The Anti Slavery Examiner, Part 2 of 4 by American Anti Slavery Society

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"Resolved, That Congress do possess the power to abolish slavery in the
District of Columbia."

"Resolved, That His Excellency, the Governor, be requested to transmit a
copy of the foregoing resolutions to the Executive of each of the
States, and to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress."

At the session held in November last, the following joint resolutions,
preceded by a decisive memorial against the admission of Texas, were
passed by both branches--with the exception of the _fifth_ which was
passed only by the House of Representatives:--

1. Resolved, By the Senate and House of Representatives, That our
Senators in Congress be instructed, and our Representatives requested,
to use their influence in that body to prevent the annexation of Texas
to the Union.

2. Resolved, That, representing, as we do, the people of Vermont, we do
hereby, in their name, SOLEMNLY PROTEST against such annexation in
any form.

3. Resolved, That, as the Representatives of the people of Vermont, we
do solemnly protest against the admission, into this Union, of any state
whose constitution tolerates domestic slavery.

4. Resolved, That Congress have full power, by the Constitution, to
abolish slavery and the slave-trade in the District of Columbia and in
the territories of the United States.

[5. Resolved, That Congress has the constitutional power to prohibit the
slave-trade between the several states of this Union, and to make such
laws as shall effectually prohibit such trade.]

6. Resolved, That our Senators in Congress be instructed, and our
Representatives requested, to present the foregoing Report and
Resolutions to their respective Houses in Congress, and use their
influence to carry the same speedily into effect.

7. Resolved, That the Governor of this State be requested to transmit a
copy of the foregoing Report and Resolutions to the President of the
United States, and to each of our Senators and Representatives
in Congress.

The influence of anti-slavery principles in Massachusetts has become
decisive, if we are to judge from the change of sentiment in the
legislative body. The governor of that commonwealth saw fit to introduce
into his inaugural speech, delivered in January, 1836, a severe censure
of the abolitionists, and to intimate that they were guilty of an
offence punishable at common law. This part of the speech was referred
to a joint committee of five, of which a member of the senate was
chairman. To the same committee were also referred communications which
had been received by the governor from several of the legislatures of
the slaveholding states, requesting the Legislature of Massachusetts to
enact laws, making it PENAL for citizens of that state to form societies
for the abolition of slavery, or to speak or publish sentiments such as
had been uttered in anti-slavery meetings and published in anti-slavery
tracts and papers. The managers of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery
Society, in a note addressed to the chairman of the committee, requested
permission, as a party whose rights were drawn in question, to appear
before it. This was granted. The gentlemen selected by them to appear on
their behalf were of unimpeachable character, and distinguished for
professional merit and general literary and scientific intelligence.
Such was _then_ the unpopularity of abolitionism, that notwithstanding
the personal influence of these gentlemen, they were ill--not to say
rudely--treated, especially by the chairman of the committee; so much
so, that respect for themselves, and the cause they were deputed to
defend, persuaded them to desist before they had completed their
remarks. A Report, including Resolutions unfavorable to the
abolitionists was made, of which the following is a copy:--

The Joint Special Committee, to whom was referred so much of the
governor's message as related to the abolition of slavery, together with
certain documents upon the same subject, communicated to the Executive
by the several Legislatures of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, and Alabama, transmitted by his Excellency to the Legislature,
and hereunto annexed, have considered the same, and ask leave,
respectfully, to submit the following:--

Resolved, That this Legislature distinctly disavow any right whatever in
itself, or in the citizens of this commonwealth, to interfere in the
institution of domestic slavery in the southern states: it having
existed therein before the establishment of the Constitution; it having
been recognised by that instrument; and it being strictly within their
own keeping.

Resolved, That this Legislature, regarding the agitation of the question
of domestic slavery as having already interrupted the friendly relations
which ought to exist between the several states of this Union, and as
tending permanently to injure, if not altogether to subvert, the
principles of the Union itself; and believing that the good effected by
those who excite its discussion in the non-slaveholding states is, under
the circumstances of the case, altogether visionary, while the immediate
and future evil is great and certain; does hereby express its entire
disapprobation of the doctrine upon this subject avowed, and the general
measures pursued by such as agitate the question; and does earnestly
recommend to them carefully to abstain from all such discussion, and all
such measures, as may tend to disturb and irritate the public mind.

