USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Chester > History of the Underground railroad in Chester and the neighboring counties of Pennsylvania > Part 24
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ARTICLE I .- This society shall be called the AMERI- CAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.
ARTICLE II .- The objects of this society are the entire abolition of slavery in the United States. While it admits that each State in which slavery exists has by the Constitution of the United States the exclusive right to legislate in regard to its abolition in said State, it shall aim to convince all our fellow-citizens, by argu- ments addressed to their understandings and consciences, that slave-holding is a henious crime in the sight of God, and that the duty, safety and best interests of all concerned, require its immediate abandonment, without expatriation. This society will also endeavor, in a con- stitutional way, to influence Congress to put an end to
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the domestic slave-trade, and to abolish slavery in all those portions of our common country which come under its control, especially in the District of Columbia, and likewise to prevent the extension of it to any State that may be hereafter admitted to the Union.
ARTICLE III .- This society shall aim to elevate the character and condition of the people of color by en- couraging their intellectual, moral and religious im- provement, and by removing public prejudice, that thus they may, according to their intellectual and moral worth, share an equality with the whites of civil and religious privileges, but this society will never in any way countenance the oppressed in vindicating their rights by resorting to physical force.
These three articles give the object of the society. The seven articles which follow relate to the duties of officers only, and are therefore omitted.
DECLARATION OF SENTIMENTS OF THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.
More than fifty-seven years have elapsed since a band of patriots convened in this place to devise measures for the deliverence of this country from a foreign yoke. The corner-stone upon which they founded the TEMPLE OF FREEDOM was broadly this, "that all men are crea- ted equal, and they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness." At the sound of their trumpet call three millions of people rose up as from the sleep of death, and rushed to the strife of blood, deeming it more desirable to die instantly as freemen, than desirable to live one hour as slaves.
They were few in number-poor in resources; but the honest conviction that TRUTH, JUSTICE and RIGHT were on their side, made them invincible.
We have met together for the achievement of an en- terprise, without which that of our fathers is incomplete ; and which, from its magnitude, solemnity, and prob-
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able results upon the destiny of the world, as far as transcends theirs as moral truth does physical force.
In purity of motive, in earnestness of zeal, in decision of purpose, in intrepidity of action, in steadfastness of faith, in sincerity of spirit, we would not be inferior to them.
Their principles led them to wage war against their oppressors, and to spill human blood like water, in order to be free. Ours forbid the doing of evil that good may come, and lead us to reject, and to entreat the oppressed to reject the use of all carnal weapons for deliverance from bondage; relying solely upon those which are spiritual and mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
Their measures were spiritual resistance-the mar- shalling in arms-the hostile array-the mortal encoun- ter. Ours shall be such only as the opposition of moral purity to moral corruption-the destruction of error by the potency of truth-the overthrow of preju- dice by the power of love-and the abolition of slavery by the spirit of repentence.
Their grievences, great as they were, were trifling in comparison with the wrongs and sufferings of those for whom we plead. Our fathers were never slaves-never bought and sold like cattle-never shut out from the light of knowledge and religion-never subjected to the lash of brutal taskmasters.
But those for whose emancipation we are striving- constituting at the present time at least one-sixth part of our countrymen-are recognized by the law, and treated by their fellow-beings as marketable commodi- ties, as goods and chattels, as brute beasts ; are plundered daily of the fruits of their toil without redress-really enjoying no constitutional nor legal protection from licentious and murderous outrages upon their persons ; are ruthlessly torn asunder; the tender babe from the arms of its frantic mother, the heart-broken wife from her weeping husband, at the caprice or pleasure of irre- sponsible tyrants. For the crime of having a dark
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complexion they suffer the pangs of hunger, the inflic- tion of stripes and the ignominy of brutal servitude. They are kept in hcathenish darkness by laws expressiy enacted to make their instruction a criminal offense.
These are the prominent circumstances in the condi- tion of more than two millions of our people, the proof of which may be found in thousands of indisputable facts, and in the laws of the slave-holding States.
