The way is now prepared to consider our precise position with regard to
the accumulating aggressions of the Slave Power, revealed especially in
recent efforts to extend Slavery.
* * * * *
_Wilmot Proviso._--To the end that the country and the age may not
witness the foul sin of a Republic dedicated to Freedom pouring into
vast unsettled lands, as into the veins of an infant, the festering
poison of Slavery, destined, as time advances, to show itself only
in cancer and leprous disease, we pledge ourselves to unremitting
endeavors for the passage of the Wilmot Proviso, or some other form of
Congressional enactment prohibiting Slavery in the Territories, without
equivocation or compromise of any kind.
* * * * *
_Opposition to Slavery wherever we are responsible for it._--But we do
not content ourselves with opposing this last act of aggression. We go
further. Not only from desire to bring the National Government back
again to the spirit of the Fathers, but also from deep convictions of
morals and religion, is our hostility to Slavery derived. Slavery is
wrong; nor can any human legislation elevate into any respectability
the blasphemy of tyranny, that man can hold property in his fellow-man.
Slavery, we repeat, is wrong, and therefore we cannot sanction it. In
these convictions will be found the measure of our duties.
Wherever we are responsible for Slavery, we oppose it. Our opposition
is coextensive with our responsibility. In the States Slavery is
sustained by local law; and although we are compelled to share
the stigma upon the fair fame of the country which its presence
inflicts, yet it receives no direct sanction at our hands. We are not
responsible for it there. The National Government, in which we are
represented, is not responsible for it there. The evil is not at our
own particular doors. But Slavery everywhere under the Constitution
of the United States, everywhere under the exclusive jurisdiction of
the National Government, everywhere under the national flag, is at our
own particular doors. The freemen of the North are responsible for it
equally with the traffickers in flesh who haunt the shambles of the
South. Nor will this responsibility cease, so long as Slavery continues
to exist in the District of Columbia, in any Territories of the United
States, or anywhere on the high seas, beneath the protecting flag of
the Republic. The fetters of every slave within these jurisdictions are
bound and clasped by the votes of Massachusetts. Their chains, as they
clank, seem to say, "Massachusetts does this outrage."
* * * * *
_Divorce of the National Government from Slavery._--This must not be
any longer. Let the word go forth, that the National Government shall
be divorced from all support of Slavery, and shall never hereafter
sanction it. So doing, it will be brought back to the condition and
character which it enjoyed at the adoption of the Constitution.
* * * * *
_The National Government must be on the side of
Freedom._--Accomplishing these specific changes, a new tone will be
given to the Republic. The Slave Power will be broken, and Slavery
driven from its present intrenchments under the National Government.
The influence of such a change will be incalculable. The whole weight
of the Government will then be taken from the side of Slavery, where
it has been placed by the Slave Power, and put on the side of Freedom,
according to the original purposes and aspirations of its founders.
This of itself is an end for which to labor earnestly in the spirit of
the Constitution. Let it never be forgotten, as the pole-star of our
policy, that the National Government must be placed, openly, actively,
and perpetually, on the side of Freedom.
_It must be openly on the side of Freedom._ There must be no
equivocation, concealment, or reserve. It must not, like the witches in
Macbeth, "palter in a double sense." It must avow itself distinctly and
firmly the enemy of Slavery, and thus give to the friends of Freedom,
now struggling throughout the Slave States, the advantage of its
countenance.
_It must be actively on the side of Freedom._ It cannot be content with
simply bearing its testimony. It must act. Within the constitutional
sphere of its influence, it must be felt as the enemy of Slavery. It
must now exert itself for Freedom as zealously and effectively as for
many years it has exerted itself for Slavery.
_It must be perpetually on the side of Freedom._ It must not be
uncertain, vacillating, or temporary, in this beneficent policy, but
fixed and constant, so that hereafter it shall know no change.
In our endeavors to give the Government this elevated character we are
cheered by high examples, whose opinions have already been adduced.
