"I would not be understood as desiring a servile insurrection; but I say to Southern gentlemen, that there are hundreds of thousands of honest and patriotic men who will laugh at your calamity, and will mock when your fear cometh.' If blood and massacre should mark the struggle for liberty of those who for ages have been oppressed and degraded, my prayer to the God of heaven shall be, that justice, stern, unyielding justice, may be awarded to both master and slave. I desire that every human being may enjoy the rights with which the God of nature has endowed him. If those rights can be regained by the down-trodden sons of Africa in our Southern States, by quiet and peaceful means, I hope they will pursue such peaceful measures. But, if they cannot regain their Godgiven rights by peaceful measures, I nevertheless hope they will regain them; and, if blood be shed, I should certainly hope that it might be the blood of those who stand between them and freedom, and not the blood of those who have long been robbed of their wives and children, and all they hold dear in life."Hon. J. R. Giddings. See pages 159 and 160 of his Book of Speeches.

which I hold to be clear and sacred under the | Hon. J. R. Giddings. See page 453 of his constitution. There is neither constitution nor Book of Speeches. law that forbids them to speak their opinions in regard to slavery. As already stated, the master holds the power of life and death over the slaves; he not only robs the slave of his earnings, his intelligence, his manhood, but murders him if he refuses to be flogged-a tyranny revolting to every sense of justice, to every dictate of Christianity-a tyranny more unmitigated than any despotism of the Old World."-Hon. J. R. Giddings, in House of Representatives, First Session, 34th Congress. "The gentleman, however, says that Abolitionists look to the insurrection of the slaves. Sir, who does not look to that inevitable result, unless the slave states remove the heavy burdens which now rest upon the down-trodden and degraded people whom they oppress? Is there a slaveholder who can shut his eyes to this sure finale of slavery? And why should we not expect it? Were we thus oppressed, outraged, and abused, would we not use all the means which God and nature have placed within our power to remove such evils? Would not duty to ourselves, to our offspring, to God, and to humanity, demand that we should rise with one accord and hurl our oppressors from us? Can we justify our fathers of the Revolution in their patriotic struggle for political freedom, and then turn round and condemn the slaves of the South for breaking the chains which hold them in physical bondage and in intellectual degradation? No, sir; no lover of justice, no unbiassed mind, could blame them for asserting and maintaining their inalienable rights."-Hon. J. R. Giddings, in House of Representatives, April 25, 1848.

"Sir, I would intimidate no one; but I tell you there is a spirit in the North which will set at defiance all the low and unworthy machinations of this Executive, and of the minions of its power. When the contest shall come; when the thunder shall roll, and the lightning flash; when the slaves shall rise in the South; when, in imitation of the Cuban bondmen, the southern slaves of the South shall feel that they are men; when they feel the stirring emotions of immortality, and recognise the stirring truth that they are men, and entitled to the rights which God has bestowed upon them; when the slaves shall feel that, and when masters shall turn pale and tremble; when their dwellings shall smoke, and dismay sit on each countenance: then, sir, I do not say, 'We will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh;' but I do say, when that time shall come, the lovers of our race will stand forth and exert the legitimate powers of this government for freedom. We shall then have constitutional power to act for the good of our country, and do justice to the slave.

"The people of Boston did not see fit to interfere between the administration and the 'negroes' of that city. In the name of humanity I thank them for it, and assure them and the country that those whom I represent never will interfere in such case. The citizen who would do so would be driven from decent society in northern Ohio. It is here, on this point, that I take issue with the supporters of this law. That portion which commands me to assist in catching slaves is a flagrant usurpation of power, unauthorized by the constitution. My constituents hold that portion of the law in detestation. They spurn and abhor it. I say, as I have often said, My constituents will not help you catch your "Then will we strike off the shackles from slaves. They will feed the hungry, clothe the the limbs of the slaves. That will be a period naked, and direct the wanderer on his way, when this government will have power to act and use every peaceful means to assist him to between slavery and freedom, and when it regain his God-given rights. If you pursue can make peace by giving freedom to the your slave there, they will let you catch him, slaves. And let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, if you can. If he defends himself against that that time hastens. It is rolling forward. you, they will rejoice. If you press him so The President is exerting a power that will hard that he is constrained actually to slay hasten it, though not intended by him. I hail you in self-defence, why, sir, they will look on it as I do the approaching dawn of that poliand submit with proper resignation. In such tical and moral millennium which I am well cases they will carry out their peace princi- assured will come upon the world."—Hon. J. ples by abstaining from all interference."- R. Giddings, in House of Rep., March 16, 1854.

