Hazard, T.R. CONSTITUTIONAL MANUAL FOR THE National American Party. IN WHICH IS EXAMINED THE QUESTION OF NEGRO SLAVERY IN CONNEXION WITH THE CONSTITUTION UNIV OF BY A NORTHERN MAN, WITH AMERICAN PRINCIPLES. PROVIDENCE: A. CRAWFORD GREENE & BROTHER, PRINTERS. 1856. MNW UNIV. OF CALIFORNIA 66 A CONSTITUTIONAL MANUAL. If ye seek to shake off your allegiance to Rome, ye Germans, we will bring things to such a pass, that ye shall unsheath the sword of extermination against each other, and perish in your own blood."-The Pope's Nuncio to the Germans.—D'AUBIGNE. CAMBRIDGE HEAD QUARTERS, question of domestic slavery is but the MEANS, he, think you, be long in perceiving that the men July 17th, 1775. GENERAL ORDER.—The General has great reason to be displeased with the negligence and inattention of the guard who have been placed as sentinels on the outposts whose character he is not acquainted with. He therefore orders that for the future, none but NATIVES OF THIS COUNTRY be placed on guard as sentinels on the outposts. This order to be considered a STANDING ONE, and the officers to pay obedience to it on their part. (Signed) FOX, Adjt. of the Day. Countersigned Exeter, Pay-roll, Dorchester. Such was the order issued by the Father of his country in the days that "tried men's souls: "—and it was to be a STANDING order! Do you hear that AMERICANS? IT WAS TO BE A STANDING ORDER! No hypocritical whining about the virtues of "adopted citizens was heard from the lips of the whole soul'd WASHINGTON; it was enough that he was not acquainted with the character of foreigners, and he would not jeopard the cause of his country, by trusting it to their keeping. Again see the moral that is embodied in this memorable standing order repeated by WASHINGTON in his farewell address. gainst the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow citizens,) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican Government." not the real CAUSE of our difficulties and our dangers? and would not his discriminatng mind at once trace these to their source; and a glance of his eagle eye detect in it the hand of the foreign potentate who wields the sword whose "HILT IS AT ROME AND ITS BLADE EVERYWHERE." Yes, Americans, we should again hear his voice raised in solemn warning :--" Beware, Americans, of the insidious wiles of foreign influence I conjure you; your country is filled with the secret emissaries of foreign despots, the jesuit priesthood of Rome, the most 'BANEFUL FOES OF REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT.' They have seized upon the question of domestic slavery to sow your land with dissention, to array section against section, and are secretly plotting in every nook and corner of the Union 6 TO ENFEEBLE THE SACRED TIES THAT NOW LINK TOGETHER THE VARIOUS PARTS,' and unless speedily rebuked, will embroil you in civil strife and quench your liberties in fraternal blood. —AROUSE yourselves, fellow countrymen, FROWN INDIGNANTLY' upon their wicked designs, keep the most vigilant watch against their insidious wiles' and 'place none but NATIVES OF THE COUNTRY ON GUARD'!" And if that true friend of Washington,-of "A-America and of the rights and liberties of all mankind, the great and good La Fayette could now behold the elements of strife that are at work in our country, he too would discern the true source of our troubles, and pointing to the thousands of foreign Jesuit emissaries that swarm in every portion of the States, again mournfully exclaim, "Yes, my fearful forebodings were indeed too prophetic of the truth, "IF THE LIBERTIES OF AMERICA ARE EVER DESTROYED IT WILL BE BY ROMISH PRIESTS.” And think you, Americans, if Washington could now be with us, his penetrating mind would not quickly comprehend the true CAUSE of the present distraction in the Union? Would M165088 Lyield to none in the detestation of slavery whether of the body or the mind; under every form, I abominate the brutalizing, man-destroying monster. To free my country from the curse of negro slavery I would gladly contribute the half of all the worlds goods I possess: nay more-I feel that if the responsibility was cast upon me,-to ensure such a result, I would sacrifice ALL that I possess.—I would trust an infant-orphaned family to the protection of Divine Providence, and relying in His goodness, now in the decline of life, go forth homeless and penniless into a world which nearly sixty years experience has taught me to know full well. All this I feel that I could do. But yet to accomplish such a result I would not consent to sacrifice the union of these states. At this price even the boon of negro freedom would be purchased at too dear a rate. Faulty and imperfect as our national institutions may be, let them be overwhelmed or destroyed, and the cause of Universal Freedom will be thrown back for centuries of years. The bare thought of a dissolution of this Union, should never be permitted to rest in an American mind. It should be held a treasonable act to give it place there. Its momentary presence will work pollution. In the language of the immortal Washington, in that memorable and touching farewell address to his countrymen, already alluded to,-"As this is the point of our political fortress, against which the batteries of internal and external enemies will be most constantly and actively, though often covertly and insidiously directed, it is of infinite moment that every American should properly estimate the immense value of the National Union, to our collective and individual happiness: - he should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immoveable attachment to it; he should accustom himself to think and to speak of it as a palladium of our political safety and prosperity; he should watch for its preservation with jealous anxiety; he should discountenance whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frown upon the first dawning of every attempt to alieniate any portion of his country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred ties that now link together the various parts." Who that reflects on the present distracted condition of our country can doubt that Washington was in a degree inspired when he thus poured out as it were all the affections and solicitude of his heart and soul in this memorable last warning to his countrymen. How tenderly, how earnestly does he beseech them to guard the privileges he had sacrificed the best portion of his life to secure to them. And will Americans turn a deaf ear to such an ap. peal from such a source? will they indeed rather heed the traitorous counsels of Anti or Pro Slavery incendiaries or that of any other "internal or external enemy' " of our Union, than to be guided by the last words of Washington? Woe! Woe! indeed, awaits our country when Americans shall have become so perverted, so blind to their duties and their interests as to be led by such men as these, however "covertly and insidiously" they may approach "the palladium of our political safety and prosperity." And yet, are we not threatened with this disgraceful fate? For one, I believe that nothing will preserve us from falling a prey to the snares that are spread in our midst by the emissaries of foreign potentates, but the formation of a great NATIONAL American party.