The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-11-20

ugue, receiving eight dollars mOntIi, thc Sain0
that the aristocracy received per day IN the
shades of the National palace, and we fell In
battle in the post of peril; we persisted by thou
sands; we were thrown together as beasts INTO
trenches with no stone to mark the place OF
our resting But when an Office of honor and
profit was to be filled, in the commissary or
quartermaster's department-when major, or
"a Lieutenant colonel, or n colonel, or major
or brigadier general, were to be appointed
then in every instance, 40 far as my knowledge
goes. they were shareholders And when they
too fell, no more gloriously than we, their re-
mains were brought home ut the expense of the
State! And the monument of marble which
ovcrlooks the Capitol, inscribed with their
names, draws in death as well rs in life the I'M
diving distinction between the slayeholding aris-
tocracy and the people of this Commonwealth!
There is even carried TO the statute book this
distinction of caStes-one measure OF justice Tor
the stakeholder, and another for the non-slaye-
holder If the horse of the laborer, known to
be vicious Injuries the person or property OF the
STAKEHOLDER, he sues him, and causes him to
make remuneration. But if the property, the
slave, of the Observation-Disclosures by the most
solemn avowals of themselves to be a vicious
animal-destroys the life or property of the Ia
borer, he is not repaid a cent but, on the con-
trary, if the slave is executed for the offence,
the widow and orphans, if the head of the fam
lily is slain are taxed in addition TO their pres
ent loss, vet more to remunerate the slavehold-
er who has been obstinately the cause of their
ruin. So also as in the State, is it in the Ma
tional statute book If the horse Of the laborer
escape into other States. he must return him
at his own expense; but If the slave escape into
other States and it is necessary tn guard him
back. the great mass of the people have 10 be
the guard and to pay the expense. The slave
holders have right to the delivery" of their
slaves but / have ever and ever will deny their
right 10 make me a slaye-catcher, or to tax Inc
to restore their Losses The very thing that is
done in this Fugitive Slave Bill was refused
to be allowed in the United States Constitution
by our fathers Because said they, it would
be taxing them. and making them responsible
for slavery, which responsibility they would
never consent to assume, but left it with the
States, where it of right belongs. That law is
not only unconstitutional but it violates all the
PRINCIPLES sc ;,.et;"" ca,j enli0btened iurisprl-
. ; oce. and ieopards The literty o1 every free
a.. ~ ~ day that the A"'Hri-
can people slSh deliberately ac W. ~ y. :, ,..,
will have fallen below, in the scale of liberty
every limited monarchy in Christendom.
Have not the States already done enough
and more than enough for the peculiar nsti-
tutionln Is it not satisfied with its supremacy !
Is it not sufficient that we have made three
wars for it's security and taxed ourselves three
hundred and fifty millions of dollars-and lost
forty thousand lives in its defence and extension,
and perpetuation Have not our ambassadors
degraded us in the eyes of the free. all over the
earth. by the avowals which we have repeated
" made, that we could not allow the existence
of Republics on our Southern border, "because
it would endanger the institutionsofthe South ~
Have not the most solemn treaties with Spain
and Mexico been violated by slayehodng
Administration, by marching our troops into
their territory. without declaration of war
acts which even barbarous nations for the last
two thousand years have scOrned to do! Does
not the United States Constitution give the war
power solely to Congress! How dare slave
holding President to enact this gross usurpa-
ton A.? What caused Georgia to defy the Ma
tional Government, and Cypress an Indian ma
ton under our most sacred projections Where
in the slave States is the freedom of speech and
the press. secure-those constitutional rights
and only safeguards of liberty who are they
who sell free citizen of these States into slave
ry, because he dare venture, under the 1gis of
the National Constitution, which declares,
"The citizens of each State shall be entitled to
all the privileges and immunties of citizens in
the several States" into the bounds of the "pe-
culiar institution :" Who, by "the common
law of slavery" refuse redress for these atroc
ties in the courts of Justice and add insult to
injury by cowardly violence against gray-head-
ed age and the loneliness and helplessness of
Who violate the sacrcdness of
the National power, in the plundering of the
United States mails Who pursue every free
spirit with more than Austrian vigilance and
despotism, searching persons and trunks and
breaking open private letters, and violating
even unto death the persons of all who dare deny
that the Declaration of Independence is u lie?
Who, declaring that territory which comes
in slave shall remain slave, but that which
comes in free shall remain free reapng all the
benefit of the first half of the proposition for
three quarters Of century; but so soon as it
was possible for freedom to gain by it. then
rcpudiated it, holding fast to what they already
have-crying out, let MS struggle for the re-
mainder, Who impudently laid claim, on the
ground Of conquest to II State which was con-
queror, and forced their cowardly dependents
in these States under threats of the bayonet
to give them ten millions of our money, to in
duce them to take eighty thousand square
miles of our territory! Who, driving us by
carrying arms in the United States Senate, and
threatening violence against the freedom of
legislation, to abandon the Ordinance of 1897,
on the plea that the people of each State should
determine for themselves the character of her
institutions, when that State unanimously votes
herself free declares that it shall not be admit
ted into the Union Who refused the delegate
of New Mexico n hearing, whilst her territory
was being partitioned, as Poland, in the Con-
gress of the United States because she had the
insolence to make a free constitution Who
declares in the United States Senate, the temple
of our liberty that the declaration Of Indepcnd-
dence is lie! What papers, North and South,
take up the cry, and attempt by bribery, pro-
scripton, and denunciation, to intimidate us
into the postulate, that we care slaves }"
What was the object of your great Southern
Convention What Senator had in his pocket
constitution for "slave republic" to DO form
ed ont of the fragments of this Union? For
what is South Carolina in armsi Why does
Alabama and Georgia, and Mississippi, back
her with rifle in hand" What means your
" Secession y and your Southern "Union par
tyt say that the Decorators of 1916 had no.
such list of nsufferable grievances as -
against the British crown! In the Stats III
Maine in those mountain homes by the church
and the school, lived in simple habits, undc-
bauched by the iururies Of cotton, some of the
Puritan blood who have not succumbed to the
Austrian doctrine, "that the great object of
Government is the protection of property" but
who yet hold in sacred remembrance the dcta
of 10. And they agreed to meet together on
that glorious day, and revive, if possible, in the
hearts of people, those noble princples-yct
trusting in the salvation of the Republic and
the establishment of the liberties of men And
they were kind enough to remember me, who
among the down-trodden masses of the South
was III IN obscure way struggling for the same