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Antislavery Political Union

Antislavery Political Union image
Parent Issue
Day
2
Month
January
Year
1847
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Last week we publishcd the approval f the Cincinnati Herald, and other jiberly papers, of n National convention f nnlislavery men, irrespectivu of party. The inieniion of thoso who proposed this onveniion unduubiedly was tb make ' he incipient step of a general politica! inion which should uliirnaielysupersede he Liberty pnrty. But there were some Liberty men in Dhio,vvho could define their own position, ivithout waiting to have it shaped by ihe doingsofn National Convetition. In the Twentieth Congressional DisLrict, in which an election fur Represenlative in Cong'ress was pending, Mr. Gidding-s was a candida e Tor reelection, and he strongest elKris were made lo induce jiberut men to forego a nomination ot lieir own, and support ilr. Giddings. - This they refused to do, choosing to adïcre to the great principie on which thry md hitherto acted - No political FkliiOAvsiiip with Slavehokdeiis. Whüo Mr. Giddings was a supporter of them they would nol support hi m. They nom inated for Congress Edward Wade, o Cleveland. A fier which the following resolutions, intmduced lo the nominiimg Convention by Mr. Wade, were passed by ihat body :Resolved, That ns Liberty men we aro reudy nnd solicitous for a politicol unión of uil the opponents of Slavcry, for the attainment of the following objecls, viz : To wrest the Federal Government from the hanJ and control of the slaveholders and their allies : To abolish Slavery in the District of Colombia, and in all the Territories of the United States: To exclude from the Union Slave States unconstiiutionally fidmiileJ to the privileges of States of the contedracy. To prohibitthccoast-wise and inter-state slave trade: To repeal the law of 1793, for the return of fngitive slaves: To abolish all laws in the severnl Stato?, making politica! or mu-iicipal ri.ühls dependent on the color öf the skin : To bring the patronage of the Federal Government 1q bear agaiosl slavery in such a wny, that slaveholders and all iheir supporters shal! be as efïe;tualiy excliided from ïhe offices and honor.-j of the Federal Government, as the Liberty men and avowed Aboliiioiu.sts have been under the domination o( the ?lave power - nnd finall v, To ensure a strict common law construction, in the Judical Courts, of the Constitutionof the U. S., in all iis articls, sfictions nnd clauses jiftherto clairned to favnr slavery. Resolved, Tiiat we stand ready to unite wii'i'Whigs or Demócrata, or )0l?, in a politic.'il orginization, wliich slinll rpengnize ns its mènibersj n!l who u-ill mak'; t! c tneasures of tl.e furpgeing resjlution their leading politir-al duty : and that we nre npt at a!l solicitous about the name of such an organizntion, but wonld support it with pqunl zeal, whettier denominnted Whig, Democrat or a Liberty paitv.Resolved, Tliat we wiil exert oursfilves 3 the uttermoít to accompli-h such n (litieal unión among nll parties; and hat we have no coníider.ce in, and will p.nd no countenance to ü unión oí Librty mtm with nny party - a body of men 6r any jurpose, short of ihe ac ompllshnent oF each and every one of ihe said bjecis. Resolved, Thnt as enemies of human lavery, we spurn all overtures of unión vith any party for the altauimept of nny ■nere party triumph, but most cordially invite the co-operation of the Whig and Democratie partios with the Liberty pnriy, to carry out the grent fundamental principies of American Democracy - Death to oppression the world over. Resolved, That fur the Liberty pnrty to uniie wiih the Whig or Democratie party for the pui pose Öf elect'mg a mere party President would leaveus to toil on, ihe mere backs of party, in the business of the Slaveholders, as we did before we joined the Liberty party ; and we most solemny wam all true Liberty men, to treat all such propositions, come from what source ihey may, as treachery to the slave, faithlessness to your co-lnborers in the cause of emancipation, and as degrading and oisgraceful to you as heinest and intelligent, and conscientious men. These resolution?, it seems, involved more radicalism than Mr. Giddings could anction. But we have before us a letter frem S. P. Chase, Chairman of the Liberty Siate Committer, and the author of tbc Address of the Cincinnati Convention, by which it appears that Mr. G. has prívately made explieit proposals on his part. - In explaipihg some circumstances to the public, 3[r. Chase;I received n. letter from Mr. GicU dings early in September, in which he spoke of " Tariffsand Banks" as "things out ot' the question, until we shall get our necks from under the heel of the slave power ;" and t-tated the following propositions as a basis of political union among antislavery tnen . " 1. Therepeal of the Black Laws. - 2. The mainipnnnccof our ngnisagainst the claims of Virginia, and the outrages of tliat state and of Kentucky. 3. The passage of a law making it penal forany officer or eiiizHi of ihis sia-e to aid in the arre-t of fugitive slavps. 4. The repen] of all laws of the Federal Government thnt sustain slavery, including those that uphold it in the Dictrict of Qoliitnhin and the Terntorie, and the law of 1793. - 5. The pTOhibiUoii of thscoast-wiso slave trnde. 6. The solenm detiminalion to unite with nofurther dayeholdipg territory, or state, undex any circumbtances. 7. To Bopportnotnan to oñice whohesitates to declare theftbovesentiments."Thpse propositions met rny cordial approbation, and in my reply to Mr. Gidings I expressed it frankly and unreervedly." In concluding his letier, Mr. Chase gives his own views as follows : " I am in favor of a unión of all anislavery men in politieal action. I exnessed on earnest clesire for such an unon, in my letter to the Chicago Convcnion. I care nothing aboul the name by which the nntilavery party may be desgnnierl ; all ïhatl ask is that it shall be tv good faith, and real earnesi, au antislaveiy part}1, rnuking the overthrow of the slave power, and slavery itself, its nvowed and paramount object. I nm willing to confer with Whigs. or Dpmocrats in relation to such an unión. I nm willing to adopt any better plan for the overthrow ofslavery, nnd the slave power, tlian the plan of Liberty men, whenever such better plan shall be proposed, no matter by whom. In the mean time I shall adhere to the Union and Plan we olrcady have - tothe Union of Whigs and Democrats, so heretofore c.dled, as Liberty men, and to the Plan of overthrowing slavery nr.d the slave power, not by compromiso or management, but by simple, direct, earnest, persevering action against both. 'J'his Union and tbjs Plan, though i'ew, coviparatively, hoye adoptcd it, have worked gloriously so fu what will it not nccompli-h, when adop ted by the rest of the antislavery l)ost,nou djyided into hotilescctions bv VVhig anc Democrntic Unes, and by divisions near ly paralyzed into total inefficiency."Having thus presented our readers with a full summary of the opinions of Liberly men on the question of a political antislavery uninn of men of all pnrties, we shall next weck conclude what we hnve to say upon the subject by a statement of our own personal views.