The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-05-29
THE NATIONAL ERA: WASHINGTON, D. C., MAY 20, 1856

4
fest the Missouri River On the way to Kansas,
to seek some safer avenue And this, though
not unimportant in itself, is typical of greater
changes. The political credit of the men who
uphold the Usurpation, droops even more than
the stocks; and the People are turning from all
those through whom the Assassins and Thugs
have derived their disgraceful immunity.
1t was said of old, " Cursed be he that re-
moveth his neighbours Landmark. And all the
people shall say, Amen"-(D eut. xvii III Cur
sed it is said, in the city, and in the field cursed
in basket and store; cursed when thou contest
in, and cursed when thou goest out These are
terrible imprecatiens; but if ever any Landmark
were sacred, it was that by which an immense
territory was guarded foreper against Slavery !;
and if ever such imprecations could Justly de-
scend upon any one, they must descend now upon
all who, not content with the removal of this sa-
cred Landmark, have since, with criminal COM
plicity, fostered the incursions of the great
Wrong against which it was intended to guard.
But | utter imprecatiOns. These are rot
my words; nor Is it my part to add to or
subtract from them. But thanks be to God !
they find q response in the hearts of an aroused
People, making them turn from every man,
whether President, or Senator, or Representa-
| tive, who has been engaged in this Crime-es-
pecially from those who Graded in free institu-
tons, are without the apology of education or
words Of the prophet shall be fulfilled will
set my face against that man, and make him
sign and proverb and | will cut him him off
from the midst of my people. - Ezekiel xiv, 81
Turning thus from the authors of this Crime the
People will unite once more with the Fathers of
the Republic, in a just condemnation of Slavery
determined especially that it shall find no home
in the National Territories = while the Slave
Power, in which the Crime had its beginning
and by which it is now sustained, will be swept
into the charnel-hOuse of defunct Tyrannies.
In this contest, Kansas bravely stands forth
the STRIPPING leader, clad in the panoply of
American Institutions In calmly meeting and
adopting a frame of Government, her people
have with intuitive promptitude performed the
duties of freemen; and when consider the diff
culties by which she was beset find dignity in
her attitude. In Altering herself for admission into
the Union FREE STATE, she presents single
issue for the people to decide. And since the Slave
Power now stakes on this issue all its ill-gotten
supremacy, the People, while indicating Kansas,
will at the same time overthrow this Tyranny.
Thus does the contest which she now begins in
volve not only Liberty for herself but for the
whole country. God be praised, that she did
not bend ignobly beneath the yoke Far away
On the prairies, she is now battling for the Lib
erty of all, against the President, who misrepre-
sents all. Everywhere among those who are not
insensible to Right, the generous struggle meets
generous response. From innumerable throb-
bling hearts go forth the very words of encour-
agement which, in the sorrowful days of our
Fathers, were sent by Virginia, speaking by the
pen of Richard Henry Lee, to Massachusetts, in
the person of her popular tribune, Samuel Adams:
"CHANmLY, VA, June q, l774
81 hope the good people of Boston will lose their
spirits under their heavy oppression for they will
for which they suffer is glorious and deeply inter-
esng to the present and future that all Amer
lea will owe IN great MEASURE their political salvation
the present virtue of Massachusetts Bay ~ american
AyehireS, Al series, Vol I, p. 446J
In all this sympathy there is strength But in the
cause itself there is angelic power. Unseen of
men, the great spirits of History combat by the
side of the people of Kansas, breathing divine
courage. Above all towers the majestic form of
Washington once more, the bloody field,
bidding them to remember those rights of Human
Nature for which the War OF Independence was
waged. Such n cause, thus sustained, is invinci-
BILE.
The contest, which, beginning in Kansas, has
reached Us, will soon be transferred from Con-
gress to a broader stage, where every citizen will
be not only spectator, but actor; and to their
judgment | confidently appeal. To the People,
now on the eve of exercising the electoral fran
chise, in choosing Chief Magistrate of the
Republic, | appeal, to vindicate the electoral
franchise in Kansas. Let the ballot-box of the
UniOn with mutitudinous might, protect the
ballot-box in that Territory. Let the voters
everywhere, while rejoicing in their own rights
help to guard the equal rights of distant fellow
citizens; that the shrines of popular institutions
now desecrated, may be sanctiied anew that the
ballot-box, now plundered may be restored and
that the cry, ~ am American citizen" may
not be sent forth in vain against outrage Of every
kind. In just regard for free labor in that Terri
tory, which it is sought to blast by unwelcome
association with slave labor; in Christian SYM
patty with the slave, whom it is proposed to task
and TO sell there in stern condemnation of the
Crime which has been consummated on that
beautiful soil in rescue of fellow-citizens, now
subjugated to a tyrannical Usurpation; in du-
tiful respect for the early Fathers, whose as
piratons now ignobly thwarted in the
name of the Constitution, which has been out
raged-of the Laws tramped down-of Justice
banished--of Humanity degraded-of Peace de-
stroyed-of Freedom crushed to earth and, in
the name of the Heavenly Father, whose service
is perfect Freedom, make this last appeal