Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1844-09-13

WOuld De 10 increase or dlmlniSn lis numbers,
its sufieriDgs, and its chances ofsultimate
mancipation--this is speculation from
which retire. | repeat what | had the
honor to say in the debate on the treaty,
that the avowed and the direct object of an
nexation certainly is, to prevent the aboli-
ton Of slavery on a vast region which would
else become free The immediate effect in
tended and secured in the first instance,
therefore, certainly is the diffusion and in
crease of slavery So far we see. So
much we know. More than that, no man
can be certain that he sees or knows
Whether this is to work an amelioration Of
the status of slavery while il lasts, or 10
shorten its duration, is in His counsels,
"who out of evil still educes good in infinite
progression" The means we see are evil
The first effect is evil the end is uncertain.
But, if II were certain and were good, we
may not do evil that good may come
While, therefore, feel il TO be my duty dis
tinctly TO say, that | would leave TO the mas
tiers of slaves every guaranty of the Const-
tuition and the Union-the Constitution as
| il is-the Union as it is-without which
there is no security for you or for them
no, not for day, still controvert the pow
err, i deny the morality, ] tremble for the
consequences, of annexing an acre of new
territory, for the mere purpose Of dffusing
the great evil, over wilder surface of
American earth. Still less would |, for
such purpose merely, lay hold on such
territory as Texas, larger than France, and
almost as fair least of all now, Just when
the spirit of liberty is lowering over it, in
act 10 descend
But trace the consequences Of annexation
on ourselves. First, chief, most compre-
hensive, and most irretrevabe of its evils.
ioiH be its disastrous aspect on the durability
of the Union. Texas, let us suppose, the
territory, is annexed. The war with Mexi-
CO is at an end The valor of the West has
triumphed. The debt Of the war, the debt
of Texas is funded Time passes. New
States carved out of its ample fields, knock
for admission into the Union. Do you con-
slider that it may cut up into forty as large
as Massachusetts But suppose twenty,
fifteen, ten, FIVE only-apply one after an
, other. Is there man, out of mad house,
, who does not see that FIVE, three, one, such
application could not be acted on, and either
, rejected or granted, without shaking this
, government to lis foundation! Is there a
man who does not see that if all the malice
: and all the ingenuity of He'll were appealed
to, to derise one merry ana nnai ,riai or the
strength of our American feelings, of oul
fraternal love, Of our appreciation of the
! uses of union, of all our bonds Of political
| brotherhood, it could contrive no ordeal
1 half SO dreadful as this )! To me, this
: seems so palpable, that have doubted
a whether Col. Benton is not right in his con
lecture that diSWRiOR is the exact object
aimed at by some Of the movers of annexa
ton. Certainly, in looking over the grin
y beadroll of South Carolina toasts and dinner
f speeches which covers broadside of the
: last lntelligencer, it is quite impossible tc
: resist the conclusion that, as regards some
9 individuals of this body of annexation, either
: they are laboring under very treasonabl,
: politics, or that their Madeira has quite too
/, much brandy in il will say, too, of an,
i annexationist, who thinks that because w
4 survived the Missouri question, il would b,
h pretty thing to move half dozen NOR,
;. such questions, that he means to sever tn,
e States, or is profoundly ignorant Of the wal
n by which they are TO be kept together
d Does he consider under what totally diileren
/, circumstances these new Missouri questions
~ would break out from those attended tn,
r. oldl Does he consider that the territory o
p Missouri was already parcel Of the Unite,
! States, aud had been SO for twenty years
q that unlike Texas, il had been annexed a
!, part of Louisiana, with no view at all to tn
. diffusion and perpetuation of slavery blu
: on grounds of policy which the severes
:. moralist, the strctest expounder of the con
T. stitutiou, the most passionate lover Of libert
T. might approve; and therefore having been re
, ceived as a territory diuerSo iatuitu, the pub
q lie sensibiity was less shocked by its emer
q gence into slave State, than now it wou
,f be, when the end and aim of the origina
n acquisition is slavery, wholly slavery, an
nothing but slaveryl Does he reflect no,
- vast change the sentiments of civilization
= have undergone on that whole subject sine
eighteen hundred and tweniyl Does h
remember that in that learning the world
!, five hundred years older than it was then
Can he not read the gathering signs of tn
~ timesl Does he no, mark the blazing char
:, acters traced by the bodiless hand, as in tn
n unfinished picture? Does he not remembe
N what the nations have done, and especial
what England has done, within twenty years
81 Does he not see and feel that in that intel
Va val public opinion has been generated
ID has been organized, wholly new, aggressive
nj intolerant Of the cry of man in chains p
m Does he not see aud feel with what electr
r. cal force and speed 1t strikes from on
he quarter of the globe TO another, and
he spreading to enlold the whole civilized worl
IN like an atmosphere? Does he think it wi,
of to blow such an atmosphere into hurricar
ns Of flame? Does he really expect to brin