have a common interest, my unfeigned sympathies; and that God Almighty may be with you and bless you, shall ever be the prayer of Your sincere friend,

FREDERICK W. GRAVES.

Samuel Webb, J. M. Truman, Wm. McKee, Peter Wright,-Committee.

Messrs. S. Webb and Wm. H. Scott:

NEW YORK, January 3d, 1838.

My Dear Friends,—I thank you for your kind letter inviting me, in the name of the Managers of the Pennsylvania Hall Association, to deliver an address at the opening of the Pennsylvania Hall for Free Discussion.

It is now a year and a half since I have been prevented from speaking in public, by an affection of the throat, and there is little prospect that I shall be able to do so for months or years, or perhaps ever again, with impunity. Under these circumstances, it is due to the committee and to the cause, respectfully to decline your appointment.

66

I exult in the erection of your " Temple of Freedom" and the more, as it is the first and only one in a republic of fifteen millions! consecrated to Free Discussion and Equal Rights.

For years they have been banished from our halls of legislation and of justice, from our churches, and our pulpits.-It is befitting, that the city of Benezet and Franklin should be the first to open an asylum, where the hunted exiles may find a home. God grant that your Pennsylvania Hall may be free indeed.

The empty name is every where, free government, free men, free speech, free people, free schools, and free churches. Hollow counterfeits, all! FREE! It is the climax of irony, and its million echoes are hisses and jeers, even from the earth's ends. FREE! Blot it out. Words are the signs of things. The substance has gone! Let fools and madmen clutch at shadows. The husk must rustle the more when the kernel and the ear are gone! Rome's loudest shout for liberty was when she murdered it, and drowned its death-shrieks in her hoarse hussas. She never raised her hands so high to swear allegiance to freedom, as when she gave the death-stab, and madly leaped upon its corpse! and her most delirious dance was among the clods her hands had cast upon its coffin! FREE! The word and sound are omnipresent masks, and mockers! An impious lie! unless they stand for free Lynch Law, and free murder; for they are free.

Where are the murderers of Lovejoy? "Free ;"--going at large with law for a volunteer escort, holding up their bloody hands along the streets of Alton, and telling how they killed him-their lives virtually insured by the official endorsement of the highest legal officer in the state. But, I'll hold the times demand brief speech, but mighty deeds. On, my brethren! uprear your temple!

Your brother in the

Sacred strife for all,

THEODORE D. Weld.

BEDFORD, West Chester County, (N. Y.,) January 3d, 1838. Gentlemen:-It was not till this evening that I had the pleasure of receiving your letter of the 18th ultimo, and the accompanying Enquirer, containing the speeches that were made at the raising of the "Pennsylvania Hall." Please to present to the Managers my respectful acknowledgments for the compliment they have paid me, in asking me to deliver an address before the Association, at the opening of the building next May, a compliment the more grateful, from the abundant proof afforded by the Enquirer,

that the Association contains within itself, fearless, eloquent, and true-hearted champions of the rights of man. With such men I would esteem it both a pleasure and an honor to co-operate. Whether my engagements in the spring will permit me to comply with the wishes of the Managers, is now too uncertain to justify me in positively accepting their invitation; should I, as is most likely, not be present, I am confident no difficulty will be experienced in filling the place so kindly assigned to me, in the proceedings of the day.

Were any proof wanted of the portentous influence of slavery at the North, it would be furnished by the astounding fact, that in the city of Penn, and in the shadow of the venerable pile, whence our fathers issued their glorious DECLARATION, it is now found necessary to erect an edifice "in which the rights of man may be discussed, and the freedom of speech and the press advocated."

The abolitionists, as a body, have probably never been surpassed, by any extensive association, in rectitude of intention, disinterestedness of motive, and purity of life. Yet, are they hunted as felons at the South, and at the North are abandoned to the mercy of mobs, and, as we are taught by the civil authorities at Alton, may be murdered with impunity.

The present warfare against the freedom of speech, and of the press, against the right of petition, and the constitutional powers of our representatives in Congress, is waged by the competitors of Southern trade, and Southern votes. If these men triumph, our country will be converted into one wide field of cruelty, oppression, and anarchy! The annexation of Texas will subject the whole confederacy to the arrogant dominion of the slaveholders. Lynch clubs will usurp the seat of justice, and the pistol and Bowie knife be substituted for the statute book. Whether they will triumph or not, depends, under Providence, on the abolitionists themselves. If they consult expediency instead of duty-if they fear man rather than God-if they permit sectarian jealousies and political preferences to interrupt their harmonious action, their folly and wickedness will probably be punished by the extension of slavery, and the loss of their own freedom. But if they shall continue to be actuated by the spirit manifested at your meeting of the 25th of November-if with unshrinking firmness they shall maintain and exercise their rights, the liberty of the republic will be preserved.

