HON. WILLIAM JAY.

THE RESPON SIBILITY OF THE FREE STATES.

THE advocates of slavery and the tools of party, are continually telling us, that "the North has nothing to do with slavery." A volume might be filled with facts, proving the fallacy of this assertion. There is scarcely a family among us, that is not connected by the ties of friendship, kindred, or pecuniary interest, with the land of slaves. That land is endeared to us by a thousand recollections-with that land we have continual commercial, political, religious, and social intercourse. There in innumerable instances, are our personal friends, our brothers, our sons and our daughters. How malignant and foolish then is the falsehood, that the thousands and tens of thousands of abolitionists among us, are anxious to see that land reeking in blood! But the more intimate are our connections with that land, the more exposed are we to be contaminated by its pollutions; and the more imperatively are we bound to seek its real welfare.

Let it then sink deep in our hearts, let it rest upon our consciences, that in every wicked and cruel act of the Federal Government in be. half of slavery, the people of the North have participated,- -we might almost say that for all this wickedness and cruelty, they are solely responsible; since it could not have been perpetrated but with the consent of their representatives. Vast and fertile territories, which might now have been inhabited by a free and happy population, have by northern votes been converted, to use the language of the poet,

into

"A land of tyrants, and a den of slaves."

By northern Senators, have our African slavers been protected from the search of British cruisers. By northern representatives, is the American slave-trade protected, and the abominations enacted in the Capital of the Republic, sanctioned and perpetuated; and northern men are the officiating ministers in the sacrifice of constitutional li. berty on the altar of Moloch. But representatives are only the agents of their constituents, speaking their thoughts, and doing their will. THE PEOPLE OF THE NORTH have done "this great wickedness." When they repent, when they love mercy, and seek after justice, their representatives will no longer rejoice to aid in transforming the image of God into a beast of burden-then will the human shambles be overthrown in the Capital-then will slavers, "frightened with despair," no longer depart from the port of Alexandria, nor chained coffles parade the streets of Washington. Then will the powers of the Federal Government be exercised in protecting, not in annihilat ing the rights of man; and then will the slaveholder, deprived of the countenance of the free States, as he is already of nearly all the rest of the civilised world, be led to reflect calmly on the character and tendency of the institution he now so dearly prizes, and seek his own welfare and that of his children in its voluntary and peaceful aboli. tion-Jay's View.

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

The time appears to have arrived when it is proper to look to the cause of the difficulties which have taken place in the progress of the General Government, for some years past. Through all the contests of the political parties which have taken place, one fact is visi ble; and that is the steady ascendancy of the slave-holding princi ples. This fact can be accounted for only in one way. It is the basis of representation in the popular branch of the Legislature, which establishes that ascendancy. Twenty-five representatives, elected by the citizens of the slaveholding States, in addition to the number which they are entitled, to by their free population, have, for ten years past, controlled the destinies of the country. Twentyfive electoral votes, gained to the masters from the chains of two millions of human beings, and held forth as the prize to that individual and that party which will consent to make the greatest sacrifices of principle to obtain them, are sufficient to decide the character of the government policy. This has been submitted to with. out great murmuring, up to this time; but there are many indica. tions to prove that it will not be so any longer. The free States have a right to be heard on this point, because the original compromise, which was made upon this subject in the Constitution, and which let in this enormous power, has in its practical effect, been wholly favorable to the slave States, and without any benefit at all to them.-Report to the General Court of Mass.

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS,

In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Forty-Three. Resolves, concerning an amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Resolved, That the following amendment to the Constitution of the United States be and hereby is recommended to the consideration of Congress, to be acted on according to the fifth article:

The third clause of the second section of the first article shall read in the words following:

Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States, which are or may be included within this Unon, according to their respective numbers of free persons. The actual ennumeration shall be made within two years from the date of the adoption of this amendment, in the manner provided by the Constitution, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as the Congress shall by law direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at least one representative."

Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor be requested to transmit a copy of the aforegoing resolves and the proposed amendment to each of the senators and members of the House of Repre-" sentatives of this commonwealth in the Congress of the United States.

Resolved, That his Excellency the Governor, be requested to transmit a copy of the same resolve and amendment to the executive of the United States and of the several States.

THOMAS MORRIS.

