North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1863-06-17
ABOLITI0uISM AND DISUulOu.
THE MALIGN INFLUENCE OF sLAy-
ERY AGITATION IN THE NORTH.
Views Of Ex-GeveI nor Marcy inIs36.
DEFENSE OF STATE RIGHTS AND IN.
DEPENDENCE.

Extract from Governor Marcy's message
to the Legislature of New York, in January,
1886:
Having concluded my remarks on the sub
Jects IN which our constituents have an i'm
mediate and exclusive interest, my sense of
duty will not permit me to abstain from pre-
senting to you, at this time, some considera-
tlons arising from our federal relations.
This state is member of a community of
republics, subject in many things to one gen
eral government, and bound together by po
litical ties that must not be sundered This
relation gives US rights essential to our we'll
being, and,imposes on US duties equally es
sential to the well-being of our sister states
As we value the immense advantages that
spring from this Union, go we should cult
vate the feelings and interests that give it
strength, and abstain from all practices that
tend to it's dissolution. A few individuals
in the Middle and Eastern States, acting on
mistaken motives Of moral and religious du-
ty, or some less justifabe principle, and dis
regarding their obligations which they owe
to their respective governments, have en-
barked in an enterprise for abolshng domes-
tic slavery in the Southern and Southwes
tern States.
Their proceedings have caused much mis-
chief in those states, and have not been ut
terly harmless in our own. They have ac
qured too much Importance by the evils
which have already resulted from them, and
by the magnitude and number of those which
are likely to follow if they are persisted in,
to justify me in passing them without no.
tice. Theseiproceedings have not only found
no favor with vast majority of our constit-
uents, but they have been generally repro
bated. The public Indignation which they
have awakened has broken over the restraints
of law ana led to dangerous tumults and
connections, which, [ regret to cay, were
not in all instances suppressed without the
interpositon of the military power. If we
consider the excitement which already eX
lists among our fellow citizens on this sub
ject, and their increasing repugnauce to tie
abolition cause. we have great reason to fear
that further efforts to sustain it will be at
tended, even in our own state, with still more
dangerous disturbances of the public peace
In our commercial: metropolis the abol-
tionsts have established one of their princi-
pal magazines, from which they have sent
~ of ;oto bo .Iouo
holding states. The impression produced in
those states that this proceeding was en-
couraged by portion of the bushes men OF
the city of New York, or at least was not
sufficiently discountenanced by them, threat
ened injurious consequences to our commerce.
A proposition was made for an extensive vol
untary association in the South TO suspend
Intercourse with our citizens. A regard for
the character of our state, for the public in
terest, for the preservation of peace among
our citizens, as well as due respect for the
obligations created by our political institu-
tons and relations, calls upol US to do what
may be done, consistently with the great
principles of civil liberty, to put an end to
the evils which the aboli tionists are bringing
upon US and the whole country. With what
ever disfavor we may view the institution Of
domestic slavery, we ought not to overlook
the very formidable difficulties of abolishing
it, or give couutenance to any scheme for &C
complishing this object, in violation of the SOL
emn guarantees we are under not TO inter-
fere with this institution as it exists in 9th
er states.
Domestic slavery existed Id almost every
state when the federal Union as formed
Its character was as we'll understood then as
it is now. The men who founded the gener-
al government had as much philanthropy
and as just an appreciation of moral and re-
lgious duty, and knew as well what was
due to the cause of human rights as the pres
ent generation yet so great did they regard
the difficulties of abolishing slavery, and so
disastrous to the public would be, as they
apprehended, any intermeddlng with 1t in
the respective states, except by the citizens
and civil authorities thereof, that they dele
gated to Congress no power to act on this
subject further than to prohibit the importa-
tion of slaves after the year 1907 but they
recognized the right of the several states to
continue slavery, without interference, by
obliging them to deliver up to each other all
fugitive slaves. They left the right to abol'
ish slavery where only it could be safely
left-with the respective states wherein sla'
very existed.
The State of New-York had this right
and although the difficulties and dangers o1
exercising it, by reason of the small number
of slaves in proportion to the whole popula
ton, we're trivial compared with those which
would attend the exercise oft in the South
ern States, where this number is proportion
ally large, yet slavery was not finally abol
4 ished here until 1927. We were left to conn