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^ * • MSlk - i^^ " ^ * * v ^« ww** ; aV .' 4LK • • • • *b a.^ . • l ' * ♦ ^ » ** * ^^1% '^SS^* a v <> ; .4 q * N* * v9 ••iir* '• o : ^o \ *o V ^°^ .-?- V .0 »!^L% V '<><=>• / -y i?» •>: v^ 1 / LETTER .v* FROM MR,%ANLT, OF N. C. TO MR. BOTTS, OF VIRGINIA. A I) Washington City, Sept. 23d, 1840. My Dear Sir : I have read with much pleasure your letter to your constituents, rela- tive to the celebrated plan of Poinsett, and the Hooe case. I really pity the President and his Secretaries, who have made themselves so ridiculous, in their attempts to shield themselves from public indignation. There are gross inconsistencies and contradictions in their letters, which cannot be reconciled. But this you have handled well, and nothing remains for me to say. I wish, however, to say a word relative to the conduct of the Judiciary Committee. The President, in his electioneering letter to Mr. Burras, says, "that this committee are silent upon the subject." After Mr. Storrs, of Connecticut, resigned, I was placed on that committee to supply the vacancy. The case of Lieut. Hooe was then referred to us, and the committee, worn out as we all were, by the warm weather, sitting up late at night, and the press of business, found it impossible, with the little time at our command, to consider this case, without neglecting all the other business before the Com- mittee. As well as I remember, there was not a full meeting of the committee after I became a member of it. But what was it proposed that the Judiciary Committee should do? I have lately seen an article in the Government organ, commenting upon the vote in the House, on the resolution of Mr. Chapman, of Alabama, and of course mis- representing the whole affair. By reference to the journal, you will observe that on the 14th of July, "a motion was made by Mr. Chapman, of Alabama, that the rules in relation to the order of business be suspended, to enable him to move the following resolution :" "Resolved, That the Judiciary Committee, having charge of the case of Lieut. Hooe, do forthwith report a bill to this House, prohibiting the enlistment of negroes or colored per- sons in the service of the Navy or Army of the United States." To this resolution I was decidedly opposed, and gave my reasons for it. In these, if I remember right, you concurred. By reference to the journal, on the 17th July, you will find I succeeded in having these objections entered on the journal. I asked to be excused from voting, that I might be enabled to assign my reasons, which were as follows : " Mr. Stanly asked to be excused from voting, because the Judiciary Committee had not time at this period of the session, to examine and prepare any law on any subject; because the President and the Secretary of the Navy had already full power and authority to ex- clude them from giving testimony against white men. and to set aside the proceedings ol fc. 2 l1 courts martial, if they saw any thing requiring their interference ; and because he (Mr. S.) could not consent that the Navy should be deprived of the services of negroes, as cooks, stewards, and servants, for there is no necessity they should be witnesses ; and because, to enact such a law as the gentleman from Alabama .proposes, would, in effect, make white men negroes, by imposing on them the necessity of discharging duties heretofore dischaiged by negroes." This explains my opinions, as a Southern man, and as a member of the Ju- diciary Committee. And after deliberate examination, I believe these views are correct: and I know a large majority of Southern men think with me. That great laboratory of lies, the Globe, gives the names of those who vo- ted against Mr. Chapman's resolution. If you will look at the journal, you will find, on the 14th of July, Mr. Chapman introduced his resolution to have the rules suspended, and the yeas and nays are there given. The Globe would have the South to believe, that all the Loco Focos who supported Mr. Chapman in his motion are good De- mocrats, and friends of the South. But to expose this unfounded and hypo- critical pretension, I need only call your attention to the names of H. Wil- liams, and Wm. Parmenter, both of whom are found voting with Mr. Chap- man. Both of whom, therefore, the Globe intends to palm upon the South as friends of the institution of Slavery, and in favor of excluding negroes from entering the service. I have before me copies of the letters written by Messrs. Parmenter and Williams, before they were elected members of Congress, and I give you an extract from each. The extracts I here give you, J read in the House of Representatives, and they ivere not denied by Parmenter and Williams: Extract of a letter from Wm. Parmexter to Dr. Amos Farsswouth, dated East Cam- bridge, October 16, 1838. " That the existence of slavery is an evil of great magnitude is not disputed, excepting by a very small portion of the citizens of the Union. In my opinion, the powers possessed by Congress should be exercised to prohibit inter-State slave trade and to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, whenever such measures can be adopted consistently with the safety of the nation ; and I deem it the duty of Congress to regard the requirements of jus- tice and humanity as well as the other obligations of the Constitution of the United States." " I am not in favor of the admission of any new State whose Constitution may tolerate slavery, and in this sentiment I believe the People