Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1851-04-10
Proceedings of the Meeting at
Burlington, April 8, 1861.

The meeting was called to order by e. A.
Stansbuly, Esq, whereupon Hon. WILLIAM H.
French was elected President, Hon. Ira
Writers, B.F. Haskell, Esq, Hon. Lawrence
Brainerd, and Rev. Cyrus Prindie, Vice Presl-
dents, and L. A. Stansbury and D. P. ThomP-
son, Esqs, Secretaries.
On motion of J, Bradley, Esq, voted, that a
%committe of eight be raised to report resolutions
for the consideration of the meeting. The Chair
appointed Messrs. ]. Bradley, E. A. Stanshury,
D. P. Thompson, R. B. Fay, E. D. Barber
Cyrus PrjndIo, Lawrence Braineld, and Austin
Beecher.
D. E. D. Barber, Esq, for the committee, report
ed the following resolution, and accompanied
1t with eloquent remarks, upon the principle it
declares:
Rosolved. That the allegiance of any tue re-
publican is due to those rights, the protection of
which is the proper object of every Legitimate
government, and not to any law whose provisions
trample those rights under foot.
After remarks by Messrs. Beecher, Prindle
aud Sampson, adjourned to half past one, P.
NJ.
AFTERNOON.
After remarks by Mess.s. Sampson, Spauld.
ing and Stansbury,
Mr.. Bradley, from the Committee on resolu-
tons, reported the following resolutions;
Resolved. That we hold to n strict c%onstruc-
ton of the Constitution of the United States-to
State sovereignty and State rights, and that to
the people and the States respectively belong all
the rights and powers not expressly granted by
the Constitution to the general Cove nment as
necessary to carry into eff ct the powers which
are expressly granted.
ResoIued. That the American Republic be-
ing founded on the inherent and inalienable
right of man to life, liberty, and the pursuits Of
happiness, and being instituted to protect these
rights, is necessarily an anti. slavery government,
and that it Is bound to exercise all the powers
granted to it, to secure freedom to every human
being under its jurisdiction, to extingnish slave
ry wherever it exists under its contFol-to pre-
vent the extension of human bondage into any
territory under its care and protection, and III
every legitimate and constitutional way to limit,
l|ocalze, discourage and abolish that system Of
wrong and oppression.
Resolved. That no measures which violate the
principles upon which the government is found
ed or which fail to secure those rights and in
terests of man which it is the great object of
government to protect, can ever be binding upon
the people by virtue of any alleged "cOmpro-
mise' made by their representatives, since, to
sustain such measures would be treason to the
government, to freedom and to the rights Of
man.
Resolved, That we consider the Fugitive
Slave Law passed by the last Congress a bold
and daring violation Of the rights of man anC
the first principles Of civil liberty and q paIpa
BILE infractlon of the most sacred provisions O
the constitution, and as such ought to be imme
diately repealed.
Resolred, That if the Alien and Seditior
Laws were justly obnoxious to the opposition
arrayed against them by Jefferson and the faith
ers of democracy as subverslve of the sacre,
principles of free speech and personal libert.
and security, and as ~invasions of the %Constitu
tional rights of the people and the States, nucI
more ought the fugitive slave law to receive tn,
opposition of every freeman, and especially o
democrats, as transcending by far, in its pro
visions, the tyrannical and unconstitutional fea
lures of those laws.
Resolved, That when we consider the place
where, the time when, and persons by whom
the existing Fugitive Slave Law was passed
we are constrained to regard it as the mos
a%trocious and indefensible enactment that eve
disgraced a civilized statute book.
RESOLVED, That the laws of all civilized ma
tons unite in branding the African Slave trad
MS piracy, and in furnishing those engaged in i
with death-that the criminallty Of the act thu
visited with just retribution, consists in the torcl
Bile reduction to human bondage, of human be
ings who have not, by any wrong conduct o
their own, made themselves amenable to law
and that we are totally unable to perceive b.
what process of reasoning an act thus placed b,
all Christendom in the category of crimes, ca
be transformed into a sacred duty to be entorc
ed by pains and penalties hardly less stringen
than those denounced against piracy itself.
ReSoiUed, That we can safely challenge hu
man annals to produce Il spectaIeS so ridiculous
" inconsistent and so measurable disgracefu
as the officers of a free Republic, from Chic
Magistrate down to the lowest deputy, in al
agony of alarm, chagrln, and modification a
the peaceful escape OF an innocent man from
servitude worse than death, while the sam
government views with indifference the incar
|ceration of free Northern citizens in SLAYER
%jails, in admitted contravention, not only Of al
right, but of all law, and the %plainest provision
OF the Constitution.
RESOLVED, That we view with alarm the al
tempt5 made by the last Congress to rationale
slavery and thereby convert a local institution
whose existence the trainers Of the Constitute
refused to take cognizance or express any sane
tion, Into a matter, which, ifthe principle sougE
10 be established is permitted to obtain, mus
hereafter require continued legislation of Cor
gress to protect and sustain it and further,
RESOLVED, That slavery can only be ~sustaine
by our government in the claims now set up fC
it, but by a vast and constantly i%ncreasin
Central power, which is wholly at war with tn
Constitution, and which must eventually tur
our Republic into a monarchy, if not an absC
lutte despotism.
) RESOLVED, Therefore, that as republicans, q
democrats, as anti slavery men, we are allk
E. called on, by all our principles and profession
of democracy, humanity and christianity, to OF
> pose with what powers God has given us an
> the constitution will permit us to exercise, tn
/ institution of slavery, and this, and every otht
administration which shall pervert our gnV
, ernment into an instrument to strengthen 1t,
ReSoiUed, That We consider the sanctlmoni
Gus outcry raised by sundry persons and presse
in the interest of the Slave Power, against tn
law lately passed by the Legislature of Vermont
for the protection OF the personal liberty, as on
of the most degrading and disgraceful Of tn,
many instances ofservility and hypocricy tina
have marked the course of the apologists of tyr
amy, and that we shall stand by that law anC
resist It's appeal to the last extremity.
RESOLVED, That in the struggle which is ap
preaching between the forces of freedom and
slavery, VIC shall adhere i~nhexibly to the doc
trines of Freedom and Democracy as taught by
jefferson and his compeers.
The resolutions were freely and ably discuss
ed by several gentlemen, and on motion were
unanimously adopted.
Mr.. Milton Clark, a fugitive slave, being call
ed on, addressed the meeting, Mr.. TTolIey, a
- l-l L. q n-l.-L- IL,