The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1852-06-15
An Address to the Anti-siavcry Christians
4n Of the United States.

An Address to the Anti Slavery Christians
4f Of the United States.
/ FRIENDS AND BRETHREN; We address you IN
behalf of the American and Foreign Anli-oiaV-
cry Society. Approving OF the principles
avowed and the measures pursued by iias "sso'
citation, we beg leave TO subm to you the con-
sderations which peculiarly entitle IL al 'he
| present junctnre to the active sympathy ana
etfectual aid of the friends of the anii-slAvery
| cause.
While the advocates of constitutional govern.
ment in Europe are lamenting widespread
reaction in behalf of despotic authority, The
friends Of the nalienable rights of man behold
with grief and modification similar reaction IN
our own republic, in behalf of despotism more
| inexorable and more hostile to human progress
and happiness, than any which affcts the East
| ern continent In both instances, the reaction
is more apparent than real. Opinions in favor
Of human liberty remain the same, but the OK
| preston of them has to greater or less degree
been slihed by sudden, mighty, aud combined
effort of capitalists and politicians, aided to a
great extent by ecclesiastical Influence, and IN
each case accompanied with violated pledges
and revolving peridy.
In our own community, the cause of christian
morals has been deeply wounded, and new
impulse given to infidety, by the various modes
adopted by merchants, politicians and divines to
conciate the saveholding interest. Doctrines
have been advanced on high authority respecting
the supremacy of human laws, which, if true,
convict the g noble army of martyrs" including
the blessed apostles themselves OF being but
felons and traitors. Public men, and even pub
lie meetings, have professed in unqualified terms
their Ignorance of higher law than the federal
Constitution. Rich men among us have given
of their abundance to reduce to slavery the
fugitive from bondage; and lawyers, heretofore
regarded as reputable, have not shrnnk from
taking reward against the innocent, and prostI-
tuting noble profession to the service of the
slave catcher. The sympathy heretofore felt
for the victim of oppression who had escaped
from his prison house, and the repugnance man
Tested to aid in lis arrest, have been denounced
as "preludices to be conquered" and lips which
once uttered noble words in behalf Of human
rights, have been busly employed in proclaiming
to republicans the duty of catching slaves.
NAY, some professed ambassadors Of the merci-
full Jesus have announced from their pnlpits
that He has sanctioned the conversion into arti-
ces of merchandise of beings charged with no
crime, made little lower than the angels, and
redeemed by his own blood A law has been
PASSED for the recovery of fugitive saves, which,
for its cool violation of alt the received and nc
knowledged principles of judicial justice, for its
outrages on humanity, and for its arbitrary re
quirement of every citizen to assist in a slave.
hunt when commanded by an official mental, is
unexampled in the legislation of any christian
country. Yet an active agency in the execution
of this most detestable law has been made even
by professed ministers of the gospel, test of
christian obedience. tn
The success which has thus far attended the
combined effort to which we have referred, has
been in great measure owing to the fancied
security Of the north and the stimulated violence
of the South.
EXTENSION OF SLAVERY AND PANIC ABOUT THE
alet UNION.
The war against Mexico was waged for the
acuisition of slave territory, and great was the
fear felt by the North that human bondage
would be extended to the shores of the Pacific
No less than fourteen States protested, through
their legislatures, against any enlargement of
the area of slavery. The voice of Daniel Web
ster was raised TO warn his countrymen of the
impending calamity, and to approve and enforce
the great principles announced by the Free Soil
convention at Buffalo The innate love of lib
erty was awakened throughout the North, and
its Representatives in Congress- bowed TO the
will of their constituents; and all the devices
of the Shareholders to procure territorial gov
ernments for the conquered territories, allowing
the slavery of portion of the inhabitants, were
defeated Soon the Wilnot proviso applied,
with the assistance of Daniel Webster, to Ore.
gon, secured that important territory to freedom.
This was followed by the joyful intelligence
that New Mexico and California had both adop-
ted State constitutions prohibiting slavery. A
shout of victory ascended from the North, and
the greatness of the triumph was supposed to
be attested by the waiugs of desperation ut
tered by the Shareholders. 1t was at this mo-
ment of fancied security that the capitalists end
politicians contrved panic about the Union,
and traders in Southern votes and merchandise
devised the patriotic work of saving the Union,
by surrerdering the territories of New Mexico
and Utah 10 the shareholders, and making slave
hunting national duty, under regulations of
extraordinary cruelty. The work was FASTENED
on by the most astounding treachery, supported
by the audacous assumption that the law of
physical geography and Asiatic scenery rendered
it physically impossible that any portion of the
vast region conquered from Mexico could ever
be trodden by slaves.
A dissolution of the Union could have no
other effect on the slaveholdiug interest than to
government, from it's beginning, has been busy
in raising around il, and to rouse all beyond the
slave territory into active hostility. But al
though the Union was in little danger, the word
of saving it was no less profitable than patri-
otto, as it tended to prevent the political and
commercial non-intercourse threatened by the
South and the proceedings Of Unon-saving
committees were found convenient mode of
advertising for the trade and votes of the slave.
holders. In this manner an influence was ex-
erted, which, aided by the supposed security of
the North, led to the 80 called compromise, in
| which the fruits of the recent victory were all
thrown away, with the single exception of the
anti slavery constitution of California. Some
thing was, indeed, gained to the character of the
national capital, by prohibiting the Importation
of slaves for sale, but nothing to the cause OF
humanity, since the traffic was only transferred
from Washington to Alexandra. In return fol
the Californian constitution, which Congress
could not have prevented and did not dare to
anpul, we have had the prodigious enlargement
Of the slave State Of Texas, the abandonment
of New Mexico and U'ah to slavery, and the