Liberty Meeting

The meeting of Liberty men nt the Court House, on Thursday evening was respecfably attended, and was highly interesting to all present. Dr. Hill was called to the chair, and J. Chandler appointed secreta ry. Dr. Hill opened the meeting with remrirks appropriate to the occasion. The olhcr partios had rcccntly held public meetings in that House, and their positions had been défiried by their Congressional candidates, and it was quite appropriate that we also, to use a nautical phrase, should take an observatioh, and ascertain not only our real position and progress, hut our relative situation in reference to our fellow voyagers of the Whig and Democratie f arties. Mr. J. Chandler addressed the meeting on the necessity of preserving our present poliiical attitude, without any compromise. Would we accept of them,propositions wou ld have been made to us for a compromise even at the present clection, on the plan of a temporary unión with one or other of the parties. For instance, they would give us one norninee for the Legislature out of the six, and thüs, it was argued, we might accomplish something, whereas our polilical action now resulted in nothing practical. Mr. Chandler well exposed the folly and absurdity of such a puerile and suicidal course on the part of Liberty men. Our only proper way, now that we were on the right track, was to go ahead! G. JSrcklev followed with some remarks on the real points of difference between thé Wbigs and Democrats. He had listened to Mr. Howard and McClelland, the exponents of their parties, on the national questions, and he could find bul ■ just one difference. He read the opinions of Mr. Clay and Mr. Van Buren on the Tariif to show that they were identic.ally the same, and referred to Mr. McClelland's declaration that he was in favor of just such a TariíFas Mr. Clay.: - The only pomt of diiFcrence lie could discover which had caused so much discussion, and so many electioneering meetings, was, whether the proceeds of the public lands, estimated to average two millions of dollars annually, should be divided among the States, or thrown into the national treasury. Now he thought this a very small question practically.- The share of Michigan, it seems, amounts to about $'15,000 a year; and what a great hue and cry was here, whether it should be paid over to the State and we pay so much more into the national treasury, or whether it should be placed directly there at once, for national uses. Mr. Beckley referred to the course of Messrs. McClelland and Howard on the slavery question, and sustained the reasons alleged in the Signal against the reelection of the latter gentleman. Col. G. W. Jewett having been called on, addressed the meeting at considerable length. He said he had always been a Democrat, and contended for the largest liberty of the largest number. - He had uniformly sustained the Demoocratic principies of our fathers through life, and expected to maintain thera the remainder of his days. In this respect he was unchanged. But of late years he had received new light on the subject of slavery. He had ever abhorred it; but he had ascertained that the people of the North were in one sense slaves to the slaveholders. They were not, indeed,subject to the Jash, but their purses were heavily drained, the honors and emolumente of office were largely monopolizec by these few slaveholders, and our national policy controlled by thcm. Every thinking person could easily satisfy himsejf by a little reflection, that a slaveholding community, where only half the people are laborers, cannot support itself. But the slaveholders live, and live in the greatest splendor too, and it comes out.of the Northern laborers. They trade largely with the North, and every few years, by a Bankrupt act or otherwise. wipe out their indebtedness of two qv tbj-ee hundred millions. Col. Jewett referred to the sneer often cast upon the liberty party, that it was a one idea concern. He hoped no one would be frightened by this charge. It was true the Liberty party had one great prominent, fundamental principie, that ALL MEN SnOULD HAVE EctCAL POMTICAL Rights; and this idea, in magnitude and hnportance, far transcended all the little issues of expediency of the other parties. It was an idea connected with the onvvard progress of society, and was in accordance with the mind of the Great Ruler of the Universe. It was an idea which would stand the scrutinizing judgment of posterity, and the test' of the 'Last Duy. He expected to sustain it while he lived by bis vote and his influence, and Ihough it was not probable he shouldsurvive to, see it practically carried out even in his own country, yet he knew it would progress, till itreached a final and glorious consummation. Remarks were then made by Mr. Krxo.sley and Mr. F. Denison. TJie latter gentleman said, that while absent at the East last sumner, he had read an abstract of a debate at a Repeal meeting in Ann Arbor, in which Mr. Ramsdell, the Üemocratic candidate for the Legislature, wasmade to say. that he eoincided wilh the principies of the Liberty party, but disapproved of their political orga.nization as n. moans of securing their ascendency. As tliat. gentleman was present, he would be much pleased if he would state distinctly his reasons for his opinión. The case, as Mr. D. understood it, was this: the Democrats have an object in view, purely political, which they deem it wise té support by a political orgariization : the Whigs have another political object in view, which they judge can only be attained by political organized efforts; the Liberty party has another, the principie of which Mr. Ramsdell concedes to be right and just; why, then, sincé it is as much political as a Bank or Tarifly should it not be sustained. like those objeets, by a political organization? Mr. Ramsdell said, that since he had been called upon, he had no objection to answer the inquiry which had been puttó him. He thought that slavery was a sin against the Moral Ruler of the Univere. and the most valuable rights and interests of Humanity, aiid ought to be done away immédiately and forever. His objection to the organization of a political party for this purpose was understoocl to be this: while the mass of both parties were honest and sincere, they were govered, to a great extent, by a few leading men. The majority of these were ambitióus and unscrupulous, and would ndnpt any course which wöuld give them political power; Should an attempt. therefore, be made, to divide community inío a Liberty and Slavery party, these politicians would join the opposition to righteous principies, and thus by presenting abolition as a party measure, one half of community would be forever arrayed against it. [Did Mr. R. ever think that precisely the same objection lies against every Democratie measure he can bring forward?lMr. R. contended that he agreed Avilh us in our principies. Slavery ouglit to be abolished in the national District, and in the Territories, and the odious distinctions caused by color should be done away. He thought the colored freemen of this State should be allowed to vote the same as other men. He was for an alteration of the Constitution to that effect. Color was no criterion of fitness for citizenship. There were many colored citizens who could vote as understandingly, and with as much judgment, as any white man. - And while he disapproved of the present political organization, he should continue in every situation to advocate the broad principie of equal rights to all. The meeting then adjourned.