Address Of The National Liberty Convention, A. D. 1841
To the Citizens of the United States: The Nationul Co.vvention of the friends of liberty in the United Siates, convened in the city of New York, on the 12lh and 13lh of May, 1841, fur the purpose of considcring the propriety of inmiinating candulates for Piesident and Vice President of the United States, to bc supported hy them at the next election, havirig, wiih gre;tt unanimity, agreed upon theadoplion of that measurc, and having unanimously selected as their candidatos JAMES G. BIRNEY of New York, for President, and THOMAS MORRIS, of Ohio, for Vico President, considerit likewise proper to acompany the announcemeut of iliis result of tlieir. deliberations, with a brief statement of the reasons which have impelled them to adopt this policy, anJ on explicit avowal of the principies hy which, in their associated potitical uctiori, thcy consider themselves under obligntion 10 be governed. We tiud the government of the Uniled State?, as u matter of esisting fact, under tho control of the slave power. On a review of the politioal history of the country, we fiiul lh;u tho general governmenf, under all its successive dhiïnistrations, since the adoplion of the presant i Consthution, has been wielded by the slave power, fur iia own perpetuity,e.xtcnsion, and supremacy,not simply in a neg lect of the great interesta of the country atlarge, and especially of tho free States, but in actual and persevering hostility to those interests, and that too in the j ence of abundunt testjmoiiy on the part of slavebolding statesmen themselves, (whelh er avowedly friendly or unfriendly to the perpetuity of the slave system,) to the great truth that the interesls of free and alave labor can not be reconciled with each other, and that freedom nnd álavery can not long co-exist under the same government. While the Jeffersons, the Washington?, the Pmckneys, the Menry9,and the other prominent slatesmen of the South who rnay be reckoned among the friends of free indtitutions for the white man, have with oue voice assured us that they expect ed lo secure ihis blessing by uo procesa which 8houH not include tho emancipation of the colored niiin - on tho other hand, the Leigha, the McDuffies, the Calhouns, the Clays, the Dews, and other prominent slaesmen andleading minds, of tho South, who have argued for the perputuity of the slave system, have at the aame time, very siguificantly admitted that they do dot expect to secure the object of thete wishes ut a lesa expense than the ultÃmate enslavement of the great mass of lbo laboring populalion of ilie country, northern and souihern, and totally irrespective of complexion. During theflfty two years of our nalion a! history, under the present constitution, the office of President has been held by a slaveholder, forty years. The slave power has held thesupremacy in our nationul cotincils during tho entire period of our national existence, and undtsr theadminiátration of all llie contending parties that have, in turn, ruled over tiie dévtinies of the country. Under the reign of the Slave Power ovcr thisnütion, we have witnessed the national diplomney and the trealy-making power uniformly and efiicicntly subservient to the iuterests of slavery at the expense oà the Ndlional intere&ts, aud the nalional honor. The SLAVE POWER has moulded the measures of the national government in all its internal regulations, and iis political economy,in subserviency to the wishes of the slaveholders, and in opposition to the interests and general wishes of the non slaveholding States. Jt has established a national bank, then declared it unconstitutional and broken it down - again re-established it,and again brolten it down at its pleasure just as its cwn supposed interests mightseem,for tbc time bemg, to require. Ãt has proscribed and prohibited foreign commerce, it has clamored for do-: mestic munufnciure3 und a protectiveriflf; again it has demanded and obtained the abandonmentof that poücy,and areturn to free trade, on a threatofa dissolution of the Union, unlcss the free-labor States wou Id concede tothe demand. It has declared war, under pretence of protecting that foreign commerce, carried on by the free North, wbich, at the same time, it dec!ared to be a national curse and which,the measures it dictaled, including the war, were adapted, if not intend.ed to annihilate. It has shown, in Us conduct of that 'war, and parliculurly in its sham invasión of Canada which it dared not annex lo the freo North, that the preservaron, and aggrandizement of itself, was more regard-r ed than the vindication of the national lionor. It has terminated Ihat war by a trealy of Peace, in whioh no redress was obtainod for the past, and no security stipuUilcd fur the future.il ñas tlierelore, in cÃlect,!evied a tax ot miany millions of dollars upon the free luboring North, to sustain the expense oÃ" a war ofaggression upon ils owu interests, and its own rights. In all ibis, t has manifestly sought to preserve ibe balance of power belween tlie impoverished South, and ihe more prosperous and industnous North, by cripling the eriergies of the latter, and them, as nearly as possible, to. the level oÃ' the Ãbrmer. The immense pecuniary sacrificos and burdens thus imposed upon the tree laboring iXorih, by the action of the sla ve power Ihrough ihc National Government, has become siill more insupportable, inconsequence of other depredation9 upon our tree labor 3y a procesa which no aalionol adrninistrationcan prevent, othcrwisc than liy contribuling the aid of its constilmional authority, for the overthrow of slavery itself. We allude to the merchantile and financia! losses to the free North, which must unavoidably result fiorn its business connections wiih the paupcrised Soulh. - Losses which can only be guarded agains by a total non-intercourse between tha Iree and slave States, or by the abolitiou of the slave syslem irself. There is abuudant dala for the belief that no slaveholding cotnmunily, relyiog on sl-ive labor for its agricultural product ev;;r suppprted, or can support itself, but by direct or indirect supplies from, or depredation.s upon othor communilies witli which it holdd Ãnlercoursc. God never intended thal one half or two i :fitrds of a community shoukl subsist upon lÃ:a unrcqjiÃed labor of ihe olher half. A slight acquaintance with history may aasure us that it uever yet bas been done.. And a very modérale stock of comrnon sense and poramon ariihnietic may serve lo convince any cundid inquirer, that it never can be done. It is well understood thnt the Britisli West India Islands, previous to ihe glorious act ofabolition,were dependent on the tnother country, not or.ly tör their military defence against their plundered agriculturaiists, but also ibr their pecuniary meana of escaping the horrors of starvation. It has been anirmed that the slaveholding North American Provinces were brought into the measure of joining the Northern and Eustern Provinces in lh,eir revolutionary struggle againtl Great Britain, chiefly by the belief that a war would conüscate or vvipe out, in some way the vast debt. duo from the slaveholding planters 10 the inerchants of England, an4 which they were unable to pny. From that time to the present, it is not believed that twenty yoars have, at any period elapsed, (and seldom more thau len years,) without a general bankruptcy amotig the planters of ihe slave States,the burden of which has fallen, ultimately upon their imporiers, their mechanics, iheir arti.in?, their manufucturers, and their ban kers; and these reside, chiefly, in the non-!aveholding States. The first National lïink owed its charter mainly to the fact that southern bankru]tcy ueeded loans from some source which the South could not supply, and which its ingenuity could not devise,without a minghng uj of its own credit with that of the free laboring North, in a conv (non partnership bank. The same bank lost its charter bocause the South had be-r como indebled to it, and to the northern msrehants beyond their ability to nay, and therefore it became convenient to bury the creditor and hiscollecting agent in one commongruve. The Second National Bank owed its birth and its death to the same causes. Boston was overwhelmned with sudden and une.xpected bankruptcy in 1823, becauseshe had sold her domestic manufacture and imported goods lo the South, and the South was unable to pay. A similar visitaron, connected in part, with the colion speculalions, (commenced at the South, and ended at the North,) in 1820, was inflicted upou the city of Ne York. Again, in 1837,somethinglike 100,008 000 of dollars was lost to the city of New [CONTINUED ON FOUKTH PAGE.]