m .:;;!,;'. Ill 1 - %$ I k'~° THE ENEMIES OF THE OR, AN INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN AND TENDENCY OP POPUL.AH VIOLENCE. CONTAINING A COMPLETE AND CIRCUMSTANTIAL ACCOUNT OF THE UNLAWFUL PROCEEDINGS AT THE CITY OF UTICA, OCTOBER 21sT, 1835; THE DISPERSION OF THE STATE ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION By tlic Agitators, THE DESTRUCTION OF A DEMOCRATIC PRESS, AND OF THE CAUSES WHICH LED THERETO. TOGETHER WITH A C0NCTSE TREATISE ON THE PRACTICE OP THE COURT OF HIS HONOR JUDGE S/STNCH. " It is ao-ainst silent and slow attacks, that the nation ought to be particularly on its guard." Vattell. ACCOMPANIED WITH NUMEROUS HIGHLY INTERESTING AND IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS. BY DEFENSOR. NEW-YORK: LEAVITT, LORD, & CO. 1 80 BROADWAY G. TRACY, UTICA. 1835. [Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, by William Thomas, in the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New York.] PRELIMINARY SUGGESTIONS. In the following treatise, plainness and simplicity have been my constant and undeviating aim. If I have been liberal and unsparing in censures, I can appeal to an approving conscience for the rectitude of my intentions — for the evidence that in every sentence which has been uttered I have been guided by a scrupu- lous adherence to truth and justice. If any whose conduct has been called in question should have occasion to complain of ne- glect, they may be well assured that the true cause is, the want of information — that the bounds within which I was obliged to be confined would not permit, or that the place they occupy in the ranks of the " Enemies of the Constitution " does not render them sufficiently formidable to require that they should receive more particular notice. It has been necessary frequently to bring into view the nholitinnistc and th^ agitators,* — the movements and measures of each. But I have carefully avoided touching upon the peculiar sentiments of the Anti-slavery Society. I am nei- ther a member of that society, nor have any connexion with its movements. I am indeed opposed to slavery ; but what particu- lar mode of emancipation would be most expedient, is a question involving consequences too grave to approach in a treatise like the following, where it has no necessary connexion with the sub- ject. To present a well-digested scheme would be inconsistent with the design and limits of this work, even if I were blessed with the wisdom and research necessary for the task. Upon a question so important, therefore, I have neither the inclination nor confidence to attempt to forestall the reader's opinion. * The agitators are those who are endeavouring, by deception and fraud, To subvert the constitution, and change the settled policy of this country. These fanatics, by means of their incendiary meetings and publications, have long been labouring to inflame the public mind against the abolitionists, by misrepresenting their sentiments and designs. They have industriously circulated throughout the southern states publications of the most inflamma- tory and incendiary character, calculated to produce an insurrec- tion anion a- the slave-holders, and a dissolution of the union. With suchassiduous and untiring zeal have their disorganizing schemes been pursued, that they have agitated the country to its utmost bounds with excitement and alarm, which threaten to sun- der the most endearing relations and most sacred ties. IV PRELIMINARY SUGGESTIONS. An elaborate account is given of the violence committed by the agitators upon the Utica Convention, and of all the preparatory movements which led to that outrage. The reader will naturally inquire, Where is the evidence, and who are the witnesses of these transactions 7 The evidence is ample ; and fortunately individu- als who were eyewitness, and can bear testimony to the truth of the following, statements are to be found in almost every county in the state of New-York. " For these things were not done in a corner." The testimony of one individual, in whose veracity we can con- fide, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of the facts he relates ; but the reader shall not be limited to one or two individuals, but shall be furnished with the names of five hundred witnesses, by whose testimony every word can be established.* They are individuals of respectability and unquestionable veracity, selected from every part of the State of New- York, besides three from the State of Ohio, and one from the State of Virginia, in order that they may give their testimony viva voce, and be examined and cross-examined by all who are disposed, with just intentions, to question them on this subject. Most readers, therefore, who de- sire to know the truth of these matters, are furnished with an op- portunity of satisfying themselves from the mouths of their own neighbours and friends. The Appendix is by no means the least interesting portion of the following work. The arrangement of the whole will be seen more fully by reference to the table of contents. The documents, originating from the head of an executive department of our go- vernment, which have been productive of so much evil to our country, the official reports of the meetings <*i' the agitators, held previous to and on the day of the Anti-slavery Convention, are inserted entire, accompanied with notes and remarks ; also the ollicial report of the proceedings of the conservative meeting of the citizens of Utica, convened on the evening previous to the Con- vention. The copious extracts from various ollicial documents, showing the tone and temper of the south on the subject of slavery, and demanding the enactment of penal laws against all who shall discuss that subject ; the extracts from the writings of Thomas Jefferson, showing his opinions and views on that subject, and the extracts from the Federal and State Conventions, Bhowing our rights in the present alarming state of affairs, are all highly important to be read and understood by every true friend vi liberty The speeches of Gerrit Smith and Alvan Stewart, Esquires, are specimens of eloquence of a high and exalted character, and cannot fail to beadmiredby every candid and liberal mind At a time when our country i- torn w ith faction, when a corrupt party spirit has become universally prevalent, and the press is subjected to its absolute control ■ when great principles are sacrificed at the ■ See Appendix, .No. x. PRELIMINARY SUGGESTIONS. V altar of personal ambition ; when those who ought to be our pro- tectors and our guides, are insidiously scattering the seeds of dis- sension, alarm, and distrust, and pursuing conduct which tends inevitably to produce in society dire feuds, civil strife, and the certain disruption of the social compact itself, it is the part of wisdom to seek direction in the tried counsels of the patriots and sages of other times. In the extracts from the sentiments of Washington and Jefferson, and other authorities admitted by all, which are given in the following work, ample direction will be found applicable to the trying circumstances with which we are surrounded. There are many chicken-hearted individuals, who will pity me for having ventured, with so much boldness, to expose to public view, conduct in which so many honourable men were engaged. There is, say they, a diversity of sentiment on this subject ; a large class, and possibly a majority of the community are inclined to favour those measures which he has unequivocally condemned ; and although we know that he is right, yet it was rash for him to incur the wrath and indignation of so many honourable men, and to brave the more dreadful fury of a lawless rabble, by whose pa- triotism they were so promptly sustained. To this I reply, there will be no need of writing upon this subject when the very object of writing is already accomplished — when every body condemns these doings. Besides, when the cause of justice becomes popu- lar, it will call to its aid many pens abler than mine. Let these well-meaning individuals reserve their pity for their children, for whose limbs the chains of tyranny are already be- ginning to be forged. Only do you, kind reader, consider whether I speak truth ; and if to declare the truth shall call forth upon me the hottest indignation and bitterest calumnies of these men, and their confederates, and the more furious rage of the servile and vicious horde, who, long inured to slavish submission, have become the creatures of their will, and strangers to any other impulse or restraint ; all this I can endure for my country's sake. I was not ignorant, in the beginning, that an attempt to expose their iniquity would subject me to the vilest slanders that the direst ma- lignity of the enemies of the constitution could invent. What if the malice of these men should pour upon my reputation a continuous shower of its insidious missiles 1 It is not for reputation that X labour. I do not seek popular favour. It is the highest good of my fellow-citizens that I seek. And, although an attempt to de- stroy my reputalion would be felt with the keenest sensibility, al- though the approbation and esteem of my fellow-citizens are as dear to me as my own life, yet I call heaven to witness that my country's welfare is dearer to me than both. In the humble part I have to act as an American citizen, the favour which I most fer- vently beg heaven to grant is, that neither my tongue nor my pen may ever become the slave of party, or subject to the impulse of passion, or the restraint of fear; that to discharge my duty to my country, and my whole country, shall be my constant aim, and an I* VL PRELIMINARY SUGGESTIONS. nudaunted freedom its concomitant. If you, generous reader, were to receive a personal injury from one professing to be your friend, surely you could not disregard it. But what is a personal indignity compared with an injury which is inflicted upon a whole nation ? What is the welfare of one individual compared with that of millions! How much more then ought we to regard and correct those abuses which are gradually corrupting and trans- forming a government established "to promote our common wel- fare, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of liberty," into a powerful party engine, with which a few designing men achieve their conquest, and convert to their own aggrandize- ment the spoils of the vanquished ; to condemn, in the most em- phatic terms, and unfold to public view, the conduct of those men, who, under specious pretexts, employed to secure popular favour and support, arc hewing away the last great pillar of our nation's safety. We are not to wait until our alarms are awakened by the sounding trumpet and glittering steel of a marshalled host of fo- reign invaders, or until we shall behold, seated upon a gorgeous throne, high and lifted up, the tyrant, clothed in all the habili- ments of royalty, securely wielding the sceptre of oppression over us. But it is against silent and slow attacks, made by those who feign the highest regard for the interest of the people, that we ought to be constantly on our guard. Nor is it over the con- duct of the ministers of the people alone that we are to watch with a jealous eye. It is the more fatal and ruinous tendency of lawless encroachments of popular violence that we have most to fear. But what language can express his guilt, who, " unmoved by passion or prejudice," but " peaceably ," with a deliberate and fixed purpose, sets at naught the constitution and the law, and contemptuously tramples upon our dearest and most sacred rights ! There is one >UL r ::''>:ion further, which I desire may he well considered. We all know, that those who seek to do mischief on an extensive scale, endeavour in the most artful manner to conci- liate and bring to their aid popular favour. There is a certain class ofindividuals in almost every community, who are invariably found on the side of these men. Now, it was a wise saying of an an- cient philosopher, which every-day's experience has proved to he true, that a man's character may be known by the company he keeps It is a truth as well settled, there can lie no agreement be- tween things Opposite in their natures. If, therefore, it lie true, (which we most religiously believe] that our government be found- ed upon the pure principles of philanthropy, virtue, and morality, and is best adapted to the want.- of society, and Calculated to pro- mote t heir highest good* is it not natural to conclude, that the in- telligent, moral, virtu.. us, and philanthropic portion of the com- munity, those who are most active in promoting the welfare and happiness of their fellow-beings, with the hope of no other reward hut the satisfaction which arises from a c insciousness of doing well, are the friends oi' this government ! And is it not equally PRELIMINARY SUGGESTIONS. Vli natural to conclude, that those noted subjects of intemperance and vice, who live only to curse society with an immoral and pestifer- ous influence, and to add to human misery, are not the friends of this government ? When these characters combine, can it be for any good purpose ? When we see them prosecuting any purpose, whether political or otherwise, with a loud and clamorous zeal, may we not justly suspect that there is some evil lurking in their designs 1 When we see an individual invoking the aid of this class of the community, and deriving his support from them, verily we have reason to distrust the purity of his intentions. If this reasoning fails, it must inevitably follow, that our government, instead of depending upon the virtue and intelligence of the peo- ple for its support, can only be safe under the universal reign of ignorance and vice. And then it must also follow, that it is^a vi- cious government ; for there is no agreement between virtue and vice, nor can one be supported by the other. But it was barely a hint I intended. The point cannot be pursued further at pre- sent. I cannot omit noticing in the beginning, the dangerous ten- dency of a most subtle artifice (I might say conspiracy), much employed of late by the enemies of the constitution. We are of- ten told, that public opinion is the law of the land, and that to this we are bound to yield. By this cunning device, attempts are often made to destroy rights expressly guarantied by the constitu- tion, even by the expression of public opinion in a single town, county, or state, in the primary assemblies of the people. We will suppose that those who originated this conspiracy, only contend that the expression of the opinions of a majority of the nation is to have the force of authority, and that we must conform to it. This is placing their doctrines in a more favourable light than the facts will warrant, and if in this light they prove to be false and subversive of true liberty, it will be unnecessary to exhibit their more odious features. The danger of committing the management of the affairs of state to the capricious impulse of primary assemblies, was not overlooked in the establishment of our government. Public opi- nion, it is true, legitimately expressed by legislative enactments, is binding. The constitution and law are the voice of the people, and are supremely obligatory upon all. We can recognise no other voice than this. But our enemies would deceive us by changing the names of things. What the constitution and laws forbid them to touch, they would take away by that which they call public opinion. Whal ! shall the people tear from us, with one hand, that which they have freely given us with the other 1 What matters it whether we are bound with chains of iron or steel ? If we are to be slaves, what matters it by what means we are deprived of liberty 1 Will the yoke of tyranny be more tole- rable to bear when it is fastened to our necks by public opinion ? If our rights are to depend upon the fluctuating opinions of the inhabitants of the ville, county, or state where we reside, then in- Vlll PRELIMINARY SUGGESTIONS. deed is our constitution but a shadow, and the whole machinery of our government a mere farce. Those who thus deceive us, however they may vary their positions, and however plausible their pretences, have but one end in view at last ; they would subvert our constitution, and accustom us to bear the yoke of tyranny under a false name. The present is a time which demands the utmost watchfulness of the friends of our country. The designs upon its liberties are of the most formidable and alarming charac- ter. But the people are asleep. A gentle voice seems to call to them, Awake, watch ; you are surrounded by enemies in disguise ; but yet they seem not to heed it. Shortly they may be saluted with this same friendly voice, saying, " Sleep on now and take your rest," your liberties are betrayed into the hands of your enemies. DEFENSOR. Ncic-York, December 25, 1835. CONTENTS. Introduction — Inquiry iuto the origin of popular violence — Exe- cution of a number of American citizens, without trial — Seizure of the U. S. mail at Charleston, S. C, and the burning of its contents by the 'populace — The Postmaster at Charleston refuses to deliver certain papers tc the persons entitled to them, and asks for instruc- tions from the Postmaster General — The Postmaster General B doea not condemn the act — Extract from the Evening Post in relation to Mr. Kendall's conduct — Mr. Gouverneur, Postmaster at New- York, refuses to forward certain papers according to the requirement of the law, and asks for instructions from Postmaster General — The latter approves the course Mr. Gouverneur has adopted — Re- marks upon the character and tendency of Mr. Kendall's conduct and sentiments — Extract from the biartford Times in relation there- to — Mr. Kendall's new doctrines become popular with certain classes — Violence and insubordination ensues — The mob in Balti- more discharge their higher obligations — Amos Dresser's narrative -Origin of the excitement against the abolitionists, Page 9 II. Practice of the court of his honour, Judge Lynch — Law-break- ing reduced to a system — How to detect the chief movers of riots, 48 III. History of the Anti-Slavery Convention — Preliminary sugges- tions — Expressions of public sen iments against the abolitionists in various parts of the United States. The abolitionists are so "fool- hardy" as to think for themselves — It is determined by certain po- litical aspirants, for the success of their cause, to put the abolitionists down at all hazards, "forcibly if necessary" — A State Convention is appointed to be held at Utica — The citizens hold a meeting at the City Hall, to show their aversion to the assemblage of said Conven- tion in Utica — Discovery of the " prudential restrictions" — Speech X CONTENTS. of the Hon. Samuel Beardsley — The enforcement of the " pruden- tial restrictions" becomes a party measure — The Common Council grant to the Anti Slavery Convention the privilege of holding their meeting in the court-room — A great effort is made to inflame the public mind against this act of the council — An indignation meeting La asa obled at the court-room — Great display of patriotism among the drunkards — The Mayor and City Attorney attend the meeting — <: Satan cometh also" — The act of the Common Council is nulli- fied — The agitators determine to " go revolution" — Language and conduct of A. G. Dauby and Hon. Samuel Beardslev — The friends of order are clamoured down — The agiiators determine upon forci- ble resistance, and adjourn to meet at the same place on the 21st Oct. at 9 o'clock — These subjects become the topic of general con- versation — A conservative meeting is assembled at the court-room, on Tuesday evening, Oct 30th, for the purpose of discountenancing violence — The agitators, with their forces, gathered together from various parts of the country, appeared at the meeting — The meet- ing is organized and resolutions are reported — The agitators raise a tumult, and interrupt the proceedings — Meeting of the agitators on the 21st — Assemblage, organization, and proceedings of the Conven- tion — The agitators determine to accomplish their design by ': of twenty live — Their appointment, duties, and descrip- tion — They run about the streets hunting for the Convention — Ar- rive at the National Hotel — Timor appenrs at the door and cries Stub .v. but declines leading the pack from " feelings of delicacy" — The pack lind their way to the place whi : i Dtion are as- sembled, and are joined by se\eral hundreds more ravenous than themselves — The whole canine squadron enters with great fierceness into the church — The old sportsman cries Get out, until we secure tl 3] i of Hon. Samuel Beardsley before the mob in tho -Reply to his speech by Thomas Jefferson — Extract from the ( meida Standard an I — Proc mu's of the agitators during the day and follov - irs at the he- et — Destru type in icrat — An assault is meditated upon the hou id Stewart— It is ] lulted while going to Pe- •f the conduct of the committee of t went iple desire to know " what apology can be made" for their conduct— The tendency of t] dings — Character of the Convention, - - - *'*." " ■ ■ 54 CONTENTS. XI IV. Sentiments of Thomas Jefferson on the subject of slavery, and its abolition — Effects of slavery upon the liberties of the nation — Ex- tract from a foreign paper — Tendency of the measures of the agita- tors — Their effect upon the union — Remarks upon the new doctrines and policy — The last advice of Washington — Remarks upon the liberty of speech and the press — How we are to avoid the dangerous crisis which the country is approaching, and maintain the authority of the constitution and supremacy of the laws, - - 104 APPENDIX, No. I. Establishment of a censorship of the press— Copy of the letter of the Postmaster General to the Postmaster at Charleston — Notes and remarks thereon, ------ Page 123 No. II. Creation of ten thousand censors of the press — Copy of the letter of the Postmaster General to Samuel L. Gouverneur, Postmaster at the city of New- York — Notes and remarks thereon, - 125 No. III. Official report of the proceedings of the meeting of the citizens of Utici, assembled on the 17th Oct. to take in consideration the vote of the Common Council, granting to the Anti-Slavery Con- vention the privilege of meeting in the court-room, accompanied with notes and remarks, ------- 135 No. IV. Off.chl report of the proceedings of the Consevrative meeting of the ( itizens of Utica, convened on the evening of the 20th Oct. 139 XU CONTENTS. No. V. Official report of the meeting of the agitators, held at the court- house, on the 21st Oct., for the purpose of organizing, in opposition to the public authorities, and breaking up the Anti-Slavery Conven- tion — Notes and remarks thereon, 141 No. VI. A collection of extracts from various public documents, showing the tone of the south — Extracts from the federal and state constitu- tioiii. — Extracts from the writings of Thomas Jefferson, - 146* No. vi r. The real sentiments of the abolitionists — Official statement of the officers of the American Anti-Slavery Society, - - 153 No. VIII. Speech of Gcrrit Smith, Esq , in the meeting of the New- York Anti-Slavery Society, held at Peterboro', Oct. 22, 1835, - 157 No. IX. Speech of Alvan Stewart, Esq.. delivered before the Anti-Slavery Convention, held at Utica, Oct. 21. 1835, - 1G6 No. X. The names of five hundred witnesses, by whom the facts stated in this book can be verified, 175 THE ENEMIES OF THE CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED, I. If, twelve months ago, some ardent friend of his country, endowed with the prophetic gift, or seeing the inevitable tendency of public measures, had foretold that the time was at hand when American citizens, before the eyes of the whole nation, should be seized and put to an infamous death without be- ing allowed the privilege of a legal trial, — if be had also foretold, that the mail of the United States, the great depository of the public secrets, one of the most important safeguards of our liberties, would be wrested from the custody of the constitutional authorities, plundered, and its contents committed to the flames, in violation of the public faith most solemnly pledged for its protection, — that the Post- master at the commercial metropolis of the nation would arrogate to himself the power of a censor, and, in violation of the laws of the land, and of the most sacred duties of his office, which he had sworn to perform, should detain in his custody publications committed to the charge of the depart- 2 10 THE ENEMIES OF THE ment, under the hairbrainecl pretence, that in his imagination they advocated sentiments which might prove of dangerous tendency ; and if he should have foretold, that such flagrant departures from the law and the constitution would meet with the approval of the highest functionaries of the national govern- ment ; and if he had also foretold, that within the short space of a year, the world was destined to be- hold in free and happy America — in the democratic state of New- York, a state convention, an assemblage of one thousand freemen, convened in the temple of the Most High, assailed with lawless violence, in- sulted, abused, and deprived of their constitutional rights, the freedom of speech, the right peaceably to assemble and deliberate upon subjects intimately concerning the welfare of their own beloved coun- try, and the liberty of the press at the same blow destroyed ; and that this foul blow, levelled at the root of liberty, would be struck by men high in power, by our judges and our representatives ; what faith would have been given to predictions so wild, and apparently so unlikely to be fulfilled ? All would have answered, Such things are not to be witnessed in America, until the names and the vir- tues of Washington and of Jefferson shall be for- o gotten. Yet these scenes we now behold. Invasions of jthc inalienable rights of freemen have become fami- liar ; we have become accustomed to sec the laws of our country and our beloved constitution tram- pled in the dust ; anarchy and civil discord begin to .show "their accursed heads." CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. II Not long since, at Vicksburg, a number of citi- zens of the United States were seized and executed without even the pretence of legal authority, con- trary to the express letter of the constitution of the United States, which declares, that " no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Acts equally inconsistent with the constitution and laws of our country have been mat- ters of every day occurrence, but have been regard- ed as comparatively of little moment, until they had gained the co-operation and sanction of men high in authority. On the 29th of July, 1835, when the United States mail arrived at Charleston, S. C, it was found to contain large quantities of the publications of the American Anti-slavery Society ; whereupon a num- ber of persons assembled about the exchange at be- tween the hours of ten and eleven at night, and with coolness and deliberation made a forcible entry into the post-office by wrenching open one of its win- dows, and carried off the packages containing these papers, and burnt them in a pile before the citadel. This flagrant violation of the laws of the United States, and of individual rights, soon after received the sanction of a large meeting of citizens, among whom was that arch nullifier, Robert Y. Hayne, who had before been engaged in an attempt to de- stroy the authority of the government of his coun- try. By this meeting a censorship of the press was virtually established, and a committee of twenty-one appointed to take charge of the United States mail. At this crisis the Postmaster at Charleston, contrary 12 THE ENEMIES OF THE lo an express statute of the United States, and con- trary to the oath which he had taken to act in con- formity to such statute, arrogated to himself the power to detain in his custody the publications and papers on the subject of slavery, and asked for in- structions from the Postmaster General, which the duty of the latter required him to give. This extraordinary and illegal act of the Postmas- ter at Charleston, it was just!}' supposed, would meet with the unqualified condemnation of the Post- master General, and that he would, as his duty re- quired, immediately direct the Postmaster at Charles- ton to forward and deliver these papers to the per- sons entitled to them, and thus sustain the public confidence, so necessary to be reposed in this im- portant branch of our system, vindicate the supre- macy of the laws, and the authority of the national government. All men of intelligence could see that the act upon which Amos Kendall was called upon to give an opinion was unlawful, and of such dangerous tendency, as called for the loudest censure, and it is believed that such could net but* have been the almost unanimous judgment of the people in the non-slaveholding states, had not the act been sanc- tioned by some higher authority to which cringing office-seekers are accustomed to bow and sue for favours. It is unnecessary to inquire into the motives which actuated Mr. Kendall in making up his judg- ment upon the question referred to him ; it will be sufficient for the purpose of determining the degree CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 13 of influence which his conduct ought to have upon the public mind, to present him in the following, strange predicament, in which he is placed by his. answer to the Postmaster at Charleston, bearing: date August 4, 1835.* After stating the case, he says, " Upon a careful examination of the law, I am satisfied that the Post- master General has no legal authority to exclude newspapers from the mail, nor prohibit their car- riage or delivery on account of their character or tendency, real or supposed. Probably it was not thought safe to confer on the head of an executive department a power over the press, which might be perverted and abused. But I am not prepared to direct you to forward or deliver the papers of which you speak." After recapitulating what the Post- master at Charleston had informed him respecting the papers in question, he says, " By no act or di- rection of mine, official or private, could I be in- duced to aid knowingly in giving circulation to papers of this description, directly or indirectly. We owe an obligation to the laws, but a higher one to the communities in which we live ; and if the former be perverted to destroy the latter, it is pa- triotism to disregard them." A most appropriate answer to Mr. Kendall's sen- timents was given in the New-York Evening Post, an administration paper, and one which has ever been uniform and unbending in the course it has pursued. These are its words : — " In giving place to the above letter, we cannot refrain from accom- * See Appendix, No. 1. 