Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1844-01-16
MR.. ADAMS, ON ABOLITION.

We extract the following from speech
of Mr.. ADAMS, on this subject delivered in
the II. of r. Dec. Odd. His views and
opinions we believe, are misunderstood We
ry generally. Our purpose in making this
extract is that these mistaken views may be
corrected The extract which we make,
is as full an exposition as we have seen.
and shows clearly Mr.. ADAMS views ard
exactly the position in which he stands:-
Mr.. ADAMS proceeded to say that the
gentleman who spoke yesterday latter hold
ing out the terrific and the most alarming
threat to the Northern portion of this
Union, TO which he had alluded, declared
that they stood upon the constitution of the
United States, and, by implication, if not
by rect motion, that the abolition petit
tions-for they referred not, they affirmed,
to the subject before the House-the re-
solves of the Legislature of Massachusetts,
but the abolition petitions which had formed
the subject of their remarks-were vio-
lation of the Constitution. Petitions vio-
laton Of the Constitution! That was what
i, had come 10; and the gentlemen, all Of
them, in the midst Of fury, laughter, =
all declared that they were most deeply,
from the bottom Of their souls, attached TO
the Constitution Of this Union; and they
seemed to intimate that the Legislature of
Massachusetts which had passed these re-
sotves-,houghrh gentlemen did not seem
to refer to them, but particularly to the alb
olitonis,s, who send petitions 10 this House
were not attached to the Union. He
(Mr A. twas not there TO answer for the pur-
poses or the views Of any abolition society
or of anv individual abolitionist. He was
in one sense an abolitonist himselC-that
sense in which Thomas Jefferson was an
aboli,onist when. in the nth year Of his
life, he deliberately committed to paper the
opinion, and he addressed il t, all the slave
holders OF this Union, that abolition was
thing which they must grant, and the soon
err the better Whoever would take up the
works of Mr.. Jefferson would find the
words he quoted. Mr.. Jefferson said fate
had destined that the people shall be free.
Fate! He (Mr. A. would change the
word, and say the God of nature has des-
tined that the people shall be free; and he
will make them free in his own good time
He { Mr.. A. did not expect it to be in his
day.
In the same sense, then, in which Thorn
as Jefferson was an aboliionst, and an
aboli,ionist all his life. he Mr.. A. was an
aboitionist; and he hoped the day would
come when slavery would be word with
out meaning-when there would be no
such thing as slave on the face of the
earth. He considered it as the consumma-
ton Of The Christian religion. Then would
be the time when the lion should lie down
with the lamb; then would be the time
when all the glorious prophecies of the Old
Testament, which were renewed by Jesus
Christ when on His mission to this world,
would be fulfilled; and when all the inha-3
bltan,s Of this globe would approach near
err to the nature of angels than they are at
this time. In that sense he was an aboli
ZIONIST; but as member OF any abolition
society of this country, az this time, he wa,
not, nor ever had been, an abolitionlst'