Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1851-08-08
Secession.

Secession.
We feel no common pleasure in announcing
that every Southern journal we receive speaks
of this or that eminent quondam Sect sslonist,
as having come to his senses, and going heart
and soul for the Union. Such intelligence is
gratifying to us, in the first place, as an indica-
ton that our glorious Union, to which no man
is more fcrvcnty and endurngly attached than
ourselves, stands in no immediate danger; and
in the second place, as 4 convincing proof of
our polltico- prophcIcal claims. We never have,
and never could, doubt the pcrpctuity Of the Ane-
rican Union We have ever looked upon it, as
a thing to fall only with the general crash of
nature. The tingcr>nurks of an over ruling
Providence are too distinctly inscribed upon is
escutchcon to admit of doubt as to its dura-
ton, A spirit is yet to 90 out from it, which
will instruct the people OF all the nations of earth
that their destiny is to be free.
Already in South Carolina, the very hot-bcd
Of Southern fLnatcsm, large and enthusiastic
meetings have been held for the avowcd pur-
pose Of porclniming their unqualified attach
ment to the Union us it is. Indeed, a sense of
their utter weakness as an Independent Repub-
lie, is gradually spreading over the entire South.
The most fiery of the Southern-right's champ
ons begin to see, that in a Southern Confcdcr-
acy, or a Southern Oligarchy, existing in close
proximity with country, the first step upon
whose soil would be a signal for the fall of all
chains of oppression, they would forever lose
the right Of Slave rccapturc, (thc bone and SIN
CIV of the present eXcitcmcnt) now so violently
insisted on. They sec that in such prcdlca-
ment,t they would find themselves without a war;
vessel or a regular soldier deprived of all in
terest in our public lands and public mines, and
destitute Of the power to keep in motion, even
for a limited period, the wheels of Il distinct
government. They see that they could hardly
support a icrcign mission in the various Courts
of Europe, leaving all oher countries out of
account; that they could inherit the lands of
neither their parents, children or kindred in
other lands; that their migltIcst strength
would be pure weakness; and in fine, that Sc
ccsson would prove their ruin.
The supporters Of Nc Donald in Gcorgia,and
Quitman in Mississippi, in their fear of defeat,
admit that the present crisis is not one calling
for secession; but insidiously insist upon the
abstract right of any state to seccdc, when
greatly argricyed. This concession is all we
need for the present. When the time comes,
We will be ready and willing to meet them up
on the question of the right of any State to
withdraw from the federal Union. In the mean
time, We counsel our brethren Of the South to
remember that there are many men in the fro
zen North. by no means fanatics. who look up-
Oh the police regulations Of South Carolina,
which ubjcct our own colorcd frcemcn, if found
on board a Northern vessel, in the port of
Charleston, to Imprisonment and ultimate sale
into slavery, as waring quite as much against
the spirit and letter of our institutions, as those
Northern laws, which guaranty to Northern
citizens the right to the writ of IIabcas Corpus
and trial by jury. You may have been wrong
ed but so have We. If We look ''first upon this
picture, and then upon that, 1t may, possibly.
3 oothe our mutual wrath.