2* 14 THE ENEMIES OF THE panying it with an expression of our surprise and regret, that Mr. Kendall, in an official communica- tion, should have expressed such sentiments as this extraordinary letter contains. If, according to his ideas of the duties of patriotism, every Postmaster may constitute himself a judge of the laws, and sus- pend their operation, whenever, in his supreme dis- cretion, it shall seem proper, we trust Mr. Kendall may be permitted to retire from a post where such opinions have extensive influence, and enjoy his notions of patriotism in a private station. A pretty thing it is, to be sure, when the head officer of the Post-office establishment of the United States, and a member ex officio of the administration of the ge- neral government, while he confesses in one breath that he has no power to prevent the carriage or de- livery of any newspaper, whatever be the nature of its contents, declares in the next, that by no act of his, will he aid, directly or indirectly, in circulating publications of an incendiary and inflammatory cha- racter. Who gives him a right to judge what is in- cendiary and inflammatory ?' Was there any reser- vation of that sort in his oath of office ? Mr. Ken- dall has not met the question presented by recent occurrences at the south as boldly and manfully as we should have supposed he would. He has quailed in the discharge of his duty. He has truckled to rhc domineering pretensions of the slave-holders. In the trepidation occasioned by his embarrassing position, he has lost sight of the noble maxim — Fiat just if ia runt cceluffi. The course which, by neither sanctioning nor condemning the unlawful CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 15 conduct of the Postmaster at Charleston, lie has vir- tually authorized him, and the other Postmasters at the south, to pursue, is neither more nor less than practical nullification. It is worse than that — it is establishing a censorship of the press in its worst possible form, by allowing every twopenny Post- master through the country to be the judge of what species of intelligence is proper to circulate, and what to withhold from the people. A less evil than this drew forth in former days r the Aeropagitica from the master mind of Milton; but we little dreamed that new arguments in favour of freedom of speech and of the press would ever become ne- cessary in our country." The insertion of the following letter, taken from the same paper which treats the subject with great ability, and has been the subject of much comment, will be exceedingly appropriate. TO THE POST MASTER GENERAL, Sir, A letter has just been published in the north- ern papers taken from the Richmond Whig, bearing date the 4th instant, and purporting to have been addressed by you to the Postmaster at Charleston. I wish there was reason to believe the publication unauthentic. The sentiments expressed in this communication are of too singular a character, ema- nating as they do from authority so high, to be passed over with the little attention as yet given to them. The Postmaster at Charleston, an agent appointed simply for the purpose of receiving and distributing If) THE ENEMIES OF THE communications through his office, receives pack- ages of papers addressed to private individuals, which he deems " inflammatory and incendiary — insurrectionary in the highest degree." I know not, in the first place^ how he arrived at this knowledge of the contents of sealed packets, unless by a viola- tion of his duty, which is certainly not to examine the contents of communications. But waiving the question as to the manner in which he obtained his information, instead of discharging his plain and positive duty, that of distributing them to such per- sons as should ask for them, he is intimidated by a mob, and resolves to write you for instructions. Your reply is the letter above alluded to. You commence by expressing yourself satisfied " that the Postmaster General has no le^al autho- rity to prohibit the delivery of newspapers on ac- count of their character or tendency real or suppos- ed : probably it was not thought safe to confer on the head of an executive department power over the press which might be perverted or abused." Pro- bably, as you say, sir, it was not. It is indeed pro- bable from an impartial survey of the history of this country that it was not intended or meant to make the Postmaster General, Censor of the Press. It is indeed probable that it was not meant to make him the sole arbiter of what intelligence should be transmitted among the people. You were safe, sir, in using the word " probably" Still you seem not altogether to have abandoned the idea, for you say " none of the papers detained have been forwarded to me, and I cannot judge for myself of their cha- CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED- 17 racier and tendency." — "Where do you find, sir, that papers must be forwarded to the Postmaster Gene- ral for his approbation ? Where do you find that he is to judge of the offensive or harmless bearing of what the people choose to write, print, and put in the public mails ? And yet although you disclaim the right for your- self, you go on to grant to your subordinate agent, who derives his official existence from you, the very same power. Excuse me, sir, if I say that this conduct is not so direct and straight forward as your previous career had led us to expect. You say, "I am not prepared to direct you to deliver the papers of which you speak. None of the papers detained have been forwarded to me. Your justification must be looked for in the character of the papers detain- ed, and the circumstances by which you are sur- rounded." That is to say, though I have no power to determine what shall or shall not be carried by the public mails, yet you, and every other Postmas- ter, in city, town, or village, may refuse to deliver any communication that you or he shall consider " inflammatory and incendiary — insurrectionary in the highest degree," and provided they are so, then, you have nothing to fear. And who shall decide that they are so ? Why of course the Postmaster General — the only superior of the Postmasters; and so, sir, in a round about away, you do in effect, con- stitute yourself what you in a former paragraph protested you could not be- — a Censor of ihe press. You say, " the Post-office was created to serve the people of each and all of the United States, and 18 THE ENEMIES OF THE not to be used as the instrument of their destruc- tion." Sir, the Post-office was created for the trans- mission of intelligence, and its agents from the stage drivers up to the Postmaster General, have but one duty to perform, the regular transmission and deli- very of every thing put into the separate offices. — The moment this plain principle is lost sight of, that moment abuses will spring up at every step. Whig Postmasters will stop Jackson papers, Jack- son Postmasters will suppress whig papers, slave- holders will burn abolition documents, and aboli- tionists will destroy colonization manifestoes. The Charleston Postmaster had no more right to sup- press the mail from regard to the wishes of the citi- zens of that place, than the steamboat captain had to throw it overboard, and in winking at his imbe- cile conduct, you, sir, have established a dangerous "precedent You go oh, sir, in a still more illegal tone to say: " By no act, or direction of mine, official or private, could I be induced to aid, knowingly, in giving cir- culation to papers of this description, directly or in- directly. We owe an obligation to the laws, but a higher one to the communities in which we live, and if the former be perverted to destroy the latter, it is patriotism to disregard them." As to the first part of this paragraph, I have only to say, that it proclaims distinctly your determination not to per- form those duties of your office for which you were appointed, and which you have been sworn to fulfil. Is it possible, sir, that you have yet to learn that your office is purely ministerial, and that you have CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 19 no supervision whatever over the communications transmitted through your office ? As to the latter part of the paragraph, it is a text fit for any homily on the blessings of anarchy and the good consequences of riot. What obligation is that we owe, sir, to the communities in which we live higher than that to the laws ? Is it the obliga- tion which the Vicksburgh planters have discharged, by murdering a score of their fellow-citizens, or is it the duty that the Baltimore mob is now fulfilling amid bloodshed and pillage and fire ? Sir, this sen- timent, if carried into effect, disorganizes the Post- office ; but that is not all — it sets a precedent of a loose and vicious construction of the social relations in every branch of life. I desire to believe that this letter was written, sir, under the influence of the excitement and alarm created by the riot at Charleston, but we had hoped from your previous career, that you were made of stuff too stern to be frightened from your propriety by so slight a cause. Depend on it, though this letter may find approbation among the prejudices and fears of the slave-holding communities, it will not be acceptable to the people of the northern states. They have prejudices too — prejudices in favour of freedom — in favour of untrammelled dis- cussion — of private right — of public law — these are the prejudices of the north, and it may not be alto- gether inexpedient to consult them. The frenzy of the abolitionists finds no echo here among our yeomanry ; but when we are told that our mails cannot travel without the permission of a 20 THE ENEMIES OF THE committee of the citizens of Charleston, that our publications cannot be transmitted without a pass- port from the Postmaster General, and that we can- not discuss the questions of the government of the District of Columbia without being threatened with a dissolution of the Union, there is in all this some- what too much of the law of force, somewhat too much of bravado, to call forth the sympathy, com- mand the respect, or above all, excite the fears of us of the north." It is needless to say that these publications were of an ordinary character, addresssd to respectable citizens at the south, some of them masters of slaves, which they could have taken from the office or not as they chose. If they declined taking them, they could hurt nobody, whatever might be their charac- ter. But they advocated the immediate abolition of slaver} 7 . To say nothing of the expediency of this measure, the question, all will admit, is one of great public moment, and one upon which the philan- thropist, the Christian, and the statesman, have a right and ought to speak and write their sentiments ; well might it be contended, that publications advocating the election of Van Burcn, the recharter of the United States Bank, or the reduction of du- ties on imports, are incendiary and inflammatory, as that those which advocate the immediate emanci- pation of the slaves arc of that character. The truth is, these publications were neither calculated to produce excitement nor alarm, even at the south, had not a hue and cry been raised against them. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 21 The public mind at the south was no doubt some- what exasperated on this subject ; but this state of feeling, it is plain to be seen, was almost wholly produced by the intermeddling of political dema- gogues, who demanded and endeavoured to obtain a surrender of the liberty of the press, for the ad- vancement of their ambitious schemes, And since the publication of the unprecedented sentiments contained in Mr. Kendall's letter, every effort has been used to produce the highest possible state of excitement, in order that the true character of the publications (as well as the laws and constitution) might be lost sight of, and in the heat of popular indignation condemned without a hearing. Veiy few in the now slave-holding states even imagined thai the publications referred to were in- flammatory or incendiary, or calculated to excite apprehension or alarm, until Mr. Kendall told them so. His conduct was not only uncalled for by the times, but calculated to produce inconceivable mis- chief. It was the signal for general law-breaking ; and it is not so surprising, that soon after Samuel L. Gouverneur, the Postmaster at New- York, should also have arrogated to himself the power to decide what information it is proper to send forth to the public, and have detained in his custody certain pub- lications of the Anti-slavery Society, and asked for the sanction of this same Amos Kendall, which he readily received in his letter bearing date Aug. 22d, 1835.* * See Appendix, No. If. 3 22 THE ENEMIES OF THE It is unnecessary to give the words of this inex- plicable document. It sufficiently shows that Mr. Kendall had got into "a fog" in attempting to de- fine the powers of the general government, and of the states. He had undertaken a task, for which he was wholly unqualified ; such miserable sophis- try as he employs can have little weight upon in- telligent minds, though it may have misled the ignorant. The main point to be considered is, the sanction he gives Mr. Gouverneur for the illegal and danger- ous course which he had the rashness to adopt. The United States mail is the great depository of the public secrets, and cannot be violated under any pretence, without destroying all public confidence in it. The same principle which would justify a Postmaster in searching newspapers and periodicals, and detaining them under any pretence, would jus- tit v Ins opening, and searching, and detaining all sealed communications for the same purpose. There is no end to the abuses which would follow, but the end of the mail, this firmest safeguard of our liber- ties, which must inevitably follow the adoption of such sentiments by those wiih whom it is intrusted. Hut what is most extraordinary, Mr. Kendall admits the ad which he approves to be unlawful; and al- ihough Mr. Gouverneur had taken a solemn oath to act in conformity to law, he recommends to him to add to his crime perjury, and a perfidious abuse of the authority with which he was invested. In ordi- nary times, a man of .Mr. Kendall's abilities, assum- CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 23 ing such an unnatural position, would be looked upon as crazy. The following remarks are from the Hartford Times, another administration paper of long stand- ing, and the highest respectability : it has been uni- form and firm in its adherence to republican princi- ples, and its sentiments upon this, as upon all other subjects of public moment, are entitled to great weight. "A few weeks since Samuel L. Gouverneur, Post- master at New-York, assumed the power of inspect- ing the mails, and prohibiting a portion of the com- munity from exercising the privileges enjoyed by their countrymen and secured by the laws and con- stitution to every citizen. This officer of the law, has undertaken to make law, and although placed in the situation he occupies to serve the people, faithfully and impartially, he arrogantly sets him- self up to be master, and presumes not only to com- mand, but to deny, and imprudently invades the rights of a portion of the community. The class thus proscribed are the abolitionists, whose infatu- ated conduct cannot be too severely censured ; but who, nevertheless, have rights, and those rights ought not to be invaded or destroyed by Samuel L. Gouverneur, or any other individual, public or private. If the abolitionists are in error, and we hold they are, let calm unprejudiced reason set them right. It has been justly said by one of the wisest and soundest statesmen and philanthropists that the world has produced, that ' error of opinion may be safely tolerated, provided reason is left free 24 THE ENEMIES OF THE to combat it.' Mr. Gouverneur thinks differently, and has violated the laws, disregarded his oath, in- vaded the freedom of speech and the press, and the rights of his fellow citizens, because he thinks himself correct and others wrong. He has appealed to the Postmaster General, and we lament that he has met with any countenance from that officer. " We publish the letter of the Postmaster General — and we do it with undisguised reluctance. It is indefensible in its positions, and such as we should never have expected from Mr. Kendall. We have little doubt that when the excitement of the moment shall have passed away, that Mr. Kendall will him- self consider this letter in its true light, and frankly confess his error. There are few men in this coun- try for whom we entertain a higher regard than Amos Kendall, and we have admired that stern, unbending Roman honesty, which has impelled him under trying circumstances, to discharge his duty with fidelity, and maintain the laws and constitution in their purity. This letter, however, is unworthy of him, and must be condemned by every intelligent, independent, and thinking freeman. He commences by telling Mr. Gouverneur there is no authority for the step he has taken — that it is illegal, and vet, in the next sentence he also tells him, 'if I wer< atcd as you arc, I would do as you have done.' Is this thi ge, the advice, the example of a high public functionary, the head of one of the most re- sponsible di nts in tlii^ gov< ■riniioiit ; And is it for a moment to be justified ! Certainly not. " We know that it is s'aid that this is an cxtraordi- CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 25 nary case. We admit that it is so. The proceed- ings and conduct of the abolitionists, we look upon as reprehensible in the highest degree, and have not hesitated, at all times, and on all occasions, to give them an unqualified condemnation. We have raised our voice against these reckless fanatics, and shall continue to do so on all proper occasions, for we feel it our duty, not only for the cause of our coun- try, but of humanity itself. Every friend of his country, and his race, ought, in our opinion, and in our earnest belief, to put forth his efforts to stay the incendiary and alarming proceedings of these few miserable, misguided and deluded beings who have embarked in this cause, without considering conse- quences, or studying the laws and constitution of their country. " But because we condemn these proceedings, shall we excuse doctrines and assumptions, not less alarming in another quarter ? God forbid. We can- not and will not justify any public officer in setting the laws at defiance, nor can we excuse the princi- pal who defends and upholds him. Mr. Kendall has done wrong. " There have been other excitements as well as this. Supposing at the time that nullification was at the threshold of rebellion, the collector at Charles- ton had come to the conclusion that he would not execute the laws, and refused to collect the duties on those articles that were taxed avowedly for pro- tection. Would the Secretary of the Treasury have been justified by saying to him, in that extreme case, ' if I were situated as you are, I would do as 3* 26 THE ENEMIES OF THE you have done ? If you violate the laws, or refuse to execute them, you shall meet with no reproof — and certainly shall not be removed by me V Would the Secretary of the Treasury have been justified had he taken such a step ? And yet it would have been as correct in him, as it is in Mr. Kendall. " But we have only glanced, briefly at this docu- ment, so far as the legal duties of these public offi- cers were concerned. The Postmaster at New- York refused to discharge his duty agreeably to the laws and to his oath, and the Postmaster General says, you have violated your trust, but ' if I were situated as you are, I would do as you have done.' Was there ever a greater dereliction of duty ? " There are, connected with this extraordinary proceeding, some alarming features. It is virtually establishing a censorship over the press, and re- stricting its freedom. There is not a press in this country free, if the Postmaster General shall be sustained in his positions. What press can open its columns to a free discussion of the question of slavery, without being liable to be thrown out of the mails by the Postmaster at New-York, under the sanction and approval of the Postmaster Gene- ral? Is this a state of things that can for one mo- ment be submitted to ? Never, never. Freedom is invaded in her citadel by this letter, and were it to be sanctioned, the fortress is sapped. 11 We did net intend, when we commenced, to have written twenty lines, but the field is vast. Scarcely have we entered upon the subject, but our limits will not permit us at this time to say more. We CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 27 are the less disposed to, because we have such con- fidence in Mr. Kendall, that we believe he will, on further reflection, and when the feverish excitement of the moment has subsided, retract the sentiments and doctrines, and positions here laid down. But if he shall not, or if sustained by others, we will not participate in this wrong, by defending or excusing the error, or even permitting it to pass in silence — the letter is taking a broad leap to anarchy — and is in itself subversive of the laws and the constitution. It is occupying ground that must never be conceded, while freedom has a home in our valleys, or liberty a resting place in our mountains." But Mr. Kendall's new principles are inapplicable to the present, or any other times, since the founda- tions of the world were laid. The curse of every government has been a disposition among its sub- jects to disregard its authority and violate its laws ; and never did the spirit of obedience and subordi- nation become so alarmingly prevalent in any coun- try, that it was necessary to proclaim from the high towers and battlements of the nation, that the laws were not supreme, but that these ought to be sacri- ficed to higher obligations. In a republican government, where the people themselves enact and change their laws at pleasure, so as to meet every emergency, the inconsistency of this doctrine, as well as its dangerous tendency, may be more clearly seen. It leads to the utter subversion of all order and legal authority, and the complete annihilation of government itself. Tiie people of the American colonies threw off 28 THE ENEMIES OF THE the yoke of British oppression, because they were subjected to foreign power; laws were im-posed upon them, to which they had never in any manner as- sented ; the crown claimed the right " to bind them in all cases whatsoever," without their assent ; they had no representation or voice in the British coun- cils ; their humble petitions for relief, long conti- nued, were wholly disregarded ; no possible remedy therefore remained to them but to throw ofT the yoke of the oppressor. But to adduce this as a precedent to justify the citizens of a republic in vi- olating the laws which they themselves have enact- ed, and which they can abolish or modify at plea- sure, would discover a most culpable destitution of precision, and a degree of weakness that ought to warn the person affected with it never to engage in the argument of questions so grave and so impor- tant. The influence of this doctrine of Mr. Kendall is the more to be dreaded, as coming from the mouth of a high officer of the government, it is calculated to be extensive. The example of modern duel- ling was pet at the French court;* libertinism ori- ginated from the same source ; their origin gave them extensive influence ; they soon became uni- versally prevalent and dec]) rooted, and will pro- bably remain a lasting curse to the French nation. Catiline, in his attempt to subvert the Roman go- vernment, began by corrupting public sentiment. No government sinks at once from perfect freedom ♦ h is said to have arisen from a angle combat in the reign of Henry II., ;it which Henry and his court were- present. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 29 into absolute despotism. No tyrant seizes in an instant the reins of absolute rule over a free people, nor first exhibits the iron sceptre which is destined to oppress them ; but until he is secure in his au- thority, his voice is loudest in favour of liberty; and as a patriot and philanthropist, his professions distinguish him above all others. The assaults upon a nation's liberty are slow and gradual. Mea- sures are adopted, the result of which are certain, but the tendency of which can be seen by only a few, and that few sometimes interested to favour them. The nation is attacked in its weaker points ; at length at some favourable crisis, when some fa- vourite has gained unlimited confidence, and the tendency of measures is disregarded, the great pil- lars of its defence are removed under some specious pretext, and, like Sampson shorn of his locks, it becomes an easy prey to the enemies of liberty. Sometimes the sentiment is industriously diffused into the public mind, that the laws are not abso- lutely binding. This sentiment being most accept- able, is greedily adopted, and made applicable to every occasion where a large number of the people shall unite in trampling upon the constituted au- thorities of the land ; insurrections become frequent ; anarchy ensues ; the people become wearied with disorder and commotion, and gladly shelter them- selves under the wings of a despot. Let it not be supposed that mankind, in the pre- sent age, are essentially different in their natures from former times, or that man in America is not the same being, still subject to all the propensities 30 THE ENEMIES OF THE and passions with man in Europe. Tyrants are as numerous in our beloved country as they were on the eastern continent in former days, but they are now in a measure powerless. It would be fool- ish indeed to suppose, that this country has not al- ways within its borders, as well as any other coun- try on the globe, political aspirants who are wailing occasion to usurp the reins of authority, and are re- joiced at, and gladly helping forward every measure that shall tend to anarchy. Neither let it be sup- posed, that a chair of state is more tolerable than a throne, if it be occupied by a Tyrant. It must have been seen that these remarks are intended to show, that we are not perfectly secure against the consequences of sentiments so pernicious as we have lately been accustomed to hear promulgated even from the very threshold of the capitol. " The constitution and its laws," says Vattel, " are the basis of the public tranquillity, the firmest support of the public authority, and pledges of the liberty of the citizen. But this constitution is a vain phantom, and the best of laws are useless, if they are not religiously observed. The nation ought then to watch very attentively, in order to render them equally respected by those who govern, and by the people destined to obey. To attack the con- stitution of the state, and to violate its laws, is a ca- pital crime against society, and if those guilty of it are invested with authority, they add to this crime a perfidious abuse of the authority with which they are intrusted. The nation ought constantly to sup- press these abuses with the utmost vigour and vi* CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 31 gilance, as the importance of the case requires. It is very common to see the laws and constitution of the state openly and boldly opposed. It is against SILENT AND SLOW ATTACKS THAT THE NATION OUGHT TO BE PARTICULARLY ON ITS GUARD." But as detestable as Mr. Kendall's new sentiments would have been considered a short time before, and as they really are, after they were promulgated from such a source, and were supposed to have gained the approval of higher authority, they found nume- rous adherents ; and as they suited the purposes of many political aspirants, who are sustained by, and whose influence is exerted principally among that class of the community who are not scrupulous in their obedience to the laws, they were soon boldly and openly advocated. No wonder, then, that this sentiment had in a few days spread its ruinous in- fluence from one end of the country to the other, and that those restless spirits, who are restrained by no principle but fear, were let loose, and emboldened to deeds of violence. No wonder, that in a few days the law-breakers in Baltimore greedily adopted the sentiment, that " they owed a higher obligation to society than that they owed to the laws ;" and by their lawless depredations soon clothed that beauti- ful city with mourning, as an evidence that this obli- gation had been discharged. No wonder, that every day told the tale of similar violence in every part of of our country ; of our fellow-citizens tried, con- demned, and punished without the colour of law ; and that these violations of the constitution of our country, and the most sacred rights of freemen, met 32 THE ENEMIES OF THE the co-operation and sanction of men of power and influence. The following narrative is adopted as particularly deserving to be preserved in some durable form, as its correctness has never been questioned to the author's knowledge. " As my name has obtained an unexpected noto- riety, I ask the public attention to my own account of the transactions that have given me celebrity. " On the first day of last month I left Cincinnati for the purpose of selling the " Cottage Bible," in order, from the profits of the sale, to raise funds sufficient to enable me to complete my education. The largest portion of my books was sent to Nash- ville by water. I took several copies of the Bible with me, besides a considerable number of the little work entitled " Six Months in a Convent." In packing them into my trunk and the box of my ba- rouche, a number of pamphlets ar.d papers of diffe- rent descriptions were used to pr< rent the books from injury by rubbing, intending to distribute them table opportunities should present. Among them were old religion apers, anti-slavery publications, numbers of the Missionary Herald, Sunday-school periodicals, temperance almanacs, &c. ^Vc A i Danville, Ky., where a State Anti- slavery Society had been organized some months before, and where the subject of emancipation seemed to be discussed without restraint, besides selling several copies of my hooks, I parted with a large share of my Anti-slavery publications. In CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. So travelling through that state, I distributed most of my temperance almanacs and other papers above mentioned, including a few tracts on slavery, given to those who were willing to receive them. I gave none of these to any person of colour, bond or free, nor had I any intention of doing so. " Near Gallatin, in Sumner county, Tennessee, I sold a copy of Rankin's Letters on Slavery. I ar- rived at Nashville, on Saturday the 18th of July, and took lodgings at the Nashville Inn. The young man who accompanied me, in bringing into the house my books from the box of the barouche, omitted the Anti-slavery tracts and other pamphlets. Their being overlooked did not occupy the atten- tion of either of us, and on Monday morning the barouche was taken to the shop of Mr. Stout to be repaired. In the course of the day Mr. Stout re- marked to his workmen, as he afterward informed me, that perhaps, as I came from Cincinnatti, I was an abolitionist. On this, one of them commenced rummaging my carriage. In the box he found, among the other pamphlets, a February number of the Anti-slavery Record, with a cut representing a drove of slaves chained, the two foremost having violins, on which they were playing — the Ameri- can flag waving in the centre, whilst the slave dri- ver, with his whip, was urging on the rear. This added considerably to the general excitement, which I afterward learned, was prevailing in relation to slavery — and in a short time it was noised about that I had been 'circulating incendiary periodicals among the free coloured people, and trying to ex- 4 34 THE ENEMIES OF THE cite the slaves to insurrection.' So soon as the re- port came to my knowledge, I went to Mr. Stout, and explained to him how it was that the pamphlets had been left in the barouche. I then took into my custody the remainder of them, and locked them up in my trunk. Mr. Stout, on this occasion, told me that the scene represented in the cut was one of by no means unfrequent occurrence — that it was ac- curate in all its parts, and that he had witnessed it again and again. Mr. Stout is himself a slave- holder, though, as he says, opposed to slavery in principle — a member, if not an elder, in the Pres- byterian church, and one of the committee of vigi- lance which afterward sat in judgment upon me. " The excitement continued to increase, and it was soon added to the report, that I had been posting up handbills about the city, inviting an insurrection of the slaves. Knowing all the charges to be false — feeling unconscious of any evil intention, and there- fore fearless of danger, I continued the sale of my Bible in and around the city, till Saturday, the 18th day of the month, when, as I was preparing to leave town to attend a camp-meeting, held some eight or ten miles distant, a Mr. Estell, formerly an auction- eer and vender of slaves, at public outcry, in Ala- bama, met me at the door and demanded ' those abolition documents' I had in my possession. I replied, he should have them, and proceeded to get them for him. When he made the demand he was under the influence of very highly excited feelings — his whole frame indicating agitation, even to trembling. On presenting the pamphlets, I re- CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 35 quested him to read before he condemned them. This seemed greatly to inflame his rage. " I then proceeded to the camp-ground, where, about two hours after my arrival, I was was taken in charge by Mr. Braughton, the principal city offi- cer. I take pleasure here, in stating of Mr. B., that, allowing his conduct to be strictly official, he exhi- bited to me, throughout the whole of this melancholy affair, the kindest and most delicate deportment. I immediately accompanied him to town, where, on arriving at my boarding-house, I found the mayor, Mr. John P. Erwin, waiting for us. He remarked, he was afraid I had got myself into difficulty, and wished me to appear before the Committee of Vi- gilance. To this I replied, it would give me plea- sure to do so, as I wished it understood just what I had done, and what 1 had not done. He then asked me if I had any witness I wished to have called. My reply was, I knew not what need I had of wit- nesses, till I had heard the charge brought against me — that I supposed it would be necessary to prove me guilty of some misdemeanor, and not that it should be upon me to prove that I had broken no law. To his demand, if I was ready for trial, I answered, I wished it to take place immediately, as I was anxious to return to the camp-ground. "We repaired to the court-room, which was at once crowded full to overflowing. The roll of the committee (60 in number) was called, and the names of the absentees proclaimed. " The meeting being called to order, the mayor stated, that he had caused me to be arrested, and 36 THE ENEMIES OF THE brought before the committee, in consequence of the excitement produced by the periodicals known t.o have been in my possession ; and that he had also taken into his charge my trunk, which he had delayed opening until my return. The trunk was then produced before the committee, and a motion made and carried, that I should be interrogated as to its contents before opening it. On being interro- gated accordingly, I replied, as the trunk was be- fore them, I preferred they should make the exami- nation for themselves. It w T as then resolved, (the whole house voting) that my trunk should be ex- amined. The officer first laid before the commit- tee a pile of clothing, which was examined very closely — then followed my books, among which was found, one copy of the ' Oasis,' one of ' Ran- kin's Letters on Slavery,' and one of_ ' Bourne's Picture of Slavery in the United States.' These, I informed the committee, I had put in my trunk for my own perusal, as I washed to compare what had been written with tho result of my own obser- vation while in the slave states, and that no indi- vidual had seen them besides myself. A careful in- spection was made of the books also. Then was presented my business and private letters, which were read with eagerness, and much interest. Ex- tracts were read aloud. "Among them was one from a letter received from a very aged and venerable lady, running thus : — 1 Preached a stream of abolition two hundred and fifty miles long,' in travelling from Cincinnatti to Cieaveland.. Great importance was attached to this. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 37 Another spoke of the ' inconsistency of celebrating the 4th of July, while so many among us were lite- rally in bondage.' Another, from a letter of Mr* Ensign, (a gentleman well known to entertain ne very favourable sentiments for abolitionism) which, after urging me to diligence in the sale of my Bi- bles, (obtained from him) jestingly concluded, 'Now don't spend more than half your time among the niggers.' This was cheered by the crowd. The last was from the letter of a friend of mine, a minis- ter of the gospel, who remarked that on visiting his friends at the east, abolition had been the principal topic of conversation that day, and he had preached on slavery at night ! " Great stress, was laid on these extracts, and I was questioned very minutely, as to the authors of the letters. They laboured much to prove I was sent out by some society, and that I was, under the guise of a religious mission, performing the odious office of an insurrectionary agent. " My journal was next brought in review, but as it had been kept in pencil mark, the memoranda short and hastily written, it served them very little purpose. It was laid down again by the Mayor who had attempted to read it aloud with this re- mark — ' It is evidently very hostile to slavery.' "- A witness was now called forward by whom it was proved, that an Anti-slavery periodical of some kind had been left by some individual on the coun- ter of the Nashville Inn. That it was left with a copy of the Cottage Bible, at the time I arrived. On being questioned by me, it turned out to be a 4* 38 THE ENEMIES 07 TH-E number of the Emancipator, used as an envelope, or wrapper to the Bible, other witnesses were called, but this was the substance of all they proved against me. " It was conceded without hesitation on my pari', that I had sold a copy of ' Rankin's Letters,' in Sumner county, and that I had read to Mr. Cayce, at his request, the number of the ' A. S. Record' before mentioned, which he said contained nothing that any candid man, and especially any Christian could gainsay. The chairman of the committee asked me if I remembered the places where I had circulated Anti-slavery tracts. Thus, by the form of the question, as well as by the manner, making the impression I had circulated them somexoliere y and that the fact of my having done so was known to the committee. To this I replied that what I did, I did openlv — that I had not distributed any Anti-slavery publications whatever in Tennessee, except the one above mentioned, and that, if any had been found under circumstances calculated to throw suspicion on me, it was a device of my ene- mies. On being interrogated as to my former con- nexion with Lane Seminary, I informed the com- mittce that I had been a member of that institution as well as of the A. S. Society, formed there more than a year ago ; and that I had voluntarily with- drawn, and had received an honourable dismission from the same " A handbill was next produced, and I was asked if I had ever seen it. After having examined it, I replied I never had. I was then asked with strong CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 3'9 emphasis, if I was sure I had never seen a copy of it. I again replied I was sure I never had. I was asked a third time, with a provoking and still stronger emphasis, if I was positively sure I had never seen any thing of the kind. I again took it into my hand and after examining it more minutely, again replied, I was positively sure I had never seen any thing of the land. The trial continued from between four and five o'clock, P. M. till eleven o'clock at night, when I was called upon for my de- fence. The perplexity I must have felt in making k may well be imagined, when it is recollected that I was- charged not with transgressing any law of the state or ordinance of the city, but with conduct to which, if the law had attached the penalty of crime, its forms were totally disregarded, and thi3 too, before an array of persons banded together in contravention of law, and from whose mandate of execution there was no appeal. However, I took the opportunity thus offered to declare fully my sen- timents on the subject of slavery. Whilst I told them I believed slaveholding to be inconsistent with the gospel, and a constant transgression of God's law, I yet said, that in bringing about emancipation, the interests of the master were to be consulted as well as those of the slave. And that the whole scheme of emancipation contemplated this result, that the slave should be put in possession of rights which we have declared to be inalienable from him as a man ; that he should be considered as an im- mortal fellow being, entrusted by his master with the custody of his own happiness, and accountable 40 THE ENEMIES OF THE to him for the exercise of his powers; that he should be treated as our neighbour and our brother. In reference to my demeanor towards the slave, that in the few instances in which I had casually con- versed with them, I had recommended quietness, patience, submission ; teaching them to ' render good for evil,' and discountenancing every scheme af emancipation which did not, during its process, look for its success in the good conduct of the slaves whilst they remain such, and to the influence of ar- gument and persuasion addressed to the understand- ings and consciences of slaveholders, exhorting them to obey God in doing justice and showing mercy to their fellow men. " After my remarks were ended,, the crowd were requested to withdraw whilst the committee delibe- rated on the case. In company with a friend or two I was directed to a private room near at hand, to await their decision. Up to this period during the whole proceedings my mind was composed, my spirits calm and unruffled ; nor did I entertain the most distant apprehension there would be so flagrant a violation of my rights as an American citizen, and so deliberate an attempt to dishonour me as a man. " In this confidence I was strengthened by the consideration of all the circumstances of the case. What I had done, I had done openly. There was no law forbidding what I had done. I had con- tracted no guilt that the law considered such — my intentions had been those of kindness to all — I had no secret feelings of guilt, arraigning me before the bar of my conscience for any mean or clandestine CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 41 movement. In addition to this, too, among my tri- ers, there was a great portion of the respectability of Nashville. Nearly half of the whole number, professors of Christianity, the reputed stay of the church, supporters of the cause of benevolence in the form of Tracts and Missionary Societies and Sabbath-schools, several members, and most of the elders of the Presbyterian church, from whose hands, but a few days before, I had received the emblems of the broken body and shed blood of our blessed Saviour. My expectations, however, were soon shaken by Mr. Braughtoirs saying on entering the room where I was, that he feared it would go hard with me — that, whilst some of the committee were in favour of thirty-nine, others were for inflicting one hundred lashes, whilst others still thought me worthy of death. My suspense was at length ter- minated on being summoned to hear the decision ; it was prefaced by a few remarks of this kind by the chairman, ' that they had acted with great caution and deliberation, and however unsatisfactory their conclusion might be to me, they had acted consci- entiously, with a full recognition of their duty to their God' — that they had found me guilty, 1st, 'of being a member of an Anti-slavery Society in Ohio : 2d, of having in my possession periodicals pub- lished by the American Anti-slavery Society : and 3d, ' they believed I had circulated these periodi- cals and advocated in the community the principles they inculcated.' He then pronounced that I was condemned to receive twenty lashes on my bare back, and ordered to leave the place in 24 hours. 42 THE ENEMIES OF THE [This was not an hour previous to the commence- ment of the Sabbath.] The doors were then thrown open, and the crowd admitted. To them it was again remarked, that 1 the committee had been actuated by conscien- tious motives ; and to those who thought the pun- ishment too severe, they would only say, that they had done what they, after mature deliberation, thought to be right; and to those who thought it too UgJitj they must sa}', that in coming to their decision the committee had regarded not so much the number of stripes, as the disgrace and infamy of being publicly whipped.' The sentence being again repeated, it was received with great applause, accompanied by stamping of feet and clapping of hands. " The chairman then called for the sentiments of the spectators in reference to their approbation of the decision of the committee, desiring all who were satisfied with it, and would pledge themselves that I should receive no injury after the execution of the sentence, to signify it in the usual way. There was no dissenting voice. "The chairman then expressed in terms border- ing on the extravagant, his high gratification of the sense of propriety that had been manifested in the conduct of the meeting, and that so much confidence was placed in the committee. The crowd was now ordered to proceed to the public square, and form a ring. " I had been assured that my trunk, with all its contents, as they were taken out, should be returned CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 43 to me. But while the crowd were leaving the house, Mr. Hunt, editor of the Banner, and, as I am informed, an emigrant from New-England, where he was born, set himself busily to work to secure in his own hands my journal, sketch-book, business, and private letters, &c. " By no one concerned in the whole proceeding was there so much exasperated feeling shown as by Mr. H. It was now displayed in the pale, death- like countenance, the agitated frame, the hurried, furious air with which he seized the papers, and tied them up in his handkerchief, clinching them in his hands, and at the same time eyeing me with an intense yet vacant gaze, bespeaking not only rage, but a consciousness of doing wrong. Of my papers I have heard nothing since Mr. H. took them into his custody. " I entered the ring that had been formed ; the chairman (accompanied by the committee) again called for an expression of sentiment in relation to the sentence passed upon me ; again the vote was unanimous in approbation of it, and again did he express his gratification at the good order by which the whole proceeding had been characterized. While some of the company were engaged in strip- ping me of my garments, a motion was made and seconded that I be exonerated altogether from the punishment. This brought many and furious imprecations on the mover's head, and created a commotion which was appeased only by the sound of the instrument of torture and disgrace upon my naked body. 41 THE ENEMIES OF THE "I knelt to receive the punishment, which was in- flicted by Mr. Braughton, the city officer, with a heavy cowskin. When the infliction ceased, an in- voluntary feeling of thanksgiving to God for the fortitude with which I had been enabled to endure it arose in my soul, to which I began aloud to give utterance. The death-like silence that prevailed for a moment, was suddenly broken with loud ex- clamations, ' G — d d — n him, stop his praying.' I was raised to my feet by Mr. Braughton, and con- ducted by him to my lodging, where it was thought safe for me to remain but for a few moments. "And though most of ray friends were at the camp ground, I was introduced into a family of entire strangers, from whom I received a warm reception, and the most kind and tender treatment. They will ever be remembered with grateful emo- tions. " On the ensuing morning, owing to the great ex- citement that was still prevailing, I found it neces- sary to leave the place in disguise, with only what clothing I had about my person. Leaving unsold property to the amount of nearly three hundred dol- lars, and sacrificing at least two hundred on my ba- rouche, horse, &c, which I was obliged to sell. Of my effects at Nashville, I have heard nothing since my return, though I have frequently written to my friends concerning them. "AMOS DRESSER.* " Cincinnati, Aug. 25, 1835." CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 45 This monstrous violation of the constitution of the United States, it must not be forgotten, was com- mitted, not by a gang of drunkards, or by those who are ignorant of their duties and obligations ; neither was it perpetrated in the heat of passion, but coolly and deliberately by a committee of sixty individuals, some men of note. If no men of character had been engaged in it, it Would have been compara- tively of little moment ; but as the case is, the example for all men to violate the law, which had before been set has gained greater influence. At such an indignity, committed in almost any country in Europe, " ten times ten thousand swords would have leaped from their scabbards." But this is not all ; it is well known that the sen- timent, that we are subject to higher obligations than those which we owe to the laws, has become so prevalent, that no man who is an abolitionist can travel in the southern states, on his lawful business, without endangering his personal safety.* Nay, the safety of our own citizens, of the non-slaveholding states, is endangered by hired ruffians who have been employed to transport them to a distant state, to be condemned and put to death for no crime but for exercising the inalienable rights of man. The following advertisement will speak for itself: — TO THE EDITORS OF THE CHARLESTON COURIER. Beaufort, (S. C.) Aug. 13, 1835. " Gentlemen, — I am directed by the society of which I am the corresponding secretary, to request * See Appendix, No. VI. 46 THE ENEMIES OF THE you to publish, for a few times, the following re- solve : — "'At a meeting held this day, Saturday, the loth August, Judge Lynch presiding, it was resolved by a large majority, that the sum of two thousand dollars will be paid by this society to whomsoever will deliver to the respective chairmen of these so- cieties, in Georgetown, Charleston, Beaufort, Sa- vannah, Augusta, or Darien, the bodies of either of the four well-known incendiaries among the north- ern abolitionists, or that of their late visiter.'* " VERITAIN, Sec? The four individuals referred to are the editors of anti-slavery publications ; and the above adver- tisement is a fair specimen of the mode of argument which is employed to refute their doctrines. O Reason ! whither art. thou fled, when brutal force, malignant hate, and dire revenge, usurp thy sway ? In the southern states, it cannot be denied, the public mind is highly excited against the abolition- ists ; and while we cannot too much condemn the violent and unwise conduct of some of the southern people, we should take care, and trace this excite- ment to its true source. It must not be supposed, that so much concern is manifested about the movements of the abolitionists, without some political end in view. It is among the friends o! .Mr. Van Buren that the most violent opposition to the abolitionists exists ; and although the leading men of his parly declaim against uniting * This advertisemen! was published in the southern papers. Many others of a similar character Save appeared in the public journals of the south with approbation. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 47 the question with politics, yet opposition to the abo- litionists (until after the election) is already an ar- ticle in their creed. This will be seen by referring to the resolutions adopted by their conventions, as well as the uniform course of most of the leading partizans. Now it is plain to be seen, that the de- sign of all these movements is to quiet the fears of the south, and gain their support; because the course which the party have recently pursued is utterly at variance with the fundamental principles of demo- cracy. Some of these leading partizans are capable of any deception and fraud, which will subserve their views. Will the southern people be so foolish as to sup- pose, that the same course of measures respecting the question of slavery, which are now adopted for the purpose of promoting Van Buren's success, are to be carried out after his election ? If they are, they will be sadly disappointed. His speech at the Her- kimer Convention, as well as his uniform declara- tions heretofore made, will undeceive them on this subject, if they are now deceived. It is high time that the inhabitants of the north and the south understood the deception that is at- tempted to be practised upon them. If it should be said that these political movements are sustained by some whigs, the answer is, that every instrument which can be of any service will be used* * The author would not be understood as being opposed to Mr. Van Buren's election. He intends only to protest against the base deception which is practised toward the south, and against sacri- ficing the liberties of the whole nation to promote his success. Cort- 48 THE ENEMIES OF THE IT. After having said thus much respecting the cause of the excitement upon the subject of slavery, and the origin of the propensity to violence that now prevails, one important feature of the Lynch Law system ought not to be passed over in silence. All who have been conversant with the subject must have observed that in most cases of late, the law breaking, or proceedings of Judge Lynch has been carried on in the most systematic manner, with all possible regularity and solemnity. The pro- ceedings is on this wise. A meeting of citizens is called, at which care is sometimes taken to have a large number of boys and drunkards, enough to con- stitute a clever mob who are read}- to set up a roar of laughter, cheering, hissing, or yelling at the signal of their leader; when this class attend, every thing is carried by them, and nobody observes whether the voices come from the rabble, or from respectable citizens: of course the proceedings are ascribed tore- spectable citizens. The most inflammatory speeches are then made, and the rabble understand well that their duty is to act according to the spirit of the speeches, and not according to the letter of the re- ined is purchased at too dear a rate when we have to give up every tiling valuable in life to obtain it. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 49 solutions, because these being matters of record must necessarily be more temperate. It must be- fore have been observed that the officers of Judge Lynch never act in discharge of those inferior ob- ligates ivhich we owe to the constitution and the laws, Hut only of the higher obligations which we owe to society. After the public mind has been excited to the highest pitch and the rabble have become phrensied with rage and desperation, so that they are ready to rush madly upon whatever design the chief mover has in view, in order that the design of violating the laws of the land and the rights of citizens, may be ac- complished in the most genteel and unsuspicious manner, a committee consisting of a large number of citizens, (some drawn unconsciously into the snare) is appointed who advance with professions of pacific intentions, either preceded or followed by the rabble to the spot where the violence is to be committed, and after having communicated their message, if the rabble do not yet seem disposed to second their views with a sufficient degree of fury and madness, another inflammatory speech is offered by some one of the committee, generally by the chief mover, in which the rabble are taught in this wise ; " Fellow citizens, (order ! order ! ) we are the peaceable citizens assembled here to show our in* dignation at the vile and unpardonable insult which has been offered us {by some notorious drunkard and rioter; " yes, we are the peaceable citizens?} " These occasions will find a law for themselves," I hope there will be no violence used, but if there 5* 50 THE ENEMIES OF THE should be, Fellow citizens, we are not responsible ; we came here as peaceable citizens, upon the heads of those who have insulted us be all the blame ; They have been so foolhardy as to brave public opinion, and they must take the consequences r (by the rabble, " yez, squire's spressed our minds 'zackly ; they must take the consequences, they are responsible, hoop ! hoop ! hussle urn out ! hussle um out !' damn um t down with the hypocrites and fana- tics ! tear um f string um !") At this stage of the proceedings the air resounds with continued yells, and the authority of the committee themselves feign- ing an effort to be heard, crying " order ! order ! we are the peaceable citizens, " is completely nullified. After the Lynching is finished, the committee re- turn to the meeting that appointed them, followed by their constituents, u the peaceable citizens" and re- port their doings ; the chairman congratulates the meeting upon the accomplishment of their object in a peaceable manner, with as little violence as. wastobeepxectcd,consideringthe excited stateof the public mind, and although some little disorder en- sued after arriving at the place of action, which the committee were unable to prevent, yet the committee do not hold themselves or their reputations responsible tor any mischief that was committed ; the infatuated wretches who had been thus signally dealt with, had brought this mischief upon themselves, and the preser- vation of their lives and their persons from further injury, they owed solely to the interference and exer- tions of the committee in their behalf ; " (by the mob from all quarters, " yez, dam um ! they'd orter be CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 51 thankful that they got off so well, three cheers for the committee !") Here the mob set up a stamping and yelling which makes the earth itself tremble beneath them. Whereupon the meeting after conferring certain discretionary powers upon its officers ad- journs, and while the " committee" retire to their homes and are industriously engaged in preparing communications for the public journals in order ta forestall public opinion, the " peaceable citizens" assemble together in small squads at the groceries in different parts of the city, where orders are some- times given, by some higher in the scale of being than they, that intoxicating liquors shall be dealt out to them in large quantities without money and with- out price. Here plans are concerted by the leading ones who themselves take the precaution to keep sufficiently sober for the transaction of business, for a nightly session of the Terrific Tribunal, and it not unfrequently happens that a terrible scene of de- vastation and bloodshed follows the footsteps of its officers. When matters have progressed thus far, the pacific intentions of these "peaceable citizens"' are seriously distrusted, and an appeal is made to another class of citizens less peaceable, less patri- otic, less virtuous, but who have property and cha- racter to preserve ; sometimes the chief movers of the " patriotic and peaceable committee " offer their assistance to protect the lives and property which their conduct has placed in jeopardy, but this is usually rejected with disdain, and here the proceed- ings end. Sometimes a few of tire principal officers of Judge 52 THE ENEMIES OF THE Lynch are called to an account by Judge Law, but their bond of indemnity is brought into requisition and their fines are instantly discharged, even in case the latter judge should be so fortunate as to find that his chief officers have not superseded their func- tions by an appointment under the former. If the people happen to suspect the honourable the committee of any participation in the proceedings, their sins are laid upon the heads of the " scape- goats," which immediately run away into the wil- derness, and are seen no more, until a similar occa- sion calls them forth from their hiding-places. We have seen the principal features which dis- tinguish the calm, peaceable, and deliberate system of law-breaking of the present day, and by taking care to keep them in view hereafter, we shall be enabled to detect the fallacious pretences with which it is too frequently excused or palliated, and to dis- cover its authors from beneath the cloaks with which they are covered. But it must not be forgotten that it has been reduced to a complete system ; that its perpetrators have acquired great tact, and that their designs arc usually involved in a degree of mystery, which will require the utmost vigilance of the friends of order to devclope them. It would be strange indeed if the abettors of vio- lence should act openly, especially those who desire to preserve an influence in the community; and it would be equally strange if a considerate mind should judge a man to be honest, because he is covered with a mask. He would look at causes, and their necessary consequences. In judging of a man's CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 53 character in this respect, he will carefully observe whether he has avoided the very first appearance of evil; whether he has always been seen in the com- pany of the peaceable and the orderly, and has firmly and manfully. refused in any manner to participate in proceedings which are calculated to excite the fury of the mob ; and whether he has stood up and boldly and fearlessly condemned every attempt to infringe in the least degree the constitutional or legal rights of his fellows. "Birds of a feather flock together," is an old adage, applicable to men as well as to other animals. Whom do the mob follow to the place of violence ? to whose voice do they most attentively listen ? Mark that man, and if he addresses the populace, consider the tendency of his language and conduct, and not his professions of pacific and honest inten- tions. See who are associated with him. ^g mQ ^ are wise in £*? ~l7^cl, ana iney always have old, practised leaders, notable only for their crimes, to instruct and lead them forward, according to the de- signs of the chief movers : they imbibe the spirit of inflammatory speeches, act accordingly, and know full well that the peaceable professions, which must necessarily accompany them, are to be disregarded. They remember that. the speaker has a character to preserve by his false professions. Let the people be as wise as the mob, and they will easily discover who are the chief movers of riots. 54 THE ENEMIES OF THE III. One other violation of the laws of our country, and of the constitutional rights of our fellow-citizens, will be adverted to : it is, perhaps, more alarming in its features than any which the friends of our sys- tem of government have heretofore been called upon to witness, and the more dangerous in its tendency, on account of the characters engaged in it, and the specious disguises under which the most diligent efforts have been employed to justify or extenu- ate it. Allusion is here had to the forcible breaking up of the State Convention assembled at Uuca, 0< 21st, 1835, the seizure of their papers, and the as- saults upon its members, committed upon them after they were dispersed, at their lodgings, and while travelling upon their lawful business upon the pub- lic highway. 'W ith regard to the sentiments of the Convention, the author does not deem it his duty to speak. It is sufficient that they were there lawfully assem- bled, to deliberate upon a subject in which, as lovers of their country and its constitution, they felt a deep interest. In this respect, it is believed, all but vile slanderers will accede to them honest and laudable intt ntions, and as pure and patriotic motives, as ac- CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 55 tuated the immortal ■■ Jefferson himself, when he ex- claimed, in reference to the evil of slavery — " I tremble for my country when I remember that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep for ever? Previous to the call of this Convention, assem- blages of the inhabitants of many of the cities in the United States had been had, in which the citizens (in most cases a majority of them, it is presumed) had expressed their decided disapprobation of the sentiments of the abolitionists. The proceedings of many of these assemblages are characterized by a degree of moderation which does great credit to those from whom they emanated. So far every thing was carried on fairly on both sides of the question. The abolitionists, by the laws of nature, as well as by the constitution of their country, and their oppo nents, had an equal right to talk about slavery, which they both exercised, each expressing their own pe- culiar sentiments. At length, it was discovered by certain political aspirants, that the manner in which the abolitionists talked on the subject of slavery would not at all subserve their ambitious schemes ; so measures must immediately be taken to engross to themselves the liberty of speech on this subject, in order that it might he properly exercised, and the abolitionists deprived of the right to speak any more upon the subject, unless they would speak on their side of the question. The subject was accordingly taken up by them in good earnest, and discussed in so loud and bois- terous a tone that they hoped to smother the voice of the abolitionists altogether. The latter, however, 56 THE ENEMIES OF THE were " so foolhardy" as to claim the right to think and speak for themselves after all, and moreover many were embracing their sentiments ; they were now denounced as misguided zealots, deluded fana- tics, and reckless incendiaries, and many who had " eaten oread with them lifted up their heels against them." Nay, they were accused of entertaining schemes hostile to the constitution, and subversive of the long acknowledged rights of the people of the south. So industrious were these bawling poli- ticians, and so extensively were their misrepresen- tations, and slanders disseminated, that the jealousies of the southern people, who had not taken the trouble to inform themselves in relation to the real sentiments of the abolitionists, but judged from the representations of their adversaries, were, to a con- siderable degree awakened. Next comes the protest of the south ; then the cry The Union is endangered by the movements of the abolitionists ; inflammatory speeches are every where made against them, and as they were not al- lowed by the agitators to vindicate their characters from reproach, or their sentiments upon the subject of slavery from calumny and falsehood; the very gist of the opposition, being to deprive them of the right to discuss the subject in any shape, it is no wonderthal in a little time a high degree of excite- mentwasevery where created against them. Though, as no argument had yet been found which could prevail against them, they must be put down at all hazards, "peaceably if possible, forcibly if neces- CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 57 -$nry, 3? with regard to them it was " 'patriotism to disregard the laws" This doctrine, however, must be cautiously exer- cised, and until it should become a little more fa- miliar under some plausible pretext. The consti- tution after all seemed to secure to the abolitionists in common with others, liberty of speech and thus prima facie at least to interpose an obstacle against the use of any means which should deprive them of the use of that liberty. At last Kendall himself was out done, and amongst the wise and judicial sophists the much looked for discovery was made that there were "Pru- dential Restrictions" upon this liberty, so far as the abolitionists were concerned, and every obstacle being thus removed, they were condemned to ever- lasting silence. Nothing now remained but to en- force these " Restrictions." Previous to the call of the State Convention referred to, a meeting of the citizens of Utica was holden at the court room, in which their decided opposition to the sentiments of the abolitionists was expressed. This meeting was of course composed of the Anti- Abolitionists which compose a large majority although there was a con- siderable number of the most respectable citizens who were abolitionists. The resolutions although somewhat denunciatory were in other respects tem- perate and dignified. And it was exceedingly to be regretted, that the Hon. Samuel Beardsley should have employed the occasion to promulgate senti- ments that were calculated to produce the conse- quences which the citizens of that place were after- 6 58 THE ENEMIES GF THE ward called upon to deplore. He took occasion to speak of the violent and unwarranted seizure of the U. S. mail at Charleston, and the burning of the anti- slavery papers by the mob, and to justify in express words this cross violation of the law. " These oc- casions, " said he, " will find a law for themselves. I go revolution when it is necessary ." And in again adverting to the sending abolition publications to the southern states he remarked, " if other means will not do" (to prevent the sending such papers to the south) " the mail should be blocked up on that sub- ject." These revolutionary sentiments were boldly and manfully opposed by J. A. Spencer, Esq. who had participated in the proceedings, and who de- servedly received great and almost universal applause for his conduct on that occasion. The efTect of these sentiments, however, could not be easily counteract- ed. Among a certain class of the community where Mr. Beardsley's influence is principally exerted they were quickly adopted, and "Judge. Lynch" may.be considered to have been then first formally intro- duced into the beautiful city of Itica. Subse- quently a State Convention of abolitionists was ap- pointed to be holden at that place, and the citizens opposed tothem were again assembled at the city hall at which meeting the .Mayor presided. Mere a strong and decided opposition to the holding of the conven- tion at that place was expressed, and although some of the resolutions, had they been less denunciatory, would have done more credit to those by whom they were brought forward, and would better have com- ported with the candour and moderation of the citi- CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 59" sens, yet the proceedings with exceptions only rela- ting to individuals, were mainly carried on with or- der and decorum. The meeting was addressed by the Hon. C. Hayden and William Tracy, Esq.; the latter while he would tell the people of the south that they were ready to go to their very firesides if necessary to protect them in the enjoyment of their rights, and while he would boldly, but kindly entreat the abolitionists to desist from their movements, still contended for the right of free discussion. " It is that, " said he, "for which our fathers bled" Judge Hayden entered into a metaphysical disquisition on the subject of slavery too refined for a work in which only simple and plain truths within the comprehen- sion of all are intended to be stated. Hon. Samuel Beardsley was of course present and remarked as follows : — ■ " It is but a short time since a numerous and" "respectable number of the citizens of Utica " expressed their sentiments on the subject before " us this evening. The views of this city have gone "forth on the subject, as well as of other cities and "numerous assemblages in this state. As far as "the sentiment of the free states have been deve- loped, there is the same sentiment against the "movements of the abolitionists. It is great and " overwhelming, and we trust will soon put a stop " to their fanning the embers of the south. " We have spoken audibly and intelligibly to our " brethren at the south, and to those around us. But, " sir, what have we witnessed since the simultane- 11 ous expression of the citizens of this city, but an. i THE ENEMIES OF THE "act of the most consummate foolhardiness ! Sir? "for what purpose has a State Convention been " called ? To promote the objects they have in view. " Sir, what are those objects ? Mainly to bring about "the immediate abolition of slavery at the south. " They seem like downright idiots. No man, in "his sober senses, can doubt that every movement "of this kind, instead of elevating the condition of " the slaves, renders their condition more degraded, " debased, and oppressive than before. It has here- " toforc been, and the constant tendency is, to re- " cluce the slave still lower, and make him more a " slave than he was before. It is clear that this is "the tendency of the efforts of the abolitionists. " I do not believe that a man can, with an honest "heart, with a sound and intelligent mind, take such " measures, and entertain a belief, or even an expec- tation, that the}^ will produce any share of the ob- "jects which he professes to have in view. And " why are these abolitionists intent on holding a con- " vention in this city to promote their designs ? It " is intended to insult us. It is intended to degrade " the character of the city in the esteem of the world. "And especially to us, who live here, to treat us " with the utmost contempt. Insult us to our faces " where they cannot muster a corporal's guard, " They, sir, in contempt of the open, public, and " express sentiment of this community, come here " to hold a disgraceful and scandalous assembly, to "rush in and insult us to our faces with an assem- " blage of this kind. " If we were not a peaceable people, perhaps they CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 61 " might have an excuse for such downright hardiness. " They will be treated civilly, I doubt not, by the " citizens of Utica. Not because they deserve it, " but because it is due to the reputation of the city. " They cannot claim- that they deserve to escape "castigation. " These are the objects of these men. The laws " of propriety forbid that they should come here. " We are to be picked out as the head-quarters of "Abolitionism in the state of New-York. As have "this, I would almost as soon see it (the city) " swept from the face of the earth, or sunk as low "-as Sodom and Gomorrah. Nothing is due to " these men if they come here. " The abolitionists are resolved to press forward "with their designs, and thus endanger the south " and our institutions. So a man may contend that he "has a right to smoke a cigar in my powder-house. "The inevitable tendency is to sunder the union. " They intend to hold their meeting in this city, and " form a State Societ)^. It is designed to fix a deep " and dark stigma on our name. It is to be recorded "in history that we are the head-quarters of Abo- " tion. I wish, sir, they would not select this as the- "place of their meeting. " It is but a day or two since I saw the names of "five or six clergymen about Albany, who have- " stated that their names were employed without- "authority. Many have said that their names were "'used without authority, though they do not come " out and announce it to the world. The question " is, whether the peace of this union shall be dis~ 62 THE ENEMIES OF THE "turbed or not, and whetlier we are to be thus de "graded and disgraced." At a Republican County Convention, held at Hampton (Oneida Co.) Oct. 15, 1835, among other resolutions the following was adopted : — "Resolved, That the citizens of Utica owe it to " themselves, to the state, and to the union, that the " contemplated Convention of incendiary individuals "is not permitted to assemble within its corporate " bounds ; that their churches, their court,, academy, " and school-rooms, be closed against these wicked " or deluded men, who, whatever may be their pre- hensions, are- riveting the fetters of the bondman, "and enkindling the flames of civil strife."