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


speak disrespec3fully of its iniquities.
Eventually, Individuals appeared who were
willing to encounter odium, in order to arouse
the religious AMI moral sensibilities of the ma
ton and in 1866, a National Convention met
at Philadelphis to devise means for overcoming
this moral and political scourge. The mem
beers pledged themselves to each other and to
! the world, to maintain the truths to which /
have alluded, and they now constitute the plat
| form of large and increasing political party.
| That day witnessed the dawning of a reform
alton more deep, more radical, more import
ant in its religious, its moral, its social, and
political effects upon mankind, than has occur
| red since the sixteenth century. 1t is more
deep and radical than that commenced by Cal.
| vim and his colaborers. 1t asserts the right of
man to religious and moral elevation, as su.
perior to the power of kings or of human Gov
ernments. The great reformers of that age
| dared put forth no such doctrine. Their lives
would have constituted the price of such an
svowal They were constrained to admit the
divine right of kings over the liberties of their
people, and many of the usurped powers of the
church.
| The Philadelphia Convention will be remem.
bered in coming time as first in the history of
the political parties of our nation to make re.
ligious truths the basis of its political action,
and first to proclaim these rights Of mankind as
universal, to be enjoyed equally, by princes and
| people, by rulers and the most humble. 1t
was the first to proclaim the fatherhood of God
and the brotherhood of man. The result of the
| Presidential election of 1856 showed the advo.
Gates of oppression that there was but one al.
tentative for them to pursue. They we're con.
strained to take distinct issue with the advo.
Gates of Liberty, by denying these religious
truths, disband their party in every free State.
| The Supreme Court was selected as the in
strument for officially avowing this undisguised
infdelity. That tribunal was favorably consti-
| tuted for such a purpose; majority of its
f, members were Shareholders. Other members
had been appointed to Office apparently on &C.
count of their uniform servility to the slave
power; and every circumstance combined to
render it the appropriate instrument for per-
forming this work. The time, too, was a mat
ter of importance. No sooner had the Thirty
fourth Congress adjourned, than majority of
| that tribunal, in violation of its own declared
rules, depressed from the question before them,
to utter its denial of those doctrines of the re-
| publican fathers.
But this decision, opposed as it is to the self.
evident truths of our Declaration of Independ.
ence, to the letter and spirit of the Constitution
to the intelligence and conscience of the Amer
can people, is emphatically repudiated by them.
The vanity and arrogance exhibited by a ma
jority the Court, in charging Hancock and
| Adams and Jefferson and Franklin, and their
illustrious compeers, with procaiming doc.
trines which they did not intend to express,
and of failing to utter principles which they in.
tended to avow, has called forth from the pop.
ular mind indignant pity for the Court, rather
than doubts as to the intelligence and Christian
ity of those Swans who founded our institutions.
/ oha1I ,ot haur of H.
ion. Its fasehood is as selfevident as the truths
which it denies. Arriving at the conclusion that
| the sages who signed our Declaration of Inde-
pendence meant precisely the opposite of that
which they solemnly proclaimed, the Court pro-
ceeded to declare-in contradiction to its letter
and spirit to the history of the age, to the con-
science and judgment of all Christian people
that black men were regarded as having no
rights which white men were bound to respect ;
and on this basis founded their conclusion that
| Congress has no constitutional authority to pro.
tect the lives, liberties, and property, of the
people in our Territories where it holds exclu-
| sive jurisdiction. This atrocious decision at
| tempts to outlaw one-eighth part of the human
race-to place them without the pale of legal
protection. 1t affects to authorize any and
every crime to be perpetrated against them.
Under this decision, they may be robbed and
murdered. In short, this decision would ex-
tend American infdelity, with all its attendant
crimes, wherever Federal jurisdiction exists.
| Thus has the issue been made between the
religious portion of the community and those
who maintain this heatheBsm.
| 1 greatly rejoice that Christians in Europe
are sensible of the existence of this war upon
human nature. American Christians, patriots,
and philanthropists, feel the warmest gratitude
towards the religious men of Scotland, of Eng.
| 1ord IF nd Coz .c1
sympathy which they express in this cause, for
the very catholic remonstrances which they
have addressed to our American Christians
against this infidelity. Every lover of truth,
| every religious heart in our land, must have
glowed with gratitude to God and love to man,
as he read the eloquent and truthful address of
the Christians of Geneva, once the home of
Europe's great reformer, to the Christians of
the United States, on this subject. And whose
heart was not moved, when noticing the action
of the ProtestAnts of France in relation to it ?
Nor is this Christian feeling confined to Prot
estants. The African Institute of Paris, form
ed for the purpose of maintaining the rights of
the African race, embraces among its members
distinguished laymen, ministers, bishops, and
archbishops, belonging to the Papal Church.
My own humble efforts in behalf of our common
brotherhood caused my name to become known
to its directors, who placed it the roll of its
honorary members. / take this occasion to
thank them for this honor. A Protestant by
education, by feeling, greet those Catholic
Christians most cordially, as good and worthy
laborers in this holy work. Heartily do thank
them for all that they have done, and are doing,
for the downtrodden of our race.
Gould / hope that my remarks would meet
the eye of British Ministers, would in an es-
pecial manner invoke their official influence
against this inGdelity. i would beseech them
no more to sanction, by their action, that bias.
phemy which seeks to transform the image oil
God into property.
/ acknowledge that our Government was
dishonored in the eyes of all Christians, when
its Executive became the agent and solicitor
of those pirates who claimed to own the fathers,
the mothers, and children, on board certain
slave ships wrecked on British islands, where,
thanks to Christian civilization, no Slavery ex
lists. The President, espousiDg the cause oil
men who deserved the halter and the gallows,
demanded compensation from the British Gov.
ernment for their loss of human flesh. Our
representative at the Court of st. James appears
to have misled and deceived the British Minis
1 try. In one of his official communications, he
| declared that "our Government had deter.
| mined more than once, in the most solemn
manner, that slaves killed in the public service
| of the United States, even in q state of war,
were to be regarded as property, and not az
persons, and the Government held responsible
for their value"
When referring to this assertion of our Min
lister, fifteen years since, pronounced it un
founded and untrue. / said this in the pres
ence of the delegation from Virginia, the State
of which our Minister, Mr.. Stevenson, was q
| citizen. and called ON them "a his friends, To