The Middlebury galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1848-1850, 1848-08-01
Free Soil.----Gen. Taylor MIR
Van Buren,.

| AS long as the Union of these States-N orth.
ern and Southern, Eastern and Western-has an
existence, so long must there be national senti.
ment feeling supreme over sectional interest
prejudice. Local interests must be taken care OF
by the local governments, and form part of the
State politics. Matters of this sort must always
be kept subordinate to the general and national
concerns, nor can they properly be suffered to &C.
cupy any leading position among the points at is
sue in Presidential canvass. Hence, also, the
immediate section of the Union in which a candi-
date for the Presidency may reside cannot, while
all States in the Confederacy stand upon a foot
ing ofequality, and arc acknowledged to possess
equal rights. be employed as an argument either
for or against his election. Right principles, and
the man best suited to give c6ect 10 those princ-
PIES arc the great considerations, and not his ge-
| ographical position. And beautiful and praise
worthy example of this nationality of feeling, is
found in the devotion of the entire Wing party of
such states as New York, Connecticut, and Yer
mont, through long series Of years, TO the Mod
el Statesmen, the noble-hcarted and true Wing,
whose home is in the South, but whose fame is
the nations, and whom the State of Kentucky
can never Appropriate as exclusively her own.
The question of the extension or nom extension
of Slavery Is ono in respect to which the whole
nation is responsible, and accordingly is strictly
of national interest The erisfeHce of Slavery
within the States wherein it is recognized by the
Federal Constitution. is purely sectional matter
States whose constitutions recognize that insiiiu-
ton, alone have the power to determine its con-
tinuancc within their own borders. In the Dis
trict of Columbia, the government of which is con-
fided entirely to the National Congress, the con-
tinuancc of Slavery is a national consideration
and there alone has the National Government any
power to abolish Slavery where it has once been
established. The limits within which all Anti
Slavery action is lesitmately confined, are there
fore plain and unmistakabe. The Liberty Par
ty, in protesting determination not to rest short
of an entire extinction of Slavery, wherever it
may exist, have gone altogether beyond constitu-
honal grounds, and arc attempting to medlIc
with that over which, as politicians, they can new
eI have the least right of jurisdiction. As PHI
IantlTQp'sts they may argue the question with any
person under the sum- but citizens of this Fedc-
raj Republic, they can take no measures to force
emancipation, without an open defiance of the
constitution-for which rebellion is only another
name.
Some very conscientious people land what is
more remarkable the last persons in the world to
be suspected of ever having suffered conscience to
influence them very much in their political ac-
ton, heretofore.) have made the discovery that
the Wings of Vermont are doing violence to rea-
son, consistency, and right, in taking so unani-
nous and decided stand for ZACHARY TAYLOR
They tell us that our candidate is a STAKEHOLDER,
and, say they, how can a stakeholder be supposed
to favor the exclusion of Slavery from the new
territories Now this is the whole drift of the
argument most strongly urged by our opponents,
OF whatever kind or denomination. "a man that
is Shareholder, cannot oppose the ertcnsion of
Slavery" Let us see how this logic will bear in
specton.-Do not these sudden converts to Abo-
litionism and Provisoism know that GEORGE
WASHINGTON was Stakeholder? Do they not
know,also, that he was sincerely and openly oppos
cd to the extension and perpetuation of Slavery?
Who was the author of the celebrated Ordinance
of 49," of the sixth article of which the Wilmot
Proviso Is nothing better than a copy7 THoM-
AsJEFFERsoS-aS Stakeholder That Ordinance.
passed July 10, 1857, and fully recognized and
established by Congress, in 1883, after the adop-