Anti-Slavery agitation that measures were not long ago commenced for Gradual Abolition. It gives the lie to the assertion that it was because the movement against Slavery was commenced in the Free States, that the slaveholders had clung yet closer to the system, out of their lofty scorn of foreign dictation. It contradicts the assertion that the angry resistance of the slaveholders to the demands of Anti-Slavery that they should relieve their victims, was mainly attributable to its harsh language, and stern denunciations. Here was a native-born citizen of Kentucky, a slaveholder by birth and education, bearing one of the most honored of her historical names, no stranger and alien, and yet what was his treatment at the hands of his fellow-citizens, for endeavoring to do them good and not evil? He was no fanatical abolitionist, he did not denounce the Slaveholder as a sinner because of his slaveholding, he attacked the system rather than its supporters, he asked only for Gradual Emancipation, and offered the bribe of compensation, and were they any the more willing to listen to his words? Here is sufficient proof, had any been wanting, that the opposition of Slaveholders and their abettors, to the Anti-Slavery movement, is not because they want to abolish Slavery in their own chosen way, nor because the delicate sensitiveness of their honor shrinks from the interposition of strangers, nor because their ears are shocked by the unyielding testimony and plainness of speech of the Abolitionists; but because they love Slavery for its own sake, and are resolved never to abandon it, as long as it makes them, not merely the absolute masters of the blacks, but the political lords of the whites.

Though we dissent from the positions taken by Mr CLAY, in his warfare with Slavery, and are more than ever convinced by his own experiences as well as by the pregnant histories of every succeeding year, that Slavery is to be attacked effectually only by treating it as a malum in se, and demanding, as in the case of every other crime, an immediate cessa

tion from it, as the only true morality and the only just expediency; still we hold him to deserve the highest honor for his courageous and generous assertion of human liberty in the midst of trials and dangers that might well daunt a less intrepid spirit. We believe that a further experience will convince him that Slavery is "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked," and that one of its most hateful features is, the ruin which it makes of the most ingenuous and noble natures; that he will perceive it to be a crime against God and humanity, by whomsoever perpetrated, which ought to be be immediately abandoned; and will discern that compensation, if made at all, is due to the Slave rather than to the Master. We think it not too much to affirm that it is the faithful and uncompromising testimony which the Abolitionists have borne to these truths, and to whatever other truths naturally flow from them, in the ears of an unwilling generation, for the last fifteen years, which has created that public sentiment in the free States, which is now Mr. CLAY's chief moral support. And perhaps it is to these very hated testimonies, and to the agitation they have excited, that Mr. CLAY, and his country, owe the formation and developement of his own Anti-Slavery character. We are confident, moreover, that he will see with us, before our common object is attained, that it is not to be accomplished by any management of political machinery of which the Slaveholders possess the absolute control as long as it exists in its present shape; but that the deliverance of the Slave, and the honor and safety of the nominally free, can only be achieved by THE ABROGATION OF THE EXISTING NATIONAL CONSTITUTION, AND THE DISSOLUTION OF THE PRESENT UNION OF THESE STATES,-by the adoption, and consistent carrying out, of the present Anti-Slavery watchword-"NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS."

In the hope that Mr. CLAY will yet see eye to eye with us on these points, and that we shall yet be found fighting

shoulder to shoulder with him in this holy warfare, we cordially bid him God speed in the agitation which he has so nobly begun and so fearlessly carried forward. When we can act together, consistently with the honest difference in our opinions, we shall be ever ready to tender to him our cordial sympathy and our helping hands. A career opens before him which might well satisfy the highest ambition, as well as the most earnest benevolence. He has taken the lead in a revolution, which can never go backwards, and which, when complete, will fill with its blessings millions of homes and hearts, in his native State, and in the whole Southern country, and his name will be to them as one of their household words, to the end of time, if he be but faithful to the trust he has assumed. Should he survive the conflict he has invoked, and endure unto the end, he will be honored by his beloved Kentucky as the chiefest of her benefactors, and will receive from her hand a tribute of enduring gratitude, such as she has never yet bestowed upon the worthiest of her sons. And should it be his fate to fall at his post, in the hot strife of the early battle, he will leave behind him an example which will stir the hearts of his successors like the sound of a trumpet, and he will bequeath to his children a name more precious than the richest inheritance;

"One of the few, the immortal names,

That were not born to die."

