Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1851-05-08
Middlebury, April %, 1851.
WHAT WOULD THEY HAVE US TO DO


The Hunkers of every hue and condition
throughout the country, raise, with one accord,
the bugbear cries of Disunion, Notification, ana
Treason, to every intimation, Or even prediction,
that the Fugitive Slave Law will be resisted or
set at naught by the people of the free States
These newly made worshipers of law and order,
pupils, many of them, perhaps, of the old school
which connected the Hartford Convention,
preached resistance to the government through
the war OF 1912, and advocated the infamous
gag laws of 1898, now everywhere denounce all
those who question the validity of that monstrous
offspring of tyranny and corruption, to which the
Congress of 1850 gave birth, as fanatics, law
breakers, and enemies of the Union, and of the
country, forever reminding them that there Is a
constitutional way of getting rid of all wrong
full enactments-that of repeal.
Well, for the first few months after the pass
age of that act, as unparalleled as was the outrage
it involved on the rights of norhen freemen, no
shadow of resistance to its execution was any
"hhCooCuj dnu Ill uSllOu VII LlG subject
was confined to the showing of its enormities,
and the demanding Of Its repeal. And there
was scarcely town or county throughout the
free States, in which the people did not assem-
Bile in primary meetings, strongly cond emn
that law, and earnestly petition for its abroga-
ton; while not one petition in that whole extent
OF country was ever sent up, that we are aware
of, 10 commend it and pray that it be sustained
Indeed, we seriously believe that no enactment
OF Congress since the formation Of our govern
ment, ever called forth, in SO short a time, so
strong, so decided, and so universal an express
Ion Of condemnation, as the law in question, or
one that honest statesmen or rulers were more
imperiously called on to regard.
1t was under these circumstances. and with
full knowledge that this enactment was de-
nounced as monstrous by the great ma jority Of
the people, and declared unconstitutional by
hundreds of tho abIest lawyers and statesmen
of the land, that President Fillmore prepared his
message, and Congress assembled to act on his
suggestions. And what was that message?-
Did it make known the general dissatisfaction
which that law was so well known to have crea-
ted? Did it suggest to the consideration of
Congress anything about its repeal? No. but
instead, the President, IN spirit of dictation
never before evinced by an American Chief Mag
istrate, announces to Congress and the people,
that the enactment is a final settlement of the
Slavery question and that it shall be sustained
And did Congress give any expression rebukinp
80 extraordinary course in the President of a
republic, whose duty it is to notice all infracious
Of the constitution, all hasty and repugnant laws.
and to act, in his communications, as an index
Of the wants and wishes of the people? No
but here again, instead, they will not even en-
terrain the petitions of the the people, which,
in hundreds, are presented for repeal of the
law in the very manner in which they had been
told consisted their only remedy.
Thus, with their last hope of constitutional re