ures tending to aid and encourage the slaveholders, and thus deepened and strengthened the belief in the people of Massachusetts, concerning the identity of their respective interests.

I have been led to these animadversions, and subsequently, to this publication, from a deep and irrepressible sense of public duty, resulting from the conduct of the whigs, and of the language used, and the measures adopted in their several recent conventions, having for their objects, to guide and influence the people of Massachusetts in their approaching Congressional and State elections. Their conduct in bringing forward Mr. Fillmore as candidate for the Presidency, and Mr. Donelson, an embodiment of the slaveholders, as Vice President, under circumstances in which they dared not openly support Mr. Buchanan, with no other purpose than that of forming a nucleus, around which democracy might unite with congenial whigs, and thus give efficient aid to the slaveholders, without any appearance of subserviency to them,their general silence in all their conventions, in relation to the outrage upon Mr. Sumner, and the readiness with which some of them adopted the views and language of slaveholders, in respect of that outrage, and those at Kansas, combined with their studied endeavors, in their several conventions, to keep both out of the sight and minds of the people of Massachusetts, are sufficiently indicative of their policy; of which their language, in those conventions, are corroborative evidences. I shall allude only to two instances. One of their leaders, (Mr. Stevenson,) on the 3d of October, expressed the hope that "Boston would be represented, in the next Congress, by a man who, while giving expression to the sentiments of Massachusetts in national affairs, will not give offence to others." Another whig leader, (Mr. Lord,) on the 8th of October, referring to Mr. Burlingame's reply to Brooks, said, “We need not send men to Congress as bullies and blackguards, but men who will neither be insulted themselves, nor will say any thing that will give insult to others." These expressions of these known leaders of the whig party, taken in connection with the subsequent proceedings of these whig conventions, render it obvious that these insinuations were intended to apply to Mr. Burlingame, and perhaps to Mr. Banks, both of whose political paths have been obnoxious to cotton-growers and cotton-spinners. The plain,

undeniable policy of the whigs being to remove one, if not both these men from Congress, and to suggest a general tone of policy to the electors of the other districts, to send to that body, as their representatives, men who will be acceptable to the slaveholders, and to avoid all such as possess the same truth and fearlessness of temper and spirit. Now there is no duty more plain and incumbent, on the free States, at a crisis like the present, than to send men to Congress who have no peculiar interests in common with slaveholders;-men faithful to the great interests of liberty and humanity, and who, if doomed to meet "blackguards" on the floor of Congress, will not flinch from fulfilling their duties, in language adapted to the subject, their adversaries, and the occasion.

I have been chiefly led to these animadversions and to this publication, from a deep sense of the wrong and injustice done to one or both of these Representatives from Massachusetts, in the plain insinuations made against them in those whig conventions and the course of proceedings founded upon them. I have no personal acquaintance with Mr. Banks, nor Mr. Burlingame; and have no recollection of having ever seen either of them. I have no affinity with their previous political course. But there are certain great principles, which lie at the foundation of National prosperity and State character, which, if any people deliberately violate, their punishment is certain, and the justice of Heaven will not long be delayed. One of these great principles, applicable to Republics, is, that if a people would be well served, they must be true to those who serve them; when representatives are faithful to their duties, their constituents must be faithful to their representatives, and not permit rival interests and rival aspirants to make them unmindful of their obligations to those who have honorably upheld the true interests and character of their country. No man can doubt that the insinuations included in the language above quoted, were intended to apply either to Banks or Burlingame, or to both, implying as the ground for their being superseded, that they had given just offence to the slaveholders, to propititiate whom others must be sent.

I think I do no injustice to those two whig leaders, when I take it as indubitable, that those insinuations were intended to be applied to one or both of these Representatives. Under this impression, I use the right, incident to every citizen in a republic,

to express opinions, in direct opposition to the charges those insinuations imply. Mr. Burlingame being the individual apparently the most obnoxious to these leaders, I shall exclusively adapt my defence, to the language used by him in his speech, delivered in Congress, on the 21st of June last, to which those insinuations most evidently were intended to apply. In opposition to which, I maintain that that speech, in the circumstances under which it was delivered, was timely, just, appropriate and honorable, and which, if the people of Massachusetts, at the ensuing elections, fail to support, they will, thus far, in my judgment, be disgraced, in all time, present and future. In it, Mr. Burlingame defends Massachusetts against gross misrepresentations and slanders, with equal truth and ability; refuting both, with reference to past history and the present times, evidencing research, judgment and tact. In it he speaks of freedom and slavery, in a spirit and in terms in which they ought to be spoken of everywhere. He arraigns President Pierce before the bar of public opinion, in language at once severe, appropriate, just and parliamentary. He spoke of Kansas and the Emigrant Aid Society according to truth and in a right spirit. He turned into well deserved ridicule the abusive rodomontade directed by slaveholders against the farmers of Massachusetts and the operatives in her manufactories, doing full justice and giving ample praise to those faithful, intelligent and laborious classes, whom slaveholders are accustomed to decry and speak of as inferior in the scale of being as their own negroes. Is it for a speech so full of truth, of justice, of power, that Mr. Burlingame is to be discharged by his constituents? Shall South Carolina honor with rewards and ovations, Brooks, for being the champion of slavery, whom history will record as being, in principle and act, but little above the level of an assassin? Shall Massachusetts dismiss, in disgrace, Mr. Burlingame, who has proved himself the champion of liberty, the faithful defender of her character and honor? If such be the result of the ensuing elections, there will be no need of further evidence, that the spirit of the fathers of the revolution has evaporated in transmission. The speech of Burlingame was timely, faithful, appropriate, and as a citizen of Massachusetts, my hope and prayer is, that he may be returned to Congress, at the coming election, and with him, as many more of like temper and spirit, as can be obtained.

A sense of public duty has compelled me to present to my fellow-citizens these important truths, to be considered and weighed by them now and in future, concerning the identity of the cottongrowing and cotton-spinning interests. Of this last I consider, at this time, the whig party little else than an embodiment. Under its influence, Massachusetts has been led into a course of policy, which has made her the reproach and ridicule of slaveholders, while she has been a pander to their power and contributed to their success.

For many years, though not connected with politics, I have on all State questions voted for whig candidates. I recognize, in that party, many valued friends, the excellencies and exemplariness of whose private virtues I acknowledge; among whom I gladly include the individual whom the whigs have selected as the rival candidate of Mr. Burlingame, and of whom I rejoice to speak as eminent in all the qualities and virtues which do honor to the man and the citizen; and from whom I have received evidences of friendship, which I have pleasure in acknowledging.

If, as it is said, the hope of whig success, in this nomination, is the expectation of aid from the democratic party, to whom, as well as to the slaveholders, the disgrace of Burlingame would be highly gratifying; then, I affirm, no event could be more symptomatic of the corrupted spirit of the times. In a Republic, there can be no more certain omen of the deteriorated spirit of liberty than the union of capital with democracy, in support of the power and interests of slavery. History impresses no truth more universally and forcibly, than that the first stage of moral deterioration, in a free State, is that period when wealth becomes the predominating influence, and takes the control of public affairs. When wealth comes into power, the spirit of liberty never fails to go out. No man can have watched the course of events in this Union for the past fifty years, without perceiving that the great prosperity of the free States has gradually diminished and deteriorated that love of freedom which was bequeathed to them by the founders of the Republic.

May the result of the coming election prove that the spirit of the fathers still presides over the destinies of their sons!