Glass _Liiii_ Book_Zi Till: PRIVILEGE AND DIGNITY, RESPONSIBILITY AND DUTY "I ■Nil. pe ks i-: n t c 'ON G R i :ss. TO EMANCIPATE THE SLAVES BT LAW One of tlie best foreign historians of our country, James Grahame, has transcribed the preamble to the Statute of Emancipation passed by the Legislature of Pennsylvania (1780), in the middle of the Re\ ilutionai-y War : and pr unces it " the justest and most liberal tribute ever rendered by municipal authority in America, to the rights of the African race, expressing sentiments such as ought to predom inate in the breast of every American who owns allegiance to God and professes attachment to his Britain were exerted to reduce us : when we look back i n the variety of dangers to which we have been exposed, and note how miraculously our wants, in many instances, have been supplied, and our deliver- ances wrought, when even hope and In, man fortitude bad become unequal to the conflict ; we are un- avoidably led to a serious and grateful sense of the manifold blessings which wc have undeservedly received from the band of thai Being from whom every good and perfect gift cometh. Impressed with these ideas, we conceive that it is our duty, and we rejoice that ir is in our power, to extend a portion of that freedom to others which hath been extended to us, and a release from that state of thraldom to which elvi were tyrannically doomed, and from which we have now every prospect of being de- livered. distinguished lij a difference in feature or complexion. It i- sufficient to know that all are the work of an Almighty" I hi d. We find in the distribution of the human species, that the most fi rtile as well as the most barren parts of the earth arc inhabited by men of complexions different from ■in-, and fri ach other; from whence we nun reasonably, as well as religiously, inter that lie who placed tin in in their various situations, hath extended^ qually his care and prot« cl ion to all, and thai it th not i i" counteract his mercies. We esteem it a peculiar blessing granted to us, thai we are enabled in this day to add one step to universal civilization, by removing, as much as possib ■ed bondage, and from whic ;h, by the ass ■• 1 au.l lority of the relief could 1. • ob'ained. Weaned by a !o llg CO iirse i ■f ex- partialities we had imbibe. 1. we find our hea rts en: largei 1 with .■ill conditions and nations : and we conceive onrse Ives i it this ion liv the blessings which « e ha\ e receive 1. to 11 lanife -t the sorrows of those who have lived in undeser kings of Greal Britain, no effectual legal perience from those narrow | nj id ces and kindness and benevolence toward- men of particular period extraordinarily called u| sincerity of our profession, and to give a substantial proof of our gratitude. '•And whereas the condition of those persons who have heretofore been denominated ne«ro and mulatto slaves, has Keen attended with eircum? ances which not only deprived them of the common blessings that they were by nature entitled to, bn has cast them into the deepest affliction by an un- natural separation and sale of husbands and wives-from each other, and from their children — an injnrv 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 circumstanced, and who bavin-- no prospect before them whereon they may rest their sorrows and their hopes, have no reasonable inducement to render the ser- vice to society which otherwise they might; and also in grateful commemoration of our own happy deliverance from that state of unconditional submission to which we were doomed by the tvranny of Britain, Be it enacted that nochild born hereafter shall be a slave." < bit of gratitude to God, and in acknowledgment and protection of the rights of the African race. let us follow this example and advance upon it. Let us not merely be driven by necessity; let us not acknowledge any necessity but of justice and the right. ( (four own accord, as a just nation, exercising its prerogative of justice, and its right to deliver and protect all its subjects and citizens from tyranny an I oppression, let us give freedom to the slaves by law. This will lie the proof of our national life, tin- restoration of our national dignity, the exercise of our national sovereignty tor the very purpose for which governments are divinely ordained, the protection of This will prevent the possibility of foreign intervention, and will remove the only difficulty in the way of reconstruction of tin- Union, when we shall have subdued the rebellion. And it will enable us to subdue the rebellion, putting ns wholly on the right side, on thesideof God and justice. If we carry on the war for God, justice, and liberty, God will carry it on for us, and will bring the restoration of our Union out o\' it. But if we ignore the rights of the slaves, and refuse to set them free, now that we have the opportunity, may we not fear that a just and divine retribution will ignore our rights, and refuse to set us free? "If ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give yon that which is your own '." All that any state legislature may do for the freedom of the citizens of the state, the National Legislature can do tor the freedom of the citizens of the country, owing allegiance to its government. The African race. American born, are citizens. The National Legislature are guardians in trust for their libe. y. as well as ours, and are bound to enact the immediate emancipation of all who are held as slaves; and so long as our government fails to do this, it holds them itself, especially the slaves of rebel States, in slavery. We