Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1843-09-01
MONTPELIER, SEPTEMBER 4, Is43.

years the constitution and solemn treaties with for
eign nations trampled on by cruel oppression and
lawless Imprisonment of coored mariners in the
Southern States PIN cold blooded defiance of a
solemn adjudication by southern judge in the
Circuit Court of the Union? And is this not e.
nough? Have not the people ofthe free States been
required to renounce for their own citizens the rights
of Habeas Corpus and trial by jury, and TO coerce
that base surrender of the only practical security
to all personal rights Have not the slave breed
ers by State Legislation subjected to fine and i'm
prisonment the citizens Of the free states for
ly coming within their jurisdiction? Have we not
tamely submitted for years the daily violation of
the freedom of the Post Office and of the press by
a committee of seal breakers; and have we not
seen sworn Post Master General formally avow
that though he could not license this cut-purse
protection of the peculiar institutions, the perpe.
traitors of this highway robbery must justify them
selves by the plea of necessity? And has the pill
Tory or the pcnitentiary been the reward of that
Post Master General? Have we not seen printing
presses destroyed--Has erected for the promotion
of human freedom levelled with the dust and con-
sumed by fire, and wanton, unprovoked muir
der perpetrated with impunity by slave mongers 2
Have we not witnessed human beings, men made
in the likeness of God, and endowed with immor-
tai souls, burnt at the stake, not for their offences
but for their color? Are not the journals OF our
Senate disgraced by resolutions calling for icHr to
indemnify the slave pirates of the Enterprise and
the Creole for the self emancipation Of their slaves,
and to inhct vengence by death of torture upon
the heroic self deverance Of Madison Washing
ton? Have we not been fifteen years plotting re-
beon against our neighbor Republic of Mexico
for abolishing slavery throughout her ProvincesT
Have we not aided and abetted one of her provin-
ces in instruction against her for that cause? And
have we not invaded openly and sword in hand an
other of her provnces,and all to effect her disnem-
berment, and to add ten more slave states to our
confederacy? Has the cry Of war for the conquest
of Mexico for the expansion of Reconstructed slave
ry for the robbery of Priests and the plumber Of re-
ligious establishments yet subsidized? Have the
pettifogglng, hair-sptting, nonsenscal and yet in
famatory chickering's about the right Of Search pam
derng to the thirst for revenge in France painting
for to PROSTATE the disputed title of her King,
has the sound of this war trumpet yet faded away
from your ears {?
Has the supreme and unparalleled absurdity of
STIMULATING by treaty to keep squadron of eighty
guns for five years without lntermisson upon the
coast of Africa to suppress the African slave trade,
and at the same time denying at the point of the
bayonet the right of that squadron to board or eX
anime any SLAYER all but sinking under cargo Of
Victims if she but hoist a foreign flag-has this
diplomatic bone been yet picked clean? Or is our
Indirect participation in the African slave trade to
be protected at whatever expense Of blood and
treasure? Is the Supreme Executive Chief Of this
Commonwealth, yet to speak not for himself but
for her whole people, and pledge them to shoulder
their muskets and endorse their hnapsacks against
the anatical non-resistant aboitionsts, whenever
the overseers may please to raise the bloody flag
with the swindling watch-word of the UNION? p
Oh, my friends! have not the heart to join in the
festivity on the first of August the British anver-
sary of disenthralled humanity, while all this and
infinitely more than can tell, but would spare
the bushes of my country, weighs down my spir-
its, with the uncertainty, sinking into my grave
| am whether she is doomed to be numbered "a
mong the first liberators, the last oppressors of
the race of immortal man.
Let the long trodden down African restored bv
the cheering voice, and Christian hand OF Britain
to his primitive right and condition of manhood,
clap his hands and shout for JOY on the anniversary
of the first of August, Let the lordly Britain strip
off much of his pride on other days of the year,
and reserve it all for the pride of concious benf-
cence on that day What lover of classical learn.
ing ever read the account i'll Livy in Plutarch
of the restoration to freedom of the Grecian cities
by the Roman Consul, Flaminus, without feeling
his bosom heave and his blood flow cheerily in his
veins. The heart leaps with sympathy when we read
that on the first proclamation by the herald, the i'm
mense assembled multitude in the tumult of aston
ishment and Joy could scarcely believe their own
ears, that they called back the herald and made
him repeat the procamation-and then-"Tumal
certo jamgaudis teritas cum clamore pausus est
orus totes que repetitus, ct facile appareres, nj
hi omnium borrorum multtudini gratus guam lib
ertatuIn eSSe.. i lie WelRln rung WIN louu ana
redoubed shouts of exultation, clearly proving
that of all the enjoyments accessible to the hearts
of men, nothing is so delightful to them as liberty.
Upwards of two thousand years have revolved
since that day. and the first of August is 10 the
Britain of this age what the day of the proclama-
ton of Flamnus was to the ancient Roman. Yes,
let them celebrate the first Of August the day of
their deliverance and of glory-and leave lis to the
pleasant employment of commenting their mo-
tves, of devisng means to shelter the African sla-
yer from their search, and of squanderng millions
to support pestilential coast squadron of the
stripes and stars, with instructions sooner to scut
tie their ships than 10 modest the SLAYER who shall
make his flag staff the herald of lie.
Apoogizing to you gentleman, for the length of
this letter, close it with an ejaculation to Heaven
that you may live to substitute for the first of Au
gust, the day when Slaoery shall be proclaimed a
word without meaning, in all the languages of the
earth, and when the power of emancipation shall
be extinguished in universal freedom To shout
in the ubilant chorus of that day, ifmy voice could
burst from the cerement of the tomb, it should be
to shout Halleluah for the Lord God omnipotent
reigneth; let the earth rejoice and be glad!
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.