Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1848-07-13

nothing TO do. But that they accord with
us IN the opinion as to the existence of the
power IN question, aud the expediency of
exercising 1t whenever the occasion for so
doing arrives, we have the best reasons to
know.
The power, the existence of which is, at
this late day, denied, is in my opinion fully
granted to Congress by the Constitution
Its language, the circumstances under which
il was adopted, the recorded explanations
which accompanied its formation-the con-
struction il has received from our highest
Judicial tribunals, and the very solemn and
repeated combinations it has derived from
the measures of the government-leave not
shadow of doubt in my mind in regard
TO the authority of Congress to exercise the
power in question. This is not new opin-
ion on my part, nor the first occasion on
which it has been avowed. While the can
didatc of my friends for the Presidency,
distinctly announced my opinions in favor of
the power of Congress to abolish slavery in
the District Of Columbia, although was,
for reasons which were then, aud are still
satisfactory to my mind, very decidedly OPP
posed to its exercise there. The question
of power is certainly as clear in respect to
the territories as it is in regard to that dis
trict; and as to the territories my opinion
was also made known in still more SOL
emn form, by giving the executive approval
required by the constitution, to the bill for
the organization of the territorial govern
ment of Iowa, which prohibited the intro
duction of slavery into that territory.
no xrh irt ri nc
given in the face of, and directly contrary
to the views expressed, in forms the most
solemn and explicit, by all, or nearly all the
non-slave holding states, and we are not at
liberty to suspect the sincerity of these ex-
pressions. Honest and well meaning men,
as we know the masses of our political
friends in those states to be, are incapable
of trifling with SO grave subject.
Our ancestors signalized the commence
ment of this glorious government of ours by
rescuing, from sub lection to slavery, a ter
ritory which is now covered by five great
states, and peopled by more than four mil
lions of freemen, in the full enjoyment OF
every blessing which industry and good in
situations can confer. They did this when
the opinions and conduct of the world in
regard to the institution of slavery were
very different from what they are now.
They did SO before Great Britain had
even commenced those gigantic efforts for
the suppression of slavery, by which she
has so greatly distinguished herself After
seventy-four years enjoyment of the sacred
and invaluable right of selfgovernment, OBJ
tanned for us by the valor and discretion Of
our ancestors, we, their descendants, are cal.
led upon to doom, or if that is too strong a
word, to expose to the inroad of slavery, a
territory capable of sustaining an equal num-
federacy-a territory in a great part of which
slavery has never existed in fact, and from
the residue of which it has beep expressly
abolished by the existing government. We
are called upon to do this at period when
the minds of nearly all mankind have been
penetrated by a conviction of the evils Of
slavery, and are uniting in efforts for its sup.
pression-at moment too, when the spirit
of freedom and reform is everywhere far
more prevalent than it has ever been, and
when our republic stands proudly forth a:
the great exemplar of the world in the sci
encc of free government.
Who can believe that population like
that which inhabits the non-slaveholdina
states probably amounting to twelve millions
who by their own acts, or by the foresight o
others, have been exempted from the evil,
of slavery, can, at such moment, be indu
ced, by considerations of any description
to make retroEade movement of charac
ter so extraordinary and SO painful Sucl
a movement would, in my view Of the mat
ter, and say it with unfeigned Difference
to the conflicting opinions of others, brin.
reproach upon the influence of free insttu
tons, which would delight the hearts ant
excite the hopes Of the advocates of arbi
trary power throughout the world.