F «5 :^ *-**. v REMARKS HENRY B. STANTON IN THE REPRESENTATIVES' HALL ON THE 23rd AND 24th OF FEBRUARY, BEFORE THE COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF lASSACHTT'SETTS, TO WHOM WAS REFERRED SUNDRY MEMORIALS ON THE SUBJECT OF SLAVERY. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY ISAAC KNAPP, No. 25, Cornhill. 1S37. In B*afesachusetts any interest and responsibility in regard to these questions ? — and if so, is it such an in- terest, and such a responsibility, that she ought to grant the prayer of the petitioners. Firxt. — lias Congress power to abolish slavery, and the sLwe trade, in the District of Columbia? My excuse for discussing this branch of the inquiry, is — 1. It is the hinge upon which all the questions of du- ty and expediency here at issue, turn. 2. The power of Congress to do this, is now extensively denied. States- men and politicians, not only at the South, but even at the North, are striving, by some process, to make them- selves believe, against their better judgment, that, despite the plain provisions of the Constitution, Congress has no right to interfere with slavery in the District. HENRY B. STANTON, * I boldly assume the position that Congress has this power. 1. Permit me to trouble the Committee with some his- torical proof . This power has always been admitted till recently. (1.) Hon. Joel B. Sutherland, in a speech on the floor of Congress, in April, 1836, said, ' Such a right [right to legislate upon the subject of slavery in the District] had never been till recently denied.'* (2.) The American Quarterly Review, published at Philadelphia, said, about a year since — ' It would be hard- ly necessary to state this as a distinct proposition, [the power of Congress to abolish slavery and the slave trade in the District] had it not been occasionally questioned. The truth of the assertion, however, is too obvious to ad- mit of argument, and we believe, has never been disputed by persons who are familiar with the Constitution.' The high reputation of this periodical, is well known to the Committee. (3.) In January, 1802, the Grand Jury of Alexan- dria, in the District, asked Congress for ' Legislative REDRESS.' (4.) In March, 1816, the House of Representatives, on motion of Hon. John Randolph, of Va. ' Resolved, That a committee be appointed to enquire into the ex- istance of an inhuman and illegal traffic of slaves, carried on in and through the District of Columbia, and to re- port whether any and what measures are necessary for putting a stop to the same.' (5.) In March, 1827, eleven hundred citizens of the District petitioned Congress for the abolition of the slave trade and the gradual abolition of slavery in the District. * See Globe, May 9, 1836. 8 REMARKS OF (G.) In 1826, the political press in the District urged the recession of the District back to Maryland and Vir- ginia, on the ground that Congress possessed the power to abolish slavery in the District, and might be induced to exercise it.* (7.) On the 12th December, 1827, a memorial was presented by lion. Mr. Barney, of Maryland, on the sub- ject of slavery in the District, and was laid on the table and ordered to be printed. Hon. George McDvrgU ob- jected to the printing, but expressly admitted the right of Congress ' to grant to the people of the District any measures, which they may deem necessary to free them- selves from this deplorable evil.'t (8.) In 1828, the Legislature of Pennsylvania, by an almost unanimous vote, adopted a resolution, requesting their Senators ■ to procure, if practicable, the passage of a law to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia.' (9.) In January, 1829, the House of Representatives of the U. S., by a large majority, instructed the Com- mittee on the District, « to inquire into the expediency [not the poivcr,] of providing by law for the gradual abo- lition of slavery in the District.' How nobly, Mr. Chair- man, does this resolution contrast with those adopted by the House last Session, — with the foggy and disgraceful report of Mr. Pinckney, with the unconstitutional reso- lution of the 18th of January last, and the insane con- duct of the House under that resolution ? Who will dare to deny, that in seven years, the cause of human free- dom in this country, has fearfully retrograded ? But to return to our proofs. ■» <*•, Bee Alexandria Gazette for 1826. ■f- See CI .iii bourne's address to the people of Mississippi, in tlie GIoV« cfMay, 1386. HENRY B. STANTON. ' (10.) In January, 1829, the Assembly of New York, adopted a resolution, instructing their Senators, and re- questing their Representatives, 'to make every possible exertion, to effect the passage of a law, for the Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia.' (11.) December 12, 1831, Hon. Mr. Adams, presented Abolition memorials in the House of Representatives, and they were referred to the Committee on the District, com- posed entirely of slaveholders. The Committee reported, that ' until the adjoining states act on the subject, it would be [not unconstitutional, but] unwise and im- politic, if not unjust, for Congress to interfere, &c.' (12.) Mr. Van Buren admits the power of Congress to abolish slavery in the District, in a letter last year, to gen- tlemen in North Carolina. (13.) Pickney's celebrated Report, is compelled to concede the power to Congress. (14.) The Legislature of Vermont at its late session, passed a resolution, declaring that Congress has this power. (15.) Mr. May's resolutions, recently introduced into the Virginia Legislature, proposing certain amendments to the United States' Constitution, impliedly admit the same. But, Sir, it cannot be necessary to multiply historical proofs, though I have more at hand. I have been thus wearisome in my details, that I might show : 1. That the great mass at the North, have conceded this right, as well as very many at the South. And now, if Congress does not possess this power, how came it to be almost uni- versally conceded, from .the adoption of the Constitution onward nearly forty years? 2. That Abolitionists are not the only " agitators' of this question :— but, that State Legislatures, Congress, and even the people of the District hemselves, have been the leaders in this work. 10 REMARKS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL ARGUMENT. Second. I now proceed to offer proof of a different character. In Article 1, Section 8, of the United States Constitution, we find this clause. 'The Congress shall have power to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such district, (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the ac- ceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States.' In pursuance of this clause, Mary- land and Virginia ceded the District of Columbia to the United States, and Congress accepted the same. Virginia and Maryland claim no power over the Dis- trict. Nor does any other state. The District has no legislature, and therefore it cannot abolish slavery there. THE LEGISLATIVE POWER OP CONGRESS OVER THE DIS- TRICT. Congress, then, is the only law making power for the District. The question then is, has it power to make a law abolishing slavery there? All its power over the Dis- trict, is derived from the Constitution ; and it gives it ' ex- clasive legislation in all cases whatsoever.' Is the case of slavery excepted 1 No. Then of course it is included in the grant of power. TIM' ONLY LIMIT TO ITS POli ill. But, it may be asked, is there no limit to the legislative power of Congress over the district? Certainly. There are some things, which no legislature in this country, can rightfully do. Such as, to pass < r post facto laws, laws sanctioning robbery, rapt , murder, and all violations of fundamental morality. So Congress, in regard to the Dis- trict, stands on the same ground with the law-making HENRY B. STANTON. 11 power every where. It is limited by such and similar re- straints, and no further. Congress, then, having exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, has power to do any thing, in that District, which the law-making power is competent to do anywhere. Therefore, if any state has power to abolish slavery within its own territory, Congress has this power in the District. It may be objected that states may have this power ; — the people having granted it to them in their Constitutions. Answer. 1. True, all power resides in the people ; — and they may confer more or less on their rulers. In some states, their Constitutions curtail the legislative power, so that it is not competent to abolish slavery. This power, however, resides in the people, and they can so alter their Constitutions, as to give this power to their legislatures. In some states, they have done so : — proving, conclusively that when not restricted, the law-making power is, intrin- sically competent to the abolition of slavery. But, 2. The authority of Congress over the District, is not curtailed, but extends to the outmost limit of power, with which a legislature may be invested by the people : — to wit, 'all CASES WHATSOVER.' THE ONLY QUESTION AT ISSUE. The whole gist of the question then is this : — Is a legis- lature, or the law-making power over a given territory, competent to abolish slavery there, when that legislature possesses all the power which any legislature, under' any circumstances, is competent to possess ? I answer, 1. Legislative power has done it in numer- ous instances, in this, and other countries. I confine my- self to this. In Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey, slavery has been abolished by ]-2 REMARKS OF their respective legislatures. Now, are all these abolitions null and void, because the law-making power is not com- petent to abolish slavery? 2. The same authority has abolished slavery in its parts. And if we select these various parts from the dif- ferent states where the mutilations took place, and com- bine them, we shall discover that they constitute the es- sentials of slavery : — and thus, legislative authority having done it in all its parts, has done it in the aggregate, or whole. The ancient legislation of Massachusetts and Con- necticut, establish this truth.* SLAVERY THE CREATURE OF LAW. 3. That the law-making power can abolish slavery, is plain from the fact that it has created slavery. Slavery- is the creature of law. Legislatures have enacted laws, and these laws have made the system legal. Let them repeal these laws, and it is no longer legal ; — in other words, is abolished. Law creates slavery. Can it not an- nihilate its own workmanship ? fOMMON LAW VS. SLAVERY. 4. On the principles of the Common law, slavery is everywhere null and void. Common law operates as an abolition act, whenever it comes in contact with slavery. By it, every slave is free.t Hence, statute law sustains slavery; — and does it by violating common law. Repeal thes* statutes, and the great fundamental principles, on which the common law is based, would batter down the walls of this American Bastile ! * See Stroud pp. 23, 24. t See Haagrave's profound argument in the celebrated case of Sommer- sett, 2<) How. State Trials, 61. See 2 Salkeld'a Rep. 666, Smith ^s. Brown & Cooper; and same vy. Could. C.J. Holt declares, that 'as soon as a negro comes into England, be becomes free. One cannot be a slave in England.' ■ Man may be the owner, and therefore cannot be the subject of property !' HENRY B. STANTON. 13 SLAVERY SOMETIMES THE CREATURE OP USAGE. It has been objected to this view of the subject, that in some states, slavery is not sustained by statutes, but merely by general usage, and custom : hence, it is not competent for the Legislature to annihilate it, because it did not cre- ate it. To this I answer, 1. Then, in such states, the legisla- tures should not make stealing and robbery illegal, for they are customary and usual ! 2. Is not the grand ob- ject of government, to secure to its subjects their natural rights? And have legislatures no power to prevent one half of their subjects, from making common plunder of the rights and immunities of the other half, merely be- cause this high-handed robbery, is customary and usual? 3. But, this objection does not cast its shadow even upon the border ground of the question before us. Con- gress can abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, be- cause it exists there now by act of Congress. HOW CONGRESS GOT POSSESSION OF THE DISTRICT. THE CESSION. Let us recur to history. On the 23d December, 1788, Maryland passed an act, to cede to Congress, ' any dis- trict in the state, not exceeding ten miles square, which the Congress may fix upon, and accept for the seat of gov- ernment of the United States.' On the 3d of December, 1789, Virginia did the same, in these words, ' And the same is hereby forever ceded to the Congress and Government of the United States, in full and absolute right, and exclusive jurisdiction, as well of soil as of persons residing or to reside thereon, pursuant to the tenor and effect of the eighth section of the first article of the Constitution.' Slavery then existed, in both these states. 2 14 REMARKS OF CONGRESS CREATED SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT. On the 16th July, 1790, Congress accepted the cession, and provided, that the existing laws of those states (slave code and all,) should remain in force ' until Congress shall otherwise provide,' Thus Congress adopted the slave codes of Maryland and Virginia, as its own, for the crovernment of the District, and under these laws, the slaves of that District are held. "When Congress accept- ed the domain, and provided by law for the government of the district, then the laws of Maryland and Virginia over the ten miles square, ceased ; and, had not Congress re-enacted their slave laws, every slave in the District would have been free ! But Congress continued, yea, vir- tually, to all intents and purposes, re-established slavery there, and thus made us A SLAVEHOLDIXG NA- TION. Now, Mr. Chairman, the power to repeal this act of Congress by which the slave code was re-established, must exist somewht re. Where ? Not in the Legislature of Maryland : nor in the Legislature of Virginia : nor in the District: but, IT RESIDES IN CONGRESS. THE DRAWBACKS. THE PROVISOS. But, it is asserted, that in all this reasoning, we forget the terms of the cession ; — the drawbacks and the provisos ; — and now, say gentlemen of the Pinckney school, if Congress should abolish slavery in the District, it would violate the conditions on which Maryland and Virginia ceded it to the United States ! Answer. Look to the acts of cession. (1) In that of Maryland, there was no drawback or proviso. Hence, the objector must admit, that Congress has power to abol- ish slavery over that portion of the District! (2) The act of Virginia had a proviso touching the 'soil,' viz : — 1 That nothing herein contained shall be construed to vest HENRY B. STANTON. 15 in the United States any right of property in the soil, or to affect the rights of individuals therein, otherwise than the same shall or may be transferred by such individuals to the United States.' What, Sir, can be plainer, than that this specification about the rights of individuals in the soil, was to define more accurately that clause of the act of cession — ' Full and absolute right ? ' And, instead of the proviso concerning the soil, operating to restrain the action of Congress upon slavery and other subjects, it even more fully authorizes and confirms its action upon points where there is no limitation, than did the act itself! For, a specific exception, as to a single particular, only proclaims all other particulars exempt from the exception. A QUESTION. (3) If Maryland and Virginia did really design to limit the power of Congress over slavery in the District, why not add half a dozen words to these acts, and the thing is done? Why not, at least, throw out some hint, in that direction ? But, not a word ! (4) That clause of the Constitution which defines the power of Congress over the District, was referred to both by Maryland and Virginia, in their acts of cession, and those acts declared to be in pursuance of it. Now, the question we have to settle is, not whether these acts of cession in all their minutia, harmonized ox conflicted with that clause of the Constitution ; — but, what arc the potc- ers which that clause gives to Congress ? Those acts could neither give nor take away power from Congress. The Constitution either gives to Congress the power to abolish slavery in the District, or it withholds it ; — and that question is to be determined by the terms of the Con- stitution, and not, I humbly apprehend, by the legislation of Maryland and Virginia, And the fact, that Congress 16 REMARKS OF accepted the cession, proves, that in their opinion, the terms of the acts, contained no limitation of the power of ' exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever.' UNJUST TO MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA. THEIR SUPPOSI- TIONS. It has been gravely urged, that if Maryland and Vir- ginia had supposed, that the Constitution gave Congress power to abolish slavery in the District, they never would have ceded it to the United States ; hence for Congress to do so, would be unjust to those States. Answer. 1. They did cede it ; — Congress did accept it ; — and then the power of these States ceased, and the power of Congress commenced. The only question is, What is the Constitutional power of Congress over the District, and not what were the suppositions of Maryland and Virginia? They may have had divers notions about the subject. But, I am yet to learn, that their notions either alter, or abrogate, the clause in question ; — or, that these States, are the authorized interpreters of the Con- stitution of this Republic. 