How Can Slavery Be Peacefully Abolished?

We nnswered this question negatively last week in refercnce to scveral rnelhods that had been proposed : and we proceed now to consider the opinión held by some. that if tho Liberty party would assume and act out the ground of Equal Rights to All Men, instead of being, - what it now is, and always will be, - merely a Negro Righls party, it would immediately go ahead in numbers and influence, and finally carry all before it. Let us try to divest ourselves of all prejudices against this opinión, or prepossessions for it, and arrive at a just conclusión by a careful survey of the whole premises. But as our name has been connected with some movernents on this question, we must be indulged in an explanation of sonio matters personal to ourself. We have been indentificd with the antislavery cause, through all its phases, for the past twelve years. When Questioning was employed, we were in favor of it ; though the manner in which antislavery men were fooled into the support of proslavery men, soon rendered it disgusting, and was a main cause of starting candidates of our own. When Loth the candidatos were avowedly proslavery, we must of course not vote at all, or give our suffrages for an antislavery man of our own number. The next step was to organize a permanent national party. We were in favor of this movement also. - We al tended the first Liberty Convention held in the State, at Jackson, Aug. 5, 1840, and we 6upported the Birney electors of ihat year. As our party increased, the necessity avowing our position as a national party on financial questions, became more and more apparent In 1844, our Presidential candidato wasquestioned on national policy, and his answers, in the eyes of the public, committed the whole party. In August, 1845, William Goodell, in liis famous Report to the New York Liberty Convention took the position, that a mere Negroe'sRights party, wbich should refuse to speak or act upon the oppressions of the White Man, could never succeed numerically as a national pa ty : and proposed ihat it should henceforth advocate the rghts of all. His reasoning fully convinced us. We published the document, and it convinced many of our readers. It was discussed till our State meeting in Febuary last, where it came up, and the proposal being new to a large share of the members, it was generally rejected. Afterour return, being desirous of testing the question whether the Liberty party would be the advocates of the Equal Rightsof all men, or only of black men, wc, in conjunction with Mr. Beckley, wrote out a memorándum of those grounds on National Policy we believed the Liberty party ought to take,and dispatched it in the form of a circularlo all the Liberty papers, with a request to lay il before their readers. It was generallv published by them, and extensively disapproved by the editors, correspondents, and readers of those papers. They were determined, os a party, to advocate the "One Jdea" and nothing else. Consequent upon this circular, alengthy I discussion of its doctrines sprung up in our own paper. As there was no other Liberty paper in the State, we feit obliged to let both sides have a full hearing. - This discussiun increased, until we were compelled, by the great space it occupied, to deny adraissiön to any further Communications on this subject. Had we not done this. our paper would soon have been ent'rely nlled by it ; for several writers filled four or five columns at once ; and as a controversy lengthens, each writer finds more points to touch upon - all, as he thinks, very important. The number of writers on both sides was increasing. We must give them place generally or exclude them altogether. - Necessity compelled us to do the last. - We regretted the more to cut them off, ae many of the articlee wer well writtenand valuable ; and we have since ascer tained that a distinguished gentleman of New York city was about writing on the subject, as well as several prominent frierids of our own State, who had not appeared befo re the public in that controversy. But we could not accommodate them without devoting our paper cxclusivcly to this mattter, and thereby losing that half of its subscaibers who took it chiefly as a medium of the general news of the day. At this time there was rcason to believe that about one half of the Liberty voters of Michigan we re favorable to taking grounds as a party substantially on the basis proposed by Mr. Goodell. In this county, of the 350 Liberty voters, scarcely a dissentient could bc found. - To bring the matter to an issue, and determine what the party would do on the proposal, a committee of the Ann Arbor Liberty Assockition forwardod circulará through the State, requesting all who were desirous of having the State Central Committee cali a convention on the 8th of July to determine this matter, to forward their ñames, nttached to a request to the State Commitlee to cali such a Convention. Only 250 names were re ceived, many favorabl e to it declining to sign the request on account of the ti.ne of the year when the convention was to be held, it being so near to harvest : while others wrote that they wished all action deferred till the State meeting next Feb uary. The time hns now come when the 1500 or2Ü00 Liberty voters of Michigan who have been in favor of making thei party the permanent advocate of all mens' rights, should consider what they will do respecting this cherished purpose of theirs. They should look the matter fully in the face, and come to a final de termination upon it. In our judgment, they must do one o two things : give up the proposal entire ly, and go with the great majority of the Liberty party wherever they may go ; o they must secede at once, step out from the ranks, aod organize anew, without any reference to their dissenting associates, thus following in the footsteps of the Tetotallers of 1835. There is no fcasible middle course. It will be in vain to think of gettingan impartial judgment of the whole party at the meeting at Kalamazoo. That will be a very onesided place : the East and the North will have scarcely any delegates there : and those few will probably be professional gentlemen, committcd against the proposed measure, rather than of the class of laborers and farmers who are for it. We have thus given a history of the matter, that the question may be distinctly apprehended. We will now give our views as to whatought to be done in the premises, according to the best light affordec! by a most careful and minute consideration of the whole matter. We give our suggestions to our readers for whai they are worth. All we ask is that they may be fairly weighed.; 1. We said last year that we were fully convinced that the Liberty party could never succeed nationolly while tnerely a Black man's party. We are of the same opinión still. 