Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1854-11-02
THE WAY EVILS CORRECT THEMeELVEs


as it is able in controversy, entirely misrepre-
sents the Forming Post in stating as it does
in an article which we quote from its columns
that we are actuatcd by feeling Of hostility
to the South in our treatment Of tho slavery
question, or that we have ever countenanced
amy active interference by Congress with the
tenure of slave property in the states. We
are not aware that we have eyer writtana line
in spirit unfriendly to the South. We believe
slavery to be calamity to any country where
it exists that it degrades the laborer that il
paralyzcs enterprise that it destroyes the
iaora equilibrium of those brought up under
its inaunces that it plants RIGHTEOUSNESS and
lawcssness in the place where love and obedi-
ence ought to grow and finally, that in its
nature it is hostile to any systematic moral OF
intellectual culture of the blacks. Such are
our opinions in general about slavery, and
they are the opinions which have been eutcr-
tanned and expressed by most of the leading
statesmen of America out of south Carolina
But we have never proposed that Congress
should attempt to eXtermnate, or even to
NEEDLE with, the institution in the states, de-
plorable as we esteem its existence there or
anywhere to be.
1t is only when the South attempts to ex-
tend the institution beyond its legal and con-
stitutional boundaries that the subject is, or
ever has been, agitated in the Eptning Past.
When it is proposed to violate the seals OF
private letters and to ransack the postoffices
for evidences of anti-savery sentiment; when
school-teachors are drummed out of the coun.
try, as was the case the other day in Mississ.
ippi, for expressing their opinions of slavery
in a private letter to one of their family
when VIC are asked to extend slavery into free
territory and thereby to enlarge the slave rep.
resentation in Congress when we are forced
to repeal compromise which secured por.
ton OF our unocupied territory to freedom
and TO which the faith Of the nation was
pledged when we arc called upon to turn our
selves into negro-catchers, and. under the PEN
altics of fine and Imprisonment, to REFUSE
shelter or food to fugitive negro, who is
accused of no crime except of desiring his lib
erty and Of taking the most obvious means III
his power of obtaining it when, we say, W.
are called upon to submit to such aggressions
as .hcse, then We treat them as violations o
our rights and resist them. 1t is in such
cases that we agitate the slavery QUESTION
The IWsreary does not, probaly. mistake tn.
consequences Of the South submitting to tn,
repeal of the Nebraska and the Fugitive Slav,
bills 1t would doubtless be the beginning o
the end OF slavery in the United States. Thu
reason is, that the South will not make tn,
proper concessions till she is obliged to; AM
compelling her to desist from her pro-savery
agitation and legislation at Washington, tn,
anti-slavery sentiment of the country will be
come so thoroughly reused and organized tina
it will be irresistible. The result was yer,
nearly produced n1S4S-50 1t is now much
more imminent The repeal of the Missouri
Compromise has united all classes, sects anC
denominations, by common fear, in q com.
mon determination to make no more conees
siono to slavery. The wings of this stat.
have taken position upon that subject which
cuts them off from all further communion with
the wings of the South. The consequences
will be that the former will have to recruit
their forces henceforth from the abolition party
and from the anti-slayery section of the dem.
ocatic party. This will involve the necessity
of their constantly becoming more decided in
their hostility to slavery, and more democratic
in their general policy. To counteract this
tendency, and to preserveits legitimate supre
macy in the state, the democratic party will be
obliged to conform to the prevailing sentiment
and to turn its back upon slavery Ohio will
follow the example of New York.
We leave it to The Mercury to guess how
long it will be after this consummation takes
place, before the control Of the federal gov.
ernment will pass into the hands of party
disposed to give slavery no quarter whenever
II comes within their reach or Jurisdiction.
For this prospect, now SO obvious to tn,
most moderate sagacity, the South may thank
themselves They could not be content with
sne slave representation which oonstitationally
belonged to them, but they have sought to e..