The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-11-08

Freedom and Equality? What is there inhe-
rent In the nature of Freedom, 10 make those
who possess, cherish, and defend it, disloyal to
its noble and necessary Institutions? We give
| the guaranty of principles identical with the
principles of the Constitution and the Declare
| ton OF Independence. We give the guarantees
OF peaceful, Just, and loyal lives, marked with
patience that has endured as long as they were
| tolerable, and without even a ruffling of the
temper, not only the insults of shareholders, but
their menaces of disunion. Can shareholders
give better guarantees than these? Will they
| even give you any guarantees of fidelity to the
Constitution and the Union? No, they argue
only IN threats of the subversion of both.
The apologists of Slavery, thus met, changed
front suddenly, and ask us whether it is safe
10 brave these menaces of disunion. / answer
Yes, yes! Interests of thousand kinds-mate
rial, social, moral, and political - affections
springing from the very constitution of our ma
ture-bind Us non-saveholders to this Union.
The Shareholders, in spite of all these threats,
are bound to it by the same bonds, and they are
bound to it also by bond peculiarly their
own-that of dependence on it for their own
safety. Three millions of slaves are hostile
force constantly in their presence in their very
midst. The servile war is always the most fear
full form of war. The world without sympathi-
the American Union is the only defence of the
slaveholders-their only protection. If ever
they shall, in season of madness, recede from
that Union and provoke that war, they will
soon come back again.
Nor are these threats the threats of the slave
holders themselves. They are arguments of pol
iticians in behalf of the shareholders. No man,
heated by passion or the spirit of controversy,
can safely pledge his future conduct. Reason
will decide that for him, when the contemplated
emergency shall have come. Neither can these
politicians pledge the future conduct of the
shareholders. They viii decide for themselves,
when the time for their acquiescence comes.
No mass of men in this country are so grossly
libelled by their enemies as the shareholders
are by their friends. / know many of them we'll.
| have seen them in their homes, on their plant
atoms, and in their social circles. / never
knew disloyal man amongst them.
But, even if the case were otherwise, are we
always to submit to threats instead of argu-
ments-to refer everything to the umpirage of
passion-to surrender everything to those who
hold US in duress by our fears? If this is to be
the rule of conduct, how long shall we have any.
thing valuable, in Policy, Justice, Equality, or
Freedom, to surrender know not how it NAV
affect you, but every nerve and fibre and ele-
ment of manhood within me is stretched to its
utmost tension by these perpetual appeals to
the ignoble instinct of fear, and not to the i'm.
partial counsel of my conscience and my iudg-
ment.
Last comes one who with seeming meekness
asks us to consider whether it is wise to leopard
the safety and happiness of twenty five millions
of white men, in a vain effort to mitigate the
sufferings of only three millions of negroes?
Humane, cautious, paternal conscientious, man!
might join issue, and ask where, in the ethics
either of Government or Of Christianity, you find
authority to hold three millions of men in bond
age, to promote the welfare or even to secure
the safety of twenty-five millions of other men.
But that argument belongs to the Aboltionists
of Slavery, who do not reckon me in their mum.
Der, and whose objects in this election are far
more comprehensive than those of the Repub.
ican Party which l defend. leave the rights
and the interests of the slaves in the States to
their own care and that of their advocates l
simply ask whether the safety and the interests
of twenty-five millions of free non slaveholding
white men ought to be sacrificed or put in ieop-
ardy for the convenience or safety of three
hundred and fifty thousand shareholders
hear no answer.
There can be no answer, unless the apologists
of Slavery shall unblushingly assert that slave
holders, in their intercourse with non.slavehold.
ers, are calm, tolerant, just How is the fact
The non-slavehOlder iii the slave State is allow
ed no independence, no neutrality He must
support, maintain, and defend Slavery. The
nonslaveholders constitute only second estate
IN every slaveholding community; whips, pis-
tolls, Knives enforce not merely their silence. but
their active craftsmanship. The right of free
speech is lost to them, the right of suffrage is
valueless to them, the honors and rewards of
public office are denied to them. In Kansas.
now by usurpation slave Territory, the utter.
ance of this speech, calm and candid although
| mean it to be, would be treason; the reading
and circulation OF it in the Buffalo Express
would be punished with death. Hitherto, this
tyranny of shareholders over non-slaveholdinp
citizens has been mainly confined to slavehold-
ing communities. But Slavery has of late ar
rogantly claimed TO be national. Congress- is
sanchoning the usurpation, and the Federal
Courts and even State Courts are boldlyenforc
ing IT, In violation Of the Constitution, Con-
gress compels the non-slaveholders in the free
States to capture and deliver the fugitive slave.
Congress at It's last session was on the eve of
subverting the original, honored jurisdiction of
State Courts over Federal officers accused of
offences against the personal rights of the cit-
zen. The ancient writ of habeaS corpus has be-
come remedy in the recapture of slaves. and
the process of punishment for contempt suffices
to lmprlson a non-slaveholding citizen without
indictment, trial, or conviction, without bail or
malnprize, and without limitation of sentence,
where STAKEHOLDER is the prosecutor. Are not
these invasions of State rights fearfuy premon-
tory that Slavery is to become a universally
ruling power throughout the Republic?
Nevertheless, and in view of all these things.
the apolOgists Of Slavery ask, Why bring these
issues into a merely State election Who
brought them here? What are the platforms
OF the lizards, the Softs, and the Know Moth
ings, but issues with the Republican Party by
demurrer Or by denial rendered by themselves?
Can you organize Republican National PARTY
one year, and dissolve it the next, and vet re-
store 1t in third year, to accommodate local pol
tiles? Why have the parties in this State. al
ways competent to control the action of the
Federal Government left these national griev
snces to reach this intolerable height WHY
should not the Legislature, the magistrates, and
the ministerial officers of the State of New
York, be men who dare to and will defend the
rights of its citizens? VIII not the Senators to
be elected this year, constitute a part of the
electoral body which will choose Senator in
Congress for the State next year? AWAY. then.
with these subterfuges.
Dwell briefly on the momentous importance
OF this crisis. We are indeed sixteen free States
to fifteen slave States, and numerically we have
majority of representatives in both Houses of
Congress. So we had when the Missouri Com
promise restriction was abrogated. You have no
reliable majority in either House, unless you in
Struct, support and maintain them at home.
If you do this, there is an end to the extension
OF Slavery. If you do not, Slavery, which is now
firmly planted on the coast of Mexico, and
which extends upward to the border of Kan.
sas, will cross that border, and fasten its out
posts on the southern border of British Ameri
ca. Thus the free States will be shut out from
the Poetic coast. Divided hv this wall the frnn