution there and her separation from Mexico ; whoever would look back upon the legislation of congress — of the legislation of several of the states of the union, and upon the opin- ions and influences of men in ail parts of tire country ; whoever would trace the whole progress of that revolution from its inception , j down to the present, time, and connect it with the present events and present condition of that country, would come to the conclusion that the political difficulties which had heretofore existed between this go- vernment and Mexico, had reference only to the annexation of Texas — and that the efforts to attain that object were to be renewed, with all the moral and political evils which could not fail to accompany it. Mr. L. then glanced briefly at the history of Texas as a province, to show that the whole history of diplomacy on this subject, (of which he said, he had copious notes,) and the whole history of legislation went to show that the annexation of Texas, (whether successful or not,) was the desired fruit of the present mission to Mexico. He re- ferred to the representative history of General VVaddy Thompson, as a. member of this house, to show that that gentleman had introduced a proposition for the recognition of the independence of Texas ; that he had pursued a course which pledged him to that step. And he (Mr. L.) hesitated not to predict that one of the fruits of this mis- sion, as now created, would be a renewal of the proposition for the annexation of Texas to the United States. Mr. L. passed on to notice the claims of the citizens of the United States against the government of Mexico, in relation to which a. commission has been in session for some two years past ; and expres- sed the conviction that the grand finale of these claims (if ever set- tled at all) would be the relinquishment of them on the part of this government, either by means of a recognition of the independence of Texas, or a direct cession of Texas to this government. And it W. SLADE. was to prevent the evils arising from this state of things, that this mission ought not, in his juo'gmcnt to be allowed. Notwithstanding our aggressions upon Mexico, (which he did not advert to, but which were matters of history,) we were still, at least professedly, at peace with her, under solemn treaties of amity and commerce. By what rule, then, of national law or national honor we were justified in interfering in the affairs of Texas, he could not divine — Texas, a province in a state of open revolt, whose indepen- dence Mexico had never recognized, but against which she was at this time waging a most uncompromising war. Whence, then, the sympathy and enthusiasm which had been excited on the subject in thus country ? Whence the injustice and breach of national faith against .Mexico, which had engendered so much ill-blood and ill-feel- ing against a government which was doing the most that she was able to do, to establish free institutions of the same kind as our own ? Whence the abandonment of the policy of non-interference, which had been so studiously cultivated and adhered to by this government in all the contests which had taken place on this continent ? Or who could doubt that the continuance of negotiations between this government and Mexico, in relation to the annexation of Texas, would inevitably lead to war ? And .Mr. L. alluded to the probabili ty, in such an event, of interference on the part of Great Britain — Speech in Congress, April 13, 1842. WILLIAM SLADE. Mr. S- had been greatly surprised at the nomination to Mexico of a public man who had always zealously advocated the cause of Texian independence. Gentlemen in the south did not appreciate the feeling which pervaded this country in reference to this Texian question. Throughout more titan half the states of this union, it was watched with the utmost jealousy, and excited the deepest feeling, because it was well known that anxious efforts had long been going on to effect the annexation of Texas to theUnited States, and it was as perfectly understood that the entering wedge to the accomplishment of such a design was never applied in the open light of day, but secretly, and, for aught that appeared upon the surface, that wedge might not only be entered, but driven up past all hope of retraction before the fact was known at all. And there were those in this union who looked the more sharply at all such measures from their apprehension as to the connexion between the annexation of Texas and the extension of slavery. Whether these persons were imprudent or not, in the course they pursued — whether or not they adopted the best means to accom- plish their objects, and whether then- abstract positions were sound or not, still they were perpetually on the watch-tower, looking with eagle eyes at every movement bearing on the Texian question, and but for their unsleeping vigilance, the so much desired union between that country and this would have been effected long ago. Here Mr. S. referred to the vast number of petitions which they had sent up against the annexation. That number was not so great now, because an impression had begun to prevail that the danger was now over. W. SLADE. Bat Mr. S. could assure them they were entirely mistaken. It was not over; very far from it, and he thanked the gentleman from New- York. (Mr. Linn,) for rousing the attention of the country to the subject. What had they seen during the last year ? Not only did the public press of the south and south-west come out openly for an- nexation, but several of the states had passed otlicial resolutions to the same etfect ; and when brought into the House of Representa- tives, how were they treated ? Not as the abolition resolutions even from state legislatures were. They were not only received, but or- dered to be printed, that they might be considered and acted upon. The same tiling had been done at the other end of the capitol. All this was done with the intent of forming public opinion, and, so far, it was all fair. But if a northern abolitionist should attempt any means to counteract such opinion at I he south, by arguments how- ever strong and however reasonable, he must straightway be seized and hung to a lamp post. [A laugh.] The Amen ran people never could be drawn into any such mea- sure as the annexation of Texas ; it would be utter ruin to the union of the stales. Mr. S. would not give a snap of his fingers for this union from the day such a measure was effected. It would be dis- solved ipso facto from that moment. He was a friend to the union ; he desired to see it preserved, and therefore lie deprecated a scheme that must dissolve it. He would say, in general terms, that he believed it arose from a desire to extend and to perpetuate slavery. That such a desire did exist was a fact beyond dispute ; it had been manifested with greater or less distinctness for the last forty years ; in its practical eflects it had trampled on all the safeguards of the constitution, and lengthened the cords and strengthened the stakes of slavery in this land. The general expectation at the adoption of the constitution, was that slavery would be abolished in less than a quarter of a century ; but half a century had elapsed, and instead of being abolished it had in- creased three-fold. This process began with the purchase of Louisi- ana, or rather, with the toleration of slavery in that state, and it had been extended in the free states since formed out of the Louisiana purchase. Mr. S. considered this as having indicted a deeper wound on the constitution than any other event that had ever happened since its adoption. -Mr. S. could show, did time permit, how slavery had governed this land ; how it had chosen our presidents for a succession of forty years, while there had, since the foundation of the government, been a president in the chair from the free states but for twelve years and one month. And of these, one never would have been president had he not been “ a northern man with southern principles.” A review of the individuals who had filled the speaker’s chair of this house would show the same thing. He might refer to the fact that five out of six of those who had filled the mission to Mexico, had been gentlemen from the southern states. Of the reason of such a selection there could be no doubt. He need not say how impossible it was to carry on important nego- tiations with almost any government, and especially with Mexico, THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. without their having sn important bearing on our relations with other governments. And here he took occasion to repel the expressions of contempt which had fallen from Mr. Cushing, in which he spoke of gentlemen cowering under the frown of Great Britain, and of being actuateu by a dread of British interferenoe. The people of Ncw- England would he tne very last to bo actuated by such a feeling, as the glorious history of this country would abundantly show. But while we were ready to maintain our rights against all the world, it was the part of wisdom and prudence not to he insensible to the dan- ger of becoming needlessly embroiled with other governments. The gentleman from South Carolina, (Mr. Pickens,) had given pretty strong indications not only of a very strong sympathy with the cause of Texas, but of a disposition to carry that feeling into our relations with Mexico. He had alluded to what he supposed to be a fact, that the British government stood pledged to that of Mexico, to aid it un- der certain contingencies. If this were true, it was of itself suffi- cient to put every prudent statesman on his guard. Mr. S. would tell gentlemen that their scheme never could be car- ried into effect ; there might be a union on parchment, but it never cculd go down with the people of the northern slates. Let the thought be banished at once. Let not gentlemen deceive themselves — he could tell them that the very moment the)' came out and showed their hand they would find a spirit which they little dreamed of. He would say to them, as a friend, “ hands off.” Let this government declare at once to Texas, to Mexico, and to all the world beside, that such a thing as a union between Texas and the United States was utterly impracticable. When this should have been done, the government o) Mexico would be more likely to open their ears to the claims of American citizens. Let it be distinctly understood that the moment we united ourselves with Texas, thal moment we married ourselves to a war. He was, therefore, for a proclamation of neutrality. Why should this measure not be resorted to in relation to our neigh- bors at one extremity of the union as to those at the other? We did it relation to Canada, why not in regard to Texas and Mexico? We owed this to ourrelves and to the peace of the world. We stood in a highly dangerous position — before we knew it the matches might be applied to the magazine. A Voice from Deleware. — The following, we doubt not, ex- presses the feelings of the people of that Slate — a state nearly freo from slavery. — Albany Patriot. “ Annexation of Texas to the U. Stales. — This accursed project has been a favorite of the South for years past. It was cherished by Jackson, and not frowned on by Van Buren, and is said to be a darling with Tyler and some of the Guard. We have territory enough — need no more, and to be saddled with Texas, and its dia- bolical population, would probably cause a dissolution of the Union. We hope all patriotic and good men will lift their voices against such a ruinous measure.” — Wilmington Del. Republican , May, 1843. 22 * THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. THE BRITISH EMANCIPATOR. Texas. — It is a deplorable tiling in this age of the world, after such gigantic and persevering efforts have been made to get rid of slavery and the slave-trade, and with so much success, that in a country in which slavery had been abolished, (and that country four times as largo as France,) this curse and crime should be restored ! It is yet more deplorable, that this restoration of slavery should have the c-lfect, and should have been brought about for the purpose, of providing a vast and almost boundless market for the slaves reared like cattle by an adjoining nation, boasting, to be civilized and chris. tian ! The domestic slave-trade has made the United States the sink and the scorn of the world • yet, this more than infernal traffic is to find an inexhaustible outlet in Texas! Yet more deplorable is it, that a nation born amidst the agonies of the slavery it revives, and exist- ing but for the perpetuation and aggravation of atrocities which all civilized governments have agreed to denounce and exterminate, should by any one of those governments have been acknowledged as a nation at all. Humanity bleeds on contemplating slavery as a fact of the past; it is dreadful to see it originating anew. A nascent peo- ple ordaining slavery should have met with not a moment’s toleration ; they should been frowned and trodden out of being by the united scorn and resistance of the civilized world. — The British Emancipator. Tiie Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery So- ciety, to Lord Palmerston, Secretary for Foreign Affairs. The committee will not trouble your Lordship with a detail of the unjust and atrocious manner in which the Mexican province of Texas has been wrested from the parent state by unprincipled adventurers, land jobbers, and slave-holders from the United States, whose con- duct merits the most indignant rebuke, and must attach lasting dis- honor to all who may become implicated in it : but would press on the consideration of your Lordship and the government the well-known fact, that the legislature of Texas has abolished the universal freedom which, with such admirable justice and propriety, had been decreed by the Mexican government, and have re-established slavery in its worst form. The committee would also call your Lordship’s atten- tion to the fact, that the Texian laws also provide for the expulsion from its territory of all Africans and the descendants of Africans, whether in whole or in part born free, as well as of the native In- dian tribes, an iniquity not less cruel than it is infamous, and un- paralleled in the history of any civilized people. The establishment of slavery in Texas will open an immense mar ket for the slave-breeders of the United States, and will inevitably enlarge to an unprecedented extent, and raise to a pitch of unpre- cedented horrors, a traffic so infamous and 4eplorable. Nor can it be doubted but, in spite of the law which prohibits it, the slave-trade with Africa, against which the whole power of the British empire is arrayed, will be extensively carried on, as there is too great reason to believe it has already begun. Lbider these circumstances, the committee trust that her Majesty’s government will regard the proposed recognition of Texas with the THE LEGION OF LIBERTY, greatest abhorrence ; and they cherish an earnest hope that in their decisions, considerations of humanity, justice, and liberty will be firmly held paramount to every other. On behalf of the Committee, G, W. ALEXANDER, Chairman. GEORGE BRABBURN. Until lately. Texas was, as it now is of right, a part of the re- public of Mexico. While Mexico was under the dominion of Spain, slavery was tolerated there. But on becoming independent of the mother countiy, she, with a consistency of which our country would have done well to set the example, gave liberty to her bondmen, and declared, that slavery should exist no more within her borders forever. With this state of things, the people were evidently well enough sa- tisfied. For, they were not the hypocrites to withhold from others the liberty which they had fought and bled to secure for themselves. They had not yet been contaminated by association with North Ameri- can republicans. They would, therefore, to a man, have remained satisfied, but for the ‘ foreign interference’ — the emigration into their country of a desperate set of speculators, gamblers, blacklegs, fleshmongers, slave-drivers, and demagogues, from these United States. These miserable libels upon humanity, though they did not without great difficulty, and never wholly, succeed in joining to their causes the old settlers of the soil, did, nevertheless, by accession to their numbers from this country, and by aid of friends they left be- hind, w’ho, unlike themselves it seems, had not quite patriotism enough to leave their country for their country’s good, ultimately felt themselves sufficiently strong to attempt the transfer of their allegi- ance from Mexico to the government of the United States. They desired to establish slavery in their new country. It was one of the chief objects of their rebellion. The plan was regarded with favor by the slave-holding members of this Union, as also by certain land- sharks of the free slates, who had made investments in Texan lots. The former saw in it a powerful means of strengthening their “ pe- culiar institution.” Both knew, if it succeeded, it would put money into their pockets. EDMUND QUINCY. There are perils, and those imminent — perils, which in the opinion of many wise men threaten to lock forever the fetters of the slave, and even to throw the links of the chain around the limbs of the free. If Texas, say they, — the land of the pirate and the murderer, the common sewer into which is drained all the filth which is too abomi- nable even for the slavej^ptates to endure — if Texas be annexed to foe United States, then slavery will be forever entailed upon us, and the preponderance which will be given to the slave-holding interest in the councils of the nation, bj' that event, will render the freemen of the north but the serfs of a southern task-master. If Texas be not annexed, then the Union will be dissolved ; a slave-holding con- federacy will be formed, and slavery forever perpetuated. EDMUND QUINCY. I ani sure that no man can deprecate more sincerely than I do, the annexation of Texas to this union. I believe thal I realize all the immediate and all the remote bearings which that event would have upon the great cause of Universal Freedom. There is no effort which I would not make — no sacrifice to which I would not gladly submit -to avert that most hateful alliance. But were it accomplished to. morrow, should I despair ? Should I despondingly abandon the cause of God and liberty on that account, and believe that the trickery of a handful of scurvy politicians at Washingto"h could cancel the decree registered in the chancery of heaven — that every slave shall be free ? Should I even believe that the period of universal emaneipa. tion would be very much delayed by that event ? No, sir. The only effect which sucii a blow would have upon me, and which I believe it would have upon every Abolitionist, would be to make me feel that a great work was to be done in a short time. That we must concen- trate all our efforts, and multiply all our machinery for acting upon the public mind, before the young dragon by the banks of the Sabine be fully grown, and before she have engendered a brood like unto herself, to be arrayed by her side against the cause of God and free- dom. Whenever proclamation is made that the union of these states is dissolved, on that day the death-knell of slavery is tolled. As soon as they are released from the fatal embrace of their northern friends, their patriarchal system falls to the ground. It is the sympathy and encouragement of the free states which sustain that system now. Let the ties of interest, which create that false sympathy, be severed, 1 and it vanishes ; stifled humanity revives, and the oppressor must soon break his rod for very shame. It is a strange infatuation to sup- % j pose that any military force, or any custom house regulations, could keep from the inhabitants of any country the influence of the whole- , some public opinion of neighboring nations, and the scorn of the civilized world. The Americans of our revolution then fought for their own liberty, and through their example of successful resistance, for the liberty of the world, But the Texans are fighting for slavery among themselves, and if success crown their desperate efforts, they will have fought for the perpetuity of slavery throughout the world. The wishes of the Texians are now for their annexation to these United States of America. If they be admitted into the union, a deep, perhaps one of the deepest blows that can be struck, will have been inflicted on the rights of man ; the name of liberty will have been profaned, her spirit disgraced, and her fair presence banished for a time, perhaps forever, from * the land of the free, and t^ home of the brave.’ As Texas rebelled against Mexico, because the institutions of domes, tic slavery could not exist in that nation, she, of course, would not ask for admission into our union, unless permitted to enter with all her slavish retinue. She deserted Mexico, because Mexico is a free state ; she now begs in the name of liberty, and with the prayer of freemen, to be united with the United States, because here under the TEXAS. star-spangled banner of our republic, she can legally fasten iron chains on the bodies, and the far worse than iron chains, the corroding ma- nacles of ignorance and servitude on, in, and all around the minds of her slaves. — The Pawtucket Chronicle. Texas. — Shall this land of slavery, this immense reservoir of col lecled abominations, become an integral part of this nation ? The avowed object is to secure ‘ the safety and repose of the south- ern states that is, in plain King’s English, to rivet the chains of slavery not on the slave only but the nation. In Rome, next to crucifixion the most infamous punishment con- sisted in lashing to the felon’s back a dead and putrefying carcass. That we as a nation have reached the point of criminality at which justice might righteously doom us to carry ‘ this body of death,’ is what we dare not deny. But we are called upon to bind the burden on our own jaacks — to do it freely — and by a deliberate act of na- tional legislation, to proclaim that we are worthy of the infamous punishment, and are ready to bow down and bear it ! What then is to be done 1 Petition Congress. This is a legiti- mate l-einedy. On this question all may unite, except the slave-holder, without distinction of party, sect, or place. Let public sentiment then, concentrating its decisive and determined energies into one loud and defening veto, meet the proposed measure on the threshold. Let it be seen that however artfully the demon of oppression may lay his plans, the friends of freedom are prepared at every point to meet him, — Cleveland Journal. LEGISLATURE OF VERMONT. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives, That the Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives requested to use their influence in that body to prevent the annexation of Texas to the union. That, representing as we do the people of Vermont, we do, here- by, in then- name, solemnly protest against such annexation in any form. That as the representatives of the people of Vermont, we do so- lemnly protest against the admission into this union, of any state whose constitution tolerates domestic slavery- That congress have full power by the constitution, to abolish sla- very and the slave trade in the district of Columbia and in the terri. tories of the United States. That our senators in congress be instructed and our representatives requested to present the foregoing report and resolutions to their re- spective houses in congress, and use their influence to carry the same speedily into effect. That the governor of this state be requested to transmit a copy of the foregoing report and resolutions to the president of the United States, and to each of our senators and representatives in congress. November 1, 1837. By the House also resolved, That congress has the constitution; power to prohibit the slave trade between the several states of th union, and to make such laws as shall effectually prohibit such trad; f ' 1 the general assembly of the state of ohic Resolved, That in the name and on behalf of the people of Ohic we do hereby protest against the annexation of the republic of Texa to the union of these states, as unjust, inexpedient, and destructive of the peace r , safety, and well-being of the nation ; and we do, in the name and on behalf of the said people solemnly declare that congres: has no power conferred on it by the constitution of the United States to consent to such annexation ; and that the people of Ohio cannot be bound by any such covenant, league or arrangement, made be. tween congress and any foreign state'or nation. u MEMORIAL. To the senate and house of representatives of the United States of America, in congress assembled. The memorial of the convention for the formation of an anti-sla- very society for the state of Pennsylvania, assembled at Harrisburg, respectfully sheweth, That your memorialists have learned with sorrow and alarm, that a proposition is at this time before your honorable body, to recognize the independence of the government assumed to be established by the insurgents of Texas. Against this measure, your memorialists in be- half of themselves, of the thousands whom they represent, and of the principles long cherished by the people of Pennsylvania ; in the name of liberty, justice, and humanity enter their SOLEMN AND UNITED PROTEST. Facts incontrovertible, which have come to the knowledge of your memorialists, warrant the belief that the insurrection in Texas, has been aided by citizens of the United States, that its main object, the grand cause of the movement, as evinced by the sentiments and con- duct of its advocates, and by the very constitution of their assumed government, is the establishment of domestic slavery, the re-opening of an immense slave market — to set up anew the shambles for human flesh, where the abhorrent traffic had been arrested and abolished by the legitimate authorities of Mexico — and finally, to annex the terri- tory to the United States. From a regard to the national honor; for the character of the age in which we live ; by their obligations to posterity ; and above all to the God of justice, your memorialists feel themselves called upon as Pennsylvanians, the representatives of free- men and Christians, to offer their strong remonstrance against any act on the part of the country of which they are citizens, which shall sanction or recognize a government which owes its origin to the base and unhallowed purpose of re-establishing slavery upon the soil of liberty. Your memorialists, therefore, respectfully but earnestly entreat your honorable body, to reject the proposition for the recognition of TEXAS. he government, assumed to be established by the insurgents of Texas, is we!! as all attempts t hat may be made to connect it with the United Slates, and as in duly bound we will ever pray, &c. Signed in behalf of the Convention, F. JULIUS LE MOYNE, President. B. F. Allen, Win. A. Adair, Benjamin Brown, Nathan Stein, Jo- eph M’Truman, Lindley Coates, Bartholomew Fussel, Win. H. Fussels, Vice-Presidents, James Rhoads, Henry Duffield, Benjamin S. Jones, Wm. B. Thomas, L L. Post, Secretaries. NEW- YORK STATE A. S. CONVENTION Resolved, That we regard the influence and efforts of American :itizens, in exciting and supporting an insurrectionary war in Mexico, vith loathing and horror. That the south, in countenancing and encouraging insurrectionary novements in Mexico, has madly lent herself to assist in forging and harpeniug the knife of the insurgent for her own defenceless throat. That we feci disgraced and outraged by the efforts of American .-itizens to restore slavery to Texas ; and that to the utmost of our lower lawfully exercised, we will resist and call upon others to resist he introduction of Texas into our republic. The sympathy which exists in behalf of Texas at the south, looks 0 other objects than the mere defence of that country. Texas is de- lired as an appendage to the strength of the south. They wish it innexed to the union, that the balance of power may still be found m the feeble side of ‘ Mason and Dixon’s line.’ Once let the cry for succor be rung through the land, and the annexation of Texas, they magine, will be as easy as it is desirable. So reasons the south. Let .he north reason otherwise. The Texians are not deserving of aid or sympathy. The invasion of that country by Santa Anna, is not un- provoked. It is in a great measure justified, in retaliation for the Santa Fe expedition, which had for its avowed purpose the subjuga- .ion and pillage of Mexico. The Texians have provoked the assault, ind si aw they must abide the consequences, unless a fool-hardy and ibsurd idea prevails, that we must succor these men, because Texas lffords a refuge for outlaws and desperadoes for the whole continent of North America. — Phila. Gaz. There is little reason to believe that the independence of Texas svould have been acknowledged if there had been any previous ap- prehension, in the minds of the people at large, that such an event ivas about to take place. Remonstrance upon remonstrance would nave been poured upon the national legislature. But there was no ?ffort, because there was no alarm. The message of president Jack- son, and the speech of Gov. McDuffie, (whatever might have been intended by those documents,) undoubtedly had the effect to make the almost universal impression that no attempt would be made during the session, to acknowledge the independence of Texas. The im- TEXAS. pression that it would not be attempted, was without doubt, the prin- cipal secret of its success. The friends of liberty and the union should see well to it that they are not caught slumbering a second time, on their posts. If they are, they must not be surprised if the wreck of our free institutions should finally prove to have been owing to their own inactivity and supineness. We call on all good citizens and especially on those who have influence with the individuals now in power, to step forward at a crisis like the present, and save the administration, by saving (he country from blood guiltiness, from re- tribution, from disgrace, disaster, and irretrievable ruin . — Friend of Man. < Message of President Jackson to the House of Representatives, | i; December 22, 1836. “The acknowledgment of a new state as independent and entitled : to a place in the family of nations, is at all times an act of great t delicacy and responsibility ; but more especially so, when such state has forcibly separated itself from another, of which it had formed an integral part, and which still claims dominion over it. A premature j recognition, under these circumstances, if not looked upon as justi- ( fiable cause of war, is always liable to be regarded as a proof of an , unfriendly spirit to one of the contending parties.” Extract from the general order of General Jackson, for the execu- tion of Arbulhnot and Ambrister : “It is an established principle of the law of nations, that any individual, of any nation, making war against the citizens of another nation, they being at peace, forfeits his allegiance, and becomes an outlaw and a pirate.” If this principle is correct, then by the rules of war, Santa Anna was right in executing the prisoners that he took in Texas, for they were, most of them, confessedly of this country. Here were their homes, before a love of plunder and of glory induced them to go to Texas, to fight against ^ government with which their native coun. try was at peace. — Liberator. WILLIAM B. TAPPAN. Admit her to the Union? Yes ! If our democracy can bow To kings, and is prepared to kiss The loathsome hem of tyrants nowi From principles that years have tried If thus we fall, no longer men, And to our fathers’ deeds of pride Are recreant — why admit her then ! If slavery’s foul and damning spot Must here increase like Abab’s cloud, Blackening the moral heavens till not One star shall blaze upon the proud ; If thus, a spectacle of scorn To nations, we’re content, — let men Lift up the consummated horn Of infamy — admit her then ! ANTI-TEXAS. Annexation of Texas. — Resolutions in favor of annexing Texas to the United States have passed the Texan Congress. It will how- ever take two to make a bargain. The people of this country will never sanction it unless slavery is first abolished — and perhaps not then. We have too much territory now. — Southport (Illinois,) American. EDWARD EVERETT. Whatever step we take towards annexation, is gratuitous. This whole subject has been so ably discussed by Dr. Channing, in his recent letter to Mr. Clay, that it would be superfluous to enlarge up- on it. I will only say that if, at this moment, when an all import- ant experiment is in train, to abolish slavery by peaceful and legal means in the British West Indies, the United States, instead of imi- tating their example or even awaiting their result, should rush into a policy of giving an indefinite extension to slavery over a vast re- gion incorporated into their Union, we should stand condemned be- fore the civilized world. It would be in vain to expect to gain credit for any further professions of a willingness to he rid of sla- very as soon as possible. No extenuation of its existence, on the ground of its having been forced upon the country in its colonial state, would any longer avail us. It would be thought, and thought justly, that lust of power and lust of gold had made us deaf to the voice of humanity and justice. We should be self-convicted of the enormous crime of having voluntarily given the greatest possible en- largement to an evil, which, in concert with the rest of mankind, we had affected to deplore, and that at a time when the public sen- timent of the civilized world, more than at any former period, is aroused to its magnitude. There are other objections to the measure, drawn from its bear- ing on our foreign relations, but it is unnecessary to discuss them. Answer to Questions of his Constituents, 1837 MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE, 1843 Resolves against the annexation of Texas to the Union. Resolved, That under no circumstances whatsoever can the peo- ple of Massachusetts regard the proposition to admit Texas into the Union, in any other light than as dangerous to its continuance in peace, in prosperity, and in the enjoyment of those blessings which it is the object of a free government to secure. Resolved, That the Senators and Representatives of Massachu- setts, in the Congress of the United States, be requested to spare no exertions to oppose, and if possible to prevent the adoption of the proposition referred to. Resolved, That His Excellency the Governor, be requested to transmit one copy of these resolutions to the Executive of each of the United States, and a like copy to each Senator and Representa- tive in Congress from Massachusetts. 23 ANTI-TEXAS. THE FREE AMERICAN. The success of the slaveholders thus far in disposing of the sub. ject of petitions and compelling their Northern satellites to lie still, and be trampled on ; the very affectionate and paternal expressions of the President’s message towards our “ daughter,” republic ; the unveiled anxiety of the South to find a balance weight in the Sen- ate for the new States of Iowa and Wisconsin, both of which will have Senators here in the 28th Congress ; the certainty that it is “ Now or never” with them, and the strong ground of encourage- ■ ment that they may now succeed, leave no room for doubt that either by a direct application from Texas to Congress, or by negociation with Mexico, confidentially, well understood to be agreeable to the leaders in Texas, there will be a more strenuous and determined ef- fort than has ever yet been made to secure the annexation of Tex- as to the United States. The only formal difficulty on our part, to a negociation with Mexico, to-wit, that we have fully acknowledg- ed the independence of Texas herself, can never be allowed to stand in the way of so great an object, especially when the whole thing is in the hands of slaveholders, and still more when the only party in interest to object, to-wit, Texas, is actually in favor of the trans- fer. — J. Leavitt. THE LIBERATOR. ■ Although the south has been defeated in her first attempt to an. ' nex the stolen and blood stained territory of Texas to this Union, yet it must not be supposed that she means to give up the project as hopeless, without making fresh exertions to carry it into effect. When she put her robber-hand upon Texas, and wrested it from Mexico, she did not dream of creating an independent slave-holding country by her side ; nor did she anticipate the amount of opposition that would be called forth on the part of the partially abolitionizcd north, against the daring proposition to unite Texas with this coun- try. She does not mean to be foiled in her purpose, but is unques- tionably watching for a favorable opportunity, when northern sus- picion is slumbering, to carry the measure in Congress by the same device that she procured the acknowledgment of Texan independ- ence, Hear the Natchez Free Trader on this subject, in a recent number : — “ Wo have reason to believe, from some advices, that a new proposition relative to the union of Texas with this country will be brought forward by a distinguished gentleman, at the next session of Congress, under very favorable auspices.” This warning is fairly given, and it behoves the non-slave'holding States to be pre- pared for the conflict. They must never consent to, such an an- nexation on any terms. Sooner let the Union be dashed to pieces. ANTI-TEXAS. THE LIBERTY PRESS. Bo assured that a fixed and unalterable determination is entertain- ed by the slaveholders of the South to have Texas annexed to this Union early next session. In addition to the evidences of this con- tained in the Resolutions of Tennessee, Alabama, See., the general tone of the Southern press, the express declarations of Henry A. Wise n ade last session, the appointment of Waddy Thompson as Minister to Mexico, the recent letter of Governor Gilmer, of Vir- ginia, the assurance of Mr. Adams that this is and will continue to be a measure vehemently urged by the South, so long as they have the least hope of securing it, we now have from a reliable source some further information in reference to it. A member of Congress from one of the ultra-slaveholding States has a friend in Texas who has just written him, detailing their wretched and despairing con- dition there. They have neither money nor credit to carry on the war, are in daily expectation of invasion, are so utterly bankrupt in property and character at home and abroad that they can get no aid, and unless they can ultimately be annexed to the United States, that there is absolutely no hope for them 1 ! He says if invaded they can make a sudden and temporary rally, and defend themselves, but they can neither raise nor sustain an army for continued ser- vice. It is a case of life or death with them, and the South know it. This member of Congress said to another with whom he conversed, and to whom he shewed the letter, we must and shall have Texas annexed soon — probably not this Congress, but early the next session. But can you expect to get Northern votes to aid in this project ? Yes, we do expect to, and we shall get them, too, replied the former, and once having secured the object, if the Northern folks don’t like it, let the dissolution of the Union come — we are prepared for it ! 