2. These States had given in their sanction to the Con- stitution, before the cession. They knew such a clause existed ; — and that if they ceded territory to the United States, under that clause, Congress would possess all the power over the territory after the cession, which they pos- sessed before. How then could they have supposed, that Congress had no power to abolish slavery in the District ? Sir, it is the love of slavery, which gives color to this idea. the compact.! a violation of the public faith! But, the. compact: — ay, Sir, the compact. We are told, the South would never have ratified the Constitution, if they had supposed it gave^ Congress this power j — and HENRY B. STANTON. 17 hence, to exercise the power, would be a violation of the public faith. And it is asserted, that there was a general understanding to that effect, both at the North and the South. Sir, on this part of the subject, it requires all one's self possession to keep cool. I assert that the North never would have ratified that Constitution, if it" had not fully understood, that, by its terms, Congress did possess this power. So far was she from supposing, at the time of adopting the Constitution, that Congress had not this pow- er, she most religiously believed, that that instrument in- flicted a death blow upon slavery generally, and that the whole system would soon die. By its provisions, the for- eign slave trade was to cease, after 1S08. The prevailing opinion in Europe and in America at the time the Consti- tution was ratified was, that if this was destroyed, slavery itself must die. Judge Wilson, a member of the Conven- tion which formed the Constitution, pronounced the Arti- cle granting to Congress the power to stop this trade, ' one of the loveliest of its features, diffusing beauty over its whole aspect. He considered this power, equivalent to authority bestowed on Congress, to exterminate slavery. 1 Massachusetts' suppositions. And, Sir, what were Massachusetts' 'suppositions' when she ratified this Constitution ? In the debate upon the instrument, in her Convention, Maj. Gen. Heath, of the Revolutionary Army, said : ' Two questions naturally arose in his mind. If we ratify this Constitution, shall we do any thing by that act, to hold men in slavery ? Shall we become partakers in other men's sins ? He thought not. Congress bad gone as far as it could. Slavery was confined to the States noio existing. It could not be ex- tended. By their ordinance, Congress had declared that 2* 18 REMARKS GF the new States should be republican States, and have no slavery.' This, Sir, is Revolutionary testimony. In the same Convention, Judge Dawes said, ' We are either to consider the blacks of the South as property, or freemen. Our own state laws, and our own Constitution, would lead us to regard these blacks as freemen, and so indeed would our ideas of natural justice.' Judge D. then referred to the article of the Constitution concerning the foreign slave trade, in terms of high eulogium. Said he, ' We may say, that although slavery is not smitten with an apoplexy, yet it has received a mortal wound, and will die of consumption.' Truly, Sir, may not Massachusetts now exclaim, ' Oir Fathers! where are they?' Judge Dana, and Hon. John Adams, members of the Convention, rejoieed over that provision of the Constitu- tution which limited the slave trade, — ' odious and abhor- ent,' as they termed it. Mr. Backus denounced slavery. He trusted it would die, as his friend Judge Dawes had said, of consumption. 4 The gospel,' said he, ' has placed all men on a level. " Ye are bought with a price ; be ye not the servants of men." ' Mr. Neal, and Gen. Thompson opposed the clause which put off the preventing of the slave trade, till 1S0S. Said Mr. N., ' I protest against any thing which shall favor the making merchandize of men.' Gen. T., in the course of a vehement speech, exclaimed, ' Mr. President, shall it be said, that after we have established our own independence and freedom, we make slaves of others? Washington! what a name he has! how has he immor- talized himself! But, Sir, he still continues to hold those in slavery, who have as good a right to freedom as him- self! '* * Elliott's Debates. HENRY B. STANTON. 19 Sir, these were the doctrines of this state in the olden time. This her understanding of the compact. Upon whom have the mantles of our fathers fallen? WHAT WAS THE COMPACT 1 Were there time, I would detail a long catalogue of facts, showing, that if there was any compact between the North and the South, besides the written compact, it was not a pno-slavery, but an ANTI-slavery compact. True to the pledge, the North returned from the Con- vention, and commenced the work of abolition. Numer- ous abolition societies were formed in Pennsylvania, Con- necticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, and even in Maryland and Virginia. And numerous address- es and sermons denouncing slavery, were put forth by the Pinckneys, the Jays, the Franklins, the Rushs, the Edwards, the Hopkins, and the Stiles of that day. Pat- rick Henry and Thomas Jefferson were not silent. And, by the great mass of the country, it was hoped, believed, and understood, that long, long ere this, the last vestige of slavery was to have rotted in a dishonored grave. Then, Sir, I go for the Compact! CONGRESS CANNOT IMPAIR THE RIGHT OF PROPERTY. It is further objected to abolition in the District, that Congress cannot justly impair the right of private prop- erty ; and that slaves, being property, their emancipa- tion, by law, would be unjust to the owner. To this it may be replied, that Cogress does not only impair the right of private property, but it annihilates it, ao long as its own laws withhold from the slave his pri- vate property j— and such property too ;— not merely his property in his earnings, but in himself! Reference is frequently made to the 7th Article of the 20 REMARKS OF Amendments of the U. S. Constitution, which says, 'nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation,' as proving the injustice of abolition by- Congress. But this clause manifestly refers to the taking of individual property for governmental uses. Nothing like this is done in the abolition of slavery. CONGRESS CAN ESTABLISH JUSTICE. In the Preamble to the United States Constitution, one of the reasons assigned for its formation is, ' to estab- lish justice.' The emancipation of the slave, is not to wrest from any rightful owner his private property, but is to establish justice between the slave and his master. It is giving to the slave what is 'just and equal,' — his own body : — himself. It is saying that the slave's body and mind are his : — and that he has a right to than. When Congress abolishes slavery, it establishes justice between two men, — giving to the slave his own, and taking from the master what never, in justice, belonged to him. To give the slave personal ownership, is, however, far from full justice to him. That would demand of the master full compensation — not merely saying to him, ' rob the slave no longer, but pay him for past robberies.' And, indeed, has Congress no right to do this ] What ! a gov- ernment no power to do justice between its subjects? No power to keep one portion from robbing another ? Such a government is a mockery ! a nullity ! PRIVATE TROrERTY IS SUBJECT TO LEGISLATION. But, in the abolition of slavery, Congress would do nothing more in regard to private property, than is done in every legislature in the nation. Laws are made every where, regulating transactions between persons .-adjusting the relative claims of different classes ; employers and em- HENRY B. STANTON. 21 ployed ; guardians and wards ; masters and apprentices ; the exercise of professions ; and the prosecution of trades. All such laws (and certainly they are no curiosity !) affect the rights and property of individuals ; and they are de- signed so to affect them as ' to establish justice' And, Sir, the repeal of the old law of entailments, and the enacting of the statute of limitations : — the regulation by law of the alienation of property, its transmission by de- scent, and by will, the saying who shall and who shall not be heirs, and how it shall be divided among them : — all these statutary provisions, most seriously affect the right of private property. And yet, who ever doubted the power of legislation to do such acts 1 And, Sir, Slavery has been abolished in New York, and other states by statute ! This has never been considered as any violation of private property. CONGRESS HAS LURED THE OWNERS TO INVEST PROPERTY IN SLAVES. A very plausible objection to this doctrine has been urged, which I will briefly notice, and then leave the ques- tion, as to the power of Congress to do this work. It is said, that the national legislature, has lured the slaveholders into the investment of property in slaves ; has said to them, by its laws, ' go on and purchase, and we will protect you,' therefore, it would be great injustice in the same legisla- ture, to destroy property thus invested. Answer, 1. Slavery is rank injustice to the slave : — a cruel wrong. Has Congress no right to correct its own wrong ? 2. The government and the slaveholder, should be re- garded as common wrong doers ; — shall I say, common robbers ? Either one, or both, may repent, without doing INJUSTICE. 22 REMARKS OF MAN CANNOT BE PROPERTY ! 3. The National legislature has lured the slaveholder to invest property in MEN ? Then, these holders must run the risk of such investment! Property in men ! Talk of property in fixed stars, but not in immortal souls ! Man's superior right to himself, over the claims of another, is self-evident. It stands pre-eminent among the essentials of his moral nature. His right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness, is self-evident and inalienable. Our Declaration of Independence utters it, and human con- sciousness, from its inner temple, responds Amen ! Con- gress has lured the slaveholders to invest money in human souls! And, the poor deluded masters, they will sink their money it the victims of their rapacity are permitted to re- gain possession of their own souls! Impious whining ! Sacrilegious fraud ! It overlooks entirely the rights and the interests of the slave. Its sympathies all cluster around the pocket of the robber, rather than the heart ot the robbed. But, it is ridiculous, as well as impious. Speculators, who invest their riches in human flesh, must look out that those riches don't take to themselves heels, and run away [ Suppose your legislature should charter a stock company., which should issue scrip, payable by a tax on the sun- shine which fell on Nantucket. Suppose gentlemen of property and standing, should invest large Minis in this scrip, and should be flushed with the expectation of mak- ing large profits in this sunshine speculation. But lo .1 when they sent their collectors to that bustling island, the people should stoutly refuse to pay the tax ; — insisting, that a Beneficent Providence, sent his sunshine with an equally liberal hand upon all, whether evil or good. And, then, these speculators in sunshine — scrip, should HENRY E. STANTON. 23 whine around the doors of your legislature, that they had been lured into this investment, that it was hard, they had sunk money, and so forth. Would not common sense re ply to them, that ' those who invest property in sunshine, must expect small gains?' Sir, it is much more clearly a self-evident proposition, that a man has an inalienable right to his own body, than that he has an inalienable right to the sunshine which falls upon that body. The Committee then adjourned till the next day, at 3 P. M. FRIDAY AFTERNOON, FEB. 24. The Committee met in the Representatives' Hall, pur- suant to adjournment. In continuation of his argument, Mr. Stanton addressed them in substance, as follows : I am aware, Mr. Chairman, that it is customary on oc- casions like this, to commence by descanting upon the importance of the subject under discussion. This is com- mon place. I dislike to stoop to it on the present occa- sion, lest my reasons for so doing should be regarded as trivial. Yet, I will run the hazard. In courts of justice, the advocate often trembles, as he rises to address the jury, when the pecuniary interests of his client are at stake, then what should be my feelings, when I rise to address you, not in behalf of the pecuniary interests of one client, but in behalf of the liberties and the lives, the interests, temporal and eternal, of thousands? Ay more; — the questions here discussed, are not confined in their bear- ings, to the slaves in the District of Columbia ; nor in this nation. The cause of freedom throughout the world ; the honor of God's law, will be deeply affected by your delib- erations. The interests here involved, are co-extensive with human hopes and human happiness; wide as the universe, lasting as eternity, high as Heaven. Then, Sir, 24 REMARKS OF the slave, the master, this Commonwealth, the nation, the world, Jehovah himself, demand that we deliberate pa- tiently, cautiously, impartially. And, gentlemen, your constituents will pardon you for so doing. No subject is more discussed by them, than that now before you ; and the intensity of their feelings, not less than their immedi- ate concernment, requires this deliberation at your hands. The Committees of the honorable body, whom you repre- sent, spend many weeks in the investigation of Banks, Rail-Roads, and kindred subjects, and shall you not de- vote a few brief hours to a matter, whose importance as immeasurably overshadows all pecuniary and fiscal inter- ests, as liberty is more worth than money ? And I ask the indulgent attention of the Committee, because I believe, that as you shall decide, so the Legis- lature will act. Your number is unusually large ; you just- ly have the confidence of the House, and to you they look to mature this subject for their action. Upon you, there- fore, rests the responsibility of a decision. Hear me then for my cause, and bear with me, because I plead not only for the suffering, but the dumb. THE QUESTION STATED. The question which will now occupy our attention, is the second one proposed yesterday, viz : — Ought Con- gress immediately to abolish slavery, and the slave trade, in the District of Columbia ? The power of Congress to do this, was discussed yesterday. Our present business is with the expediency of exercising that power. SLAVERY A POLITICAL AND MORAL WRONG. 1. I contend that Congress should immediately abolish slavery and the slave trade in that District, because slav- ery is a system at war with natural justice and moral equi- HENRY B. STANTON. 25 ty : — is a political and a moral wrong : — a sin against man and God. Hence, no political or moral considera- tions can justify its continuance for a moment. ' Jus- tice,' says Gov. McDuffie, ' is the highest expediency — and I am sure South Carolina is the last state in the Union, that would knowingly violate the sacred canon of political morality.' Shall Massachusetts be behind South Carolina in political morality ? Before I entered the House this afternoon, a friend remarked to me, that it would be of no use to urge the odious character of slav- ery to satisfy this Committee of the expediency of its im- mediate abolition. Sir, I will not believe it. Is it true, that the detestable and impious nature of slavery, is not, to the head and heart of a Massachusetts legislator, the highest reason for its immediate and total annihilation ? Is the old Pilgrim spirit quenched within the legislative halls of this Commonwealth ! God forbid. SLAVERY MAKES MEN THINGS. What then is slavery ? It is the worst of all oppres- sions. It robs men of their distinctive characteris- tics as rational and immortal beings, and makes them things. In the language of the slaveholding code, (and slavery is the creature of law,) ' Slaves are deemed, sold, taken, reputed and adjudged to be chattels personal, in the hands of their owners and possessors, their adminis- trators and assigns, to all intents, constructions and pur- poses whatsoever.' Thus, the master has as absolute own- ership over his slave, as over any other property. The statute un-creates the slave as a man, and re-creates him a chattel. IT DESTROYS ALL MAN'S RIGHTS. HOW ? It annihilates all his rights by annihilating his man- 3 26 REMARKS OF hood, by virtue of which alone, he is an owner of rights. His Creator endowed him with sacred rights, pre-eminent among which was the right of personal ownership. Hav- ing robbed him of this pre-eminent right, the law is con- sistent, when it says, ' a slave can do nothing, possess nothing, acquire nothing ; ' for, in the language of the same code, he ' is not to be ranked among sentient, ra- tional beings, but among things, as an article of property.' To rob men of property is manifestly unjust, and your •Legislature would not hesitate a moment to declare it ex- pedient to stop such robbery instantly ; — but, to rob men of themselves : — ah, that is indeed a * delicate question ! ' {Slavery thrusts its robber-arm too far to excite the abhor- rence of political morality. If it stopped at the pocket, the civilized world would cry out against it ; — but, when it goes through the pocket to the man himself, and by force takes him, body and soul, and converts him into merchandize, and herds him with four-footed beasts and creeping things, then its abolition is a question of doubt- ful expediency! To steal your purse, J\Jr. Chairman, would be palpable injustice; — but to take yourself, and thus annihilate the sun in the solar system of your rights, around which all your other rights revolve, and upon which they depend, and without which they arc not, is but a venial offence ; and to rebuke it, much more to prevent it, is of questionable expediency ! Sir, slavery is the acme of injustice and impiety. God gave to man his faculties to be employed in the promo- tion of his own happiness. But slavery regards the slave not as a being possessing rights and susceptibilities of happiness, but as a mere means of happiness to his mas- ter. The object of the system is not to promote the good of the slave, but to use him to promote the good of anoth- er. He is a mere tool in the hands of his owner. He is HENRY B. STANTON. 