Hence we maintain that in view of the civil and religious privileges of this Nation, the guilt of its oppression is unequalled by any other on the face of the earth ; and therefore that it is bound to repent, to undo the heavy burdens, to break every yoke and to let the oppressed go free.
We further maintain that no man has a right to enslave or imbrute his brother ; to hold or acknowledge him for one moment as a piece of merchandise, to keep back his hire by fraud, or to brutalize his mind by denying him the means of intellectual, social and moral improvement.
The right to enjoy liberty is inalienable ; to invade it is to usurp the prerogative of Jehovah. Every man has a right to his own body ; to the products of his own labor; to the protection of law, and to the common advantages of society. It is piracy to buy or steal a native African, and subject him to servitude. Surely the sin is as great to enslave an AMERICAN as an AFRICAN.
Therefore we believe and affirm, that there is no difference in principle between the African slave-trade and the American slavery.
That every American citizen who retains a human being in involuntary bondage as his property is, accord- ing to Scripture, (Ex. xxi. 16) a MAN STEALER.
That the slaves ought instantly to be set free, and brought under the protection of the law.
That if they lived from the time of Pharoah down to the present period, and had been entailed through suc- cessive generations, their right to be free could never have been alienated, but their claims would have con- stantly risen in solemnity.
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That all those laws now in force, admitting the right of slavery, are, therefore, before God utterly null and void, being an audacious usurpation of the Divine pre- rogative; a daring infringement on the laws of nature, a base overthrow of the very foundations of the social compact, a complete extinction of all relatious, endear- inents, and obligations of mankind, and a presumptuous transgression of all holy commandments; and, that, therefore they ought instantly to be abrogated.
We further believe and affirm-That all persons of color who possess the qualifications which are demanded of others, ought to be admitted forthwith to the enjoy- ment of the same privileges, and the exercise of the same prerogatives as others; and that the paths of pre- ferment, of wealth and of intelligence should be opened as widely to them as to persons of a white complexion.
We maintain that no compensation should be given to the planters emancipating the slaves.
Because it would be a surrender of the great funda- mental principle that man should not hold property in man;
Because SLAVERY IS A CRIME, AND THEREFORE IS NOT AN ARTICLE TO BE SOLD.
Because the holders of slaves are not the just propri- etors of what they claim; freeing the slaves is not depriving them of property, but restoring it to its right- ful owners ; it is not wronging the master, but righting the slave-restoring him to himself.
Because immediate and general emancipation would only destroy nominal, not real property: it would not amputate a limb or break a bone of the slaves, but by infusing motives into their breasts, would make them doubly valuable to the masters as free laborers, and
Because, if compensation is to be given at all, it should be given to the outraged and guiltless slaves and not to those who have plundered and abused them.
We regard as delusive, cruel and dangerous any scheme of expatriation which pretends to aid, either directly or indirectly, in the emancipation of the slaves,
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or to be a substitute for the immediate and total aboli- tion of slavery.
We fully and unanimously recognize the sovereignty of each State to legislate exclusively on the subject of the slavery which is tolerated within its limits ; we con- cede that congress, under the present national compact, has no right to interfere with any of the slave States in re- lation to this momentous subject.
But we maintain that Congress has a right, and is solemnly bound, to suppress the domestic slave trade between the several States, and to abolish slavery in those portions of our territory which the Constitution has placed under its exclusive jurisdiction.
We also maintain that there are at the present time the highest obligations resting upon the people of the free States to remove slavery by moral and political action as prescribed in the Constitution of the United States.
They are now living under pledge of their tremen- dous physical force, to fasten the galling fetters of tyranny upon the limbs of millions in the Southern States ; they are liable to be called at any moment to suppress a general insurrection of the slaves ; they author- ize the slave-owner to vote on three-fifths of his slaves as property, and thus enable him to perpetuate his oppres- sion ; they support a standing army at the South for its protection ; and they seize the slave who has escaped into their territories, and send him back to be tortured by an enraged master, or a brutal driver. This relation to slavery is criminal, and full of danger, and IT MUST BE BROKEN UP.
