Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1856-07-12
PROTEST OF PENNSYLVANIA AGAINST
THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERY.


Extracts from the journal Representatives
Of rcnnsy lyunia.
SATURDAY. December IL, lSl0-A motion was
made by Mr.. Duane and Thackara and read as
follows:
The Senato and House of Representatives of the
commonwealth of Pennsylvania, whilst ;hey cher
ish the right of the individual States to express
their opinion upon all public measures proposed
in the Congress of the Union, are aware that its
usefulness must in great degree depend upon the
discretion with which it is exercised; they believe
h9t the right ought not to be resorted to upon tr
vial subjects or uuimportant occasions but they
are also persuaded that there ara m6ments when
the neglect TO exercise it would be derclicon Of
public duty.
Such an occasion as, in their Judgment, de-
mands the frank expression of the sentiments Of
Pennsy ylvauia, IS now presented. A measure was
nrdenuy supported in thc last Congress of the
United States, and will, probably, lie as earnest
y urged during the existing session of that body,
which has palpable tendency to impair the polti-
cal relations OF ihc several States; which calcu-
latcd to mar the social happiness OF the present
and future generations which, if adopted, would
impede the march Of humanity and freedom
through the world; and would transfer Fl ON mis-
guided ancestry an odiOus stain and fix it inJeli-
bly upon the present race--a measure, in brief
which proposes to spread the crimes and crueltes
Of slavery from the banks Of the Mississippi to the
shores of the Pacific
When a measure Of this character is seriously
advocated in the Republican Congress of America,
in the nineteenth century, the several States are
invoked by the duty which they owe to the Deity
by the veneration which they entertain for the
memory Of the founders of the Republic, and by
tender regard for posterity to protest against its
adoption to refuse to covenant With crime, and to
limit the range Of an evil that already hangs in
awful b0ding over so large portion of the Union.
Nor can such protest be entered any State
,ritl rr.printv than 1r pgupsvlynrtia in
This commonwealth has as sacredly respected the
rights of other States it has been careful of its
own. 1t has been the invariable aim Of the peo-
pie of PenEsy yvania to extend to the universe by
their example the unadulterated blessings Of civil
and religious freedom. Ii is their pride that they
have been at all times the practical advocates of
those improvements and charities among men which
are so well calculated to enable them to the
purposes of their Creator; and above all, they
may boast that they were foremost in removing
the pollution of slavery from amongst them.
If, indeed the measure against which Pennsyl,
vana considers it her duty to raise her voice, were
calculated to abrdge any of the rights guaranteed
30 the several SCates if odiOus slavery is, it
proposed to hasten its extinction by in uri.
Gus to the States upon which it was unhappily en-
tailed, Pennsylvania would be amongst the first to
insist upon sacred observance of the Constitu-
tonal compact. But it cannot be pretended that
the rights of any of the states are at all to be af
fected by refusing to extend the mischief Of hui
man bondage over the boundless regions CT the
I Vest and territory which formed no part of the
Union, at the adoption Of the constitution; which
has been but lately purchased from an European
power by the people Of the Union at large; which
may or may not be admitted as State into the
Union at the discretion OF Congress, which mus
establish a republican form Of government and nc
other and whose climate affords none of the pre-
texts urged for resorting to the labor of natives o
the torrid zone; such a territory has no rights in
herent or acquired, such as those States possessed
/, which established the existing constitution When
! that Constitution was framed in September, 1881
the concession that three fhs of the slaves in the
States then existing should be represented in Con-
gress, could not have been intended to embrace re-
gons at that time held by a foreign power. On
n the contrary so anxious the Congress of that
day to coufne human bondage within its ancient
home, that on the 18th of July, 1887, that body
unanimously declared that slavery or involuntary
seryitude should not exist in the extensive terrific
ries bounded by the Ohio, the Mississippi Canada
and the lakes; and in the ninth article of the Con
sttution itself, the power of Congress to prohib
the migration of servle persons after 1908, is eX
pressly recognised; nor is there to be found in the
statute book single instance OF the admission
t a territory to the rank of State, in which Con
gress have not adhered to the right vested in then
by the Constitution, to lipulate with the Ierrltor.
upoa the condition Of the boom