27 not permitted to use his powers of body, of mind, of soul, to advance his own happiness, or to advance the happiness of others, or to obey his God. Yea, the profit and the pleasure of the owner are the end for which the slave is permitted to exist ! He only lives that he may be pro- fitable to his master ! MEN ANNIHILATED. In the District of Columbia, there are seven thousand Americans, bearing Jehovah's image, and touched with His immortal fire ; who are, by statutory enactments, abso- lutely annihilated as beings possessing rights and suscep- tibilities of happiness, and are permitted to live only as appendages to the existence of others ; as mere articles of convenience to be used for the pleasure of others ; and, so far as it is in the power of human legislation to do it, are oivebieu uf t.»^j iJ c lil J " utq ] " > ^ cooiui, intellectual, political and moral, and are crowded cut of God's crea- tion into the chaos of an anomalous existence, where they are regarded and treated neither as men, nor vet as things ; — neither as rational beings, nor yet as brutes ; — but as SLAVES. SOMEBODY RESPONSIBLE. WEO ? For this daring, — this impious crusade against Jeho- vah and His works, somebody is responsible. Who is it 1 I answer, THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. This system is its handy work. It lives, and moves and has its being in that District, by the ex- press permission of Congress. Then let that body, let those who elect that body, and those who have influence with that body, take the responsibility of continuing this system of 'complicated villany ; ' but let them answer it to that Being, who has said, ' Vengeance is mine, I will repay.' 28 REMARKS OF THE RIGHT OF PROPERTY THE SOURCE OF CRUELTY. The right of absolute ownership over the slave as a chattel, is the fountain hear], from which all the cruel- ties of the system flow. The innumerable inflictions, exactions and privations, such as stripes, toil, denial of wages, with all the other positive evils of the system, flow spontaneously from this fountain head. SLAVES NO PROTECTION OF LAW. Having robbed the slave of himself, and thus made him a thing, Congress is consistent in denying to him all protection of law as a man. His labor is coerced from him, by laws passed by Congress : — No bargain is made, no wages given. His provender and covering are at the will of his owner. His domestic and social rights, are as entirely disregarded, in the eye of the law, as if T)-itv had »^»^» ii-^titufco j i.Lv_ mniomiug idcuiuus uf Hus- band and wife, parent and child, brother nnd sister. THERE IS NOT THE SHADOW OF LEGAL PRO- TECTION FOR THE FAMILY STATE AMONG THE SLAVES OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUM- BIA. What think you of this, Sir, as a husband and a father 1 Neither is there any real protection in law, for the limbs and the lives of the slaves of that District. The shadow of legal protection for life and limb, is indeed extended to them, but the substance is not there. No slave can be a party before a judicial tribunal, in the capital of this Republic, in any species of action against any person, no matter how atrocious may have been the injury received. He is not known to the law as a person; — much less, a person having civil rights. Says Stroud, in his admirable ' Sketch of the laws relating to slavery,' u it is an inflexible and universal rule of slave law, that the testimony of a colored person, whether bond H. E. STANTON. 29 or free, cannot be received against a white person ! !" Slavery thus puts the life of its victims into the power of the master. The master may murder by system, with complete legal impunity, if he perpetrates his deeds only in the presence of colored persons! What think you as a Legislator, sir, of such a system in the Capital of a land of light and law, — which boasts of equal rights, of trials by jury, of courts of justice, and whose Constitution says, " no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ?" Is it expedient to abolish it? And this system, in that District, is hereditary and perpetual. CIVIL GOVERNMENT A CURSE. Thus Congress, in regard to one-fifth of those over whom it exercises exclusive legislation, has perverted civil law from a blessing into a curse; and, to its victims, has made our free institutions an engine of the most odious tyranny. It is the constitutional guardian of the rights, and the sworn protector of the interests, of all the people in that District. It has offered the rights of seven thou- sand citizens, a bleeding sacrifice on the altar of cupidity, passion and power. IT IS RECREANT TO ITS HIGH TRUSTS. THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE DISTRICT. But, sir, the slave trade in that District demands our at- tention. How humiliating, that the Capital of our nation should be one of the foulest slave markets in the world. MINER'S RESOLUTION. In January, 1829, the House of Representatives of the United States, on motion of the Hon. Mr. Miner, of Pa. adopted a resolution, by a vote of 114 to 66, a part of whose preamble I will read. 3* 30 REMARKS OF " Slave- dealers, gaining confidence from impunity, have made the seal of the federal government their bead quarters for carrying on the domestic slave trade. " The public prisons have been extensively used, (perverted from tic purposes lor which they wen- erected,) lor carrying on the domestic slave trade. ers of the federal government have bee i and derive .ms from carryii mestic slave trade. •• Private and secret prisons exist in the district lor carrying on the traffic in human b< e trade is not confined to those who are slaves for life ; but persons having a limited time to Berve, are bought by the slave-dealers, and sent where redress is " Others are kidnapped and hurried away before they can be rescued. uish of despair, exhibited in the Dis- trict, mark the cruelty of this traffic. sices of maiming and si e, eieci ted or att« mpted, have 1 ten ezhih traffic within the District. human beings i xposed at public vendue are exhibited here, permitted by the laws of the gei i ral government. •• \ grand jury of the district has presented the slave trade as a grievance. " A writer in a public print in the District has set forth. ' that to these who have never seen a spectacle of the kind ( exhibited by the slave trade) no description can give an adequate idea of its horrors.' " THE PUBLIC PRISON \ A SLAVE DEPOT. In a speech in support of bis resolution, Mr. Miner makes the following statement in regard to the jail in Washington. ■• !'. paperc furnisl ed me by the keeper, it app« ars that in the last five years, more than tour hundred and hfty persoi s had been confined in the public pris < it] — a prison under the control of < ongress, and n -mated by its laws — for sale in the process of the slave trade. Such, said Mr. M., is no1 the intention for which the prison was erected. Penn- sylvania, so far as she is concerned, and her means are appropriaU d to re- pair and keep up the prison, 1 am confident in saying, does not and never Ins intended that it should be used for this purpose." Nearly three hundred others were, during the same period, taken up and imprisoned as runaways in the same jail. CASH PAID FOR AMERICANS ! The following advertisement is cut from a recent Wash- ington paper. •■ CASH FOR 100 NEGROES." " Including both sexes, from 12 to 2j years of aire. Persona having likely servants to dispose of. will hud it to their interest to give us a call, H. B. STANTGN". 31 as we Will give higher prices in cash than any other purchaserwho is nMr ; or may hereafter come into this market." " FRAJNKLIIN & ARMFIELD." Franklin &, Armfield, are extensive dealers in human flesh, at the Capital. They have a regular line of " Pack- ets/' running from Alexandria to New Orleans, whose chief business is the transportation of slaves. I present their case only as a specimen of the trade in the District. Ay, sir, there is a keen competition in this brokerage in human blood. Franklin &, Armfield are but one of the many firms, who drive this trade at the seat of the Federal Government. See the audacity with which they offer " higher prices" " than any other purchaser in this market t" " PIRACY." WHAT IS IT ? Where do we witness this? On the coast of Africa? No! For there, if caught, Franklin &l Armfield would be hung as pirates. But, in the Capital of " the freest na- tion on earth." And who are these "negroes?" Are they of the Caffres in Africa ? No! For ihen, Frank- lin &l Armfield would die as pirates. But, they are Amer- ican born citizens! — and, if it would add to their claims for mercy, 1 might say, many of them are as white as your distinguished Senator in Congress! Mr. Miner, in the course of his remarks, read a pre- sentment made by a grand jury at Alexandria, in 18C2. " January Term, 1802. " We, the grand jury for the body of the county of Alexandria, in the District of Columbia, present as a grievance the practice of persons com- ing from distant parts of the United States into this District, for the pur- pose of purchasing slaves, where they exhibit io our view a scene of wretchedness and human degradation, disgiaceful to our characters as cit- izens of a free government. " Those dealers in the persons of our fellow men, collect within this District, from various parts, numbers of those victims of slavery, and lodge them in some place of confinement until they have completed their numbers. They are then turned out into «ur streets, and exposed to view, loaded with chains, as though theyhad committed some heinous offeace against our laws. We consider iV a grievance, that citizens from distant parts of the United States, should be permitted to come within the Dis- trict, and pursue a traffic fraught with so much misery to a class of beings 32 REMARKS OF entitled to our protection, by the laws of justice and humanity ; and that the interposition of civil authority cannot be had to prevent parents frcra being wrested from their offspring, and children fr< in their parents, with- out respect to the ties of nature. We consider those grievances demand- ing legislative redress ; especially the practice of making sale of black people, who are, by the will of their mash to be i'ree at the expiration of a termof years, who are sold and frequently taken to dis- tant parts, where they have not the power to avail themselves of that portion of liberty, which was designed for their enjoyment" True it is, that this presentment was made thirty-five years ago. But, Mr. Chairman, as the trade has increased in years, it has grown in turpitude and horror. It has now become too strong and too respectable lor the grand jurv of that District to dare to present it as a grievance. There are too many members of Congress who profit by it now, to justify such an interference! Under the torpedo power of. slavery, .nave holding grand juries are struck dumb. Shall the Legislatures of free States succumb? The Holy Alliance sneers at our tame subserviency. This traffic is not confined to the legal slave : — it clutches the rights ol the free. Says Mr. Miner, in the preamble to his resolution, •• Free persons of color coming into the District, an I arrest, imprisonment, and to be sold into slav< r\ for life, f< r jail l'< < s, if unable nee. misfortune, or frai i m." By a law of the District, authorised of course by Con- gress, all negroes found residing in the city of "Washing- ton, who shall not be able to establish their title to free- dom, an- committed to jail as absconding slaves/ Most wicked and unconstitutional law! It is the common law, even of Monarchies, that men are to be presumed inno- cent, ami consequently free, till they are proved guilty. But by this law, color is made a crime, which first robs citizens of their constitutional rights, and is then taken as evidence that they are slaves: — and to crown all, a large posse of constables and other officers, some of them in H. B. STANTON. 33 the pay of the Government, are, by their oaths, obliged to execute these laws. The result is, that citizens, as free as your Committee, are often arrested, imprisoned, and then sold for their jail fees as slaves for life ! See the fol- lowing record of our baseness. A Washington paper has the following NOTICE. " Was committed to the prison of Washington Co. D. C, on the 19th day of May, 1834, as a run-away, a Kegro man who calls himself David Peck. He is 5 feet 8 inches high. Had on, when committed, a check shirt, linen pantaloons, and straw hat. he says he is free, and belongs to Baltimore. * * The owner or owners are hereby requested to ccme for- ward, prove him, and take him away, or [" or' what? said Mr. Stanton ; he will be set free? We should naturally ihink so ; remembering that he was an American citizen, in the Capital of li the freest Government on earth/ 7 But JNO ! Listen.] or he will be sold for his prison and other ex- penses, as the law directs. JAMES WILLIAMS, Keeper of the Prison of Washington County, District of Columbia. For ALEXANDER HUJNTER, M. D. C.' 7 The above is but a specimen. Four other persons, at least, who said they were free, have been advertised in a similar way within the last year. I will not comment on such facts. It would be insulting to the patriotism and humanity of the Committee. Shall the voice of this ancient Commonwealth be dumb, when slavery plays such tragedies of cruelty on the thea- tre of our Capital ? If so, Then, by our Fathers' ashes, Has the spirit of the true hearted and the unshackled gone ! The time may yet come, perhaps has already past, when a legal voter of our own State, may visit Washington, on business before our National Legislature, — and from the color of his skin, be suspected of having been robbed of personal ownership, and on such suspicion be plunged into prison, and, in due time, be sold to pay " his prison and other expenses, as the law directs." Sir, let us talk no more of " State Rights," till we have acquired courage to protest against such unconstitutional aggressions. 34 REMARKS OF LICENSE TO SELL MEN. In the City Laws, sanctioned by Congress, I find an " Act to provide a revenue for the Canal Fund," which lays an impost as follows, " For a License to trade or traffic in Slaves for profit, whether as Agent or otherwise, focr hundred dollars." Thus, what is piracy on the coast of Africa, is licensed in the City of Washington. Says Dr. Samuel Johnson, " the loudest yelps Jar liberty arc among the drivers of Slaves.'' Dr. Johnson was an eminent lex- icographer, and gave admirable definitions to terms. what no the petitioners ask? And now, Mr. Chairman, what do the petitioners ask you to request Congress to do? I answer ; — merely to re- peal these odious statutes immediately; and to enact others if necessary, in their stead. VfMEDIATE ABOLITION: WHAT IS IT? By immediate abolition, they do not intend that the Slaves of the District should be " turned loose :" — nor, that they should be as a sine qua nan to abolition, immedi- ately invested with ail political rights, such as the elective franchise. But, simply, that Congress should immediately restore to every Slave, the ownership of his own body, mind and soul. That they should no longer permit them to be " deemed, held, and sold, as chattels personal, to all intents, constructions and purposes whatsoever ;'' but Bhould give the slaves a fee simple in their own blood, . and brains. That they should no longer be re- garded as things without rights, but as men with rights. In a word, that the right of property, on the part of the master over the slave, should instantly cease. This : done, of course the slave should be legally protected in life and limb, — in his earnings, his family and social re- lations, and his conscience. We only ask, that the master H. B. STANTON. 