Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1849-03-22
Mr. Claws Letter on Emancipation,

Mr. Gays Letter on Emancipation,
We take pleasure in presenting the important
letter Of Mr.. Gay for the purpose of availing
ourselves particularly of the benefits of his adj
missions, aud secondly, of expressing our oppo-
sitiou tssSaa 1heme he hes presented. Not
withstanding4he objection which may be made
to his plan, (und we believe they are insupera
be,) the letter will have beneficial effect in
bringing the subject to the minds of thousands
who could not be brought to reflect and act up
on itby no other communication. The great,
and We may say the only merit of this letter 49,
its clear recognition Of the essential wrong and
injustice of slavery and the practicabiIity of its
removal; Mr.. Clay is encountered with no veil
of sOphstry IN describing the odious features Of
the slave systcm. He recognizes and admits its
character as system of oppression without any
redeemng qualities. The arguments he uses
demolishes at once and forever the position that
shareholders and pro-savery men have taken to
sustain it. We trust that this letter, coming as
it does from one of the greatest statesmen of the
age will have tendency to awaken the South
to the subject of providing fol the removal OF
that system which originated in wrongs per
petuated by brute force-and must end in con
sequences the most fearful if persisted in.
In the first place, Mr.. Clay presents the prn-
ciple by which slavery is maintained, and ad'
mits that the principle would enslave the white
race as certainly; if black subjects Of slavery
could not be obtained, and that the Africans
would be equally justified in reducing the white
race to bondage for the purpose OF securing the
alleged benefits arising from the subjUgation Oh
one portion of the human race 10 another. The
argument made use IF to sustain slavery, deri
we'd from their alleged inferiorily to the white
races, he says, would prove that any white ma
ton, which had made greater advances in civil
ization, knowledge and wisdom than another
white nation, would have the right to reduce the
latter to state of bondage" Consequently the
principle carried out in its fullest extent would
lead to The abugation of all mankind to the
wiscst and most powerful man in the world
W. hqge no controversy with Mr. Clay upon
this poiR 7de inevitable conclusion is, and
we are Rranted in coming to it from the evil
dences hhe case, that as long as shareholders
can be Finished with black subjects they will
use thet but if deprived of black subjects
they wojl enslave us and their own children.
And thiss the system, and these are the prn-
ciples wlch has been claimed by Shareholders
at the Saith, as being the chief corner stone of
our rep ican institutons-the bond Of our glo
rious Union" The system Of American slave
ry, the principles of which has been honestly
and faithfully portrayed, lies coiled around the
very yihS of our liberties, ready on any occa'
sion when its demands are refused, to crush at a
stroke the fair fabric of our republican institu
tiom. According to the admissions of Mr..
Clay, we have been sustaining and perpetuating
an institution as destitute Of any charity--be-
nevoence -religion-or democracy, as the SPAN
ISL inquisltion.
Again Mr.. Clay admits that slavery exerts
communicating influence upon the community
where it exists--that it degrades free labor, and
the condition of the wlite laborer-that it redu-
ces the value of their land that it is an injury
to the agriculture of the State-that it seriously
effects their commerce and manuiactures-that
it shuts out foreign captal-that is wrong
which the descendants of Africa are suffering at
their hands which should be redressed-and that
it is at war with the liberty of the human race.
This picture has been faithful drawn, and these
and other arguments have been used before by
men who have been tainted as fanatics and
agiators" who were dreaming Of the northern
Coufederacy, and actuated by some unholy pur-
pose, and every effort which they have made for
the removal of this evil has been met with
sneer Henceforth when those men who have
the cause of humanity and of human freedom
at heart charge home these burning truths upon
the desnOlers of our race, they will have an au-
thority from which no appeal will be taken. We
regret that Mr.. Clay has not proposed scheme
that meets the case fully, and that he had not
closed bis letter by a patriotic appeal to the
whole South, as well as Kentucky, to adopt some
measure TO relieve the country from system
fraught with so many dreadful consequences.
But lot no one suppose that he entertains any
such an object or even proposes to restrict sla-
very within its present limits. After viewing
tho admissions which he makes connected with
American slavery, we are disposed to examine
the remedy which is proposed with candor, max
no dine allowance for the circumstances which
surround him. and we hope to escape doing IN
Justice either to his motives or scheme of eman-
cipatiou II will be recollected that Mr.. Clay is
President of the Colonization Society, the nilu-
ence # which is adverse to emancipation
Heaeo tits, that the very first step which he
takes ii the premises is to present the reader
with view of the colony on the western coast
Of Africa.
Here it is that Mr.. Clay declares emphatically,
that awithout it, he should be utterly opposed
to anv scheme of emancipation" And as an
argument in favor Of colonization and pallia-
ton of the horrors of slavery, he tells you that
it NAV have been among the dispensations of
Providence to permit the system of slavery,
that the children of Africa might be returned
to their original home, imbued with the benign
spirit Of Christianity, prepared ultimately to re
deem that great continent from barbarism and
idostry." Others may form their own opinions
about Providence, but for our part we do not be-
lieve that Providence is in SO Strengthened cir