The Ohio star. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1830-1854, 1852-09-01

l
Yes, Northern throafs are hoarse with re-
joicings at the victory obtained by slavery
over freedom! Oh, that some avenging an
gel would blot out the disgraceful record.
that our posterity might be spared the morti-
feation of bIushipg at the degeneracy of their
fathersr'
Senator Wade in his speech IN the Court
House averred that the fugitive law was
merit known to the statute books of this coun-
try, and one that even the corrupt govern
ments of the Old World could not pass with
out driving their people to revolution" )" that
for himself under his oath of Office and in his
high judicial capacity as the President of our
courts Of justice. he should resist it ''regard-
less of fines and imprisonments."
Less than two years have passed away
since all these things were said and done,
and during that time the practical applications
of the law, have only served fully to develope
its deyilish, cruelty, and its insulting require
4 ments. Yet now. in the year 1852. the two
great National Parties of the country have
by the solemn decision OF their deliberatbe 9
conventions, inscribed upon their banners.
!" The Union for the sake Of Sldrery' The
Fiaaiity Of thef Compromise Measures and
/ the Fugitive La,ri Dovn ,Citb all ,rko would
speak or publish their enormities. or taunt US
f1itk our sh0me!"
The Representatives of the freemen of the
free North were there, but they were as
useless as wooden blocks to resist the insolent
demands of representatives Of property, the
slavedriyers and their oyerseers. who gatner-
ed there with plantation whips to overawe
and strike down every expression of northern
feeling. To almost the language of the pre-
tended Disunion Conventions of the south
the Union Nee ing of Wings and Demo-
Gratis in New York, and the message of
Fillmore to Congress, these conventions
have spoken as the spirit of slavery gave them
utterance. And from the candidates whom
they put in nomination have come back the
ready responses and the hearty pledge that
even to discountenancing and resisting agita-
tion, the strong arm of executive and militia
Ey power in thisfree land shall carry out and
enforce the intent and meaning of the dis
graceful resolutions.
1 We, therefore, the Free Democracy of
] Portage County in Mass meeting assembled
solemnly resolve;
l. That we seorn the attempt made by the
National Conventions of Democrats and
/, Wings to force us to vote for the detestable
!; Compromise Measures and the Fugitive Slave
Bill, as being base trick to secure their en-
dorsement BY men who have IS indignantly
frowned upon and condemned them.
2. That in the language of Governo r
/ Woods Inaugural in 1850, the Fugi i've Slave
Law /" can never, receive the voluntary CO.
operation of our people; !" and we view with
equal contempt and defiance the ridiculous
assumption Of these Conventions. to "resist ''
and discountenance our meeting or all
suitable OCCASIONS in all proper places. now
and hereafter. here or elsewhere, to express
our utter loafhing of the law and the men
who passed it, rs well as our firm intention
and stern determination :. to agitate the sub
ject of its enormity and unconstitutionaity
and the question Of repeal until the usurped
rights Of the Free States shall be restored,
and it shall be deemed constitutional to legis-
! late againstSlavery wherever theF rderalGov-
ernmenl may extend and enforce its control.
| 8. That governments are instituted among
men to secure to them the enjoyment of their
inalienable rights to liberty. and the pursuit
of happiness, and that they derive all their
just powers from the governed. That no
national sin can equal in enormity the main
tainence, by legal enactment, of system
VIII ch deprives portion of the subjects of its
government Of these rights, takes from them,
SO far as human power can do it, every attri-
butte of manhood, and makes of Gods image
thing to buy and sell for money in the mar
ket. That such horrible system, under
exists in our land boasting of its attachment
to freedom won by revolutionary blood 90
many battle field where the ancestors of this
oppressed class fought side by side with ours,
afsoiusb uSSi OSosO PoHO'S onu oAoSo IL ACu-
ieving the victory.
4. That by every sacred obligation which
can act upon us as freemep, as christian men,
and as patriots, it is our duty to resist every
encroachment of this inhuman System upon
our constitutional and national rights, and in
the desperate struggle for its final overthrow
which has already commenced, to put forth
all the political and moral power which we
can riehtfuIly command.
5. That we cannot be deceived. nor attept
to cover up the real character of American
Slavery by the use of smooth names, for we
know that it means the degradation of labor
as unfit for men, and Of the laboring classes as
not entitled to the rights of men; it means
the sacrifice Of these rights to build up an idle
and brutal Aristocracy 10 the practical denial
of every truly Democratic or Wing principle.
whose maintainance against the encroach-
ments of tyranny and the expressions of des-
poiic rulers makes up the worlds history of
heroes and martyrs; it means yokes, fetters,
branding irons, drivers and blood-hounds; it
means cruelty and murder, concubinage and
adultery it means the refusal of all chances
of intellectual and moral culture, gross mem
tai darkness, and utter moral deprivation it
means the transformation of those who in the
l. r L,.A GsAl- A1~- al.