Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/533

, the only means of relief was "in responsibilities voluntarily assumed by the postmasters." Ho hoped congress would, at the next session, put a stop to the evil, and pledged his exertions to promote the adoption of a measure for thai purpose.

Conceiving the principles and objects of anti-slavery associations to be misunderstood, the officers of the American anti-slavery society published in its defense the following address ""

"In behalf of the American anti-slavery society, we solicit the candid attention of the public to the following declaration of our principles and objects. Were the charges which are brought against us, made only by individuals who are interested in the continuance of slavery, and by such as are influenced solely by unworthy motives, this address would be unnecessary; but there are those who merit and possess our esteem, who would not voluntarily do us injustice, and who have been led by gross misrepresentations to believe that we are pursuing measures at variance, not only with the constitutional rights of the south, but with the precepts of humanity and religion. To such we offer the following explanations and assurances:

"1st. We hold that congress has no more right to abolish slavery in the southern states, than in the French West India islands. Of course we desire no national legislation on the subject.

"2d. We hold that slavery can only be lawfully abolished by the legislatures of the several states in which it prevails, and that the exercise of any other than moral influence to induce such abolition is unconstitutional.

"3d. We believe that congress has the same right to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, that the state governments have within their respective jurisdictions, and that it is their duty to efface so foul a blot from the national escutcheon.

"4th. We believe that American citizens have the right to express and publish their opinions of the constitution, laws, and institutions of any and every state and nation under heaven; and we mean never to surrender the liberty of speech, of the press, or of conscience — blessings we have inherited from our fathers, and which we intend, as far as we are able, to transmit unimpaired to our children.

"5th. We have uniformly deprecated all forcible attempts on the part of the slaves to recover their liberty. And were it in our power to address them, we would exhort them to observe a quiet and peaceful demeanor, and would assure them that no insurrectionary movements on their part would receive from us the slightest aid or countenance.

"6th. We would deplore any servile insurrection, both on account of the calamities which would attend it, and on account of the occasion which it might furnish of increased severity and oppression.

"7th. We are charged with sending incendiary publications to the south. If by the term incendiary is meant publications containing arguments and facts to prove slavery to be a moral and political evil, and that duty and policy require its immediate abolition, the charge is true. But if this charge is