The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1843-09-21
r L 8 O L V L 8 ,

RE OIL YES.
, Being assembled in Convention as the
Representative of the Liberty Party ir
the United States, and feeling it incum.
bent on us to set forth clearly and fully
the principles which govern US, and the
purposes which we seek to accomplish
and this, the rather, because those prin-
cip!es and purposes have been much mis-
understood,and either ignorantly or mali
ciously represented; be it, therefore.
|. Resolved, That the Liberty Party
has not been organized for any Temporal.
ry purpose BY interested politicians, but
has arisen from among the people in con-
sequence of a conviction, hourly gaining
ground, that no other party in the coun-
tryrepresents the true principles of Amer
lean Liberty, or the true spirit of the
Constitution of the United States.
9. Resolved, That the Liberty Party
has not been organized merely for the
overthrow of slavery; its first decided
effort must indeed be directed against
slaveholding, as the grossest and most
revolving manifestation of despotism: but
it will, also, carry out the principle of
equal rights into all its practical conse-
quences and applications, and support
every measure conducive to individual
and social freedom.
3. Resolved, That the Liberty Party
is not sectional, but National party :
has not originated in a desire to accom-
plish single object but in comprehen-
siye regard to the great interests of the
whole country: is not new party or a
third party, but is the party Of 1776, re-
viving the principles Of that memorable
era, land striving to carry them into prac-
teal application.
4. Resolved, That it was we'll under
stood in the times Of the Declaration and
the Constitution, that the existence of
slavery in some of the States, was in
derogation of the principles of American
Liberty, and deep stain upon the char
acter of the country; and the implied
faith Of the State and the nation was
pledged that slavery should never be ex-
tended beyond its existing limits; but
should be gradually, and yet, at no dis
tant day, wholly abolished by State au-
thority.
5. Resolved, That the faith of the
States and nation thus pledged, was no.
bly, redeemed by the voluntary abolition
of slavery in several of the States, and
by the adoption of the Ordinance of1787,
for the government of the territory North
West of the river Ohio, then the only
territory of the United States, and con-
sequently the only territory subject, in
this respect, to the control of Congress
by which Ordinances, slavery was forever
excluded from the vast regions which now
compose the States of Ohio, Indiana, IL
linois, Michigan, and the Territory Of
Wisconsin; and an incapacity to bear
any other than freemen was impressed
upon the soil itself.
6. Resolved, That the faith Of the
States and Nation thus pledged has been
shamefully violated by the omission, on
the part Of many of the States, to take
any measures whatever for the abolition
of slavery within their respective limits;
by the continuance of slavery in the Dis
trict Of Columbia and the Territories of
Louisiana and FIorida,by the legislation
Of Congress; by the protection afforded
by national legislation and negotiation to
slaveholdlng in American vessels on the
high seas, employed in the coastwise
slave traffic; and by the extension of
slavery far beyond its original limits by
acts of Congress, by admitting new slave
States into the Union.
7. Resolved, That the provisions Of
The Constitution of the United States
which confer extraordinary political pow
er on the owners of slaves, and therefore
constitutes 100000 Shareholders, in the
slave States, privileged aristocracy;
and the provision for the reclamation of
(ugitives from service, arc anti-repub-
Iican in their character, and dangerous
to the liberties of the people, and ought
10 be abolished.
g. Resolved, That the operation of the
first of these provisions is seen in the
growth of power in the country, hos
tile to free institutions, to free labor, and
10 freedom itself, which is appropriately
denominated the SLAVE Power.
8. (Pierpont's.) Whereas, The Con-
sttution of the United States is series
Of Agreements, Covenants and Contracts
between the people of the United States
each with all, and all with each: and
it is principle of universal
morality that the moral laws of the Gre
ator are paramount to all human laws
or in the language of an Apostle, that
we ought to obey God rather than man.
and whereas, the principles of Common
Law-tha any contract covenant or
agreement TO do an act der0gatory to