Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-03-13

No more lavs Territory, NO.dsore Compromised
There was grand assemblage of our citi-
zens at the City Hall, on Saturday Evening,
of men Of all parties, to protest in the name
Of the people of the heart of the Common
wealth, against the spread of Slavery into Ne
braska, by the proposed repeal of the Missou-
ri Compromise The meeting was called, un-
der the auspices of a committee of the Board
Of Aldermen, and had no reference to party
lines, or party men, in its organization or con-
duct. 1t was intended to be an occasion for
the free and untrammelled expression of opin-
ion, on the part Of the people, upon tho great
question now at issue, and that intent
was well carried out, no one who listened to
the eloquent speeches of the gentlemen who
spoke, OF heard the rapturous applause with
with which their sentiments were greeted,
could have any doubt.
At half past seven o'clock, the meeting was
called to order, by Hartley Williams Geo. F.
Hoar was chosen Chairman, and Phillip L.
Moen. Secretary pro TEN.
A committee of five. consisting of Albert
Tolman, r. w. Taft Geo. NJ. Rice, Allen
Harris and II. Williams, was then chosen tc
report isto permanent officers for the meet
ing. The committee retired for consultation,
and shortly after returned and reported the
following list of officers.
For President-Peter c. Bacon: Vice Pres
idsnts Charles Allen, VIM. T. Merrifeld,
Albert Tolman. Ichabod Washburn, Henry
Goulding, VIM. A. Wheeler, Putnam w.
Taft, Eli Thayer, VIM. Dickinson, Ebenezer
Collier, Rev. E. Smalley, Rev. H. James,
Rev. T. w. Higginson.
SECRETARIES Phillip l.. Mowen, Geo. F.
Hoar, Calvin Foster, Henry W. Benchly.
Upon taking the Chair, Mr. Bacon was
greeted with enthusiastic cheers, and he
addressed the meeting in earnest and impress
sive terms. lie stated briefly the objects of
the meeting, and briefly renewed the history
of the Missouri Compromise, showing that in
that bargain, which ought never to have been
made, the South had received everything, and
the North had received no equivalent. Yet,
now at this remote period, the startling propo-
sition comes that slavery will not be content
with that, but the Compromise must be re-
pealed and annulled, at the demand of the
South. and the whole of the immense terrific
ry that had been solemnly guaranteed to Free
dom, third of century ago, must be devo-
ted to the infamous purposes Of slavery. 1t
well became us, not only as citizens, but as
men, to inquire what was our duty in this
crisis-whether to acquiesce, to say nothing,
to do nothing, while the friends of Slavery
achieve this triumph over the friends of free
dom, or whether by all the means that are left
to us by petitions, by protests, and by remon-
STRANGE, to try to avert this terrible calamity.
Mr.. B. spoke eloquently Of the early his
tory Of the government, Of the original intents
and purposes of the great men, who franz
ed the Constitution, to hedge in and restrain
the spread Of Slavery. so that it should speed
lily die out, and then Of the long series of acts
Of aggression, by which inch by inch, meas
ure by measure, slavery had encroached upon
the domain of freedom, and the rights of the
free states, until byits usurpations, it had OBJ
tanned power almost absolute, in the affairs
Of the nation. The act which we had met to
consider, was the last that had been presented,
but it was by no means the final one in that
chain Of events, which was to bind the free
states as with bands of iron, in the fatal en-
brace Of slavery, and place them at the mercy
Of the slave states, which would ere long out
number the free.
At the close of Mr.. Bacon's remarks,
committee Of five, consisting Of Hartley Will
liams, Dwight Foster, Eli Thayer, E. B. Stod-
dard, J.. d. B. Cogswell, and H. w. Bench
ley, were appointed to draw up resolutions,
expressive of the sentiments Of the people of
Worcester, upon the infamous proposition,
now under consideration. The committee
retired to the ante room, and while preparing
their report, Rev. Elan Smalley, in response
to a unanimous call from all parts of the house,
took the stand, and addressed the meeting
with eloquence and power.
He said he had had the privilege of address,
ing two large assemblages ofhis fellow citizens
before, upon the great and absorbing topic that
had called us together. He had come to-
night as nearer, rather than with any expec-
tation Of making aspeech, but he could not
refrain from responding to the call, even
though it was only to express the pleasure he
derived from witnessing this vast assemblage,
called to speak and act in reference to the
browning act Of iniquity, contemplated by the
legislature Of this nation. An act which pro-
poses to beat down all the barriers of freedom;
that the slave power, in its desolating and i'm
petuous career, may ride on conquering and
TO conquer; and that the unprincipled min
lon IN its service, may attain the Presidential
char, even though every round in the ladder
OF then ambition was the body of a freeman
converted into slave. Whohad plucked this
new ire brand from the smoulderiua ashes Of
past dissensions, and famed it into a living
flame, to light the lurid fires Of dscord and dis
union through all the land. Who had broken
into the sacrednoss Of solemn compacts and
compromises, to subserve their guilty nurnos-
esi Was 1.-THE Northf No, every ono knew
that these acts Of aggression had come from
South. 1t was they, and they alone. who
had proved recreant TO every principle of hon.
or, violated their most sacred obligations, and
in the fawo Of Heaven, declared that the free
territories Of this broad land, should be DOOM
ed forever to the blighting influences of slave.
~ And what ought we tn 40 II, 4h;s -: