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The Twenty-nine Seceders

The Twenty-nine Seceders image
Parent Issue
Day
14
Month
October
Year
1844
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

We have before referred to those individuáis who professing to be Liberty men, have an noi meed their determinntion to vote for Mr Clay. The nature of this movement is60 wel understood in this county, thnt it would be needlees to refer to t ogain, were not'forits influence abroad. This offair will work no detriment to the interesle of tho Liberty party in this County We shall have nnincreaeed vote notwithstan dincvery eflbrt of the Whigi. More than half of these signers have ever been idenlifiec with the Whigs, and at least a fourth part of lbo whole nnmber never voted any portion o a Liberty ticket on any occasion; ond yet they hnve the effrontery to announce themselvee as "memhers of títe Liberty party' - thus practicing n groís fraud on the commnnity, ol which they ought to be ashamed. We have reason to believe that a number of them now hold offices lo wfiich ihey wcre elected on Whig tickets. Five or six out of the twenty-nine have been known as Liberty men for onp, two or three years. The others have nol lefl up, for they never were wilh 'us. - Of the five or six genuine Abolitionuts who have been induced to sign ;his circular, several have avmveri their determination to vote for Birney, conceivmg that they were nu'sinformed, and misled by false or parttal representations. One of these, Mr. Lyon, a mnn of cbarocter and respectability, haa forwarded the following statement lo us for publication. Read it. and see what frauds are used to prop up a falling cause.TO THE PUBLIC. Bridgkwatkr, Oct. lsf, 1844. As my nnme nppeared of late, with some others, in the Whig paper at Ann Arbor, rxpressing a purpose to vote for Henry C!ay on the ground of preventlng the nnnexation of Texns to the United Slales, I now feel it my soletnn dutj', to myself, to the public and the cause of libcrty, to say, that it was thus obtained by the rnost eonfident and unequivocal siafements not only that Mr. Clay, and the uhole whig party, norih and soulh, was fiilly cormniUcd against the annexation oj Texas, )Ht that the Liberty party men, in Ann Aror, and through the connty generally had concluded as the "least of two e:ils' lo support him on this account. It is humiHtating to me to confess my ignorance at that time. and that taking no aboition paper, ond there being no well informcd ibolilionist near me, l was thus inan ungnarled moment, iinwilhigly hd into ihis error. 3ut as I have sinco iiiken special pains to inform myself on ihe whole subject, from later developments in Mr. Clay's Sd und 4th letter, and become fu'Iy salisfied tfiat Mr. Clay ia strongly in favor of annexation, and that iiis party at the south are snstaining him on the ground that he is the most expcrienced and surest man to accompüsh the objpct, and beïeving as I do, that whenever any mm; becomes fully satisfied tbat he has come to fotne wrong determ'mation, either from his own iglorance, from eelf intereèt, or from gro.s fraud ïaving been practiced opon him, it is his mosi rnperious duty, hovvever mortifying il may be to him to own he ha3 been in the wrong, at once to change that determination, and openly and fearlessly avow the change: I iherefore ïereby most cheerfully announce my full de ermination to give my most cordial support to James G. Birneï and Thomas MonRrs for the 'residency nnd Vice Presidency,they being the only candidates before the public whom I deern vorthy of my support, acting, as I erer would he part of a consistent patriot and philanthro)18t. Vrom what I can íearn, I have now the best of reasons for believing ihat a niimber whose names were obtained to that letter in the same manner in which mine was - feel as I do now, nd will vote for Birney, tfiough I do declare his my otvn determination entire.'y upon my own responsibility. There was olso anothcr gross frand palmed off upon the public for mere party effect. - The WHOJLB nuinber whose ñames wcrc atached to the letter was. represen: ed as havng been Liberty paity men, whereas but com paratively few of the numher ever voted the Liberty Ticket at all, and most of those few only voted it occasionally or in part, never having considerpd themselves Liberty party iien, but whigs, merely calling themselves abolilionists as most northern men now do, notwithstauding they vote for slaveholders. - Ph's matter has learned me a losson which Í hope k, intend to profit by.to trust to no man't representations but to keep ?nyscff well informeijor viyselj. I am satisfied that every mnn vho does nol do thi?, will ever be but the mere sport and tooi of interesled designing men.I hoe that no Irue liberty party man will )ereafter fail to provide himself as I have done, vith a Liberty paper, in which the gross misepreseniaüons of Liberty men and Liberty principies are fully and faithfully exposed. Short of this no Liberty man can either do much good to the canse he profesees to holri eor, or even to keep kimselj "righl aide vp vilh care." On the whole, I am satisfied lie mosi unwarrantable management iu obaining these names to this letter and of .palm ng them all off upon the public as Liberty arty men when comparatively few ever preended to be any thing but wkigs; matead of working any injury to the Liberty, will spfetily be overruled to further its Eticcess, as lonest well meaning men will see that any caupe, whether vvhig or democratie, which can not be sustained Without resorting to stich mjustifiable and repreJieib!e means j must be abad onell It is no.vv-a'scertained that in he town of Sharon where most of these namefi were obtained, not a single copy of a Liberty parfy paper is taken; brit whig and democratie apers only were read. Undtr these circumstpneep, it could hardlv e sopposed that there were many true liberty arty men in that town, and that even if there might be some who were eo in principie, they would be poorly qualified to judge of their uty from hearing but one side of the quesion only, with so much Clat upon thcir eyep, or Polks upon their necks.

Article

Subjects
Signal of Liberty
Old News