March 27, 1857
From the Watchman and the Reflector, is the comment that the decision “works a complete revolution in our government”, that “If this decision be submitted to, there is no longer a free State”….”We are become a province of Carolina.” “Shall this decision be submitted to? It need not be.” …”If the Constitution is a charter to protect slavery, everywhere, then it is a sin against God and man to swear allegiance to it. Every man will be forced to choose between disunion, and the guilt of an accomplice in the crime of slavery. May God avert such an alternative!
From Zion’s Herald words which call the decision “horribly wicked”, which calls for opposition, nullification, but speaks against rebellion. It should “excite a more determined opposition. Anti-Slavery progresses …slavery will be crushed to the earth, and liberty be universal.”
From the N.Y. Evangelist: “This is a gigantic stride of the Slave Power towards universal domination. And we are afraid this is not the end.”… ” ..it is at least a shame and reproach to our country that such a decision should be established as American law….in this republic the government proclaims Slavery as the universal law. It hunts the fugitive, and seizes him for his master; it fastens his fetters, and holds the key of his prison-house; and finally, it denies that a black man can be a citizen, or even appear in the United States courts to ask for the protection of his rights!”
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