but little more liberty than the slaves. Nor is this all. Even those who stand up in behalf of the down-trodden colored man, however white their skins may be, are slandered, persecuted, mobbed, hunted from city to city, imprisoned, and, as in the case of the lamented Lovejoy, put to death! It is unnecessary here to refer to Amos Dresser, who, for exercising the privilege of a freeman, and acting in behalf of freedom, was publicly whipped in the streets of Nashville. I need not speak of another devoted friend of the oppressed, whose face I see in this assembly, who, some years ago, was immured in a Baltimore prison, and has since been led like a criminal to a jail in Boston, for no other crime than publishing what his conscience and his judgment told him was the truth. Nor need I give a detailed account of the many mobs which have disgraced our country within the last three or four years-mobs collected together and infuriated, because some independent minds and warm hearts had undertaken to canvass the sublime merits of slavery and the dangers "of emancipation." You are all familiar with the scenes in Congress during its last sessions. You are all familiar with the tragedy at Alton. What, I ask, do these things prove? Do they not clearly show that we do not enjoy the right of free discussion? We may speak without reserve, it is true, on the subject of banks, and on many other political and moral questions; but when slavery is selected as the theme, when it is proposed to discuss the inalienability of human rights, then, forsooth, our lips must be locked and our thoughts imprisoned. Our right here is assailed, and it is a stab at the right to speak on any and every other subject. What do we mean by the right of free discussion? Is it merely the privilege of "saying what the prevailing voice of the brotherhood will allow?" This definition, I know, has been recently given by a popular minister in the enlightened city of Boston;-aye, and the fact shows how corrupt we have become as a people, how we have suffered one of our dearest rights to be almost wrested from us, and have bowed ourselves down before the haughty and tyrannical slaveholder. The right of free discussion is "the privilege to speak and write what the prevailing voice of the brotherhood will allow!" Indeed! Then our boasted right is not a right, but only a privilege-a privilege depending on the "voice of the brotherhood," who one day may will for us to speak, and the next for us to be dumb,-or this week may command our silence, and the next crowd in throngs to give a listening ear to our discussions. Depending on circumstances, and yet a right? Why, it is a contradiction in terms. If it is depending on circumstances, then it does not inherently belong to us-we have derived no right from our Creator. A privilege is a privilege, and not a right. Now freedom of speech we spurn as a privilege; we demand it as our own, and we shall exercise it, too, in the face of all the mobs which may array themselves in threatening attitude before us. Our right to speak freely the dictates of our minds and consciences is derived from our Creator, and we have no permission to surrender it ourselves, nor has any other man the permission to wrest it from us. Thus you see that abridging our freedom of speech on the subject of slavery, is tantamount to saying that freedom of speech on all subjects is not our right, but that we must depend for it upon the voice of the brotherhood;"-that voice determining on what subjects we may speak, what kind of thoughts we may utter, and the language in which they must be clothed. Here, then, on the question of slavery the battle must be fought. At this part of the citadel the first attack has been made; and here the true friends of the right must rally, and disperse the enemy, before they have forced a passage and taken the castle. For this reason alone it is, that so many, since Lovejoy's murder, have taken a decided stand in favor of the abolitionists, although opposed to them in

sentiment on the subject of slavery. They have seen the right of free discussion assailed and trampled under foot; and they have discernment enough to perceive that, although silence is now required only on one subject, the right, in all its length and breadth, is thereby completely destroyed. Next year the "voice of the brotherhood" may demand that all discussion on the banking system be suppressed. Indeed there is no question, political, scientific, or moral, that may not be proscribed by the enlightened "brotherhood." Those who now remonstrate with the public touching the sin and evils of intemperance, may soon be silenced. The cause of peace may lose its advocates. Nay, subjects now regarded as of vital importance, may, upon a fluctuation in the minds and feelings of "the brotherhood," be locked up in the tomb of thought until the day of the final resurrection. I repeat it, we must stand by the right where it is first assailed. And let those who now hesitate, or who take their stand in favor of checking free discussion on the subject of slavery, keep before their minds the consequences that may, and probably will, ensue.

Are such aware of the importance of this right? Are they aware that it lies at the foundation of all our other rights, that if it is surrendered, we ourselves are slaves, and may be ground beneath the most galling servitude which ever oppressed a human being? Do they not see that if we have no right to speak, we can have none to act; that locking our lips is also fettering our limbs and chaining our faces to the dust? We have no freedom of speech or of the press; how then can we maintain our dignity as men, and preserve our property from the grasp of the despot? Our rulers might ride rough-shod over our dearest interests, and convert our money to their own uses, and there would be none to lift up the voice of warning or rebukenone to mutter that all was not right; every tongue is still, every press is muzzled. This would be the millenial day of tyranny. Are you prepared for all these dreadful consequences-prepared to see the people vassals to a few? If so,

"Go, buy for the cold corpse of Freedom a shroud,
And bury your hopes in her grave.

