The Rhode-Island Republican. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1809-1841, 1836-01-27


popuace, is represen red TO be very great, mucl
so that fears were entertained thst they would b,
murdered. The number of guards around the
prison had been doubled, until their fate should bt
decided by the supreme government.
! Gov. EVERETT AND ABoLITIoNIsm The follow
ing the views of Gov. Everett in regard to abo
itionism set forth in his annual message to tht
Massachusetts Legislature -" The country la.
been greatly agitaed during the past year in rela
ton to slavery, and acts of illegal violence and out
rage have grown out Of the excitement kndled on
this subject, in different parts Of the Union which
cannot be too strongly deplored nor too severely
censured In this State ana several of sister
States, slavery has long been held in public estma-
ton as an evil of the first magnitude. 1t fully
abolished in this Commonwealth by the year 1888,
by decisions of the of justice, and by the in
depreciation placed the declaration of equality IN
the bill of rights But it existed in several of The
States at the time of the adoption of the Consti-
tution and IN greater ratio the free population
OF the country, than at the present day. 1t was,
however, deemed a point of the highest public poll
cy, by the non-slave-holding States, notwhstand-
ing the existence of slavery in their sister States
enter with them into the present Union, the ba-
SIS OF the constitutional compact. That union
could have been formed on any other basis is fact
OF historical notoriey; and is asserted in terms
by General Hamilton, in the reported debates in the
New York Convention for adopting the Constitution
This compact expressly recognizes the existence of
slavery, and comedies the States where it prevails
tine most important rights and privileges connected
with it. Every thing that tends to disturb the rea-
lions created by tins compact at war with its sp
it; and whatever, by direct and necessary operation
IS calculated to excite an insurrection among the
slaves, has been held, by highly respectable legal
authorities, an offence againstthe peace of this Com
monweath, which may be prosecuted a misde-
m al AIthaupb
differ on this point, it would the safer course
under the peculiar circumstances of the case TO I'M
itae the example of fathers,-the Adams the
Hancocks, and other eminent patriots of the revoIu-
ton who, although fresh from the battles of liberty,
and approaching the question essentially open
one, deemed it nevertheless expedient to into
union with our brothers Of the slavehodng States,
on the principle of forbearance aud federation
this subject As the genius of our institutions and
the character of our people are entirely repugnant
to laws impairing the liberty of speech and of the
press, for the sake of repressing its abuses the
patriotism of all classes of citizens be invoked
to abstain from from a discussion, which, by exas-
perating the master, have other effect than
to render more oppressive the condition of the slave
and il not abandoned there is great to fear,
will prove the rock which the Union will be split.
Such disastrous consummation, In addition to all
its remediless political evils for every State in the
Union, could scarcely fail, or later, to bring
on war of determination in the slavehoding States.
On the contrary, conciliatory forbearance with
gard this subject in the non-saveholding citizens
at the South, who desire the removal of the evil
whose voice has often been heard for its abolition in
legislative assemblies but who struck down and
silenced by the agitation of the question abroad
and it would leave this whole painful subject
where the Constitution leaves it, with the States
where it exists, and i'm the hands of an all wise
Providence, who in his own good time, is able to
it disappear, like the slavery of the ancient
world, under the gradual operation of the gentle
spirit of Christianity"