"Mr.IIale congratulated the convention upon the spirit of unanimity with which it had done its work. I believe, said he, that this is not so much a convention to change the administration of the government, but to say whether there shall be any government to be administered. You have assembled, not to say whether this Union shall be preserved, but to say whether it shall be a blessing or a scorn and hissing among the nations. Some men pretend to be astonished and surprised at the events which are occurring around us; but I am not more surprised than I shall be this autumn to see the fruits following the buds and the blossoms."-Hon. J. P. Hale, Senator from New Hampshire, a delegate to the Republican Convention of the 17th of June,

1856.

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"Washington, Sunday, Aug. 10, 1856. "Gentlemen :-I have received your very polite note of the 6th inst., inviting me to attend a mass meeting at the Tabernacle on the evening of the 21st inst. I regret that it is not in my power to be present with you on that occasion, but my engagements will not permit me. I rejoice in your movement. have faith and hope in progress. I look forward hopefully for the day when the word slave shall be without practical meaning in this, or the Eastern Continent; when universal man shall stand erect as God intended he should, calling no one lord or master save the common Father of us all, and recognising no government save that which is founded on the principles of Eternal Justice and universal rights of humanity. If I did not believe that the election of Fremont and Dayton would be a step in that direction, the movement would receive little sympathy from me. "With much respect, gentlemen, I am your friend, JOHN P. HALE."

"A man, then, who has no feeling in common with us, who never felt the pulse of liberty till he set foot upon our soil, such a man is to enjoy the opportunity and the right to vote amongst us, whilst these rights are to be denied to the unfortunate black man, who has ten times more intelligence, and who has lived in the state of Indiana from his birth.". David Kilgore, in the Indiana Constitutional Convention in 1850. [See Debates in the Convention, vol. 1, p. 253.]

"Justice and liberty, God and man, demand the dissolution of this slaveholding Union and the formation of a Northern Confederacy, in which slaveholders shall stand before the law as felons and be treated as pirates. God and humanity demand a ballot-box in which the slaveholders shall never cast a ballot. In this, what state so prepared to lead as the old Bay State? She has already made it a penal offence to help to execute a law of the Union. I want to see the officers of the state brought

into collision with those of the Union.

That as, in the nature of things, antagonistical principles, interests, pursuits, and institutions can never unite:

"That an experience of more than threescore years having demonstrated that there can be no real union between the North and the South, but, on the contrary, ever increasing alienation and strife, at the imminent hazard of civil war, in consequence of their conflicting views in relation to freedom and slavery:

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That the South, having declared it to be not only her right and purpose to eternize her slave system where it now exists, but to extend it over all the territories that now belong or may hereafter be annexed to the republic, her soil the entire free colored population of come what may; and having outlawed from the North, made it perilous for any Northern white citizen to exercise his constitutional right of freedom of speech in that section of the country, and even in the national capitol, and proclained her hostility to all free institutions universally:

"We, therefore, believe that the time has come for a new arrangement of elements so hostile, of interests so irreconcileable, of institutions so incongruous; and we earnestly request Congress, at its present session, to take such initiatory measures for the speedy, peaceful, and equitable dissolution of the existing Union as the exigencies of the case require leaving the South to depend upon her own resources, and to take all the responsibility, in the maintenance of her slave system, and the North to organize an independent government in accordance with her own ideas of justice and the rights of man."-Liberator, June 20, 1856.

"The United States Constitution is a cove"No union with slaveholders. Up with nant with death, and an agreement with the flag of disunion, that we may have a free | hell."-Liberator, June 20, 1856.