The report was laid on the table, whence it was not taken up during the
session--its friends being afraid of a lean majority on its passage; for
the _alarm_ had already been taken by many of the members who otherwise
would have favored it. From this time till the election in the
succeeding autumn, the subject was much agitated in Massachusetts. The
abolitionists again petitioned the Legislature at its session begun in
January, 1837; especially, that it should remonstrate against the
resolution of Mr. Hawes, adopted by the House of Representatives in
Congress, by which all memorials, &c, in relation to slavery were laid,
and to be laid, on the table, without further action on them. The
abolitionists were again heard, in behalf of their petitions, before the
proper committee.[A] The result was, the passage of the following
resolutions with only 16 dissenting voices to 378, in the House of
Representatives, and in the Senate with not more than one or two
dissentients on any one of them:--

[Footnote A: The gentleman who had been chairman of the committee the
preceding year, was supposed, in consequence of the change in public
opinion in relation to abolitionists, to have injured his political
standing too much, even to be nominated as a candidate for re-election.]

"Whereas, The House of Representatives of the United States, in the
month of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and thirty-seven, did adopt a resolution, whereby it was ordered
that all petitions, memorials, resolutions, propositions, or papers,
relating in any way, or to any extent whatever, to the subject of
slavery, or the abolition of slavery, without being either printed
or referred, should be laid upon the table, and that no further
action whatever should be had thereon; and whereas such a
disposition of petitions, then or thereafter to be received, is a
virtual denial of the right itself; and whereas, by the resolution
aforesaid, which is adopted as a standing rule in the present House
of Representatives, the petitions of a large number of the people of
this commonwealth, praying for the removal of a great social, moral,
and political evil, have been slighted and contemned: therefore,--

Resolved, That the resolution above named is an assumption of power
and authority at variance with the spirit and intent of the
Constitution of the United States, and injurious to the cause of
freedom and free institutions; that it does violence to the
inherent, absolute, and inalienable rights of man; and that it
tends, essentially, to impair those fundamental principles of
natural justice and natural law which are antecedent to any written
constitutions of government, independent of them all, and essential
to the security of freedom in a state.

Resolved, That our Senators and Representatives in Congress, in
maintaining and advocating the right of petition, have entitled
themselves to the cordial approbation of the people of this
commonwealth.

Resolved, That Congress, having exclusive legislation in the
District of Columbia, possess the right to abolish slavery in said
district, and that its exercise should only be restrained by a
regard to the public good."

That you may yourself, judge what influence the abolition question
exercised in the elections in Massachusetts _last_ autumn, I send you
three numbers of the Liberator containing copies of letters addressed to
many of the candidates, and their respective answers.

The Legislature have passed, _unanimously_, at its present session,
resolutions (preceded by a report of great ability) protesting
"_earnestly and solemnly against the annexation of Texas to this
Union_;" and declaring that, "_no act done, or compact made, for such
purpose, by the government of the United States, will be binding on the
states or the people_."

Two years ago, Governor Marcy, of this state, showed himself willing, at
the dictation of the South, to aid in passing laws for restraining and
punishing the abolitionists, whenever the extremity of the case might
call for it. Two weeks ago, at the request of the Young Men's
Anti-Slavery Society of Albany, the Assembly-chamber, by a vote of the
House (only two dissentient) was granted to Alvan Stewart, Esq., a
distinguished lawyer, to lecture on the subject of abolition.

Kentucky is assuming an attitude of great interest to the friends of
Liberty and the Constitution. The blessings of "them that are ready to
perish" throughout the land, the applause of the good throughout the
world will be hers, if she should show moral energy enough to break
every yoke that she has hitherto imposed on the "poor," and by which her
own prosperity and true power have been hindered.

