Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1850-03-28

ucoP "i'iout iuiiiHS thc ouIidCc. w no Il
so foolish-l beg every body's pardon-a:
to expect TO see any such thing! Sir, he
who sees these States, now revolving in har
mony around common centre, expecting
to see them quit their places and fly off with
out CONFUSION, may look, the next hour, to
see the heavenly bodies rush from their
spheres and jostle against each other in the
realms of space without producing the
crash of the Universe. There can be no
such thing as peaceable secession. Peace
able secession in an utter impossibility.-
Is the great Constitution under which we
live here-coverlng this whole country-is
II to be thawed and melted away by seces-
sion, as the SHOWS on the mountain melt
under the influence of the vernal sun ,
disappear almost unobserved, and die off .
No, sir No. sir l will not state what
might produce the disruption of the States !;
but, sir, see it as plainly as | see the sun
in heaven-l see that disruption must pro-
duce such a.war as | will not describe IN Its
tic0fod character!
Peaceable secession .-peaceable seces-
sion ! The concurrent agreement Of all
the members of this great republic to sepa-
rate A voluntary separation, with alimo-
ny on one side and Oh the other. Why,
what would be the resutl Where is the
line to be drawn! VIVA; States are to Sc
cede! What is to remain American p
What am to be! An American no long
er! Where is the flag Of the Republic to
remain Where is the eagle still to tower
or is he to cover and shrink and fall to the
ground! Why, sir, our ancestors,-our
fathers and our grand fathers, those of them
that are yet living amongst US with prolong-
ed lives, ~cald rebuke and reproach us;
and YOUR children and our grand children
would cry out shame upon US, if we Of this
generation should dshonor these ensigns of
the power of the Government and the har-
mony of the Union which is every way felt
among us with so much joy and gratitude.
What is TO become of the army! What is
to become of the navy! What is to become
of the public lands? How is each of the
thirty States to defend itself! know, al
though the idea has no, been stated distinct
ly. There is to be Southern Confedera-
cy. do not mean, when allude to this
statement, that any one seriously contcm-
plates such a state OF things. | do not
mean to say that it is true, but have heard
1t suggested elsewhere that that idea origi-
mated In a design to separate. | am sorry,
sir, that 1t has ever been thought of, talked
OF, or dreamed OF, in the widest flights of
human Imagination. But the idea mus. be
of a separation including the slave states
upon one side and the free states on the
other. Sir, there is mott may express
myself too strongly nerhaps-but some
things, some moral things, are almost as
impossible as other natural or physical
things; and hold the idea of a separation
of these States, those that are free 20 form
one government, and those that are slavehold-
ing to form another, as moral Impossiblli-
ty. We could not separate the States by
any such line, if we were to draw 1t. We
could not sit down here to-day and draw
line of separation that would satisfy any
five men in the country. There are natural
causes that would keep and tie us together
and there are social and domestic rela-
tons which we could not break If we would,
and whicl. we should not if we could
Sir, nobody can look over the face Of this
country at the present moment-nobody
can see where Its population is the most
dense and growing, without being ready TO
admit, and compelled to admit, that ere
long America will be in the valley Of the
Mississippi.
Well, now, sir, | beg to inquire wha; the
widest enthusiast has to say on the posi-
bility Of cutting off that river and leaving
free states at its source and branches, aud
81
sir, pray, sir, let me say 10 the people of
this country that these things are worthy OF
their bordering and of their consideration.
Here, sir, are five millions Of freemen in
the free states north of the river Ohio; can
any body suppose that this population can
be severed by line that divides them from
the territory OF a foreign and an alien gov
eminent, down somewhere, the Lord knows
where, upon the lower banks OF the Missis-
sippi! What would become of Missouri!
Will she join the reimbursement of the
slave states! Shall the man from the Vel
low Stone and the Platte River be connect
ed in the new Republic with the man who
lives on the Southern extremity OF the Cape
of Florida ? Sir, | am ashamed TO pursue
this line of remark. | dislike it have
an utter disgust for it, would rather hear
of natural blasts and mildews, war, pest-
lence, and famine, than to hear gentlemen
talk of secession. To break up to break
up this great Government-to dismember
this great country-to astonlsh Europe with
an act of folly such as Europe for two centu-
ries has never beheld in any Government!
No, sir; no sir There will be no seces-
sion. Gentlemen are not serious when they
talk of secession.
Sir, hear there is to be Convention to be
held at Nashville | am bound to believe
that if worthy gentlemen meet at Nashville
in Convention, their object will be to adopt
counsels concilatory-to advise the South
to forbearance and moderation, and to advise
the North to forbearance and moderation;
and to inculca;e principles of brotherly love
and affection, and attachment to the constl-
tuition ofthe country as ii now is. lbeleve,
ifthe Convention meet at all, it will be for
this purpose for certainly, if. they meet for
any purpose hostile to the Union, they have
been singularly inappropriate in their selec-
ton of place. | remember, sir, that when
the treaty was conclueed between France
and ZEALAND At he na,ca of AmIeus stern