Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1852-09-02
The Craeds and Positions


OF The National Democratic and Whig Parties
examined with reference 10 The duties Of the Free
men of Vermont al The approaching election
The following, which is all the Democratic
NatoRal Platform relating to the great, and, in
reality, the only issue now before the country,
defines with the unerring certainly Of the record.
the position now deliberately assumed by the
National Democracy under the unquestionabc
and unquestioned dictation Of the Slave Power.
THAT Congress has no power under the
Constitution to interfere with or control the do
..-,;. .-@1i...sas IF tho sauaral States and that
such States are the sole and proper Judges OF
verything appertainng to their own affairs, not
prohibited By the constitution that all efforts Of
the db0litOnistS or others, made to induce Con-
gress 10 interfere 10Th questions Of Slduery or 10
take inctpient steps in relation thereto, ARE CAL.
CULATED TO LEAD TO THE MOST ALARMING AND
DANGEROUS CONSEQUENCES and that all such
efforts have an inevitable tendency to diminish
the happiness of the people, and endanger the
stability and permaneney Of the Union, and
OUGHT NOT TO BE COUNTERNANCED by any
friend of our political institutions.
Resolved. That the foregoing proposition COW
SUBJECT OF SLAVERY AGITATION IN
CONGESS; and therefore THE DEMOCRAT
&c PARTY OF THE UNION, standing upon
the national platform, WILL ABIDE BY AND
ADHERE TO A FAITHFUL EXECUTION OF
Use MEASU RES, settled by the last Congress.
THE ACT FOR THE RECLAIMING OF
FUGITIVES FROM SERVICE OR LABOR
INCT hmm WHICH
to carry out All express provision Of the Const,
tuition. CANNOT, with fidelity thereto, BE
REPEALED OR so CHANGED AS TO DE-
STROY OR IMPAIR IT'S EFFICIENCY.
ReSotred, That the Democratic party WILL RE-
SYST ALL ATTEMPTS AT RENEWING, IN Congress
or out Of it, THE AGITATION OF THE SLAVERY
QUESTION, under ,ohatever shape or color the al
tempt may be made"
Then, after this monstrous perversion of the Erop
ositon alluded to in the resolution, by false
and hypocritical application to the slavery issues,
the convention, as if IN mockery of their own
dongS, proceed to the following resolve -
"ReSolUed, That the Democratic party toiil faith .
fully abide BY and uphold The principles ibid docn
in The Kentucky and Virginia resolution of 1898,
and in the report of M. Madison TO the Virginia
Legislature in 1899 that it adopts those prln-
cirles al constituting one Of the main founda.
tons Of its political creed, and is resolved TO
carry them out in their obvious meaning and i'm
port"
That the inconsistency and hollow -heartedacss
of the Convention, in passing the last resolution
to blind the North, and enable Northern opos-
taes the better to deceive us, may be seen, let us
read the following extracts from the Virginia and
Kentucky resolutions, the one ponned by Mad
son, and the other by Jefferson, the extracts con-
tanng all but matters Of form in those noted res
oluiOns.
VIRGINIA RESOLUTIONS OF I7OS.
That the General Assembly doth particularly
protest against the papable and alarming infrac.
tons of the Constitution, in the two Lutte cases
of the " Alien aud Sedilon Acts, passed at the
last session of Congress the first of which.
exercises a power nowhere delegated to the
Federal Government, and which, by uniting leg.
slatlve and Judicial powers to those of executive
subverts the general principles of free govern
ment, as well as the particular organization and
positive provisions of the Federal Constitution |;
and the other OF which Acts exercises, in like
manner, power not delegated by the Constitu.
ton, but on the contrary, expressly and positively
forbidden by one Of the amendments ther
power which, more than any other, ought to pro-
duce universal alarm, because it is leyeled
against the right Of freely examining public
characters and measures, and of free com,nuni
cation among the Peep lie thereon, which has ever
been justly deemed the only effectual guardian
of every other right.
That this State having, by it's Convention
which ratified the Federal Constitution, express
declared that, among other essential rights,
the liberty of conscience and Of the press cam
not be cancelled, abridged, restrained, or modi-
fed by any authority Of the United States !" and
from its extreme anxiety to guard these rights
from every possible attack of sophistry and am.
bition, having, with other States, recommended
an amendment for that purpose-which amend
ment was in due time, annexed TO the Cons,itu.