The Weekly Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, O. [Ohio]) 1861-1???, 1863-03-11
From the New York Tribune.l
COuuscis OF the puth.rs

Since disloyal papers assert that tbe
North is divided only by the Emancipation
PROCLAMATION, and that it would otherwise
be a unit for the War, there can be no aub.
lcct ON which the Counsels of the Fathers
are more important than Slavery. and the
policy that ought to bc pursurd in rcfer-
ence 10 it. Hearken first TO the revcred
voice of George Washington. one of the
AbOliuonists. We quote from the we'll
known letter to Lafayette:
" The benevolence Of your heart, my dear Mar
gus is So conspicuous all occasions that never
wonder a fresh proofs Of H. but your late purcbsa
OF an estate IN the colony of Cayenne wrrH A vIEw
OF EMANclrATING THE SLAVES, is a generous and
noble proof OF your humanity. Would 10 God A
LIKE SPIRIT MIGHT DiFFusE ITSELF gENeR Ally
INTO rhE MINDS OF THE PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY.
stu moro emphatic is the expression of a
letter from the same illustrious pen to John
h. Mercer: -
never mean, unless some particular circum-
stance should compel me to it, To possess anothar
slave by purchase; 1t being AMONG NY FIRST wIsHrs
TO SIZE SOME PLAN ADOPTED ny WHICH SLAVERY
IN rms COUNTRY MAY BE ABOLISHED ny LAW
And as throughout his life tho words of
George Washington were ever for Freedom
aud against Slavery, so at his death his
convictions bore fruit in the emancipation
OF all the slaves whom his own act could.
tree. His last will directs that:
upon the decease Of my wife, it is my will and
desire that ALI MY SLAVES, which | hold III nv own
rlght, SHALL RECEIvK THEIR FREEDOM"
Would Washington have hesitated to do
Tor his country what he deemed il right TO
do for himself?
Thomas defersonwas also an Abolition.
lst, ana mas borne witness against Slavery
WIN courage which in these days would
him tn Il -, ~ Z.
only title TO reverence is the memory of her
departed patriots. In letter to NJ War.
VILE, written in l7SS, the Author of the
Declaration of independence declares:
The whole commerce between master and slave
is perpetual exercise of the most boiserous pas
sions the most unremttng despotism on the one
part and degrading submissions ON the other.
The man must be a prodigy who can re-
tam his manners and morals undeprave by such
ties of u nation be thought secure when we have
removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the
minds OF the people that these liberties ART of God
That they are not to be violated but with his wrath
lNbEEp TREMBLE FOR MY COUNTRY WHEN RE-
Fleet THAT GODS JUST that his Justice cannot
sleep forever; that considering numbers, nature
and natural means only, REVOLUTION OF THE
WHEEL OF FoRTUNS AN EXCHANGE OF sIrIr ALTON
Is AMONG POSSIBLE EVENTS that it may become
probable by supernatural interference TuE Al
MIGHTY HAS NO ATTRIBUTE WHICH Can TAKE SIDE
WITH US IN suoH CONTEST But we
must wait with patience the workings of an over
ruling Providence, and hope that that is preparing
thc dehverence of these suffering brethren
When the measure of their tears shall be full
doubtless God of Justice will awaken 10 their dis
tress and by diHusing light and iberality among
thelr oppressors, OR AT LENGTH ny HIS EXTHRMINAT-
ING THUNDER manifest his attention to things of this
thus world, and that they not left to the guild
ance Of blind fatality"
The words of Jefferson where indeed
prophetic. Light and liberty came not to
the oppressors Of Four Millions of Slaves
but Justice awoke and the voice of exter-
mnatlng thunder has at length made itself
heard Who can doubt that the great men
who left behind them such record of
their hatred to Slavery would have annihi-
lated the system if an opportunity had Of
tered? The Proclamation of Freedom in
1868 III but the echo of their voices in 1888
BenJamin Franklin was President of a
Philadelphia Society for promoting the
-i6oHt0" 9 SdcerY, the relief of free
negroes unlawtully held in bondage, and
the Improvement of the condition of the
African race" AS its President, his last
act was to sign memorial to Con.
gress, on the 10Th OF February, 1889.
praying for the abolition of Slavery. His
language is most remarkable
"Your memorialists conceive themselves bound
to use ALL JUsTIFTABLE RNDEAvoRs to loosen tho
bands of Slavery and promote II general endowment
of the blessings of Freedom. Under these impress
ions they earnestly entreat your serious attention
10 the subject OF slavery that you will be pleased
to countenance the RESTORATION OF LIBERTY to
these unhappy men who alone in this land of free
dom are degraded into perpetual bondage, and
VINO amid the general joy of surrounding reemen
are grooming in servie subjection-TuAT YOU
WILL DEVISE MEANS FOR REMOVING THIS moon
slsrENCf FROM THE CHARACTER OF THE AMERICAN
PEorLE-that you will promote MERCY and JUSTICE
toward this distressed race and THAT YOU WILL srEP
TO THE VERY VERGE OF THE POWER VESTED IN you
for discouraglng every species of traffic in the per-
sons of our fellow men,"
James Monroe, in the Virginia Convention,
Numbered against the system as an evil
which has preyed upon the very vitals of
the Union, and has been prejudicial to all
the States in which it has existed" What
would he have said, if he had lived in our
day, TO see those States arrayed in armed
Rebellion to destroy the Union and erect
Slave Empire on its ruins?
These extracts are but small parts of tho
evidence which exists that the Fathers-the
statesmen and patriots OF the Republics
earliest days-hated Slavery, and longed
for its extinction. 1t would hardly be pos
sble to add to the impressiveness of such
testimony, nor has there been any moment
in the history of the Nation when it was of
deeper interest and significance than at
present.