Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1845-01-03
From The Christian Citizen.
ALL MOrtgaged,


To one born and bred in New England, the
sentiment must be inevitable, that it is "free
country" The language of everyday life comes
with that capital idea. 1t is the first idea that
infancy is taught, and the last one forgotten by
age Frcedom Liberty, Free Institutions, &c.
are terms of costly water in the jewelry of our
patriotism.
How pleasant it is to think-be it true or false
that cold, hard soiled, pure-skyed New Eng
land is, indeed, free land that in her long
struggle for freedom, she expunged from her soil
every crimson spot, every lneament of human
slavery, and severed every ligament that connect
ed her with that bloody, mhuman institution
And so we thought. We got out of our cradle
with that idea 1t was in our heart when we
first looked up at the blue sky, and listened to
the little merry birds that were swimming in its
bosom 1t was in our heart, like thoughts of
music, when the spring winds came, and the
spring voices twttered in the tree tops when
the swallow and the lark and all the summer
birds sang for joy, and the meadow stream chin
ed in its svery treble, deity singing to the dal-
sizes. When every thing was alive with the rap
ture of freedom, we thought, among other bright
and boyish vagaries, that this land was free
free as the air; otherwise we would not have slid
down hill on it, or rolled up snow fort or have
done any thing of the kind by way of sport
And we were told that it was free. Old men
that wore queus, and dubbed about on crutch-
es, came and sat by our fathers freside, and
showed great scars on their flesh, and told how
much it cost to make this land free. And on a
hot summer day of every year, the people stuck
up long pole in the middle of the village green;
and they tied to the top large piece OF striped
cloth; and they rung the bell in the steeple; and
they shot off hollow log of cast-iron; and the
hills and woods trembled at the noise, and father
said, and every body said it was because this
land was free. 1t was our boyhoods thought,
and, of all our young fancies, we loved it best;
for there was an element of religion in it. We
have chung fondly to the patriotic illusion, and
should have Rugged it to our bosom through life,
but for an incident which suddenly broke up the
dream
While meditatng one sabbath evening, few
weeks ago, upon the blessing of this free, gospe
land, and on the liberty wherewith God here sets
his children free, neighbor opened the door
and whispered cautiously in our ear, that a young
sable fugitive from slavery had knocked at his
door, and he had given him place by his fire
"a slave in New England p exclaimed we as
we took down our hat;-'is possible that slave:
can breathe here and not be free~
There were many of us that gathered arounC
that young man, and few of us had ever seen I
slave. There were mothers in the group tina
had sons of the same age as that of the boy anC
tears came into their eyes as he spoke of the
widowed slave mother; and there were sisters
with Sunday-school books in their hands, tina
surrounded him, and looked in his face will
Tstrange and fearful earnestness, as he spoke o
the sister he had left in bondage. He had beer
'hunted like partridge upon the mountains,
and his voice trembled as he spoke His pursu