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JULY, 1861 DOUGLASS' MONTHLY. 493 [[line across page]] [[3 columns]] [[column 1]] are the most pleasing items of news that he reads in these days. These insults will spur up the North to their duty. He hoped the rebels would not back down, till the work of liberating the slaves was done. He feared that the action of the North was occasioned by an insult to our flag, and not by love to the slave and the spirit of the Gospel. He hoped that President Lincoln would proclaim liberty to all the slaves in the country, and that he might live as long as Methuselah to enjoy it. These were glorious days. God was moving, and even Gen. Butler was at last converted. He had corresponded with Gov. Andrew in reference to the General's returning slaves in Maryland, and His Excellency informed him that he had told Gen. Butler it was a great military blunder, and must not be repeated. And now we learn by telegraph that Butler refuses to return fugitives, and declares them contraband of war. He received every insult and aggression of the South upon the North with joy, because it gave strength to the anti-slavery sentiment. When 20,000 of our young men have been slain, the North will understand what they are fighting for, and his prayer was that war may continue till the North was converted. If Everett and Dr. Adams were South, they would be secessionists--it is the flag they now care for, not the slave; and when the first-born of every family shall have been slain, people will then say it is best to let the slaves go. Mr. FEE said he approved of the resolution. The people not only look to us for light in respect to the evils of slavery, but they also look to us for light as to the way in which slavery is to be abolished. Ideas govern the world. Let us get before the minds of the people the idea that the President or Congress can legitimately abolish slavery, and that sin will lie at the door of the people, unless they urge the exercise of this power, and then the power will be used, and that right speedily. After further discussion, the resolution was unanimously adopted. Rev. Mr. WEBSTER moved the adoption of this expression of the judgment of the Society upon the 'Slaveholding Heresy:' Resolved, That if the helpless slave be the least of Christ's human brethren, and so His appointed representative on earth, then to hold him as property is to ignore if not to deny his human nature, and is a practical denial, therefore, of Christ's human nature also, in the person of His representative, and, like the denial of his divine nature, it is a virtual abjuring of the Christian religion, and the very worst form of infidelity. There being no time for discussion, this was left to the Executive Committee to be again reported, together with a resolution to the effect that measures be taken to secure a register of all those churches which, by their action, have withdrawn, or shall withdraw their fellowship from slaveholders. The Society then adjourned to the public meeting for addresses at the Temple in the evening, when the following resolutions were submitted by the Secretary: 1. Resolved, That the Church Anti-Slavery Society has heard, with deep regret, that the United States officers in command of Forts Pickens and Monroe had been gratuitously forward in sending back to their masters slaves which had escaped and fled to those forts for protection, and that Gen. Butler offered to employ the troops of Massachusetts in keeping down the slaves of Maryland. 2. Resolved, That we take occasion to declare--as representing no inconsiderable portion of a generous people who have sprung to arms, with a unanimity little short of miraculous, in defence of the Government--that if such things have been done in the course of this war, by permission of the powers that be, it is a hazardous experiment, to try with an indignant people, whose experience of the foul spirit of slavery in this war is fast bringing them to the stern resolve that slaveholding shall cease at once and forever from the country, which it has so long cursed. 3. Resolved, That we deem it important for the General Government to bear in mind, that the millions of the Free States who offer themselves and their money, who are willing to sacrifice and to suffer in maintaining the integrity [[/column 1]] [[column 2]] and freedom of our country, are not so doing for the purpose of enabling the rebels to hunt or to hold their slaves; that conjointly with this war, forced upon us by nothing but slavery, the slave-catching vocation of the Free States must come to an end; and the sooner, therefore, this fact is seen and acted upon by all our authorities, civil and military, the better and safer will it be both for the Government and the people. 4. Resolved, That we deem it of the utmost importance that the colored population of our land, whether free or slave, be made to understand distinctly, that the North is now their friend, and that they are to be benefited by the success of the Free States in this righteous war; and we hold it to be strictly true, as presented by one of the leading minds of the country, that, let the colored race become convinced, by the action of our troops or of our civil authorities, that we are indifferent or hostile to their elevation; or let the fear prevail with the slaves--confused as they are likely to be, by what is transpiring--that if the North shall succeed, then slavery will still be perpetuated, only with the changes of ownership, the Southern boast that slaves will fight for their masters and their homes will then, almost certainly be made good. 5. Resolved, That, in our judgement, the guiding star, through the war into which we have been forced, is the purpose of God in regard to slavery as made known by his word, His spirit, and His providence; and if our Government be still dreaming that this struggle can be successful, while the laws of Jehovah are ignored, and His command, 'LET THE OPPRESSED GO FREE,' is disregarded, then there is preparing for us a terrible awakening. Another resolution of the series quotes at length from the celebrated speech of John Quincy Adams in 1842, and declares with confidence that, in the order of Divine Providence, the time has come for the people and the Government