* i Similar resolutions and sentiments were adopted by conventions in other counties; and the enforce- ment of the "prudential restrictions " against the abolitionists may now be considered to have become a party measure ; but as this unconstitutional cru- sade against the liberty of speech was a manifest departure from democratic principles, it was fore- seen that the firmest adherents of these principles could not easily be betrayed into the measure, and it was justly apprehended that they would be unwil- ling to make a sacrifice of principle, which, what- ever might be the temporary effect, must ultimately prove ruinous to the republican cause. To provide against these emergencies, the most assiduous care is taken by those interested, to urge • This was brought forward nnd adopted on motion of J. D. Le- land, County Clerk. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 63 strict adherence to "party usages" which is now- pretty well understood to mean, that whatever pro- jects a few cunning leaders shall propose, must be sustained by their adherents (for the great body of their supporters have little more control over their, own destinies than cattle, which are bought and sold), at all hazards. Nay, many professing great know- ledge of " party usages," have declared, that if the devil himself were nominated for office, "the party" would be bound to yield him their cordial support. The good of " the party" requires this,, we are told, and to promote the good of the party, we ought to sacrifice houses, lands, friends, country, conscience, religion, and honesty. After all that had been said and done by the citi- zens of Utica, application was made to the Common Council by the abolitionists for the privilege of hold- ing their Convention in the court-room. It is un- known to the author by whom the petition was presented ; but it is known that Robert M 'Bride-, who voted against it, did afterward say, that he had promised to present the petition. Some of the members of the council entertained doubts as to their legal right to grant the prayer of the petition, but the council were repeatedly assured by the mayor, (Gen. Kirkland, who is a lawyer,) that they had such legal right; but he was nevertheless opposed to granting it. It was accordingly resolved, by a vote of seven to four, that the said Convention should be permitted to hold their meeting in the court-room. Of the reasons for or against this vote, this is 64 THE. ENEMIES OF THE neither llie time nor the place to speak. None but wilful calumniators will dare 1o say that the charac- ters of the individuals who voted for the resolution, are not beyond reproach. They are well known in the community where they reside, and are known only to be loved and esteemed. To the most pro- minent of the four individuals who voted against it, the same remarks will apply. Of the characters of the other three, nothing can be here said with cer- tainty, for the want of information, with the excep- tion of one, whose character, being generally known, will speak for itself. After this vote of the Common Council, a young man runs about with an inflammatory handbill got up of course by the leading "agitators" against the pro- ceedings of the Common Council. It was signed' by man}- respectable citizens, some without know- ing its contents (as they afterward said) who would have declined signing it if they had known the in- decent language which it contained. The handbill was published, and posted about the streets in fla- ming colours, calling a meeting at the court room on the evening of the 17th October.* Every effort was now used to produce the highest possible excitement, and it is not at all to be wonder- ed at that when the meeting was assembled, the court room was crowded to overflowing, and that '• Sa tan came also and, presented himself among them." The lowest dregs of society were also* 'iiere to show their indignity at the vote of the * See Appcudix Nc, III,. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 65 Council. The following resolution brought forward among the rest by Mr. Beardsley, who was now called upon to carry out his "revolutionary" senti- ments might foretoken the scenes which were to follow. " Resolved, that this meeting unmoved by pas- " sion or prejudice, but influenced only by a just " regard for itself and for what is due to the quiet "and repose of the whole community, will not sub- " MIT TO THE INDIGNITY OF AN ABOLITION ASSEM- " BLAGE BEING HELD IN A PUBLIC BUILDrNG IN THIS "city, reared as this was by the contributions of its "citizens, and designed to be used for salutary pub- " lie objects, and not as a receptacle for deluded fa- "natics and reckless incendiaries." It was well understood that this resolution applied to all public buildings in the city whether churches, school rooms, or others. By the next resolution it will have been seen that it became the duty of every citizen to use all lawful and proper measures to pre- vent the assembling of the Convention at any place. The other resolutions have spoken for themselves. At this meeting it has been seen that the Mayor was not ashamed to make his appearance, and ap- probate the proceedings, when the avowed object was to scandalize the body over which he presided, and set at defiance the authority which he officially assured them that they possessed. An amendment to one of the resolutions was offered by Mr. Noyes, so as to disapprobate forcible resistance to the meet- ing of the abolitionists, after which, A. G. Dauby whose influence was principally confined to the C6 THE ENEMIES OF THE lowest and most degraded class, arose, and after in- dulging the most inflammatory language concluded as follows : — " For one, Mr. President, I Will be here, I will prevent their" (the abolitionists) " coming here, peaceably if I can, forcibly if I must," at which the rabble set up a hooting and stamping which en- tirely smothered every voice that was raised against the disorders which it was seen must inevitably ensue from the proceedings. Mr. Beardsley in his violent invectives against the Common Council, and against the abolitionists, ex- ceeded all bounds. " If they" (the abolitionists) " should persist in holding their convention in this city, they were responsible for all the consequences that should follow ; If they should be permitted to hold their meeting here, like the Hartford Convention, it would fix a lasting stigma upon the fair name of the city ; Hewould rather that the place should be consum- ed with fire, even with fire from Heaven ; he regretted extremery ili.it he could not be present at the meet- ing on the 21st, to which this meeting was to be ad- journed : he expected to be at Albany, and perhaps should not return in time to attend." It was resol- ved that the meeting when it adjourned, should ad- journ to meet at the court room* at 9 o'clock A. M. on the day when the convention should assemble, and this was pronounced with such emphasis, and * It u ill l>r rem. inhered tint this is the room granted by the Com- mon Council for the meeting of the State Anti-Slavery Convention and that the avowed object oC the leaden in this meeting was, for- cibly to resijstthe public authorities, in which it \\ ill shortly be seen, they were successful; CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 67 with such an insinuating air by Mr. Beardsley, by whom the resolutions were read, that his designs could not be mistaken by the rabble, who were to carry them into effect. Every reasonable mind who was acquainted with the means that are made use of to raise a mob, saw full well that the city was to be disgraced with tumult and disorder. That such was the result to which the conduct of Beardsley and Dauby tended, no man in his senses could for a moment doubt. Here, when the office holders, and others who had selfish and designing views dared not to lift up their voices against these disgraceful proceedings, the patriotic voice of the mechanic, one after another, was raised in defence of the constitution of his country,* but the cry of the mob "put him doAvn ! hussle him out ! " was instantly raised, and his ap- peal to their pride as freemen ! was made in vain, for his voice was smothered amidst the loud yells, and confusion which ensued. After this meeting many of the reflecting citizens became sensible to the degradation which had been brought upon them, and which still awaited them for the purpose of satisfying the political schemes of a few individuals too small in number to consti- tute a "corporal's guard." It ought to be observed, thatwhen the disposition of the adversaries of the freedom of speech and of the press was discovered, the doors of several of the churches were thrown open to the abolitionists * Several of the mechanics attempted to oppose the proceeding's, but were clamoured down by the sneers of the leading " agitators." 68 THE ENEMIES OF THE by the trustees and congregations, and they finally elected to meet in the Bleecker street church which was loaned to them by the Trustees and congre- gation. In the mean time these matters became the engrossing subject of conversation among all classes of the community, and when the 20th had arrived, it was understood that low, degraded, and irresponsible persons from all quarters, had already been warned to make their appearance on the fol- lowing day, and many had declared their intention to expel the convention at all hazards. So indus- triously had the excitement been spread, and infused into every living creature that even the boys in the street talked of Lynching and bloodshed, and the very dogs yelped with rage.* On Tuesday evening the 20th, a conservative meeting was called of " the citizens of Utica who were not abolitionists, but who were nevertheless in favour of maintaining the supremacy of the laws at all times, and under all circumstances, and who were opposed to any abridgement of the right of free and temperate discussion guarantied by the constitution.' 1 This meeting was previously resolved on by a committee of thirty citizens, after full and mature dc- liberation ; not one of that committee was an aboli- tionist ; nor had any abolitionist any agency whatever ♦These animals, it issaid, with many others of no superior grade, followed the leading agitators to theix places ol' rendezvous, and at the conclusion of every speech, as if comprehending what was said by instinct; groirlcd out their patriotic indignation. -CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 69 in procuring the meeting to be called, as the author is informed by unquestionable authority. By this time the mob were in some considerable degree organized; and it was alleged that orders had been given at the grog shops that intoxicating liquors should be dealt out to them in large quanti- ties without charge. When the meeting was assembled, a large num- ber of boys by some means had been procured to attend, and as many vicious, disorderly, and vile wretches who had no character, no name to pre- serve, had been industriously gathered together for the occasion. David Wager, the candidate for the senate ; A. G. Dauby, a low 'pettifogger, who has been little distinguished for his virtues, and R. B. Miller, the District Clerk, who afterward acted such a conspicuous part among the mob, had the audaci- ty to appear at the meeting, although they well knew that they had no right there, and that one of the principal objects of the meeting was to counteract as much as possible the evil consequences which were likely to result from their previous conduct. After the chairman was appointed, an attempt was made to adjourn the meeting, but this was un- successful, and the meeting being fully organized, a committee was chosen to draft resolutions, which committee after retiring for a short time reported to the meeting a series of resolutions,* and after the report was accepted, the question on the preamble and first resolution, being in favour of liberty of * See proceedings reported in full and officially verified, Appendix No. IV. 7 70 THE ENEMIES OF THE speech and of the press, was put and carried by a large majority, although the utmost force of the en- emies of the constitution had been mustered against it. It was thus discovered by the abettors of tumult that they could carry nothing by the vote of the meeting. The next resolution, which was that " for the protection of the constitutional rights of their southern brethren, and the union of the states, they (the meeting) pledged their lives, their fortunes, and sacred honour," was then called up, and A. G. Dauby, the Postmaster, and editor, arose and op- posed it in a language and air that plainly indicated to the mob what it was designed should follow; after he had become seated, his adherents set up a yelling which entirely interrupted the proceedings : several respectable mechanics who had done them- selves great credit for their laudable exertions on the side of law and order, attempted to makethcir voices heard, but to no purpose. Wager and Miller, and their subordinates mounted the rostrum, and the boys and drunkards now understood that when any should attempt to speak on the side of order, a loud yell was to be raised, which should prevent their being heard. In this manner fifty vicious and degraded wretches could prevail against seven hundred respectable citizens. Every thing was thus involved in disorder and confusion, and the assembly as was deemed most expedient, under the circumstances, dispersed. This was one of the largest and most respectable meetings ever convened in Utica, on any occasion. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 71 It was called principally by mechanics, and had for its design no other object than the preservation of the constitution and the laws ; we have already seen by what base means its proceedings were interrupted, by a man with whom the honest mechanic would scorn to associate.* At last the morning of the 21st arrived, and as soon as the dawn, the form of A. G. Dauby, like a nightly ghost, was seen stalking in the street ; a few minutes elapsed, and sure enough, notwithstand- ing his important business at Albany, and that he had scarce had time to go and return — Samuel Beardsley made his appearance.! The eventful day was ushered in, amidst the shouts of the mob and roaring of the cannon, which the agitators had got into their possession ; when the friends of the constitution saw that the great agitator himself was really in the city, bodily (he had forewarned his friends that he should be present with them in spi- rit,) they remembered his previous conduct and sen- timents, that " nothing was due to the abolitionists if they came there," and that " they would not sub- * As a specimen of A. G. Dauby's associates, the author is in- formed that a fellow of intemperate habits, and very low character, best known by the name of Bill Dick, is one of his particular friends and confidents, and that he is allowed by Mr. Dauby to have daily access to the letters in the Post-office. Such is the hazard in which matters of the highest moment are placed. We have before seen that the Post-office, in the hands which now control its affairs is at best a very unsafe establishment. t Why Mr. Beardsley went to Albany at this particular time, and returned with so much haste, can probably be ascertained at the source from whence " instructions" are given. At present, with most people, his real business at Albany is a matter of conjecture. THE ENEMIES OF THE mit to the indignity of an abolitionist assemblage being held in a public building of the city," that " he would rather it were sunk lower than Sodom and Gomorroh," that he justified the seizure of the mail at Charleston, and the committing its contents to the flames, that " these occasions would find a law for themselves," that " he went revolution when it was necessary," and that " the convention could not claim that they deserved to escape castigation," and they readily suspected more serious troubles. They revolved in their minds queries and conjec- tures like the following : — For what purpose has he returned so soon from Albany ? " and why teas he intent on holding a meeting" at the court-house at nine o'clock " to pro- mote his designs,"* after a majority of the people of the city had shown their aversion to violent and unconstitutional measures ? " It is intended suit us; it is intended to degrade the character of the city in the esteem of the ivorld ; and especially to us, who live here, to treat us with the utmost con-** tempt. Insult us to our faces, where (without the band of ruffians now gathered in from other places) he cannot muster a corporaTs guard. He, in con- tempt of the open, public, and express sentiment of this community, conies here to hold a disgraceful and scandalous assembly ; to rush in and insult us to our faces with an assembly of this kind ;" brings ing a mob here. " If toe were not a peaceable people, perhaps he might have an excuse for such * Meeting of the " Agitators," to be held on the day of the Corv* mention. See antCj p. 71. Appendix, No. V. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 73 downright hardiness ; he will be treated civilly, we doubt not, by the citizens of Utica ; he cannot claim that he deserves to escape castigaiion. These are the objects of this man. The laws of propriety forbid that he should come here. We are to be picked out as the head-quarters of Mobocracy in the state of New- York. This man and his coadjutors are resolved to press forward with their designs, and thus en- danger the north as well as the south, and our in- stitutions. So a man may contend that he has a right to smoke a cigar in our powder-house. The inevitable tendency of their conduct is to sunder the ties of the union. They intend to hold their meeting, raise a mob, and break up this Convention of freemen ! It is designed to fix a deep and dark stigma on our name." " It is to be recorded in his- tory" that we were among the first to betray the liber- ties of our fellow-citizens, and trample in the dust the constitution of our country. " We wish they ivould not select this as the place of their" infamy. Such were the queries and conjectures of the friends of order, when at early dawn they beheld the unwelcome "Agitators" in their streets. But as " they were a peaceable people," and the author rities of the city had been set at defiance, they feared they should have to " lie down under it, and quietly submit to the disgrace." The very man who had been active in preventing conservative measures in the city, was the editor of a public journal, and had diffused his disorganizing sentiments to a fearful extent. The following lan- guage published in the editorial column the day be- 7* 74 THE ENEMIES OF THE 1 fore, could not be mistaken." "It is, (says this same "A. G. Dauby) "therefore, certain, that the court- " house cannot be occupied by the incendiaries. " Where, then, will they go ? We have no patience " with those who haggle about the right to come "here and hold a Convention. The risrht thus " audaciously asserted, is a right to perpetrate mis- " chief, disturb the peace of society, excite civil " commotion, promote insurrection among the slaves, "produce anarchy and bloodshed, and to dissolve " the union ; but all this, we are gravely told, can "be done legally, and therefore must not be op- " posed ! The ' union must be preserved.' It must H then be defended against legal and illegal assaults. #####*###* " Wore there no law out of the decalogue against " theft, would a man's property be less sacredly his " own ? and would stealing be less a crime than it " is at present ? If sufficient safeguards have not " been provided to protect our free institutions from "being destroyed by deluded or wicked men, all " who wish their perpetuation will desire that they •• may be found and adopted. * * * " The whole south is waiting witli trembling anxi- o know how we bear ourselves in this matter — " whether we meanly truckle to their and our ene- "mies, or, with a spirit of manly independence, in- dignantly frown upon those who would affix an "indelible stigma upon our name and character. " The Richmond Enquirer, the ablest, most influen- " tial, and moderate paper of the whole south, speaks "to us in strong and indignant language. No one CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. t5 " can read what it says without believing that it is " necessary to do something to allay the excitement; " and yet we are madly advised to let the conflagra- " tion go on, or at least not to obstruct those who are " daily adding fuel to the flames. But what are we "told by the Enquirer? It says emphatically, 'Utica " has to choose between two courses — Will she en- " joy the honour of repelling the disunionists and " fanatics from her gates I or will she be degraded " by the presence of another Hartford Convention ? " Every eye of the south is fixed upon the meeting " of the Convention within her borders. Every "tongue is busy in discussing the probability and " the consequences of the meeting. We call upon " the citizens of New- York to arrest these madmen " in their career — who know not themselves what " mischiefs they are inflicting upon the country, and " especially upon the coloured population, whose in- " terests they are professing to serve. We call, above " all, upon the good citizens of Utica, to keep this " moral pestilence from their door. We call upon " their respectable mayor, who was the chairman of " the late anti-abolition meeting, to rouse up, and " with the aid of all the patriots of Utica, to arrest "this mischievous meeting. Stop the madmen's " hands, that would apply the firebrands to the union "itself."' To these latter remarks not the least intimation of dissent was given by Dauby, but manifest appro- bation, as has been seen. These inflammatory senti- ments together with those of Samuel Beardsley, con- stantly repeated at his incendiary meetings > had 76 THE ENEMIES OF THE already become familiar with those mysterious be- ings, who are seen only on occasions of great tumult. David Wager was more than usually conversant with individuals of low character, or rather no cha- racter. Old Hooker* was up from New-York. Gen. Spinner, sheriff of Herkimer, was also in town. The large jugs were wending their way to the grog- shops according to order, not to be turned away empty, for want of funds, ;t and Lyman Adams, it was supposed, had already got his bond of indcm- nity.J " No man with an honest heart, with a sound and intelligent mind," who had watched the progress of things, could now pretend that the " occasion was not destined to find a law for itself." At last the agitators proceeded to the court-house pursuant to adjournment ; and he who was attracted by " the meal" which he said he thought he " could see on the cat's back" " cometh also among them," as well as the multitude of degraded wretches which had by this time gathered themselves together from vari- * A noted drunkard and disturber of the peace from the twelfth ward. t It was asserted by persons professing to know the feet, that the mob were furnished with intoxicating liquors by men claiming re- lit v. < Vrtuin it is. that large numbers of them were drunk during the day ami following night. t It was currently reported that this Adams (a man oi' low cha- racter) refused to act as leader of the mob, until indemnified, and that a bond was accordingly given him. This, it is presumed, is a matter of conjecture. Such a bond would have been void in law; but if any man should ha\e given BOCD a bond, he would not of course, expose lus conduct by contesting its legality in a court of justice. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 77 ous~parts of the country. What was there transacted, will in part appear from the proceedings published.* From the task of recording the indecent and in- flammatory remarks which were intended to apprize the mob of the design and effect of these proceed- ings, the pen of the author already shrinks with horror. The convention in the mean time had assembled and organized at the Bleecker street Presbyterian church, with the express permission of both the Trustees and congregation. A committee of twenty- five was appointed at the Court House ; the names of that committee are recorded; their princi- pal duties as appeared ostensibly, was to ascertain the time and place of the meeting of the conven- tion, and tell the " said Delegates" of the number and character of iheir constituents. The meeting at the court-room takes a recess, and this famous committee of twenty-five led forth and impel- led, by the prime mover, Samuel Beardsley, like $ pack of faithful hounds quickly starting at their master's call, intent upon their prey, dart forth into divers streets and narrow lanes hunting for the con* ventiom r " Oneida Whig," that the edi- tors of each of those journals were members of this ' : committee" or pack of ticcnti/Jive ; and it is not strange that many erroneous statements oriu r inati:)L r &OB1 these men, and tending to exculpate their conduct, should have gone forth to the public. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 89 of ninety-nine out of a hundred of those who were present, and not in any manner implicated in the wrongs of that day, then an enlightened public will have some just cause to pause and inquire, before his sentence is recorded. The following are also some of the scandalous remarks uttered by Mr. Beards- ley on that occasion, in the presence of the mob : "It is proper we should hear what the Conven- "tion have to say, either now or by a committee. " We are bound to hear them ; we are bound to " exercise all patience and long-suffering even to- " wards such an assembly as this. But I also feel " bound to say, that for such a convention to assem- " ble here, at such a time as this, I am bound to " call it a very extraordinary transaction. While "the whole country is boiling with indignation " against their evil proceedings — and when at least " ninety-nine in a hundred of our citizens all over '* the land are opposed to them ; and after the ex- ■ ■ press and repeated and respectful remonstrances " of the people of Utica against their making our " city the theatre of their operations, for them to " persist in forcing themselves upon us, is an out- " rage that is very hard to bear. Yet we are order- " ly and peaceable citizens. Let us not be moved " into passion by the injury. At such a time as this, " for them to push on in their inflammatory designs, " tends directly and unqualifiedly to the disruption " of our loved and glorious union. But let us not " be thrown off our guard by it. Let us do nothing " unworthy our character as orderly and peaceable " citizens of Utica. If they have any apology to 90 THE ENEMIES OF THE " make for their conduct, let us hear it. For my " part, I should like to know what apology can be " made for proceedings which we know, and they " know, are intended to be used by designing politi- " cians, to exasperate the members of this union " at each other. They profess to come here on an " errand of religion, while under the guise of re- " ligion they are hypocritically plotting the dissolu- " tion of the union. They have been warned be- " forehand, and borne with unexampled patience. " And if they now refuse, and any unpleasant con- " sequences should follow, we will not be responsi- " ble. Let them yield to the wishes of the good " and respectable citizens of Utica, and dissolve " their Convention.* If they refuse then, the fault " will be theirs. They claim a right, as free citi- " zens, to pursue their inflammatory discussions, " however pernicious and destructive they may be. " And I suppose we must bear it. In this land of * ' If there be aivy among us," says Thomas Jefferson, in his first inaugural address, " who would wish to dissolve this union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be to- lerated, where reason is left free to combat it." Among the es- sential principles of our government, in the same address, he ranks " the diffusion of information and arraignment cf all abuses at the bar of public reason: — freedom of religion; freedom or the press, and freedom of person, under, the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries, impartially collected. These principles form the bright constellation which has crone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wis- dom of our sages, and blood o^ our heroes, have been devoted to their attainment, they should be the creed of our political faith, the boast of civic instruction, the touchstone by which to try the ser- vices of those wc trust." CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 91 " freedom we must submit. Let us hear their jus- " tification for this outrage upon our feelings, if they " have any. We can hear it, and will hear it !" — (By the mob — " No, we won't hear it, we won't hear them, let them go home, let them ask our for- giveness and we will let them go !") But what is this outrage of which Mr. Beardsley speaks ? These men had met here to discuss the subject of slavey ; they had the rightful and un- disputed claim to the possession of this house, in which they were assembled ; the right which they exercised was one springing from God himself, and confirmed to them by the laws of the land. With their peculiar sentiments we have not now to do ; if they are forbidden to speak and write upon the subject, we shall never understand them ; if they are permitted, we shall know and condemn their sentiments if they are wrong. To denounce them as hypocrites and fanatics, and to stop their mouths, is a weak and barbarous mode of reasoning indeed, and has alwa} 7 s reacted, with great force, against the fools who have adopted it. After the church was cleared, and the " agitators" had left the court-house, a large number stationed themselves in front of Mr. Clark's Temperance Hotel, where, as many of the members of the Con- vention as could be accommodated, took lodgings. Several of the leading ones among them, who reside in Utica, and claim some degree of respectability, took their stations in the entrance, and about the door ; and until the house was cleared, indulged in profane, and low, and abusive language towards \)2 THE ENEMIES OF THE every person whom they suspected to be of a peace- able character. At one time it was suspected that the members of the Convention would transact bu- siness at their lodgings, and thereupon the mob rushed into the house, and several of them boldly declared their intention to demolish it, if it was not cleared of the abolitionists before sunset. The peaceable character of the individuals assailed, and their high respectability, afforded them no shield. They were hurried from their lodgings, some even before they had time to obtain their dinners, amidst the insults and abuses of a drunken rabble, who had assembled to make this exhibit of their "patriotism and love of the union." The scene of low scur- rility, horrid blasphemy, and contempt of all law, of decency, and of virtue, which was there exhibited, is beyond the power of language to describe. They assailed every individual who passed in the street, whom they suspected of having acted a prominent part in endeavouring to preserve the peace of the city. It was sufficient to expose an individual to the vilest insults, that he was an ar- dent friend of the constitution of his country. Several times the mob attempted to rush up stairs and seize some prominent abolitionists, who were at their rooms. At last Mr. Clark's guests, (whom he had protected as far as he was able,) es- caped from this awful scene of violence, at the peril of their persona] safety, and many went to Peter- boro\ upon the invitation of Gerrit Smith, Esq. There they were protected, and hold a peaceful meeting of the State Society, formed in Utica. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. $3 Occasion is given to speak particularly of Mr. Smith. His great talent, his philanthropy, and be- nevolence, have acquired for him no little distinc- tion. His reputation is known to the intelligent throughout America. He is equally distinguished for his liberality, and for his noble and generous sen- timents ; yet some execrable calumniator, a corres- pondent of one of the New-York journals, in giving his statement of the transactions of the 21st Oct, has .the meanness to call Mr. Smith " a noted fana- tic." It is to be regretted that this correspondent did not venture to give his name to the public, in order that it might be loaded with the detestation and con- tempt which it deserves. After the transactions of the day were over, and the shades of night were approaching, the victory which had been achieved by the mob was celebra- ted amid loud shouts and the roaring of the cannon, which they still retained in their possession. One formidable enemy yet remained for these fiendish "Patriots," these "peaceable citizens," to over- come — the press. Freedom of speech had fallen a victim to their rage ; the right of the people peace- ably to assemble existed but in name ; and, as if they yet retained some sense of shame, they sought the darkness of the night to cover from the view of the world that blackest and most infamous deed, the destruction of the press in this land of liberty. When it was night they entered the office of the Standard and Democrat, a Van Buren paper, and ma- nifested their determination to destroy the type. The printers were at work; they reasoned; they 9 94 THE ENEMIES OF THE remonstrated ; they entreated ; but in vain ; the deed was instantly accomplished, and again the shout of victory was raised. Al van Stewart, Esq., and Spencer Kellogg, are gentlemen of the first respectability, and prominent abolitionists. They occupy two costly brick dwell- ings in an elevated part of the city ; these the " agi- tators" had doomed to destruction. They were, however, invested with a strong force of armed citizens, who were determined to defend them at the risk of their lives,* and moreover, several hundred citizens were collected in the streets, determined to prevent any further violence. When this was dis- covered, the " agitators" mostly dispersed. It is supposed that many of them followed the members of the Convention to Vernon, and were among those who assaulted them at that placp. It has been as- serted by some, that the dwellings of Messrs. Stewart and Kellogg were in no danger. This is false. It has come from individuals who are implicated in the infamous transactions of that day. It is well known, that these dwellings would have been level- led with the ground, had they not been defended; at least, it is known that such was the determination of the " agitators." What has been said, will convey a faint idea of * The heroism displayed on this occasion, by the wife and eldest daughter of Mr. Kellogg, would have done honour to a more chivalrie age. It is said that they persisted, against the entreaties of their friends, in their determination not to leave the house on the night when it was supposed it would be assaulted,* but remained, resolved with their own arms, to stand foremost in its defence, and in defence of their country's laws and institutions. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 95 the deeds of this memorable day. But language is insipid when compared with the reality. Even what has here been said, may seem like exaggera- tion to him who has no heart, no sensibility, no love to the country that gave him birth, or to its boasted freedom, which that day saw trampled in the dust. That day, it is true, is but one among more than a million, which have elapsed since the w T orld was" made. It is also true, that the events related oc~ curred principally in Utica; a little city, which was entirely unknown to the ancients, and until then, scarcely known to the moderns. But on this day, and in this humble place, the laws were set at nought, virtue was despised, God was blasphemed, the liber- ties of America were but an empty name. O that every lover of his country could have witnessed the Sadness that reigned upon the countenance of the patriot, when he had seen the enemy in disguise triumphing over the constitution. We are nattered that these transactions are tri- fling, unimportant, although few can doubt, that, they are brought about by a concert of purpose among men of power, scattered over the whole face of this country. It was but one day ; it ivas in a little place; it was an extraordinary occasion. But it was a blow levelled at the root of liberty,, which demolished the bulwarks that defended the; rights of the citizen. O my country ! We shall con- tinue thus to be flattered, that every encroachment upon ou; constitution is unimportant, until our na- tional ruin unavoidable shall stare us in the face.. Let us not be deceived by these subtle devices of our enemies. They would lull us to sleep amid 96 THE ENEMIES OF THE the most imminent dangers, in- order that their hos- tile schemes may move onward without molestation. "It is against silent and slow attacks that the na- tion ought to be particularly on its guard." But let us take one more glance at the conduct of this "committee of twenty-five," theirnames, it is hoped, will long be preserved and associated with the deeds of this memorable day, in order that their children, if perchance they should be subject- ed to a cruel despotism, and dare not speak their sentiments, may remember that their fathers have contributed to forge the chains that bind them ; or if the liberties of their country shall have been restor- ed to a firm basis, they may not boast of their fa- thers' deeds. In what way is this deliberate and " peaceable' 'vio- lation ot the constitutional rights ot this Convention- attempted to be justified? The people will be anxious to know "what apology can be made 1 ' for this delibe- rate assault upon their liberties. The "committee " claim the right to rush into this Convention in their awn house, interrupt their proceedings, abuse them with odious denunciations, and insolently demand of them to adjourn without day, no matter whether they claim the right to do all this peaceably or forcibly. In either case "the right thus audacious- ly asserted is a right to do mischief, disturb the peace of society, excite civil commotion, violate the laws of God, trample upon the constitution, and produce anarchy and bloodshed." But all this, we are gravely told, can be done "peaceably" The con- stitution must be supported. It must then be sup- ported against "peaceable " and violent attack^ CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 97 But the occasion seems to demand that peculiar notice should be given to the chairman of that "com- mittee." To say that he was not implicated in the violence that was committed, by the encouragement he gave to it, would show at least a want of sense in any individual who witnessed the transaction. To say that he is not guilty of a flagrant and unpar- donable encroachment upon the constitutional rights of this Convention, w r ould be denying that which is evident to every one who is acquainted with the facts. These remarks are not intended to injure the character of that man ; they are intended to warn the people that there is real danger when the very fountain of justice is thus polluted. The chairman of this " committee" is the first judge of the county of Oneida, a man who is sworn to keep the peace, and to whom an appeal might be made by the mem- bers of that Convention, for the vindication of the insulted law, and their violated rights. Had it not been for the inflexible integrity of the Hon. Hiram Denio,* they might have appealed to the laws of their country in vain. Should the proceedings of that day come up before a grand jury of the county, what charge would this judge be likely to deliver to them in view of the part his associate has acted ? He who would expect any thing like impartial jus- tice from such a source would expect a miracle.. * Hon. H. Denio, is Circuit Judge of the fifth Circuit The au- thor is informed that he refused, in any manner, to participate in the proceedings of this Lynch ' : Committee," but rejected the invitation, to do so with becoming indignation. 9* THE ENEMIES OF THE Where then shall we go when our judges and our le- ra have become corrupt? Shall we appeal to the people? The liberty of speech and of the press ied. And if we claim the right to assemble to- . to deliberate upon modes of redress, here we arc also assailed. Judge H-ayden is also a member of one of the largest and most respectable churches in the State of New-York. Many of the most re- able members of that church are abolitionists. Let him remember when he associates with them around the table of the Lord, and partakes with the emblems of the Saviour's death, that he is still denouncing them as deluded fanatics, and reck- acendiaries, plotting the ruin of their country;, that he has often been engaged in measures which wrn intended t<> prevent their fulfilling duties. which they believed they were called upon, by the Bolemn and weighty obligations to their God and their country, to perform; and if he repent of nothing he has done, let him appear in his imagina- Mih them, before the Judge of all the earth. • all judges must l)r judged, and when he and they shall have gained admittance into that blissful ■ here they both hope to enter, let him re- thai li«' is still denouncing them as deluded fanatics, and reckless incendiaries, and imagine the ling by and hearing these denunciations th complacency. <> God, is this religion ! Is this the heaven <>l the redeemed! No malice has enter- ed into the motives which dictate these reilcctions. They arc intended ;i- a soil mil appeal to all Chris- tians, to the principles by which they profess to be CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 9 9 governed, to allay the uncharitable and truly unchris- tian spirit which prevails. It is in vain to attempt to make men believe in the peaceable religion of the meek and lowly Jesus, and in the regenerating influences of the Spirit of grace-, if the disciples of that religion are biting and devouring one another. With respect to the other individuals who were engaged in the reprehensible doings of the 21st Oc- tober, they are left to their own reflections. If they are sorry for their conduct, their repentance may al- lay the reproaches of their consciences-, though they can never make reparation for the mischiefs they have done to their country. If they are satisfied with what they have done, let them enjoy that dear- bought satisfaction. The day of retribution will soon come ; and though they may at first find many to applaud their conduct, as this blind infatuation subsides, they will gradually sink into silent con- tempt. The influence of their conduct, however, is still felt. It is not the names of the individuals who have done 3$, but the deed, whose destructive influence is already heard of from the farthest bounds of the republic. Charity will lead us to think that some of these men were ignorant of the conse- quences of their doings. Such are deserving of pity ? for having become the victims of artful seducers, who intended to use them as instruments of their own destruction. It is against the deed and its con- sequences that we war; their silence will screen them from personal attack ; but if they place them- selves in the field, and vainly attempt to justify or excuse a deed, in the perpetration of which the peo- Km) THE ENEMIES OF THE w charitably hope they were the unconscious instruments, they must expect to expose themselves to the Bcorn of the virtuous and the good. By this unconstitutional proceeding, carried on by men claiming respectability, a precedent has been es- tablished winch has emboldened the enemies of free- \. ho now begin to act openly, and endeavour to lead on their followers to sustain their mad projects. The fame of this infamous transaction has already oed from the uttermost bounds of the union. Who would have believed, that in this land of om and of laws, such acts would have been approved by men whose opinions we have been ac- customed to respect? That even the press itself »ped from its elevated and command- ing position to sanction measures and conduct so utterly destructive of the principles upon which the liberties of this country are suspended? But, alas! so blind and unconditional has become our adher- encc i" Party and to Favouritism, that we receive without investigation the interested opinions of their corrupt and pronig as, in regard to public ■ d and unquestionable maxims, and ort with alacrity every measure which they pro- ling heedlessly on to our own ruin. Party, is a dangerous enemy in a popu- ivcrnment. Who ih.es not know that by a strong and efficient organization the people may be (subjected to a Bpecies of dictation more intolerable than despotic rule ! Whoare they that urge strict ad- herent They who are op- to the government of the people. Who de- CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 101 sire to govern by party, and to riot upon the spoils ? It is by the corrupting influences of party that this most shocking violation of the acknowledged rights of American citizens has gained the approval of many who would sacrifice the laws, the liberty of the citizens, and the constitution itself, to promote their own aggrandizement, or that of some favourite to whom they have become unconditionally devoted. It is this sanction which it has obtained which renders it so important in its ultimate results. Its poisonous influence has become widely diffused. A precedent is established ; how fatal, alas ! in its consequences, time alone will reveal. It is a pre- cedent which would well sustain the assemblage of a mob in the capitol of this republic, for the purpose of placing a favourite in the presidential chair. He who would attempt to palliate these deeds of vio- lence, or who would attempt to conceal the fact that they are brought about by a concert of purpose among designing men, is a deceiver. Numerous are the disguises in which these de- ceivers will appear. The means which they will employ to corrupt public sentiment will be as va- rious as the minds upon which they have to operate. Let us beware of their wiles, for whatever may be their character or pretences, they are practically our country's most deadly foes. We have seen who were the chief actors in break- ing up the Utica Convention ; their names have been recorded in connexion with their exploits. Of some of them this was the first essay at notoriety. They will do Avell to implore the indulgence of their coun- 102 nil: ENEMIE8 OF THE cc hereafter. Let none of them boast of •J 1 , 1 B35. " Smothered be me of the inglorious action," nor let any claim the honour of an achievement, for which posterity will load them with execrations. S ae profligate journals, which seem not only tte of honesty, but devoid of all sense of the of honour, not satisfied with their disgraceful triumph over the laws and constitution, have the consummate baseness to reproach this Convention with cowardice. What act of this assembly ex- i them to such an imputation ? Let the reader appear, in his imagination, in the imperial city at a time when its liberties are assailed by a fierce and Bavage horde from beyond the Alps,* and witness the entrance of this* wild and terrific foe into the Fo- rum, where they behold the ancient senators of Rome, who had assembled with a determination to devote theil lives to their country's welfare, "seated in their order, defenceless, vet unmoved and un- daunn d," ami be will have a picture of this Conven- tion and th \ Mob, (w th a few exceptions,) sunk hj int< mperance and vice infinitely lower in the of intellectual being, than the untutored Gauls, - allying forth from their original habitations? ♦ UtC. 3G1. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 103 devoid of shame, unawed by the dignity of virtue, had no sense of honour or decency to restrain their brutal rage ; and with this difference, that those who assailed the Fathers of Rome fought for their coun- try, its honour, and institutions ; but the assailants of the Utica Convention fought against their coun- try, its laws, and institutions. Who were the das- tards ? But it is said that the abolitionists are guilty of an act of unexampled temerity, in persisting in their opinions, when " public opinion" is strong against them. Why not silence their tongues by some ar- gument which will convince them of their error ? God himself, who is greater than " public opinion," did not make man free, and then exert, or even claim the right to exert, an arbitrary control over the exercise of his reason. Our country did not confirm to us this freedom, which God has given us, and then give to " public opinion" the right to take it away. He who is afraid to maintain his opinions against the world, is unworthy of the honour of an Ame- rican citizen, is unworthy of the dignity of a man. Is this temerity ? Let this temerity for ever be the boast of freemen ! It is the temerity which makes despots tremble-; which destroys the little less odious tyranny of party domination, maintains the sovereignty of the people, and despoils the political intriguer of his hopes. The violations of law which have been mentioned, have been considered with the utmost plainness and simplicity. It was necessary the subject should be ]n| THE ENEMIES OF THE .1; no personal animosity has dictated a syllable The author has been actuated by a deep - 38 <>f duty to his country. His tongue and his pen arc yet unshackled. He claims the right to use them by virtue of a grant from the Au- thor of his being, sanctioned and confirmed by the rnmenl under which he has the happiness to live. Il< is ready to give up his property and his hie whenever the good of his country shall require that sacrifice. But the right to the legitimate exer- cise of his reason he will never surrender. The first lesson he was taught in childhood, was to ve- nerate the constitution and laws, with which our country is pre-eminently blessed. Who could have ined that it would be necessary so soon to de- fend them against so formidable an attack as that with which thev are now assailed. IV. ore we proceed further, it may be well to in- troduce .1 - timents on the subject of sla- very, not lor the purpose of showing the doctrines of the abolitionists to be correct, but for the pur- lowing, thai if he was vet hiring, he would nol consider it patriotism to deprive them of the right to discuss the subject. "The whole com- he, "between master and slave, is a CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 105 perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this and learn to imitate it ; for man is an imi- tative animal. This quality is the germ of educa- tion in him. From his cradle to his grave he is learn- ing what he sees others do. If a parent had no other motive, either in his own philanthropy or his self love, for restraining the intemperance of his passion toward his slave, it should always be a suf- ficient one that his child is present. But generally, it is not sufficient. The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to his worst of passions ; and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy, who can retain his manners and morals under such circumstances. And with what execrations would the statesman be loaded, who, permitting one half of the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms them into despots, and these into enemies, destroys the morals of the one part, and the amor patriae of the other. For if a slave can have a country in this world, it must be any other than that in which he is born to live and labour for another, in which he must lock up the faculties of his nature, con- tribute as far as depends upon his individual endea- vours to the evanishment of the human race, or en- tail his own miserable condition on the endless gene- rations proceeding from him. With the morals of 10 THE ENEMIES OF THE eople, their industry also is destroyed. For in a warm . no man will labour for himself that ran make another labour for him. This is so true, that of the proprietors of slaves, a very small a indeed are ever seen to labour .... and can the liberties of a nation be ever thought secure, when we have removed their only firm basis, a con- i in the minds of the people, that these liber- ties are the gift of Grod? that they are not to be violated, hut with his wrath; indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that ^ticc cannot sleep for ever ; that considering numbers, nature, and natural means only, a revolu- i the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situa- tion is among possible events : that it may become probable by supernatural interference ! The Al- mighty has no attribute which can take sides with US in sueh a contest But it is impossible to be temperate, and to pursue this subject through the various considerations of policv, of morals, of his- fory, natural and civil. We must be contented to • ley will force their way into every one's mind. 1 think a change already perceptible since the ori- gin "t' the • revolution. The spirit of the tine, that of the slave risino- from the his condition mollifying; the way I hope pre- paring under the auspices of Heaven, tor a total ipation, and that this is disposed in the order Ms, to he wiili the consenl of their masters, rather than by tl rpation."* CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 107 The first public movement of Mr. Jefferson, and u the one in all probability," says an able biographer, " whose spirit and object were most congenial to his heart," was the introduction of a bill in the Virginia Legislature "for the permission of the emancipation of slaves." " The moral intrepidity," continues his historian, "that could prompt him, a new member, and one of the youngest in the house, to rise from his seat with the composure of a martyr and pro- pose" this measure " amidst a body of inexorable planters, gave an earnest of his future career too un- equivocal to be misunderstood. It was an act of self-immolation worthy the best model of Sparta or Rome. He was himself a slaveholder, and from the immense inheritance to which he had succeeded, probably one of the largest in the house. He knew too that it was a measure of public odium, running counter to the strongest interests and most intracta- ble prejudices of the ruling population ; that it would draw upon him the keenest resentment of the wealthy and the great, who alone hold the keys of honour and preferment at home, besides banishing for ever all hope of favourable consideration with the govern- ment. In return for this array of sacrifices, he saw nothing await him but the satisfaction of an approv- ing conscience and the distant commendalion of an impartial posterity. He could have no possible mo- tive but the honour of his country and the gratifica- tion of a warm and comprehensive benevolence. The bare announcement of the proposition gave a shock to the aristocracy of the house, which aroused their inmost alarms. It touched their sensibilities at a in*- THE ENEMIES OF THE most irritable point, and was rejected by a sudden and u\ < rwhelming vole. Indeed," continues this author, "it was but the glimmering of that principle which constituted the polar star of his (Mr. Jefferson's) whole destiny, and which afterward burst with such astonishing magnificence upon the world in that im- mortal manifesto of his country which proclaimed that ' all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.' " It was the primary development of the work- ings of a mind which comprehended within the man- tle of its benignity every colour and condition of hu- man existence, and which saw beyond the 'rivers oi blood' and 'years of desolation,' which interven- ed, that enchanting vision which flashed upon hig earliest musings and kindled his expiring energies — the vision of emancipated man throughout the world."* From this will be seen the sentiments of this statesman, who lived where slavery existed, and knew much more of its effects than the noisy demagogues of the noilh, who are now attempting to justify or excuse it. He hoped that the eman- cipation of the slaves would take place with the consent oi their masters. The mode of emancipa- tion advocated by the abolitionists will appear from their published sentiments.! He well foresaw the rioua influence which the existence of slavery must have upon the liberties of the whole nation. u Can the liberties of a nation," says he, "be ever Wriim b and < 'pinions i f Thomas JefierBon, by Raynes. t Sec Appendix No. VII. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 109 thought safe when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God V We declare that " all men are born free and equal," But we see one half of the inhabitants of our country slaves, and becoming accustomed to this tyranny, we wit- ness it with indifference — -we suffer it, and at length approve and sanction it. We believe it right to hold the blacks in bondage. Upon inquiry we can find no difference between black and white, as re- spects their natural rights. We are therefore com- pelled to renounce the belief that man's personal freedom is the gift of God, and thus endanger the liberties of the whole nation. In ordinary times, if any intelligent citizen of this republic, whether he resided north or south of the Potomac, should declare that he had nothing to do with the subject of slavery, his patriotism would be justly distrusted. The recent acts of cruelty and oppression which have brought a reproach up- on our national character, and which have resulted directly or indirectly from slavery, have in a slight degree fulfilled what Jefferson foresaw would be its effects. The following extract, taken from a foreign paper of great respectability, will serve to show that foreigners are not unmindful of those occurrences which are bringing a reproach upon our character as a free people. " For some time past we have received nothing but melancholy intelligence from the United States of America — scenes of disorder and bloodshed, which make us shudder. One would be led to sup- 10* I H > THE ENEMIES OF THE there were neither laws nor magistrates in that country. W hai is scarcely credible is, that it is not during the scence of a revolution that the I sort to ads of cruelty that fill us with hor- ror, bul in a time oi profound peace, and under the authority of a constitution recognised by all, the sanctuary oi private dwellings is violated. Nothing urd ot hut devastation, massacres, and hang- ... Lnstead of closing a gambling house in gular manner, (provided such a course be jus- tiiied by law,) or suffering them to remain undisturb- ed, when allowed bylaw, the people take upon themselves to execute what they call justice; that '.hi' house is besieged and carried by as- sault, and its inmates instantly pu1 to death. What i> worse, however, and is difficult tor Europeans lo -land, accustomed as we arc, if not to perfect equality, at leasl to liberty, is the insurrection of the le on earth, in favour of . . The word emancipation alone, imprudently uttered, is a crime worthy of death. The unhappy is Be i zed !-\ the people, judged bythepeo- nd the bloody sentence is executed by the peo- ple. It appears as if tin magistrates l\o not dare iinsl tiu i people the authority derived from th< ui. 1 nation whdehprides itself upon be- in the universe, is roused i<> mad?iess and in order to maintain it, - wrbi< b could scarcely \>r deemed jus- li liable even in defence of its mosl sacred rights and ii. / qf slavery, which if lost hi ■//.,//, is popular m CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. Ill The cruelties which are witnessed south of the Potomac, all intelligent and discerning minds must admit, are owing to the corrupting influence of slavery. If these acts of oppression were sanction- ed by law, they would be more tolerable ; but this is not always the case ;. American citizens, who have committed no wrong against the laws of their country, are often subjected to severe punishment ; life and property are in many cases made to depend upon terms to which a man of honour and inde- pendence would scorn to submit — an abandonment of the right to speak his sentiments, the legitimate use of his reason. Nor is this state of things confined to the slave- holding states. The oppressions which were witness- ed there, may have been looked upon in other parts of the country at first, perhaps with horror, afterward with indifference, at length they are justified, and finally imitated and adopted, that attachment which exists between the different members of the republic, and the respect entertained by one, for the laws and institutions of the others, give to each an extensive influence over the whole. We may absurdly deny to the citizens of the north the right to exert their influence in ridding the country of slavery ; but the influence and effects of slavery have been felt, and will continue to be felt, in a rapidly increasing de- gree, in every part of the republic, from the borders of the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico ; and from the shores of the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts; even the savage tribes will not be entirely free from its influence. No class of individuals, however high 11_' THE ENEMES OF THE- their pretentions to purity, are removed beyond the corrupting influence of slavery; we see this exemplifi- ed in an eminent degree, it has even of late found its way into the pulpit ; ministers of the Gospel, who, if they had lived In the days of Jefferson, would have Lshamed of such conduct, arc apologists for slavery : nay, our blessed Saviour, the final J i dgb <»t all, is presented to mankind as its advocate, thus showing a manifest inconsistency between the l Christ, and the eternal and immutable laws of the Supreme. But while this great national evil is suffered to exist, and no effort made to re- it, and our children are inhaling the pestifer- ous atmosphere of the nation which it has corrupt- ed, we are cherishing a viper in our own bosoms.. We are not only endangering the liberties of Ame- rica, but bringing dishonour upon our government and institutions, in the eves of all mankind. Our : op] h ssicn, in spite of every attempt to ex- tenuate them, will be seen in their true character; they \\ ill be looked upon, notwithstanding the sacred garb of freedom under which it is attempted tocon- ceal them, as : • loathsome- despotism. It is vain, and foolish, to attempt to convince the people m any portion of the country, that they have nothing to do with the subject of slavery. It would be w< 11 to convin :e all. if possible, that this subject ought l" be treated with the utmost temperance and forbearance ; that slavery existed when the consti- tution was adopted ; that it has been recognised by the whole nation, and that the whole nation ouorht tribute with their money, if necessary, to re- CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 113 lieve the south of this burden ; that, the emancipa- tion of the slave ought to be effected with the con- sent of the master ; that the national legislature have nothing to do with the subject ; and that the legislatures of the states where slavery exists, ought not to anticipate public opinion. But to at- tempt to gag them upon this subject, either by law or violence, under the hair-brained pretence that to agitate it will endanger the union, will be as futile as it will be destructive to the existence of the union itself. It will tend to render the union odious, by identifying it with tyranny and oppression, and a renunciation of their dearest rights. Let the wea- pons of reason only be employed in this contest, and all is safe. But the abolitionists have been wronged, insulted, abused, deprived of rights which they hold dearer than their lives. A disposition is manifested to push matters to extremities against them. They will not always submit. The proud spirit of the American will revolt. He will not submit to mea- sures which will render him as very a slave as the most degraded African on the southern plantations. In such a contest, on which side would the lover of liberty and the friend of the constitution be found I It is far from the design of the aut 1 or to utter a syllable in favour of the peculiar sentiments of the abolitionists. By a free and unrestrained discus- sion and deliberation upon the various modes of eman- cipation, and an intercommunication of the sentiments f the wise and prudent, in all parts of the country, Ill that winch wjii be-most agreeable to the views, and ' with the interests of the master, and most condm ive to the welfare of the republic, will, with- out (!■ ivered and adopted. In fine, the author is Tree to confess, that he is a firm believer in trinea and policy of Jciferson ; and would -'iothing more than his sentiments on tliis rhal "error of opinion may safely be ided reason be left free to combat iu" w dune with the abolitionists. They have borne a conspicuous part in the treatment of it, because they happen to be the class of individuals who are deprived of the rights and pri- ich are here intendedtobe vindicated; and ..\ have been the subjects of many of the of law, which are intended to aned. i now be little doubt that a new system "1 measures) unknown to the framers of our constitu- nd utterly subversive of that porious plan I under which our country has long a >ught to be introduced. How formi- dable this attempt has become, the people will judge from the want of respect for the constituted autho- md for individual rights, which every where appears, and from the specious arguments and pre- tences whi< h ate u>rd to justify their violation. It ii certain that this contempt for the constitution, and for the laws of thr land, did not originate with a drunken mob. Not did the rabble first inculcate the doctrine that u a higher obligation is due to ty than to the laws,* or that any "occasion CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 115 should be left to find a law for itself" These so- phisms required greater subtlety than is ever found with the rabble; being peculiarly fitted, however, to the disposition of unprincipled and worthless beings, who have no employment but to commit depredations upon the peace and quiet of the com- munity, it is no w r onder that their practical results are seen far beyond the reach of their authors' fame. It \? not intended to misrepresent the sentiments of any man; those which have been spoken of ap- pear at another place in the language of their au- thors; but facts are candid reasoners, and if they prove these sentiments to be mischievous and de- structive in their tendency, it will require a strong argument to sustain them. That the people have a right to disregard the laws which they themselves have enacted, ought to be spurned with indignation : it is not true, under the present government in the United States. Let us hear what Washington says on this subject, in his last advice to the American people. " To the efficacy and permanency of your union, a government for the whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict, hetween the parts, can be an adequate substitute ; they must inevitably expe- rience the infractions and interruptions, which all alliances in all times have experienced. Sensible of this momentous truth, you have improved upon your first essay by the adoption of a constitution, better calculated than your former, for an intimate union, and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This government, the offspring of your own choice, uninfluenced and unaw T ed, adopt U6 THE ENEMIES OF THE ed upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers uniting security with energy, and con- tatning within itself a provision for its own amend- ment, has a claim to your confidence, and your sup- port. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoin- ed by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political system, is the right of the peo- ple to make and to alter their constitutions of govern- ment. But the constitution which at any time ex- ists, until changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obliga ory upon all. The very idea of the power and right of the peo- ple to cstabhsli government, presupposes the duty of even/ individual to obey the established govern- ment. u All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract) or awe tlie regular deliberations and action of tlie constituted authorities, are de- structive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force, to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of party, often a small but enterprising minority of the community ; and according to the alternate tri- umphs ot the different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill concerted and in- congruous projects o\ faction, rather than the organ ' 1 ^ 1 e fipom Cioero, preaerred by Lactantius. Cicero de Ro pnbl. apod L*ctaqt. luetic Divin. Lib. 6, Cap 8, CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 121 can under no pi-etence be deprived of these faculties or their legitimate use.* By what right will our legislators attempt to re- strain the liberty of speech ? Have they derived that power from the people 1 We claim this right by the laws of nature, and with these laws, neither the senate nor the people can dispense. Will they claim to have received this power from the Deity himself? Let them produce the documents grant- ing it, and we will consent to surrender a right which we cannot now surrender, without exposing ourselves to the just rebuke of heaven. If they had this power, how would they exercise it without establishing a precedent which would eventually be perverted to the destruction of liberty. We hold this right by no precarious tenure. It is confirmed to us by our constitution. Let, us declare to all who would infringe this right, that we are de- termined to vindicate and defend it ; that we are ready to die for our country, and for the cause of freedom, but that we cannot, will not surrender a * We are sometimes told that the people can do every thing. It ought well to be impressed upon the minds of the people that their power is not unbounded. There are bounds which have been fixed by the immutable principles of justice. They have no right to do wrong. The liberties of a single individual, which have been guard- ed by established laws, are sacred, and cannot rightfully be invaded even by the united voice of the whole nation besides. When it shall become the ruling sentiment that the power of the people is un. bounded, we may bid a long farewell to the freedom of our country # The tyranny of a single individual is far more tolerable than the ty- ranny of many. Power is the delight of tyrants, but let justice be the delight of freemen. 11 * -j'jn: ENEMIES of the righl which constitutes the safeguard of our consti- tution, the firmest support of our liberties. But how, we shall naturally inquire, are we to avoid the dangerous crisis to which our government approaching? How shall we again its authority ! How shall the supremacy of the laws and constitution, and the power of the ma- gistrate, be vindicated and maintained ! How shall - E spirit of anarchy be crushed, and the liberties oi our country established upon a founda- tion, whi< h shall defy the wily attacks of ambitious men ; Only by a firm adherence to the doctrine, thai our liberties are the gift of God ; that the high- ligation we owe to God requires us to obey his laws; and that the highest obligation we owe to ty requires us to obey its laws: by living to the defence of our fellow-citizen, however humble and obscure his condition, against every the least ■ bment upon his legal rights; by treating as emy, a da enemy, as a traitor to our constitution, the man who shall in any case encou- rage tl ss of grievances, real or imaginary, by popular fury, by throwing off the galling yoke of 1 gi tnce to this .M eternal and un- tional allegiance to cur God and our country. Lei this be our motl — " Perish Commerce, Perish I party, perish Van Buren, pe- , Harrison, and WebsU r. P< rish the y, rather than submit to the deslruc- i I constitution, the ruin of our reign of tyranny and oppression in plausible sha] e they may appear. APPENDIX. No. I. Establishment of a Censorship of the Press. On the 3d of August a large public meeting was held at the City Hall of Charleston, at the call of the City Council, This meeting appointed a committee of 21 members to take charge of the United States' mail, and at a future meeting report the means best adapted to put down the abolitionists. We have not at hand a list of this committee, but suffice it to say, it is headed by Ex-Senator Hayne, and composed of the mightiest men of Charleston. They have already quarantined the mail steam- boats, and established a regular censorship of the mail itself. They take the liberty to arrest every package which is in their judgment "incendiary." — In the mean time, the following letter of instructions to the Postmaster at Charleston has been pub- lished : Pest-Office Department, 5th August, 1835. Sir — My views in relation to the subject of your letter of the 3d instant, may be learned from the enclosed copy of a letter to the Postmaster at Charleston, S. C. dated 4th inst. Very respcctfullv, your obt. servant, AMOS KENDALL. Edm'd Anderson, Asst. P. M. Richmond, Va. Post- Office Department, August 4th, 1S35. P. M., Charleston, S. C. Sir— In your letter of the 29th ult. just received, you inform me that by the steamboat mail from New-York your office had been filled with pamphlets and tracts upon slavery— that the public mind was highly excited upon the subject— that you doubted the safety of the mail itself out of your possession— that 124 THE ENEMIES OF THE wised coarse, to detain these papers — and yoa n>'\v ask instructions from the Department. I pon a careful examination of the law, I am satisfied that the ter Genera] baa do legal authority to exclude newspapers ■ mail, norprohibit their carriage or delivery on account of their character or tendency, real or supposed. Probably it was not thought safe to confer on the head of an executive department a power over the press, which might be perverted and abi Hut 1 am not prepared to direct you to forward or deliver the of which you sp< I ■ Post-office Department was rve the \ »■•> pie of each and of all of the United States, and not to be used as the instrument of their destruct ion. None of the | tied have been forwarded to me, and I cannot ir myself their character and tendency ; but you inform r, " the most inflammatory and in- rv — and insurrectionary in the highest degrt I5y ii" act or direction of mine, official or private, could I be giving circulation to papers of this description, directly or indirectly. We owean obligation to the ■ the communities in which we live, and if the for ..„. ,- be perverted to destroy the latter, it is patriotism Entertaining these views, ] Mction } and will not condemn the step von have taken. I for in the character of the • umstances by which you are sur- ded. the community in which we ran i" its laws, and if any, such as Ames I destroy the shed them, these . and not disregard the lares. • perversion, no arts of int collu- • the tidelit the spirit and true intent of a the United States. It is the same at Boston to-morrow. We have I false interpretations, and go right on renderii I unqualified obedience to the laws themselves. The i'' ition which we owe to the community in which we live requires us to violate others, or in other words, lirt s us to violate its requirements, attempt at refu- • CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED, 125 No. II. Letter from the Postmaster General creating ten thou- sand Censors of th^ Press. fo-!-OjT. e Depart m>„,22dAu?iis! i 1835. To Sam'l. L. Gouverneur, Postmaster at New-York : Sir — Your letter of the 11th inst. purporting to accompany a letter from the American Anti-Slavery Society, and a resolution adopted by them, came duly to hand, but without the documents alluded to. Seeing them published in the newspapers, however, I proceed to reply without waiting to receive them officially. It was right to propose to the Anti-Slavery Society voluntarily to desist from attempting to send their publications into the southern states by public mails ; and their refusal to do so, after they were apprised that the entire mails were put in jeopardy by them, is but another evidence of the fatuity of the counsels by which they are directed. After mature consideration of the subject, and seeking the best advice within my reach, I am confirmed in the opinion, that the Postmaster General has no legal authority, by any order or regulation of his department, to exclude from the mails any spe- cies of newspapers, magazines, or pamphlets. Such a power vest- ed in the head of this department would be fearfully dangerous, and has been properly withheld Anv order or letter of mine directing or officially sanctioning the step you have taken, would therefore be utterly powerless and void, and would not, in the slightest degree, relieve you from its responsibility. But to prevent any mistake in your mind, or in that of the abolitionists, or of the public, in relation to my position and view, I have no hesitation in saying, that I am deterred from giving an order to exclude the whole series of abolition publications from the southern mails only by a want of legal power ; and that if I were situated as you are, I would do as you have done,* * Such are the sentiments of the Postmaster General of the United States. " To prevent any mistuke," he has taken special care to expose his rotten principles to the view of the whole nation. Lest Mr. Gouverneur and the abolitionists should after all fail to see his shame, he explicitly confesses that it is the want of legal power alone, that deters him from conduct far more arbitrary, than that which occasioned our disseverance from 126 THE ENEMIES OF THE fullj kn-.w in all cases the contents of pers, because the law expressly provides that they shall I ut up that they may be readily examined; and if they know those contents to be calculated and designed to produce, anil if delivered, will certainly produce the commission of the rimes upon the property and persons of their fel- low-citizens, it cannot be doubted thai it is their duty to detain them, if not even to hand them over to the civil authorities.* The Post- the dominions of (ire a Britain. He would exclude from the southern mails the whole series of publications which advocate sentiments differing from bis own. He would establish a censor- ship of the press more odious than the world has ever before witnessed. II infessbs that it is the want of power alone WHICH prevents His doing this. -Mr. Gouvemeur has already done it, and he has sanctioned his conduct. "And yet we must bear it in this land of liberty ; we must submit." Mr. Kendall what the author has before asserted, that there are tyrants in OUT country as well as in others, who are restained from acts ofthe mot intolerable oppression only by the " iruni ofpoirei." ' It't should so happen hereafter that newspapers, committed to the pi >>t -office, sh< >uld become addicted to going out at nights stealing sheep, or committing robbery, or murder, or any other such heinous crime " up^n the }>rupert>j and persons of their Jelluw-citht ris," and Bhould be caught in the very act by any person, that person, whether he were a Postmaster or private citizen, would be author- ized by the common bra, not only to " detain" such offending ut"/" hand it over to the civil authorities," even without any warrant for that purpose But in other cases, and even in the foregoing (unless the offending newspaper should be likelj to escape in the mean time) it would generally be neces- sar} to applj on oath to a magistrate, and procure his precept to be issued to the proper officer, because the Postmasters do not take the necessary oath to qualify them to execute these duties. [a all cases the cl nst the newspaper must be verified by the oaths of disinterested witnesses, and moreover the accused new-paper would be entitled to .. speedy public trial before an impartial jury, and ought claim the right to be confronted with against it, to have compulsory process for its wit- ustance of counsel in its defence. But until newspapers become addicted to these overt acts of criminality, I bave to employ another species of weapons in eombat- >"-' " ' When Mr. Kendall wrote this clause he undoubted!} looked forward in his imagination to a more im- proved and hiL-hk cultivated Btate of society, when Postmasters should become omniscient as well as just, so' as infallibly to know • •■ r contents arc calculated and designed to . tUl certainly m-oduce," and thence to CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 127 master General has no legal power to prescribe any rule for the government of Postmasters in such cases, nor has he ever attempt- ed to do so. They act in such case upon their own responsibility, and if they improperly detain or use papers sent to their offices for transmission or delivery, it is at their peril, and on their heads falls the punishment.* If it be justifiable to detain papers passing through the mail, for the purpose of preventing or punishing isolated crimes against individuals, how much more important it is that this responsibi- lity should be assumed to prevent insurrections and save communi- ties ! If in time of war, a Postmaster should detect the letter of an enemy or spy passing through the mail, which if it reached its des- tination would expose his country to invasion and her armies to destruction, ought he not to arrest it '? Yet, where is his legal power to do so ?f From the specimens I have seen of the anti- slavery publica- tions, and the concurrent testimony of every class of citizens except the abolitionists, they tend directly to produce, in the south, evils and horrors surpassing those usually resulting from foreign invasion or ordinary insurrection. From their revolting pictures and fervid appeals addressed to the senses and the pas- sions of the blacks, they are calculated to fill every family with act justly and impartially. It is much to be doubted whether we shall have such Postmasters during the present generation, at least while Mr. Kendall remains at the head of the Department. * " Pretty good Indian, one truth to two lies." This is a correct position, except as to the fact of Mr. Kendall's attempting to prescribe rules, &c. f Does not the law of nations give this right 1 By the hypo- thesis the individual who employs the mail for this purpose is a common enemy, and entitled to no rights or protection under the municipal laws. It is in " time of war " and the rules of war must govern, for the belligerents acknowledge no authority but the au- thority of the God of battles. But is it come to this, that a large and highly respectable class of our brethren and fellow-citizens are proscribed as common enemies, and denied the rights of Ame- rican citizens 1 Is an appeal already made to the laws of war "? Let it be declared to the world then, by an open and public decla- ration of hostilities. The abolitionists, if they are treated as a common enemy, are entitled to his privilege. When an appeal is made to laws of war, as between the contending parties, the mu- nicipal law must cease, and when the municipal law resumes its authority, the laws of war must cease. ENEMIES OF THE . ; produce, at no distant day, an exterminating servile ravated is the character of those papers, that the , with an unanimity never witnessed have evinced in public mcet- . i determination to seek de- I to their circulation by any means, ' ■ er is to be resisted ; but power bi lefi n :e is not lawless. ich is the pow< r whose elements are now agitating the south, the uni of that section religiously believe ; and 11 be their impression, it will require the array (•fannies to carry the mails with safety through their territories, if • instrument uf those who are sup- ion. * ;• of the i 1 publications, I iierc is ; • idle declama- - from a vacant skull, to supply the , and ( ndid reason!!:;. Why did not Mr. of these papers, and endeavour to fair deductions thai they are really calculated which he has here depic i ! i; he was afraid to take this n anlj course, the honesty, which the school- tent, ought to have I him from ; inging this grave and solemn accu- his fellow-citizens ; acharge which mrage to attempt to sustain. e ilia! peo| n them. • i it is urn si he prin- i : their reign e m di fi r< ■ rs and dini< I d .1! classes r their agents were caught distributing their tracts in Louisiana, they would be legally punishable with death; if they were apprehended in Georgia, they might be legally sent to the penitentiary ; and in each of the slave-holding states they would Miller the penalties of their respective laws. Mow, have these people a legal right to do by the mail carriers and Postmasters of the United States, acts, which if done by them- selves or their agents, would lawfully subject them to the punish- ment due to felons of the deepest dye ! Are the officers of the United States compelled by the constitution and laws, to become the instruments and accomplices of those who design to baffle and make nugatory the constitutional laws of the states — to fill them with sedition, murder, and insurrection — to overthrow those institutions which are recognised and guaranteed by the consti- it » If ' • And IS it entirely certain, that any existing law of the United would protect mail carriers and Postmasters against the penalties of the state laws, if they shall knowingly carry, distri- bute, or hand out any of these forbidden papers ! If a state, by a constitutional law, declare anj specific act a crime, how are ■ ■1 the United States, who may he found guilty of that ,11 this it may be answered, that the laws of the states have no force or validity beyond their own limits, and have no claim to the obedience Of any individual residing beyond these limits. This doctrim is too plain to require illustration. If any further aiib'.v, r can be n. cessary, it will be found in what follows. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 131 act, to escape the penalties of the state law 1 It might be in vain for them to plead that the post-office law made it their duty to deliver all papers which came by mail. In reply to this argument it might be alleged, that the post-office law imposes penalties on. Postmasters for "improperly" detaining papers which come by the mail, and that the detention of the papers in question is not im- proper, because their circulation is prohibited by valid state laws. Ascending to a higher principle, it might be plausibly alleged, that no law of the United States can protect from punishment any man, whether a public officer or citizen, in the commission of an act which the state, acting within the undoubted sphere of her reserved rights, has declared to be a crime. Can the United States furnish agents for conspirators against the states and clothe them with impunity 1 May individuals or combinations deliber- ately project the subversion of state laws and institutions, and lighting their lirebrands beyond the jurisdiction of those states, make the officers of the United States their irresponsible agents to apply the flames 1 Was it to give impunity to crime, that the several states came into the Union, and conferred upon the general government the power " to establish post-offices and post-roads." In these considerations there is reason to doubt, whether these abolitionists have a right to make use of the mails of the United States to convey their publications into states where their circula- tion is forbidden by law ; and it is by no means certain, that the mail carriers and Postmasters are secure from the penalties of that law, if they knowingly carry, distribute, or hand them out, Every citizen may use the mail for any lawful purpose. The abolitionists may have a legal right to its use for distributing their papers in New-York, where it is lawful to distribute them ; but it does not follow that they have a legal right to that privilege for such a purpose in Louisiana or Georgia, where it is unlawful. As well may the counterfeiter and the robber demand the use of the mails for consummating their crimes, and complain of a viola- tion of their rights when it is denied. * * This is emphatically "darkening counsel by words without knowledge." What confusion of thought is here evinced? Very few would suspect that this was meant for reasoning. The ques- tion presented is this — Will the laws of the United States protect mail carriers and Postmasters in yielding obedience to their re- quirements, when they are contravened by state laws, as in the THE ENEMIES OF THE Upon these grounds a Postmaster may well hesitate to be tlie • the abolitionists in sending their incendiary publications !.!i' Are these laws of the United States constitu- rhis i- not denied. It is doubtless admitted, for Mr. Kendall and ever] I ■ n an oath to support and hem. Will Mr. Kendalldare pretend that these laws are. not within the powers of the general government ' Why then did ■: thenij an oath which lie knew he must Will he confess thai his views on the subject of their constitutionality an ' Will he, in short, boldly assert that the laws regulating this establishment are void, and that he has hitherto acted without authority I But no attempt has been made to show that the <_ r «'neral government, in enacting these laws, i itutional powers. Until, therefore, Mr. Kendal] aavuires boldness to make this attempt (when he will doubtless be met in due form), we must take it tor granted that e acts of < . Emulating the oarriage and delivery of Is, and pamphlets, rHE lano," and that " the jw be bound thereby y any thing in the constitution or lairs of n/u/ state to the e :■."' 13 ut Mr. 'I inquires — li' a constitutional state law should come in collision with this -'"//•, which must yield I Profound I It' an irresistible body should rush headlong against an body, what would he the effect 1 which must yield 7 Wonder, (J ye philosophers, and In astonished, ye knights of thunder ! \\ e can im igine no other effeel from such a collision than a great noise, like the effeel of Mr Kendall's irregular and ■ions. But which must yield 1 We shall he relieved lrom deciding this question, and that presented above, by remem- I that Buch cases never occur. Both suppositions are absurd. Whenil is remembered that tin point it already conceded, that the law ■> ,.t the I nited States requiring the transmission of these papers bj the mail carrirrs, and their delivery by the Postmasters ! law-, and supreme in their authority, it follows from the first principle m ethics that no power on earth can rightfully ob- struct their operation. Ail laws, bj whatever authorities enacted, forbidding what they command to be done, are necessarily void and of no effect. 'Phis 1^ the way then in which the mall carriers arid Postmasters pe the |iena hies of .Male laws, » and all other laws which I carr) ing and delivering the papers in question. ■ the hi,,-;' the Postmaster (in, (ml is ■ ■ ispapers from on account of' then " [fanj answer should be required to the constant and unproved imputations which Mr. k'"' 1 - 1 ' : " employ respecting the abolitionists and their CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 133 into states where their circulation is prohibited by law, and much more may Postmasters residing in those states refuse to distribute them. Whether the arguments here suggested are sound or not, ef one thing there can be no doubt : — If it shall ever be settled by the authority of Congress, that the Post-office establishment may be legally, and must be actually employed as an irresponsible agent, to enable misguided fanatics, or reckless incendiaries, to stir up with impunity insurrection and servile war in the southern states, those states will of necessity consider the general govern- ment as an accomplice in the crime — they will look upon it as identified in a cruel and unconstitutional attack on their unques- tionable rights and dearest interests, and they must necessarily treat it as a common enemy in their means of defence. Ought the Postmaster or the Department, by thrusting these papers upon the southern states now, m defiance of their laws, to hasten a state of things so deplorable ?* writings, it will be found by a recurrence to the preceding remarks continued in note on (p. 128). We will pass over this clause by reminding him, that " Hyperboles so daring and so bold," Lawless are, yet by honesty controlled. * No part of this clause, it is presumed, was meant for argu- ment. The first part, in effect, advises Postmasters to refuse to forward abolition publications " to states where their circulation is prohibited by law ;" and the Postmasters residing in those states to refuse to deliver them to the persons entitled to them, in cases where they have been sent. So, his " want of legal power" has not saved us, after all, from this tyrannical measure ; nay, the press is already subjected to the authority of tkn thousand Censors. What remains was doubtless intended to apprize the coming Congress that it is to be forced into a compliance with the demands of the south i and in case it shall have the dignity and independence to refuse, that then the glorious scheme of nul- lification is to be introduced into the very Capitol, under the sanc- tion and favour of " the powers that be." In answer to all that remains it may justly be said, that if Mr Kendall and Mr. Gouverneur had maintained a stern and uncom- promising integrity to the trust committed to them, an inflexible determination to uphold the supremacy of the laws, and not to deviate from the course of conduct which the legislature had pre- scribed, and which they had bound themselves to pursue, under the solemnity of an oath, this conduct would have been infinitely, more wise, safe, and expedient than that which they have adopted. This is perhaps the most extraordinary public document that xz* JUL ENEMIES OF THE I d>» not desire to 1"- understood as afTa-ming that the sugges- n thrown oat, ought, without the action of higher autho- be considered as the settled construction of the law, or re as tin- rule of their future action. It is only intended to Bay, that in a sadden emergency, involving prin- ve ami consequences so serious, the safest course for . and the best for the country, is that which you have It prevents the certain seizure of all the mails in the aggrieved iih .i view to the interception and destruction of the ob- ra — the interruption of commercial and friendly cor- respondencc — the loss of confidence in the safety of the mailcon- - — and the probable overthrow of the authority of the United States, as fir as regards the Post-oiTice establishment, throughout halfthe territory of the Union. It prevents a Bpeedy interruption of commerce and trade bc- tween the i itiea of the north and the south; for there are abun- dant evidences, that the vessels or steamboats which should be ighted with these papers, whether in the mail ox out. would not long be suffered to float in safety in the south- ern po It allays, in some degree, the excited feelings of the white man again8l the blaek; which changes the dominion over the slave • of mildness to one of severity, and puts the free negro in imminent peril of his life. \ on .a o-d being made yourself the agent and accomplice of Mind fanaticism or wicked design, in a course of proceedings, which, if sue Id not fail to repeat, on our shores, the itry, and, taken with the preceding, i !i productive of greater mischief than any other single cause since the commencement of our national existence. The sentiments which these letters contain hive already extended their fatal influence in! i irtmentofour moral system. \ which this effect is produced we have before con- Wheri we consider the utter fallacy of almost every po- sition which these letters assume, thai the writer has adopted the popular clamour, and the Bubtlety which is displi yed throughout, and when we also consider that the great body of the people make no pretensions to knowledge of these subjects, we can hardly come to any other conclusion than that .Mr. Kendall intended to them and lead them Sstrai . CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 135 horrors of St. Domingo, and desolate with exterminating war half the territory of our happy country. You prevent your government from being made the unwilling agent and abetter of crimes against the states which strike at their very existence, and give time for the proper authorities to discuss the principles involved, and digest a safe rule for the fu- ture guidance of the Department. While persisting in a course whieh philanthropy recommends and patriotism approves, I doubt not that you and the other Post- masters who have assumed the responsibility of stopping these inflammatory papers in their passage to the south, will perceive the necessity of performing your duty in transmitting and deli- vering ordinary newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets, with per- fect • punctuality. Occasion mast not be given to charge the Post- masters with carrying their precautions beyond the necessities of the case, or capriciously applying them to other cases in which there is no necessity ; and it would be the duty as well as the in- clination of the Department, to punish such assumptions with unwonted severity. This suggestion I do not make because I have any apprehension that it is needed for your restraint ; but because I wish this paper to bear upon its face a complete expla- nation of the views which I take of my own duty in the existing emergency. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Amos Kendall. No. III. PUBLIC MEETING. At a large and respectable meeting* of the citizens of Utica, convened pursuant to public notice, at the Court-room in the Academy, on the 17th day of October, 1835, for the purpose of takino- into consideration the resolution of the Common Council, passed last evening, granting permission for the holding of a State Abolition Convention in this place, on motion of Hon. Sam. Beardsley, Rudolph Snyder, Esq. was appointed President, and * Many respectable citizens, it cannot be denied, were at the meeting ;*but the most 'patriotic, loud, and clamorous expressions of indignation at the vote of the Common Council emanated from that class of " peaceable and reputable citizens," who acted so conspicuous a part in the doings of the Wednesday following. Till: ENEMIES OF THE John C Devereux, Ephraim Hart, Ezra S. Barnum, Kellogg lowman, Nicholas Smith, and John. B. Pease, ,1 motion of 1). Wager, Esq. Isaiah Tif- fanv and William C. i re chosen Secretaries. S Beardsley, a committee of five was U (1 by the chair, to prepare and report Resolutions expres- ag, consisting of the following: — 1 M. Churchy Rutger B- Miller, B I! Lansing. After the committee had retired, the Hon. Joseph Kirkland, . entered th< . and being invited to a .dent, made a -short address, in which, from licacy towards another body over which he presided, he declined the invitation ; but at the same time expressed his sition to the resolution of the Common Council, which occasioned the present meeting * ifter a .short recess, by Hon. S. Beardsley, its chairm d the following preamble and resolutions for the considi ration of the meeting; which having been read, and tin- meeting having been addressed by several gentlemen, wero adopted. Qtica, here convened, deem it unnecessary to i 'ii- oftheir decided hostility to the movements ially to the assembling of their Con- vention in this city on the 21st instant, or at any other time. Their views upon this subject have, on former occasions, been ed and reiterated : they arc unchanged, and probably un- . 'If. The public condemnation of these movements is i. re, nearlj unanimous ; and the present meet- i called forth only 1>\ the new and unexpected atti- leUcacy" v\ill the public believe this man I ed toward i!i«' body over which he presided, when he could short address," and counte- iii the most decided and emphatic manner, proceedings reproaching the conduct and character of that body. His "ieel- icy M were doubtli aliar character. When inch complained of, was passed, Gen Kirk- I md .'i coui ...s assured the ( Souncil, that the; had a complete legal warrant for that act; and nov< be is at- tempting t-> nullify a legal a\h\ valid act of thai body—to destroy a authority. This was a «/< bcab situation to be sure. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 137 tude which has been assumed by the Common Council. This meeting has learned, with no less surprise than regret and morti- fication, that the Common Council of this city, last night, by a vote of seven to four, assumed to grant permission for the hold- ing of a State Abolition Convention on the 21st instant, at the place where we are now assembled. It is this vote which has brought the present meeting together ; a vote, for which we see nothing like a justification, nor indeed an apology, and which, looking to the previous acts and declarations of several of the Aldermen who sustained it, is wholly inconsistent with those acta and declarations.* Therefore, Resolved, That the said vote of a majority of said Common Council is regarded by this meeting, not only as a fla- grant usurpation of power, as that body has no rightful authority to grant such permission, but as a direct indignity to the good citizens of this place, f * The Aldermen who voted for this resolution, are far from deserving this insinuation of inconsistency. The respect and esteem which they receive from the community where they are known, is well worth the emulation of the best among their tra- duce rs. t Seven Aldermen voted for the resolution and four against it. One member of the Council, who is distinguished for his firm- ness and integrity, and a fearless discharge of his duties, who was absent at the time the resolution was passed, afterward express- ed his regret that he was deprived of the satisfaction of adding his own vote to those by which it was carried. It is now pretty well understood, that this violent and unwarrantable opposition to the authority of the Common Council, and the ungenerous aspersions cast upon the members of that body, were employed by a few in- dividuals as a political movement, to obtain, by stratagem, what they had not been able to obtain by fair and open conduct — a po- litical ascendency in the city — by producing among the citizens disaffection and distrust toward those with whom they had in- trusted the administration of its affairs, and it is exceedingly to be regretted that many well-meaning persons were seduced into the measure. The scheme, however, totally failed, and Kaman has been hanged upon the same gallows that he had erected for Mor- decai. The originators of this crusade against all that is valuable in society are looked upon by the respectable and virtuous por- tion of the community where they reside, (and Utica, it is be- lieved, is not behind other cities in respect to the virtue and re- spectability of its inhabitants) with a calm and deliberate expres- sion of scorn and contempt, 138 THE ENEMIES OF THE R . Thai we highly approve of the course which the • !i his city has taken upon this exciting- subject; a course, idgment of this meeting, not less the dictate of a proper . than of sound patriotism and public virtue. id, That we proffer to the minority of the Common Council who opposed the adoption of the resolution to which we fore r. ferred, an expression of the thanks and the cordial approbation of this meeting^ That this meeting, unmoved by passion or prejudice, but infltH need only by a just regard for itself, and for what is the quiet and repose of the whole community, will not Bubmil to the indignity of an abolition assemblage being beld in a public building of the city, reared as this was, by the contribu- : its citizens, and designed to be used for salutary public . and not as a receptacle for deluded fanatics or reckless . liaries.