Broadside calling for people to attend a convention in Worcester
Transcription of Primary Source
To the People of Massachusetts:
Fellow Citizens:
The recent aggression of the Slave Power, in repealing that section of the Missouri Compromise Act which prohibited Slavery in Kansas and Nebraska, calls for instant and effective action on the part of all sincere friends of Freedom. It is evident that the Slave Power keeps no faith, and abides by no compact; that it respects no compromises, but is ready to trample alike on law, justice, and right, to accomplish its designs.
The violation of the Missouri Compromise, has put an end to the whole system of Congressional compacts between Freedom and Slavery, and in all questions now pending, or that may arise hereafter, between them, the people of the Free States stand only on the solid ground of the Constitution, and are bound only by its provisions, and by their own sense of what justice and the national welfare demand.
Emboldened by success, and relying upon the apathy or corruption of the North, the leading Southern presses and politicians openly avow their intention of procuring, by purchase or by war, Cuba, Hayti, the northern provinces of Mexico and the valley of the Amazon, for the purpose of forming a great slaveholding empire, and thus forever counterbalancing or overwhelming the influence of Freedom in the national councils.
To resist and defeat these schemes, THE NORTH MUST BE UNITED. The question of Freedom must be made paramount to all other political questions. The prohibition of Slavery in Kansas and Nebraska, must be restored. The extension of Slavery must be checked at all hazards; the system itself denationalized, and the Federal Government brought back to its original and proper policy of Freedom.
To this end, Conventions of the people have been already called in Vermont, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, while others of the Free States are preparing for similar action. Believing that Massachusetts is equally ready to go forward in the movement, we invite our fellow citizens, without distinction of party, to assemble in Mass Convention at Worcester, on Thursday, July 20th, 1854, to consult together, and take such action as the crisis requires.