Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1846-05-14

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to keep back its essential hostility to freedom; to cause
us to forget the vallies of Piedmont, and the fires of
Smithicld, and the names of Huss, and Jerome, and
Wicklitf and the scenes attending the revocation Of
the Edict Of Mainland appear to be consentaneous
with the spirit of freedom, and to have the mild and
amlable spirit of pure religion. But there are second
", essential features in that system which cannot be
suppressed, and which must be acted out, and which
will inevitably encounter the repellant spirit of this
age, and this country. 1t grasps at power it seeks
universal domination; 1t is opposed to liberty it seeks
to bind the human mind in letters of subordmation to a
priesthood 1t opposes the right of freedom of inquiry
it is opposed to the free circulation of the word of God.
And when these features are manifested here, as thew
begin to be; and the net is sprung all that is Ameri-
can in our blood, all that is repelIant of tyranny in our
veins, all that makes our institutions dear to us, and
all that is the result of the progress of the race to-
wards liberty, arms itself instinctively against it, and
will oppose its gaining an ascendancy in this country.
And whatever we may fear, it seems to me that this is
the last enemy which we have reason to dread in our
land. PerSccute the Rornanists, and you give them
temporary triumph: for it is one of the features of our
nature, and cminently of ourage, that men rally around
the prosecuted. Persecution establishes for a time,
principles that are wrong, as well as those that are
true. If men mil prosecute anything, let it be the
truth, not error: and the only good which the Papacy
has done in the world, has been done by prosecuting
and establishing the truth. Greet the foreign Papist
NlItu 1T CDliCo " Ol lillu; us Del1g as welcome nero
as any other man Inject him with the Bible; give
him a place anywhere in our broad territory intro
duce his children into our schools; exclude him from
no office that he deserves by talent and private worth
and public service: and his feelings will mingle with
ours; he will begin to love our system better than that
dark one which frowns on all the lands where it has
reigned and every third generation of foreign Pnpi,ts
will become ProteStaniS i'll feeling, and .4me7ican in
the love Of our free institutions. Another thing is.
that the spirit OF the age, and the points Of elevation
which we have gained in the progress of events, are
against the institution of SLAVERY, and that institu-
ton is destined certainly to fall, 1t is a system at va
rance with the settled views of mankind, and with
principles now established, and from which the race is
not to 90 backward. Every thing which has been de.
veloped in the long tract ofages, and in the revelation
of God, about the essential equality of man the fact
that all are of one race that the same blood has been
shed for human redemption, and that the same heaven
is open for all, is against this institution. Every thing
that has been elected or established about the dignity
of mantle nobleness of the soul-the honor of hui
man nature-the distinction between matter, between
man and the brute, is against the existence of this in
stitution. Every blow that has been struck in the
cause of freedom, either in this land or in the old
world; every lesson taught by the struggles of the Pu-
ritans, and in the struggles for freedom here, is against
the. spirit of the institution. Every common school.
academy and college in the land, and all the views
which we have adopted, that the human mind, as such.
Has Il TlgHC 10 lHSIIuCJOn all tnaJ is sacred IN the
right of trial by jury, and all our views that every ac-
cused man, no matter what his color, has such a right;
all our convictions that the Bible is made for manEind,
and that it is to be withheld from none; and all the
deep felt and inextinguishable convictions which men
are settling upon, that every man has a right to the
fair avails of his own labor:-all these things are
against this institution. All the settled notions of re-
ligion, too, are against it; and it is only maintained by
a warfare on the plain and indisputable principles Of
the religion of the Bible. From these fixed points in
regard to liberty and education, and the trial by Jury,
and the right to read, and the right to the avails of la
Dor, the race does not go backward. They are settled
points now, in the age in which we live. One gene
ration passeth away, and another generation cometh,
but, like the earth, these principles abide forever. The
spirit of slavery is coming more into contact every
year with these great principles: as they acquire a
deeper hold on the mind, the mind becomes more re-
pellant to the system. The opposition made to the
system in this land and age, is not the ebulition of
passion or excitement; it is the spirit of the age against
it, the growth of centuries, the result of conflict, the
fruit of liberty, the offspring of religion, and if any
thing may be predicted with regard TO the future it is,
that SOmehow The institution Of slavery MUST CEASE FOR
EVER.