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THE ADDRESS 
 
 teotttl)crii anb tof stern Cibatg CoutJtnti0n 
 
 HELD AT CINCINNATI, JUNE 11 & 12, 1S45,* 
 
 TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 WITH NOTES BY A CITIZEN OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 Having assembled in Convention as friends of I 
 Constitutional Liberty, who believe the practice of 
 slaveholding to be inconsistent with the fundamental 
 principles of Republicanism, of Religion, and of 
 Humanity, we think it our duty to declare, frankly, 
 to you, our fellow-citizens, the views which we hold, 
 the principles by which we are governed, and the 
 objects which we desire, by your co-operation, to 
 accomplish. We ask and expect from you a candid 
 and respectful hearing. We are not a band of 
 fanatics, as some foolishly imagine, and others slan- 
 derously assert, bent on the overthrow of all Go- 
 vernment and all Religion. We are citizens of the 
 United States, having our homes in the West and 
 the Southwest, some in the Slave States, and some 
 in the Free, bound to our country by the most en- 
 dearing ties and the most solemn obUgations, filled 
 with the most ardent desires for her prosperity and 
 glory, and resolved, so far as in us Ues, to carry for- 
 ward and perfect the great work of individual, social, 
 and civil elevation which our fathers nobly began. 
 
 The Revolution. 
 
 The American Revolution was not a mere poUti- 
 cal accident. It was an inevitable result of a long 
 train of causes, all conspiring to make men impa- 
 tient of oppression. It was a necessary battle in 
 the progress of the great conflict between Despotism 
 and Freedom, between the Aristocratic and the 
 democratic principle. 
 
 Our fathers so regarded it. They claimed for 
 themselves no new or peculiar rights: they only 
 demanded security in the enjoyment of those rights 
 to which, as descendants of Englishmen, they were 
 entitled under the Great Charter : to which, as men, 
 they were entitled under the grant of their Creator. 
 They asserted the equal right of all men to the im- 
 munities which they claimed for themselves. It was 
 
 * The Southern and Western Liberty Convention, 
 held at Cincinnati, on the lllh and 12th June, 1845, 
 was the most remarkable Anti-Slavery body yet assem- 
 bled in the United States. The call embraced all those 
 who were resolved to act against Slavery, by speech, 
 by the pen, by the press, and by the ballot. It was 
 not therefore exclusively a Convention of the Liberty 
 party ; and accordingly not a few were in attendance, 
 who had not acted with that party. The whole num- 
 ber present as Delegates, was about two thousand — 
 from the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan ; 
 from the Territories of Wisconsin and Iowa; from West- 
 ern Pennsylvania, and Western Virginia, and from Ken- 
 tacky. Deputations were also present from Massachusetts, 
 
 impossible that they should not see and feel the 
 gross inconsistency of the practice of slaveholding 
 with their avowed political faith. The writings of 
 the Revolutionary period afford the amplest evidence 
 that they did perceive and feel it. But slavery was 
 already in the country, interwoven with domestic 
 habits, pecuniary interests and legal rights. It ex- 
 isted under the sanction of the laws of the several 
 colonies, beyond the reach of the direct legislation 
 of Congress. The consequences of an immediate 
 affranchisement of the enslaved were, also, generally 
 dreaded. Our fathers, therefore, confined them- 
 selves to general declarations of the great doctrine 
 of equal rights, which lies at the basis of all just 
 government ; and without directly interfering with 
 the legislation of any particular member of the con- 
 federacy, endeavoured to establish the National Go- 
 vernment and Policy upon such principles as would 
 bring about, at length, the desired result of Universal 
 Freedom. 
 
 We solicit your particular attention, fellow citi- 
 zens, to this statement. It has been the practice of 
 many to represent the American government as the 
 patron and guardian of slavery. Some have even 
 dared to say that it was the purpose of the foun- 
 ders of the government that it should fulfil this 
 office. We join issue with all such persons. We 
 denounce all such representations as libels upon 
 the great men who won and bequeathed to us the 
 precious heritage of Free Institutions. We insist 
 that from the assembling of the First Congress in 
 1 774, until its fiuEJl organization under the existing 
 constitution in 1789, the American Government 
 was anti-slavery in its character and policy. 
 
 The importance of this position, and the proba- 
 bility that this address will be read by some who 
 have not examined it, justify the appropriation of 
 some space to the proof of it. 
 
 New York and Rhode Island; and the whole assembly, 
 including spectators, varied during the sittings from two 
 thousand five hundred, to four thousand persons. Letters 
 were received from Samuel Fessenden and Samuel H. 
 Pond, Me., Titus Hutchinson, Vt., Elihu Burritt and H. 
 B. Stanton, and Phineas Crandell, Mass.; Wm, Jay, Wm. 
 H. Seward, Gerrit Smith, Horace Greeley, Wm. Goodell., 
 Lewis Tappan, New York; C. D. Cleveland^ F. Julius 
 Lemoyne, Thomas Earle, Pennsylvania; F. D. Parish, 
 Ohio; Cassius M. Clay, Lexington, Ky., and John Gil- 
 more, Virginia. 
 
 It is proper to say, that the Chairman of the Committee 
 which reported this very able address, and by whom the 
 same was wl-itten, was -S. P. Chase, Esq., of Cincinnati. 
 
2 
 
 FlHST COJTGBESS. 
 
 We, therefore, invite your attention to a memora- 
 ble act of the First Congress, which assembled in 
 1774. The Non-Importation, Non-Consumption, 
 and Non-Exportation Agreement of that illustrious 
 body, signed in their individual and representative 
 capacities, by the delegates of all the represented 
 aolonies, and promulgated to the world as the solemn 
 act of United America, contained this remarkable 
 d.ause : — " We will neither import nor purchase any 
 slave imported after the first day of December next : 
 after which time we will wholly discontinue the 
 slave trade, and neither be concerned in it ourselves, 
 nor will we hire our vessels or sell our commodities 
 or manufactures to those who may be concerned in 
 it" The entire agreement of which this clause 
 was part, was not, indeed, intended to be of perpe- 
 tual obligation : yet the singularly emphatic phrase- 
 ology of this part of it manifests clearly enough the 
 understanding of the delegates as to the obligation 
 they assumed for themselves and for the country. 
 It was, in fact, a deliberate national vow and cove- 
 nant against all traffic in human beings, and was so 
 understood by the people at large. Virginia pro- 
 ceeded, soon after, to abolish the slave trade by a 
 solemn act of legislation, and her example was fol- 
 lowed by all or nearly all the States. 
 
 DEClARATIOJf OF l!«DEPENDEKCE. 
 
 Two years aftei-wards, the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence was promulgated to the world. In a sin- 
 gle sentence of this great Act, our fathers imbodied 
 the fundamental principles on which they proposed 
 to establish the free government of the United 
 States. « We hold these truths to be self-evident ; 
 that all men are created equal ; that they are en- 
 dowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
 rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the 
 pursuit of happiness." In these words, for the first 
 time in the history of the world, was the doctrine of 
 the inalienable right of every man to life, liberty, 
 atnd the pursuit of happiness, solemnly proclaimed 
 
 AS THE RASIS OF A NATJONAL POLITICAI. FAITH. 
 
 This declaration pledged its authors, and the nation 
 which made it its own, by adoption, to eternal hosti- 
 lity to every form of despotism and oppression. 
 With this declaration inscribed upon their banners, 
 they went into the war of the Revolution, invoking 
 the attestation of " the Supreme Judge of the world" 
 to the rectitude of their purpose!. 
 
 Afl^r a protracted and dubious struggle the inde- 
 pendence of the American Republic was at length 
 achieved, and the attention of Congress was turned 
 to the establishment and extension of free institu- 
 tions. Beyond the Alleghany Mountains, then the 
 western limit of civilization, stretched a vast terri- 
 tory, untrodden except by the savage, but destined 
 in the hope and faith of the patriots of the Revolu- 
 tion to be the seat of mighty states. To this terri- 
 tory, during the war just terminated, various States 
 had set up conflicting claims : while the Congress 
 had urged upon ail, the cession of their several pre- 
 tensions for the common good. The recommenda- 
 tions of Congress prevailed. Among the States 
 which signalized their patriotism by the cession of 
 claims to Western Territory, Virginia was pre-emi- 
 nently distinguished, both by the magnitude of her 
 
 
 claim of Virginia comprehended almost all that is 
 now Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. She yielded it all, 
 almost with no other condition than that the terri- 
 tory should be disposed of for the common benefit, 
 and finally erected into Republican States. The 
 absence of all stipulations in behalf of slavery in 
 these cessions, and especially in that of Virginia, 
 furnishes strong evidence of the prevalence of anti- 
 slavery sentiment at that day. But the action of 
 Congress, in relation to the territory thus acquired, 
 supplies decisive proof. 
 
 Ordinance of 1787. 
 
 It was in 1787, that Congress promulgated the 
 celebrated Ordinance for the Government of the 
 Territory northwest of the river Ohio. In this 
 ordinance, for the purpose of " extending the funda- 
 mental principles of civil and religious Uberty ; * * 
 to fix and establish those principles as the basis of 
 all laws, constitutions, and governments, which for 
 ever thereafter should be formed in said territory," 
 Congress established " certain articles of compact 
 between the original States and the people and 
 States in the territory to remain for ever imalterable, 
 unless by common consent." One of these articles 
 of compact declared that there should be « neither 
 slavery nor involuntary servitude in the territory, 
 otherwise than in the punishment of crimes ;" pro- 
 viding, however, that the right of retaking fugitives 
 firom service should be preserved to the citizens of 
 the original States. This ordinance was adopted by 
 the unanimous vote of all the States, there being but 
 a single individual negative, which was given by a 
 member from New York. Upon the question of 
 excluding slavery, we may fairly assume that there 
 was entire unanimity. 
 
 It seems to us impossible to conceive of a more 
 significant indication of National Policy. The Con- 
 gress was about to fix for ever the relation of five 
 future States to the question of slavery. Under the 
 influence of the liberal opinions of 1776, Massachu- 
 setts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, 
 Vermont and Pennsylvania, had already abolished 
 or had taken measures for abolishing slavery within 
 their limits. It was expected that other Atlantic 
 States would follow their example. The creation of 
 five non-slaveholding States in the West would evi- 
 dently secure a permanent majority on the side of 
 Freedom against Slavery. There was, at that time, 
 no other national territory out of which slavehold- 
 ing States could be carved : nor was there any 
 thought of acquiring territory with such an object. 
 And yet the votes of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, 
 North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia were 
 given, and unanimously given, for the positive exclu- 
 sion of slavery from all the vast region now pos- 
 sessed by Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wis- 
 consin, and for the virtual restriction of the right of 
 reclaiming fugitive servants to cases of escape from 
 the original States. There was very little compro- 
 mise here. There was clear, unqualified, decisive 
 action in the fulfilment and in renewal of the solemn 
 pledge given in 1774, reiterated in 1776, and in pur- 
 suance of the settled national policy of restricting 
 slavery to the original States, and of excluding it 
 from all national territory and from all new States. 
 It is to be borne in mind that neither in this ordi- 
 nance, nor in the national acts which preceded it, 
 
 grant and tlie spirit in whicii it was made. The | did the Congress undertake to legislate upon the 
 
En^ 
 
 O. !..^1^ 
 
 actual personal relations of the inhabitants of the 
 original States. They sought to impress upon the 
 national character and the national policy the stamp 
 of Liberty ; but they did not, so far as we can see, 
 attempt to interfere with the internal arrangements 
 of any State, however inconsistent those arrange- 
 ments might be with that character and policy. 
 They expected, however, and they had reason to 
 expect, that slavery would be excluded from all 
 places of national jurisdiction, and that whatever 
 in the arrangements of particular States savoured of 
 despotism and oppression, and especially that the 
 system of slavery, which concentrates in itself the 
 whole essence and all the attributes of despotism 
 and oppression, would give way before the steady 
 action of the national faith and the national policy. 
 Such was the state of opinion, when the Con- 
 vention for framing the Constitution of the United 
 States assembled. The ordinance of 1787, which 
 was the most significant and decisive expression of 
 this opinion, was promulgated while the Constitu- 
 tion-Convention was in session. The Constitution, 
 therefore, is to be examined with reference to the 
 public acts which preceded it, and the prevalent 
 popular sentiment. 
 
