.H^ iP^ *°o ■•*«? \/^^\^ %.^^-j> %/*K>\J c .•••J V ^ *<»."* A <* ♦/TV"* ^0 V >^ *••»• A <* ♦/7Vi« K- "ov* :4k: w :}«&>'• "°v* :4»: ♦>«>« ^ ^ W • • • ^ Vv •^o* V/^v^.y : > ^ V v*^v W J? *•-• <* T o »••"»• ^A %* ♦ 3 s*i "^ v ,^ cPV^br.% V ^ A^ »V on; the constitution. M - ;.-. Editor! — Will you bo so kind m to allow the following imunc tt i< >r> a place in jrour paper: Iii a loading article of the Union, some weeks lioce, Mr. l . the liberty to place nay name in ■ false ao I obnoxious juxtaposition vrith Mr. Charles (/Conner, the modern Democratic defender of Blavery, and b charge me with affirming — " That it is the duty of the citizens of York, to enforce upon other communities, regardless of statutt laws or con- stitutions, the doctrines of the Declaration o) Independence /" I wi i M'nl reply, requesting the privilege of placing myself, and of defining my awn position, but the magnanrm ins editor neither publishes, or returns my answer, as requested to do. So much for " fre i disc ission" and " fair play" in that quarter. Bui to the charge: I have never held or ad\ any BUCh I nctrines or views as were attributed to me by Mr. Butts. I do hold and affirm, however, that the Declaration of Independence eral the great Prima.! Law of all societies and governments; and I would use all moral and legitimate means to induce all peoples to accept and con- form to this Primal Law io all their civic relations and duti*-. Bo much for '• other i-<"ii inanities." 1 bold and atlirm further, that the doctrine contained in the Declaration of Independence, is not only the "chief cor- ner 81006," l»iu the great ami immovable rook upon which our Republican edifice was built. The founders of this Government, incorporated into, and interwove throughout the whole superstructure, the sacred doctrine of Personal Liberty and Equal Rights ; declaring in their organic act, that "No Prrsom shall be deprived of Life, Liberty or Proj>ert>/, without process of law, That the ri<*ht of the People to be secure in their P< and property shall not be violated;" that the Unil 5 - shall guaran- tee U> every State in the Union, a Republican form of GoVerment; "to every person a Bpeedy and public trial by an impartial jury," the prt^ of the writ of habeas corpus, "and the Right of the citiasns of to oil the privileges and immunities of citizens in the Beveral States" — affirming that this constitution and laws of the United Stan 9, which shall be mad.- in pursuance thereof, " shall be the Sotrbiu Law oi not Land." They proclaim to the world in the most positive terms, tb •' this Supreme Law, viz: " To form a more perfect Union — to establish j — to ensure domestic tranquility — provide for tbe common rf*^mce— pro- mote the general welfare — and secure the blessings of Liberty — (not the of Slavery) — to ourselves and posterity." What language could express with more irresistible power or clearness, the just and ei ilted pur- for which our Federal Constitution and Union were formed.' What could more forcibly entrench and fortify the principles of I annihilate the claims of Slavery? Now, what I atlirm is, that it is the duty of the people, and the Government composing the Confederacy, (for re one u community" standing together on the same common platform of principles) — to carry out and enforce their own organic ici —I i serve and honor their OWH Sui'RSMB Law — MCredly guarding and pr. hag those natural, admitted and clearly specified rights, which they pro- nounce •"inalienable," and thus maintain the justaud noble ends t'or which the "solemn compacts' 1 were entered into, and this "Glorious Union" formed. There are no "statute laws' 1 or " constitutions" against such enforcement — as I shall prove. But, if there xcerc such, they would not be "Slaves cannot breathe in England ! If their lungi receive our air, that moment they are free They touch our country, and their shackles fall! That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud, And jealnus of the blessing." Did the slaveholders get the right to transform men into property, from the Federal Constitution? Nowhere from the beginning to the end of that glorious Charter of Liberty, is any such power given. That Supreme Law " was ordained, as I have be- fore shown, to establish justice, and secure the blessing of Life, Liberty, Property, and the pursuit of happiness" — not the blighting curse of Slavery. General Wilson, of Pa., a member of the