Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1845-01-10


many personal partizans-out and out, unscru-
pulous, unhesitating, and fierce defenders Nor
is it matter ofsurprise that the same character
istics which bound his friends to him as with
hooks Of Steel have, on the other hand, made his
personal enemies inveterate and deadly No 9TH
er public man in the country has so many friends
or so many implacable foes All this has been
developed in the late contest
Abolitionists have been accused by the Whios
of seeking the defeat of Henry Clay as the great
end and aim of their organization and labors.-.
Little do those who make this charge understand
us. We had no private or personal reasons for
opposing him. For our own part, we deeply re-
GREETED the necessity which the efforts of the
Wings, to seduce Liberty men from their ntegr-
ty laid upon us to present and reiterate the rea-
sons why no friend of Universal Freedom, and the
highest interests OF the country, could give him
his vote We did this solely as matter of duty
reluctantly and sorrowfully. Every where our
Wing neighbors were urging us to give up our
organization against slayery-to throw down the
weapons which we had so elfectually welded, to
undo all that had been done by the antislavery So
cietes, petitions and votes of the last ten years.
to forego and abandon all the advantages of our
position, for the sake of voting for Henry Clay
They thus compelled us to give reasons for de-
clining their urgent entreaties. They called up
on us to state definitely why we could not do so.
| They placed us under the necessity of making
| full and complete exposure of the history, views
and acts of Henry Clay, in respect to slavery and
its kindred nquities. Had we done less than
this, we should have been recreant to our duty to
God and the slave.
So far as we were personally concerned, we
had no disposition to exaggerate the faults of the
Wing candidate. His brilliant talents, his early
republicansm, his splendid eoquence, excited our
boyish enthusiasm and admiration We would
not rob him of one title of his just fame as a
statesman and man of genius But when his
friends urged him upon us for the highest place
in the gift of free people, we felt bound to speak
the whole truth of his present position and past
history in relation to the cause of Freedom. We
had no other alternative. In linking, deliberate
y and before the world, his destiny with the tot
tering cause of slavery-in closing his eyes to
the signs of the times and his ears to the shouts
of emancipated millions and the clang of break
ing letters sounding across the waters from half
the nations of Europe-and placing his strong
shoulders against the falling Ark of the American
Baal-making himself the champion of the vilest
oppression on which the sun looks he imposed
upon the friends OF the slave the stern duty of de-
nouncing him as unfit to be the recipient of pub
lie favor and Of declaring that the man who, in
the land of the Declaration of Independence in
this nineteenth century, with the light of the Cos
pei and the free principles of the Revolution bla-
zmg around him, with the voice of the Almighty
speaking in the great events of the age and pro-
claiming that the power of despotisn is to pass
away forever, and that new era of light, liberty
and Christian love is about to dawn upon the
world with the successful experiments of eman.
cipation in the West Indies before him: has de-
lberately and unreservedly taken his stand on
the side of SLAVERY; overcome the scruples
of his younger and better days; cruched his hui
mainly, and renounced his allegiance to republi
canism and Christianity; is unworthy of the suf
irages of a people professedly governed by thu
principles of the gospel of Him who came tc
6 preach deliyerance to the captive, and the open
ing of the prison to them that are bound Th
duty, which he himself imposed upon us, we hay
fearlessly and faithfully performed, in common
with many others of his early admirers g. friends
men who. have watched, with a Christian love
the star of his greatness, while it rose apparently
to goriously elimination Lustreless and wa
> ming in its unbessed conjunction with the evi
and malignant influences of slavery, we havt
= been compelled to turn from it ourselves, ant
warn others to do likewise.
. As the prize of the Presidency, for which W,
- must needs believe Henry Clay has been induce,
to take his unfortunate position on the SLAYER
question, is now out of the question; may W.
not hope that in the retirement of Ashland h
will candidly and honestly review this whole sub
ject, unbiased by the influences which have
hitherto surrounded him. The frost of age
q upon him, but we would fan hope that it has no
q wholly chilled the generous faith in human prog
ress, the warm sympathy with the oppressed tn
. ardent desire for the prevalence of liberal and be
r. neyoent principles which characterized his EARL
! est public efforts. In this silence and cool o
day" when the utter vanity of popular applause
a is made manifest, when his hand is weak and hi
! eye dm when he is walking in the shadow of tn,
grave; is it possible that he can find satisfaction
Y in the consciousness that he is lending his still
q powerful influence to the perpetuation Of the grea
= curse of his beloved Kentucky-that the waning
IS energies of his life are devoted to the work of en-
/ grating upon the goodly tree of Democracy
'whose leaves are for the healing of the nations,
e the poison buds of slavery! We cannot believ,
e it In the deep silence of his heart, he doe
IS homage to the truth. He loathes the work hi
hands are doing. Voices from the graves of hi
! old political friends reproach him. He feels tina
a. he is gathering thorns for his last pillow, and SOW
ing with nettles the turf which is to cover him.
e. Let him repent of the evil he has done to tn
holy cause of Liberty Let him bring forth fruit