a^' ^^^ '^^ ^V^' ''(/ A A\\ , N , -^^ 0^ s. '^yi^^ .^" -»,"*o ' ^>^^^ ^^' ^, :^ ^^ ■^y^w. % ', ^ 0- .-j^ o^ 0' .^-^ ^*- c^-. ^^C> A^^ V %S^ aV ./-, ''J- s* .^^^ . ' , V -^ ^ oo „-; ^ .#■ ; < -^^ <^^ i^ifl^ .#'^ , X ^ <\ M^^''^. w ^°°,^ ^^-^ "■'t. ^^ ■J- ?\ "V *-, •* .rt • - "^^- -\^^ A^^' -/- ."^ <^ o^' .'^ THE CONSTITUTIONAL DUTY OP THE Jitkral ^okrnment TO ABOLISH AMERICAN SLAVERY AN EXPOSE OP THE POSITION OF THE ABOLITION SOCIETY r OP NEW-YORK CITY AND YICJOTTY. -■_ , (:'- Co:- NEW-YORK: PUBLISHED BY THE ABOLITIOX SOC. OF NEW-YORK CITY, ETC, 48 BEEKMAN STREET. 1855 ^ EXPOSITION DUTY OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO ABOLISH SLAVERY. The Abolition Society of ^New-York City rtkI vicinity, at its organizaiia»^ issued an Address to the people of the L^nited States, in exposition of its principles and ob- jects, and inviting the friends of liberty, in their several localities, to organize similar societies. In addition to this, the Executive Committee have now thought it ad-^isable to make a brief exposition of their Constitution, together with a condensed outline of the course of argument by which its peculiar positions are sustained. THE NAME OF THE SOCIETY. Anti-Slavery Societies have been chiefly occupied in exposing the nature, the character, and the effects of slavery, and urging the duty and safety of immediate and unconditional emancipation. This Society takes the name oi Abolition Society, as more properly indicative of its specific design to procure the abolition of slavery — the suppression, by civil government, and particularly by the Federal Government, of the criminal practice of slaveholding. WHAT IS MEANT BY THE ILLEGALITY OF SLAVERY. When we say that slavery is illegal, we mean not merely that it is morally wrono-, wicked, or sinful, in the 2 WHY SLAVERY IS ILLEGAL. sight of God, but that it is likewise unlawful, hy the established 2)rinci2)l€s of human jurisjyriidence, just as murder, arson, robbery, theft, and assault and battery, are unlawful, and that there is no more valid law for the one than there is for the other. We mean that slaveholding is illegal, as other criminal practices are illegal We affirm that there is no legislation in any of the States that makes it legal. We maintain that, even without any legislation against slavery, it is now the right and duty of the Courts of Justice to liberate any slave who may bring a suit for his or her freedom. WHY SLAVERY 13 ILLEGAL. We affirm its illegality on two general grounds: First, Slavery can not possibly be legalized. Second, If it could be, it 7i€ver has been, and is not now, le- galized in this country. The ground first mentioned is that of an universal and immutable 2)rinci2)le ; the second is that of history, and of existing local fa<;f. First, Slavery can not possibly be legalized. In its very nature it is incapable of legalization. The standard writers on common law affirm the impossibility of legal- izing slavery, even by positive luunicipal law. They de- clare the right to liberty to be inalienable, and that sta- tutes against fundamental morality are void.^' The nature of civil government and of civil law, as defined by all standard writers on those subjects, proves it impossible to legalize slavery.f " To secure" man's inalienable I'ights, ''governments are instituted among men." And consequently they can have no lawful au- thority to violate the rights which they exist only to pro- tect. The protection of human rights necessarily in- * Coke, Fortescue, Blackstone, etc, t MoBcs, Cicero, Justinian, Coke, Fortescue, Lyttleton, Blackstone, Jacob, (Law Dictionary,) Hobart, Novo*, Wood, Hampden, Witberspoon, Yattel, Hooker, etc. WHY SLAVERY IS ILLEGAL. 3 volves the prohibition and suppression of shiveholding. Having no legal authority to violate men's natural rights, governments can delegate no such authority to others. The powers of civil government are hmited. But they would be unhmited, if they could have the authority and the power to legalize the enslavement of their subjects. All the declarations ever made (and they have abounded in all civilized nations and ages) that all men are created equal, that all men are entitled to personal liberty, and that governments are for the protection of rights,* are so many declarations that slavery is incapable of legaliza- tion. All the venerated definitions of law go to the same point. '' Whatever is just,^' says Cicero, " is also the true laiv, nor can this true law^ be abrogated by any writ- ten enactments." "Municipal law," says Blackstone, "is properly defined to be a rule of civil conduct, pre- scribed by the supreme power in a state, commanding what is RIGHT, and prohibiting what is wrong" "Po- litical