35 should stop taking from the slave those things which of right belong to him : — and that Congress should give equal and exact justice to all concerned. Sir, is this just? Is it expedient? V LEGAL PROTECTION ANNIHILATES SLAVERY. To give impartial legal protection in that District, to all its inhabitants, would annihilate slavery. And is not in- nocence entitled to the protection of law ? The people wait to hear your answer to this question 1 Slavery and the slave trade, could not survive the introduction, into that District, of this plain principle, viz. that innocence is entitled to the protection of law ; a principle so self- evidently just, so necessary to the existence of human so- ciety in its most degraded forms, that even semi-barbarians acknowiege and act upon it. Give the slave, then, equal legal protection with his master, and, at its first approach, slavery and the slave trade flee in panic, as does darkness before the full orbed sun. I stiil press the point; is it ex- pedient for all the inhabitants in our Capital, to have the protection of law ? or shall the rights of the weaker, be made the common plunder of the stronger ? ENFRANCHISEMENT. As to the immediate investment of the slaves with the elective franchise, and other mere conventional rights, we leave that to the wisdom of Congress. We only say, let there be no tests on account of color. Strike a dead level, and whose head soever reaches above it, let him enjoy the advantage, whatever may be his phrenological conform- ation. Let the quality of the brains, and the color of the heart, be the standard, rather than the color of the skin, and the texture of the hair. 3G REMARKS OF PAUPERISM AND THROAT-CUTTING. I am asked, if the slaves would not become paupers, — or might not kill their masters? I answer; that same power which repealed the slave code, would make all ne- cessary provisions to prevent pauperism, and to secure the o-eneral welfare. The entire resources of the country would be at the disposal of Congress ; and, at any moment, it could bury the emancipated negroes of the District, under an avalanche of cannon balls. SLAVES BETTER OFF NOW THAN IF FREE. A member of your Committee, Mr. Chairman, has ask- ed me to answer the inquiry, whether the negroes of the District would be as well off when free, as they now are while slaves. Mark, sir, the kind of abolition for which I contend : to wit, the restoration to the slave of personal ownership, and the protection of law. Tli,en the inquiry resolves it- self into this, — whether the slaves would be as well off to be men, as God made them, as to be things, as He did not make them. In a word, whether it will conduce to the happiness of the world, to regard things and beiugs just as they are, or just as they are not. Men better off with- out compensation for their labor, than with 1 Then repeal your laws for the protection of private property, and the collection of debts. Men better off without legal protec- tion than with ? Then burn your statute books, abolish your judiciary, and raze your legislative halls to their foun- dation, and cry havoc, and let slip theft and robbery, as- sault and murder. Men happier without the ownership of their own minds than with? Happier that their wills should be under the absolute control of another, than that they should control them themselves ! Impossible : for it II. B. STANTON. 37 is equivalent to saying, that a man is better pleased to do as another pleases, than to do as he himself pleases. SLAVES ARE NEVER WELL OFF. But, sir, with all respect for the honorable member, his inquiry assumes what I totally deny : — to wit, that a slave can be well off. He may be fed well, may be clothed well, not severely whipped, nor over worked. But this is regarding man as a mere animal. Horses may be fed well, covered well, not over whipped, nor worked: and may be held and used as chattels : and not contravene any law ot their nature. But man has a nobler nature. His spirit soars upward. He was created "a little lower than the angel3, and crowned with glory and honor, and set over the loor/cs of God's hands." Is it treating such a being well, to take him from this high station, in close fellow- ship with angels, and tarnish his glory and his honor, by transforming him into merchandize, and driving him or leading him like a brute, and selling him in the shambles to the highest bidder ? Said the immortal Henry, "give me liberty, or give me death !" and this nation re- sponds to the sentiment a loud Amen ! Is it good treat- ment to inflict on men that which is worse than murder? There is more in slavery than the deprivation of bread, and the infliction of stripes. Its plough-share of ruin goes over the soul. Hence, slavery is the mother of degra- dation. Said an emancipated slave to me in the city of Cincin- nati, Ohio, " I had rather be a free ?nan, and live under the cruel laws of Ohio, and beg my btead from door to door, and go down to the Ohio river to drink, than to be a slave in Virginia, where I could not own myself, and where I heard the cries of my poor perishing brethren." As you love freedom, listen to a slave ! Show me the man 4 38 REMARKS OF who now eats plain and scanty food, wears coarse clothing, and works hard and long, who would exchange such a life, for one of luxury, splendid dress, and fashionable ease, on the condition that he was to he the absolute and perpetual property of another, to all intents, constructions and pur- poses whatsoever. I would like to look that man in the face ! WHAT WE ASK OF CONGRESS ? Better off in slavery ? We ask Congress to give them impartial justice. This, Congress can do, and is bound to do. And this, I am sure, would be belter than abject slavery. I have no time to glance at facts. Read the entire his- tory of emancipation ; and this fact challenges contradic- tion, viz. that the condition of the emancipated negro, physically, pecuniarily, socially, intellectually, morally, ia decidedly superior to his condition while a slave. St. Do- mingo and the British West Indies, settle this beyond dispute. FREEDOM OUTLAWED AT THE CAPITAL. 2. I assert that Congress ought immediately to abolish sla- very in the District of Columbia, because it is the Capital of this Republic ; is the seat of our National Legislature, and of the Supreme Court : the public offices, the public records, and the public archives are there; and [now, sir, for the inference,] the existence of slavery there, is totally incompatible with that freedom of locomotion, of speech, of the press, and of debate, which are necessary to trans- act the public business of the nation. It is needless to sav, that every citizen should be able in safety to visit the Capital ofthe Republic, whatever may be his opinions on any subject. But, while slavery exists there, this \s impossible. H. B. STANTON. 39 Free colored citizens, I have already shown, are out- lawed in the District. If one of them should invent a useful improvement in mechanics, and should go to Wash- ington to obtain a patent, he might be seized, incarcerated on the suspicion that he was a slave, and finally he, and his model, both be sold at auction, to defray the expenses of suspecting kirn ! DR. CRANDALLS' CASE. Those of a paler hue fare but little better. In the Sum- mer of 1835, Dr. Reuben Crandall, a citizen of New York, visited the District for the purpose of pursuing his profession. Being suspected of holding sentiments in ac- cordance with the Bill of Rights of this Commonwealth, he found refuge from the vengeance of a howling mob, within the walls of the public prison. I personally know this gentleman. He possesses a temper as mild, and a heart as benevolent, as ever filled the human breast. He would not touch, injuriously, the hair of a slaveholder's head, to emancipate every slave in the land. After lan- guishing eight months in prison, to the great injury of his health, he was put on trial for his life, as an incendiary. He was acquitted ; — there not being the shadow of a rea- sonable suspicion upon his conduct. He then fled the District. R. G. WILLIAMS* CASE. During his trial, the testimony of Ransom G. Williams, of New York, was vitally important. He was summoned as a witness: but, being the friend of Crandall, and hold- ing similar opinions, he was warned by Members of Con- gress, that his life would be endangered, if he appeared there. 40 REMARKS OF" And why could not Williams visit the Capital of " the freest nation on earth V Was he suspected of being the secret emissary of the Holy Alliance? No. Hut, in a paper published by him in New York, he had uttered the sentiment, " God command*, and all nature cries out, that man should not be held as property.'' For this, he was in- dicted in Alabama, and the Governor of that State, de- manded him of the Governor of New York, as a fugitive from justice. For uttering this self-evident truth, he was forbidden, on peril of his life, to press with his foot, the soil of the District. DOCTRINES PROSCRIBED. A DELUSION. Sir, it is a delusion to think that " abolitionists" only are excluded from the Capital of your Nation. It is doc- trines which are outlawed there. And such doctrines ! You, sir, could not visit the seat of our Federal Govern- ment in safety, if you dared to utter the noble sentiments in your Bill of Rights. The eloquent Channing has been denounced on the floor of Congress, this winter, as the vilest of incendiaries, and I would not insure his life there a day. The genius of slavery will not tolerate the senti- ment, that " man should not be he!d as property." It pre- sides at the Capital. Its altars are there. Its bloody de- cree has gone forth, " WORSHIP OR DIE ; ' ! Hundreds of thousands in this Nation, are outlawed at its own Capi- tal, for holding and uttering the self-evident principles, on which its Constitution is founded, and in defence of which, Bunker's mount smoked with blood. freedom of speech STRUCK DUMB IN CONOR BOS. In our National Legislature, freedom of .-peech is struck dumb, by the omnipotence of slavery; and its member* H. B. 5TANT0N. 41 are overawed in debate, and cannot give utterance to their thoughts, without hazarding their lives. The Genius of Despotism presides over the public councils. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. Witness the threat to assassinate JO JIN QUINCY ADAMS, last winter, because he dared to vindicate the right of petition. Slavery is indeed an inexorable Moloch, when it will not spate the venerable sage of Quincy. Read the following audacious threat, by Waddy Thomp- son, of South Carolina, uttered on the floor of the House, during the present month. Mr. Adams had pre- sented petitions, relating to slavery, and had propounded a question to the Speaker, about a certain petition. Con- cerning him, Mr. Thompson says, " Does that gentleman know that there are laws in all the slave State*, and here, For the punishment of those who excite insurrection ? 1 can tell him that there are such things as grand juries $ and if, sir, the juries of this District have, as I doubt not they have, proper intelligence and spirit. he may yet be made amenable to another tribunal, and we may yet see an incendiary brought to condign punishment." The French Convention, during the reign of Terror, when the streets of Paris ran with blood, legislated at the point of the assassin's steel. Said a member, as he arose to address the President, "the eyes of assassins flash upon us from those windows, and the gleam of their daggers is seen within these wails." At this period, France was in name a Republic, in reaiity a Despotism. The American Congress is now the theatre, on which is re-acted the tragic scenes of the French Convention. I will read an ex- tract of a private letter from Hon. John Quincy Adams, to a friend in this State, dated Washington, 26th January, 1837. Says Mr. Adams, " My effort here has been, to sustain 4he right of petition in the citizen, and the freedom of speech in this House, and the freedom of the press, and of 4* •M REMARKS OF thought, out of it. My freedom of speech in the House has been, and is, suppressed. The vindication of the rights of the people, must ultimately rfs! upon themselves. :t And, sir, to the vindication they will generously and promptly come ; and their rulers must yield to the pressure of the public tide, or be overwhelmed. THE PLOT THICKENS. The w.ir has hut just begun. Of these trials, sir, we have jet scarcely touched the border ground. Abolitionists may yet be Members of Congress. Am.], v.n unparalleled change of the public sentiment in their favor, shows that they sown will be. For THE PEOPLE will be abolitionists ; and that they will elect men, who will faithfully represent them in Congress, I cannot doubt. Such Members will be among the proscribed; and will be Lynched, as was Dresser, or be arrested as was Crandall, for opinion's sake. And is Washington the sp)t for the Supreme Legi. latine of a free people? Shall our Representatives deliberate with threats of indictment in their ears, and gags in their mouths, and cords around their necks, and the assassin's steel at their backs? Slavery must fall therefor to this complexion it will come at last THE SUPREME COURT. JUDGE LYNCH. Judges of the Supreme Court, in expounding the rights of man, may yet be arraigned as incendiaries : or, per- haps, in their turn, stand as criminals at the bar of Judge Lynch's Court. The Charge of His Honor Judge Story, to the Grand Jury of Portsmouth, N H., in 1820, in which he denounced slavery and die slave trade, has been indict- ed in this modern Court for the Correction of Errors. Lawyers, suspected of aversion toihe "Patriarchal Insti tution," in their attendance upon the Supreme Court, nmy be put to death, without benefit of clergy. K. B. STANTOM. 43 DA MEL WEBSTER. Daniel Webster, with his Plymouth Speech in his pocket, *' may yet see an incendiary brought to condign punish- ment." You, yourself, sir, if you shall dare to report on our petitions, in accordance with the cherished principles and policy of Massachusetts will be outlawed at our Capi- ta!. How humiliating are such disclosures to an Ameri- can heart. I again press the point ; is this city of charters and chains, of gags and grand juries, of constitutions and kidnappers, the spot where the national business should Le transacted, and the national honor dwell? THE REMEDY. The remedy for these evils is obvious. ABOLISH SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT. Remove the cause and the effect ceases. FREEDOM AND SLAVERY ALWAYS AT WAR. A wise Providence has so ordered, that perfect freedom and absolute slavery cannot, for a long time, co-exist on the same soil. The mighty throes, which now toss the body politic of this nation, are the smugglings of these opposite principles for the mastery. Freedom and Slavery ! Sir, they are eternal antagonisms. They have no affinities, and will not be at peace with each other. Rather let us attempt to mingle light and shade, heat and cold, sickness and health, right and wrong, heaven and hell, than hope that freedom of speech, of debate, and the press, can dwell in the Dis- trict of Columbia, or m this nation, while slavery is tolerated. Slavery is darkness, and free discussion is light. They cannot commingle. Freedom of speech and of the press, are now pouring a blaze of light from every part of the -civilized world, upon the darkness of slavery. They are 44 REMARKS OF disclosing to view its haggard deformity ; and smiting with fear and trembling the consciences of its abettors. Sir, its throne would stand more securely on the heaving cra- ter of a volcano, than on the waves of free discussion. To perpetuate slavery, the conscience of the master must be buried. Free discussion sounds the blast of resurrec- tion over its grave, and with the authority of God, bids its " come forth I" Freedom of debate, on the floor of Con- gress, and a free press in the District, would win over the conscientious slave holder, and thus, the ranks being broken, an invincible array of truth, would march into the very centre of the enemy's camp. Every converted slave- holder is a deserter, carrying strength and invaluable knowledge, over to the cause of freedom. His defection destroys the union of the opposing forces, and dispels the charm of invincibility, which hovers around their standard. Says Gen. Duff Green, (an acute observer,) " We have most to fear from the effect of organized action upon the con- sciences and fears of the slave holders themselves; from the insinuation of these dangerous heresies [the equality of man, and the inalienability of human rights,] into our schools, our pulpits, arad our domestic circles." Precious confession! And so, lest the truth should reach the con- sciences of slave holders, at the Capital, and rouse their fears, they have offered up freedom of thought, of speech, and of the press, in Congress and out of Congress, on the altar of slavery. OBJECT OF THE CESSION. Says Mr. Pinckney in his celebrated Report, the Dis- trict was ceded to the United States, " that there might be a seal for the Federal Government, where the power of self protection would be ample and complete." Is the self protection of Congress ample and complete, while iu H. B. STANTON. 45 Members are compelled to say, "my freedom of speech in the House has been, and is, suppressed?" So too, of all other departments of the Federal Government. Then, let slavery there be abolished. And can it be that Congress has no right so to do, and thus render its own self protec- tion, and that of the other branches of the Government, ample and complete, when that, according to Mr. Pinck- ney, was the very object of the cession ? SLAVERY ENDANGERS THE PUBLIC PROPERTY. 3. Slavery should be immediately abolished at the eeat of the Federal Government, because it is dangerous to the security of the national property, — the public buildings, stores and archives , — and also, to the lives of the Mem- bers of Congress, to the liberties of the nation, and the perpetuity of our free institutions. SLAVES ENEMIES OF THE COUNTRY. The slaves of that District have every natural induce- ment to be the deadly foes of this government. Holy writ informs us, that "oppression maketh a man mad;" — and the history of revolutions, written in blood, confirms its truth. On the annual return of our " nation's jubilee,' the entire American people, in solemn assembly, declare that " all men are created equal," and pointing to the graves of their fathers, swear by their ashes, that " resist- ance 10 tyrants is obedience to God." Our forts and our navies, echo it back in articulate thunder. We land the valor of the men of the Revolution, I ecause for a trivial tax on tea and paper, unjustly imposed, they bared their bosoms to the shafts of battle, choosing rather to die in- stantly as freemen, than to live as slaves. Out, is a tax on tea to be compared in atrocity with a tax on heart and sinew, body and soul ? — an impost, which clutches the 46 REMARKS OF man himself, and drowns his entire being in the vortex of its rapacity ! If you will not hear vie, listen to Thomas Jefferson. " What an incomprehensible machine is rmn ! who can endure toil, fam- ine, stripes, imprisonment, and death itself, in vindication of his cwn liberty, and the next moment be deaf to all those motives, whose power supported him through his trial, and inflict on his fellow men a bond ige, one hour of which is fraught willi more misery than ages of that which he rose in re- bellion to oppose.'