The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1839-03-16
For the Voice of Freedom.
MIR. Adams Position,
Sec. Of the En. Committee.
C. l.. KNAPP, ESQ.

C. l.. KNAPP, ESQ;
Su--I perceive by the prints of both our oppo
ncnts and OF our friends the true position occupied
by Mr.. Adams on the abolition question is no
generally distinctly understood. The pro.savers
will have it that he has receded-while our friends
the abolitionists, so far as have seen only con-
tend that he remains as he was. Now the fact is
that neither of these conclusions are true. In re-
lation to the district of Columbia, Mr.. AS views
have not changed; but in relation to the slave
trade between the slavestates, till his late disclaim-
err, he has never, to my knowledge, publicly ex-
pressed an opinion. He has now avowed him
self a warm advocate for the abolition of the do
nestle slavc-rade between the States" which he
regards Gas peculiarly under the control OF Con-
gress" So far, therefore, from his having retro
graded he has assumed the strongest position pos
sb!e upon the abolition subject On taking this
ground, he has aimed fatal blow at the whole
system. He has laid the political axe at the root
of the tree. The slave-selling states will cease
raising slaves for the market, if they be prohibited
ginia, for instance, which it is estimated receives
annually about twenty flour millions of dollars for
her exported "hunaan goods and chattelS," will be
deprived of her strongest inducements for contln-
uing the corrupt system. The same will be equal
w true of Maryland and Kentucky. Suppress
the traffic between the states, and you stop the
circulation of the lifes blood Of this iendke slave
monster Aside from the war-power, the prohlb-
iting of the traffic is probably the only tenable
ground which Congress has over slavery in the
states. This has direct influence upon emanci-
patton within the slaveholding states whereas the
influence which Congress can exert in the Dis
trict of Columbia has only remote bearing on the
several states.
Suppose, for instance, slavery and the slave
trade were now abolished in the ten miles square,
and the domestic slave-trade between the states
remains untouched, it is evident new slave mar
ket would Immediately be established in the vi
cinity of Washington, so that in lieu of abolshing
the thing, it would merely change its location.
True, abolitionism aims at the overthrow of the
whole of the American slave system. 1t appears
to me, therefore, that in placing so much stress as
we have upon the District of Columbia, we have
been too mild and timid. We ought TO bring our
political as we'll as our moral poacer to bear d-
rectly upon the states Immediately concerned
Through the agency of Jefferson, Franklin, Rush,
and their coadjutors, God has given us 0he free
states) the political power to remove from our
country the most corrupt system Of wickedness
and vlainy the world ever saw" And to be ST.
lent and inactive, is participate in the guilt; more
especially, since we have direct connection with
the evil And if we have not, what says divine
writ.-"When thou sawest thief, then thou con-
sentedst with him." See L. Psalm.] An old and
true maxim is, "part@ker IS as bad as the thaet >"
By countenancing the evil in Church and State
are we not partakers Do we not consent to sla-
very in the District Of Columbia, and to the do
mestic slave-trade9 Let him who can, in this