The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-07-05
No. 21
1852,
FREE SOIL, PTTTsBURG, AUGUST 11TH.


States, united by a common resolve to
maintain right against wrong, and
freedom against slavery; cOnfiding in
the intelligence, patriotism, and dis
eliminating justice of the American
people; putting cur trust in God for the
triumph Of our cause, end invoking
His guidance in our endeavors to ad
vance it, we now submit to the candid
Judgment of all men, lhe following
declaration of principles and measures:
l. That governments, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the
governed, are instituted among men
to secure to all, those inalienable rights
of life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap
piness, with which they are endowed
by their Creator, and of which none;
can be deprived by valid legislation,
except for crime.
2. That the true mission of the Ameri-
can Democracy is t. maintain the lib
critics of the people, the sovereignty of
| the States and the perpetuity of the
Union, by the impartial application to
public affairs, without sectional dis
ordinations of the fundamental prin-
ciples of human rights, strict justice,
and an economical administration.
3. That the Federal Government is
one of limited powers, derived solely
from the Constitution, and the grants
of power therein ought to be strictly
construed by all the departments and
agents Of the government, and it is in
expedient and dangerous to exercise
doubtful constitutional powers
4. That the Constitution of the United
States, ordained to form a more per-
feet Union, to establish justice, and
secure the blessings Of liberty, ex-
pressly denies the General Govern
ment all power to deprive any person
| of life, liberty or property, without
due process of l4w; and, therefore, the
government, having no more power to
make slave than to make king, and
no more power to establish slavery
than to estab ish a monarchy, should
at once proceed to relieve itself from all
responsibility of slavery wherever it
possesses constitutional power to legis-
late for it's extinction.
5. That to the perseveriDg and i'm
pOrtant demands of the slave power
for more slave States, new slave terri
tories, and the naturalization of
slavery, our distinct and final answer
is-no more slave States, no more slave
territory, no nationalized slavery, and
no national legislation for the extra
dition of slaves
6. That slavery is sin against God,
and a crime against man, which no
human enactment or usage can make
right; and that Christianity, humanity
and patriotism alike demand it's
abolition.
7. That the Fugitive Slave act of 1855
is repugnant to the Constitution, to the
principles of common law, to the spirit
Christianity, and to the sentiments of
the civilized world; we, therefore, deny
it's binding force on the American peo-
pie, and demand it's immediate and
total repeal.
s. That the doctrine that any human
law is a fnality, and not subject to
modification and repeal, is not in ac-
cordance with the creed of the founders
of our government, and is dangerous
to the liberties of the people.
9. That the acts of Congress, known
as the Compromise measures of 1850, by
making the admission Of a sovereign
State contingent upon the adoption Of
other measures demanded by the
special interests Of slavery; by their
omission to guarantee freedom in the
territories; by their attempt to impose
unconstitutional limitations on the
powers of Congress and the people to
admit new States; by their provisions
for the assumption Of five millions of
the State debt of Texas, and for the
payment of five millions more, and the
cession of large territory to the same
State under menace, as an inducement
to the REIMBURSEMENT of a grOundless
claim; and by their invasion of the
sovereignty of the States and the iber-
ties of the people, through the enact
ment of the unjust, oppressive, and
unconstitutional fugitive slave law, are
proved to be inconsistent with all the
principles and maXims Of true DemOc-
racy, and wholly inadequate to the
settlement of the questions of which
they are claimed to be an adjustment.
10. That no permanent settlement of
the slavery question can be looked for
except in the practical recognition of
the truth that slavery is sectional and
freedom national; by the total separa-
tion of the General Government from
slavery, and the exercise of its legiti-
mate and constitutional influence on
the side Of freedom; and by leaving to
the States the whole subject of slavery
and the extraditiOn of fugitives from
service.
II. That all men have natural right
to portion of the soil; and that as the
use Of the soil is indispensable to life,
the right of all men to the soil is as
sacred as their right to life itself.
12. That the public lands of the
United States belong to the people, and
should not be sold to individuals nor
granted to corporations, but shouLd oe
held az a sacred trust for the beneht or
| the neonle, and should be granted in
limited Quantities free of cost, to land
less settlers.
TO BE Continued
If Congress has the right under the
constitution to issue paper money, it