 The Constitution. 
 And the first thing which arrests the attention of 
 the inquirer, is the remarkable preamble which is 
 prefixed to the operative clauses of the instrument, 
 in which the objects to be attained by it are particu- 
 larly enumerated. — These are " to form a more per- 
 fect union, estabUsh justice, ensure domestic tran- 
 quillity, provide for the common defence, promote 
 the general welfare, and secure the blessings of 
 liberty." It would be singular, indeed, if a consti- 
 tution adopted for such objects, and under such cir- 
 cumstances, should be found to contain guaranties 
 of slavery. We should expect, on the contrary, 
 that, although the national government created by 
 it, might not be directly authorized to act upon the 
 slavery already existing in the States, all power to 
 create or continue the system by national sanction, 
 would be carefully withheld, and some safeguards 
 would be provided against its further extension. 
 And such, in our judgment, was the true effect of 
 the Constitution. We are not prepared to deny, 
 on the one hand, that several clauses of the instru- 
 ment were intended to refer to slaves ; nor to admit, 
 on the other, all the consequences which the friends 
 of slavery would deduce from these clauses. We 
 abstain from these questions. It is enough for our 
 purpose, that it seems clear, that neither the framers 
 of the Constitution, nor the people who adopted it, 
 intended to violate the pledges given in the covenant 
 of 1774, in the declaration of 1776, in the ordinance 
 of 1787; that they did not purpose to confer on 
 Congress or the General Government any power to 
 establish, or continue, or sanction slavery anywhere ; 
 that, if they did not intend to authorize direct na- 
 tional legislation for the removal of the slavery 
 
 * "A slave is one who is in the power of his master, to 
 whom he belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of 
 his person, his industry, and his labour : he can do nothing, 
 possess nothing, nor acquire any thing but what must 
 belong to his master." — Law of Louisiana. 
 
 "Slaves shall always be reputed and considered real 
 estate ; shall be, as such, subject to be mortgaged, accord- 
 ing to the rules prescribed by law, and tkey shall be seized 
 and sold as real estate." — Law of Louisiana:- -» ^ov. i 
 
 existing in particulaT States under their local laws, 
 they did intend to keep the action of the national 
 government free from all connection with the system ; 
 to discountenance and discourage it in the States ; 
 and to favour the aboUtion of it by State authority — 
 a result, then, generally expected ; and, finally, to 
 pro\'ide against its further extension by confining 
 the power to acquire new territory, and admit new 
 States to the General Government, the Une of whose 
 policy was clearly marked out by the ordinance and 
 preceding public acts. 
 
 We cannot think that any unprejudiced student 
 of the Constitution, examining it in the Ught of 
 precedent action, and contemporary opinion, can 
 arrive at any other conclusion than this. No 
 amendment of the Constitution would be needed to 
 adapt it to the new condition of things, were every 
 State in the Union to abolish slavery forthwith. 
 There is not a line of the instrument which refers 
 to slavery as a national institution, to be upheld by 
 national law. On tiie contrary, every clause which 
 ever has been or can be construed as referring to 
 slavery, treats it as the creature of State law, and 
 dependent wholly upon State law for its existence 
 and continuance. So careful were the framers of 
 the Constitution to negative all implied sanction of 
 slaveholding, that not only were the terms « slave," 
 « slavery," and " slaveholding," excluded, but even 
 the word " servitude," which was at first inserted to 
 express the condition, under the local law, of the 
 persons who were to be delivered up, should they 
 escape from one State into another, was, on motion 
 of Mr. Randolph of Virginia, stricken out, and 
 " service" unanimously inserted, " the former being 
 thought to express the condition of slaves, and the 
 latter the obhgation of free persons." 
 
 That such was the general understanding of the 
 people will be the more manifest if we extend our 
 examination beyond the Constitution as originally 
 adopted, to the amendments subsequently incor- 
 porated into it. One of these amendments, as ori- 
 ginally proposed by Virginia, provided that «no 
 freeman should be deprived of life, Uberty or pro- 
 perty but by the law of the land,'' and was copied, 
 substantially, fi-om the English Magna Charta. Con- 
 gress altered the phraseology by inserting, in Ueu of 
 the words quoted, '< no peiison shall be deprived of 
 life, liberty, or property, without due process of 
 LAW :" and, thus altered, the proposed amendment 
 became part of the Constitution. We are aware 
 that it has been held by distinguished authority, that 
 the section of the amended Constitution, which con- 
 tains this provision, operates as a limitation only on 
 national and not upon State legislation. Without 
 controverting this opinion here, it is enough to say* 
 that, at the least, the clause prohibits the General; 
 Government from sanctioning slaveholding, and 
 renders the continuance of slavery, as a legal relar 
 tion, in any place of exclusive national jurisdiouon, 
 impossible. 
 
 For, what is slavery 1i It is the complete Mid 
 
 " Penalty for any slave, or free coloured person, exer- 
 cising the functions of a minister of the gospel, thi«ty^ 
 NINE lashes." "Penalty for teaching a slave to read, 
 imprisonment one year." "Every negro, or mulatto, 
 found in the State, not able to show himself entitled 
 to freedom, may be sold as a slave."— ifltos af JUissis' 
 sippi. 
 
 " For attempting to teach any free coloured person, or 
 fi\!Pi^y tg spell, read, or write, a fine of not leas thaa two 
 
 Tsi: 
 
absolute subjection of one person to the control and 
 disposal of another person, by legalized force. We 
 need not argue that no person can be, rightfully, 
 compelled to submit to such control and disposal. 
 All such subjection must originate in force; and, 
 private force not being strong enough to accomplish 
 the purpose, public force, in the form of law, must 
 lend its aid. The Government comes to the help 
 of the individual slaveholder, and punishes resistance 
 to his will and compels submission. The Govern- 
 ment, therefore, in the case of every individual slave 
 is THE HEAL ENSLAVER, depriving each person en- 
 slaved of all liberty and all property, and all that 
 makes life dear, vnthout imputation of crime or any 
 legal process whatsoever. This is precisely what the 
 Government of the United States is forbidden to do 
 by the Constitution. The Government of the United 
 States, therefore, cannot create or continue the rela- 
 tion of master and slave. Nor can that relation be 
 created or continued in any place, district or terri- 
 tory, over which the jurisdiction of the National 
 Government is exclusive; for slavery cannot subsist 
 a moment after the support of the public force has 
 been withdrawn. 
 
 We need not go further to prove that slaveholding 
 in the States can have no rightful sanction or sup- 
 port from national authority, but must depend 
 wholly upon State law for existence and continu- 
 ance. 
 
 We have thus proved, from the Public Acts of 
 the Nation, that, up to the time of the adoption of 
 the Constitution, the people of the United States 
 were an anti-slavery people ; that the sanction of 
 the national approbation was never given, and never 
 intended to be given, to slaveholding ; that, on the 
 contrary, the Government of the United States was 
 expressly forbidden to deprive any person of liberty, 
 without due legal process ; and that the policy of 
 excluding slavery from all national territory, and re- 
 stricting it within the limits of the original States, 
 was early adopted and practically applied. 
 
 hundred and fifty, nor more than five hundred dollars." — 
 Law of Alabama. 
 
 " Any person who sees more than seven slaves without 
 any white person, in a high road, may whip each slave 
 twenty lashes." "Every coloured person is presumed to 
 be a slave, unless he can prove himself free."— Laws of 
 Georgia. 
 
 " Slaves shall be deemed sold, taken, reputed, and ad- 
 judged, in law, to be chattels personal in the hands of their 
 owners and possessors, and their executors, administrators, 
 and assigns, to all intents, constructions, and pur- 
 poses w^HATEVER." " Whcreas, many owners of slaves, 
 and others, that have the management of them, do confine 
 them so closely to hard labour, that they have not suffi- 
 cient time for natural rest, be it enacted that no slave shall 
 be compelled to labour more than fifteen hours in the 
 twenty-four, from March 25 to September 25, or fourteen, 
 for the rest of the year." " Penalty for killing a slave 
 in a sudden heat or passion, or by undue correction, a fine 
 of five hundred dollars, and imprisonment ?iot over six 
 months !" — Laws of South Carolina. 
 
 " In the trial of slaves, the Sheriff chooses the Court, 
 which must consist of three Justices and twelve slavehold- 
 ers, to serve as jurors." — Law of Tennessee. 
 
 "Any emancipated slave remaining in the State more 
 than a year, may be sold by the overseers of the poor, for 
 the benefit of the literary fund." "Any slave, or free 
 cc^oured person, found at any school for teaching reading 
 or writing, by day or night, may be whipped, at the discre- 
 tion of a Justice, not exceeding twenty lashes." "Any 
 white person assembling with slaves, forthe purpose of 
 
 1 Sentiments of Distingttished Men of the 
 Revolutionary Period. 
 
 Permit us now, fellow citizens, to call your atten- 
 tion to the recorded opinions of the Patriots and 
 Sages of the Revolutionary Era ; from which you 
 will learn that many of them, so far from desiring 
 that the General Government should sanction slavery 
 or extend its limits, were displeased that it was not, 
 in terms, empowered to take action for its final ex- 
 tinction in the States, and that almost all looked for- 
 ward to its final removal by State authority with 
 expectation and hope. 
 
 The Preamble of the Abolition Act of Pennsyl- 
 vania of 1780, exhibits clearly the state of many 
 minds. "Weaned," says the General Assembly, 
 « by a long course of experience from those narrow 
 prejudices and partiaUties we had imbibed, we find 
 our hearts enlarged with kindness and benevolence 
 towards men of all conditions and nations ; and we 
 conceive ourselves, at this particular period, extra- 
 ordinarily called upon by the blessing we have re- 
 ceived, to manifest the sincerity of our professions 
 and to give a substantial proof of our gratitude." 
 
 The sentiments of Mr. Jefferson are too well 
 known to justify large quotations from his writings. 
 We invite, however, your attention to two sentences ; 
 and will observe, in passing, that his opinions were 
 shared by almost every Virginian of distinguished 
 patriotism or ability. 
 
 In his Notes on Virginia, he said : — " I think a 
 change already perceptible since the origin of the 
 present revolution. The spirit of the master is 
 abating, that of the slave is rising from the dust, his 
 condition mollifying, the way, I hope, preparing, 
 under the auspices of Heaven, for a total emancipa- 
 tion ; and that is disposed, in the order of events, to 
 be with the consent of the masters, rather than by 
 their extirpation." 
 
 On another occasion he said, "Nobody wishes 
 more ardently than I to see an abolition not only of 
 the trade, but of the condition of slavery ; and cer- 
 
 teachingthem to read or write, shall be fined not less than 
 ten, nor more than a hundred dollars." — Laws of Virginia. 
 By the revised code of this State, seventy-one oflencea 
 are punished with death, when committed by slaves, and 
 by nothing more than imprisonment when by whites. 
 
 "Any slave convicted of petty treason, murder, or wilful 
 burning of dwelling-houses, may be sentenced to have thp 
 right hand cut off, to be hanged in the usual manner, th^' 
 head severed from the body, the body divided into four 
 quarters, and the head and quarters set up in the most 
 public place in the country, where such fact was com- 
 mitted." — Law of Maryland. 
 
 We might extend such extracts from such laws, (if 
 laws they can be called,) to the size of an octavo; — 
 laws that would disgrace the most savage people upon the 
 face of the earth. In reference to them, the editor of the 
 New York Tribune, of November 25, 1845, thus speaks : 
 " Laws which allow one man to sell another man a thou- 
 sand miles away from his wife, and their children five 
 hundred miles apart in other directions, without right or 
 hope of reunion — which allow men to beat, ravish, or 
 even murder women of the degraded caste with impunity, 
 in the presence of a dozen witnesses of their own colour, 
 if there are none of the ruling caste to testify against 
 them— laws, which give to a white drunkard and gambler 
 all the earnings of an ingenious and industrious black 
 family for life, with privilege to flog them into the bargain— 
 these laws are hateful to God, and pernicious to mankind. 
 We can comprehend them as well in New York as in 
 Kentucky, and they cannot be less than infernal any 
 where." * 
 
tainly nobody will be more willing to encounter 
 every sacrifice for that object." 
 
 In a letter to John F. Mercer, George Washington 
 said, " I never mean, unless some particular circum- 
 stances should compel me to it, to possess another 
 slave by purchase ; it being among my first wishes 
 to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this 
 country may be abolished by law." 
 
 In a letter to Sir John Sinclair, assigning reasons 
 for the depreciation of Southern lands, he said, 
 « There are in Pennsylvania laws for the gradual 
 aboUtion of slavery, which neither Virginia nor 
 Maryland have at present, but which nothing is 
 more certain than that they must have, and at a 
 period not remote."2 
 
 General Lee of Virginia, in his « Memoirs on the 
 Revolutionary War," remarked, " The Constitution 
 of the United States, adopted lately with so much 
 difficulty, has effectually provided against this evil, 
 (the slave trade,) after a few years. It is much to 
 be lamented, that having done so much in this way, 
 a provision had not been made for the gradual abo- 
 lition of slavery." 
 