I rejoice, that the abolition of slavery throughout the civilized world, is no longer problematical; it seems to be almost universally conceded, that this stupendous fraud upon a portion of the human race is fast drawing to a close, and the great question with us is truly, what measures are best suited to accomplish this desirable end in the United States. In our otherwise free and favored country, slavery seems to have erected its strongest hold, and is not only striving to govern the councils of the country, the press and the pulpit; but even mind itself is attempted to be made subject to its rules; and I should almost despair of successful resistance, did I not see embodied in the cause of freedom more moral worth, more talent, more patriotism, more love of country, more devotedness to principles, than is embodied in any other cause in the United States. Yes. I repeat it, the gentlemen who are now, in our own country, engaged in the anti-slavery cause, seem, to me, to possess more moral worth, more talent, more patriotism and love of country, than any other body of men in the United States, not even excepting the public councils of the nation. It is true they are yet in the minority; but if I am not mistaken, in every age and country of the world in which men have been compelled, by oppression, to strike for freedom, they have been at first but few in number and a persecuted race. But where they have been sincere, making truth and justice their guide, success has universally been the final result of their efforts. With us the slave has no power of aetion, nor can we consent that his freedom shall be the purchase of his own arm; a merciful Providence, in order to prevent such dreadful catastrophes in our beloved country, has brought to his rescue, and united for his deliverance, the warmest hearts and soundest heads of the nation; and they present to the world the new, strange and cheering phenomenon, of men enjoying all the blessings of liberty themselves, yet willing to devote their time, their means, their all, to procure for the oppressed and down-trodden slave, those natural rights to which he is entitled, and which we promised to all men as the chief corner stone of our republican edifice. The moral power of such men is sufficient for this work, but that moral power must operate by means; and the elective franchise is the great, if not the only means to make it effectual. Political action is necessary to produce moral reformation in a nation; and that action with us can only be effectually exercised through the ballot box. And surely the ballot-box can never be used for a more noble purpose than to restore and secure to every man his inalienable rights. It seems to me to be almost an impossibility, that a man can be in favor of perpetuating American slavery, and yet be a friend to the principles of our government. If the ballot-box, then, is honestly and independently used, it alone will soon produce the extinguishment of slavery in our country.

For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

To preach deliverence to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.

Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

RELIGIOUS AND MORAL TESTIMONY.

PRESBYTERIAN SYNOD of New York and Philadelphia, 1787.

The Synod of New York and Philadelphia, (1787,) do highly approve of the general principles in favor of universal liberty that prevail in America, and the interest which many of the states have taken in promoting the abolition of slavery. They earnestly recommend it to all the members belonging to their communion, to give those persons who are at present held in servitude, such good education as to prepare them for the better enjoyment of freedom. And they moreover recommend that masters, whenever they find servants disposed to make a just improvement of the privilege, would give them a peculium, or grant them sufficient time, and sufficient means of procuring their own liberty at a moderate rate; that thereby they may be brought into society with those habits of industry that may render them useful

raise of a small sum of money, to squander in dissipation upon the sale of his victim. There is no other way than to try the question by a jury, in the first instance, when the man is seized, and the questions to be tried are: 1st. Is the man complained of, the same indi. vidual he is charged to be? 2d. Is he a person that owes labor or service in another state, under the laws thereof, and escaped therefrom? This provision in the act of congress applies to all persons white, black and red, and wherever the right of trial by jury is secured to one color of persons in the state, it is to all others.-NewYork Evening Post, May, 1842.

CHARLES KING.

It must be obvious to the most careless observer, that the horror which used to thrill through all sound hearts at the bare mention of disunion can no longer be excited. We have heard so much and so often from the south-upon the slightest occasion-of threats of separation, of calculating the value of the union, and of the south's ability to exist by herself and for herself-that the north has been forced, as it were, to reflect upon what would be the issue of such a breaking up of our republic; and, sooth to say, reflection has brought the conviction to very, very many minds, that if calculation of sectional pride and power must determine this great political and social problem-the north-the free states-the horticultural, manufacturing and commercial states, would gain power, wealth, and impor tance by cutting loose from the weaker and dependent south, now admitted to an equality with them.

This conviction of reason, moreover, is, in some ardent minds, exasperated almost into a passionate desire, by the insolence and intolerance of the slave representatives in congress.

It is to feelings of this sort that we are to ascribe in part the petition presented by Mr. Adams, which has occasioned the violent debate in the house, asking for a dissolution of the union, rather than longer submission to unequal, oppressive, overbearing legislation, dictated by southern interest, and carried by the cohesion of the com. mon bond of slavery.

And what was thus formally embodied by these petitioners, is floating loosely and largely among the elements that go to make up public opinion in the north. Repulsed at first because of the loyalty to the union, which enters into the education and hopes, as it were, of every northern man-it comes again and again, at such successive manifestations of southern intolerance, to force an entrance, and at each attempt finds resistance more and more feeble.-N. Y. American.

JOHN NEAL.

I am opposed to the annexation of Texas or any other state or territory in which slavery exists, to the United States; believing slavery to be one of the greatest afflictions that a people, or any portion of a people, can labor under.

I myself am not an abolitionist, in the common meaning of the