Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1854-05-18
THE CRISIS,


THE CRISIS,
No one can fail to perceive that we are in the
midst Of q very extraordinary as we'll as very
alarming crisis. 1t is a new thing in tho polit-
zeal history of this country to find the Executive
Department of our Government, as in the case
of the Nebraska Bill, setting at defiance the
fundamental principles of Democracy on which
It was founded, by prostituting its entire powers
10 bride and overawe the Legislative Department
Into the passage of any measure, much less one
which not more than enc tenth of the nation
demand. but which the other nine-tentAs are
known to denounce and repudiate 1t is u new
thing for President of this professed Republic,
and his Cabinet, as in the Gadsden treaty, to
xouander ten millions of the nations treasury
which that President was solemnly sworn to
guard, in buying narrow strip of wild waste,
which TO the Nation at large is not worth the
acceptance as gift, with the only object of IA
voring the domestic interests, and building up
the political power, of the lesser part of the
country hi Iue o. poupo vi eho 6AS~N0A' 49, ~ -
new thing for President TO offer, without con-
sulting Congress- as in the case of the attempted
purchase of Cuba, $50 millions of the peoples
money, enough to require tax Of $50 on each
taxable head ofthem ALTO offer this enormous
sum for the purchase of foreign territory,
which he we'll knows not one-third of the nation
want, and to the annexation of which he equally
we'll knows that the other two-thirds look upon,
if taken in the shape he would have it, as a
curse and peril to the Union. And lastly, and
above all, it is new thing for a President,
when the owners of that territory refuse to sell
it, even for that unauthorized bribe-it Isl new
thing to be plotting to seize it by force on pre-
texts which would disgrace community Of the
predatory Arabs of the desert.
Such things have been known in the Govern
ment of Despot, where the forms of legis-
lative body were maintained only to carry out
the will Of their master, without reference to
the will or interest of the subject but when
before were they ever known to transpire in
republic! When, indeed, were they ever known
to transpire in constitutional monarchy l.
Never in either. And yet they are all now
transporting before eur eyes in the long boosted
free Republic of America! We see the Execu-
tive tampering, by the offers of Office, lucrative
place and positions of political power, if not
by direct money brbes,with all Of the Legislative
tive Department within the reach of corrupting
influence, with boldness and hagrancy which
Joseph of Austria and Louis Napoleon of France
never, in all their accursed career in trampling
down the rights of their enslaved subjects, furn-
ished more palpable example! We see him
persistently plotting to embroil the nation in
sauseless war, or, what is more abhorrent and
detestablo, endeavoring, as is disclosed in the
Slidell resolution, to get himself invested with
the power to convert US into nation of pirates
for the plumber Of Cuba with its nalf million
of human chattels And all this, too, is going
On under the sanction of q protested Democratic
Administration Was there ever such a mock
cry enacted in the name of Democracy before9
Now what is the cause of this extraordinary
and disgraoeful attitude of the President and his
Administration, and what is to be the result,
The cause we all know is to be found in the
daring and desperate attempt which the Slave
Power is now making, through its completely
subservient tools in power at Washington, for
supreme control Of the whole nation, making
Che Federal Government mere creature of its
will, an unquestioning servant, to carry out its
designs, protect its interest, and maintain its
usurped domination. But what the result will
be is known only in the councils of Heaven
One thing, however, is certain Matters cannot
long 90 on at this rate without civil commissions
which will rend this Republic to pieces. IF
these high-handed strides towards despotism, to
say nothing about the crime and blind faulty
ofextendng that institution for the accomplish
rnent of which they were made-if these alarm
ing strides to centralized power. for their bane
instead Of benefit, cannot be arrested, the peo-
pie of the Free States will, with one accord, not
only soon demand but EFFECT dissolution of
that Union which is fast becoming to them a
curse instead of blessing. This will be the
first result. The second will be fierce and
bitter border war between the two separated
sections, and the fearful finale will he the rising
of the slaves throughout the South, now SO
,nadly rushing on her doom, and the re-enact.
ment of the dread scenes of St. Domingo in her
midst, when there will be none to sympathize
with her, and none to aid her in that day of her
trouble.