Written on the adoption of Pinckney's Resolutions in the House of
Representatives, and the passage of Calhoun's "Bill for excluding Papers
written or printed, touching the subject of Slavery, from the U. S.
Post-office," in the Senate of the United States. Mr. Pinckney's
resolutions were in brief that Congress had no authority to interfere in
any way with slavery in the States; that it ought not to interfere with
it in the District of Columbia, and that all resolutions to that end
should be laid on the table without printing. Mr. Calhoun's bill made it
a penal offence for post-masters in any State, District, or Territory
"knowingly to deliver, to any person whatever, any pamphlet, newspaper,
handbill, or other printed paper or pictorial representation, touching
the subject of slavery, where, by the laws of the said State, District,
or Territory, their circulation was prohibited."

MEN of the North-land! where's the manly spirit
Of the true-hearted and the unshackled gone?
Sons of old freemen, do we but inherit
Their names alone?

Is the old Pilgrim spirit quenched within us,
Stoops the strong manhood of our souls so low,
That Mammon's lure or Party's wile can win us
To silence now?

Now, when our land to ruin's brink is verging,
In God's name, let us speak while there is time!
Now, when the padlocks for our lips are forging,
Silence is crime!