To The Freemen Of Oakland County

Puriiiant to instructions from tlie Liberty nominating Convention of Oakland County, held at the Court House ín Pontiac on the 19th of July, 1843, the undersigncd proceed to address you on the great nnd imposing subject of equnl liberty and exnct justice which ought ever to be en. joyed in all politicnl communities. Kspeciolly should it be so in those Governments which put on the republicnn form, as that of the United States, the vcry prefnee of whose Constitution sets forth, in languagc ut once, perepicuous nnd significant of ita fundamental principies, the ends of all rightful Government, viz: "to establisli junticc, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promoto the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to oursclvesand to our posterity."In addrcssing you, we would not bc undcrBtood as rcstricring our rcmarks excluaively to tbc declared political aboiittonists of the cour.ty, as the cinly persons ihercin who are susceptible of the ennobling sentiment of true patrio ism. - On the contrary, we bolicve the great niass of our people to bo sincere lovers of librty, howevcr great may be the diversity of opinión tliat divides thcín, and controIs their action, in reierense to the means of obtaining or preserving it. Thi diversity, with the great body of the pcople is, we (hink. owing more to a want of correct intelligence, in the absence of a patiënt investigation of principies devcloped in many of the public ncts of corporate nnd legielative bodies of the country, than to that reckleesness and depravity to which it is too oficn imutcd. IC tliosc principies wero duly scanned, and thcir aristocratie and unjust tendencies detected, we are pursuaded that they would at once be abandoned by the majority of voters. nnd their expediency-plotting promulgntors be leftout of places of trust,and legislative halls, to inake room for men of aterner integrity. There is nnother, perhaps we sh uld say secondary, but notless fruitful source of conflicting opinious which mi glit be dried up by a due application of the remedy already suggested. It would 8ecm that a great majority of the prominent politicians of thedny have lost sight ofthe sublime, elf-evident truths, set iort!i in the Declaration of American Independence, and have entered, with ardor, into contests for power. Their mottos, tliough minierous, may bc condensedand rendercd into plain English, ihus: "While we leave the abstract questions of Freedom and Justice to the people, the acquisition of power, and the spoils of victory, are ours." - Thcy continually makenew issues upon maiters ofrelatively inferior import.incc. thcreby diverting thn attention of the people frorn these parainount intcrests, a due consideration of which, attended with right action, can alone secure lasiing national prosnerity, in order that they may scize and appropria te the "spoils." Those contests, as carritd on by and through a venal and corrupt press,with which the countiy is inundatcd, are distinctly markcd with an antirepublican and demoralizing spirit, developing i.sclf in bitter invective and vulgar opprobrium which dispnrages our Mee instiiutions in the eycs ofour own citizens, and fixes a deep blot on our national cscutcheon in ihe eyes of the civilizcd world. Those contcsts too which uwoken á burning eal hroughout the nation. are oftcn about names instead of things. Take, by way of lllusiration. the long and warmly disputed quesiion of the Tariff. ít is well known that Van Buren, Buchanan, J. C. Calhoun. Cass, andother masterflpirits in the Democratie party so called, advocate such a Tariff as stiall be adpated for "reve nue purposes and aíTord incidental prot 'cztiin to American Industry." Now heár the high Tariff man- the impersonation, the very embodiment of whig principies - the is"-to-be saviour of liis country - Henry Clay. Said he, touching this nubject, "thewhigs of Congrese have done entry thing that could be expected of them: iheyhava succeeded in passing a Tariff which il nfl'irds sufficicnt revcnue to meet the wants of an aconomicaladtninistration of Government, at the same time affords adequate incidental protection to American Industry." Hcre wc have it again; -3uffieient revcnue and AürquATE incipental PROTECTION." Whero is the mighty differencc between these ohampions of the old parties, about which the passioi are to bo blown into a flame - a fkmc that tends rsther to consume its lovo of frecdom, order, and moral virtuc, than to purify and make it come forlh from the ordeal likO gold from the refiners's furnnco? Can you peroeive it? - AVlierc and what is the bone of coutention? Is it not the Presidential Chair? isnot the object ' of thiu war of worde, with the subordínales, the "ñyje Ioaves and two fishes?" But who furnish the loaveeand two ftshes! Ayc, there'ethc rubTlio people toil and aweat to iurnish "spoils" whilo their legislntors, national and local, wuho lew honorable exccptions, are manuhicturing Prcsidents and Governors and other Officials, leaving the people and tlie principies on which the Governn.ent is bascd, to lake care of themselves. Have we not heen long onougli grnsping afier soop-bubbes? Have v,e not been sufliciently enchanted with tlie magie muaic of sleeplees banJs of political brokers, chanting forth their meludies to the Bnnk. the Tariff,.thc Sub-Treasury, the Fiscal Agent projects which Irave Jollowed each other in rnpid succession, to the confusión of tratlc, the annihilaiion of public confidence, the detcrioration of the public moráis, and tlie consequent prostration of the entire country in poverty, distress, and shame! - long cnotigh o allow ourselvcs a breathing spcll, and to rfiflect most seriousy on the end of our course and toil? Surely angry strife about tweedlo-dum and tweclle-dee diffjrences does not becoine a communiy of self-coverning, high-tninded and patriotic 'reetnen, who, instcad of expending their cnerergies in battling the wind, and villifying one another for the benefit of those who care more br the flecce than for the flock, should be directing their best eflbrts to the improvement of the condition of their race, the extennination of vice, the promotion of intelligence and piety, and the e!evation of the oppresscd. Fellow citizens, we nsk you to pause and enquire of yourselves why it is thnt the spirit of '76 has, in this libcrty-loving nation, beconte nearly extinct in the middle of the 19th century? There is unquesiionably a combination of causes leading to this result. But our limits will allow U6 only us briefly to allude to one of the more prominent of these.Youarenwnre that the foundation-stone ofour po'.itical edifice was inscribed, by our ancestors wlio taid t, with the ever-enduring, and sublime iruih that Ai.r. mkn are crentcd cqual, and are tnlitltd ín cquil V-bcrty and justicc in the admiii' istrutim of hnnan affairs: thus carrying their Bili of Ilights, enstmnped in bold relief by an Otnnipotent Hand upon their very imnge, to be ''read and approved of all men." The superstructurc reared tliorcon does not beconie the foundation. We have violnted this, the first of Hcaven's Inws to man, and are now receiving a foretsste of the sufiering consequent upon a violation of thntlaw. We have an element ín our eyitem whicli is at war with the first principies of free Government. This same hostile element having been incorporated into other Republics, ot other days, hasgreaily accclerated, if not procured their ruin. That element is SLAVEJR.Y. Likc a cankerworm, it lies gnawing ot our tree ui liberty; and unless specdily removed, will dry t to the root. It has already deprived it of its foüage. and withered its branches.The right of petition! - whereisit? Already has it bfien borne, in factious triumph. to the charnelhouseof slavery-cursed República. Shnll U be told that tliis constitutional privilege, so vital to all reform ond rcdress of grievanccs - a privilege which is not de ried by Etiropean and Asiatic Despots to thcir vericst slaves, has by slaveholding Diclntors in our national councils, been disparaged and denind, for these eight year to tho free white citizens of this liberty bonsting Confeieracy? The great majority, nay, almost he entire masa of our intellectual giants of the orth, have proatrated thcmselvc?, and beconie jowerless. before the blood-stained Juggernaut of Southern Idolatry. Likc Sampson, they are, in pite oftheir plodges, shorn oftheir locks. bound, yes put oui, grinding in prison. and reserved to makc sport for their leige I-ords in the final conummation of their trtumph over liberty. Surey the iron heel of despotism, which crushrs ;he nble sons of África in our land, is upon the necks of the obsequious abetlors of that Hell-boiotreii tyranny. Is not this enough to aliénale the attaehment and confidence of thinking men from such politicinn6; and from those partjes which, s eueh) hnve thruet a gag in'.o the rnouth of his nation, nnd conlumncioubly, against reiterated admonitione, warnings and entreaties, pericvered in holding it there, in contrnvention of the Constitution, their solemn oath to preerve it inviolate, and the frown of that God who haa said to the nobiest of hi work8, be f rei? Shnll we prostitnie the Ballot Box, that best of Heaveris gifts to reenen, by longer sustaining such men - such arties- by sustaining for the highest office in the government, a slaveholdf-r-or his apolo gist, - a daüy violator of natural rigbts nnd 'ree principie?, thereby transferring to him our aoütical pover,and cnabling him to strengthen the bulwarks of oppression at our expense?