The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1839-02-16

remark made by the commlttee, IN their letter OF
invtationy-that they ''thought It right to apprize
him, that most of the speakers would be persons
known as Abolitionists.."
Salem, 25th Jaa., 1889.
DEAR SIR: Your favor of the 23d inst. was
sent to my house at late hour on the evening
of that day. | was too much occupied yesterday
to prepare any other than hasty and formal re-
ply and preferred to await my earliest leisure to
state very frankly, the views suggested by your
communication.
In what seemed to me my proper place, here
and elsewhere, have been ready to meet occa-
sions of declaring my sentiments in relation
to the object for which your meeting was called ];
and am willing and wish to be understood as
unequvocay and decidedly in favor of it, to the
extent of your known wishes and avowed design.
have never entertained the slightest doubt of the
constitutional power of the Federal Government
to abolish slavery and the slave trade in the Dis
trict of Columbia, and have always regarded its
duty as co-eXtensive with its power. | believe it
to be the right and duty of the people to under
stand this question in all its bearings, and am de-
sirous that it should be every where regarded as
fit subject for serious elaboration, and frequent
and thorough discussion. 1rejoce that at last the
doors of Faneui Hall have been opened without
hindrance for the purpose of such discussion !;
ment" will be nursed in the "Cradle of Liberty"
but such as foreswears all sympathy with slavery,
its interests and influences.
Holding these views should nevertheless have
been restrained by two considerations from COM
plying with your request even if circumstances
had permitted my absence from home. In the
first place, have neither the habit nor the leis-
ure to render any important service as a public
speaker, and only yield to peculiar claims of Of
fetal or personal duty whenever | consent to &C.
cupv such position. In the second place, | am
not an Aboitionst, in the distinctive party sense
of that epithet, as it is now understood by the
community; and ought, therefore, in good faith
so far to regard the very proper intimation at the
close of your letter, as to avoid assuming an atti-
tude, in which must either have proclaimed the
extent of my disagreement with Abolitonists, and
the grounds of it, or have been obliged to submit
to misconception of my sentiments and motives.
do not wish to subject myself to either of these
alternatives. | feel too great an interest in the
cause of abolition, and too much personal respect
for many of its prominent advocates, TO desire an
occasion of condemning measures which my
judgment has not approved, and of dsowning
spirit exhibited in some instances-to which my
feelings can never respond.
1t is clear that the abolitionists cannot long re-
main so much separated as they now are from
the mass of the community in New England and
the free States; but that by gradual approxima-
ton, to be effected, on the side, by wise re-
sort to more circumspect and considerate policy,
and quite as much on the other, by the triumph of
candor over prejudice of reason over passion, and
of patriotic love of the principle of Liberty over
a treacherous fear of the power of slavery, we
are 10 become prepared, AT no distant day, to dis
Germ common dangers through the same medium,
to yield to common obligations from the same mo-
tive, and to engage, if it must be, in common
struggle for all which constitutes the value and
glory of the Federal Union. The time for such
concert of opinion and action must be approach
ing and for one, do not hesitate to declare, that
the political and religious principles profess, the
warmest feelings which cherish, the deliberate
conclusions Of my Judgment and a sense of duty
which I cannot and would not repress, all hold me
in readiness to meet the crisis, come when it may.
The continuance of American slavery is manifest
ly incompatible with the progress of civilization
and the permanence of our institutions; and it
seems to me neither wise nor patriotic to be, or
pretend to be indifferent to the appeal, which the
spirit of the age is successfully addressing to the
spirit of the country.
remain, Dear Sir,
Yours, very respectfully and truly,
S. G. PHILIPS.
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