The Lansing state Republican. [volume] (Lansing, Mich.) 1855-1874, 1860-07-11

represented the cause of Abolition in Parliamen,
was threatened with personal violence; Clarkson
who represented the same cause before the peo
pie, was assaulted BY the infuriste slaye.traders
and narrowly escaped being hustled into tn
dock; and Roscoe, the accomplished historian
on his return to Liverpool from his seat in Par
lament, where he had sigua!ized himself as al
opponent of the slave trade, was met at the en-
trance of the town by a savage mob, compose,
of persons interested In this traffic, armed witt
knires and 6ludyeons, the distinctive argument
and companions Of pro-slavery partisans.
| And even in the Free States the partisans O
slavery have from the beginning acted under
the inspiration Of violence. The demon Of slave
~ has entered into them, and under its influence
| they have behaved Ike slave-masters. Public
meetings for the discussion of slavery have beer
interrupted; public halls dedicated to its discus
sion have been destroyed or burned to the
ground. In all our populous cities the great
rights OF speech and Of the press have been as
sailed precisely as in the slave States. In Bos.
ton, Garrison, pleading for the slave, was drag.
ged through the streets with halter about his
neck; and in Illinois, Loveioy, also pleading for
the slave, was terociously murdered. The former
yet lives to speak for himself, while the latter
lives in his eloquent brother, the Representative
from Illinois in the other House. Thus does
slavery show its natural influence even at a
distance.
Nor in the slave States is this spirit confined
10 the outbreaks of mere law!essness. Too
strong for restraint, it finds no limitations except
in its own barbarous will. The government be-
comes its tool, and in official acts does its bid
ding. Here again the instances are numerous.
/ ipht dwau fba ,{ H. ID.
Office, when its official head consented that, for
the sake of slavery, the mails themselves should
be riied l might dwell also on the cruel perse.
cution of free persons of color who, in the slave
States generally. and even here in the District
OF Columbia, are not allowed to testify where a
white man is in question, and who now in seve-
raj States arc menaced by legislative act with
the alternative Of expulsion from their homes or
OF reduction TO slavery. But l pass at once to
two Illustrative transactions, which, as q son of
Massachusetts,, cannot forget
/. The first relates to q citizen, of purest life
and perfect interity, whose name is destined to
bill conspicuous place in the history of freedom
William Lloyd Garrison. Born in Massachusetts
bred to the same profession with Benjamin
Franklin, and like his great predecessor becoming
an editor, he saw with instructive clearness the
wrong of slavery, and at period when the ar
dors of the Missouri Question had given way to
indifference throughout the North, he stepped
forward to denounce it. The jail at Baltimore,
where he then resided, was his earliest reward.
Afterwards, January lst, 1881, he published the
first number Of the Laberator, inscribing for his
motto an utterance of christian philanthrophy,
my country is the world, my countrymen are
all mankind" and declaring in the face of sur
rounding apathy, 81 am in earnest. will not
equivocate, will not retreat single inch, and
will be heard" In this sublime spirit he COM
menced his labors for the elave, proposing no
Intervention by Congress in the States, and on
well.considered principles avoiding all appeals to
the bOndmen themselves. Such was his simple
and thoroughly constitutional position, when,
before the expiration Of the first year. the Legis.
lature of Georgia, by solemn act, a copy of which
have now before me, "approved" by Wilson
Lumpkin, Governor, appropriated $4,000 "to
be paid to any person who shall arrest, bring to
trial, and prosecute to conviction under the laws
Of this State, the editor or publisher of a certain
paper called the Liberator, published at the
town of Boston and State of Massachusetts,"
This Infamous legislative act touching person
absolutely beyond the Jurisdiction of Georgia,
and in no way amenable to its laws, constituted
a plain bribe to the gangs of kidnappers engen-
dered by slavery. With this barefaced defiance
OF justice and decency slave-masters inaugurated
the system Of violence by which they have
sought to crush every voice that has been raised
against slavery.
2. Here is another illustration of different
character. Free persons of color, citizens of
Massachusetts,, and, according to the institutions
of this commonwealth, entitled to equal privile.
ges with other citizens, being in service as mari
ners, and touching at the port of Charleston, in
South Carolina, have been seized, and with no
allegation against them, except of entering this
port in the discharge of their rightful business,
have been cast into prison, and there detained
during the delay of the vessel. This is by virtue
of statute of South Caralina, passed in 1928,
which further Declares that in the failure of the
captain to pay the expenses, these freemen
shall be seized and taken as absolute slaves"
one moiety of the proceeds of their sale to be-
long to the Sheriff. Against all remembrance
against the official opinion of Mr.. Writ, as At.
torney General Of the United States, declaring it
unconstitutional the solemn judgment
of Mr.. Justice johnson, of the Supreme Court of
the United States, himself save-master and
citizen of South Carolina, also pronouncing it
nconstitutional-this statute, which is an obyi.
Gus injury to Northern ship.owners, as it is an
outrage to the mariners whom it seizes, has
been upheld to this day by South Carolina.
But this is not all. Massachusetts,, in order
to obtain for her citizens that protection which
was denied, and especially to save them from the
dread penalty of being sold into slavery, appoint.
ed citizen of South Carolina to act as her
agent for this purpose, and to bring suits in the
Circuit Court Of the United States in order to
try the consttutionality Of this pretension. Ow.
ing to the sensbility of the people in that State
this agent declined to render this simple service
Massachusetts, next selected one of her own sona,
a venerable citizen, who had already served with
honor in the other House Of Congress, and who
was OF admitted eminencc as lawyer, the Hon.
Samuel Hoar, of Concord, to visit Charleston,
and to do what the agent first appointed had
shrunk from doing. This excellent gentleman,
beloved by all who knew him, gentle in manners
as he was firm in character, and with q counte.
nance that was in itself letter Of recommends.
ton, arrived at Charleston, accompanied only by
his daughter. Straightway all South Carolina
was convulsed. According to story in Bos-
wells johnson, all the inhabitants at St. Kilda,
remote island Of the Hebrides, on the approach
OF stranger, "catch cold;" but in South Caro-
lima it is a fever that they "catch." The Cover.
nor at the time, who was none other than one
of her present Senator's, [Mr. Hammond, made
his arrival the subject of special message to
the Legislature, which l now have before me
the Legislature all "caught" the fever, and
swiftly adopted resolutions calling upon "His Ex-
cellency the Governor to expel from its territory
the said agent, after due notice to depart" and
promising to sustain the Executive authority in
any measures itmay adopt for the purposes afore.
,oi1r