- If we delégate to him our power, does he not beconie our agent? If we snstain men for office who act with parlies who go for sla veholding Presidene, do we not particípate in the guilt of upholding ar.d perpetuating 6lavery? and shall we not be partnkers of the curse?Be not deceived with the fnllacious argument that "of two evils you ehould chooso the least.' Should we choose evil; or Ehouid we resift ít? Evils come fast enough without our vDlition. Evita mny fall upon us as a consequence of our connrction with corrupt society ; but a consciousne.ss of our innocence will ei)able us to hear them like men and like Christians. tíut when, liko the pingues of Ejrypt, they result from our choice, our consciencc being guilty, we shall be doubly cursed. If from choice you support slavery, permit us to soy, on authority of sacred writ, that elavery ere long you gh,aH have- and peradventure personal sjavcry too,- fo.r what amon sow8 he shall renp- f be sow the wind, heshall reap the whirlwindü i Hithcrto we have spoken as f we had been despoiled of but one right, &c as f the i tion had been but once violated. Il is true, this i one instance of unredresed violated right should be sufficient cause of alarm to n people vigilant of their freedom. Bul its viulations have been so frequent and flagrant, that we muy allude to it in the language of an eminent slaveocrat who,in by-gone times, when northern ears were terrified with tbe awful buzzing1 of the great eonthern dissolutionHimbvg, denounced it as a 'blurred Si tattered parchtneni.' That instnimenï secures "to the citizena of eách State all the privileges nnd immunities of citizens in the several States," and yet, in dcfiance of this constitutional guaranty, the coloree! citizens of other States who are voters and eüiïible to a scat in the United States' Senate, if they or any of them, in pursuing their lawful business, pass within the 'mits of South Car olina, are clutched up, imprisoned, charged with the expenses of arrest and kenping, and in default of payment, or on refusal to leave the State, are sold as elaves. The same ho!ds good of other slave-Stales, and of Florida.- Massachnsetts emancipated her slaves and invested them with political rights some nine years before the adoption of the Federal Constitution. Thus, the free colored voters of that State, mnny of whom, if still surviving, fought and bied in the achievement of Ameiican Independence, and who voted for the Constilution, are, byforce of slave low, and the conni vanee of a 6)avery-itnbued Congress, strippad of their personal freedom, and eo far n6 Uie demon of slavery can do it, cor.verted into brutes that perish. Verily has the North nothing to do with slavery, when its freemen, its fighting men, its tax-paying men, and its voting men, without the color of crime, are outlawed, and metamorphosed into chatiels for the convenience of republican Despots? - The Constitution no where gives Congress the power to hold slaves, or to legislate for slaves as such; much less to convert fieemen into slaves, but virtually forbids it, ind yet, by the authority of Congress. some thirty thuusand human beings are held in abject bondage in the District rnd Territory over which Congress exercise8 exclusive jurisdiction, and are regulated by a slave code adopted by that bodv.x.f u. : ;- ..- ! wi f.iun .'r. ];. pío ture of Congressional ouiragc. When the District of Columbio, and the Territory of Florida carne under the jurisdictionof that body, sla very ceased therein, be cause 1here was an end to the only jurisdiction by which it could exist. The slaves Iken were frre. But that body, in the absence of all constitutional authority, adopted and imposed on tliose Didtricts a slave code, and thus creatcd sla very. Who prirnarily créale aml give power to Consress Who, through agents of their own choosing, make the Iqwb? Do not the people? Ay, verily: and if Congress created 6lavcry without your special consent, thal gross ossumption of power ha?, with comparatively few pxceptions, received your sanction at the Ballot Box ever since the outrag-e wns committed. Will you longer sustoin such outroges by supporting parties, and men for office, whose perceptions are bo biurred with the slime of the all-devouring Boo of the South, thnt they cannot distinguith between "a man and a brute?' whose republicon sensibiüties have becorne so transmuted by the plaver of the monster, that, witli great sang froid, they can make liberly their sport and hnmanity theirprey? Are you sure that your own personal überty s safe in their hand? ltis the seltled policy of the botith to extend the law of plavery over the North; and indeed so confident is the slavocracy of success in this nefarious enterprise. that she has, in the face of the world, predicted the accomplishment of that evenl in a quarter of a cenlury. Her leading statosmen declare that all society must ullimately eettle down into the condilion of maeter and slove - that slnvery must exist in every community in some form - that the laboring classes most virtually be owned by their rich neighbors - that the relation of master and slave precludcs the