horrors of St. Domingo, and desolate with exterminating war half the territory of our happy country. You prevent your government from being made the unwilling agent and abetter of crimes against the states which strike at their very existence, and give time for the proper authorities to discuss the principles involved, and digest a safe rule for the future guidance of the Department. While persisting in a course which philanthropy recommends and patriotism approves, I doubt not that you and the other Postmasters who have assumed the responsibility of stopping these inflammatory papers in their passage to the south, will perceive the necessity of performing your duty in transmitting and delivering ordinary newspapers, magazines, and pamphlets, with perfect punctuality. Occasion must not be given to charge the Postmasters with carrying their precautions beyond the necessities of the case, or capriciously applying them to other cases in which there is no necessity; and it would be the duty as well as the inclination of the Department, to punish such assumptions with unwonted severity. This suggestion I do not make because I have any apprehension that it is needed for your restraint; but because I wish this paper to bear upon its face a complete explanation of the views which I take of my own duty in the existing emergency. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, No. III. AMOS KENDALL. PUBLIC MEETING. At a large and respectable meeting* of the citizens of Utica, convened pursuant to public notice, at the Court-room in the Academy, on the 17th day of October, 1835, for the purpose of taking into consideration the resolution of the Common Council, passed last evening, granting permission for the holding of a State Abolition Convention in this place, on motion of Hon. Sam. Beardsley, Rudolph Snyder, Esq. was appointed President, and * Many respectable citizens, it cannot be denied, were at the meeting; but the most patriotic, loud, and clamorous expressions of indignation at the vote of the Common Council emanated from that class of "peaceable and reputable citizens," who acted so conspicuous a part in the doings of the Wednesday following. John C. Devereux, Ephraim Hart, Ezra S. Barnum, Kellogg Hurlburt, Adam Bowman, Nicholas Smith, and John B. Pease, Vice Presidents: and on motion of D. Wager, Esq. Isaiah Tiffany and William C. Noyes were chosen Secretarios. On the motion of Hon. S. Beardsley, a committee of five was appointed by the chair, to prepare and report Resolutions expressive of the sense of the meeting, consisting of the following:Messrs. Samuel Beardsley, Joshua M. Church, Rutger B. Miller, Chauncey Rowe, and B. B. Lansing. After the committee had retired, the Hon. Joseph Kirkland, Mayor of the city,, entered the meeting, and being invited to a seat with the President, made a short address, in which, from feelings of delicacy towards another body over which he presided, he declined the invitation; but at the same time expressed his decided opposition to the resolution of the Common Council, which occasioned the present meeting.* The committee, after a short recess, by Hon. S. Beardsley, its chairman, reported the following preamble and resolutions for the consideration of the meeting; which having been read, and the meeting having been addressed by several gentlemen, were adopted. The citizens of Utica, here convened, deem it unnecessary to repeat the expressions of their decided hostility to the movements of the abolitionists, and especially to the assembling of their Convention in this city on the 21st instant, or at any other time. Their views upon this subject have, on former occasions, been expressed and reiterated: they are unchanged, and probably un-changeable. The public condemnation of these movements is here, as it is elsewhere, nearly unanimous ; and the present meeting has been called forth only by the new and unexpected atti * What "feelings of delicacy" will the public believe this man possessed toward the body over which he presided, when he could appear at this meeting, deliver "a short address," and countenance, in the most decided and emphatic manner, proceedings reproaching the conduct and character of that body. His "feelings of delicacy" were doubtless of a peculiar character. When this resolution, so much complained of, was passed, Gen. Kirkland of course presided, and officially assured the Council, that they had a complete legal warrant for that act; and now he is attempting to nullify a legal and valid act of that body—to destroy his own authority. This was a delicate situation to be sure.. This tude which has been assumed by the Common Council. meeting has learned, with no less surprise than regret and mortification, that the Common Council of this city, last night, by a vote of seven to four,, assumed to grant permission for the holding of a State Abolition Convention on the 21st instant, at the place where we are now assembled. It is this vote which has brought the present meeting together; a vote, for which we see nothing like a justification, nor indeed an apology, and which, looking to the previous acts and declarations of several of the Aldermen who sustained it, is wholly inconsistent with those acts and declarations.* Therefore, Resolved, That the said vote of a majority of said Common Council is regarded by this meeting, not only as a flagrant usurpation of power, as that body has no rightful, authority to grant such permission, but as a direct indignity to the good citizens of this place.