The Liberator from Boston, Massachusetts • 2

194 THE Eli 8 I 0N 8 the best season for I DlHI UV IIIH1 UUlll Mill I Ii VZ tin I pulse to improvement but even this is not the case I case he would think the administration wrong and and active commerce GREAT MOVE IN WESTERN VIRGINIA We would direct the attention of our renders to the following interesting and important article generally and indiscrimitely to them us bodies vet he has ern so that they can circulate tracts and papers in every part of western Virginia and have slaveholders at every point to assert their right and urge and de fend emancipation Have wo such organization in Kentucky May we not have it? Let uh take courage from this example of the Old Dominion and be up with her in her noble and spirited move Lot to insure this organize now square mile the more power there is on that square mile to create everything that conduces to the wel fare of man We know that the natural resources of every country are limited and that whenever there are "men enough in a country to improve nil its resources of wealth to the best advantage in crease of population becomes an evil But no State in this Union has yet approached that point no slave State hagdvnnced half way to i England still prospers ith more than two hundred and fifty inhabitants to the square mile Virginia languishes with only twenty though she is by nattue almost ns richly endowed as England Massachusetts thrives with one hnndred inhabitants to the square mile Virginia considering her natural advantages ought to thrive ns well with a much larger number and so she would if she bad the same quality of men on her soil There is so much truth and it is so applica ble to our own and every community in the ree States in the following from the A Bugle that we transfer it to our columns in the hope that its suggestions may not be ithout effect ANTI SLAVERY SEWING CIRCLES This is the season when Sewing Circles should flourish most and it is to be hoped if the friends of the slave in any neighborhood have suspended their gatherings fora little while they have resum ed them ere this if they have not we fear they are losing time The air of last year was attended with such good success that another will be held some time during the coming summer for the benefit of the Western Anti Slavery Society and it would be well to coinmeiice our labors in season Sewing Circles are among the best means for agitating ami keeping alive the question anti sla very Not only do they continually fan the inter est of those wli personally engage in them but their frequent meetings their labor amt the pro ducts of their industry all exert an excellent influ ence in keeping the wrongs and the sufferings of the slave before the people A friend in a neigh boring town recently said to us 4 Our Sewing Circle is doing finely mid contributes very much to keep up the agitation of the subject Some one of the members generally reads an nnli slavery book or paper to the others during the meeting ami thus some who don't get a great deal of anli shsvery tit home have an opportunity hearing it tit the We Lope that in those neighborhoods where there are abolitionists but no sewing circles that immediate steps will be taken to organize them that thus they may aid in carrying forward the great cause of freedom we beg of you wait for each other to move if those who can lead best will not do it go forward yourselves and set them a better example One living Anti Slavery Sewing Circle is worth more to humanity ami will accomplish more for the salvation of the country than all the Clay Clubs and Taylor Clubs and Democratic Clubs that ever have been or ever will I be Organize them in this the best season for doing Circle work and make your Circle such th it will be widely felt ear not but the products of your industry ill be disposed of for a great air will undoubtedly be got up next year and means taken insure a sale consid erable amount of goods was left over from last yeyr yet we have no fear but that they will be dis posed of ami the proceeds placet! in the Treasury before many months Much very much was learn ed by the experience of last year ami we think we can say the second air will be more satisfactory and more available the declaration right The Church as it is or the orlorn Hope of Slavery By Pillsbury Second Edition Re vised and Improved Boston: Published by Bela Marsh No 25 Cornliill We have received from the publisher a copy of The method proposed in Dr Address of removing Slavery from West Va is fur too gradual to be realised As in the West India Islands there will tie a universal demand for full emancipation long ere the expirati of the period iramed by Dr The fast step in the cause of Emancipation Taktn Wo statei! some weeks since that nit 4 Eman cipation would be made in less thnn three months in West Virginia and mentioned the grounds on which that move would be based We have now the pleasure to inform our readers that the first step has Ivcen and that nn organ ized effort will bo made to rid (his portion of the Old Dominion of Slavery The first important circumstance to bo noticed is that this step has been taken by slavehohler themselves The chief nctor is the Rev Henry Ruffner He is well known personally or by character throughout Virginia and Kentucky as an able Divine of the Presbyterian Church ami one of the learned men of the South With him are associated McD Moore John Letcher Da vid Curry James Hamilton George A Ba ker II Lacy John Echols James Gordan Jncob uller Jr 1) Moore ami John uller All these are men of character and nearly all of them we know to be slaveholders Tire second important circmnstance is the prin ciple on which this move rests It is that every Slate nud every' great division of a tale ought to nnd of right may in a manner of such great do mestic importance ns that of slavery judge and act for itself Wo Virginia differs in almost every particular from East The Blue Ridge is the nat ural division between them Slavery cannot thrive in West Virginia without crashing it at once and