Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1858-09-21
WHOLE NUMBER $40


sensible to those rights lii those States
| which have restrained or prohibited the I'M.
portion OF slaves, it is only done by Icgis-
iative acts which may be repealed. When
| those States find that they must, in their
National character and connection, suffer
in the disgrace, and share in the inconye-
nlences attendant upon that deteslible and
iniquitous traffic, they may be desirous
also to share in the benefits arising fronit;
aud the o1ians attending it will be greatly
sfased BY the sanction which IS givah=to
It IN The General Government" Elliot's
Debates, vol. I, pages 1913. 374 and 375.
Can any man read the above speech of
Luther Martins, and still believe that our
Revolutionary Fathers held, with Judge
! Taney, James Buchanan, and other rrom.
nent Democrats, that black men have no
| rights which white men are bound to ro-
spect." If he can, we ply his ignorance:
! lis prejudice is his want of brains But
we stop not here, We proceed to Introduce
some extracts from speech delivered by
William ouickney, Of Maryland, in her
House of Delegates, in I778. We quote
as follows:
''It was the policy Of this country. sir.
from an early period of colonization down
to the Revolution, to encourage All impor-
tation of slaves, for purposes, which Cf
conjecture may be indulged) had been far
better answered without their assistance.
That this inhuman policy was disgrace
10 the colony, a dishonor TO the Legislature
and scandal to human nature, we need
not, at this enlightened period. labor to
| prove. The generous MIND. that has ade-
quate ideas of the Inherent rights of man
| Kind, and knows the value of them, must
feel its Indignation rise against the shame
| ul traffic that introduces slavery into
| country which seems to have been de-
signed by Providence as an asylum for
hose whom the arm Of power hath perse-
cuted, and not as a nursery for wretches
stripped of every privilege which Heaven
| intended for its rational creatures, aud re-
Iuced to level with--nay become them.
>clves--the mere goods and chottels of
their masters.
! Sir, by the etc. nal principles Of natural
| Justice, no master 10 the State has right
hold his slave in bondage for q single
! hour but the law Of the land, which
| (however oppressive and unjust, however
Inconsistent with the great groundwork of
he late Revolution, aud our present frame
of Government We cannot, in prudence
or from a regard to individual. riglt].
abolish, has authorized slavery as bad or
perhaps worse than the most absolute,
unconditional servitude, that ever England
knew in the early ages Of its Empire, under
the tyrannical policy the Danes, the feu-
| dal tenures of the Saxons, or the pure
villenage Of the No.mans.
We may talk of liberty in our public
councils. and fancy that we feol reverence
for her dictates. We may deciaim with
all the vehemence Of animated rhetoric
against oppression, and fatter ourselves
that we detest the ugly monster; but 60
long as we continue to cherish the poison
Gus weed OF slavery among US, the
world will doubt our sincerity. In the
| name Of Hea Gu, with what face can We
call ourselves the friends of equal freedom
and the inherent rights Of our species,
when we wantonly pass laws inimital to
each, when we reject every opportunity OF
destroying by silent, imperceptible de-
grees, the horrid fabric of individual bond
age, reared by the mercenary hands Of
those from whom the sacred flame Of
liberty received no devotion ?' Willis
toms Eloquence of the United States, Vol.
S, vide Goodloe's Southern Platform"
pages 6o-6l.
Thus much for Maryland Statesmen.--
They evidently regarded slavery as vio-
la:ion Of the rights OF man. as great
source of National weakness, as contrary
to the great principles Of the Revolution,
AS even inconsistent with our ''present
frame of Government" and in short as all
odious system Of despotism the destruc-
ton of which was called for by every
high and noble aspiration of human ma.
ture as we'll as by every principle of JUS
tice and right Judge Taney. who holds
that ''black men have no rights which
white men are bound to respect" is
native of this same Statel Would it not
be we'll for him to learn lesson from Lr-
tller Martin and William Quickney? s.
TO DE coRT1SrED.
EE-The missouri Democrat annOun-