To The Friends Of Liberty In Michigan

ÜEA.R FRIEiNDS AND FBLLOW LA.BORERB IN the common cause of Ltbertt: We perceive wnh much gratification that some of the true and active fiienda of ihe cause in different secüons of the State are already beginning to move forward, in the righl direction, (independent liberty nominationsj ultimately to accornplish thegreat and git riors object - the liberation of the enslaved millions in our land, and the redemption of our beloved country from thejustly entailed curse of its gteat and grievoua and Heaven-, offending oppressions. Permit m, therefore, as the Central Committee of the tiberty party in this State respectfully and earnestiy tu lecommend to yxju 10 proceed ïrnmediately to cali Couniy and District Conventions for the purpose of pla-l cing Iibcrty caiididatea bcfore the people for' their suffrages, for the State Legisteture at tlse ensuing fall election, and also for sucli other offices as may bü vacated in your respective counties or didtricts. No time should ! ie lost. Where thore are no County, 1 irict, or Senatoiial Central Cotnmitteespointed, whose special business and duty ii [ is to issue calis for 'Jonventions, let a few s truc nnd active Ínend3 ofliberty at once sue culis for such conventions and take all t proper measurea to give general ptiblicity to ] Lhe calis and they will genrrally find a ( er number atfenu the Conventiuns Ihan !hey , liad anticipated. Uut whether there should i be many or few, it will be well "not to ■ pise the day oí small things." At these' i Conventions efficiënt Central Comnhtees,! j consisting usually of f rom three to five, !] should, iu all cases be appointed, for the en-! i suing year, whose duty it should alwaya'be.j , not only to cali meetings of the friends ofi i liberty as often as may be ueoIuI, but to take a general supervisión of the cause over the counties or distnets for which they were i pointed, by way of adopling tneans and! inea6ure8 frotn time to time best calculatedj most rapidly to advance the great enterprize' which they are thus laboring to consúmate.' If you havo men cnough for candidates, I place them at once before the people, unitedly and cordially support them not only yourselves, but also present all tho sirong! arguments and facts to your fellow-citizens, j your friends and neighbors, which you can! command, w hy they too should support them j for "humauity unü their country'a sake." ' Forthis end we would recommnd not only! much kind and respectful personal interview; uithsuch as havu conceived ungronndcd, prejudicea against Sur enterprize, but all the! public lecluring you can couimand from any! wlio ehall be able to present the whole sub1 ject in i!s strong and clear hght. We doem.' it of indispensable importance too that An' t;-slavery journals should be widely circuloted among the people, especially the only oigan for A. S. intelligtnce ve ha; e :n oir owu State, the "Signal of Liberty." Among other means to ad vaneo tha interests of onr cause at this crisis the Central Committeej think the friends of liberty should make no delay lo circuíate widely the able and important address to the people from the late national liberty Convention which nomina-' ted James G. Birney for President of theU.' S. and Thomas Morris for Vice President. They regard this document from the able pen of Wm. Goodell, of too grat v;ilue to lie uncirculated for the want of a little time, I rneans and efforts. The comm-ttce feel con-' fident that fio.n the immediate and extensive; circulation of this address, great goad might be done witti comparaiivf ly little menna. In making your nominations the committee would say, if you have not men enough fully and openly committed to the principies of; the liberty party, to make out entire tickeisj show to the world that you are acting, on! your principies by nominuting and voting for such men as you have, leaving the balance of your tickets blank. To vote exclusively upon your principies as a liberty party man, wnen you and the world know that! you profces t o have vast and high interests' at stake, for the poor slave, yourself, your children and yonr country, is no moro ihan you havo often done vrhile attached to other paitie, and aiming at the accomplishment! of oiher objects comparatively unimportunt. In (hus doing, you acted in good faith, and were commended for your political integrity and fidelity. Why then should it be thought 6lrange for you now, in all casts, to vote upon your important principies, wher. the world knows you profess to believe that in them are such immense interests involved for the millions of your enslaved fellow men and for the redemption of the liberties of your country, subverted as they are by the overruling political ascendancy of the slave power, unjueily and oppressively voting as it does for its 3,000,000 of human chattels. (t is plain that should the friends of liberty not carry out their principies in the election of public men in every department of the community, they would not act as wisely for liberty as pro-slavery men act for slavery - for they do all this systematically and effectually, well understanding that from the most subordínate offices often arise infle- ential politicians who will exert all their iniluenctJ on one 6ide or the other of these great antagonist The stale p.nd ridiculous charge upon the friends of liberty, who hare long been devoting their time and means to promote this plulanthropic cause, that they are mere ofílc eeekers, to say the leaBt, cornos with an ill grace from the lips of distinguished and long standing pro 6lavery office holders. Our eternal motto should be "principies," not men, nor oflice seekers nor office holderp. Listen not a moment, we entreat you, to the ol(} eyren eong that "loada to bewildernd dazzles to blind," that before you vote Í for the slave and your country you ehould vote at least once more for yourold party to effect Lomo favorito financial, or other party I objeefs. '-Prücrastination is the thief of time." Local and party matiers will never cease to come up. Ñay, they will ' tinue to multiply like the gath&ring of locust8, to arrest and divert your attention i from acting and voting for true Iiberty and the ultímate highest and best ituerests of ' i your counfry, just now. Had it not been i for the thousand local and minor inlerests, and the divisions and subdivisions atnong the i people of the states called fre) and '. [lont (though conquered by the slave power.) 