forever Willi slavery in Eastern Virginia the slaveholders engaged in this move do not propose to interfere 4 We would say they a barrier against this Stygian stand at the Blue Ridge and with sovereign energy de clare to this black sea of misery 1 hitherto shah thou come and no The main idea then rests on the action of Wes tern Virginia ns a whole It is to be in some sort a State action 4 Let us move as a body say these slaveholders secure the main That is assert for all West Virginia freedom Noth ing less will satisfy her nothing less as a princi ple will enable her to succeed But as the eman cipation scheme proposed is a gradual one county action is suggested to hasten the extinction of Sla very Let the law authorize the people of any county by some decided majority or by the con sent of a majority of slaveholders to decree the removal or emancipation of all the slaves of such county within fixed period If this were done counties having but few slaves would soon be free and their example nml action be followed quickly by others having a large number of blacks Thus West Virginia would in a few years be free An address to the people of West Virginia that slavery is injurious to the public welfare and that it may be gradually abolished without injury to the rights or interests of Slave and developing a plan has been published We have a copy of it and shall commence its publication next week Our readers North and South will see some things in it which they may not like which they may think incorrect wrong if you please but let them overlooking these regard the main thing the certainty of the abol ishment of Slavery in West Virginia in a way to secure the fullest justice to white and black The power is now on the seaboard Western Vir ginia is more populous than Eastern Virginia as regard whites Yet owing lo an abominable appor tionment system her power is kept east of the Blue Ridge One of the ablest of Western Vir ginians writes us hope you will receive and publish Dr Ruff address In many respects your views coin cide I do not doubt he would have been more decided as all of us would be were it not that the political strength is on the other side of the moun tains and would be dead against us if we asked too much or went beyond the bounds of reason Besides we nad to look to the union of West Vir ginia itself On the white basis the freedom of Western Virginia and independent county action we will be united and when legally we have the power to act slavery will be destroyed forever in our mountain land with speedy The address of Dr Ruffner' is a very able one On the general subject the terrible influences of slavery it is conclusive as to its deadly blight upon Virginia it is strong often eloquent always practical And we know not how a true Souther ner can think of the one or the other can see decay written upon every thing which appertains to the industry of society and not burn with anxie ty to root out the cause If he looks at the ree States he beholds a dense and increasing popula tion cities towns and villages growing up every where manufactures agriculture commerce al! all active and thriving If he gazes upon the South with few exceptions be sees the reverse of the picture a sparse population cities towns and villages stationary or stagnant worn out fields and an exhausting agriculture manufactures lim ited commerce languishing 'We have compar atively speaking none of the stir and bustle of in dustry and as Dr Ruffner says if the stillness oc casioned by this decay be broken nt all it is only by the windy brawls of politics! Hear what the address says of Virginia Virginia politicians proudly yes proud ly fellow call our old Commonwealth The Mother of States! These enlightened patriots might pay her a still higher compliment by calling her The Grandmother of" States or our part we are grieved and mortified to think of the lean mid haggard condition of our venerable mother Her black children have sucked her so dry that now for a long time past she has not milk enough for her offspring either black or while But seriously fellow citizens we esteem it a sad a humiliating fact which should penetrate the heart of" every Virginian that from the year to this time Virginia has lost more people by em igration than a1! the free states together Ufi to 1840 when the last census was taken she bad lost more Jiy nearly 300000 She has or we should rather say she Ims driven from her soil at least one third of all the emigrants who have gone from the old States to the new More than another third have gone from the other old slave States Many of these multitudes who have left the slave states have slimmed the regions of sla very and have settled in the free countries of the West These were generally industrious and en terprising white men who found by sad experience that a country of slaves wins not the country for them It is a truth certain truth that slavery drives free laborers farmers mechanics and all and some of the best of them too out of the country and fills their places with negroes Is this true? We all know it to be so What then ought we to do? Two alternatives present themselves We must either take the position of South Carolina nnd for the perpetuation of sla very sacrifice every thing or else we must resort toemancipation Cun we do the first? Are the mid slave status ready to destroy the to forbid the commerce of the free States entering their borders to establish cunmercial relations with Cuba and Brazil for the sole object of extend ing negro slavery? Do they demand will they think of demanding the creation of the Institu tion in territory now free and if this be not one rend the govermnentof the United States asunder We shall not insult their patriotism or mock their sense of" justice by supposing them capable of such folly or madness They will emancipate At the proer time and in their own way they will liberate the slave and thus free the white from as galling a curse us ever poor humanity inflicted up on itself But let us call attention to one feature of the ac tion of our