law," says Witherspoon, "is the authority of any society stamped upon moral duty." And, according to Jacob's Law Dictionary, " Law" is " the rule and bond of men's actions, or it is a rule for the well-government of civil society, to give to every man that which doth BELONG to him." In short, the entire science of civil government and civil law will have to be revised and revolutionized be- fore slavery can be made legal. Second, But, if it were possible to legahze slavery, it is historically certain that it never has been legalized in this country. No statutes have been enacted that could have legalized it — none that have even pretended to do so. To this point we have the tesiimony of the prominent slaveholding statesmen and jurists of America. * See Letters on Slavery, by O. S. Freeman; containing quotations from Aristotle, Ciocro, Seneca, and other renowned men of antiquity and of subse- quent ages^ 4 WHY SLAVERY IS ILLEGAL. The late John C. Calhoun, of South-Carolina ;* Judge Matthews, of Louisiana;! Senator Mason, of Virginia, Mr. Bayljs, Representative in Congress from the same State ]l Senator Douglas, of Illinois, Mr. Toombs, of Georgia ;§ Gen. St^ingfello^v, of Missouri, with Hon. S. C. Brooks and John McQueen, of South-Carolina, William Smith, of Virginia, and Thomas L. Clingman, of North- Carolina,! (Members of Congress,) and Southern editors geneially, affirm that slavery grew up in the American Colonies without any positive enactments creating or au- thorizing it — that nothing of that character is known to the legislation of this country — although statutes have been framed to regulate what was assumed to have had a previous legal existence. And yet it is admitted by the Southern Courts that slavery is contrary to natural right and to common law, and can only exist by the force of local, municipal, positive law. On this gi-ound, the Southern Courts have liberated slaves who had been car- ried by consent of their masters beyond the liaiits of tlie local jui-isdiction where they had been held as slaves.^ The Supreme Court of the United States (in the case of * Reply to T. II. Benton, 1S49. t American Slave Code, pp. 266-268. " No legislative act of the colonies can be found in relation to if — Wietler's Law of Slavery, pp. 8, 9. X Mr. Mason objected to a jury trial for fugitives on the gi-ound that such a process Avould require that "proof shall be brought forward that slavery is established by existing laws ;" and, said he, ' it is impossible to comply with the requisition ,/*>r no such law can he produced^ — GooddVs Slavery and Anti-Slavery, jip. 570, 571. § Debates in Congress on the Nebraska Bill. Determined to carry slavery into Kansas and Nebraska without any statutory enactments creating it, they were driven to tho necessity of declaring the truth that it had been intro- duced into all the slave States withoutstatute. \ These gentlemen assume the present legality of slavery in Kansas "without any positive law."' And they say ' The veriest school-boy must know— rts a' matter of history— i'ha.t, although slavery existed in all the old States, in not one of them was a law ever enacted to establish it." — Jfetc- York Daily Trihicne, Jan. 17, 1S55. ^ American Slave Code, pp. 261-264. Wheeler's Law of Slavery, 340- 346, 34S, 849. 335. Story's ConHict of Laws, 92-97. 8 Louisiana Reports. 475. 2 Marshall's Kentucky Rep., 467. Martin's Lou. Rep.. 401. Walker's Miss. Kep., 36. HISTORICAL OUTLINE. O Prigg VS. Pennsylvania, 16 Peters) declared that "the state of slavery is a mere municipal regulation, /o2/;?c?eof iq)on and limited to the verge of the teri'itorial law." Putting these two statements together, the matter-of-fact illegality of American slavery is seen at a glance. HISTORICAL OUTLI^'E. The whole history of slavery and of the slave trade in England and her American Colonies shows that slavery has never been legalized. The " permit" of Queen Ehzabeth to John Hawkins, to carry Africans to the Colonies, forbade their transporta- tion without their own free consent. But he took them away by brute force, and, therefore, in violation of the con- ditions of the permit under which he pretended to act.* All the subsequent acts of parliament "regulating the trade to Africa," particularly the act of 23 George IL, chiefly relied upon by the slave traders, forbade, under heavy penalties, the carrying away of Africans by any act of " fraud, force, or violence."