Federal Convention which framed the Constitution, said: " That Constitution lays the foundation for banishing Slavery out of the Country." Said Patrick Henry — speaking of the Constitution : ''Ttiat paper speaks to the point — it pronounces all slaves free!" He went further, and declared that " Congress had the power to abolish Slavery, and would certainly exercise that power." The men who made the Constitution, and the statesmen of that day, had not discovered the power which modern " Democrats" pretend to find in the Constitution — to carry Slavery not only into the Territories, but into the Free States! Old Gov. Randolph, held that " those unfortunate men," (not "things") "then held in bondage, would be made free by the operation of the General Government." Said "Wilson— and I need quote no further or higher authority on this subject: " The reserved rights of the States in- clude no such right as that of holding property in man, as no such right can exist ! And that the Federal Convention would not permit the Constitution to recognize any such right!" Where, then, do slaveholders, and their northern sycophauts, get this assumed " right of property in man ?" Nowhere. It is a base assumption— a hum- bug ! Ask the piratical slave trader whence came Slavery ? and let the revolting- scenes, and horrid cruelties of the diabolical traffic in "flesh and souls of men " answer! By violence! by brute force! by — " Man's inhurranity to man, "Which makes its countless thousands mourn." The O'Connor's — the Brooks' and the Butts' with the effrontery of their Tory prede- cessors — the Filmer's — the Laud's and the Jeffries' — may come to the rescue of this atrocious system. Still the great fact remains— in the nature of things — in the sense of mankind— in the history of the world, and in the history and Constitution of this Government, that Slavery is an Outlaw — a Pirate, existing against natural justice and the moral law — without charter — grant — State legislative enactment or Constitu- tional guarantee — having no rights but to die. What then, do these Northern dough- faced politicians mean, when they talk of " Southern rights?" Are Eights sectional? Does the Constitution confer exclusive rights upon any portion of the country? Have the South rights which the North have not? No, it is not Southern Rights for which these demagogues ask immunity, but for Southern wrongs. Is it for Slavery ? Nobody proposes, or thinks of disturbing Southern Rights; and all this "shrieking" about " guarantees " — " compromises," and the preservation of our " glorious Union," mean simply to screen the hideousness of Slavery, and the rottenness of its supple ally — the Sham Democracy, and to save both, if possible, from the impending doom which awaits them. If these men would spend a little of that breath in opposing the false and monstrous assumptions and aggressions of the slave-power, they would render their country, and the cause of Freedom, a real service. The country does not need, nor can it be benefited by any such untempered daubing, and our " Union," and the In- stitutions of the country generally, would "run" well enough, as everybody knows, were it not for slavery. With that foreign and irritating element clashing among the cogwheels of its machinery, it can never run smoothly. Freedom and Slavery — Free labor and Slave labor — Free society and Slave society are natural and eternal antag- onisms. They can never co-exist, co-operate and harmonise together, making a peace- ful, happy and prosperous community. Every element — every condition — every in- terest and every demand of the one is diametrically opposed to, and in perpetual and " irrepressible conflict '' with the other. He is the true friend of this " Union," and he is the true "statesman" Mr. Butts, who would abolish Slavery, and thus preserve and maintain the Great Primal law of the Nation, and labor to secure to every person the unalienable right to " Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness." " Yuat pure, then peaceable" is as true and sound a philosophy for the Slate as for the Church. " The perils of the free All spring from one unhappy blot, — The taint of Slavery I That, that is what you have to dread ! Get rid of that, and— go ahead 1" Respectfully Tours, - Rochester, N. Y., March 20th, I860. GEORGE W. CLARK. g^ • ♦♦"% '•' ^;* <** % °. °o V .. V^V V^V v»>° 1 **"V ~°WW: ^\ *.« If.*' /v ' ^ ♦ C»vT»