The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-02 00:00:00

PREAMBLE.

Whereas the people of the United States, "in order to
form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domes-
tic tranquility," as set forth in the Preamble of the
Constitution for the United Stater, have ordained a Govern-
ment of non-slaveholding and of slaveholding States; and
whereas the Government is a Government of compromises
and concessions :

1. In the clause of the Constitution (art. 1, sec. 2), re•
cognising slaves as persons to be represented by their mas-
ters, and as property to be taxed upon these masters.
2. In the clause (art. 1, sec. 8), that Congress shall have
power to suppress insurrections.
3. (Art. 1, sec. 9) in prohibiting Congress to suppress
the slave-trade prior to 1808, and in giving Congress the
power to impose a tax or duty upon each slave imported
before that time, not exceeding 10 dollars for each slave.
4. In the clause (art. 4, sec. 2), to deliver up, on claim
of the party to whom slave service may be due, the per-
son or slave held to such service or labour. (Applause.)
5, In the clause (Art 4, sec. 4), upon the application of

any Legislature or Executive of the State, to protect said

State against domestic violence.

And whereas the Federal Government has, from its
origin, been administered by the Executive, by Congress,
and by the Supreme Court of the United States, not only
in the letter but in the spirit of these compacts :-
1. Before and after the old Confederation, in the divi-
sion of the then unsettled territories, by declaring all north
of the Ohio to be non-slaveholding, and all south of the Ohio
to be slaveholding.

2. In the ordinance, July 13, 1787, making free the terri-
tory, now Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, but pro-
viding therein, also, for the surrender of fugitive slaves
(Applause.)

3, In the Acts, President Washington approving, admit-
ting into the Union the territory of Kentucky, slaveholding,
then the property of Virginia, and afterwards the territory
of Frankland, slaveholding, now Tennessee, then the pro-
perty of North Carolina.
4. In the ordinance, April 7, 1798, John Adams approv-
ing, organising the Mississippi territory, then belonging to
Georgia, now Alabama and Mississippi, in which was espe-
cially excepted therefrom the anti-slavery cause of the
North-western Territory, in these words :
"Excepting and excluding the last article of the ordinance
of 1787,"

5. In the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793, George Washing-
ton approving, which passed the Senate unanimously, and
the house ayes 41, noes 7.
_ _

, -
G. In the purchase of Louisiana, President Jefferson ap-
proving, all that vast region west of the Mississippi, stretch-
ing to the Pacific Ocean and to the British possessions, all of
which was under the laws of Spain or France, slavehold-
ing, and larger in extent at that time than the whole of the
United States.

7. In the treaty of 1783 (9th Article) providing against
the deportation of slaves, with the official correspondence of
Washington, Randolph, Gouverneur Morris, and John
Jay, thereon.

8. In the Judiciary Act, 1789 (34th section) adopting
the constitutional laws of the several States which recognise

slaves as property as well as persons.

9. In tho Acts enumerating slaves for the purpose of
direct taxation, especially the Act of 1813, James Madison
approving, which assessed taxes upon the land, dwelling•
houses, and slaves, at the value each of them was worth in

money.
10. In the Treaty of Ghent (1814), under which from
Great Britain our Government received 1,200,000 dole., and
paid it over to the owners of deported slaves.
11. In the purchase of Florida, in 1819, a slave-holding
territory, frora Spain.
12. In the decision by the Supreme Court of the United
States of the constitutionality of the Act of 1793, in Priggs'
ease, and of the like Act of 1850, in every case, before any
of the high Courts, Federal or State, unless in ono State
Court in Wisconsin, and in divers other decisions upon
laws, ordinances, and treaties.
Therefore, be it resolved, that the Union thus formed,
constituting as it does the closest, most delicate, and im-
portant relation that can exist between communities of
people, demands from each part a warm and earnest con-
sideration for the safety, prosperity, and happiness of the
other ; and that whatever policy tends to subvert these ends
(hear, hear) is hostile to the true spirit of the compact.
That the Constitution, the treaties, the laws of the
United States, and the judicial decisions thereupon recog-
nise the institution of slavery as legally existing, and that
it is our duty, as good citizens of a common Government, in
good faith to stand by that Constitution, those treaties
(cheers), those laws, and the decisions of that final arbiter
of all disputed points, the Supreme Court of the United
States. (Vociferous applause.)
That, inasmuch as the proceedings of the Convention
which framed the Constitution were brought to a stand, as
appears by the declaration of Roger Sherman, one of its
most distinguished authors, until a compromise was agreed
to on the various propositions relating to domestic slavery,
which compromise embraced a restriction on the power to
prevent the importation of slaves prior to 1808.

