"We are accused of interfering in the domestic concerns of the southern States. We would ask those, who charge this, to explain precisely what they mean by "interference." If, by interference be meant any attempt to legislate for the southern States, or to compel them, by force or intimidation, to emancipate their slaves, we at once deny any such pretension. We are utterly opposed to any force on the subject, but that of conscience and reason, which are "mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds." We fully acknowledge that no change in the slave-laws of the southern States can be made, unless by the southern Legislatures. Neither Congress nor the Legislatures of the free States have authority to change the condition of a single slave in the slave States. But, if by "interference" be intended the exercise of the right of freely discussing this subject, and, by speech, and through the press, creating a public sentiment, which will reach the conscience, and blend with the convictions of the slave-holder, and thus ultimately work the complete extinction of slavery, this is a species of interference which we can never consent to relinquish." * * * * * "We respectfully ask our fellow-citizens, whether we are to be deprived of these sacred privileges,--and, if so, whether the sacrifice of our rights will not involve consequences dangerous to all mental and even personal freedom. We have violated, we mean to violate, no law. We have acted, we shall continue to act, under the sanction of the Constitution of the United States. Nothing that we propose to do can be prevented by our opposers, without violating the Charter of our rights. To the Law and to the Constitution we appeal." Such were the sentiments of the abolitionists of the United States of America.