The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-01-29
SENATOR WILSON AND THE DISTINGUISHES.

The following is the letter of Hon. Henry
Wilson to the Disunion Convention at Wor-
cester:
SENATE CHAMBER, January 10, 1857.
DEAR SIR / have received your note, enclo-
sing the call of several citizens of Worcester,
who believe "the existing Union to be fail.
ure," upon the people of Massachusetts, " to
meet in Convention at Worcester, on Thurs
day, the 18th of January, to consider the prac-
ticabiiity, probability, and expediency, of
separation of the free and slave States" and
inviting me, in behalf of the Committee of Ar
engagements, "to be present, or to communicate
my sentiments on the subject in question"
Your Committee of Arrangements could not
expect me to :" be present" at your Conven-
ton but as you have invited me to commu-
nicate my sentiments" will frankly do SO.
L have read, with sincere and profound re-
greet, this call on the people of Massachusetts
" to meet in Convention to consider the practi-
cability, probability, and expediency, of sep.
aration Of the free and slave States" I regret
to find gentlemen rushing into a movement
which can have no other issues than to put
burden upon the cause to which they have
given so many years of selfsacrifcing toll, and
to impair their influence in the future. Impo-
tent for good this movement can only be pro-
ductive of evil. 1t may be seized upon by
| adroit political leaders to alarm the timid to
deceive and mislead those who have already
been deluded and misled by artful men into
the support of the interests of Slavery. I'm
prudent words or rash deeds, on the part of the
| opponents of Slavery, only add to the power of
| those in the North and in the South, who have
used the people to secure the ascendency of the
slave propagandists.
The American people are patriotic people.
thn,r fha,r hol1
The preservation of that Union which makes
US one people, is with them a duty imposed
| alike by interest and patriotism. If the move
ment at Worcester shall have any effect at all,
1t Will only serve to array against those who
are battling to arrest the further extension of
Slavery, and the longer domination of the slave
perpetualists, that intense, passionate, and We
hement spirit of nationality which. CLOVIS in the
bosoms of the American people.
avail myself, therefore, of your invitation to
communicate my sentiments" to the Conven-
lion, to frankly announce to you and the signers
of the call, that l have no sympathy for nor
Can have any connection WITH any movement
which contemplates the dissolution of the Union.
The logic OF the head and the logic of the heart
teach me TO regard all such movements, either
in the North Or the South, as crimes against
Liberty. denounced, during the late canvass,
the unpatriotic and reasonable language Of
Southern politicians and presses. / have de.
nounced them here on the floor of the Senate.
] shall hold the incoming Administration re-
sponsible before the country, if it bestows its
patronage upon the Richmond Enquirers,
Charleston Nercurys, and New Orleans Deltas,
and | shall resist the confirmation of the Wises,
the Floyds, and the Rhetts, of the South, if they
Shall be placed before us for official positions
l cannot but indulge in the hope, that when
the signers of this call assemble in the heart of
our good old Commonwealth, they will con.
clude to leave all the impotent and puerile
threats against the Union to the Southern
slave propagandists, and proclaim their read-
ness to follow, in the conflicts of the future, the
banner of Liberty and GTnion,i around which
rallied, in the late canvass, nearly fourteen hun
dred thousand intelligent and patriotic Ameri-
can freernen. A firm and inhexible adherence
to his constitutional and patriotic position will,
am confident, secure the prohibition of Sla-
very in all placesunder the exclusive authority
of Congress, overthrow the slave power in the
National Government, and prepare the way for
the peaceful emancipation of the bondman by
the consent of the people of the slaveholding
States. Yours, truly, HENRY WILSON.
Req. Z. ". RigginSon.