These are our views and principles ; these our designs . and measures. With entire confidence in the over- ruling justice of God, we plant ourselves upon the Decla- ration of our Independence, and the truth of Divine revelation as upon the Everlasting Rock.
We shall organize Anti-slavery Societies, if possible, in every city, town and village in our land.
We shall send forth agents to lift up their voice of remonstrance, of warning, of entreaty, of rebuke.
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We shall circulate, unsparingly, and extensively, anti- slavery tracts and periodicals.
We shall enlist the pulpit and the press in the cause of the suffering and the dumb.
We shall aim at a purification of the churches from all participation in the guilt of slavery.
We shall encourage the labor of freemen rather than that of slaves, by giving a preference to their produc- tions, and
We shall spare no exertions nor means to bring the whole nation to speedy repentence.
Our trust for victory is solely in God. We may be personally defeated, but our principles never. TRUTH, JUSTICE, REASON, HUMANITY, must and will gloriously triumph. Already a host is coming up to the help of the Lord against the mighty, and the prospect before us is full of encouragement.
Submitting this DECLARATION to the candid exami- nation of the people of this country, and of the friends of liberty throughout the world, we hereby affix our signatures to it, pledging ourselves that under the guidance and by the help of Almighty God we will do all that in us lies, consistently with this Declaration of our principles, to overthrow the most execrable system of slavery that has ever been witnessed upon the earth-to deliver our land from its deadliest curse-to wipe out the foulest stain which rests upon our national escutcheon-and to secure to the colored population of the United States all the rights and privileges which belong to them as men and as Americans-come what may to our persons, our interests, or our reputation- whether we live to witness the triumph of LIBERTY, JUSTICE and HUMANITY, or perish untimely as martyrs in this great, benevolent and holy cause.
Done at Philadelphia, the sixth day of December, A. D. 1833.
[Signed.]
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MAINE.
David Thurston, Nathan Winslow, Joseph Southwick, James Frederick Otis, Isaac Winslow.
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
David Campbell.
VERMONT.
Orson S. Murray.
MASSACHUSETTS.
Daniel S. Southmayd, Effingham L. Capron, Joshua Coffin, Amos A. Phelps, John G. Whittier, Horace P. Wakefield, James B. Barbadoes, David T. Kimball, Jr., Daniel E. Jewett, John R. Campbell, Nathaniel Southard, Arnold Buffum, William L. Garrison.
RHODE ISLAND.
John Prentice, George W. Benson, Ray Potter.
CONNECTICUT.
Samuel J. May. Alpheus Kingsley, Edwin A. Stillman, Simeon S. Jocelyn, Robert B. Hall.
NEW YORK. Beriah Greene, Jr., Lewis Tappan, John Rankin, William Greene, Jr., Abm. L. Cox, William Goodell, Elizur Wright, Jr .. Charles W. Denison, John Frost.
NEW JERSEY.
Jonathan Parkhurst, Chalkley Gillingham, John McCullough, James White.
PENNSYLVANIA.
Evan Lewis, Edwin A. Atlee,
Robert Purvis,
Jas. McCrummill, Thomas Shipley, Bartholomew Fussell, David Jones, Enoch Mack, James McKim, Aaron Vickers, James Loughhead, Edwin P. Atlee, Thomas Whitson, John R. Sleeper, John Sharp, Jr., James Mott.
OHIO.
John M. Sterling, Milton Sutliff, Levi Sutliff.
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CLAUSE IN THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW.
ARTICLE IV, SECTION 2 .- No person held to service or labor in our State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regula- tion therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.
There was much wrangling over the adoption of this clause in the Constitution which its framers were de- vising for a Government whose professed purpose was to guarantee liberty and protection to its people. But the idea of extending the blessings of that liborty to the African race then held as slaves in this country, did not seem to enter the minds of some of those patriotic fathers. It will, however, be observed that the terms slave and slavery were carefully omitted, and the term service or labor used instead.
On the 18th of September, 1850, Congress passed the law known as the "Fugitive Slave Law of 1850."
It was pretty definitely understood by the friends of that bill in Congress, that if they passed it, Zachary Taylor, then President, would veto it. Before it was voted upon General Taylor died, and Millard Fillmore, who succeeded him, when the bill passed Congress, affixed his signature to it, and it became a law.
THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW.
THOSE PARTS WHICH RELATE TO THE CAPTURE AND RETURN OF SLAVES.
SECTION 3 .- And be it further enacted, That the Circuit Courts of the United States, and the Superior Courts of each organized Territory of the United States, shall
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from time to time enlarge the number of Commissioners, with a view to afford reasonable facilities to reclaim fugitives from labor, and to the prompt discharge of the duties imposed by this act.
SECTION 4 .- And be it further enacted, That the Com- missioners above named shall have concurrent jurisdic- tion with the Judges of the Circuit and District Courts of the United States, in their respective circuits and districts within the several States, and the Judges of the Superior Courts of the Territories, severally and collectively, in term-time and vacation ; and shall grant certificates to such claimants, upon satisfactory proof being made, with authority to take and remove such fugitives from service or labor, under the restrictions herein contained, to the State or Territory from which such persons may have escaped or fled.
SECTION 5 .- And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of all marshals and deputy marshals to obey and execute all warrants and preceps issued under the provisions of this act when to them directed ; and should any marshal or deputy marshal refuse to receive such warrant or other process when tendered, or to use all proper means diligently to execute the same, he shall on conviction thereof be fined in the sum of one thousand dollars to the use of such claimant, on the motion of such claimant, by the Circuit or District Court for the district of such marshal, and after arrest of such fugitives by such marshal, or his deputy, or whilst at any time in his custody under the provisions of this act should such fugitive escape, whether with or without the assent of such marshal or his deputy, such marshal shall be liable on his official bond to be prose- cuted for the benefit of such claimant, for the full value of the service or labor of said fugitive in the State, Territory or District whence he escaped ; and the better to enable the said Commissioners, when thus appointed, to execute their duties faithfully and efficiently, in con- formity with the requirements of the Constitution of the United States, and of this act, they are hereby author-
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ized and empowered within their counties respectively, to appoint in writing under their hands, any one or more suitable persons, from time to time, to execute all such warrants and other process as may be issued by them in the lawful performance of their respective duties ; with authority to such Commissioners or the persons to be appointed by them to execute process as aforesaid, to summon or call to their aid the bystanders or posse comitatus of the proper county, when necessary to insure a faithful observance of the clause of the Con- stitution referred to, in conformity with the provision of this act, and all good citizens are commanded to aid and assist in the prompt and efficient execution of this law, whenever their services may be required, as aforesaid for that purpose, and said warrants shall run and be executed by said officers anywhere in the State, within which they are issued.
SECTION 6 .- And be it further enacted, That when a person held to service or labor in any State or Territory in the United States has heretofore or shall hereafter escape into any other State or Territory of the United States, the person or persons to whom such service or labor may be due, or his, her, or their agent or attorney, duly authorized, by power of attorney, in writing, acknowledged and certified under the seal of some legal officer or Court of the State or Territory in which the same may be executed, may pursue and reclaim such fugitive person, either by procuring a warrant from some one of the courts, Judges or Commissioners as aforesaid, of the proper circuit, district or county for the apprehension of such fugitive from service or labor, or by seizing and arresting such fugitive, where the same can be done without process, and by taking, or causing such persons to be taken, forthwith before such court, Judge or Commissioner, whose duty it shall be to hear and determine the case of such claimant in a sum- mary manner, and upon satisfactory proof being made, by disposition or affidavit, in writing, to be certified to such court, Judge or Commissioner, or by other satis-
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factory testimony, duly taken and certified by some court, magistrate, justice of the peace, or other legal officer, authorized to administer an oath and take depo- sition under the laws of the State or Territory from which such person owing service or labor may have escaped, with a certificate of such magistracy or other authority, as aforesaid, with the seal of the proper court or officer thereto attached, which seal shall be sufficient to establish the competency of the proof, and with proof also by affidavit of the identity of the person whose service or labor is claimed to be due as aforesaid, that the person so arrested does in fact owe sevice or labor to the person or persons claiming him or her, in the State or Territory from which such fugitive may have escaped as aforesaid, and that said person escaped, to make out and deliver to such claimant, his or her agent or attor- ney, a certificate setting forth the substantial facts as to the service or labor due from such fugitive to the claim- ant, and of his or her escape from the State and Terri- tory in which he or she was arrested, with authority to such claimant, or his or her agent or attorney, to use such reasonable force and restraint, as may be necessary, under the circumstances of the case, to take and remove such fugitive person back to the State or Territory whence he or she may have escaped as aforesaid. In no trial or hearing under this act shall the testimony of such alleged fugitive be admitted in evidence, and the certificates in this and the first section mentioned shall be conclusive of the right of the person or persons in whose favor granted, to remove such fugitive to the State or Territory from which he escaped, and shall prevent all molestation of such person or persons by any process issued by any court, judge, magistrate or other person whomsoever.
