The daily Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1841-1845, 1843-11-01

by the Consul of the place from whence the yes
sci proceeds.
MR.. ADAMS ADDRESS TO HIS CONSTlTU-
ENTS
Mr.. Adams" the old man eloquent" as his
admirers delight TO term him-is out again with
an address to his constituents, dated OCTOBER
24h, and occupying four closely printed CO.
lumns in small type, of the New York Express.
The burden of his song is, of course, negro
slavery in the Southern States.
We do not think that any reader of this adj
dress would pronounce the writer of it mad un
less for his sudden DEPRESSION, at the close Of it.,
from slavery to astronomy (sic itur dd astra)
and the vote of thanks which he recommends to
all royal and imperial patrons of that science,
from the Ptoemies of Egypt and Alexander
of Macedon, not of Monmouth from julius
Cesar to the Arabian Caliphs, Haroun AL Ras-
child, Almamon and Almanzor, from Alphonso
of CASTLE 10 Nicholas the present Emperor OF
all the Russlas." There is too much method in
r,.-,as in all his addresses too close an adhe-
renee TO sethcd design, too In~oh deliberate
and astute Justification He is always aD.s to
re-word his matter, which madness would gam
Dol from" II he be mad, he is mailman OF
the most dangerous sort-one of those untiring,
enthusiastic fanatics who manage, unless arrest
ed, TO communicate their madness and eplhusi-
asm, to multitude and his friends, instead of
arresting him, seem to glory in his displays of
eloquence and logic. We every day behold
fresh proofs of the progress which he is making,
and Governors Of States are becoming his dis
1iples and tools, and re-echoing his sentiments
His present address Contains an elaborate at
tack on the Constitution yet he disclalms any
intention to inculpate the trainers of that instru-
ment though he expressly charges them with
having 80 made compact with Lucfer." He
says:
In this Constitution, ordained and established to Sc
to themselves and their posterity the blessings
of Liberty, while they avoided, with fastdous
plies of purity, every expression which might seem to
acknowledge, even by application, the lawiuness of
slavery, they made compact with Luciier, not only
by the candestine submission to slavery, but by
Eliminating the Constitution itself, with enormous
representation of property acquired by crime, under
the name of persons.
Fellow -citzens--let me not be misunderstood.
Far be il from me to charge fraud falsehood or
hypocrisy either upon the people Of the United States
upon any member of that Convention over which
George Washington presided, and Of which Benja-
min Franklin was member The ardent aspirations
of both those for the abolition of slavery through
out the world are attested by multiplied evidence
under their own hands.
] charge no fraud or falsehood upon them or any
of their associates. The African slave trade was
then, though odious every where lawful
And although more odious in the Union than in
any other part of the world yet by of those COM
premises to which | have already alluded for the
space of twenty years from that time, that odous
traffic was authorized by that very constitution
Twenty years of time required for the slave
holder to make up his mind to practice the prnci-
pies of virtue and Of liberty. Twenty years they
to be INDUCED in the practice Of those crimes,
upon condition that at the end Of that time they would
turn themselves to virtue and to freedom.
The distinction which Mr.. Adams attempts
TO draw between assailing the trainers of the
Con. tiiuton, and viifying the work of their
hands, is somewhat too refined for common un-
derstandings. Certainly those who 'make
compact with Lucifer" must be chargeable
either with wickedness, or with gross folly
and il would be as difficult 10 establish the one
charge, as the the other, against such men as
George Washington and Benjamin Franklin
The man whose conscience reproaches him for
living under Constitution framed by such mon
is too pure for this earth: he should be trans
lated to the heavens at once, and placed in the
armament in the middle of the milky way.
But Mr.. Adams gives a rather questionable
proof of purity in the passage here extracted, by
deliberately inditing what he knows TO be a
fasehood. IL was not for the benefit of the
slave holder, but of the slave trader that the
odous traffic was authorized. Mr.. Adams is
too well acquainted with the history our country
to be able TO plead ignorance of the fact-often
referred to in discussions on slavery-that the |
Southern colonIsts had always been strongly
opposed TO the introduction of slaves. but were
by the mother country to submit to it, |
against their urgent and continual remon- |
trsnces and petitions, in order TO favor the |
New England slave-trader. This was urged |
~ the Southern colonists as one of the grey-
,nces justfying the Revolution. The traffic was
,arried on chiefly, if not wholly, by certain men
n New England. They amassed wealth bv
1, which their descendants are now epioving
They chung greedily to 'the odious traffic. un.
ii the last moment that the law allowed-and
wen much later, in defiance of law. Even 60
ate as the year 1894, an individual. formerly a
Senato1in Congress from New England pre-
ented claims TO the Board of Commissioners
,ndeg slhe Convention Of Indemnity wi