"INDEPENDENCE DAY.-This is the Eightieth sometimes mortified, at the injudicious and Aniversary of American Independence. That unfair measures of men who ought to have independence began in a spirit of compromise known better; but, we place our great movewith the foul spirit of slavery; it ends with ment above men: it is the only movement every seventh person in the land a chattel which aims or is calculated to save Kansas, slave-the universal mastery of a slaveholding and put an end to the despotism which reoligarchy-the overthrow of all the constitu- pealed the Missouri Compromise, and is pertional rights of Northern citizens-the reign petually seeking to subjugate the country to of Lynch Law and Border Ruffianism through- slavery: its platform is clear, sound, and out the entire South-the subversion of the comprehensive: its nominations must reprenational government by a clique of desperate sent it by sustaining them, we sustain it: and unprincipled demagogues, of which the opposition to them will only tend to perpetuPresident is a miserable and perjured tool- ate the spirit and policy of an administration the reign of violence, tyranny, and blood, on which has brought the country to the verge a frightful scale. So much for disregarding of civil and foreign war. Will not patriotic the Higher Law' by our fathers! So much men, whatever may have been their preferfor entering into ‘a covenant with death, and ences, hesitate long before assuming such a an agreement with hell! Truly, God is just, responsibility as that?" and our national retribution another striking proof that, as a people sow, so shall they also reap. A new revolution has begun-another secession is to take place and freedom for all secured upon a sure basis. 'No union with slaveholders !'"-Liberator, 4th July,

1856.

"THE DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION ESSENTIAL TO THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY.-But until we cease to strike hands religiously, politically, and governmentally with the South, and declare the Union to be at an end, I believe we can do nothing even against the encroachments of the slave power upon our rights. When will the people of the North see that it is not possible for liberty and slavery to commingle, or for a true union to be formed between freemen and slaveholders? Between those who oppress and the oppressed, no concord is possible. This Union-it is a lie, an imposture, and our first business is to seek its utter overthrow. In this Union there are three millions and a half of slaves clanking their chains in hopeless bondage. Let the Union be accursed! Look at the awful compromises of the constitution by which that instrument is saturated with the blood of the slave!”—Boston Liberator.

"In conclusion I have only to add that such is my solemn and abiding conviction of the character of slavery, that under a full sense of my responsibility to my country and my God, I deliberately say, better disunion--better a civil or a servile war-better anything that God in his providence shall send than an extension of the bounds of slavery."-Hon. Horace Mann, formerly of Massachusetts, in the House of Rep. during the 31st Congress.

"Having thus given an exposition of the action of the Convention, and defined our position, we shall henceforth do all that may lie in our power to bring about a perfect union of the friends of freedom at home and of good faith and peace in our foreign relations, against the Cincinnati nominations, pledged as they are by the platform which accompanies them, and the majority who framed both, to slavery at home and filibustering abroad. Like many others, we may have been vexed, disappointed,

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"Thank God! the movement has escaped this danger; the counsels of temporizing men have failed; to the bold, clear-sighted Joshua R. Giddings, sustained by the good sense of the Convention, are we indebted for the preservation of the Great Movement against the Slave Power, free from all entangling alliances."-National Era, of June 26, 1856.

"The Philadelphia Convention has defined the issues of the campaign, framed the platform, made the nominations, and respectfully called upon the people of the United States, without distinction of party, to sustain them. We shall be very happy to see North Americans and South Americans and all sorts of Americans rallying to the standard of Fremont, and uniting to put down the slave power, but let us have no talk of special arrangements with any particular class or party."-National Era, July 3, 1856.

"Let me suppose a case which may happen here and before long. A woman flies from South Carolina to Massachusetts to escape from bondage. Mr. Greatheart aids her in her escape, harbors and conceals her, and is brought to trial for it. The punishment is a ment for six, months. I am drawn to serve fine of one thousand dollars and imprisonas a juror and pass upon this offence. I may refuse to serve and be punished for that, leaving men with no scruples to take my place, or I may take the juror's oath to give mony. The law is plain, let us suppose, and a verdict according to the law and the testithe testimony conclusive. Greatheart himself confesses that he did the deed alleged, saving one ready to perish. The judge charges that if the jurors are satisfied of that fact, then they must return that he is guilty. This is a nice matter. Here are two questions. The one put to me in my official capacity as juror, is this-" Did Greatheart aid the woman ?” The other, put to me in my natural character as man, is this-"Will you help to punish Greatheart with fine and imprisonment for helping a woman to obtain her unalienable rights?" If I have extinguished my manhood by my juror's oath, then I shall do my

was unanimously adopted, with Salmon P. Chase as chairman of the committee on resolutions:

"Resolved, That we hereby give it to be distinctly understood, by this nation and the world, that, as Abolitionists, considering that the strength of our cause lies in its righteousness, and our hopes for it in our conformity to the laws of God, and our support of the rights of man, we owe to the sovereign Ruler of the Universe, as a proof of our allegiance to Him, in all our civil relations and offices, whether as friends, citizens, or as public functionaries, sworn to support the Constitution of the United States, to regard and treat the third clause of the instrument, whenever applied in the case of a fugitive slave, as utterly null and void, and consequently as forming no part of the Constitution of the U. States, whenever we are called upon or sworn to support it."

