The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-03-18

tnOrlze the INVASION OF these rights orc S~Ns
the just powers of human Governments, are I'M
pious invasions of GODS prerogatives, are 1es-
| potic in their character, impose no moral ooii'
cation upou any individual, but involve those
| who enact and those who support them IN tne
same degree of guilt with those who perpetrate
4 The crimes: that such statutes can In no degree
modify the moral guilt of those who trample
unon The RIGHTS which God has bestowed upon
their fellow men. The other portion of the
American people, maintaining corresponding
io6deIty. DENY the existence of these rights,
denv that God has bestowed them upon man.
Kind: they claim unlimited sovereignty for hu-
man Governments over human rights.
But desire to call attention to some of those
SPEC fic rights which are included in the gene
raj proposition regarded as inalienable and
common to all men. Christians and patriots
hold life to be the gift Of God. They regard
it sacred; they look upon its invasion as
crime; that, az the Creator bestows exittence
upon those who bear His image, it becomes
the duty of individuals, of associations, and Of
Governments, to protect each and every human
being in the enjoyment of life; that at this
point human legislation commences, limited In
it's appropriate powers to the protection of life,
and not to its destruction that human Govern.
men,s hold no other rightful powers in regard
to life than to protect its enjoyment; that the
execution of pirates and murderers, and those
who invade our country, is allowed only for the
purpose of protecting society; that these pow
ers ere ordained of God, sanctioned by reli
eion, by philosophy, by the common sense of
mankind They believe that that command
which was proclaimed from Sinai, in tones of
hunder, saying to every human being, Thou
shalt not kill" was truly the voice of God that
it is repeated in all His works, and in every
revelation of Himself, and is binding on all our
race. This commandment of God, this entire
doctrine, is denied by the President and by all
American infdels; and this constitutes the first
collateral issue.
In our slaveholding communities, enactments
have been passed, and are now supported, pro.
Tossing to authorize masters to murder their
slaves. For instance, in those States the slave
is denied the right of selfdefence-the right to
protect his life or his person. If he attempt
to defend himself against the master, the
master is authorized to STAY him in any man
ner he may be able if he run from the mas
ter, after being ordered to stop, the master
is authorized to shoot him if he die under the
scourge, the master is not held responsible.
American in6dels believe that no moral turpi-
tude attaches to these statutory murders while
Christians hold that Gods moral law remains
unchanged by such enactments; that the guilt
of the murderer is in no degree modified by
such statutes that the perpetrstor stands un-
yelled before God and all good men, guilty as
he would be if no such laws existed that all
who enact and all who support such enact
ments, make themselves accessory to the crimes
committed under them, are guilty as such, and
ought to be subjected to the same punishment
with those who murder their slaves.
But this power of the master over the life of
IL - l. IL II L Il Al
institution, without which Slavery could not
exist. 1t is exercised wherever Slavery is
maintained. Every master exercises the priv
lege of driving his slave, in sickness or in
health, just 80 severely as will best subserve
his own interests. 1t is on this principle that
shareholders openly declare it to be profitable
to work their slaves 30 hard as to produce the
death of the whole gang on an average of five
years upon sugar plantations, and of seven
upon cotton plantations and to supply their
PLACES by other victims imported from the
slave-breeding States. From official documents,
it is estimated that thirty Thousand human vic.
Tins are thus sacrificed annually within the
United States and Territories.
In the slave States, it ia not uncommon to see
advertisements in the public papers, offering a
bounty for the head of q particular slave, who
has absconded from his master. Even in
Ohio, during the past year, Government
official deliberately murdered an absconding
slave, and is yet protected from the gallows by
those who administer the State laws in the
country where the murder was perpetrated.
Our Federal troops are often employed in the
work OF numbering those who are supposed to
be fugitive slaves. A signal instance of this
character occurred many years since. In q
time of profound peace, General jackson d.
rected our army to invade Florida, at that time
a province of Spain, for the purpose of muir.
dering people who were born free, but whose
ancestors had been slaves; and in one day
nearly three hundred men, women, and chill.
dren, we're barbarously and wantonly murdered
by American troops.
This system of murder is encouraged and
maintained by the present Executive, and by
all who support his Administration. They in
sist that the people of State or Territory may
rightfully enact laws giving to one man power
over the life of his fellow men who have commit
ted no offence; that popular sovereignty ia not
limited by Gods higher law; that it extends
with propriety over the life the liberty, and the
happiness, of portion of the human family !;
that the whites may, with moral impunity, sub
ject the colored people of State or Territory
to degrading servitude, close up the windows of
their souls, shut out knowledge from their I'M
ocIctouuiuRe, uolQ tueu III ignorance, ana
murder them if they assert the rights which
God has given them.
This infdelity, within the last half century,
has consigned more than million of innocent
and unoffending victims to untimely graves.
The number is far greater than has persisted
under the in6delity of France in all past time.
But this comparison of American With French
lnidelity does great injustice to the latter In
France, the victims were cent to the guilotine
under pTetence that it was necessary for the
pu6tse safely. They suffered but little; there
was no logging, no torture. But American
Inhdetty consigns its victims to years of tor
ture and suffering, and finally to death, for no
higher purpose than to crafty the sordid pas.
SONS OF their individual oppressors.
These Wholesale murders are but the out
workings of that in6delity which denies that
God has endowed all men with the inalienable
night to live. The enactments referred to, and
their results, clearly demonstrate the views of
tnose who sustain them, and are laboring, in
this Hall and elsewhere, to extend them over
our Territories, and wherever Congress holds
exclusive jurisdiction. 1t is most obvious
that while the present Administration openly
lends Its influence TO such crimes, every in
telligent man who sustains and upholds its
policy, or fails to oppose it 80 far as able, be
comes involved in the guilt of the murders
which it sanctions.
But shall be told that these enactments
are confined to the slave States, and tina
Congress holds no power to repeal or modif,
them. reply, that the people and statesmen
| of our Southern States insist that STAKEHOLDER,
may carry their slaves, and all privileges which
| they hold of fogging and numbering then
under State laws, into our Territories and til,
President, and those who sustain him, declar,
that the Constitution extends and protects thes,
crirnes wherever Federal authority exists. The,
declare that this system of murder is established
hu he E-A .krt.1 L. al