REIGN OF THE UNIVERSE, that which accords with

reason is a law of nature.

ence.

These laws are given

Our reason is given us

for the benefit of mankind. to develope them, our mouths to promulgate, and our ears to hear them; we are not even permitted voluntarily to abandon this right. We cannot do it without unfitting us for the designs of our existWhat the Roman orator says of right reason, may well be applied to this right for which we are here contending; "it is," says he, " indeed a rule of law agreeable to nature, common to all men, constant, immutable, eternal; it prompts men to their duty by its commands, and deters them from evil by its prohibitions. It is not allowed to retrench any part of this law, nor to make any alterations therein, much less to abolish it entirely. Neither the Senate nor people can dispense with it.

# IT IS THE SAME AT ROME AND ATHENS: THE SAME TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW. It is the same eternal and invariable law, given at all times and places to all nations; because God, who is the Author thereof, and has published it himself, is always the sole Master, Sovereign of mankind. Whoever violates this law renounces his own nature, divests himself of humanity, and will be rigorously chastised for his disobedience, though he were to escape what is commonly distinguished by the name of punishment."* If the natural faculties of man are perverted, he is responsible for the abuse, and in our country the legal remedies are ample. But he

* Passage from Cicero, preserved by Lactantius. Cicero de Republ. apud Lactant. Instit. Divin. Lib. 6, Cap. 8.

can under no pretence be deprived of these faculties or their legitimate use.*

By what right will our legislators attempt to restrain the liberty of speech? Have they derived that power from the people? We claim this right by the laws of nature, and with these laws, neither the senate nor the people can dispense. Will they claim to have received this power from the Deity himself? Let them produce the documents granting it, and we will consent to surrender a right which we cannot now surrender, without exposing ourselves to the just rebuke of heaven. If they had this power, how would they exercise it without establishing a precedent which would eventually be perverted to the destruction of liberty. We hold this right by no precarious tenure. It is confirmed to us by our constitution. Let us declare to all who would infringe this right, that we are determined to vindicate and defend it; that we are ready to die for our country, and for the cause of freedom, but that we cannot, will not surrender a

*We are sometimes told that the people can do every thing. It ought well to be impressed upon the minds of the people that their power is not unbounded. There are bounds which have been fixed by the immutable principles of justice. They have no right to do wrong. The liberties of a single individual, which have been guarded by established laws, are sacred, and cannot rightfully be invaded even by the united voice of the whole nation besides. When it shall become the ruling sentiment that the power of the people is un. bounded, we may bid a long farewell to the freedom of our country. The tyranny of a single individual is far more tolerable than the tyranny of many. Power is the delight of tyrants, but let justice be the delight of freemen.

right which constitutes the safeguard of our constitution, the firmest support of our liberties.

But how, we shall naturally inquire, are we to avoid the dangerous crisis to which our government seems to be approaching? How shall we again restore its authority? How shall the supremacy of the laws and constitution, and the power of the magistrate, be vindicated and maintained? How shall the rising spirit of anarchy be crushed, and the liberties of our country established upon a foundation, which shall defy the wily attacks of ambitious men? Only by a firm adherence to the doctrine, that our liberties are the gift of God; that the highest obligation we owe to God requires us to obey his laws; and that the highest obligation we owe to society requires us to obey its laws; by flying to the defence of our fellow-citizen, however humble and obscure his condition, against every the least encroachment upon his legal rights; by treating as an enemy, a dangerous enemy, as a traitor to our constitution, the man who shall in any case encourage the redress of grievances, real or imaginary, by popular fury, by throwing off the galling yoke of party domination, renouncing our allegiance to this tyrant in disguise, and swearing an eternal and unconditional allegiance to our God and our country. Let this be our motto-" Perish Commerce, Perish Credit"—perish our party, perish Van Buren, perish White, Harrison, and Webster. Perish the spoils of victory, rather than submit to the destruction of our beloved constitution, the ruin of our country, or the reign of tyranny and oppression in whatever plausible shape they may appear.

APPENDIX.

No. I.

ESTABLISHMENT OF A CENSORSHIP OF THE PRESS.

On the 3d of August a large public meeting was held at the City Hall of Charleston, at the call of the City Council. This meeting appointed a committee of 21 members to take charge of the United States' mail, and at a future meeting report the means best adapted to put down the abolitionists. We have not at hand a list of this committee, but suffice it to say, it is headed by Ex-Senator Hayne, and composed of the mightiest men of Charleston. They have already quarantined the mail steamboats, and established a regular censorship of the mail itself. They take the liberty to arrest every package which is in their judgment "incendiary."-In the mean time, the following letter of instructions to the Postmaster at Charleston has been published:

Post-Office Department, 5th August, 1835. Sir-My views in relation to the subject of your letter of the 3d instant, may be learned from the enclosed copy of a letter to the Postmaster at Charleston, S. C. dated 4th inst. Very respectfully, your obt. servant,

AMOS KENDALL.

Edm'd Anderson, Asst. P. M. Richmond, Va.

Post-Office Department, August 4th, 1835.

P. M., Charleston, S. C.

Sir-In your letter of the 29th ult. just received, you inform me that by the steamboat mail from New-York your office had been filled with pamphlets and tracts upon slavery-that the public mind was highly excited upon the subject that you doubted the safety of the mail itself out of your possession—that

you had determined, as the wisest course, to detain these papers -and you now ask instructions from the Department.

Upon a careful examination of the law, I am satisfied that the Postmaster General has no legal authority to exclude newspapers from the mail, nor prohibit their carriage or delivery on account of their character or tendency, real or supposed. Probably it was not thought safe to confer on the head of an executive department a power over the press, which might be perverted and abused.

But I am not prepared to direct you to forward or deliver the papers of which you speak. The Post-office Department was created to serve the people of each and of all of the United States, and not to be used as the instrument of their destruction. None of the papers detained have been forwarded to me, and I cannot judge for myself their character and tendency; but you inform me, that they are, in character, "the most inflammatory and incendiary-and insurrectionary in the highest degree."

By no act or direction of mine, official or private, could I be induced to aid, knowingly, in giving circulation to papers of this description, directly or indirectly. We owe an obligation to the laws, but a higher one to the communities in which we live, and if the former be perverted to destroy the latter, it is patriotism to disregard them.* Entertaining these views, I cannot sanction, and will not condemn the step you have taken.

Your justification must be looked for in the character of the papers detained, and the circumstances by which you are surrounded.

* The obligation that we owe to the community in which we live requires us to conform to its laws, and if any, such as Amos Kendall, shall attempt to pervert these laws, so as to destroy the community that established them, we are to discard these perversions and fulse constructions, and not disregard the laws. No attempt at perversion, no arts of intrigue, no essay at collusion can shake the fidelity, or alter the spirit and true intent of a written statute of the United States. It is the same at Boston and New-Orleans, the same to-day and to-morrow. We have therefore only to reject all false interpretations, and go right on rendering strict and unqualified obedience to the laws themselves. The idea that one obligation which we owe to the community in which we live requires us to violate others, or in other words, that this community ever requires us to violate its requirements, is too absurd to become the subject of a grave attempt at refutation.