Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1850-12-26
THE CHARGE OF SECTIONAL
ISM.

The maligners OF the anti slavery men have
always charged them with being a sectional pal
ty-a party of but one idea-of no national OBJ
iects, and no broad national views and princi-
pies, which should entitle them to rank with
the other great parties that have alternately
swayed the destinies OF our republic.
Against this charge, we feurlessly enter OUT
protest. contendng it to be unfounded and false,
and far less applicable in fact, to those against
whom it is made, than to those who have so long
and SO shamelessly persisted in making it.
In order, however, that we may see whether
this berated party, or those opposing it, occupy
A.. broadcast and most truly national grounds
let us glance at the causes which brought 1t into
belng,-the principles on which its organization
was based,-and the objects sought to be accom-.
pllshed by its action.
When the Constitution came to be adopted, 1t
was acknowledged, by its trainers, that the great,
paramount principle of equality Of rights and
freedom, which had been previously settled by
the unanimous voice of the American people, In
their Declaration Of indep 'ndence, and which
that Constitution was confessedly designed to
secure and perpetuate, could not be made to ap-
ply to a particular portion OF the inhabitants oil
the United States, without a greater change III
existing State Institutions, than was deemed
safe and prudent at once to be made. But while
this was understood, it was also understood and
agreed by those trainers, and other statesmen or
the times, both Of the North and the South, that
the anomalous and inconsistent feature which,
from supposed necessity, had been, for the time
being, thus permitted to obtain in our lnsttu-
tions, was to be removed and that the great prln-
ciple in question, was to be carried into full and
universal effect, as soon as practicable. That
such was the general understand ng, and that
il was viewed by those statesmen in the light oil
a pledge to the American people, and TO the in
iured race thus excluded from the enjoyment OF
the declared rights of all, is sufficiently shown
not only by the debates and writings OF that Pc
Rod, but by the earnest measures almost imme
diately put in train to insure the proposed OBJ
iect,-such as the ordinance Of 1887, prohibit
ing slavery IN the then acquired territories, and
the prospective abolition of the slave trade
which, it was supposed, would speedily put ar
end to that institution in the States. And dur
ing the administration of the first four or five
Presidents, this understanding was respected
and observed and the idea that slavery, then
freely admitted to be an evil, and an indeiensi-
BILE wrong, was to be very soon done away, and
that all prudent means to that end were to be
encouraged continued to be kept up by all ouI
great political guides and teachers; who still har
monized in sentiment and action on that subject
without the least show of sectional distinction
While this was so, there was no distinct anti
slavery party in the country and had it SO re
manned, there would have been none to th
day.
But in the process of time, our statesmen, es
pecially those of the South, became silent oil
the subject, and soon seemed to have wholly los
sight of this great & sacred principle of the Dec
laration, and the no less sacred understanding
and pledge of their predecessors, that it shout
be carried out to all /; and not only did they seer
to have forgotten all this, but they shortly bega
to evince disposition to adopt a line of polio
Of a directly opposite tendency. This, for
while, however, was so much confined to ind
rect measures and secret intrigues, as to escap
general observation. But the mask wa
soon thrown of, and, by the claim for the admis
sion of Missouri as new slave State, the Sout
openly made known her determination to contra
vene the old compact, and, instead of pursuin
measures to curtail, to enter upon those direct
designed to strengthen and perpetuate slavery
This movement, which John Randolph, at tn
time, declared had put off the desirable ever
Of emancipation century, at once opened tn
eyes of multtudes at the North, set them ever
where to thinking, aud soon engendered feeling
and sentiments from which, for the first time,
rose an anti-slavery organization in the Fro
States. From that time to the present, Il
strides of the slave power have been too obviol
to require of US any further note of its caree
h has shown itself every year more grasping az