† * The Aldermen who voted for this resolution are far from deserving this insinuation of inconsistency. The respect and esteem which they receive from the community where they are known, is well worth the emulation of the best among their traducers. † Seven Aldermen voted for the resolution and four against it. One member of the Council, who is distinguished for his firmness and integrity, and a fearless discharge of his duties, who was absent at the time the resolution was passed, afterward expressed his regret that he was deprived of the satisfaction of adding his own vote to those by which it was carried. It is now pretty well understood, that this violent and unwarrantable opposition to the authority of the Common Council, and the ungenerous aspersions cast upon the members of that body, were employed by a few individuals as a political movement, to obtain, by stratagem, what they had not been able to obtain by fair and open conduct-a political ascendency in the city-by producing among the citizens disaffection and distrust toward those with whom they had intrusted the administration of its affairs, and it is exceedingly to be regretted that many well-meaning persons were seduced into the measure. The scheme, however, totally failed, and Haman has been hanged upon the same gallows that he had erected for Mordecai. The originators of this crusade against all that is valuable in society are looked upon by the respectable and virtuous portion of the community where they reside, (and Utica, it is believed, is not behind other cities in respect to the virtue and respectability of its inhabitants) with a calm and deliberate expression of scorn and contempt, Resolved, That we highly approve of the course which the Mayor of this city has taken upon this exciting subject; a course, in the judgment of this meeting, not less the dictate of a proper self-respect, than of sound patriotism and public virtue. Resolved, That we proffer to the minority of the Common Council who opposed the adoption of the resolution to which we have before referred, an expression of the thanks and the cordial approbation of this meeting. Resolved, That this meeting, unmoved by passion or prejudice, but influenced only by a just regard for itself, and for what is due to the quiet and repose of the whole community, will not submit to the indignity of an abolition assemblage being beld in a public building of the city, reared as this was, by the contributions of its citizens, and designed to be used for salutary public objects, and not as a receptacle for deluded fanatics or reckless incendiaries.* Resolved, That it is the incumbent duty of every citizen to make use of all lawful and proper measures to arrest the disgrace which would settle upon this city by the public assemblage of the Convention appointed to be held on the 21st înstant; and that when this meeting adjourns, it will adjourn to meet on that day at nine o'clock, A. M. at this place.† On the motion of D. Wager, Esq. Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by its officers, and published in the Oneida Whig, Utica Observer, Baptist Register, and Evangelical Magazine.‡ The meeting was then adjourned by the President to the 21st instant, at nine o'clock, A. M. at the same place. RUDOLPH SNYDER, President. John C. Devereux, Ephraim Hart, Ezra } Vice Presidents. Isaiah Tiffany, W. C. Noyes, Secretaries. * The violence which is here threatened, it has been seen, was fully executed. + We have already seen what "lawful and proper measures" were employed. ‡The Evangelical Magazine and Baptist Register would willingly forego the honour: they condemn these proceedings. This W. C. Noyes is the City Attorney, and was elevated to that station by those very men whose characters he has thus No. IV. GREAT CONSERVATIVE MEETING, Of "the citizens of Utica, not abolitionists, but nevertheless in favour of maintaining the supremacy of the laws at all times, and under all circumstances, and who are opposed to any abridgment of the right of free and temperate discussion, guarantied by the constitution," held at the court-room of the academy, Tuesday evening, Oct. 20, 1835, pursuant to a solemn and deliberate resolve of a committee of thirty citizens. The meeting was organized by appointing Bradford Seymour, Chairman, H. Nash, E. M. Gilbert, and Dr. J. P. Batchelder, assistant Chairmen; John Bradish, Esq. James Sayre, and James M'Gregor, Secretaries. On motion of Mr. H. Bushnell, the following persons were appointed a committee to draft resolutions, and present to the meeting; Dolphus Bennet, Horace M. Hawes, Esq., T. B. Dixon, Dr. Rathbun, and Andrew Hanna. The committee retired, and after a short recess (during which the agitators of tumult, who had come to the meeting, produced some disorder and confusion) returned, and reported by H. M. Hawes, Esq. their chairman, the following preamble and resolutions. Preamble ;-Whereas, freedom of speech and of the press, and of the right of the people peaceably to assemble, are guarantied by the constitution, and cannot in any wise be abridged without striking a death blow to our liberties, therefore, Resolved, that we will maintain the supremacy of the laws by all legal and proper means; resisting every attempt to invade said right, and will on all occasions, and by all just means, protect every member of the American republic, in the free, tempe rate, and undisturbed use of the same, (hissing and clamour, by the agitators, "hustle him out.") Resolved, that for the protection of the constitutional rights of our wantonly traduced. It is by the favour and indulgence of that body which he is here villifying, that he has a voice and participation in their counsels. The act of meanness which he is guilty of has few parallels. |