We ask only that the Republic should once more be inspired by their
spirit and be guided by their counsels. Let it join with Jefferson in
open, uncompromising hostility to Slavery. Let it unite with Franklin
in giving _countenance_ to the cause of Emancipation, and _in stepping
to the very verge of the power vested in it for DISCOURAGING
every species of traffic in the persons of our fellow-men_. Let all
its officers and members follow Washington, declaring, that, in any
legislative effort for the abolition of Slavery, THEIR SUFFRAGES
SHALL NEVER BE WANTING.
* * * * *
_Other National Matters._--Such are the principles of this Convention
on the _national_ question of Slavery. Other matters of national
interest, on which the opinions of the party have been often expressed,
are of a subordinate character. These are: cheap postage; the abolition
of all unnecessary offices and salaries; election of civil officers, so
far as may be practicable, by the people; retrenchment of the expenses
and patronage of the National Government; improvement of rivers and
harbors; and free grants to actual settlers of the public lands in
reasonable portions.
* * * * *
_Administration of General Taylor._--In support of these principles we
felt it our duty to oppose the election of General Cass and General
Taylor,--both being brought forward under the influence of the Slave
Power: the first openly pledged against the Wilmot Proviso; and the
second a large slaveholder and recent purchaser of slaves, who was
not known, by any acts or declared opinions, to be hostile in any
way to Slavery, or even to its extension, and who, from position,
and from the declarations of friends and neighbors, was supposed to
be friendly to that institution. General Taylor was elected by the
people. And now, while it becomes all to regard his administration
with candor, we cannot forget our duty to the cause which brings us
together. His most ardent supporters will not venture the assertion
that his conduct will bear the test of the principles here declared.
We look in vain for any token that the National Government, while in
his hands, will be placed openly, actively, and perpetually on the side
of Freedom. Indeed, all that any "Free-Soil" supporters vouchsafe in
his behalf is the assurance, that, should the Wilmot Proviso receive
the sanction of both branches of Congress,--should it prevail in the
House of Representatives, and then in that citadel of Slavery, the
American Senate,--the "second Washington," as our President is called,
will decline to assume the responsibility of arresting its final
passage by the Presidential Veto. This is all. The first Washington
freely declared his affinity with Antislavery Societies, and that in
support of any legislative measure for the abolition of Slavery HIS
SUFFRAGE SHOULD NEVER BE WANTING.
The character of the Administration may be inferred from other
circumstances.
_First._ The Slave Power continues to hold its lion's share in the
cabinet, and in diplomatic posts abroad,--thus ruling the country at
home, and representing it in foreign lands. At the last Presidential
election, the number of votes cast in the Slave States, exclusive of
South Carolina, where the electors are chosen by the Legislature, was
844,890, while the number cast in the Free States was 2,027,016. And
yet there are four persons in the cabinet from the Slave States,
and three only from the Free States, while a Slaveholding President
presides over all. The diplomatic representation of the country at
Paris, St. Petersburg, Vienna, Frankfort, Madrid, Lisbon, Naples,
Chili, Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, Bolivia, Buenos Ayres, is now
confided to persons from Slaveholding States. At Rome our Republic is
represented by the son of the great adversary of the Wilmot Proviso, at
the Hague by a life-long Louisianian, at Brussels by the son-in-law of
John C. Calhoun, and at Berlin by a late Senator who was rewarded with
this high appointment in consideration of service to Slavery, while the
principles of Freedom abroad are confided to the anxious care of the
recently appointed Minister to England. But this is not all.
_Secondly._ The President, through one of his official organs at
Washington, threatens to "frown indignantly" upon the movements
of friends of Freedom at the North, though he has had no word of
indignation, and no frown, for the schemes of disunion openly put forth
by friends of Slavery at the South.
