State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1831-1836, 1836-02-02

| Ject, nor can they give it too soon."
! The honorable gentleman from Virginia
will suffer me to commend this expression
of sentiment 10 the deliberate attention
which the high standing and responsible
position OF its author and the peculiar cir
cumstances under which he wrote, sentiment
ly entite it. Especially would | commend |
to the honorable gentleman from South |
Carolina the declaration of the "eloquent
South Caroinian," embodied in the article !
| have just read. The able Editor OF the |
Richmond Enquirer, and his eloquent cor
respondent, both had near view OF the |
evils of slavery, and describe them in a |
language which at once attests their sincerl-
ty, and commands assent to the correctness
of their views upon this 'momentous and |
appalling subject.''
will add, that the other leading paper |
at the capital of Virginia, the Richmond |
| Wing, made about the same time the fol- |
lowing declaration:
"We affirm, that the great mass of Vir-
'ginia herself triumphs that the slavery |
question has been agtated and reckons it |
glorious that the spirit of her sons did not
shrink from graphing with the monster.
we affirm that, in the heaviest slave dis
'tricts of the State, thousands have hailed
1he discussion with delight, and contem-
! plate the distant but ardently desired re-
suit as the supreme good which benev-
'olent Providence could vouchsafe to their
Country"
Mr. Speaker, if it was glorious and safe
for Virginia to 'grapple with the monster
in 1889, is it inglorious and unsafe for the
Congress of the United States to grapple
with the same monster now?
Suffer me, Mr. Speaker, to present one
more expression of opinion oil this subject.
| leave Virginia, and 90 over the mountains
into the valley of the Mississippi; and
there find the following recent resolution of
the Synod of Kentucky upon the subject
of emancipation
| "ResOlued, That a committee of ten he
appointed, to consist of an equal number of
ministers and elders, whose business it shall
be to digest and prepare a plan for the NOR
al and religious instruction Of our slaves,
and for their future emancipation, and to
report such plan to the several presbyterles
within our bounds, for their consideration
and approval"
The committee appointed under this re-
solution, of whom John Brown, ESP, was
chairman, and the Rev. John G. Young,
President of Danville College, Secretary,
made report, in which, among other
things, they say:
81. A part of our system of slavery con
sists in depriving human beings of the right
to acquire property. 2. The deprivation
of personal liberty forms another part of
our system of slavery. g. The deprivation
of personal security is the remaining con-
stituent of our system of slavery" Its eff
fects are said to be: 81. To deprave and to
degrade its subjects, by removing from
them the strongest natural checks 10 hui
man corruption. 2. 1t dooms thousands of
human beings to hopeless ignorance. 3. 1t
deprives its subjects, in a great measure, of
the privileges of the gospel. 4. This sys-
tenn licences and produces great cruelty.
5. 1t produces general RIGHTEOUSNESS
among the slaves. &. This system demon
Allies the whites as well as the blacks. Z.
This system draws down upon us the VEN
geance of Heaven" These several points,
in their order, are illustrated and enforced
at length Then follow combinations of the
various arguments of the defenders of the
system. Then
GAS the conclusion of all that has been
advanced, we assert it to be the unqueston-
able duty of every Christian to use vigor-
Gus and immediate measures for the de-
struction of this whole system, and for the
removal of all its unhappy effects. Both
these objects should be contemplated in his
efforts"
, Mr. Speaker, is it regarded by good and
intelligent men in Kentucky as safe openly
, to recommend obstruction of the whole
, system of slavery" and shall we he quailing
+ before the dangers of doing it in the Dis
trict of Columbia?
But, sir, | have another authority on this
subject. | return from the Valley of the
! Mississippi to this District and looking in
to the United States Telegraph of the 18th
, of September last, l find the following:
Speaking in the name of the Southern peo-
Pile, the Editor says:
1--WE hold that our sole reliance is on
/, ourselves that we have most to fear from
the gradual operation on public opinion
> among our, elves, and that those are the
most insidious and dangerous invaders OF
: our rights and interests, who, coming 10 us
in the guise of friendship, endeavor 10 per-
|, suade us that slavery is a sin, u curse, an
evil. Its not true that the South sleeps OF,
> Volcano that we are afraid to 90 to bed
= at night that we are fearful of murder and
q pillage. Our greatest cause of apprehen-
sion is, from the operation Of the morbid
I sensibility which appeals to the consccn-
ces of our own people, and would make
> them the voluntary instruments Of their
@ own ruin"
So. then, the fears are not of insurrection,
i but of conscience not of the physical force
}, of the slaves, but of the power OF 'PuLftc
}, opinionm
e Need ], Mr. Speaker, repeat the express
y sion of my sincere conviction, that the fears
e expressed by gentlemen on this floor are
Az -, tbaf
y The true ground of fear on this subject is TO
,c H. c,und in N co continuance If the tdnrk and