 Judge Tucker of Virginia, in a letter to the 
 General Assembly of that State, in 1796, recom- 
 mending the abolition of slavery, and speaking of 
 the slaves in Virginia, said, « Should we not at the 
 time of the Revolution have loosed their chains and 
 broken their fetters 1 or, if the difficulties and dan- 
 gers of such an experiment prohibited the attempt 
 during the convulsions of a revolution, is it not our 
 duty to embrace the first moment of constitutional 
 health and vigour to effectuate so desirable an 
 object, and to remove fi-om us a stigma with which 
 our enemies will never fail to upbraid us, nor our 
 consciences to reproach us]" 
 
 Luther Martin, of Maryland, left the Convention 
 before the Constitution was finally completed. He 
 opposed its adoption, and assigned, in his report to 
 the Maryland legislature, as a leading reason for his 
 opposition, the absence from the instrument of 
 express provisions against slavery. He said that it 
 was urged in the Convention, " that by the proposed 
 system we were giving the General Government 
 full and absolute power to regulate commerce, under 
 which general power it would have a right to restrain 
 or totally prohibit the slave-trade ; it must, there- 
 fore, appear to the world absurd and disgraceful to 
 the last degree, that we should except from the exer- 
 cise of that power the 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 Constitu- 
 tion the further importation of slaves, and to autho- 
 rize the General Government, 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." 
 
 James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, signed the Con- 
 
 i* In a letter to Robert Morris, he also said, " There is 
 only one proper and effectual mode by which the abolition 
 of slavery can be accomplished, and that is by legislative 
 authority ; and this, as far as my suffrage will go, shall 
 never be wanting." 
 
 In a speech in the House of Delegates of Maryland, 
 Wm. Pinckney said, " By the eternal principles of natural 
 justice, no master in this State has a right to hold his slave 
 for a single hour.'* 
 
 stitution, taking a very different view of its provi- 
 sions, bearing upon slavery, from that of Mr. Martin, 
 but agreeing with him entirely as to slavery itself. 
 In the Ratification Convention of Pennsylvania, 
 speaking of the clause relating to the power of Con- 
 gress over the slave-trade after twenty years, he 
 said : « I consider this clause as laying the foimda- 
 tion for banishing slavery out of this country. It 
 will produce the same kind of gradual change which 
 was produced in Pennsylvania: the new States, 
 which are to be formed, will be under the control of 
 Congress in this particular, and slavery will 
 
 NEVER BE INTUODUCED AMONG THEM. It prCSCUtS 
 
 US with the pleasing prospect that the rights of man- 
 kind will be acknowledged and estabUshed through- 
 out the Union." 
 
 In the Ratification Convention of Massachusetts, 
 Gen. Heath declared that " Slavery was confined 
 TO THE States now existing : it could not be 
 extended. By their ordinanae Congress had declared 
 that THE NEW States should be repubUcan, and 
 have no slavery."^ 
 
 In the Ratification Convention of North Carolina, 
 Mr. Iredell, afterwards a Justice of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, observed, "When the 
 entire abolition of slavery takes place, it will be an 
 event which must be pleasing to every generous 
 mind and every friend of human nature." 
 
 In tne Ratification Convention of Virginia, Mr. 
 Johnson said, " The principle of emancipation has 
 begun since the revolution. Let us do what we 
 will, it will come round." 
 
 In the course of the debate in the Congress of 1 789, 
 the first under the Constitution, on a petition against 
 the slave-trade, Mr. Parker, of Virginia, remarked, 
 that « he hoped Congress would do all that lay in 
 their power to restore human nature to its inherent 
 privileges, and, if possible, wipe off the stigma 
 which America laboured under. The inconsistency 
 in our principles, with which we are justly charged, 
 should be done away, that we may show by our 
 actions the pure beneficence of the doctrine which 
 we held out to the world in our Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence." In the same debate Mr. Brown, of 
 North Carolina, observed, « The emancipation of the 
 slaves will be eflected in time: it ought to be a 
 gradual business ; but he hoped Congress xcould not 
 precipitate it to the great injury of the Southern 
 States." And Mr. Jackson, of Georgia, complained, 
 « That it was the fashion of the dax to favour 
 the liberty of the slaves." 
 
 These citations might be indefinitely multiplied, 
 but we forbear. Well might Mr. Leigh, of Virginia, 
 remark, in 1832, «I thought, till very lately, that it 
 WAS KNOWN TO EVERTBODx, that during the revo- 
 lution, and for many years after, the abolition of 
 slave? y loas a favourite topic with many of our ablest 
 statesmen, who entertained, with respect, all the 
 schemes which wisdom or ingenuity could suggest 
 for accomplishing the object." 
 
 Dr. Rush, of Pennsylvania, declared slavery to be " re- 
 pugnant to the principles of Christianity, and rebellion 
 against the authority of a common Father." 
 
 3 In the same Convention, in reference to the provi- 
 sions of the Constitution that Congress should have 
 power to stop the domestic slave-trade, called in that in- 
 strument "the migration of persons," Judge Dawes re- 
 marked, that "slavery had received its death-wound, and 
 would die of consumption.'' 
 a2 
 
The CoNSEauESCEs expected to follow such 
 Acts axd Opinions. 
 
 Fellow-Citizens : The public acts, and the recorded 
 opinions of the fathers of the revolution are before 
 you. Let us pause here. Let us reflect what would 
 have been the condition of the country had the ori- 
 ginal policy of the nation been steadily pursued, and 
 contrast what would have been with what is. 
 
 At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, 
 Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New 
 Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, had become non- 
 slaveholding States. By the ordinance of 1787, 
 provision had been made for the erection of five 
 other non-slaveholding States. The admission of 
 Vermont and the District of Maine, as separate 
 States, vnthout slavery, was also anticipated. There 
 was no doubt that New York and New Jersey 
 would follow the example of Pennsylvania. I'hus 
 it was supposed to be certain that the Union would 
 ultimately embrace at least fourteen free States, and 
 that slavery would be excluded from all territory 
 thereafter acquired by the nation, and from all 
 States created out of such territory. 
 
 This was the true understanding upon which the 
 Constitution was adopted. It was never imagined 
 that new slave States were to be admitted ; unless, 
 perhaps, which seems probable, it was contemplated 
 to admit the western districts of Virginia and North 
 Carolina, now known as Kentucky and Tennessee, 
 as States, without any reference to the slavery already 
 established in them. In no event, to which our 
 fathers looked forward, could the number of slave 
 States exceed eight, while it was almost certain that 
 the number of free States would be at least fourteen. 
 [t was never supposed that slavery was to be a 
 cherished interest of the country, or even a perma- 
 nent institution of any State. It was expected that 
 all the States, stimulated by the examples before 
 them, and urged by their own avowed principles 
 recorded in the Declaration, would, at no distant day, 
 put an end to slavery within their respective limits. 
 So strong was this expectation, that James Camp- 
 bell, in an address at Philadelphia, before the So- 
 ciety of the Cincinnati, in 1787, which was attended 
 by the Constitution Convention, then in session, 
 declared " the time is not far distant when our sister 
 States, in imitation of our example, shall turn their 
 vassals into freemen." And Jonathan Edwards pre- 
 dicted in 1791, that, "in fifty years from this time, 
 it will be as disgraceful for a man to hold a negro 
 slave, as to be guilty of common robbery or theft." 
 
 * The whole number of representatives in the House, 
 is 333. Ofthese the free States have 135, the slave, 88 ; 
 and ofthese 8 8, but G8 are the representatives of freemen, 
 the remaining 30 being representatives of slave pro- 
 perty. 
 
 The manner in vi'hich the present ratio of representation 
 was fixed, is one which should cover with lasting disgrace 
 the northern representatives, who voted for it. The num- 
 ber fixed by the House, was one represerAative for every 
 50,189 inhabitants. This would have given them 306 
 members ; but the Senate, fearing the influence of so large 
 a body of freemen as this would give, sent back the bill, 
 with the ratio of 70,6 80, which would reduce the House 
 to 333, and give the free States a majority of 47, instead 
 of 68. But why the odd number, 6801 It deprives four 
 great States of the J^orth, namely, Massachusetts, J^Tew 
 York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, of one member each. 
 
 Even the correspondent of the New York Herald could 
 thus write at the time : " The Senate apportionment has 
 
 It cannot be doubted that, had the original policy 
 and original principles of the Government been 
 adhered to, this expectation would have been real- 
 ized. The example and influence of the General 
 Government would have been on the side of freedom. 
 Slavery would have ceased in the District of Colum- 
 bia immediately upon the establishment of the Go- 
 vernment within its limits. Slavery would have 
 disappeared from Louisiana and Florida upon the 
 acquisition of those territories by the United State-s. 
 No laws would have been enacted, no treaties made, 
 no measures taken for the extension or maintenance 
 of slavery. Amid the rejoicings of all the free, and 
 the congratulations of all friends of freedom, the last 
 fetter would, ere now, have been stricken from the 
 last slave, and the principles and institutions of 
 liberty would have pervaded the entire land. 
 
 Actual Results. 
 
 How different — how sadly different are the facts 
 of history ! Luthek Martin complained, at the 
 time of the adoption of the Constitution, "that 
 when our own liberties were at stake, we warmly 
 felt for the common rights of men : the danger being 
 thought to be passed which threatened ourselves, we 
 are daily growing more and more insensible to those 
 rights." This insensibility continued to increase, 
 and prepared the way for the encroachments of the 
 political slave power, which originated in the three- 
 fifths rule of the Constitution. This rule, designed, 
 perhaps, as a censure upon slavery, by denying to 
 the slave States the full representation to which 
 their population would entitle them, has had a very 
 different practical effect. It has virtually established 
 in the country an aristocracy of slaveholders. It 
 has conferred on masters the right of representation 
 for three-fifths of their slaves. The representation 
 from the slave States in Congress has always been 
 from one-fifth to one-fourth greater than it would 
 have been, were freemen only represented.4 Under 
 the first apportionment, according to this rate, a dis- 
 trict in a free State containing thirty thousand free 
 inhabitants would have one representative. A dis- 
 trict in a slave State, containing three thousand free 
 persons and forty-five thousand slaves, would also 
 have one. In the first district a representative could 
 be elected only by the majority of five thousand 
 votes : in the other, he would need only the majority 
 of five hundred. Of course, the representation from 
 slave States, elected by a much smaller constituency, 
 and bound together by a common tie, would gene- 
 rally act in concert, and always with special regard 
 
 robbed the north of at least one quarter of its practical in- 
 fluence in the Union, when regarded in its full extent; 
 and the members of the free States who voted for it, have 
 thus surrendered the rights of their constituents, and vio- 
 lated their trusts." 
 
 It is curious, also, to look at the fractions unrepresented. 
 The slave States have but 140,093; the free, 318,678. 
 The fraction of Virginia is but 3! that of Pennsylvania., 
 37,687. 
 
 In the Presidential contest of 1841, the slave States had 
 114 electors; the free, 161; while the whole popular 
 vote of the slave States was but 693,434; the free, 
 1,710,041. That is, while the free States had but about 
 two-fifths more in the number of electors, they had nearly 
 three times as many popular votes. Pennsylvania had 36 
 electors, and a popular vote of 38 7,697 ; while Delaware, 
 Maryland, and Virginia together, had 38 electors, and but 
 159,535 popular vote : that is, with but little more than 
 half the popular vote they had two more electors. 
 
to the interests of masters whose representatives in 
 fact they were. Every aristocracy in the world has 
 sustained itself by encroachment, and the aristocracy 
 of slaveholders in this country has not been an 
 exception to the general truth. The nation has 
 always been divided into parties, and the slavehold- 
 ers, by making the protection and advancement of 
 their peculiar interests the price of their political 
 support, have generally succeeded in controlUng all. 
 This influence has greatly increased the insensibility 
 to human rights, of which Martik indignantly 
 complained. It has upheld slavery in the District 
 of Columbia and in the Territories in spite of the 
 Constitution : it has added to the Union six slave 
 States created out of national Territories :* it has 
 usurped the control of our foreign negotiation,-)- and 
 domestic legislation -4 it has dictated the choice of 
 the high officers of our Government at home,§ and 
 of our national representatives abroad :|| it has filled 
 every department of executive and judicial adminis- 
 tration with its friends and satellites:! it has detained 
 in slavery multitudes who are constitutionally enti- 
 tled to their freedom : it has waged unrelenting war 
 with the most sacred rights of the free, stifling the 
 freedom of speeches and of debate, setting at naught 
 
 * Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, Arkansas, 
 and Florida. 
 
 f It is well known that by far the greater number of 
 our foreign ministers have been from the Slave States, and 
 that they have ever been most vigilant to promote the 
 interests of those Slates, while the far more important 
 interests of the Free States have been, comparatively, neg- 
 lected. In 1841, out of seven persons nominated, in suc- 
 cession, for diplomatic stations, six were from the Slave 
 States, which were all immediately confirmed, while the 
 nomination of the seventh, Edward Everett of Massachu- 
 setts, was laid on the table, till the slaveholders could 
 satisfy themselves that he had no views adverse to their 
 "peculiar institutions." 
 
 What untold benefit would it have been to our Free 
 States, if foreign nations had been induced, as they doubt- 
 less might have been, to favour our agricultural and manu- 
 facturing products, as they have been induced, by slave- 
 holding ministers, to favour cotton, tobacco, and rice ! 
 
 i No one man has so much influence over our " domestic 
 legislation," as the Speaker of the House of Representa- 
 tives. He it is that appoints all the committees, which 
 committees bring before the House such subjects, and pre- 
 sent them in such aspects, as best suit their views. Since 
 the organization of our government, in 1789, out of the 
 56 years, the Slave States have had the speaker 38 years, 
 the Free, 1 8 years. With the exception of John W. Taylor, 
 of New York, who served three years, the Free States 
 did not give a speaker to the House from 1809 to 1845. 
 
