Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1845-08-14

w nat zeal on the judicial Dencn III WfestHS IHO
constitution and the law to the purposes of slave
holders, by shielding kidnappers from merted
punishment, and paralyzing State legislation for
the security of personal liberty? What readiness
in legislation to serve the interests of the olgar-
chy by unconstitutional provisions for the recov-
cry Of fugitive Slaves and by laying heavy duties
on slave labor products, hereby compelling nom
slaveholdlng laborers to support Shareholders III
idIeness and luxury When shall these things
have an end? How long shall serve endurance
be proracted? 1t is for you feow-cltlzens, to de-
termine. The shameful partially to Shareholders
and slavery, which has SO long prevailed and now
prevails in the administration of the government,
will cease, when you determine that 1t shall cease,
and act accordingly.
Are your non-slavehoders OF the slave States!
Let US ask you to consider what interest you have
in the system of slavery. What benefit does it
confer on you! What blessing does it promise to
your children? You constitute the vast majority
of the population OF the slave States The aggre
gate votes Of the shareholders do not exceed one
hundred and fifty thousand, while the votes of the
Observation-Disclosures will number at least SIX hundred
thousand, supposng each adult male to possess
vote 1t is clear, therefore, that the continuance of
slavery depends upon your sulfrages. We repeat,
what interest have You in supporting the system'
Slavery diminishes your population and binders
your prosperity. Compare New York with Vlr-
gina, Ohio with Kentucky, Arkansas with Mich
Igan, Florida with Iowa. Need we say more.
These non-slavehodprs Of the slave States, are
the fruits of slavery. You surely eau have no rea-
son to love "A system which entails such conse-
quences. Yet it lives by your suAerancc. You
have only to speak the word at tho baot-boX, and
the system falls. win you be restrained from
speaking that word by the consideration that the
eDslaved will he benefited as we'll as yourselves !;
or 10y the selfish expectation that you may your
-I 4 l.. l. 1 4 r..
admitted into the ranks Of the aristocracy? If
such considerations withhold you, we bid you be-
ware lest you prepare bitter retrbuton for your
selves, and find to your modification and shame,
that patent of nobility, written in the tears and
blood Of the oppressed, is sorry passport to the
appreciation OF mankind.
We would appeal, also, to shareholders them
selves. We would enter al once within the lines
of selfish ideas and nercenary motives, and APP
peal to your conscences and your hearts. You
know that the system of slaVehoIdlng is wrong
Whatever theoogans may teach and cite script
ure for, YOU knoW-a OF you who claim freedom
for yourselves and your children as birth-right
precious beyond all price, and inaenable as life
that no person can rlghtGully hold another as d
slave Your courts, in their judicial DECISIONS
and your books ofcommon laws, in their elemen-
ary LESSONS rise far above the precepts of most of
your religious teachers, and declare all slayehoM
ing 10 be against natural right. You feel it to he
so. God has made the human heart, that in
spite Of all theological s0phistry and pretended
scripture proofs, you cannot help feeling it to be
so. There is law of suhllmer origin, and more
awful sanction than any human code, written in
netiaceable characters, upon every heart of man,
which binds all to do unto others as they would
that others should do unto them. Aud where is
there one of all your number who would exchange
condirons with the happiest OF all your slaves d
Produce the man! And until he is produced let
theological unologsts for savehoding keep ST.
Ience. Most earnestly do we entrcat you to list
ell to the voice of conscience and obey the prompt
ings of humanity We are not your enemies.-
We do not pretend to any superior virtue; o. that
we, being in your circumstances, would be likely
to act differently from you But we are all fellow
citizens Of the same great republic. We feel
savehodng to be a dreadful incubus upon us
dishonoring in the eyes Of foreign nations null
! flying the force Of our example of free institutions
holding us back from glorious career of prosper
! lty and renown, sowing broadcast the seeds of
discord, division, dlsunlon; and we are anxious
for its extinction. With Jefferson, we tremble
for our country when we "remember that God is
just, and that his justice cannot sleep forever."-
With Washington we believe "that there is but
one proper and efectual mode by which the ex-
tncuon of slavery can be accomplished, and that
is, by legislative authority; and this, far as our
suffrages will go, shall not be wanting"
W
would have the constitution rightly construed, and
administered according to its true sense and spirit.
! We would not dictate the mode in which slavery
shall he attacked in particular States; but we
would have it removed at from all places
under the exclusive jurisdiction of the national
government and, also, have immediate measures
taken in accordance with constitutional rights and
the principles of Justice for Its removal from each
State by State authority. In this work ask
your cooperation. Shall we ask in vain? Are
tyou not convinced that the almost absolute mo-
nopoly of the Offices and the patronage OF the gov
eminent, and the almost exclusive control of its
legislation and executive and judicial administra-
ton, by Shareholders, and for the purposes of
slavery, is unjust to the Observation-Disclosures of the
couutry2 Can you blame us for saying that we
will no longer sanction it? Are you not satisfied
to use the language of one of your number, "that
slavery is a cancer, slow consuming cancer Il
whitening pestilence, an unmiligated cursor" And
can you wonder that we should be anxious, by all
Just and honorable, aud constitutional means to
effect its extinction in our respective States, and
to con6ne it to its constitutional limits? Are you
not fully aware that the gross inconsistency of
, savehodiug with our professed principles aston
; lshes tue world, and makes the name of our coun-
, try mock, and the name Of liberty a by-word q
And can you regret that we should exert ourselves
to the utmost to redeem our glorious land and hel
institutions from just reproach and by illustriou.
acts OF mercy and justice place ourselves, once
: more, in the van of Human Progress and Advance
f ment.
f Finally, we ask all true friends of Liberty, o
Impartial, Universal Liberty to be firm and stead
! fast. The lutte handful OF voters, who in 1910
] wearled of compromising expedency and despair
e Ing of anti-suvery action, by pro-savery parties
Q raised anew the standard of the Declarations ant
7 manfully resolved to vote right then and vote 70
! Freedom, has already sweed to Great Party
H.. - -
any national contest, and stronger far in the pow
# er of its pure and eIevatng principles. And
: these principles be sound, which we doubt not
d and the question of slavery he, as we verify be
lleve it is, the grea question of our day and ma
), ton, it is libel upon the inIegence the patri
It otlsm, and the virtue Of the American people, t
/ say that there is no hope that majority will nc
}, array themselves under our banner. Let it not b
+! said that we are factious or mpraclcable. w
!. adhere to our views because we believe them I
1t be sound, practicable, and vitality Important. w
/ have already said that we are ready to prove on
ID devotion to our principles by cooperating wit