"Mr. Hale congratulated the convention upon the spirit of unanimity with which it had done its work. I believe, said he, that this is not so much a convention to change the administration of the government, but to say whether there shall be any government to be administered. You have assembled, not to say whether this Union shall be preserved, but to say whether it shall be a blessing or a scorn and hissing among the nations. Some men pretend to be astonished and surprised at the events which are occurring around us; but I am not more surprised than I shall be this autumn to see the fruits following the buds and the blossoms."-Hon. J. P. Hale, Senator from New Hampshire, a delegate to the Republican Convention of the 17th of June, 1856.

and glorious union of our own," &c.-- William L. Garrison.

"Mark! How stands Massachusetts at this hour in reference to the Union? Just where she ought to be-in an attitude of open hostility."-The Liberator, Garrison's paper.

"A Northern Confederacy, with no union with slaveholders. To all this is fast tending, and to this all must soon come. The long r for the cause of freedom. To this end all who it is delayed, the worse for the country, and love liberty will labor."-Liberator, Sept.,

1855.

"BUT ONE ISSUE-THE DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION.-See what the desperate and infernal spirit of the South is, by turning to the Refuge of Oppression,' and by reading the intelligence from Kansas in subsequent columns, and then sign and circulate this petition. "To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:

of

"The undersigned, citizens and inhabitants State of respectfully submit to

Congress :

"Washington, Sunday, Aug. 10, 1856. "Gentlemen:-I have received your very polite note of the 6th inst., inviting me to attend a mass meeting at the Tabernacle on the evening of the 21st inst. I regret that it is not in my power to be present with you on that occasion, but my engagements will not permit me. I rejoice in your movement. I That as, in the nature of things, antago have faith and hope in progress. I look for-nistical principles, interests, pursuits, and inward hopefully for the day when the word stitutions can never unite: slave shall be without practical meaning in this, or the Eastern Continent; when universal man shall stand erect as God intended he should, calling no one lord or master save the common Father of us all, and recognising no government save that which is founded on the principles of Eternal Justice and universal rights of humanity. If I did not believe that the election of Fremont and Dayton would be a step in that direction, the movement would receive little sympathy from me. "With much respect, gentlemen, I am your friend,

JOHN P. HALE."

"A man, then, who has no feeling in common with us, who never felt the pulse of liberty till he set foot upon our soil, such a man is to enjoy the opportunity and the right to vote amongst us, whilst these rights are to be denied to the unfortunate black man, who has ten times more intelligence, and who has lived in the state of Indiana from his birth."David Kilgore, in the Indiana Constitutional Convention in 1850. [See Debates in the Convention, vol. 1, p. 253.]

"Justice and liberty, God and man, demand the dissolution of this slaveholding Union and the formation of a Northern Confederacy, in which slaveholders shall stand before the law as felons and be treated as pirates. God and humanity demand a ballot-box in which the slaveholders shall never cast a ballot. In this, what state so prepared to lead as the old Bay State? She has already made it a penal offence to help to execute a law of the Union. I want to see the officers of the state brought

into collision with those of the Union.

"That an experience of more than threescore years having demonstrated that there can be no real union between the North and the South, but, on the contrary, ever increasing alienation and strife, at the imminent hazard of civil war, in consequence of their conflicting views in relation to freedom and slavery:

"That the South, having declared it to be not only her right and purpose to eternize her slave system where it now exists, but to extend it over all the territories that now belong or may hereafter be annexed to the republic, come what may; and having outlawed from her soil the entire free colored population of the North, made it perilous for any Northern white citizen to exercise his constitutional right of freedom of speech in that section of the country, and even in the national capitol, and proclaimed her hostility to all free institutions universally:

"We, therefore, believe that the time has come for a new arrangement of elements so hostile, of interests so irreconcileable, of institutions so incongruous; and we earnestly request Congress, at its present session, to take such initiatory measures for the speedy, peaceful, and equitable dissolution of the existing Union as the exigencies of the case require leaving the South to depend upon her own resources, and to take all the responsibility, in the maintenance of her slave system, and the North to organize an independent government in accordance with her own ideas of justice and the rights of man."-Liberator, June 20, 1856.

"The United States Constitution is a cove"No union with slaveholders. Up with nant with death, and an agreement with the flag of disunion, that we may have a free hell."-Liberator, June 20, 1856.

