MASSACHUSETTS ERECT ! RIGHT OF PETITION VINDICATED ! SOUTHERN DESPOTISM REBUKED !
Among the proudest days in the existence of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will be ranked, in all coming time, Tuesday last, the 21st inst.
The record of it will illumine the page of history. The Representatives of the People of this State have vindicated the Right of Petition, and put the brand upon Southern Slavery as an outrage upon the Rights of Man and the Government of God. In declaring as they have done ALMOST UNANIMOUSLY, that slavery is ‘ a great social, moral and political evil,’ they have put it, root and branch, beyond the pale of toleration, and the possibility of reform. …. they have proclaimed liberty to the captives throughout the land. …In declaring that Congress has the right to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, they have thrown upon that body and upon the people of the free States, the awful responsibility of a system full of pollution and blood, or robbery and oppression…….. In the House of Representatives of this State, on Tuesday last, the following Preamble and Rsolutions –which we shall report and comment upon next week –were adopted — Ayes! THREE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-EIGHT ! Noes, 16 !
(Liberator, March 24, 1837, pg 3)
