Chapter LXVII: Appendix: B

A short time previous to the late election in Rhode Island for governor and lieutenant-governor, a letter was addressed to each of the candidates for those offices by Mr. Johnson, Corresponding Secretary of the Rhode Island Anti-Slavery Society, embodying the views of the abolitionists on the several subjects it embraced, in a series of queries. Their purport will appear from the answer of Mr. Sprague, (who was elected governor,) given below. The answer of Mr. Childs (elected lieutenant-governor) is fully as direct as that of governor Sprague.

"WARWICK, _March 28, 1838_.

DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 19th inst. requesting of me, in
conformity to a resolution of the Executive Committee of the Rhode
Island Anti-Slavery Society, an expression of my opinions on certain
topics, was duly received. I have no motive whatever for withholding
my opinions on any subject which is interesting to any portion of my
fellow-citizens. I will, therefore, cheerfully proceed to reply to
the interrogatories proposed, and in the order in which they are
submitted.

1. Among the powers vested by the Constitution in Congress, is the
power to exercise exclusive legislation, 'in all cases whatsoever,'
over the District of Columbia? 'All cases' must, of course, include
the _case_ of slavery and the slave-trade. I am, therefore, clearly
of opinion, that the Constitution does confer upon Congress the
power to abolish slavery and the slave-trade in that District; and,
as they are great moral and political evils, the principles of
justice and humanity demand the exercise of that power.

2. The traffic in slaves, whether foreign or domestic, is equally
obnoxious to every principle of justice and humanity; and, as
Congress has exercised its powers to suppress the slave-trade
between this country and foreign nations, it ought, as a matter of
consistency and justice, to exercise the same powers to suppress the
slave-trade between the states of this Union. The slave-trade within
the states is, undoubtedly, beyond the control of Congress; as the
'sovereignty of each state, to legislate exclusively on the subject
of slavery, which is tolerated within its limits,' is, I believe,
universally conceded. The Constitution unquestionably recognises the
sovereign power of each state to legislate on the subject within its
limits; but it imposes on us no obligation to add to the evils of
the system by countenancing the traffic between the states. That
which our laws have solemnly pronounced to be piracy in our foreign
intercourse, no sophistry can make honorable or justifiable in a
domestic form. For a proof of the feelings which this traffic
naturally inspires, we need but refer to the universal execration in
which the slave-dealer is held in those portions of the country
where the institution of slavery is guarded with the most jealous
vigilance.

3. Congress has no power to abridge the right of petition. The
right of the people of the non-slaveholding states to petition
Congress for the abolition of slavery and the slave-trade in the
District of Columbia, and the traffic of human beings among the
states, is as undoubted as any right guarantied by the Constitution;
and I regard the Resolution which was adopted by the House of
Representatives on the 21st of December last as a virtual denial of
that right, inasmuch as it disposed of all such petitions, as might
be presented thereafter, in advance of presentation and reception.
If it was right thus to dispose of petitions on _one_ subject, it
would be equally right to dispose of them in the same manner on
_all_ subjects, and thus cut of all communication, by petition
between the people and their representatives. Nothing can be more
clearly a violation of the spirit of the Constitution, as it
rendered utterly nugatory a right which was considered of such vast
importance as to be specially guarantied in that sacred instrument.
A similar Resolution passed the House of Representatives at the
first session of the last Congress, and as I then entertained the
same views which I have now expressed, I recorded my vote
against it.

4. I fully concur in the sentiment, that 'every principle of
justice and humanity requires, that every human being, when personal
freedom is at stake, should have the benefit of a jury trial;' and I
have no hesitation in saying, that the laws of this state ought to
secure that benefit, so far as they can, to persons claimed as
fugitives from 'service or labor,' without interfering with the laws
of the United States. The course pursued in relation to this subject
by the Legislature of Massachusetts meets my approbation.

5. I am opposed to all attempts to abridge or restrain the freedom
of speech and the press, or to forbid any portion of the people
peaceably to assemble to discuss any subject--moral, political, or
religious.

6. I am opposed to the annexation of Texas to the United States.

7. It is undoubtedly inconsistent with the principles of a free
state, professing to be governed in its legislation by the
principles of freedom, to sanction slavery, in any form, within its
jurisdiction. If we have laws in this state which bear this
construction, they ought to be repealed. We should extend to our
southern brethren, whenever they may have occasion to come among us,
all the privileges and immunities enjoyed by our own citizens, and
all the rights and privileges guarantied to them by the Constitution
of the United States; but they cannot expect of us to depart from
the fundamental principles of civil liberty for the purpose of
obviating any temporal inconvenience which they may experience.

These are my views upon the topics proposed for my consideration.
They are the views which I have always entertained, (at least ever
since I have been awakened to their vast importance,) and which I
have always supported, so far as I could, by my vote in Congress;
and if, in any respect, my answers have not been sufficiently
explicit, it will afford me pleasure to reply to any other questions
which you may think proper to propose.

I am, Sir, very respectfully,

Your friend and fellow citizen,

WILLIAM SPRAGUE."

Oliver Johnson, Esq., Cor. Sec. R.I.A.S. Society.