At a large and highly respectable meeting of the citizens of Washington county, convened agreeably to public notice at the Court House, in Marietta, on Monday evening, the 23d inst., A. V. D. Joline, Esq. was called to the chair, and L. Chamberlin was appointed secretary. After the objects of the meeting had been stated by the chairman, the following preamble and resolutions were adopted.
Whereas the time has arrived when it becomes the moral duty of the people of Marietta, for the purpose of freeing their good name from the stigma of interfering with the property of our neighbors of the slave-holding States, to let their sentiments on the question of immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery be known.
And whereas, it is a duty we owe to our neighbors of the South, to the preservation of our Union, and to ourselves, that we should lend our feeble aid in putting down those incendiaries who are now using all their efforts in arraying a portion of this Union against the West, and in disturbing the peace and quiet of this once happy community.
And whereas, believing that the Anti-Slavery Society, in agitating the question of slavery, and in filling the minds of the black population or our country with notions of liberty and equality with the whites, which can never come to pass, are doing the negroes an essential injury. Therefore
1st. Resolved, That we deprecate any intermeddling, on the part of our citizens, with the slaves and slave-holders of the South, as unjust, unwise, and impolitic; as dangerous in its tendency, and incendiary in its character.
2d. Resolved, That the citizens of a free State have no right to interfere with the property of the slave-holders, and much as we deprecate the evils of slavery, we yet dislike the doctrine of speedy and unconditional abolition more, and that of the two evils we will choose the least.
3d. Resolved, That we view with indignation the efforts of those fanatics calling themselves abolitionists, whose doctrines, if carried into effect, would have a direct tendency to dissolve the Union.
4th. Resolved, That the great mass of the people are, and we trust, ever will be, opposed to the fanatical doctrines of the abolitionists.
5th. Resolved, That the Professors and Trustees of the Marietta College be requested to discountenance the students from imbibing the doctrines of the Anti-Slavery Society, by expelling the refractory, or otherwise, as to them may seem most proper.
6th. Resolved, That the members of this meeting pledge themselves, individually and collectively, to oppose all abolitionists, in promulgating their dangerous doctrines, by every means which to them may seem lawful and just.
7th. Resolved, That neither Congress nor the non-slave-holding States have a right to interfere, directly or indirectly, with the slaves and slave-holders of the South; and that any such interference would be at variance with the spirit of our Constitution, and ought not to be tolerated.
8th. Resolved, That the efforts of the abolitionists, in this State, will have a direct tendency to encourage the migration and settlement here, of swarms of free blacks and runaway slaves, from other States, thus evading the laws of Ohio, passed for the sole purpose of preventing their emigration and settlement in this State.
9th. Resolved, That it has become the duty of the northern and western States to let their sentiments on this all absorbing subject be known, and that we recommend to the citizens of other counties in Ohio, to hold meetings, so as to give a firm and decided expression of public opinion against the doctrine of immediate and unconditional emancipation of all the slaves.
10th. Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be signed by the chairman and secretary, and be published in the Democrat and Gazette, Marietta; and that the editors of the Enquirer and Whig, Richmond, the Banner, Charleston, the Globe and Telegraph, Washington City, and Republican, Parkersburg, and other papers in Virginia, be requested to copy the same.
On motion, Resolved, That Messrs. A. V. D. Joline, Silas Cook and Wm. A. Whittlesey, Esqs. be appointed a committee to prepare and publish an address (on the subject of abolition) to the citizens of this county.
A. V. D. Joline, Chairman.
L. Chamberlin, Secretary.
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