In view of the late action in the Senate and House of Representatives in
Congress--adverse as they may seem, to those who think more highly of
the branches of the Legislature than of the SOURCE of their power--the
abolitionists see nothing that is cause for discouragement. They find
the PEOPLE sound; they know that they still cherish, as their fathers
did, the right of petition--the freedom of the press--the freedom of
speech--the rights of conscience; that they love the liberty of the
North more than they love the slavery of the South. What care they for
_Resolutions_ in the House, or Resolutions in the Senate, when the House
and the Senate are but their ministers, their servants, and they know
that they can discharge them at their pleasure? It may be, that Congress
has yet to learn, that the people have but slight regard for their
restraining resolutions. They ought to have known this from the history
of such resolutions for the last two years. THIRTY-SEVEN THOUSAND
petitioners for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia had
their petitions laid on the table by the resolution of the House of
Representatives in May, 1836. At the succeeding session, they had
increased to ONE HUNDRED AND TEN THOUSAND.--The resolution of Jan. 18,
1837, laid all _their_ petitions in the same way on the table. At the
_called_, and at the present session, these 110,000 had multiplied to
FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND[A]. Soon, Senators and Representatives will be
sent from the free states who will need no petitions--they will know
the prayer of their constituents _before they leave their homes_.

[Footnote A: See Appendix, G.]

In concluding this, my answer to your 13th interrogatory, I will say
that I know of no event, that has transpired, either in or out of
Congress, for the last two or three years, that has had any other
influence on the efforts of abolitionists than to increase and stimulate
them. Indeed, every thing that has taken place within that period, ought
to excite to their utmost efforts all who are not despairing dastards.
The Demon of oppression in this land is tenfold more fierce and rampant
and relentless than he was supposed to be before roused from the quiet
of his lair. To every thing that is precious the abolitionists have seen
him lay claim. The religion of the Bible must be adulterated--the claims
of Humanity must be smothered--the demands of justice must be
nullified--a part of our Race must be shut out from the common sympathy
of a common nature. Nor is this all: they see their _own_ rights and
those of the people; the right to SPEAK--to WRITE--to PRINT--to
PUBLISH--to ASSEMBLE TOGETHER--to PETITION THEIR OWN SERVANTS--all
brought in peril. They feel that the final conflict between Popular
liberty and Aristocratic slavery has come; that one or the other must
fall; and they have made up their minds, with the blessing of God on
their efforts, that their adversary shall die.

"14. _Have you any permanent fund, and how much?_"

ANSWER.--We have none. The contributions are anticipated. We are always
in debt, and always getting out of debt.

I have now, Sir, completed my answers to the questions proposed in your
letter of the 16th ult. It gives me pleasure to have had such an
auspicious opportunity of doing so. I cannot but hope for good to both
the parties concerned, where candor and civility have characterized
their representatives.

Part of the answer to your 13th question may seem to wander from the
strict terms of the question proposed. Let it be set down to a desire,
on my part, to give you all the information I can, at all germain to the
inquiry. The "proffer," made in my note to Mr. Calhoun, was not
"unguarded;"--nor was it _singular_. The information I have furnished
has been always accessible to our adversaries--even though the
application for it might not have been clothed in the polite and
gentlemanly terms which have so strongly recommended yours to the most
respectful consideration of

Your very obedient servant,

JAMES G. BIRNEY.

* * * * *

[In the Explanatory Remarks placed at the beginning of this
Correspondence, reasons were given, that were deemed sufficient, for not
publishing more of the letters that passed between Mr. Elmore and myself
than the two above. Since they were in type, I have received from Mr.
Elmore a communication, in reply to one from me, informing him that I
proposed limiting the publication to the two letters just mentioned. It
is dated May 19. The following extract shows that he entertains a
different opinion from mine, and thinks that justice to him requires
that _another_ of his letters should be included in the
Correspondence:--

"The order you propose in the publication is proper enough; the omission
of business and immaterial letters being perfectly proper, as they can
interest nobody. I had supposed my last letter would have formed an
exception to the rule, which excluded immaterial papers. It explained,
more fully than my first, my reasons for this correspondence, defined
the limits to _which I had prescribed myself_, and was a proper
accompaniment to _a publication_ of what _I_ had not written for
publication. Allow me, Sir, to say, that it will be but bare justice to
me that it should be printed with the other papers. I only suggest this
for your own consideration, for--adhering to my former opinions and
decision--I ask nothing and complain of nothing."

