The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1839-06-15

Fett0U C1tlzeHS: In preceding leltel, )upllSn
ed in the National Intelliger of 23d April last,
Informed you of the manner in which the duty
had been discharged of presenting to the House
of Representatives the addresses to that body
which it had been your pleasure to calnmit 10 my
care.
Of the duty of the House to receive, to hear, Il
consider, and to ansacer those petitions, memorials
and remonsrances, had no more doubt than o.
my own duty to present them, and to ask the &C.
ton of the House upon them, from the momen
when they were entrusted to my hands. F..
The majority-a large majority of the House
however, were of different opinion, and, follow
ing the example which had been set by the Con-
gress Immediately preceding, and by themselves
at the last preceding session, they resolved to re-
cciDe, but to lay on the table, without reading,
without printing, without debating, and without in
any manner considering, every petition. memorial,
resolution propositions or paper touching or relat-
ing to slavery in these United States, or the abo-
lition thereof.
This resolution, you perceive, is not merely a
general interdict of petitions and memorials from
the People, but of resolutions propositions, or pa
pcrs, whether presented by members Of the House
ITSELF or coming from lawful assemblies of the Peo-
pie, or from the Legislatures of the States. 1t is
precisely the same in the results as if the House
of Representatives had prohibited all its members
from ever Offering resolution or addressing the
Speaker upon any subject relating to slavery or
the slave-trade. 1t is equivalent 10 prohibition
to the People to assemble together 10 discuss the
merits and dement's of slavery and the slave-trade
1t is in the result precisely the same as if the
House should send guard of soldiers to close
the doors of every Legislative Hall in the Union
against all discussion upon the rights of man, the
sef-evident truths of the Declaration of Independ
ence, slavery, the slavc-trade and its abolition.
AT every passage of this resolution have felt deep
indignaon--but far deeper humiliation. | have
felt indignant at the suppression of my right as a
member of the House-of the right ofmy constit-
uents 10 use the privilege of freemen to assemble
together and deliberate upon freedom and slavery
of the right of the Legislature of my native
Commonwealth to pass resolutions expressing their
detestaton and that of their constituents Of slavery
in all its forms. But the deep humiliation that |
have felt was an American citizen. 1t was the
consciousness of degradation from the lofty stand
we had taken among the nations of the EARTH as
the first proclaimers of the inalienabe freedom of
the human race. The gnominious transforma-
ton of the People who had commenced their ca
reer in the world by the Declaration of Independ-
breeders, for sale, was contemplation Notifying
beyond endurance.
considered the institution of domestic slavery
existing in the Southern States of the Union as
misfortune entailed upon them in the colonial con-
dition, which, at the time of the Revolution, they
considered in that light themselves. was, how
ever, a part of their internal organization, over
which the Congress of the Revolution had never
exercised jurisdiction, and which, long as it
could be maintained in peace, was reserved for the
exclusive legislation Of the several States. There
was obviously gross inconsistency between the
principles proclaimed in the Declaration of indie
pendence and the practice of holding human be-
ings in perpetual and hereditary bondage; and
the supreme judicial tribunal ofthe Commonwealth
of Massachusetts had decided, even before the con-
cusion of the Revolutionary war, that the princi-
pies of the Declaration of Independence, repeated
in the Declaration Of Rights prefxed to the Con-
sttulion the State, had ipSo tucto abolished all
slavery within the State.
During the war, and for several years after,
slaves were considered as very improbable prop
erty. When the Constitution of the Uuited States
was adopted the people of the free States were
anxiously DESTROYS of prohibiting the importation
of negroes from Africa. South Carolina and Geor-
gia were, however, not prepared for that, and COM
promise was effected, by which term of twenty
years was allowed for procuring supply of the
EAtiClcI anu Tic tduC Ndo ploblullSu III ACOC'
But in the mean time, cotton had become sta
pie article of our expectation, and some years after,
the Colonization Society was instituted
Human forethought is sometimes strangely at
fault in devising expedients for improving the
condition of mankind. The African slavc-trade
was, if not introduced, countenanced and recon-
mended by LAS CAsAs, one of the most amiable
and benevolent of mankind to save the Indian race
from utter determination.
When the Congress of the Confederation, in
the same year Q7SO in which the Convention at
Philadephia sent for the ratification of the Peo-
pie the Constitution of the United States, enacted
by the ordinance for the government of the North
western Territory, that there should be neither
slavery nor involuntary servitude within it. other
wise than for the punishment of crimes; and when
the power to prohibit the African sIave-trade was
so universally and implicitly understood to be del
egated to Congress by the general power to regu-
late commerce with foreign nations and among
the several States, that an express provision was
inserted in the Constitution restraining them from
the exercise of that power for twenty years. little
was It imagined that the day would come when,
within these United States, public men, ambitious
OF name and aspirants to popular favor, would
be found to Sophisticate slavery into n blessino