of this section of the country almost unan- imously coincide. , " Respectfully and truly, yours, WILL. PARMENTER." Extract of a letter of H. Williams to Rev. P. Ckaxdall, Fall River, dated Taunton, November 1, 1838. " Dear Sir : I have this day received your letter of the 3 1st ult. propounding to me in- terrogatories in behalf of the Bristol County Anti-Slavery Society, and for answer refer you to my course in the Massachusetts Senate, and to a letter written to Andrew Robeson, Esq. about one year since, and published in the newspapers of that time. That letter contains opinions I had long entertained and often expressed. I have since seen no reason to change them. I still believe slavery to be contrary to the laws of God and the best interests of man,- that it ought not to be extended by the admission of new States into the Union with Con- stitutions tolerating so great an evil ; and that it is the imperative duty of Congj-ess to adopt immediate measures for its abolition in the District of Columbia. H. WILLIAMS." Now, both these men, Parmenter and Williams, are full-blooded Loco Focos, and accordino; to Globe logic, are o-enuine friends of the South ; and if they are defeated at the next election, we shall hear that the Abolitionists have triumphed over these immaculate Democrats ! Anti-slavery resolutions were introduced into the Massachusetts Legisla- ture. The question was taken by yeas and nays upon each resolution; hero are two of them : " Resolved. That Congress, having exclusive legislation in the District of Columbia, posses- ses the tight to abolish slavery and the slave-trade therein ; and that the early exercise of such right is demanded by the enlightened sentiment of the civilized world, by the principles of the Revolution, and by humanity. Resolved, That slavery being an admitted moral and political evil, whose continuance, wherever it exists, is vindicated mainly on the ground of necessity, should be circumscribed within the limits of the States where it has been already established ; and that no now State should hereafter be admitted into the Union whose Constitution of government shall sanction or permit the existence of domestic slavery." Whether those who voted for these resolutions were Abolitionists or not, I leave Southern people to decide. Upon the passage of these resolutions, Henry Williams, with every other Van Buren Senator except one, recorded his name in the affirmative ! You will have perceived from the course of the Administration papers, that the attempt will be made to delude the Southern country by crying out that " the abolitionists have defeated the democrats in Vermont." No man of ordinary intelligence, can any longer be deceived by this ridi- culous cry. But, if there should be one, I can easily satisfy him of his error. There are but two Administration members from Vermont in the present Congress, and both these, are abolitionists. They have been both defeated, and now we are told, the abolitionists have beaten these good Democrats ! ! On the 16th day of January last, in a speech which I delivered in the House of Representatives, I referred to the fact that many of Mr. Van Bu- ren's leading friends in Vermont, were abolitionists. Mr. E. D. Barber, the Loco-foco candidate for the office of Lieutenant Governor, was mentioned among others. It had been remarked, during the debate, that Mr. Slade was a Whig and an abolitionist, and in reply to this, I made the following state- ment : " But, Sir, in the district represented by this member, the Van Buren abolitionists had a convention, and the Secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society, E. D. Barber, opposed his (Mr. Sladk's) nominatioH. I understand this E. D. Barber is well known as a devoted friend of this Administration, the editor of a paper, and an undisguised abolitionist. There are two Administration members from Vermont on this floor, both of whom are abolitionists. One of them was here at the last Congress, (Mr. Fletcher ;) he is in favor of abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia, thinks that Congress ought to prevent the buying and selling slaves between the States, and has expressed a willingness to enter into the customa- ry international relations with Hayti. " These remarks, I repeat, were made in the House of Representatives, in the hearing of the Vermont members, they were published, and have never been, and will not be denied. In the Vermont election, which is recently heard from, the abolition candi- date for the office of Governor, Mr. Dillingham ; the abolition candidate for the office of Lieutenant Governor, Mr. E. D. Barber, and the abolitionists, Smith and Fletcher, were all beaten. Some weeks after the publication of the speech referred to, I received, through the mail, two pamphlets from Mr. E. i). Barber: One of them was " Mr. Barber's oration, delivered before the Addison county Anti-Slavery So- ciety, on the 4th of July, 1836," and the other was, "An oration delivered before the democrats of Washington countv, at Montpelier, on the 4th of July, 1839, by Edward D. Barber." ' On one of these pamphlets, winch this impudent Loc v £: &X V \° *+«<& :Emk m * X<*? :®MA° ^^ x>^ °^ .* ■ w V r ^>> V_« C .O^C*. °.../ ^ XT* Ta •^A ' A ^ • - ° ^ ^ A, v^ » - ° 0* "♦, ' . l ' ' , <^ ° " * • O A* » * ' " * ^ 6 ° " ' ♦ *>" ^ (V\\ SR ///I n »/> ^ S •VIA' % C\ J rim * visS 3 ^ • <1_" ^^\ * ^*fc*' « f\^ ^» <• 'JOlO^ ^V^"-\ ^° «'^& ° 4 safe -\ c ^^ /•••••\^ o< v. % *»" ,, *A ° %,'*.^\^ %*••»'• W»v uN£ ^