Petitions

On our fourth page will be found an appeal to the American and Foreign A. S. Society on the subject of Petitions. We have been obliged to shorten it somewhat, in order to accommodate our Iimits. The utility of continuing our petitions to Congress is there demonstrated from the history of the past, the preparations of the slaveholders to meet the coming crisis in December, and from the character of the different classes of members of Congress. - Petitions signed by many thousands of legal voters, coming from all parts of the free States, and presented respectfully by the representatives of the petitioners, will have an impressive effect upon the whole body - The plan of having a register of them kept through the Hon. S. M. Gates, is an important feature of the whole system. It will prevent the possibility of the petitions being shuffled off or withheld from presentation without the knowledge of the petitioners. The Representatives who are charged with the petitions must present them. To use the common expressive phrase, they must "stand up to the rack fodder or no fodder" and do their duty. The people of Michigan are beginning to look closely after the proceedings of our Congressional Delegation, and we can assure the party now in power, that should our right of petition be trampled on at the coming session of Congress as it has been at the extra session, without the voice of our Representatives being heard in its defence, it will be an ominous day to the party that sent them to Washington . The course pursued at the extra session has been the means of opening the eyes of many to the real situation of the country, and at the coming election, and in all future time, their influence will be subtracted from the dominent party, and will swell the votes for liberty. The people begin to believe the doctrine put forth by the Whig State Journal, that "the rights of men are not empty abstractions or idle words for demogogues to win power with, but substantial and living realities!" and when their Representatives attempt to trifle with the rights of their constituents, as though they were 'empty abstractions.' they will be rebuked by the people. We hope our friends will commence the work of circulating these petitions immediately, as Congress will meet in a few weeks, and it is desirable that they be presented at the opening of the session. We would suggest that in every county all the petitions be returned to the County Committee, to be incorporated together, and forwarded to our Representative with a letter requesting him to present and advocate them, and apprise the Committee of their fate as soon as they shall be disposed of. The forms of petitions printed on the fourth page are probably as well adapted to the present situation of our cause as any that can be desired. We do, however, object to that part of the third form which prays for a removal of the seat of Government and we recommend that it be expunged from the petitions. Let Congress do justice in the Federal District where it has exclusive jurisdiction. Should the seat of Government be removed, because Congress is unwilling to abolish slavery within its own Territory, it would be disgraceful alike to the nation and to the petitioners. The petition formerly circulated concerning the inter-slave trade, it will be seen, has been dropped, and another substituted in its stead. As a reason for this change, the Emancipator says: "The decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, that slaves are not property but persons, in contemplation of the Federal Constitution, and so are not subjects of commercial regulation by Congress and that consequently Congress have no power to regulate or prohibit the transfer of slaves among the states, renders it no longer advisable to petition Congress to abolish the inter-state Slave Trade. As law-abiding citizens, pledged to constitutional measures for the abolition of slavery we seem to owe this to our own consistency. At the same time, a reference to the (grounds of this decision will show that the cause of Emancipation has gained much more than it has lost. Let the principle that "the Constitution regards slaves only as persons, and not as property," be fully carried out, in all the departments of the Federal Government, with the other principle, that slavery is the mere creature of the local law and can have no force beyond the boundaries of the state that creates it and the various and complicated entanglements in which the Free States have felt themselves bound to its support, will entirely disappear. We have, therefore, chosen to omit the petition for the abolition of the inland domestic slave trade, while we have introduced a new petition, for the repeal of all laws regulating or countenancing the transportation of slaves, as property, by sea and to pass laws protecting the rights of such persons as become constituitionally free, by going by sea with the consent of their masters, beyond the boundaries of the State in Which they are held as slaves." We hope our friends will take hold of this matter in earnest, and do up the work now and not delay it nor leave it half done . Let all legal voters have an opportunity to sign the petitions: the interests of all are concerned, and there will be found a large number of our citizens, besides voting abolitionists, who hate slavery and love free institutions, who will petition Congress in this cause of Justice and mercy. From 1789 to 1841 are 52 years, and there have been fourteen Secretaries of State. - Ten have been appointed from the slave States, who have held the station for 37 years. Four have been selected from the free States who have held the office for fifteen years, viz: Timothy Pickering or Penn. from 1795 to 1800: John Quincy Adams, from 1817 to 1825; and Martin Van Buren of New York, from 1829 to 1831. From 1800 to 1817, the office was filled by slaveholders exclusively. Again, from 1789 to 1841 there have been fourteen Attorney Generals. Ten have been appointed from the slave States, and have held the office for thirty eight years. Four have been taken from the free States, and have served in that capacity fourteen years, or about one quarter of the time. - From 1817 to 1834, a period of seventeen years, the Attorney Generals were all slaveholders. The Granite State Democrat, N. H., a Democratic paper has come out decidedly against all slavery. His editorial brethren are after him, crying out "Traitors! Traitors in the camp!" The slaveholders have ceased coming to New York after slaves. Not a single case has been known to come before the city courts during the summer.