In the Articles of Confederation, there was no guaranty for the property of the slaveholder—­no double representation of him in the Federal councils—­no power of taxation—­no stipulation for the recovery of fugitive slaves.  But when the powers of government came to be delegated to the Union, the South—­that is, South Carolina and Georgia—­refused their subscription to the parchment, till it should be saturated with the infection of slavery, which no fumigation could purify, no quarantine could extinguish.  The freemen of the North gave way, and the deadly venom of slavery was infused into the Constitution of freedom.  Its first consequence has been to invert the first principle of Democracy, that the will of the majority shall rule the land.  By means of the double representation, the minority command the whole, and a KNOT OF SLAVEHOLDERS GIVE THE LAW AND PRESCRIBE THE POLICY OF THE COUNTRY.

THE ANTI-SLAVERY EXAMINER.

  ADDRESS TO THE FRIENDS OF CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY,
  ON THE VIOLATION BY THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
  OF THE RIGHT OF PETITION AT THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
  OF THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

NEW YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY,
NO. 143 NASSAU STREET.

1840.

This No. contains 1 sheet.—­Postage, under 100 miles, 1-1/2 ct. over 100, 2-1/2 cts.  Please Read and circulate.

ADDRESS.

  TO THE FRIENDS OF CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY:—­

There was a time, fellow citizens, when the above address would have included the PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.  But, alas! the freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the right of petition, are now hated and dreaded by our Southern citizens, as hostile to the perpetuity of human bondage; while, by their political influence in the Federal Government, they have induced numbers at the North to unite with them in their sacrilegious crusade against these inestimable privileges.

On the 28th January last, the House of Representatives, on motion of Mr. Johnson, from Maryland, made it a standing RULE of the House that “no petition, memorial, resolution, or other paper, praying the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, or any State or Territory of the United States, in which it now exists, SHALL BE RECEIVED BY THE HOUSE, OR ENTERTAINED IN ANY WAY WHATEVER.”

Thus has the RIGHT OF PETITION been immolated in the very Temple of Liberty, and offered up, a propitiatory sacrifice to the demon of slavery.  Never before has an outrage so unblushingly profligate been perpetrated upon the Federal Constitution.  Yet, while we mourn the degeneracy which this transaction evinces, we behold, in its attending circumstances, joyful omens of the triumph which awaits our struggle with the hateful power that now perverts the General Government into an engine of cruelty and loathsome oppression.