Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1845-01-17
From The Boston Christian World.
THE NORTH.

AFOH btC DcStoH CtHtSttNb W UftUs
THE NORTH.
The current of events, during the past few
weeks, connected with the slavery question,
presents an array of circumstances and occur
rences of remarkable interest and import The
fingers of time ever busy in the web Of destiny,
have piled themselves more swiftly e. diligently
than ever, fast filling the warp with its many
colored wool. We have, first: the conviction
of Capt Walker, of Massachusetts, in the Ter
ritory Of Florida, Of the offence of giving aid
and comfort to few Christian friends and
brethren, who had fed TO him FOR deliverance
from an unjust and wearisome bondage. He
was tried, convicted, sentenced, and has suffer
ed part Of his punishment, (by standing in
the pillory and being branded in the hand, }
under the statutes Of the United States, for an
alleged crime committed within the exclusive
jurisdiction of the general government; SO that
for all the iniquity and injustice Of these pro-
ceedings the whole people of the North Amer
lcan Union are jointly responsible. We have
allowed the national constitution to be ouirag-
ed, Tor years. by the permission Of negro slave
ry in the territories, in direct contradiction of
the doctrines OF the declaration, and TO the
manifest subversion of all those constitutional
guarantees under which alone, $50 far as we
owe our protection 10 the government,) are
there any personal rights secured TO the people
We have stolidly permitted the paramount law
of the land and the everlasting law OF God and
the most sacred rights OF humanity TO be utter
ly set at noughi, by supporting the slavery of
the colored race under the forms OF law, by
Congressional enactments, and by the civil and
military force Of the Union; no; rejecting nor
remembering, that the same enactments might
as well and rs rightfully resolve away forever,
the liberty OF every white man on The SOIL
within the same exclusive jurisdiction. We
have allowed it 10 be enacted that, 10 give a
helping hand TO poor heart-worn refugee of
sorrow shall be n crime; and that whatsoever
will be obedient 10 the ancient command of
God, 10 "Hide the outcast and bewray not him
that VANDERBILT" shall be branded, fined, aud
imprisoned. And now, benevolent Christian,
n true and noble Massachusetts man, holds up,
from within the walls of dungeon, his labor
hardened hand, the palm Scared and scared, as
a testimony against US.
Next comes the case of ToRREY. A minis
Ter of the gospel, of blameless life, has fallen
victim to the impulses Of his philanthropy; and
under the slave laws of Maryland. must wear
away, we know not how many precious years,
for no other crime than that of helping a lew
fellow beings 10 escape from bondage, TO seek
a land where they might find, what they had
never known before, protection of their right
TO "liberty and the pursuit Of happiness"
And, as If to try how much the conscience
and the dignity of the North could bear, we
have now to record, al last, the insulting def
ance OF South Carolina, hurled at Massachu-
seiis, and not only at her, but at the whole
conlederacy, spurnng the right of our own free
citizens to be protected in their personal liber-
lty when standing upon her soil; denouncing
violence and ignominirus punishment against
the peaceful agents of liberty, who only ask, in
the name of existing laws, what the laws them
selves, after their own forms and their own way
will give us; challenging the right Of the ma
tional tribunals 10 adjudge the issues which
South Carolina has herself made with every
citizen OF every other State, declaring that she
will not try conclusions,' where only by ouI
national character, they are deierminable; plant
ing herself upon the extreme verge of a revelu-
tionary position. and hurting from her borders
by force, venerable and an honored ambassa-
dor of Massachusetts,, for whose very life, the
frosty head of age and daughters presence, a
legal errand and the Egis OF the nation, were
no defence had he remained within them.
Here, thick and fast, are showered down, in
quick succession, blow upon blow, aimed al
the very heart of liberty. Stupid and indifIer-
ent, has saint and sinner at the North borne to
be involved in all the sin and shame of terrific
rial slavery; TO be pGrticeps eriminis, in law
and in fact, to all its accumulated violations oil
private right and the public charter; they have
paid, without n loud complaint, their forty
millions oil dollars, Tor the expenses OF great
national slave hunt, in the everglades Of Flori-
da, dgni6ed by the name of war, Gnvolving
all its guilt without any of its glory;) they have
exposed and devoted their sons TO death, by
disease and the hazards Of battle and skirmish
with the exaspeTated Seminoles, 10 preserve the
safety Of The "patriarchal institution they are
about, perhaps, TO stand the hazard OF the die,
by whose cast, Texas, innumerable woes, and
incalcuable crime may be added 10 our destiny
all this for slavery too; and well would it be-
if some strong convusion might galvanize into
life the Undertaking. humanity of the people
before il is too late, forever.
We have no quarrel with the South; none
; with shareholders, personally; none with north.
ern apologsts, personally; we make no issue
with any mans conscience; we judge no mans
heart; we are party, here, in no political war.
fare; and il you can separate the moral from the
; political bearings OF the question, you shall
never see the word slavery spelled out in the
columns of the Christiah World again. But
so long as slavery exists in fact, including us al
in its tremendous transgressions OF every rule
of right, for which we are verify guilty before
God, this day, so long do we resist slavery and
make war against it. We do moi pretend, on
behalf of ourselves and our friends and neigh
bors in the North, to any superior goodness
either by grace or by nature, TO the people Of
the slave holding States. They certainly are