The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-03-20

were expended in the annexation of Texas. and
the war with Mexico, which was a part of its
price, Two hundred millions have been offer
ed for Cuba, and war with all Europe is threat
ened, if necessary, to prevent the emancipation
of its slaves. Thus is the decision of great
questions of public policy, touching vast inter-
ests and vital rights-questions even of peace
and of war-made to turn, not upon the require
ments of Justice and honor, but upon its rela-
ton to the subject of Slavery-upon the effect
it will have upon the interest of the slavehold-
ing class.
The people of the free States have cherished
the hope that the efforts made to extend Slave
ny, which have fallen under their notice, were
accidental, and indicative of weakness rather
than ambition. They have trusted that the sa-
gacious statesmen of the slaveholding States
would gradually perceive and acknowledge the
inconvenience and danger of Slavery, and would
take such measures as they might deem wise
and safe, for its ultimate removal. They have
feared the effect of agitation upon this subject,
relied upon the good faith and honor of the
slaveholding States, and believed that time the
natural growth of population, and the recog
missed laws of political and social economy,
would gradually and peacefully work out the
extinction of a system so repugnant to justice
and the national character and welfare. 1t has
seemed to them incredible, that in this late age
when Christianity has for near two thousand
years been filling the world with its light and
when almost every nation on earth but our
own has abolished chattel slavery, the effort
should be made, or the wish cherished, by any
portion of our people, to make the interest of
Slavery predominant, and to convert this Re-
public, the only Government which processes
| to be founded upon human rights, into the
mightiest slave empire the world has ever seen.
But it is impossible to deceive ourselves long
err. The events of the past two years have dis
closed the designs of the slave power, and the
desperate means it is prepared to use for their
| accomplishment. We cannot shut our eyes
longer to the fact that the slaveholding interest
is determined to counterfeit the tendencies of
time and of civilization, by its own energy, by
its bold appropriation of all the powers and
agencies of the Government, and by the viola
ton, if need be, of the most sacred compacts
and compromises. 1t is resolved that Slavery
shall be under the protection of the national
fiag-that it shall no longer be the creature of
local law, but that it shall stand clothed with
all the sanctions, and sustained by all the power
of this great Republic. 1t is determined that
the President shall do its bidding, and that
Congress shall legislate according to its de-
crees. 1t is resolved upon the dethronement
of the principles of Republicanism, and the es-
Enlistment, in their stead, of an OLIGARcHY,
bound together by a common interest in the
ownership of slaves.
Nor have we any reason to believe that Sla-
very will be content with this absolute suprem-
acy over the Federal Government, which it
has already so well-nigh achieved. On the
contrary, the dark shadow of its sceptre falls
| upon the sovereignty of the several States, and
menaces them with dire disaster. South Caro-
lima, abandoning her once.cherished doctrine Of
State Rights asserts the Federal supremacy
over laws made by States, exclusively for the
protection of their citizens. The State of Vir
ginia is contesting, in courts of law, the right
of the State of New York to forbid the exist
ence of Slavery within her limits. A Federal
Court in Pennsylvania has denied the right of
that State to decree freedom to slaves brought
by their masters within her borders, and has
proclaimed that Slavery exists by the law of
nations. The division of California, and the
organization of slave State within her limits,
have been proposed. A Senator on the floor
of Congress has urged that the Government of
the United States should no longer restrain, by
its naval power, the African slave trade, and
the demand for its restoration is openly made
by Southern journals and by leading public
men in the Southern States.
When these great objects shall have been &C.
complished-when the States, as well as the
General Government, shall have become subject
to the law of Slavery, and when three hundred
and fifty thousand shareholders shall hold des-
potic rule over the millions Of this Republic,
Slavery cannot fall from the necessity of its ma
ture, to attempt outrages which will awaken
storms that will sweep it in carnage from the
face of the earth. The longer tyranny is prac.
ticed unresisted, the fercer and the more dread
ful is the resistance which in the end it pro-
I'll
that nothing is so dangerous as a wrong long
unredressed-that evils, which at the outset
it would have been easy to remove, by suffer
ance become fatal to shoss through whose in
difference and federation they have increased.
The tendency of the measures adopted by the
slaveholding interest to secure its own extern
sion, through the action of the Federal Govern
ment, is to give to Congress jurisdiction of the
general subject; and its representatives must
be sagaoious enough to perceive, that if they es
tablish the principle that Congress may inter
fere with Slavery for its protection, it may in
terfere with it also for its destruction. IT, there
fore, they succeed in such an enlargement of
the power Of Oongress-having already discard
ed the principle of compromise from legisla-
tion-they must foresee that the natural effect
of their encroachments upon the rights and
liberties of the non-slaveholding population of
rect exercise of the power thus placed in their
hands. Whether it is safe or wise for that in
terest to invite such contest, we need not here
consider.
The time draws nigh, fellow.oountrymen,
when you will be called upon to decide upon
the policy and the principles of the General
Government. Your votes at the approaching
Presidential election will determine whether
Slavery shall continue to be the paramount and
controlling influence in the Federal Admins
tration, or whether other rights and other in
terests shall resume the degree of considera-
ton to which they are entitled. The issue is
upon us by no act of ours, and it cannot be eva |
ded. Under a profound conviction of impend |
ing dangers, the grounds whereof we have now |
set forth, we cali upon you to deliver the Con- |
stitution and the Union from the sabjugation
which threatens both. Holding, with the late
Mr.. Calhoun, that "the obligation to repel ag-
aression is not much less solemn than that of
abstaining from making aggression, and that
the party which submits to it, when i can be
resisted, is not much less guilty and RESPONSE
BILE for consequences than that which makes
it, we invoke n surrender Of all party preiu-
dices and all personal feelings, and q cordial /
and earnest union for the vindiaation of rights
and liberties whicL vo cannot surrender with
out degradation and shame. We summon you
to send delegates, in numbers three times as |
large as your representation in Congress, to |
meet in Convention at Philadelphia, on the 18th |
day of June next, to nominate candidates for |
the Presidency and Vice Presidency of the |
United States. Let them come prepared to |
surrender all personal preferences, and all |
sectional or local y;ews--resolved only to make |
such nominations and to take such action as |
shall advance the principles we hold and the |
nurpOseS we seek to prOmOta Disclaiminp /