surd was it to charge
upon the abolitionists the design of promoting amalgamation, while,
under the system of slavery, an unholy amalgamation was going on to
the most awful extent; demonstrated by the endless shades of
complexion at the south; and when nothing was more obvious than this,
that when a female was rescued from her present condition--inspired
with self-respect, and became the protector of her own virtue,--and
when fathers, and brothers, and husbands, were free to defend the
honor of their wives and daughters, the great causes, and incentives,
and facilities would cease, and cease forever, and to prove to the
world how solemnly the abolitionists had denied the imputations cast
upon them by their enemies, he would read from two documents put forth
during the great excitement which prevailed through the United States
in August last. The American Anti-Slavery Society, in "_An Address to
the public_," thus anew declared their principles and objects.

"We hold that Congress has no more right to abolish slavery
in the southern States, than in the French West-India
Islands. Of course we desire no national legislation on the
subject."

"We hold that slavery can only be lawfully abolished by the
Legislatures of the several States in which it prevails, and
that the exercise of any other than moral influence to induce
such abolition is unconstitutional."

"We believe that Congress has the same right to abolish
slavery in the District of Columbia, that the State
Governments have within their respective jurisdictions, and
that it is their duty to efface so foul a blot from the
national escutcheon."

"We believe that American citizens have the right to express
and publish their opinions of the constitutions, laws, and
institutions, of any and every state and nation under Heaven;
and we mean never to surrender the liberty of speech, of the
press, or of conscience--blessings we have inherited from our
fathers, and which we intend, as far as we are able, to
transmit unimpaired to our children."

"We are charged with sending incendiary publications to the
south. If by the term _incendiary_ is meant publications
containing arguments and facts to prove slavery to be a moral
and political evil, and that duty and policy require its
immediate abolition, the charge is true. But if the term is
used to imply publications _en