The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1839-09-07

eminent, and to meet any possible defects and err
rorS in the constitution, prescribe the mode of its
amendment Although it cannot be denied that
they unhappily compromised the purity of their
principles, by requiring the delivery of fugitives
from slavery, and by allowing the states to be rep
resented for three-6lths of their slaves yet they
carefully avoided the use of the word slave" or
slavery; they restricted the concessions in IA
vor of slavery to the original states; aud they
provided for the prospective abolition of the Afr-
can slave trade, measure which was in that dav
believed to ensure the speedy abolition of slavery
itself They also held out direct encouragement to
emancipation, by allowing representation of the
whole population as soon as it should become free
The ordinance of Congress, forever prohibiting
slavery in the n W. Territory, the actual abo-
ton OF slavery in several States and the numer-
Gus manumissions that took place in the South at
that day, all illustrate the general impression then
prevailing, that slavery in this country would
come to an END in few years.
Whether it was that portion Of the South never
adopted with good faith the principles of repub-
can liberty or, whether the increased profits of
cotton have led 10 general apostacy; or, in what
ever way the fact is to be accounted for, we find
that one-half of the States of the Union instead of
abolish!ng the slave system, have deliberately ex-
tended and strengthened it by all the means in
their power So great is this detection at the
South, that, for series of years, and long prev
Gus to the present movement at the North nu-
merous laws have been enacted by the slave hol-
ding states in defence of the system, which are
gross violations of the Constitution of the United
States, and palpab!e inlringements of rights guar
antied to the citizens Of other states depriving
all their own citizens, irrespective of color of that
freedom of speech which is secured to them by
the constitutions of the slave states, as well as by
that of the United States and which enters into
the very definition Of the republican government
guaranteed to every State in the Union.
Having thus subverted the civil and religious
liberties of their own citizens, who are notpermit
ted to teach their neighbors to read the Bible, nor
allowed to investigate and discuss, among them
Selves the nature and policy of their own "pccu-
liar Institutions" they naturally become the fit in
struments TO corrupt and enslave their fellow citi
zens o(the non-slaveholding states. Said the il
lustrlous Earl of Chatham, eXulting in his place in
the British Parliament at the resistance offered by
these colonies, " Three millions of subjects in A
merica willing to be slaves, would be fit instru-
ments to ensave the rest" The Congress of the
United States, 10 whose legislation the whole ma
ton is subject, is thus composed, to a great and
controlling extent, of the representatives of peo-
pie obo are not themselves free oflegslators who
neither enjoy nor permit liberty at home, who nei-
Their embrace nor understand the principles of lib
erty and inaenable rights, as laid down in the
Declaration of independence, and who cannot be
supposed to seek or desire more liberty for the
people of the North than is enjoyed by their own
constituents at the South
The SLAvEHoLDING Power, thus constituted,
having gained such concessions in the formation
of the frame Of government, by clustering and
threatening TO leave the Union, has found the same
policy successful in gaining all thematerial points
which seemed needfu for the consolidation of its
dominion. The grossly oppressive and in some
respects unconstitutional Act of Congress of 1898,
for the delivery of fugitive slaves, having no res
pect Of color and the Act of 1892, for the regula-
ton of the domestic slavc-trade through the U. S.
custom houses, are instances in point. The en-
tire ascendancy of the Slave Power, however, was
not secured until the celebrated compromise of the
Missouri Question. From that day, its agrees
sions have been limited only by the will of its d.
rectors and it has controlled the general policy
of the Federal Government, in manner highly
dlsgraceful to the nation, inconsistent with the
public interests and dangerous to the liberties of
the people.
The prominent statesmen Of the South, in the
early days Of the government, such as Washing
ton, Jefferson, Wythe, and Henry, who manifest
ly favored the equal rights of the working men of
the North, always expressed strong desires Tor the
extinction of slavery The modern school, such
as Calhoun, Leigh, M'Dufie, Pickens and Har-
per, who have defended the perpetuity of the slave
system at the South, have generally manifested
their compaisant expectation that something sim
liar would be extended to the white laborers of the
North.
The events of the last five or six years leave no
room for doubt that the SLAVE Power is now wa
ging deliberate and determined war against the
liberties Of the free States. The rewards offered
by the legislatures and governors of the slavehol-
ding States for the abduction of free citizens of the
free States, guilty of no crime but that of having
advocated hecaus of universal liberty-the fraud
llent attempts to bring northern citizens 10 trial
under the slave codes of the South, the demands
made on the legislatures of the free States for the
lespotic suppression of freedom of speech and ac-
ion,-the pillage of the United States Mail, and
he plot almost successful to establish censor
ship of the press,-the sitting of the freedom of
debate in Congress,-the virtual annihaton of
he right of pettion,-the systematic control ex-
ercised over public opinion in the North, through
mercantile cupidity and the venal servility the
oress,-the open demand of The Slave Power, and
he subservient endeavors fits northern minions
o overaWe the freedom of sneech and of the nress