Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1845-02-28

cent in the great Commonwealth Of Ken i
lucky, appropriated 10 the education Of her +
people ! G. A. Wickliffe, in convention 1
Of teachers, in 1910, at Frankfort, said eff T
slavery and common schools be incompaii-
bic, say let slavery perish" The senti-
ment was met with tremendous applause
Men OF Kentucky, what say you! Time
has proved that they are incompatible--not
a single slave State has succeeded, from the
beginning, in the general education Of her
citizens. Governor Hammond, Of South
Carolina, says in his message to the Legis-
lature-"The free school system is failure
Its failure is owing TO the fact that it does
not suit our people or our government"
Experience and reason have long since pro-
claimed the same unwecome fact.
Whilst Mr. WickifTe was specializing
was acting. By aid Of the law Of 1888, !
hoped ultimately to emancipate the State
from ignorance, poverty and crime. Ken
lucky called upon all her sons, by all the
glorious memories of the past, BY all the |
fond hopes Of the future, 10 resist those who |
by the repeal Of that law aud a retrogade
movement, would sink her into the ever
during night and lower deep Of perpetual
slavery. The time had at last come, when
| was to play the selfish time-server for Of
fee and temporary elevation, or planting
myself upon the eternal principles of truth,
Justice and reason, looking 10 conscience,
to posieriiy and TO God, to fall proudly in
their cause. What though be "a fanatic
or an enthusiast in holding that slavery is
contrary TO the Declaration Of American
Independence the Constitution of the Uni
,oI A. Ia.u nf Enc lish
inheritance and in violation Of the laws of
nature and Of God-lhe effects of il are be-
yond all controversy the monumental hand
of time has written them in characters Of
horrible distinclness turning the dewy
heavens into brass, and scathing the green
earth with sterlity and decay. The whole
South cries out with anguish against this
and that measure Of national injury ; inn
plores and denounces in alternate puerility /;
makes and nnmakes presidents enacts and
repeats laws with petulance and reckless
ness, more worthy of manly indignation,
than the piiable forbearance of the North.
Yet no relief comes TO the sinking patient
: her hypochondriaca illusions are not dis
: PEELED she cannot, she will not see that
slavery, nothing but slavery. is the cause Of
her ruin. Her fields relapse into primitive
sterility her population wastes away man
. ufactnres recede from the infected border,
trade languishes; decay trenches upon her
meagre Accommodations of taste or utility
gaunt famine stalks into the shattered por-
tails of the homestead the hearth stone is
invaded by a more relentless intruder than
the officer of the law; and the castle that
may stand before the sword, falls by this
slow, secret and resistless enemy the blood
of the body polite is frozen at the core at
rophy paralyses all its limbs sullen despair
begins TO display itself upon the care worn
/, faces of men the Heavens and the earth
cry aloud-the eternal laws Of happiness
and existence have been tramped under
: foot; and yet, with most pitiable infatua-
ton, the South still clings to slavery.
The competition Of unrequited service,
h slave labor dooms the laboring white mill
: ions Of these States 30 poverty poverty
!, gives them over 10 ignorance; and ignorance
J, and poverty are fast high roads TO crime and
e sufierings. Among the more fortunate
: property holders, religion and morality are
q staggering and dying. Idleness, extrava.
d gance, unthriftiness, aud want Of energy
d precipiiate shareholders into frequent and
n unheard of bankruptcies, such as are un-
r known in free States and well ordered
e Monarchies. The spirit of uncontrolled
!, command vitiates our temperaments, and
= destroys that evenness of temper and equa.
e nimity of soul, which are the sheet anchor:
d of happiness and safety in world of unat-
n tainable desire and memorable evil. Popula,
:, ton is scarce, aud without numbers there i.
:. neither competition nor division Of labor
d and of necessity, all mechanic arts languisl
IS among us. Agriculture drags along its slow
e pace with slovenly, ignorant, reckless labor
d Science, literature aud art are stranger:
= here; poets, historians, artists and machin
II lists, the lovers of ideal, the great, the beau
d tiful, the true and the useful the untirne
4 searchers in the hidden treasures Of unwil
d ing nature, making the winds, the waters
e the palpable, the unpalpable essences o
y things tributary TO man, creating grati6ca
d ton for the body, and giving new suscepii
e bilty and expansion of The soul they flour
of ish where thought and action are untramell
n ed ever daring must he the spirit Of gent
D. us; its omnipotence belongs only to tn
ID free. A loose and inadequate respect 70
a the rights Of property, of necessity follow
o. in the wake of slavery. Duelling, bloodshe'
10 and Lynch law leave but little security 4
is person A general decentralization has cor
rupted the best minds in the nation its no
re contogion has spread among The whole pea
k Pile RIGHTEOUSNESS, crime and bitter hat
n nfest US at home reputation and forcibl
r propogandsm of slavery is arrayed agains
Sc us the world in arms Iappeal to history
IN to reason, TO nature, aud 10 conscienc
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