It is still thought that the publication of the letter alluded to is
unnecessary to the purpose of enlightening the public, as to the state,
prospects, &c, of the anti-slavery cause. It contains no denial of the
facts, nor impeachment of the statements, nor answer to the arguments,
presented in my communication. But as Mr. Elmore is personally
interested in this matter, and as it is intended to maintain the
consistent liberality which has characterized the Executive Committee in
all their intercourse with their opponents, the suggestion made by Mr.
Elmore is cheerfully complied with. The following is a copy of the
letter alluded to.--J.G.B.]

"WASHINGTON, May 5, 1838.

To JAMES G. BIRNEY, Esq., Cor. Sec. A.A.S.S.

SIR,--I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 1st
instant, in which you again refer to the publication of the
Correspondence between us, in relation to the measures and designs
of the abolitionists. I would have certainly answered yours of the
2d ult., on the same subject, more fully before this, had it not
escaped my recollection, in consequence [of] having been more
engaged than usual in the business before the House. I hope the
delay has been productive of no inconvenience.

If I correctly understand your letters above referred to, the
control of these papers, and the decision as to their publication,
have passed into the 'Executive Committee of the American
Anti-Slavery Society;' and, from their tenor, I infer that their
determination is so far made, that nothing I could object would
prevent it, if I desired to do so. I was certainly not apprised,
when I entered into this Correspondence, that its disposition was to
depend on any other will than yours and mine,--but that matters
nothing now,--you had the power, and I am not disposed to question
the right or propriety of its exercise. I heard of you as a man of
intelligence, sincerity, and truth,--who, although laboring in a bad
cause, did it with ability, and from a mistaken conviction of its
justice. As one of the Representatives of a slave-holding
constituency, and one of a committee raised by the Representatives
of the slave-holding States, to ascertain the intentions and
progress of your associations, I availed myself of the opportunity
offered by your character and situation, to propose to you inquiries
_as to facts_, which would make those _developments so important to
be known by our people_. My inquiries were framed to draw out _full
and authentic details_ of the organization, numbers, resources, and
designs of the abolitionists, of the means they resorted to for the
accomplishment of their ends, and the progress made, and making, in
their dangerous work, that all such information might be laid before
the _four millions and a half of white inhabitants in the slave
States, whose lives and property are menaced and endangered_ by this
ill-considered, misnamed, and disorganizing philanthropy. They
should be informed of the full length and breadth and depth of this
storm which is gathering over their heads, before it breaks in its
desolating fury. Christians and civilized, they are _now_
industrious, prosperous, and happy; but should your schemes of
abolition prevail, it will bring upon them overwhelming ruin, and
misery unutterable. The two races cannot exist together upon terms
of equality--the extirpation of one and the ruin of the other _would
be inevitable_. This humanity, conceived in wrong and born in civil
strife, would be baptized in a people's blood. It was, that our
people might know, in time to guard against the mad onset, the full
extent of this gigantic conspiracy and crusade against their
institutions; and of necessity upon their lives with which they must
sustain them; and their fortunes and prosperity, which _exist only
while these institutions exist_, that I was induced to enter into a
correspondence with you, who by your official station and
intelligence were known to be well informed on these points, and
from your well established character for candor and fairness, would
make no statements of facts which were not known or believed by you
to be true. To a great extent, my end has been accomplished by your
replies to my inquiries. How far, or whether at all, your answers
have run, beyond _the facts inquired for_, into theories, arguments,
and dissertations, as erroneous as mischievous, is not a matter of
present consideration. We differed no wider than I expected, but
that difference has been exhibited courteously, and has nothing to
do with the question of publication. Your object, or rather the
object of your Committee, is to publish; and I, having no reason to
desire it, as you have put me in possession of the facts I wished,
and no reason not to desire it, as there is nothing to conceal, will
leave yourself and the Committee to take your own course, neither
assenting nor dissenting, in what you may finally decide to do.

Very respectfully,

Your obedient servant,

F.H. Elmore."