to avail themselves of the rights of the war power, as argued by John Quincy Adams, and to declare an act of emancipation, as the only means of averting the the horrors of a wide-spread and most bloody servile insurrection. Rev. ELNATHAN DAVIS, of Fitchburg, spoke to the resolutions--mainly to the first, in reference to Gen. Butler, and then in regard to the time-serving of ministers and of the religious press. Rev. A. F. BAILEY, of Marlboro', regarded the war as an old affair, after all; it had been smouldering for an entire generation--for thirty years, if not more, it has been waging; and if it be not a war against slavery, we construe it to be such by our faith in the God who ruleth the hearts of princes and law-givers. The Church, he held, had been, thus far, the bulwark of slavery. Now it should do its duty; and the ministers that had been so long and so ultra conservative, in Methodist phrase, should come to the mourners' bench, and make a clean bosom of their sins. He believed that Abraham Lincoln would be found true to liberty, and that brother Garrison would prove to have not spent thirty of his best years in vain. (Applause.) Rev. J. A. THOME, of Cleveland, Ohio, a native of Kentucky, a son of a slaveholder, was the next speaker, and entered his solemn testimony against the brutalizing tendency of slavery, not upon the slaves only, but upon the masters and their families. He alluded to a visit of his to this city thirty years ago. Ever since then, he had been a true anti-slavery man. Some men think that slavery is the greatest evil next to sin. But slavery is sin, and should be opposed by every possible means. Rev. J. G. FEE, of Kentucky, who emancipated his slaves, and has fought slavery ever since, said that it is the inspiration of the hour that slavery must die. The religious sentiment is about to decide the question which politics has failed to decide. The resolutions were adopted, and the meeting closed with the benediction, after a collection in aid of the Society. [[line]] --No pitched battle has yet taken place, although skirmishing is actively going on on both sides. The general opinion seems to be that nothing decisive will take place until the meeting of Congress on the 4th. [[/column 2]] [[column 3]] JOHN QUINCY ADAMS ON THE WAR POWER IN RELATION TO SLAVERY AND EMANCIPATION. [[short line]] The following are extracts from the memorable speech of John Quincy Adams, delivered in the U.S. House of Representatives, April 14th and 15th, 1842, on war with Great Britain and Mexico: What I say is involuntary, because the subject (slavery) has been brought into the House from another quarter, as the gentleman himself admits. I would leave that institution to the exclusive consideration and management of the States more peculiarly interested in it, just so long as they can keep within their own bounds. So far I admit that Congress has no power to meddle with it. As long as they do not step out of their own bounds, and do not put the question to the people of the U.S., whose peace, welfare and happiness are all at stake, so long I will agree to leave them to themselves. But when a member from a free State brings forward certain resolutions, for which, instead of reasoning to disprove his positions, you vote a censure upon him, and that without hearing, it is quite another affair. At the time this was done, I said that as far as I could understand the resolutions proposed by the gentleman from Ohio, (Mr. Giddings,) there were some of them for which I was ready to vote, and some which I must vote against; and I will now tell this House, my constituents, and the world of mankind, that the resolution against which I would have voted was that in which he declares that what are called the slave States have the exclusive right of consultation on the subject of slavery. For that resolution I never would vote, because I believe that it is not just, and does not contain constitutional doctrine. I believe that, so long as the slave States are able to sustain their institutions without going abroad or calling upon other parts of the Union to aid them or act on the subject, so long I will consent never to interfere. I have said this, and I repeat it; but if they come to the free States, and say to them, you must help us to keep down our slaves, you must aid us in an insurrection and a civil war, then I say that with that call comes a full and plenary power to this House and to the Senate over the whole subject. It is a war power.--I say it is a war power, and when your country is actually in war, whether it be a war of invasion or a war of insurrection, Congress has power to carry on the war, and must carry it on according to the laws of war; and by the laws of war, an invaded country has all its laws and municipal institutions swept by the board, and martial law takes the place of them. This power in Congress has, perhaps never been called into exercise under the present Constitution of the United States.--But when laws of war are in force, what, I ask, is one of those laws? It is this: that when a country is invaded, and two hostile armies are set in martial array, the commanders of both armies have power to emancipate all the slaves in the invaded territory. Nor is this a mere theoretic statement. The history of South America shows that the doctrine has been carried into practical execution within the last thirty years. Slavery was abolished in Columbia, first, by the Spanish General Murillo, and, secondly, by the American General Bolivar. It was abolished by virtue of a military command given at the head of the army, and its abolition continued to be law to this day. It was abolished by the laws of war, and not by municipal enactments;--the power was exercised by military commanders, under instructions, of course, from their respective governments. And here I recur again to the example of Gen. Jackson. What are you now about in Congress? You are about passing a grant to refund to Gen. Jackson the amount of a certain fine imposed upon him by a Judge under the laws of the State of Louisiana. You are going to refund him the money with interest; and this you are going to do because the imposition of the fine was unjust. And why was it unjust?--Because Gen. Jackson was acting under the [[/column 3]]
