Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1854-06-22
CoRRUPTLNa INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY
ON POLITICS.


coRRUPTINa INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY
ON POLITICS.
The corrupting influence of the institution of
Slavery, on the morals of the people with whom
it comes in contact, seems to have been seen and
admitted by the wise and good from the earliest
period of our history; but comparatively little
appears to have been urged upon the dangers of
its corrupting influence on the politics of the
country. Even that pure and far-seeng states
man, James Madison, in warning the people Of
tho United States against the extension Of
Slavery, in one of his inaugurals, we believe it
was, advanced only the reason of the necessarily
weakening influence of the institution, which
would always require large portion of the mi,
itary strength of those portions of the country
where it was tolerated, to be kept at home, in
times of war, as guard against seryile ihsur-
rections. At that period, however, Slavery was
q strictly local institution-had no defenders
among the loading statesmen of the South, and
had never been, or sought to be, involved in
national politics, else that great statesman would
have found additional reasons for the warning
then so frankly and wisely held forth to the
people Of the Union. 1t was not, indeed, till
the first national agitation of slavery in 1920,
which resulted in the Missouri compromise, that
Its corrupting influence on politics became fairly
pcrccptible. 1t was then. in the admission of
Missouri as Slave State, in violation of the
Ordinance of 1877 land the original compromises
entered into at the adoption of the Constitutions
distinctly revealed, not only in the derilection
Of Southern politicians from the doctrines Of
their pursr predecessors in public life, but in
tlet ~ kIo-.e-r. ssiuo, wo doubiy betrayed
their trust and their country by thus aiding in
establishing that fatal first precedent of the in
roads of Slavery. But under the rebuke involved
in the stern resistance which that measure then
encountered, and the prompt political punish
ment which the Northern betrayers met at the
hands Of the people, the abasaed Slave Power
became quiescent, Or limited itself to secret in
tigaes, between twenty and thirty Year, longer;
when it's cloven foot wills again disclosed on the
eve of Presidential election, and the hitherto
trusted and spotless Cass fell before its corrupt
Ing influence, which, though failing in making
him the official instrument contemplated, was
yet so welded as to control that election and
the succeeding one, its poisoning effects by that
time having extended too far into this veins of
the body polite of the North to be counteractcd.
It was not, however, till the memorable session
of 1850, that the Slave Power ventured fully to
develope itself in the councils eff the nation. 1t
then openly and defantly took its stand against
the rights and liberties of the North, which,
indeed made show of resistance butts great
man was corrupted, its lesser ones, by the force
Of lis example, and by the same appliances cx-
tended to them also, gave way; Congress sue
eumbed the Fugitive Slave Law was passed, and
Slavery thereby made national Institution.
1t only then remained to corrupt and subvert
the Executive. This, it seems, was easily done,
and Willard Fillmore Northern man-had
the honor to become the first President of the
Slave Power. The precedent being thus set by
the Legislative Department of the Government,
and confirmed and established by the Executive,
the awful consequences of which no human
ken can yet reach, the reign of political cor
.uption commenced in earnest, and the twin
Platforms of Baltimore proclaimed its triumph
over the PROSTATE liberties of the North
AS the Baltimore Platforms were the regular
and natural consequences of the pro-siavery leg
islaton Of 1850, so the passage of the Nebraska
bill, and the other bold schemes of the Slave
Power, to place beyond the possibility of
overthrow her supremacy over the Free States
are but the regular and natural consequence of
the establishment of those Platforms, and the
united and overwhelming support which both
The old parties gave them through the extraor-
binary campaign of 1850, which resulted in the
election of Pierce. who has done, probably, just
about what his Wing rival would have done,
had he been lucky enough to win the race
And yet the masses of the old parties, who,
In utter contempt of the ten thousand warnings
all along given them, by the friends of Freedom,
OF the inevitable consequences of their course,
did their utmost to bring this very state of
things upon US, now wake up, rub their eyes,
and, in amazement ask what all this meansl
We will tell them what it means. 1t means
that The result of their own criminal b indness
and folly-the work of their own hands-has
been brought home to their doors, and there
now stands staring them in the face 1t means
.ha' while they winked at the iniquity, or, at
oest' slept at their post, the tares were sown
chat have now so nearly choked out the verv
germs Of liberty. 1t means, in plain lanpuoce
that Slavery has thoroughly corrupted the poli.
tics of the nation-that, through their own
guilty remissness, Or more guilty wilful abettinp
their boasted Temple of Liberty has become a
den Of political thieves and that nothing bu,
4.au.a rs