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vacillation of timeservers, and from the weakness of friends shield him by your votes. Make him strong to commence the great work by which the Declaration of Independence shall become a living letter, and the ways of Providence shall be justified to men.

"If yet ye are not lost to common sense,

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1 Swift, To the Citizens, 30-33. These words were introduced to sustain not merely the speaker, but also John A. Andrew, who was about to be nominated Governor of Massachusetts, and against whom this very accusation had been made.

THE UNCONSTITUTIONALITY OF SLAVERY SHOWN

FROM ITS BARBARISM.

LETTER TO A POLITICAL ANTISLAVERY CONVENTION AT WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, SEPTEMBER 9, 1860.

BOSTON, September 9, 1860.

EAR SIR,- With you I hate, deplore, and de

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nounce the Barbarism of Slavery, — believing that the nonentity and impossibility of Slavery under the Constitution of the United States can be fully seen only when we fully see its Barbarism; so that in the Constitutional argument against Slavery the first link is its essential Barbarism, with the recognition of which no man will be so absurd as to infer or imagine that Slavery can have any basis in words which do not plainly and unequivocally declare it, even if, when thus declared, it were not at once forbidden by the Divine Law, which is above all Human Law. Therefore in much I agree with you, and wish you God-speed.

But I do not agree that the National Government has power under the Constitution to touch Slavery in the States, any more than it has power to touch the twin Barbarism of Polygamy in the States, while fully endowed to arrest and suppress both in all the Territories. Therefore I do not join in your special efforts.

But I rejoice in every honest endeavor to expose the Barbarism which degrades our Republic; and here my

gratitude is so strong that criticism is disarmed, even where I find that my judgment hesitates.

Accept my thanks for the invitation with which you have honored me, and my best wishes for all Constitutional efforts against Slavery; and believe me, my dear

Sir,

Very faithfully yours,

A. P. BROOKS, Esq.

CHARLES SUMNER.

THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT MUST BE A DEAD

LETTER.

LETTER TO A PUBLIC MEETING AT SYRACUSE, NEW YORK,
SEPTEMBER 9, 1860.

THIS meeting was one of a series, known as "Jerry Rescue Celebration," being on the anniversary of the rescue of the fugitive slave Jerry from the hands of slave-hunters.

MY

BOSTON, September 9, 1860. Y DEAR SIR, You know well how much I sympathize with you personally, and also how much I detest the Fugitive Slave Bill, as a flagrant violation of the Constitution, and of the most cherished human rights, shocking to Christian sentiments, insulting to humanity, and impudent in all its pretensions. Of course I agree with you that such an enactment, utterly without support in Constitution, Christianity, or reason, should not be allowed to remain on the statute-book; and so long as it is there, I trust that the honorable, freedom-loving, peaceful, good, and law-abiding citizens, acting in the name of a violated Constitution, and for the sake of law, will see that this infamous counterfeit is made a dead letter. I am happy to believe that this can be accomplished by an aroused Public Opinion, which, without violence of any kind, shall surround every "person" who treads our soil with all safeguards of the citizen, teaching the Slave-Hunter,

whenever he shows himself, that he can expect from Northern men no sympathy or support in his barbarous pursuit.

At your proposed meeting, which it will not be in my power to attend, I trust that just hatred of Slavery in all its pretensions will be subjected to that temperate judgment which knows how to keep a sacred animosity within the limits of Constitution and Law.

Accept my thanks for the invitation with which you have honored me, and believe me, with much personal regard and constant sympathy,

Sincerely yours,

Rev. S. J. MAY.

CHARLES SUMNER.

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