Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-03-28

IHE TRUE SPIRIT.-We copy from the LiJe'-
atoT the following manly letter. Earnest anti
slavery men in the slave States comprehend the
issue. They see and feel that it is not merely a
political contest against the extension of slavery,
but thatit is the death struggle between Freedom
and Slavery. Brave utterance, from a slave
State" am for the Union, or any other gov
eminent, just SO long as it protects my rights,
and no longeri" and lie should have added, 4" ev-
erybody elses rights = for the government which
protects my rights and tramples on another's,
will trample on mine, too, next. Brave words
from a slave State Two months ago, hardly two
hundred men in all Massachusetts, would have
March 5, 1857.
Gentlemen-Only now, on my return home
after long absence, have l received your kind
invitation Of Dee. y, for me to attend the TWEEN
ty fifth anniversary of the Massachusetts Anti
Slavery Society, which took place an. p in Fan
euil Hall.
Nothing would have given me more pleasure
than to have been present on that interesting &C.
easion.
You well remark that this is e the most glori-
ons and benehcent movement of the nineteenth
century,, tor without it, or rather. the end which
it proposes, all the experience, sufferings and
piratlons of all the ages are in vain--vain our
civilization-vain our Christanity-and in vain
our hopes of the future And because we differ
about the best means of accomplishing that end,
should be the less forward in bearing my testi-
mony TO the self-saerifce, the manliness and pat
riOtism of the anti-slavery pioneers who hold to
your peculiar organization? Was that Athenian
who refused by treachery to burn the Lacedemon-
ian fleet, less patriot than her many unscrupu
lous warriors Was he not rather the truest of
patriots inasmuch as Justice is a surer safety to
DpODlp than arr Ts mr. then noble to
make sacrifices to repair wrong as to refrain
from its intiicton? If this be good logic, who
more patriotic than those who, without hope of
reward, have for quarter of a century batted for
the justice of their country
Nor should the fear of the amt of disunion
deter me from doing justice to those who, in
struggling for others veal, SO neglect their own.
am for the Union, or any other government,
just SO long as it protects my rights, and no long
er. For any man to say that he loves that which
brings only oppression, is simply lie 1t is
worse-it IS adding fdlsehood to eowardice
am still for the Union, because / hope for
more safety in it than out of it, When, if ever,
L shall change this my opinion, then | would
war as heartily upon the Union as would upon
highway robber.
deny the light of any man to commit that
kindred cowardice of trucking to the slavehold-
ers by Iepudiating, for the Republican party,
any idea of interfering with slavery in the States.
Am not in the States and Of the States Am
not Republican, The Philadelphia platform
makes no such avowal, and l deny the authority
Of any man or set of men, less than the body who
made it. to amend it or repudiaie it.
stand 6y the Constitution. rwo-thirds of all
the States change that and those two-thirds
can crush slavery, and WILL if it fingers so long.
In the mesntime, each member of the Republican
party living in the slave States can " NEEDLE -
with slavery, and aoiH, to its final overthrow
This is our constitutionalright Shall we be base
enough to reverence legalized robbery more than
our own liberty
The Republican party will stand by the Con-
sttution," and all the Constitutions; and yet
they will ever war upon slavery everywhere! All
We ask is a fair field and an open fight; and "the
devil take the hindmost'' BY our action, (Deo
golentg.) SiaOery shall del
Your obedient servant,
C. M. CLAY.