friends in West Virginia Organization fyom the Ohio to the Blue Ridge they tire linkedl together They know what they have to do Thjty know that nothing btu the hardest labor can accomplish their object I hey rom the Louisville Examiner EXTRACT ROM AN ADDRESS To the people of West Virginia showing tliat Sla very is injurious to the public welfare and that it may be gradually abolished without detriment to the rights nnd interests of slaveholders by Hexrt Ruffner of Lexington Va We avow the principle that every State nnd eveiy great division of a State ought in a domes tic matter of such Importance to judge nnd act for itself We disclaim till intention to interfere with Shivery in East Virginia We leave it to our breth ren there to choose fur themselves whether they will modify it or abolish it in one way or in anoth er Their slave population is relatively eight times ns large as ours The same remedy may not be expedient in such different stages of a disease Ail that we ask of our Eastern brethren in regard to this matter is that if West Virginia shall call for it law to remove Slavery from her de of the Blue Ridge East Virginia shall not refuse her con sent because the measures may not be palatable to herself Heretofore no such scheme for West Virginia only has been proposed among us and no State has abolished Slavery in one part of her territory and retained it in another or this reason some persons may at first thought consider such a scheme as unfeasible A State Composed partly of free and partially of slaveholding territory may seem to present a political incongruity ami to be inca pable of conducting its public affairs harmonious jly To relieve the minds those who inav feel apprehensions of this sort we offer the following suggestions 1 ree States and slaveholding States have during fifty eight years lived peaceably nnd pros perously under one ederal Government Sec tional jealousies and occasional jars have occurred but without evil consequence 2 Nothing in the nature of the case need create difficulty the framing of laws that may af fect the rights ami interests of slaveholders But an amendment of the Constitution could easily provide for the security of slaveholders in East Virginia against all unjust legislation arising from the power of the Abli Slaverv principles of the West 3 After such an emancipation law as we pro pose should be passed for West Virginia no im mediate change would take place in the institution of Slavery among us except that masters would probably choose to emancipate or remove from the State a larger number of slaves than heretofore As only the next generation of negroes would he entitled to emancipation the law would not begin its practical operation for twenty one years at leas and then it would operate gradually for thirty or forty years longer before Slavery would be extin guished in West Virginia So that for many years the actual slave interest among us would not be greatly dqn'mislied 4 There is and has long been in different parts of Virginia every degree of difference from the least to the greatest between the slaveholding and non slavehoiding interests of the people In some parts the slaves are two or three times as numerous as the whites and the slaveiioldmg interest over rules and absorbs everything In other parts not one man in a hundred owns a slave and the slave holding interest is virtually nothing In West Vir ginia at large the slaves being only an eighth of the population and the slaveholding population less than one eighth of the whites the free interest predominates nearly as much as the slave interest predominates in East Virginia so that we have in practical operation if not in perfection that politi cal incongruity of slave interest and free interest which is feared as a consequence of the measure i that we propose 5 By allowing West Virginia her just share of representation and it she call for it a law ir the removal of slavery East Virginia will do more to haimonize the feelings of the Slate than she ever has done or can do by a continued refusal West Virginia being then secured in her essential rights and interests will not desire a separation nor be disposed to disturb the harmony of the Coiiiniou wealih So far from aiding the designs of the olitionists either in Congress or in our Legisla ture botli tier feelings and her interest will make her more than ever hostile to that pernicious sect We thank the author for his faithful labor Price of the book 15 cents Christian reeman XT Robert Winthrop of Boston is very freely spoken of as a candidate for the speakership of the House of Representatives in the next Congress Of his qualifications for a most accomplished Speaker no one who knows him entertains a doubt But it would have given us far greater pleasure to see him in that situation or any other for winch his eminent lalants and tact qualify him had he stood by his country in the hour of her peril and recorded his vote with those of the immortal fourteen against the Mexican War Bill The passage of that bill under the pretence of relieving our little army from the peril in which a reckless administration had placed it has sacrificed thousands of lives and more that) a hundred millions of treasure 1 1 sacrificed too what is more important than armies or navies Truth Justice and National Honor It placedin the bands of wicked and unscrupulous men the means und power to inflict upon the nation evils it cannot outgrow in an age and for which a thousand such administrations could not atone Those therefore who voted against the bill voted lor their while those who voted for it merely voted for the administration Tbis is a plain broad and palpable distinction which some however would gladly keeout of Massachusetts Spy the slave Statesi exhibit a striking contrast in their this book and have read it in part and that to ed nppetirance Jrfi the old free States are seen all the ifieation and profit or although we differ from tokens of prosperity a dense and increasing pop I Mr Pillsbury in some oi his sentiments and move ulatkm thriving