! But the whole history of the trafhc proves it to have been prosecuted in open and direct violation of these prohibitions. So that the mat- ter-of-fact African slave trade never was legalized. This was proved by "William Pitt, in the British Parliament, and this led to the abolition of the slave trade. | When the slaves were landed in the Colonies and sold to the planters, there were no English or colonial statutes authorizing the procedure. Ilad there been any, they would have been of no valid force, because contrary to the British constitution and the English common law. This appears from the decision of Lord Chief Justice Mans- field, who, on this ground, liberated the slave Somerset, * Clarkson's History, p 30 ; Edwards' History of West-Indies, vol 2, pp. 43,44; Goodell's Slavery and Anti-Slavery p. 6. t Spooner's Unconstitutionality of Slavery, pp. 29-35. X CJarkson's History, p. 314 ; Goodell's Slavery and Anti-Slavery, p. 65. 6 HISTORICAL OUTLINE. and declared slavery illegal in England, in llie year 1*7 '72. four years before onr Declaration of Independence. The same decision, though never enforced in the colonies, was legally binding upon them, as Granville Sharpe pub- licly maintained."" The colonial charters, moreover, re- stricted the colonial legislatures from passing any laws contrary to the common law of England, which forbids slavery .f And finally, there were no colonial enactments, up to the hour of the Declaration of Independence, that even undertook to legalize slavery, and there have been no such State enactments since. The Declaration of Independence would have abolished slavery if it had had any previous legal existence. Add to this, the Constitutions of all the oiiginal States, formed soon after the Declaration of Independence, were incom- patible with slavery. And so was the common law. On these grounds, the Courts in Massachusetts, without any legislative enactment on the subject, decided that slavery was illegal.]; And slavery in all the other States stood precisely on the same basis. No one charges upon the old '' iVrticles of Confedera- tion" any recognition of slavery. And no one supposes that the Federal Constitution orio-inated it, or p-ave to it any legal validity which it did not possess before. The absolute illegality of slavery, at the time the Federal Constitution was adopted, is hence as certain as any legal fact of history can be, and no one pretends that it has acquired any additional legality since that time. This fact we have deemed an important one to be affirmed in the Constitution of our Abolition Society, as a foundation * Stuarfs Memoir of Sharpe; Clarksons History; Slavery and Anti-Sla- very, chap vi + Vide Sponner. X Pickering's Eeports pp. 209 210 ; Kent's Commentary p. 252 ; Wash- hurn's Jnd. Hist Mass. p 202; Dr Jonathan Edwards' Sermon, Sept 15, 1791. See Goodch's Slavery and Anti-SIaverv. pp. IH, 112. SLAVERY FORBIDDEN BY THE CONSTITUTION. 7 of our distinctive measures. We have, therefore, affirm- ed further that It is a violation of the Constitution. It can not legally exist under the Constitution, whicK does not sanction nor even tolerate its existence. If slavery be iUegal it is unconstitutional, of course. If it was illegal when the Constitution was adopted, then the Constitution can contain no legal recognition of it — no binding compromise with it. The Constitution could not have recognized as legal what did not legally exist, could not have formed any valid compromise with it. Slavery is unconstitutional because it is irreconcilably opposed to the declared objects of the Constitution, name- ly, " to form a more perfect union, establish justice, en- sure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." These grand objects of the Constitution can never be secured so long as slavery is permitted to exist in the nation. SLAVERY IS FORBIDDEN BY THE COXSTITUllON. The Constitution forbids slaver}^ by declaring that " no person shall be deprived of liberty without due process of law." The j^hrase " due process of law," means in- dictment and trial by jury for some alleged crime, and verdict and sentence in open Court. For this definition we have the f.uthority of Lord Coke, Judge Story,^'' and Justice Bronson.f And by the two latter this defini- tion is expressly applied to this clause of the Constitu- * story's Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, in which he cites the definition of Lord Coke. t Hill's Reports, iv., 146. VkJe Gerrit Smith's speech in ConEci'ess on the Nebraska Bill. 8 CONSTITUTION PROVIDES FOR LIBERATION. tion of tlie United States. No one will pretend that any slave in tlie United States ever lost his liber- ty/ by this process, or that " due process of law" could ever reduce any man to slavery^ though it may de- prive him of liberty by imprisonment for crime. This provision of the Constitution is an " Amendment^^^ which, like the codicil to a ^Yill, over-rides, displaces, and abro- gates whatever in the orig'inal instrument might have been inconsistent with it. In another " Amendment" the Constitution forbids slavery by providing that " the right of the people to be secure in their ^;^r5o;i5," etc., etc., " shall not be violated." THE CONSTITUTION FORBIDS THE STATES TO MAINTAIN SLAVERY. It does this by providing that ^^No State shall pass any bills of attainder or laws impairing the obligations of contracts ;" nor " grant any title of nobility." Slavery is an " attainder" because it " attaints the blood," and imposes disabilities on the chikl, on account of the condition of the parent. It establishes an order of nobility by that same process, and by conferring hereditary or transferable powers of subjugation and control upon one class or order of men oxer another class, their hereditary inferiors and subjects. It not mereh' impairs but annihilates the power of making contracts. THE CONSTITUTION FROVIDES FOR LIBERATION. The Constitution not only forbids slavery but provides for the liberation of eveiy slave, by declaring that " the writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended in time of peace." " It is this writ," (says Christian, the annotator of Blackstone,) " which makes slavery impossible in Eng- land." Its proper application would make slavery im- possible here. PO\\TRS OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 9 " The object of the writ," (says Blackstone,) " is to bring the body of the person who has been restrained of hberty" into Court, " who shall determine vjliether the cause of his commitment he just, and thereupon to do, as JUSTICE shall appertain." (16 Charles I. c. lo! Blackstone's Com., B. I. 135.) "It is to be directed to the person detaining another^ and commanding him to produce the body of the prisoner, with the day and cause of his capture and detention," etc., " to do, submit to, and receive whatsoever the judge or court awarding the writ shall consider in that behalf." Blackstone, B. I, 131.) This writ^ according to Blackstone, was designed to carry out, more perfectly, the provision of Magna Charta, that no man should be deprived of Hberty "unless it be by legal indictment, or the process of common law ;" whicli includes trial by jury. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS TOWER TO ABOLLSIl SLAVERY. It has this power just as clearly as it has power to secure the declared objects of the instrument that gave it existence for the very jixirpose of securing them — the power " to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common de- fence, promote the general welfare, and secure the bless- ings of Ubertg to ourselves and our posterity." The power to do either one of these six things includes am- ple power to abolish slavery. Congress has power to declare war and make peace. Slavery is an outrage on the slaves, and they are necessarily enemies to the nation that permits it. Con- gress, therefore, has power to make peace with the slaves by restoring to them their rights. John Quincy Adams affirmed the right of Congress to abolish slavery as a 10 DUTIES OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. means of defence in time of war. But until slavery is abolished, we are continually exposed to a state of war. And the same principle affirmed by Mr. Adams would warrant abolition as a means of preserving peace or of being prepared for war. " Congress has power to provide for the common de- fence and general welfare of the United States." But Ihis can not be done without abohshing slavery. " Congress shall have power to establish a uniform rule of naturalization." To "naturalize" a man is to change his condition from that of an alien to that of a free citizen. Under this clause Congress may determine whether or no the slaves are already free citizens. If they are, it can declare them to be so. If they are not^ it can naturalize them, and 7nake them such. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS CONSTITUTIONALLY BOUND TO ABOLISH SLAVERY. The Constitution binds the Federal Government to abolish slavery in binding it to secure its own declared objects, (as already enumerated,) and in bringing the Federal Government into existence for this very end. If the Government is not bound to do this, it is bound to do nothing in support of the Constitution, or for the benefit of the people. The Constitution provides, that "The United States SHALL guarantee to EVERY State in this Union a re- publican form of government." This makes it the duty of Congress to see to it that every State maintains re- publican institutions. But what is a republic? The Constitution itself, in its preamble and in the provisions already quoted, furnishes the definition. " It is essential to a repubhcan government