The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1844-03-07

Called democratic government or Tepul
lacGn law? What say you! Yet sue
is slavery and slave. holding Legislation
n and such is our government as il has bee
administered.
X If | understand rightly the object of
democratic or republican government
such as poor and Iaboring men want, ant
i shall yet have in this land-it is in chief
, to PROTECT MEN IN THEIR RIGHTS
Rights come from God, and precede al
constitutions and forms of government
They spring from the moral nature o.
man. God has given to man moral fac.
ulties, and insists upon moral character.
To answer the demand, man must have
the right TO action co-extenSive with the
claim 10 obedience The interference of
governments can lawfully extend no far.
Their than TO simple protection, and thus
far it can, for while it is true that God
has given 10 all men equal natural rights,
he has furnished no one with adequate
individual securities; but has made each
dependent upon his fellows, thus laying
the foundation ola democratic government
in individual helplessness and mutual
wants.
In the next place, as men do not derive
their RIGHTS from government, but it
derives It's authority from them, it follows
that government can not be democratic
but must be arstocra!ic, which expends
its favors, or dsburses its protection with
reference to any qualifications which in
for instance: riches or poverty. beauty or
ug!iness, education or iliteracy, equivocaI
paren'age or iIustrious ancestry, birth in
America or in Ireland, Wilderness or black.
ness Of skin, can form no reason for
drawing distinctions in constitutional
rights, poIitical privileges, or legal pro-
lection. If distinctions are drawn and
sanctioned by government it is aristo-
cratic to the degree it does so; if it ex.
tends its principles of caste to the des,ruc-
lion of personal rights, it is despoiic.
Now slavery sweeps the whole circle,
destroys personal rights and political ex-
istence; and as far as it has power, wages
unrelenting war with republican freedom.
Proposition 81 That SLAVERY is A
POLITICAL INSTITUTION, AGGRESSIVE,
NOT PASSIVE IN ITS NATURE, WELDING
THE POLITICAL POWER OF THE COUNTRY
TO ITS ADVANTAGE, AND USING AS ITS
TWO GREAT AGENTS, THE WING AND
DEMOCRATIC PARTIES.
la illustration of this proposition, l
shall offer Two classes of facts, one class
of legal character, the other class of
monetary character.
|. AT the formation of the Constitution,
the shareholders obtained monopoly Of
the traffic 10 slaves for nineteen years -
During this period, from 1889 10 1905
the trade was carried on more briskly
than before, in order that the s!aveholding
States nigh! be able to set up business al
home: thus transferring the Guinea coast
from Africa to the District of Columbia,
and the trade in pure negroes to their own
sons and daughters,
! 2. The Shareholders obtained under a
plea of an offset to the advantage derived
| by the North ia the Senate, from the
smalIneas OF their States, representation
of heir slave population, by which, under
the first apportionmen OF representatives.,
which lasted from 1889 to 1898, they
secured seven congressman more than
they would have been entitled to under
an equal representation, based upon white
population alone. Under the second,
which lasted from 1903 till 1918, they
had sixteen congressman more than an
equal representation founded upon white
population would have given them. Un-
der the third, which went to 1928, they
gained twenty-five congressman. Under
the fourth, which went to 1888, they had
twenty-four congressman. Under the .fjth,
which went 10 l843 they had twenty We
congressman more than they would have
had under an equal representation based
on white population. Thus you see the
SHAREHOLDERS have welded, on the floor of
Congress, an enormous political force
since the commencement OF the govern.
ment.
3. In the earlier part of the government
the slaves were mostly colored. Free
colored men were therefore the especial
objects of hatred to shareholders; so in
1890, they pushed Congress into a most
barbarous policy, LIST. in excluding all
coIored foreigners from ever being nat
uraIized; I'd, in 1892, passing an act oy
which all colored men were prohibited
from being enrolled in the militia; Sd. in
1898, in passing the horrible law by
which every foot of soil at the North was
made a Legitimate background for the
human blood hound, and making it the
duty Of every State officer to help when
called upon; 4th, in 1910, in passing an
act by which no col0red man can carry
the mail, or be employed as drjoer on
a coach that carries it, under a penalty of
fifty dollars.
4. In 1903, the shareholders took Mr..
Jefferson in hand, and under preteXt of