No Slaveholder Should Be Appointed To Office

The nntional Icislation oughc to go to the very verge of Constitucional power in favoringand exalting our frtz institutions. And this, not only becnuse in itself it is right to do bul bccause i' tends to weaken and destroy slavery. For the Lcgislature equally to respect free and slave inttitutions, is to confovnd all distinction letwccn rigfit. and wrong- to cali cvll good and gooi evü. Wiih the aame reuson niight t equally respect the obscenilies of Paganism and the decenties of Christinnity. The natural equality of m (71- justice - liberty - are the basis of our govornment. In adopüng this bnsis, we voluntnrily gave to the world, a guaranty that elavery, the most nefarious adversary of EquaJity, Justice and Liberty, ihat had ever appearéd, should not only meet with no favor, but that it should be extinguished, and ihis of course, in a reasonablc time. Th.it we have not, asa government, taken the first effectual slcp towards the performance o this guaranty - toword the redemption of this pledge - but that, on the contrary, we have permitted the slnve interest to overridc cvery other interest, and U6urp the administration of our affairs, is fast making us - has'already made us - a hissing and a by-word among the nations of the earth. Whnt a burning shame it is to theNorth, possessing so lorge a preponderance of intellect, of educaiion. of capacity for business of every 8ort, with so decided a numerical majority, giving her the legitímate constitutional power to control the government, with a view to securing the blessings of Liberty tn all the inhabitanle of the land - that she should have suffered the helm to be taken from her - the statcly vesael to be turned away from its llustrious destination. and givcn up to the dcspicable and dirty uses of the slaretrader and pirate! Do the free States de plore the exis'.ence of Slavery and wish for its extinction without violence to the Constitutional rights of the slaveholders? Let them prove their sinceriiy, - let thm demand of the appointing power that no slaveliolder be henceforth put into tiny office unicr the government. Why should he? Has he not disqualified hiniself for office in a government ,' oee great aim is to secure the blessings of Liberty- -just as certóinly as the infidel debauchee has disqualfied himself forministering at a Christian altar, or for practically commending the excellence of Christian moráis. If slaveholders were treatcd as wholly unqualified for office under the government, we should soon witness the extinction - the constitü'ionol