* And who whelms the slaves of our Capital in this tide of 'misery?' THE NATIONAL LEGISLATURE. Its laws forge the chains, and rivet the manacles. And can the slave love such institutions, and such a country ? Lis- ten again to Jefferson. ' With what execration should the statesman be loaded, who, permit- ting one half of the citizens to trample on the rights of the other, trans- forms those into despots, and these into enemies ; destroys the morals of one part, and the amorpatrits of the other/ t Ay, sir, slavery destroys the " amor patriot' of its vic- tims. Who will rebuke the slave of the District, if he reason thus, " What is this Capitol to me ? There the scourges are twisted that lacerate my back. There the laws are framed which make me a brute. What are these records and documents to me ? They are the sources, whence my oppressor derives his arbitrary power. What to me are these arsenals and navies? Not for the protection of my wife and children, my property and life ; — but to intimi- date me to submission. I'll plot (not treason, for I have no country) but rapine and Barnes, and thus glut my ven- geance." And, to the members of Congress he might say; " 4 On me you inflict a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that, which you rose in rebellion to oppose."! ' Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. '|| ' Give me liberty or give me death. '§ ' I'll pcr- * Jefferson's Correspondence. t Jefferson's Notes. rMjn. j War cry of the Re volution. <[ Patrick Henry. H. B. STANTON. 47 ish in the last ditch in defence of my rights.'* Then to the onslaught !" WHO ARE THE INCENDIARIES 1 Remember, sir, that I, in common with all abolitionists, counsel the slave t0 peace and to submission. We deny his right to fight even for liberty, and nothing would grieve us more, than to see a drop of the slaveholders' blood shed. We are not the incendiaries. But your revolutionary mon- uments, your fourth of July orations, your patriotic odes, your military parades ; they are incentives to insurrection. Southern members of Congress say, they dread insurrec- tion because of the agitation of this question. If sincere, they certainly have need to dread it in the District of Co- lumbia. In my premises under this head, I asserted that slavery in the District, was dangerous to the liberties of the nation, and the perpetuity of our free institutions. I will illustrate this in two ways. SLAVES DANGEROUS IN TIME OF WAR. (1.) In case of a war with a foreign power, slavery in the District, and the state of things consequent upon its exist- ence there, would open a cloor through which an invading foe, might enter, and take possession of the Capital. Let him enter that ten miles square, and write upon his banner, " freedom and protection to the slave who will join our standard," and they might go over to the invaders in a body. At best, they would be a dangerous population, THE WAR OF 1812. Let facts admonish us. In the war of 1812, Washing- ton was invaded, the Capitol burnt, the public archive* •McDuffie. 4S REMARKS OF sacked, and the President compelled to flee for his life. Why ? Answer. The free whites in the District were too busy in watching their slaves, and preparing to protect their property and their lives from an expected revolt, to lend any aid in repelling the invaders. This humiliating and admonitory truth, was acknowledged by Southern presses, and has been admitted to a gentleman of my acquaintance, by inhabitants of the District. What a sub- lime spectacle, to see the citizens of the Capital of " the freest government on earth," in time of a foreign invasion, so busy in taking care of their slaves, that they could not protect the Capitol and the Chief Magistrate of the nation, from fire and sword ! Sir, it ever will he so, where slavery is tolerated. During the Southampton insurrection, fifty negroes rode in triumph through that county, and the chivalry of the Ancient Dominion, fled in panic before them. Each planter was watching his own slaves. And the United States troops finally quelled the insurrection. By the Constitution, Congress has power to "provide for the common defence and general welfare." Asa citizen, I protest against Congress keeping a magazine of powder in that District, liable at any moment to explode, and deso- late the country. THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD. (2.) The continuance of slavery there and elsewhere, en- dangers the perpetuity of our Republic, because it provokes the judgments of God. Certainly Mr. Chairman, thiscon- Bideration will not be lost upon the Legislators of a pro- fessedly Christian state. Domestic tyranny is the fatal shoal npon which many a proud state of antiquity, has laid its bones. The fragments of Greece and Rome, magnificent in their ruins, should warn us from following in their fatal track. The American nation is intoxicated with the delu- H. B. STANTON. 49 sion, that her liberties are impregnable. That there is, in the structure of her government, some perennial conserva- tive, by which she will rise elastic and invigorated from assaults without and commotions within. An inflated patri- otism utters the delusive words, Esto perpetual An indomit- able ambition, echoes them back, Esto perpetua ! An ineffa- ble self complacency, which has dethroned reason, mistakes the echo for the voice of God. And, like the victim of consumption, hope is strongest in the hour of dissolution ! Fatal charm ! True, the voice of God is heard : but it is in startling denunciation. Look over our country, and see it tossing on the wild waves of civil commotion. Look into our national counsels, and see them rent by civil feuds. The humble Christian, who reads his Bible, and communes with his God, knows the cause. For it, he looks beyond Tariffs, and Banks, and the rivalry of parties. He sees that this nation has forgotten God. That she has grown rich upon His mercies, and then, in her pride, has trodden the Indian and the Negro, whose condition enti- tled them to her generous protection, under the hoof of her ambition. During her mad career of folly and crime, God's eye has been upon her, and His ear open to the cry of the perishing. The alternative of Jefferson is now pre- sented to her. Let her choose. Says the sage of Monti- cello, speaking of the slaves, " When the measure of their tears shall be full,' — when their groans shall have involved heaven itself in darkness, — doubtless a God of justice will awaken to their distress, and, by diffusing light and liberality among their oppressors, or at length, by his exterminating thunder, mani- fest his attention to the things of this world, and that they are not left to the guidance of a blind fatality.' 7 * FATE OF TYRE AND EGYPT. But a greater than Jefferson has left us the record of nations overthrown by the "exterminating thunder" of ■"Jefferson's Correspondence. 50 REMARKS OF Jehovah, Tor the sin of oppression. Where now is Tyre— the city of the sea— which " traded the persons of men, and vessels of brass in her market ?" — Desolate,— destroy* e d ! the plough-share of ruin, driven to the beam amidst her foundations, by the hand of God ! What was the fate of slaveholding Egypt ?— God visited her in judgment. Her first born perished at a blow. Death was in all the dwellings of her princes. But, the Hebrews sprinkled the Dlood of a slaughtered beast upon their door-posts, and the Angel of the Pestilence passed over them, and they escap- ed. Let, then, the free states of this Union, if they would escape the coming storm of Divine displeasure, sprinkle the blood of slavery on the door-posts of our Capitol. So shall the Avenger pass over them and spare them, when He comes with His " exterminating thunder !" Listen again to the author of the Declaration of Inde- pendence. " And can the liberties of the nation be thought secure, when we have refused the only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God ? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath ? Indeed, I tremble for my country, when 1 recollect that God is just ; that his justice cannot sleep forever ; that a revolution in the wheel of fortune, an exchange of situation is among possible events ; and thatit mav become probable by a supernatural interference. The Almighty has no attribute which can take sides with us in such a contest.''* WU1 not political men listen to prophecies like these ? It is not necessary that heaven should empty the reservoir of its wrath upon this nation, as it did upon Egypt. The ma- terials of our ruin are ample within us, and around us. The Indian, the Negro, the Mexican, the Ilaytian, all have a. fearful account to adjust with us. And, if our internal commotions increase in ferocity for a few coming years in the ratio of the past, we are a people dissevered, with no bond of union, and our fall will add another to the list of nations, ruined by their abuse of the mercies, and their contempt of the precepts of Jehovah. * Jefferson's iS'otes. H. B. STANTON. 51 SLAVERY DESTROYS NATIONAL REPUTATION. 4. It is expedient that slavery at the Capital should be abolished, because its toleration brings into contempt our nation's boasted love of equal rights, justly exposes us to the charge of hypocrisy, paralyzes the power of our free principles, and cripples our moral efforts for the overthrow of oppression throughout the world. v The citizens of this nation have deep responsibilities, as republicans, as Christians, as citizens of the world. Our character and reputation, are moral capital, loaned us by God, to be invested for the political and moral renovation of the human race. The Reformers of South America and Europe, have anxiously looked to us as the pioneer nation in the cause of human liberty, and hoped that our experiment would demonstrate even to tyrants, that man is capable of self government. But, by cherishing in the heart of the republic such a system of cool blooded op- pression, as the sun has rarely seen, we have rolled back the tide of reform in other nations, and cut the sinews of struggling humanity. ENGLISH REFORMERS AND CONSERVATIVES". The enemies of free principles in England, point to our slavery, to our Lynch code, and our mc;b conservation, to prove, that Republics are the worst of Despotisms. Sir Robert Peel, the leader of the Conservatives in Great Brit- ain, laughs us to scorn at the public dinners of the aristoc- racy, and cheered on by our hypocrisy, rides rough shod over the plebeian reformers. That slavery at our capital contributes largely to this aristocratic glee, permit me, in proof, sir, to read from a work, entitled, " Men and Man- ners in America," by Col. Hamilton, an English gentle- man of high standing, who spent some time in our country. 52 REMARKS OF It is their substantia] truth, which gives the sharp edge to his observations. •• Washington, the seat of Government of a free people, is disgraced by slavery. The waiters in the hotels, the servants in private families, and manv of the lower class of artisans, are slaves. While the orators in Congress are rounding periods about liberty in one part of the city, pro- claiming, alto voce, that all men are equal, and that ' resistance to "tyrants is obedience to God,' the auctioneer is exposing human flesh to sale in an- oiher! I remember rf gifted gentleman of the Representatives, who, in speaking of the Senate, pronounced it to be ' the most enlightened 5 the most august, and the most imposing body in the world !' In regard to the extent of imposition, I shall not speaks but it so happened that the day was one of rain, and the effect of the eulogium was a good deal injured by recollecting that, an hour or two before, the members of this enlightened and august body, were driven to the Capitol by slave coachmen, who were at that very moment waiting to convey them back, when the rights of man had been sufficiently disserted on for the day." How cutting the irony ! It is good for us to know, that the world regards us as hypocrites. It may lead to self- examination. He proceeds. "That slavery should exist in the District of Columbia, that even the foot-print of a slave should be suffered to contaminate the soil peculiarly consecrated to Freedom, that the very shrine of the goddess should be polluted by the presence of chains and fetters, is perhaps the most extra- ordinary ar.d monstrous anomaly to which human inconsistency — a prolific mother — has given birth." Sir, these disclosures are nutrition to the despots of Eu- rope. After devouring them, they go to their chain-forging with renewed vigor. But to our extract. ••' The man who would study the contradictions of individual and national character, and learn by how wide an interval, profession may be divided from performance, should come to Washington. He will there read a now page in the volume of human nature. He will hear the words of freedom, and he will see the practice of slavery. Men who Bell their fel- low-creatures, will discourse to him of indefeasible rights • • * * he will be taught the affinity between the democrat and the tyrant ; he will look for charters, and find manacles; expect liberality, and be met by bigotry and prejudice."* And to all this, Monarchs respond, " So mote it be !" — And can we reproach them, when the bondage we nourish, has by them been exterminated? Shall every flap of England's flnrr Proclaim that all around are free, From 'fartherat End' to each blue crag That beetles o'er the Western Sea ? 'Men and Manners in America, pp. 279, 280. H. B. STANTON. OO And shall we scoff at Europe's kings, When Freedom's fire is dim with us, And round our country's altar clings The damning shade of Slavery's curse 1 SNEERS OF A DESPOT. James Brooks, a candidate for Congress, in Maine, at the last election, and now Editor of the New York Ex- press, affirmed in one of his letters from Europe, during his recent travels there, that, in the year 1S35, when the iron code of Judge Lynch ruled our Republic, it was ru- mored, that the Emperor of Austria gave to some state criminals their option, to be sentenced to the galleys for life, or be banished to this country ! Sir, are we sunk so low, that the contempt of tyrants cannot reach us? Go — let us ask of Constantino To loose his grasp on Poland's throat — And beg the lord of Mahmoud's line To spare the struggling Suliote. Will not the scorching answer come From turbaned Turk, and fiery Russ — ' Go, loose your fettered slaves at home, Then turn and ask the like of us !' , Sir, I affirm, without fear of successful contradiction, that the present anti-slavery struggle in this country, is doing more, under God, to redeem our national character from these foul blots, and to cheer onward the work of re- form in Europe, thaa all our republican toasts and demo- cratic orations, our patriotic songs and civic processions, the speeches of our Senators, and the messages of our Chief Magistrates. TAUNT OF THE SOUTH. But upon us, as northern men, this point bears with pe- culiar pressure. The free States have the power to abolish slavery in the District. So long as we refuse to do it, with what face can we declare to our southern fellow citizens, that we are opposed to slavery 1 Go there, sir, and reprove the slave holder, and urge upon him the duty of emanci- 5* 54 REMARKS OF pation. He will meet you with the scorching rebuke, ,; Go back to your free States, and abolish your own sla- very in the District of Columbia. Look to your own State Legislature at home, which dares not declare, that Con- gress ought to abolish the slavery in which your own Com- monwealth is implicated. You opposed to slavery ? Then pluck the beam from your own eye." Sir, would not your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth ? Would vou tell him, you were a member of the very Legislature, which denied the prayer of these memorialists? Ay, more! Should he know from your lips, that you were the chairman of the very committee, who reported against the prayer 1 Would fire burn this disclosure out of you 1 Ex- cuse these personalities, sir, for I plead for those who can- not plead for themselves; — for those who have, by the highest legislative body in the Union, been denied the poor privilege of petitioning for mercy. The north must abolish slavery in the District, or her moral power for the removal of slavery in the nation, is at an end. CONGRESS DEFENDS SLAVERY ON PRINCIPLE. 5>. This object should be accomplished without delay, so that Congress may speedily and effectually undo the wretched work of the last session. The report of the Hon. Mr. Pinckney, adopted last May, attempts to prove, that Congress ought not to interfere, in any way, with slavery in the District, because, it would be unwise, im- politic, a violation of the public faith, (tantamount to a violation of the Constitution,) and dangerous to the Union; and, in addition to this, it contains a thorough defence OF SLAVERY ON 1"RI NCll'LE, AS A WISE AND BENEVOLENT institution ! These doctrines were sanctioned by a body, a large majority of whose members are from the free H. B. STANTON. 55 States, and by it, were sent out to the world, as the voice of America. As a citizen of the free States, as an Amer- ican, as a man, I repudiate, I abjure, I abhor them. They "are not the sentiments of the free States, but a foul libel upon our freedom and our religion. The memorialists demand, that the Representatives from the free States, wipe out this blot ; and atone for the outrage, by destroy- ing the system, thus made the occasion of libelling both man and God. Where is the voice of this Commonwealth, when such doctrines are promulgated to the world, by the suffrages of New England ? Is the padlock on our lips ? SLAVERY DESTROYS THE RIGHT OF PETITION. 6. Slavery in the District should be destroyed, because it is made the occasion of denying the sacred right of petition. The gentleman, who preceded me, has dwelt at large on this point. But, I cannot pass it over in silence. The right of petition is the last, which a people, determined to be free, should ever surrender, or permit to be abridged. It is the barrier against the aggressions of the governors upon the governed; — the shield, by which the minority ward off the assaults of the majority. This government was established to protect the minority. The unabridged right of petition is the corner stone of the edifice. The resolution passed by the House of Representatives on the 1 8th ultimo, is a fearful abridgment of this right. THE DANGER. TYRANNY OF PRECEOENT. It is the precedent established by that resolution, which I most dread. Congress has decided, as to what questions, and in what manner, the people shall petition. We are a precedent-loving, a precedent-fearing nation. Our Courts of Justice, and our Legislative Halls, are the slaves of pre- cedent. They worship their own folly, merely because it 5G REMARKS OF is their own folly. The people bow down to the same in- exorable deity. Precedent, — precedent, is the order of the day ; the divinity of the hour. Congress has, for cer- tain causes denied to the people the right of petition, in regard to slavery. The precedent is established. To- morrow, for certain causes, she denies it in regard to the currency. The precedent is strengthened. The next day, for the same cause, she refuses to receive petition? concerning the Tariff. The precedent, gathering cour- age, demands fresh victims. Petitions concerning Com- merce, Intemperance, Indian treaties, Secret societies and Mobs, are next offered on the altar. The Idol becomes more rapacious. He demands, that all petitions should be thrown back into the faces of the petitioners. The people, tamed into subserviency by yielding, without resistance, to reiterated aggressions, meekly bow the neck, and kiss the yoke. Mr. Chairman, the present crisis thun- ders in our cars, Obsta principiis ! Oppose beginnings ! To launch forth in this stream of precedent, is ruin. The cataract is just below us. Let us stand on terra firma. Slight aggressions by Buonaparte, unresisted by the French people, encouraged to mightier strides in the road to arbitrary power. Step by step, he reached the summit of despotism, with willing slaves shouting their approving hosannahs at his heels. Obsta principiis ! At the last session, the House of Representatires took the first step. It cautiously surveyed the whole ground, before it set down its foot. The present session, the pre- cedent having been established, it took the second step with alarming promptitude. Let us prevent the third. How? By abolishing slavery in the District, now made the pre- text for trifling with, trampling upon, the inestimable right of petition.* •It will he recollected, that the preamble to Mr. Miner's resolution de- clares, 'that ofliccis of the Federal Uoverniueiit* ** derive emolument HENRY B. STANTON. 57 OBJECTIONS. Mr. Chairman ; I will now proceed to answer some ob- jections to the sentiments which I have thought it my duty to advance. INJURE THE SLAVE STATES. It is uttered in Mr. Pinckney's report, and from other high sources, that the abolition of slavery at the seat of the Federal Government, would injuriously affect the slaveholding States, especially Maryland and Virginia; and therefore, it would be unjust, and a violation of the public faith. In reply, it may be necessary to call the at- tention of the Committee, to the admitted facts, first, that Congress has the Constitutional power to abolish slavery in the District ; and, secondly, that abolition there, in it- self considered, and when regarded as an isolated act, would be productive of great good. Our Bill of Rights, the Bible, and the history of emancipation, settle this. But ' it will injuriously affect other states.' Are those other State* so circumstanced,, that doing an admitted good in the District, will injure them ? Then there must be ' something rotten in the State of Denmark.' Inju- riously affect them on account of their slavery? Let them follow the example of Congress, and then they will have no slavery to be injured. EXCITE INSURRECTION. Mr. Pinckney argues at great length to prove, that aboli- tion in the District would excite the slaves of the sur- from carrying on the domestic slave trade.' At the lasf session of Congress, Hon. Gabriel Moore, Senator from Alabama, opposed the reception of pe- titions asking for the abolition of the slave trade in the District, because hesaid_, they reflected upon him and his colleague, who had both purchased slaves in the District! The Hon. Senator does not stand alone- It is not unusual for members of Congress to purchase slaves at the Capital as agents or their constituents. Shall the right of Petition be sacrificed, to spare he delicate feelings of Congressional negro-traders 1 58 REMARKS OF rounding States to insurrection. Let those States then abolish slavery, and there will be no slaves to rise. The doctrine of Mr. Pinckney, when sifted, seems to be this. Restoring to men in the District of Columbia their inalienable rights, will make men in Virginia and Mary- land uneasy, because their inalienable rights are kept from them ; therefore, men in the District, should not have their inalienable rights! That is ; if I do right to my neigh- bor, it will give trouble to another man, who does wrong by his neighbor ; therefore, I should not do right by my neighbor ! Or thus ; if we should give men in the Dis- trict, their bodies and souls, it would endanger ty- rants ! therefore, it is right, that ice should rob them of their bodies and souls, and so ourselves be tyrants ! It may be true, that the enjoyment of liberty by all men at the capital of ' the freest government on earth,' will en- danger tyranny ; but, I am yet to learn, that that fact will justify the enslaving of a considerable portion of its citi- zens. A DOCTRINE CARRIED OUT. What is the principle here involved ? This; — The en- joyment of freedom by certain men endangers slavery, therefore, these men must be enslaved. Let the principle be applied. The people of color among us, enjoy free- dom. This, we are told by the South, endangers slavery. Shall we, therefore, reduce them to slavery ? Or, if so reduced by others, shall we leave them to perish, lest their deliverance should endanger oppressors ? The laboring population of New England enjoy an enviable free- dom. Patriarch McDuffie, and his disciples, (and they are numerous) inform us, that this endangers the perpetuity of their ' peculiar institutions/ and therefore, urge, that our farmers and mechanics be reduced to vassalage. HENttY B. STAtfTON. &9 Sir, we have long known that our system of compensa- ted free labor, was a bitter rebuke to the unpaid, coerced labor of the South. The elastic enterprize of Massachu- setts ; its busy machinery ; its productive ingenuity ; its blooming vallies; — the rugged hills of old Worcester, cul- tivated to their very tops by the indomitable energy of its husbandmen ; — its smiling villages, with your own beauti- ful Templeton ;* — its flourishing cities ; — the prosperity and happiness of its entire population, do indeed contrast strongly with the drivelling policy of the South, as evinc- ed by its dishevelled, mildewed, blasted agriculture; — its sluggish trade ;— its dilapidated towns ; — with one half its inhabitants sunken in degradation, and the other, devour- ed with the lust of power and enervated with luxury; — where the very bondman himself, might laugh in his chains, to see how slavery has stricken the land with ugliness. Stung to the quick, in their insane chagrin, the advocates of that policy are calling to us : ' Ho — fishermen of Marblehead! — Ho — Lynn cordwainers, leave your leather, And wear the yoke in kindness made. And clank your needful chains together ! Let Lowell mills their thousands yield, Down let the rough Berkshire-man hasten, Down from the workshop and the field, And thank us for each chain we fasten.' And will the Committee be consistent, and carry out the doctrine of the objection ; — or, while they shall go for the deliverance of the working-man in the District, will they respond to the proud Southron : — ( No — George M'Duffie ! — keep thy words For the mail plunderers of thy city, Whose robber right is in their swords; For recreant priest and Lynch-Committee. Slaves in the rugged Yankee land ! We tell thee, Carolinian, never ! Our rocky hills and iron strand, Are free, and shall be free forever. * The Chairman of the Committee resides in Templeton. 60 REMARKS OF The surf shall wear that strand away, Our granite hill* in dust shall moulder, Ere Slavery's hateful yoke shall lay Unbroken, on a Yankee's shoulder ! Sir : Every session of your legislature in this hall, strikes a blow at tyranny. Its influence reaches the petty despotisms of the Sduth, and the Holy Alliances of Eu- rope. It is crumbling the foundations of their power. Shall you, therefore, surrender your high trust, as the rep- resentatives of freemen ? Shall you cease to proclaim the holy doctrines of your Bill of Rights, because they grate on the ear of Tyranny. ABOLITION WILL PREVENT INSURRECTION. But, sir, to return from this digression, to the subject in } ian d . — insurrections. The memorialists desire no insur- rections, neither have they the slightest expectation, that such an effect will result from abolition at the seat of the Federal Government. On the contrary, they believe that such an act would tend to prevent a calamity so disas- trous. True, ' Hope deferred maketh the heart sick ' ; — but, hope destroyed maketh the heart mad — ferocious. If the slave ever rises, he will be driven to it by the goadings of despair. While hope lives he will patiently wear his chain. * Emancipate the slaves in the District, and the benevolent deed would diffuse hope through the * Hon. Mr. Page, of Virginia, in the Congress of the U. States, i<> 1790, when the question of committing the abolition memorial ot Dr. Franklin, was under discussion, said, ' With respect to the alarm that was apprehended (in the slave states) he believed there was none; but there might be just cause if this memorial was not taken into consideration. He placed himself in the condition of a slave. If, as such, he should hear that Congress had refused to listen to the suggestions of a respect- able portion. >f the community, he should infer, that, the General Govern- ment, from which great good was expected to result to every class of citi- zens, had shut their ears against the voice of humanity, and he should de- spair of any alleviation of the miseries he and his posterity had in pros- pect. If any thing could induce him to rebel, it would be a stroke like this, impressing on his mind all the horrors of despair.' — Lloyd's debates, vol. 3, p. 336. HENRY B. STANTON. 61 entire slave population of the South. Reason teaches us this. We naturally infer, that the unemancipated slaves, seeing one Legislature do justice to their bound brethren, would be inspired with the expectation, that their own Legislature, would, influenced by their exam- ple, by and by, ' do likewise.' JAMES G. BIRNEY'S TESTIMONY. Facts corroborate the position. Letters in my posses- sion from James G. Birney, Esq. well known to the Com- mittee as the gentleman to whom Dr. Channing's recent letter was addressed, show that no slaves are so quiet, as those inhabiting sections of the country, where emanci- pations are most frequent ; none so orderly, as those who best understand, to their full extent, and in their true character, the efforts now making for their deliverance. Surely these facts are something worth, coming from one of the most intelligent and pious gentlemen of the south- west, who has spent 43 years in the midst of slavery, and been himself a slaveholder. Let it also be remem- bered, that emancipation in the states of Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, did not excite the slaves in Maryland and Virginia to insurrection. Then why should abolition in the District ? And if it would be unjust to these states for Congress to abolish slavery there, it was equally unjust to them, for those other states to abolish slavery within their borders. And yet, I never heard any complaint of injustice on that account. ABOLITION BENEFICIAL TO THE SLAVE STATES. But, the proposed abolition would be signally benefi- cial to the surrounding states. Its local results being happy, would demonstrate the safety of emancipation, ex- pose the futility of objections to it, and, by inspiring the 62 REMARKS OF southern communities with Courage, pave the way for the voluntary removal, by them, of this alarming evil. THE DISTRICT AN OASIS. Another supposed injurious effect upon the surrounding states, from the proposed measure, is, that the District would become an asylum for runaway slaves, much to the annoyance of the neighboring planters. Answer. 1. Let those surrounding states emancipate their slaves, and then there would be none to runaway. 2. Suppose it should become such an asylum. We ought to bless God, that there was one Oasis, one green spot in this vast desert of human misery. What more appropriate asylum for men escaping for freedom, frcm * a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which [we] rose in rebellion to oppose,'* than the capital of ' the land of the free, and the home of the brave ? ' 3. But, Sir, look at the alternative. If slavery is abolished in the District, says Mr. Pinckney, it will be- come the asylum of runaway slaves. Answer. If slav- ery is not abolished in the District, it will continue to be the asylum for slave-drivers, kidnappers, and brokers in human souls. 4. The objection is absurd, as well as wicked. Every free state is now an asylum for runaway slaves, as are the West Indies, Mexico, our Western forests, and the monarchies of Europe. And will the addition of ten miles square to this territory, ruin the slavery of the South? Then Heaven speed its downfall ! * Jefferson. HENRY B. STANTOW, 63 A DILEMMA. Another grave objection has been furiously urged upon our notice. Say Southern gentlemen, on the floor of Con- gress, ' if slavery is abolished at the seat of the national legislature, we cannot bring our servants here/ Answer. 1. Then go there without servants, as did Roger Sher- man. He was not only a shoe-maker, but he brushed his own shoes while in Congress. 2. But I deny the inference. Can't bring their ser- vants there ? Northern members find no difficulty in taking their servants there. Ah, — but Southerners can't take their slaves there. Yes : I now understand the gentlemen. They can't take men there, to do their work for them, unless they pay them ivages. Surely, to deprive them of this ' honorable ' privilege, (for ' they are all hon- orable men ! ') would indeed be cruel ! 3. It would certainly be a mournful calamity, Mr. Chairman, if the legislators of ' the freest government on earth,' should not have slaves to tremble at their nod, while discussing the rights of man ! If the question of the recognition of Texan independance were on debate, would our Southern brethren not feel the glow of liberty warming their bosoms, and setting their tongues on fire, unless slaves were crouching around them ? 4. But, Sir, the alternative is before us. Say the South, ' if slavery is abolished at the capital, our members cannot carry their slaves there.' The North answers : 1 if slavery is not abolished there, our members will not be able to invite their free constituents there ! ' Finally. Perhaps, Sir, (though I care too little about it, to investigate it, even to my own satisfaction,) Con- gress might pass laws, providing for the deliverance, to their masters, of fugitive slaves in the District, and secur- ing to its Southern members, while there^ their enslaved 64 REMARKS OF servants. 1 do not believe such laws would be more un- constitutional than are those which established slavery in the District. The Committee then took a recess till seven o'clock, P. M. Evening Session. The Committee met, pursuant to adjournment, in the Representative's Hall. In continuance of his argument, Mr. Stanton spoke in substance, as follows : — Mr. Chairman : When the Committee adjourned for a recess, I was answering objections to abolition in the District. With your leave, I will resume the same subject, after express- ing my warmest thanks to the Committee for their patient indulgence, in extending to the memorialists, through me, so long a hearing. It contrasts generously and honor- ably, with the conduct of another Committee of this Legis- lature, upon a similar subject, on a former occasion. I will first dispose of one or two small objections, and then discuss those of weightier importance. ABOLITION CONTRARY TO THE WISHES OF MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA, Maryland and Virginia contend that the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia should not be urged contrary to their wishes, because they ceded the territory to the General Government.