"INDEPENDENCE DAY. -This is the Eightieth sometimes mortified, at the injudicious and Aniversary of American Independence. That unfair measures of men who ought to have independence began in a spirit of compromise known better; but, we place our great movewith the foul spirit of slavery; it ends with ment above men it is the only movement every seventh person in the land a chattel which aims or is calculated to save Kansas, slave-the universal mastery of a slaveholding and put an end to the despotism which reoligarchy-the overthrow of all the constitu- pealed the Missouri Compromise, and is pertional rights of Northern citizens-the reign petually seeking to subjugate the country to of Lynch Law and Border Ruffianism through- slavery: its platform is clear, sound, and out the entire South-the subversion of the comprehensive: its nominations must reprenational government by a clique of desperate sent it by sustaining them, we sustain it: and unprincipled demagogues, of which the opposition to them will only tend to perpetuPresident is a miserable and perjured tool—ate the spirit and policy of an administration the reign of violence, tyranny, and blood, on a frightful scale. So much for disregarding the Higher Law' by our fathers! So much for entering into a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell! Truly, God is just, and our national retribution another striking proof that, as a people sow, so shall they also reap. A new revolution has begun-another secession is to take place-and freedom for all secured upon a sure basis. No union with slaveholders !'"-Liberator, 4th July, 1856.

"THE DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION ESSENTIAL TO THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.-But until we cease to strike hands religiously, politically, and governmentally with the South, and declare the Union to be at an end, I believe we can do nothing even against the encroachments of the slave power upon our rights. When will the people of the North see that it is not possible for liberty and slavery to commingle, or for a true union to be formed between freemen and slaveholders? Between those who oppress and the oppressed, no concord is possible. This Union-it is a lie, an imposture, and our first business is to seek its utter overthrow. In this Union there are three millions and a half of slaves clanking their chains in hopeless bondage. Let the Union be accursed! Look at the awful compromises of the constitution by which that instrument is saturated with the blood of the slave!"-Boston Liberator.

"In conclusion I have only to add that such is my solemn and abiding conviction of the character of slavery, that under a full sense of my responsibility to my country and my God, I deliberately say, better disunion-better a civil or a servile war-better anything that God in his providence shall send-than an extension of the bounds of slavery."-Hon. Horace Mann, formerly of Massachusetts, in the House of Rep. during the 31st Congress.

"Having thus given an exposition of the action of the Convention, and defined our position, we shall henceforth do all that may lie in our power to bring about a perfect union of the friends of freedom at home and of good faith and peace in our foreign relations, against the Cincinnati nominations, pledged as they are by the platform which accompanies them, and the majority who framed both, to slavery at home and filibustering abroad. Like many others, we may have been vexed, disappointed,

which has brought the country to the verge of civil and foreign war. Will not patriotic men, whatever may have been their preferences, hesitate long before assuming such a responsibility as that?"

*

*

"Thank God! the movement has escaped this danger; the counsels of temporizing men have failed; to the bold, clear-sighted Joshua R. Giddings, sustained by the good sense of the Convention, are we indebted for the preservation of the Great Movement against the Slave Power, free from all entangling alliances."-National Era, of June 26, 1856.

"The Philadelphia Convention has defined the issues of the campaign, framed the platform, made the nominations, and respectfully called upon the people of the United States, without distinction of party, to sustain them. We shall be very happy to see North Americans and South Americans and all sorts of Americans rallying to the standard of Fremont, and uniting to put down the slave power, but let us have no talk of special arrangements with any particular class or party."-National Era, July 3, 1856.

"Let me suppose a case which may happen here and before long. A woman flies from South Carolina to Massachusetts to escape from bondage. Mr. Greatheart aids her in her escape, harbors and conceals her, and is brought to trial for it. The punishment is a ment for six months. I am drawn to serve fine of one thousand dollars and imprisonas a juror and pass upon this offence. I may refuse to serve and be punished for that, leaving men with no scruples to take my place, or I may take the juror's oath to give a verdict according to the law and the testimony. The law is plain, let us suppose, and the testimony conclusive. Greatheart himself confesses that he did the deed alleged, saving one ready to perish. The judge charges that if the jurors are satisfied of that fact, then they must return that he is guilty. This is a nice matter. Here are two questions. The one put to me in my official capacity as juror, is this-" Did Greatheart aid the woman?" The other, put to me in my natural character as man, is this-"Will you help to punish Greatheart with fine and imprisonment for helping a woman to obtain her unalienable rights?" If I have extinguished my manhood by my juror's oath, then I shall do my

46

We confess that we intend to trample under foot the constitution of this country. Daniel Webster says: You are a law-abiding people that the glory of New England is, that it is a law-abiding community. Shame on it, if this be true; if even the religion of New England sinks as low as its statute-book. But I say we are not a law-abiding community. God be thanked for it!"-Wendell Phillips, of Massachusetts, at a Free-Soil meeting in Boston, in May, 1849.

