Year: 1859

Nh. President: The subject which is present
cd TO Us in this resolution am glad to know, IL
enc claiming no small share of attention at the
present time, throughout the Commonwealth; and
indeed. not in this Commonwealth alone. We have
had as we were told yesterday, an example SCI
before Us in a neightoring State, in relation tt
this matter, worthy to be initiated by those who
beliese in the fundamental principles embodied IL
the Massachusetts Constitution, and IN the AMER
lean Declaration o: Independence.


III have, in my going up and down in the land
verv often had occasion to meet those who object
Cd to what they called the sweeping condemnation
passed by Aboltiouists on the people OF the Com
mouwealh, and especially on the political parties
Of the North, by reason of their completely with
elaveholding. l have been told-"We are as
much opposed to slavery as you are; we do not
feel that the severe censures passed upon US are
deserved" have replied by asking them-"Are
YOU ready TO do this thing ?-You say that you
cannot reach slavery in Carolina and Virginia. and
must not be condemned because you do not assail
i, there are you ready to purify the soil OF the
Old Bay State from the contamination of slavery
Are you ready to say that whenever q man sets
his foot upon the soil of the common wealth, he





shall be recognized as a man, and shall be treated
sssman ?" And have not always found them
ready to say yes TO this inquiry. IT, in general
terms. a, the first propounding thereof, they would
say yes yet upon closer cross ss'examinatlon upon q
more minute specification of the meaures neces'
sary to attain the general object they would often
shrink from replying in the Neutrality-suspicious.
,assigning one reason, sometimes another the
whole. however, summed up is this-"Tho Union
and the Constitution, We cannot say to the
South, you shall no longer blot out the blood.
stained footprints of Concord and Lexington with
the foul tread of the kidnapper and slavehunter-
We cannot say this to the South, because the Con,
stituton guarantees to the South the right to hunt
rupaways all over the North to seize them wher.
aver they shall be found, and to drag them back
10 slavery from the very door of the sanctuary of
liberty they may have endeavored to find shelter
in, No matter that we have proclaimed to the ma
4ions as self evident truth, the equal, inalienabe
rights of all men no matter that we are preach,
ing from thousand pulpits the doctrine of human
brotherhood--tbat God, who made the world, hath
Of one blood made all nations to dwell! on the face
Of the earth no matter that our fathers stood for
the defence of those principles in the day of trial
and danger, periing their lives on the high places
of the field no matter that they baptsed their in.
FAINT Ebert with blood, on the spot where stands
Jonder granite column, telling of the deeds that
we're done for impartial freedom; no matter that
Abe voice of muskery and artillery, from the
banks of Concord river and the Common of Lexing,
aon, spoke out defiant words for justice and human.
sly in the very face of the tyrants dspleasure and
menace all that is nothing because. at a later
day, the fathers consented to erase the glorious
words of their history, that they might find room
upon the page made slack by the erasure. to write
q oonvenans with death and an agreement with hell
to write compact binding them to give the lie
TO .he glorious declaration of previous day, bind.
Ing them to bring upon their own souls that very
stain of completely with tyranny which they deem
cd so dark spot upon the character of their
mother land aud it's government. We cannot,
-


*Resolved, That. whether the people of Massa'
chusetts can do anything to abolish slavery in the
South or not they can forbid, and are Imperative
Iy bound by the highest moral considerations to
forbid the hunting of fugitive slaves in this Com
monw ealth, and to decree the immediate emanci-
nation of all such as soon as they touch our
soil: they can and ought. in common with the peo-
rls Of esery other free State. to withdraw from a
government which, both by practice and intention,
Il grand conspiracy against justice, and pow
srfui bulwsrk Of the slave system.