impunity inflict on humanity whatever sufferings ingenuity can devise, or depravity desire. The flagitiousness of this resolution is aggravated if possible by the arbitrary means by which its adoption was secured. No representative of the People was permitted to lift up his voice against it--to plead the commands of the Constitution which it violated-his own privileges and duties which it contemned-the rights of his constituents, on which it trampled-the claims of justice and humanity which it impiously outraged. Its advocates were afraid and ashamed to discuss it, and forbidding debate, they perpetrated in silence the most atrocious act that has ever disgraced an American Legislature.* And was no reason whatever, it may be asked, assigned for this bold invasion of our rights, this insult to the sympathies of our common nature? Yes-connected with the resolution was a preamble explaining its OBJECT. Read it, fellow countrymen, and be equally astonished at the impudence of your rulers in avowing such an object, and at their folly in adopting such an expedient to effect it. The lips of a free people are to be sealed by insult and injury ! 'Whereas, it is extremely important and desirable that the AGITATION on this subject should be finally ARRESTED, for the purpose of restoring tranquillity to the public mind, your committee respectfully recommend the following resolution.' Order reigns in Warsaw, were the terms in which the triumph of Russia over the liberties of Poland was an * A debate was allowed on a motion to re-commit the report, for the purpose of preparing a resolution that Congress has no constitutional power to interfere with slavery in the District of Columbia; but when the sense of the House is to be taken on the resolution reported by the ccmmittee, all debate was prevented by the previous question. nounced to the world. When the right of petition shal be broken down-when no whisper shall be heard in Con gress in behalf of human rights-when the press shall be muzzled, and the freedom of speech destroyed by gag laws, then will the slaveholders announce, that tranquillity is restored to the public mind. Fellow countrymen! is such the tranquillity you desire -is such the heritage you would leave to your children? Suffer not the present outrage, by effecting its avowed object, to invite farther aggressions on your rights. The chairman on the committee boasted that the number of petitioners the present session, for the abolition of slavery in the District, was only 34,000! Let us resolve, we beseech you, that at the next session the number shall be A MILLION. Perhaps our 117 representatives will then abandon in despair their present dangerous and unconstitutional expedient for tranquillizing the public mind. The purpose of this address is not to urge upon you our own views of the selfishness of slavery, and the safety of its immediate abolition; but to call your attention to the conduct of your rulers. Let no one think for a moment, that because he is not an abolitionist, his liberties are not, and will not be invaded. We have no rights distinct from the rights of the people. Calumny, falsehood, and popular violence, have been employed in vain, to tranquillize abolitionists. It is now proposed to soothe them, by despoiling them of their constitutional rights; but they cannot be despoiled alone. The right of petition and the freedom of debate are as sacred and valuable to those who dissent from our opinions, as they are to ourselves. Can the Constitution at the same time secure liberty to you, and expose us to oppression-give you freedom of speech, and lock our lips-respect your right of petition, and treat ours with contempt? No, fellow countrymen! we must be all free, or all slaves together. We implore you, then, by all the obligations of interest, of patriotism, and of religion by the remembrance of your fathers-by your love for your children, to unite with us in maintaining our common, and till lately, our unquestioned political rights. We ask you as men to insist that your servants, acting as the local legislators of the District of Columbia, shall respect the common rights and decencies of humanity. We ask you as freemen, not to permit your constitutional privileges to be trifled with, by those who have sworn to maintain them. We ask you as Christian men, to remember that by sanctioning the sinful acts of your agents, you yourselves assume their guilt. We have no candidate to recommend to your favorwe ask not your support for any political party; but we do ask you to give your suffrages hereafter only to such men as you have reason to believe will not sacrifice your rights, and their own obligations, and the claims of mercy and the commands of God, to an iniquitous and mercenaГУ СОМРАСТ. If we cannot have northern Presidents and other officers of the general government, except in exchange for freedom of conscience, of speech, of the press, and of legislation, then let all the appointments at Washington be given to the South. If slaveholders will not trade with us, unless we consent to be slaves ourselves, then let us leave their money, and their sugar, and their cotton, to perish with them. Fellow countrymen! we wish, we recommend no action whatever, inconsistent with the laws and constitutions of our country, or the precepts of our common religion, but we beseech you to join with us in resolving, that while we will respect the rights of others, we will at every hazard maintain our own. In behalf of the American Anti-Slavery Society. ARTHUR TAPPAN, LEWIS TAPPAN, SIMEON S. JOCELYN, Executive Committee. NEW YORK, June, 1836. LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE N. YORK ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. After we had read the following very eloquent epistle, we could not help thinking of that choice proverb of the wise man- A word fitly spoken, is like apples of gold, in pictures of silver.' UTICA, AUGUST 26TH, 1936. To the Executive Committee of the Ohio State Anti-Slavery Society, at Cincinnati. DEAR AND HONORED BRETHREN-Fellow-laborers in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ; and in the cause of his despised and oppressed poor. The shout of your ruthless persecutors has fallen upon our ears; and amid the pauses of the storm, we have been cheered by the calm and firm tones of your own unchanged voice. We hasten to mingle our hearts with yours; to sing, with you, of mercy and of judgment; the mercy that has unmasked a nation's enemies, and shielded your heads, and guarded your precious lives, when the floods of ungodly men rose up against you:-the justice that has visited upon an oppressive and callous nation, a heavy blow upon her own boasted, but despised liberties. We know we need not occupy our time or yours with lengthened exhortations to courage and patience under your own sufferings. We know you will not think it strange concerning the fiery trial that is to try you, as |