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Review Of The Liberty Party--Continued

Review Of The Liberty Party--Continued image
Parent Issue
Day
1
Month
July
Year
1844
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Having new gone ti rough wiih some brief notes on the condvtion and prospecte of the Lib -erty Party in ench of the Free State, as we proposed, we shall recapitúlate eonic of the facts, and subjoin such retnarks as they may seem to warrant. The following tahle shows the Liberty vote o( 1840, and also of 1843, except New Hompshiie and Connecticut, which are given ior the spring of 1844:Tne total voto of the Free States in 1840 was 1,723,999, shewing one Liberty vote in 251; in 1843, the Liberty vote was one in 29, allowing the whole number of votes polled in 1843 to be equal to thot of 1840. Or, if you please, compare i t with the whole vote of the Union, vvhich in 1840 was 2,461,079, the Liberty voie being one in 358. and tbree years after it had risen to one ifl 41 ofthe whole. The number of Liberty papers is 25 in 12 States, of which 3 are daily, 20 weekly, and 2 8emi-nionthly. Their circulation is esfimated to bo equal to 35,000 sheets weekly. There are three other anti-slavery papers that are opposed to thé Liberty Piirty. We are wel! aware of the etate of mind cA very many thousands of the voters of the Free States tri reference to the preceding facts, and to the pro8pecfs ef tile nti-Slavery cause generally. It might be statecfsubSiantially ;hus: "I believe the liberiy party, in the main. are right. The facts they adduce m reference to the overwhelmtng influente af the Slave Power J believe to be substantiaííy correct: and I know oí no better meihod of effiicting its overthrow than through the eXercise of the politica! power ol freemèn, and if Í knèw tfcnt the Liberty party would certainly and specdily succeed, ï would give it my support immediately."Weíl, gentlemen, we shnll be glad of your help in accompIÍ8hing our emerpfise: but we cannot consistently present you wiili Hard Cider to induce yon to believe thntour cause is just, or thai itwillsucceed; nor ihall we Carfy arerund dead coons or live d nes on polea, or sing tfïort songs, or plant "Young Hickory" trees, or usearty devices of the kind. Our appeal is to truth. reason. nnd argument only. That we shall succeed, and that speedily, we believe from the following considerations: 1. The manner in which we propose to extírpate Slavery from the nation, to wit, in ihe Nntional Domains by national auihority, and in the several States by a Liberty party in those States, operating through State authority, places the whole questiou under the legitímate control o ihe Liberty party, as soon as they f hall attain the requisite ascendency. Henee all consthutional objections to the competrncy of the Liberty party to do what they propose to do, are obviatea.4. Uur object is one of natiovul importance. The slave holders, who wield ihe government of the country at their will, are well aware of this. and on their part they re rendy to regia' thie portentous rebellion against their auihority whicli has been eo extensively orgnnized, and which is so rapidly increasing. "The Íell spirit of Abolition," in its varioua phaees, is one tliat troubles the holders ofslavesmore than any other. It walks abroad by dayüght and moonlight. by stage and by steatn, and ie found in the log cabin and in the splendid maneion. Henee, fls the danger grows more threatening, we find that their union growe closer and etronger. Theyare more and more afra id of Northern men. They confine their confidence to the circlc of the Slave States, and thoee which are immedjately contiguous. Fairfield, Davis, Fillmore, Seward, nnd even Woodbury, Vnn Buren and Casswere not deemed trustworthy, and henee they have been proscribed from naiional offices to make way for holders of slaves, or for those whose obedience to the Slave Power ís yet unscrupulous and unshaken. Henee Ve argüe that the Slave holders have in fact, though not fully in form. made the supremacy of their influence the great national question, thus concedmg ita transcendant importance; and we believe the issue thue presented will eoon have a fair trial before the American people. Indeed, the trial is already commenced. There is not a town or village in , the remotest corners of our confederacy in which the principies and objects of Liberty men have not been discussed. A political question which thus receives the atteniion of a whole nation. must have some national mportance; and we are conten: that near-sighted politiclahs flhould denounce it as a ';narrow platform," "one idea," &c. while we can hear the innumerable voices of a whole people, coming up from every nook and corner of our country - from every rice field, "dark and lone" - from every cotton field, and every sugar plantntion- from the naked plains that skirt the western frontier of civilization from the western woods- fiom the noisyfaetones oí the East- from the foreste of Maine - from every legislative hall- -frwm every ecclcsi8tical convention- frorn every politicnl meeting - from a thousand printing offices with their countles8 6suea- we hear the voiceo of millions pronouncing the words ''AfloLmoir, Emancipation, SlaverV"- "SlavbrY, Emancipation: Abolition' - with all the variations of tone and accent and ernphasis which can be impartcd to the human voice by hatred, anger, revenge or scorn - or by benevolence, compasfiion, admiration and