Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1844-04-20
From The Bangor Gazette.
The True Issue,

great deal of ammunition is wasted by our po-
lIucal opponents in attacks upon castles mountain
high which exist only in air. Their heaviest ar
tillery is leveIIed against armies composed entire
ly of men Of stray. We will therefore devote a
short chapter to teaching our opponents military
tactcs-or in other words, to enlightening them as
to The true issue. 1t is subject to which we shall
often have to recur: for the whole science of OPP
position to our principles and to our politics, con-
ssts in an adrot evasion of the real questions in
yolved, and meeting other questions not raised by
US, nor involved in the controversy.
II is said lpe are hostile TO the South 1t is not
SO. Even those who charge this upon us, amt
that the south would be greatly better Off slavery
were abolished Southern statesmen-her own
most enlightened sons admit, nay, urge it. Jeffer-
son urged it, Madison urged it, Rutledge urged it.
So did Mason, and Sumpter, and Castor. So
once did Clay,-now, o, how fallen He urges it
no longer but the name is not lost to liberty!
The name of Clay is yet to be ranged on the side
of liberty, and by a son Of proud Kentucky!
Hostile to the South No: he is the true friend
who is ready to tell unpleasant truths, who is ready
faithfully to point out the errors ola friend We
point the South to the path not Of Justice and HUI
mainly merely, but Of prosperity and greatness.
We point her to resources wasted and wasting;
her fertile soil and delightful climate, half desert,
and half teeming with degraded population of
services while four fiths of the other half nomi-
nay free is scarcely less degraded than the slaves;
and III contrast we point her to our own rugged
hills, and frozen winters, and show her the wealth
and dignity, the education and virtue, the civiliza
ton and happiness, that follow in the train otfree,
paid labor We ask her why she still will he I'M
Just to her position, unjust TO herself, UNJUST to her
free poor population, Those unable to hold slaves,
unjust to the hottest sympathes of human nature,
unjust and cruel to those she holds in relentless
bondage, when the fruits Of her injustice all recoil
upon herself and poison the fountains Other great
ness True, we complain, and ought we not to
Icomplan? that we are sharers in her intamy-that
the reproach of her slaves fall upon us-making
us a byword among the nations True, we tell
slavery causes our conscences many a twinge.
| True, we complain,-and can we too bitterly COM
plain?-that we are taxed millions upon millions
to support oppression that is crushing her-that
our trade is kept in constant fuctuation by the
eternal disturbance, created and kept active by her
traffic d" in the souls of men," by which thousands
of our most enerpriSlng merchants are involved in
bankruptcy, and through them the whole commu
nifty robbed of the fruits of honest free labor. w"
60 m plain that she mugs to her bosom TINS viper
whose sting not only penerates her heart, but
reaches our likelihood.
But no enmity to the South rankles in the breast
of true Liberty man. Pity moves hlm-pity to
the slave, nifty to the State made servlle-plty to
the deluded master who looks for prosperity thro'
| injustice-who looks for the blessings of heaven i'll
path where curses are inscribed on every object
that meets his eye! Our pity requires US not to
paliiate her wrongs. We tell her her faults; and
kindly invite her to the path of her own property
Talk not then of our ENMITY TO THE SoUTH!