Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1856-07-31

your fathers"
Since '76, tyranny has changed its tactics.
Then, 1t sought to place the people of this ma
tlon under the government of the King and
Parliament of England Noao, it seeks to place
the government in the hands of an olgarchy,
who are, from their youth up, trained as ty-
rants, and are taught to consider labor as dis
graceful and the laborer as unfit to exercise
any share in political government. This is an
attack upon the doctrine which our fathers de-
clared to be Self-evident truth and is the
more dangerous because it has come upon us
gradually and in a disguised form 1t com
menced first by destroying the freedom of a
helpless and deSpiSed race and its continual
tendency has been since that time to make the
M60rer of whatever race he NAV be, helpless
and dcSpiSed also. The white laborer in the
Slave States does not take the same rank in
society as the same kind of laborers do in the
North In several Of the States they are not
permitted to vote and are really but little
better off than the slaves. The master does
not look upon color as the badge of slavery
if they did, the holding of white slaves would
cease. We should not see in almost every
southern paper advertisements speaking of
slaves with light complexion and blue eyes
with the additional information that it is diff
ticult to tell them from white persons The
truth is the master wants labor done without
paying for 1t he does not care who does it,
or OF what race they come, or whether they are
white or black. The whole south now assumes
the ground that all men are not created equal;
that they are not all entitled to liberty and the
pursuit of happiness and this false doctrine
so hostile to our republican Institutions, is de-
moralizing the whole nation
a crime mighty in its magnitude and terri
bic i'll its consequences is daily committed and
justified in one end of the Republic, while it
is daily apo.oJ lied for or forgotten in the 9th
er. Three and Il half millions of bodies are
kept in bondage three and half millions of
souls kept in heathenish darkness by the laws
of States claiming to be christian and republi-
can and this is permitted under the constitu-
ton and beneath the flag of this glorious
Union"
| have mentioned this not intending to dwell
upon the question of Slavery as it exists in the
States. | have mentioned it as the great Pan
dOra'S box from which unnumbered evils are
poured out upon the land as the great strong
hold and remitting station of the demon W
ranny.- | shall dwell chiefly upon its violations
of the Constitution, and its trespaSseS upon
northern rights
Firstly. 1t violates the Constitution of the
United States by restraining the personal liber-
ty of certain citizens of the northern states
whose business takes them south.
Secondly. 1t prohibits freedom of speech and
freedom of the press on the subject of slavery
Thirdly. 1t trespasSes Oh northern rights by
an unjust, unnecessary and tyranncal Fugitive
Slave Law.
Fourthly. 1t is attempting to legalize slave
ry i'll the free states by corrupt judicial de-
ciSious.
Filthy. 1t is waging cruel and yindictive
war against citizens of the North in Kansas,
for the purpose Of making that territory a
slave state
TO accomplish these purposes the great oil
garchy has used, and is still using the whole
power of the National Government, and the
welltried machinery of a great party
shall touch briefly upon each of the points
alluded to. The second section of the fourth
article of the Constitution declares, "The citi-
zens of each state shall be entitled to all privi-
leges and immunitieS of citizen in the several
States" This provision of the Constitution is
openly violated by the laws of many, if not all,
of the Southern States
In Massachusetts, and in several other North
ern States, cOIored men are citizens and as
such entitled to all the privileges and immuni-
ties of other citizens Yet, these men are com
pleteIy prescribed in the South. If by chance
one is found there, he is at once seized and put
i'll jail. In South Carolina they even seize
them on board of vessels in their harborS.-
They are placed in Jail and there they remain
until the vessel gets ready to sail, when by
paying the expense of this unconstitutional i'm
priSOnment they can be released but if they
are not able to pay their Jail fees they are
sold as slaves This is an old offence aud
the Legislature Of Massachusetts once sought
to try the legality of it III the Courts of South
Carolina An able and learned lawyer was
sent there to commence q suit but he was
driven from the State with threats of personal
violence. So the law now stands. BE it re-
membered that on this fourth day of July,
1856, almost every Southern State has laws
upon its statute books which are openly and
plainly in violation of the Constitution and
under these laws citizens of the north may be-
and often are, made slaves. The same provis-
ion of the Constitution is also violated in their
treatment of white citizens of the North. Any
citizen of the North who dares to express his
opinions against slavery in a slave state is in
danger of his life A New York Tribune
found in one mans trunk entitled him to a
coat Of tar and feathers an avowal of free
soil sentiments cost another man a ride upon
a rail and suspicion of abolitionism brings
the bowie-knife or the halter The destruction
of printing presses and mob violence of every
kind have become so common that they do not
excite such indignation as they justly merit
Personal freedom, the freedom of speech, the
freedom of conscience, and the freedom of the
press are the chief points gained by freedom
in the contests of thousand years they are
rights guaranteed in the constitution, and de
manded by the common law ; hut the South
no longer regards them. Their soil is stained
with the blood Of martyrs, their annals are