1 The Texians are bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, and must be sustained. Mr. Calhoun and President Tyler are well known to be in favor of it. The Southern policy is to say as little about it as possible be- forehand, so that the masses in the North need not be aroused, and when the deed is once done, they anticipate a grumbling acquies. cence, as in similar instances heretofore- Several members of Con- gress have been writing into their districts, sounding the alarm. THE NEW- YORK AMERICAN. So, then, it is only necessary for a gang of plunderers and out- laws to declare themselves a party of emigrants, (armed to the teeth though they be,) and they can go on in their lawless career unmo- lested. Well, then, as it is a poor rule that will not work both ways, let us reverse the case. Let us suppose another South Caro- lina nullification affair. Let us suppose matters to be brought to such a pass, as to involve the general government and South Caro- lina in civil war. And now for emigrating parties. Fleets and ar- mies come from Mexico and Great Britain, and various other quar- ANTI-TEXAS. tors, to aid South Carolina in ils revolt against the national govern- : " rnent. That Government remonstrates against, such proceedings, as a violation ot neutrality, or even as an attempt to overthrow trie govern- ment itself. To all its remonstrances ; to all its complaints that those armies and fleets were openly raised and fitted out, and that they sailed “ with drums beating, and fifes playing,” for the land of nullification; the reply of those foreign governments should he, that those forces called themselves emigrating parties. Think ye, that our government would be satisfied with this? And who can tell but I 1 : this supposition may yet become history ? Who can say. that some p American Cataline, some Arnold, or Shays, or Burr, will not yet rear the standard of rebellion against the government, and be aided I in this very way by the “emigrant” fleets and armies of those gov- ernments that wish to see our republican institutions overthrown? We should remember the scripture maxim : “ With the same mea- sure that ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” . 1 H These Texan emissaries appealed to the passions of our people something after the manner following, as portrayed by a Mexican writer : . j i “They claimed the assistance of the Americans as brothers ; but \ they took care to say nothing about how thoy bad cheated these ( brothers before they u'ent to Texas. They told them the Mexicans are cruel, treacherous and cowardly ; but they took care to say ; i - nothing about their own deceitful, and treacherous conduct to the Mexicans. They told them that the Mexican government, instead of nourishing and cherishing the people of Texas, was their robber li < and oppressor ; but they caiefully poncealed, that the Mexicans had » given them lands for nothing — had' never called upon them for any sacrifice whatever — allowed them even the free exercise of their re- I ligion — and that their only robbers and oppressors were their fellow citizens of the United Stales, who wanted to seize their lands. They told them that in colonizing Texas, the Mexican government owed them a favor, and not they to the Mexican government, but they made no reference to the fact, that in the United States, every territory was settled in the same manner, and that, too, after paying , i well for the land, which they did not” — in Texas. “ They assured I them that the Mexicans were bringing the savage Indians to mur- der them ; but they concealed that the Mexican troops protected them from those very Indians, and that if the Indians are hostile, it is on account of indignities ottered by the Texans, and of being de- | prived of their lands by them. They spoke most pathetically of hunger, thirst, dangers innumerable, and evils inexpressible in Tex- as, all owing to the vile Mexicans ; hut they confessed not the truth, namely, that from the Mexicans they not only got lands, but also flocks and herds, and that the hardships incident lo all new set- tlements were scarcely ever felt in Texas. They declared, that it was not they who were the aggressors, but the Mexican govern- ment, without any provocation whatever; but they omitted the fact, that the Mexican government had granted every law they wanted ; ANTI-TEXAS. promised protection to all orderly settlers ; and only wanted to pun- ish and expel land speculators and jobbers, who had introduced themselves from the United States, with slaves. They tempted them with the large tracts of fertile land that the grateful Texians would allow them for their assistance against the Mexicans ; but they (the land jobbers) concealed, that they themselves, by false titles and usurpation, pretended a right to all the lands in Texas that were valuable ; that they wanted to resist the Mexican govern- ment, to preserve these lands unlawfully acquired ; and that the Texans, in place of sympathizing with them, hated them as spoilers of the commonwealth, and disturbers of the public peace.” JUSTITIA. NEW- YORK TRIBUNE. We have received communications on both sides of the question of consenting to the Annexation of Texas to our Federal Union. We cannot make room for them, deeming it incredible that any sane man should favor such Annexation, and having no room to waste on fighting shadows. Whenever the question shall be brought be- fore the country by the advocates of Annexation, we shall be found among the most determined, untiring onposers of any such measure- Our country is quite large enough now ; Texas is burthened with war and debt ; her people are loo generally improvident and idle, and we would far sooner spare many more such than take them back again. Besides, any attempt to annex Texas to the Union would excite the bitterest jealousy and hostility in England, France, and throughout the civilized world. Why not let well enough alone 1 If the Texans prefer to live in the United Slates, they can easily come back here — far more easily than they can maintain themselves where they are. We have reports that the Southern States favor the Annexation, but do not yet find evidence to confirm them. Why should the South seek needlessly to renew the perils of the Missouri controver- sy ? — to throw the whole subject of Slavery into the arena of party politics and bar-room altercation ? No, no : the old and safe rule ofour International policy — “ Equal justice to all ; entangling alliances with none,” — must be adhered to, or we shall be afloat on a fathom- less, shoreless sea of troubles. Let us be wise now. — Nov. 1342. PITTSBURGH GAZETTE. We are fearful that the importance and truth of Mr. Adams’s re- marks in reference to the conspiracy existing among slaveholding politicians, to annex Texas to the Union, will not be felt by the peo- ple generally, until they wake up to find the object of the conspira- cy consummated, or so nearly consummated that insistence will be hopeless. If, through supineness and indifference, the North permits this great object of the South to be accomplished, there will be an end of all independence and free legislation, on the part of the free *23 ANTI-TEXAS. States. We shall then become the vassals of the southern taskmas- ter. A sufficient number of States can*be carried out of Texas, to give the South the balance of power forever. They will then have both the power of numbers and the power resulting from a common (= interest in an immense amount of property. Can any lover of his country look upon this prospect of entailing upon us the power, the influence and enormities of American sla- very, through all time, without a feeling of horror and indignation; and yet there cannot be the slightest doubt that such is the design of the South. The following article, from the Cincinnati Gazette, i; commenting on an article from the Union, the organ of Tyler, in New. York city, is worthy of attention. The remarks of the Union are strongly corroborative of the statements of Mr. Adams, and i show that there is danger, — danger near at hand, and of a most L alarming character. The present unprincipled occupant of the li. Presidential chair is a firm believer in the sentiment that “what the !-. law declares to be property, is property and that “ two hundred years of legislation has sanctioned, and sanctified negro slaves as property.” Acting on this belief, he is bending all his exertions to perpetuate the existence of this great evil. Let every patriot and friend of human rights ponder well on this subject. The Gazette L says : “ There are those who affect to laugh at Mr. Adams’s views as f regards the annexation of Texas to this Union. We believe his J statements ; and furthermore we believe that it is the intention of a large portion of the politicians now in power to secure this object. The plan, as we understand it, is to guarantee the independence of Texas, and, if practicable, to go further, and secure its annexation > to this country.” Texas. — Memorials against the admission of Texas into the union i ought to be industriously circulated through the country, for every body to sign, and be poured in at the next Congress in clouds. The j I admission of Texas into the union, would be the death warrant of ' that union. It might linger out a short and painful existence after- j wards, but what would remain of life after admitting Texas, would I be like the life of man after 70 — “ We rather sigh and groan than live.” — Lynn Record. We trust for our country’s sake and happiness — for our liberty and union and peace — that this most extravagant scheme about to be renewed, of annexing Texas, which is twice as large as Pennsyl- vania and Virginia united — to her already bloated Territory, will be frowned down by the universal people. A union resting as one ter- minus on the Pacific Ocean, as another on Mexico, as a third on N. Brunswick and the Atlantic, could not be held together for six months. It would crumble to pieces by its own weight, and over- whelm all in its ruins. Or, if it was kept consolidated, it would on- ly be by the agency, of some despotic principle, which could bury the Liberty and happiness of the American people in one common grave. — Richmond Whig ANTI-TEXAS. How can we style him a tyrant, who benevolently offered tho southern planters the noble privilege of tilling the land in the Prov- ince of Texas, and that, too exempt from taxation for ten years ? Can we call Santa-Anna a tyrant, who in 1829, passed a decree that there should be no slaves held in his dominions after that year ? Can we call him a tyrant, who opposed the efforls of rebels, and used them with deserved severity ? Do we call him a tyrant, who fouo-ht and bled in a cause whose principles are immortal, and are from the authority of God ? — who to contravene the efforts of those who wished to substantiate more firmly the horrible system of sla- very. Justice and equity — right and wrong, remain the same, not- withstanding the customs of man being vitiated by corruption, and he calls that injustice which opposes him. Yes, Santa Anna too well knerv that there was no crime, however dreadful, that the sys- tem of slavery did not tolerate and generate, and that a nation, how- ever prosperous and wealthy, would fall into anarchy under its deadly influence. When Congress had not declared war with Mexico, what folly was it for the troops of this nation to assume the power of commit, ting hostilities ? So far have men been swallowed up in iniquity, that their return for benevolence is foul revelry and devastating destruc- tion. These things cannot continue long in such a state, where the fundamental principles of human unalienable rights are so impetu- ously opposed. As christiaus, we cannot but believe, that such conduct will ere long, call down the irresistable wrath and judg- ment of an immutable and offended God . — Woonsocket Patriot. Much exultation is manifested by certain editors at the Texian success of arms, as an advance of civil liberty. We could most cordi- ally respond to their rejoicings did we believe that such would be the result. We have a totally different opinion of the subject. We believe it will be to extend and perpetuate Slavery — to rivet more firmly the shackles of the oppressed African, and that the hue and cry for Texian liberty, means in fact no more than liberty to hold slaves, and that the Constitution of the United States, should it ev- er be extended over them, guaranteeing to them, in letter, “ life, lib- erty, and property,” would be to all but the lordly master, “a rheto- rical flourish .” — Hampshire Republican. ANTI-TEXAS. WILLIAM H. BURLEIGH, lo ! for the rescue ! ye who part ’arents from children — heart from heart— Jp ! “ patriarchs” — and gather round, Jfe who sell infants by the pound! The land of chivalry and chains, Whose priests have sanctified pollution, Pours in her ruffians from her plains, And Houston still with them, maintains Our “ patriarchal institution !” Shout for the onset ! till the North, Startled, shall quit her little knaveiy, And pour her choicest scoundrels forth To fight for Texas lands and — slavery 1 Shout for our homes and household altars, Where justice comes not with her halters! Where proudly walk our ranks among, The forger and the “ great unhung !” Where Houston, chiei of San Jacinto, Arrayed in Presidential dignity, Reckless, remorseless, plunges into Crimes which “Old Nick” would scarce begin to. With all his lust and dire malignity ! These be thy Gods, oh Texas ! — these ! — Tried heroes, dipped in lust and blood — From justice sturdy refugees, And outcasts from the wise and good! Then fling abroad our glorious star, And gather for victorious war — - Led on by such, our arms shall be Bulwarks and walls for slavery ! Ho! Texians! for the battle cry — “ Alamo ! vengeance to the foeman !” Fling out your banner to the sky, Maintain — or in the struggle die ; The glorious right of — floenwg woman. August 25 th, 1837. Oppressed by Britain, we threw off the chain : A worse oppression we ourselves maintain, Texas has sins for which she should atone : Shall we take her’s, and thus increase our own 7 Shall we pursue a course which Heaven abhors, And bind our freemen, slaves to unjust laws 7 Forbid it, Pleaven ! nor let it e’er be said, That ’twas for this our fathers fought and bled ; Let not their sons erase their well earned fame, Eclipse their glory in a nation’s shame. — Louis, Jour. , ANTI-TEXAS. RHODE ISLAND. Whereas this limited Government possesses no power to extend its jurisdiction over any foreign nation ; and no foreign nation, country, or people, can be admitted into this Union but by the sov- ereign will and act of the free people of all and each of these United States : nor without the formation of a new compact of union, and another frame of government radically different in objects, principles and powers, from that which was framed for our own self-govern- ment, and deemed to be adequate to all the exigencies of our own free Republic : Therefore, Resolved, That we have witnessed with deep concern the indi- cations of a disposition to bring into this Union, as a constituent member thereof, the foreign province or territory of Texas. Resolved, That although we are fully aware of the consequences which must follow the accomplishment of such a project, could it be accomplished— aware that it would lead speedily to the conquest and annexation of Mexico itself, and its fourteen remaining provin- ces or intendencies, which, together with thq revolted province of Texas, would furnish foreign territories and foreign people for at least twenty members of the new Union. That it would load the nation with debt and taxes, and, by involving it in perpetual war and commotions, both foreign and internal, would furnish a pretence (which a state of war never fails to furnish) for the assumption and exercise of powers incompatible with our free republican institu- tions, and subversive of the liberties of the People. That the gov- ernment of a nation so extended and so constructed would soon be- come radically changed in character, if not in form ; would una- voidably become a military government, and, under the plea of ne- cessity, would free itself from the restraints of the Constitution, and from its accountability of the People. That we are fully aware of the deep degradation into which this young Republic would sink itself, in the eyes of the whole world, should it annex to its own vast territories other and foreign territo- ries of immense though unknown extent, for the purpose of encourag- ing the propagation of slavery, and promoting the raising of slaves within its own bosom — the very bosom of freedom — to be exported and sold in those unhallowed regions. Although we are fully aware of these fearful evils, and numberless others which would come in their train, yet we do not here dwell upon them, because we are firm I y convinced that the free People of most, and we trust of all these States, will never suffer the admission of the foreign territory of Tex- as into this Union as a constituent member thereof ; will never suf- fer the integrity of this Republic to be violated, either by the intro, duction and addition to it of foreign nations or territories, one or ma- ny, or by the dismemberment of it by the transfer of any or more of its members to a foreign nation. The People will be aware, that, should one foreign State or country be introduced, another and an- other may be, without end, whether situated in South America, in the West India islands, or in any other part of tho#vorld ; and that ANTI-TEXAS. a single foreign State thus admitted, might have in its power, by holding the balance between contending parties, to wrest their own Government from the hands and control of the People by whom it was established for their own benefit and self-government. We are firmly convinced that the free People of these States will look upon any attempt to introduce the foreign territory of Texas, or any other foreign territory or nation, into this Union, as a constituent member or members thereof, as manifesting a willingness to prostrate the Constitution and dissolve the Union. Resolved, That his excellency the Governor be requested to for- ward a copy of the foregoing resolutions to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress, and to each of the Executives of the several States, with a request that the same may be laid before the respective Legislatures of said States. A true copy — witness : HENRY BOWEN, Sec. of State. LEGISLATURE OF MICHIGAN. “ Whereas propositions have been made for the annexation of Tex- as to the United States, with a view to its ultimate incorporation in- to the Union : “ And whereas the extension of this General Government over so large a country on the Southwest, between which and that of the original States there is little affinity, and less identity of interests, would tend, in the opinion of this Legislature, greatly to disturb the safe and harmonious operations of the Government of the United States, and put in imminent danger the continuance of this happy Union : Therefore, “ Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Michigan, That in behalf, and in the name of, the State of Michigan, this Legislature doth hereby dissent from, and solemnly protest against, the annexation, for any purpose, to this Union, of Texas, or any territory or district of country heretofore constituting a part of the dominions of Spain in America, lying west or southwest of Louisiana.” TO THE PEOPLE OF THE FREE STATES OF THE UNION. We, the undersigned, in closing our duties to our constituents and our country, as members of the 27th Congress, feel bound to call your attention, very briefly, to the project long entertained by a por- tion of the people of these United States, still pertinaciously adher- ed to, and intended soon to be consummated — the annexation of Texas to the Union. The open and repaeted enlistment of troops in several States of this Union in aid of the Texan revolution ; the intrusion of an American army, by order of the President, far into the territory of the Mexican Government, at a moment critical to the fate of the in- surgents, under pretence of preventing Mexican soldiers from fo- ANTI-TEXAS. meriting Indian disturbances, but in reality in aid of, and acting in singular concert and coincidence with, the army of the revolution ists; the entire neglect of our Government to adopt any efficient measures to prevent the most unwarrantable aggressions of bodies of our own citizens, enlisted, organized, and officered within our own borders, and marched in arms and battle array upon the territory, and against the inhabitants of a friendly Government, in aid of free- booters and insurgents ; and the premature recognition of the in- dependence of Texas, by a snap vote, at the heel of a session of Congress, and that, too, at the very session when President Jackson had, by special message, insisted that “ the measure would be con- trary to the policy invariably observed by the United States, in all similar cases, would be marked with great injustice to Mexico, and peculiarly liable to the darkest suspicions, inasmuch as the Texans were almost all emigrants from the United States, and sought the re- cognition of their independence with the avowed purpose of obtain- ing their annexation to the United States these occurrences are too well known and too fresh in the memory of all to need more than a passing notice. These have become matters of history. For fur- ther evidence on all these and other important points, we refer to the memorable speech of John Quincy Adams, delivered in the House of Representatives during the morning hours of June and Ju- ly, 1838, and to his address to his constituents, delivered at Brain- tree, September 17, 1842. The open avowal of the Texans themselves, the frequent and anx- ious negotiations of our own Government, the resolutions of vari- ous States of the Union, the numerous declarations of members of Congress, the tone of the Southern press, as well as the direct ap- plication of the Texan Government, make it impossible for any man to doubt that annexation and the formation of several new slave- holding States and the Executive of the nation. The same references will show, very conclusively, that the par- ticular objects of this new acquisition of slave territory were the per- petuation of slavery and the continued ascendancy of the slave power. We hold that there is not only “ no political necessity” for it, “ no advantages to be derived from it,” but that there is no constitution- al power delegated to any department of the National Government, to authorize it ; that no act of Congress, or treaty for annexation, can impose the least obligation upon the several States of this Un- ion to submit to such an unwarrantable act, or to receive into their family and fraternity such misbegotten and illegitimate progeny. We hesitate not to say, that annexation, effected by any act or proceeding of the Federal Government, or any of its departments, would be identical with dissolution. It would be a violation of our national compact, its objects, designs, and the great elementary principles which entered into its formation, of a character so deep and fundamental, and would be an attempt to eternize an institu- tion and a power of nature so unjust in themselves, so injurious to ANTI-TEXAS. the interests and abhorrent to the feelings of the people of the free States, as, in our opinion, not only inevitably to result in a dissolu- tion of the Union, but fully to justify it; and we not only assert that the people of the free States “ ought not to submit to it,” but we say, with confidence, they would not submit to it. We know their present temper and spirit on this subject too well to believe for a moment that they would become pariiceps criminis in any such subtle contrivance for the irremediable perpetuation of an institu- tion which the wisest and best men who formed our Federal Con- stitution, as well from the slaves as the free States, regarded as an evil and a curse, soon to become extinct under the operation of laws to be passed prohibiting the slave-trade, and the progressive influ ence of the principles of the Revolution. Washington, March 3, 1843. John Quincy Adams, Seth M. Gates, William Slade, William B- Calhoun, Joshua R. Giddings, Sherlock J. Andrews, Nathaniel B. Borden, Tiios. C. Chittenden, John Mattocks, Christopher Morgan, Joshua- M. Howard, Victory Birdseye, Thomas A. Tomlinson, Staley N. Clark, Charles Hudson, Archibald L. Linn, Thomas W. Williams, Truman Smith, David Bronson, George N. Briggs. The Texan Revolution, by Probus. — This is a pamphlet of 84 large octavo pages, and contains a very comprehensive account of that unparalleled outrage against the laws of Nature and of Nations. It exhibits the perfidy of the president — hospitality of the Mexicans, — pretexts of the revolution — the real causes — base scheme to annex it to U. S. at the next session of Congress, 1843-44 — John Tyler, Cabinet and Co. — war of Texas and U. S. against Mexico and Great Britain — visitation and search, the slave trade and Cass — speech of John Quincy Adams — other presidents’ proclamations of Neutrality. Sold at the National A. S. Standard, Office No. 143 Nassau Street, New-York ; 25 cents single. § ..'-a < o § H - 3 o 5° ■H Zfl n h |§ d h 3 W in a w ^ H o v « >> c -5 p ■-< zn 2 3 o ■a ? 0 O i3 .■£ CO CO G ^ 0 J" 3 G .. G P 3 O 0 ! 3 H': S O si J ■'"S' a> a) G G £ £ 3 5 o 3 o (fl p, o S = c £ 3 "0 „ 0 d C/2 4-> ^ T3 ^ 1 >> s p> ^ G ’ r ~’ 'g — S ^ ^ P o 00°^* = ^ P P -2 *-! 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C > tj o C2 p O 0 Gd u/ ^ 3 I Qh g CG*^ ° to 2 g 3 OT -p O " —• d2 •g G Hi S3 "2 -o’" -3 > WJ 0 CO i- 5— i CO ' '“' f-< 0 G go po pd • r-* , — . co co g 0 ® $ ‘“'S ^ | .S !»=3 CLTZ 3 s • fcD ^ id — -; P CO co CG P -G G ! 5s.i “ a. o - o 3 g P. 0 G ft essg , — . ,_ ^ G - ■ , , g 0 Gd Pd *j co 2S'S"§^'SS g "Sd s s f p 0 O P o 5 ° i3 C3 -tJ ^ M o 0 CO G P Gd ' C ,FH P G G b/) j. 0 G g ^ 5^0 2 ^ THE EAGLE OF LIBERTY. THE FREE EAGLE OF MEXICO GRAPPLING THE COLD BLOODED VIPER, TYRANNY OR TEXAS. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY, THE FIRST SCENE IN BRITISH EMANCIPATION. Granville Sharpe rescuing a young African, claimed as a slave, from his tyrant, in presence of the Mayor of London. Sharpe pur- sued his humane course, and liis elaborate researches produced the f work entitled, “The injustice and dangerous tendency of tolerating slavery,” and procured the grand and glorious decision from the British courts of justice published in 1769, in the face of all Europe and the world, “ That every slave was free as soon as he had set foot upon British ground.” This Herculean achievement laid the corner stone of the hallowed temple of African liberty [since extended to all British Territories.] David Simpson. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. THE LAST SCENE IN BRITISH EMANCIPATION. “After the 1st, Aug. 1834, slavery shall be and is hereby utterly and forever abolished and declared unlawful throughout the British colonies, plantations, and possessions abroad-” Act, 3d and 4th, Wil- liam IV. This noble Act was trammelled with an apprenticeship (to slavery to prepare its victims for freedom !) Antigua and Bermuda, declined the proffered continuation, with, of course, the happiest results. The Legislatures of Jamaica, Barbadoes, St. Vincent, St. Kitts, and the West Indies generally, have done likewise and on Aug. 1, 1838, three- fourths of a million of human beings were, by law, restored to their birth-right by Nature. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. The San of Righteousness shall arise , with healing under his wings. JAMES A. THOME. JOSEPH H. KIMBALL. ' Emancipation in the British West indies. The event of emancipation passed peaceably. The first of August, 1834, is universally regarded in Antigua, as having presented a most imposing and sublime moral spectacle. It is almost impossible to be in the company of a missionary, a planter, or an emancipated negro, for ten minutes, without hearing some allusion to that oc- casion. In every quarter we were assured that the day was like a Sabbath. Work had ceased, the huin of business was still, and noise and tu- mult were unheard on the streets. Tranquillity pervaded the towns and country. A isabbath indeed ! when the wicked cease from trou- bling, and the weary were at rest, and the slave was free from his master ! The planters informed us that they went to the chapels where their own people were assembled, greeted them, shook hands with them, and exchanged the most hearty good wishes. There has been since emancipation, not only no rebellion in fact, but no fear of it in Antigua. The miiiiia were not called out during Christinas holidays. Before emancipation, martial law invariably prevailed on the holidays, but the very first Christmas after emanci- pation, the Governor made a proclamation stating that in consequence of the abolition of slavery, it was no longer necessary to resort to such a precaution. There has not been a parade of soldiery on any subsequent Christmas. Emancipation is regarded by all classes as a great blessing to the island. There is not a class, or party, or sect, who do not esteem the abolition of slavery as a special blessing to them. The rich, be cause it relieved them of “ property” which was fast becoming a dis- grace. as it had always been a vexation and a tax, and because it has emancipated them from the terrors of insurrection, which kept them all their life time subject to bondage. The poor whites — be *2 THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. cause it lifted from off them the yoke of civil oppression. The free j colored population — because it gave the death blow to the prejudice that crushed them, and opened the prospect of social, civil, and po. litical equality with the whites. The slaves — because it. broke open their dungeon, led them out to liberty, and gave them, in one muni- ficent donation, their wives, their children, their bodies, their souls — every thing ! The negroes work more cheerfully, and do their work better than they did during slavery. Wages are found to be an ample substi- tute for the lash — they never fail to secure the amount of labor de- sired. This is particularly true where task work is tried, which in done occasionally in cases of a pressing nature, when considerable effort is required. ! . The governor said, “ The negroes are as a race remarkable for docility ; they are very easily controlled by kind influence. It is only necessary to gain their confidence, and you can sway them as you please.” | |i Let it be remembered that the negroes of Antigua passed, “ by a single jump, from absolute slavery to unqualified freedom.” In proof of their subordination to law, we give the testimony of planters, and quote also from the police reports sent in monthly to the Governor. “ I have found that the negroes are readily controlled by law; more so perhaps than the laboring classes in other countries.” — Da- t vid Granstoun, Esq. “ The conduct of the negro population generally, has surpassed nil expectation. They are as pliant to the hand of legislation, as any people; perhaps more so than some.” — Wesleyan Missionary. “ Before emancipation took place, there was the bitterest opposi- tion to it among the planters. But after freedom came, they were delighted with the change. I felt strong opposition myself, being accordingly unwilling to give up my power of command. But l shall never forget how differently I felt when freedom took place. I arose from my bed on the first of August, exclaiming with joy, 1 1 am free, I am free ; I was the greatest slave on the estate, but now i I am free.’ ” — Mr. J. Howell. Barbadoes. — “ The state of crime is not so bad by any means as j we might have expected among the negroes — just released from sucli a degrading bondage. Considering the state of ignorance in which they have been kept, and the immoral examples set them by tho lower class of whites, it is matter of astonishment that they should behave so well. “ The apprentices would have a great respect for law, were it not for the erroneous proceedings of tho managers, overseers, &c. in taking them before the magistrates for every petty offence, and often abusing the magistrate in the presence of the apprentices, when his decision does not please them. “ Not the slightest sense of insecurity. As a proof of this, pro- perty has, since the commencement of the apprenticeship, increased in value considerabl}' — at least one third. “ The most prejudiced planters would not return to the old system if they possibly could. They admit that they got more work from THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. the laborers now than they formerly did, and they are relieved from a great responsibility .” — Joseph Hamilton. According to the declaration of one of the special magistrates, “ Barbadoes has long been distinguished for its devotion to slavery.” There is probably no portion of the globe where slave-holding, slave- driving, and slave-labor, have been reduced to a more perfect sys- tem. The records of slavery in Barbadoes are stained with bloody atrocities. The planters uniformly spoke of slavery as a system of cruelties. The slaves were not unfrequently worked in the streets of Bridge- town with chains on the wrists and ankles. Flogging on the estates and in the town, were no less public than frequent, and there was an utter shamelessness often in the manner of its infliction. Even women were stripped naked on the sides of the streets, and their backs lace- rated with the whip. It was a common practice, when a slave of- fended a while man, for the master to send for a public whipper, and order him to take the slave before the door of the person offend- ed, and flog him till the latter was satisfied. White females would order their male slaves to be stripped naked in their presence and and flogged, while they would look on to see that their orders were faithfully executed. Sir. Prescod mentioned an instance which he himself witnessed near Bridgetown. He had seen an aged female slave, stripped and whipped by her own son, a child of twelve, at the command of the mistress. Hostility to emancipation prevailed in Barbadoes. That island has always been peculiarly attached to slavery. From the beginning of the anti-slavery agitations in England, the Barbadians distinguished themselves by their inveterate opposition. As the grand result ap- proximated they increased their resistance. They appealed, remon- strated, begged, threatened, deprecated, and imprecated. They con- tinually protested that abolition would ruin the colony — that the ne- groes could never be brought to work — especially to raise sugar — without the whip. They both besought and demanded of the Eng- lish that they should cease their interference with their private affairs and personal property. From statements already made, the reader will see how great a change has come over the feelings of the planters. If he has fol- lowed us, he has seen tranquillity taking the place of insurrections, a sense of security succeeding to gloomy forebodings, and public or- der supplanting mob law ; he has seen subordination to authority, peacefulness, industry, and increasing morality, characterizing the negro population ; he has seen property rising in value, crime les- sening, expenses of labor diminishing, the whole island blooming with unexampled cultivation, and waving with crops unprecedented in the memory of its inhabitants ; above all, he has seen licentious- ness decreasing, prejudice fading away, marriage extending, educa- tion spreading, and religion preparing to multiply her churches and missionaries over the land. These are the blessings of abolition — begun only, and but partial- ly realized as yet, but promising a rich maturity in time to come, after the work of freedom shall have been completed. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. We were introduced to the Solicitor-General, William Henry Anderson, Esq. of Kingston. Mr. A. is a Scotchman, and has re- sided in Jamaica for mere than six years. We found him the fear- less advocate of negro emancipation. lie exposed the corruptions and abominations of the apprenticeship without reserve. He says ; “ A very material change for the better has taken place in the sen- timents of the community since slavery was abolished. Religion and education were formerly opposed as subversive of the security of proper- ty ; now they are in the most direct manner encouraged as its best sup- port. The value of all kinds of property has risen considerably, and a general sense of security appears to be rapidly pervading the pub- , lie mind. I have not heard one man assert that it would be an ad- vantage to return to slavery, even were it practicable; and I believe that the public is beginning to see that slave-labor is not the cheapest. “ The prejudices against color are rapidly vanishing. I do not think there is a respectable man, I mean one who would be regarded as respectable on account of his good sense and weight of character, who would impugn another’s conduct for associating with persons of color. So far as my observation goes, those who would formerly have acted on these prejudices, will be ashamed to own that they had entertained them. The dislinetion of superior acquirements still be- I longs to the whites, as a body ; but that, and character, will shortly be ihc only distinguishing mark recognized among us. “ I think the negroes might have been emancipated as safely in 1834, as in 1840 ; and had the emancipation then taken place, they would be found much further in advance in 1840, than they can be after the expiration of the present period of apprenticeship, through which all, both apprentices and masters, are laboring heavily.” Trade is now equalizing itself among all classes. A spirit of com- petition is awakened, banks have been established, steam navigation introduced, rail-roads projected, old highways repaired, and new ones opened. The descendants of the slaves are rapidly supplying the places which were formerly filled by whiles from abroad. We had some conversation with several apprentices, who called on Mr. Bourne for advice and aid. They all thought the apprenticeship very hard, but still, on the whole, liked it better than slavery. They “ were killed too bad,” — that was their expression — during slavery — were worked hard and terribly flogged. They were up ever so early and late — .went out in the mountains to work, when so cold busha would have to cover himself up on the ground. Had little time to eat, or go to meeting. ’Twas all slash, slash ! Now they couldn’t be flogged, unless the magistrate said so. Still the busha was very hard to them, and many of the apprentices run away to the woods, they are so badly used. The actual working of the apprenticeship in Jamaica, was the specific object of our investigations in that island. That it had not operated so happily as in Barbadoes, and in most of the other colo- nies, was admitted by all parties. As to the degree of its failure, we were satisfied it was not so great as had been represented. There has been nothing of an insurrectionary character since the abolition. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. JOHN JAY. AVe reek in vain in the page of history for the results of honesty, justice and kindness, as exemplified in the dealings of nation towards nation ; or in the conduct of the mighty and powerful towards the defenceless and the weak. It was reserved for England to furnish this missing chapter in the history of the world — this unliinned pic- ‘.lire in the Gallery of Time. Thus will Truth and Justice finally triumph over falsehood and oppression. Their high influence, viewless as the winds, and intan- gible as the magnet’s sympathy, wafted from heart to heart, with all the powers of Nature for allies, gathers strength with each setting sun ; and the oppressors who, trembling with the presentiment of defeat, attempt to stay the progress of Liberty by fierce resolves, and penal laws, and brutal force, exhibit wisdom akin to that of Xerxes, when he would bind the Hellespont with fetters, and punish it with scourges. ORVILLE L. HOLLEY. A black empire is destined to spread over the Caribbean sea, and shelter, under the banner of its power, the long-bound descendants of Africa ! Well— let it spread ! If there be any truth in the origi- nal excuse for bringing negroes to the tropical regions of America, that white men could not cultivate their soil, and live, it will be a fortunate event for agriculture, commerce and humanity ; for if the islands yield their products so abundantly to the labor of chained slaves, how much more largely will they repay the cultivation of freemen ! Let it spread — for if the horrible slave-trade is ever to be actually abolished, it must be preceded by cutting off the ownership of Eu rope in every territory where white hands cannot, or will not labor. Let it spread — for if old Africa is ever to be civilized — if her parched solitudes are ever to be refreshed by the streams of knowledge, and smile with the green and bloomy growth of intellectual and moral culture — if ever Ethiopia is to “stretch forth her hands to God,” and the Sun of Righteousness wheel his bright chariot over the idle realms of that benighted continent, it must all be done through the instru- mentality of her American offspring. And it shall be done. The warm-hearted men, whom their brethren sold into bondage, are des- tined yet to supply those brethren with the best of food, from the full granaries of their power, and wealth, and knowledge : the silver cup too shall be sent along, in which to pledge the wine of reconciliation and joy, for the famine shall be removed from the land of their fathers. Anonymous gift of $ 2 , 000 , August 1 , 1833 . “One who abhors the sham republicanism of a republic which holds nearly three millions of men, women, and children in slavery —who loathes from the lowest depths of his soul the time-serving, pusillanimous and spurious Christianity of churches which refuse to THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. • cry aloud’ or even to cry at all against the system which prohibits marriage and the reading of the Bible, and authorizes the trafficking! in immortal god-like men, as if they were beasts — and who greatly admires the unflinching courage and Christian integrity, and genuine republicanism of the American Anti-Slavery Society, herewith en. closes, on this Glorious Anniversary of British emancipation, to the' ! Treasurer of said Society, a gift of two thousand dollars.” — Let - 1 Ur to James Birney. HISTORICAL EVIDENCE, 1 If Concerning the Effects of Immediate Emancipation. When the question of immediate abolition was first started in England, the friends of slavery vociferated nothing more loudly, than the danger of universal insurrection and bloodshed ; and nothing took stronger hold of the sympathies and conscientious fears of the people, than these repeated assertions. This is precisely the state of things in our own country, at the present time. We all know that it is not according to human nature for men to turn upon their benefactors, i and do violence, at the very moment they receive what they have long desired ; but we are so repeatedly told the slaves will murder their masters, if they give them freedom, that we can hardly help believing that, in this peculiar case, the laws of human nature must be reversed. : Let us try to divest ourselves of the fierce excitement now abroad in the community, and calmly inquire what is the testimony of history on this important subject. In June, 1793, a civil war occurred between the aristocrats and republicans of St. Domingo ; and the planters called in the aid of Great Britain. The opposing party proclaimed freedom to all slaves, and armed them against the British. It is generally supposed that the j I abolition of slavery in St. Domingo was in consequence of insurrections among the slaves ; but this is not true. It was entirely a measure of political expediency. And what were the consequences of this sudden and universal emancipation? Whoever will take the pains to search , the histories of that island, will find the whole colored population . remained faithful to the republican party which had given them freedom. ; The British were defeated, and obliged to evacuate the island. The |.l sea being at that time full of British cruisers, the French had no time to attend to St. Domingo, and the colonists were left to govern them- . selves. And what was the conduct of the emancipated slaves, under these circumstances ? About 500,000 slaves ha.d instantaneously ; ceased to be property, and were invested with the rights of men ; yet there was a decrease of crime, and every thing went on quietly and prosperously. Col. Malenfant, who resided on the island, says, in his . historical memoir : “ After this public act of emancipation, the negroes remained quiet both in the south and west, and they continued to work upon all the plantations. Even upon those estates which had been HISTORICAL EVIDENCE. abandoned by owners and managers, the negroes continued their labor where there were any agents to guide ; and where no white men were left to direct them, they betook themselves to planting provisions. The colony was flourishing. The whites lived happy and in peace upon their estates, and the negroes continued to work for them.” General Lacroix, in his memoirs, speaking of the same period, says: “ The colony marched as by enchantment towards its ancient splendor ; cultivation prospered; every day produced perceptible proofs of its progress.” This prosperous state of things lasted about eight years ; and would probably have continued to this day, had not Bonaparte, at the insti- gation of the old aristocratic French planters, sent an army to deprive the blacks of the freedom which they had used so well. It was the attempt to restore slavery, that produced all the bloody horrors of St. Domingo. Emancipation produced the most blessed effects. In June, 1794, Victor Hugo, a French republican general, retook the island of Guadaloupe from the British, and immediately proclaimed freedom to all the slaves. They were 85,000 in number, and the whites only 13,000. A’o disasters whatever occurred in consequence of this step. On the 10th of October, 181 1, the congress of Chili decreed that every child born after that day should be free. In 1821, the congress of Colombia emancipated all slaves who had borne arms in favor of the republic ; and provided for the emancipation ui eighteen years of the whole slave population, amounting to 900,000. In September, 1829, the government of Mexico granted immediate and unqualified freedom to every slave. In all these cases , not one instance of insurrection or bloodshed has ever been heard of, as the result f emancipation. In July, 1823, 30,000 Hottentots in Cape Colony, were emancipated ’rom their long and cruel bondage, and admitted by law to all the •ights and privileges of the white colonists. Outrages were predicted, is the inevitable consequence of freeing human creatures so completely irutalized as the poor Hottentots but all went on peaceably ; and as i gentleman facetiously remarked, “Hottentots as they were, they worked better for Mr. Cask, than they had ever done for Mr. Lash.” In the South African Commercial Advertiser of February, 1831, it s stated : “ Three thousand prize negroes have received their freedom ; bur hundred in one day ; but not the least difficulty or disaster occured. Seramls found masters — masters hired servants — all gained homes, and it night scarcely an idler teas to be seen. — To state that sudden eman- ■ipation would create disorder and distress to those you mean to serve, 3 not reason, but the plea of all men adverse to abolition.” On the 1st of August, 1834, the government of Great Britain eman- cipated the slaves in all her colonies, of which she had twenty ; seven- een in the West Indies, and three in the East Indies. The numerical superiority of the negroes in the West Indies is great, n Jamaica there were 331,000 slaves, and only 37,000 whites. By he clumsy apprenticeship system, the old stimulus of the whip was aken away, while the new and better stimulus of wages was not ipplied. The negroes were aware that if they worked well they ST. DOMINGO. should not be paid for it, and that if they worked ill they could not b. flogged, as they had formerly been. Y et even under these disadvan tageous circumstances, no difficulties occurred except in three of th< islands ; and even there the difficulties were slight and temporary The worst enemies of abolition have not yet been able ti SHOW THAT A SINGLE DROP OF BLOOD HAS BEEN SHED, OR A SINGLI PLANTATION FIRED, IN CONSEQUENCE OF EMANCIPATION, IN ALL TH1 British West Indies! Antigua and Bermuda did not try the apprenticeship system ; bu at once gave the stimulus of wages. In those islands not the sliglites difficulties have occured. The journals of Antigua say : “ The grea doubt is solved ; and the highest hopes of the negro’s friends are ful filled. Thirty thousand men have passed from slavery into freedom not only without the slightest irregularity, but with the solemn am decorous tranquillity of a Sabbath !” In Antigua there are 2,000 whites, 30,000 slaves, and 4,500 Ire m blacks. Antigua and St. Christopher’s are within gunshot of each other both are sugar growing colonies ; and the proportion of blacks is les in St. Christopher’s than it is in Antigua ; yet the former island ha had some difficulty with the gradual system, wliile the quiet of th latter has not been disturbed for one hour by immediate emancipalim Do not these facts speak volumes ? The results of the British Emancipation Bill, in a pecuniary poin of view, are truly surprising. To the astonishment of even the mos 1 sanguine friends of abolition, the plantations of the colonies are mor productive, more easily managed and accepted as securities for highe sums on mortgage than ever they were under the slave system. 1 appears from an official statement, that, in the first quarter of the pre sent year there is an increase over the average of the first quarter o the three years preceding (emancipation,) of the great staples o, West Indian produce exported. From Georgetown, (Demerara,) 20 per cent increase, From Berbice, 50 per cent increase, and on coffee about 100 per cent ! ilit. The hundred million indemnity thus appears to have been a con pensation of a novel kind, a compensation for being made richer.-' New York Evening Post. ST. DOMINGO. In most other countries we have ministers, or at least consuls ! watch over the interests of our merchants ; but to send a minister i| consul to St. Domingo would be so revolting to the feelings of oi southern brethren, that they would probably threaten to dissolve tl Union, and so our merchants are left to take care of their own interes there. It may be useful to compare the amount of those interests wil the amount of their interests in certain other countries, where we hai consuls, and in some instances ministers. Itich Mr. fere n tali Ilian, linic ill cor THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. HOWE PETER. When the Marquis of Sligo retired from the government of the is. land of Jamaica, in 1836, the apprentices raised a contribution amounting to §>1,000, to procure a suitable testimonial of their gra- titude to his lordship, for the protection and kindness afforded by Ins administration. This sum was sent home by the hand of Joseph Sturge, and placed in the hands of a committee in London, consist- ing of T. F. Buxton, Esq. Rt. Hon. Dr. Lushington, M.P. Sir George Stephen, Capt. Moorsom, R.N. W. B. Gurney, Esq. Rev. John Dyer, Rev. John Burnet, Joseph Sturge, Esq. and John Sturge. The committee procured a splendid silver candelabrum, which they presented to his lordship, March 16, 1839, with a suitable address, in the presence of Lord Brougham, Sir George Strickland, Hon C. P. Villers, M.P. W. Evans, Esq. M.P. Jos. Pease, Esq. M.P. and others. In his reply, the noble Marquis said, “ It is with feelings of no little pride that I receive this testimonial of the gratitude and good opinion of the Negroes of Jamaica. When I remember that the subscription for its purchase was made after I had left the island, when no advantage could be gained by its pro. motion, and that it is the only instance which ever has occurred, or can occur in these dominions, of the presentation of such a tribute of respect from persons still in a state of modified slavery, I value it so much that I would not exchange it for the highest distinction which the favor of my sovereign could bestow.” THE INSCRIPTION. “ Presented to the most noble, Howe Peter, Marquis of Sligo, by the Negroes of Jamaica, in testimony of the grateful remembrance they entertain for Iris unremitting efforts to alleviate their sufferings and to redress their wrongs, during his just and enlightened admin- istration of the government of the island, and of the respect and gratitude they feel towards his excellent lady and family, for the kindness and sympathy displayed towards them — 1837.” JOHN SCOBLE. At a meeting in Chatham streets chapel, New- York 1839, prayer having been offered by Rev. S. S. Jocelyn, Mr. Scoble was intro- duced to the assembly by Arthur Tappan, Esq. chairman of the meet, ing, and stated that he should prefer, that instead of making an ad- dress, questions be put to him that would elicit any information of which he might be possessed. Mr. Scoble adduced facts to show that the planters, as a body, were never in so flourishing circumstances as now. Very many of them have paid off their mortgages, and made improvements on their estates. He then read an interesting passage from the Jamaica his- torian, Long, and documents furnished by the House of Assembly at Jamaica, giving a disastrous view of the island before emancipation, and contrasted it with the appearance at the present time. One of the gentlemen from Jamaica then said, he admitted that they did make excellent crops of sugar and coffee in 1838. 25 THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. Some one then asked about the comparative value of estates pre- vious and subsequent to emancipation. Mr. Scoble replied that the value had increased from ten to fifty per cent in different colonies. He stated that a Mr. Allen, of Barbados, became alarmed, and sold his estates for £’27,000 sterling, and soon afterwards repurchased it for £30,000 sterling. Indeed, said Mr. Scoble, the lands now will sell for as much as both land and slaves would bring under the sys- tem of slavery. A question was then put relative to the moral character of the ne- groes since emancipation. Mr. Scoble went on to state that the num- ber of prisoners, in the jails, had greatly decreased from 1836 to 1839, that almost all those confined for capital offences were white men, that the offences committed by the negroes were generally petty assaults on each other ; that there had not been one conviction for an}' assault by a negro on a white man since emancipation ! He pro- ceeded to remark that now marriage was sanctioned by law, and was “ honorable in all.” A great improvement had taken place, in this respect, among the whites as well as blacks. That during his whole tour through the British West Indies he had not met with a single planter who said he was willing to return to the old system. He said he would appeal to the gentlemen from Jamaica now present, if he were incorrect. They both exclaimed, “certainly not.” (Great applause.) A planter of great respectability in Barbados, told Mr. Scoble that he remembered the time when he thought he would be doing God service if he had put a pistol ball through the brains of Wilberforce or Buxton ; but that now he could go on his knees and clasp theirs, and bless them for the abolition of slavery. VICTORIA REGINA. My Lords and Gentlemen-. — “ It is with great satisfaction that I am enabled to inform you, that throughout the whole of my West Indian possessions, the period fixed by law for the final and complete eman- cipation of the negroes has been anticipated by acts of the colonial legislature, and that the transition from the temporary system of ap. prenticeship to entire freedom, has taken place without any distur- : bance of public order and tranquillity. Any measures which may be 1 necessary in order to give full effect to this great and beneficial change j will, I have no doubt, receive your c'areful attention . — Speech to Parliament, Feb. 5, 1839. It is with great satisfaction, I inform you, that I have concluded : with the Emperor of Austria, the King of the French,* the King of Prussia, and the Emperor of Russia, a treaty for the effectual sup. pression of the slave trade, which, when the ratifications shall have 1 been exchanged, will be communicated to Parliament Speech Feb. 3, 1842. Postponed JEAN PIERRE BOYER SIMON BOLIVAR JEAN PIERRE BOYER. The President of Hayti lias received, with your letter of the 10th of October last, the different publications that you have sent him. His Excellency congratulates you on the perseverance with which you have pursued the work of abolition of slavery. The warmest desires of philanthropists accompany you in this difficult enterprise, and the President of Hayti doubts not that this holy cause will con- clude by obtaining the triumph it merits. I seize, sir, this occasion of assuring you of the particular desire I entertain for the success of y r our glorious work, and renew the expres- sion of my high esteem. B. Inginac. Letter to B. Lundy, Nov. 17, 1836. SIMON BOLIVAR. I beg as fervently of my country as I would for the lives of my chil- dren, that you will never consent that clime, or color, or creed, should make any distinction in your republic. — Address to the Senators of Colombia. Legislators ! Slavery is the infringement of all laws. A law having a tendency to preserve slavery, would be the grossest sacrilege. Man to be possessed by Iris fellow man ! — man to be made property of! The image of the Deity to be put u:i i r the yoke ! Let these usurpers show us their title-deeds ! — Address to the Legislature of Bolivia and Peru. “ This distinguished man, who was second to none for patriotism and political philanthropy that the last dozen centuries have produced, is no more. He has left an example worthy the imitation of all slave- holders of every country and dime. “ In addition to Iris great and untiring efforts to break the chains of clerical and political bondage that oppressed his countrymen, he acted the.part of perfect consistency in using his influence for the enfran- chisement of the African slaves, who were there reduced to abject ser- vility. We have been informed that, in the early stage of the Colom- bian revolution, he emancipated from 700 to 1,000 slaves ; and that he strenuously and successfully urged the total abolition of slavery by the government. -Since his death it is stated that he has freed 150 more by will, who were still held by him, and who probably preferred remaining with him while he lived. Benjamin Lundy.’ THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. COLOMBIA. The anxiety andefforts of the Colombian government to rid them- selves of the curse of slavery, and to reinstate an injured class of men in the enjoyment of those rights which our Constitution declares to be “ inalienable,” put to the blush the tardy and heartless pro- ceedings of the United States Congress on the subject. Scarcely had that republic established its own freedom, when it enacted laws for extending the like privilege to enslaved Africans within its lim- its. Certain revenues arising in the different provinces were sa- credly set apart for this purpose, beginning with those who were most worthy to be free, and always proceeding with the consent of the proprietors. At the same lime it was provided that the children of slaves born after a certain period, should be inviolably free. The number of slaves since the law went inlo operation, is probably not less than 20.000. Let this system be continued a few years longer, and to the triumph of their arms, the Columbians will add this great- er glory, that ihe groans of a slave are not heard from the Orinoco to the Assuay.” — Niles Register , August Is/, 1829, vol. 36, p. 367. UR AC U AY. Uraguay has abolished slavery within its territory. A decree of the Government dated 12th December, 1842, thus commences: “ From and after the promulgation of the present resolution, there shall be no slaves in this republic.” The whole civilized world is arraying itself against the atrocious crime of slavery American. The republic of Uraguay in South America is about as large as Texas ; possessing about the same climate, and is about as far south of the Equator, as Texas and Florida are north of it. It possesses great Commercial advantages, as it lies north and immediately bor- dering upon the great Rivei De La Plata and the Atlantic Ocean. It contains a population of 85,000. Its principal Commercial town is Montevideo. — Patriot. INDIA. Glorious Triumph in India. — One million and an half of slaves made freemen ! No slavery, now, under the entire dominions of Queen Victoria ! No more comfort to American woman-whippers from the inconsistencies of Great Britain. The Governor General of India has promulgated the following law, which was to go into operation on the 4lh of this month, — Ibid. An act for declaring and amending the law regarding the condi- tion of slavery within the territories of the East India Company. 1. It is hereby enacted and declared, that no public officer, in ex- ecution of any decree or order of court, or for the enforcement of any demand of rent or revenue, sell, or cause to be sold, any person or the right to the compulsory labor or services of any person, on the ground that such a person is in a state of slavery. 2. And it is hereby declared and enacted, that no rights arising out of an alleged property ir, the person and services of another as a slave, shall be enforced by any civil or criminal court or magis- trate within the territories of the East India Company. GREAT BRITAIN. GREAT BRITAIN. Act of 3 and 4 William IV, chapter lxxiii, § 12. Be it enacted, that all and every of the persons, who, on the first day of August, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, shall be holden in slavery within any such British colony as aforesaid, shall, upon, and from and after the first day of August, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, become and be to all intents and purposes, free and discharged of, and from all manner of slavery, and shall be absolutely and for ever manumitted ; and that the children thereafter to be born to any such persons, and the offspring of such children, shall in like manner be free from their birth ; and that from and after the first day of August, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four, SLAVERY shall be, and is hereby utterly and for ever ABOLISHED and declared unlawful throughmd the British colonies, plantations, and possessions abroad. 25 * BLACIiSTONE SHARP THOMAS CLARKSON. WILLIAM BLACKSTONE. Those rights which God and- nature have established, and are, therefore, called natural rights — such as life and liberty — need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are ; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no human legislature has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner himseif shall commit some act which amounts to a forfeiture. The first and primary end of all human laws is, to maintain and regulate those absolute rights of individuals. The absolute rights of man, considered as a free agent, endowed with discernment to know good from evil, and with power of choosing those measures which appear to him most desirable, arc usually summed up in one general appellation, and denominated the natural liberty of mankind. This natural liberty consists, pioperly in a power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, unless by the law of nature, being a right inherent in us by birth, and one of the gifts of God to man at his creation, when he endued him with the faculty office will. But every man, when he enters into society, gives up a part of his natural liberty, as the price of so valuable a purchase ; and, in consideration of receiving the advantages of mutual commerce, obliges himself to coniform to those laws which the community has thought proper to establish. These rights and liberties are no other than either that residuum of natural liberty which is not required by the laws of society to be sacrificed to public convenience ; or else those civil privileges which society hath engaged to provide in lieu of the natural liberties so given up by individuals. — These are, the right of personal security, the right of personal liberty, and the right of private property. — Commentaries. GRANVILLE SHARP. “If such laws are not absolutely necessary for the government of slaves, the law-makers must unavoidably allow themselves to be the most cruel and abandoned tyrants upon earth, and, perhaps that ever ■were on earth. But, on the other hand, if it he said that it is impos- sible to govern slaws, without suck inhuman seventy and detestable injustice, the same is an invincible argument against the hast toleration of slavery among Christian's; because temporal profits, cannot com- pensate the forfeiture of everlasting welfare — that llic cries of these much injured people will certainly reach heaven — that the Scriptures denounce a tremendous judgment against the man who shell offend one little one — that it were better for the nation that their American dominions had never existed , or even that they had sunk in the sea, than that the kingdom of Great Brihrin should be loaded with tiie horrid guill. of tolerating such abominable wickedness ,” &c. — Journal, Feb. 18 th, 1 772. THOMAS CLARKSON. I passed through no town in which some individual had not left off the use of sugar. In the smaller towns there were from ten to fifty by estimation, and in the larger, from two to five hundred, who had made ■WILLIAM WORDSWORTH WILBER FORCE. this sacrifice to virtue. These were of all ranks and parties. Rich and poor, churchmen and dissenters, had adopted the measure. Even grocers had left oft'trading in the article in some places. In gentlemen’s families, where the master had set the example, the servants had often voluntarily followed it ; even children, capable of understanding the African’s sufferings, excluded, with the most virtuous resolution, the accustomed sweets from their lips. By the least computation I could make, from notes taken down in my journey, no fewer than three hundred thousand (300,000) persons had abandoned the use of sugar. This account of the manner in which light and information proceed in a free country, furnishes us with some valuable knowledge. It shows us, first, the great importance of education ; for all they who can read may become enlightened. They may gain as much from the dead as from die living. They may see the sentiments of former ages. Thus they may contract, by degress, habits of virtuous inclination, and become fitted to join with others in the removal of any of the evils of life. It shows us, secondly, how that encouraging maxim may become true, That no good effort is ever lost. For if he, who makes the virtuous attempt, should be prevented by death from suceeding in it, can he not speak through the tomb ? TV ill not his works still breathe his sentiments upon it ? May not the opinions, and the facts, which he has recorded meet the approbation of ten thousand readers of whom it is propable, in the common course of things, that some will branch out of him as authors, and others as actors or laborers, in the same cause ?* WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. TO THOMAS CLARKSON. On the final passing of the Bill for the abolition of the Slave-trade, March, 1807. Clarkson ! it was an obstinate hill to climb : How toilsome— nay, how dire it was, by thee Is known, by none perhaps, so feelingly ; But, thou, who starting in thy fervent prime Did’st first lead forth this pilgrimage sublime, Hast heard its constant voice its charge repeat, Which out of thy young heart’s oracular seat, First roused thee. — O true yoke-fellow of time With urabating effort, see, tne palm Is won, and by all nations shall be worn I The bloody writing is for ever tom, And thou henceforth shalt have a good man’s calm, A great man's happiness ; thy zeal shall find Repose at length firm friend of human kind ! WILLIAM WILBER FORGE. It was ridiculous to say that men would be bound by theft: interest, when gain or ardent passion urged them. It might as well be asserted * “ Resolved, That the Speaker be requested to acknowledge the receipt and acceptance of Clarkson’s History of Slavery, presented by the American Con- vention for promoting the abolition of slavery, and improving the conuition of the Africans, and that the said work be deposited in the library” — House of Representatives, Feb. 18, 1809. WILLIAM PITT EDMUND BURKE. ' that a stone could not be thrown into the air, or a body move from place to place, because the principles of gravitation bound them to the surface of the earth. If a planter iound himself reduced in his profits, he did not usually dispose of any part of his slaves; and his own gratifications were never given up, so long as there was a possibility of making any retrenchment in the allowance of his slaves. It was the gracious ordinance of Providence, both in the natural and moral world, that good should often arise out of evil. Hurricanes cleared the air ; and the propagation of truth was promoted by perse- cu'ion. Pride, vanity, and profusion contributed often, in their re- moter consequences, to the happiness of mankind. In common, what. W'as itself evil and vicious was permitted to carry along with it some ! circumstances of palliation. The Arab was hospitable ; the robber brave. We did not necessarily find cruelty associated with fraud, or meanness with injustice. But here the case was far otherwise. It was the prerogative of this detestable traffic to separate from evil its concomitant good, and to reconcile discordant mischiefs. It robbed f 1 war of its generosity ; it deprived peace of its security ; W'e saw in it the vices of polished society, without its knowledge or its comforts ; and the evils of barbarism without its simplicity. No age, no sex, no rank, no condition, was exempt from the fatal influence of this wide- wasting calamity. Tims it attained to the fullest measure of pure, un- mixed, unsophisticated wdekedness ; and, scorning all competition and comparison, it stood without a rival in the secure, undisputed posses- sion of its detestable pre-eminence. WILLIAM PITT. Mr. Pitt rose, and said, that from the first hour of his having had the honor to sit in parliament dow'n to the present, among all the questions, whether political or personal, in which it had been his fortune to take a share, there never had been one in which his heart w'as so deeply in- terested as in the present ; both on account of the serious principles involved, and the consequences connected with it. The present w'as not a mere question of feeling. The argument, which ought in his opinion to determine the committee, was, that the i i slave-trade w’as unjust. It was, therefore, such a trade as it was im- > I possible for him to support, unless it could be first proved to him, that there were no laws of morality binding upon nations ; and that it was not the duty of a legislature to restrain its subjects from invading the I happiness of other countries, and from violating the fundamental prin- ciples of justice. EDMUND BURKE. Nothing makes a slave but a degraded man. In proportion as the mind grows callous to its degradation, and all sense of manly pride is lost, the slave feels comfort. In fact, he is no longer a man. If he were to define a man, he would say with Shakspeare, “ Man is a being, holding large discourse, Looking before and after.” But a slave was incapable of looking before and after. He had no JOHN COURTENAY CHARLES JAMES FOX. mot've to do it. He was a mere passive instrument in the hands of others, to be used at their discretion. Though living, he was dead as to all voluntary agency. Though moving amidst the creation with an erect form, and with the shape and semblance of a human being, he was a nullity as a man. He said the slave-trade was directly contrary to the principles of humanity and justice, and that the state of slavery which followed it, however mitigated, was a state so improper, so degrading, and so ruinous to the feelings and capacities of human nature, that it ought not to be suffered to exist. JOHN COURTENAY. The trade, it had been said, was conducted upon the principles of humanity. Y es : we rescued the Africans from what we were pleased to call their wretched situation in their own country, and then we took credit for our humanity ; because, after having killed one half of them ui the seasoning, we substituted what we were pleased to call a better treatment than that which they would have experienced at home. It had been said by Air. Stanley, that the pulpit had been used as an instrument of attack on the slave-trade. He u'as happy to leam it had been so well employed ; and he hoped the bishops would rise up in the house of lords, with the virtuous indignation which became [hem, to abolish a traffic so contrary to humanity, justice, and religion. CHARLES JAMES FOX. Some had considered this question as a question of political, whereas t was a question of personal freedom. Political freedom was un- doubtedly a great blessing ; but, when it came to be compared with personal, it sunk to nothing. To confound the two served therefore :o render all arguments on either perplexing and unintelligible. Per- sonal freedom was the first right of every human being. It was a right, if which he who deprived a fellow creature was absolutely criminal in so depriving him, and which he who withheld was no less criminal in withholding. He would say that if the house, knowing what the trade was by the evidence, did not by their vote mark to all mankind their abhorrence of a practice so savage, so enormous, so repugnant to all laws, human and divine, they would consign their characters to eter- nal infamy. But what was our motive in the case before us? To continue a rade which was a wholesale sacrifice of a whole order and race of our fellow creatures ; which carried them away by force from their native country, in order to subject them to the mere will and caprice, the cyranny and oppression, of other human beings, for their wffiole natural iives, them and their posterity for ever ! ! O most monstrous wicked- ness ! O unparalleled barbarity ! Let them remember that humanity did not consist in a squeamish car. It did not consist in shrinking and starting at such tales as these ; but in a diposition of the heart to remedy the evils they unfolded. Humanity belonged rather to the mind than to the nerves. But, if so, it should prompt men to charitable exertion. PHILIP FRANCIS MR. HUDDLE STONE. Let them make the case their own. This was the Christian rule of ! judging; and, having mentioned Christianity, he was sorry to find that any should suppose that it had given countenance to such a system of oppression. So far was this from being the case, that he thought it one of the most splendid triumphs of this religion, that it had caused slavery to be so generally abolished on its appearance in the world. It had done this by teaching us, among other beautiful precepts, that, in the sight of their Maker, all mankind were equal. He knew, how- ever, that what he had been ascribing to Christianity had been im- puted by others to the advances which philosophy had made. Each of the two parties took the merit to itself The philosopher gave it to philosophy, and the divine to religion. He should not then dispute with either of them ; but as both coveted the praise, why should they not emulate each other by promoting this improvement in the condition of tile human race ? PHILIP FRANCIS. Having himself an interest in the West Indies, he thought that what he should submit to the house would have the double effect of evidence , and argument ; and he stated mist unequivocally his opinion, that the abolition of the slave-trade would tend materially to the benefit of the West Indies. — Many had affirmed that the slave-trade was politic and expedient; but it was worthy of remark, that no man had ventured to deny that it was criminal. Criminal, however, he declared it to be in the highest degree ; and he believed it was equally impolitic. Both its inexpediency and injustice had been established by the honorable mover. He instanced an overseer, who, having thrown a negro into a cop- per of boiling cane-juice for a trilling offence, was punished merely by the loss of his place, and by being obliged to pay the value of his slave. Pie stated another instance of a girl of fourteen, who w^s dreadfully whipped for coming too late to her work. She fell down motionless after it ; and was then dragged along the ground, by the legs, to an hospital ; where she died. This was a notorious fact. It was pub- lished in the Jamaica Gazette : and it has even happened since the question of the abolition had been started. Tiie only argument used against such cruelties was the master’s interest in the slave. But he urged the common cruelty to horses, in which the drivers had an equal interest with the drivers of men in the colonies, a s' a proof that this was no secuiity. He had never heard an instance of a master being punished for the murder of his slave. MR. PIUDDLESTONE. Pie said that a curse attended this trade even in the mode of defend- ing it. By a certain fatality, none but the vilest arguments were brought forward, which corrupted the very persons, who used them. Every one of these were built on the narrow ground of interest ; of pecuniary profit ; of sordid gain ; in opposition to every higher consideration ; to every motive that had reference to humanity, justice, and religion ; or to that great principle, which comprehended them all. Place only SAMUEL WHITBREAD THOMAS ERSKINE. before the most determined advocate of this odious traffic, the exact image of himself in the garb and harness of a slave, dragged and whipped about like a beast ; place this image also before him, and paint it as that of one without a ray of hope to cheer him ; and you would extort from him the reluctant confession, that he would not endure for an hour the misery, to which he condemned his fellow- man for life. SAMUEL WHITBREAD. No eloquence could persuade him, that the Africans were torn from their country and their dearest connexions, merely that they might lead a happier life; or that they could be placed under the uncontrolled dominion of others without suffering. Arbitrary power would spoil the hearts of the best. Hence would arise tyranny on the one side, and a sense of injury on the other. Hence the passions would be let loose, and a state of perpetual enmity would follow”. He needed only to go to the accounts of those who defended the sys- tem of slavery, to show that it was cruel. He was forcibly struck last year- by an expression of an honorable member, an advocate for the trade, who, when became to speak of the slaves, on selling off’ the stock of a plantation, saiii, that they fetched less than the common price, because they were damaged ! Damaged! What! were they goods and chattels? What an idea was this to hold out to our fellow creatures ! THOMAS ERSKINE. Tire Lord Chancellor (Erskine) said, “ From information which he could not dispute, he was warranted in saying, that on this continent [Africa] husbands w’ere fraudulently and forcibly severed from their wives, and parents from their children ; and that all the ties of blood and affection were torn up by the roots. He had himself seen the un- happy natives put together in heaps in the hold of a ship, where, with every possible attention to them, their situation must have been intole- rable. He had also heard proved in courts of justice, facts still more dreadful than those which he had seen. One of these he would just mention. The slaves on board a certain ship rose in a mass to liberate themselves; and having far advanced in the pursuit of their object, it became necessary to repel them by force. Some of them yielded ; some of them were killed in tire scuffle; but many of them actually jumped into the sea and were drowned ; thus preferring death to the misery” of their situation ; while others hung to the ship, repenting of their rashness, and bewailing with frightful noises their horrid Tate. Thus the whole vessel exhibited but one hideous scene of wretched- ness. They”, who were subdued, and secured in chains, were seized with the flux, which carried many of them off These things were proved in a trial before a British jury, which had to consider, whether this was a loss, which fell within the policy of insurance, the slaves being regarded as if they had been only a cargo of dead matter. He could mention other instances, but they were much too shocking to be described. Surely their lordships could never consider such a traffic to be consistent with humanity or justice.” GRENVILLE SH AKSTEARE JOHNSON GEORGE GRENVILLE. Lord Grenville then read a resolution of the Commons. “ This resolution, he said, stated first, that the slave-trade was contrary to humanity, justice, and sound policy. That it was contrary to humani- ty was obvious ; for humanity might be said to be sympathy for the distress of others, or a desire to accomplish benevolent ends by good means. But did not the slave-trade convey ideas the very reverse of the definition ? It deprived men of all those comforts, in which it pleased the Creator to make the happiness of his creature to consist, of the blessings of society, of the charities of the dear relationships of husband, wife, father, son, and kindred ; of the due discharge of the relative duties of these, and of that freedom, which in its pure and natural sense, was one of the greatest gifls"bf God to man. “It was impossible to read the evidence, as it related to this trade, without acknowledging the inhumanity of it and our own disgrace. “In a state of nature, man had a right to the fruit of his own labour absolutely to himself ; and one of the main purposes, for which he en- tered into society, was, that he might be better protected in the posses- sion of his rights. In both cases, therefore, it was manifestly unjust, that a man should be made to labor during the whole of his life, and yet have no benefit from his labor. Hence the slave-trade and the colonial slaver}- were a violation of the very principle, upon which all law for the protection of property was founded. Whatever benefit was derived from that trade to an individual, it was derived from dis- i ; honor and dishonesty. He forced from the unhappy victim of it that, which the latter did not wish to give him ; and he gave to the same victim that, which he in vain attempted to show-, was an equivalent to the thing he took, it being a thing for which there was no equivalent, and which, if he had not obtained by force, he would not have possess- ed at all. The injustice complained of was not confined to the bare circumstance of robbing them of the right to their own labor. It was conspicuous throughout the system.” WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE. Skylock. What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong? You have among you many a purchased slave.