Mr. Brooks, in moving the adoption of the rese•
lution, said—
There are those who tell us, and they are many, "All
tide is well, very well ; but there is a law higher than tho
Constitution, and in conflict with that Constitution, which
conscience forbids them to obey." Such men have broken
up our missionary stations, throws. discord into tract socie-
ties, and rent the Church of God in twain. If they are
right, Constitutions, compacts, laws, aro all wrong. This
is not the place, this is not the hour for theology, but a
word or two are necessary, in my judgment, to make our
argument complete. When our Saviour was on earth He
was a subject of that vast slaveholding Roman
Empire, which stretched from the Euphrates in
the east, beyond the Pillars of Hercules in the
west, and sixty millions of slaves, it is esti-
mated, were in that empire. Hence, when His eyes first
opened on pleasant Bethlehem, His feet trod on the shores
of Galileo, or on the plain of Jericho, to be baptised in the
Jordan, slaves must have ministered, if not unto Him Of
His disciples, unto all about Him. And when on the
Mount of Olives His foot was last printed upon that rock
which tradition or superstition now shows, while ascending
into Heaven, His eyes, as they overlooked Jerusalem, and
glanced from the mountains of Moab to the vale of Sharon,
must have rested upon thousands and tens of thousands of
slaves. Judea, where He was born; Galilee, where Ho
lived ; Egypt, that Ile visited, all were slaveholding States.
And Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, the Fathers and
Patriarchs, were holders of bondmen and bondwomei.
And now if there be in the Holy Bible any such denun-
ciations of slavery, or of slaveholders, as wo now
daily hear from men calling themselves the servants
of God, it is not in King James's or the Douay
version of the Bible. Far be it front me, Mr. Mayor,
to speak irreverently of the ministers of God. I respect
their high and holy calling. I bow down in humble re-
verence before their august mission. When first we open
our infant eyes in our mothers' arms the man of God takes
us to the baptismal font, and there consecrates us to
heaven ; when in the full flush of youth, our hearts beat•
ing with love, he ties the nuptial knot and blesses, with use
the partner of our bosom on our voyage of life; and when
that voyage is over, and the deathbed, wife, children, all.
have given us up, and the spirit is parting from its frail
tenement of clay, our eyes last rest upon him, interceding
for us before the throne of God. But, oh, ye Scribes and
Pharisees, who rail against us publicans and sinners, that
rail not as ye do !—yo men of Sharpe's rifles and Bowie-
knife pikes !—ye Beechers and ye Cheevers, wiser and
better than our Saviour when on earth—go with your now
version of the Bible into all the world, and shoot your gos•
pel into every living creature ! The Bible, then, is not in
conflict with the Constitution."
Mr. O'Connor followed, and pointed out that the
North and South would not flourish separate, and
maintained that slavery was not unjust. On being
hissed for the latter sentiment, he compared the
hisser to the serpent who beguiled Eve. His main
argument in support of existing institutions was as
follows :--
"We were, gentlemen, white men of what is commonly
called by way of distinction the Caucasian race; we were a
monogamous people—that is to say, we were not Mahome-
dans, ner followers of Joe Smith, with a dozen wives
a-piece. It was a fundamental principle of our morality that
no State coeld exist or be tolerated in this Union which
should not in that respect resemble all the other States of
the Union. Many other distinctive features might bo stated
which mark us as a people distinct from others, and Inca.
pablo of associating on terms of perfect political equality
as friends ;and fellow-citizens with the same kind of
people that are to be found upon the face of the earth. As
a white nation we made our constitution, and we made our
laws, vesting political rights in that race, the white Ameri-
can people. (Applause.) And as the negro, we allowed
him to live under the abode and protection of our laws ; we
gave him, as we were bound to give him, protection against
outrage and contumely, and we denied him, however, poli•
tical rights or the power of Government, and we left him,
so long as tho community in which he lived should please
so to ordet, we left him in the condition of the bondman.
(Applause.) Now, gentlemen, to that condition the negro
is assigned by nature. (' Bravo,' applause, and ' That's so.')
The history of mankind shows that his class cannot prosper;
they die out and become extinguished in any cold or in any
very temperate climate. But in the extreme warm regions
his race can prosper and be perpetuated. Ile has strength and
is potent to labour ; but the nature which created the power
denied him either the intellect to govern or the willingness
to work. (Applause.) Both wore denied him—both were
denied him I And that nature which deprived him of will
to labour gave him a master to coerce that will and to make
hint a useful and valuable servant to the clime in which he
was capable of living for himself and for the master who
governed him. (Applause.) Now, gentlemen, I maintain
that it is not injustice to leave the negro in the condition
in which nature placed him—to leave him in a state of
pupilage, to give hint a master to govern him and supply
his deficiencies, nor is it depriving him of any of his rights
to compel him to labour in return, and afford to that master
a just compensation for the labour and the talent employed
in governing him, and rendering him useful to himself and
to the society in which ho lives. (Cheers.) These are the
principles, gentlemen, which the extreme measures of the
,abolitionists compel us to meet. This is the ground that
we must take. We are not to talk about slavery being an
evil—slavery being a thing which, though pernicious, must
be tolerated. Besides we have made a bargain to tolerate
t we are to look at it as it is, we are to look at it by the voice
of inspiration which is to be found in the sacred volume,
and which nowhere condemns the bondage of those who are
naturally fit for bondage."
The ex-Governor of New York, Mr. Hunt, who
followed, in the course of his remarks said :
" A provision binding on each State and upon the Union
to surrender fugitives from service ; a representation in
Congress, founded in part on three-fifths of the slave popu.
lation ; and a guarantee to protect each State against do.
inestic insurrection; thus providing, under the Constitu-
tion, for the introduction of slaves for a limited period, and
for the protection of the system ; therefore, it is the duty of
every citizen and State sharing in the great blessings of
instrument faithfully to fulfil these obligations. That we
protest against and denounce, as contrary to the plighted
' faith on which the Constitution was established, all acts, of
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