 $ Of the TEN Presidents, since 1789, the Slave States 
 have had six, who will have served, at the end of the pre- 
 sent term, 44: years ; the Free States four, who have 
 served 16 years. In this. Gen. Harrison's whole term of 
 four years is reckoned. What is also worthy of remark, is, 
 that no Northern President has served more than one term. 
 
 Next in importance to the President, is the office of Sec- 
 retary of Slate, as he manages all the business and cor- 
 respondence with foreign courts, instructs our foreign 
 ministers, and negotiates all treaties. Of the 15 who have 
 filled this office, up to 1845, the Slave States have had 10, 
 who have served 37 years ; the Free States 5, who have 
 served 19 years. 
 
 II In nothing is the gross injustice practised towards the 
 Free States, more conspicuous than in the persons em- 
 ployed in those civil Executive offices, at the city of Wash- 
 ington, and in those Diplomatic and Consular stations 
 abroad, where the compensation is by salary. In the fol- 
 lowing list we give the persons employed in a few of the 
 States, with their salaries, and the number of free white 
 inhabitants of the respective States. 
 
 the right of petition, and denying in the slave States 
 those immunities to the citizens of the free, which 
 the Constitution guaranties: and, finally, it has 
 dictated the acquisition of an immense foreign terri- 
 tory, not for the laudable purpose of extending the 
 blessings of freedom, but with the bad design of 
 diffusing the curse of slavery, and thereby consoli- 
 dating and perpetuating its own ascendency. 
 
 What we meajt to do. 
 Against this influence, against these infractions of 
 the Constitution, against these departures from the 
 national policy originally adopted, against these vio- 
 lations of the national faith originally pledged, we 
 solemnly protest. Nor do we propose only to pro- 
 test. We recognize the obligations which rest upon 
 us as descendants of the men of the revolution, as 
 inheritors of the institutions which they estabUshed, 
 as partakers of the blessings which they so- dearly 
 purchased, to carry forward and perfect their work. 
 We mean to do it, wisely and prudently, but with 
 energy and decision. We have the example of our 
 fathers on oiu: side. We have the Constitution of 
 their adoption on our side. It is our duty, and our 
 purpose, to rescue the Government from the control 
 
 Persons. 
 
 Virginia 
 New York 
 Maryland 
 Pennsylvania 
 District of Co. 
 Massachusetts 
 Kentucky 
 'Ohio 
 
 114 
 
 37 
 
 133 
 
 90 
 
 99 
 
 43 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 Salaries. 
 
 $^00,395 
 
 63,350 
 
 170,305 
 
 133,790 
 
 77,455 
 
 86,345 
 
 34,150 
 
 4,400 
 
 Free population. 
 740,968 
 3,378,890 ( 
 318,304; 
 1,676,115 
 30,657; 
 739,030 
 590,353; 
 1,503,133 
 
 T[ The Judiciary is the balance-wheel of our government. 
 It takes cognizance of questions of the highest earthly 
 moment— questions of constitutional law — questions of 
 chartered rights and privileges— questions involving mil- 
 lions of property— and, above all, questions that decide 
 the liberty and slavery of man. If there be any spot, there- 
 fore, that should be free from sectional bias, it is the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, the judges of which 
 should be appointed, not only for their high legal attain- 
 ments and integrity, but with reference to the number of 
 inhabitants, and, consequently, to the legal interests of 
 the different parts of the country. But how entirely 
 opposite has been the practice. Of the 30 Judges of that 
 Court, the Slave States have had 17; the Free States 13 ; 
 and that, too, while the free inhabitantsof the Slave States 
 are but about four and a half millions ; the inhabitants of 
 the Free States nine and a half millions— more than 
 double. 
 
 Then look at the most unjust manner in which the cir- 
 cuits are divided. Vermont, Connecticut, and New York, 
 with 43 representatives in Congress, and a free population 
 of over three vdllions, constitute one circuit ; while Ala- 
 bama and Louisiana, with but 11 representatives, and a 
 free population of but half a million, constitute another 
 circuit. New Jersey and Pennsylvania, with a population 
 of two millions, constitute the third circuit. Mississippi 
 and Arkansas, with a free population of but half a million, 
 constitute the ninth circuit. We say free population, 
 because the poor slave has nothing to do with courts of 
 law, having no legal rights to maintain. 
 
 Lastly, observe the same inequality and injustice, carried 
 out in the salaries of the Judges. Louisiana, with a free 
 population of 183,959, has one Judge at a salary of 
 3000 dollars; Ohio, with a population of 1,519,464, 
 more than eight times as great as that of Louisiana, has 
 only one Judge, at a salary of 1000 : that is, while he 
 has more than eight times as many people to do business 
 for, he receives but one third as much pay. Arkansas, 
 with a free population of 77,639, has one Judge at a 
 salary of 3000 dollars ; New Hampshire, with a popula- 
 
? 
 
 of the slaveholders ; to harmonize its practical ad- 
 ministration with the provisions of the Constitution, 
 and to secure to all, without exception, and without 
 partiality, the rights which the Constitution guaran- 
 ties. We believe that slaveholding, in the United 
 States, is the source of numberless evils, moral, 
 social and political ; that it hinders social progress ; 
 that it embitters public and private intercourse ; that 
 it degrades us as individuals, as States, and as a 
 nation ; that it holds back our country from a splendid 
 career of greatness and glory. We are, therefore, 
 resolutely, inflexibly, at all times, and under all cir- 
 cumstances, hostile to its longer continuance in our 
 land. We believe that its removal can be effected 
 peacefully, constitutionally, without real injury to 
 any, with the greatest benefit to all. 
 
 How WE MEAK TO DO IT. 
 
 We propose to effect this by repealing all legisla- 
 tion, and discontinuing all action, in favour of slavery, 
 at home and abroad ; by prohibiting the practice of 
 slaveholding in all places of exclusive national juris- 
 diction, in the District of Columbia, in American 
 vessels upon the seas, in forts, arsenals, navy yards ; 
 by forbidding the employment of slaves upon any 
 public work ; by adopting resolutions in Congress, 
 declaring that slaveholding, in all States created out 
 of national territories, is unconstitutional, and re- 
 commending to the others the immediate adoption 
 of measures for its extinction within their respective 
 limits; and by electing and appointing to public 
 station such men, and only such men as openly 
 avow our principles, and will honestly carry out our 
 measures. 
 
 The constitutionality of this line of action cannot 
 be successfully impeached. That it will terminate, 
 if steadily pursued, in the utter overthrow of slavery 
 at no very distant day, none will doubt. We adopt 
 it, because we desire, through, and by the Constitu- 
 tion, to attain the great ends which the Constitution 
 itself proposes, the establishment of justice, and the 
 security of liberty. We insist not, here, upon the 
 opinions of some, that no slaveholding, in any State 
 of the Union, is compatible with a true and just 
 
 tion of 384,573, has but one Judge, at a salary of 1000 
 dollars. Mississi|)pi, with a free population of 180,440, 
 has one Judge, who receives 3500 dollars ; Indiana, with 
 a population of 685,863, has but one Judge, who re- 
 ceives only 1000 dollars; receiving but two-fifths as 
 much pay for doing more than three times the work. 
 
 * The following is a portion of the Address of the Pennsyl- 
 vania Convention, held in Philadelphia, February 22, 1844. 
 
 "The great object of the Liberty party is, in the words 
 of the Constitution, 'to establish justice; to secure 
 
 THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY.' It is, ABSOLUTE AND UN- 
 QUALIFIED DIVORCE OF THE General Government from 
 ALL connection WITH SLAVERY. We would say, in the 
 fervent language of that noble son of freedom, Cassius 
 M. Clay, of Kentucky, ' Let the whole North, in a mass, 
 in conjunction with the patriotic of the South, withdraw the 
 moral sanction and legal power of the Union from the sus- 
 tainment of slavery.' We would employ every constitu- 
 tional means to eradicate it from our entire country, be- 
 cause it would be for the highest welfare of our entire coun- 
 try. We would have liberty established in the District, and 
 in all the Territories. We would put a stop to the internal 
 slave trade, pronounced, even by Thomas Jefferson Ran- 
 dolph, of Virginia, to be 'worse and more odious than the 
 foreign slave trade itself.' We would, in the words of 
 the Constitution, have ' the citizens of each State have 
 all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several 
 States ;' and not, for, the colour of their skin, be sub- 
 
 construction of the Constitution; nor upon the 
 opinions of others, that the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, setting forth the creed of the nation, that 
 all men are created equal, and endowed by their 
 Creator with an inalienable right of liberty, must be 
 regarded as the common law of America, antece- 
 dent to, and unimpaired by, the Constitution; nor 
 need we appeal to the doctrine that slaveholding is 
 contrary to the supreme law of the Supreme Ruler, 
 preceding and controlling all human law, and bind- 
 ing upon all legislatures in the enactment of laws, 
 and upon all courts in the administration of justice. 
 We are willing to take our stand upon propositions 
 generally conceded : — that slaveholding is contrary 
 to natural right and justice; that it can subsist no- 
 where without the sanction and aid of positive legis- 
 lation; that the Constitution expressly prohibits 
 Congress from depriving any person of liberty with- 
 out due process of law. From these propositions 
 we deduce, by logical inference, the doctrines upon 
 which we insist. We deprecate all discord among 
 the States ; but do not dread discord so much as we 
 do the subjugation of the States and the people to 
 the yoke of the slaveholding oligarchy. We depre- 
 cate the dissolution of the Union, as a dreadful poli- 
 tical calamity ; but if any of the States shall prefer 
 dissolution to submission to the Constitutional action 
 of the people on the subject of slavery, we cannot 
 purchase their alliance by the sacrifice of inestima- 
 ble rights, and the abandonment of sacred duties. 
 
 Such, fellow citizens, are our views, principles, 
 and objects.* We invite your co-operation in the 
 great work of delivering our beloved country from 
 the evils of slavery. No question half so important 
 as that of slavery, engages the attention of the 
 American people. All others, in fact, dwindle into 
 insignificance in comparison with it. The question 
 of slavery is, and, until it shall be settled, must be, 
 the paramount moral and political question of the 
 day. We, at least, so regard it ; and, so regarding 
 it, must subordinate every other question to it. 
 
 It follows, as a necessary consequence, that we 
 cannot yield otir political support to any party which 
 does not take our ground upon this question. 
 
 jected to every indignity and abuse, and wrong, and even 
 imprisonment, (a) We would have equal taxation. We 
 would have the seas free. We would have a free and 
 secure post-office. We would have liberty of speech and 
 of the press, which the Constitution guaranties to us. 
 We would have our members in Congress utter their 
 thoughts freely, without threats from the pistol or the 
 bowie knife. We would have the right of petition most 
 sacredly regarded. We would secure to every man what 
 the Constitution secures, 'the right of trial by jury.' 
 We would do what we can for the encouragement and 
 improvement of the coloured race. We would look to 
 the best interests of the country, and the tchole country, 
 and not legislate for the good of an Oligarchy, the most 
 arrogant that ever lorded it over an insulted people. We 
 would have our commercial treaties with foreign nations 
 regard the interests of the Free States. We would pro- 
 vide safe, adequate, and permanent markets for the pro* 
 duce of free labour. And, when reproached with slavery, 
 we would be able to say to the world, with an open front 
 and a clear conscience, our General Government has no- 
 thing to do with it, either to promote, to sustain, to defend, 
 to sanction, or to approve." 
 
 (a) Read the memorial of citizens of Boston, to the 
 House of Representatives, on the imprisonment of free 
 citizens of Massachusetts by the authorities of Savannah, 
 Charleston, and New Orleans. 
 
The Different Pakties. 
 1. The Democratic Party. 
 
 What, then, is the position of the poUtical parties 
 of the country in relation to this subject? One of 
 tliese parties professes to be guided by the most 
 liberal principles. "Equal and exact justice to all 
 men ;" " equal rights for all men ;" « inflexible oppo- 
 sition to oppression," are its favourite mottoes. It 
 claims to be the true friend of popular government, 
 and assumes the name of Democratic. Among its 
 members are, doubtless, many who cherish its pro- 
 fessions as sacred principles, and believe that great 
 cause of Freedom and Progress is to be served by 
 promoting its ascendency. But when we compare 
 the maxims of the so-called Democratic party with 
 its acts, its hypocrisy is plainly revealed. Among 
 its leading members we find the principal slave- 
 holders, the chiefs of the oUgarchy. It has never 
 scrupled to sacrifice the rights of the Free States, or 
 of the people, to the demands of the slave power. 
 Like Sir Pertinax McSycophant, its northern leaders 
 beUeve that the great secret of advancement lies m 
 " bowing well." No servility seems too gross, no 
 self degradation too great, to be submitted to.* They 
 think themselves well rewarded, if the unity of the 
 party be preserved, and the spoils of victory secured. 
 If, in the distribution of these spoils, they receive 
 only the jackall's share, they content themselves 
 with the reflection that little is better than nothing. 
 They declaim loudly against all monopolies, all spe- 
 cial privileges, all encroachments on personal rights, 
 all distinctions founded upon birth, and compensate 
 themselves for these efforts of virtue, by practising 
 the vilest oppression upon all their countrymen, in 
 whose complexions the slightest trace of African 
 derivation can be detected. 
 