[This letter of Mr. Elmore contains but little more than a reiteration
of alarming cries on the part of the slaveholder;--cries that are as old
as the earliest attempts of philanthropy to break the fetters of the
enslaved, and that have been repeated up to the present day, with a
boldness that seems to increase, as instances of emancipation multiply
to prove them groundless. Those who utter them seem, in their panic, not
only to overlook the most obvious laws of the human mind, and the lights
of experience, but to be almost unconscious of the great events
connected with slavery, that are now passing around them in the world,
and conspiring to bring about its early abrogation among all civilized
and commercial nations.

However _Christian, and civilized, industrious, prosperous and happy_,
the SLAVEHOLDERS of the South may be, this cannot be said of the SLAVES.
A large religious denomination of the state in which Mr. Elmore resides,
has deliberately pronounced them to be "HEATHEN." _Their_ "industry" is
seen at the end of the lash--of "prosperity" they have none, for they
cannot possess any thing that is an element of prosperity--their
"happiness" they prove, by running away from their masters, whenever
they think they can effect their escape. This is the condition of a
large _majority_ of the people in South Carolina, Mississippi and
Louisiana.

The "two races" exist in peace in Mexico,--in all the former South
American dependencies of Spain, in Antigua, in the Bermudas, in Canada,
in Massachusetts, in Vermont, in fine, in every country where they enjoy
_legal equality_. It is the _denial_ of this that produces discontent.
MEN will never be satisfied without it. Let the slaveholders consult the
irreversible laws of the human mind--make a full concession of right to
those from whom they have withheld it, and they will be blessed with a
peace, political, social, moral, beyond their present conceptions;
without such concessions they never can possess it.

A system that cannot withstand the assaults of truth--that replies to
arguments with threats--that cannot be "talked about"--that flourishes
in secrecy and darkness, and dies when brought forth into the light and
examined, must in this time of inexorable scrutiny and relentless
agitation, be a dangerous one. If _justice_ be done, all necessity for
the extirpation of any part of the people will at once be removed.
Baptisms _of blood_ are seen only when humanity has failed in her
offices, and the suffering discern hope only in the brute efforts
of despair.

Mr. Elmore is doubtless well versed in general history. To his vigorous
declamation, I reply by asking, if he can produce from the history of
our race a single instance, where emancipation, full and immediate, has
been followed, as a legitimate consequence, by insurrection or
bloodshed. I may go further, and ask him for a well authenticated
instance, where an emancipated slave, singly has imbrued his hands in
his master's blood. The first record of such an act in modern times, is
yet to be made.

Mr. Elmore says "the white inhabitants in the slave states should be
informed of the full length and breadth and depth of this storm which is
gathering over their heads, before it breaks in its desolating fury." In
this sentiment there is not a reasonable man in the country, be he
abolitionist or not, who will not coincide with him. We rejoice at the
evidence we here have, in a gentleman of the influence and intelligence
of Mr. Elmore, of the returning sanity of the South. How wildly and
mischievously has she been heretofore misled! Whilst the Governors of
Virginia, Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas, have been repelling offers,
made in respectful terms, of the fullest and most authentic accounts of
our movements; and whilst Governor Butler of South Carolina, has not
only followed the example of his gubernatorial brethren just named, but
is found corresponding with an obscure culprit in Massachusetts--bribing
him with a few dollars, the sum he demanded for his fraudulent promise
to aid in thwarting the abolitionists[A]; whilst too, Mr. Calhoun has
been willing to pass laws to shut out from his constituents and the
South generally information that concerned them more nearly than all
others--we now have it from the highest source, from one selected by a
state delegation as its _representative_ in a general committee of the
whole slaveholding delegations, that the South ought to be "_informed of
the full length and breadth and depth_" of the measures, intentions, &c,
of the abolitionists. At this there is not an abolitionist who will not
rejoice. We ask for nothing but access to the popular mind of the South.
We feel full confidence in the eternal rectitude of our principles, and
of their reception at the South, when once they are understood. Let the
conflict come, let the truth of liberty fairly enter the lists with the
error of slavery, and we have not a doubt of a glorious triumph.