Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1855-10-25

subject of slavery have you ''initiated'' lectu-
res upon? I cannot conceal it from myself
that you have undertaken, in Boston, to discuss
and to decide whetherm property, in Virgin
ia ought to remain mine or not, and whether
it shall be allowed the protection of laws, fed
eral and State, wherever it may be carried or
may escape in the United States or, whether
it shall be destroyed by a higher law than con-
stitutions and statutes
Who are you, to assume thus such juris
diction over q subject so delicate and already
fixed in its relations by solemn compact be-
tween the States which are sovereign !? Twill
not obey your summons nor recognize your ju-
risdiction. You have no authority and no JUS
tifcation for thus calling to account at the bar
of your tribunal and for thus arraigning an
institution established by laws which do not
reach you and which you cannot reach, by cal
ling on me to defend it.
You send me card, toindicate the charac-
ter of the lecturers 1t reads:
Admit the bearer and lady to the Inde-
pendent Lectures on Slavery. Lecture Com
mittee, S. e. Howe, T. Gilbert, George F.
Williams, IIcnryT. Parker, W. Washburn,
B. B. Musscy, W. B. Spooner, James W.
Stone"
1t is endorsed:
" Lectures at the fremont Temple Boston,
lS54-5. November %, Hon. Charles Sum-
ner, Rev. John Pierpont, poem. December I,
Hon. Salmon p Chase of Ohio. December
II, Hon. Arson Burlingame December q,
Wendell Philips, Esq. December %, Cassius
VI. Clay, Esq, of Kentucky. January 4,
Hon. Horace Greedy. January II, Rev.
Ward Beecher. January Is, Hon. John P.
Hale. January %, Ralph Waldo Emmerson,
Esq. February $, Hon. Nathaniel P. Banks,
Jr February Is, Hon. Lewis d. Campbell,
Of Ohio. February %, Hon. Samuel Hous-
ron, Of Texas. March |, Hon. David Will
mot, of Pennsylvania. March :, Hon. Charles
W. Cpham."
All Honorable and Squires, except those
who are .Revercnds The card does verify
indicate their characters by simply naming
them. And your letter, gentlemen, is franked
by G.. Sumner L. S. S." With these char
acteristics, I am at no loss to understand you
and your purposes.
You say, " during the next session, a large
number Of gentlemen from the South will be
invited" &C., &C. regret it, if any others
can be found in the slaveholding States to ac-
cept your invitation You plead the example
os Gen. Houston. 1t is the last | would fol-
low. L have no doubt that you accorded very
respectful attention to him last winter, and
We're very grateful for his services in your
cause.
You offer lone hundred and fifty dollars to
be paid to the lecturer, he bearing his own ex
penses" Let me tell you that fremont Tenn
pie cannot hold wealth enough, to purchase
one word Of discussion from me, there, wheth-
cr mine, here, shall be mine OF not; but am
ready to volunteer, without money and without
price, to supprcss any insurrection, and rcpeI
any invasion which threatens Or endangcrs the
State Rights Of Virginia, CT my individual
ri-hts under the laws and constitutions of my
country. or the sacred Union, which binds
Slave States and Free together in one bond OF
national coutederacy, and iii separate bonds of
Independent Sovcreignties.
In short gentlemen, [ will not deliver one
Of the lectures of the course on slavery, at the
fremont Temple, in Boston, on Thursday
evening, January 10th, 1856 and there will
be no Thursday evening between the middle
December and the middle of March next, or
between that and doomsday, which will best
accommodate me for that purpose.
give you an immediate answer, and, at my
earliest convenience, Indicate to you that "the
particular phase of the subject that will
present is, deliberately: to fight if we must.
Your obd't servant,
HENRY A. WISE.
To Saml G. Home, Phys. and superindt.
Blind Inst Jno. NJ. Clark, High Sheriff,
Sam'l May, Merchant; Philo Sanford, Ex-
Treasurer State Nathl. B. Shurtleff Phys.
and Antiquarian Joseph Story, Pres't.
Com: Council Thos Russell, Judge Jas.
w. Stone. Phys.