sympathy. While. then, the people - toholc peopie - thus continue to discuss this Great National Queation, let politicianB rail on! 3. We argue the success of our enterpriee from the characierof those who have commenced it. They are intelligent men, and understand ihe nature of their undertaking. They are soberminded, and not carried away by visionary project. They are conscieiuious, believing thai their enterprise will be benefleial lo man and pleasing to God. Tbey think it of paramountimportnnce, and are therefore prepared to make sncrifices fór itfrsuccess, nnd to .pursue it with undivided interest. It is conced d that the mass oí ihe L;brty party are men of atable and virtuouscharacter, while such men 88 Morris, King. Birney, Stuart, Pierpont, Smith, Jay, "Whiitier. &.c. are posseesed of talents which every where command public respect and confidence. The chnrocier of a party, likc tha:ot an individual is itselfn precurser of the succcs or defea ofits pe culiar projeets; and henee, from the qualifícations of those who conipose the Liberty party, we have ihe fullcBt ground8 for belteving that i ts mensures will be intelligently planned, peraeveringly pureued, and uliimately successful.4. We argüe ihe success of the iiiberty party from the general uoanimity of the whole body of abolicionista in its favor. While there is a min ority who have opposed it from the beginning. by (ar the grcnter part of the genuine Abolitioniats have faüen into the ranks, one afier another. Scarcely any ar now left, except those who do not vote at all, and those who are orgnnized for the dissolution of the Union. This general unnnimity, attaincd afier protracted oppoaition, is an evidence of the wisdom and valueofthat organizntion whioh the whole body of abolitipnists have deliberntely examined, and finally espoused. 5. We nrgue the success of our pnrty from ihe standing it bas attained at the South, and from its adaptedness to the state óf Southern society. In 1839, before the organization was formed, Henry Clay had noticed the disposition of Abolitionists to carry their principies to the polls, and spoke of itas an "alanning" fact. It has been an object of alarm to the slaveholdere ever since - andtheir opprehensions have grown with its growth. Incipient movements are now making among the non-slaveholders of Virginia, Delnware, Kentucky, and Tennessee, for a pohtical unión for the overthrow of slavery in tbose States. The condition of Southern society renders such movements highly perilous to the owners of slaves. They are numerically far inferior to their non-elaveholding neighbors, and in ari avowed and open strüggle between them, sland much the grehter char.ce of ultímate defeat. Their snterests are directly antagonist, and many of the laws nstained by the slaveholders bear heavily on those who own noHere all the elemente of a Itberty party existe, and free discusión wil] bring them out io view, at the proper time, in appropriate form and shape. The Liberty party has been objected to as Northern and seclional; but the developements of the next five years will show ihat it is as weïi adapted to Southern as to Northern latitudes. 6 . We judge that the Liberty party will be successful frofn what has already been accomplished. There is a saying, which is none the less true for being coinmon, ihat a goud beginning is half the work. In every enterprise requiring the concurrence of many persons, of various habitu of mind, dissimilar prejudices, and residing in sections of country widely diverse, there are many preliniinary obstacles to be overeóme, which are often difficiik to be odjusted. The Liberty party have measnrably suimounted thet,e impediinents. They have now a ereneraltioii and correspondente- they have pressee of their own, pefmaneHtly estublished- they have principies of action in which all can unite - they have survfred the scorn and malice of '.heir adversnries, and are steadily rising to influence-- ►they have speakers and writers nbundantly able to maintain the" principies of ihe par'y - and the only effectual argument that can be used againsl them is, that they are fe in numbere, and they are therefore weak in political irtfluence. Our pancity af numbers we do uot deny. But every ñnü enterprise, moral, politicnl, or scientific, must start wilh a small rninoriiy, and ils growtb und fu ture greatnes8 will be measured, not by its primitive weokness, buf by its own notive vigor, and the attending circumstancea of its culture. The race is not always to the swift, nor the battJe to the strong% but oftefi to the vigilant, theactive,theenergetic, the persever ing For our own part, shou)d the Liberty party, at the ensüing elerction, four years frorn its formation, deposite only One Hundred Thousand votes in favor of human liberty, and in condefrtnalion of the slavefy of Th reelons oftheir courttrymert, we shoutj e8te2m it a consummation encournging1 i the highest degree. The fnct that 1,000 Liberty votee had grown to 100,000 in foor years, in thp midst of obloquy and scorn, wpuld be to us a sure presage that the enlarged capital with which we coiild commence the next campaign, under far more favorable auspices, would re8ult in such an augmentation of numbers, chafacter and iniluence in 1848, as would ei ther secure the fuli triumph of oor CRUse, or place it on such a basis as woold render its speedy success not only probable, but certain.

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Subjects
Old News
Signal of Liberty