£9* & * '*- ~\.J>' .<*dK\ " %J ' v y>. 1?^ ^^ «feV Pis *^ -A v*cr V • * * •* • ^ A* ^ +*o« ;- "+*«■» y MR. TTSOXPS LETTER TO THE ABOLITIONISTS OF 3>tRU0i&D!BlliIPKUUla THE DOCTRINES OF THE "ABOLITIONISTS" Life M rv JN A LETTER FROM J. WASHINGTON TYSON, THE DEMOCRATIC HARRISON CANDIDATE FOR CONGRESS, IN THE First District, of Pennsylvania, PHILADELPHIA, 1840, Philadelphia, September 17, 1S40. J. Washington Tyson, Esq. Sir—As a Committee appointed by a meeting of citizens, we beg leave to ask of you, as a candidate for office at the approaching election, a reply to the follow- ing question : " Are you in favor of such alteration of the Con- stitution and Laws of the United States and of this State, as shall, in the manner most consistent with jus- tice and sound policy, release the people of this com- monwealth from all participation in holding human beings in slavery?" Should your reply not be received by the 23d inst, we shall understand that you decline answering the question. Very respectfully, Your fellow citizens, SAMUEL D. HASTINGS, LEWIS BEEBE, WILLIAM THOMPSON, JAMES WOOD, ELI DILLIN, WARNER JUSTICE, G. W. WOOLEY, RALPH SMITH, Committee. 3£E. T7^0H 5 S RBFLT. . Philadelphia, September 33, 1810. Gentlemen : — I have received the note which " as a committee appointed by a meeting of citizens," you have addressed me, inquiring whether I am " in favor of such alteration of the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this State, as shall, in the manner most consistent with justice and sound policy, release the people of this Commonwealth from all participa- tion in holding human beings in slavery?" As you have not apprised me of the character in which you propose this question, I am at a loss whether to regard you as philanthropists or politicians. If as the former, you will pardon me for expressing regret that you have fallen into the error which, unfortunately, is in danger of becoming habitual in this country — of mingling questions of a benevolent cast with politics. Partizan struggles already involve considerations of a sufficiently exciting nature, without this additional source of popular vexation. Besides, it is difficult to perceive how any work of charity can be promoted by confounding or blending it with questions of a wholly uncongenial character, If, on the other hand, you pro- pound the inquiry as politicians, I am not aware that you have any claim on my attention, since you have formed an exclusive organization, nominated candi- dates for President and Vice President, and assumed an attitude of hostility to Gen. Ilanison and to the party of which 1 am a member and a candidate. Lest, however, gentlemen, a disposition, to conceal my views might be imputed, and recognising the correlative of the right of instruction — the right of any portion of the People to interrogate candidates for their suffrages? touching measures of popular interest — Iwi'l wave this objection, and frankly avow the opinions I entertain on this subject. Being unconscious of the existence of any legal obstacle to the manumission of such slaves as are still held in Pennsylvania, I confess that it has cost me no little reflection to derive from your ambiguous interro- gatory the real point at issue. If you consider cur Federal relations with the Southern States, as involv- ing Pennsylvania in any "participation in holding hu- man beings in slavery,' 1 you cannot be ignorant cf the fact, that your impressions are wholly at variance with the uniform judicial and all authoritative expositions of the Constitution. Believing that we have no such participation, I am opposed to any " alteration of the Constitution and Laws of the United States," which would render liable to pragmatical interference an inr- stitution under the exclusive control of the States in which it exist. Though the rights of the District of Coulumbia may differ from those of sovereign States in form, they are, in this particular, substantially the same. With jurisconsults " the reason and spirit of a law," has ever been the most effectual mode of discovering its true meaning. Will it then be contended that Virginia and Maryland would have become parties to any arrange- ment which might convert the territory ceded to the Federal government, into a refuge for absconding slaves ? Or will it be pretended that their co-slave- states would have sanctioned a provision of the Con- stitution, which might subject them in any contin- gency to the dangerous example of such a neighbour? The territory in question was granted for a specific pur- pose, and the « reason and spirit 11 of the cession pre- clude the exercise cf any control over it not indis^en- sible to that end. I believe, therefore, that comity, good faith and the integrity of the Union forbid any alteration of the conditions upon which the grant was made. The numerical superiority or physical power of the free states, does not weaken the force of these objections. Constitutions are made for minorities — to protect the weak from the aggressions of the strong. You will excuse me for expressing the opinion that if polemic or militant anti-slavery in the free States was ever wise, it has ceased to be so since the imper- tinent, mischievous, and criminal intermeddling of the politicians and subjects of Great Britain. There is serious cause for the apprehension, that if persisted in, it will indefinitely postpone even the incipient steps to the abrogation of the system in those States which have long been anxious to get rid of it. Let it not be forgotten, that the existence of the institution of sla- very, is the misfortune and not the fault of the South. To England belongs the responsibility, and to her attaches the odium of introducing it upon our shorep. In the recollection of the constant and urgent though, fruitless, remonstrances of our ancestors against the spirit