The abolitionists are already, in some of the free states, sufficiently numerous to control the elections, and probably in all to influence the selection of candidates. Let it once be understood, that whatever may be their individual political sentiments, they will not vote for any candidate of any party who is ready to sell their rights to the slaveholders, and each party will take care to present candidates who are in this respect unexceptionable. The position now occupied by abolitionists, is one of momentous importance and responsibility. If we succeed, the freedom and happiness of unborn millions will crown our struggle. It is true, we have much to endure, and may be called to endure much more. But we have the sympathy of the whole Christian world, with the exception of a portion of our own countrymen. We have the sanction of our laws, our constitutions, our bills of rights, and our Declaration of Independence; we have the approbation of our consciences, and the favor of our God. Let us, then, be steadfast and unmoveable, and, amid perils and outrages, let us not avenge ourselves, but commit our cause to HIM who judgeth righteously. Accept, gentlemen, the respects of Your obedient servant,

Messrs. Webb and Scott,-Committee.

WILLIAM JAY.

Letter of Hon. Thaddeus Stevens of the State Legislature.

GETTYSBURG, May 4th, 1838. Gentlemen:-I have delayed answering your letter of the 10th of December last, until this time, that I might be able to decide with certainty, whether I could comply with your invitation, to be present at the opening of the "Pennsylvania Hall for the Free Discussion of Liberty, and equality of Civil Rights, and the evils of Slavery."

I regret that I cannot be with you on that occasion. I know of no spectacle which it would give me greater pleasure to witness, than the dedication of a Temple of Liberty. Your object should meet with the approbation of every freeman. It will meet with the approbation of every man, who respects the rights of others, as much as he loves his own. Interest, fashion, false religion, and tyranny, may triumph for a while, and rob man of his inalienable rights; but the people cannot always be deceived, and will not always be oppressed.

The slaveholder claims his prey, by virtue of that Constitution which contradicts the vital principles of our Declaration of Independence. But while it remains unchanged, it must be supported. If his heart exacts the fulfilment of the cruel bond, let him take the pound of flesh, but not one drop of blood. This we must yield to existing laws, not to our sense of justice. I can never acknowledge the right of slavery. I will bow down to no Deity, however worshipped by professing Christians-however dignified by the name of the Goddess of Liberty, whose footstool is the crushed necks of groaning millions, and who rejoices in the resoundings of the tyrant's lash, and the cries of his tortured victims.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

Samuel Webb, and others,-Committee.

THADDEUS STEVENS.

WASHINGTON, January 2d, 1838.

Dear Sir:-I have had the honor to receive a communication signed by yourself and another, a committee in behalf of the Pennsylvania Hall Association, requesting me to be present at the opening of the Hall, and deliver an address on that occasion.

In the invitation thus extended to me, I have an evidence of the confidence of those of my fellow citizens of Philadelphia whom you represent, not less gratifying than it is unexpected. To be thus associated, by those who have engaged in the noble enterprise of erecting a Hall consecrated to free discussion, with the solemnities of its opening, is an honor whose value can be estimated only by that of the noble object with which it is associated-an object identified with the dearest rights and highest interests of man in his social existence.

Nothing could give me greater pleasure than to comply with your invitation; but my duties as a representative in Congress seem to forbid me the gratification. I feel my incompetence to do justice, under any circumstances, to such an occasion as that suggested in your letter, but especially amidst the various and engrossing duties of the station which my fellow citizens have assigned me here. I must, therefore, respectfully decline a compliance with your invitation.

Be pleased to accept for yourself, and your associate committee, and those whom you represent, the assurance of the sincere and respectful regard of Your fellow citizen,

Mr. Samuel Webb.

WILLIAM SLADE.

The following letter from ex-president ADAMS was received by the audience with much applause:

WASHINGTON, 19th January, 1838.

Samuel Webb and William H. Scott,-Philadelphia:

My respected Friends:-I learnt with great satisfaction, by your letter of the 18th of last month, that the Pennsylvania Hall Association have erected a large building in your city, wherein liberty and equality of civil rights can be freely discussed, and the evils of slavery fearlessly portrayed.