 Profoundly do we revere the maxims of true 
 Democracy; they are identical with those of true 
 Christianity, in relation to the rights and duties of 
 men as citi/ens. And our reverence for Democratic 
 principles is the precise measure of our detestation 
 of the policy of those who are permitted to shape 
 the action of the Democratic party. Political con- 
 cert with that party, under its present leadership, is, 
 therefore, plainly impossible. Nor do we entertain 
 the hope, which many, no doubt, honestly cherish, 
 that the professed principles of the party will, at 
 length, bring it right upon the question of slavery. 
 Its professed principles have been the same for nearly 
 half a century, and yet the subjection of the party 
 to the slave power is, at this moment, as complete 
 as ever. There is no prospect of any change for 
 the better, until those democrats whose hearts are 
 really possessed by a generous love of liberty for all, 
 and by an honest hatred of oppression, shall man- 
 
 * The following is a brief history of the several resolu- 
 tions which have passed the House of Representatives 
 since 1836, against the consideration of any petitions re- 
 specting slavery. They are familiarly called "Gag Reso- 
 lutions," and go by the name of the persons who intro- 
 duced them. 
 
 Pinckney's Gag was passed May 26, 1836, by a major- 
 ity of 46. Of the 11 T yeas, 83 were from the Free 
 States. 
 
 Hawcs's Gag, January 18, 1837, by a majority of 58. 
 Of the yeas, 70 were from the Free States. 
 
 Patton's Gag, December 31, 1838, by a majority of 48. 
 Of the yeas, sa were from the Free States. 
 
 Atherton's Gag, January 12, 1839, by a majority of 48. 
 2 
 
 fully assert their individual independence, and^refuse 
 their support to the panders of slavery. 
 
 2. The Whig Party. 
 
 There is another party which boasts that it is 
 conservative in its character. Its watchwords are 
 " a tariff," " a banking system," « the Union as it 
 is." Among its members, also, are many sincere 
 opponents of slavery ; and the party itself, seeking 
 aid in the attainment of power, and anxious to 
 carry its favourite measures, and bound together by 
 no such professed principles as secure the unity of 
 the Democratic party, often concedes much to their 
 anti-slavery views. It is not unwilling, in those 
 States and parts of States where anti-slavery senti- 
 ment prevails, to assume an anti-slavery attitude, 
 and claim to be an anti-slavery party. Like the 
 Democratic party, however, the Whig party main- 
 taurs alliances with the slaveholders. It proposes, 
 in its national conventions, no action against slavery. 
 It has no anti-slavery article in its national creed. 
 Among its leaders and champions in Congress, and 
 out of Congress, none are so honoured and trusted 
 as slaveholders, in practice and in principle. What- 
 ever the Whig party, therefore, concedes to anti- 
 slavery, must be reluctantly conceded. Its natural 
 position is conservative. Its natural line of action 
 is to maintain things as they are. Its natural bond 
 of union is regard for interests rather than for rights. 
 There are, doubtless, zealous opponents of slavery, 
 who are also zealous Whigs ; but they have not the 
 general confidence of their party ; they are under 
 the ban of the slaveholders ; and in any practical 
 anti-slavery movement, as, for example, the repeal 
 of the laws which sanction slaveholding in the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia, would meet the determined oppo- 
 sition of a large and most influential section of the 
 party, not because the people of the Free States 
 would be opposed to the measure, but because it 
 would be displeasing to the oUgarchy and fatal to 
 party unity. We are constrained to think, there- 
 fore, that all expectation of efficient anti-slavery 
 action from the Whig party, as now organized, will 
 prove delusive. Nor do we perceive any probability 
 of a change in its organization, separating its anti- 
 slavery from its pro-slavery constituents, and leaving 
 the former in possession of the name and influence 
 of the party. With the Whig party, therefore, as 
 at present organized, it is as impossible for us, whose 
 mottoes are " Equal Rights and Fair Wages for all," 
 and « the Union as it should be," to act in alliance 
 and concert, as it is for us so to act with the so- 
 called Democratic party. We cannot choose be- 
 tween these parties for the sake of any local or par- 
 tial advantage, without sacrificing consistency, self- 
 
 Of the yeas, 49 vvere from the Free States, and all of 
 THE Democratic Party. 
 
 Johnson's Gag, January 28, 1840, by a majority of 6. 
 Of the yeas, 38 were from the Free States, and all but 
 ONE OF the Democratic Party. But none of these 
 " gags" would have been carried had itnot been for South- 
 ern Whigs. Of the yeas for Johnson's Gag, 40 vvere 
 Whigs from the Slave States. Tliis, as well as every 
 other important subject of legislation in Congress for the 
 last thirty years, shows clearly, that with the South, all 
 party distinctions give way at once, at the bidding of 
 slavery. When Northern men shall be as united for liberty 
 as Southern men have been for slavery, how soon will our 
 country be free from its present reproach! 
 
10 
 
 respect, and mutual confidence. While we say 
 this, we are bound to add, that were either of these 
 parties to disappoint our expectations, and to adopt 
 into its national creed as its leading articles, the 
 principles which we regard as fundamental, and 
 enter upon a course of unfeigned and earnest action 
 against the system of slavery, we should not hesi- 
 tate, regarding, as we do, the question of slavery as 
 the paramount question of our day and nation, to 
 give to it our cordial and vigorous support, until 
 slavery should be no more. 
 
 With what party, then, shall we act 1 Or shall 
 we act with none 1 Act, in some way, we must : 
 for the possession of the right of suffrage, the right 
 of electing our own law-makers and rulers, imposes 
 upon us the corresponding duty of voting for men 
 who will carry out the views which we deem of 
 paramount importance and obligation. Act together 
 we must; for upon the questions which we regard 
 as the most vital we are fully agreed. We must 
 act then ; act together ; and act against slavery and 
 oppression. Acting thus, we necessarily act as a 
 party ; for what is a party, but a body of citizens, 
 acting together politically, in good faith, upon com- 
 mon principles, for a common object] And if 
 there be a party already in existence, animated by 
 the same motives, and aiming at the same results, 
 as ourselves, we must act with and in that party. 
 
 The Liberty Party. 
 
 That there is such a party, is well known. It is 
 the Liberty Party of the United States. Its princi- 
 ples, measures, and objects we cordially approve. It 
 founds itself upon the great cardinal principle of 
 true Democracy and of true Christianity, the brother- 
 hood of the Human Family. It avows its purpose 
 to wage implacable war against slaveholding as the 
 direst form of oppression, and then against every 
 other species of tyranny and injustice. Its views 
 on the subject of slavery in this country are, in the 
 main, the same as those which we have set forth in 
 this address. Its members agree to regard the ex- 
 tinction of slavery as the most important end which 
 can, at this time, be proposed to political action; 
 and they agree to differ as to other questions of 
 minor importance, such as those of trade and cur- 
 rency, believing that these can be satisfactorily dis- 
 posed of, when the question of slavery shall be set- 
 tled, and that, until then, they cannot be satisfacto- 
 rily disposed of at all. 
 
 The rise of such a party as this was anticipated 
 long before its actual organization, by the single- 
 hearted and patriotic Charles Follen, a German by 
 birth, but a true American by adoption and in 
 spirit. " If there ever is to be in this country," he 
 said in 1836, « a party that shall take its name and 
 
 character, not from particular liberal measures or 
 popular men, but from its uncompromising and con- 
 sistent adherence to freedom — a truly liberal and 
 thoroughly republican party, it must direct its first 
 decided effort against the grossest form, the most 
 complete manifestation of oppression ; and, having! 
 taken anti-slavery ground, it must cany out the; 
 principle of Liberty in all its consequences. Iti 
 must support every measure conducive to the great,t 
 est possible individual and social, moral, intellectual^ 
 religious, and political freedom, whether that measures 
 be brought forward by inconsistent slaveholders or. 
 consistent fi^eemen. It must embrace the whole 
 sphere of human action; watching and opposing^ 
 the slightest illiberal and anti-republican tendencyj: 
 and concentrating its whole force and influence 
 against slavery itself, in comparison with which 
 every other species of tyranny is tolerable, and bjl 
 which every other is strengthened and justified." i 
 Thus wrote Charles Follen in 1836. It is inm 
 possible to express better the want which enlightened 
 lovers of liberty felt of a real Democratic party iu 
 the country — Democratic not in name only, but iii 
 deed and in truth. In this want, thus felt, the 
 Liberty party had its origin,* and so long as this 
 want remains otherwise unsatisfied, the Liberty 
 party must exist ; not as a mere Abolition party, but 
 as a truly Democratic party, which aims at the ex- 
 tinction of slavery, because slaveholding is incon- 
 sistent with Democratic principles ; aims at it, not 
 as an ultimate end, but as the most important pre- 
 sent object; as a great and necessary step in the 
 work of reform ; as an illustrious era in the advance- 
 ment of society, to be wrought out by its action and 
 instrumentality. The Liberty party of 1845 is, in 
 truth, the Liberty party of 1776 revived. It is 
 more : It is the party of Advancement and Freedom, 
 which has, in every age, and with varying success, 
 fought the battles of Human Liberty, against the 
 party of False Conservatism and Slavery. 
 
 Will you kot join it 1 
 
 And now, fellow citizens, permit iss to ask, whether 
 you will not give to this party the aid of your 
 votes, and of your counsels'? Its aims are lofty, 
 and noble, and pacific ; its means are simple and 
 unobjectionable. Why should it not have your 
 co-operation 1 
 
 Anti-Slavery Men ! 
 Are you already anti-slavery men 1 Let us ask, 
 is it not far better to act with those with whom you 
 agree on the fundamental point of slavery, and 
 swell the vote and augment the moral force of anti- 
 slavery, rather than to act with those with whom 
 you agree only on minor pomts ; and thus, for the 
 
 * The Liberty party, at the Presidential election in 
 1840, gave 6983 votes; at the election in 1844, it gave 
 6^,334: votes. Its growth has been regular, and as 
 rapid as could be expected. It resorts to no unworthy 
 means to increase its numbers, and desires others to join 
 its ranks, only as they are convinced of the truth and 
 righteousness of its principles. 
 
 Let it not, however, be despised for its yet comparatively 
 small numbers. The great philosophical historian, Milman, 
 says, " It is erroneous to estimate strength and influence 
 by numerical calculation. All political changes are wrought 
 by a compact, organized, and disciplined minority." This 
 is the secret of the success of the slaveholders. They 
 
 have controlled the government for the past fifty years, 
 because they have been a ^^ compact, organized, and disci- 
 plined minority." It is computed, on a careful estimate, 
 that there are not more than ^50,000 slaveholders in the 
 land, and that of these, deducting widows, minors, and 
 others, there are not more than 150,000 voters. When 
 the Liberty party shall be "a compact, organized, and dia- 
 ciplined minority" of such a size, and shall control the 
 counsels of the nation in favour of liberty, as the slave- 
 holders now control them in favour of slavery, how soon 
 will slavery die ! Reader ! will you not resolve that you 
 will be one to help in bringing about such a glorious 
 result. 
 
li 
 
 6ne, swell a vole and augment an influence which 
 must be counted against the Liberty movement, in 
 the vain hope that those with whom you thus act 
 now, will, at some indefinite future period, act with 
 you for the overthrow of slavery 1 There are, per- 
 haps, nearly equal numbers of you in each of the 
 pro-slavery parties, honestly opposed to each other 
 on questions of trade, currency, and extension of 
 territory, but of one mind on the great question of 
 slavery ; and yet you suffer yourselves to be played 
 off against each other by parties which agree in no- 
 thing except hostility to the great measure of posi- 
 tive action against slavery, which seems to you, and 
 is, of paramount importance. What can you gain 
 by this course ? What may you not gain by laying 
 your minor difference on the altar of duty, and 
 uniting as one man, in one party, against slavery 1 
 Then every vote would tell for freedom, and would 
 encourage the friends of liberty to fresh efforts. Now 
 
 * To the question "what has the North to do with 
 slavery," no answer more satisfactory, and none more 
 eloquent, certainly, can be given, than the following ex- 
 tract from a letter from Casslus M. Clay, dated Lexington, 
 Kentucky, October 25th, 1845, to Messrs. C. D. Cleveland, 
 J. Bouvier, W. Elder, and T. S. Cavender, a committee 
 that forwarded to him a series of resolutions adopted at a 
 ) meeting held in the State House in Philadelphia, to sym- 
 j pathize with him in the brutal assault made upon his 
 I press, and the violence threatened to his person, by the 
 mob of the 18th of August. 
 