villages towns and cities: a neat meats in respect to the Clergy and the Church and productive agriculture growing manufactures and think that even in this book lie applies too 1 I rtC tKrt with (sXV whnt i I HI I tlHI'Illillv II I I 1 ill i i It UIUVI HI I to lllv OKU UHIW ct I Uli iv local exceptions are seen on the contrary too ev bodied in this little volume a collection of facts in i i I I loi'iAnl nllonints A tv 1 4 a 1 rn Im mn SILAS OPINION THE WIL MOT PROVISO Much has been said in the newspapers in differ ent sections of the Union relative to the sentiments of' ilas Wright on the Wilmot Proviso cor respondence on the subject which took place in April last between the lamented statesman and James II Titus Esq of this city has lately been i published in the Albany Atlas and must put the question at rest The following extracts from Mr letter arc sufficient to show that lie had I I formed a decided opinion on the subject and did I not hesitate to express it: Journ Com 1 was not aware therefore that my opinions on the subject of the Wilmot Proviso had become a 1 certainly was idem signs of stagnation or of positive a respect to clerical attempts to prostitute religion sparse population a slovenly cultivation spread and the Bible to the cause of slavery which it I zif svvMirr ItAliiii I I IP4 HITH 1 1 1(11 11 1 i III rPlld Uri vneUiCiUB Hhu uiu ih vku vivi already worn out and desolate villages and towns 4 few nnd fitr rarely growing often le enying sometimes mere remnants ot what they were sometimes deserted ruins haunted only by owls generally no manufactures nor even trades except the indispensable few commerce and nav igation abandoned as fur ns possible to the people of the free States nnd generally instead of the stir and bustle of industry a dull nnd dreary still ness broken if broken at all only by the wordy brawl of politics But we depend not on general statements of this sort however unquestionable their truth may be We shall present you with statistical facts drawn from public documents of the highest We shall compare slave States with free States in general and in particular und in so many points of view thnt you cannot mistake in forming your judg ment of their comparative prosperity Density nnd increase of population nre especiallo in the United States both an element mid a crite rion of prosperity The men of a State are its first element of power not only military power and political but what is of more importnnee productive power The labor of men produces wealth and with it the mean of all human comfortind improvement The more men there are on a or doubt 1 have not been ambitious to promul gate mv opinions upon this or any other public subject but I have not at any time as ton are a 1 double witness withheld the expression of them upon this subject when called upon to express them i If the question had been propounded to me at acted Union be employed to conquer or the ot the Union be used to purchase territory now con stitiiiionally free for the purpose of planting sla 1 very upon it I should have answered No And this answer to this question is the Wilmot Proviso as 1 understand it lam surprised that any one I should suppose me capable of entertaining any I other opinion or giving any other answer to such a proposition I The two conversations to which you allude the i one Jiad with yourself at Major and the i other held at the boarding house of Messrs Town send Small Stewart and Keyser are fresh mv recollection and both of which 1 expressed franklv the opinions I entertained both in relation to the Proviso and Col resolutions and these opinions were decidedly favorable to both I know it is not in this case my friends who are promulgating my opinions but that they are tiying to correct erroneous opinions imputed to me My only object therefore in this remark is to re quest that the subject may be disposed of so far as Mr Bryant and yourself shall think it practica ble without a protracted discussion It may be closed before you get this but if not I suggest that Mr Bryant should say in a very summary way that he has no knowledge of who the 4 warmest and most sincere friends of Governor nre referred to by the Globe but that lie speaks from evidence that proves them mistaken as to the opin ions of that gentleman upon this subject that be is opposed in principle to the conquest or purchase ot' territory now free for the purpose of incorpor ating slavery upon it: that he thinks it an appro priate time to declare that principle when an ap propriation is asked to purcluise the territory: and that such a declaration made at such a time is not in opposition to the administration unless it be avowed that the administration wishes to acquire the territory for the extension of slavery in which If ast Virffninnnrehpnrl that thn dolooatpw matter of ne wsiiaper discussion from the free countries would often speak moreq 111)1 tWan that they could he a matter ot dispute treely about Slavery matters than she would like to hear in her central city of Richmond let her agree to remove the seat of government to Staun ton uctir the centre of our territory and of our white population and she will be free from all an noyance of' this sort West Virginia would then nunowenn luAvn I pnntAfn rxl i i ti I I 1 1 it I I I (I I ill I I jh I I I I Jjii I 1 1 ginia and be no longer subject to 11 ic disadvantage i nny period ot my public life shall the anus ot the nt invinff niAnKtirp nftfrlimr hnr nHorpI i upon by a Legislature deliberating in the heart of East Virginia and exposed to the powerful iufln ence of a city and a people whose bland manners and engaging hospitalities nre enough to turn both the heartsand the heads of its rough mountaineers i whether we be legislators or not Having thus removed some grounds of misap prehension and prejudice respecting our views we shall now proceed feilov citizens to lay before you some facts and arguments which prove the i expediency of abolishing Slavery in West Virginia I by a gradual process that shall not cause any in convenience either to society in general or to slaveholders in particular We use rio theoretical or abstract arguments We ground our conclusions upon fact and experi ence Though the history of other ages and coun tries would furnish us with useful illustrations we have not room in this address to extend our obser vations much beyond out own age nnd country Nor is it necessary that we should for ithin these limits we have abundant materials for argument far more than we shall be able to use on the pres ent occasion Nowhere since time began have the two sys tems of slave labor and free labor been subjected to so fair nnd so decisive a trial of their effects on public prosperity as in these United Slates Here the two systems have woiked side by side forages under such equal circumstances both politietd and physical and with such ample time and opportu nity for each to work out its proper effects that all uiiist admit the experiment to be now complete and the result decisive No man of common sense who has observe this result can doubt for a moment that the system of free labor promotes the growth and prosperity off States in a much higher degree than the system of slave labor In thu first settlement of a country when labor is scarce and dear Slavery may give a temporary irn I Mil It'V except in warm climates and where free men are scarce and either sickly or lazy and when wej have said this we have said all that experience in in the United States warrants us to say in favor of the policy of employing slave labor It is the common remark of all who have travelled through the United States that the free States md ER A TOR 'WHTjEjTTWr BOSTON 3 1 8 4 7 TO THE SUBSCRIBERS TO THE LIBERA TOR The subscribers to the Liberator are aware that the Committee tu whom Mr Garrison has entrusted the financial affairs of the paper yielded last year with hesitation and reluctance to the urgency of some of its warmest friends and reduced its price in the faith that its list would be thereby much in creased It was stated at the time the change was made that it was a mere experiment and that if it did not entirely succeed the former terms would be restored Alt a very considerable addition has been made to the subscription list during the past year it has not been sufficient to justify the contin uance of the new arrangement The subscribersare therefore informed that from and after the 1st of anunry 1848 the terms of the Liberator will be what they were previously to the commencement of this volume viz Two dollars and fifty cents in adrancr and three dollars after six monthsffl The Committee most earnestly hope and most faithfully believe that this change of price will pro duce no change in the substantial character of the subscription list The friends of the Liberator are persons who regard its support as a Primary Anti Slavery duty and who will readily consent to this small additional burden for the purpose of putting its pecuniary affairs on an entirely easy foot ng They will remembar that the odd half dollar while it is but a small tax upon each subscriber makes a difference of nearly or quite a THOUSAND DOL LARS in the receipts I This statement will indi cate to the Anti Slavery public the importance of the proposed change and we are sure will secure to it their cordial consent and co operation RANCIS JACKSON ELLIS GRAY LORING EDMUND QUINCY SAMUEL PHILBRICK WENDELL PHILLIPS inancial Committee Boston Dec 1 1847 OLD LIES NEW VAMPED It is a thousand pities that the Whig Party cannot find within its borders a candidate that can neither read nor write It may wel 1 despair of success until it do Its great men may have as many of the qualifications of Jack Cade as are needful for tlie stock in trade of a political adventurer but if the elect man to write his name' instead of having 4 a mark to himself lie an honest plain dealing man' it will spoil all At least if reading and writing do 4 come by nature to all Whigs when the Party or any portion of it have pitched upon a candidate after their own hearts they should incon tinently treat him as the undutiful fathers and guardians in plays and novels do the heroines of the same and lock him up from pen and ink until the election is decided Now Mr Clay whom the Tribune and sundry other soi disrint Anti Slavery Whig papers have in training for a nomination made a speech at Lexington as our readers know By way of 4 happy prologue to the swelling he anubued the Reporters and forbade any notes to tie taken of his speech for fear' Heaven save the marly! lie should be misrepresented One of the Reporters however made from memorya sketch ofTntUS fieech which made it out so much bi tter than it seems it really was that it came near persuading some simple ones that this pro slavery Saul might yet be found among the A nti Slavery prophets But down sits Mr Clay and seizing the latal implements which have so often wrought him woe undoes all that the friendly reporter had done for him and writes him self down in black and white as arrant a political knave as his worst enemies would desire to see done 4 This comes of your reading and writing I Whatever ill opiniops may have been expressed of Mr Clay bv his unfriends we do not know that he i lias ever been accused of being a foul And yet fatuity or dotage is the only sufficient excuse for this farrago of profligate contradictions He does not even observe the wholesome advice of Captain Absolute to his servant and no more lies than are absolutely He is profuse even to prodigality of this base coin of bungling politicians He has his usual luck too in his endeavors to look North and South at the same time He tries to imi tate 4 Mr acing both ways so vilely that neither point of the Compass if it have common sense will give him credit for meaning to look that way The attraction oi one pole seems to compensate for that of the other so that he hangs like coffin between the two in an awkward attempt to persuade each that his moral gravitation on the whole lies in ils direction What he says about Slavery will alienate the South while it will (or should) disgust