Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1853-03-31
Pennsylvania.

The following petition against Slavery,b
the citizens of Elk county, was recently
presented in the Senate of Pennsylvania.
The county of Elk is largely Democratic.
The petition breathes the right spirit:
To the Honorable the Senate and House Of
Representatives. Of Pennsylvania in Gen
erat Assembly met:
The undersigned inhabitants OF Eik coun.
ty respectfully show That they are alarmed
and grieved by the report that a bill mas
been introduced for the action of your hon
orabIe bodies, having for its object the III
PRODUCTION of chattel slavery into Pennsyl..
vauia, BY authorizing the alleged owners OF
men. women, and children, 10 hold, trans,
port. or drive slaves through the limits OF
our Commonwealth.
That our memorialists had firmly bel'ev-
ed, and do yet hope, that, in accordance
with the iniunctions of the Divine Law, the
hopes and the prayers Of our fathers, the
sp;ri, of our political institutions, and the
light of the political age in which we lIve'
the soil of our me-honored Commonwealth
had been consecrased to perpetual freedom
That to cherish, maintain, aud vlgIlantly
guard those sacred rights Of human ma
%ture," for which our fathers commended
through a seven yearslwar Of peril and sui
ferinn and blood, will ever be the first OBJ
ject and highest motive Of Pennsylvania
legislation. ~
That while your memmialists believe that
the Constitution of the United States was
praised land adopted BY the people of Penn
syIvaniali" in order 10 secure us and. our
poslerifyN Ne blessings Of Liberty" and did
in no sense contemplate" that we should
voluntarily involve ourselves in the curses q
Siauery +; and that no prN-slavery appllca
ton Of the rules of comfy" can justify us
in affordiug facilities TO the slave trade. we
rejec, with adherence the proposition that
we should bring dlshunor on our noble
Commonwealth, and peril our souls, for the
" convenience" of those who trade in the
body and souls of men
Your memoriaIlsts therefore pray your
honorable bodies, that those acts which the
voice of the civilized world condemn as
atr0cions and which our laws dcnonnce as
piracy, and punish with death, if commit
ted on the coast of barbarouS A fica, may moi
he approved and IegaIIzed by the descend
ants and successors of Penn aud franklin,
of Morris and Wilson, of WooIman aud
Benezet.
That the magnificent public thorough.
fares which we have constructed for, aud
dedicated to, the uses of a legitimate and
~God,approving commerce, may not be pros.
ti,nIed to the purposes OF a nefarlous traffic
in human flesh.
That our sympathies may not he shocked
or the ''pnblic peace" disturbed by the ex'
hibition OF slave.coflas and manacIes, and
of drivers and whips, and that our children
be spared from familiarity with such de-
moralizing spectacles.
And they especially and earnestly pra.
your honorable bodies to resist every at
tempt Of the slave power to implicate the
people of our State in the crimes Of slave,
or the slave trade, and to refuse the enact
nent Of any law Tor the keeping, holding
or driving of slaves in or through the limits
of our Commonwealth.
[Signed by l25 citizens