Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1848-08-31


shire, who has studied political ethics, UNI
der Hubbard and Hill or some Pennsylva-
MIA broadhorn, who believes in Polk and
the tariff of'42.
If then, by any chance, there are demo-
Gratis of this stamp in the present House of
Representatives, it is probable enough, that,
by the use of familiar appliances, Congress
may yet be induced to adopt the Comprom-
Use Bill or some other equally insiduous and
mlschievous scheme but its passage will
produce tornado Of popular indignation,
to which all former tempests will be but
zephyrs. The entire Northern people will
demand repeal, and not representative will
be returned to the next Congress from the
free States, who is not pledged to that meas
ure. There are abundant and unmistaka-
bic tokens Of fixed determination through
out the North to consent TO no arrangement,
by which one foot of American soil now le-
gally or actually free shall be contaminated
by the spread of Slavery, and the movement
which has now commenced will 60 on, gath
ering strength, until it shall have accom-
plished its object-the legal restriction of
slavery, namely, to its present lmits-or
have rent this Union into fragments. When
| speak of unequivocal tokens, do not re-
fer to late remarkable movements among
the democratic party leaders in New-York
and elsewhere These are important, not
as expressions, but as Indications, of popu-
lar opinion. The instgators of these pro-
ceedings are very far from being the origi-
majors of the feeling, which now controls
the masses of the North, except in so far az
their own former outrageous treachery to
Northern rights and interests has contribu-
ted to provoke it. They are dexterously
seizing and converting to their own corrupt
and selfish purposes, an honorable enthusi-
asm, which they derided as sickly sensi-
bility or narrow prejudice, condemned
as an unjust and uncharitabe hostility to
the institutions and prosperity of the South,
and denounced as virtual infraction of the
compromises of the constitution, until, in
its growing strength, it threatened to over
whelm them, and now they are tanning it
with an assiduity that quite puts to the blush
the tagging zeal of the new recruit from
the Granite State, and the ancient cham
f pion from the Western Reserve.
The leaders of the barnburner faction,
when in Congress, have uniformly resisted
that right so dear to freemen, the right of
petition;* they have advocated the annexa-
ton of Texas # they sustained and justified
, the Mexican war, with full knowledge of
, the base purposes for which it was provoke
. ed and now they offer to atone for all these
wrongs, by opposing the further extension
: Of slavery, whose area they have done so
t much to enlarge, and by complmeming
t with the hollow mockery of frutless nomi-
d nation that. cast-of idol, the Dargon Of their
: ancient worship, upon whom the South, in
: the convention of 1874, bestowed fit re-
i ward for life of slavish devotion to its in
;, terests, by turning him into the wilderness
e as scapegoat laden with a burden heavy
n enough to crush an Atlas-the sins of the
5 democracy. Such are the men who are
o now insulting the understandings of North
: ern freemen, by counting their suffrages for
: presidential candidate, who when Vice
t President, gave the casting vote in the SEN
y ate in favor of bill forbidding "postmas-
# tiers to deliver to any person whatever" pa
o pers. touching the subject of slavery, in the
r slave states,t who bought the support of the
S South by pedging himself in advance to
o veto any" attempt ON the part of Congress
r to abolish slavery i'll the District of Coum-
S bia, and who sent public armed vessel to
4 a port in Connecticut, to kidnap the negroes
!, of the Amistad
: And with all this, they have not the vir-
e tue and the manhood to avow and regret
e their former errors. They profess reforma-
: ton without repentance, glory IN their
shame, and with hands still unwashed of the
n uncleanness of Texas annexation, and red
: with the blood of an unholy war, they pro-
e claim themselves the chosen apostles of hui
: man liberty. Out upon the bold hypocrisy of
s. these whited sepulchres The sacred cause
n of freedom needs no such allies as these
c But let US return to the main question l
i am discussing Besides the obvious moral
e and political considerations, which forbid
e the introduction of slavery into the new
= territory, there is another which has great
d weight with the people of the North. 1t is,
: that in their opinion, any compromise, by
which slavery shall be tolerated at all in
IS New Mexico and California, involves re-
If petition of the Texas niquity A new re-
G belion will be fomented, new revolution
Al proclaimed, a new scheme of annexation
n plotted, and another war of conquest and
a plumber waged. Those events are already
d foreshadowed in the reported movements
n towards establishing the Republic of the
e Sierra Madre, and they can be prevented
o only by prohibiting the extension of slavery,
l. WnlCn mas Deen the mOtlVe ana the lnuuCe-
/ ment for all the national crimes perpetrated
e or plotted on our Southern and Southwest
ern frontier
n Under these circumstances, what is the
: duty of Congress To shrink from the re-
a sponsibilty of determining this great ques-
:, ton, and devolve it upon tribunal, whose
u province it is to declare not what the law
l. shall, and ought to be, but what it is 7 The
/, power of Congress to legislate on this sub
y Jet is UNREASONABLE, and the duty is as
lie clear as the right. A vast majority of the
h people demand the exercise of this power,
!. and the popular will must and will be obey
=. ed No bill for the organization of gov
,, eminent in the new territories can ever pass
this House, without some positive provision
y, on this subject, and no such mixed question
y of law and fact, as that of the present and
- future legal existence of Slavery in Mexico.
q will ever be submitted to the arbitrament OF
our national judiciary
, Sir, hope the day is not far distant when
a the people of these provinces will need nc
=" legislation of ours. With the British pos
thav will