the North The one will see and the other ought to see that such a man is not to be trusted with his own interests much less with theirs As a politi cal leader he is I he worst of criminals for he is an incorrigible blunder head it is quite impossible to show up this speech as it should be done in the limits of a newspaper article We can but cursorily glance at its inconsistencies and inconsequences By way of beginning well he a back handed blow Had it but bt en Irom tiands less near at the Whigs who voted for the War Act and tells them that though he 4 cannot doubt their patriotic that they lied in doing so a thing which 4 almost idolizing truth as he does (we all know what description of men and women are loudest in their assertion of their own truth and virtue) he never could have done Having thus conciliated I the large segment of the Whigs represented by those gentlemen he bethinks him of the leaven of the old ederal party which is mingled with the Whig lump and tries to make himself agreeable in that quarter So lie rakes up the half forgotten slang of his old party about the opposition of the ederalists the War of 1812 only with the new and startling fact that they 4 admitted the justice of the War' and ends with a fling at the Hartford Con vention implying that its object was the Dissolution of the Union Now it is sufficiently notorious to have reached the ears of Mr Clay that that Con vention the only spark of spirit which New England has shown since the Revolution and of which she has been ashamed ever since though it was com posed of men the dust from whose shoes he was never worthy to wipe off was intended to prevent and not to promote Dissolution We are sorry for it but so it was Its object was to afford a vent for the indignation of New England groaning under a war waged with her interests when she was all ready for Disunion There icere leading men in the ederal Party who were for having the people of New England 4 maintain their rights peaceably if they could forcibly if they But they were carefully left out of the delegations And as one of them foretold at the time the result of the Con vention was 4 a cheat Pamphlet which served for a tub to foe whale for the nonce But that war was one of 4 National for the vindication of the national rights and it srenlg its object was 4 ree Trade and Sailor's Rights against the intolerable and oppressive acts of British Was it so indeed? Then Mr Commissioner Clay what business had you on the of December 1814 to sign a Treaty of Peace in which not one of these grievances was so much as mentioned much less redressed? Why did you leave the 4 national rights and honor ree Tradt and and the rest of it just as they were before the first gun was fired? Or did you think that an American Tariff would answer your purposes in favor of ree Trade and Sailors Rights as well as British artillery But even you could hardly have foreseen when you helped put this saddle on the back of New England that her sons would ever hold the stirrup for you to vault in to it the twice you 4 fell on the other side When Clay comes to lhe somewhat puzxling question of 4 what we shall do with Mexico when we have got he justly urges the difficulties which stand in the way of her Annexation But the most impracticable obstacle to such a consum mation is hinted at thus 4 Is every Mexican tcith out regard to color or caste to exercise the elective the rub! There is no preju dice of color in Mexico Several of the Gener als taken by General Scott were negroes It al ways perplexed us how the Editor of the Era was to get over this difficulty when he had succeeded in getting all Mexico by a succession of petty lar cenies Mr Clay goes dead against the annexation of Mexico And so he did against thnt of Texns But now Texas is an integral par of the Union he scouts the idea of not holding on to her So when ever Dr Bailey shall have annexed Mexico he will find a firm friend in Mr Clay But it is when he reaches the slavery question that Mr Clay shines forth in full effulgence Hs positions are not less insultingly impudent than those of his famous speech in 1 839 We have print ed the entire speech on our first page so that our readers can judge for themselves and we commend it to their careful attention Observe the parade he makes of his Anti Slavery words and works And precious ones they are Slavery is a great evil and wrong be tears an irremediable one to the blacks But nobody is to blame for it except that abomina ble Great Britain who compelled the unhappy colo nists to buy slaves in spite of their tears and en treaties The power of emancipation is in the Slave States and the blacks cannot be 4 emancipated and invested with all the rights of without 4 collisions conflicts rapine carnage If so why need the emancipating States 4 invest them with all the rights of freemen The blacks are not invested with equal rights with white men in any of the States except Massachusetts Maine New Hampshire and Vermont and disgraceful to the majority of the other States as their condition is it is a vast deal better than Chattel Slavery But then in the next paragraph Mr Clay proves that the Alrican race is capable of carrying out self gov ernment fighting Annexation and all as well as the best of us We do honestly believe that if the Slave States would only let the blacks govern them awhile they would find it for their advantage Then fol lows the stereotyped twaddle about the abolitionists having retarded Emancipation Either this is a lie or the Slaveholders have shown themselves most outrageoirsly ungrateful to their best friends And Mr Clay it seems really thought fifty years ago that it would be safe to restore a handful of col ored people to themselves gradually and prospect ively be it observed so that by this time the State would be nearly ri of that reproach I Valiant Mr Clay Courageous State of Kentucky Then do not fail to note the exuberant piety of this newly baptized son of the Church See now what is presently denounced ns an evil inflicted upon us by Great Britain becomes in the bands of this neophyte a blessing oonferred by the Almighty upon the African race their moral and physical con dition having been improved by the process I 4 And if! (modest Mr Clay) 4 if it should be the decree of the Great Ruler of the Universe that their de scendants should be the instruments in His (mark ye I) 4 in the establishment of Civilization and Christianity throughout Africa our regrets on ac count of the original wrong will be greatly mitigat That is some comfort al any rate The political morality of the closing paragraphs of the Speech is a match for the private morality of the previous ones It would do honor to the dram shop the gaming house or the stews Mr Clay had to provide for the inference from his admission of the injustice ot slavery ot trie necessity oi an in stantaneous reparation of it But it seems it is not al ways 4 safe practicable or possible for Stales to repair the infliction of previous injustice 1 After the injustice is fairly done there is no alternative but to acquiesce in it 4 as a less evil than the fright ful consequences which might ensue from the vain endeavor to repair it A comfortable doctrine tru ly We have only to do any rascality that seems pleasant or profitable unto us and then frighten our selves with the horrid consequences of undoing it and it is made all right What was a wrong is now a necessity And Mr Clay instances the Annexa tion of Texas the stealing of the Indian lands and the repudiation of the Continental currency as ca ses in point We would simply reply to this that the United States have no claim to Texas and the holders of the Indian lands (which Mr Clay says they have fairly purchased) no title to them except that of the robber to his booty and that the refusal to redeem the Continental Currency was simple swindling which might have been saved by apply ing to this purpose half the money that has been wasted on the wars It is edifying af ter this to look back and read Mr homily on the value of 4 an unsullied 4 It is impos sible to estimate it too highly in society when at tached to an individual nor can ic be exaggerated or too greatly magnified in a nation And then the holy horror with which he turns up his eves at the Partition of Poland zs if these dismemberments of our ownvand our daily national life did not whiten thnt iniquity into a virtue! In short this speech of Mr is eminently wicked and super eminently foolish It cannot hold a candle to Mr and John Van beats it all to nothing In point of ability 'and ap parent honesty we mean It is a very mediocre production quoad speech and it has no redeeming virtue to offset its mediocrity We should think that it must settle the question of his nomination It must be hard times with the party if they have no better log than this out of which to make their Mer cury We are not a Whig nor the son of a Whig We merely overlook the game But we do like to see it well played We hate to see a good hand thrown away It is charming to see how the Dem ocrats make the best of their cards It is skill rather then luck that has given them the game so often The Whigs have excellent cards in their hand now and if they sacrifice them they have a good chance of winning But they will prob ably ruin themselves by nesting And they will deserve it if they try to erect this sorry Knave into their Ace of GEORGE THOMPSON AND BRITISH INDIA It is well known to all the readers of the Liber ator that this distinguished man has for several years past exerted his great energy and abilities for the redress of the wrongs of India This he ha done not merely because of the demand of the suffering millions of that vast peninsula' upon his humanity and that of the British people but because he thought he discerned in that direction for the Exodus of the captives in our own houseof: bond age to whose deliverance he has fnany of his best years and in whose cause he shrank not from the proffered crown of Republican Martyrdom In the year 1839 the British India Society was formed for the purpose of agitating this question and bring ing the general mind of the nation up to the point of East Indian Reform Of this moveffiCUl Mr Thompson was the Expounder His: speeches and lectures which were most of them reprinted in this country together with the other machinery put in 'motion by that Body were producing a wide and voluivie noxlix deep impression upon the people of England and!" Scotland In 1840however the Corn law Ques tion came up and swallowed all others of a remoter interest 4 7 5 Mr Thompson4 finding that this torrent was not to be resisted wisely gave way to its course and i threw himself into the stream This only upon a pledge on the pert ofthe Anti Corn law leaders that they would join with him in Iris struggle for the redress of East Indian misgovern ment when they had succeeded in removing thia grievance at home This effort having been crown ed with success and Mr Thompson befog elected to Parleamentj and having in lhe meantiine im proved his practical knowledge of his subject by a visit to India the time bad clearly arrived for the renewal of the East Indian agitation Accordingly on Tuesday evening Oct 26lh a meeting vas held at tire Eastern Institution Commercial Road for the purpose of giving Mr Thompson an opportunity laying before his constituency of the Tower Ham lets the plan of conduct he had laid down for him self as their member This meeting he addressed at length in a most luminous nnd vigorous speech in which he made it clear that the interest as well as the honor of the British People was involved in this vindication of the rights of that vast dependen cy Mr Thompson asked the permission of his constituents to devote himself to the leadership on this question while he pledged himself not to neg lect his duty on other subjects more directly affecting the welfare of the British People This consent the assembly accorded in the most cordial and enthusi asiic manner This Speech we shall spread at length before our readers by the express direction of Air Garrison next week This will be done not