SECTION 7 .- And be it further enacted, That any per- son who shall knowingly and willfully obstruct, hinder, or prevent such claimant, his agent or attorney, or any person or persons lawfully assisting him, her, or them, from arresting such a fugitive from service or labor,
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either with or without process, as aforesaid; or shall rescue, or attempt to rescue, such fugitive from service or labor, from the custody of such claimant, his or her agent or attorney, or other person or persons lawfully assisting as aforesaid, when so arrested, pursuant to the authority herein given and declared ; or shall aid, abet, or assist such person so owing service or labor as afore- said, directly or indirectly, to escape from such claimant, his agent or attorney, or other person or persons legally authorized as aforesaid ; or shall harbor or conceal such fugitive, so as to prevent the discovery and arrest of such person, after notice or knowledge of the fact that such person was a fugitive from labor or service as afore- said, shall for either of said offences, be subject to a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding six months, by indictment and con- viction before the District Court of the United States for the district in which such offense may have been committed, or before the proper court of criminal juris- diction, if committed within any one of the organized Territories of the United States; and shall moreover forfeit and pay, by way of civil damages to the party, injured by such illegal conduct, the sum of one thousand dollars for each fugitive so lost as aforesaid, to be re- covered by action of debt, in any of the District or Territorial Courts as aforesaid, within whose jurisdiction the said offence may have been committed.
SECTION 8 .- And be it further enacted, That the mar- shals, their deputies, and the clerks of the said District and Territorial Courts, shall be paid for their services the like fees as may be allowed to them for similar ser- vices in other cases; and where such services are ren- dered exclusively in the arrest, custody, and delivery of the fugitive to the claimant, his or her agent or attor- ney, or where such supposed fugitive may be discharged out of custody for the want of sufficient proof as afore- said, then such fees are to be paid in the whole by such claimant, his agent or attorney, and in all cases where the proceedings are before a commissioner, he shall be
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entitled to a fee of ten dollars in full for his services in each case, upon the delivery of the said certificate to the claimant, his or her agent or attorney ; or a fee of five dollars in cases where the proof shall not in the opinion of such commissioner warrant such certificate and deliv- ery, inclusive of all services incident to such arrest and examination, to be paid, in either case, by the claimant, his or her agent or attorney. The person or persons authorized to execute the process to be issued by such commissioners for the arrest and detention of fugitives from service or labor as aforesaid, shall be entitled to a fee of five dollars each for each person he or they may arrest and take before any such commissioner as afore- said, at the instance and request of such claimant, with such other fees as may be deemed reasonable by such commission for such other additional services as may be necessarily performed by him or them ; such as attend- ing at the examination, keeping the fugitive in custody, and providing him with food and lodging during his detention, and until the final determination of such commissioner ; and in general for performing such other duties as may be required by such claimant, his or her attorney or agent, or commissioner in the premises, such fees to be made up in conformity with the fees usually charged by the officers of the courts of justice within the proper district or county, as near as may be practicable, and paid by such claimant, their agents or attorneys, whether such fugitives from service or labor be ordered to be delivered to such claimants by the final determin- ation of such commissioners or not.
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