Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1854-05-18
STRONG Languages BUT TRUE.

day is doubtless from the pen Of Horace Greedy
tits replete with the power of truth, and such
truth as is needed at such a crisis.
We are in the midst Of a revolution said Mr.
Clay on a memorable occasion, We are in the
midst of revolution, is our response to the pro-
ceedings at Washington on the Nebraska bill
The attempted passageof this measure is the first
great effort OF slavery to take American freedom
directly by the throat. Hitherto it has but
asked to be allowed to grow and expand side by
side with that freedom, until now, at what is
believed favorable moment, it springs from its
lair and clutches at the life OF its political asso-
ciate in the Government. 1t engages in coup
d'etat, and by the aid of northern traitors to
liberty, attempts the most intolerable usurp-
alton.
Should success attend the movement, it is
| taRtamcunt to civil revolution, and an open
declaration of war between Freedom and Slavery
on the North American Continent, to be cease
lessy waged until one or the other party finally
and absolutely triumphs. If Nebraska passes,
the two parties must Immediately marshal them
selves in hostile array. The North will go on,
as it has begun, to oppose every step toward
making the North-Wes pasture ground for
African Slavery. 1t will oppose the introduce
ton of Slavery into Nebraska and Kansas as
much after the passage of the bill as before, and
should it gain foothold there, it will make
open and direct war upon the institution within
their limits now and henceforth. 1t will fight
against the admission into the Union of either
as slave State, and in doing this it will nee
essarily he compelled in sel-defense to carry the
war into Africa, and will Eight against the adj
mission OF new slave States from any quarter
whatever. Soundness upon this question will
be made q test in the election of every northern
representative The popular branch Of the Gov
enlnent must be speedily purified, and no man
elected thereto from the North who is not FIRM
/ " committed against the admission of more
slave States A President must be elected by
the free States who will cordially support and
earnestly respond to these views. There will be
no other course but this open to the free States,
excepting one of abect, slavish submission to the
iron rod of the southern slavc-drivers, and the
more dcspicable domination of northern fiunkey-
ism. The passage Of the Nebraska bill will
arouse and consolidate the most gigantic, deter
mined and overwhelming party for freedom that
the world ever saw. We may already sec in the
future its gathering groups, on every hillside,
in every valley, and on every prairie in the free
States. We hear the deep and ominous MUIR
muir of the earnest voices of its myriad slowly
moving masses We behold in their faces the
serious and unalterable determination of their
purposes in behalf Of freedom. We see the gi-
gantic array gradually approach, closing its
thick ranks, and moving onward with force
that no merely human power or human institu-
ton Can resist. 1t sweeps along with the force
of the tempest and the tornado. The spirit of
liberty animates, the spirit of progress impels
and spirit of solemn religious duty inspires
and leavens the whole mass. This inyincible
army bears aloGt themotto, COP WITH US !" Its
immediate duties are plain. We have indicated
them in the gross. Details will adjust them
selves. What Interior duties may be in store
for this great Party of Liberty, time only can
disclose. The decisive events of history come
but slowly. They have their source, as the great
rivers have theirs, in the little rs that trickle
in the hidden recesscs of the plain and noun
tain But we cannet hide from our vision the
vital fact that this party, once aroused and con-
so,idated on platform sufficiently wide and
ubstantial to afford sure basis for its opera
tion such as the passage of the Nebraska Kan
sas bill will furnish will not hesitate in its
course, or fail in its duties, however radical and
sweeping those duties may become in the nat
ural progress of events.
For the mole-eyed SQUAD of little northern
men at Washington who are accidentally the
controlling political force of the Government at
this junction Of public affairs, lighting the
torches of civil discord, and vainly dreaming
that no coniagration is to ensue-we have but
pity for their blindness and faulty They are
under the lead of men Of gross and grovelng
purposes, base instincts and narrow vision They
are but blind followers of the blind
10 avert the throes and commissions which
must inevitably follow this infamous act we
have laborad and shall labor, and as last resort
to this end, if there shall prove to be majority
of the House in favor of the final contamination
of this scheme, we advocate the determined re-
slstance of the minority to that ccnsummation.
This bold and astoi nding assault on the cause
of liberty and progress, should be met BY north
ern representatives in Congress in the spirit with
which freedom in its most lofty mood has ever
resisted oppression. 1t is a solemn duty which
deyolves upon them, without agency Of theirs
to bring about the crisis that enioins their ac-
ton. We know that it is easier to shirk it than
to discharge it. But in so clear case it were
culpable to refuse to engage in the only proceed
ure which gives any hope of arrcsting the inla-
nous measure. For whatever results shall fol-
low such course We cheerfully court our share
of responsibility. Whatever that result shall be
we unhesitatingly say, let it come. There are
greater evils than conflict between two parties
in the legislative branch of the Government
greater evils than temporarily blocking the
wheels Of public affairs, or than producing a
shock which snail precipitately send the mem
bers of Congress home to their constituents.
And clearly among them, in our estimation, are
the fatal and lar-reaching consequences of the
passage of the Nebraska bill. We urge, theie-
fore, unbending determination on the part of
the northern members, hostile to this ntolera-
bic outrage, and demand of them in behalf of
Peace, in behalf of Freedom, in behalf of JUS
tice and Humanity, resistance to the last. Bet
ter that confusion should ensue-better that dis
cord should reign in the National Council
better that Congress should break up in wild
disorder-nay, better that the Capitol itself
should blaze by the torch of the incendiary, or
fall and bury all its inmates beneath it crum-
bling ruins-than that this perfdy and wrong
should be finally accomplished We think these
convictions are shared by northern millions, and
that wherever the northern mind has unrestrain-
ed action and attcrance, it will declare them
In pursuing the course we indicate, the friends
of freedom in the House will be sustained by the
Press and the People, and, as we believe, in
whatever form support shall be demanded. We
devoutly urge them to be faithful to their trust
in this great emergency, and to confidently rely
upon popular sympathy that will treasure
their deeds as the acts of martyrs. Such a course
will secure the support of men who will hold
their lives cheap in the maintainance of the
righteous cause which that minority is called to
defend a. ILL.,
:, THE LENNON CAsE t"
CRIMINAL INDIFFERENCE.
When the New York Court liberated the