* * Whoever will read the del. atcs of the 6rt1 CongresF.onthe subject of tli«' location of Lite seal of Government, will perceive, that instead «>(' its being considered a favor to the United States for Virginia and Maryland iu cede tin' l ten miles square ' to CopgresB, I lie very privilege of doing so was a boon for which ihese stairs contended almost ti> ferocity. Con- gress did nut ask the land of them. They, on the other band, begged, HENRY B. STANTON. 65 Sir, suppose a farmer in your county should convey to his neighbor by deed, in absolute fee simple, ten acres of his farm. The sold and the unsold portions contained each a noxious swamp. In process of time, the purchas- er proposes to drain off his swamp, that it may no lon- ger scatter fever and ague through the community. Against this, the original holder stoutly protests ; not be- cause it would be contrary to the terms of the deed, nor bad policy, nor wrong, but, simply because he has not got ready to drain off his swamp ! So Maryland and Virginia exclaim hotly against abolition in the District, not because it would be unconstitutional, or bad policy, or injurious, or wrong, but, simply, because t'hey have not yet got ready to do likewise ! WAIT TILL THE CITIZENS OF THE DISTRICT PETITION. It has been urged by Hon. Mr. Wise, of Va., in the U. S. House of Representatives, that that body had n» right to abolish slavery in the District, ' unless the inhab< itants, owning slaves, themselves petition for it.' Strange doctrine ! Congress no right thus to do till the people petition for it ? When the people petition a legis- lative body, do they not ask that body to exercise a power it already possesses ? Does the act of petitioning ere* ate the power? Are the people of the District able to confer power upon Congress? Cite me, Sir, to the arti- cie in the Constitution which thus pre-eminently distin- guishes this portion of our fellow citizens. The honora- ble Virginian, wise as he is, for once, '■ is wise above what is written.' declaimed, and threatened, to induce that body to accept it. Mr. Lee of Virginia, insisted, tkat • if the seat of the Government was not fixed upon the Potomac, the faith of all south of that river would be shaken. '--Lloyd's Debates, voJL 2. 6* GO REMARKS OF THE WISHES OF THE DISTRICT. The objection now assumes a more plausible garb. It is affirmed that it would be unjust for Congress to exer- cise this power, unless the people of the Distriet desire it. Plausible as this proposition is, it contains the essence of injustice. The national legislature is solemnly bound, on principles of common equity, to consult the desires and the interests of the slaves, rather than those of the masters. The slaves are the injured party, the masters the wrong doers. Slavery is an acknowledged evil, ' fraught with misery.' Robbery and stealing are also evils. What ! shall your Legislature not enact laws against robbery and stealing, till highwaymen and thieves desire it? Will you wait to be moved by their petitions ? Did the British Parliament refuse to abolish the slave trade, till men- stealers desired it? till the manufacturers of gags, and thumb-screws, and fetters, petitioned them? History in- forms us, that it was eloquently urged on the floor of Par- liament, that the abolition of the slave trade would ruin thousands who had invested their all in ships, whips, spoiled meat, hand-cuffs, and other means and facilities for conducting the traffic, and therefore, it would be un- just for that body to interfere ! The modern objection does not disgrace its origin. Admit, if you please, that the slaveholders at the capi- tal are unwilling to pay their laborers wages. Does that make the laws right, under which they perpetrate this in- justice? Congress is responsible for the character of its laws, whoever they may please or displease. It forges the chain, hands it to the slaveholder — he puts it on to the heel of the victim. Congress is bound instantly to stop forging chains ; or, without a figure, to stop legaliz- ing robbery. This done, and slavery dies. HENR1T B. STANTON, 67 Bat, as to the wishes of the people of the District, They have again and again asked for modifications of their laws j — and in 1827, eleven hundred of the most respectable citizens, with Chief Justice Cranch at their head, petitioned Congress for the abolition of the slave trade, and the gradual abolition of slavery in the District, Many of the inhabitants now desire legislative redress; but, by Southern intrigue, and because Congress, by its conduct, frightens them into silence, their action is stiffled.* DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION ! But, the Union! the union ! abolition in the District of Columbia will dissolve the Union ! So says Mr. Pinck- ney ; so say all south of the Potomac; so say thousands north of it. Sir, I love this Union, because it was form- ed to ' establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, pro- vide for the common defence, promote the general wel- fare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. 'f I would deal candidly and thoroughly with this objection, honestly entertained, as I have no doubt it is, by thousands. THE QUESTION STATED. Let us inquire— -first, what would be a dissolution of the Union, — and second* the reasons why the South would dissolve it. Of these in their order. 1. After the Revolutionary war, the old states, then * It should be borne in mind', that the District has no means of legisla- tive redress except from Congress. Some of the worst laws now in lbrce in the District, (such as selling free men for their jail fees,) have been re- pealed in Maryland since the cession. Hence, the slaves in the District are worse off, governed by the free states, than they would be if governed by a slave state! t Preamble to Ur S* Constitution. G8 REMARKS OF existing as independent sovereignties, framed and ratified the U. S. Constitution, and thus became UNITED States, — the Constitution being the connecting chain. To dis- solve this Union, it is necessary that one or more of these states (or others since admitted) should, by Con- vention, or otherwise, declare themselves no longer mem- bers of the Confederacy, and organize a seperate and in- dependent government. % Upon the happening of what event does the South propose thus to do 1 The abolition of slavery in the Dis- trict of Columbia, by Congress. But, has not Congress the power to abolish slavery there? Yes; the majority of the South admit it, as well as the great mass at the North. Whence does Congress derive this power ? From the Constitution. It is one of the provisions in the bond of Union ; — a bond solemnly ratified by the South. In view of the facts, she stands in this attitude, viz : — If Congress does what the South has agreed that it may do, she will become angry, and dissolve the Union ! In other words, she is sick of her bargain, and declares, that if Congress does a Constitutional act, she, from spite, will do an unconstitutional act ! And this she denominates patriotism ! honor ! chivalry ! But, Sir, I am of those who regard these threats as the idle wind. They have been made too often, and too long, to excite alarm. They come, too, from the wrong quarter to arouse my fears. They are the vaporings of Hotspurs ; mere bravado. There is too much intelligence, too much patriotism and integrity — ay, too just an appreciation of their own interests, at the south, to tolerate the mad scheme. The Riveses and the Clays of that section, are unwilling to pay so dear a price for the privilege of being ruined. And if they were, THE PEOPLE of the South would come to the rescue. HENRY B: STANTON. OV THE SOUTH WILL LOSE WHAT THEY INTEND TO GAIN. Sir, if the slaveholding states should make the removal of slavery at the seat of the Federal government, the pre- text for dissolving the Union, they would lose the very objects they professedly seek to obtain by it ; and this truth is so plain, that he that runneth may read it, and a way-faring man, though a slaveholder, cannot err in re- gard to it. What do they set up as the objects to be attained by the dissolution 1 First — the security of their slave property, and the perpetuation of the system. Sec- and — the stopping of the present anti-slavery agitation ; or, Third — if they cannot entirely stop agitation, they will, at least, shut out its effects from their borders. Now, Sir, does not the South know, that by a sever- ance of the Union, she will not only fail to attain either of these objects, but, in regard to them all, stand on ground far more disadvantageous, than that she now oc- cupies? W T ILL IT PREVENT ESCAPES 1 First — as to the security of their slave property, and the perpetuation of the system. Under the present com- pact, if slaves escape to the free states, we are bound, on demand, to deliver them up. And the whole civil and military power of the North, may be put in requisition, to return the fugitives. Methinks the autocrat of Russia could ask no more, to ensure the return of his Polish refugees. But, if the Union were dissolved, how altered her condition ! Does the South imagine that that act will widen the Ohio river, or make the boundary line be- the Ancient Dominion and the good old Quaker state of Pennsylvania, aught but an imaginary one ? The Uni^n being rent, the runaway slave of Virginia comes up to the line between slavery and freedom. He hesitates a REMARKS OF moment with fear; but, gathering fresh courage, he leaps it at a bound ! For once, he breathes the elastic and thrilling atmosphere of a free state. No bribed dough face stands ready to seize him, but warm hearts greet him. Turning, he beckons onward his halting compan- ions. A black tide pours over the line, and lo ! the South is emptied of her slaves ! WILL IT PREVENT INSURRECTIONS? Again, Sir, under the present compact, if the slaves, goaded to madness by their unmitigated bondage, rise in insurrection, the whole physical power of the free states, is pledged, by Article 1. Sec. 8 of the Constitution, to quell the insurgents. The North stands, bayonet in hand, over the bosom of the southern slave. This surely might satisfy reasonable opposers. But, suppose the Union were severed, and the free states released from the responsibility of quelling ^insurrections. Then, the in- flammable mass at the South, ignited by the incendiary declaration, ' Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God ! ' explodes, scattering desolation and death on every side ! Where «ow, is the boasted chivalry of Virginia and her proud sisters ? Buried under an avalanche of ruin ! North- ern nerves and bayonets, no longer bound to keep guard, while one half of the South put fetters on the heels of the other, stand aloof from these sanguinary scenes. Or, if that hour should never come, (which Heaven grant !) suppose, in process of time, a war should break out be- tween these two rival nations, (not an improbable event,) how easy for a Northern emissary to cross the line, breathe insurrection into the ear of the slave, and then, his bloody purpose accomplished, hasten back to his own country. Or, a daring leader of the Northern forces, inscribing ' freedom ' on his banners, might enter the HENRY B. STANTON. [71 South, and bear off in triumph, thousands of her slaves. Sir, the slave states would be insane to dissolve this Union. They now stand upon the verge of a frightful precipice. But there is hope. Then they would have taken the fatal leap. So obvious is this truth, that while Heaven vouch- safes to them a modicum of sanity, they will never commit this suicidal deed. WILL IT STOP AGITATION ? Second. The south threatens to secede from the Union, as a means of suppressing the present anti-slavery agita- tion. Indeed. And does this agitation trouble her ? Doubt- less. We recollect Felix trembled. But, are the means she proposes to employ, adapted to secure the end? How would South Carolina's revolutionizing herself into an in- dependent Republic (a difficult task, by the bye, as a ma- jority of her inhabitants are slaves!) prevent our agitating the question of slavery in the Representatives' Hall of old Massachusetts? Or, how could the Constitution of a southern republic, handsomely written on parchment, and snugly deposited in the desk of its Secretary of State, hin- der the publication of anti-slavery tracts, the delivery of anti-slavery speeches, the holding of anti-slavery conven- tions, and the formation of anti-slavery societies, in free, unawed New England ? 1 do know that the dissolution of the Union, while it would destroy all pretext for abridging the freedom of speech and the press among us, would be to minds now torpid, like the galvanic battery, arousing them to indomitable action. And, if the south does in- deed dread a noise on this subject, she had better not put the torch to the magazine of the Union, lest the explosion should wake up, not only the moral power of the north, but her own slumbering conscience. 72 REMARKS OF WILL IT SHUT OUT ABOLITIONISM? But, third: by dissolving connection with the north, the slaveholding states will certainly shut out from their bor- ders the effects of anti-slavery agitations, if they cannot stop them. NEVER ! The effects of anti-slavery agita- tions are not hemmed in by state lines, nor circumscribed by local boundaries. They are moral in their nature ; obey no laws but those of the human mind ; owe allegiance to no constitution but that of the immortal soul. Impalpable yet real, the truths we proclaim overleap all geographical di- visions, and lay their strong grasp upon the conscience. Moral light, diffused at the north, is like the Aurora Bore- alis. It will travel onward to the south. The slaveholder may entrench himself behind bristling bayonets: — but the truth, fearless like its Author, breaks through the serried legions. At Mason &l Dixon's line, he may pile his pro- hibitory statutes to the clouds, as his wall of defence, but truth, like light, is elastic and irrepressible : — and, mount- in^ upward, will overleap the summit, and penetrate his concealment. Yea, Sir, if the Union were rent into ten thousand fragments — yet, if on every fragment there was a slaveholder, anti-slavery agitation would search him out, and scatter upon his naked heart the living coals of truth. God has written the verity of our principles on the inside of every oppressor in the land. He can destroy the record only with his nature. And, if the American slaveholder, returning wearied from the destruction of every anti-slave- ry pamphlet, and press, and society, and man in the na- tion, should seek repose in his chamber, these words, writ- ten with the finger of God, would flame out from its walls, in letters of blindting intensity: 'Wo unto him that DUILDETII HIS HOUSE BY UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, AND HIS CHAM- BERS BY WRONG ; THAT USETH HIS NEIGHBOR'S SERVICE WITHOUT WAGES, AND CIVETH HIM NOT FOR HIS WORK ! ' HENRY B. STANTON. 73 The dissolution of the Union stop inquiry concerning slavery ! Delusive hope. It will multiply it a thousand fold; — and the South itself, will contribute largely to the increase. The rent cannot be made in a moment. The Hotspurs must whip their followers up to the top of their courage before they will do the deed. And all this time, there will be hot debate among them. Every body in- quiring ; — loud discussions in bar rooms and on steam- boats; the southern press taking opposite sides; — Legis- lative halls the arena of warm dispute ; pulpit clashing with pulpit ; — Nullification times come again ; — the old Union party once more taking the field ; — and the whole South, slaves, free negroes, and all, one foaming sea of agitation! And what is the matter? Has Garrison, or the Liberator, got among them? Oh no; — but Patriarch McDuffie is about dissolving the Union, to perpetuate sla- very ; and every body is discussing the question ! To thus stop agitation, is like putting out fire with gunpowder. Sir; — let the South attempt to divide the Union, and she will find herself divided. She knows, that, while on the one hand, she will lose every thing, on the other, she will gain nothing but what she has already taken. She pro- fesses to fear, that, under Sec. 2, Art. 4 of the Constitution, giving the citizens of each State, the privileges of citizens in all the States, incendiaries will enter her borders; — and so she's for nullification. But, that section she has already nullified, and has declared every Abolitionist who enters her territory, an outlaw. Does she hope, that' by disunion, she will prevent Anti-Slavery publications from entering her territories, through the public mails? That she has already attempted, by her mail Committees, Lynch clubs, and statutory provisions, 7 74 REMARKS OF THERE IS NO UNION. And shall Northern men dread disunion, lest they lose these benefits ? Sir, they are already lost ! For tens of thousands in this land, yielding to none others in love to their country and to all its citizens, there is no Union. To them, it is already dissolved. A price is on their heads, in one half the States of this Republic. Such men, at least, will not be driven from their duty, by the threat of disunion. And, it is time the entire North be- gan to reflect, that this Union was formed to ' promote the general welfare ; ' and not the welfare of the few, at the expense of the many. THE THREAT NOT SINCERE. Upon the South, this Union confers incalculable bene- fits. She knows it. Her safety, — her existence, depend upon its continuance. She feels it. The majority of her citizens appreciate, in some degree, its blessings ; and when the crisis comes, will, at all hazards, prolong its ex- istence. There is worth, intelligence, patriotism, integri- ty, at the South. Hotspurs will bluster, and threaten. It's their vocation. They have plied it long. Once they demanded a tariff, and threatened to rend the Union if we didn't yield. We bowed the head, in humble compliance. Again they said, ' let Missouri enter the Union, or it's dissolved.' We bowed again. ' Repeal the protective tariff, or we'll withdraw.' Prostrate, we kissed the dust. ' Touch not the District of Columbia ; — cease your interference with our domestic institutions ; — gag your citizens, and yoke your working men, or we'll split the Union.' The north stands erect! In conclusion, Sir, I remark, that the right of the South HENRY B. STANTON. 