“_Resolved_, That the people of Massachusetts, in the maintenance of these their well known and _invincible_ principles, expect that all their officers and representatives will adhere to them at all times, on all occasions, and under all circumstances.” And yet, in six months, we are called upon to support these laws. Is this “all coming time”? Are these “invincible principles” of the Massachusetts Whig legislature to melt, like wax, when touched by the breath of party? They notified me, under their seal and sign-manual, that they expected “all their officers and representatives to adhere to them, at all times, on all occasions, and under all circumstances.” And yet, before six months have elapsed, some of the very men who voted to give me such instructions, or injunctions, or whatever you please to call them, having discarded their own solemn asseverations of principle, now upbraid me because I, too, will not be recreant to them. Is this what you are to expect from men whom you have elected by your votes, and to whom the momentous interests of millions, and the honor of the country, have been confided, that their vows should be like those of perfidious lovers, who swear “eternal fidelity”--during the honey moon? We cannot plead the excuse, in regard to these resolves, which a certain hearer of Whitfield did, for appearing unmoved at one of his pathetic discourses, while all others were melted to tears. When asked why he, too, did not weep, he replied that “he did not belong to that parish.” We do belong to this parish. These are the “acts and resolves” of our own state, fresh and unsullied from the mint. We cannot deny their genuineness. If we impute fraud any where, it must be to the motives of those who passed them. Hear, too, what Governor Briggs says on this same subject, in his last inaugural address:-- “Entertaining no doubt of the constitutional power of Congress to exclude slavery from its own territories, and believing that such exclusion is demanded by the highest principles of morality and justice, she never can consent to its extension over one foot of territory where it now is not. If the other free states concur with her in this resolution, the thing will be done, and consequences left to themselves.” Thus have the Whig party in this state, and its executive, pledged themselves not to extend slavery “one foot.” How many feet in the six hundred thousand square miles, into which the legislation of the last Congress permits slavery to enter?--which legislation the Whig party is now called upon to indorse,--that is, how many myriad pledges do they require us to break?