Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1845-03-14

side. Its members have quite lost sight of their
original motives, and it exists but as factious IN
uigue.
BY all these causes state of things has been
produced, upon which the coolest patriot cannot
look without alarm and the annexation OF Texas,
if consummated will add tenold to the madness oil
the passions, which the articles OF bad men have
excited to almost ungovernable fury. Some gen
tlemen find a ready panacea for the impending
evils which seem inseparable from this subject, in
the dissolution of the Union. They would divide
this goodly confederacy, and carve out of it two,
three, or four Independent republics, or it may be,
empires, as if body polite were like the polypus,
which multpes by division. But have gentlemen
weighed the practical difficulties which attend thls
measured? Have they defnitvely settled where
the lines shall be drawn? Are they quito sure t'lt
the norhernmost slaveholdng States are prepared,
in case of division, to make common cause WIN
the extreme South? Have they determined the
proportions, in which the public property and the
liabilities Shall be divided? Do they remember
that the public doman-that inexhaustable source
of national wealth-les chiefly in tho free States
and Territories and is it safe to calculate that the
strong man in possession will yield TO his weaker
biother right which he is unable to enforce p
Have they forgotten the old question in respect to
the right of those who nhabit the valley OF nav
igable river to follow its current to the ocean? Is
it certain that the mighty West, connected, as she
is, with both the North and the South by vital
bonds, arteries which it is death to sever, will, IN
any event, permit dissolution? What hope is
there, that such questions as these be set
tied by any arbter but the ultima ratio of nations
and in case of war between the North and the
South, who will protect the Preside of the South
ernor against its fearful domestic enemy, while the
father and the husband marches to the northern
frontier, TO embrue his hands in the blood Of his
brother?
Again: Are gentlemen prepared 10 risk the NOR
al and political effect of the selt-inmoaton OF this
mighty empire this model republic? Do they not
know that the first step towards dissolution the rst
outbreak of violence will be hailed by the vultures
Of Europe as token that their prey awaits them,
and as a signal of richer partition than the dis
memberment of Poland?
Sir, have barely touched, not exhausted, n sim
gle branch Of this great argument | would glad
ly look at this great question of eXpediency in 9TH
er and less delicate aspects, to say nothing of the
portentous constitutional obstacles, which inexore
bly, forbid the accomplishment of this measure 1t
would, for instance, be easy matter to show, as
the gentleman from Ohio Mr.. Hamlin) limited, that
by annihilating the sovereignty destroying the po
lltlcal individuality, approprating the resources
and assuming the ultimate dominion of the soil of
Texas, you legally and morally incur all her I'M
known liabilities not her pecuniary and lquidated
debt only, but her obligations for revolutionary ser
vices, and for indemnifcation for twice granted
lands, her pension list, present and future, and all
the thousand claims which will spring up against
her the moment you become her paymaster But
sir, mine hour is come. | must surrender this vast
subject to ADLER hands; and dismiss it, with the
repeated declaration, that while we of the North
repudlate and dscilim all purpose of imparing the
moral or legal rights of the South, we are yet re-
solved that the extension and perpetuntion of an
evil, which is its misfortune, shall not be our fault