"Recognising, therefore, the paramount issue, I recognise, as the only practical means of sustaining our position upon that issue, our co-operation with the masses of our friends in other states in the formation of the Republican party of the Union.-Julius Rockwell, Massachusetts Free-soil Candidate for Governor.

"Yes, with that freedom and Fremont and Dayton emblazoned on the ample folds of our national banner, we will drive the base minions of slavery from their control of the Government, and we will use its powers to build up our new country free from the taints of slavery, and make America worthy of being the North Star of freedom, by which the eye of the exile can be guided with safety to the asylum of liberty."-Hon. R. W. Sapp, of Ohio, in the House of Reps., 1st Sess. 34th Cong.

Mr. Seward declared, in a speech which he made in Cleveland, in 1848:

"What, then, you say, can nothing be done for freedom because the public conscience is inert? Yes; much can be done, everything can be done.

"Auburn, April 5, 1851. "DEAR SIR: Your letter inviting me to attend a convention of the people of Massachusetts opposed to the fugitive slave law, and to communicate in writing my opinion on that statute, if I should be unable to attend the convention, has been received.

issue necessarily involves the claims of their advocates and adversaries in the public councils to the confidence of the country. Some of those advocates have entered the popular differed, while others have endeavored by exarena, criminating those from whom they had traordinary means either to control discussion have shown themselves disqualified, by preor to suppress it altogether, and thus they judice or interest, for practising that impartiality and candor which the occasion demanded.

reiterating arguments already before the pub"I am unwilling even to seem to imply, by lic, either any distrust of the position of those with whom I stood in Congress or impatience for that favorable popular verdict which I believe to be near, and know to be ultimately certain.

"Nevertheless, there can be no impropriety in my declaring, when thus questioned, the opinions which will govern my vote upon any occasion when the fugitive slave law shall come up for review in the national legislature.

"I think the act signally unwise, because it is an attempt, by a purely federative government, to extend the economy of slave states throughout states which repudiate slavery as a moral, social, and political evil. Any despotic government would awaken sedition from its profoundest slumbers by such an attempt.

The attempt by the Government has aroused constitutional resistance, which will not cease until the effort shall be relinquished. He who teaches another faith than this, whether self-deceived or not, misleads. I think, also, that the attempt was unnecessary; that political ends-merely political ends-and not real evils resulting from the escape of slaves, constituted the prevailing motives to the enactment."-Letter of the Hon. W. H.

Seward.

"We deem the principle of the law, for the recapture of fugitive slaves, unjust, unconstitutional, and immoral; and thus, while patriotism withholds its approbation, the conscience of our people condemns it. You will say that these convictions of ours are disloyal. Grant it, for the sake of argument. They are nevertheless honest; and the law is to be executed among us, not among you; "While offering the pressure of duties here not by us, but by the federal authority. too long deferred as an apology for non-attend- Has any government ever succeeded in ance, I pray you to assure the committee changing the moral convictions of its subjects in whose behalf you act of my profound by force? But these convictions imply no sense of their courtesy and kindness. It disloyalty. We reverence the Constitution, would be an honor to be invited to address although we perceive this defect, just as we the people of Massachusetts on any subject, acknowledge the splendor and the power of but it might well satisfy a generous ambition the sun, although its surface is tarnished with to be called upon to speak to that great and here and there an opaque spot. enlightened Commonwealth on a question of human rights and civil liberty.

"I confess, sir, that I have earnestly desired not to mingle in the popular discussions of the measures of the last Congress. The

"We cannot, in our judgment, be either true Christians or real freemen, if we impose on another a chain that we defy all human power to fasten on ourselves. You believe and think otherwise, and doubtless with equal