 "The question has been again and again asked, in the 
 most complacent simplicity, ' What has the free North to 
 do with Slavery V The Slave States added to the Union; 
 the unconstitutional establishment of slavery in the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia ; its unlawful sufferance in the Territo- 
 ries, the high seas, and places of national, exclusive juris- 
 diction, answer, the North is as guilty of this crime against 
 man's supremacy and immortality as the South ; more so, 
 because she is derelict in her duty, with far less tempta- 
 tion. But as no offence goes unpunished, she is reaping 
 the fruit of her sorry policy, by the unjust and disgraceful 
 wars in which she has been compelled to engage — by taxes 
 which have been imposed upon her — by the immense capi- 
 tal which has been swallowed up in Southern bankruptcy 
 —by the hanging of citizens without trial by jury and 
 without law — by the imprisonment of her seamen — by the 
 expulsion of, and insult to, her ambassadors — by the denial 
 of justice in courts of national justice — and lastly, by the 
 impudent seizure and forcible abduction of her own free- 
 born citizens upon her own soil, and their incarceration in 
 distant prisons. Shall any one be so base as any longer 
 to ask, ' What has the North to do with Slavery V or ra- 
 ther shall not the cry henceforth for ever, until the end, be, 
 'What shall the North do, to have nothing to do with 
 Slaveryl' " 
 
 Again, in the same letter, speaking of the threats uttered 
 against himself, and the attack upon the freedom of the 
 press, he says : 
 
 " If this be an unnecessary infliction of the slave power, 
 I call upon the nation to relieve me. If it be a necessary 
 woe, following in the wake of American slavery, then, by 
 all that is sacred among men, or holy in heaven, let Ame- 
 ricans RISE IN THE OMNIPOTENCY OF THE BALLOT, and Say, 
 
 Slavery shall die !'' 
 
 That is the true doctrine. Let all the citizens of the Free 
 States, and all the non-slaveholders in the Slave States 
 RISE IN THE OMNIPOTENCY OF THE 
 BAI^LOT, AND SAY, SLAVERY SHALL 
 DIE. 
 
 t According to the Constitution, direct taxes must be 
 apportioned among the several States in the ratio of their 
 representation ; and as the slave representatives would 
 increase this number, it would also increase the amount of 
 the tax in the same ratio. But mark how the slaveholders 
 have escaped the consequence of this "compromise." The 
 whole net revenue of our Government, from the 4th of 
 March, 1789, to January 1, 1845, has amounted to about 
 
 every vote, whether you intend it so or not, fells for 
 slavery, and operates as a discouragement and hin- 
 derance to those who are contending for equal rights. 
 Let us entreat you not to persevere in your suicidal, 
 fratricidal course ; but to renounce at once all pro- 
 slavery alliances, and join the friends of liberty. It 
 is not the question now whether a Liberty party 
 shall be organized ; it is organized and in the field. 
 The real question, and the only real question, is : 
 Will you, so far as your votes and influence go, 
 hasten or retard the day of its triumph 1 
 
 All Men of the Free States ! 
 Are you men of the Free States'? And have 
 you not suffered enough of wrong, of insult, and of 
 contumely, from the slaveholding oUgarchyl* Have 
 you not been taxed enough for the support of slaveryl-j- 
 Is it not enough that all the powers of the govern- 
 ment are exerted for its rnaintenance,^ and that all 
 
 975 millions of dollars; of which but little more than la 
 millions have been received in direct taxes ; and of this, 
 the South has paid for her slave representation only 
 $1,256,553) or about one million and a quarter. But had 
 the revenue of the Government, amounting to 975 rail- 
 lions, been raised by direct taxation, the South would have 
 had to pay, as her proportion, for her slave representation, 
 over 105 millions; but instead of that she has paid but 
 one million and a quarter. 
 
 When, therefore, at the close of the last war, our coun- 
 try was in debt about 130 millions of dollars, the South re- 
 solved that this should not be paid by direct taxes, but by 
 duties laid upon imported goods. Accordingly the Tariff 
 of 1816 was established. It was then emphatically a 
 Southern measure. That Tariff, for instance, admitted the 
 articles used for the clothing of slaves at a duty of Jive 
 cents on the dollar's worth, and charged twenty cents on 
 the dollar's worth of finer articles used for the clothing of 
 free labourers, thereby making the honest labour of the 
 Free States j)a.y four dollars, while the slave labour of the 
 Slave States paid but one, for clothing. 
 
 The Free States, however, with their industry and skill, 
 soon acco;::imodated themselves to this state of things, and 
 their manufactures, by degrees, rose to a height of great 
 prosperity. But no sooner was our national debt paid, 
 than the South, ever watchful of its purpose, resolved to 
 strike a death-blow at the prosperity of the Free States ; 
 and, accordingly, the celebrated "compromise" Tariff of 
 1832 was devised and carried ; in which the "compromise" 
 was, as it ever has been, all one way. Nothing is clearer 
 than that the Slave power put on the Tariff in 1816, and 
 took it off in 1832. They have done just as they pleased. 
 Reader, it is in your power to say, they shall do so no 
 longer. 
 
 t The aggregate amount of the appropriations for the 
 NAVY, for three years previous to 1846, was 17,357,556 
 dollars, a considerable portion of which was spent for the 
 home squadron, which consisted, in 1843, of one frigate, 
 three sloops of war, four brigs, one schooner, and one 
 steamship. But why all this array of naval force on our 
 own coast at a time of profound peace? Let the late 
 Judge Upshur, a Secretary of the Navy, and a Virginian, 
 answer. In his first report to Congress, he speaks of 
 "those incursions from which so much evil is to be appre- 
 hended." Again; " the effect of these incursions on the 
 Southern portion of our country would be disastrous in 
 the extreme." And again ; "the Southern naval stations 
 more especially, require a large force for their security. A 
 large number of arms is kept in each of them, which, by a 
 sudden irruption of a class of people who are not 
 citizens, might be seized and used for very disastrous 
 purposes." Here, men of the Free States, you have the 
 whole of it. Here you see how we are taxed to provide 
 a force to keep the slaves of the Southern States from in- 
 surrection. " What has the North to do with slavery?" 
 
 Again : look at the Post-Office Department. How enor- 
 mous were the rates of postage for fifty years ; and even 
 now (1845) they are by no means so low as they should 
 
12 
 
 the Departments of the Government are in the 
 hands of the Slave power 1 How long will you 
 consent by your votes to maintain slavery at the 
 seat of the National Government, in violation of the 
 Constitution of your country, and thus, give your 
 direct sanction to the whole dreadful system 1 How 
 long will you consent to be represented in the Na- 
 tional Councils by men who will not dare to assert 
 their own rights or yours in the presence of an 
 arrogant aristocracy; and, in your State Legisla- 
 tures, by men whose utmost height of courage and 
 manly daring, when your citizens are imprisoned, 
 without allegation of crime, in slave States, and 
 your agents, sent for their relief, are driven out, as 
 you would scourge from your premises an intrusive 
 cur, is to PROTEST and submit. Rouse up, men of 
 the free States, for shame, if not for duty ! Awake 
 to a sense of your degraded position. Behold your 
 President, a slaveholder; his cabinet composed of 
 slaveholders or their abject instruments; the two 
 Houses of Congress submissive and servile; your 
 representatives with foreign nations, most of them 
 slaveholders ; your supreme administrators of justice, 
 most of them slaveholders ; your officers of the army 
 and navy, most of them slaveholders.* Observe the 
 results. What numerous appointments of pro- 
 slavery citizens of slave States to national employ- 
 ments ! What careful exclusion of every man who 
 holds the faith of Jefferson and Washington in respect 
 to slavery, and believes with Madison « thatitis wrong 
 to admit in the Constitution the idea of property in 
 man," from national offices of honour and trust If 
 What assiduity in negotiations for the reclamation 
 of slaves, cast, in the Providence of God, on foreign 
 shores,t and for the extension of the markets of cot- 
 ton, and rice, and tobacco, ay, and of men ! What 
 zeal on the judicial bench in wresting the Constitu- 
 tion and the law to the purposes of slaveholders, by 
 shielding kidnappers from merited punishment, and 
 paralyzing State legislation for the security of per- 
 sonal liberty! What readiness in legislation to 
 serve the interests of the oligarchy by unconstitu- 
 
 be. But why those high rates? In order that the Free 
 States, where there is so much more correspondence, 
 might make up the loss the department sustained in the 
 Slave States. In 1844, the Free States were a gain to the 
 department of more than half a million of dollars, while 
 the Slave States were a loss to the department of more 
 tlian half a million. The Liberty Party will not cease in 
 their efforts in this matter, till the postage here is the same 
 as it is in England; two cents, prepaid by stamps, for 
 
 ALL DISTANCES, ON EVERY LETTER WEIGHING HALF AN 
 
 OUNCE. What comfort and joy would this bring to the 
 door of every farmer, tradesman, mechanic, merchant, and 
 professional man throughout the land ! 
 
 Again : see how we were taxed to support the Florida 
 war. That war, so disgraceful to our country, cost forty 
 MILLIONS of dollars; and it was undertaken, prosecuted, 
 and finished, solely for the benefit of the slaveholder, that 
 the slave, escaping from his tyranny, might not find pro- 
 tection in the wigwam of the red man. It was for this 
 that the decree went forth, that the Indian must be driven 
 from his native forests ; and the foul deed was done. 
 " What has the North to do with Slavery I" 
 
 * Of the 43 officers in the Navy Department in Wash- 
 ington, in 1844, there were 31 from the Slave States, and 
 but la from the Free States : and of all the officers in the 
 Navy, whether in actual service or waiting orders, Penn- 
 sylvania, with a free population more than double that of 
 Virginia, had but 17T, while Virginia had 334. 
 
 t Never vkras this policy of the slaveholders more con- 
 Bpicuous than in filling the vacancy on the bench of the 
 
 tional provisions for the recovery of fugitive slaves 
 and by laying heavy duties on slave-labour products 
 thereby compelling non-slaveholding labourers U 
 support slaveholders in idleness and luxury I Whei 
 shall these things have an end 1 How long shal 
 servile endurance be protracted ] It is for you, fel 
 low citizens, to determine. The shameful partiaU^ 
 to slaveholders and slavery which has so long pre 
 vailed, and now prevails, in the administration oi 
 the government, will cease when you determine tha 
 it shall cease, and act accordingly. 
 
 All Non-Slaveholdehs of the Seave States 1 
 Are you non-slaveholders of the slave States 1 
 Let us ask you to consider what interest you hav< 
 in the system of slavery. What benefits does it 
 confer on you 1 What blessings does it promise to 
 your children ] You constitute the vast majority of 
 the population of the slave States. The aggregate 
 votes of all the slaveholders do not exceed one 
 hundred and fifty thousand, while the votes of the 
 non-slaveholders are at least six hundred thousand, 
 supposing each adult male to possess a vote. It is 
 clear, therefore, that the continuance of slavery de- 
 pends upon your suffrages. We repeat, what interest 
 have you in supporting the system ? 
 
 The Fkuits of SLAVEur. 
 
 Slavery diminishes yom- population and hinders 
 your prosperity. Compare New York with Virginia, 
 Ohio with Kentucky, Arkansas with Michigan, 
 Florida with Iowa. Need we say more'?^ 
 
 It prevents general education. It is not the interest 
 of slaveholders that poor non-slaveholders should be 
 educated. The census of 1840 reveals the astound- 
 ing facts that more than one-seventeenth of the 
 white population in the slave States are unable to 
 read or write, while not a hundred and fiftieth part 
 of the same class in the free are in the same 
 condition, and tliat there are more than twelve times 
 as many scholars at pubUc charge in the free States 
 as in the slave States.!! 
 
 Supreme Court, occasioned by the death of Judge Thomp- 
 son, in December, 1843. Two or three most able and u{)- 
 right men were rejected by the Senate, because it wag 
 feared that they had sentiments adverse to slavery. And 
 how tame, on all such occasions, have been the Senators 
 from the Free States ! But such instances might be mul- 
 tiplied indefinitely. 
 
 t See the letter of instructions written by Daniel Web- 
 ster, as Secretary of State, to Edward Everett, our minister 
 at London, respecting the slaves shipwrecked in the brig 
 Creole ; a letter of such a character as to receive a de- 
 servedly severe review from an independent and able 
 editor of the Secretary's own party— Charles King, of tha 
 New York American. 
 
 $ In 1790, Virginia, with about 70,000 square miles of 
 territory, contained a population of 748,308; New 
 York, with about 45,000 square miles of territory, con- 
 tained a population of 340,130, not one half. In 1840, 
 Virginiahad 1,339,797; New York, 3,438,931, nearly 
 double. In 1800, Kentucky had 330,955 inhabitants; 
 Ohio, 45,365 : in 1840, the former had increased to 
 779,838; the latter, to 1,519,467 inhabitants. In 
 Virginia there are 13 free inhabitants to a square mile j 
 in New York, 53. 
 
