Evidence 1: “There is much declamation about the sacredness of the compact which was formed between the free and slave states, on the adoption of the Constitution. A sacred compact, forsooth! We pronounce it the most bloody and heaven-daringarrangement ever made by men for the continuance and protection of a system of the most atrocious villainy ever exhibited on earth.”— Document 11.1: William Lloyd Garrison, On the Constitution and the Union

Evidence 2: “I said at your meeting, among other things, that the American church and clergy, as a body, were thieves, adulterers, man-stealers, pirates, and murderers; that the Methodist Episcopal church was more corrupt and profligate than anyhouse of ill-fame in the city of New York; that the Southern ministers of that body were desirous of perpetuating slavery for the purpose of supplying themselves with concubines from among its hapless victims; and that many of our clergymen were guilty of enormities that would disgrace an Algerine pirate!!”— Document 11.3: Stephen Symonds Foster, The Brotherhood of Thieves

Evidence 3: “Resolved, That we hereby give it to be distinctly understood by this Nation and the world that, as Abolitionists, considering that the strength of our cause lies in its righteousness, and our hope for it, in our conformity to the laws of God and our respect for the rights of man, we owe it to the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe, as a proof of our allegiance to Him, in all our civil relations and offices, whether as private citizens or public functionaries sworn to support the Constitution of the United States, to regard and to treat the third clause of the fourth article of that instrument, whenever applied to the case of a fugitive slave, as utterly null and void, and consequently as forming no part of the Constitution of the United States whenever we are called upon or sworn to support it.”— Document 11.4: Liberty Party Platform

Evidence 4: “In short, we hold [slavery] to be a system of lawless violence; that it never was lawful, and never can be made so; and that it is the first duty of every American citizen, whose conscience permits so to do, to use his political as well as his moral power for its overthrow.”—Document 11.5: Frederick Douglass, Abolitionism and the Constitution

Evidence 1: “We pledge you our physical strength, by the sacredness of the national compact—a compact by which we have enabled you already to plunder, persecute and destroy two millions of slaves, who now lie beneath the sod; and by which we now give you the same piratical license to prey upon a much larger number of victims and all their posterity.”— Document 11.1: William Lloyd Garrison, On the Constitution and the Union

Evidence 2: “Are you willing to enslave your children? You start back with horror and indignation at such a question. But why, if slavery is no wrong to those upon whom it is imposed? why, if as has often been said, slaves are happier than their masters, freedom from the cares and perplexities of providing for themselves and their families? why not place your children in the way of being supported without your having the trouble to provide for them, or they for themselves?”— Document 11.2: Angelina Grimké, Appeal to the Christian Women of the South

Evidence 3: “Slaveholding loses none of its enormity by a voyage across the Atlantic, nor by baptism into the Christian name. It is piracy in Africa; it is piracy in America; it is piracy the wide world over; and the American slaveholder, though he possess all the sanctity of the ancient Pharisees, and make prayers as numerous and long, is a pirate still; a base, profligate adulterer, and wicked contemner [condemner] of the holy institution of marriage; identical in moral character with the African slave-trader, and guilty of a crime which, if committed on a foreign coast, he must expiate on the gallows.”— Document 11.3: Stephen Symonds Foster, The Brotherhood of Thieves

Evidence 4: “[W]e ha[ve] arrived at the firm conviction that the Constitution, construed in the light of well established rules of legal interpretation, might be made consistent in its details with the noble purposes avowed in its preamble; and that hereafter we should insist upon the application of such rules to that instrument, and demand that it be wielded in behalf of emancipation.”— Document 11.5: Frederick Douglass, Abolitionism and the Constitution

Evidence 1: “Go on, in these practices—we do not wish nor mean to interfere, for the rescue of your victims, even by expostulation or warning—we like your company too well to offend you by denouncing your conduct. . . . Go on, from bad to worse—add link to link to the chains upon the bodies of your victims—add constantly to the intolerable burdens under which they groan—and if, goaded to desperation by your cruelties; they should rise to assert their rights and redress their wrongs, fear nothing—we are pledged, by a sacred compact, to shoot them like dogs and rescue you from their vengeance!”— Document 11.1: William Lloyd Garrison, On the Constitution and the Union

Evidence 2: “You will agree with me, I think, that slaveholding involves the commission of all the crimes specified in my first charge, viz., theft, adultery, man-stealing, piracy, and murder. But should you have any doubts on this subject, they will be easily removed by analyzing this atrocious outrage on the laws of God, and the rights and happiness of man, and examining separately the elements of which it is composed. Wesley, the celebrated founder of the Methodists, once denounced it as the ‘sum of all villainies.’ Whether it be the sum of all villainies, or not, I will not here express an opinion; but that it is the sum of at least five, and those by no means the least atrocious in the catalogue of human aberrations, will require but a small tax on your patience to prove.”— Document 11.3: Stephen Symonds Foster, The Brotherhood of Thieves

Evidence 3: “Resolved, That we regard voting in an eminent degree as a moral and religious duty, which, when exercised, should be by voting for those who will do all in their power for immediate emancipation. . . . Resolved, That we hereby give it to be distinctly understood by this Nation and the world that, as Abolitionists, considering that the strength of our cause lies in its righteousness, and our hope for it, in our conformity to the laws of God and our respect for the rights of man, we owe it to the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe, as a proof of our allegiance to Him, in all our civil relations and offices, whether as private citizens or public functionaries sworn to support the Constitution of the United States.”— Document 11.4: Liberty Party Platform

Evidence 4: “The debate on the resolution relative to anti-slavery newspapers [at the annual meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society] assumed such a character as to make it our duty to define the position of the North Star in respect to the Constitution of the United States. The ground having been distinctly taken, that no paper ought to receive the recommendation of the American Anti-Slavery Society that did not assume the Constitution to be a pro-slavery document, we felt in honor bound to announce at once to our old anti-slavery companions that we no longer possessed the requisite qualification for their official approval and commendation; and to assure them that we had arrived at the firm conviction that the Constitution, construed in the light of well established rules of legal interpretation, might be made consistent in its details with the noble purposes avowed in its preamble; and that hereafter we should insist upon the application of such rules to that instrument, and demand that it be wielded in behalf of emancipation.”—Document 11.5: Frederick Douglass, Abolitionism and the Constitution