The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1839-03-23

will and mere motion, Is frequently lounu IN our
states !; and upon which THING we sometimes be-
stow food and raiment if it appear hungry and
nershing believing it to be human being this
perhaps, is owing to our want of vision to discover
The process by which man is converted into a
THING. For this act of ours, which is not prohb-
tied by our laws, but prompted by every feeling
christian and humane, the saveholding power en-
tiers our territory, trglnpes under foot the sove-
reignty of our State, violates the sanctitv of pri
vate residence, seizes our citizens and disregard
ing the authority OF our laws, transports them into
its own jurisdiction, casts them into prisons,
fines them in letters, and loads them with chains
for pretended offences against their own laws
found by willing grand juries upon the oath Ito
use the language of the late Governor of Ohio) OF
perured villain. Is this fancy, is it fact, So
Der reality, solemn fact? Need say all this, and
much more is now matter of history in the
case of the reverend John B. Mahan, of Brahen
county, Ohio? Yes, it is so; but this is but the
beginning. A case of equal outrage has lately
occurred, if newspapers are to be relied on IN the
seizure of citizen of Ohio without even the forms
of law, and who was carried into Virginia and
shamcfully punished by tar and feathers, and 9TH
err disgraceiul means, and rode upon a rail- ac-
cordng to the order of Judge Lynch, and this, on
" because in Ohio he was an Abolitionis
Would could stop here-but cannot. This
slave interest or power SEXES upon persons of CO.
lor in our state, carries them into states where
men are property, and makes merchandise of
them, sometimes under sanction of law, but more
properly by its abuse, and sometimes by mere per-
sonal force thus disturbing quiet and harrass-
ing our citizens A case ofths kind has lately
occurred, where coored boy was seduced from
Ohio into Indiana, taken from thence into Alaba-
ma and sold as slave and to the honor of the
slave States, and gentlemen who administer the
laws there, be it said, that many who have thus
been taken and sold by the connvance, if not
downright corruption of citizens in the free states,
states where they have been sold, as was the case
of the boy mentioned, who was sold in Alabama.
Slave power is seeking to establish itself in every
state, in defiance of the Constitution and laws of
the states within which it is prohibited. In order
secure its power beyond the reach of the states
it claims its parenage from the Constitution of the
United States. 1t demands of us total silence as
to its proceedings, denies to our citizens the ber
ty of speech and the press, and Furnishes them by
mobs and violence for the exercise of these rights
1t has sent its agents into free states for the purpose
of influencing their Legislatures to pass laws for
the security of its power within such states, and
for the enacting new offences and new punish
ments for their citizens, to give addition
al security to its interest. 1t demands to be heard
in its own person in the hall of our Legislature,
and minge in debate there. Sir in every stage
of these expressions and abuses, permit me say,
in the language of the Declaration of Indepen-
dence-and no language could be more appropri-
ate--we have pctitioned for redress in the most
humble terms, and our repeated petitions have
been answered by repeated injury A power,
whose character is marked by every act which
may define a tyrant, is unfit TO rule over a Tree
people In our sufferings and our wrongs, we
have besought our feow-citizens to aid US in the
preservation Of our constitutional rights, but nhu
enced by the love Of gain or arbitrary power, they
have sometimes disregarded all the sacred rights
of man, and answered in violence, burnings, and
murder. After all these transactions, which are
now Of public notoriety and matter Of record, shall
we of the free states tauntingly be asked, what we
have to do with slavery? We should rejoice, in
deed, if the evils of slavery removed far from
us, that it could be said with truth, that we have
nothing to do with slavery. Our ctiz,ns have
not entered its territories for the purpose of OBJ
structing its laws, nor do we wish to do so, nor
would we Justify any individual in such an act
vet we have been branded and stigmatized by its
friends and advocates both in the free and slave
states, as incendiaries, fanatics dsorganizers, en-
emies to our country, and as wishing to dissolve
the Union We have borne all this without COM
plant or resistance and only ask to be secure in
our persons, by our own fresides, and in the free
exercise of our thoughts and opinions in speaking,
writing, printing, and publishing on the subject of
slavery, that which appears to us to be just and
right; because we all know the power of truth,
and that it will ultimately prevail, in despite of all
opposition But in the exercise of all these rights,
we acknowledge subsection to the laws of the
state in which we are, and our liability for their
abuse. We wish peace with all men; and that
the most amcable relations and free intercourse
may exist between the citizens of our state and
our neighboring saveholding states; we will not
enter their states, either in our proper persons, or
by commissioners, Legislative resolutions, or other
wise, to interfere with their slave policy or slave
laws; and we shall expect from them and their
citizens a like return, that they do not enter our
territories for the purpose of violating our laws in
the punishment of our people for the exercise of
their undoubted righs-the liberty of speech and
of the press on the subject of lavery. We ask
that no man shall be seized and transported be-
yond our state in violation of our own laws, and
that we shall not be carried into and imprisoned in
another state for acts done in our own. We con-
tend that the saveholding power is properly char
geable with all the riots and disorders which