MASSACHUSETTS.

Besides the action of the Legislature of Massachusetts in the matter of Texas, which we have already related, there were other proceedings of that body worthy of Anti-Slavery remembrance. After the return of Mr. HOAR from his mission to Charleston, he made a report of his doings Governor

BRIGGS, which was laid before the General Court. It was referred to a Joint Special Committee, of which the Hon. CHARLES F. ADAMS was Chairman. This Committee reported a Declaration to the other States of the Union, "in the presence of all Christian nations, of the civilized world, and of an Omniscient all-seeing Deity," entering an "earnest and solemn Protest against the hostile acts of South Carolina." This State Paper was drawn up with admirable temper, skill and precision, setting forth the whole case, showing the reasonableness and necessity of the acts of Massachusetts, and justifying her course by forcible statements and impregnable arguments. It concluded with a solemn adjuration to the States not to permit acts which amounted to a destruction of the Constitution, to have no Constitutional redress, and an explicit statement that if such acts were tolerated, and the General Government continued to refuse redress, that Massachusetts, and other aggrieved States, had no remedy, "except by throwing herself back upon the original inherent rights of her citizens to defend themselves." While it declared that Massachusetts would delay the decision of what her remedy should be in such case, in deference to her obligations to the pacific States, still, if the outrages were repeated, and no redress afforded her, "retaliation would follow," and worse evils in its train. Though she would sacrifice much to avert the downfall of the Union, she would still do her duty to the humblest of her citizens; and would never relax in her demand for her rights as a State, or "in the exertion of her utmost energies in support of the undying principles of justice and liberty among men." This Protest was adopted and sent to the governors of all the other States, with a request to lay it before their Legislatures, and to the governor of South Carolina, unaccompanied by such a request. This measure was a dignified and proper proceeding, as Massachusetts recognised the binding force of the Constitution of the United States, and, if followed up by suitable action,

would form a suitable link in the chain of events. Had the Protest been adopted with the same sincerity with which it was draughted, and the spirit it breathed been indeed the breath of the life of the people, all would be well. But all seems to be forgotten already. Our colored seamen are still shut up in the gaol of Charleston, our agents would still be punished by law if they interfered in their behalf, and we shall now see whether Massachusetts, after another year of sufferance, is disposed to make it the badge of all her tribe, in all time to come, or whether she is disposed to redeem the pledge made in her Protest to do her duty to her people. We fear that her policy on this and kindred subjects will be marked by "a wise and masterly inactivity." But most happy shall we be to find our forebodings contradicted by the result.

An order was also adopted, declaring that Massachusetts demands, and will continue to demand, that the General Government make such change in the jurisdiction of the Federal Courts, or such provisions by law, as will enable any citizen debarred of his liberty, on account of his color, to have a remedy in the laws of the United States; and requesting our Senators and Representatives to lose no opportunity of urging this subject upon the consideration of Congress. We have not learned that any such opportunity has, as yet, been found or improved.

Subsequently to the action of the last Congress, relative to the Annexation of Texas, Mr. WILSON, of Middlesex, presented an order that the Judiciary Committee should prepare a bill declaring that any slave escaping from Texas to Massachusetts should be protected in his rights, and making it a penal offence to molest or attempt to recapture him; on the ground that Massachusetts does not recognize Texas as one of the United States, nor entitled to the benefits of the Constitution. The Committee reported that it was inexpedient to legislate on the subject. Mr. WILSON moved the re