Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1845-02-14

ny any lnterposltlon OF It's authority or any guar
anty or assurance whatever. 1t pledged itself in
Decd to exercise its authority TO suppress insurrec-
tons, but this provision was as applicable to one
State as another. There is reason, however, to be-
leve that at that time there existed amongst the cit
lzens OF the country, generally, even amongst those
OF the slave holding States themselves, belief that
slavery was on the wane; that new views of pot-
zeal economy and Of the general interest, would
lead to the supplying of its place by free labor and
may be added with entire truth, that the SUCCESS
iul termination OF the war which had been waged
for liberty and the rights of nun, had impressed
general expectation that the political liberation of
the country from foreign dominiGn would tend TO
produce dispositions favorable to change of the
relations between the black and white races; a
chatgo which, commencing with mitigation, and
proceeding gradually and with safety from step to
step, might eventually terminate in the total aboli.
ton of Slavery Acts of legislation, official adj
dresses, memorials, resolutions and many other
forms OF public proceeding, showed clearly the ex-
istence of such expectation Let us recur to
sentiments expressed at that TING, by those whose !
memory the todhtry loves and reveres and whose
wisdom, virtue, and patriotic exertions were most
eminent "a giving it an honored station among the
nations Of the earth
Soon after the adoption of the Constitution, it
was declared by GEORGE WASHINGTON TO be "a
mong his first wishes to sec some plan adopted by
which slavery might be abolished by laws" and in
various forms, in public and private conmunica-
tons, he avowed his anxious desire that ga spirit
Of humanity" prompting to " the emancipation of
The slaves" " might dlilsc itself generally into the
minds Of tho peoples and he gave the assurance,
that $50 far as his own suffrage would CO." his in
luencc should not be wanting to accomplish this
result BY his last will aud testament he provided
that all his slaves should receive their Freedom"
and, in terms gniican of the deep solicitude he
felt upon the subject, he "most pontedly and most
soemnly cnolncd it upon his executors to'see that
the clause respecting slaves, and every part thereof
be rclgiously fulfilled, without evasion, neglect or
delay"
No language can be more explicit, more emphat-
&c, or more solemn, than that in which THOMAS
JEFFERSON, from the beginning to the end of his
life, uniformly declared his opposition to Slavery
81 tremble for my country" said he "when re-
fleet that God is just-that his justice cannot sleep
forever" "The Almighty has no attribute
which can take side with us in such contest
In reference to the state Of public feeling as nfu-
enced by the Revolution, he said, III think change
already pcrCeptlbe since the origin of the Revou-
tion;' and to show his own view of the proper in
uence of the spirit of the Revolution upon slavery,
he proposed the searching question: Who can en-
dure toll, famine, stripes, imprisonment and death
itself, in vindlcaton of his own liberty and the
next moment be deaf to all those motives whose
power supported him through his trial, and infllct
on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is
fraught with more misery than ages of that which
he rose IN rebellion to oppose 2" "We must watt"
he added. "wlth patience, the workings of over
ruling Providence, and hope that that is preparing
the deliyerancc of these suffering brethren.-
! When the measure of their tears shall be full
when their tears shall have involved heaven itself
in darkness, doubtless God of justice will AVA
ken to their distress, and by dffusing light and lib
eraly among their oppressors, at length by his
cxtcrminating thunder, manifest his attention to
things Of this world and that they be not left to the
guidance of blind fla ality!" Towards the close of
his HE, Mr.. Jefferson made a renewed and final
declaration of his opinion by writing thus to a
friend: My sentiments, on the subject of the sla-
very Of negroes, have long since been in possess
ion OF the public and time has only served to give
them stronger root. The love of Justice and the
love OF country plead equally the cause Of these
people; and 1t is a moral reproach to us that thew
should have pleaded ii so long in vain, and should
have produced not single effort-nay, | fear not
much serious willingness, to relieve them and our
selves from our present condition of moral and po-
litical reprobation."
" 1t would rejoice my very SOUL" said PATRICK
HENRY, in the Virginia Convention, 81 that every
one of my fellow beings was emancipated. AS we
ought with gratitude to admire that decree of Hea-
ven which has numbered us among the free, we
ought to lament and deplore the necessity of hold
ing our fellow men in bondage 81 believe time
will come," he also remarked, in letter to a friend
in his Jwn State, when an opportunity will be of.
ered to abolish this lamentable evil"
! Fill America comes into this measure" 1.-THE
abolition of slavery said JouN JAY, writing from
Spain in $780, "her prayers to Heaven will be i'm
pous. | believe God governs the world and be-
lleve 1t to be maxim in his, as in courts that
those who ask for equity ought to do it."
\ we content ourselves with quoting further the
preamble of the Abolition Act of Pennsylvania
'When we contemplate adherence of that
condition to which the arm and tyranny of Great
Britain were eXerted to reduce us when we look
hocl, no IF ~ b;,b ho,,
been exposed and how miraculuusly in many in
stances, our wants have been supplied and our de-
llverance wrought, when even hope and human
fortitude have become unequal to the confct,-we
are unavoidaby led to u serious and grateful sense
of the manifold blessings which we have undeser-
I vedly received from the hand of that Being from
whom every good and perfect gift cometh I'm
pressed with these ideas, conceive that it is our
duty, and we rejoice that it is in our power, to eX
tend portion of that freedom to others which has
been extended to us and relieve them from that
state of thraldom, to which we ourselves were ty
rancally doomed, and from which we have now ev
cry prospect of being delivered.
i awe esteem it peculiar blessing, granted to
us, that we are this day enabled to add one more
stepto universal civilization, by removing, as much
as possible the sorrows Of those who have lived in
undeserved bondage, and from which, by the assu-
med authority Of the Kings of Great Britain no
efectuul legal relief could be obtained. Weaned
ny Il long course OF experience IRON those narrow
preudices and partialitics we had inbibed we find
our hearts enlarged with kindness and benevoence
towards men of all conditions and nations; and we
conceive ourselves at this particular period, extra
ordinarily called upon by the blessings which we
have received, to manifest the sincerity of our pro-
fessons, and to give substantial proof our graf
itpde,
"And wi ere as the condition of those persons who
have heretofore been denominated negro and mu-
ldtto slaves, has been attended with circumstances
which not only deprived them of the common bles-
sing 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 great
ness of which can only be conceived by supposing
that we were in the same unhappy case In JUS
tee, therefore, to persons unhappily crcumsan-
cel. and who. hiNinm no nrnsnecL before lhenl