necessity of an order of nobility - and therefore that they consider slavery to be "the most safe and stable basis of free Institutions in the world." Do you doubt the existence of such a policy? And will you tlirov yourselvps into the power of men and parties whose acts accord with it ?Territories hove been purchased. portionB of which have been erected into sïnve-Siates, to enlarge the borders of slavery and strengthen that foe to freedom, when it was the duiy of Conqress to ptiaranty to them a "repubJicon fonn of governraent." Congrcss has long connived at southern outrages perpetrated on the freedom of the press through tlie Poet Offico Department. A few months since, some threo hundred papeis, in pamphlei form, issued from a northern press, were burned, by a Poat Master, in a public 6treet in New Orleans. The Federal Government, without any conatitutional authority, has protected the coastwisc ejavc trae- cmandcd, and by falsehoodand fraud, drawn money from a foreign treaeury as a compensation to slavcholdera for the "preteiided loss of slaves freed by the act of God"' - subjected the country to a heavy expenditure of blood and treasure in the everglades of Florida, on the requisition and for the benefit of trcffickers in human flesh, who now demand an enormous increabe of the Na vy for the defence of that implacable foe to God and man - slavery - by which many millions would he added to the public burthene, about fuur fifths of which, as in all other cases, must be dravn from r.ortheru pockets. Throiigh the property representation in Congress, and the party machinery of soulhern origin, the plavocracy is enabied to shapc and does shape the federal legisiatiun and national diolomacy, to promote southern in terests at the expense and entire neglect of norlhern free labor. Henee a foreign market for tobáceo and cotton must be sought out and negotiated by agents paid by the people, while the great staples of the north may rot on our hands, or pass from them at a price less than their cost of productión. Through the same meana, this colossal power monopolizes nearly all the fat offices in the Government, the army and navy, while the truckling North builds the ships, and furnishes men, money and munitions of war. With the exception of intervals ofprosperity, the vascillating policy of our slavery-ridden Government has long kept the country in a state of turmoil, confusión and distre&s.- During the last forty year9, it has been the theatre ofall sorts of political and financial experiments, during which, fhe ingenuity and enterpriae of the North have so adapted themselves to existing systems as lo prove that national prospeiity depends less on the kind than the permanency of any . While we have been learning this as a lesson of sad experience, we have made a valúa - ble acquifiiticn by discovering the principal cause of those fatal experiments, and the remedy - slavery and its removal. The slavocracy has got np systems and destroyed them at picasure. If the North was growing rich and power ful, a prostration of her trade must be eKècied to cancel southern debls, and continue the sceptre of power in the royal hand of human black-hawkers, at the risk even of . resort to nullifkation - the master stroke o overseerism - to effect their pnrposes.Dut uur Umus roroiel us to go mío runfie detail. We present yo-j with the na mes 01 six candidates for the Jower House of the Legislatura, who, we believe, apprcciate the importance of exterminating the element of slavery from our system, and of brïnging back the Government to the fundamental principies of the Declaratión of Indeppndence, and of the Constitution. Do you ask what a local anti-slavery Legislatura can do? We answer, Ihat a portion of our tax-paying population is disfranclused both by the Conslitution and the statute; and that the local legisla tu res possess a conirolling influ3nce in tlie United States Señale. Our legislatura cannot indeed amend the Constituiion of tho State; but it can perform important duties in that behalf; and alrio strike the Black laws from the statute book. We present for your suffraires nt the next ensuing elention, as candidates for the Legislatura, Wilüatn G. Stone, of Troy; Erastus Ingersol, of Novi, Jessey Tenney, of Highland; George Sugden, of Commerce; John Thomas, of Oxford; and Joseph Morrison, of Pontiac. Fellow citizens, in view of theevils of slavery to the oppreesed. and its tendency to undermine and destroy the best interesas of man, we cali upon you in the name of every thing dear to you as American citizena, as patriots, philanthropist8 and Cliristians, to abandon the slavery parties - that "mystical Babylon'" which "trades in the bodies and eouls of men," and with a zeal becoming the real fricnos of humanity, to give your energies to a cause whose object is the enfranchisement and elevation, not only of our whole country; but of the wliole world.