Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1846-05-07

The result of the New Hampshire election
has startled the politicians They do not know
what to make of it, They stand as men struck
dumb by some sudden and overwhelming calam-
ity,
And it will be well for them to make close
calculations upon that result For it shows that
there is spirit and energy in the people, which,
when reused, will snap asunder their iunto pow
er, and rive every instrumentaty of oppression.
What so hard as to obliterate party lines .
What work half so difficult as to make the bigot
forget his fealty to sect, or the partisan of ord-
nary stamp forsake his fold Yet all this was
done in New Hampshire, and men of all parties
stood up shoulder to shoulder as they hurled
from authority rulers who had basely used them,
and more baseIy still traded away the honor off
their common home.
And the lesson thus taught by New Hampshire
will not be forgotten by the people of any State
in the Union The blaze of the fire kindled on
the granite hills is shedding its light everywhere,
and men of every caste and class, are comipaRts.
the knowledge that they have only to b
and to ACT, to accomplish any good. ~
nasty seemed so firmly set-so rresstible-as
the democracy of New Hampshire? Yet, in its
o,0n bosom, was found kindred vitality with
that which existed withOm it, and as old party
preudces were thawed out and existing fears
overcome, they accomplished triumph worthy
the name of freedom. And what is there to
prevent the same result in other States? What
is there to prevent Kentucky at this hour, from
accomplishing mightier revolution stilR Moth
ing but the want of the same union and the same
energy, Give US these, let the mountain voters,
and the voters Of the lowlands, independent of
party drill, speak out for freedom, and no COM
bincd power of Slavery would dare resist.
Men make fools of themselves, become cow
ards, the tools of dwelling office seekers or of
the mercenary spirit of the age, because of their
fear to do what they know to be right. Where
is the free laborcr in Kentucky that has not his
very muscles bound down to the stake of Slave
ry, and his very hearth charred, as by asIow fire,
with its blazing curses! Where the STAKEHOLDER
himself glutted by ayarlce, or stepped in sensu-
atty, OF besotted by love of power, who does
not know that he degrades free labor, and that,
in the terrible recoi, which must follow oppres-
sion like this, he may sink the iron deep into
the heart of his own offspring, and leave them
as the bhghted instrument of an institution, foul
and rotten to the very core? They all know
this, all feel it, and if one-half of Them ramping
into the dust, on the one side their fear, and
dashing away, on the other, their selishness,
were to act npon this knowledge, this feeling
universal freedom would be the law ofKentucky,
ere five years rolled over our heads,
This thing called power is not understood by
the people. Who. has not seen some plain man
cooly, but determinedIy defend his position a.
gainst decided odds, and come off, even in the
opinion of his opponents, the victor? Who has
not witnessed an honest defender of the truth
put down prejudice, and silence passion by his
clear argument, and calm, moral courage .
w no has not known single individuals in large
neighborhoods arrestng caumny, and convert
ing the people who honestly, perhaps, spread it,
into personal friends and strong supporters p
Now the power exerted in all these cases was
simply the power Of truth, and that every man
who has the gift Of speech and reason, may pos
sess and use So that if the people will it, or
act out what they know to be right, there is no
wrong, not even the monstrous wrong of Slave
ry, which may not be speedily overcome This
tyranny exists by our PERMISSION. 1t kneads it.
self into compact strength, and adds to its
strength only by the common sufferance. Yours,
then, freemen of Kentucky, will be the fault if
you do not, like the brave Granite Boys of New
Hampshire, hurl it to the earth, and let it be
known as the giant wrong of the Past