66 on the con

Wendell Phillips issued a pamphlet in 1850, reviewing Mr. Webster's speech stitutional rights of the States," in which is the following:

"We are disunionists, not from any love of separate confederacies, or as ignorant of the thousand evils that spring from neighboring and quarrelsome States, but we would get rid

of this Union."

66

"And such an obliteration can be demon strated to be as much the interest of the South as it is of the North."--Hon. Josiah Quincy at Boston, Aug. 18, 1854.

Resolved, That while we would express our deep gratitude to all those earnest men and women who find time and strength, amid their labors in behalf of British reform, to study, understand, and protest against American slavery, to give us their sympathy and aid, by munificent contributions, and by holding our Union up to the contempt of Europe, wo feel it would not be invidious to mention William and Mary Howitt, Henry Vincent, and George Thompson, as those to whose untiring advocacy our cause is especially indebted in this country, as well as for the hold it has gained on the hearts of the British people.

"Resolved, That the discriminating sense of justice, the steadfast devotedness, the generous munificence, the untiring zeal, the industry, skill, taste, and genius, with which British abolitionists have co-operated with us for the extinction of slavery, command our gratitude.

"From the abolitionists of England, Scotland, and Ireland, we have received renewed and increasing assurances and proofs of their constant and enlightened zeal in behalf of the American slave. Liberal gifts from all of these countries, falling behind none of the most bounteous of former years, helped to fill the scanty treasury of the slave."-Resolutions of the American Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.

66

pro

A convention held in Boston in 1855, adopted by a unanimous vote, these resolutions :— 'Resolved, That a constitution which He wished for the dissolution of the Union, vides for a slave representation and a slave because he wanted Massachusetts to be left oligarchy in Congress, which legalizes slavefree to right her own wrongs. If so, she hunting and slave-catching on every inch of would have no trouble in sending her ships American soil, and which pledges the military to Charleston and laying it in ashes. There and naval power of the country to keep four was no state in the Union that would not millions of chattel slaves in their chains, is to contract, at a low figure, to whip South Caro-be trodden under foot and pronounced aclina. Massachusetts could do it with one cursed, however unexceptionable or valuable hand tied behind her back. He did not like may be its other provisions. such a republic as this. It was against his conscience. He hated and abhorred it. In order to hold any office under the government of the United States a man must swear to support the constitution, and consequently to support slavery in its various phases. It was as inevitable that this Union should be dissolved as that water and oil must separate, no matter how much they may be shaken. They could not tell how it was to be done, but done it must be."-Edmund Quincy, of Mass., at American N. Y. Anti-Slavery Society meeting, at New York, May 13, 1857.

"The Nebraska fraud is not that burden on which I now intend to speak. There is one nearer home, more immediately present and more insupportable. Of what that burden is I shall speak plainly. The obligation incumbent upon the free states to deliver up fugitive slaves is that burden-and it must be obliterated from that Constitution at every hazard.

Resolved, That the one great issue before the country is, the dissolution of the Union, in comparison with which all other issues with the slave power are as dust in the balance; therefore we will give ourselves to the work of annulling this 'covenant with death,' as essential to our own innocency, and the speedy and everlasting overthrow of the slave system."

The following resolution passed the Legis lature of New Hampshire, of 1856:

66

shire demand as a right the restoration of said Resolved, That the people of New Hamp sas and Nebraska bill, so called, so as to exCompromise, and the amendment of the Kanclude slavery from said territories, and will never consent to the admission into the Union

of any state out of said territory with a constitution tolerating slavery."

A convention was held in the city of Buf falo in 1843, at which the following resolution

was unanimously adopted, with Salmon P. Chase as chairman of the committee on resolutions:

"Resolved, That we hereby give it to be distinctly understood, by this nation and the world, that, as Abolitionists, considering that the strength of our cause lies in its righteousness, and our hopes for it in our conformity to the laws of God, and our support of the rights of man, we owe to the sovereign Ruler of the Universe, as a proof of our allegiance to Him, in all our civil relations and offices, whether as friends, citizens, or as public functionaries, sworn to support the Constitution of the United States, to regard and treat the third clause of the instrument, whenever applied in the case of a fugitive slave, as utterly null and void, and consequently as forming no part of the Constitution of the U. States, whenever we are called upon or sworn to support it."

"Recognising, therefore, the paramount issue, I recognise, as the only practical means of sustaining our position upon that issue, our co-operation with the masses of our friends in other states in the formation of the Republican party of the Union.-Julius Rockwell, Massachusetts Free-soil Candidate for Governor.

"Yes, with that freedom and Fremont and Dayton emblazoned on the ample folds of our national banner, we will drive the base minions of slavery from their control of the Government, and we will use its powers to build up our new country free from the taints of slavery, and make America worthy of being the North Star of freedom, by which the eye of the exile can be guided with safety to the asylum of liberty."-Hon. W. R.Sapp, of Ohio, in the House of Reps., 1st Sess. 34th Cong.

Mr. Seward declared, in a speech which he

made in Cleveland, in 1848:

"What, then, you say, can nothing be done for freedom because the public conscience is inert? Yes; much can be done, everything can be done.

issue necessarily involves the claims of their advocates and adversaries in the public councils to the confidence of the country. Some of those advocates have entered the popular differed, while others have endeavored by exarena, criminating those from whom they had traordinary means either to control discussion or to suppress it altogether, and thus they have shown themselves disqualified, by prejudice or interest, for practising that impar tiality and candor which the occasion de manded.

"I am unwilling even to seem to imply, by reiterating arguments already before the public, either any distrust of the position of those with whom I stood in Congress or impatience for that favorable popular verdict which I believe to be near, and know to be ultimately certain.

"Nevertheless, there can be no impropriety in my declaring, when thus questioned, the opinions which will govern my vote upon any occasion when the fugitive slave law shall come up for review in the national legislature.

"I think the act signally unwise, because it is an attempt, by a purely federative government, to extend the economy of slave states throughout states which repudiate slavery as a moral, social, and political evil. Any despotic government would awaken sedition from its profoundest slumbers by such an attempt.

The attempt by the Government has aroused constitutional resistance, which will not cease until the effort shall be relinquished. He who teaches another faith than this, whether self-deceived or not, misleads. I think, also, that the attempt was unnecessary; that political ends-merely political ends-and not real evils resulting from the escape of slaves, constituted the prevailing motives to the enactment."-Letter of the Hon. W. H.

Seward.

"We deem the principle of the law, for the recapture of fugitive slaves, unjust, un"Auburn, April 5, 1851. constitutional, and immoral; and thus, while "DEAR SIR: Your letter inviting me to patriotism withholds its approbation, the attend a convention of the people of Massa- conscience of our people condemns it. You chusetts opposed to the fugitive slave law, will say that these convictions of ours are disand to communicate in writing my opinion loyal. Grant it, for the sake of argument. on that statute, if I should be unable to They are nevertheless honest; and the law attend the convention, has been received. is to be executed among us, not among you; "While offering the pressure of duties here not by us, but by the federal authority. too long deferred as an apology for non-attend- Has any government ever succeeded in ance, I pray you to assure the committee changing the moral convictions of its subjects in whose behalf you act of my profound by force? But these convictions imply no sense of their courtesy and kindness. It disloyalty. We reverence the Constitution, would be an honor to be invited to address although we perceive this defect, just as we the people of Massachusetts on any subject, acknowledge the splendor and the power of but it might well satisfy a generous ambition the sun, although its surface is tarnished with to be called upon to speak to that great and here and there an opaque spot. enlightened Commonwealth on a question of human rights and civil liberty.

"We cannot, in our judgment, be either true Christians or real freemen, if we impose "I confess, sir, that I have earnestly desir- on another a chain that we defy all human ed not to mingle in the popular discussions power to fasten on ourselves. You believe of the measures of the last Congress. The land think otherwise, and doubtless with equal

sincerity. We judge you not, and He alone, | The temper of the nation is just, liberal, and who ordained the conscience of man and its forbearing. It will contribute any money laws of action, can judge us. Do we then, in this conflict, demand of you an unreasonable thing, in asking that, since you will have property that can and will exercise human powers to effect its escape, you shall be your own police, and in acting among us as such, you shall conform to principles indispensable to the security of admitted rights of freemen? If you will have this law executed, you must alleviate, not increase its rigors.