of cupidity which actuated her ministry in the encouragement of the slave-trade, no citizen of this coun- try, who possesses the proper American feeling, can fail to be indignant at the calumnies with which her statesmen and public journalists habitually assail us. Shame, if no higher motive, should restrain them in their work of national defamation, while Ireland and British India groan beneath the accumulated wrongs of England. Let them first justify the outrage against 6 civilization and humanity committed in the " Opium war" with China, before they essay to correct our morals or school us in the principles of Christianity. The Asiatic colonies of England furnish an ample field for the diffusive philanthrophy of her missionaries, with- out resorting to the shores of America. There no longer remains a doubt that the agitation of this topic in London, has been produced by a sinister hostility to the United States. It is not the fruit of an honest conviction of duty, among those who are the in- struments of the excitement, but of the canting hypo- crisy of functionaries unable to suppress an instinctive jealousy towards this country, common among the mem- bers of the English government. The politicians of that country evidently fancy they discern in this ques- tion, an entering wedge by which the union of these states may be severed — a consummation long desired by the enemies of republicanism. There is no mistaking the remarks of the President of the late Anti-Slavery Convention of London : — " My dear friends," said Mr. Clarkson addressing that body, "you must endeavour by all justifiable means to affect their (the southern States) temporal in- terests. You must endeavor, among other things, to have the produce of free tropical labor brought into the markets of Europe, and undersell them there— and if you can do this your victory is sure." That no doubt may linger in your minds of the determination to ren- der the anti-slavery excitement subservient to the inter- ests of British trade, I annex another extract from the speech of Mr. Clarkson — being the remarks which im- mediately follow those above quoted. "Now that this is possible, and this may be done there is no question. The East India Company alone can do it of themselves, and they can do it by means that are perfectly moral and pacific ; according to your own principles, namely, by the cultivation of the earth and by the employment of free labor. They may if they please, not only have the high honor of abolishing Sla- very and the Slave Trade, but the advantage of increas- ing their revenue beyond all calculation; for, in the first place, they have land in their possession twenty times more than equal to the supply of all Europe with Tropical produce; in the second place, they can procure, not tens of thousands, but tens of millions of free la- borers to work; in the third, what is of the greatest consequence in this case, the price of labor with these is only from a penny to three-half-pence per day. What slavery can stand against these prices? I learn, too, from letters which I have seen from India, and from the Company's own Reports, that they have long been engaged, shall I say providentially engaged, in preparing seeds for the cultivation of cotton there. Now if we take into consideration all these pre- vious preparations (by which it appears that they are ready to start,) and add to this the consideration that they could procure, not tens of thousands, but tens of millions of free laborers to work — I speak from autho- rity—I believe that if they would follow up their plans heartily, and with spirit according to their means, that in the course of six years, they would materially affect the price of this article at market, and in twelve that they would be able to turn the tide completely against the growers of it in the United states." It is difficult to believe that there were American citizens present and participating in the proceedings of the Convention to which such remarks were addressed, and that they were so craven in spirit and recreant to 8 the honour and welfare of their country, as to applaud them. Yet such is the humiliating fact. Believe me, gentlemen, Christianity is against you, leagued with England, in such an unnatural crusade against your countrymen. Can you be surprised that our southern brethren are unable to reason calmly on this subject, un- der the consciousness that a portion of their fellow citi- zens are in effect aiding our old enemy to place the torch and the knife in the hands of an unfortunate and half ci- vilized race living in their midst, with the implied in- junction to use them? Produce or precipitate a struggle for the mastery, between your own and the African races of this country, and you can derive no justification from the precepts of ethics or religion. The admonition to "love thy neighbour as thyself," contains no com- mand to love him better. This is the fearful issue to which there is abundant reason to apprehend we shall be hurried, if the spirit of rabid fanaticism, excited and directed by English calculations of gain, be not arrested and curbed in the free States. Believing this, I would be unworthy of public confidence were I to hesitate to oppose the requirements of so disastrous an excitement. I have thus, gentlemen, frankly, but, in conse- quence of many pressing duties, hastily and imperfectly replied to your question. I am, very respectfully, Your fellow citizen, J. WASHINGTON TYSON. To Messrs. Samuel D.Hastings, Lewis Bebee, William Thompson, James Wood, Eli Dillin, Warner Justice, G. W. Wouley, and Ralph Smith, Committee, &c. 54 £°+ ^ «♦ W ^»^#» ^ ^ 3$ »£ *< • •• ^ "* A^ •• ^ *•"• <& »«• *^ 'it'WFjr %*JRI^ , V V 7 ^'^ V*' *\/' •' 1* J? £, •*CSK3* 4T *Kt> oWMSy* «? *&. •©IBS* «& ^ ^^ * a\^ ^•> T °\<** . 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