 II According to the last census there are of scholars In 
 free schools, in the Free States, 433,173; in tlie Slave 
 States, 35,5 80. Ohio alone has 51,813 such scholars, 
 more than are to be found in all the 13 Slave States. 
 
 In 1837, Governor Campbell reported to the Virginia legis- 
 lature, that from the return of 9 8 clerks, it appeared that of 
 
13 
 
 It paralyzes your industry and enterprise. The 
 census of 1840 also disclosed the fact that the free 
 States, with two millions and a quarter inhabitants 
 more, and ninety-eight millions acres less than the 
 slave States, produce annually, in value, from mines, 
 thirty-three millions dollars more ; from the forests, 
 eight millions dollars more; from fisheries, nine 
 millions dollars more ; from agriculture, forty millions 
 dollars more ; from manufactures, one hundred and 
 fifty-one millions dollars more. At the same time, 
 the capital invested in commerce by the free States 
 exceeds the capital similarly invested in the slave 
 States by more than one hundred millions of dollars ; 
 and the tonnage of the former exceeds the tonnage 
 of the latter by more than a thousand millions tons ! 
 This enormous disparity, which will strike attention 
 the more forcibly when it is considered that much 
 of the capital employed in the slave States is owned 
 in the free, can be ascribed to no cause except 
 slavery.* 
 
 It degrades and dishonours labour. In what 
 country did an aristocracy ever care for the poor 1 
 When did slaveholders ever attempt to improve the 
 condition of the free labourer 1 " White negroes" 
 is the contemptuous term by which Robert Wick- 
 liffe, of Kentucky, designated the free labourers of 
 his State. He saw no distinction between them 
 and slaves, except that the former may be converted 
 into voters. Chancellor Harper, of South Carohna, 
 teaches that, " so far as the mere labourer has the 
 pride, the knowledge or the aspiration of a freeman, 
 he is unfitted for his situation." And he likens the 
 labourer " to the horse or the ox," to whom it would 
 be ridiculous to attempt to impart « a cultivated un- 
 derstanding or fine feeling." Governor McDuffie, 
 in a message to the legislature of South Carolina, 
 went so far as to say that " the institution of domestic 
 slavery supersedes the necessity of an order of no- 
 bility, and the other appendages of an hereditary 
 system of government." Of course the slaveholders 
 are the noble, and you, the non-slaveholders, are the 
 ignoble, of this social system. 
 
 Slavery corrupts the religion and destroys the 
 morals of a community. We need not repeat Jef- 
 ferson's strong testimony. In a message to the 
 legislature of Kentucky, some years since, the Go- 
 vernor said, " We long to see the day when the law 
 will assert its majesty, and stop the wanton destruc- 
 tion of life which almost daily occurs within the 
 jurisdiction of this Commonwealth." And the Go- 
 vernor of Alabama, in a message to the legislature 
 of that State, said, " Why do we hear of stabbings 
 and shootings, almost daily, in some part or other 
 of our State 1" A Judge in New Orleans, in an 
 address on the opening of his court, observed, 
 " Without some powerful and certain remedy our 
 streets will become butcheries, overflowing with the 
 blood of our citizens." These terrible pictures are 
 drawn by home pencils. Can commimities prosper 
 when religion and morality furnish no stronger 
 restraints on violence and passion 7-j- 
 
 Slavery is a source of most deplorable weakness. 
 What a panic is spread by the bare suggestion of a 
 servile insurrection ! And how completely are the 
 slaveholding States at the mercy of any invading 
 foe who will raise the standard of emancipation! 
 In the revolutionary war, according to the secret 
 journals of Congress, South Carolina was "unable 
 to make any effectual efforts with militia, by reason of 
 the great proportion of citizens necessary to remain 
 at home to prevent insurrection among the negroes, 
 and to prevent the desertion of them to the enemy." 
 We need not say that if the danger of insurrection 
 was then great, it would be, circumstances being 
 similar, tenfold greater now.^ 
 
 Slavery seeks to deprive non-slaveholders of poUti- 
 cal power. In Virginia and South Carolina espe- 
 cially, has this policy been most steadily and success- 
 fully pursued. In South Carolina the political 
 power of the State is lodged in the great slaveholding 
 districts by the Constitution, and to make assurance 
 doubly sure, it is provided, in that instrument, that 
 no person can be a member of the legislature unless 
 he owns five hundred acres of land and ten slaves, 
 
 4614: applications for marriage licenses, no less than 
 104:7 were made by mei4 unable to write! How ad- 
 mirably calculated to assume the responsibilities of the 
 father ! 
 
 * Shipping, value of, in the Free States $6,311,805 
 " " " Slave States 704:,391 
 
 Manufactures, value in the Free 
 
 States $334:,139,690 
 
 « « Slave States 83,935, T4::3 
 
 f "From long-continued and close observation, we be- 
 lieve that the moral and religious condition of the slaves is 
 such, that they may justly be considered the heathen of 
 this Christian country, and will bear comparison with 
 heathen in any country in the world. The negroes are 
 destitute of the gospel, and ever will be under the present 
 etate of things." — Report published by the Synod of South 
 Carolina and Georgia, December 3, 1833. 
 
 The Rev. C. C. Jones, in a sermon preached before two 
 associations of Planters in Georgia, thus writes : "Gene- 
 rally speaking they (the slaves) appear to us to be without 
 God and without hope in the world; a nation of heathens 
 in our very midst." 
 
 In the 10th Annual Report of the Sunday School Union, 
 we see that there were that year in the Free States 
 504r,835 scholars; and in the Slave States 83,533. 
 The single State of New York had 161,768, about twice 
 as many as all the Slave States together. 
 
 X The following table shows the force that each of the 
 thirteen States supplied for the regular army from 1775 to 
 1783 inclusive, and also, the sums allo\Ved to the several 
 States for expenses incurred during the Revolutionary War. 
 
 States. 
 
 Troops furnished. 
 
 Money allowed 
 
 New Hampshire, 
 
 
 13,4:97 
 
 64,378,015 
 
 Massachusetts, 
 
 
 67,907 
 
 17,964,613 
 
 Rhode Island, 
 
 
 5,908 
 
 3,783,974 
 
 Connecticut, 
 
 
 31,939 
 
 9,385,737 
 
 New York, ' 
 
 
 17,781 
 
 7,179,983 
 
 New Jersey, 
 
 
 10,736 
 
 5,343,770 
 
 Pennsylvania, 
 
 
 35,678 
 
 14,137,076 
 
 Total of the present > 
 seven Free States.) 
 
 173,436 
 
 §61,971,167 
 
 Delaware, 
 
 
 3,386 
 
 0,839,319 
 
 Maryland, 
 
 
 13,913 
 
 7,568,145 
 
 Virginia, 
 
 
 36,678 
 
 19,085,981 
 
 North Carolina, 
 
 
 7,S63 
 
 10,437,586 
 
 South Carolina, 
 
 
 6,417 
 
 11,533,399 
 
 Georgia, 
 
 
 3,679 
 
 3,993,800 
 
 Total of the presen 
 six Slave States. 
 
 \ 
 
 59,335 
 
 $53,438,130 
 
 Besides this, it might be added, that of the 45 officers 
 of the revolutionary army, the seven Northern States 
 furnished 30, the six Southern States 15. 
 
 By this table it will be seen, that while the Northern 
 States furnished about three times the number of troops 
 furnished by the Southerij States, they received not one- 
 fifth more money. North Carolina, South Carolina, and 
 Georgia, furnished but 16,359 troops, and received about 
 35 millions of dollars ; New York furnished 17,781 
 troops, and received but 7 millions. Virginia received 
 over a million of dollars more than Massachusetts, while 
 she furnished but a little more than one-third the number 
 of soldiers. 
 
 B 
 
14 
 
 or an equivaknt in additional land. The right of 
 voting for electors of President and Vice-President 
 is, in South Carolina, confined to members of the 
 legislature; consequently, m that State no non- 
 slaveholder can have a voice in the selection of the 
 first and second ofi^icers of the Republic. In Vir- 
 ginia the slave population is considered the basis of 
 political povper, and the preponderance of represen- 
 tation is given to those districts in which there is 
 the largest slave population. The House of Repre- 
 sentatives consists of one hundred and thirty-four 
 members, of whom fifty-six are chosen by the coun- 
 ties west of the Blue Ridge, and seventy-eight by 
 the counties cast. The Senate consists of thirty-two 
 members, of whom thirteen are assigned to the 
 western, and nineteen to the eastern counties. Al- 
 ready the fi-ee white population west of the Blue 
 Ridge exceeds the same class east in number, but no 
 change in the population can affect this distribution 
 of political power, designed to secure and preserve 
 the ascendency of the slaveholders, who chiefly 
 reside east of the Ridge, so long as the Constitution 
 remains unchanged. 
 
 To Nok-Slaveholders. 
 
 These, non-slaveholders of the Slave States, are 
 the fruits of slavery. You surely can have no 
 reason to love a system which entails such conse- 
 quences. Yet it lives by your sufferance. You 
 have only to speak the word at the ballot-box, and 
 the system falls.* Will you be restrained fi-om 
 speaking that word by the consideration that the 
 eaislaved will be benefited as well as yourselves ] or 
 by the selfish expectation that you may yourselves 
 become slaveholders hereafter, and so be admitted 
 into the ranks of the aristocracy 1 If such considera- 
 tions withhold you, we bid you beware lest you 
 prepare a bitter retribution for yourselves, and find, 
 to your mortification and shame, that a patent of 
 nobility, written in the tears and blood of the 
 ^pressed, is a sorry passport to the approbation of 
 mankind. 
 
 To Slateholdebs. 
 
 ^e would appeal, also, to slaveholders themselves. 
 We would enter at once within the lines of selfish 
 ideas and mercenary motives, and appeal to your 
 consciences and your hearts. You know that the 
 system of slaveholding is wrong. Whatever theo- 
 logians may teach and cite scripture for, you know — 
 all of you who claim freedom for yourselves and 
 your children as a birthright precious beyond all 
 price, and inalienable as life — that no person can 
 rightfully hold another as a slave. Your courts, in 
 
 * The following extract from a speech of the Mayor of 
 New Orleans, indicates what power is felt to lie in the 
 ballot-box. "So long as the people at the North con- 
 tented themselves with the name of Abolitionists, we of 
 the South had nothing to fear, but now that they carry the 
 subject to the ballot-box, we have reason to tremble for 
 the safety of our institutions." 
 
 t Another instance of gross injustice that occurs to us, 
 1b the Distribution of the Surplus Revenue, by the Act of 
 1836. The sum to be distributed was $37,4:68,859 ; and 
 the act declared that it should be divided in proportion to 
 the representation of the several States in Congress. Of 
 this, the South, with a free population of 3,789,674:, 
 received $16,058,08/3; while the North, with a free 
 
 noli 
 thi 
 
 their judicial decisions, and your books of commoE 
 law in their elementary lessons, rise far above 
 precepts of most of your religious teachers, and do 
 clare all slaveholding to be against natural righl| 
 You feel it to be so. God has so made the human 
 heart, that, in spite of all theological sophistry an^ 
 pretended scripture proofs, you cannot help feelinj 
 it to be so. There is a law of sublimer origin and 
 more awful sanction than any human code, written 
 in ineffaceable characters, upon every heart of man, 
 which binds all to do unto others as they would thai 
 others should do unto them. And where is therti 
 one of all your number who would exchange condi- 
 tions with the happiest of all your slaves 1 Produca 
 the man ! And until ne is produced, let theological 
 apologists fof slaveholding keep silence. Mo^ 
 earnestly would we entreat you to listen to th4 
 voice of conscience and obey the prompting of hi* 
 manity. We are not your enemies. We do noj 
 pretend to any superior virtue ; or that we, being ia 
 your circumstances, would be hkely to act differcntlji 
 from you. But we are all fellow citizens of thi 
 same great republic. We feel slaveholding to be s 
 dreadful incubus upon us, dishonouring us in thfl 
 eyes of foreign nations ; nulUfykig the force of oul 
 example of free institutions ; holding us back fronj 
 a glorious career of prosperity and renown ; sowing 
 broadcast the seeds of discord, division, disunion-* 
 and we are anxious for its extinction. With Jeffer- 
 son, we tremble for our country when we " remembear 
 that God is just, and that his justice cannot sleep 
 for ever." With Washington, we believe "thai 
 there is but one proper and effectual mode by which 
 the extinction of slavery can be accomplished, and 
 that is, by legislative authority ; and this, so far as 
 our suffrages will go, shall not be wanting." 
 