Then hushed be the glee of your laborers proud
As, driven with the mule and the ass in the crowd,
They slink to the task of a slave,

With a curse on their lip and a scowl in their eye
As they mope by your tombstones and tauntingly cry,
Ho! here go the sons of the brave."

Freedom of speech, what is it? The freedom of the immortal mind,the freedom of the heart! How much more valuable to moral beings than mere freedom of the body, or security of property and life! Take from me my money, my watch, or any thing else that I possess, but leave me the right to rebuke sin wherever it exists, and of obeying the commands of my heavenly Father.

Why should men prevent the exercise of this right? It will merely develope the truth and place it in bold relief before the eyes of all. And is there in this house, or in this city, or in this land, a man who fears the truth? If so, you may depend upon it, he is conscious of error in his politics, morals, or religion. Such an one, and only such, has reason to be afraid. Free discussion elicits truth. Of this the people of Pennsylvania were fully aware, when, a year ago or more, they called a Convention for the purpose, not of changing the Constitution, but of deliberating upon and fully discussing certain proposed changes; so that the true character and tendency of those changes might be seen by all, and the people could then understandingly vote either for their adoption or rejection. Of so

much importance were these discussions considered, that the state has expended the enormous sum of three hundred thousand dollars in sustaining that Convention; and if they were of so much importance to the state as to justify such an expenditure, how wonderful it is, that some of the very members of that Convention should be in favor of gags, and of a censorship for the pulpit, the forum, and the press. The Convention has been held, propositions have been discussed, and truth has been elicited, though not written down in some of the amendments, or rather deformities, which the Convention has determined to submit to the people. The PEOPLE, in due time, will give their judgment.

Free discussion elicits truth, and yet there are those who are opposed to it !-in other words, there are those who are opposed to the truth, knowing it to be the truth! If there be such an one in this house, let him come forward to this platform, that we all may may see the being, and that he may receive the condemnation he so richly deserves.

Strange the fatuity of those who seek to cover up the truth, or oppose its progress! Do they not know that a certain defeat awaits them? It has prevailed over its enemies in days that are past, and it ever will and must prevail. How was it with the gospel? It is needless here to state how rapidly it spread through all the earth; how it triumphed over obstacles the most formidable; how prejudice and error, ambition and the love of gain, gratification of sense, with a legion of other evils, were all subdued, and darkness, Judaism, and heathenism vanished before the glorious light. How was it in the days of the Reformation? Were men more able then to cope with truth, or to arrest its progress? Why were the efforts of priests and rulers unavailing to suppress the views of Galileo, and keep up the belief that the sun and planets, and all the starry host, turn round this little earth? Because they fought against the truth.

And we have witnessed triumphs in our own time, and in our own country-triumphs in spite of persecution, and mighty efforts of mighty men to suppress the truth.' Witness the Temperance cause; at one time derided as fanaticism, now popular. Witness also the Peace cause; still ridiculed, but nevertheless making glorious triumphs. Last of all, I would mention the Anti-slavery cause. But a few years ago--in 1832--the largest Antislavery society that could be formed upon correct principles, in this country, consisted of only twelve men. These were without worldly wealth or worldly influence; but they have shaken the atrocious system of Slavery to its very foundation. Although assailed with every kind of slander which human malice could devise, they have outridden the fury of the storm, and now see converts multiplied by thousands to their principles. The rich, the wise, the learned, as well as the good, flock to their standard, and glory in being identified with them. Their names, though at first cast out before men, will go down to posterity in grateful remembrance. The Anti-slavery cause is now beginning to be popular in some parts of the country; and soon the difficulty will be, not to gain members to the society, but to prevent the wrong sort of men from joining with us. Ambitious men and

politicians, as they see us gaining over village after village, county after county, and state after state, will cast in their lot with us, hoping thereby to be promoted to some lucrative or honorable office. I repeat it, the Antislavery cause is destined to become a popular cause; for it has truth and right to buoy it upward and impel it onward.

What man living can disbelieve that, in the exercise of free discussion, error will be exposed and truth elicited?—and what man living disbelieves that the truth is mighty and will prevail? Not one; and, for this reason, slaveholders and errorists of all kinds tremble, when they see independent

men examining their wicked systems. I now tell them, for their consolation, that there is in this country, a noble band of clear-headed, warm-hearted, fearless men, who appreciate the value of free discussion, and are determined to exercise it. This Hall testifies of their character. Seeing the right assailed, they have thrown themselves into the breach, determined that no encroachments shall there be made. They have seen the right first assailed as regards the subject of slavery, and therefore to that point they have directed their attention. That subject above all others, they will henceforth discuss; and

"If they have whispered truth,
Whisper no longer,

But speak as the tempest doth,
Sterner and stronger."

From their purpose they are not to be driven. They have counted the cost, and are not to be affected by threats or by indulgences. They have

"Prayer-strengthened for the trial come together,
Put on the harness for the moral fight,

And, with the blessing of their heavenly Father,
Will guard the right."

As this Hall has been dedicated to the right of free discussion, bear with me, for a moment, while I exercise this right, in freely remarking on the measures for the abolition of slavery alluded to by the learned gentleman who yesterday morning addressed the audience in this place. And I speak not my own sentiments only, but the sentiments of, I believe, every antislavery society in this country. We go for no gradual emancipation such as that gentleman described. We believe that slavery is a heinous sin, and that being sinful, it ought to be immediately repented of, and immediately abandoned. It is the duty of every slaveholder to do this now, and it will continue to be his duty until he has performed it.-Immediate abolition does not consist in merely beginning to act immediately, or in fixing a certain date at which slavery shall die; it contemplates no delay of twenty or fifty years, as we were told, no, nor of a single day. As regards fearful consequences, none would ensue to the country, to the masters, or the slaves, from .striking off every chain at this very moment. We hold that no preparatory education is necessary before emancipation. In giving man inalienable rights, the God who made him, gave him all that knowledge of his duty which was necessary for the exercise of those rights. Laws, also, to ameliorate slavery we have no more fellowship with than with laws to ameliorate high-way robbery or murder. A complete and immediate termination of the outrage is, and nothing short of this could be, demanded by us. Break the chain, and remove the yoke, and make those chattels men, and then educate them—that is the way to ameliorate their condition. First, cease to do evil, and [then] learn to do well." This we will press upon the slaveholder until he yields; and, in so doing, we feel called upon to oppose every thing which will have a tendency to soothe his conscience. No scheme of colonization, either to Africa, to Haiti, or to any distant place in our own country, is called for, or expedient; but, on the contrary, it would be absolutely injurious to the South, in withdrawing her laborers-to the slaves, in removing them from the influence of civilized, enlightened, and pious men-and to the slaveholders, in leading them to believe there is a lion in the way." We, therefore,oppose every such scheme, and every thing that recognises, even indirectly, either the danger or inexpediency of the full and immediate emancipation of every bondman. Not a day, not an hour longer would we see the image of God defaced, and hear the cries of the wronged. We would

see every man, from this time forward, walking forth, not as a slave, with fear and trembling, but erect as he was made, with his face heavenward, and his countenance beaming forth the happiness of freedom, and reminding us of Him, in whose image, it is said, man was created.

It would give me pleasure to dwell longer on this subject, but health forbids. My friends have advised me to be short, and I feel that their advice was prudent.

CHARLES C. BURLEIGH was then introduced to the audience, whom he addressed for some time, in a very animated and eloquent manner, on the subject of Indian wrongs." It is a great matter of regret that stenographers were not secured to take down the remarks of those who spoke extempore. Of the speech on Indian wrongs but very imperfect notes were taken, and the speaker was unable, after the destruction of the Hall, to call to mind what he had said. The notice, however, which was taken of this performance by two newspapers of this city, both known not to be abolition papers, shows that it was worthy of the speaker, and worthy of the place; moreover, that no occasion was given by it for the destruction of the Hall. The Inquirer and Courier, a daily paper, in giving an account of the proceedings, says, "Mr. C. C. Burleigh, also, developed the subject of Indian wrongs with great ability." The Saturday Evening Post, a weekly paper, says: "Various interesting communications were made on the succeeding days, among which we notice a poetical dedication by J. G. Whittier, and an eloquent and powerful address on the subject of Indian oppression, by C. C. Burleigh."

From the scanty notes which were taken, a short sketch of the topics dwelt on by the speaker, has been prepared.

SPEECH OF C. C. BURLEIGH.

He commenced by alluding to the propriety of discussing the wrongs of the Indians in that building. It was a Hall dedicated to the rights of man; not only of the slave, but also of the red man,-of all that are oppressed. He said, that, if he were ever disposed to apologize to a public audience, he might on the present occasion plead want of strength; but what strength he had, he would give to the red man-he was as ready to plead his cause as that of the slave. What claims, he said, has the Indian upon our sympathy! He then spoke of the fewness of those who stand up in his behalf, while treaties are violated, and compulsory measures are used to drive him from his home and from the graves of his fathers. He prays the white man to delay the execution, as the tribes are fast wasting away, and soon they will die. Let us die where we have lived, say they, which will be ere long; and then our possessions shall be yours, without incurring the guilt of wresting them away by fraud or violence.*

After having held up to the view of the audience the injustice of our conduct towards the Indians, and of the conduct of our fathers, through the

* The celebrated Indian orator, RED JACKET, at his last visit to Philadelphia, made a very eloquent address to the citizens, and after having feelingly described the insatiable desire manifested by the White People to obtain the Indian's Lands, paused, and in the most touching manner said: "And now, Brethren, let me kneel down, and beseech you to wait yet a little while longer, and we shall all be dead!--you can then have the Indians' lands for nothing-there will be nobody here to dispute it with you!"