Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-10-30

JEFrERsoN, Oct. l9, 1858.

Hon. THOMAS CoRw1N-DEAR SIR :-Th cleo
tion Of yesterday constitutes you a member Of the
Thirty Sixth Congress, and restores me to the
privilege of a private citizen. Among those priv
teges none is more important than that Of respect
fully and frankly addressing our public servants
on matters pertaining to our political interest
In q recent speech at Nenia, you arc reported
as saying, that if we bought q slave territory
say Cuba-under such a treaty ms that by which
we obtained Louisiana, we were bound TO respect
their rights of property and admit the territory
as a slave State if it wishes to COM in as such."
can give to this declaration no other construc
ton than an assurance that if the Executive shall
negotiate a treaty for the purchase of Cuba and
obtain it's ratification by the Senate YOU will feel
bound to respect the right Of property ,cdich the
Spanish masters hold in their SiareS and on &C.
count of such right you will vote for the ad'
mission of Cuba as q sla We State, if the people ask
1t.
Coming from one to whom the question will
probably be submitted, this declaration is certain
ly important. The admission Of Cuba as a Slave
State must greatly effect the interests, the rights,
and the honor Of our people. You will permit me to
suggest that this doctrine of property an huma"
flesh" has ever been repudiated by the people OF
Ohio, even while we were a Territory. In both
our FIRST and present Constitutions it is most un-
equivocally rejected. In all orr legislation, by
the decisions of all orr Courts, it has with per-
feet unanimity been discarded. When it was
first presented to the Supreme Court of the Unit
ed States for decision, on eminen. Jurist Of Ohio
Judge Nc Lean boldly denied its existence un-
der the Federal Constitution" and exposed its alb
eurdity with such powers of logic and of elo-
Quence, that no slaveholding judge was then will
ling to meet or deny his doctrine.
When in 1885 it was presented to the House OF
representatives 10 Congress, and referred to the
committed on Claims, my predecessor, Hon. Il,
Whittlesey, another son of Ohio, met it ably: and
in a report rejecting honor on him self and the
State which he represented, showed from official
records that the doctrine which you assert had
up to that time ever been ropudiated by Congress,
In accordance with these precedents l have, DUR
ing my service in that body, opposed it as often as
presented for consideration and, to this day as
often as IL has been agitated in Congress has been
rejected.
1t the formation Of our Federal Constitution,
Mr.. Madison declared it would be wrong to ad-
init in that instrument that imam can hold proper
sy IN man."-to which every member of the con-
vention yielded a tacit admission. But the peo-
pie were not satisfied with q silent n~egation of
such doctrine, and two years afterwards Congress
proposed to amend the Constitution by declaring,
"TAaAno person shall be deprtved Of life, liberty or
property, without due process of lac;" that is with
out trial and conviction before some tribunal hav-
ing jurisdiction of the offense and this PROPOSE
ton was adopted by the States and now forms a
part Of the Constitution. l need not say that the
Republicans of 1776 and those of 1856 declared it
to be a "selferident truth" that all men (including
slapes as we'll as their masters) are endowed by
their Creator with the inalineable right to liberty,
aud that our Federal Government was founded
for the express purpose of securing to every hu
man being within its exclusive jurisdiction thu
enjoyment of this right. And should Cuba bt
annexed to the United States, and thereby brough
under our jurisdiction, the Republicans will b
bound to respect the right of erery indicidual Il
enjoy his liberty unaer The laws IF tile United States
while they will be equally bound to reject any
claims of property which Cubans may set up t.
the souls and bodies of each other.
10 these doctrines of our Republican fathers
of the statesmen and jurists of Ohio, to the letter
and spirit of our State and Federal Constitutions
to the platform and policy Of the Republican party
you seem to have placed yourself in the most un
mistaksble antagonism. l say you seem to hav'
placed yourself in this attitude. You are so re
ported, and if you have been misrepresented ii
any respect, it is due to the people OF our Stat
as we'll as to yourself that your true position b
known and | thus address you over my own sig
nature. in order that you may feel at perfect libel
ty to explain the language you are reported t
have used, as well as to correct any error of fact
or of argument into which | may have fallen i
this letter. l know that you desire to be unde
stood, and will approve my earnestness and plair
ness. l have long ln5ored to restore our Govern
ment to the doctrines on which it was founded
My hopes for our country are based upon that IT
spect for the rights Of every member of the hi
man family which gives equal protection to eaci
and which the Republican party are pledged
MAINTAIN wherever the Federal Constitution hold
exclusive jurisdiction regarding slavery as the
do as an unmitigated despotism, an outrage upo
human nature, a crime which no ~sophistry ca
disguise, and 40 circumstances can justify.
You further assert that we will be bound to at
NIT Cuba rs a Slave State if she desires it aftt
annexation. To this | believe the Republican
are unanimously opposed. The very object an
design of annexation is to extend and Increase til
despotism Of slavery to give the foreign CATH
lies of Cuba. assisted by the Democratic party
the power to elect our President and Vice'Pres
dent, and control the administration of our Fee
eral Government for an indefinite period in til
future. To effect this object the present Admin
~istratiou is willing to give the free population {
Cuba superior power and influence over the in
%terests. the rights and honor of cur people TO tina
which we ourselves exert. by allowing them tire
votes for every FIVE slaves they may hold 10 bon
dage. Republicans deny that Congress or til
Federal Government hold any right or authorit
thus to take from the people of the free State
the control of their own rights, their own honor
and transfer them to the discretion and keeping
Cuban shareholders.