The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1839-04-06
The Power Question.

The Power Question.
In the Greek case no body discovered that W.
could render no aid to the side of liberty, 6ec0aS
2ce mere nat Turks. Those who could do no more
clapped Henry Clay's speech heartily, on the pnn
cple that even W5nd is matter and every TITLE helps
But, in the American Slave case, the Rabble
have discovered that northern people, millions
upon millions enough to tie the Shareholders all Vi
in one sack, and toss them into Symmes' hole, hav
no manner of responsibility for the existence o
Slavery, nor power for its abolition! What do they
mean? Do they mean We haven't the physical
the blanket-tossing power? Probably not. They
mean, rather, that we have, legally and constitution
ally, no tongue and type power-none OF mat pow
or which sets all other powers golng-Whlch per-
SuGdeS men to a0iSh to do many things, and to III
some things which they do not 1Oih. But there are
two ailings in the discovery Of the great Doctor
bodies.
l. Grant it true, that we have no moral power
and it is only the worse for the STAKEHOLDER. There
is sympathy getting up among us like steam. II
must have vent. If it cannot get at the slavehold
ers through the moralchannel, they must look to il
that it do not some day or other, come down upon
them in the physical.
2. The very power which they tell us we have
not, is ut aOorh through the appointed consti
tutional grooves-and tits too late to stopit. On
this subject we must quote the eloquent Herald oil
Freedom, (versus Dr. Wayland) to which we
counsel all aOeak abohtonists occasionally to resort
for dose of cayene and quinine. We will say
that we need not get vote from congress against
slavery in order to its abolition, there and every
where. Congress? what is it? The mere dregs
and precipitationS; the settings ahd sediments Of
the nation. 1t is as soulless as corporation. Ii
has no soul, no mind, no principle, no opinion.
1t is an echo, and that not always a true one. 1t
is mere catastrophe-an upshot. 1t will only
nutter the word abolition, after it has become an
old story through the country. We have struck
slavery its death blow already. We need not con-
tend with the DR.. aboAt power. One thing you
have DONE said an eminent Judge to us, you have
driven the South to come out and declare directly
in favour of slavery. Heretofore, they have pre-
tended to lament it. as an evil. Now they decl are
it is blessing, and righteous institution. Have
we not, said we, driven them to join the issue, be-
fore the world, in favor of savcholdng? You
have said the Judge Must they not maintain it
before the world, said we, to save the institution
from going down? They must he replied
Can they maintain it said we. No, said he,-
and yet the Judge is not an abolitionst."
We need not contend with this Wayland and
wayward President, for the power citizens or as
men, to beat down southern slaveholding-We
have erercized the poover already, and the South
knows it. We have walked the nation to discuss
the dement's of the system and the question or tue
negro mans humanIty,-and they are discussing
1t, and amid the flash and fervor Of the agitation,
the foul system dies. 1t can no more endure it,
than owls can noon, or bats sunshine, or ghosts
day-break. While Wayand is gropeing about in
his metaphysics to get hold of some puzzle to en-
barrass US about the power, we will have exercised
It to the full, and cleared the land of slavery.
Then where will the Doctor find market for his
" limitations z" Slavery is a dead man already
unless orator Rhett, and professor Dew, and
colonel! Nc Dufie, and general Hamilton, and
doctor this, that and the other one, can MAINTAIN
the precious creature in the argument, and get the
verdict of an enlightned and purged christianity
in its favor. TO this conclusion it has already
come. The question is stated-the issue joined
the pleadings closed-al demurring and abateing
md delaying past by. And now for the trial.
Now slavery, hold thy own. The Doctors ques-
hon of our having the power comes too late.-Hn-
man Rights.