The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-07-12
THE NATIONAL ERA: WASHINGTON D. C.. JULY r. 1855.

very, forbid the States to maintain it, provide
for the liberation of the enslaved, and authorize
and require at the hands of the Federal Gov
eminent its suppression. The powers of the
Federal Government by the Constitution are
amply adequate to this object. And we deny
that the exercise of those powers for the sup
preston of Slavery would be any infringement
f constitutional State rights, or of any of the
reserved rights" of the States or of the
people.
With these views of the Constitution of oul
country, we feel ourselves prepared for an az
gressive--not merely acknowledgements with
the Slave Power. We take our position accord
ingly, and ask our fellow-citizens to do the
same. We sue for no needless amendments Of
he Constitution, requiring the concurrence O.
two-thirds of the States. Properly construed
it already gives us all we need. We attempt
no dissolution of the Union. The Constitution
makes no provision for it, and nothing short OF
a revolution could efectuate it. We consent u
no dissolution that would leave the slave in his
chains. We demand the constitutional deliver
snce of the slave and of the whole country
North and South--a deliverance by the peaceful
ballotbox, aud within the power of the non
shareholders of the United States. We seek
not to amuse, to console, or to delude ourselves
or others, with mere idle efforts to prevent the
further extension of Slavery, while admitting its
constitutional right to continue ohere 1t already
erists. We will consent to no compromise with
the deceiver, that keeps no faith with its dupes-
no compromise with pollution and crime. We
Weld not one inch for one moment, nor on any
conditions, to the control of the demon over any
portion of our country, or over single human
being over whom floats our national flag. We
are Americans, knowing no North and no
South, no Slaves aud no Slave Stares.s We are
not only Americans, but men, and demand that,
irrespective of race or complexion, all men
shall be free.
Believing, as we firmly do, that the time to
maintain, to fortify and to render effective this
high and commanding ground has fully come,
and that the occupancy of any lower ground
would invite further aggressions and insure final
defeat we resolutely take our staud on the plat
form already defined Our political activities
must meet the demands of our CONNECTIONS. We
can consent to nothing less.
With our ideas of the nature of Civil Gov
eminent, of our constitutional powers, of our
corresponding responsibilities as Republican
citizens, with our views of the common brother
hood of the human race, and of the equal rights
of our fellow countrymen in bonds, the position
we have here taken rises high above any mere
calculations of expedients, of availabilties, or
of exigencies, however pressing aud portentous.
The ground we occupy is to US holy ground,
the ground of the True and of the Right-the
ground marked out by the instincts of our moral
natures, by our relations to our fellow men, by
our allegiance to the Common Father of all /;
by the divine law of loving our neig hbur as
ourselves. We feel that our prayers to Heaven
for the security of our liberties, for the liberties
of the non-slaveholding States, or of any portion
of our free Territories, would be impious and
offensive to just God, the impartial parent of
all men, if, in the act of offering such prayers,
and putting forth our own efforts to that end,
we should consent to leave any portion of our
fellow-countrymen in bondage, entitled as they
are by the organic and supreme law of the
land" to the same freedom and protection with
ourselves.
The moral government Of God over the ma
tons, as revealed in the holy Scriptures, and as
illustrated in the page of universal history, for
bids us to cherish any expectation of securing
our oUn liberties, or the liberties
of any portion Of the nation to which we belong,
by any process short of securing the liberties of
each and of ALL
The foundation principles of Civil Govern
ment and Of Civil Law confirm us in the same
belief. The past and passing history of our own
country, and of the pending struggle between
DespOtism and Freedom, tesIifes to the same
truth. and assures us that there is no rational
ground to expect the deiverance of our coun-
try, but by strict adherence to the great prin-
ciples upon which our measures are founded.
To these principles and measures we cling, as
the sheetanchor of American liberty and we
call on all the friends of humanity, of the slave,
of free institutions, Of pnre religion, and of our
common country, to come up to the rescue, and
cast in their lot with US in this great struggle.
" Sink or swim, survive or perish" we are re-
solved to go forward. Our pauoply is the truth
Our confidence is in Him who is the refuge of
the oppressed, and in whose hands are the des-
TIMES Of all.
l. Resolued, That experience has now fully
proved that there is no way to get rid of the
coils of Slavery, but by getting rid of the ezist
ence of Slavery no successful method of resist
ing the Entertainments of Slavery, but by the
ouerthrow of Slavery and no appropriate plan
or measure for SECURING the abolition of Slave
~, but by ABOLlsBING it.
2. RESOLVED, That we therefore reject, as use.
less, all schemes for limiting, localizing, con.
fning, or ameliorating Slavery-all plans for
protecting the non slaveholding States from the
agyressions of Slavery, and from the liability of
becoming overspread and overborne by it,
which do not look directly to the immediate
and unconditional prohibition and suppression
of Slavery in all parts of the country
3. Resolved, That we regard as impractical.
Bile and visionary all attempts to get rid of Sla.
very, either by forbidding the importation of
slaves, or by favoring the expectation of color.
ed persons, either by starving out Slavery or
leaving it to die out, by merely withdra wing
from it our support or by dissolution of the
Union-all which attempts, however intended,
we deem to be virtually evasive of our great
national duty to "undo the heavy burdens"
and to break every y"ke."
time the highest obligations resting on the peo-
pie Of the free States to remove Slavery by
moral and political action, as prescribed in the
Constitution of the United States.
S. Resolced, That the question whether the
Constitution tolerates Slavery in the United
States is, in other words, the question whether
the liberties of the country can, under the Con.
stitution and without a violent revolution. be
preserved
6. Resolued, That the constitutional question
therefore demands the speedy and earnest at
tention of the friends of the slave, of the friends
of general liberty, of the friends of republican
institutions, of the friends of peace
T. Resolved, That inasmuch as Non. Exten.
sionists " or Sellers" would, We doubt
not, exchange their present position for that of
direct and general Abolition, if they understood
that the Constitution warrants that measure !:
and that iuasmuch as those Abolitionists who
now advocate "disuniop ," would also change
their position in like manner, if they understood
the Constitution as we do; we do therefore
earnestly and respectfully invite both these
classes to examine, laboriously and impartially,
the whole subject, and not to think their time
unproftably spent in so doing.
8. Resolred, That it becomes us all to be