that it be derived from the great body of society, -not from an in- STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL PO^^'ER. 11 considerable proportion, OR a favored class of iV (Madi- son, in No. 39 of the Federalist.) This was written for the especial object of persuading the people to adopt the Constitution, by convincing them that it provided a republican government. "The true foundation of republican goverraent is the equal rights of every citizen in his person and property, and in ilieir management." (Jefferson.) And Mr. Jefferson frequently calls the slaves citizens* STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL POWER. Whatever the rights of the States may be, they can not include nor sanctify State wrongs. The States have reserved no riglit to violate the inalienable rights for the protection of which both the State and National Govern- ments were organized. They can have no right to do that which the Federal Constitution, ratified by them, expressly forbids them to do. However limited the powers of the Federal Govern- ment may be, they are not restricted from doing that which pertains essentially, in the nature of things, to all civil government, namely, to protect the personal liberty of its subjects. Such a restriction would render it no civil government at all. The Federal Government is not rest) icted from the proper exercise of the powers expressly conferred upon it, nor from doing the service which the Constitution expressly requires it to do. "The Constitution and the laics of the United States wliich shall be made in pursuance thereof,"' etc., etc., "shall be the SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND, and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any thing in the Constitution or laivs of any State to the contrary notiviihstanding.''^ * " "With ivhat execration should the statesman be loaded, who, permitting one half of the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, trans- forms those into despots, and these into enemies, destroys the morals of the one part, and the amor patriae of the other ! For if a slave can have a conn- try in this world, it must be any other than that in which he is born to live and labor for another," etc. — A'otes on Virginia. J 2 "intentions" and "understandings." We see this principle professedly acted upon, to en- force unconstitutional enactments, (in favor of slavery,) and it is time to use it to enforce constitutional laws for the protection of liberty. " The Congress shall have power to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying- into execution the foregouig powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof." (Art. I., Sect. 8, Clause 10.) In the Virginia Convention that ratified the Constitu- tion, Patrick Henry (a member of the Federal Conven- tion) said that Congress, by the Constitution, had "power to pronounce all slaves free." " There is," said he, " no ambiguous implication or logical deduction. The iKiper speciks to the i^oint. They have the 2^oiver in clear and unequivocal terms, and loill clearly and certainly exer- cise itr In the same Convention, Gov. Randolph said : " They insist that the abolition of slavery will result from this Constitution. I hope there is no one here who will ad- vance an objection so dishonorable to Virghiia. I lioj^e that at the moment they are securing the rights of their citizens, an objection will not be started that those unfor- tunate men now held in bondage by the operation of THE General Government, may be made free." With this " understanding" the Constitution was rati- fied by Virginia. Gen. Wilson, another member of the Federal Conven- tion, from Pennsylvania, assured the people of that State that the Constitution "laid a foundation for banishing slavery out of this country." WHAT SLAVEIIOLDEKS CL.UM. 13 WHAT SLAVEHOLDERS CLAIM. The clauses commonly quoted in favor of the claims of the slaveholders, do not warrant those claims. And if they did, they could not nullify or abrogate the preced- ing ones. The clause concerning "persons held to service and labor in one State, under the laws thereof, and escaping to another" — and providing that they "shall be delivered up to the person to whom such service or labor riiayj he due^'' can not apply to slaves. It does not describe their condition. Being held as " chattels personal," they are not recognized as " persons." " Slaves can make no contract;" and, therefore, nothing can be "c/i/e" from them. There are no laws holding them to "service, or labor" in any of the slave States, nor any laws that estab- lish or legalize slavery. The use of the word "service" instead of "servitude," proves that this clause cnn not apply to " slaves," but only to " free persons ;" for this dis- tinction, by the testimony of Mr. Madison, had been made by the Convention itself, in respect to the meaning of these two words. "Art. I., Sec. 2. On motion of Mr. Randolph, tlie word ^ servi- fudt was struck out, and the word ^servk(i unanimously inserted; the former being thought to express the condition of slaves, and the latter the oUigations of free persons.'' (Madison Papers, Vol. III., page 1569.) So that this clause can not apply to slaves, but only to apprentices, free laborers, and contractors who had agreed, for a consideration received, to perform " service or labor." The phrase ^'■free persons," in the clause concerning the apportionment of representatives and direct taxes, has been construed as having been used in contradistinction from cdiens, not slaves. High authorities for this con- struction are cited by Mr. Spooner. The clause concern- 14 MODES OF ABOLISHING SLAVERY. ing the migration or importation of certain persons pre- vious to 1808, and commonly applied to the African slave-trade, is also susceptible of a different interpretation, as has often been shown. But if this was a " compro- mise" with slavery, it has long since, by its own limita- tion, expired, and there is no good reason why the plain and explicit powers vested in the Federal Government should not now be exercised for the abolition of slavery. MODES OF ABOLISHING SLAVERY, There are many ways by which the Federal Govern- ment, in strict accordance with the Constitution, may abolish slavery. Either department of the Government, by itself, may do much, if not all, that would be neces- sary to secure that result. The judiciary department is amply competent to the task, in the absence of any legislation whatever. Any one of the Federal Courts has power to issue the writ of habeas corpus to any slave that may demand it. Nay, the judges are under the most solemn constitutional obli- gations to do su. And when the slave and his master are brought into Court, they are bound to " determine whether the cause of his (the slave's) commitment (de- tention in slavery) be just, and thereupon do as JUSTICE shall appertain." In doing this they w^ould follow the illustrious precedents of the Courts of Massachusetts and of Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, in the casecf Somerset ; a decision which immortalized his name, and shed a lus- tre of unfading glorv on the jurisprudence of his coun- try.* * The effects of this decision are thus celebrated by Cowper : " Slaves can not breathe in England ; if their lungs Eeceive our air, that moment they are free ; They touch our country, and their shackles fall That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud And jealous of the blessiug." MODES OF ABOLISHING SLAVERY. 15 If the judiciary fails to do this, the Legislature should provide for it by special enactment. The same power that establishes the present Federal Courts may, if necessary, establish Federal Courts in every county or town in the Union, and the same author- ity that appoints the present judges may appoint proper judges in all those courts. (See Art. II., Sect. 2, and Art. IIL, Sect. 1.) The President, in the exercise of his appointing power, may appoint to office any slave whom he deems qualified to discharge its duties; and he is bound, by his oath of office, to treat slavery as illegal and unconstitutional in all his official acts. This covers a wide field. Congress is bound to do the same, and in its organiza- tion of the militia, its supervision of the post-offices and the transportation of the mails, to know nothing of slavery or of distinctions of color. It is bound to " guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of govern- ment" that shall displace slavery; by just such measures as it would employ, if a State should establish an " order of nobility" in any other form, or substitute a hereditary monarchy for a representative government. Congress, by a declaratory enactment, may pronounce all the slaves citizens^ and, as such, entitled to the protec- tion of the Federal Government. Congress, in the same manner, if need be, may declare the ftict of the case as it exists — that slavery is illegal and in violation of the Con- stitution. Or it may, by appropriate enactments, provide for the naturalization of the slaves and their consequent protection. It may then provide for an apportionment of representation in accordance with the constitutional provision, properly construed, enumerating " three fifths" of the aliens^ as in contradistinction from ^''free perscns^^'' or " all other persons." The entire subject is within the legitimate action of 16 MODES OF ABOLISHING SLAVERY. the