_Thirdly._ Mr. Clayton, as Secretary of State, in defiance of justice,
and in mockery of the principles of the Declaration of Independence,
refuses a national passport to a free colored citizen, alleging, that,
by a rule of his Department, passports are not granted to colored
persons. In marked contrast are the laws of Massachusetts, recognizing
such persons as citizens,--and also those words of gratitude and
commendation, in which General Jackson, after the Battle of New
Orleans, addressed the black soldiers who had shared, with "noble
enthusiasm," "the perils and glory of their _white fellow-citizens_."
_Fourthly._ The Post-Office Department, in a formal communication with
regard to what are called "incendiary publications," announces that
the Postmaster-General "leaves the whole subject to the discretion
of postmasters under the authority of State Governments." Here is
no solitary word of indignation that the mails of the United States
are exposed to lawless interruption from partisans of Slavery. The
Post-Office, intrusted to a son of New England, assumes an abject
neutrality, while letters committed to its care are rifled at the
instigation of the Slave Power.
Surely we cannot err in declaring that an administration cannot be
entitled to our support, which, during the short career of a few months
only, is marked by such instances of subserviency to the Slave Power,
and of infidelity to the great principles of Freedom.
* * * * *
_Necessity of our Organization._--Such is the national position of our
party. We are a national party, established for national purposes, such
as can be accomplished by a national party only. If the principles
which we have at heart were supported openly, actively, constantly
by either of the other parties, there would be no occasion for our
organization. But whatever may have been, or whatever may now be, the
opinions of individual members, it is undeniable, that, _as national
parties_, they have never opposed Slavery in any form. Neither has ever
sustained any measure for the abolition of Slavery in the District of
Columbia, but, on the contrary, discountenanced all such measures.
Neither has ever opposed, in any form, the coastwise slave-trade
under the flag of the United States. Neither has ever opposed the
extension of Slavery. Neither has ever striven to divorce the National
Government from Slavery. Neither has ever labored to place the National
Government openly, actively, and perpetually on the side of Freedom.
Nor is there any assurance, satisfactory to persons not biased by
political associations, that either of these organizations will ever,
as a _national party_, espouse the cause of Freedom.
Circumstances in the very constitution of these parties render
it difficult, if not impossible, for them to act in this behalf.
Constructed subtly with a view to political success, they are spread
everywhere throughout the Union, and the principles which they uphold
are pruned and modified to meet existing sentiment in different parts
of the country. Neither can venture, as a party, to place itself on
the side of Freedom, because, by such a course, it would disaffect
that slaveholding support which is essential to its political success.
The Antislavery resolutions adopted by legislatures at the North are
regarded as expressions of individual or local opinion only, and not
suffered to control the action of the national party. To such an extent
is this carried, that Whigs of Massachusetts, professing immitigable
hostility to Slavery, recently united in support of a candidate for the
Presidency in whose behalf the eminent slaveholding Whig, Mr. Berrien,
had "implored his fellow-citizens of Georgia, Whig and Democratic, to
forget for a time their party divisions, and to know each other only as
Southern men."
Fellow-citizens, individuals in each of the old parties strove in vain
to produce a change, and to make them exponents of growing Antislavery
sentiments. At Baltimore and Philadelphia, in the great Conventions
of these parties, Slavery triumphed. So strongly were they both
arrayed against Freedom, and so unrelenting were they in ostracism
of its generous supporters,--of all who had written or spoken in its
behalf,--that it is not going too far to say, that, if Jefferson, or
Franklin, or Washington could have descended from his sphere above,
and revisited the country which he had nobly dedicated to Freedom, he
could not, with his well-known and recorded opinions against Slavery,
have received a nomination for the Presidency from either of these
Conventions.
To maintain the principles of Freedom, as set forth in this Address,
it might be well for us to take a lesson from the old parties,--to
learn from them the importance of perseverance and union, and thus to
see the value of a distinct political organization,--and, profiting by
these instructions, to direct the efforts of the friends of Freedom
everywhere throughout the country into this channel.