cannot bear; and that every attempt to restrain it is a palpable wrong on God and man. Submitting to these restraints, we could not be what God made us to be; we could not perform the service to which He has appointed us; we could not be men. Laws to gag a man-to congeal the gushing fountains of his heart's sympathy-and to shrivel up his soul by extinguishing its ardour and generosity-arc laws not to assist him in carrying out God's high and holy purposes in calling him into being; but they are laws to throw him a passive, mindless, worthless being at the feet of despotism.

And to what end is it that we are called on to hold our tongues, and throw down our pens, and give up our influence? Were it for a good object, and could we conceive that such a sacrifice would promote it, there would be a colour of fitness in asking us to do so. But, this is a sacrifice which righteousness and humanity never invoke. Truth and mercy require the exertion-never the suppression, of man's noble rights and powers. We are called on to degrade and unman ourselves, and to withhold from others that influence which we are bound to exert upon them, to the end that the victim of op pression may lie more quietly beneath the foot of his oppressor; to the end, that one-sixth of our countrymen, plundered of their dearest rights—of their bodies, and minds, and souls-may never know of those rights; to the end, that TWO MILLIONS AND A HALF of our fellow-men, crushed in the iron folds of slavery, may remain in all their suffering, and debasement, and despair. It is for such an

object-an object so wicked and inexpressibly mean —that we are called on to lie down beneath the slave-holders' blustering and menace, like whipped and trembling spaniels. We reply, that our republican spirit cannot thus succumb; and, what is infinitely more, that God did not make us-that Jesus did not redeem us, for such sinful and vile uses.

We knew before that slavery could not endure, could not survive free discussion; that the minds of men could not remain firm, and their consciences quiet under the continued appeals of truth, and justice, and mercy: but the demand which slave-holders now make on us to surrender the right of free discussion, together with their avowed reasons for this demand, involves their own full concession, that free discussion is incompatible with slavery. The south now admits, by her own showing, that slavery cannot live, unless the north be tongue-tied. But we have two objections to being thus tongue-tied. One is, that we desire and purpose to exert all our powers and influence-lawfully, temperately, kindly -to persuade the slave-holders of the south to deliver our coloured brethren from their bonds: nor shall we give rest to our lips or pens, until this righteous object is accomplished: and the other is, that we are not willing to be slaves ourselves. The enormous and insolent demands of the south, sustained, I am deeply ashamed to say, by craven and mercenary spirits at the north, manifest, beyond all dispute, that the question now is, not merely, nor mainly, whether the blacks at the south shall remain slaves-but whether the whites at the north

shall become slaves also. And thus, while we are endeavouring to break the yokes which are on others' necks, we are to see to it, that yokes are not imposed on our own.

It is said that the south will not molest our freedom, if we will not disturb their slavery-if we will not insist on the liberty to speak and write about this abomination! Our reply is, that God gave us the freedom for which we contend-that it is not a freedom bestowed by man;-not an ex gratia freedom, which we have received at the hands of the south;-not a freedom which stands, on the one hand, in the surrender of our dearest rights, and, on the other, in the conceded perpetuity of the body and mind, and soul-crushing system of American slavery. We ask not, we accept not, we scornfully reject the conditional and worthless freedom which the south proffers us.

It is not to be disguised, that a war has broken out between the north and the south. Political and commercial men are industriously striving to restore peace; but the peace which they would effect is superficial, false, and temporary. True, permanent peace can never be restored, until slavery, the occasion of the war, has ceased. The sword, which is now drawn, will never be returned to its scabbard, until victory, entire, decisive victory is ours or theirs; not, until that broad, and deep, and damning stain on our country's escutcheon is clean washed out-that plague spot on our country's honour gone for ever;-or, until slavery has riveted anew her present chains, and brought our heads also to bow

beneath her withering power. It is idle-it is criminal to hope for the restoration of peace on any other condition. Why, not to speak of other outrages which the south has practised on the rights and persons of northern men who can read the simple and honest account which Amos Dresser gives of his sufferings at the hands of slave-holders, and still flatter himself with the belief that the north can again shake hands with slavery? If the church members and church elders, who sat in mock judgment on that young man's case, could be impelled by the infernal spirit of slavery, to such lawless, ruffian violence; how can any reasonable hope remain, that while the south remains under the malign influences of slavery, its general demeanor toward the north can be even tolerable? The head and front of Dresser's offending, was his connexion with an Anti-Slavery Society in a distant state and for this he was subjected by professors, and titled professors too, of the meek and peaceful religion of Jesus, to corporal punishment-public, disgraceful, severe.

Who shall be mustered on our side for this great battle? Not the many. The many never come to such a side as ours, until attracted to it by palpable and unequivocal signs of its triumph. Nor do we need the many. A chosen few are all we need. Nor do we desire those who are skilful in the use of carnal weapons. For such weapons we have no Truth and love are inscribed on our banners, and "by these we conquer." There is no room in our ranks for the politician, who, to secure the votes of the south, would consent that American slavery

use.

be perpetual. There is no room in them for the commercial man, who, to secure the trade of the south, is ready to applaud the institution of slavery, and to leave his countrymen-his brethren--their children, and children's children-subjected to its tender mercies, throughout all future time. We have no room, no work for such. We want men who stand on the rock of Christian principles; men who will speak, and write, and act with invincible honesty and firmness; men who will vindicate the right of discussion, knowing that it is derived from God; and who, knowing this, will vindicate it against all the threats and arts of demagogues, and money worshippers, and in the face of mobs, and of death. There is room in our ranks for the old and decrepit, as well as the young and vigorous. The hands that are tremulous with years, are the best hands to grasp the sword of the spirit. The aged servants of God best know how "to move the arm which moves the world." Our work, in a word, is the work of God; and they are the best suited to it who are most accustomed to do his work.

No. IX.

SPEECH OF ALVAN STEWART, ESQ.,

DELIVERED BEFORE THE STATE ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION AT THE CITY OF UTICA, OCTOBER 21, 1835.

Alvan Stewart, Esq. of Utica rose and said, that with the consent of the Convention, he would trespass a few minutes on the time of this numerous and honourable body, and made, in substance, the following speech: