American citizen. [volume] (Butler, Butler County, Pa.) 1863-1872, 1865-11-01

y
cipation. Our revolutionary ancestors,
in 1880, while there were yet, as il
proved, three years of war before them,
aud while, SO far as they knew, there
might be ten, provided for the abolition
| of fslaysry; and itwas as President of the
Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the
Abolition Of Slavery, aud on behalf Of
the people Of our State, that Frsnklin. in
! l790,zbut few months before his death,
appeared at the bar of tho first Cong
ress and presented petition which em-
bodied these earnest words :--51a6ni
HYour memorialists, particularly en-
! gagged in attending to the idistresses aris-
ing from slavery, believe it to be their
indispensable duty to PRESENT this subject
to your notice They have observed with
real satisfaction that many important and
salutary powers are vested in you for pro-
noting the welfare and securing the bless
ings of liberty to the people of the United
States; and as they conceive that these
blessings ought rightfally to DC admins
tered, without distinction Of color, to all
descriptions of people, SO they indulge
themselves in the pleasing expectation,
that nothing which can be done for the
relief of the unhappy objects of their care
will be either omitted or delayed. From,
a persuasion thot equal liberty toas ortSt-
nai,y the portion, and is 1.-THE birttright
of all men. and Influenced By The strong
lies Of humanity and The principles Of
their institutions, your memorialists con-
cosge themselves bound to use all justi-
| fable endeavors to loosen the bonds of
slavery and promote general enjoyment
of the blessings of freedom. Under these
impressions, they earnestly entreat your
serious attention 60 the subject of slavery;
that you will be pleased to countenance
the restoration Of liberty to those unhappy
men, who alone, in this land of freedom,
are degraded in perpetual bondage, and
4 who, amidst the general joy of surround
ing freemen, are groaning in servile sub
jection; that you toiW promote mercy and
| justice to,carGs this distressed rare, and
HAT you aoW step to tie eerge of the po,o-
er rested IN .you for discouraging every
species of traffic in the persons of oQr
fellow men"
From these primitiye dates till 1920,
when, over her unanimous vote in both
Houses of Congress, the Missouri Com
promise was adopted, Pennsylvania stood
the foremost, or among the foremost,
States of the country in defence Of all
the safeguards of personal liberty
Though there be sad intervening chap
ter in her history, and though Pennsyl-
| vanians will always blush to remember
that James Buchanan was born on the
| soil of our State, she has not failed at
intervals since 1920 to assert, from time
to time, her right to her leading position.
1t was David Wilmot, Of Pennsylvania,
who, in 1916, by reviving the Jefferson
proviso, reasserted her right; and may
be permitted to say that it was an hum
bic son of Pennsylvania who, in the last
Congress, claimed for her her just prece-
dence in recognizing the equality Of all
men before the law. lApplause.)
But to return from this digression In
1888, remembering the early and proud
record of Pennsylvania, said, as | left
my friends in Boston, ~ am going to a
State where constitutions are regarded
and laws obeyed, and where the people
may freely think aud speak. am going
to my native city, where the people have
erected, aud are about to dedicate to free
dom glorious temple, in which the bold
est thinkers of the land may meet, and
in which the humblest people will be
instructed" | arrived during the week
in WHICH Pennsylvania Hall was dedica-
ted visited it. Anxious, perhaps, to
boast, when | went back, that | had spo.
ken in such hall, raised my young
voice in what was doubtless very feeble
attempt at eloquence. | also visited, in
the building next to that hall, an humble
looking building in the shadow of its
high walls, one whom | had loved from
my infancy, one whom | had never known
to be in physical health, but who had lain
for years sainted woman, passing slowly
away, and showing how lovely age could
4
! be as it glided calmly towards the grave,
the sole surviving sister of my mother.
But one evening looking in that direction
| saw the heavens lurid, and heard, long
squares away from the place, the bowling
Of infuriated men. / I.sought to reach the
spot, but in vain. As approached it, |
thought that the internal region had
yielded its demons to earth, and that they
we're showing how hideously they could
act. The blaze seemed to reach the very
heavens; the stout walls seemed to totter;
and around the raging confagration the
Constitution loving and law-abiding peo-
pie of Philadelphia shouted discordant
| .onos of triumnh the kav of rho hall