merely on ac count of the interest which we believe they will take in the subject matter of the Speech but chit fly sbecouse a large portion of it is devoted to the evo lution of Mr views os to the effect which the Reforms he proposes acting through the English jUutton Market will have upon American Slavery He traces the history of the Culture and Manufacture oT Colton and shows how almighty has been their influence in building up und perpet uating Slavery He shows the resources of India for the production of this staple and the practica bility of increasing the crop to such an extent as to drive the American article out of the Market Cot ton he concieves to be the nrain bulwark and de fence of Slavery nnd if it can be reduced below a living if not a remunerative profit that American Slavery will die of inanitions Thus with the phi losophy of Chatlfani though in a deferent spirit proposes 4 to conquer America in India The views of such a friend to the Anti Slavery Cause as Alr rlho mpson has proved himself to be on such a ques tion as this deserve the fullest and most respectful4 attention And in saying this we are sure we speak the mind of every sincere A bolitionist We anticipate a very great amount of good to our cause from the agitation of the British India ques tion in the British Parliament and before the Brit ish people We believe that its agitation and ilu successful issue must have influences which can not be even guessed at upon the condition of our Slavery But we do not share in the sanguine fore bodings of Mr Thompson as to the absolute certain ty that the accomplishment of all he asks for India will be the achievement of all he hopes for America Slavery does not exist in the United Slates because of the wealth the slaves produce but because of the power which our Constitution of government gives to the masters in virtue of their ownership in them We believe every intelligent slaveholder knows that the wealth of the Slave Slates would be: vastly increased by emancipation But by that aat the sceptre of political sovereignty would pass from them Tho existence of Slavery gives to the com pact aristocracy formed by it the absolute control of the whole machine of State the appointment of Pres idents the making of laws the dictation of It is the means whereby they bold the keys of the Treasury of the Nation When did an ever resign the element which gave them lheir'pow er ns long as they could hold on to it? The Eng lish Aristocracy doubtless know that if the laws relating to land by virtue of which they have in times past governed the Nation and which still give them so potential a voice in it were abrogated it would be for the general good of the people und perhaps for their own wealth but have they ever 1 been willing as a body to relinquish any of the priv ileges which gave them their political supremacy except upon strong compulsion Much leas an aristocracy founded on ownership 'in human flesh and vastly farther removed from popular and political influences than the landed aristocracy of England It is true that absolute starvation might bring 4 the slaveholders to terms but it by' no means fol lows that because the culture of cotton is the only profitable way of employing slave labor now that no other way could be devised should this There are other tropical productions to which it inay' be turned The resources of the earth are no more exhausted than those of the human mind Pci hops a portion of it may yet be used in manufacturing raw' material to be imported from India! Who knows? Stranger things have happened The immensely in creasing demand of our own country too will help: to support the system here At any rate we may be assured tliat as long as the Slaveholder can get la bor enough out of his slave Io keep him alive he will cling to his System Wealth is but a very sec ondary consideration with him The stale of thing is widely different now from what it was at the point of time just preceding the introduction of Cot ton Then it stood upon its own strength Now" we have clothed it with outown Tlienit tottering institution trembling to its fall Now have propped it up with the whole physical and moral force' of the whole country Then Slavery was in extremis and there was none so poor as to her 'reverence Now she can stand against world for we have placed the crown'qf our Repub lican sovereignty on her head and the sceptre of dominion in heriand Her altitude is a very differ ent one now from what it was sixty years since East India Cotton will make one of the elements of her overthrow we doubt not but it jvill by no means be the only one 'The Very length of tithe required for the successful issue of that experiment will give so sagacious and wily a power as Slavery' ample opportunity to provide for its own interests We hope 'therefore that while Mr Thompson and our other Anti Slavery friends' in the Islands engage in the cause of East India Reform for' its own sake and for the sake of its incidental! aid to the movement against American Slavery that they will not identify the one with the other nor think that they are doing their whole duty to in promoting the1 rights of the? Hindoo ft The one will help the other but they Are not iden tical Good government and plenty maycroiyn tha banks of the Ganges while slavery and misery de form those bf the Mississippii The two enterprise ft are essentially distinct though kindred andmutuaBy helpful Chattel slavery isthe Giant Enemy oftho human race It is a monster on wbosdzhead every ft nation should set a price But its hunters are after all but a handful scattered wide oyer Jthe facq qf We can spare no strength ot energyft from th9 (direct attack Let our antifolavery friends' 'give Ibemselve with what zeal they inajrtothe livejjince of tljc Indian but Jet them not bateqijei jot of their labor for the redemption of the kt 'fS i ijii i Ta be'huntr for Stealinoa At the jlato Cqurt of General Sessions for Darlingfoo JameaXJarlisle plead guilty to the charge jof negro slave belonging to Mr Efodger an4t ssnltnved to be hung oBjPriday.