The Liberator (newspaper)/September 18, 1857/Call for a Northern Convention
The Liberator.
Boston, September 18, 1857.
Call for a Northern Convention.
Whereas, it must be obvious to all, that the American Union is constantly becoming more and more divided, by Slavery, into two distinct and antagonistic nations, between whom harmony is impossible, and even ordinary intercourse is becoming dangerous;
And, whereas, Shivery has now gained entire control over the three branches of our National Government, Executive, Judiciary, and Legislative; has so interpreted the Constitution as to deny the right of Congress to establish freedom even in the territories, and by the same process has removed all legal protection from a large portion of the people of the free States, and has inflicted, at many times and places, outrages far greater than those which our fathers rose in arms to repel;
And, whereas, there seems no probability that the future will, in these respects, be different from the last, under existing State relations;
The undersigned respectfully invite their fellow-citizens of the Free States to meet in Convention, at Cleveland, (Ohio,) on Wednesday and Thursday, October 28th and 29th, 1857, to consider the practicability, probability, and expediency of a separation of the Free and Slave States, and to take such other measures as the condition of the times may require.
☞Friends of free discussion and free inquiry! have you appended your names to this Call, and forwarded them as directed? There is still an opportunity to sign it; let it be improved by all who take an interest in the subject. We understand some decline on the modest ground of not wishing to see their names in print. Their wish will be gratified. Of course, only a very small proportion of the names actually sent in can be published; but it is both desirable and important to have as many obtained as possible, as a basis of action. We again ask attention to the fact, that no one, by signing the Call, thereby necessarily subscribes to the doctrine of disunion. The Convention is to be held for consultation as to what is the duty of the North: what its final decision may be, it would be useless to conjecture. If there were no other reasons for putting our name to the Call, the denial of the right of the North to ‘calculate the value of the Union,’ by the Southern slave oligarchy, while they make it a matter of constant calculation, and threaten to cut the connection whenever they shall be successfully foiled in their nefarious purposes, would be with us an all-sufficient stimulus. If you dare to be free, and to maintain a manly independence, send in your names!