75 to dissolve her connection with her sister States, without their consent, is not the doctrine of this nation ; — and should she, madly bent on ruin, attempt to carry away the main pillars of the Republic, the whole weight of the General Government will be precipitated upon her head. DUTY OF MASSACHUSETTS. Mr. Chairman, T now come to the last topic proposed for our examination ; to wit : — the duty of Massachusetts. That the Legislature of this Commonwealth has the right to grant the prayer of these Memorialists, is conceded. Our inquiry is, ought the right to be exercised? Sir, sla- very is acknowledged by your State, to be a system at war with the fundamental principles of our free institutions, unjust, cruel, wicked. Then is she bound to exert her utmost political and moral power, for its destruction. To terminate slavery in the District of Columbia, is within the power of the free States. And, so long as Massachu- setts remains a member of this Union, and sends Senators and Representatives to Congress, she has political respon- sibilities in regard to that question. The God of Nations has laid them upon her. She cannot escape them. If she refuse to discharge these responsibilities, she is recre- ant to her trusts. The seven thousand bondmen of that District, lift their manacled hands to her for redress. It is noble to protect the weak. The freedom of her own citizens, the perpetuity of our republic, the cause of po- litical and moral reform abroad, are jeoparded by the tol- eration of slavery at the seat of the Federal Government. For the rescue of these from immolation, she is bound to go to the utmost limit of her Constitutional power. SHALL OUR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS BE SUSTAINED ? The Legislature should grant the prayer of the Memo- 76 REMARKS OF rialists, because of its influence upon her Senators and Representatives in Congress. To sustain, to encourage them, in their noble stand in defence of the right of peti- tion, and the freedom of debate, is her solemn duty. Thrust out as they are into the midst of this angry excite- ment, and contending for constitutional rights, at the peril of their lives, it would be generous in your body to throw around them the shield of its approval. To refuse so to do, when requested by the people, would be ignoble, un- just. Your members need this ; they ask it. In an inter- view with one of them* during the last summer, he with much feeling urged the importance of pouring in petitions to your Legislature, praying them to instruct their Sena- tors, and request their Representatives, to act and vote for the abolition of slavery in the District. 'This,' said he, ' will invigorate us, and we shall feel that we stand on the terra firma of an approving public sentiment at home. Sir, the people have brought their request to your halls. Will you be deaf to their prayer? Public sentiment is ripe for this measure. You are its organ. Our members of Congress have the right to expect, that you, in the name of the people, will give them the cheering word, 'onward!' Let me again read from the letter of the venerable John Quincy Adams, before cited. "Will his voice be disregarded in this Hall ? " I feel much encour- aged by your approbation, and that of others holding opin- ions the same as yours, to continue in the course which I have hitherto, as a member of the House of Representa- tives, pursued with regard to the right of Petition. I do not forsee that I shall alter that course, while I shall con- tinue in the public service. How far it will be sanction- ed, even by the majority of my own constituents, is yet to be seen." * Hon. Nathaniel B. Borden., HENRY B. STANTON. 77 Sir : — it is not yet to be seen. It is seen ; — written in the history of the past. The Old Colony desert her dis- tinguished champion for defending her cherished princi- ples ? Never ! Says Mr. Adams further : — " The struggle in the House of Representatives, for and against the reception of Peti- tions for the abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia, is merely the symptom of a deep- seated disease, preying upon the vitals of this Union ; — and that disease is Slavery. Now, if it were in the power of Congress, to bar the doors of the Capitol, till the ele- ments shall be consumed with fervent heat, as inexorably against the cry of Justice, of Mercy, of human reason, and human feeling for the Emancipation of the hereditary slave, as Dante says the Gates of Hell were closed against Hope, still the disease would continue to prey upon the vitals of the Union; — and that disease will prey till radi- cally healed, or till it shall terminate in death." How like the prophecies of Jefferson! Dissolve the Union if we abolish slavery in the District '? Sir, if sla- very is not abolished, not only there, but throughout the country, this nation is abolished. In such a crisis, has Massachusetts any interests at stake ? Has her Legisla- ture any duties to discharge? The PEOPLE put to you these interrogatories. But to the letter. " The symptom of the disease is an inflexible determination to gag, and to hear nothing about it. The terror at the thought of hear- ing the truth, smothers debate, and strangles the right of Petition. **** I believe it is the opinion of all my col- leagues, that my opinions in favor of the right of Petition, have been sufficiently manifested in the House ; and they have some doubts how far they will be sustained by the people of the Commonwealth.' Sir : the Commonwealth will sustain him ! What! — shall Massachusetts, the State 7* 78 REMARKS OF which in the days of her colonial weakness, shielded the hunted judges of Charles the First, from the active ven- geance of England, give up her own great citizen to the tender mercies of slavery ? Shall she, who threw around the proscribed and outlawed Adams of the Revolution, a wall of republican hearts, shrink back from sustaining one, who, in his love of liberty and hatred of oppression., does no dishonor to his illustrious namesake ? Shall Massachusetts stand erect no longer,- But stoop in chains upon her downward way, Thicker to gather on her limbs and stronger Day alter day. Oh no— methinks from all her wild green mountains — From valleys where her slumbering fathers lie— From her blue rivers and her welling fountains, And clear, cold sky ! From her rough coast and isles, which hungry ocean Gnaws with his surges— from the fisher's skiff, WitO white sail swaying to the billow's motion, Round rock ar:d cliff. From the free fireside of her unbought farmer — From her free laborer at his loom and wheel ; From the brown smith-shop, where beneath the hammer Rings the red steel ! From each and all, if God hath not forsaken Our State, and left us to an evil choice, Loud as the summer thunder-bolt shall waken- A People's voice ! MASSACHUSETTS ALWAYS AN ANTI-SLAVERY STATE. Mr. Chairman: Massachusetts should assume the posi- tion to which she is called by these memorialists, to sus- tain before the nation her ancient high character as an Anti-Slavery State. Let us recite her history. Slavery in Massachusetts was never the creature of her laws. Her pilgrim founders never created it. It indeed existed,. but only as a nuisance. It never clothed itself in the au- thority of her fundamental law, but stood only upon its HENRY B. STANTON. 79 Own execrable foundation of Robbery and Wrong. It never, thank Heaven, polluted the ermine of her judiciary. In the Massachusetts Colony, as early as 1641, " It is or- dered by the Court and the authority thereof, that there shall never be any bond-slavery, villenage, or captivity among us, unless it be [such] lawful captives taken in war, as willingly sell themselves, or are sold to us; and such shall have the liberties and Christian usage, which the law of God ? established in Israel concerning such persons, doth morally require."* This law was not a dead letter. Chief Justice Parsons says, " If the master was guilty of a cruel or unreasonable castigation of his slave, he was lia- ble to be punished for a breach of the peace, and I believe the slave was allowed to demand sureties of the peace, against a violent and barbarous master. Under these reg- ulations, the treatment of slaves was in general mild and humane, and they suffered hardships not greater than hired servants."! Sir, these provisions cut up by the roots, the essentials of the system. Protection, such as the laws of Moses afforded, entirely destroys absolute chattel slavery. Still, it should be remembered, that even this system was merely permitted, and was never sanctioned by the laws of the Commonwealth, 'In 1770, negroes [in Massachusetts] began to sue their masters for their freedom, and for payment of all services rendered after the age of 21. Many actions for that purpose were brought, between this time and the Revolution, all of which were successful.'! Yes, Sir, her courts of Justice were temples of refuge to the slave, even before her Bill of Rights, in 1780, sign- * General laws and liberties of Massachusetts Bay, Chap. 12, § 2. f Winchendon v. Hatfield, 4 Mass. Rep. 127. X Report of a Committee of the House of Representative* of Mass., by Theodore Lyman, Jr., in 1822. §0 REMARKS OF ed the death warrant of the system. The Bill of Rights ! What is it ? It pledges forever the moral and political power of the Commonwealth, on the side of freedom. It annihilated slavery in our own borders, and proclaimed in the ear of the world, that th© right to liberty is inalien- able. At another memorable epoch, — the war of the Revolu- tion,— in defence of the same great principles, Massa- chusetts rushed earliest to the battle field. - Not content with defending her own territory, she generously made common cause with her sister colonies. That her patri- otism was co-extensive with the entire nation, is recorded in the blood of her sons, on the soil of every state from Maine to Georgia. And. Sir, the descendants of those who perished untimely at Boston and Bunker Hill, whose bones whitened the plains of Concord and Lexington, whose blood fattened the soil of Camden and Yorktown, now walk erect in their own Massachusetts, inhale the free spirit, and cherish the free principles of their sires, and will dishonor their memories, never. In their love of liberty, and hatred of oppression, the sons would equal the fathers. Like them, their principles they will yield only with their lives. But, unlike them, they will not do evil that good may come. In this moral contest for holy freedom, their weapons are truth and lo\e; their trust, in the Prince of Peace. On the ratification of the U. S. Constitution, and in the memorable Missouri contest, this Commonwealth main- tained her integrity. HENRY B. STANTON. 81 SOUTHERN AGGRESSION. HOW MET. But her recent history ; — would that it had never been written. In the conflict of slavery with freedom, which has shaken this nation for the last two years, where has been the moral power of Massachusetts ? — Sir, the friends of liberty have maintained their principles, even in this Commonwealth, at the hazard of their lives. Gags have been thrust into their mouths ; a price has been set upon their heads. I see before me in this Hall, one for whose life a sovereign state.* has, by a deliberate act of its Legislature, olTered a reward of five thousand dollars ! What was his crime ? He was guilty of echoing the principles of John Adams and Elbridge Gerry, of pro- claiming the beautiful and Christ-like sentiment: 'My country is the world— my countrymen are all mankind.'! It is not incendiary, even in this Hall, to pronounce the name of William Lloyd Garrison. Where has been the response of Massachusetts to this unparalleled outrage? However she may disregard the claims of her citizen to protection, posterity will do justice to his memory; and in comino- years, the tears of an enfranchised race shall water his grave. What was the answer given at the last session of your Legislature, to the insulting demands of Georgia, Virginia and South Carolina, with which the Governor loaded yonder table ? A Report admitting the justice of those demands; and, in the language of the chief magis- trate of Pennsylvania, ' a base bowing of the knee to the dark spirit of slavery!' Sir, that Report libelled the people of Massachusetts, and they have buried it beyond the reach of resurrection. During the past winter, the petitioners for the abolition of slavery in the District, have been stigmatized on the * Georgia. f Motto of the Liberator. 82 REMARKS OF floor of Congress as ' the tohite slaves of the North.' Sir, who are these petitioners ? The president of your Seriate, the chaplain of your House, members of both branches of your Legislature, William Ellery Charming, and John Pierpont, are of the number. The character of the entire body of these petitioners, amounting to more than thirty thousand of the inhabitants of this Common- wealth, not less than the object of their petitions, should shield them from insult. At least, their own Legislature should sternly rebuke the assassins of their reputation. In defence, then, of her own character, to preserve her own consistency, and maintain her influence among her sister states, Massachusetts should lead rather than follow, in this cause. Vermont, true to her principles, has already uttered through her Legislature, a manly re- buke of Southern arrogance. The Hon. Thaddeus Ste- vens, at the last session of the Pennsylvania Legislature, presented a report in regard to slavery in the District, worthy the times of Hush and Franklin. And the Gov- ernor of that state uttered sentiments in his late mes- sage, which might fitly be echoed by the Chief Magistrate even of this Commonwealth. IT IS NOT TOO LATE. It has been arged as an objection to action on this sub- ject at the present session of the Legislature, that it is so late, Congress being on the eve of adjourning, it will accomplish no good. Sir, it is never too late to do right. But, the memorialists do not expect that the expression of sentiment they now ask of your honorable body, will immediately accomplish the ultimate object they scek;^ — the abolition of slavery in the District. But, that such an expression will constitute HENRY B. STANTON. S3 one in a train of influences, which, in due time, will lead to that result. Reforms move slowly — and only because reforming influences are dilatory in applying the pro- pelling power. By prompt, uncompromising, lofty ac- tion, at this crisis, the Legislature might revolutionize the public sentiment of New England, and bring the entire North to reflection. The time is rapidly approaching, when this cause will not need your aid. The world knows that slavery must die. Some will peril their all for its destruction. Others will save their strength that they may shout over its downfall. Generosity aids an unpopu- lar cause : — calculating expediency worships the star of the ascendant. Integrity will maintain the right, though it stand alone. The tide of intelligent sympathy for the bondman, is accumulating in strength. Patriots and Christians will contribute to swell it. Popularity-hunters and worshippers of Mammon, will wait to take it at its flood. It shall sweep them away ! Sooner or later, this question must be met, and determined here. The gen- tleman who preceeded me (Mr. Hillard,) uttered the bold sentiment, that ' through Congress or, over Congress, this question will go.' I respond to it, and add, that through the Legislature, or over the Legislature, this question will go. I know the men who are engaged in this cause. They have no selfish aims. They are impelled to action by their duty to God, and their fellow men. They are of all creeds and of all parties. And, Sir, that political party, which, whatever may be the pretext, shall inter- fere with its progress, or lay its hand upon the ark of Free Discussion, will fall like Dagon before it. There are ten thousand men in this state, who will no longer bow the knee to the political Baals, — who, for this cause, are ready instantly to sacrifice all party considerations. M REMARKS OF HENRY B. STANTON. Mr. Chairman, and gentlemen of the Committee : — You have heard the prayer of the memorialists. Shall it be granted T- 1 — They ask it not to subserve party purposes or sectarian objects ; not for themselves, but for their country, — nor for their country only, but for the world ; not for the present age merely, but for all coming time. They ask it in the name of humanity, outraged and bleed- ing; of Liberty, sacrificed on her own altars; of Relig- ion, wrested to sanction odious oppression; and, above all, in the name of Jehovah, insulted in the imbrut- ing of His own image. [Mr. Stanton concluded by expressing his sincere thanks to the Committee for their courtesy and attention, during the protracted remarks which he hat! felt it his duty to offer,] «* •: \> "W JAN 78 MM ► LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 011 839 196 2