 We would not invade the Constitution ; but wo 
 would have the Constitution rightly construed and 
 administered according to its true sense and spirit 
 We would not dictate the mode in which slavery 
 shall be attacked in particular States ; but we would 
 have it removed at once from all places under tho 
 exclusive jurisdiction of the national government, 
 and also, have immediate measures taken, in accord- 
 ance with constitutional rights and the principles of 
 justice, for its removal fi-om each State by State 
 authority. In this work we ask your co-operatioik 
 Shall we ask in vain 1 Are you not convinced that 
 the almost absolute monopoly of the oflfices and the 
 patronage of the government, and the almost exclu- 
 sive control of its legislation and executive and judi- 
 cial administration, by slaveholders, and for the pui*- 
 poses of slavery, is unjust to the non-slaveholders 
 of the country If Can you blame us for saying that 
 we will no longer sanction it 1 Are you not satis- 
 
 population of 7,003,339, received but $ 3 1,4:1 0,7 7 Q!™ 
 So that for each iniiabitant of the free North there waa 
 but $3.05, while for each free person of the South there 
 was received $4.33 ; or $1.18 more for each free pep- 
 son in the South, than for each free person in the Nortl^ 
 Consequently, the South, by this operation alone, received 
 for her slave representation in Coagress mort than FOim 
 
 MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. 
 
 But what makes the injustice of this distribution still 
 more flagrant, is the fact, that the surplus revenue waa 
 mostly accumulated by Northern industry and enterprise; 
 first, from the duties on imported merchandise, of which 
 the North pays three dollars to one paid by the South ; and 
 second, from the sales of the public lands, which arc 
 
.15 
 
 fied, to use the language of one of your own num- 
 ber, "that slavery is a cancer, a slow consuming 
 cancer, a withering pestilence, an unmitigated curse'?" 
 And can you wonder that we should be anxious, by 
 all just, and honourable, and constitutional means, 
 to effect its extinction in our respective States, and 
 to confine it to its constitutional limits 1 Are you 
 riot fully aware that the gross inconsistency of slave- 
 holding with our professed principles astonishes the 
 world, and makes the name of our country a mock, 
 atnd the name of liberty a by-word 1 And can you 
 regret that we should exert ourselves to the utmost 
 to redeem our glorious land and her institutions 
 fiora just reproach, and, by illustrious acts of mercy 
 and justice, place ourselves, once more, in tlie van 
 of Human Progress and Advancement 1 
 
 To allFriekds of Liberty, axd of ora Cotrir- 
 
 TKx's BEST INTERESTS. 
 
 Finally, we ask all true friends of liberty, of im- 
 partial, universal liberty, to be firm and steadfast. 
 The little handful of voters, who, in 1840, wearied 
 of compromising expediency, and despairing of anti- 
 slavery action by pro-slavery parties, raised anew 
 the standard of the Declaration, and manfully re- 
 solved to vote right then and vote for fi-eedom, has 
 already swelled to a Great Partt, strong enough, 
 numerically, to decide the issue of any national 
 contest, and stronger far in the power of its pure 
 and elevating principles. And if these principles 
 be sound, which we doubt not, and if the question 
 of slavery be, as we verily believe it is, the great 
 aiTESTioN of our day and nation, it is a libel upon 
 the intelligence, the patriotism, and the virtue of the 
 American people to say that there is no hope that a 
 majority will not array themselves under our banner. 
 Let it not be said that we are factious or impractica- 
 ble. We adhere to our views because we believ^ 
 them to be sound, practicable and vitally important. 
 We have already said that we are ready to prove 
 our devotion to our principles by co-operation with 
 either of the otlier two great American Parties, 
 which will openly and honestly, in State and Na- 
 tional Conventions, avow our doctrines and adopt 
 our measures, until slavery shall be overthrown. 
 We do not, indeed, expect any such adoption and 
 avowal by cither of those parties, because we are 
 weU aware that they fear more, at present, from the 
 loss of slaveholding support than from the loss of 
 anti-slavery co-operation. But we can be satisfied 
 with nothing less, for we will compromise no longer ; 
 
 mostly bought by settlers from the Free States. So that, 
 in short, while the Free States were mainly instrumental in 
 accumulating the surplus revenue, in its distribution the 
 Slave States received more than their just share by over 
 rouR MILLIONS OF DOLLARS ! Who Will now ask, "What 
 has the North to do with slavery 1" 
 
 * The following is the concluding paragraph of the Ad- 
 dress of the great Liberty Convention of the Friends of 
 Freedom in the Jiastern and Middle States, held in Boston, 
 October 1, 2, and 3, 1845. 
 
 " And, now, men of the free North I— Citizens of the 
 Elastern and Middle States ! — by every consideration of 
 religion, humanity and patriotism, you are urged to the 
 exertion of all your powers for the overthrow of slavery. 
 Your homes and your altars, your honour and good name, 
 are at stake. The slave in his prison stretches his mana- 
 cled hands towards you, imploring your aid. A cloud of 
 witnesses surrounds you. The oppressed millions of Eu- 
 
 and, therefore, must of necessity maintain our 
 separate organization as the true Democratic Party 
 of the country, and trust our cause to the patronage, 
 of the people and the blessing of God ! -^ 
 
 Carry then, friends of freedom and free labour, 
 your principles to the ballot-box. Let no difficulties 
 discourage, no dangers daunt, no delays dishearten 
 you. Your solemn vow that slavery must perish is 
 registered in heaven. Eenew that vow ! Think 
 of the martyrs of truth and freedom ; think of the 
 millions of the enslaved ; think of the other millions 
 of the oppressed and degraded free ; and renew that 
 vow ! Be not tempted from the path of political 
 duty. Vote for no man, act with no party poUtically 
 connected with the supporters of slavery. Vote for 
 no man, act with no party unwiUing to adopt and 
 carry out the principles which we have set forth in 
 this address. To compromise for any partial or 
 temporary advantage is ruin to our cause. To act 
 with any party, or to vote for the candidates of any 
 party, which recognises the friends and supporters 
 of slavery as members in full standing, because in 
 particular places or under particular circumstances, 
 it may make large professions of anti-slavery zeal, is 
 to commit political suicide. Unswerving fideUty to 
 our principles; unalterable determination to carry 
 those principles to the ballot-box at every election ; 
 inflexible and unanimous support of those, and only 
 those, who are true to those principles, are the con- 
 ditions of our ultimate triumph. Let these condi- 
 tions be fulfilled, and our triumph is certain. The 
 indications of its coming multiply on every hand. 
 The clarion trump of freedom breaks already the 
 gloomy silence of slavery in Kentucky, and its echoes 
 are heard throughout the land. A spirit of inqtiiry 
 and of action is awakened everywhere. The as- 
 semblage of the convention, whose voice we utter, 
 is itself an auspicious omen. Gathered from the 
 North and the South, and the East and West, we here 
 unite our counsels, and consolidate our action. We 
 are resolved to go forward, knowing that our cause 
 is just, trusting in God. We ask you to go forward 
 with us, invoking His blessing who sent his Sen to 
 redeem mankind. With Him are the issues of all 
 events. He can and He will disappoint all the de- 
 vices of oppression. He can, and we trust He will, 
 make our instrumentality efficient for the redemption 
 of our land from slavery, and for the fulfilment of 
 our fathers' pledge in behalf of freedom, before Him 
 and before the world.* 
 
 rope beseech you to remove from their pathway to free- 
 dom the reproach and stumbling-block of Democratic 
 slavery. From the damp depths of dungeons— from the 
 stake and the scaffold, where the martyrs of liberty have 
 sealed their testimony with their blood— solemn and awful 
 voices call upon you to make the dead letter of your repub- 
 licanism a living truth. Join with us, then, fellow citizens. 
 Slavery is mighty: but it can be overthrown. In the 
 name of God and humanity, let us bring the mighty ballot- 
 box of a kingless people to bear upon it. The model man 
 of our Republic, who might have been a king, but would 
 not, calls from his grave upon each of us to do that, 
 which he solemnly declared himself ready to do — to give 
 his vote to free the slave and to abolish the wicked phan- 
 tasy of property in man. He shall not call in vain. We 
 acknowledge the duty of consecrating our votes to the 
 deliverance of the oppressed, and joyfully do we per- 
 form it. 
 
LIBERTY PAPERS 
 
 The following is a correct list of all the Liberty papers published in our country, according to the bes 
 information we have been able to obtain. It is given here, that those who, after reading this Address^ 
 
 may be favourable to its views, but who have not as yet taken any paper devoted to the cause, may se« 
 
 what one will best suit their convenience or their taste. There is hardly a subject of national or state m 
 terest that is not more or less affected by Slavery, and our Liberty papers, to say nothing of the signa 
 ability with which most of them are conducted, give that information on this important subject as connect 
 ed with the great interests of our country, that will be in vain sought for in the papers of either of the 
 other parties. 
 
 MAINE, Liberty Standard, Hallowell, weekly, $2 0( 
 
 Bang-or Gazette, Bangor^ ** 1 5C 
 
 NEW HAMPSHIRE, Granite Freeman, Concord, " 1 5C 
 
 VERMONT, Green Mountain Freeman, Montpeliert " 2 OO 
 
 Genius of Liberty, Jjudlow, ** 1 5C 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS, The Emancipator, Soston, " 2 OC 
 
 Hampshire Herald, Northampton, " 2 OC 
 
 Christian Citizen, Worcester, " 1 S( 
 
 Worcester County Gazette, Worcester, •* 2 OQ 
 
 Essex Transcript, Amesbury, ** 1 5C 
 
 Beacon of Liberty, Taunton, " 1 OC 
 
 Chronotype, Boston, daily, 5 OC 
 
 Liberty Sentinel, Pittsjield, weekly, 1 50 
 
 RHODE ISLAND, - - Woonsocket Patriot, Woonsocket, " 1 Ofl 
 
 Rhode Island Liberty Pioneer, Providence, " 
 
 CONNECTICUT, - - Charter Oak, Hartford, " 1 50 
 
 NEW YORK, Albany Patriot, Albany, " 2 OC 
 
 The True American, Cortland Tillage^ " 1 OO 
 
 Liberty Press, Utica, " 2 00 
 
 Liberty Intelligencer, Syracuse, " 1 25 
 
 Christian Investig-ator, Honeoye, monthly, 5fl 
 
 Anti-Slavery Reporter, New York, ** 50 
 
 I'he Countryman, Perry, weekly, 
 
 Herkimer Freeman, Little Falls, " 
 
 NEW JERSEY, - - - New Jersey Freeman, Boonton, " 25 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA, - The American Citizen, Philadelphia, " 2 00 
 
 The Spirit of Liberty, Pittsburg, " 2 00 
 
 The Washington Patriot, Washington, * * 2 00 
 
 The Mercer Luminary, Mercer, " 2 00 
 
 Clarion of Freedom, Indiana, " 1 50 
 
 OHIO, Morning Herald, Cincinnati daily, 5 00 
 
 Philanthropist, " weekly, 2 00 
 
 Cleveland American, Cleveland, ** 2 00 
 
 Liberty Advocate, Cadiz, " 1 50 
 
 Liberty Herald, Warren, ** 
 
 Aurora, New Lisbon, ** 
 
 INDIANA, Free Labour Advocate, New Garden, " 2 00 
 
 Indiana Freeman, Indianapolis, " 
 
 "Western Aurora, Centre, Grant County, 
 
 ILLINOIS, Chicago Daily News, Chicago, daily. 
 
 Western Citizen, ** weekly, 2 00 
 
 MICHIGAN, Signal of Liberty, Ann Arbor, " 1 50 
 
 WISCONSIN, American Freeman, Prairieville, " 2 00 
 
 KENTUCKY, True American, Lexington, " 2 50 
 
 The following are some of the most prominent Religious Papers that are decidedly Anti- 
 Slavery, or friendly to the Anti-Slavery cause: 
 
 The Recorder, Boston, Mass., weekly. Orthodox Congregational. ^ 
 
 The Christian Reflector, »' « « Baptist. 
 
 Zion's Herald, « *« « Methodist. 
 
 The Morning Star, Dover, N. H., « Free Will Baptist. 
 
 The Evangelist, New York, " New School Presbyterian. 
 
 True Wesley an, *♦ « Methodist. 
 
 "Watchman of the Valley, Cincinnati, Ohio, « New School Presbyterian. 
 
 Oberlin Evangelist, Oberlin, " " Congregational. 
 
 This Address may be had at the office of the American Citizen, No. 46 North Fifth Street, 
 Philadelphia, at ten dollars a thousand. Five hundred will be sent to one address for $6 ; any 
 number below that $1,50 a hundred. Will not Liberty men and Liberty editors eveiy where do 
 what they can to promote its wide circulation. So effective, and at the same time, so cheap a 
 document it is believed has not yet been issued from the Liberty press. Orders, post paid, di- 
 rected as above, enclosing the money, will be promptly attended to. 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 
 m\l 21 1959 
 
 2Kt)r'65^it 
 
 f^t iC'D LB 
 
 APR r65-J2|jr 
 
 nAug'65VI 
 
 REC'D t n 
 
 AUG 5 '65 -10 AM 
 
 LD 21A-50m-4,'59 
 (A1724s]0)476B 
 
 General Library 
 
 University of California 
 
 Berkeley 
 
Vo 5065( 
 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY