my wishes to the governor of Louisiana, who is fully informed as to the manner of enrolment, and will give you every necessary information on the subject of this address. ANDREW JACKSON, Major General commanding. HEAD QUARTERS, 7th Military District, } [On December 18, 1814, GENERAL JACKSON issued in the French language the following.] ADDRESS TO THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR. Soldiers! When on the banks of the Mobile, I called you to take up arms, inviting you to partake the perils and glory of your white fellow-citizens, I expected much from you; for I was not ignorant that you possessed qualities most formidable to an invading enemy. I knew with what fortitude you could endure hunger and thirst, and all the fatigues of a campaign. I knew well, how you loved your native country, and that you had, as well as ourselves, to defend what man holds most dear-his parents, relations, wife, children, and property. You have done more than I expected. In addition to the previous qualities I before knew you to possess, I found, moreover, among you a noble enthusiasm, which leads to the performance of great things. Soldiers! The President of the United States shall hear how praiseworthy was your conduct in the hour of danger, and the Representatives of the American people will, I doubt not, give you the praise your 'exploits entitle you to. Your general anticipates them in applauding your noble ardor. The enemy approaches; his vessels cover our lakes; our brave citizens are united, and all contention has ceased among them. Their only dispute is, who shall win the prize of valor, or who the most glory, its noblest reward. By Order. THOMAS BUTLER, Aid-de-camp. ill JOSEPH STORY. The existence of slavery under any shape is so repugnant to the natural rights of man and the dictates of justice, that it seems difficult to find for it any adequate justification. It undoubtedly had its origin in times of barbarism, and was the ordinary lot of those conquered in war. It was supposed the conqueror had a right to take the life of his captive, and by consequence might well bind him to perpetual servitude. But the position itself on which this supposed right is founded, is not true. No man has a right to kill his enemy, except in cases of absolute necessity; and this absolute necessity ceases to exist even in the estimation of the conqueror himself, when he has spared the life of his prisoner. And even, if in such a case it were possible to contend for the right of slavery, as to the prisoner himself, it is impossible that it can justly extend to his innocent offspring through the whole line of descent. Congress, with a promptitude which does honor to their humanity and wisdom, proceeded, in 1794, to pass a law to prohibit the traffic of slaves by our citizens in all cases not within the reach of the constitutional restriction; and thus cut off the whole traffic between foreign ports. In the year 1800, an additional law was passed to enforce the former enactments; and in the year 1807, (the epoch, when the constitutional restriction was to cease, beginning with the ensuing year) a general prohibition of the traffic as well in our domestic as foreign trade, was proudly incorporated into our statute book. About the same period, the British government, after the most severe opposition from slave dealers and their West Indian friends, achieved a similar measure, and enacted general prohibition of the trade, as well to foreign ports as to their colonies. This act was indeed the triumph of virtue, of reason, and of humanity over the hard-heartedness of avarice; and while it was adorned by the brilliant talents of Pitt, Fox, Romilly, and Wilberforce, let us never forget that its success was principally owing to the modest, but persevering labors of the Quakers; and above all, to the resolute patience and noble philanthropy of a man immortalized by his virtues, the intrepid Thomas Clarkson. It is a most cheering circumstance, that the examples of the United States and Great Britain in thus abolishing the slave-trade, have, through the strenuous exertions of the latter, been generally approved throughout the continent of Europe. The government of Great Britain has, indeed, employed the most indefatigable and persevering diligence to accomplish this desirable object; and treaties have been made by her with all the principal foreign powers, providing for a total abolition of the trade within a very short period. May America not be behind her in this glorious work; but by a generous competition in various deeds, restore the degraded African to his natural rights, and strike his manacles from the bloody hands of his oppressors. By our laws, it is made an offence for any person to import or bring, in any manner whatsoever, into the United States or its territories, from any foreign country, any negro, mulatto, or person of color, with intent to hold, sell, or dispose of him as a slave, or to be held to service or labor. It is also made an offence for any citizen or other person as master, owner, or factor, to build, fit, equip, load, or otherwise prepare any vessel in any of our ports, or to cause any vessel to sail from any port whatsoever, for the purpose of procuring any negro, mulatto, or person of color from any foreign country, to be transported to any port or place whatsoever, to be held, sold, or disposed of as a slave, or to be held to service or labor. It is also made an offence for any citizen, or other person, resident within our jurisdiction, to take on board, receive, or transport in any vessel from the coast of Africa, or any other foreign country, or from sea, any negro, mulatto, or person of color, not an inhabitant of, or held to service in the United States, for the purpose of holding, selling, or disposing of such person as a slave, or to be held to service or labor. It is also made an offence for any person within our jurisdiction, to hold, purchase, sell, or otherwise dispose of any negro, mulatto, or person of color for a slave, or to be held to service or labor, who shall have been imported into the United States in violation of our laws-and in general the prohibitions in these cases extend to all persons who shall abet or aid in these illegal designs. These offences are visited as well with severe pecuniary and personal penalties, as with the forfeiture of the vessel and equipments, which have been employed in the furtherance of these illegal projects; and in general, a moiety of the pecuniary penalties and forfeitures is given to any person who shall inform against the offenders and prosecute them to conviction. The President of the United States is also authorized to employ our armed vessels and revenue cutters to cruise on the seas for the purpose of arresting all vessels and persons engaged in this traffic in violation of our laws; and bounties as well as a moiety of the captured property are given to the captors to stimulate them in the discharge of their duty. Under such circumstances, it might well be supposed that the slave-trade would, in practice, be extinguished that virtuous men would by their abhorrence, stay its polluted march, and wicked men would be overawed by its potent punishment. But unfortunately the case is far otherwise. We have but too many melancholy proofs from unquestionable sources, that it is still carried on with all the implacable ferocity and insatiable rapacity of former times. Avarice has grown more subtle in its evasion; and watches and seizes its prey with an appetite quickened, rather than suppressed, by its guilty vigils. American citizens are steeped up to their very mouths (I scarcely use too bold a figure) in this stream of iniquity. They throng the coasts of Africa under the stained flags of Spain and Portugal, sometimes selling abroad " their cargoes of despair," and sometimes bringing them into some of our southern ports, and there under the forms of the law defeating the purposes of the law itself, and legalizing their inhuman but profitable adventures. I wish I could say that New England and New England men were free from this deep pollution. But there is some reason to believe, that they who drive a loathsome traffic, "and buy the muscles and the bones of men," are to be found here also. It is to be hoped the number is small; but our cheeks may well burn with shame while a solitary case is permitted to go unpunished. And, gentlemen, how can we justify ourselves or apologize for an indifference to this subject? Our constitutions of government have declared that all men are born free and equal, and have certain inalienable rights, among which are the right of enjoying their lives, liberties, and property, and of seeking and obtaining their own safety and happiness. May not the miserable African ask, "Am I not a man and a brother?" We boast of our noble struggle against the encroachments of tyranny, but do we forget that it assumed the mildest form in which authority ever assailed the rights of its subjects, and yet that there are men among us who think it no wrong to condemn the shivering negro to perpetual slavery? We believe in the Christian religion. It commands us to have good will to all men; to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to do unto all men as we would they should do unto us. It declares our accountability to the Supreme God for all our actions, and holds out to us a state of future rewards and punishments as the sanction by which our conduct is to be regulated. And yet there are men calling themselves Christians, who degrade the negro by ignorance to a level with the brutes, and deprive him of all the consolations of religion. He alone, of all the rational creation, they seem to think, is to be at once accountable for his actions, and yet his actions are not to be at his own disposal; but his mind, his body, and his feelings are to be sold to perpetual bondage. To me it appears perfectly clear that the slave-trade is equally repugnant to the dictates of reason and religion, and is an offence equally against the laws of God and man. Yet strange to tell, one of the pretences upon which the modern slavery of the Africans was justified, was the "duty of converting the heathen." I forbear to trace the subsequent scenes of their miserable lives, worn out in toils from which they can receive no profit, and oppressed with wrongs from which they can hope for no relief. * * * * The scenes which I have described are almost literally copied from the most authentic and unquestionable narrative, published under the highest authority. They present a picture of human wretchedness and human depravity, which the boldest imagination would hardly have dared to portray, and from which (one should think) the most abandoned profligate would shrink with horror. Let it be considered that this wretchedness does not arise from the awful visitation of Providence in the shape of plagues, famines, or earthquakes, the natural scourges of mankind; but is inflicted by man on man from the accursed love of gold. May we not justly dread the displeasure of that Almighty Being who is the common father of us all, if we do not by all means within our power, endeavor to suppress such infamous cruelties. If we cannot, like the good Samaritan, bind up the wounds and soothe the miseries of the friendless Africans, let us not, like the Levite, pass with sullen indifference on the other side. What sight can be more acceptable in the eyes of heaven than of a good man struggling in the cause of oppressed humanity? What consolation can be more sweet in a dying hour, than the recollection, that at least one human being may have been saved from sacrifice by our vigilance in enforcing the law?-From Judge Story's Charge to the Grand Jury of the U. S. Circuit Court, in Portsmouth, N. H., May Term, 1820. DANIEL WEBSTER. Important as I deem it, to discuss on all proper occasions, the policy of the measures at present pursued, it is still more important to maintain the right of such discussion, in its full and just extent. Sentiments lately sprung up, and now growing fashionable, make it necessary to be explicit on this point. The more I perceive a disposition to check the freedom of inquiry by extravagant and unconstitutional pretences, the firmer shall be the tone, in which I shall assert, and the freer the manner, in which I shall exercise it. It is the ancient and undoubted prerogative of this people to canvass public measures, and the merits of public men. It is a "home-bred right;" a fireside privilege. It hath ever been enjoyed in every house, cottage, and cabin in the nation. It is not to be drawn into the controversy. It is as undoubted as the right of breathing the air, or walking on the earth. Belonging to private life as a right, it belongs to public life as a duty; and it is the last duty, which those, whose representative I am, shall find me to abandon. Aiming at all times to be courteous and temperate in its use, except when the right itself shall be questioned; I shall then carry it to its extent. I shall place myself on the extreme boundary of my rights, and bid defiance to any arm, that would move me from my ground. This high constitutional privilege I shall defend and exercise within this house, and without this house, and in all places, in time of war, in time of peace, and at all times. Living, I shall assert it; dying, I shall assert it; and should I leave no other inheritance to my children, by the blessing of God, I will still leave them the inheritance of free principles, and the example of a manly, independent, and conscientious discharge of them. Speech in Congress, 1814. If there be, within the extent of our knowledge and influence, any participation in this traffic in slaves, let us pledge ourselves upon the Rock of Plymouth, to extirpate and destroy it. It is not fit that the land of the pilgrims should bear the shame longer. Let that spot be purified, or let it be set aside from the Christian world; let it be put out of the circle of human sympathies and human regards; and let civilized men henceforth have no communion with it. I invoke those who fill the seats of justice, and all who minister at her altar, that they exercise the wholesome and necessary severity of the law. I invoke the ministers of our religion, that they proclaim its denunciation of those crimes, and add its solemn sanction to the authority of human laws. If the pulpit be silent, whenever or wherever there may be a sinner, bloody with this guilt, within the hearing of its voice, the pulpit is false to its trust. |