1 1 they would long ere this have turned their attention to that great and q.verwhelming interest n this nation - tho slav interest, which has so long, through one pro-s!avery party or the other, subjuguted to its iron s%vuy every oiher national interest. The slaveholdir's hopes, their successes, thcir riumphs, their rejoicings over the smoth2red and suppressed spirit of tnie Iiberty in ;hia country have consisled in their Union ind onr divisions. To eftct this, in order :o keep the slave power in the asci-ndent, ia s always been ihe grand po'icy of the laveholders and their abettors. The leadng presaea, and the leading influencos in :hurch and statp, north and south, have long jeen in the insidious, deep-rooted and fai spreading slave interest, and have eiilier ivittingly or unwittingly etudiousiy conlri!)uted to ita maintainance and perpetuity, liowever cruel, to the the poor slave, and Jeslructive to every thing dear to a people called free. llow long will the people of Lhu north continue their copartnership ir. the vilest system of villainy, robbery and ppression under thesun? But ïf piiilantbropic considerations cannot move them, hosv long will they continue lo hold "pennies so near their eyes that they cannot behold guineas within their reachl IIow long will ihey exhaust their energies in their Íruit!es3 euforia to purify so inany northern, politica!, pecuniary and commeicial streams while iheirgreat, corrupt fountain at the South is incessantly overruling their ill-directed efforts, by constantly pouring its exhaustless source of pollution and desolation over them? Indeed how can we, how ought we to look for long pi osperity and stubility in our financial institutions, while they are altérnately built up and de3lroyed hy that great tyrannical and corrupt po ver that riots upun the body poliüc, nay, owea lts very cxis'ence to liiê euiire prostrution of all human rights. VVho has not seen, with a little intellig-nce end observation, that the 250,000 slaveholders, voting as they do for their millions of chattelized human beings- leagued as they are with a few northern ubettors - coi'.etituting as they do au overwhelming poliucal monopoly, have long madecommou cause against the rights and überties of ihe American people. SuppoBe these elaveholding monopolists and their leagued abettors do consent that the people fora time, may havo a United States Bank and branches or a Sub-.Treasury, what then? You know they will alwayg, upon tho elaveholding principie that "mightgives righl" haughtily claim the exclusive privilege of keeping the keys. In this Ihey only carry out the odicus doctrines of the slaveholding governing power of this nation, that one set of men are hom to govern and another to obey. Your public servants have turned arbitrary ruléis. Your petilions have been gagged down for the last i'our years, and are stil I, by this same hatighty, Ilegitímate power. The policy of one of ttie pro-slavery parties is arbiirarily to reject petitions forever. That oí the other, if not thua to reject them - to do what is still worso - receive them in form ónly, make a pro-3lavery report pon them and thus (themselves being witnesees) kill abolilion dead, alias, the last spirit of true Iiberty in the nation, and by one masterly feat of political chichanery put a quietus forever upon the vexed queslion. Deur friends and fellow countrymen whal eay you ! S! aü we not resort without delay for an effect ual and speedy redress of our long borne grievances through the only alternativa left U8, the ballot box, by independent politicul action ogainst that great Moloch, which is crusliing us eyen now under its Juggernaut wheels and which we are and shall bo torbidden to touch through the reception, and due cnnsideration of our huroble petitionR. Friendd of true freodom with the soul of your fattiers, a hall the rising spirit of Iiberty, the last hope of humanity and your country be lyrannically supprossed in one quarter, and not indignantly break out in anjthei? We fondly trust your prompt reply, by your precepts, your prayers and your votes, will be, neyer, no never. The slaveholders are i ight when they boldly hold forth that the great mass of the laboring population of this and otlier countries must necessarily be rapidly a6similatcd to one cominon condition. What eay you, ye hard-hunded and hard- toiling yeomanry of the North, areyoufailhlefB. or slow of heart to Ueticvo this historical as well as common sense doctrine? Or, if you are not incredulous, what shall this common condition or common level be, one of Iiberty and intSependence, or oneofderradation vassalage and slavery? Shall we not all hcnceforüi see well to it, that our hands are unstained with the blootl ofoppression, by doing all we can in the most consistent way to dehver the poor bondmen from his heavy bondage, and our beloved country from its fearfu.'ly entailed deatruc tioni Under the Almighty Disposer of men and of r.aüop3, to whom el a'l we look foraid f not to ourselves? From the principa) leaders of eithor of the pro-slavery parties, it woulu be the height of folly to look for the least ray of hope. Whatever individúala in these parties, once in an age may dare to half do for our cause, the o!d parties as partiea are under the 6hve power - hostile to Qijr whole enterprise? and bo'.d or deccitful intheir enger rivalry for öouthern favor, cost what it may of nurtliorn rights and northern liberties. Why should all thi3 be thought marvelous when the melancholy iecord of the past is but an unbroken chain of evideuce, that every people, onoafter anotber have in their turn lost their liberties by an overweening confidence in their poülical or ecclesiastical leaders] May it not thea well be said that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance? And muy not the earnest exhortation with propriety be raado ;o him whois desiroua to ret'ain his liberty that when he thus prayy, Herculean Üke he should put hia shoulder to tho whi-el? Your fellow laborera in the causo of liberty and our counCrv.