implore our Senators and Representatives to separate us immediately and forever, as a people, as a nation, from this iniquity, that we may no more he confounded with the rebel confederacy in the tolerance of the sa n ■ tyranny, on the pretended rightfulness of which the rebels against our government base their rebellion. < )ne of the best friends that our country has in Europe, a man of great experience in a life-time of service in the cause of five 1> n, a in i 1 of distinguished position, ability, and character, an acu'e thinker, a powerful writer, an accur ite obsen r of affairs, Lieut. < Jen. T. Perronet Thompson, of England, warns us of the con: in ue 1 i an^er of foreign intervention in c nisequenceof our delay in striking the decisive blow. ^e^iy^e^y ^1 y f^lc^^f^ yVy^cyC<^_ tsf r ^7~/ c^^^y tsx-^i^j^ (j-c^s&u^/ irfc^ X--t^---^T^_-C-i^«^ VTA-4/ ■■ The friends of America," lie say-, '• stand in serious danger of seeing as complete a victory given to the rebel States, as ever the Russians had over the Poles, or the Holy Alliam ver the Italians. [f America sets her seal on the refusal to put down the rebellion when she might." i waiting for tin pensable necessity.) "she mnst not grumble at its not heing put down afterwards. There is plainly in Ptore for her a lengthy trial. Nothing appears which points to deliverance from tour years i fthe enemy in America. Even if things to come should turn out better than can be expected, there will he nothing done but what might have been done three or f.mr years ago, and saved the difference; no slaughter bnl might have been prevented, by consenting to let any body be: the enemy at earlier periods. •• The great lesson which all apparently will have to learn is, how nine 1 better ir is in times of danger to do the needful at once when opportunity is offered, than to wait for indispensable necessity. Men observe it in the affairs of common life; and those who do not, are not tit to take care of their own affairs, let alone those of others. No man delays, when his house is on fire, to put it out; or waits to see whether waiting a few hours may not increase the necessity of showing himself to be alive. And -till less, if lie has done it for four years, or other term, dues he make it a ground for requesting to have a second. The world is not conducted in this manner on the private scale; it is only when men club together into what are called politics, that anything so trying to the rules of individual prudence can be concocted. "What seems a thing to be counted on, is that the sufferings of the North have been too great to allow a compromise with the rebellion and its foreign allies. But if the period of i ictory is to be put off for tour years, there is the almost certainty of the foreign intervention to he attempted in the interim. The flags are woven and >]>un. which are to wave in a European intervention for the South, it' the d ■ for lengthened contest is thrown open. So let nobody be angry with a friend, for saying in the language of the mess-room or the quarter-deck, Look out! Three to two, there will he an intervention in favoi- if the South before six months." T. Pkkkoxe'i Thomi-son." If intervention is to come, let it lind us tree of slavery, and only the enemy bnrthened with it. Let it not find us waiting for amendments in order to give the finishing stroke, [t would be lik< into battle, and then asking the enemy to wait till our percussion caps are manufacti It is in the power of the present ' ongrcss to sweep slavery from existence; to destroy this organized crime against God .and the nation through a public and solemn annihilation of it by law. It is the privilege and prerogative of Congress to strike this grand blow of governmental justice and national protection now. It is the duty of the present hour. Senators and representatives have been informed that it is doubtful whether Congress have the power to abolish slavery in the rebel States by law. Let them solve this doubt by giving its benefit to freedom, and themselves striking the blow. The denial of their authority and right to strike it, and the reference of such authority to any other body, court or power than that of our national legislature, strikes, itself, at their parliamentary sovereignty over the Union, and at our national life. They have been told that they had nothing more to do, since the election, but to gather up a few fragments of unfinished legislation and go home, leaving all that concerns the lite and regeneration of the country to those who have been appointed as the members of the next Congress. Let them resent tin- insult, and show their own power and independence by doing so much this winter for the country and for God, for humanity and justice, that the next ( longress shall only be able to admire and continue their labors. Above all. let them not transmit unfinished the august enactment of emancipation, and ath blow of the rebellion, as a mere legacy to their successors, when it ma\ be too late, judging themselves unworthy of so great a work, or inadequate to it- performance. [laving begun, let themselves complete the righteous act proposed but not accomplished in the last year's session. Divine Providence renews for/ them the opportnity, l>\ embracing which, The emancipation of the slaves b\ law is their constitutional and proper work. The testimony of Washington is conclusive on this point. "There is only one proper and effectual mode by which the abolition of slavery can be accomplished, and that is, by the legislative authority, and this, so far as my suffrage will