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Selections: Whig Abolition

Selections: Whig Abolition image
Parent Issue
Day
19
Month
May
Year
1845
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Some weeks 6iuco we published the j Blnnce of a communication in ihe Boston Couriei, by ".Mk'dlesex," urng the Whigs to !ake nntiölavery 'roí nd. This ( lion wna reviewed by ihe Emancipator, and ' ihe writer hos agam refponJed through the , [pourler in defence of his positione. Wc ■ jiyé the coiicluding pnrt of the urticle: ( "Bat the eilitor is no more sntisfied that it Í ia possible to bring the VVhfg pnrty on to ( slavery gronnd, thnn he is Uiat we could have ' ! elected any one elso thon Rlr. Clay. And be ! proceeds lo give severa! reasons why such ari j i eveut is not tobe expected. J. Oppositio i to slavery is no put of the object for which the whig party waa formed. g. l'hjs Whigs are oppoaed to the fprrad of anti-elavery sent.mentB. 3. The Wlür parly is made np in part of slaveholdersa:id t'ic sunporters oi'slavery. Thee contain the substance of his rcasoning on ihis point. Let us examine them. 1. Opposilion to slnvery is noparl of Ihr. object Jor uhich ihe Plu's; pur ty was formed. Truc. Nejther was it formed to do man y otiier Ihing8 which it has dono, nnd which it now wielies to do. I pretend not exactly to understand how the Wliig party teas Ibrmed. It inaydate back, and probully does, to Mr.Adams's adminUtrution, nnd be but nnother lintne for that portion of the country that snstained him. Or I may huve bem formeH carlier, in fact if not infoim, of ihose wlu differed in their views of public policy from Lhe party which lias nppropriated to itself the nnne of Democratie. Those questions of policy change from time to time, as new interests and lhe developcment of new resourcof, new cpiiiions and new dnngerp, urge themselves upon the attention of the publ.c tuitid. When these nerc question arise, men enerally nisnme one side or the other, ns their jiu)gients dictnle or their politica} aiïïnities draw thcni. A few years aso, the question of Bank or No-Bank was the kading quusliun of theduy; noiv, some Whigs eveu cal! it an ''obseloie idea;' and other quesiions, ihat were rife in the pubLc mind a Cvw ynrs ago, are now forgotten. And it must beso. it woukl be controry to !he genius of onr institutions and tlie spirit of the age, for a party lo fix itself dngoredly npon a erred once adopted but never lo be changed. 'J'hat wo-i!d do for thc'Celestials,' but not for Young America.' 1'here is progress olí a round us. orui surely the Wbig party shoud nol nlone be stntionary. ]n this view of Iho subject, there j is notliing in the fact that the Whig party was not formed to promote antislavery at all inctunpaiible with their takipg il now. A-.::. slavery is of rrccut growlh, and there is noth Uur vcry Ftrange tiiat iip to this joint, fhe Whig party have not adupted it as one of the cardinal doctrines of their creed; but the time has arrived rvlnn, in perfect consistency with their past history of ai! parlieí, they :nay engraft it on to their system ofi opinions and tnrasures as an essentiul pari oí" their future policy. 2. The JVlngs are oppusvd ro ir spread of anli-sluVfty saitimrnts. Some of Ihem are, and soino are not, Southem Whis have spoken against iliem and voted ugainst thi-tn, ;ind so have some northern WJiíítp; ond so havesome who aro now 'm the ranks f.f the Liberty party. Ie is a new enterprier, nnd we cannot expect ihat all thouid reach tiie same conclusión at the same time, olthough we my hope ultimalrly to bring up at :!ic ía:ne point. A great increase of iight nt the Norlh, and aggravaied nggressions upon om rijjhls al t!ie South, are unc&sSity to break tliOFC strong ties of niïih'atinn, by which thf northern portinn of the Wliig party has been b und to the Soutli. But ihat ligiit must be expecter!, and tho.'e ugorressions have alreudy been yerpeiraled, and we nny conïu'en'ly nnticipaie the legitímate re.