The Daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1845-1850, 1850-03-04
LETTER FROM HON. CHARLES ALLEN.
WAsHINGToN, Feb. 18th, 1850.

| w ASHIN FeD ZOln, IO0U.
My DEAR SIR:--I have been notified by the
Committees Circular that there will be Free Soil
| Convention at Faneuil Hall on the 9th, and would
be present at its deliberations lii person shall be
in spirit, were it not necessary for TO at
the post assigned me by my constituents The call
of the Convention Is timely, and trust that its do
lngs will result in great good few months ago,
the Free Soil party In Massachusetts would have
been accused of presumption had they assumed, in
appearance even the position of exclusive defenders
of the W1mot Proviso. Our friends of the predonl-
nant party In the State proessed to be unanimous in
Its support, and demanded the post of honor in It's
defence. Within few weeks the language of lis
press, commonly the exponent of its opinions and
policy, has undergone entire change. 1t is now
as tamey submissive as it was osentatiously valiant
And any other overt act is needed to Indicate the
purpose of the leaders of the party, am panied to
add that the Representative of the Suffolk district
has recently declared to the North and the South the
policy OF the Wing party TO be, an abandonment of
any attempt to restrict Slavery by legislation To
Massachusetts Representative belongs the honor if
such be, of making the first declaration from the
Free States, in the House of Representatives that
the prohibition of Slavery in the Free Territory was
not TO be any longer urged With such evidence of
submission by Massachusetts TO the demands of the
shareholders daily press freghted with exhorta-
tons to puslanlmous betrayal of great principle
Tor which that same press has earnestly commended
followed by the recent flight and more recent sur
render OF representative from the State-there is
on the part of some of her friends an anxious solicit
tude to hear the voice of her PEOPLE. If that too
shall counsel the yielding up of the cause of Freedom
IN this hour not less Of her great need than of her
assured Uictory save for the treachery of her own
household, well may despair settle on the hearts and
palsy the efforts of all who yet struggle to maintain
the cause of truth, liberty, and Justice Where
shall such look for support if not to Massachusetts
And her own renown, won by many generations of
wise statesmen and patrots shall it be forever lost
IN one irrevocable hour of infatuated recreancv?-
Such will be her Just DOOM if she shall not now do
clare III the language of her Chief Magstrate-ss
teraining doubt of the constitutional poyer of
Congress TO exclude Slavery from its own territories
= and believing that such exclusion is demanded nv
the highest principles of morality and Justice she
never consent to its extension over one foot If
territory where it now is not. If the other Free
States concur with her in this resolution the thing
will be done, and consequences left to them
! Selves
Failing in this duty, she will vanly point to her
Lexington, Concord, and Charestown There in
, deed is the impershable record of what was once
done for liberty. But of the Massachusetts of the
E nineteenth century, it will be said that she could
erect monuments to perpetuate the remembrance of
virtues she no longer possesses of sacrifices she is too
slothful or mercenary to encounter of achievements
she cannot emulate.
look to the Convention at Faneuil Hall to rescue
my native State from the degradation into which
there Is danger that treacherous counses will beray
asg peph cannot doubt that IN its ear5ss aqsy
against the extension of slavery it will truly repre-
sent the Interchangeable sentiment of the whole com
munity. Let the voice of indignant rebuke of tboso
who would yield the assent of Massachusetts to the
diffusion of that which Wesley truly characterized
as ''the sum of all vlllanes, go FORTH full, free
and unrestralned. 1t will be echoed back to Faneul
Hall from every valley and every HILTON
However it may be in the cities. in the countrx
e this question of liberty slavery in the Territories
will not be settled solely by reference TO the balance
sheet OF commercial gain loss. Not Indifferent to
i the external prosperity of the Commonwealth. our
II people have not yet lost their regard for princnle =
Neither have they now to learn that the happiness If
nation has Its permanent foundations in an adber-
ence to the right They know that the history Of
their own State is history of unexampled prosperity
and OF unexampled sacrifices to acquire and secure
1T. They are the descendants of men who obtained
all things by putting all things often in PERIL of men
who took duty for their guide and followed WHEREBY
er it pointed out the way. To vicious expediencv
their fathers did not trust And the God of Justice
IN whose hands are the desines of nations led then
:, in safety through every danger
My manner of treating this subject NAV lead erro
neously to the belief that apprehend civil commo.
ton as the consequence of adherence in our oppos
ton to the encroachments of the slave power have
no such apprehensions The South will 20 Just SC
far as the fears of the North shall encourage her
go, even to the verge of rebellion. Beyond that she
will not venture. The reasonable Convention abou
to assemble at Nashville owes its origin to a belle
mat me free States can be intimdated by the men,
ace of Disunion The degree of arrogance which
the Convention shall manifest will depend upon the
strength of its confidence in the pusilanimity Of
northern ireemen Let the people of the Free States
but show that they are immovable IN their OPPOSE
ton to the extension of Slavery that they cannot be
calolcd by the prof1er of wicked compromises, nor
heightened by the threat of Southern Confederacv.
and that notable assembly of the slave-hoding chy
airy, convened in folly, will disperse in deep dis
grace. The Union will gather strength from this
eoastiul effort tor Its overthrow, and the first great
blow In the unbroken series of tIiumphs will have
been struck at that monstrous Despotism, which nm
der the forms of free government, seeks to subject
the Western hemisphere to the dominion of the most
heart-crushing tyranny.
| Yours, truly,
, CHARLES ALLEN.