The Enemies of the Constitution Discovered: Or, An Inquiry Into the Origin and Tendency of Popular Violence. Containing a Complete and Circumstantial Account of the Unlawful Proceedings at the City of Utica, October 21st, 1835; the Dispersion of the State Anti-Slavery Convention by the Agitators, the Destruction of a Democratic Press and of the Causes which Led Thereto; Together with a Concise Treatise on the Practice of the Court of His Honor Judge Lynch. Accompanied with Numerous Highly Interesting and Important Documents |
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abolition abolitionists abuse adjourn adopted agitators already American Anti-slavery appointed assembled attempt authority Beardsley become believe body called carried cause character charge church citizens claim committee conduct consider constitution Convention course dangerous demand discussion duty enemies established excitement expressed favour feeling freedom friends give given hands hear held hold honour incendiary individuals influence intended judge Kendall land laws letter liberty live master means measures meeting ment mind motion nature never occasion opinion party passed patriotism peace peaceable persons political Postmaster present principles proceedings produce question reason received requires resolution Resolved respect seen sentiments slave slavery society southern speak speech taken thing tion true union United Utica violation violence whole witnessed
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Page 86 - Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government...
Page 85 - To the efficacy and permanency of your union, a government for the whole is indispensable. No alliances, however strict, between the parts can be an adequate substitute; they must inevitably experience the infractions and interruptions which all alliances, in all times, have experienced.
Page 74 - The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other.
Page 78 - that all men are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights — among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,' I shall strenuously contend for the immediate enfranchisement of our slave population.
Page 86 - All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberations and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction ; to give it an artificial and extraordinary force ; to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small, but artful...
Page 76 - And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, — a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God ? — that they are not to be violated but with his wrath ? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever...
Page 75 - The parent storms, the child looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to his worst of passions, and thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodigy who can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such circumstances.
Page 122 - What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment, and death itself, in vindication of his own liberty, and, the next moment be deaf to all those motives whose power supported him through his trial, and inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery, than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose.
Page 14 - By no act or direction of mine, official or private, could I be induced to aid, knowingly, in giving circulation to papers of this description, directly or indirectly. We owe an obligation to the laws, but a higher one to the communities in which we live ; and, if the former be permitted to destroy the latter, it is patriotism to disregard them.
Page 86 - The basis of our political Systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, 'till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole People, is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the People to establish Government presupposes the duty of every Individual to obey the established Government.