* QCUmbent duty of every citizen to make use of all lawful and proper, measures to arrest the disgrace which would settle upon this city by the public assemblage of the Convention appointed to be held on the 21st instant ; and this meeting adjourns, it will adjourn to meet on that day at nine o'clock, A. M. at this placet < m the motion of !> W i ;. r, Esq. . cd, That tl of this meeting be signed by i rs, and published in the Oneida Whig, Utica Observer, : R . tnd Evangelical Magazine.} I was then adjourned by the President to the 21st • ' o'< lock, A M at the same place. Rudolph Snyder, President. r Devereux, Ephraim Hart, Ezra j S. B mum, Kellogg Hurlburt, Adam i Vice Presidents. B rman, Nich Smith, John 15. Tease, S h Tiffany, W. C. Noyes, v Secretaries. • violence which is here threatened, it has been seen, was fully execute ly seen what «* lawful anfV proper measures ,, yed. tie and Baptist Register would Wil- forego the honour: they condemn these proceedings. ' ' is the City Attorney, and was- elevated to that station bj those very nun whose characters he has thus CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 139 No. IV. GREAT CONSERVATIVE MEETING, Of "the citizens of Utica, not abolitionists, but nevertheless in favour of maintaining the supremacy of the laws at all times, and under all circumstances, and who are opposed to any abridg- ment of the right of free and temperate discussion, guarantied by the constitution," held at the court-room of the academy, Tues- day evening, Oct. 20, 1835, pursuant to a solemn and deliberate resolve of a committee of thirty citizens. The meeting was organized by appointing Bradford Seymour, Chairman, H. Nash, E. M. Gilbert, and Dr. J. P. Batchclder, assistant Chairmen ; John Bradish, Esq. James Sayre, and James McGregor, Secretaries. On motion of Mr. H. Bushnell, the following persons were ap- pointed a committee to draft resolutions, and present to the meet- ing ; Dolphus Bennet, Horace M. Hawcs, Esq., T. B. Dixon, Dr. Rathbun, and Andrew Hanna. The committee retired, and after a short recess (during which the agitators of tumult, who had come to the meeting, produced some disorder and confusion) returned, and reported by H. M. Hawes, Esq. their chairman, the following preamble and resolu- tions. Preamble ; — Whereas, freedom of speech and of the press, and of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, are guarantied by the constitution, and cannot in any wise be abridged without striking a death blow to our liberties, therefore, Resolved, that we will maintain the supremacy of the laws by all legal and proper means ; resisting every attempt to invade said right, and will on all occasions, and by all just means, pro- tect every member of the American republic, in the free, tempe- rate, and undisturbed use of the same, (hissing and clamour, by the agitators, "hustle him out.") Resolved, that for the protection of the constitutional rights of our wantonly traduced. It is by the favour and indulgence of that body which he is here villi fying, that he has a voice and partici- pation in their counsels. The act of meanness which he is guilty of has few parallels. 1 1(1 Tin: ENEMIES OF THE Of the union of these states, we ... . ind our sacred honour:'' red, thai toe make the like pledge for the protection of the whether his condi- tio,, be high Lh< r he inhabit an humble cottage or sit iir of state. [ved, that the Id ,hic?i the people themselves in their authority, and ought to be held an d uiviol the meeting for the purpose, and who . lling, which . mechanics sntal in calling the i rvative measures'), '• I to the pride of their fellows for the preservation um,bu1 they wire immediately clamoured down " and through tin \ G. Dauby, R. B. Miller, of the"" agitators,'' icted, and a mdtio I carried for adjournment, amid the Individuals who; fa ed the resolu- tions, were threatened with violence, bul were protected from in- jur) In their friends. \- Bomevih calumniators have represented, thai this meeting* to favour ;!i<- schemes of the aboli- u to declare upon their CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 141 veracity, as men of truth and honour, that the assertions from what source soever it may have eminated, is a base falsehood.* BRADFORD SEYMOUR, Chairman. Henry Nash, J. P. Batchelder, Assistant Chairmen. John Bradish, \ James Sayre, > Secretaries. James M'Gregor, ) No. V. AbolitignConyention— Meeting of the Citizens — Adjocrn- ment of the convention, sine die. At an adjourned meeting of the citizens of Utica, held on the 2lst October, 1835, at 9 o'clock, A. M., pursuant to a resolution of the meetiug held on the 17th inst., Rudolph Snyder, Esq. was ap- pointed President, and John C Devereux, Ephraim Hart, Ezra S. Barndm, Kellogg Hurlburt, Adam Bowman, Nicholas Smith, and John B. Pease, Vice Presidents ; and on motion of D. Wager, Esq.; Isaiah Tiffany and William C. Noyes, were chosen Secretaries. On motion of J. Watson Williams, Esq., Resolved. That a committee of five be appointed by the Chair to report resolutions expressive of the sense of the meeting, where- upon the Chair appointed Messrs. J. Watson Williams, Chester Hayden, George J. Hopper, Rutger B. Miller, and Harvey Barnard such committee. — That committee, after a short recess, by its chairman, J. Watson Williams, reported the following preamble and resolutions, which, on motion, were unanimously adopted: — The citizens of Utica having, on the evening of the 17th instant, expressed their decided disapprobation of the vote of the Common Council of the city granting the use of the Court-rooms to the * The pretence that this meeting was designed to favour the abolitionists, it is believed, came only from a few individuals, who have no just claims to characters, for truth or honesty. This was probably the largest meeting ever assembled in Utica, on any oc- casion. Of its character and designs the public will judge from the report of its proceedings. The sentiments contained in the resolutions reported, cannot fail to meet the cordial approbation of every lover of his country. 13 I 12 THE ENEMIES OP THE - c filed to assemble here this day; urning to this time, toprevtnt an as- i araeter in a building erected by the volun- t . itribution of the said citiz r an ! different purposes; ,. pursuant to that adjournment, deem it a I i to ] heretofore irequcntly ex- to the deluded and fanatical efforts of the B i the eyes, not only of the people of this re iixed upon cur proceedings. We • to prevent, if possible, I r and lawful means, the disgrace which will sully cur name? nd most directly to the disturbance of the public | cace, and no less directly to the disruption of the now happy i > rmitted to make our city the scene of i : noxious deliberations. Our determination and : their convening here ; and we now solemnly i lie against their attempting to assemble 'To add force to that remonstrance, wc sed as we are, as go< d and peaceful citizens, to urb the public peace, and deter- e are to take no part in measures of personal violence .tatiop.s rcsjonsiWc .1 detcrmina- bich it is their ! them tate of feeling | unlawful with the Id them I ; o i and madness unchris- t upon '.hem as lion that an adhe- to holdaCi nvention in defiance ir fe! low- us acts, and 1 repute, CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 143 Therefore, Resolved, That a committee ot twenty-five of our fel- low-citizens be appointed by the chairman of this meeting, whose duty it shall be to ascertain the proposed time and place of the meeting of the said Convention of abolitionists, and express to the delegates of the said Convention who may he present in this city the opinions entertained here and throughoiight the state and union, of the impropriety and rashness of attempting to assemble for the pur- poses expressed in the call for said Convention; and that the said committee be instructed to urge upon the said delegates the evil con- sequences which are likely to ensue if they persist in their unwise attempt ; to represent to them the excited state of public feeling here, and the utter abhorrence in which the doctrines and measures of the abolitionists are held ; to warn them to abandon their perni- cious movements, and to regard, as becomes all citizens studious of the public quiet and welfare, the frequent remonstrances of the great body of the peoplo of this state, and of the union, against their obnoxious designs * Resolved, That they also be instructed to inform the said dele- gates of the number and character of the persons composing this meeting ; that it is no riotous assemblage convened for the purpose of encouraging or abetting tumult and disorder ; but a meeting of good and reputable citizens of Uiica, of all classes and parties, assembled to prevent if they can do so by their advice and remonstrances, a re" sort to violence and insult, by urging, before it is too late, upon the delegates to said Convention, to forsake their determination of as- sembling among us at a time when the public feeling is so violently excited against their rash measures.! * " For I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. 1 ' — Jefferson. t What a ridiculous appearance this " committee" must have made, hunting about the streets after the delegates ot this Conven- tion, in order to tell them " of the number and character of the per- sons composing this meeting," and how well it comported with the dignity of a judge and a representative ! They needed no formal resolution in order to remind the Convention of the number and character of their constituents, for of both their number and cha- racter the said delegates were well informed, upon the first entrance of this ; - committee of twenty-five" into the church, by the horrid yells and obscene behaviour of the horde of drunken and wretched beings with whom they were surrounded, and who had followed their leaders, alias "committee," in order to cheer and stimulate them by their blasphemies, in their direful purpose ; and produce a,, stronger " pressure of public opinion." A formal resolution that thi* ! 1 i THE ENEMIES OF THE The President then appointed as the committee mentioned in the lotion, Messrs. Chester Hay den, Rutger B.Miller, Samuel I Ezra Dean, William Tracy, J. Watson William?, E. A- re, A. G. Dauby, < >. B .Matteson, G. W. Hubhard, J. D. Lfland, Benj. Ballou, Augustus Hickcox, A. B. Williams, Julius / ~ mi r. Harvey Barnard, T. M. Francis, B. F. Cooper, Isaiah Till'any, I hi\u\ Wager, T S. Gold, Ahin Blakesley, Burton Haw- 1- .' ase .\« w< II. J. II. Dwight. On motion of E. A. Wctmore, Esq., Ived, That the Hon. Jo.sej)h Kirkland, Mayor of the city, be ited to act as chairman of the said committee. The meeting then took a short recess for the purpose of enabling the said committee to discharge the duties incumbent upon them, and in a short time was again organized for the purpose of receiving their report, which was made by Hon. C. Hayden, their chairman, as follows : — REPORT. .1/r. r'retident — The committee appointed pursuant to the reso- lution of this meeting to wait on the delegates of the Convention of the abolitionists, appointed to be held in this city on this day, and communicate to them the sentiments of this meeting, respectfully report, That his Honor the Mayor, named as chairman of your commit- tee, being mad.' acquainted with his appointment, declined from con- siderations connected with his official character to act as such ; at riotous assemble"— that these were " good and reputable cUbenaof in. a." wouldbe quite as satisfactory to the H saul de- ls the assurance of the " committee," that they had come there with just intentions, when one of their number, while attempt- in • io rob the secretary of the papers belonging to the Convention, threatened to knock him down, it he did not give them up. This whole farce is too ridiculous to he treated with seriousness. Nobody can U- deceived by it, who desires to know the truth. The candid nadir will examine the conduct and doings of these men, and will DO mora relj upon their declarations of innocence, than he would "i"" ll "' declarations of an accused person, made for the purpose oi exculpating himself from -nilt. Let him act upon this principle, which has long been judicially settle,! to he the only true one i^ od he will have as little difficulty in determining what 1 L'lult is to he attached to the prime movers of this "com- B will, in ascertaining the " number and character" of their constituents. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 145 the same time expressing his npprobation of the spirit and temper of the resolutions of this meeting, proposed to be communicated.* That thereupon your committee proceeded to ihe Bleecker-strect Presbyterian Church, where the members of the Convention were already assembled, and finding the doors open, entered and proceed- ed to read the resolutions and to make the communication with which they were charged, — whereupon, after some little delay, the Convention yielded to the pressure of public opinion and adjourned without day.t That when your committee entered the church, the secretary of the Convention, or some person for him, was reading some paper, upon which, however, no question was afterward taken. Which report, on motion, was unanimously adopted, and was re- ceived with loud and repeated acclamations. On motion of B. F. Cooper, Esq., Resolved, That when this meeting adjourns, they will carry out the triumph of public opinion this day achieved, by refraining en- tirely from all violence, and discouraging it to the best of their abili- ties on the part of all others of our fellow-citizens. On motion of D. Wager, Esq., Resolved, That the officers of this meeting be authorized to call a meeting of the citizens of Utiea, if they shall deem it necessary, to * The Mayor had been repeatedly called upon by the friends of the Constitution to take measures to prevent violence toward the Convention, and to preserve the peace of the city, which he was re- quired to do by the duties of his office, and by the solemn oath he had taken ; but he did nothing, nor were the police officers found at their posts at the time of the tumult. From the beginning of those inflammatory and revolutionary proceedings, which produced these disorders, the Mayor (Gen. Kirkland) was found among the " agi- tators;" and even on the day that was to consummate the city's dis- grace, he was still giving them his countenance. And, as appears from the above report, he was foolish enough to suppose that his de- clining to act openly in violation of the laws, and of the duties of his office, would save him from censure, while his secret efforts were employed to subserve the infamous designs of this " committee." The insulted community where he resides, demands of this man an " apology" for his conduct. t If the " committee" mean, by yielding " to the pressure of pub- lic opinion" that the Convention yielded to the " pressure" of a sa- vage and furious mob, and of the violence with which they were threatened, and with which some were actually assailed, then they are correct, otherwise their statement as to the means employed to break up the Convention is at least erroneous. 13 * I Hi THE ENEMIES OF THE tn assemblage of the abolition Convention, or any other it i- in of a similar character within the city.* ( »ii motion of J. M Hatch, Esq., Resolved, That the thanks of tins meeting be returned to the committee of twenty-five citizens, for the able, effectual, and proper manner in which they have performed the duties assigned them. On motkffl, resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting- be pub- fished in the Utica I Observer, Oneida Whig, Baptist Register, and J IvsngehcaJ Magazine. Thfl meeting was then adjourned. RUDOLPH SNYDER, President, John C. Devereux, Ephrraim Hart, Ezra S. Barm m. Kellogg Huri.burt, Adam Bowman, JN I- HOLAS S.MITH, i John B. Pease, J 1 s \ I A aii Tiffany, ) c t • > \ Secretaries. No. VI. TONE of the south. [From the Louisiana Journal.} " The following has been handed to us by the Committee of " Vigilance of the parish of East Feliciana for publication. u Fifty Thousand Dollars Rcn-ard. "The above reward will be given on the delivery to the Com- " mittee of \ igilance for the parish of East Feliciana, La. of the " notorious Abolitionist, Arthur Tappan, of New-York. pera opposed to Abolition throughout the United u Mates are requested to give publicity to the above." The above notice has gained general publicity through the me- dium of the public journals, both at the north and the south. A ward is here offered for the abduction of one of our most ■■teamed fellow-citizens. Should he tall into the hands of south- it. ^..r-.*' he would, beyond doubt, be put to death, for no other Clime than that which gave birth to American freedom. ore daring spirit of opposition to the undisputed rights of individuals, than i- manifested in this resolution, is rarely witnesscvl . : sock '\ CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 147 Let the friends of their country be awake. There are ruffians enow who would execute the infamous deed, for a less reward than is here offered. " The ccnvards who would suffer a fellow-citizen to be torn from their society in order to be thus offered a sacrifice to laioless tyranny, would merit that everlasting infamy ichich awaits those who are seeking the perpetration of that act.* The Georgia Journal gives an official account of a meeting of the citizens of Morgan,- Walton, and Clark counties, on the subject of the proceedings of the abolitionists. Among the resolutions adopted one holds the following language : — *' We detest your incendiaries ; and, believe us-, we will wreak " the direst vengeance on their heads if ever they come within our " jurisdiction ; and in the most solemn terms we declare to the ** world, in whosoever's hands we may find any of these incen- " diary tracts, with an intent, in any manner, to scatter those fire- " brands among us, without judge or jury the gallows will " be his or their doom. Then, in the most solemn language, " we warn ye, fanatics of every order, come not to the south ; — " danger is abroad in the land 1" MESSAGE OF THE GOVERNOR OF N. CAROLINA. Governor Swain, of North Carolina, in his message, dated Nov. 16, 1835, holds the following language, in relation to the anti-slavery publications : — " It is apparent to all who have any accurate knowledge of our " condition, that the public safety imperiously requires the sup- pression of these wicked and mischievous publications, injuri- ** ous alike to the best interests of the master and the slave. " This, I apprehend, cannot be effected without the co-operation " of the legislatures of the states from which these missiles pro- " 'ceed. Such an interference with our domestic concerns, on the " part of the citizens of a foreign state, either encouraged or per- " mitted by the government, icoutd at once justify a resort to the " modes ordinarily adopted for the adjustment of national differ- " ences. If we should exercise greater forbearance in the present 44 instance, it is not because the wrongs we suffer are less injuri- " ous or mortifying when inflicted by the hands of brethren. The * See Jefferson's draft of an Address to the King, 1774.. I 18 THE ENEMES OF THE •• obvious design and tendency of these proceedings is to subvert " ill.- constitution and laws of the country ; and wc have therefore " an indubitable right to ask of our .sister states the adoption of such U i become necessary and requisite to suppress II them totally and promptly" And the governor concludes by ig, that, upon this point, there "will be but one opinion ai!n -ijlt the slave-holding .states ; that ali will join in demanding sacrifice which will remove oar only remaining security against the most insufferable tyranny. Let this demand be com- plied with, and there will then be much truth in the declaration of <>ur enemies, that our Declaration of Independence is nothing but .i " »nat rhetorical flourish." But what course will be most wise and prudent in the present emergency, while we are threat- ened with nullification on the one hand and the most odious des- potism on the other, is a solemn and momentous question. The prudence, a spirit of forbearance and conciliation will be required. We will voluntarily sacrifice our property and our lives to promote the welfare of our southern brethren; but if they make the demand w Inch Governor Swain* says they will make with per- fect unanimity, the duties which we owe to our countrv, to pos- terity, and to the cause of freedom throughout the world, forbid compliance. We cannot, will not submit. Bill in order thai we may have a full knowledge of our rights and duties in the present emergency, the following extracts are given from the National and Stat,' Constitutions: — AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. ■ -s shall make no law respecting an establish- "menl of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or " abridging the freedom oj of the press ; or the right of " the peoplt peaceably to assemble and petition the government for • A." Art. 1. "The right of the people to be secure in their persons* ■ ml effects, against unreasonable searches and " seizures, BhalJ not be violated ; and no warrants shall issue but " u i'"" ted by oath or affirmation, and par- of George M'Duffie, Governor of South Caro- lina, ]■ CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 149 " ticularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or " things to be seized." Art. 5. " No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or " otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indict- " mcnl of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or na- " val forces, or in the militia, when in actual service, in time of war " or public danger : nor shall any person be subject, for the same " offence, to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall he " be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness against him- " self, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due tl process of law ; nor shall private property be taken for public " uses, without just compensation." Art. 6. " In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the "right to a speedy public trial BY AN IMPARTIAL JURY "of the state, and district wherein the crime shall have been com- mitted, which district shall have been previously ascertained by "law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; " to he confronted with the icitnesscs against him; to have com- "putsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favour ; and to " have the assistance of counsel in defence. " This constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall "be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties, or which shall be " made under the authority of the United States, shall be thk su- "freme law of the land; and the judges, in every state, shall be "bound thereby, any thing in the -constitution or laws of any state " to the contrary notwithstanding." Const. U. S. Art. G. § 2. From the Constitution of New- York. " Every citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his senti- "ments on all subjects; being responsible for the abuse of that "right; and no law shall ee passed to restrain or abridge " the liberty of speech or of the press." Art. 7. § 8. From the Constitution of Maine. " Every citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his senti- c: ments on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of this liberty. e: No laws shall be passed regulating or restraining the freedom of «'the press. "Art. 1. § 4. From the Constitution of Massachusetts. " Liberty of the press is essential to security of freedom in a state: " it ought not therefore to be restrained in this cojamonwealth." Part 1. f 16. EMIES OF 'HIE Tampshire. ■ the security of freedom e io be inviolablv preserved." Fart >nt. i a ri_ r !it to a freedom of speech, and of - concerning the 1 1 '' ti oa • at, and therefore the freedom of the press ought 1. art. 13. From the Constitution of Connect ievt. peak, write, and publish his "sentiments on all . ' ' ' ing responsible for the abuse of that "lib. .• .11 ever he passed to curtail the liberty of speech, Art. 1. From the Con ■Pennsylvania. to < very person who un- . i : . • I. rislature, or any "branch vernment; and no law shall ever be made to re- The free communication of thoughts and invaluable rights of man ; and every citizen I eak, write, and print ox any ^cject, being rcspon- that liberty." Art. 0. § 7. duo, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illi- i ana, contain declarations and provisions, words with the preceding; and the freedom of ui all of the remaining states, except New- .'■ lured to the citizens by express pros- titutions. George M'Dufi n:. The following are extracts from the message of George- M. 4 Duffie, to the legislature of South Carolina at their session com- mencing November] 1835. After entering into a consideration of the measures and sentiments of the abolitionists, he says: — us deliberate opinion, thai the Laws of everj community! "should punish this species of interference by dbatb without No humane institution, in my ■ 11<- makes no difTerence between colonizationists and aholi- • louneef the same sentence against both, as will be CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 151 " opinion, is more manifestly consistent with the will of God, '• than domestic slavery. If we look into the elements of which " all political communities are composed, it will be found that ser- u vitude in some form, is one of the essential constituents, In "the very nature of things, there must be classes of persons to "discharge all the different offices of society, from the highest to "the lowest, .... Where these offices are performed by members " of the political community, a dangerous element is obviously in- "troduced into the bod)' politic. Hence, the alarming tendency " to violate the rights of property by agrarian legislation, which " is beginning to be manifest in the older states, where universal " suffrage -prevails without domestic slavery ; a tendency that will "increase in the progress of society, with the increasing inequality " of wealth. No government is worthy the name, that does not prc- " tcct the right of property, and no enlightened people will long submit " to such a mockery, In a word, the institution of domestic " slavery, supersedes the necessity of an order of nobility, and all " the other appendages of a hereditary system of government " Domestic slavery, therefore, instead of being an evil, is the corner " stone of our republican edifice. No patriot, who justly estimates " our privileges, will tolerate the idea of emancipation at any period " however remote, or on any condition of pecuniary advantage, hoio- " ever favourable. I would as soon think of opening a negotiation "for selling the liberties of the state at once, as] for making any " stipulation for the ultimate emancipation of our slaves " If the legislature should concur in these views of this important "element of our political and social system, our confederates " should be distinctly informed, in any communications we may "have occasion to make to them, that in claiming to be exempt from " all foreign interference, we can recognise no distinction between " ultimate and immediate emancipation It behoves us there- *' fore, to demand of all the non-slaveholding states. 1 . A formal , " and solemn disclaimer by its legislature, of the existence of any " rightful power, either in such state, or the United States in con- « gress assembled, to interfere in any manner with the institution "of domestic slavery in South Carolina. 2. The immediate pas- « sage of penal laws by such legislatures, denouncing against the " incendiaries of whom we complain, such punishments as will << speedily and for ever suppress their machinations against our 152 THE ENEMIES OF THE ■ and safety The liberal, enlightened, and magnani- «• motu conduct of the people in many portions of the non-slave- " holding states, forbids us to anticipate a refusal on the part of 6«, to fulfil' ihosi high obligations of national faith and "duty." These are the real sentiments of George M'Duffie, of South Carolina, as he declares with Bolemn asseverations of sincerity. They are briefly stated in his own language, omitting for the want of room, bifl multifarious illustrations which can neither advan- tage their author, nor allay the indignation which they cannot fail to arouse in every virtuous breast. If it were not decreed by heaven, that nothing before the last trump should disturb the (piiet of the n ve.ur liberties, the days of our republic are numbered, and that although the abolitionists CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 157 raay be the first, they will not be the last victoms offered at the shrine of arbitrary power. AUTHUR TAPPAN, President. JOHN RANKIN, Treasurer. WILLIAM JAY, Sec. For. Cor. ELIZUR WRIGHT, Jr. Sec. Dom. Cor. ABRAHAM L. COX, M. D., Rec. Sec. LEWIS TAPPAN, n JOSHUA LEAVITT, Members of SAMUEL E. CORNISH, V the SIMEON S. JOOELVN, Executive Com. THEODORE S. WRIGHT, ; New- York, September 3, 1835. No. VIII. SPEECH OF GERRIT SMITH, ESQ., AT THE MEETING OF THE NEW-YORK ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, HELD IN PETERBORo', OCT. 22, 1835. Mr. Smith rose to move and advocate the adop- tion of the following Resolution, viz : — " Resolved, That the right of free discussion, givei* to us by God, and asserted and guarded by the laws of our country, is a right so vital to man's freedom^ and dignity, and usefulness, that we can never be guilty of its surrender, without consenting to ex- change that freedom for slavery, and that dignity and usefulness for debasement and worthlessness." Mr. Smith remarked, that he was not a member of the American A nti- Slavery Society, and not yet prepared to become such — that his reasons for not approving of all the plans and proceedings of the society, so far as to unite himself with it, were be- fore the public ; and that it would be both unseason- able and egotistical for him now to mention them,*, H* 158 THE ENEMIES OF THE lie stood up in the meeting under the courtesy of its resolution, inviting him to take a part in its de- liberations and proceedings. Let me say, however, (said Mr. Smith,) that the great principles of your society have ever been my principles ; and that it is meet I should share with you in the odium and peril of holding those principles. At such a time as this, when you are nobly jeoparding, for truth's sake, and humanity's sake, property, and reputation, and life, I feel it to be not only my duly, but rny privilege and pleasure, to identify myself with you, as far as I conscientiously can, and to expose my property, and reputation, and life, to the same dan- gers which threaten yours. Passing events, (said Mr. S.) admonish me of the necessity there is, that the friends of human rights should act in concert : and, with all my objections to your society, it is not only possible, but probable, that I shall soon find myself obliged to become a member of it. But to come to the resolution before us, (which Mr. S. said he had himself drawn up, and handed to tin' committee on resolutions) — I love the free and happy form of civil government under which I live : not because it confers new rights on me. My rights all spring from an infinitely nobler source — from the favour and grace of God. Our political and consti- tutional rights, so called, are but the natural and in- herent rights of man, asserted, carried out, and se- cured by modes of human contrivance. To no hu- man charier am I indebted lor my rights. They pertain i<> my original constitution ; and I read them m that Book of books, which is the great charter of CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 159 man's rights. No, the constitutions of my nation and state create none of my rights. They do, at the most, bat recognise what it was not theirs to give. My reason, therefore, for loving a republican form of government, and for preferring it to any other — to monarchical and despotic governments — is, not that it clothes me with rights, which these withhold from me ; but, that it makes fewer encroachments than they do, on the rights which God gave me — on the divinely appointed scope of man's agency. I prefer, in a word, the republican system, because it comes up more nearly to God's system. It is not then to the constitutions of my nation and state, that I am indebted for the right of fiee discussion ; though I am thankful for the glorious defence with which those instruments surround that right. No, God himself gave me this right : and a sufficient proof that He did so, is to be found in the fact, that He requires me to exercise it. Take from the men, w x ho compose the church of Christ on earth, the right of free discussion, and you disable them for His service. They are now the lame, and the dumb, and the blind. In vain is it now, that you bid them " hold forth the word of life" — in vain that you bid them " not to suffer sin upon a neighbour, but in any wise to rebuke him" — in vain is it, that you bid them " go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." If God made me to be one of his instruments for carrying forward the salvation of the world, then is the right of free discussion among my inherent rights : then may I, must I, speak of sin, any sin, every sin, that comes in my way — any sin, THE ENEMIES OF THE every sin, which it is my duly to search out and to : - . When, therefore, this right is called in ques- tion, then is the invasion, not of something obtained from human convention and human concession, but the invasion of a birthright — of that which is as old as our being, ami a part of the original man. This right, so sacred, is sought to be trammelled. nrtually denied. What I have said is intro- ductory to the expression of my dissent from the tenor of the language with which this invasion is g< in -rally met. This right is, for the most part, de- fended on the ground, that it is given to us by our political constitutions ; and that it was purchased for us by the blood and toil of our fathers. Now, I wish to see its defence placed on its true and infi- nitely higher ground ; on the ground, that God gave it to us ; and that he who violates or betrays it, is guilty, not alone of dishonouring the laws of his country and the blood and toil and memory of his fathers; but, that he is guilty also of making war upon God's plan of man's constitution and endow- ments; and of attempting to narrow down and de- that dignity with which God invested him, when lie made him in his own image, and but " lit- than the angels." When, therefore, we would defend this right, let us not defend it so much with tlu- jealousy of an American — a Republican; as though it were but .m American or a Republican right, and could claim no higher origin than human will and human statutes : but let us defend it as i ling that to lose it, is to lose apart of our- selves : let us defend it as men, determined to main- CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 161 tain, even to their extreme boundary, the rights and powers which God has given to us for our usefulness and enjoyment ; and the surrender of an iota of which is treason against heaven. There is one class of men, whom it especially behooves to be tenacious of the right of free discus- sion. I mean the poor. The rich and the honour- able, if divested of this right, have still their wealth and their honours to repose on, and to solace them. But, when the poor are stripped of this right, they are poor indeed. The unhappy men, who composed the mob in Utica yesterday, are of this class. May they yet learn, and before it is too late, how suicidal was the violence, to which the lips and pens of their superiors stimulated them : and, that in attack- ing this most precious right in your persons, they were most efficiently contributing to hasten its de- struction in their own : a right too in respect to which the poor man is the equal of the richest and the proudest; and his possession of which is all that saves him from being trampled upon in Repub- lican America by the despotism of wealth and titles, as that despotism tramples upon him elsewhere, where he is not permitted to tell the story of his wrongs, and to resist oppression by that power, which even wealth and titles cannot withstand — the power of the lips and the press. Let the poor man count as his enemy, and his worst enemy, every in- vader of the right of free discussion. We are threatened with legislative restraints on this right. Let us tell our legislators in advance, that this is a right, restraints on which we will not, 162 THE ENEMIES OF THE cannot bear ; and that every attempt to restrain it is a palpable wrong on God and man. Submitting to these restraints, we could not be what God made us to be ; we could not perform the service to which lie has appointed us ; wc could not be men. Laws a man — to congeal the gushing fountains of his heart's sympathy — and to shrivel up his soul by extinguishing its ardour and generosity — are laws not to assist him in carrying out God's high and holy purposes in calling him into being ; but they are laws to throw him a passive,, mindless, worthless being at the feet of despotism. \'.A to what end is it that we are called on to- hold our tongues, and throw down our pens, and give up our influence ? Were it for a good object, and could we conceive that such a sacrifice would promote it, there would be a colour of fitness in ask- ing us to do so. But, this is a sacrifice which right- eousness and humanity never invoke. Truth and require the exertion — never the suppression n's noble rights and powers. We are called on to ■ and unman ourselves, and to withhold "ihcrs that influence which we are bound to n them, to the end that the victim of op- ion may lie more quietly beneath the foot of his oppressor; to the end, that one-sixth of our countrymen, plundered of their dearest rights — of their bodies, and minds, and souls — may never know of those rights ; to the end, that TWO -MILLIONS AND A HALF o\ our fellow-men, crushed in the nun folds of slavery, may remain in all their suffer- ing, and debasement, and- despair. It is for such an. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 163 object — an object so wicked and inexpressibly mean ■ — that we are called on to lie down beneath the slave-holders' blustering and menace, like whipped and trembling spaniels. We reply, that our repub- lican spirit cannot thus succumb ; and, what is in- finitely more, that God did not make us — that Jesus did not redeem us, for such sinful and vile uses. Wc knew before that slavery could not endure, could not survive free discussion ; that the minds of men could not remain firm, and their consciences quiet under the continued appeals of truth, and jus- tice, and mercy : but the demand which slave-hold- ers now make on us to surrender the right of free discussion, together with their avowed reasons for this demand, involves their own full concession, that free discussion is incompatible with slavery. The south now admits, by her own showing, that slavery cannot live, unless the north -be tongue-tied. But we have two objections to being thus tongue-tied. One is, that we desire and purpose to exert all our powers and influence — lawfully, temperately, kindly — to persuade the slave-holders of the south to de- liver our coloured brethren from their bonds : nor shall we give rest to our lips or pens, until this right- eous object is accomplished : and the other is, that we are not willing to be slaves ourselves. The enormous and insolent demands of the south, sus- tained, I am deeply ashamed to say, by craven and mercenary spirits at the north, manifest, beyond all dispute, that the question now is, not merely, nor mainly, whether the blacks at the south shall re- main slaves — but whether the whites at the north THE ENEMIES OF THE shall become slaves also. And thus, while we are endeavouring to break the yokes which are on others' necks, we are to see to it, that yokes are not imposed on our own. It is Baid that the south will not molest our free- it we will not disturb their slavery— if we will not insist on the liberty to speak and write about this abomination ! Our reply is, that God gave us the freedom lor which we contend — that it is not a freedom bestowed by man ; — not an ex gratia free- dom, which we have received at the hands of the south ; — not a freedom which stands, on the one hand, in the surrender of our dearest rights, and, on the other, in the conceded perpetuity of the body and mind, and soul-crushing system of American slavery. We ask not, we accept not, we scornfully rejeel the conditional and worthless freedom which the smith proffers us. li is not to be disguised, that a war has broken out between the north and the south. Political and com- mercial men are industriously striving to restore i ■; but the peace which they would effect is superficial, false, and temporary. True, permanent peace can never be restored, until slavery, the occa- sion of the war, has ceased. The sword, which is now drawn, will never be returned to its scabbard, until victory, entire, decisive victory is ours or I -; not. until that broad, and deep, and damning stam on our country's escutcheon is clean washed out that plague Bpol on our country's honour gone forever;— or, until slavery lias riveted anew her present chains, and brought our heads also to bow CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 165 beneath her withering power. Tt is idle — it is crimi- nal to hope for the restoration of peace on any other condition. Why, not to speak of other outrages which the south has practised on the rights and persons of northern men — who can read the simple and honest account which Amos Dresser gives of his sufferings at the hands of slave-holders, and still flatter himself with ihe belief that the north can again shake hands with slavery ? If the church members and. church elders, who sat in mock judgment on that young man's case, could be impelled by the infernal spirit of slavery, to such lawless, ruffian violence ; how can any reasonable hope remain, that while the south remains under the malign influences of sla- very, its general demeanor toward the north can be even tolerable ? The head and front of Dresser's offending, was his connexion with an Anti-Slavery Society in a distant state : and for this he w r as sub- jected by professors, and titled professors too, of the meek and peaceful religion of Jesus, to corporal punishment — public, disgraceful, severe. Who shall be mustered on our side for this great battle ? Not the many. The many never come to such a side as ours, until attracted to it by palpable and unequivocal signs of its triumph. Nor do we need the many. A chosen few are all we need. Nor do we desire those who are skilful in the use of carnal weapons. For such weapons we have no use. Truth and love are inscribed on our banners, and " by these we conquer." There is no room in our ranks for the politician, who, to secure the votes of the south, would consent that American slavery 15 1(30 THE ENEMIES OF THE be perpetual. There is no room in them for the commercial man, who, to secure the trade of the south, is ready to applaud the institution of slavery, and to leave his countrymen — his brethren — their children, and children's children — subjected to its tender mercies, throughout all future time. We have no room, no work for such. We want men who stand on the rock of Christian principles ; men who will speak, and write, and act with invincible honesty and firmness ; men who will vindicate the right of discussion, knowing that it is derived from God ; and who, knowing this, will vindicate it against all the threats and arts of demagogues, and money wor- shippers, and in the face of mobs, and of death. There is room in our ranks for the old and decrepit, as well as the young and vigorous. The hands that are tremulous with years, are the best hands to grasp the sword of the spirit. The aged servants of God best know how " to move the arm which moves the world." Our work, in a word, is the work of God; and they arc the best suited to it who are most ac- customed to do his work. No. IX. SPEECH <)F AI,YAN STEWART, ESQ., DELIVERED Bl 8TATE .WTI-SI.A VERT CONVENTION AT THE -r i rn \, October 21, 1835. \'.\;iii Stewart, Esq. of Utica rose and said, that with ihe consenl of the Convention, he would tres- pass a few minutes on the time of this numerous and honourable body, and made, in substance, the fol- lowing speech : — CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 167 Mr. S. said, this was the first Convention which had ever assembled in the United States under such a remarkable state of facts as those which seem to dis- tinguish this from all public bodies of men who have ever met in this land before. For the last foity days at least three hundred of the public presses have daily poured a continued shower of abuse upon the callers and the call for this Convention, characterized by a spirit of vengeance and violence, knowing and proposing nothing but the bitterness of invective^ and the cruelty of bloody persecution. He said our enemies have sent their slanders against us, whis^ pering across the diameter of the globe, telling the haughty and sneering minions of Absolutism, on the other side of the world, that the sons of the pil- grims had proved recreant to their lofty lineage, un- faithful to their high destiny, untrue to the last hopes of man. Said Mr. S. Is it true that the philanthropy which warms our hearts into action, for the suffering slave, can exile our patriotism, and prepare our souls for the most heaven-daring guilt ? Is it true, because we feel for bleeding humanity, that it makes us cruel ? Can pity produce it ? Can love beget hate 1 Can an affectionate respect and kind feeling for all of the human beings whom Providence has cast in these twenty-four states, be evidence that we wish to cut the throats of two millions and a half of our white neighbours, friends, brethren and countrymen.? Does a generous regard for the injured slave imply hatred for the master ? If so, the converse of the proposition must be true, that to love the master [08 THE E.NtMILS OF THE implies hatred to the slave. Neither proposition is tint- ; yet the enemies of this Convention have acted toward us as though these propositions had the as- surance of certainty, as we have on a clear day at twelve o'clock at noon that the sun shines on the world. Said Mr. S., We have been proclaimed traitors to our own dear native land, because we love its in- habitants. Our humanity is treason, our philan- thropy is incendiarism, our pity for the convulsive yearnings of down-trodden man is fanaticism. Our treason is the treason of Franklin and Jay; our incendiarism is that of Clark sod and Wilberforce ; our fanaticism is the fanaticism of Earl Grey and Lord Brougham, and the majority of the wisest heads in proud Old England ; our sentiments are those expressed by William Wirt, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson. ■ Our creed is to be found in the two great wil- - of God's revealed will to man — the Old and New Testaments. The Declaration of Independ- ence, the Constitutions of our country, and the laws I under them, we make the rule of our eon- < ni( ''' "' imparling our sentiments to others on the Bubjecl of slavery. Mr. S. said, The enemies of our noble sentiments n11,1 elevated intentions, have resorted to the old ' track of misrepresentation, and by adding to our code riewa never promulgated, by charging us with intentions never harboured, with expectations never cherished, and as remote from the mind of an abolitionist as infidelity is from the conscience of CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 1 (i9 piety; as meanness is from generosity, as bigotry is from charity, as truth from falsehood, as freedom from slavery. They would fain make us unfit for this world. Mr. S. said, We are not judged by evidence, by our own declarations, either what we have said or done, but by acts which our wily adversaries pro- phesy we will do, or commit, in some future period of time ; and thus they lift the curtain, which shuts from all mortal eyes .(but prophets') the great un- bounded future, and "by looking down the vale of time, they behold us engaged in the diabolical and blood-thirsty work of getting laws passed to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, and the slave territories, and in this way knocking the fetters from the bondman, which our adversaries call treason calculated to dissolve the union. What union ? 1 doubt not you may see some of these union patriots here to-day, who would take your life and mine, and that of every member of this Convention, and in so doing think they had done, their master a service, and lift up their hands for eternal and unmitigated slavery to every coloured man, woman, and child in the United States, and throw into the same pile all who differed with them in sentiment, to promote the interest of their master. These are the patriotic unionists, who secretly wish to dissolve the union, by letting the great cancer grow on the neck of the union, without attempting its cure or removal. These are the friends of the union, who are willing to see 2,500,000 men, wo- men, and children sacrificed to the. demon of slavery., 15* |70 THE ENEMIES OF THE Those unionists are willing lo de- stroy you and me, -Mr. Chairman, because we are not terrified at the roaring of the slave-holders, and because we feel for two millions and a half of men, women, and children, who are now being offered at the Bhrine of cruelty, lust, and avarice. These lov- ers of the union refuse to hear the loud lamenta- tions of bitter sorrow* and hopeless grief, which, like the voice of a mighty flood, ascend day and night from every plantation, every factory, every corn (eld, every rice-field, every tobacco-field, every cot- ton-field, and every kitchen of eleven states, and trate the car o( God. Mr. S. said, The slaves never held a convention 00 the subject of their wrongs; they met to peti- tion for a redress of grievances, or remonstrate against the manifold injuries by which they are bro- ken down. No ! his petition was never read with- in the walls of legislation ! Solemn thought even to Us, who for a moment have become his mouthpiece, to tell his wrongs to the world, and demand redress. .en we. white-skinned republicans, appear to be on the eve ot losing our rights as while men, from having from the deepest impulses of humanity ae the slave's organ, to explain to an unfeeling world the wrongs inflicted upon him. If white men in non-slaveholdiog states encounter so much noisy violence and injury, in barely pleading the cause of tin* slave before those who have no interest ID the slave's body, and whose only interest is to cringe and (latter the master of the slave, what must DC the condition of the poor slave, left to plead his CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 171 own cause against his own master — that master who is fed sumptuously every day, and clothed in pur- ple and fine linen by the unpaid labour of the slave. When will the glutton, the wine-bibber, the adulter- ous, the avaricious, and the cruel, listen to the voice of the unaided slave? But, said Mr. S., some say, " The slaves can be set free twenty or thirty years hence." Ah ! will men have less wants then ? more justice and humanity then than now ? No. Again, if it is right to liberate slaves fifty years hence, the right is the same now, for there will be human beings in the world then, who will claim the slaves by a long line of descent, who will have as many wants to supply with slave labour as men have now. The sun will shine as hot, the rice-lands will be as unhealthy as now. Says Mr. S., But we are told by our enemies they love the slaves as well as we do; and then, with the next word, insult and abuse us for telling the world his wrongs, or attempting any redress. Mr. S. said he confessed that this was a new mode of manifesting an equality of love. But perhaps we do not understand our opponents ; they may mean that they hate slavery in the abstract, and also hate all means that may be used for its abolition, but per- haps they mean they hate slavery in the abstract, but love it in detail. Or perhaps they mean that they hate abstract slavery and mean to destroy ab- stract slavery, by hating all white men in favour of its abolition. Perhaps they hate slavery in the ab- stract, but love the man who causes it in the detail 172 THE ENEMES OF THE H, that abstract hatred for one purpose, is pure f. Said Mr. S. A man might as well say. thai abstractedly he hated murder, adultery. si iling, but that lie loved the mur- . • trer, and thief. Away with northern Jesuitism, which is opposed to abstract slavery, but in favour of its continuance, and ready to kill any one who wishes to change the present posture of slavery, as it practically exists. Oh shame! hast thou not a new blush for such con- science-raining sophistry ? The same ingenious and fatal distinction has been taken by the wretched metaphysicians^ who are willing i'» barter American liberty to get gold and , the subject of free discussion the summer past. Anti-abolitionists at the north say they believe in [scussion in the abstract, and will not allow it to be drawn in question. But this means, find it interpreted and translated in the Dic- tionary of Daily Experience, that each man may ,oi any thing else, in the silent cham- own heart, but must not discuss it in pub- - it may then provoke a syllogism of feathers, or a deduction of tar. An abolitionist may have the i i right of discussion, but it must be discon- nected with time and place, if a majority of his •S diffi r with him, there is no place w or lime when, that he may discuss. Tin's abstract uires an abstract place and abstract . theabstra \ must mean the the" solitude CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 173 of the wilderness, or loneliness of the ocean ; and the abstract time must mean some portion of the past ox future, as it is never the present. The liberty of an abolition press is to be silent ; the liberty of conscience for an abolitionist is to think to himself; or else to think like his slavery- loving neighbour, or stop thinking. The threat of dissolving the union is the univer- sal medicine for every political difficulty at the south. One day Georgia threatens the dissolution, on account of her Indian territory, gold mines, and state jurisdiction, and the missionaries ; then again the poor union was to be dissolved by the post- office robbing state of South Carolina, to vindicate the beauties of nullification. Then again, this union was to have been dissolved in 1828, 1630, 1831,1832. At four distinct periods within a short space, because the tariff laws were not made to suit certain slave states ; but the noble union held together, we did not hear of a single rafter or brace flinching, in 1835. The union is to be again dissolved and charged in account current to abolition. The joke of it all is, that nothern men professed to be frightened to death every time a negro-driver cries "dissolve the union, — dissolve the union." As well might a man who lived in a powder-house, every time he became angry call for firebrands ? Let southern men dissolve this union if they dare ; slavery would then take care of itself, and its masters too, in one little month both would be- come extinct. No ! oh ! deceived northern man, 17 1 THE ENEMIES OF THE the southern man will be the last to dissolve this union, bv it he expects to enjoy his slaves, without it he cannot one day. But the wily politician of the south has discovered the ghost that never fails to frighten the north, and the north has been kept in a political sweat for the last ten or twelve years, for fear the men, who could not exist as slave-holders without this union, would dissolve it. It seems dissolution is threatened by the south, unless thirteen free states disfigure and disgrace their statute books with bloody laws to protect slavery, forbidding abolitionists to speak, write, or publish any thing against slavery, or petition for its abolition in the District of Columbia, under heavy penalties ; the despotism of which lav; s would so far exceed any in Russia or Turkey, that Nicholas, and rand Seignor, would recoil with instinctive ab- horrence, from so foul an insult to our common hu- v. So it is not enough that eleven states must bend their backs under the shameful load of slavery, with statute books blushing for the wrongs done by • man, which all the unfathomed waters of the Id not wash away ; but the tongues of northern men, on the subject of slavery, must, cleave to the roofs of their mouths, and the inditing hand be palsied in giving the world a history of the ne- 3. My countrymen, ye sons of the pilgrims, the tyrant is at your doors, liberty BDING, LIBERTY is DYING, slavery has robbed you of ihe Liberty of discussion, of conscience, and the press?. Armed mobs arc to do the work of the lolder. till the legislature obeys his mandate CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 175 Then read from your own statute book your doom ; your are a slave without his privilege ! Had the six hundred delegates, freemen, now before me, been deterred from meeting this day, from fear, it would h.ave been worse than in vain, that a Warren fell, a MontgOxMery bled, and a Law- rence EXPIRED. You, for this moment, are the representatives of American liberty, if you are driven from this sacred temple dedicated to God, by an infuriated mob, then my brethren, wherever you go, liberty will go, where you abide liberty will abide, when you are speechless, liberty is dead.* No. X. The following individuals residing in the City of Utica, are referred to as witnesses of the doings in that city previous to and on the 21st October, most of them were eyewitnesses of the outrage at the Bleeker-street church ; one or two of them the author is informed were absent on that day. J. A. Spencer, Esq, John Bradish, Esq. Samuel P. Lyman, Hon. James Dean, Sylvanus Holmes, John H. Edmonds, Esq. P.H. Hurlbert, Dr. J. P. Batchelder, Dr. Rathbun, Doiphus Bennet, Bradford Seymour, E. M. Gilbert, James M'Gregor, H. Bnshnell, Andrew Hanna, Amos S. West, David Owens, B. F. Farwell, D. E. Stilwell, B. S. Merrill, Edward Norris, Eli Manchester, * The fact, that they were driven from the place where they were then assembled, with all the circumstances attending that unparalled outrage, have already appeared. 176 THE ENEMIES OF THE <;< o. Tracy, Gardiner Tracy, James Knox, Esq. T. I'. Tracy, Wm. 15. Clark, John C. Hastings, John Wells, Apolloa Cooper, Alfred Hitchcock, William Stacy, Edward Bright, J. II. Richmond, Edward Curran, John S. Peckham, Thomas Sidebotham, John Fish, Zenas Wright, Alexander Cameron, Wm. T. Meeker, Quartus Graves, Anson Thomas, Curtiss Holgate, Abijah Thomas, Levi is Lawrence, A Ivan Stewart, Esq. Spencer Kellogg, Jacob Snyder, James < ! Delong, Rev. Oliver Wetmore, Samuel Lightbody, George Lawson, ( }eo. I). Foster, Francis W right, Mori is V- ilcox, Palmer V. Kell Orren Clark, Rev. \iims Sai age, John B. Shaw, Frederick Southwortb, Shubael Storrs, s. II. Addington, J. T. Lyman, Esq. S. M. Perrine, Win. C. Rodgers, Win, G. Miller, Thomas Stevenson, Wm. Sowers, Henry D. Tucker, Edward Herrick, Thomas James, S. Bay ley, Thomas Powell, Lucius Lawrence, Rev. James GriiTeth, John S. Bailey, Thomas Thomas, Daniel Thomas, Job Parker, Thomas Roundey, Abijah Mosher, James C. Gilbert, Ezekiel Clark, Henry S. Cole, Rev. Abijah Crane, W. D. Hamblin, Henry Nash, \>aph Seymour, Elisha Ca'dwelJ, Noah White, Wells M. Gayloid, James Sayre, Levi Kello Phillip Thurber, J. E, Warner, - W. Thomas, John Thomas, J. 1). Corey, Geo. Smith, W. F. Gould, .1. Martin, Amaziah llotchkiss, John S. Lattimore, CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED, ITT Geo. L. Dickinson, John P. Guest, John F. Temple, Erastus Barnes, Jacob Vanderhuyden, Orrin Kendall, Josiah J. Ward, Alfred Wells, Ira Thurber, Oliver V. Worden, L. P. Rising, Thomas M. Martyn, James Clark, E. R. Beadle, L. S. Kellogg, Henry Newland, Richard C. Thomas, Robert Debnam, David Lynes, E. P. Marshall, David Ladd, E. P. Curry, Samuel Thorn, Palmer Town send, William Whiteley, George Brayton, Thomas Davis, I. P. Van Sice, S. M. Beck with, Stephen N. Bushnell, George Walker, E. P. Clark, Wm. H. Gray, Theodore Monroe, Nelson Fleetwood, Henry Putman, Dr. Joseph P. Newland, Mr. Arnold, Barnes, "William Parker, Nathan Christian, |J. W. Doolittle, Abram Ciemmer, D. II. Hastings, John Moffit, Edward Vernon, AlerickHubbell, Braaford S. Merrill, C. Burnett, Robert Roberts, John Lloyd, Isaac Merrill, Wm. G. Miller, A. Mosher, Chester Scofleld, William Clark, Proprietor of Temperance Hotel, Henry Johnson, Esq. William Williams, E. Carrington, William Osbom, Charles Border, J. G. Kittie, Jacob D. Edwards, C. Field, Esq. Orrin Marshall, A. V. H. Webb, J. C. Shippy, S. G. Giles, M. S.Bailey, W. D. Hamlin, W. Kimball, Silas Hawes, John Bailey, S. Aylesworth, Charles Doolittle, William " H -. Dobson,, William M. Davis, Maj. William Gere, Stephen Mather, David E. Morris, 16 178 THE ENEMIES OF THE The following individuals were in the City of Uticc, on the 21st October, and were eyewitnesses of the disgraceful proceedings above related. There may be two or three exceptions. In giving so many names it is possible some few inaccuracies may have been committed. Allegany county, A. (J. Prentiss, Josiah Bradley, Esq. Cayuga county, J. Crane, Auburn. Broome county, EHsha Hall. Chatauquc county, J. M. Ketchum, O. P. Conklin, P. Eddy. Chenango county, Rev. Henry Snyder, William Avery. Sherburne Eli Lee, do. J. W. Fox, do. S. Carver, do. Rev.S. Huwlry, W. Link- laen, Elias Childs, Roxdale. Clinton county, Thomas B. Watson, Esq. T* ev. Horatio Foot, William J. Savage. Cortland county, Ira Bowen, S. S. Bradford, Homer. Delaware county, Rev. J. A- Hoyt, Franklin. Isaac Piatt. do. Dutchess county, Willard Burr, Poughkeep- sic, Samuel Thompson, do. Erie county, Rev. Abiel Parmerlee, L. A. Skinner, Edwin A. Marsh, Ambrose George. Genesee county, Rev. William Arthur, Perry, Samuel H. Gridley, do. Abraham E. Unis, do. Samuel F. Phoenix, do. Josiah Andrews, do. Roswell Gould, Dr. Augustus Frank, War- saw, Ezra Walker, do. Win. Buxton, do. Samuel Fisher, do. Isaac C. Brownston, do. Greene county, Robert Jackson, Catskill. Herkimer county, Dr. David Bingham, Nor- way, John M. Andrews, O. C. Brown, Litchfield, Isaac Mills, do. Oliver Prescott, Elam Holcomb, W. B. Armstrong. Jefferson county, Rev. Henry Jones, Ant- werp, J. A. Northup, do. CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 179 Rev. Marcus Smith. Kings county, Luther Lamsen, Lorrain, Lorin Bushnell, do. Lewis county, Gen, J. A. Northop, Low- ville, Dr. David Perry, do. Rev. I. L. Crandell. Livingston county, Reuben Sleeper, Mount Morris. Madison county, Rev. John Ingersol, Caze- novia, Allen Kingsbury, Esq. do. W. L. Wilson, do. Henry Van Drieson, Rev. J. W. Spoor, Amos Gilbert," Smithfield, Barnabas Snow, do. Orrin Stevens, do. Wm. P. St. Johns, C. Bascom, Hamilton, Rev. Lumand Wilcox, do. Zebulon Weaver, do. F. B. Ward, James Gloucester,. Henry Randall-, E. H. Payson, William Mors«, Amariah Williams, Rev. Wm. B. Tompkins Lebanon, Thomas Bright, do. Ezra CampbeH, do. N. Shapley, do, John W. Ad-ams, Edward Stanford, Edward Lewis, Esq* Joseph M. Carson, Willard Colton, S. Marsh, William Everts, E. Sears, Dr. Milton Barnett, Dr. Fordyce Rice, George Dorrance, 'Peter- boro, do. Gerrit Smith, Esq, do. Montgomery county, William Elder, Edward Leonard. City and county of New- York, William Green, Jun. Richard Cunningham, Rev. Samuel Beeman, J. W. Higgins, Rev. Daniel Clark, Robert Brown, J. M. Dimond, L. W. Gilbert, Rev. Joshua Leavitt, Editorof N. Y. Evan- gelist, Edward A. Lambert, J. F. Robinson, Esq. A. B. Rumsey, Baxter Sayre, Lewis Tappan, R. G. Williams, Charles Whittlesey, E. Wright, Jun. S. D. Childs, Wm. S. Dorr, N. H. Blackford, Wm. A. Holdridge, James. H. Parker, Duncan Kennedy, L. C. Gunn, George H. White,, THE ENEMIES OF THE ' \. Dwight, s Pitts, i id Ruggl< -. \\ ashing ton Erring, Truman Roberts. Ni igara county, Mr v. A. Ingersol, J. Try on Trotter, Dr. J'. W. Smith. Oneida county, R v. Beriah Green, Whitestown, R '. . John Frost, do. Rf. S. Losev, do. W. H.Ttbbitts, do. David Foster, do. Vincent L. Love]], do. I,. Bliss, do. C. D. Wolcolt, do. and 100 others do. Dr. X. Shcril], Westmore land, Harvey Brighaxn, do Simeon Lyman, do Rev. Harvey Biodgett, do " E. Fairehild, do " Abraham .Miles, do, Dr. Edward Loomis, i\o, John Town send, Esq* do. H. G. Loomis, do. Rufua Pratt, do. Charles Judson, do, Benj. S. Graves, do. and many otliers do. Dr. U. II. Kellogg, iN. Hartford, John A. Head, {\i). James Wells, do. Francis D. Porter, do. R. Seymour, do. Warren Gates, do. [Rev. A. Mills, do, and many others do. • Norman Miller, Vienna, O. S. Parmelee, Clinton, H. Pollard, do. Sheldon Parmelee, do. John Dodge, Wm. S. Gale, Dr. A. Holbrook, ' Geo. Stedman. | Amos Hunt, Jackson Tibbetts, Rome, S. B. Roberts, Esq. do. A. Sedgwick, do. Dr. Arha Blair, do. B. P. Johnson, Esq. do. Charles Barnes, Saquoit, Henry Crane, do. Alonzo Gray, do. F. A. Uray, do. F. A. Spencer, Verona, J. M. Benham, Bridgewa- ter, Rufus Bacon, Gates Miller, Vienna, Rev. Rufus R. Dunning, Trenton, O. Parker, do. Isaac Curry Esq, do, Nehemiah Cobb, John Wood, S. B. Lyman, J. W. Gilmore, E. O. Ward, S. T. Voorhies, Theodore Miller, Jeremiah Prescott, Charles M'Lane, John G. Kellogg, Samuel Wells, I Professor Grant, CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 181 I. A. Canfield, Giles Waldo, I. F. Griffin, Wm. Smith, J. O. Wattles,. D. C. Wilbour, W. B. Ransom, A. G. Beeman, Sydney Bryant, S. P. Hough. Onondaga County, Rev. S. S. Smith, Fayette P. O. " Charles Smith, Man- lius, " Wm. Wheeler Dewitt, Darling Thompson, Esq. John M'Vickar, Fayette- ville, rmnp AMint, uo. J. H. Waldo, W. M. Clark, R. S. Orvis. Otsego County, Rev. C. E. Goodrich, Cooperstown, R. S. Peters, Hartwick, Rev. Waters Warren, Gil- bertville, Charles Root, do. Rev. D. Van Valkenburg, Richfield, C. J. Walker, Coopers- town, F. N. Andrews, Horace Foot, Burlington, Martin Bridges, Rev. J. B. Graves, Otsego, E. C. Adams, Coopers- town, R. C. Swift, Hartwick,, A. D. Hollister, Burling- ton. Oswego County, Edward Griffing, Rev. Raloh Robinson, " Mr. fucker, A. H. Stevens, Thomas C. Baker, J. C. Jackson, A. S. Savage, William Gail, John Clark, Edward Griffin, Rev. Luther Myrick, Charles Marshall, Robert M'Farland, S. Cole, I. T. Headley, J. S. Savage, Mexico. y^iuano county, Hunter Robinson, Canan- daigua, Franklin Howe, John Mather, A. B. Smith, George Donan, James Talman, R. B. Palmer, S. J. M. Beebe, Sidney San-tell. Orleans County, Samuel A. Rawson. Monroe County, Geo. A. Avery, Rochester, W. U. Rudd, do. S. S. Nichols, do. L. M. Moore, do. C. Avery, do. A. J. Burr, do. E. Stillson, do* Spencer Davis, do. 182 THE ENEMIES OF THE Silas Cornell, do. Rev. Elon Galusha, do. Levi W. Sibley, do. Samuel Hamilton, Hon. Henry Brewster, Riga, O. Savage, Benj. Pish, 11. B. Sherman. G. A. Hollister, A.Gould, I!. Strong, O. F. A very. A. G. Hall, Penfield, R, ( 'lapp, Greece, R. Dc Forest, Chnrchill, Thomas Blossom, Brigh- ton, Or«r.rC Stone, do. do. Joseph Bloss, C. C. Footc, East Mendon D. Cranch, Rev. I. I. Fulton, William S. Elliott, Rev. A. P. Brooks, Edward Moore, Roches- ter, Mr. Atwater, do. tt nsselaer County, Rev. J. II. Martyn, Green- hush, John Grey, Amos K. I lad lev, Trov, Wells If. Ilndley, do.' J (din I. Miter, do. Yates, do. Prentiss W. Marsh, Rev. Isaac Foster, R. J. Knowlson, S. H. Gregory, John Sad en. Saratoga County, Rev. Caleb Green. Suffolk County, Rev. C. J. Knowles, George Miller, River- head. Tompkins Count u. Dr. S. Bliss, A. Northrop, Rev. Marcus Harrison, Ludrowville. Warren County, Elias Patterson, James S. Judd. Washington County, Rev. Nathaniel Culver. Dr. Hiram Corliss, William H. Morey, Rev. Thomas Powell, John F. Scovill, A. P. Beebe. Wayne County, Cephas Foster, A. B. Smith, Jared C. Hathaway. St. Laurence County. L. M. Shepard. State of Ohio, Rev. John J. Shipherd, Oberlin, Albert Bliss, Elyria, Philemon Bliss, do. State of Virginia, F.A. Wingfield, Esq. Nor- folk. N. B. The author has hcon furnished With the names of several hundreds of other individuals, residing m different parts of the CONSTITUTION DISCOVERED. 183 country, who were in Utica on the 21st. Ot*. and were witnesses to most of the transactions of that day, but there can be no neces- sity of naming above five hundred. The characters of the above mentioned persons, it is believed, are without exception, beyond reproach. The names of five hundre-d more will be given in du« time if it should become necessary. THE END. 1>0 I ' \ o 'v ' A cK >*%,