Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1848-08-03

that after having slaughtered fifty thousand hui
man beings, in order TO extend your authority
over these one hundred and fifty thousand, the
murder should be followed by the slavery of ev-
cry one that can be made subject to the law of
power
Sir, IT II be true that you hold this territory by
conquest, you hold it precisely by the same right
,hat the Vrginlan holds his slaves today, and
ny no o'her' You have stolen The man, and
with The strong hand torn him from his own
home part of bis 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 Almit hty has impress-
ed upon poor woman-pdrieS seqititer venirum-
you condemn 10 Slavery, to the remotest posteri-
lty, the offspring Of your captive. 1t is the
same right originally in both cases. This right
OF tongues, is the same as that by which man
may hold another in bondage. You may make
1t INTO law If you please you may enact that
II may be SO 1t may be convenient TO do SO:
alter perperaiing the original sin, il may be bet
ter 10 do 80. But the case is not altered the
source OF The right remains unchanged. What
Is The meaning Of the old Roman word .Se,pus
profess no great skill in pathological learning,
but can very well conceive how somebody,
looking into this thing, might understand what
was the law in those days. The mans life was
l.
lie became SercuS the man preserved by his
magnanimous foe; and perpetual slavery was
then thought TO be boon preferable TO death.
That was the way in which Slavery began. Had
anybody found out on the face of tive earth
man fool enough to give himself up 10 another,
and beg him 10 make him his slave? do not
know OF one such instance under Heaven Yet
1t may be So Still think that not one man Of
my complexion of the Caucasian race co1ld be-
found ~ w IN dol
ter.
This right, which you are now asserting 20
this country, exists on no other foundation than
the law OF force, and that was the original law
by which one man appropriated the services and
Will Of another to himself. Thus far we are
brought after having fought for this country and
conquered It. The solemn appeal is made to us
-" Have we not mingled our blood with yours
IN acquiring this country z" Sure, my brother
But did we mngle our blood with yours for the
purpose OF wrestling this country by tol &C from
this people That is the question. You did
not say so six months ago. You dare not say
now You may say that it was purchased, as
Louisiana or Florida was, with the common
treasure OF the country; and then we come to
the discussion OF another proposition: What
right do you thus acquire to establish Slavery
there! But was about to ask some gentle
man-ihe Senator from S. c. for instance
|
most the history OF the world, what he supposes
will be the history of this our Mexican war, and
these, our Mexican acquisitions, if we should
give 10 1t the direction which he desires? | do
not speak OF the proprlcty of Slave Labor being
carrieu anywhere. l VIII waive that question
entirely. What is it of which the Senator
from Vermont has told Us this morning, and of
which we have heard so much for the las. three
weeks? Every gale that floats across the At
,t,l l..I..- / ~
a hlng every vessel that touches your shores
bears with her tidings that the captives of the
OId World are at last becoming free that they
are seeking, through blood and siaughter-bllnd-
" ana lnadly 1t may be-but nevertheless reso-
lutely -dellverance from the letters that have
held them in bondage. Who are they? The
whole OF Europe. And it is only about a wear
ago, believe, that that officer of the Turkish
Emp!re who holds sway in Tunis, one of the old
slave markets OF the world, whose prisons for
merry received those OF our people taken upon
the high seas and made slaves to their captors -
announced TO the world that everybody should
be free. And, if am not mistaken, It will be
found that this magic line, which the Senator
from D. Z. believes has been drawn around tho
globe which we inhabit, with the view Of sepa1
rating Freedom and Slavery-36 deg. 30 1nin.
brings this very Tunis into that region in which.
Thy the ordinance of God, men are to be held i'm
bondage! All over the world the air is vocal
with the shouts of men made free. What does
1t all mean: 1t means that they have been re-
deemed from political serytude; and in Gods
name ask, if 1t be IA boon to mankind to be
tree from political servidnde must it not be ac
copted as matter of some graduation that they
have been relieved from absolute subsection 10
the arbitrary power of others What do we
say OF them? l am not speaking of the propr-
ETY. OF this thing 1t may be all wrong, and those
poor fellows in Paris, who have stout hands and
wiling hearts, anxious to earn their bread, may
be very censurabe for fighting for il. 1t may
be all wrong to cut off the head of king
or send HIM across the channel. The problem
of Free Government, us we call ii, is not, it
seems, yet solved. 1t may be highly improper
and foolish in Austria and Germany to send a.
way Metternich and say, ave will look into
this business ourselves" According to the doc
trlDe preached IN these Ilals-to free America
instead OF sending shouts of congratulation
across the water to these people, we should send
to them groans and commlseration for their folly,
calling on them to be wary how they take this
business into their own Understanding them
that universal liberty Is a curse; that as one man
Is bora with right to govern an Empire he
and his posterity las Louis Philippe of Orleans
maintained, when hc announced that his son
should sit on the throne when he left itl must
continue to exercise that power, because in their
case 1t Is not exactly parties seguiter centrum but
parties Sequiter pdtrem-that is all the difference.
Laughter The Crown follows the father
Under your law the chain follows the mother
[Subdued manifestations of feehng.l
Ii was law in the Colonies about '76, that
Kings had tight to govern us. George Guelph
ther SAID "Pdrtes Seqmiirr pdirem'-My son is
born to be your ruler. And at the very lime
when Virginia lifted up her head aud appealed
to the God OF justice--ihe common father of all
mcn-to deliver her from that uccursed maxim
and IFS consequences, that one man was born
as Jeift rson said--booIed and spurred to ride az
mother, it seems that by the honorble Senators
account of 1t, she adhered to another maxim, TO
wit: that another man should be born TO serve
Virginia. | think this maxim of Kings being
born TO rule, and others being born only to serve,
are both Of the same family, and ought 10 have
gone down to the same place whence, | Imagine,
they came, long ago, together. do not think
that your parties Sequum patrem had much quar-
ter shown II al Yorktown, on a certain day YOU
may remember. | think that. when the Lion of
England crawed in the dust, beneath the talops
OF your Eagles, and CORVALLIS surrendered to
George Washington, that maxim, that a man IS
born 10 rule, went down, not TO be seen among
us any more forever, ami | think that pnrtes Sc
quitW venirun, IN the estimation of all sensible
men, disappeared along with it. So the men of
that day thought. And we are thus brought 10