Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1848-08-30
Philadelphia, july IL, lS4S.

Gentlemen: Your letter, dated New
York, July 7, l94S, inviting me ito be pre-
sent at and address meeting to be held at
the Pail k, in the city Ct New York, on
Tuesday, the 18th inst, at 9 O'Clock in the
afternoon, for the purpose Of ratifying the
nomination of Martin Van Buren for the
presidency, and of contributing to tie ex-
tension of the free soil, and the perpetua-
ton of free labor" was received by due
course of mail, and as have no time to be
present at your meeting, and no disposition
to address it in aid of the objects ycu ap-
pear to have in view, | have concluded to
address you few words of advice AID
counsel in regard to your political notions,
and the course you have adopted to carry
them into effect. t''
had previously learned from the news
papers that Mr.. Martin Van Buel had
been nominated for the presidency, by a
conv tion held in Utica, In your State, u
prominent actor in the getting up of which
was his eldest son, John, but l have not
seen any &C ount of his acceptance of that
nomination, and did not, until the receipt of
your letter, believe that he was really can
didate for that honorable and important Of
flee.
But your letter sets all doubts at rest, and
developes the fact that Martin Van Buren,
is again before the people of the United
States as candidate for the presidencr,
and is. through his friends, seeking their
suffrages, under the pretext that he is in fa-s
vor of free soil and free labor. 4
An elderly gentleman of my acquaint-
ance often makes the remark, that "there
are SO many swaps and changes in politics,
that one can hardly keep the run of them,"
and the late extraordinary political somer-
set of Martin Van Buren, strongly verifes
the truth of this saying.
| In 1886, Mr.. Van Bureh, than Vice
! President cf the United States, and cardi-
date for the Presidency, gave, as President
of the Senate, a casting vote in favor of
law that required postmasters in the South
ern States to examine papers and pamphlets
passing through their offices, and directed
them not to deliver any that contained any
thing on the subject Of slavery.
During the same session of Congress, his
friends, at his earnest suggestion, voted
to admit the State of Arkansas into the
Union, although the Constitution provided
for the existence and continuance of negro
slavery.
In his inaugural address, delivered March
A, 1887, he said that he went into the
Presidential chair the uncompromising op-
ponent of every attempt on the part of Con-
gress to abolish slavery in the District of
Columbia, and no bill for that purpose
could receive his approval, and that he
would equally resist any attempt to abolish
it in the States where it existed.
This was an extraordinary proceeding on
his part--the subject never having been
referred to in an inaugural address by any
President before or since.
And in 1889, when party of negroes
were taken in the Spanish schooner Amistad,
and were in the custody of the U. S. Mar
shall for the district of Connecticut, await
ing the issue of case before the U. S. Dis
trict Court for that district, involving the
question of their liberty, Mr.. Van Buren,
issued an order to the Marshall, directing
him to take them out of the custody Of the
court, and place them on board the U. s.
vessel of war.
1t is difficult to imagine an act more at
variance with every principle of justice than
this last one, and a disposition to play the
sycophat to tie pro-slavery men OF the south,
is universally set down as the motive for it.
With thesezseveral public acts of MIR.
Van Buren sanding in bold relief on the
pages of our country's history, he cuts a
sorry figure in now appearing before the
people Of the United States the foremost
champion of free soil and free labor.
And why, permit me to ask, is all this
clamor about the abolition of negro slavery?
for although you sail under the banner of
free soil and free labor, it is easy to perceive
that this is not your object. Can you not
see in the signs of the times that gradual but
certain extinction of that social evil, slightly
impeded oflate 'tis true, by the misdoings Of
some "whose zeal is not according to knows
ledge"
1t is about two centuries since the first
of the African race were brought to our
shores. They were then what they still
are in their native country, miserable, puny,
effeminate creatures; scarcely better than