The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1844-08-29
From the Emancidator.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

bingham, on the I'd, of the West Ind
Emancipation. 1t shouId not be forgotten
that it is not six months since some of thos'
who participated On the occasion at which
it was read, pronounced its author "a rec
reant to the cause Of human H5erty.'-
How soon are they glad to have theil
cruel injustice sink into oblivion
Miss Thaxler,-[n declining the invi-
laton which | received last summer to at
tend the celebration of the first Of August,
it was in no wise my intention to express
disapprobation of the celebration ITSELF
The abolition of slavery in the CoIonies
of Great Britain, by the Parliament OF
that realm, was an event, at which, if the
whole human race could have been con-
centrated in one person, the heart of that
person would have leaped for joy The
restoration Of eight hundred thousand hu-
man beings from a state of grinding op-
preston to the rights bestowed upon them
by the God of nature at their birth, was
Of itself "a cause of rejoicing TO the pure in
heart throughout the hlbitable earth But
that is not the on " nor the most radiant
glory of that day. 1t was the pledge of
power and of will of the mightiest nation
upon the globe, that the bondage of man
shall cease tina! the manacle and feler
shall drop from every limb that the ties
Of nature shall no longer be outraged by
mans inhumanity 10 man; that the SELF
evident truths of our Declaration of indie
pendence shall no longer be idle mocke-
ries, belied BY the transcendent power OF
slavery welded into our constitution. Ii
was the voice of the herald, like that of
John the Baptist in the wilderness, pro-
claiming, as with the trump of the arch
angel, that the standing, fundamental poll
lev Of the British empire was thenceforth
the peaceabIe abolition of slavery through.
out the world.
Well then, may the friends of freedom
and of man rejoice at the annual return of
that day. Well may they, from far and
wide, assemble and meet together in mu,
tual graduation at the return of so blessed
a day. We'll may they come in crowds
TO cheer and encourage one another to
contribute, every one according 10 his
ability, TO the final consummaion of this
glorious and stupendous undertaking.
My unwillngness to participate in it arose
only from shame for the honor and good
name of my country, whose government,
under false and treacherous pretence Of
cooperating with Great Britain for the
suppression Of Zone ofthe forms Of this ex.
ecrable system of slavery, has been now
for series of years pursuing and matur~
ing a counteracton Of the purpose of the
universal emancipation, and organizing
an opposite system, for the maintenance,
preservation, propagation and perpetua>
ZION of slavery throughout the earth.
For the last fteer years This unhal.
lowed purpose has been constantly, per-
severingIy and unblushingly persisted in,
with a pertinac!ty of exertlon and a peril
dy in the use OF means never surpassed
by any conspiracy ever formed against
the liberties Of mankind. The dismem-
berment of the neighboring republic of
Mexico the reconstruction Of slavery thro'-
out an Immense portion of her territory
and the purchase or conquest of Califor-
mia, with the lying pretension Of reanneX-
ing Texas TO this Union, have been, and
yet are among these proAigate and I'M
princpled means. An absurd and pre-.
posterous attempt to pick quarrel with
Great Britain, upon false and frivolous
pretences, is another. The utter proslra-
ton of the exclusive constitutional power
of Congress to declare war, the whole
compound budget Of blunders and OF
crimes-the abortive negotiation of i
treaty of plumber and robbery, which the
Senate had the common sense and com.
mon honesty almost unanimously to re-
ject-the gIarng faIsehood by which the
Texans themselves were invei9led into
the negotialion-all these, and many more
enormiles of the deepest dye, are but
paris and parcels of the agony of slavery,
struggling for existence and perpeluation
against the awakening conscience of man
kind.
The abortion Of slave-mongering di-
pomacy, miscalled a treaty, attempted in
the last ours OF an administration detest>
ed and despsed even by its own parlisans
is the last act OF this knot of conspiratoTS |
against human freedom, Their foul and
filthy purpose has at length been exlored |
from them. 1t is, by an extermnating (
war, to roo Mexico of her provinces and to
defend and perpetuate slavery by open
war against England, for undertaking to
abolish it throughout the world. A self
styled president of the United States, and
two successive secretaries Of state of his
have, with shameless eAront'
cry, avowed that their project of whole
sale treachery, robbery and murder, was
undertaken and pursued for the deliberate
purpose of overreaching, overturning and
destroying the system of policy of the
British nation to promote the abolition OF
slavery throughout the world have
long foreseen and watched the progress OF
the two systems towards this issue, and