Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1856-03-20


Union Of these States against foreign az
gression land domestic strife. What W
claim for ourselves, we claim for all. Tn
rights, privileges lund liberties which W
demand as our inheritance, we concede q
their inheritance to all ithe citizens of thi
Republic.
Holding these opinions, and animated b.
these sentiments, we declare our convie
ton that the Government of the Uniie
States is not administered in accordance
with the Constitution, or for the 2reserva
tion and prosperity of the. American Union
but that its powers are systematically WELD
ed FOR THE PROMOTION AND EXTENSION OF
THE INTEREST OF SLAVERY, in direct hostii
ty to the letter and spirit of the tConstitu
tion, in aagrant disregard of other great in
terests of the country, and in open con
tempt of the public sentiment of the A
merican people and of the Christian world
We proclaim our belief that the polio,
which has for years past been adopted ir
the Administration Of the General Govern
ment, tends to the utter subversion o
the great ends for which the Constitution
was established, and that. unless it shal
be arrested by the prompt interposition Of
the People, the hold of the Union upon
their loyalty ard affection will be relaxed
the domestic tranquility will be disturbed
and all Constitutional securities for the
blessings of liberty to ourselves and our
poster,y will be destroyed. The Slave.
holding interest cannot be made perman-
emily paramount in the General Cavern
ment without involving consequences fatal
to Free institutions. We acknowledge that
it 10 large and powerful; that in the States
where it exists 1t is entitled under The Con.
stitution, like all other local interests, to
immunity from the interferences Of the
General Government, and that il must me-
cessarily exercise through Its representatives
a considerable share of political power
But there is nothings in its position, as
there is certainly nothing in its character,
to sustain the supremacy which it seeks to
establish. There is not State in the
Union in which the shareholders number
one tenth part o: the Tree white population
nor in the aggregate do they number one
fttieth part the white population Of the U
States. The annual productions of the
other classes in the Union far exceed the
total value of all the slaves. To say moth
ing, therefore, of the questions of natural
justice, and Of political economy which
Slavery involves, neither it's magnitude nor
the number of those by whom it is repre-
sented entitled il to one tenth part of the
political powers conferred upon the Feder-
al Government by the Constitution Yet
we see it seeking, and at this moment
welding, all the functions Of the Govern
ment-executive, legislative, and judicial
and using them for the augmentation OF its
powers and the establishment of its ascend.
ancy. fl.
From this ascendancy the principles OF
the Constitution, the rights of the several
States. the safety of the Union, and the
welfare Of the people Of the United States
demand that it should be dislodged.
HIsroRIcAL OUTLINE VI THE PROGRESS OF
SLAVERY TOWARD AscEKDANcY IN THr
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
1t is not necessary for US to rehearse in
details the successive steps by which the
slaveholding interest has secured the in.
fiuence it now exerts in the General Gov.
ernment Close students OF political events
will readily trace The path of it's ambition
through the past twenty-five years of our
national history. ,.
1t was under the Administration of Pre-
sident Tyler, and during the negotiation
which preceded the annexation OF Texas
that the Federal Administration for the
| fist time declared, in its diplomatic CORE
spondence with foreign nations,,hat Slavery
| in the Unit ed States was a 'PoLlTIcAL IN
sTITUrIoN, ESSENTIAL TO THE PEACE, SAFE
TY OF THOSE STATES OF THE UNION II
WHICH 1T EXISTS" and that the paramount
motive of the American Government, ir
annexinq Texas, was twofold-First: tt
prevent the abolition Of Slavery within il
limits. aud Second: To render Slavery more
secure and more powerful within the slave
holding States of the Union. Slavery wa
thus taken under the special care and pro
tection of the Federal Government. l
was no longer to be left as State insti
tuition, to be controlled exclusively by tn,
States themselves; il was to be detende
by the General Government, not only a
gains, invasion or insurreclicn Of arme
enemies, but against the moral sentimen
of humanity and the natural development
Of population and material power.
i Thus was the whole current OF our ma
tional history suddenly and unconstitutior
{ ally reversed. The General Governmen
, abandoning the position it had always hel
f declared its purpose to protect and Pe'pet'
9 ate what the founders Of the Republic ha
regarded as an evil-as at variance vii
9 the principles on which our institution
we're based. and as a course of weakness
= social and political, to the communities
Il which it existed, At the time Of the X
l. volution Slavery existed in all the Colonie
70 but neither then, nor for half centu
10 afterward, had it been an element Of. p
it litical strife. for there was no differen
S. OF opinion Or of policy in regard to it. II
g. tendency Of affairs had been toward ems
In cipation. Half the original thirteen Stat
,e had taken measures at an early day to fl
,e themselves from the blighting influence a
the reproach Of Slavery. Virginia and No
mt Carolina had anticipated the Continen
of Congress of l77<, in checking the incre'
on of their Slave population by prohibiting
q L -