-Its motto should be "Our Union must be preserved," "Americans must rule America." It should know no North,-no South,- -no East,-no West. If Americans were as patriotic now as they were in the early days of our republic, under present cicumstances such a party would spring spontaneously into existence. They would one and all arise in that strength which concious virtue gives, and instead of listening to the covert and insidious" appeals of traitors who are using the question of slavery as an engine to work our destruction, they would "indignantly frown upon the first dawning of any attempt to alieniate any portion of our country or to enfeeble the SACRED ties which now link together the various parts," under any pretence whatever. And in spite of what Anti-Slavery or Pro Slavery demagogues-traitors or fanatics may say, such a party may be formed without the surrender of a single principle, whether moral, religious, civil or political. I hesitate not to say that a calm and dispassionate examination of the whole subject of negro slavery as it exists in these United States will convince any honest, truth-seeking American citizen of the truth of this. Startling as the assertion may scem, such will find that from the very commencement of the agitation of the question in congress, the course pursued by the North in relation to domestic slavery has been almost wholly wrong. --- I say that our union may be preserved by the formation of such a party as I have named without the surrender of any principle, either moral — religious civil or political. Negro slavery, the rock on which our union is to split-is not the only evil in the world, for we read that "the whole world lyeth in wickedness;" but yet, the better portion of mankind are not required by any law either human or divine to run a muck for its extermination. The Divine founder of our religion inculcated no such doctrine as this. He distinctly taught that we should not overcome evil with violence but with good. The moral sense of the North it is true is often shocked in contemplating instances of cruelty and oppression that originate from the hateful institution of negro slavery.. In read ing some of these as det led by Miss Beecher in the Key to her work entitled Uncle Tom's log Cabin, I confess that occasionally a feeling much akin to "letting slip the dogs of war arose within me; but upon reflection I was forced to confess that abuses equally great occur among us. In truth I would tike it upon myself to collect an authentic narrative of outrages, wrongs and cruelties equally numerous and atrocious in character as those detailed by Miss Beecher, out of the abuses that have occurred within the last thirty years in the asylums and poor houses of the little State of Rhode Island alone. And I would further take it upon myself to exhibit a code of laws that was instituted, and until lately, practised upon, for the government of a community of free white persons in the same State, that will equal, if not surpass in enormity any code that was ever instituted by a Southern State for the government of negro slaves. I doubt not that in all the Northern States countless abuses of the same character might be collected by any person who would take the trouble to look for instances of wrongs inflicted on the poor and helpless in communities nearer home than Georgia or Louisiana. Sound morality requires that reformation should begin at home, and true religion, teaches that we must take first "the beam out of our own eye, before we seek to cast the mote out of our brother's eye." Before and after our Union was formed, negro slavery was not limited to its Southern portion. Most of the Northern States were likewise cursed with the institution, and some of them (Rhode Island at least) had grown rich by importing from Africa into the Southern States the ancestors of the present race of negro slaves, and there disposing of them under the protection of the laws of the mother country, and in some instances in defiance of the earnest remonstrances against the practice, by our sister colonies. Great Britain at that day not only permitted the American colonists to keep slaves, but compelled them to receive them. This was the state of things when on Sept. 4th, 1774, the Continental Congress first assembled, under what was called the revolutionary government. This congress, which was convened agreeably to a recommendation from Massachusetts-did not exercise any authority in behalf of the respective colonies-but rested its sovereign authority on original powers derived from the people. Whatever these might be, the exigencies of the times did not admit of congress meddling with the question of negro slavery. Its members had enough to do to keep from being reduced to slavery themselves. The draft of a new form of government entitled "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual union between the states," originating in Congress, was adopted by that body 15th of Nov. 1777, and a circular letter sent to the several states " requesting them respectively to authorize their delegates in congress to subscribe to the same in behalf of the States." Jealous however of their individual rights, the states were slow to act: but finally "in 1778 it was ratified by all the states except Delaware and Maryland and eventually by Delaware in 1779 and by Maryland the 1st of March, 1781,when the confederated government superceded the revolutionary government.” Under the "confederation" each state was to "retain every power, right and jurisdiction, not expressly delegated to congress." Most of the powers (if powers they may be called) delegated by the States to Congress required for their exercise the assent of nine, and others that of the whole thirteen states. The Confederated like the Revolutionary government, grew out of the exigencies of the times and was only adapted to them. It was rather an alliance than a union and depended almost entirely upon the spontaneous patriotism of the states and people to give the least force to its decrees. Congress (says an eminent writer of the times,) "possessed no power to levy any tax, to enforce any law, to secure any right, to regulate any trade, or even the poor perogative of commanding means to pay its own minister at a foreign court. could contract debts, but they were without means to discharge them. They could pledge the public faith; but they were incapable of redeeming it. They could enter into treaties; but every State in the Union might disobey them with impunity. They could contract alliances; but could not command men and money to give them vigor. In short, all powers which did not execute themselves, were at the mercy of the States, and might be trampled upon by all with impunity." They po Another leading writer 66 says: By this litical compact the United States in Congress have exclusive power for the following purposes, without being able to execute one of them. They may make and conclude treaties; but can only recommend the observance of them. They may appoint ambassadors; but cannot defray even the expenses of their tables. They may borrow money in their own name, on the faith of the Union; but |