The right of discussion upon slavery, and an indefinite extent of topics connected with it, is banished from one-half the states of this Union. It is suspended in both houses of Congress-opened and closed at the pleasure of the slave representation: opened for the promulgation of nullification sophistry; closed against the question, WHAT IS SLAVERY? at the sound of which the walls of the capitol staggered like a drunken man.

For this suppression of the freedom of speech, of the freedom of the press, and of the right of petition, the people of the FREE states of this Union (by which I mean the people of the non-slaveholding states) are responsible, and the people of Pennsylvania most of all.

Of this responsibility, I say it with a pang sharper than language can express, the city of Philadelphia must take to herself the largest share. And this consideration would compel me to decline the invitation with which the Managers of this Association have honored me, to deliver an address at the opening of the Hall, were it otherwise in my power, as it probably will not be, to attend at the time proposed.

My friends, I have a long-standing, high, respectful, and affectionate attachment to the city of Philadelphia, and its inhabitants. It dates from the day of the Declaration of Independence, and if I were to address them on the opening of your Hall, I should comment upon some of its self-evident truths.

Now a great multitude of the present inhabitants of your city have grown sick of the sound of these self-evident truths, and exceedingly adverse to hearing any comment upon them. If I should make any practical use of my freedom of speech, some would say, he is doling out a farrago of abstractions. Others, what is the use of commenting upon self-evident truths? Others, not a few,-would kindle into indignation, and say, he is intermeddling with the peculiar institutions of the South; that's unconstitutional! What's that to him? What's that to us? He's a fanatic, he is an incendiary, he is an abolitionist! he is attacking the rights of the states, he is provoking the people of the South, and, Lord have mercy upon us, they will dissolve the Union!

All this I could hear and endure with composure,-all this I have heard before, and shall hear again. But if, while I should be discoursing, a native citizen of Philadelphia should rise, and say, What right have you, sir, to come here, and dogmatize with us upon the rights of freedom and the duties of freemen? Is not this the city of William Penn, and do you come here to lecture us upon freedom of conscience? Is not this the city whence issued the Declaration of Independence, and do you come to teach us the doctrine of inalienable rights? Have we so far degenerated from the virtues of our fathers, that we must go to Plymouth for our political creed? Have we no native sons of our own city, capable of explaining to us the principles of human liberty, as well as you?

My true-hearted friends, I should have no answer, satisfactory to myself, to give to such inquiries.

I rejoice that, in the city of Philadelphia, the friends of free discussion

have erected a Hall for its unrestrained exercise. I know that the people of Philadelphia need a voice as of one from the wilderness, to rally them to the standard of human rights, but that voice must come from among themselves. If there is not one native, I say not of Pennsylvania, but of the city of - Philadelphia who dares to tell you the truth in tones that shall reach to the sepulchres of the dead, lock up your Hall on the same day that you shall open it, and wait for the appointed time: it will surely come.

I must apologize to you even for writing to you with so much freedom. I hope it may be without offence, for to avoid that is precisely my reason for declining to deliver the address which you invite. Nothing could delight me more than to address the inhabitants of Philadelphia upon the opening in their city of a Hall devoted to free discussion, could I speak to them my whole mind, without giving to many of them great offence.—This would be impossible.

It would have been, perhaps, more discreet to answer that, independent of all other considerations, my detention here in the discharge of indispensable duties, would, in all probability, preclude the possibility of my engaging to visit Philadelphia at the indicated time. I shall, therefore, request you to accept that as my answer, and to consider the remnant of this letter only as a testimonial of my respectful sensibility to your invitation, and of my fervent wishes that the Pennsylvania Hall may fulfil its destination, by demonstrative proof, that freedom of speech in the city of Penn shall no longer be AN ABSTRACTION.

I am faithfully your friend,

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.
DECEMBER 25TH, 1837.

Dear Sirs :-I have just returned from New York, which must account to you for not having earlier answered your letter of the 18th, on the subject of delivering the first address in the Pennsylvania Hall. By the first address, I presume you mean a dedicatory address.

For some time past, I have invariably declined applications that might be calculated to take any portion of my time from my profession. But I have always said, and now say again, that I will fight the battle of liberty as long as I have a shot in the locker. Of course, I will do what you require.

S. Webb and Wm. H. Scott, Esqs.

Yours truly,

DAVID PAUL BROWN.