Carroll free press. [volume] (Carrollton [Ohio]) 1834-1861, 1854-08-17
Tron d. ohIa s,,i. I0urn,L
The DOWNFALL OF FrssdOm.-Nos q;

MEssRs. kDTToRs In my former communi.
cations to your readers. have, as trust estsb-
lished and made plan. that the extension Of
Slayef5 BY United States authority into free
torriiory is most fragrant outrage on the rights
OF freemen. IS well as treason to every principle
on which our government was formed and IL
maintained. l know that the advocates Of this
measure claim that The Government has not es.
tsblished nor Lsgalisea slavery in Kansas and
Nebraska. They say they have only permitted
The sovereign people Of those Territories to do
as they please abou It. But do know that
this is q bold, BAREFACED LIE. .mads nm
cut Of the miserable shreds Of party demaoog.
ism. The FACTS are sslf-erident There Uss
no legal slavery there before, and there i, le.
gal slavery now, il Congress can legaliIe what
i has no more constitutional right 70 do, than
it has to bind the yoke Of perpetual slavery on
my neck. But right or wrong, constitutional
or not constitutional, slavery is now existing 5y
United Stdtts authority where before it was for
ever prohibited by the same power, and where
no STAKEHOLDER dared openly Prioi to that time
to carry it. -.....,... .-...--
But there is sophistry, mean. pusillani-
nous hypocrisy, about this clsmor for squatter
sovereignty, that l wish to expose as pass
and pray the reader to note it well, for the
principle is vital one to all freemen under this
Government
This demagOgical plea is to this effect: It Is
Democratic, and it is therefors right to permit
the people Ofa territory to choose and organ
Ess their own institutions, and il they choose
to legaliEe slavery, We have no just right to in.
terferel #
This looks sp9cious. But Stop little before
you sanction so monstrous principle. I ...
Let me ask, is SLAVERY ONE OF THE
DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES of our free
Government Let me ask again, have WEno
rights, no voice in this matter? Here are ma.
ny millions of freemen. by whose authority
this law is enacted, which carries and leglliEes
slavery in advance of the squatters, in OUR
FREE territory. and We are to have no voice
in this matter, except to say to the slavehold-
ers, "We have thrown open the door, gather
up your chained droves Of human beings, and
go in and possess the land By United States
authority you shall be protected in planting
the blighting curse where it does not now exist:
and when you get strong enough to protest
yourselves against freedom loving ciIizensl
then you may come in as State, and no pow.
er on earth can hinder youl'
How do you like this Kind of equal rights,
ye proud democracy Of the North? How do
you relish the idea that your authority, delsga-
ted for the time being to dOughfaces, shall
give to one hundred slave drivers 10 Kansas
the power, not only to set at naught your pOlit-
ical rights. but compel you to sanction acts and
principles as diametrically opposed TO your
principles, as light is to darkness? Are you
prepared for this9 Have you nothing to say,
no rights to defend, no principles to sustain?
Think--meditate on these things, and act as
freemen, worthy OF the name, ought to do
Ii Kansas had been foreign territory the plea
would be good one, that the people therein
should do as they pleased. But this is not the
fact. It is our territory; and there were not
at that time coporal's guard of squatters
there; and even these did not ask for the drugs
ged cup which Congress pressed to their lips.
1t was not the voice Of the squatters that esiab-
lished slavery there; and, God helping the
right. it will not be perpetuated By their voice
in the future. h
The great fact which should be blazoned on
every freeman's banner is, that this establish
ment Of slavery in territories heretofore free, IL
not the act of those who now do or who may
hereafter reside there; but it is OUR ACT, the de-
liberat, self chosen, and unfettered act of free
men--who have thepoWer to repudiate and dis =
avow it, or to sanction and make it their own.
Tell me not it is left to the squatters to deter
mine itfor themselves. 1t is not so. The iacu-
bus is upon them now; and it can only be by
superhuman effort on the part of those who may
become citizens Of the terriyority tina: it can be
thrown off unless we come up to the rescue.
If we do not thus come to their help, We richly
deserve the calling chains of servitude irrevo-
cably riveted upon our obedient necks
And this leads me TO speak ofthe efforts now
being made all over the free North, and espe-
cialy in Ohio, to dodge the real question at is-
sue, and to dragon the real lovers of freedom
and equal rights into the support OF partsans.
as party men only; concealing the fact that such
support will be justly heralded as an endorse q
ment of the treachery and villainy Of the origi-
nal act of fraud RJ,8 .e'. - 81
am not Mr.. Editor, in the habit of Judging
harshly Of motives desire not to do so Of the
motives = those who now invoke so earnestly
the Democracy Of our State to remain united.
but only proclaim that every attempt msde,
oy friend or foe, to cause the Democratic party,
as such, to sanction and endorse the Nebras-
"a nfamy, is deserving of the appelladon Of a.
Irsitorous design upon the dearest rights Uffree.
men: They are guilty Ofplotting dlSunion or RI,
Of abject submission to the slave power. /
well know that Democracy, as body, are not.
IN this plot, believe that many who are strain
ing every nerve to cause the patty to remGin
united, do so in the full belief chat they are do
ing good service to the cause of human liberty.
But they are most sadly mistaken-and viii