Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1845-02-21


opportunity will be offered to abolish this lament
able evil" a'lfeag P
''Ti America comes into this measure the
abolition cf Slavery said JOHN JAY, writing
from Spain in 1880, cher prayers to Heaven will
be impious. / believe God governs the world,
and believe it to be a maxim in his, as in our
courts, that those who ask for equity ought to do
it." t
We content ourselves with quoting further
the preamble of the abolition act of Pennsylvs-
MIA
"When we contemplate our adherence ofthat
condition to which the arms and tyranny Of Great
Britain were exerted to reduce us; when we look
back on the variety Of dangers to which we have
been exposed, and how miraculously, in many in
stances, cur wants have been supplied, and our
deliyerances wrought, when even hope and hui
man lortitude have become unequal to the con-
hict, we are unOvoidably led to a serious and
grateful sense Of the manifold blessings which we
have undeservedly received from the hand ofthat
Being. from whom every good and perfect gift
cometh Impressed with these ideas, we con-
ceive that it is our duty and we rejoice that it
is in our power, to extend portion Of that free
dom to others which has been extended to US,
and relieve them from that state of thEaldom, to
which we ourselves were tyranncally doomed,
and from which we have now every prospect Of
being delivered"
owe esteem it as peculiar blessing granted
to us, that we are this day enabled to add one
more step to universal civilization, by removing, as
much as possible, the sorrows Of those that have
lived in undeserved bondage, from which, by the
assumed authority of the kings of Great Britain,
no eifectual legal relief could be obtained. Wean-
ed by long course of experience from those
narrow prejudces and partiaties we had imbb-
ed we find our hearts enlarged with kindness
and beneyolence towards men ofall conditions a.
nations: and we conceive ourselves, at this par
ticular PERIOD extraordinarily called upon by the
blessing which we have received to manifesto the
sincerity of our professions, and to give sub
Stantial proof of our gratitude.
"And whereas, the condition of those persons
who have heretofore been denominated negro and
muIlatto slaves, has been attended with circunI-
stances which not only deprived them of the COM
mon blessings they were by nature entitled to,
but has cast them into the deepest Affections, by
an unnatural separation and sale of husband and
wife from each other, and from their children;
an injury, the greatness cf which can only be
conceived by supposing we were i'll the same I'M
happy case;-in Justice, therefore, to persons 50
unhappily circumstanced, and who, having no
reasonable inducement to render the service to
society which they otherwise might, and also, in
grateful commemoration of their own happy de-
liverance from that state of unconditional sub
mission, to which they were doomed by the ty-
ranny of Britain;-be it enacted, that no child
hereafter born, shall be a slave, &c"
The slave-trade was admitted to be an enor-
nous offence against religion and humanity, and
power was given to the new government to abo-
ish it, and when the appointed time arrived they
did abolish it with the general concurrence Of
all.
1t is manifest, then, that neither any specific
provision of the constitution, nor anything to be
gathered from its general intent nor any sentl-
ment or opinion in the minds Of those who franz
= ed it, and who were among the greatest men CT
the country at that time, can warrant the belief
that more was expected Of the constitution, and
: the government to be established under it, than
> the prevention cfthe further importation Of slaves
> from Africa, leaving the States where it already
existed, to deal with il as an affair Of their own
and it is equally manifest, that the hopes of the
wise and good, the NEST ardent wishes Of the
NEST influential and patriotic men i'll the country,
= looked not to the further increase End extension
. of slavery, but to its gradual abotion and the
= highest ntelIccts eff the country were exercised
! in the contemplation eff means by which that abb
" clifton might be best effected.
As significant Of the fact that the trainers Of
- the constitution considered domestic slavery a
condition of things which wctId be Of Temporal
y ry duration, we ask your attention to this cir
=" cumstance While the constitution contains pro
IT, visions adapted to the actual condition of the
u southern States, and to the servitude which ex
listed there, it does net cnce recognise slavery in
. terms. The word sldue, is not to be found IL
10 that document That the ommissicn is net acct
. dental would be clearly and necessarily inferred
y from the careful circumlocuticn by which thu
- class of persons is provided fer, without being
named.
&c But we are not left to inference, however ir
&c resistble, to enable US to ascertain the reasoi
y. of the omission. IT was declared by a distin
- gushed member Of the convention of 1881
TO An act cont9Mporaneous with the formation
H. the constitution, throws further light upon tn
~ purposes of the fathers of the republic,
to In July, 1887, while the convention that Tram
to ed the constitution was in session, the well know
he ordinance for the government Of the northwes
ed territory was adopted with but one dissentln
NO vote, by the old continental Congress 1t pre-
ct vided as we have have seen, for the formation {
en States out of that territory It also ordained thu
,Iy there should for ever after be slavery, or il
of voluntary seryitude, within it, When it is r
he membered that this ordnance extended its pre-
cb visions over all the territories then possessed b