* Which like your asses, and your dogs, and mules, You use in abject and in slavish parts, Because you bought them : — shall I say to you, Let them be free, marry them to your heirs ? Why sweat thev under burthens ? let their beds Be made as soft as yours, and let their palates Be season’d with such viands ? you will answer, The slaves are ours : — so do I answer you : The pound of flesh, which I demand of him, Is dearly bought, is mine, and I will have it ; If you deny me, fie upon your law ! SAMUEL JOHNSON. * This argument, considered as used to the particular persons, seems con- clusive. I see not how Venetians or Englishmen, while they practice the pur- chase and sale of slaves, can much enforce or demand the law of doing to others as we would they should do to us. MILTON POPE ADDISON BURNS SMOLLETT, JOHN MILTON. O execrable son, so to aspire Above his brethren, he himself assuming Authority usurped from God, not given. — Man over men He made not lord ; such title to Himself Reserving, human left from human free. In all things that have beauty, there is nothing to man more comely than liberty. Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely, above all libe.ties ALEXANDER POPE. Some safer world in depths of wood embraced, Some happier island in the watery waste ; Where slaves once more their native land behold, No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold. Essay on Man. God fixed it certain, that, whatever day Makes man a slave takes half his worth away. Homer’s Odyssey. JOSEPH ADDISON. O Liberty , thou goddess heavenly bright, Profuse of bliss, and pregnant with delight ! Eternal pleasures in thy presence reign, And smiling plenty leads thy wanton train : Eas’d of her Joad, subjection grows more light, And poverty looks cheerful in thy sight ; Thou mak’st the gloomy face of nature gay, Giv’st beauty to the sun, and pleasure to the day. ROBERT BURNS. I’m designed yon lordling’s slave, By Nature’s law design’d, Why was an independent wish Ere planted in my mind 1 If not, why am I subject to His cruelty or scorn ? Or why has man the will and power To make his fellow mourn ? Then let us pray that come it may. As come it shall for a’ that, That sense and worth o’er all the earth Shall bear the gTee, an’ a’ that. For a’ that, an’ a’ that, It’s coming yet, for a’ that ; When man to man, the warld all o’er, Shall brothers be, an’ a’ that. TOBIAS SMOLLETT. Thy spirit, Indei^ndence ! let me share. Lord of the Lion-heart and Eagle-eye ; — Thy steps I’ll follow with my bosom bare, Nor heed the storm that howls along the sky 26 THOMAS DAY S. J. PRATT WILLIAM COWPER. THOMAS DAY. And better in the untimely grave to rot, The world and all its cruelties forgot, Than dragg’d once more beyond the western main, To groan beneath some dastard planter’s chain, Where my poor countrymen in bondage wait The slow enfranchisement of ling’ring fate. ! my heart sinks, my dying eyes o’er flow, When memory paints the picture of their woe ! For I have seen them, ere the dawn of day, Rous’d by the lash begin their cheerless way : Greeting with groans, unwelcome morn’s return, While rage and shame their gloomy bosoms burn : And chiding every hour the slow-pac’d sun, Endure their toils till all his* race was run ; No eye to maik their sufferings with a tear, No friend to comfort, and no hope to cheer ; Then, like the dull unpitied brutes, repair To stalls as wretched, and as coarse a fare ; Thank heaven, one day of misery was o’er, And sink to sleep and wish to wake no more. The Dying Negro. S. J. PRATT. Tyrants o’er brutes with ease extend their plan, Then rise in cruelty from beast to man ; Their sordid policy each crime allows, The flesh that quivers, and the blood that flows, The furious stripes that murder in a day, Or tort’ring arts that kill by dire delay ; The fainting spirit and the bursting vein, All, all, are reconciled to Christian gnin. The Rights of Nature. WILLIAM CCnVPER. Man finds his fellow guilty of a skin Not colored like his own ; and having pow’r T’ enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey. Thus man devotes his brother, and destroys ; And worse than all, and most to be deplor’d, As human nature’s broadest, foulest blot, Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat With stripes that mercy with a bleeding heart. Weeps when she sees inflict ed on a beast. Then what is man ? And what man, seeing this, And having human feelings, does not blush And hang his head, to think himself a man ! I would not have a slave to till my ground, To carry me, to fan me while I sleep, And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth That sinews bought and sold have ever earn’d. No ! dear as freedom is, and in my heart’s Just estimation priz’d above all price, I had much rather be myself the slave, And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him. The tender ties of parent, husband, friend, All bonds of Nature, in that moment end. OSCOE HANNAH MORE MONTGOMERY. O most degrading of all ills that wait On man, (a mourner in his best estate !) All other sorrows virtue may endure, And find submission more than half a cure ; But Slavery ! ! Virtue dreads it as her grave Patience itself is meanness in a slave. Wait, then, the dawning of a brighter day, And snap the chain the moment when you may Nature imprints upon whate’er we see That has a heart and life m it, “ Be Free.” WILLIAM ROSCOE. Form’d with the same capacity of pain, The same desire of pleasure and of ease, Why feels not man for man ! When nature shrink* From the slight puncture of an insect’s sting, Faints, if not screen’d from sultry suns, and pine* Beneath the hardship of an hour’s delay Of needful nutriment ; — when Liberty Is prized so dearly, that the slightest breath That ruffles but her mantle, can awake To arms unwarlike nations, and can rouse Confed’rate states to vindicate her claims How shall the suff’rer m . i his fellow doom To ills he mourns or spurns at : tear with stripes His quiv’ring flesh ; with hunger and with thirst Waste his emaciate frame ; in ceaseless toils Exhaust his vital powers ; and bind his limbs In gall mg chains ! HANNAH MORE. See the dire victim torn from social life, The shrieking babe, the agonizing wife ! She ! wretch forlorn, is dragg’d by hostile hands To distant tyrants, sold to distant lands, Transmitted miseries and successive chains, The sole sad heritage her child obtains ! E’en this last wretched boon their foes deny, To live together, or together die. By felon hands, by one relentless stroke, See the fond links of feeling nature broke ! The fibres twisting round a parent’s heart, Torn from their grasp, and bleeding as they part. JAMES MONTGOMERY. Lives there a reptile baser than a slave ? Loathsome as death, corrupted as the grave. See the dull creole, at his pompous board, Attendant vassals cringing round their lord ; Satiate with food, his heavy eyelids close, Voluptuous minions fan him to repose; Prone on the noonday couch he lolls in vain, Delirious slumbers rack his maudlin brain ; He starts with horror from bewildering dream? His bloodshot eye with fire and frenzy gleams CAMPBELL DARWIN ROBERT SOUTHEY. Oh, he is worn with toil ! the big drops run Down his dark cheek ! hold — hold thy merciless hand, Pale tyrant ! for beneath thy hard command O’er wearied nature sinks. The scorching sun. As pitiless as proud Prosperity Darts on him his full beams ; gasping as he lies, Arraigning with his looks the patient skies, While that inhuman trader lifts on high The mangling scourge. O ! ye who at your ease Sip the blood-sweetened beverage, thoughts like these Haply ye scorn. 1 thank thee gracious Gcd! That I do feel upon my cheek the glow Of indignation, when beneath the rod, A sable brother writhes in silent woe. THOMAS CAMPBELL. And say supernal Powers ; who deeply scan Ifc xv’n’s dark decree, unfathom’d yet by man, W :en shall the world call down to cleanse her shame, Tnat embryo spirit, yet without a name, That friend of Natuie, whose avenging hands Shall burst the Lybian’s adamantine bands ? Who, sternly marking on his native soil, The blood, the tears, the anguish, and the toil, Shall bid each righteous heart exult, to see Peace to the slave, and vengeance on the fre c ! Yet, yet, degraded man ! th* expected day That breaks your bitter cup, is far away ; Trade, wealth, and fashion, ask you still to bleed, And holy men give scripture for the deed ; Scourg’d and debas’d, no Briton stoops to save A wretch, a coward ; yes, because a slave ! ERASMUS DARWIN. Wrench’d the red scourge from proud Oppression’s hands, And broke, curst Slavery ! thy iron bands. E’en now, e’en now, on yonder western shores Weeps pale Despair, and writhing Anguish roars , E’en now in Afric’s groves with hideous yell Fierce Slavery stalks and slips the dogs of hell ; From vale to vale the gathering cries rebound And sable nations tremble at the sound. — — Who right the injured, ana reward the brave, Stretch your strong arm, for ye have power to save ! Throned in the vaulted heart, his dread resort ; Inexorable Conscience holds his court ; With still small voice the plots of guilt alarms, Bares his masked brow, his lifted hand disarms ; But, wrapp’d in night with terrors all his own, He speaks in thunders when the deed is done. Hear him, ye Senates ! hear this truth sublime, lie who allows oppression shares the crime. “ Botanic Garden.” A friend to every clime ’ A Patriot of the World. 26 * the eecio.v of T.rn n-iy, He visited all Europe, (and the east.,) not to survey the sumptuous- ness of palaces, or the stateliness of temples ; not to make accurate measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur, nor to form a scale of the curiosities of modern art ; not to collect medals, or to collate manuscripts : but to dive into the depth of dungeons ; to plunge into the infection of hospitals; to survey the mansions of sor- row and pain ; to take the guage and dimensions of misery, oppres- sion and contempt ; to remember the forgotten ; to attend to the neg lected ; to visit the forsaken ; and to compare and collate the distres ses of all men in all countries. His plan is as full of genius as it is of humanity. It was a voyage of discovery, a circumnavigation of charity ; and already the benefit of his labor is felt more or less in every country. — Edmund Burke. Nature ! on thy maternal breast Forever be his worth engraved ! Thy bosom only can attest How many a life his toil has saved. 1. iger, ho steer’d with every sail unfurl’d v friend to every clime! a Patriot of the World ! — Wm. Hayley. Oh Charity ! our helpless nature’s pride, Thou friend of him, who knows no friend beside, Is aught so fair beneath the heavens’ gleam, As from thine eye the meek and pensive beam. Thine are the ample views that unconfin’d Stretch to the utmost walks of human kind ; Thine is the spirit that with widest plan Brother to Brother binds, and Man to Man. Bowles. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. HUMANITY, or Me' RIGHTS OF NATURE BY S. J. PRATT. The Muse is kneeling at Compassion’s shrine, Her opening lay, HUMANITY, be thine ! Thee she invokes, oh ! soother of distress, Who with our kindness wove our happiness ; For as thy circling virtues round us move, From our best deeds thy brightest joys we prove; Good is of good productive, ill, of ill, Conscience o’er both exerts her empire still, And this great truth, shall ev’ry tyrant know, The wo he gives, shall bf. repaid by wo. The Rights of Man by Nature aye are due, To men of every clime and every hue. Why are sires torn from children and from wife, Dragg’d at the Car of Trade, and chain’d for life; And why do human hecatombs expire, Smote by her mangling whip and murderous fire? Those stripes, and killing shrieks that rend the air, 111 fated Africa ! thy wrongs declare. Avarice, the founder of this impious trade, Made him a slave, that Nature never made, Tore the poor Lybian from his native soil. And chain’d him down to never-ending toil. If giant Power confers this wanton sway, Subdues the strong, and makes the weak obey, Does Power give Right ? beware that dangerous plea. Perchance, such power may spread its right to thee. The slave once stronger than thyself, shall stand, And seize the sceptre of usurp’d command ; HUMANITY, OR THE RIGHTS OF NATURE. Arm’d with thy iron scourge shall bid thee toil, Scar thy white skin, and chain thee to the soil : Thy spirit fainting in the glare of day, Shall bid thee naked, brave the Syrian ray, Thy scorn retort, retaliate all thy rage, Wear out thy youth, and murder thee in age ; Tear from thy fetter’d arms thy child and wife, And blast the budding promises of life ; Repay, in turn, each stroke thy baseness gave, And make Thee feel what ’tis to be a Slave. Ah 1 false as fatal ! to the Weak and Strong, Th’ inherent Rights of Nature still belong : No partial principles the just impel To thinking wisely, or to acting well ; And Liberty, of all mankind the cause, Becomes a forfeit only to the laws, Those sacred compacts which like links sustain, Connecting parts of the great social chain : And while, with these, no member is at strife, As full the right to liberty as life : Avaunt ! asserters of superior right, And vain distinctions between black and white. Firm and immoveable on Nature’s base, Stands the grand charter of the human race : And He who gave the blessing gave it free : Life were a curse if robb’d of Liberty ! Vain all dispute of color, form or size, In pride, in pride alone the difference lies ; Whence, then, presumptuous man, deriv’d thy right, And by what law does olive yield to white ? Their nature, origin, and end, the same, Why has not brown, black, copper, equal claim ? Though shifting colors like their parent earth, Alike their species and alike their birth. Tyrants o’er brutes with ease extend the plan, And *ise in cruelty from beast to man : Their sordid policy each crime allows, The flesh that quivers and the blood that flows, The furious stripes that murder in a day, Or torturing arts that kill by dire delay ; The fainting spirit, and the bursting vein, All, all are reconcil’d to Christian gain. In cold barbarian apathy behold, Sits the slave agent bending o’er his gold ; That base contractor for the chain and rod, Who buys and sells the image of his God. Callous to ev’ry touch that Nature lends, The bond that ties him to his kind he rends, Robber at once and butcher of his slaves, Nor grief, nor sickness, age nor sex, he saves, But plung’d in traffic, coldly can debate, HUMANITY, OR THE RIGHTS OF NATURE, The parent’s destiny, the infant’s fate ; The teeming mother of her hope despoil ; And poise the gains of child-birth or of toil ; The sighs and groans which spring from both he spurns, For life or death ’tis gold the balance turns. O pride enormous ! impudence of man ! But let not Britons imitate the plan, Frame no false systems and then call them wise, Or make distinctions where no difference lies ; Alas ! full oft the fair European face, Masks a mind darker than the darkest race ; The Negro’s heart may be a purer shrine, For thoughts devout, O ! haughty White, than thine, Acceptance find more gracious from its God, Than the proud master who uplifts the rod. Oh ! tyrant White, forget alike thy gold, And every virtue in thy Black behold, All that is honor’d, lov’d, or priz’d by thee, In thy scourg’d Negro, blushing, shalt thou see. Yet who the Negroe’s sufferings can relate, Or mark the varied horrors of their fate ; Where, blushing Truth ! shall we their griefs begin, Or how commence the catalogue of Sin ? Demons of torture ! ye who mock at wo, And smile to see the crimson blood-track flow, In horrid triumph rise from central Hell, Th’ inventive pangs of Christian growth to tell, Oh ! aid the shuddering Muse to paint the grief, Which calls on death for pity and relief ; Oh ! powers of Mercy, loose that massy yoke, Oh ! hold that Arm, for murder’s in the stroke ! Behold that axe the quivering limb assails, Behold that body weltering in its wails ! Ah ! hear that bludgeon fall, that lash resound, And see those wretches writhing on the ground 1 See yonder mangled mass of Atoms lie, Behold that Christian’s hands the flames apply, At the bare feet is laid that sulphurous train, It climbs the heart and burns into the brain 1 Ye friends of man ! whose souls with mercy glow, Throb not your breasts with sympathising wo ? Fires not the social blood within your veins, To make the White Man feel the Negro’s pains ? Beat not your hearts the miscreant arms to bind, Of the proud Christian with a savage mind ? Do you not pant to snap the impious chain. And rush to succor the insulted train ? From servile bonds, to free the hapless race, And fix the haughty tyrants in their place? Make them the weight of Slav’ry to know, HUMANITY, OR the EIGHTS OE NATURE. Till their hard natures melt in mutual wo, Nor till they humanize to social men, Would ye restore them to their rights again Oh ! Freedom, sacred Goddess ! who inspires Th’ unlutor’d Savage with sublimest fires, Oft have their Chiefs o’er listed troops prevail’d, And Nature’s warriors sped where armies fail’d ; While the bought soldier in his trade of death, With sordid contracts bargains for his breath, And the brave Indian from his fetters broke Ev’n Famine braves to feel no more the yoke. What will not Freedom’s Heav’n-descended fire, In cultur’d, or untutor’d Souls inspire ? The Rights of Nature and of God to save, Men scoop the rock and build upoi the wave. And lo ! methinks, on Fancy’s wing convey’d, The Muse already gains the palmy shade, Herself the messenger, to Southern plains Ardent she flies to break the tyrant-chains. “ I come, I come to set the Captive free, Ye suffering Heirs of sweet HUMANITY, Whose Minds can reason, and whose Hearts can move, With all the joys and agonies of Love, Sublime on Nature’s scale again ye rise Equals on Earth, as equals in the skies. Where Freedom bids, now take your blithsome way. Yours the fair morn, and yours the closing day, Yours is the jocund eve, its sports command Or on the cooling wave or burning sand, If in your breasts the Patriot passions burn To your lov’d Country, to your Homes return, Free, unconfin’d, where’er your course ye bend, Still, still shall Liberty your steps attend ! Negroes are Men, and Men are Slaves no more Fair Freedom reigns, and Tyranny is o'er /” WILLIAM SEWARD HALL. Is not the slave a man God’s noblest work ? Does not the negro bear The stamp of man ? the impress of the Deity ? Canst thou boast more, assuming polish’d white ? In ages past, in Rome’s Augustrian days Did Britons higher stand in mental rank Than in the nineteenth century, Afric’s sons ? Vile slavery, heart-sinking doleful name, Thou fell destroyer of the dearest right That nature gave to man ; thou art abhorr’d By every British soul. Thou odious fiend, Cease thy infernal sway o’er land that claim Protection ’neath Britannia’s sheltering wing. Empire of Philanthropy. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. Freedom's glorious Sun dispelling the black chaos of Slavery. PERCY BYSCHE SHELLEY. ODE TO LrBERTY. Oh, keener thy gaze than the Lightning’s glare, And swifter thy step than the Earthquake’s tramp ; Thou deafenest the rage of the Ocean ; thy stare Makes blind the Volcanos; thaaSun’s bright lamp To thine is a fenfire damp. From billow and mountain and exhalation The sunlight is darted through vapor and blast ; From spirit to spirit, from nation to nation, From city to hamlet thy dawning is cast, — And tyrants and slaves are like shadows of night In the van of the Morning Light ! Nor where the tropics bound the realms of day, W as man a nobler being ; Slavery Had crushed him to his country’s blood-stained dust ; Or he was bartered for the fame of power Which all internal impulses destroying, Makes human will an article of trade ; Or he was changed with Christians for their gold And dragged to distant isles, where to the sound Of the flesh-mangling scourge, he does the wor' Of all-polluting luxury and wealth, Which doubly visits on the tyrants’ heads, The long protracted fullness of their woe. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. GEORGE GORDON BYRON. And thus they plod in sluggish misery, Rotting from sire to son, and age to age, Proud of their trampled nature, and so die, Bequeathing their hereditary rage To the new race of inborn slaves, who wage War for their chains, and rather than be free, Bleed, gladiator-like, and still engage Within the same arena, where they see Their fellows fall before, like leaves of the same tree. Yet let us ponder boldly — ’tis a base Abandonment of reason to resign Our right of thought — our last and only place Of refuge ; this, at least, shall still be mine : Though from our birth the faculty divine Is chain’d and tortured — cabin’d, cribb’d, confined. And bred in darkness, lest the truth should shine Too brightly on the unprepared mind, The beam pours in, for time and skill will couch the blind. JOHN MILTON, Wrote the following lines in reference to the detraction which 'led him on account of his writing in favor of liberty : I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs, By the known rules of ancient Liberty, When straight a barbarous noise environs me, Of owls and cuckoos, asses, apes and dogs ; As when those hinds, that were transformed to frogs, Rail’d at Latona’s twin-born progeny, Which after hold the sun and moon in fee. But this is got by casting pearl to hogs That bawl for freedom in their senseless mood, And still revolt when TRUTH would set them free. License they mean when they cry liberty ; For who loves THAT must first be wise and good: But from that mark how far they rove we see, For all this waste of wealth, and loss of blood. ON HIS BLINDNESS. Cyriac, this three-year’s-day these eyes, though clear To outward view, of blemish or of spot, Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot ; Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year, Or man, or woman. Yet I argue no! Against Heaven’s hand or will ; nor bate a jot Of heart and hope ; but still bear up and steer Right onward. What supports me, dost thou ask ? THE LEGION OF LIBERTY The conscience, friend, to have lost them overplied IN LIBERTY’S DEFENCE, MY NOBLE TASK, Of which all Europe rings from side to side. This thought might lead me through the world’s vain mask — Content, though blind, I had no better guide. ROBERT POLLOCK. Who blushed alike to be, or have a slave Unchristian thought ! on what pretence soe’er, Of right inherited, or else acquired ; Of loss, or profit, or what plea you name, To buy or sell, to barter, whip, and hold In chains a being of celestial make — Of kindred form, of kindred faculties, Of kindred feelings, passions, thoughts, desires ; Born free, and heir of an immortal hope ! Thought villanious, absurd, detestable .' Unworthy to be harbored in a fiend ! — Course of Time. JAMES GRAINGER. Oh, did the tender muse possess the power, Which monarchs have and monarchs oft abuse : ’Twould be the fond ambition of her soul To quell tyrannic sway ; knock off the chains Of heart debasing slavery ; give to man Of every color, and of every clime, Freedom, which stamps him image of his God. Then laws, Oppression’s scourge, fair virtue’s prop, Offspring of wisdom ! should impartial reign, To knit the whole in well accorded strife : Servants, not slaves ; of choice, and not compelled. THOMAS PRINGLE. Oh Slavery 1 thou art a bitter draught ! And twice accursed is thy poisoned bowl, Which taints with leprosy the white man’s soul. Not less than his by whom its dregs are quaffed. The slave sinks down, o’ercome by cruel craft, Like beast of burthen on the earth to roll. The Master, though in luxury’s lap he loll, Feels the foul venom, like a rankling shaft, Strike through his reins. As if a demon laughed, He, laughing, treads his victim in the dust — The victim of his avarice, rage, or lust. But the poor Captive’s moan the whirlwinds waft To Heaven — not unavenged. The oppressor quakes With secret dread, and shares the hell he makes. 27 THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. GEORGE W. F. HOWARD. Lord Morpeth. Proudly on Cressy’s tented world Tlie Lion flag of England flew ; As proudly gleamed its crimson fold O’er the dun heights of Waterloo : But other lyres shall greet the brave, Sing now, that we have freed the slave. Bright Science, through each field of space, Has urged her mist-dispelling car, Coy Nature’s hidden reign to trace, Tb weigh each wind, and count each star . Yet stay, thou proud Philosophy, First stoop to bid Mankind be Free. Ah ! for the tale the slave could speak, Ah 1 for the shame of Britian’s sway, On Afric’s sands the maddened shriek, ’Neath Indian suns the burning day : Ye sounds of guilt — ye sights of gore — Away 1 for Slavery is no more. ALEXANDER CARLILE. Land of the Free! shall that proud name Be blent with tyrant guilt and shame ? Lend all its lustre to a land, Where man’s o’er rules God’s great command ; Inverts the sacred order given To moral claims by righteous Heaven ; Yea, sets low Avarice above What gives to man God’s image — Love Says Mercy may her bosom steel, So ’tis an alien race that feel ; And Justice may the blood first test, Then say which counter claim is best; Adjudging each high claim of right, Just as the skin is dark or light ? JOSEPH ADDISON. What is Life ? ’Tis not to stalk about and draw fresh air From time to time, or gaze upon the sun \— ’Tis to be free ! — A day — an hour of virtuous Liberty Is worth a whole eternity of bondage ! THE LEGION OF LIBERTY- JAMES THOMPSON. Kind equal rule, the government of laws, And all-protecting Freedom, which alone, Sustains the name and dignity of man ; These are not theirs. Tne parent-sun himself Seems o’er this world of slaves to tyrannize. — Here dwells the direful shark, lur’d by the scent, Of steaming crowds, of rank disease and death, He, from the partners of that cruel trade, Which spoils unhappy Guinea of her sons, Demands his share of prey — demands themselves. The stormy fates descend : one death involves 'Tyrants and slaves. — The Seasons. O great design, Ye sons of mercy ! O complete your work; Wrench from oppression’s hand the iron rod, And bid the cruel feel the wounds they give — Man knows no master save creating heaven, Or those whom choice and common good ordains. The Poem Liberty. JOHN BOWRING. Liberty for the white, the few, From the oppressor’s thrall, Nay! but Liberty, Liberty too, For the blacks, for ALL ! Slavery shall not stamp her ban On any men, or man. Despised there is none, degraded none ; Each holds its ordered place, But ’tis man, usurping man alone, Who hath stigmatized his race ; Who hath given his fellow — O shame ! O shame! A slave's ignoble name. JOHN ANGELL JAMES. How great and noble will your natign appear ; how united will it. be ; and how prepared for every glorious moral enterprise, when this plague-spot shall be effaced from her body, and this cause of in- ternal weakness removed ; then when your eagle shall no longer be seen with the blood of the slave upon his talons, or the foul impuri- ty of the slave's tyrant upon his plumage, how majestically will he soar amidst the full blaze of liberty, and piety, with an eye that nev- er blinks, and a wing that never wearies ; the symbol of vour own glory, and the object of admiration to the world. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. JOHN LOCKE. Slavery is so vile and miserable an estate of man, and so directly iposite to the generous temper and courage of our nation, that it is u'd to be conceived that an Englishman, much less a gentleman, iould plead for it. The natural liberty of man is to be free from ly superior power on earth, and not to be under the will of legisla- ve authority of man, but to have only the law of Nature for his ale. The liberty of man, in society, is to be under no other legisla- te power, but that established, by consent, in the commonwealth ; nor under the dominion of any will, or restraint of any law, but what that legislature shall enact, according to the trust put in it. Every body has a property in his own person that nobody has any right to but himself. The labor of his body and the work of his hands we may say are properly his. — Treatise on Government ADAM SMITH. Though the wear and tear of a free servant be equally at the ex- pense of his master, it generally costs him much less than that of a slave. The fund destined for replacing or repairing, if I may say so, the wear and tear of the slave, ; s commonly managed by a negligent master or careless overseer. Tnat destined for performing the same ■ office with regard to the free man, is managed by the free man him- self. The disorders which generally prevail in the economy of the rich, naturally introduce themselves inlo the management of the former ; the strict frugality and parsimonious attention of the poor, as natural!}' establish themselves in that of the latter. Under such different management, the same purpose must require very different degrees of expense to execute it. If great improvements are seldom to be expected from great proprietors, they are least of all to be expected when they employ slaves for their workmen. The experience of all ages and nations, I believe, demonstrates that the work done by slaves, though it appears to cost only their mainte- nance, is in the end the dearest of any. A person who can acquire no property, can have no interest but to eat as much, and to labor as little as possible. Wha the other, to the tears and the untold agony of the hundreds beneath | him, whose lives of dreariness and hard labor are tenfold embittered, ■ by the imagery of that dear and distant land, from which they have f been irrecoverably torn.” — Natural Theology. — WILLI AM SINCLAIR. Scotland, thou hast not slept ! for years on years Thou hast denounced the trade of blood and tears ; Yet still thine arm is powerful — other climes Traffic in blood, and shame the^vorld with crimes ; America — the temple of the Free — The boasted scene and stage of Liberty, — Dark with oppression, groans beneath a load Unjust to man and hateful unto God, Blacker and fouler, stained with deeper shame, Because it rests on Freedom’s lofty name ; Then let thy means be ever freely given, Thine influence lent, thy prayers ascend to heaven, Thy triumph-banner never more be furled, Till freedom reigns — oppression flies the world ! Edinburgh, July 30, 1834. WILLIAM MACLURE. The language of children in all countries where negroes are the nurses and servants, is sufficient proof of the imitation of sounds ; and a further examination of the characters formed by the unfortu- nate mixture of abject submission, cringing flattery, and low, artful cunning, would finish the disagreeable picture of the characters of those, so unfortunate as to have slaves for their first companions and teachers. Of all the animals, man or what is called the better or higher or ders, is the only class that do not attend to the instruction of their offspring themselves, but leave that essential duty to hirelings. Wa WILLIAM MACLURE. should naturally suppose, that in doing so, they would at least em- ploy all their faculties of discrimination and selection, in the choice of the person or persons to whom they delegated that important trust; that they would surround their innocent progeny, with mildness, benevolence, friendship and good will towards man : so that every action they saw, and every expression they heard, should breathe nothing but peace, unanimity and friendly feeling, towards the whole human species. But how are these objects effected, when the forma, tion of the infant mind is entrusted to an untaught and therefore ig- norant slave ? [ Slaves, in this free country, though physically better treated, yet morally, by the contrast, are in a much more tantalizing situation, than in countries under despotism, where all are a kind of slaves, and not a ray of freedom flashes across the dismal field of universal coercion. When comparing their destiny with those around them, then - motives for disobedience, discontent, revenge, &c. are much stronger, than in countries, where the chain of arbitrary power, though lighter near the source, yet weighs more or less heavily on all classes and descriptions of men. In all countries where there are slaves, whether white or black, there is a perpetual war between force and fraud. The master, as legitimate owner of all production of the slave, seizes the whole, and the slave, to recover part for his own use, exercises his ingenuity to purloin, what has been considered by law and habit, the property ot the master. This alternation of legal and illegal hostilities, leaves both parties in a state of irritable retaliation, manifested by force on the part of the master, and retorted by cunning, subterfuge, deceit, and hypocrisy, by the slave ; a state of society which, while it clothes the master with an arbitrary power, necessary to its continuance, in- creases the temptation to crime on the part of the slave ; and thus becomes the cause of a partial demoralization of both. Between this high-handed violence, and low, deceitful cunning, can the imitative minds of children become otherwise than corrupted and vitiated ? It is the monopoly of property, knowledge and power, that has supported the assumed superiority of the whites over the colored peo- ple in all the European colonies. In Mexico, the vast number of native Mexicans must command power, when property and know ledge shall lend their assistance, and join the strongest. The tyranny of the strongest over the weakest has been manifested in all states of society, even where civilization has made some pro- gress. The women are prevented, by the oppression of men, from being so useful either to themselves or others, as they would be, if freed from the arbitrary control of those who are only superior to them in physical strength. The improvement of mankind, has lost the aid and assistance of half the population, by the education of women being confined. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. JEREMY BENTHAM. As soon as slavery is established, it becomes the lot of the great- est number. A master counts his slaves as his flocks, by hundreds, by thousands, by tens of thousands. The advantage is only on the side of a single person ; the disadvantages are on the side of the mul- titude. If tiie evils of slavery were not great, its extent alone would suffice to make it considerable. Generally speaking, and every consideration apart, there can therefore, be no ground for hesitation between the loss that would result to the masters from enfranchise- ment, and the gain which would result from it to the slaves. Another strong augument against slavery may be drawn from its influence upon the wealth and powerof nations. A free man pro- duces more than a slave. Set at liberty all the slaves which a mas- ter possesses, this master would, without doubt, lose a part of his property ; but slaves taken together would produce not only what he lost, but still more. But happiness cannot be augmented with abundance, whilst public power increases in the same proportion. Two circumstances concur in diminishing the produce of slaves, the absence of the stimulus of reward, and the insecurity of their condition. It is easily perceived that the fear of punishment is little likely to draw from a laborer all the industry of which he is capable, all the work he can furnish. Fear leads him to hide his powers rather than to show them ; to remain below rather than to surpass him- self. By a work of supererogation, he would prepare punishment for himself; he would only raise the measure of his ordinary duties by displaying superior capacity. His ambition is the reverse of that of a freeman ; and he seeks to descend in the scale of industry, rath- er than to ascend. Not only does he produce less; he consumes more, not in enjoyment, but lavishly, wastefully, and by bad econo- my. Of what importance to him are interests which are not his own ? Every thing which saves his labor is a gain for him ; every thing which he allows to be lost, is only the loss of his master. Why should he invent new methods of doing more or better ? In making improvements he must think ; and thinking it a labor to which no one gives himself without a motive. Degraded to a beast of burden, a slave never raises himself above a blind routine, and one genera- tion succeeds another without any progress in improvement. Principles of the Civil Code. The happiness of the people ought to be the aim of the legislator ; general utility ought to be the principle of reasoning in legislation. What is conformable to utility, or to the interest of a community, is whatever tends to augment the sum-tolal of the happiness of the in- dividuals composing that community. Moral good is a good only because of its tendency to produce physical (and mental) good ; moral evil is bad only because of its tendency to produce physical (and mental) evil. THE LEGION OE LIBERTY. FRANCES WRIGHT. Men are virtuous in proportion as they are happy , and happy in proportion as they are free. This truth is exemplified in the history of modern as of ancient times. Every where knowledge, mental re- finement, and the gentler, as the more ennobling, feelings of hu- manity, have kept pace, influx or reflux, with the growth or depres- sion of the spirit of freedom. Liberty without equality, what is it but a chimera ? and equality, what is it also but a chimera unless it extend to all the enjoyments, exertions, and advantages, intellectual, and physical, of which our nature is capable ? By political liberty we may understand the liberty of speech and of action without incurring the violence of authority or the penalties of law. By moral liberty may we not understand the free exercise of the liberty of speech and action, without incurring the intolerance of popular prejudice and ignorant public opinion ? The strength of the prejudice of color, as existing in the United States and in the European colonies, can in general be little con- ceived, and less understood in the old continent ; yet, however whim- sical it may there appear, is it, in fact, more ridiculous than the Eu- ropean prejudice of birth ? The superior excellence which the one supposes in a peculiar descent, or merely in a peculiar name, the other imagines in a peculiar complexion or set of features ; and per- haps it is only by considering man in many countries, and ebserving all his varying and contradictory prejudices, that we can discever the equal absurdity of all. There is a vulgar persuation, that the ignorance of women, by favoring their subordination, ensures their utility. ’Tis the same ar- gument employed by the ruling few against the subject many in aris. tocracies ; by the rich against the poor in democracies ; by the learned professions against the people in all countries. And let us observe, that if good in one case, it should be good in all ; and that, unless you are prepared to admit that you are yourselves less industrious in proportion to your intelligence, you must abandon the position with respect to others. But, in fact, who is it among men that best struggle with difficulties ? — the strong minded or the weak ? Who meet with serenity adverse fortune ? — the wise or the foolish ? Who accommodate themselves to irremediable circumstances ? or when remediable, who control and mould them at will ? — the intelligent or the ignorant ? Let your answer in your own case be your answer in that of women. WILLIAM THOMPSON. The few intelligent and benevolent men who are clear sighted enough to see their interest in refraining from the use of an odious power of making their fellow-creatures wretched, admit the useless, ness of such power to good purposes. Why is therefore this pesti- ferous power to oppress retained ? Not by the wise for good, but by the ignorant and brutal for bad purposes ; to save them the trouble of cultivating their intellectual powers, of learning the art of per- THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. shading, of convincing the understanding of their equals, of influ- encing by the cultivation of sympathy and benevolence ! To save such troublesome, such unmanly operations, the brute, though pos- sessing superior strength and affecting the self complacency of su. perior knowledge, — means abundantly sufficient, if not more than sufficient for all purposes of useful influence, — seizes on the power to I command ; and from that moment seals his own misery, as far as dependent on his connexion in marriage, with the degradation of his slave. If this power of command, not necessary for any useful pur- t poses, not used by the good, is still retained, what does it prove ? That it is retained for bad purposes, for gratifying the lust of domi- nation of the stronger over the weaker, for securing to the stronger all those exclusive means of happiness which he may think fit to re- r serve to himself, for gratifying him with the vicious pleasure of hold- ing tire destinies, the happiness or misery of another human being, at his absolute and unaccountable will, that he may be enabled, if so ; inclined, to exercise all the passions of a fiend on his caged victim, to whom death, or his destruction, is the only refuge from his perse- I cution ; all human aid, all human sympathy barred out. Despotism ) is a power which will never be accepted of by the wise and good, which can be sought for by the ignorant and the wicked alone. — Ap. , peal of Women. JOHN MASON GOOD. We have instances of a black man being suddenly bleached into a white man. These instances are indeed of rare occurrence ; but they are sufficient to show the absurdity of the argument for a plu- rality of human stocks or species, from a mere difference in the color of the skin ; an argument thus proved to be altogether superficial, and which we may gravely assert to be not more than skin-deep. The whole difference between the cranium of a Negro and that of an European is in no respect greater than that which exists between the cranium of the wild boar and that of the domestic swine. Those who are in possession of Daubenton’s drawings of the two, must be sensible of this the first moment they compare them together. Nor is it to a few casual individuals among the black tribes, ap- pearing in distant countries, and at distant aeras, that we have to look for the clearest proofs of human intelligence. At this moment, scat- tered like their own oases, their islands of beautiful verdure, over the eastern and western deserts of Africa, multitudes of little principali- ties of Negroes are still existing, — multitudes that have of late years, been detected and are still detecting, whose national virtues would do honour to the most polished states of Europe. JOHN STEWART. It is from the fatal preponderance of passion over reason, that the atrocious and damnable Trade in Human Flesh is sanctified; an act so infamous, that could all the crimes which history records be SIR WILLIAM JONES E. L. BULWER. | collected and consolidated into one, it would lose its nature of atrocity and become a virtue, when placed in comparison with the slave-trade, considered in its double flagitiousness of first buying the human species l and then destroying thorn. It is inconceivable, that an assembly of a nation can be guilty of an act, that no individual who has not degraded himself below his species, and familiarized his ear to the association of his name with that of villain and scoundrel but would feel a horror of committing. Though legislative accomplices may cover his shame, | and screen him from public censure, yet how, in the name of truth, if he possesses a well-organized mind and body, and but a common i share of reflection, (or rather the pre-eminent and characteristic share of an Englishman,) how can he esteem himself, when conscience will ever upbraid him with the participation in an act whose flagitiousness is so great, that unless he renounces the character of man, his very share would be sufficient to sink him into the most ignominious contempt, and draw upon him more remorse than would the catalogue of all the acted and imagined crimes in nature. — The Moral State of Nations. SIR WILLIAM JONES. I pass with haste by the coast of Africa, whence my mind turns with indignation at the abominable traffic in the human species, from which a part of our countrymen dare to derive their inauspicious wealth. Sugar, it has been said, would be dear if it were not worked by blacks; as if the most laborious, the most dangerous works were not carried on in every country by freemen ; in fact, they are so carried on with • infinitely more advantage, for there is alacrity in a consciousness of ! freedom, and a gloomy, sullen indolence in a consciousness of slavery, ;| But let sugar be as dear as it may, it is better to eat none, to eat honey, i if sweetness only be palatable ; better to cat aloes or coloquintida, than violate a primary law of nature, impressed on every heart not imbruted J by avarice ; than rob one human creature of those eternal rights of which no law upon earth can justly deprive him. EDWARD LYTTON BULWER. It is in vain that they oppose OPINION ; any thing else they may subdue. They may conquer wind, water, nature itself ; but to the progress of that secret, subtile, pervading spirit, their imagination can devise, their strength can accomplish, no bar ; its votaries they may seize, they may destroy ; itself, they cannot touch. If they check it in one place, it invades them in another. They cannot build a wall across the whole earth ; and even if they could, it would pass over its summit ! Chains cannot bind it, for it is immaterial — nor dungeons enclose it, for it is universal. Over the faggot and the scaffold — over the bleeding bodies which they pile against its path, it sweeps on with a noiseless, but unceasing march. Do they bring armies against it, it presents to them no palpable object to oppose. Its camp is the universe; its asylum the bosoms of their own soldiers. Let them depopulate, destroy as they please, to each extremity of the earth ; but as long as they have a single supporter themselves — as long as they HENRY BROUGHAM. ;■ leave a single individual into whom that spirit can enter, so long the will have the same labors to encounter, and the same enemy to subdue I The Spanish Patriot Riego's Reflection's oji Tyrants . Oh, Freedom ! with prophet’s voice, Bid the ends of the earth rejoice ! Wherever the proud are strong, And right is oppressed by wrong — S Wherever the dim day shines, Through the cell where the oaptive pines. — I .Go forth with a trumpet’s sound ! And tell to the nations round — On the hills where the heroes trod, — In the shrines of the saints of God, — In the ruler’s hall and the martyr’s prison, That the slumber is broke and the sleeper arisen ! That the day of the scourge and the fetter is o’er, And earth feels the tread of the freeman once more ! HENRY BROUGHAM. Tell me not of rights — talk not of the property of the planter in l his slaves. ] deny the right — I acknowledge not the property. The 1 principles, the feelings, of our common nature, rise in rebellion against it. Be the appeal made to the understanding or to the heart, the sen- l tence is the same that rejects it. In vain you tell me of laws that : sanction such a claim ! There is a law above all the enactments of human codes — the same throughout the world, the same in all times — such as it was before the daring genius of Columbus pierced the night of ages, and opened to one world the sources of power, wealth, and knowledge; to another, all unutterable woes ; such it is at this day: it is the law written by the finger of God on the heart of man ; and by that law, unchangeable and eternal, while men despise fraud, and loathe rapine, and abhor blood, they shall reject with indignation the wild and guilty fantasy, that man can hold property in man ! In vain you appeal to treaties, to covenants between nations. The covenants of the Almighty, whether the old or the new, denounce such unholy pretensions. To those laws did they of old refer, who maintained the African trade. Such treaties did they cite, and not untruly ; for by one shameful compact, you bartered the glories of Blenheim for the traffic in blood! Yet, in despite of law and of treaties, that infernal traffic is now destroyed, and its votaries put to death like other pirates. How came this change to pass ? Not assuredly by parliament leading the way; but the country at length awoke; the indignation of the people was kindled ; it descended in thunder, and smote the traffic, and scattered its guilty profits to the winds One word before I sit down, and that shall be in reference to those other countries which, by a singular coincidence, obtained their freedom about the same period when we began our effective struggle — the Ameri- cans having obtained their political freedom about the time when Thomas Clarkson began to agitate the question of the slave-trade, and the French having obtained their restoration to freedom in the very same month when Yorkshire enabled us, by the spirit which it then exhibited, 28 THOMAS FOWELL BUXTON. to accomplish the great object of emancipation, for which we had previously so long struggled in vain. That being the case, is it not melancholy as it regards France — is it not unspeakably mournful — nay, is it not absolutely monstrous (I use the term without meaning offence,) as regards America — is it. not matter of the profoundest won- der, that in a country which boasts of being the freest (and, politically speaking, it is one of the freest on the face of the earth,) should be the country which seems to cling the most closely to the slavery of the 1 negroes, a slavery which when compared with the fetters which they i (the Americans) so nobly burst asunder, in their resistance to the oppressions of the mother country, may be compared to straw's laid upon the back of a camel? (Cheers.) Can this endure — can such an anomaly be perpetuated — can so gross, so violent, so egregious an inconsistency continue among 13,000,000 of enlightened men ? I pronounce it impossible. (Hear, hear.) 1 have always stood forward as the fast friend of America. 1 have no doubt that the advice I now • give her in the spirit of candor and friendship, will be received by her 111 the spirit in which it is offered. THOMAS FOWELL BUXTON. Mr. T. F. Buxton, in bringing forward his promised motion on the subject of the slave-trade, observed, that no person who had not wit- nessed the atrocities of that abominable traffic, could have an adequate conception of the crimes, miseries, and cruelties to which it gave rise. He requested the attention of the house to facts which he should lay before them from parliamentary documents — facts that indicated the extent to which the slave-trade was now carried on. In three years and a half, 150,537 slaves were introduced into Brazil through the single port of Rio de Janerio. But this did not include the ! whole number departed from Africa; it only extended to the number I introduced alive: we know nothing of the amount of mortality that i occurred among the slaves on their passage. In 1830 the slave-trade had been legally abolished, notwithstanding which, however, he was sorry to say it now proceeded with almost as much activity as ever. This he gathered from the report of the Minister of Marine to the Legislative Assembly, which was as follows: — “Rio dc Janeiro, June 17, 1333. — Well known are the tricks resorted to by speculators, as ^ sordid as they are criminal, to continue the disgraceful traffic in slaves, in spite of all the legislative provisions and orders issued respecting it, which have been most scandalously eluded. It, therefore, appears necessary to the government to have recourse to the most efficacious means, which are, to arm a sufficient number of small vessels to form a sort of cordon sanitaire, which may prevent the access to our shores of those swarms of Africans that are continually poured forth from | ships employed in so abominable a traffic.” Before concluding, he would mention one fact, which had made a j greater impression on his mind than almost any thing else. In addition ! to the desolation which this shameful traffic created in Africa, it wa I tire cause of the destruction of not less than 100,000 persons, year by ELIZABETH HETRICK HARRIET MARTINEAU. I year, and this large number of human beings were sacrificed for the ‘ purpose of enriching miscreants, the acknowledged enemies of the human race, who, if justice had been done, would undoubtedly have died the death of murderers and pirates. (Hear, hear.) — Speech in the British House of Commons, May, 12, 1S35. ELIZABETH IIEYRICK. An immediate emancipation is the object to be aimed at ; it is more wise and rational — more politic and safe, as well as more just and humane, than gradual emancipation. The interests, moral and political, temporal and eternal, of all parties concerned, will be best promoted by immediate emancipation. The sooner the planter is obliged to abandon a system which torments him with perpetual alarms of insur- rection and massacre — which keeps him in the most debasing moral bondage — subjects him to a tyranny, of all others the most injurious and destructive, that of sordid and vindictive passions ; the sooner he is obliged to adopt a more humane and more lucrative policy in the . cultivation of his plantations ; the sooner the over-labored, crouching slave is converted into a free laborer — his compulsory, unremunerated toil, under the impulse of the cart-whip, exchanged for cheerful, well recompensed industry, — his bitter sufferings for peaceful enjoyment — r his deep execration of his merciless tyrants, for respectful attachment to his humane and equitable master- : the sooner the government and ' the people of this country’ purify themselves from the guilt of supporting cr tolerating a system of such monstrous injustice, productive of such . complicated enormities — the sooner all this mass of impolicy, crime, and suffering, is got rid of, the better. HARRIET MARTINEAU. I believe that I have heard every argument that can possibly be adduced in vindication or palliation of slavery, under any circumstances now existing; and I declare that of all displays of intellectual perversion and weakness, that I have witnessed, I have met with none so hum- bling and so melancholy as the advocacy of this institution. I declare that I know the whole of its theory ; — a declaration that I dare not make with regard to, 1 think, any other subject whatever: the result is that I believe there is nothing rational to be said in vindication or palliation of the protraction of slavery in the United States. Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, present the extreme case of : the fertility of the soil, the prosperity of proprietors and the woes of ! slaves. I found that the Virginians spoke with sorrow and contempt of the treatment of slaves in North and South Carolina ; South Carolina and Georgia, of the treatment of slaves in the richer states to the west : and in these last, I found the case too bad to admit of aggravation. It was in these last that the most heart-rending disclosures were made to me by the heads of families of their state of society, and of their own intolerable sufferings in it — Society in America. BENJAMIN GODWIN E. S. ABDY. All men are equal in their birth, Heirs of the earth and skies ; All rnen are equal when that earth Fades from their dying eyes. O ! let men hasten to restore To all, their rights of love : In power and wealth exult no >*ore ; In wisdom lowly move. Ye great ! renounce your earth-born pride, Ye low ! your shame and fear: Live as ye worship, side by side ; Your common claims revere. BENJAMIN GODWIN. It is a man’s interest, we know, to use his cattle well, and to take care that those who work them treat them properly; but, notwith- standing tins, does not the brute creation groan under the cruelties of man? How many are injured through mere wantoness! how many through thoughtlessness! and how many a noble animal has been shamefully abused in the moment of passion ! Besides, the owners of cattle are not always with them, and may even never see many of them; and men who have no interest in them may have the care and the working of them. Certainly in the opinion of our legislature, this motive was not deemed suffici Of, or why w'as an Act of Parliament passed to prevent cruelty to animals ? And for similar reasons the interest of the slave-owner in his slaves is no sufficient security against ill treatment. Thoughtlessness, wantonness, inebriety, the ebullitions of anger, or that irritation which blinds the mind even to a man’s own interests, may work misery to the slave — as in the case of the young gentleman already mentioned, who shot a slave for sport; or of Mr. and Mrs. Moss, for instance, who by a series of cruelties, destroyed a female who might long have served them. E. S. ABDY. To talk of a slave’s labor being due to his master, is to insult com- mon sense and common decency. While the latter can coin dollars out of the sweat and tears of his victim he will do so. “The law allows it, and the court awards it.” It is this clause, however, in the constitution, which renders the free states tributary to the ambition of the slave states, and accessories to all their guilt ; — makes the boasted asylum of the persecuted, the prison-house of the unfortunate ; and converts the guardians of liberty, into the turnkeys of its assassins. I can truly and honestly declare, that the orderly and obliging be- haviour, I observed among them, the decent and comfortable arrange- ments I witnessed in their houses — the anxiety they expressed for the education of their children, and their own improvement — the industry which was apparent in all about them, and the intelligence which markej their conversation — their sympathy for one another, and the respect they maintained for themselves — the absence of vindictive feeling against the whites, and the gratitude they evinced towards WESTMINSTER REVIEW. every one who treats them with common civility and regard, — far sur- passed the expectation I had formed, of finding among them some- tiling more elevated than the instinct of monkeys united to the passions of men. They are “not only almost, but altogether such as” the white man — except the bonds he has fastened on their bodies or their minds . — Residence and Tour in the United Slates, 1333 — 1835. WESTMINSTER REVIEW. If the reader rises from the perusal of these volumes of E. S. Ahdy with a highly reduced opinion of American intellect and morals, and a strong sense of the insult put upon the lib rats of Europe by the affectation of fraternity with which they have been honored, it will bo accompanied with an increased hatred of oppression, and increased love of liberty as a principle. With a form of government vastly more favorable for human improvement than that of their English progenitors, the Americans, probably from the effec^of climate, which has pro- duced so many other variations in the animal kingdom, have gone backward and not forward, and present a caricature of all the worst qualities of the worst Englishmen of the worst times. Slavery is so utterly abhorrent to every respectable individual in this country, that it would be a waste of argument to reason against its continuance ; while those who have profited by it, like others who have been guilty of nefarious practices, are beyond the pale of reason on the subject. The tearing asunder family ties, the banishment, the mart, the jealous confinement and surveillance of new masters, the whole horrors of the slave-trade, are brought into active operation in the heart of the United States, whose citizens the while, expect to sit at table with civilized men, and be treated with more reverence than the kindred barbarians of Ashantee. Bad as is the state of the slaves in the more northern states, they uniformly regard the South with more horror than our thieves at home do the hulks. The loss by death alone to the Louisiana planters, in bringing slaves from the North, is estimated at twenty-five per cent. The sugar factories and rice swamps, the slaves know to be rapid and rough highroads to the grave. And they are well acquainted with the stories of the greater rigor of the southern drivers. It is true that the more respectable Virginian proprietors decline selling their negroes so Iongas they conduct themselves to their satisfaction, and even make this rule in some degree a point of honor. Mr. Abdy's book reads a moral lesson to the American people which cannot be too much insisted on. It is the right of the civilized world to combine in placing them in quarantine till they are less dis- creditable to their ancestors. Will any Englishman sit at meat with a nation that sell one another by weight ? It is by no means certain, that civilization did not come to Egypt out of Ethiopia ; and it is quite certain that the Indians, who pass for “black fellows” in the vocabulary of these white philosophers, were a civilized and learned race, when our progenitors were painting their skins and roasting one another alive. =*28 THE SLAVE-TRADE EDINBURGH REVIEW. THE SLAVE-TRADE. We now come to our own country, the United States. And what shall we say ? What must we say ? What does the truth compel us to say ? Why, that of all the countries appealed to by great Britain and France on this momentous subject, the United States is the only one which has returned a decided negative. We neither do any tiling our- selves to put down the accursed traffic, nor afford any facilities to enable others to put it down. Nay, rather, we stand between the slave and his deliverer. We are a drawback — a dead weight on the cause of bleeding humanity. How long shall this shameful apathy continue? How long shall we, who call ourselves the champions of freedom, close our ears to the groans, and' our eyes to the tears and blood, and our hearts to the untold anguish of thousands and tens of thousands who are every year torn from home and friends and bosom companions, and sold into hopeless bondage, or perish amid the hor- rors of the “ middle passage?” From the shores of bleeding Africa, and from the channels of the»leep, from Brazil and from Cuba, Echo answers, “Flow long?” — JV. V. Journal of Commerce, Sept. 1835. EDINBURGH REVIEW. We have, however, to record one instance of positive refusal to our request of accession to these conventions, and that, we grieve to say, comes from the United States of America— the first nation that, by its statute law, branded the slave-trade with the name of piracy. The conduct, moreover, of the President, does not appear to have been perfectly candid and ingenuous. There appears to have been delay in returning any answer, and when returned, it seems to have been of an evasive character. In the month of August, 1833, the English and French ministers jointly sent in copies of the recent convenlions, and requested the accession of the United States. At the end of March following, seven months afterwards, an answer is returned, which, though certainly not of a favorable character in other respects, yet brings so prominently into view, as the insuperable objection, that the mutual right of search of suspected vessels was to be extended to the shores of the United States, (though we permitted it to American cruisers off the coast of our West Indian colonies,) that Lord Palmer- ston was naturally led to suppose that the other objections were su- perable. He, therefore, though aware how much the whole efficiency of the agreement will je impaired, consents to waive that part of it, in accordance with the wishes of the President, and in the earnest hope that he will, in return, make some concessions of feeling or opinion to the wishes of England and France, and to the necessities of a great and holy cause. The final answer, however, is, that under no condi- tion, in no form, and with no restrictions, will the United States enter into any convention or treaty, or make combined efforts of any sort or kind, with other nations, for the suppression of the trade. We much mistake the state of public opinion in the United States, if its govern- ment will not find itself under the necessity of changing this resolution. The slave-trade will henceforth, we have little doubt, be carried on I THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. under the flag of freedom ; but as in no country, after our own, have such persevering efforts for its suppression been made, by men l the most distinguished for goodness, wisdom, and eloquence, as in the United States, we cannot believe that their flag will long be pros- tituted to such vile purposes; and either they must combine with . other nations, or they must increase the number and efficiency of their naval forces on the coast of Africa and elsewhere, and do their > work single-handed. We say this the more, because the motives i which have actuated the government of the United States in this re- fusal, clearly have reference to the words, “right of search.” They will not choose to see that this is a mutual restricted right, effected by convention, strictly guarded by stipulations for one definite ob- ject, and confined in its operations within narrow geographical lim- its; a right, moreover, which England and France have accorded to each other without derogating from the national honour of either. If we are right in our conjecture of the motive, and there is evidence to support us, we must consider that the President and his ministers have been in this instance, actuated by a narrow provincial jealousy, and totally unworthy of a great and independent nation. JAMES GRAHAME. The first cargo of negro slaves imported into North America, was i conveyed by a Dutch vessel in 1620 to Virginia, where they were , readily purchased by the planters without the permission, or even the knowledge of the British government. Indeed this government did not then nor till several years after, exercise the political gov- : ernment of Virginia, which was originally confided to a numerous society of English gentlemen established in London. Moreover, the 1 first of the British statutes of navigation was not enacted till the ; Restoration of Charles II. in 1660 : and the slave trade was not r comprehended within the scope and operation of the commercial policy of the British government till the reign of Queen Anne — prior to which negro slavery was established in every one of the : American provinces that finally revolted from Britain — of course with the exception of Georgia, which was not planted till the year , 1733. The number of slaves in every province was regulated by its soil, climate, and other physical circumstances, and not by the degree of its subjection to British control. The puritan colon- • ists of New England, at a time when then - provincial government was practically independent of Great Britain, reduced to slavery the captives whom they took in their wars with the Indians. Mary- land and the Carolinas acquired negro slaves while they were sub- ject not to the British crown, but to proprietary dominion ; and, unde- terred by the threats and remonstrance of the British proprietaries to whom they owed allegiance, the Carolinian planters adopted and long persisted in the practice of kidnapping and in enslaving the unoffending Indians who had the misfortune to be their neighbors. Who is to blame ? THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. JONATHAN DYMOND. That any human being, who has not forfeited his liberty by his crimes, has a right to he free, — and that whosoever forcibly with, holds liberty from an innocent man, robs him of his right, and vio- 1 lates the moral law, are truths which no man would dispute or doubt, if custom had not obscured our perceptions, or if wickedness did not prompt us to close our eyes. The whole system is essentially and radically bad : injustice and oppression are its fundamental principles. Whatever lenity may bo requisite in speaking of the agent, none should be shown, none should be expressed for the act. Ido not affirm or imagine that every slave* ! I holder is therefore a wicked man ; but if he be not, it is only upon the score of ignorance. If he is exempt from the guilt of violating the moral law, it is only because he does not perceive what it requires, 1 Let us leave the deserts of the individual to Him who knoweth the heart : of his actions wo may speak ; and we should speak in the language of reprobation, disgust, and abhorrence. Although it could be shown that the slave system is expedient, it would not affect the question whether it ought to be maintained : yet it is remarkable that it is shown to be impolitic as well as bad. We 1 are not violating the moral law because it fills our pockets. We in- jure ourselves by our own transgressions. The slave system is a costly iniquity, both to the nation and to individual men. It is mat- t ter of great satisfaction that this is known and proved : and yet it is just what, antecedently to inquiry, we should have reason to expect. The truth furnishes one addition to the many evidences, that even with respect to temporal affairs, that which is right is commonly po- i litic ; and it ought therefore to furnish additional inducements to a fearless conformity of conduct, private and public, to the moral law — Essay on Morality. GEORGE COMBE. The race has never received justice from its European and Amen I can masters ; and until its treatment shall have become moral, its ca* 1 pabilities cannot be fairly estimated, and the judgment against it is therefore premature. Besides, whatever be its capabilities, it was a henious moral transgression to transport it, by violent means, from the region where a wise and benevolent God had placed it, and to ! plant it in a new soil, and amidst institutions, for which it was never intended ; and the punishment of this offence will not be averted, but aggravated, by losing sight of the source of the transgression, and charging the consequences of it on the negroes, as if they were to blame for their alleged* incapacity to glide gracefully into the ranks of American civilization. The negroes must either be improved by culture and intermarriages with the European race, or transferred 1 to their native climate, before America can escape from the hands of divine justice. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the details of American social life, to be able to point out the practical form m which the punishment is inflicted ; but if there be truth in the prin- ciples now expounded, I cannot doubt of its existence. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. The alternative of incorporating the negroes, by intermarriage, with the European race, appears revolting to the feelings of the lat- .er ; while they also declare it to be impossible to retransport the backs to Africa, on account of their overwhelming numbers. There js much force in both of these objections, but there is still greater weight in the following considerations : — that the white race is ex- clusively to blame for the origin of the evil, and for all its conse- juences ; that the natural laws never relax in their operation ; and hat, therefore, the existing evils will go on augmenting, until a ■emedy be adopted, which will become more painful the longer it is lelayed. If the present state of things shall be continued for a century, it is probable that it will end in a war of extermination >e tween the black and the white population ; or in an attempt by he blacks to conquer and exclusively possess one or more of the iouthern states of the Union, as an independent kingdom for them- ielves . — Constitution of Man. JAMES CROPPER. In judging of this scheme, we ought never to lose sight of two facts vith respect to the enslaved Africans in the United States, in which he enormities of that free country have exceeded those of any other. The first is, that slaves are regularly bred for sale. The second, that, n many of the states, the laws affecting free blacks are of so vio. ently persecuting a character as to compel those who obtain their li- >erty to leave those states. From the former of these causes, in- stances must often occur, (from the state of morals in slave countries,) if fathers selling their own children!! From the latter has originated he colonization society ; it arose out of those prejudices against :olor, and is a direct attempt to extend the same principle to trans- lortation. ■ Why are slave-holders so anxious to send away free people of color ? Because their slave institutions would be endangered by the competi- ion of respectable free black laborers ; and they dread still more their iducation and advancement in science. If they were desirous of ;erving the free blacks, they would instruct them at home, (not a few if them, but every one that they send,) and not send them in igno- ance to a barbarous country. GEORGE THOMPSON. i As the friend of Africa, — claiming to be as much the friend of Africa as he who directs his attention exclusively to that country, —as the friend of Africa, I say look to India. (Hear.) Would you ;ive security to Africa, would you starve the man-stealer from her bores ? Would you dispense with ships of war around her shores, md render unnecessary the outlay of immense funds now employed 1 iVould you give security to that now harrassed, impoverished, and disembowelled country? Look to India. You may immediately iring your cotton, your sugar, your rice, from thence ; and as sura is you import it into this country, so surely will you stop, imme* THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. diately and for ever, the demand for slaves. (Applause.) And thu you are doing peacefully, and by most unexceptionable means, with out lavish expenditure, without embassies, without treaties, wilhou (f congresses, without any violation, direct or indirect, of any existing p treaty, you are doing that which cannot de done, if you look at Ai * rica only and forget India, without a vast deal of expense. Mucl time must elapse, much pains must be taken, many failures must b< 5 sustained, ere we can hope to see the plans that may be devised '■ however sapient the benevolence that originated, or active the cnerg] v that may work them, carried into successful operation. I say, there J fore, look to India. If you can but render slavery so unprofitable— '■? unnecessary, and therefore unprofitable — as to put down the trade ill • slaves, then you immediately restore to the shore of Africa what slit has not known for centuries — that peace of which she has been de : prived by the Christians of Europe. Then you can introduce com ’ merce and civilization into Africa, without the fear of being thwarted 1 in your plans by the superior temptation placed in the way of tilt 1 barbarian chief, by the prowler and kidnapper along her shores ; then 1 you can dispense with your armed cruisers, your tenders and steam boats ; then you may make treaties with the native chiefs, who wil ■ be gald, for they will be compelled to do so, seeing that you will b< the only party before them, the other party having been dismissec from their shores by the operation of this most powerful and pacific principle ; then will you extend the benefits of education. We arc paying every year from fifteen to twenty millions for the support of slavery’ ; while, by looking to our own British possessions we might obtain our articles cheaper; we might send to those depen- dencies a much greater amount of our manufactures ; we might pro- mote the prosperity’ of the parent empire ; we might give employment to our starving and dissatisfied fellow-citizens at home ; we might give peace and security to Africa, and proclaim the year of deliverance to the slaves of America. WILLIAM BEST. It is a matter of pride for me to recollect, that while economists and) politicians were recommending to the Lcgislatuie the protection of this! traffic, and senators were framing laws for its piomotion, and declaring it a benefit to the country, — the judges of the land, above the age in which they lived, standing upon the high ground of natural right, and disdaining to bend to the lower doctrine of expediency, declared tliati slavery was inconsistent with the genius of the English Constitution, and that human beings could not be the subject matter of property. As a lawyer, I speak of that early determination, when a different doctrine was prevailing in the senate, with a considerable degree of professional pride. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. CHARLES DICKENS. ll Do we not know that the worst deformity and ugliness of slavery - arc at once the cause and the effect of the reckless license taken by .'these free born outlaws ? Do we not know that the man has been bom and bred among its wrongs ; who has seen in his childhood jhusbands obliged at the word of command to flog their wives; wo. amen, indecently compelled to hold up their own garments that men might lay the heavier stripes upon their legs, driven and harried by '^brutal oveiscers in their time of travail, and becoming mothers on the field of toil, under the very lash itself; who has read in youth, -and seen his virgin sisters read descriptions of runaway men and : women, and their disfigured persons, which could not be published •elsewhere, of so much stock upon a farm, or at a show of beasts ; do we not kuow that that man, whenever his wrath is kindled up, will be a brutal savage ? Do we not know that as he is a coward in . his domestic life, stalking among his shrinking men and women . slaves armed with a heavy whip, so he will be a coward out of doors, : and carrying cowards’ weapons hidden in his breast will shoot men down and stab them when lie quarrels ? And if our reason did not teach us this, and much beyond ; if we were such idiots as to close our eyes to that fine mode of training which rears up such men ; should we not know that they who among their equals stab and pis. tol in the legislative halls, and in the counting-house, and on the market-place, must be to their dependants, even though they were free servants, so many merciless and unrelenting tyrants ? What ! shall we declaim against the ignorant peasantry of Ire- land, and mince the matter when these American task-masters are in question? Shali we cry shame on the brutality of those who hamstring cattle; and spare the lights of Freedom upon earth who notch the ears of men and women, cut pleasant posies in the shrink. ; ing flesh, learn to write with pens of red-hot iron on the human ! face, rack their poetic fancies for liveries of mutilation which their slaves shall wear for life, and carry to the grave, break living limb3 as did the soldiery who mocked and slew the Saviour of the world, and set defenceless creatures up for targets ! Shall we whimper over legends of the tortures practised on each other by the Pagan Indians, and smile upon the cruelties of Christian men ! Shall we, so long as these last, exult above the scattered remnants of that state- ly race, and triumph in the white enjoyment of their broad posses- sions ? Rather, for me, restore the forest and Indian village ; in lieu of stars and stripes, let some poor feather flutter in the breeze ; replace the streets and squares by wigwams ; and though the death- song of a hundred haughty warriors fill the air, it will be music to i the shriek of one unhappy slave. — Nates on America. Public opinion in the slave Slates, is slavery, is it not ? Public i opinion, in t ie slive Stales, has deliv.rjd the slaves over to the gen- tle mercies of their masters. Public opinion has made the laws, and dmied them legislative protection. Public opinion has knotted the lash, heated the branding-iron, and shielded the murderer. — lb. FOREIGN REVIEWS LON. EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE, EDINBURGH REVIEW. Every American who loves his country, should dedicate his whol life, and every faculty of his soul, to efface the foul blot of slavery fror its character. If nations rank according to their wisdom and thei virtue, what right has the American, a scourger and murderer of slaves to compare himself with the least and lowest of the European nations much more with this great and humane country, where the greates lord dare not lay a finger on the meanest peasant? What is freedon where all are not free? where the greatest of God’s blessings are limited with impious caprice to the color of the body ? And these arc mei who taunt the English with their corrupt parliament, with their buyin; and selling votes. Let the world judge which is the most liable t censure — we, who in the midst of rottenness, have torn the manacle off slaves all over the world ; or they who, with (heir idle purity ant useless perfection, have remained mute and careless while groan echoed and whips cracked round the very walls of their spotless con gress. We wish well to America — we rejoice in her prosperity — ant are delighted to resist the absurd impertinence with which the charade of her people is often treated in this country. But the existence of slaver; in America is an atrocious crime, with which no measures can be kep — ; for which her situation affords no sort of apology — which makes libert; itself disgusted, and the boast of it disgusting.— No. LXl. Jlrt. Travel lers in America. THE FOREIGN QUARTERLY REVIEW. It is notorious, that, notwithstanding all the treaties which have beei concluded between England and other countries for the abolition o' the slave-trade, it is still carried on to an enormous extent, because even if the governments were really sincere in their wishes to suppresr this trade, their subjects were wholly averse to a step which thei denounced as utter ruin to all interested in the colonies. They hav« therefore persisted in spite of, perhaps with the connivance of thei:; governments ; and in Brazil in particular, it has been officially de dared to be out of the power of the legislature to put an end to thi! traffic. Let England call on the governments of Europe not to allow the im porlulion of colonial produce from any coun try where it can be proved thm the slave-trade is still carried on, either with the sanction or connivanct of the government, or in spite of it ; such a measure would surely act a:j a check on the importation of slaves. Could that point be efffcctualh attained, it might be hoped that the extinction of slavery itself woulc in due time succeed, as it has done in the British colonies. LONDON EVANGELICAL MAGAGINE. The United States of America present to the world one of the mos extraodinary spectacles that can be conceived of by the mind of man They are a huge moral and political enigma. We behold part of th< population priding themselves on the peculiar freedom of their institu GEORGE FOX THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. tions, and holding the other part in the shackles of slavery. — Alas, that a figure with so goodly a bust should terminate in the slimy folds of the serpent ! It is melancholy to behold such a monstrosity, a people judging their own rights with the incontrovertible declaration, “ that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with cer- tain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the j. pursuit of happiness and at the same instant depriving their fellow- men perpetually of two of these “inalienable rights,” and often directly or indirectly of the third. Most heartily do we concur with our American brethren in the sentiment we here quote. W e concur with them when they claim to be free from oppression, but we dissent from them when they claim also to be free to oppress. The national emblem of the American states requires alteration to make it truly i emblematical of their present and past condition. The eagle, with • liberty on his wings, should, to complete the resemblance, clutch in his talons the manacled and writhing form of the colored man. GEORGE FOX. In the West Indies, he exhorted those who attended his meetings, to be merciful to their slaves, and to give them their freedom in due time. He considered these as belonging to their families, and that religious instruction \ras due to these as the branches of them, for whom, one day or other, they would be required to give a solemn account. Hapoy had it been if these Christian exhortations had been attended to, or if these families only, whom he thus seriously addressed, had continued to be true Quakers ; for they would have set an example, which would have proved to the rest of the islanders and the world at large, that the impolicy is not less than the wickedness of oppression. Thus was George Fox, probably the first person who publicly de- clared against this species of slavery. Nothing, in short, that could be deplored by humanity, seems to have escaped his eye ; and his benevolence, when excited, appears to have suffered no interruption in its progress by the obstacles which bigotry would have thrown in the way of many, on account of the difference of a person’s country, or of his color, or of his sect .” — Portraiture of Quakerism. . THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. “ In the first place they have made it a rule that no person, ac- knowledged to be in profession with them, shall have any concern in the slave-trade. “ The Gtuakers began to consider this subject, as a Christian body, so early as in the beginning of the last century. In the year 1727, they passed a public censure upon this trade. In the year 1758, and afterwards in the year 1761, they warned and exhorted all in profes- sion with them, ‘ to keep their hands clear of this unrighteous gain of oppression.’ In the yearly meeting of 1763, they renewed their exhortation in the following words : “‘We renew our exhortation, that Friends everywhere be ospe- 29 JAMES BEATTIE. daily careful to keep their hands clear of giving encouragement in any shape to the slave-trade ; it being evidently destructive of the natural rights of mankind, who are all ransomed by one Saviour, and visited by one divine light, in order to salvation ; a traffic calculated ' to enrich and aggrandize some upon the miseries of others; in its s nature abhorrent to every just and tender sentiment, and contrary to! the whole tenor of the gospel.” “In the same manner from the year 1763, they have publicly manifested a tender concern for the happiness of the injured Africans, and they have not only been vigilant to see that none of their own] members were concernd in this nefarious traffic, but the}' have lent their assistance with other Christians in promoting its discontinuance. — Thomas Clarkson's Portuiture of Qicakerism. JAMES BEATTIE. It is well observed by the wisest of poets (as Atheneus, quoting the passage, justly calls,) Homer , who lived when slavery was common, and whose knowledge of the human heart is unquestionable, that “ When a man is made a slave, he loses from that day the half of his 1 virtue.” And Longinus, quoting the same passage, affirms, “ Slavery, 11 however mild, may still be called the poison of the soul, and a public dungeon.” And Tacitus remarks, that “ Even wild animals lose : their spirit when deprived of their freedom.” All history proves, and every rational philosopher admits, that as liberty promotes virtue and ) genius, slavery debases the understanding and corrupts the heart of i both the slave and the master, and that in a greater or less degree, as it is more or less severe. So that in this plea of the slave-monger, we have an example of that diabolical casuistry, whereby the tempter and 1 corrupter endeavors to vindicate or gratify himself, by accusing those whom he himself has tempted or corrupted. Slavery is inconsistent with the dearest and most essential rights of man’s nature ; it is detrimental to virtue and to industry ; it hardens the heart to those tender sympathies which form the most lovely part I of human character ; it involves the innocent in hopeless misery, in j order to procure wealth and pleasure for the authors of that misery; it 1 seeks to degrade into brutes beings whom the Lord of heaven and earth endowed with rational souls, and created for immortality ; in 1 short, it is utterly repugnant to every principle of reason, religion, humanity, and conscience. It is impossible for a considerate and un- 1 prejudiced mind to think of slavery without horror. That a man, a rational and immortal being, should be treated on the same footing ; with a beast or piece of wood, and bought and sold, and entirely sub- I jected to the will of another man, whose equal he is by nature, and whose superior he may be in virtue and understanding, and all for no i . crime, but merely because he was born in a certain country, or of cer- : tain parents, or because he differs from us in the shape of his nose, the i color of his skin, or the size of his lips ; if this be equitable, or excu- 1 sable, or pardonable, it is vain to talk any longer of the eternal dis- I! tinctions of right and wrong, truth and falsehood, good and evil. It ; has been said that negroes are animals of a nature inferior to man, 1 1 vr. ROBERTSON, D. D WAREJRTOX DR. PRIMATT. letween whom and the brutes, they hold, as it were, the middle place. ?ut though this were true, it would not follow that we have a right ither to debase ourselves by a habit of cruelty, or to use them ill ; for ven beasts, if inoffensive, are entitled to gentle treatment, and we ave reason to believe that they who are not merciful will not obtain hercy. The same sentiments are found in Pliny and Columella, who both npute the decay of husbandry, in their time, not to any deficiency in he soil, but to the unwise policy of leaving to the management of ~ laves those fields, which, says Pliny, “ had formerly rejoiced under ^ le laurelled ploughshare and the triumphant ploughman,” Rbllin, ■ith good reason, imputes to the same cause the present barrenness 'Palestine, which in ancient times was called the land flowing with lilk and honey . — Elements of Moral Science. WILLIAM ROBERTSON, D. D. In the ancient world .... the pert ns, the goods, the children of 'iese slaves, were the property of their masters, disposed of at plea- ire, and transferred, like any other possession, from one hand to bother. No inequality, no superiority in nower, no pretext of con- :nt can justify this ignomouious depression or nature or can infer upon one man tire ngat o r € ■" ..cn over another. Put not lily doth reason condemn tu.s ...suuition os Urdus'- °>-r.eii»nce proved to be pernicious both to masters aim slaves. The elevation of me rmer inspired them with pride, insolence, impatience, cruelty, and iluptuousness ; the dependant end hopeless state of the latter de- •cted the human mind, and extin^ins.ieu every generous and noble iuciple in the heart. — Sermon. BISHOP WARBuR i' W. “ From the free savages I now come to the savag- s in brads. By ese I mean the vast multitudes yearly stolen from the opposite con- sent, and sacrificed by the colonists to their great idol the god of un. But what, then, sav these sincere worshippers of mammon f hey are our own property which we offer up. Gracious God ’ ’n Ik, as of herds of cattle, of property in rational creatures, creat .es ] dued with all our faculties, possessing all our qualities but tu .t of lor, our brethren both by nature and grace, shocks all the reelings : humanity, and the dictates of common sense! But, a',.,! what ■ there, in the infinite abuses of society, which does not sV-ck them ? ct nothing i? more certain in itself and apparent to ah. .uan that the famous traffic for slaves directly infringes both r 1 me and human w. Nature created man free, and grace invites him to asseii m3 bedom. — Sermon, 1776, DR. PRIMATT. It has pleased God to cover some men with white 'A us, and otharu ith black ; but as there is neither merit nor dera- 'l in comp's' ,a e white man, notwithstanding the barbarity of cv-xtom and nrej .dice. \ j DR. PECKARD JOHN WESLEY. can have no right by virtue of his color to enslave and tyrannize over the black man. For whether a man be white or black, such he is by God’s appointment, and, abstractly considered, is neither a subject for pride, nor an object of contempt.— Dissertation on the Duty oj Mercy, and on the Sin of Cruelty to Brute Animals. DR. PECKARD. “Now, whether we consider the crime with respect to the indi- viduals concerned in this most barbarous and cruel traffic, or whether we consider it as patronised and encouraged by the laws of the land, it presents to our view an equal degree of enormity. A crime, founded on a dreadful pre-eminence in wickedness ; a crime which being both of individuals and the nation, must some time draw down upon us the heaviest judgment of Almighty God, who made of one blood all the, sons of men, and who gave to all equally a natural right to liberty ; and who, ruling all the kingdoms of the earth with equal providentia justice, cannot suffer such delibc rate, such monstrous iniquity, to pass long unpunished.” — Sermon before the Cambridge University. JOHN WESLEY. That execrable sum of all villanies commonly called the slave-trade I read of nothing like it in the heathen world, whether ancient 01 modern. It infinitely exceeds every instance of barbarity, whatevc, Christian slaves suffer in Mohammedan countries. — His works, Vol. 3 page 341. At Liverpool, many large ships are now laid up in the docks, which had been employed for many years in buying or stealing Africans, anc selling them in America for slaves. The men-butchers have nov nothing to do at this laudable occupation. Since, the American waj broke out, there is no demand for human cattle ; so the men of Africa as well as Europe, mav enjoy their native liberty. — Journal oj April, 1777. THOUGHTS ON SLAVERY. 1. Slavery imports an obligation of perpetual service; an obligatioij which only the consent of the master can dissolve. It generally give the master an arbitrary power of any correction not affecting life o limb. Sometimes even those are exposed to his will, or protected onl by a fine or some slight punishment, too inconsiderable to restrain master of harsh temper. It creates an incapacity of acquiring an thing, except for the master’s benefit. It allows the master to alienal the slave in the same manner as his cows and horses. Lastly, it de sccnds in its full extent, from parent to child, even to the last generation 2. Tire grand plea is, “They are authorized by law.” But can law human law, change the nature of things ? Can it turn darkness intj light, or evil into good ? By no means. Notwithstanding ten thou sand laws, right is light, and wrong is wrong. There must still re main an essential difference between justice and injustice, cruelty an mercy. So that I ask ; Who can reconcile this treatment of the slave# JOHN WESLEY. i first and last, with either mercy or justice ; where is the justice of in- ) flirting the severest evils on those who have done us no wrong? Of } depriving those who never injured us in word or deed, of every comfort of life ? Of tearing them from their native country, and depriving | them of liberty itself; to which an Angolan has the same natural right ( as an American, and on which he sets as high a value? Where is the justice of taking away the lives of innocent, inoffensive men? Mur- [ dering thousands of them in their own land by the hands of their own ) countrymen ; and tens of thousands in that cruel slavery, to which they are so unjustly reduced? “ When we have slaves, it is necessary to use them with severity.” What, to ickip them for evei~y petty offence till they are in a gore of blood ? To take that opportunity of rubbing pepper and suit into their raw flesh ? I To drop burning sealing-wax upon their skins ? To castrate them ? To k cut off half their foot with an axe ? To hang them on gibbets, that they may die by inches with heal, and hwiger, and thirst ? To pin them down .. to the ground, and then burn them by degrees from the feet to the head ? 1 To roast them alive ? When did a Turk or a heathen find it necessary I] to use a fellow-creature thus ? To what end is this usage necessary? ; “ To prevent their running away, and to keep them constantly to their I labor, that they may not idle away their time. So miserably stupid is this race of men, so stubborn and so wicked !” Allowing this, to whom ! is that stupidity owing? It lies altogether at the door of their inhuman masters, who gave them no means, no opportunity of improving their li understanding ; and indeed leave them no motive, either from hope or r fear to attempt any such thing. They were no way remarkable for f stupidity while they remained In Africa. To some of the inhabitants F of Europe they are greatly superior. Survey the natives of Benin, j and of Lapland. Compare the Samoeids and the Angolans. The ‘ African is in no respect inferior to the European. Their stupidity in our colonies is not natural ; otherwise than it is the natural effect of p their condition. Consequently it is not their fault, but yours: and I you must answer for it before God and man. “ But their stupidity is K not the only reason of our treating them with severity ; for it is hard to I say which is the greatest, this, or their stubbornness, and wickedness.” I.' But do not these, as well as the other, lie at your door? Are not f stubbornness, cunning, pilfering, and divers other vices, the natural I necessary fruits of slavery 7 , in every age and nation ? What means I; have you used to remove this stubbornness ? Have you tried w 7 hat f mildness and gentleness would do? What pains have you taken, • what method have you used to reclaim them from their wickedness ? O thou God of love, thou who art loving to every man, and whose f mercy is over all thy works ; thou who art the Father of the spirits of I all flesh, and who art rich in mercy unto all ; thou who hast formed of L one blood, all the nations upon the earth; have compassion upon these f outcasts of men, who are trodden down as dung upon the earth ! F Arise, and help these that have no helper, whose blood is spilled upon F the ground like water ! Are not these also the work of thine own b bands, the purchase of thy Son’s blood ? Stir them up to cry unto i thee in the land of their captivity ; and let their complaint come up 29 * ADAM CLARKE. THOMAS SCOTT. before thee ; let it enter into thine ears ! Make even those that lead them captive to pity them and turn their captivity. O burst thou all their chains in sunder ; more especially the chains of their sins : thou Saviour of all, make them free, that they may be free indeed ! ADAM CLARKE. Isaiah Iviii, 6. — Let the oppressed go free. How can any nation ' pretend to fast, or worship God at ail,, or dare profess that they believe in the existence of such a Being, while they carry on what is called the slave-trade: and traffic in the souls, blood, and bodies of men ! O ye most flagitious of knaves and worst of hypocrites! cast off at once the mask of religion, and deepen not your endless perdition by profess- ing the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, while you continue in this i traffic ! THOMAS SCOTT. Exodus xxi, 1G. — “He that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hands, he shall surely be put to death.” Stealing a man in order to sell him fora slave, whether the thief had actually sold him, or whether he continued in his possession. He who stole any one of the human family, in order to make a slave of him, should be punish- ed with death. The crime would be aggravated by sending them away into foreign countries to be slaves to idolaters. Deuteronomy xxiv, 7. — “If a man be found stealing any of his brethren of the children of Israel, and maketh merchandise ol him, or selleth him, then THAT THIEF SHALL DIE.” — Every man is now our brother, whatever be his nation, complexion or creed. How j then can the merchandise of men and women be carried on, without transgressing this commandment, or abetting those who do ? A man . may steal, or purchase of those who do steal, hundreds of men and women, and not only escape with impunity, but grow great like a prince. According to the law of God, whoever stole cattle restored four or five fold ; whoever stole one human being, though an infant or an , idiot, must die. 1. Timothy i, 10. — “ Men-stealers.” — Men-stealcrs are inserted among those daring criminals against whom the lav/ of God directed I; its awful curses. Persons who kidnapped men to sell them for slaves. |, This practice seems inseparable from the other iniquities and oppres- J sions of slavery ; nor can a slave-dealer by any means keep free from that atrocious criminality, if the receiver be as bad as the thief They who encourage that unchristian traffic by purchasing that, which is : 1 thus unjustly acquired, are partakers of their crimes. — M acknioht.— That is the only species of theft which is puydshed with death by the laws of God. James ii, 12, 13. — “So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. “ For he shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed no mercy, and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” On this verse Dr. Scott makes the following remarks — “ All who are not taught to show SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. mercy to others, must expect to be dealt with according to the seventy of justice in respect to their eternal state. What then must be the doom of the cruel oppressors and iniquitous tyrants of the human spe- cies ? But the hard-hearted, selfish, implacable, and oppressive pro- fessor of Christianity, has the greatest cause to tremble; for if ‘he shall have judgment without mercy, who hath shown no mercy,’ the meanest slave that ever was whipt and worked to death, must be con- sidered as happy, compared with his haughty cruel tyrant, and this shall sufficiently appear, ‘ when the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.’ ” Revelation xviii, 13. — “ Slaves and souls of men.” — Not only slaves, but the souls of men are mentioned as articles of commerce, which is beyond comparison, the most infamous of all traffics that the demon of avarice ever devised ; almost infinitely more atrocious, than the accursed slave-trade. Alas! too often, injustice, oppression, fraud, avarice, or excessive indulgence are connected with extensive com- merce ; and to number the persons of men, with oxen, asses, sheep and horses, as the stock of a farm, or with bales of goods, as the cargo of a ship, is no doubt a most detestable and anti-christian practice. — Scott’s Commentaries on the Bible. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. We have offended, Oh ! my countrymen ! We have offended very grievously, And been most tyrannous. From east to west A groan of accusation pierces Heaven ! The wretched plead against us ; multitudes Countless and vehement, the sons of God, Our brethren ! Like a cloud that travels on, Steam'd up from Cairo’s swamps of pestilence, Even so, my countrymen ! have we gone forth And borne to distant tribes slavery and pangs. And deadlier far our vices, whose deep taint With slow perdition murders the whole man, His body and his soul ! Sibylline Leaves. There are truths so self-evident, or so immediately and palpably deduced from those that are, or are acknowledged for such, that they are at once intelligible to all men who possess the common advan- tages of the social state ; although bv sophistry, by evil habit, by the neglect, false persuasions and impostures of an Anti-Christian priest- hood joined in one conspiracy with the violence of tyrannical governors, the understandings of men have become so darkened and their con- sciences so lethargic, that there may arise a necessity for the republi- cation of these truths, and this too with a voice of loud alarm and im- passioned warning. Such were the doctrines proclaimed by the first Christians to the pagan world ; such were the lightnings flashed by Wickliff, Huss, Luther, Calvin, Zuinglius, Latimer, &c., across the papal darkness, and such in our time the truths with which Thomas Clarkson, and his excellent confederates, the Gtuakers, fought and conquered the legalized banditti of men-stealers, the numerous and JAMES STEPHEN, ESQ,. powerful perpetrators and advocates of rapine and murder, and (of blacker guilt than either) slavery. Truths of this kind being indispen- sable to man, considered as a moral being, are above all expediency , all accidental consequences ; for as sure as God is holy, and man immortal, there can be no evil so great as the ignorance or disregard of them. It is the very madness of mock prudence to oppose the removal of a poisonous dish on account of the pleasant sauces or nutritious viands which would be lost with it ! The dish contains destruction to that, for which alone we wish the palate to be gratified or the body to be nourished.— The Friend, pages 49, 50. JAMES STEPHEN, Esq. Enough was known before ; more than enough was incontrovertibly proved ; nay, enough was always admitted or undenied, to make the ji legislative {deration of this slavery a disgrace to. the British and Christian name. Iniquity, indeed, of every kind loses in human de- testation what it gains in mischief, by wide unreproved diffusion, and by age. W e sin remorselessly, because our fathers sinned, and because multitudes of our own generation sin, in the same way without discredit. But if ever those most flagitious crimes of Europe, slave- trade and colonial slavery, shall cease to be tolerated by human laws, and live in history alone, men will look back upon them with the horror they deserve ; and wonder as much at the depravity of the age that could establish or maintain them, as we now do at the murderous rites of our pagan ancestors, or the ferocious cannibal manners of New Zealand. There is enough in the simplest conception of personal hereditary slavery, to revolt every just and liberal mind, independently of ail aggravations to be found in its particular origin, or in abuses of the master’s powers. But how much should sympathy and indignation be enhanced, when the cruel perpetual privation of freedom, and of almost every civil and human right, is the punishment of no crime, nor the harsh consequence of public hostility in w ar, but imposed upon the innocent and helpless, by the hand of rapacious violence alone ; and maintained for no other object but the sordid one of the master’s ' profit, by the excessive labor to which they are compelled ? Were our merchants to send agents to buy capiivesfrom the bandits in the forests of Italy, or from the pirates on the Barbary coast, and sell them here as slaves, to work for our farmers or manufacturers ; and were the purchasers to claim, in consequence, a right to hold these victims of rapine and avarice, with their children, in bondage for ever, and to take their work without wages; what would it be but the same identical case we are contemplating, except that the captives were of a different complexion ? Yet the bandits and pirates are hanged ; and their vendees, in the case supposed, would have less to apprehend from actions or indictments for false imprisonment, than from the vengeance of indignant multitudes. It certainly, at least, would not be necessary, for the purpose of their deliverance, to prove to the British parliament or people, that the poor captives were overworked, - NUGENT — LUSHINGTON THOMPSON ETC. under fed, driven with whips to their work, punished in a brutal way i for every real or imputed fault, and by such complicated oppressions brought in great numbers prematurely to their graves. LORD NUGENT. The slave-trade finds no one bold enough now to defend even its memory. And yet when we hear the slave-trade reprobated, and slavery defended by the same persons, I must own I think the slave- | trade unfairly treated. The abuse of defunct slave-trade is a cheap |j price for the abettor of living slavery to pay by way of compromise. But we cannot allow the Colonial party on these terms to cry truce [ with us, by stigmatizing the slave-trade. There is not one general principle on which the slave-trade is to be stigmatized which does not l impeach slavery itself. DR. LUSHINGTON. It has never been given by God to man to hold his fellow man in bondage. Every thing short of a total abolition of slavery he con- sidered as unsatisfactory, and ending only in disappointment and discontent. The supporters of the abolition of slavery took their stand upon the eternal principles of truth and justice, and it would be next to blasphemy to doubt their success. ANDREW THOMPSON. Slavery is the very Upas tree of the moral world, beneath whose pestiferous shade all intellect languishes, and all virtue dies. It must be cut down and eradicated ; it must be, root and branch of it, cast into the consuming fire, and its ashes scattered to the four winds of heaven. It is thus you must deal with slavery. You must annihilate it, — annihilate it now, and annihilate it for ever. ROWLAND HILL. Slavery is made up of every crime that treachery, cruelty, and murder can invent ; and men-stealers are the very worst of thieves. The most knavish tricks are practised by these dealers in human flesh ; and if slaves think of our general character, they must suppose that Christians are devils, and that Christianity was forged in hell. GROTIUS. Those are men-stealers, who abduct, keep, sell, or buy slaves or freemen. To steal a man is the highest kind of theft. POPE LEO, X. Not only the Christian religion, but Nature herself cries out against a state of slavery. J. P. CURRAN H. GRATTAN MISS EDGEWORTH. JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN. “Universal Emancipation.” — I speak in the spirit of the British Law, which makes liberty commensurate with, and inseparable from, the British soil — which proclaims, even to the stranger and the so- journer, the moment he sets his foot upon British earth, that the ground on which he treads is holy, and consecrated by the genius of Universal Emancipation. No matter in what language his doom may have been pronounced ; no matter what complexion incompatible with freedom, an Indian or an African sun may have burnt upon him ; no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty may have been cloven down ; no matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar of slavery ; the first moment he touches the sacred soil of Britain, the altar and the god sink together in the dust ; his soul walks abroad in her own majesty; his body swells beyond the measure of his chains, that burst from around him, and he stands redeemed, regene- rated, and disenthralled, by the irresistible Genius of Universal Emancipation. HENRY GRATTAN. Liberty — and is this subject a matter of indifference ? — Liberty, which, like the Deity, is an essential spirit best known by its conse- quences — liberty, which now animates you in your battles by sea and land, and lifts you up proudly superior to your enemies — liberty, that glorious spark and emanation of the Divinity, which fired your ances- tors, and taught them to feel like an Hampden, that it was not life, but the condition of living ! An Irishman sympathizes in these noble sentiments — wherever he goes — to whatever quarter of the earth he journeys — whatever wind blows his poor garments, let him but have the pride, the glory, the ostentation of liberty ! MARIA EDGEWORTH. Are we disposed to pity the slave-merchant, who, urged by the maniacal desire for gold, hears, unmoved, the groans of his fellow- creatures, the execrations of mankind, and that “ small still voice,” which haunts those who are stained with blood ?