The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-01-06

terest in these United States is now protected
by prohibitory tariff that is, the slave-breed-
ing interest of Virginia and the other Northern
slave States We protect the slave grower by
visiting the penalty of death upon those who
import slaves to the injury of our own citizens
who rear boys and girls for the market. These
facts stand prominent upon the history of ouI
times. We have secured to the slave-dealer,
of this nation monopoly of the crime of buy
ing and selling human flesh.
Now, sir, with all kindness, will say to those
advocates for protection to Northern labor, thai
while they make merchandise of the Southern
laborer, of his wife and children, it will be ir
vain for them to profess humane sympathy fol
the free and independent laborers Of the North
While you profess an anxious solicitude for the
pecuniary interest of the laborer in the cotton
mill, and at the same time make merchandise
Of the bone and sinews the blood and muscle
of him who cultyates the raw material, the
people will pronounce you hypocrites
this morning read in one of our papers ar
account of slave mother, having four children
whom she tenderly loved Her soul yearned
for their happiness. But her master contracted
to deliver them to a slave-dealer She vainly
implored him to desist from his purpose. He
persisted; and as she saw her offspring about
to be torn from her embrace, she felt unable tc
meet such separation, and, in order to save hel
loved ones from the suffering and degradation
to which your laws consigned them, she mer
cifully deprived them of life. A few days af
forwards, she was herself consigned to the
gallOws, for this manifestation of her affection
and the whole family of five persons were
placed beyond the further cruelty of you
laws.
Now, sir while we continue in force law
which inflict such suffering upon one portion
of our fellow mOrtals and at the same tim.
profess an anxiety for the pecuniary Interest
of another portion, will not all candid mer
charge us with hypocrisy and falsehood!
Mr.. JOHNSON, Of Tennessee, said, if he I'M
derstood the gentleman from Ohio, he was in
favor of removing the protection to slave labor
by repeating the law which prohibits the i'm
portatiOn OF slaves.
Mr. GlDDlNGS. The gentleman is mista
ken; it was the protection of the slave groue,
to which | referred. tits the law of Congress
which authorizes the domestic slave trade, that
condemn. That traffic is far more barbarous
than the foreign slave trade, which we very
properly characterize as ptracp and punish
with death Dealing in human flesh is. in a
moral point of view, a naked, undisguised
piracy it is no regarded by all rejecting men
and those who traffic in human flesh, either
here in Africa, or elsewhere, and all who add
wise, aid, counsel, or encourage such traffic, are
guilty, and deserve death upon the galows.
The manner in which we aid and encourage
this crime is immaterial If we lend that en-
couragement by passing laws to protect the
daol ar 10. a
retain such laws in force we are az guilty as
he who actually buys and sells the victims of
this traffic, and we, sir deserve death as much
as he does. would not hang the ignorant
sailor who goes to Africa and purchases men
and women there, and spare the member of
Congress who exerts his influence to continue
the same crimes here. Had the power to
punish these crimes, would inflict the same
penalty upon every man who deals in human
flesh, or who authorizes or encourages such
traffic
| observed that the honorable gentleman
from Pennsylvania Mr. JONES took occasion,
while discussing the tariff, to say that the
Democracy of his State were in favor az the
Fugitive Law but it is soRewhs.tt ,emarkable
that the President ie- Ills lis message, makes no
menten. O. that law. IL il said, that during
the last three months more fugitives have found
their way to Canada than ever previously en-
grated to that province in the same space of
lime. They went singly, in pairs, in COM
panes OF five, OF ten and sometimes twenty
Or more travelled together. Scarcely a slave
catcher interposed to prevent this tide of EN-.
grafton and those who made attempts to
stop them were unsuccessful The emiprants
we're armed and ready for the combat They
aughed at your Fugitive Law, and ridculed
hose who enacted and who advocate it's con-
inuance. AS the President is about to retire
rom Office, he witnesses the contempt into
which this, his favOrite measure, has fallen, vet
no fails in his last annual message to notice
these facts, nor does he make even an effort to
modify the popular odium which has pro-
those Compromise measures infamous.
He sees the country rapidly separating into
two parties-the supporters of slavery and the
advocates of liberty. He must be conscious
that these parties will soon swallow up all
other organizations, The free Democracy and
the SLAVE Democracy will soon characterize our
political distinctions, and the Democratic prin-
ciple of mans national right to liberty will be
indicated and sustained yet he remains silent
on the subject.
And here wish to say to the friends of lib
erty. that our cause is advancing rapidly, and
with frmer and surer pace than at any former
period The old political organizations have
lost their moral power. The election of the
great Western statesman, Thomas II. Benton,
in opposition to both the Wing and Democratic
parties, shows the tendency of men to think
and vote agreeahly to the dictates of their own
Judgment and not according TO caucus dicta-
ton, or party rule. He, sir, was unconnected
with all parties. He was the exponent of his
own views the people approved his sentiments,
and, setting party dictation at defiance, they
elected him. Nor was the election of the dis
philanthropist from New York,
Gerrit Smith, less triumph of independent
political thought and action These distn-
guished gentlemen were connected with no
political parties, but each was elected upon
his own merits
have not time to speak Of the election to
this body of the Free Democratic members, and
Of Wing and Democratic members elected by
aid Of the Free Democracy; nor are these
elections, triumphant as they are, even an in
dication of the extent of our progress Our
principles are cherished by hundreds of thou
sands of the other parties, who have heretofore
been unable to separate themselves from their
long-cherished political organizations, but who
now say they have acted with them for the
last time.
Again, sir, we have enlisted the literati OF
our country on the side of truth liberty, and
justice. To my fair countrywomen | would
say, that lady, with her pen, has done more
for the cause of freedom during the last year
than any savant, statesman, or politician u
our land That inimitabe work, "Uncle Toms
Cabin" is now carrying truth to the minds Of
millions who, to this time, have been deaf to
the cries of the down-trodden. 1t is arousing
the sensibities Of this country and of Europe
1t goes where no other Anti-Slavery work ever
found its way, and quietly carries conviction
to the hearts of it's readers 1t has been dram
atized, and both in this country and in Europe
the play going public listen with intense inter,
est to the wrongs, the revolving crimes, of sla
very. Thus, the theatre, that school of vice, ,