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Show 76 SECOND DAY-EVENING SESSION. AT the hour for meeting the saloon was crowded. The spe~kers for the e vening were GEORGE FonD, jr., of Lanc:..ster, Pa., ALVAN STEWART, of Utica, N.Y., and ALANSON ST. CLAIR, of Massachusetts. The first speaker was unable to write out his remarli.s in full, and has, therefore, sent ns the following sketch: )~ANCASTJm, J UllC 30th, 1838. The subject of my discourse before the" President, Directors, and Stock· holders of the Pennsylvania ll all As5ociation," w~s the right of free discussion, the freedom of opinion, and the necessity of a s trict observance, on the part of the people, of '.' the Supr~ n~acy of the Laws.". In contending for the free exercise of the n gh t of op1n1on on the part o{ every man, I maintained, that its freedom lays not in the mere simple enjoyment ~f the right of thinking;. because t~1at righ~, I stated .• could ~e and_ w~s enjoyed under the InquisitiOn of Spam; but Jts exerc1se cons1sted 111 Its fr~e anJ unrestrained expression, either by word of mouth, or through the medtum of the press. In support of this position I quoted the Uonstituti~n ~f this state, which declares, in express terms, that" the free commumcat10n of thoughts and opinions is one of the invaluable rights of man ; and every citizen may freely speak, write, and print on any subject, bein~ r~sponsible for the abuse of that liberty." Nor did I rest here; the ConstitutiOn of tho United States, it was next shown, having the same ju3t regard for the righLs of the people, very wisely provides.' ~hat " Congr~s~. shall make no l?w respecting the establishment of religiOn, or prohibiting the free e~erc1se thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the n ght of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the governm~nt for a redres.s of grievances." And I illustrated my positions, by showing, .also, that 1t wns for the maintenance of these principles, and for the sccunng of .these rights, that our fathers fought and bled; that it was for the free exermse of their opinions, that they separated themselves from the moth~r country, and underwent the toils and hardships of many a rigorous campa1gn; that they did all these things and even more to purchase that liber~y which we. now enjoy, and which they gave to us as a rich legacy, but wh1ch I feared, If ~he reign of mob law is to commence and predominate as the rule of acuon amo ng our citizens, we shall not in turn transmit to those who shall come after us, pure and uncorrupted. . In enlarging upon the latter division of my discourse, (namely, the necessity of an observance, on the part of the people, of the majesty or "!SUpremacy of the Laws,") [took occasion to advert to those gross violations of the co~stitutional rights of their fellow ci tizens, on the part of the Boston mob, m the destru ction of the convent at C harlestown , Massachusetts; the outrages committed by the mobs at Baltimore, and which had gained for that city the une nviable appellation of" Mob Town;" the injuries inflicted upon private and unofTt::nding individuals in the cities of \tVashington and C harleston; and the high-handed usurpation of power on the part of "respecla.ble planters " ami "exemplary citizens ," at Vicksburg, in 1835, in execut111g such worthless vagabonds as those five gamblers were repres~nted t? be, who were basely murdered, without the constitutional right of tnal by Jury, and of being heard in their own defence; from these and many other ins tances , I proceeded to show that a resort to brute force had become 80 SPJ.:l::CH OJ1 OEOIWE i"ORJ), J lt. 77 common of late, as to be the ordinary remedy , and the ready resort, even of men who could no longer combat opinions, even though erroneous, with coun ~er-o~in ions, though correct. H ere the case of the R ev. Elijah P . L~veJ oy, 111 the s tate of Illinois, was ins tanced, and, in my comments upon th1s particular portion of my subject, [ t raced the5e populdr outbreakings back, as I supposed, to their source, for the la~t ten or twelve year~, and th en proceeded to show, that, unless an example was set by virwous men and good citizens, to yield a hearty obedience to the laws, it would be in vain _for us to look forward LO the day when they should be supreme, and the n ghts of every man besecnre. The abduction of Captain William Morgan , in western New York, in the year 182G, was next adduced as one among, if not the very first instance of, those unwarrantable usurpations of power on the part of the party injured, or pretending to be so, of the right to redress h~s. own wrongs and execute his own illegal sentences. Fo1· it was a recognitiOn on the part of "respectable men" of a "power which is above the laws"-but which I will never admit-whose limits are undefined, and which cannot be ascertained. by any tribunal known to the institutio ns of our country. From this latter case I drew my deductions ; and then went on to prove that one of the principal results of this in tolerant s pirit against the freedom of thought, of action, of the press, and the unrestrained exercise of the powers of speech, which has been manifested so strongly from time to time, by mobs and others,-served more effectually than aught else, to attach importance to, and build up, the very cause or doctrine which it sought to repress. Such, I observed, had been the case with Christianity under the persecutions of the Emperors of Rome, with the Reformation at a subsequent period; and, in a political point of view, similar results had at· tended the propagation of the principles of anti-masonry in Pennsylvania. Persecution, therefore, I continued, might serve as a stimulant to build up rather than allay or counteract the exertions now making by some men in the propagation of anti-slavery principles. Under view of all these circums tances, then, I continued, it became the bounden duty of all men, to support each other in the exercise of their natu~ al and const.itutional rights; for if a violation of them is sanctioned one day m one man, It may become the fortune of the individual inflicting the injury, to become himself the victim upon whom the vengeance of the mob may be wreaked to-morrow. "Error of opinion" said I, in the language of JeflCrson, "may be safely tolerated, when reason is left free to combat it ;v and so it should be with abolitionists, so long as they arc peaceable in th eir deportment and are g uilty of no violation of the laws of the land. "For he that will not reason is a bigot, he that cannot reason is a fool, and he that dares not reason is a slave.'' My peroration, as near as I can recollect, was to this effect : That in the mai_ntenance of their c?nstitutional r~ghts, I trusted the freemen of P ennsylvama would ever be muted, and rem am true to themselves, their God, and their country-that they would never "basely bow the knee" to any set of men who would not take them by the han~ , and recognise them as their peers and equals; for, as I stated, they were, 111 the language of the poet, - " ) '[en who their duties know nut know their rights, nml knowing, dm-c' maintain : .. __ and therefore, fondly trusted, that the voice which proclaimed this sentiment to the world would be heard throu.ghout the whole extent of our country, and be re-echoed back by every lull and dale, so that here at least in the free laud of Penn, hearts might be found, which, beating high with' a holy |