-ults of suchenees npon tlic public sentiment ofthe Aortli. lint bad tid bockunrd as I udiuit the party to have been, fhets will nol uslaiii tlio sweepiiiLr charge whieh the E ::nncj a:or has mude agniijst the party, ' t' óolng vvhot they cuiiifl to check tlie growtli of anli-f]aery senti menf.-.' Of more ilian seven huiuireJ presses, I do rWÍ bcJicve iliat a uiüjrity have dAne any ihini; lo prcvrui the real fronda of bumanity froin advoc.-itiog1 the claims of tlio slove. The editor of the Emancipator has spent nmcli time al VVashingfioii, and he knows that ihore ia a t-Uiking dilieience in llie tono of opinión entertained by tlie tvvo parlies np on the fiibject of nbpliíion - wcil illnstrated, perhapp, by the different treatincnt which he received trom the lasl Speñker 'ÓF the iïó'use of Itepresentatives, nnd Speaker White. And for the last ten year.--, there have been íeveral votes tuken, not directly on the snbjVct of obolifion, vet of groot irrrportauce in their bearinpr pon the subjuct of slnvery.- VVhntj Pinckncy's gag vvns passed, a majority of the Whigs volcd ngaint ir, wijile ucarly pvcrv Dcmocrat voted for it. CHipun inccndmry pubïication bilí' waa oppostá and de"èaVd by tho vetes of tho vfoïgs, h:cVan Huren, Wright and Buchuuan voteü for t. The Whiga votcd ogaint Patten's, Cost i Juhrison's and Atlicrton's gaga. Or. Slode'a molion to have leave to introduce a bilí to I boliühsluvery in the District of Colombia- on the tjuestiona of suetaining Mr. Adam9 and Mr. Giddings, nnd many other questions growiug out of ihe exister.ce of sluvery, the Whigs, os a purly, hove voted just as Liberty men would have done. And on the question of amiexation, they havc fully comtnilied tliemselves, as a party, against it. They re as jet, I admit, very farfrom taking ;hnt high ground I should be glad lo see, ond hope yet and oojttoócc. Allí contend for is, that their tendencies are that way - fur i ad vanee of the Drmocracy; nnd lyhcn the niajority shnll have nerve enough to cut from ihe South, the great body will readily, nnd : out violence to thcir past and present synipathies, fall uto a support of (hoso measuteá that shall look towards emancihtion. 3. The Whig par tg is made vp, in part, , of slavehoïders oud vpkolders oj slavery. True again, oud that for the reason already ffivën. Pnrty ]ines were drawn before the present antislavery moveinent began, and, of eourse, a part of our 6lrengih haa been at the Soutb. Of the 1,300,000 votes wiiicit Mr. ' Clay re:eived, 400,000 were at tbe South, and ' 900,000 at the North. Morethan two thirds I of the Whig party are al the Nojth, and is ii right nr good pulicy for thid large p.rüon of ihe par y to look to that small minori y for the principies they must adopt, especially on a subject ihat involves so many serioua and vveiorhty considerations aa the subject of slavery? There has been a great revolution in public sentiment on an important subject, since the northern ond southern portions of the party enlered uto those poütical relations thfcy now sustcin - a subject that waa little tliought of at that time. Events of great magnitude hove heen of recent occurrence, wliich makea U3 ferl that we htve 'somelliing to do with slavery.' A foreien state has been foreed upon us againsl our will, and in violaliun of the specific prnvisions of the constitu tion; two of our ufticnl agents have been treated with the greatest indignitv, and rudely 8purned from the soil of sinter gtitPB norihern men and omen have been thrust into dungeons, simply fur aiding the trenriblinpr fugitive to escape from Iris prison house o de&pair. Tnis change of public sentimentand these events. have greatly modjfied