Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1850-1854, 1851-07-04
VOL. XII-NO. 3.
THE FREE SOIL ISSUE.

parture from the true issue. To mis-state the
position of opponents is one of the easiest arts o.
unfair dsputants. The champion of the Slave
Power represent the Free Soil party as engaged
IN an unconstitutional assault on the institution
of Slavery in the Southern States. There is
not word of truth in this representation. But
it makes great part of their capital.
What we are aiming to do is not to abolish
Slavery, but to prevent Slavery from GJoliSLing
Frecd0m
The founders Of the Federal Constitution de-
clared their object in that instrument to be, 'to
secure the blessings of liberty" Their liberty
had been invaded by the Parliament of Great
Britain. They went through an eight years
war to regain it from the grasp. of that usurp-
ing power. When they had got it at heavy
cost, they undertook to secure il. They found
ed republican government with all the safe
guards for the rights of the citizens with which
the experience of all the past ages of mans suf-
fering history had acquainted them. We were
born to the inheritance of this Constitution, and
of the Liberty and Equality whichit was devils
ed 20 protect.
But hostile power, unanticipated by them,
being grown up and grown strong, under the
form of republic, an aristocracy has been cs-
abshing itself in authority over US. a hun
bred thousand voting shareholders, more or less,
control the affaiIs OF twenty millions Of $50 cal
ed) free people. Their interests dictate the a.
tonal policy. They and their partizans fill the
nigh offices. They make war and peace
They make and unmake tariffs. They adminis-
ter and eXpound law from the highest tribunal
Their State laws and their mobs threaten and
take the life and liberty of freemen. The usurp-
ers mean 10 keep their power and increase it
And, in order to do so. they seize and make OPP
L
ry on which their power is founded
1t was in clear perception Of all this, and not
any new feeling for the SORROWS Of the slave,
which created the Free Soil party. A feeling
for the slave is natural and common feeling, and
very general in the free States, and not confined
to them. We should be monsters if we did not
feel for him. But it was not that which at the
last Presidential election brought ont about
three times as many voters against the slave oil
garchy as the whole number of slavery-voters
proper.
We have no constitutional power to redress
the wrongs of the bond-mcn in the slave States
by political action We pretend to none. As
to this, the slave states are to US the same for
eign governments We have constantly dis
claimed any such power, perlinaciously as it has
been maintained that we assert it. Bat We have
Il constitutional right to attempt to prev EFT the
increase of wrongs done to ourselves by this
usurpng power, and to relieve ourselves from
those under which we suffer. We have a right
to endeavor, by political action, TO restore the
republican constitution Of our fathers from the
abuse to which it has been degraded in these lat
ter days.
We mean to free. We mean that our pos
tcrity shall be free. We purpose to secure this
end by means which will be not at all the less
/ /. e
the body polite has by TO means gone so far as
20 call for extreme remedy We intend to have
our rights not by Disunion, but in the Union. -
We love the Union as we'll as any-far better
than some-who ignorantly or falsely, charge
us with wishing to distract it. We prize the
Constitution, because it was a scheme OF govern
ment well devised to secure the Liberty which
we prize above ali earthly things. And to that
office we mean to try to bring it back And we
will do it, or those who come after us will do it,
all in good time. Speech, pen, and ballot-box
will bring it about, as surely rs the years move
on. Some things at the present day are against
us. But they do not frighten us, nor make
us despair. God and Truth have plenty of space
to work in, and of ways and means to- work
with.
Two hundred and ninety thousand men arc a
great number to break loose from old party ties,
in defiance of the hardships which always be-
get such mOvcmcnt,-as that number Of men
did, three years ago. Thirty-cight thousand
men in Massachusetts, a large proportion of them
from the Wing ranks, are great number TO be
brought to swallow their old bile, and vote for
Martin Van Buren,, simply because he came out
as champion of the Right We take it that
tits great error to suppose that soyigorous an
action, under such an impulse and in the face of
=, h., a. 81
thing whatever, till it has done its work. 1t is
a snpposa5Ie thing, though not very likely that
Abolitionists may forget the wrongs OF the
slave But it is not at all supposable thing,
that three bundled thousand freenen, who have
given such evidence of their sense of being gro~s-
ly wronged, will cease to agitate til they get
their rights
The movements not checked, nor can be-
It is true that some of those who took part in it,
have turned back ; no man of sense aud cXpc-
ricnce could have expected anything else. But
what then Not even the back-sIIdcrs are all
lost to the cause Few of them have felt OK
actly comfortable since. The position to which
they returned is an unnatural one, and they will
occupy it no longer than till such time ~ till
some new turn Of The wheel Of airs,--whiCh
will not be long in Coming,-shall again s:imu-
late their better nature. And those who We're
most upright IN yielding TO sound example when
they withdrew from our ranks, will be the very
men who will be rcadiest with their renewed
support on some new promise. And such q
summons there will be, again and again, and
again. The Slave Power does not mean to be
quiet. 1t will keep on encroaching and goard
ing, till it creates soul under the ribs Of
Death
Popular moral movements are rarely conun-
u3us but on the Other hand they are never per-
oycrdone. The progress Of the Free
Soil acknowledgement as IT may be, and jeop-
ardized as it may sometimes seem TO 5e-ls
fixed necessity. The clamor that opposes it,
the Misrepresentation, the interests, the dclu-
only bubbles on the surface. The
ground swell does not feel them.
Commonwealth.
There is a curious ordeal in India which shows |
the action Of fear upon the saliyary glands. If
a wrong is committed the suspected persons are
90, together, and each is required to keep a
quantity of rice in his mouth for certain time
and then put it ont again and, with tire great
est certainty. the man who has done the decd
puts it out aimostdry, in consequence Of the fear
Of mind keeping back the saliya.-Prisonsrs
FrieHi.
Hudson Rirer Raiiro7d.-That portion of the
road between Albany and Hudson was opened