In any question under the Constitution every word must be construed in favor of Liberty.

This law is respected, and all rights under it are protected, by the Federal authorities; but the Constitution acts upon slaves as PERSONS, and not as property....

In the spirit of Freedom the Constitution was formed.

The Constitution, slowly matured in a National Convention, discussed before the people, defended by masterly pens, was adopted.

The Thirteen States stood forth a Nation, where was unity without consolidation, and diversity without discord.

At such time, and in such presence, beneath the unveiled heavens, Washington first took this vow upon his lips: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my…

In the early days of the Revolution, in those darkest hours about Boston, after the Battle of Bunker Hill, and before the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen stripes had been first unfurled by him, as the emblem of Union among the…

Trial, struggle, and war were now ended, and the Union, which they first heralded, was unalterably established.

Then, indeed, was Slavery Sectional, and Freedom National.

On the sea an execrable piracy, the trade in slaves, to the national scandal, was still tolerated under the national flag.

In the States, as a sectional institution, beneath the shelter of local laws, Slavery unhappily found a home.

But in the only territories at this time belonging to the nation, the broad region of the Northwest, it was already made impossible, by the Ordinance of Freedom, even before the adoption of the Constitution.

Washington was a slaveholder, but it would be unjust to his memory not to say that he was an Abolitionist also.

The convictions and earnest aspirations of the country were with them.

In language now familiar to all, and which can never die, he perpetually denounced Slavery.

At the adoption of the Constitution, their whole body, under the early teaching of George Fox, and by the crowning exertions of Benezet and Woolman, had become an organized band of Abolitionists, penetrated by the conviction that it was…

Thus, at this time, the Church, in harmony with the Nation, by its leading denominations, Quakers, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists, thundered against Slavery.

Such, Sir, at the adoption of the Constitution and the first organization of the National Government, was the outspoken, unequivocal heart of the country.

The patriot, the Christian, the scholar, the writer, the poet, vied in loyalty to this cause.

It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this act as a national landmark, especially when we consider that on the list of those who sanctioned it were men fresh from the National Convention, and therefore familiar with the…

Not encouragement, but discouragement of Slavery,--not its nationalization, but its denationalization, was their rule.

In the face of this history, and in the absence of any positive sanction, it is absurd to suppose that Slavery, which under the Confederation had been merely sectional, was now constituted national.

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Stronger words could not be employed to limit the power under the Constitution, and to protect the people from all assumptions of the National Government, particularly in derogation of Freedom.

Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.