Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1846-07-02
Conference.-The COWardice.


There is a class ofmen, and papers, in the free
States, that merit nothing but contempt ana OBJ
loquy. In all that concerns slavery they show the
rankest cowardice; they treat the subject with the
fear and trembling which mark the minlons Of
despotism. If violence be done by the slave
holder against their laws, they are as polite as
dancing masters, and talk Of it as a matter of no
moment whatever
That the laborers of the free States should lend
their influence to these men or papers amazes
us. Wherein consists their hope! 1t is that
labor in itself shall be respected. And how can
this be done if the laborers themselves sustain a
system which, more than all other causes makes
toll synonymous with seryitude-a badge only
Of dishonor7 Idle and vain is it for them to
struggle for social freedom, if they defend slave
ny in any form They make themselves bond
men, and all the laws in the world could not in
fuse into them the spirit Of freedom
In the slave states, shareholders seeks to hide
the result of slavery from the free laboring class
es They resort to a thousand planes to effect
this object Faucry a certain sort Of patroniz-
ing kindness, appeals to prcjudices, the rousing
of passions, stirring of false pride,- these
means are used to blind them to the chains they
wear. But in the free states no such efforts are
mlde aud no such means exist, How happens
it, then, that the free laborers therein are so sui
cidal at any time, or under any circumstances, di-
recty or indirectly, as to give their powers, or eX-
ert their influence in defence Of any man or SET
OF men or any system or puts of system,
that makes labor-thc earning our bread by the
sweat of or brow-a degrading employment?
Fashion is power Make it matter of course
in Ohio, or any other free state that the slave
holder shall be entitled to peculiar privileges,
and black servitude exempted from the common
law of right and Justice, and you establish at
once caste which will be fatal to progress aud
equality, and which, in the end will make labor
in public opinion, equally serye-on both sides
of the river. How can it be otherwise? The
laborng men, therefore, of the free states who
act i'll this spirit, are deliberately cutting their
own throats, by saying in word and act, " bon
dage is right the negro ought to be slave he
should have a master over him, and he must
have" He has. Thirty thousand men, slave
holders occupy the position of masters. And
what is the result? That they degrade every
white aborer in the slave states, and Just far
as they have influence, degrade all laborers in
the free
Yet, men Of toll in these free states, encour
age papers and parties who seek 10 uphold the
slavery of the south. Shame upon their coward
ice. Shame upon the traitor spirit in them,
which would dishonor their own noble calling !
Labor is blessing. It's Gods means given
to make men ofourselves, and to stamp upon
human life the law of love and progress. 1t is
the hope of freedom Let not those, therefore,
who live by it, and who expect their sons and
daughters to live by it, do any thing in their day
to dishonor it &C H. Clay.