the relatinn we tustain to the soulhern meniber of the iany, and I can see noihing of tl.a j 'base desertion and beiroyal of the 400,000 i Wliigs of the South, who have nobly fough byour s-ide during tie late campaign.'of whicb otliers (alk, if, ia obedience to the r.dvar.r.in rncira] ser.iiméni oftiie a?e, and for the de fence of our own ligias, and the sacred iuheritance left us by our futhers, 'we take anj ti slavery ground, al least so far as our con j stitutional righ's shall permit such action.' It is only todo for right and Uberly what the South liave ever done fur wrong and slavery. And if they cnnnot go wi:h us fur rigkl and liberty, vvhy tve sicaT skparate. It bui needz Jiimness and common honesty, end there is little difficulty in the matter. Let us nt once, in our tovni, countics and statee, adopt anti slavery ground, und the way wiil be we!l pregarod, three years henee, to enter the na j liottal convfnlion, and give our unbroken ma jority for &uch candidates as vill carry out thoe principies. Planting ourselves on right ground, nnd adopting principies that would sustuin lis un ü.'.-ut as well as in victorv, wc would raise the old whig banner, witn tne nnw and glorious rao-to of emanciPatio.n, und enter the contest. The result would be that we should be defeuled in every eouthern s'nte; i.ho:isonds would go to the Dcmocracy, althongh we niight hope tñat a few would reniain steadfust to Ihe party, for party affinitics are strong. Casiius AI. Ciayd wou.'d spring up in every 6tate, end in the sta tes of Vjrginia, Mnrylnndi Kentucky and Uelaware those Min:i minorities wuuid be constanlly jrowin tosvards rr.njorities. But our great scone of action would be ihefree síatts; om here, 1 thiuk, if we could once bring the strengt! of.party attuchment to bear in fuvor freedom, we ehnll have an agency for wliich we sii-ill look in vain to auy oiher source. - The Emai cipalor thinks tlie 'Liberty party' tr.e most eligible posifion for sucha )urpose; but it sec ms lo me that he ovrrlooks the strength of party lies, and can never have fully appreciated hov ihuch of fo.ee and ferJing it would denmnd to tear veters ennugh froni tJicir original party rclaiions. to swel! bis 60.000 lo a million and u hol f of voters, and wliich would be necessary to give them the power, ir the slnve i not emarcipated tili'.har is Qccompüslied, the hope of the preteut irei erution, at least, is small. By holding tbe I ba'once of' power ihey muy do good, by cuínpeiling one or ihe oiher of the leading partie6 to take right ground. Bevond that, ihe hope is preposteróos; and t seenis to me (bat honest sla ver y would prompt thum o anx'ous clForts to induce one or the otiier of the grea'. parlies to take right grunJ, by givwg tliem tiie full aísurnnce (fiat uhen that is done, tliey will readijy tlirow tlieir voles and inflnence in their favor. The Friends of the slava in Ihe VVliig pariy, ought to oxpect oiiy lliing but dis-ftouragcnient and opposition from Ihe Liberty party, in their attemnts to bring their own parly right on ihe quesUon of .-lave'y. Tho remark of .the Emancipalor, that the adoption of unli-sJavery ground by tlie Win? party is recomricnded nol in good fuith, b'ii 'meroly os ineans to an end, for the snke of re storing he ascendnncy of the VVIiij party,' jiroceeds upon an enlire misuppTeheosioü of my meaning. The recommcndution I mode was in good fauh, and on the same principie thot ! wou!d tel) a yo'utig in-iTf juát entennjí biisiness, XhtLikaneai'is ihebr$t poUcy - er thatmon asured hs readers that 'Wisdotn's way are waya of peace, and all her paths are plcasontuess.' I would recommeiid it first, becauso it w right. It does not weaken th nioiive, to make it appear that it is tüe trcb po licx.

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Subjects
Signal of Liberty
Old News