2. We said last year that it was then expedient for the whole party to become the advocate of Equal Righis to all meu ; and on that basi, and on that only, could it have any just hopes of nntional success. We are of the same opinión still. The question has been distinctly osked to them - "Wïll you becomesuch a party V Si.xty Thousand have answered, " No !" and Six Thousand hnve answered, 'Yes!' Here, then, is an end of the matter, asfar as the party, is concerned. They w:ll have nothing to do with it. The whole aflair is settlcd. 3. The next question is, whal shall this small minority do % Shall they organizc by themselvcs on the basis they proposed for the whole Liberty party,or not 1 Wesay No,f or the following reasons : 1. Becaue the new organization, when efiected, will probably be only a State party. It is not likely that any portion of the Liberty party in other States wiil follow ihe cxample. There is no similnrity of sentiment which should lead to ïhis except in New Yurk : and there the two sections of the Liberty pnrty, for the present, at least, have become united. 2. Because the general agitation on questions of reform, now prevailing in I this state among all parties, would be unfavo rabie tothe grouth of a separate reform party. Should it be commenced in other States, its growth would necessarily be slow. 3. Because the direct influence of a small minority party on legislators and public officersjis but litile. We have seen in the course of the Liberty party that our separate organization, in some respects, has deprived us of a portion of the influence on public measures we should have otherwise possessed. For example : 2,500 Liberty voters of Michigan last year asked our legislators to let a popular vote be taken on the Suflrage question. Now, under the circumstances, they did not care a snap of the finger for the requeat of these 2,500 voters. Why % Because these voters, by their position, could not nffect the politica! standing anducócssof the Legislaiors. These shrew d T )oliticianssaid to themselves, "If we voto for the request of these men, nol one of hem will therefore ever vote for us ; if ve vote againsl it, not.one of them will v ever oppose us the more, or vote for our n )olitical opponents. Ifour re-election or c xditical standing would be eflected by t their votes, we would take care hovv we s displeased them. Now, it is all the same r to us as though they dd not vote at lions at all. The class of men who gave us our seats - those who atlend the i cuses - are mostly opposed to Colored i Suflrage, nnd as it is desirable to please them, we will let it alone." Thus a small i minority party necessarily has but litlle 1 political influence with those who make and execute laws. i 4. Because it may well be questioncd wheiher specific measures of reform can best be carried by organizing separate ■ permanent political parlies for their i port. No such party in modern times i has ever succeetled. Even the Repeal i of the English Corn Laws was efiected 1 through the votes in Parliament of i bers of the existing parties. How absolutely the Slaveliolders govern the South as well as the entire nation! Yet they i have never organized a politica], permanent party to sustain Slavery. They can do better by working through both the existing parties. The Tcmperance question in our country has been disposed of without organizing a separate Temperance party. Yet in this and other States, Temperance men have obtained from legislator.s of all parlies just such enactments as the asked for. So of other questions of reform. Advoqjtes of them are found in all parties ; and when opinions in favor of reform prevail gencrally, public sentiment is mar.ifested by the enactment of the desired law. Mark, we do not say that measures of reform cannolbe carried by orgnniz:ng a permanent political party for their sjpport. What we said was that we doubt ed whether that was the best way. Ifthe other parties would oppose an immovable ron front to the progress of reform, and maintain their conservative ground, then a separate reform party could hold them to the precise issue in question, bring on a battle, and defeat them speedily. But as socm as the old party leaders begin toliear the cry of reform coming up into their ears, and waxing louder and loudrcr, their policy is to concede nominally the debated ground, little by little, but just so fast that their own men will not go over to the reformers, and at last while they dare not openly oppose the people, they cheat them out of as much of the reform as possible, while pretending to be its friends. Thus all the Whig papers in this State have nominally come out for Colored Suffrage, lest, if they opposed it, a large share of their men should join the Liberty party. So the Old Hunkers, at their last State Convention, nominally ratified most of the Reforms demanded by the Young Democracy. In this way old politicians can keep themselves in power, keep down thenumbersofa reform party, and yet keep the niass of the peoplequietby doling outto tliem a liitle reform, while they pretend to be friendly to dispensing all that is asked for. For these reasons, we regard unfavorably the organization of a new political reform anlislnvery party. We have feit cailed upon thus to state our jeasons ai length, because we know that its formation has been of late a subject of debate among a portion of our Liberty friends. Next week we intend toshow the precise means by which the peaceful Abolition of Slavery can be attained.Ör The editor of the Charter Uak attended the late meeting of the American Board of Missions, and saw some things that were curious. He says, - " We saw a curious kindofbenevolence also. When intelligence was read concerning the persecutions of Mr. King, and a few Armenians, grent numbers wept, and were deeply moved ; most fervent prnyer wasoflfered for them. Those same men turn a deaf ear and a stony heart to us, when we teil them of the worsewrongs of threc millions of their own countrymen; will not pray for them, and denounce us as mere emissaries of the devil uhen wc plead and pray ior them. All this waá very curious. We could not forbear asking, wliy is it right and noble for Mr. King to break the laws of Greece, and mean and wicked for Mr. Torrey to break the laws of Marvland ? How much of this sympathy for Mr. King is fashion and sentiment ? We are very curious tosee true answers to suchquestions."