— Practical Education. Granting it to be physically impossible that the world should exist without rum and sugar and indigo, why could they not be produced by freemen as well as by slaves? If we hired negroes for laborers, instead of purchasing them for slaves, do you think they would not work as well as now ? Does any negro, under the fear of the over- seer, work harder than a Birmingham journeyman, or a Newcastle collier ; who toil for themselves and their families ? The law, in our case, seems to make the right ; and the very re- verse ought to be done ; the right should make the law. THOMAS MOORE DANIEL O’CONNELL. THOMAS MOORE. Who can, with patience, for a moment see The medley mass of pride and misery, Of whips and charters, manacles and rights, Of slaving blacks and democratic whites, And all the piebald policy that reigns In free confusion o’er Columbia’s plains ? To think that man, — thou just and gentle God, Should stand before thee with a tyrant’s rod, O’er creatures like himself, with souls from thee, Yet dare to boast of perfect liberty ! ! . Away ! away ! I’d rather hold my neck By doubtful tenure from a Sultan’s beck, In climes where liberty has scarce been nam’d Nor any right, but that of ruling claim’d, Than thus to live, where boasted Freedom waves Her fustain flag in mockery over slaves Where motley laws, (admitting no degree Betwixt the basely slav’d and madly free,) Alike the bondage and the license suit, — The brute made ruler, and the man made brute 1 DANIEL O’CONNELL. The Americans, in their conduct towards the slaves, were traitors to the cause of humanrtiberty, foul detractors of the democratic principle which he had cherished throughout his political life, and blasphemers of that great and sacred name which they pretended to recognise. For, in their solemn league and covenant, the Declaration of American Independence, they declared that all men (he used their own words) have certain “inalienable rights,” — these they defined to be, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To maintain these, they pledged them- selves with all the solemnity of an oath, in the presence of Almighty God. The aid which they had invoked from heaven had been awarded to them, but they had violated their awfully solemn compact with the Deity, and set at nought every principle which they professed to hold sacred, by keeping two and a half millions of their fellow-men in bondage. In reprobation of that disgraceful conduct, his humble voice had been heard across the wide waves of the Atlantic. Like the thunder-storm in its strength, it had careered against the breeze, armed with the lightning of Christian truth. (Great cheering.) And let them seek to repress it as they may — let them murder and assassinate in the true spirit of Lynch law ; the storm would wax louder and louder around them, till the claims of justice became too strong to be withstood, and the black man would stand up too big for his chains. It seemed, indeed — he hoped what he was about to say was not pro- fanation — as if the curse of the Almighty had already overtaken them. For the first time in their political history, disgraceful tumult and anarchy had been witnessed in their cities. Blood had been shed without the sanction of law, and even Sir Robert Peel had been enabled to taunt the Americans with gross inconsistency and lawless proceed- THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. ings. He differed from Sir Robert Peel on many points. On one point, however, he fully agreed with him. Let the proud Americans learn that all parties in this country unite in condemnation of their present conduct; and let them also learn that the worst of all aristoc- racies is that which prevails in America — an aristocracy which had been aptly denominated that of the human skin. The most insufferable pride was that shown by such an aristocracy. He would continue to hurl his taunts across the Atlantic. These would ascend the Mississippi, they would descend the Missouri, and be heard along the banks of the Ohio and the Monongahela, till the black man would leap ’delighted to express his gratitude to those who had effected his emancipation. (Cheers.) And, Oh — but perhaps it was his pride that dictated the hope — that some black O’Connell might rise among his fellow-slaves (tremendous cheers,) who would cry agitate, agitate, agitate (renewed cheering,) till the two millions and a half of his fellow-sufferers learned the secret of their strength — learned that they were two millions and a half. (Enthusiastic cheers.) If there was one thing which more than another could excite his hatred, it was the laws which the Americans had framed to prevent the instruction of their slaves. To teach a slave to read was made a capital offence. (Shame.) To he seen in company with a negro who could write was visited with imprisonment (shame,) and to teach a slave the principles ; of freedom, was punished with death. Were these human laws, it might be asked? Were they not laws made byjvolves of the forest? No, they were made by a congregation of two-legged wolves — Ameri- can wolves — monsters in human shape, who boast of their liberty and of their humanity, while they carry the hearts of tigers within them. (Cheers.) With regard to the attacks which had been made upon his countrymen by such men, he rejoiced at them. (Cheers.) These ; proved to him that the sufferings to which they had been subjected in tile land of their birth, had not been lost upon them; but that their kindly affections had been nurtured into strength, and that they had ranged themselves on the side of the oppessed slave. (Cheers.) — Speech in Glasgow, Scotland, Sept. 1836. JONATHAN SWIFT. I ABI VIATOR, ET IM1TARE, SI POTERIS, STRENUUM PRO VIRILI LIBERTATIS VINDICEM. (GO TRAVELLER, AND IMITATE IF YOU CAN, A STRENUOUS ADVOCATE OF HUMAN LIBERTY.) From the Epitaph of Dean Swift , Written by himself and engraved on his monument in St, Patrick’s Cathedral , Dublin. THE LEGIOR OF LIBERTY. DANIEL O’CONNELL. THEOBALD MATHEW, AND SIX. TY THOUSAND (60.000) OTHER IRISHMEN. Dear Friends : — You are at a great distance from your native land ! A wide expanse of water separates you from the beloved country of your birth — from us, and from the kindred whom you love, and who love you, and pray for your happiness and prosperity in the land of your adoption. We regard America with feelings of admiration : we do not look upon her as a strange land, or upon her people as aliens from our af fections. The power of steam has brought us nearer together ; it will increase the intercourse between us, so that the character of the Irish people and of the American people must in future be acted upon by the feelings and dispositions of each. ’ The object of this address is to call your attention to the subject of SLAVERY IN AMERICA — -that foul blot upon the noble institu- tions and the fair fame of your adopted country. But for this stain, America would, indeed, be a land worthy of your adoption ; but she will never be the glorious country that her free constitution designed her to be, so long as her soil is polluted by the footprint of a sin- gle slave. Slavery is the most tremendous invasion of the natural, inaliena- ble riodits of man, and of some of the noblest gifts of God, “ life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” What a spectacle does Ameri- ca present to the people of the earth ! A land of professing Chris- tian republicans, uniting their energies for the oppression and de- gradation of three millions of innocent human beings, the children of one common Father, who sufi'er the most grievous wrongs, and the utmost degradation, for no crime of their ancestors or their own ! Slavery is a sin against God and man. All who are not for it must be against it. None can be neutral. We entreat you to take the part of justice, religion and liberty. It is in vain that American citizens attempt to conceal their own and their country’s degradation, under this withering curse. America is cursed by slavery! We call upon you to unite with the aboli- tionists, and never to cease your efforts until perfect liberty be granted to every one of her inhabitants, the black man as well as the white man. We are all children of the same gracious God, all equally en- titled to “ life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” We are told that you possess great power, both moral and political, in America. We entreat you to exercise that power and that influ- ence for the sake of humanity. You will not witness the horrors of slavery in all the States of America. Thirteen of them ar e free, and thirteen are slave States. But in ail, the pro-slavery feeling, though rapidly decreasing, is still strong. Do not unite with it ; on the contrary, oppose it by all the peaceful means in your power. Join with the abolitionists every where. They are the only consistent advocates of liberty. Tell every I man that you do not understand liberty for the white man, and slavery for the black man : that you are for liberty for all, of every color, creed, and country. 30 RICHARD M. JOHNSON. The American citizen proudly points to the national Declaration :: of Independence, which declares that “All mankind are born free f and equal, and are alike entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Aid him to carry out this noble declaration by obtain- ing freedom for the slave. Irishmen and Irishwomen ! treat the colored people as your equals, as brethren. By all 3 T our memories of Ireland, continue to love li- berty — hate slavery — cling by the abolitionists, and in America you . will do honor to the name of Ireland. RICHARD M. JOHNSON. Ireland feels the iron hoof of oppression. She cries aloud to the nations for sympathy. She is the best judge of the sufferings she en- dures — their extent — their intensity, and we as lookers-on, can not L remain indifferent if we would. Ireland feels that she is not an in- i tegral portion of the British Empire — every act of the British Parlia- ment tells her that she is an alien, an outcast, a neglected one. Ire- land spurns the oppressor, and stands forward to vindicate and es- i tablish her right to self-government. Her struggle is peaceable — it is moral — irresistible — sublime. She does not struggle as we strug- i gled against British power, with the bayonet and the cannon. No ! she adopts another and a different force — the force of argument — of moral reasoning — of intellectual electricity. With these forces ! j she hopes to rend asunder the puny manacles of British tyranny, and the cause of general liberty is too dear to American freemen not to wish her complete success. [Cheers.] Some persons may , take exceptions to these meetings, and may doubt the prudence of < American citizens interfering in the cause of the oppressed. Gen- li tlemen, my opinion is, that the cause of honor, and virtue, and charity when honestly followed, will always be found a prudent course. Above all, it is the only course which American freemen n can pursue. This is the land of the free, and the home of the brave, and ice have an undoubted right to sympathise with the oppressed — to feed the hungry and clothe the naked from wheresoever they may appeal. We have the right, aud may we never be wanting in the disposition to aid in the disenthralment of oppressed man, whether under an Irish or an Eastern sun. [Loud cheers.] I believe the i sentiments I utter find a sincere response in your bosoms, and I be-li lieve nine-tenths of the American people would respond to the ap- > peals of the oppressed in the same way . — Speech at Frankfort Kentucky, 1842. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. JAMES HAUGHTON. Slavery such a; I have described to you exists, to an immense ex- tent, in America. That highly professing people, who talk so much about liberty, and affect to dcspl 'he institutions of every other country in the world as unfit for men to live under — that country which has blazoned upon its standard one of the noblest declarations which has ever been promulgated, but which they have made a mem parchment record, having no place in their affections — that people have degraded themselves by a foul contact with slavery such as I have described ; and it is to this degraded land that thousands of our countrymen are annually emigrating, unconscious that so great a blot rests upon it, America is a fine land, and her white people may well boast of the freedom they enjoy ; but, so long as they retain three millions of their follow-men in bondage merely on account of the dark color of their skins, their name will be dishonored on the earth. Let us endeavor to wash our hands clear of this wickedness, by telling every slave-holding American who comes among us, that we can bold no friendly communication with him — that we consider the crime of which he is guilty as degrading as any of the crimes which are considered among men every where as rendering their perpetrators in- famous. Mr. Haughlon here took a rapid survey of the condition of slaves in the southern states of the Union, and gave some account of the practice of breeding slaves for sale - — Speech in Dublin. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. ROBERT R. MADDEN. The efforts of the British government for the suppression of the slave trade have been right honestly, assiduously, and energetically directed to this great object, at least during the last four years of my knowledge of this suppression. It is impossible for any person not officially acquainted with these matters to form an adequate idea of the extent of these exertions, and the untiring energy and perseverance with which they have been carried on in various countries. Great use is made in America of tire extraordinary political influ. ence of the poor people of this country who emigrate to America, and to the efforts that ought to he made to give them right and whole- some feelings on the subject of slavery, and a just understanding of the value of those efforts that are made to right the wronged, although the persons that are injured, and whose rights are outraged, are men of a different complexion to our own. It is impossible for any one who has not visited America, to conceive what an extraordinary in- fluence, on the government of that country the votes of the Irish people have, or how little beneficial use they make of the power they possess and exercise at the hustings with such extraordinary effect. They should not be left to depart from our own shores, ignorant that there does not exist in nature, in religion, or in civil polity, a reason for robbing any man of his liberty, he he black or wiiite — that there is neither truth, justice, nor humanity in the declarations they hear, that slavery is consonant to the condition of negro men, has a sanction in nature, or is sanctified by the permission of any chris- . tian church. The fact must be forced on their attention by those who a.te best qualified to inform their minds and to gain their hearts — that slavery has no sanction from their church — that to devote one-fourth part of the habitable globe to perpetual bloodshed and warfare — to give up the vast continent of Africa to the ravages of the man-roh- bers who deal in flesh and blood — the marauders who sack the towns and villages — the merchant murderers who ply the odious trade, who separate the child from the mother, the husband from the wife, father from the son, is a monstrous system of cruelty that, in any of its forms, is intolerable and unjust. The state of things of which I speak I have myself seen ; and the experience I have alluded to is the result of what I have observed on three occasions that I have visited the United States during the last six years. Of the necessity that exists for diffusing sounder opinions on the subject of slavery, I am sure I need bring forward no other argument than this — that if' the political influence of the Irish settlers and emigrants of America were exerted in favor of the cause of the abolition of slavery in the United States, that system could not possibly endure 1 — Speech at Dublin A. S. Society, 1842. Mr. Madden then adduced various authorities from the fathers, the doctrines of the church, and the decrees of the popes, against sla- very. “ The great synod of Armagh, at a period of general consterna. tion, declared 1 that tire public calamities were to be held as an in- fliction of divine justice on account of the sins of the Irish people. THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. and more especially because that in former times they used to make bond slaves of the English, whom they had purchased as well from merchants as from robbers and pirates — a crime for which God now took vengeance upon them, by delivering them into like bondage themselves. And acting upon the spirit of these humane and Chris- tian views, the synod unanimously decreed and ordered, that all the English throughout the island, who were in a state of slavery should be restored to their former freedom.” — T. Moore's History of Ireland, vol. 2. (This general act of emancipation of slaves, it is worthy of notice, is the first on record in any European country.) “St. Elegius, Bishop of Noyan, was particularly zealous to ran- som captives. When a slave was to be sold in any place he hastened thither, and sometimes ransomed fifty or a hundred at a time, espe- cially Saxons, who were sold in great numbers.” “St. Francis Xavier walked through the streets of Goa, with a bell in his hand, summoning all masters, for the love of God, to send their children and slaves to catechism ; and such was the effect of his preaching, restitution was made of unjust gains, slaves who had been unjustly acquired were set at liberty.” “ St. Bathildes, Queen of France, forbade Christians to be made slaves, gave great numbers their liberty, and declared all capable of property. The Franks still retained slaves, with this condition, at- tached to certain manors or farms, and bound to certain particular kinds of servitude. The kings of the second ra.ce often set great numbers free, and were imitated by other lords. Queen Blanche and St. Lewis contributed more, than any others to ease the condition of the vassals ; and Lewis Huttin abolished slavery in France, declar- ing all men free who live in that kingdom, according to the spirit of Christianity, which teaches us to treat all men as our brethren.” “ After the departure of the Vandals with their captives and an immense booty, St. Leo X. sent zealous Catholic priests and alms for the relief of the captives in Africa." “ St. Augustin sometimes melted down part of the sacred vessels to redeem captives, in which he was authorised by the example of St. Ambrose. He reproved one Romulus for the oppression of his poor vassals.” “ St. Hilary, to redeem captives, caused the church plate to be sold, not excepting the sacred vessels, making use of paters and cha- lices of glass in the celebration of the divine mysteries.” “ In the reign of Pope Pius V, fifteen thousand slaves that were found chained on board the gallics of the Turkish fleet were set at liberty,” G. SEIDENSTICKER. During the revolution in Goettingen, we had the pleasure of en- joying much of his society ; we always found him an amiable friend, and a man fired with the enthusiasm for liberty and republican insti- tutions ; a man whom no obstacle could deter, and who never lost sight of the realization of his project and the performance of his duty. Often, when the courage of his friends began to fail, and doubts were TIIE LEGION OF LIBERTY, expressed as to uie possible success of the undertaking, we have seen him point to America and place before our eyes the combats and vic- tories of the former colonies. Alas! he has been disappointed, for, cut off from his friends and those who shared his opinions in other parts of Hanover, without assistance from Brunswick and Hessia, we were obliged to yield to force. Many of our friends found safety in flight and protection in foreign lauds, but Eggerling and Seiden- sticker, the most active members of the republican party, were taken and thrust into dungeons. Forgetting his own suffering, Seidensticker remembers the misery of the oppressed slaves, and says in his letter written in prison. “Warmed as I feel with sympathy, every time that such men as Mr. Slade, deputy from Vermont, raise their voices for the abolition of slavery, this stain of infamy upon the United States, yet the in- terest in American institutions and the confidence in their advantages must be considerably diminished, nay the feelings of every philan- thropist must be outraged, when we read speeches, such as that of Mr. Calhoun, in the senate, and those of the deputies Wise and Lo- gare, for Virginia and South Carolina.” CONRAD FRIEDRICH STOLLMEYER. What has brought about the fall of Sparta and the other Greek re- publics, as well as, of proud Rome 7 A system of slavery, and a consequent demoralization. Why has the republic of Switzerlaud ex •sled for more than five hundred years, surrounded by monarchies t Because slavery, the root of demoralization and despotism, has nevei been tolerated there. Our opinion, which is founded upon observa- tion of the natural course of events,, is, that the curing of a disease produces health, not death, as well in the body of man as in the body of the state. As an individual suffers, when his body is diseased, so does the citizen suffer from the malady of the state, when wrong is publicly defended by those who are charged with the care of the state, injus- tice will he heaped upon injustice. The defence of slavery is followed by the refusal of the right of petitioning, a right the violation of which overthrows the principles of the republic. The servants elect- ed by the people, the members of Congress, refused to listen to the wishes of their constituents, and by this act of violence assumed the character of dictators. Many who used to take no notice of the events at. Washington, were aroused from their slumbers and per- ceived the threatening danger. The names of these violators of the constitution, are written down in unexpungable characters, and in time will not escape the general branding. Already the personal and party friends of these men admit t his act to have been a blunder; but it is not only a blunder but an act of villany. i II £ LELIES OF LIBERTY. DOMINIC SOTO. '•To Soto belongs the signal honor of being; i lie first wilier who condemned the African slave-trade.” ‘ It is affirmed.’ says lie, 1 that the unhappv Ethiopians are by fraud or force carried away' and sold as slaves. If this is true, neither those who have taken them nor those who purchase them, nor those who hold them in bondage, can ever have a quiet conscience till they emancipate them, even if no compensation should be obtained.’ As the work which contains this memorable condemnation of man-stealing and slavery was the sub- stance of lectures many years delivered at Salamanca, philosophy and religion appear, by the hand of their faithful minister, to have thus smitten the monster in their earliest infancy. It is hard for any man of ibis age to conceive the praise which is due to the excellent monks who courageously asserted the rights of those whom they never saw, against the prejudices of their order, the supposed interest of their religion, the ambition of their government, the avarice, and pride of their countrymen, and the prevailing opinion of their time. ■ — Sir James Mackintosh. POPE GREGORY XVI. Bull for the Abolition of tiie Negro Slave Trade. On the 3d of December, 1839, the ninth year of the Pontificate. Placed as we are on the supreme seat of the Apostles, and acting, though by no merits of our own, as the vicegerent of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who through his great mercy condescended to make himself man and to die for the redemption of the world, we regard as a duty devolving on our pastoral functions, that we endeavor to turn aside our faithful iiocks entirely from the inhuman traffic in ne- groes. or any other human beings whatsoever. Beyond a doubt, when the light of he gospel first began to diffuse itself, those unhap- , py persons, who were plunged, into the severest condition of slavery, in consequence of the numerous wars at that time, found their con- dition alleviated among the Christians. For the Apostles, inspired by the Divine Spirit, taught even their slaves to obey their carnal masters as Christ, and to do the will of God heartily. They also taught their masters that they should act well to their slaves, and do unto them what was just and equitable, and abstain from threats, knowing that the God both of them and their slaves, dwells in Hea- ven. and that, with him there is no acceptance of persons. But while a sincere and universal spirit of charity is especially enjoined by the ‘ law of the Gospel, and our Lord himself said that he would consider any act of benevolence aud mercy done to the least or poorest, or de- nied, as done or denied to himself, it readily followed that the Chris- tians not only considered their slaves, especially such as were chris- i tians, in the light of brothers, hut were even very prone to endow i with liberty such as deserved. Indeed Gregorius Nissenus informs us thru such liberation of slaves was customary on the occasion of the i paschal solemnities. Nor were there Christians wanting, who, stirred up by a more burning zeal, subjected themselves to slavery to redeem POPE GREGORY XVI. (ft llto others, many of whom that apostolical personage, our predecessor » Clement, I. testifies that he knew. Hence, in progress of time, as iirt' the clouds of heathen superstition became gradually dispersed, cir- cumstances reached that point that during several centuries there »- were no slaves allowed amongst the great majorily of the Christian ik nations, but with grief we are compelled to add, that there after- pt wards arose, even among the faithful, a race of men who, basely * blinded by the appetite and desire of sordid lucre, did not hesitate to i;l reduce in remote regions of the earth, Indians, negroes, and other 1 wretched beings, to the miseries of slavery, or, finding the trade cs* II, tablished and augmented, to assist the shameful crime of others. Nor ini did many of the most glorious of the Roman Pontiffs omit severely to reprove their conduct as injurious to their soul’s health, and dis- graceful to the Christian name. Among these may be especially quoted the Bull of Paul III. which bears date the 29th of May, 1537, addressed to the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo ; and another still more comprehensive by Urban VIII. dated the 22d of April, 1639, to the collector Jurium of the Apostolic Chamber in Portugal, most severely castigating by name, those who presumed to subject cither East or West Indians to slavery. Pope Benedict XIV. sub- sequently confirmed these decrees of those distinguished Pontiffs by a new Bull, addressed to the heads of the governing authorities of Brazil, and other regions, on the 1 7 th December, 1741. Even be-' fore another predecessor of ours, more ancient than these, Pius II., in whose age the dominion of Portugal was extended to Guinea, wrote on the 7th October, 1462, to the Portuguese bishop, who was about to repair thither, a letter, in which he not only gave to that high functionary powers to exercise with greater success his sacred minis-' try in those parts, but gravely animadverted on the same occasion upon those Christians who carried youth into slavery. And in our own lime Pius VII. moved by the same spirit of religion and charity as those who had gone before him, sedulously interposed his good of' | flees with the men in power, that the trade in blacks should at length be put an end to entirely amongst the Christians. These injunctions and these good offices of our predecessors served not a little, with the help of God, towards protecting the Indians and the other aforesaid races, both from the cruelty of their invaders and from the cupidity of tlie Christian merchants ; not to such an extent however, that the Ho’y See can have to rejoice at their flocks having totally abandoned such practices, since, on the contrary, the trade in blacks, though diminished to some extent, is still carried on by many Christians; wherefore, we, desiring to avert this disgrace from the whole confines of Christianity, having summoned several of our reverend brothers, their eminences the Cardinals, to our counsel, and having maturely deliberated on the whole matter, pursuing the footsteps of our pre- decessors, admonish by our apostolic authority, and urgently invoke in the name of God, all Christians of whatever condition, that none henceforth dare to subject to slavery, unjustly persecute, or despoil of their goods, Indians, negroes, or other classes of men, or to be accessories to others or furnish their aid or assistance in so doing ; and on no account henceforth to exercise that inhuman traffic, by THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. which negroes are reduced to slavery, as if they were not men, but automata or chattels, and are sold in defiance of all the laws of jus- tice and humanity, and devoted to severe and intolerable labors. Wo further reprobate by our apostolic authority all the above described off-nees as utterly unworthy of the Christian name; and by the same authority we rigidly prohibit and interdict all and every individual, whether ecalessiastical or laical, from presuming to defend that com- merce in negro slaves under any pretence or borrowed color, or to teach or publish in any manner, publicly or privately, things contra- ry to the admonitions which we have given in those letters. And finally that this, our Bull, may be rendered more apparent to all, andth at no person may allege any ignorance thereof, we decree and older that it shall be published according to custom, and copies thereof be properly affixed to the gates of St Peter, and of the Apos- tolic Chancel every and in like manner to the General Court on Mount Pitatouia, and in the field of the Campus Flora, and also through the city by one of our heralds according to aforesaid custom. Given at Rome, at the Palace of Santa Maria Major, under the seal of the fisherman (sub annulo piscatoris,) on the third day of Doc. 1839, and in the ninth year of our Pontificate. Countersigned by Cardinal A. Llmbroschiju. Address of the British residents of Gibraltar, Cadiz. Florence, Naples, Leghorn, Smyrna, Tripoli, Malta, and Goza. A testimonial of gratitude to his Highness, the Bashaw of Tunis, for his philanthropic and most noble resolution to abolish the inhuman and horrible traffic in slaves, throughout his extensive and very im port ant African dominions. We, the undersigned British residents, officers and merchants of Gibralter, having heard of your Highness’s philanthropic and noble intention to abolish the inhuman traffic in black slaves, throughout your territories, and that your Highness has, in completion of so so- lemn and humane a design, actually taken the preliminary steps, by by suppressing all public places for the sale of negroes ; foreseeing the vast consequences of good to humanity in the regions of North and Central Africa, which must inevitably follow from conduct so full of enlightened and princely philanthropy ; recognizing in this spontaneous determination of your Highness, a manifest and all-im- pressive example to the Mahometan and Christian sovereigns of neigh- boring states, inciting them to similar efforts for the relief of the blacks of Africa, a large, but most degraded and suffering portion of ‘.he human race ; remembering the immense sacrifices which our own country has made, and continues to make, in blood and treasure, to ibolish throughout the world the foul crime of trafficking in the bo- dies and souls of men ; feeling that your Highness’s noble philan- .hrophy wili excite joy and thankfulness in the minds of our country- men at home, as it does in our own breasts ; we cannot but express >ur ardent admiration of your Highness’s anti-slavery measures, and jffer you our most cordial acknowledgment and thanks ; wishing you ill prosperity in your administration of the important regency of THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. Tunis; also every happiness in your personal and domestic relations, and in the life to come, a full reward for this great act of mercy to the forlorn and desolate children of Africa. MUSHEER AHMED BASHAW BEY . Praise be to God 1 From the servant of God, Musheer Ahmed Bashaw Bey, sove. reign prince of the dominions of Tunis, to the perfectly honored Englishmen united together for the melioration of the human race. May God honor them ! We have received the letter which you have forwarded to us by the S honored and revered Richardson, congratulating us upon the mea- sures that we have adopted for the glory of mankind, to distinguish them from the brute creation. Your letter has filled us with joy and satisfaction. May God aid us in our efforts — may he enable us to accomplish the objects of our hopes — and may he accept this our work ! May you live continually under the protection of God Almighty 1 Given at Tunis, 26th day Elhojah, 1257, (7tli Feb. 1842,) JAMES RICHARDSON. I went, whilst in Tunis, to see the demolished slave-market. I felt deeply when I saw the ruin of this crying iniquity. Hundreds of years human beings had been exposed for sale in that place, like cat. tie ! How strange that a Mussulman state should tear down that den of traffic for the bodies and souls of men, while in Christian Ameri. ca this foul system still flourishes in such vigor ! ! How dreadful tho responsibility of the Americans 1 I made many inquiries as to the feeling of the Moors on this sub- | ject. I am most happy to say that the greater part are in favor of the Bey, but all obey. If slaves now are sold in Tunis* it is con- traband, and with the greatest secrecy. It is now only exchange, t one proprietor giving his slave to another proprietor for his. But all this is done in darkness. No slave can be bought or sold by the laws of the country. The prohibition is complete and absolute. And many of the courtiers of the Bey, following his noble example, are liberating their slaves — forever ! He said personally to me among !i other things — “ I began with pleasure the abolition of slavery, and will not cease to prosecute the great work of emancipation, until J have completely extirpated slavery from my dominions.” AUSTRIA. Extract from an ordinance of his Imperial and Royal Majesty cf ' Austria, dated 25th June, 1826. “In order to prevent Austrian subjects and vassals from partici- pating in any manner in the slave-trade, and in order to prevent slaves ji from bad treatment, his Imperial and Royal Majesty, in conformity ( with the existing laws of Austria (viz. section 16 of the Civil Code, [■ RUSSIA FRANCE. which determines that every human being, in virtue of those rights which are recognised by reason, is to be considered a civil person, and that, therefore, slavery, and every exercise of power relative to the State of slavery, are not tolerated in the imperial and royal dominions,) and further, in conformity with section 78 of the first part of the Penal Code, which declares every hindrance of the exercise of personal liberty a crime of public violence — has been graciously pleased, by his sovereign resolution of 25th June, 1S26, to determine and order as follows: — Art. 1. Any slave, from the moment he treads on the soil of the Imperial and Royal Dominions of Austria, or even merely steps on board of an Austrian vessel, shall be free.” Austrian Consulate General, New York, Oct 18, 1830. L. Lederer. RUSSIA. Consular notice. — Certain individuals who, in defiance of the laws of their own country, still continue to engage in the African slave-trade, having given cause for suspicion that they intend to make use of the Russian flag as a protection against the right, of search and seizure, mutually assumed and conceded by the powers participating in the treaty for the suppression of this nefarious traffic, the under- signed, the Russian Consul General, at New York, being specially instructed by his government, gives hereby public notice to all persons whom it may concern, that the Russian flag can in no case be resorted to without the previous permission of the Imperial Government, and without legal authorization in due form, and in strict accordance with the laws of the empire ; that any proceeding to the contrary shall be considered as a fraud, exposing the persons guilty of it to all its conse- quences ; and that no slave-trader, in any circumstances whatever, when seized under the Russian flag, or otherwise, can invoke the aid of the Imperial Government to screen him from just and well-merited punishment. Russe du Consulate General, New York, April 2, 1836. Alexis Eustaphieve. FRANCE. MARSELLOISE HYMN. With luxury and pride surrounded, The vile insatiate despots dare (Their thirst of power and gold unbounded) To mete and vend the light and air ; Like beasts of burden would they load us. Like demons bid their slaves adore ; But man is man. and who is more ? Then shall they longer lash and goad us ? O Liberty ! can man resign thee, Once having felt thy generous flame ? Can dungeon’s bolts, or bars confine thee, Or whips thy noble spirit tame ! Too long the world has wept bewailing That falsehood’s dagger tyrants v\ ield ; But freedom is our sword and shield, And all their arts are unavailing ! MONTESQUIEU J. J. ROUSSEAU BUFFON. MONTESQUIEU. Slavery is not useful either to the master or to the slave ; to the slave, because he can do nothing by virtue; to the master, because he contracts with Iris slaves all sorts of evil habits, inures himself in- sensibly to neglect every moral virtue, and becomes proud, passionate, hard-hearted, violent, voluptuous, -and cruel. The slave sees a society happy -whereof he is not even a part ; he finds that security is established for others, but not for him : he perceives that his master has a soul capable of self-advancement, while his own is violently and for ever repressed. Nothing puts one nearer the condition of the beasts than always to see freemen and not to be free. Such a person is the natural enemy of the society in which he lives. It is impossible to allow the negroes are men, because if we allow them to be men, it will begin to be believed that we are not Christians. JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU. To renounce our liberty is to renounce our quality of man, and with it all the rights and duties of humanity ; and no adequate compensation can possibly be made for such a sacrifice ; as it is in itself imeompati- ble with the nature of man, whose actions, when once he is deprived of his tree will, must be destitute of all morality. In a word, a con- vention which stipulates for absolute authority on one side, and unlimited obedience on the other, must always be considered as vain and contradictory. What right can my slave have that is not mine, 'since everything that he has belongs to me; and to speak of*the rij.itt of me against myself is absolute nonsense. Thus in whatever light we view things, the right of slavery is found to be null ; not only because it is illegal, but because it can have no existence ; for the terms slavery and right contradict and exclude each other ; and be it from man to man, or from a man to a nation, it would be equally nonsensical to say — I make a covenant with you entirely at your expense, and for my benefit ; I will observe it as far as my inclina- tion leads me, and you shall observe it as Jar as I please.