The Portland daily press., 1862-10-20
COMMUNICATIONS.
For the Daily Press.
AbOlitionists.

AbOlitionists.
THEIR PRINCIPLES IN REFERENCE TO sLAv-
ERY AND THE CONSTITUTION.
Politicians and others, for the last twenty
five or thirty years, have had great deal to
say of the reckless, unreasonable and uncon-
stitutional principles of the abolitionists. AL
most as matter of course they have not al
ways confined themselves to the truth on this
subject, more than upon other matters which
have been discussed under the influence of
heated partisan feelings; nor has the truth al
ways been applied to the right kind of per-
sons.
III abolitionists feel that their principles have
been misrepresented, and an undeserved odum
brought upon them, they must remember that
such is the common lot of those whose views
on moral subjects are in advance of their gen.
GRAFTON, and especially is calculated to disturb
the settled order of things. They may consid-
er, also, that the unprejudiced judgment of
succeeding generations will be likely to ac-
cept what is true, and reject only their errors.
1t is doubtful if large portion of the present
generation are not without any definite knowl-
edge of the principles advocated by the abo-
litionists of thirty years since, and up to the
present time. Amid the smoke and confusion
of conflict, the position of combatants is not
always understood.
There have been three distinct classes of alb
olitionists.
/. That represented by w. L. Garrison,
Wendell Phillips, dc.
2. Those represented by Gerrit Smith, and
VIM. Goodell
g. Those connected with the old Liberty
party, SO called, with Mr.. Birney for its first
Presidential candidate.
These all agreed that slavery, or the holding
of men as chattels, was morally wrong, as
well as injurious to all the interests of the
country; that consequently it was the duty of
individual owners to emancipate; that slave
States ought to abolioh slavery by so chang
ing their laws that they should protect all men
in their personal rights as men.
But they have differed in regard TO the con-
stitutional powers of the Federal government
in relation to it.
Mr.. Garrison and his followers have main
tanned, in common with pro-slavery politicians
and jurists, that the Constitution was intended
to sustain slavery, and have, on this ground,
called it "a covenant with DEATH and agree
ment with hell" that it ought TO be abolished
in order to abolish slavery They refused to
vote or hold Office under it, For time they
were apparently as bitterly opposed to the vot-
ing liberty party as they were to slavery ITSELF
Mr.. Garrson's anti-Bible, ant-Church and
anti-Sabbath principles need not be consd-
cred in this connection, though they doubt
less gave pungency to his warfare on the
Liberty party, who generally rejected his views
on these subjects, and at the same time it gave
pro-slavery religionists of the New York OBJ
server school, an opportunity, of which they
were not slow to avail themselves, to charge
infdelity on all abotitionists. The numbers
who held with Mr.. Garrison in the matter of
voting were comparatively few.
The party represented by Messrs. Smith
and Goodell, and who claimed the name of
RADICAL ABoLITIoNIsrs,
held directly the reverse of the Garrison party
in reference to the Constitution. They main
tanned that it is, and was instended to be, an
anti-savery instrument; that it gave the
Federal Government plenary authority to
abolish slavery in every State by legislative en-
actment. As political party, distinct from
the Liberty party, they poed only few thou
sand votes in the whole country.
THE LIBERTY PARTY
Comprised the greater part Of earnest abo-
litionists. They maintained that in spirit the
Constitution is anti-slavery; that what were
called the compromises" of the Constitution
were not intended to make the Federal gov
ernment responsible for the existence of sla-
very, or commit it in any way TO its support.
On the other hand, they admitted that it gave
the Federal Government no authority to abol
ish or interfere with il in the States that being
a right reserved to the people of the States.
But they maintained that the administration
Of the government since about 1920, had been
more and more in favor of slavery, that this
action of the legislative, executive and judicial
departments, and the treaty making power,
had been prostituted to serve the interests OF
the slaveholding oligarchy, .and that all this
was contrary to the spirit, and, often 10 the let
ter Of the Constitution and contrary to the
intention of the fathers who ordained it. They
maintained that not only justice, but the spirit
and intention of the Constitution demanded
that the Federal Government, should admins