Abolition a Sedition, by a Northern ManColton, Calvin
History
Abolition a Sedition, by a Northern Man
Colton, Calvin
Abolitionists -- United States; Slavery -- United States
found way to importance; and behold! it dares to face the Government
of the country in open conflict, and to erect its batteries against
that Constitutional fabric, which has hitherto been so dear to
American citizens.
We have stated, that this political organization is _permanent_. The
meaning under which we propose to sustain the application of this
epithet in this case, refers, by contradistinction, to a mode of
popular political action, which, we conceive, is authorised by the
Constitutional law of the land, and which proves equally, that a
_permanent_ organization of this kind is unauthorised and prohibited.
For the present we simply state, what we suppose will not be
contradicted, that the American Anti-Slavery Society is a _permanent_
body, in distinction from those popular assemblages or conventions,
which are customarily held in this country for political purposes,
under the specific sanction of the Constitution and laws, which exist
only for the time being, which do not presume to arm themselves with a
distinct and separate polity, or to set up an imperium in imperio,
independent and irresponsible.
We have stated also, that it is a _grand_ political organization. This
term is of no farther importance than simply to indicate, what is very
well known, that this Society is great and powerful. It claims to
wield 40,000 of the political votes of the State of New York. Whether
this be over or under the true estimate, we take it from themselves;
and it is probably fair to conclude, that they are equally strong in
most of the other free States. Admitting that they have one-half, or
even one-fourth, of this power, it is enough to justify the
application of this term. It is a _grand_ organization also, in
consideration of its vast and complicated machinery, of the variety
and extent of its operations, and of its means of influence. In 1838,
this Society reports 1350 auxiliaries, of which 12 were State
Societies, now 13, and 340 of these organized in the course of the
previous year; 38 travelling Agents, so constantly engaged, as to have
performed jointly 27 years’ labour in one; 75 local lecturers,
circulating in adjacent towns, as far as convenient; money raised in
the course of the year, $40,000, being $5,000 in excess of the
previous year, notwithstanding the pecuniary embarrassments of the
community; the issues of the press, 187,316 copies of Human Rights,
193,800 of the Emancipator, 42,100 Circulars and Prints, 12,054 bound
volumes, 72,732 Tracts and Pamphlets, 97,600 of the Slaves’ Friend,
and 40,000 of the Anti-Slavery Record. Total: 646,502.
This society, therefore, is a _grand_, and in its moral and political
influence, a stupendous machinery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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