The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1848-08-12

drcn, and the widow with the family that re-
mains, desire TO go there TO better their for
tunes, if il may be, and pointing to the graves
of husband and children, exclaim; "There-
there was the price paid for our proportion of
this territory" Is that true? lfthut could he
made out-ifyou dare to put that upon your
record-ifyou can assert that you hold the
country by the strong hand, then you have Il
right to go there with your slaves. If we of
the North have united with You of the South
in this expedition ofpiracy, and robbery, and
murder, that oldest law known among men
"honor among thieves requires us to divide
it equally. Laughter and subducd applause
Nay, more it is only fitting finale TO thai in.
formal tragedy, that after having slaughtered
fifty thousand human beings, in order to eS-
Tend your authority over these one hundred and
fifty thousand, the murder shonld be followed
by the slavery Of every one that can be made
subject 10 The law ofpowcr'
Sir, il it be true that you hold this territory
by conquest, you hold il precisely by the same
right that the Vrgininn holds his slave to day,
and by no other You have stolen the man,
and with the strong hand torn him from his
own homc-pnrt of his family you have killed,
and the rest YOU have bound in chains and
brought TO Virginia! Then in accordance with
the brand which il seems the Almighty has
impressed upon poor Woman--pHrtcS sGqaitar
ccRtrUHt--you condemn TO Slavery, to the
motest postcrity, the offspring of your captivc
IL is the same right originally in both cases.
This right of conquest is the same that by
which man may hold another in bondage.
lou may make it into n law if you please You
may enact that il may be so:it may he conven-
lent TO do so after pcrpctratng the original sin,
il may be better to do so. Butthc case is not
altered; the source of the right remains un-
changed. What is the meaning ofthe old Ro-
man word ScrrusP | profess no great skill in
pathological learning, but can very well CON
ccve how somebody, looking into this thing,
might understood what was the law in those
days Tho man $ life was saved when his on.
envy conquered him in battle. lie became scr
ruS-thc man preserved by his magnanimous
foe; and perpetual slavery was then thought
to be n boon preferable to death That was the
way in which Slavery began Has any body
found out on the face of the earth q man fool
enough TO give himself up to another; and beg
him to make him his slave? | do not know Of
one such instance under Heaven. Yet it may
be Still think that not one man of my
complexion ofthe Caucasian rncc could he
found quite willing to do that Laughter
This right which you are now asserting to
this country, exists in no other foundation than
the law offorcc and that was the original law,
by which one man appropriated the services
and will ofnnothcr to himself Thus far we
have been brought after having fought for this
country and conquered il. The so cmn appeal
is made to us-''Have We not mingled our
Z y
Sure, my brother! But did VIC minglc our
blood with yours for the purpose Of Wrestling
this country by force from this people? That
is the question. You did not say six months
ago. You dare not say so now You may
say that il was purchased, rs Louisiana or rs
Florida was, with the common treasure Of the
country; and then we come to the discussion
ofAnothcr proposition: What right 10 you nc.
quire to establish Slavery there? But was
about TO ask of some gentlcman--the Senator
from :. G. for instancc-whosc eve Mt glance
has comprchcndcd almost the history of the
world, what he supposns will be the history Of
this, our Mexican War, and these, our-AlcX XII
can acquisitions, if we sh1uld rive to il the
direction which he desires; do not speak
of the proPricty of slave labor being car.
ricd anywhere. will waive that question en-.
tirelv. What is it Of which the Senator from
Vermont has told rs this morainr and of which
VIC have heard so much during the last three
weeks? Every gale that floats across the At
lnntic, comes ircightcd with the death groans
ola King: every vessel that touches your
shores, hears with her tidings that the capt,ves
of the Old World are at last becoming free
that they are seeking, through blood and
slaughter --blndly and madly, it may bc-but
nevertheless resolutci y--deivernnc from the
letters that have held them in bondage. Who
are they? The whole of Europe. And it is
only about year ago, believe, that that oR-
Ger of the Turkish Empire who holds sway in
/ l.
world, whose prisons formerly received those
of our people taken up on the high seas, and
made slaves TO their captors-announccd to the
world that everybody should there be free.
And, if am not mistaken, it will be found that
this magic line, which the Senator from >. 4
believes has been drawn around the globe
which we inhabit, with the view of separating
Freedom and Slavery-36 degrees 30 minutes,
brings this very Tunis into that region in
which by the ordinance of God, men are TO be
held in bondage! All over the world the air is
vocal with the shouts ofmen made free. What
does it all mean? 1t means they have been re-
deemed from political servitude; and in God 5
name ask, if it be boon to mankind to be
free from political servtudc, must it not be ac-
cepted as matter of some graduation, that they
have been. relieved from absolute subsection to
the arbitrary power of othcrs' What do we
say of them? 1 am not speaking fSthe propri-
ETY. of this thing; it may be all wrong, and these
poor fellow in Paris, who have stout hands and
willing hearts, anxious to earn their bread,
may be very comfortable in fighting for it, 1t
may be all wrong to cut oifthc head ola King,
| or send him across the Channel. The problem
of Free Government, rs we call il, is not, it
seems, yet solved 1t may be highly improp-
or and foolish in Austrin and Germany to send
away Metternich, and say, 1--WE will look in
to this business ourselves According to the
doctrine preached in these Hnls--in free A.
mercn-instcad of sending shouts of congrat-
! ulatiOn nCrOSS the water 10 lncSe people, we
should send to them gronns and commseratinn
for their folly, calling on them to be ware how
they take this business into their own hands
informing them that universal liberty is a
curse; that ns one man is born with Alright to
govern an Empire, he and his postcrity, as
Louis Philippe of Orleans maintained, when
| he announced that his son should sit on the
throne when he left 1t, must continue to cxer-
else that power, because in thrir case it is not
exactly parties Scqnitnrc Uentrmm, but parties Sc