The Illinois free trader. (Ottawa, Ill.) 1840-1841, 1840-10-02

| The subject was by that memorial pre-
scented in terms which offered no violence
, to the feelings of any class of citizens,
and were best calculated to secure to the
questions involved, a fair hearing and
impartial decision. After several days.
discussion, the prayer of the memorialis,s
was rejected, by vote of thirty four to
Sir.
An expression of similar opinions on
the part of the Federal Executive, with
an avowal of determination to carry
them out in his official acts, taken in
connection with the known condition of
the Congressional representation of the
several states in regard to the slave ques-
ton, would, it was thought, during the
continuance of his constitutional term,
prevent all agitation of the subject before
Congress. The consequent certainty
that nothing conld for years at least be
accomplished in that way, would, it was
hoped, present sufficient inducements to
all who were governed by conscientious
motives, to desist from presenting their
memorials, and leave all others without
even a plausible pretence for continuing
to agtate the subject in that form. No
one could, it was supposed, believe, that
our southern brethren could he driven
into peaceable emancipation by the mere
force of agitation-by appeals to the fears
Of the master and the passions of the
slave-these might indeed, if persisted in.
draw after them servile, and probably a
civil war, with final dissolution of the
Union. Attempts TO expose our country
to such fearful hazards for no other assign
able motive than TO harrass the slavehold-
ing states, or to subserve political purpo-
ses, would not, it was confidently believ-
ed, be endured, much less countcnanced,
by the American people. Partaking
largely in the general apprehension in
regard to the fatal effects of this baleful
agitation-having seen enough to satisfy
me that no circumstance so directly and
inevitably tended TO impair tic stability
and interrupt the harmonious action of
our complicated political system, as the
existence of a doubt in the public mind
concerning the action of the Federal Gov
eminent upon this disturbing subject
sincerely anxious to promote the COM
mendable design of Congress to restore
tranquility to large and uniformly pa
iriotc portion of the Union-and deeming
the subject to be of sufficient importance
to justify departure from the ordinary
usage of the Executive, embraced the
first public occasion to refer to the opin-
ions ] had expressed before my election,
and to declare, formally, that no bill con-
flicting with those views could ever
receive my constitutional sanction. Those
opinions, and that determination, have
been greatly strengthened by subsequent
experience and reflection.
No one can doubt that the tendency of
this species of agitation is. as your House
of Representatives have very Justly OBJ
served, to "disturb the amicable relations
subsisting between the slaveholdng. and
non-slaycholding states of this Union,"
and it is not the least remarkable feature
in its history, that the means employed
are precisely those best calculated to de-
feat the avowcd objects Of its authors.
1t is, to my mind, a most dangerous delu-
sion to believe that the people of the
slaveholding states are likely to be indu-
ced to change condition of things over
which, under the Constitution, they alone
have the control, which they had no
agency in producing, and for the conse-
quences of which. whatever they may
be, they cannot be Justly held response
bic - which is interviewer with their
domestic relations and political institutions
by charging its existence upon them as
crime against God and man, against
humanity and religion: or that to awaken
the apprehonsions of the master by APP
peals to the passions of the slave, is the
way to improve the condition of the lat
ter. All candid and temperate observers
must, on the contrary, admit that such are
not the means by which salutary ends are
produced-tlat furious denuncations and
unmitigated reproaches as little accord
with Christian charity as with brotherly
love, and are much more likely to pro-
duce stern resistance than quiet acqules-
cence. These truths are demonstrated in
the results ofthe labors Of the Abolition
lists in the United States, which have
hitherto been productive of nothing but
evil, new restraints upon the colored race,
vexation to the owner, and distraction to
the councils of the. nation In reference,