The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1852-09-09

alas said he we want more lands for sugar :
by which the South perfectly understood that
if they would make him President the annex
alton Of Cuba should be their reward This
is the same gentleman who has lately said in
secret session of the Senate, that if the Sand
wich Islands should be annexed to this country
and question should arise about excluding
slavery from them by law, he would vote against
it. During all this time affairs were rpeu-
ing for the Baltimore nominations. Mr.. Fill
more offered to the South the Army and Navy,
to catch poor fugitive, where only consta-
bles posse was needed. Mr.. Webster trumped
up false treasons by scores against Northern
Anti-Slayery men. The President travelled
North and South, making speeches redolent of
pro.slavery. The Secretary travelled still
more milling pro-slayery letters and speeches
wherever he went. Certainly the reason
why any of the aboye-named parties did not
get nomination at Baltimore was not be-
cause of what the law calls iacheS or want
of reasonable diligence" on their part.
come now to the Baltimore Conventions
themselves, which were held in June last.
Every one knows that the great qnestion of
human slavery had controlling influence in
those bodies, and determined their results.
With vast majority of their members. pro-
SldNcIy vi wiz tllc one bNcIIldotcl-
ing motive and end In the Democratic Con-
vention, the pro-savery sentiment was nearly
unanimous. Its members had been sold into
that perdtion by the lust of money or the am
bition for Office Yet even they were held in
check by the apprehcnded thunders of the
voice of the people behind them. If they did
not recoil from the crime they feared its pun
ishment In the Wing Convention, the men
who were ready to sacrifice honor duty. reli-
gion. to the demands of slavery, were large
majority, and might have nominated their
most ultra pro-slavery candidate on the first
ballot They could have effected this ust as
easily as they effected their pro-slavery organi-
cation. and appointed committee on creden-
tails who excluded anti-slavery men, and a
| committee on resolutions who accepted a
Southern platform. prepared for them before
| hand by Southern hands But these BelshaZ-
Ears, too, like him of old, saw the handwriting
upon the wall aud they knew that, with such
candidate, they were doomed to utter and
remorseless defeat before the people In both
Conventions however. the spirit of slavery was
so strong and so badly brave, as to carry the
resolutions ! am about to read. The Demo
cratic Convention resolved to
abide by and adhere To II faithful execution OF
the acts known AS the Compromise measures. settled
by the last Congressthe act for rcclaming fugitive
slaves from service or labor included
And further. they
RSsoiUed, That the Democratic party will rcss
all attempts at renewing, in Congress out of IT, th'
agitation Of the slavery question, under whatever
shape or color the attempt may be made.
And the Wing Convention
"SPssoired That the series of acts of the Thirty
| first Congress commonly known tho Compromise
adjustment lthc act for the recovery of fugitive
from labor included) received and acquiesccd il
by the Wings of the United States, a final settle
mcnt in principle and substance of the subjects Il
which they relate. And we deprecate al
further agitation Of the questions thus settled "a dan
| gerous to our peace, and will discountcnance all et
forts TO continue or renew such agitation, whenever
| wherever, or however made.
Now, what an outrage is this Does not oul
Constitution provide against abridging thu
freedom of speech or of the press Why sc
cure this freedom in the organic law, if tn,
tyranny Of a social law can abolish it OF wha
value is that provision in the Constitution
which secures the free exercise of religion, i
social intolerance and bigotry, acting in an un
legalized way, can destroy it Yet. here ar,
two Conventions, utterly unknown to any o.
our Constitutions, whether State or National
invested with no powers, Legislative Judicial
or Executive, coming together for day, and
then scattered and sunk in individual obscure.
ty; yet lifting thsir pgmy voices against the
mightiest impulses of the human heart against
history and providence against the fiat and the
Spirit of God himself; resolving that mankind
shall be dumb in regard to the greatest of hu
man wrongs and resolving also, that law
passed by Republican Government yet n,
barbarous and tyrannical AS was ever made by
any despotism. shall be conSecrated in its wick
t edness and remain eternal.
, Two Baltimore Conventions, assuming t,
qucnch the eternal spirit of liberty-that spirit
which was "A part Of the inspiration of the
prophets of old when they commanded the ty-
rants of the earth to undo the heavy burdens
and let the oppressed go free , that spirit
which gave all its herOism and splendOr to the
classic land of Greece and made its memories
immortal; that spirit which gave to Rome its
colossal proportions of physical and intellectual
grandeur that spirit which, in the darkest
night of the worlds history, climbed Alpine
heights and sheltered itself in the Businesses of
Alpine mountains, inaccessible to tyrants;
which, at another time found protection with
in the dykes of Holland, barring out the rage
of the ocean, and the more remorseless rage of
despotic men that spirit which has gwen to
| England, and to English history, all their un-
| disputed claims to renown and to the gratitude
of mankind, and which, when prosecuted and
driven from England, crossed the Atlantic,
spread itself over this open continent and hav-
ing been nursed by more than two hundred
years of struggle and discipline, now bids def
ance to the world-this Godke spirit of lber-
ty immortal, invulncrabe, and indestructible,
two cphcmcral Baltimore Conventions under
take to ban! Xerxes claiming the llellespont
was wisdom personifed compared with them
aye, it would be too digniiied and honorable
an illustration to compare them to two old
male Mrs. Partingtons, hopping out the At
antic
Why did not these insane men propose to do
something which IL at least conceivable Why
did they not propose to turn back the order Of
physical events, rather than to violate the more
intangible and irresistible laws Of moral pro-
gressi Why did they not order the oak back
into the acorn, or the bird back into its shell,
OF the earth itself back into its first geological
epoch, rather than to order the eniranchsed
spirit Of the nineteenth century back into the
gloom and bondage Of the dark ages of the
world Why did they not lift up the wand of
their arrogance and audacity towards Arcturus
and the Pleiades, and attempt TO move round
the consultations of the heavens as you would
move round the hands ON the dial plate Of
clock Such hallucinatons would be Mt least
within the limits of human conception, and
would therefore be free from the folly and
atheism of attempting to stifle the voice Of
frecmcn discussing freedom.
Sir to resolve that the slavery question shall
be discussed ncvermore, is to resolve the men,
cries of all the heroes, and martyrs and saints,
whose names make all the bright pages Of
human history, into eternal oblivion. IL is To
rosolve thc history of the American Royolutiop
and Of all it, 'aetors into forgctfulncss It is to
resolve the nobcst faculties and aspirations Of
the human soul into non existence. Under any