Federal Government, which has been so long wielded for the su2-)port of slavery. And the people of the Free States, at the ballot-box, can provide for an administra- tion that will, in some w^ay, rid the nation of its great national iniquity. This is the enterprise to which we invite the friends of liberty in America. We urge its vigorous prosecution as a solemn duty to God, to our country, to the slave, and to mankind. God holds nations responsible for national sins. He holds the people of all nations responsible for ihQ execution of justice by their national governments. And under repubhcan governments, where the people elect their own rulers, there can be no shadow of ex- cuse for their ^j<^e'kct of this duty. ABOLITION SOCIETY OP NEW-YORK CITY AND VICINITY. CONSTITUTION. Art. I. This Society shall be called The Abolition Society of New- York City and Vicinity. Art. II. Its object shaU be to secure the immediate and un- conditional abolition of American Slavery. Art. III. Its leading sentiments are these : 1. Slaveholding is sinful, illegal, and unconstitutional. It has no right to be in the Church or in the State. It is to be excluded from the former as a scandal, and prohibited by the latter as a crime. It is not sanctioned by the Bible or the Constitution, but is condemned by both. - 2. It is the duty of the Federal Government, in aU its depart- ments, to suppress slaveholding throughout the United States. 3. It is the duty of the several State governments to sustain the Federal Government in this measure, to protect their citizens, and all who touch their soil, from seizures by kidnappers or slaveholders, under the Fugitive Slave Bill, or otherwise ; to make all attempts at the execution of that unconstitutional and atro- cious Act a penal offense ; and to extend the right of suffrage and eligibility to office to all their citizens, irrespective of race or complexion. 4. It is the duty of the citizens, at the ballot-box, to provide State and national administrations that will make these measures paramount objects of their activity ; to secure a judiciary that will execute justice ; to vote for such candidates for office, and for such only, as are tried friends of the enslaved, and publicly known to be earnestly engaged in promoting these measures. 5. It is the duty of Christians to hold no Church relations that involve religious fellowship or ecclesiastical connectiQn with slaveholders. It is also their duty to sustain no Missionary So- ciety having complicity with slaveholding, nor any Tract Society, or other religious pubhsliing Society that does not expose and rebuke the heinous sin of slaveholding, in common with other Art. IV. The action of the Society will be directed to the furtherance of its objects, the propagation of its principles, the advocacy and promotion of its proposed pubUc measures, in all suitable ways; particularly by personal example, and by the publication and ckculation of cheap tracts, the employment of lecturers, and assisting to sustain a periodical, adapted to these purposes. Art. Y. Any person approving these objects, principles, and measures, and pledged to their support, by efibrt and example, may become a member of this Society by enrolling his name and contributing to its funds. Art. VI. The OflBcers of this Society shall be a President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer, who, together with ten others, shall constitute an Executive Committee, five of whom shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. Art. VII. The annual meeting of the Society, for election of officers and the transaction of other appropriate business, shall be held in the month of October, under direction of the Execu- tive Committee. Art. VIII. No amendment shaU be made in this Constitution without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present at a regular annual meeting, nor unless the proposed amendment lias been submitted to a previous meeting, or to the Executive Committd^e in season to be published by them (as it shall be their duty to do, if so submitted,) at the regular official notification of the meeting. \ OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY. Lewis Tappan, President. James McCune Smith, Vice-President W. E. Whiting, Treasurer. "WiLLiAM^ooDELL, Secretary. Executive CoMMiwife, in addition to the preceding: Simeon S. Jocelyn, Charles B. Hay,*^ I. R. Barbour, ^ John "W. Hill, Samuel Wilde, Wm. T. Dawley, Geo. Whipple, ■ Hez. D. Sharpe, Wm. H. Pillow, G. S. Wells. .V-' .^^ vV %> 'o . %:^- .-^'' a ^ ^^^ v^' /-°o> x° 9? -^Si # '.^,/ .<^ *'.' ■"'•X - -de ■ --., ..^^ ^ (<. aJ ^ - -^ xO °<. '^ /.<^--V" K*"^ -'t.. ' A^' v^' .i^ •X- ■%; /^ A'" .^^ -"t. <,0' .0^ ^y?^^-', -e. .<^^