— [On the Social Contract.] BUFFON. Upon the whole, it is apparent that the unfortunate negroes are endowed with excellent hearts, and possess the seeds of every human virtue. I cannot write their history, without lamenting their misera- ble condition. Is it not more than enough to reduce men to slavery, and to oblige them to labor perpetually, without the capacity of acquiring property? To these, is it necessary to add cruelty, and blows, and to abuse them worse than brutes? Humanity revolts against those odious oppressions which result from avarice, and which would have been daily renewed, had not the law's given a friendly check to the brutality of masters, and fixed limits to the sufferings of their slaves. They are forced to labor; and yet the coarsest, lood is dealt out to them with a sparing hand. “ They support,” say their obdurate taskmasters, “ hunger without inconvenience ; a single t H. GREGOIRE. European meal is sufficient provision to a negro for three days ; how- ever little they eat or sleep they are always equally strong and equally fit for labor.” How can men, in whoso breasts a single spark of humanity remains unextinguished, adopt sue detestable maxims? How dare they by such barbarous and diabolical arguments, attempt to paliatc those oppressions which originate solely from their thirst of gojd ? But let its abandon those hardened monsters to perpetual infamy and return to our subject. — •« Natural History. H. GREGOIRE. If, sayo Price , you have a right to make another man a slave, he has a right to make you a slave ; and if we have no right says Ramsay, to sell him, no one has a right to purchase him. It ever negroes, bursting their chains, should come (which Heaven forltid) oii the European coast, to drag white s of both sexes from their families; to chain them and conduct them to Africa, and mark them with a Lot iron ; if whites stolen, sold, purchased by crimes, and placed under the guidance of merciless inspectors, were immediately compelled by the stroke of the whip, to work in a climate injurious to their health, where, at the close of each day, they could have no other consolation than that of advancing another step to the tomb — no other perspecti/e than to suffer and to die in all the anguish of despair — if devoted to misery and ignominy, they were excluded from all (he privilege?' of society, and declared legally incapable of judicial ’action, their testimony would not have been admitted evert against the black class; if driven from the sidewalks, they were compelled to min He with tire animals in the middle of the street — if a subscription were made to have them tasked in a mass, and their backs, to prevent gan- grene, covered with pepper and with salt — if the forfeit for killing them were but a trifling sum — if a reward were offered for apprehending those who escape from slavery — if those who escape were hunted by a pack of hounds, trained to carnage — if, blaspheming the Divinity, the blacks pretended, that by their origin they had permission of Heaven to preach passive obedience and resignation to the whites — if greedy hireling writers published, that for this reason, just reprisals may be exercised against the rebellious whites, and that white slaves are happy, more happy than the peasants in the bosom of Africa ; — in a word, if all the arts of cunning and calumny, all ihe strength and fury of avarice, all the inventions of ferocity were directed against you, by a coalition of dogs, merchants, priests, kings, soldiers, and colonists, what cry of horror would resound through these countries '/ To express it, new epithets would be sought ; a crowd of writers, and particularly of poets, would exhaust their eloquent lamentations, pro- vided that having nothing to fear, there was something to gain. Europeans, reverse this hypothesis, and see what you are ! Yes, I repeat it, there is not a vice, not a species of wickedness, of which Europe is not guilty towards negroes, o! which she has not shown them the example. Avenging God! suspend thy thunder, exhaust thy compassion, in giving her time and courage to repair, if possible, these horrors and atrocities. — Faculties of Negroes. 31 RAYNAL J. P. BRISSOT THE ABBE RAYNAL. Will if, be said that he, who wants to make me a slave, does me no injury, but that he only makes use of his rights? Where are those rights'? Who hath stamped upon them so_ Sacred a character as to silence mine ? He who supports the system of slavery, is the enemy of the whole human race. He divides it into two societies of legal assasins ; the oppressors, and the oppressed. It is the same thing as proclaiming to the world, if you would preserve your life, instantly take away mine, for I want to have yours. But the negroes, they say, are a race born for slavery ; their dispo- sitions are narrow, treacherous, and wicked ; they themselves allow the superiority of our understandings, and almost acknowledge the justice of our authority. Yes ; the minds of the negroes are contracted, because slavery destroys all the springs of the soul. They are wicked, but not equally so with you. They are treacherous, because they are under no obligation to speak truth to their tyrants. They acknowl- edge the superiority of our understandings, because we have abused their ignorance. They allow the justice of our authority, because we have abused their weakness. I shall not be afraid to cite to the tribunal of reason and justice those governments, which tolerate this cruelty, or which even are not ashamed to make it the basis of their power. JAQ.UES PIERRE BRISSOT. When you run over Maryland and Virginia, you conceive yourself in a different world ; and you are convinced of it, when you converse with the inhabitants. They speak not here of projects for freeing the negroes ; they praise not the societies of London and America ; they read not the works of Clarkson — No; the indolent masters behold with uneasiness the efforts that are making to render freedom universal. “ God has created men of all nations, of all languages, of all colors, equally free ; Slavery, in all its forms, in all its degrees, is a violation of the Divine laws ; and a degradation of human nature.” [Travels in the United Stales, 1788.] HYPPOLITE DE SAINT ANTHOINE. The American families of my acquaintance seem to have one por- tion of their hearts open to the tenderest sentiments, while, when- ever the subject is the melioration of the lot of these unfortunate blacks, another responds to the cruelesl — namely, a blind prejudice. These distinguished families differ in this respect from the noble fami- lies of our own country, who in no case recognize the “ aristocra- cy of the skin for all are in favor of the emancipation of the slaves. The class, not numerous, which opposes it here in France THE LEGION OF LIBERTY. is that which is connecter! by interest with :he colonists, or hopes to obtain some thing of them. I do not believe, that in the United States, the hour which shall give liberty to the slaves will be that of the extermination of the while race. Men were not made to destroy one another. Let the feariul take courage from the example of Antigua. Tranquillity and concord reign there. Commerce is more flourishing than ever before. It is an error then to believe that emancipation will be destructive to industry. The abolition of slavery will multiply men, talents, intel- ligence, and the objects of consumption. Emancipation will secure the whites from revolts and assassination, for, what was it but the great number of slaves which rendered revolts so frequent in the last days of the Roman republic ? The unnatural condition of slavery places man m continual conflict with man, spoils one man of his rights without adding any thing to the real privileges of another ; and, far from favoring liberty by elevating the soul of the master, it only developes those vicious propensities which plunge him in luxury and debauchery. Can those who really believe in a Divinity, and who constantly in- voke Him in all the actions of their lives, raise their hearts without remorse in view of the wrongs under which the unhappy blaeks havo been crushed ? F. DE LA MENNAIS. Love God above all things, and .hy neighbour as thyself, and bon- dage would disappear from the earth. But, in the mean time, those who profit from the bondage of their brethren, will spare no labor to prolong it. They will employ for this purpose both falsehood and force. They will say, that the arbitrary dominion of some, andthe bondage of all others is the established order of God ; and to preserve their tyranny they will not fear to blaspheme Providence. Say to such, that their god is Satan, the enemy of the human race, and that your God is he who hath conquered Satan. Liberty is like the kingdom of heaven ; it suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. But the violence which shall place you in the possession of liberty, is not the ferocious violence of thieves and robbers, oppression, ven- geance, and cruelty; but a will strong and inflexible, a courage calm and generous. The most holy cause becomes most impious and execrable, when crime is employed to sustain it. The man of crime, from a slave may become a tyrant, but never will he become free. — Words of a Believer. « FRANCE. L.AIME-MARTIN. Bring together a Turk, a Russian, a Chinese, and with pain we venture to write, an American of the United States; accuse tho Chinese of assassinating his own children, the Turk of mutilating men, the Russian of selling at once the soil and the peasant, tha American of breeding slaves in the land of Liberty ; you hear them all without a blush plead innocent of these crimes, which they havo inherited from public opinion, and which are screened by education. Nature owns neither noblesnor vassals, neither masters nor slaves neither French nor Germans, nor English ; all arc men ! Under tha dominion of this sublime truth, what people will dare to sell slaves' what nation will dare to declare war against another 1 what man will dare to despise his fellow ? And now we begin to comprehend the work of the creator. Wa love our family more than ourselves, our epuntry more than our fan-ii. ly, and :.e human race more than our country, our soul embraces the world and expands beyond it. From people to people she lias arrived to the unity of the human family. Our actions result in the rewards or pains which they merit. Good reciprocates good, evil reproduces evil. If thou buy and sell men and hold slaves, all the vices of slavery will be entailed on thy family. White is found with cold, and brown, red and black with heat This general law is perpetuated in the color of (lie human race Dark under the rays, of the sun, and white in the temperate regions No condemnation of your poor Africans ; if the doctors curse you Nature blesses you, if monstrous prejudices make you a terrible ex ception, Nature, like a tender mother, embraces you in the gencralil) of her laws . — Civilization of the human family by means of Woman M. DE TOCQUEVILLE. UNANIMOUS OPINION OF THE COMMISSION. Your Commission have been unanimous in the opinion, that the time has come to engage actively in the final abolition of slavery iu our colonies; and they have thought it their duty to endeavor to d«.. vise the best method of accomplishing that object. Two general systems have naturally presented themselves. The first gives liberty to the slaves individually, and by a succes- sion of slow and progressive measures. The second puts a stop to servitude at once, and for every slave. Your Commission, after mature investigation, were of the unani- mous opinion, that simultaneous emancipation presented less incon- venience and fewer perils than gradual emancipation. Your Commission being thus convinced, that, universal emancipa- tion was the least dangerous mode of destroying slavery, have ap- plied themselves wholly to the inquiry as to the general conditions and the manner in which this emancipation should be effected. Your Commission have repelled at once the idc*. of assimilating slave property to other kinds of property protected by law. They do FRANCE. not admit that the restoring of a negro to liberty is a parallel case to that of a forced exaction of property by the state for the public good. Man has never had the right of possessing man, and the possession itself has always been and still is unlawful. And even if principles concerning the use of property for the good of the community were here applicable, it is evident that the planter could not, in accordance with these principles, claim in advance the reimbursement of the total value of the slave, for in the place of the slave whom the law takes from him, it offers him a free laborer. The free workman, it is true, will only serve for wages ; but the slave himself can only serve on condition of purchase, nourishment, pro- tection, and clothing, which are wages under another form. The property of the planter, ther, is not invaded by the fact of emanci- pation ! he has strictly no right to an idemnity, unless, by the yet doubtful result of this emancipation, the negroes refuse to work, or the wages which they demand for their labor shall exceed the sum for which their co-operation could be compelled during slavery. It is, nevertheless, the unanimous opinion of your Commission, that it would be neither humane, equitable, nor wise to refuse assis- tance to the colonies at the hour when a general emancipation is de- clared, and during its operation. JUSTIN PERKINS, Missionary in PisasrA. Every European who meets us, as he strolls through these distant regions, for curiosity, fer honor, or for gain, goads us by tauntingly, but justly pointing us to American slavery, that blot of inconsisten- cy which so mars the escutcheon of our republican glory. And were the natives of this country, to which we have come to bring the tid- ings of ‘peace on earth and good will to men,’ to know of the exis- tence of American slavery, how would they be wrapt in amazement, and apply to us the cutting rebuke, ‘physician, heal thyself;' and with reason ; for degraded as are the lower classes, and particularly the nominally Christians, in these countries, who are trodden down to the dust by their Mohammedan masters, and affecting as it often is, to witness their sufferings, there is still but a small comparison be- tween the horrors of their condition and that of the southern slaves. Yes; though I blush, and my heart sinks at the acknowledgment, candor compels me to say, that in all my travels and residence in the regions of Mohammedan despotism, I have seen nothing in the shape of oppression to equal the rigors under which millions of immortal beings are at this moment groaning, in our own Christian, protestant, republican America ! May the first knowledge which Persians and Nestorians shall receive of American slavery, be the intelligence of its removal, and that ‘ right early.’ HISTORY OF ABOLITION. “The abolition decree of the Great Council of England was pas- sed in 1102. The memorable Irish decree, ‘ that all English slaves in the whole of Ireland be immediately emancipated and restored to their former liberty,’ was issued in 1171. Passing over many in- stances of the abolition of slavery by law, both during the middle ages and since the reformation, we find them multiplying as we ap- proach our own times. In 1776, slavery was abolished in Prussia by special edict. In St. Domingo, Cayenne, Gaudaloupe, and Marti- nique, in 1794, where more than 600,000 slaves were emancipated by the French government. In Java, 1811; in Ceylon, 1815; in Buenos Ayres, 1816; in St. Helena, 1816; in Colombia, 1821; by the congress of Chili in 1821 ; in Cape Colony, 1823; in Malacca, 1825; in the southern provinces of Birmah, 1826 ; in Bolivia, 1826; in Peru, Guatemala and Montevideo, 1828; in Jamaica, Barbodoes, the Bermudas, the Bahamas, Anquilla, Mauritius, St. Christopher’s Nevis, the Virgin Islands, (British.) Antigua, Montserrat, Domini- ca, St. Vincent’s, Grenada, Berbice, Tobago, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Honduras, Demerara, Essequibo, and the cape of Good Hope, on the 1st of August, 1834. But, waiving details, suffice it to say that England, France, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Russia, Austria, Prus- sia, and Germany, have all, and often, given their testimony to the competency of the legislative power to abolish slavery. In our own country, the legislature of Pennsylvania, passed an act of abolition in 1780; Connecticut in 1784, Rhode-Island in 1784, New-York in 179®, New-Jersey in 1804, Vermont by constitution in 1777, Mas- sachusetts, in 1780, and New-Harapshire in 1784.” — Anti-Slavery Examiner, THE HOLY BIBLE, THE HOLY BIBLE. Moses. — Chap. I, ver, 27. So God created man in his own image : in the image of God cre- ated he him ; male and female created he them. — Genesis. [JVbt tyrants and slaves.] XXI, 16. And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. XXIII, 9. Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. — Exodus. XIX, 13. Thou shalt not de- fraud thy neighbor, neither rob him : the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning. 18. Thou shalt love thy neigh- bor as thyself. 33. And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. XXV, 10. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you ; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. — Leviticus. XV, 14. Thou shalt not op- press an hired servant that is poor and needy, ichetlier he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thv land within thy gates. XXIII, 15. THOU SHALT NOT DELIVER UNTO HIS MASTER THE SERVANT WHICH IS ESCAPED FROM HIS MASTER UNTO THEE. — Deuteronomy Job. — Chap. IV, ver. 8. Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. XV, 20. Toe wicked man travaileth with pain all his days, and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor. XX, 18. That which he labor- ed for shall he restore, and shall not swallow it down : according to /lissubstance sludl the restitution be, and he shall not rejoice thereon. 19. Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor ; be- cause he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not : David. — Ps. XVIII, ver, 25 With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an 'upright man thou wilt shew thyself up- right ; 27. For thou wilt save the afflicted people ; but wilt bring down high looks. LXXll, 4. He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppres- sor. — Psalms. Solomon. — Chap. Ill, ver. 1. And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh’s daughter, and brought herinto the city of David. 1 Kings. I, 24. Because I have called and ye refused ; I have stretched out my hand, and no man re- garded ; 25. But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: THE HOLY BIBLE. 26. 1 also will laugh at your calamity ; I will mock when your fear cometh ; — Proverbs. IV, 1. So I returned, and con- sidered all the oppressions that are done under the sun : and be- hold, the tears of such as were op- pressed, and they had no com- forter ; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter. — Eccle- siastes. Isaiah. — Chap. V, t ter. 20. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil ; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness ; that put hitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter ! LV1II, 6. Is not this the first that I have chosen ? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Jeremiah. — Chap. XXXIV, ver. 1 7. Therefore thus saith the Lord, Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbor : behold, I proclaim a liberty for you saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine ; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. Jesus Christ. Chap. V, ver. 7. Blessed are the merciful : for they shall obtain mercy. Yil, 2. For with what judg- ment ye judge, ye shall be judged : and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 12. Therefore all things what- soever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them : for this is the law and the pro- phets. IX, 13. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice : for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. XXIII, 8. But be ye not called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are bre- thren. XXY, 45. Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. — St. Matthew's Gospel. IV, 8. To preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. — St. Luke. St. Peter. — Chap. X, ver. 34. IT Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons : 35. But in every nation he that feareth him, and vvorketh right- eousness, is accepted with him. — Acts. Ill, 8. Finally, be ye all of one min-d, having compassion one of another ; love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous; — 1st Epistle. St. Paul. — Chap. II, ver. 6. AVho will render to ever man ac- cording to his deeds. II. For there is no respect of persons with God . — Epistle to the Romans. XVII, 26. And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face of the earth, and hath determined the times be- fore appointed, and the bounds of rtheir habitation. — Acts. III, 17. Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spiiit of the Lord is, there is liberty. VIII, 14. But by an equality, that now at this time your abun- dance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also THE HOLY BIBLE. mar bo a supply for your want, that there may be equality'. — u Cmnthians. V, 1. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. 13. For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty ; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. 54. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. — Galatians. V, 9. And, ye masters, do the same tilings unto them, forbearing threatening : knowing that your blaster also is in heaven ; neither is there respect of persons with him.- — Ephesians. III, 25. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done : and there is no respect of persons. IV, 1. Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal ; knowing that ye also have a Master which is in heaven. — Colossians. XIII, 3. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them ; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body. — Hebrews. • St. James. — Chap. II, ver. 6. But ye have despised the poor. Do r.^" rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment- seats ? S. If ye fulfil the royal law ac- cording to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well : 9. But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as trans- gressors. St. John. — Chap. IV, ver. 20. If a man say,- 1 love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen ? 21. And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. — 1st Epistle. XIII, 9. If any man have an ear, let him hear. 10. He that Ieadeth into cap- tivity, shall go into captivity : he that billet h with .toe sword, must be killed with the sword. 11. And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn ovet her ; for no man buyeth theii merchandise any more : 13. Fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves and souls of men. XX, 13. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it ; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them : and they were judged every man ac- cording to their works. XXII, 12. And behold I come quickly ; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. — Revelation. Justice recording the Voiee of the People guided by Light Liberty and Truth. o ri !i 0 8 t 1 f I WILLIAM HOGARTH’S PROGRESS OF CRUELTY. These prints were engraved with the hope of in some degree correcting that barbarous treatment of animals, the very sight of which renders the streets of our metropolis so distressing to every feeling mind. If they have that ef- fect in checking the progress of cruelty, I am more proud of being their author than I should be oi having painted Raphael’s Cartoons ! Hogarth. [The explanations are altered from those of John Trusler. A few additions to the plates are marked by brackets.] THE PROGRESS OF CRUELTY. The temperance and abolition people and presses have essayed to move earth and heaven by all sorts of means and appeals except one ; they seem studiously to have avoided a thought or a sentence on the connection of their principles with the condition of the infe- rior animals. But do not these suffer as well as the human race from man’s drunkenness, and from starvation, blows and all ill-treat- ment. except perhaps the consciousness of the degradation of their slavery, and deprivation of the Bible. Of what use is liberty but as the handmaid of humanity ? Six pages are here annexed, exhibi- ting the progress of cruelty from infancy to maturity, from its in- fliction on the lowest animals to the most aggravated crimes to- wards the human species. They are from the “ Spirit of Hu- manity.” The First Stage of Cruelty . — Here are seen children of various ages, engaged in different barbarous diversions ; some solitary, some in groups. The wretch on tire right hand corner in front, is tying a bone to a dog’s tail, in order to hurry it through the streets and en- joy its terror and pain. Next to him is a lad setting two cocks to fight : a refined amusement practised by full-grown children. On the left corner a dog is urged to- worry amd tear to pieces, one of the tabby kind, by a young tyrant. A r.ero of a fellow has deprived his dog of its ears, and is about cutting off its tail with his shears. A youth returning from school, intercedes in behalf of the maimed, suffering creature, and even offers the other a book as a present, if he will re- lease the dog. This shows not only the necessity of general in- struction, but also that general humanity should always be an essen- tial constituent of education, without which, both boys and men would be little better than savages and brutes. The Second Stage. — The spirit of inhumanity exhibited in the first plate as growing up in youth, is in this ripened to manhood. The base nero of our piece has become a hackney coachman, a profession which affords him an opportunity of displaying his brutal disposition. He is here sho'.Yn cruelly beating one of his horses. The lean, galled, and starved appearance of the afflicted creature, is manifest proof of the habitual unkindness of its master. Pity it is, that such barbarous wretches should be suffered to live at large, or at all events, to have any control over sentient beings. On the right is seen one of those inhu- man wretches, who are so often permitted to drive cattle to and from the slanghler-house and market. He has beaten a tender over- driven lamb with a club stick for not going on, and the poor faint creature is dying with the fatigue and blows. The Third Stage. — His notorious barbarity as a hackney coach- man, was attended with discharge from his place. His recklessness of moral principles led him to highway robbery. He next deceived and betrayed a young woman, for baseness and duplicity are a com- mon form of cruelty. He consummates his crimes by her murder ; but is arrested, and the cruel oppressor who had no feeling for others is compelled at last to feel for himself 1 PROGRESS OF CRUELTY. Behold a youth of gentler look, To save Lhe creature’s pain, ‘Oh take!’ he cries, ‘here take my book,’ But tears and book are vain. Learn from this fair example, yon Whom savage sports delight, How cruelty disgusts the view, While pity charms the sight. What various scenes of cruel sport The infant race employ, What future baseness, must import The tyrant in the boy. SPIRIT OF HUMANITY. EARLY FRIENDSHIP. The great old House Dog in whose face Rough worth and all that’s good had place, With paw so broad and velvet drooping jowls, Stretched in the sun would roll for me, With his rude love and awkward glee, Half closed his laughing eye with merry growls. At length weigh’d down, and grey with years, The’' guard no more that still’d my fears As through the wood, at eve, I trudg’d alone : Chang’d was his hazel eye of fire, And dim the ray that could inspire My little heart with boldness not its own. Yet still he crawl’d to lick my feet, And choose his bed beside my seat, Look’d up, and wagged his tail when I was by ; And tvhen quite blind, with lifted ears, Soon as the well known voice he hears, He told (’twas all he could) his friend was nigh ! Poor faithful brute 1 thy love so true Ne’er waned, as human friendships do ; Not e’en unkindness could thy zeal repress, For did one smile but beam on thee Forgot was ever injury — All, all o’erpaid, and lost in one caress ! The above is is a fine contrast to the First Stage of Cruelty. PROGRESS OF CRUELTY. PRIZE’ BIG HT] THE SECOND STAGE OF CRUELTV. “ The generous steed in feeble age Subdued by labor lies, And mourns a cruel master’s rage, While nature strength denies. “ The tender lamb o’er-drove and faint, Amidst expiring throes, Bleats forth its innocent complaint, And dies beneath the blows. “ Inhuman wretches ! whence proceeds This coward cruelty ? What interest springs from barbarous deeds 1 What joy from misery PROGRESS OF CRUELTY. CRUELTY IN MATURITY. My conscience has a thousand several tongues. And every tongue brings in a several tale, And every tale condemns me for a villian; Cruelty, perjury, in the highest degree, Murder, stern murder in the direst degree, All several crimes, all us’d in each degree ; Throng to the bar all crying, Guilty! Guilty !! I shall despair — There is no creature loves me : And, if I die, no soul shall pity me : Nay, wherefore should they ? Shakespeare. THE SLAVES OF SLAVERY. AN APPENDAGE. [Although the names of many assiduous lecturers and laborers in the righteous cause, have, from want of space been omitted in this Legion of Liberty, and but a page or paragraph been allowed even to those who have written voluminously, yet, at the suggestion of a devoted advocate of freedom and justice the views and feelings of about a dozen of the leaders of the slaves of slavery are admitted as an example. These sentiments will be found worthy of their source, and to corroborate the character of the slave system and its fruits as exhibited by the previous works of the friends of liberty and humanity, with which they strongly contrast.] B. WATKINS LEIGH. Power and property may be separated for a time by force or fraud, but divorced, never. For so soon as the pang of separation is felt, if there be truth in history — if there be any certainty in the ex- perience of ages — if all pretensions to a knowledge of the human heart be not vanity and folly — property will purchase power, and power will take property. Sir, the true and peculiar advantage of the principle of represen- tative government is, that it holds government absolutely depend- ent on individual property, which gives the owner of properly an interest to watch the government — that it puts the purse-strings in tlie hands of its owners. In every civilized country under the sun, some there must be who labor for their daily bread, either by contract with, or subjection to others, or for themselves. — Slaves in the eastern part of the stale fill the place of the peasantry of Europe — of the peasantry or day la- borers of the non-slave-holding states of the Union. The denser the population, the move numerous this class will be. Even in the present state of the population beyond the Allegany, there must be some peasantry, and as the country fills up, there must be more, that is, men who tend the herds and dig the soil — who have neither real nor personal capital of their own, and who earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow. They (by this scheme) arc all to be represented, but none of our slaves. And yet, in political economy, the latter fill exactly' the same place. Slaves indeed are not, nor ever will be, comparable to the hardy peasantry of the mountains, in intellectual power, in moral worth, in all that deter- mines man’s degree in the moral scale and raises him above the brute. I beg pardon — his Maker placed him above the brute — above the savage — above that wretched state, of which the only comfort is the natural rights of man. I have as sincere feelings of regard for that people as any man who lives among them. But I ask gentle- men to say, whether they believe that those who depend on their daily labor for their daily subsistence, can, or do ever enter into po- litical affairs ? They never do — never will — never can . — Speech in Virginia Convention, 1829. THE SLAVES OF SLAVERY. F. W. PICKENS. “All society settles down into a classification of capitalists and laborers. The former will own the latter, either collectively through the government, or individually in a state of domestic servitude as exists in the Southern Stales of this confederacy. If laborers ever obtain the political power of a country', it is in fact in a state of re- volution. The capitalists north of Mason and Dixon’s line, have precisely the same interests in the labor of the country that the capi- talists of England have in their labor. Hence it is, that they must have a strong- federal government (!) to control the labor of the na- tion. But it is precisely the reverse with us. We have already not only a right to the proceeds of our laborers, but we own a class of laborers themselves. But let ine say to gentlemen who represent the great class of capitalists in the north, beware that you do not drive us into a separate system, for if you do, as certain as the de- crees of heaven, you will be compelled to appeal to the sword to maintain yourselves at home. It may not eoine in your day ; but your children’s children will be covered with the blood of domestic factions, and a plundering mob contending for power and conquest.” — Pickens of South Carolina in Congress, 21st Jan., 1S37. CHANCELLOR HARPER. “ Would you do a benefit to the horse or the ox by giving him a cultivated understanding, a fine ieeiing? So far as the mere la- borer has the pride, the knowledge or the aspiration of a freeman, he is unfitted for his situation. If there arc sordid, servile labori- ous offices to be performed, is it not better that there should be sor- did, servile laborious beings to perform them ? “Odium has been east upon our legislation on account of its for- bidding the elements of education being communicated to slaves. But in truth what injury is done them by this ? He who works du- ring the day with his hands, does not read in Lite intervals of leisure for his amusement, or the improvement of his mind, or the excep- tion is so very rare as scarcely to need the being provided for.” — Southern Lit. Messenger. “ Is there any thing- in the principles and opinions of the other party, the great democratic rabble as it has been justly called, which should induce us to identify ourselves with that ? Here you may find every possible grade and hue of opinion which has ever existed in the country. Here you may find loafer and loco foco and agra- rian, and all the rabble of the ci'v of New- York, the most corrupt and depraved of rabbles, and which controls, in a great degree the city itseifi and through that as being the commercial metropolis, ex- ercises much influence over the state at large. “ What are the essential principles of democracy as distinguished from repubiicanisin ? The first consists in the dogma so portentcous to us of the natural equality and unalienable right to liberty of every human being. Our allies (!) no doubt, are willing at present to modify the doctrine in our favor. But the spirit of democracy at 32 * THE SLAVES OF SLAVERY. large makes no such exceptions, nor will these (our allies, the north, ern democrats) continue to make it longer than necessity or inter- est may require. The second consists in the doctrine of the divine right of majorities ; a doctrine not less false, and slavish, and ab- surd than the ancient one of the divine right of kings .” — Speech July 4 , 1840 . V ROBERT WICKLIFFE. “ Gentlemen wanted to drive out the black population that they may obtain white negroes in their place. While negroes have this advantage over black negroes, they can be converted into voters ; and the men who live upon the sweat of their brow, and pay them but a dependent and scanty subsistence, can, if able to keep ten thou- sand of them in employment, come up to the polls and change the destiny of the country. “ How improved will be our condition when we have such white negroes as perform the servile labors of Europe, of Old England, and he would add now of New England, when our body servants and our cart drivers, and our street sweepers, are white negroes in- stead of black. Where will be the independence, the proud spirit, and the chivalry of the Kentuckians then ?”■ — Speech in Kentucky. [Had the gentleman looked across the river, he might have found an answer to his question, in the wealth, power, and happiness of Ohio. — A. S. Reporter.} george McDuffie. It is my deliberate opinion, that the laws of every community should publish this species of interference by death without benefit of clergy.* . . . No humane institution, in my opinion, is more manifestly consistent with the will of God than domestic slavery. If we look into the elements of which all political communities are composed, it will be found that servitude in some form, is one of the essential constituents. . . In the very nature of things, there must be classes of persons to discharge all the different offices of society, from the highest to the lowest. . . Where these offices are performed by members of the political community, a dangerous element is ob. viously introduced by the body politic. Hence, the alarming ten- dency to violate the rights of property by agrarian legislation, which is beginning to be manifest in the older states, where universal suf- frage prevails without domestic slavery; a tendency that will in- crease in the progress of society, with the increasing inequality of domestic slavery, supersedes the necessity of an order of nobility, and all the other appendages of a hereditary system of government. Domestic slavery, therefore, instead of being an evil, is the coi ner stone of our republican edifice. No patriot, who justly estimates our privileges, will tolerate the idea of emancipation at any period however remote, or on any condition of pecuniary advantage, how- ever favourable. I would as soon think of opening a negotiation for selling the liberties of the state at once, as for making any stiou- THE SLAVES OF SLAVERY. lation for the ultimate emancipation of our slaves. . . If the legis- lature should concur in these views of this important element of our political and social system, our confederates should be distinctly in- formed, in any communication we may have occasion to mhke to them, that in claiming to be exempt from all foreign interference, we can recognize no distinction between ultimate and immediate emancipation. . . It behoves us therefore, to demand of all the non* slaveholding states. 1. A formal, and solemn disclaimer by its leg* islature, of the existence of any rightful power, either in such state, or the United Slates in congress assembled, to interfere in any man- ner with the institution of domestic slavery in South Carolina. 2. The immediate passage of penal laws by such legislatures, denounc- ing against the incendiaries of whom we complain, such punish- ments as will speedily and for ever suppress their machinations against our peace and safety. . . The liberal, enlightened, and magnanimous conduct of the people in many portions of the non- slaveholding states, forbids us to anticipate a refusal on the part of those stales, to fulfil these high obligations of national faith and du- ty.” — Extracts front his Message to S. Carolina, 1835. JOHN C. CALHOUN. lI We regard slavery as the most safe and stable basis for free in- stitutions in the world. It is impossible with us that the conflict can take place between labor and capital, which makes it so diffi- cult to establish and maintain free institutions in all wealthy and highly civilized nations where such institutions do not exist. Every plantation is a little community with the master at its head, who concentrates in himself the united interests of capital and labor of which he is the common representative.” — Mr. Calhoun of South Carolina, in the United States Senate, Jan. 10 th, 1840. In United States S/nate, Feb. 4, 1836. Mr. C/lhoun from the select committee, reported the following bill : — Be it enacted,