Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1854-07-06
INTERESTING DEBATE.
WASHINGTON, June 2G.

WASHINGTON, June 25.
SEyATE-The Boston petition being up, Mr.
Jones (rcnn.) said that lie had no dcsi On to call
in question the motives Of the Senator who had
presented the petition. lie had no fault to find
with the exercise of the right of petition. 1t
was the undoubtcd right Of every citizen, and
one to which he would give every latitude. lie
wodld 60 80 far as to say that he believed it WIS
the right OF his Slt.aic Majesty even to send up
petition to that court which he had insultcd,
and from which he had been hurled But it
was by motives and objects that petitions were
to be judged. So, il in sending up that petition
he had been actuatcd by purpuso Of mischief,
or was hyrocritical in lis prayer, he deserved a
deeper infimy than that to which he had alrca-
dy been consi gned. 1t this petition now before
the Senate be sent thithcr from proper motives
and Tor proper purposes, it is entitled To respect.
Ii it be sent hitner TOR the purposo Of mischief
and to produce strife, then it deserved the con-
tempt Of every good man.. This wis not the
first petition OF tuis character sent here, and had
this come unattended with striking crcumstan-
ces, giving it the color OF treason, he would not
have noticed it. But it came here with all tie
circumstances tending to show that it is IL part
Of the plan Of operations OF those win whom
agitation and repeal are watchwords. lie had
seen already one attempt made to give practical
elect to the prayer Of this petition, and it had
only found four Senators who would give the
sanction Of their names to its unholy purpose.
1t was said that these petitions are the result OF
the passage of the Nebraska bill and the repeal
Of the missouri Compromise. lie did not be-
licvc it. 1t was the result Of q combination OF
thoso willing to take part in any scheme to break
down the Constitution of the United States and
place the South under degradation and hunlii-
alton. 1t came from city where the laws were
openly set at defiance where the temple of jus
ticc was surrounded by an armed mob to prevent
the execution Of constitutional duty; where
treason stalkcd broadly through the streets at
MONDAY, and where the officers Of the law wcro
bdtchcred. The petition came from such peo-
pie and from such place, following immedi-
ately upon these events. Was he not right in
surprising this petition got up at such II time
had in view no consideration of public interest !
1t came from Boston, whore the dust of the first
and the last martyrs in the countrys cause,
Warren and Batchclder, were now mingled to-
gether. The orator then called attention to an
address, published in The IntcHgenccr, of the
22d instant, said to have been adopted at a
meeting Of the members of Congress opposed to
the Nebraska bill. The simultaneous appear
ancc of the document with this petition might
induce the belief that like birds OF omen and
pcrturbed spirits they desired conpanionsilip III
publicity as well as in sentiment
The orator then read the address and its argu-
ments upon the encroachments the slave power /;
by acquisitions and the designed extention of its
area upon the adoption of the Missouri Com
PROMISE and the Compromise of 1850, and the
upon the same with great severity of language.
lie said he was happy in the belief that not one
Southern man attended the meeting. After
reading the address he suggested to its unknown
author to abandon the barren field of politi-
cal literature and turn his thoughts to the richer
field of the works of fiction. The author of this
address bid fair to rival the writer of the Ara
ban Nights Entertainments, Eugene Sue, Paul
de Knock and many others who were so prolific
in works Of fiction. lie had never seen Il pro.
duction which contained in SO few words so much
fiction and pure imagination as this address. The
address charged the South with passing the Ne
braska bill, with covered design Of making
the Territories slave States with annexinC hall
n dozen States of Mexico and making them
slave; with planting slavery on the Amazon
with augmenting its power by thcacquisition of
Cuba and Dominica, and in time reducing the
Ncrth to ahnct submission. lie called ior the
author OF this accusation. 1t was serious one.
and which no gentleman should make behind
the masked battery of Il secret meeting. The
author of it knew very well that had every
Southern Senator been in his grave, the Ncbras-
ka bill could have passed 1t would have pass
ed IT no Southern Senator had voted for it. The
whole charge was fasehood. 1t was wickedly,
maliciousy false. lie could see no difference be-
tween the petition for the repeal of the Fugitive
Slave Law and the dissolution of the Union.
There was no man that believed the Union could
be preserved one day after the repeal of the Flu.
gitiye Slave Law.
Mr., ROCKWELL said he regretted that the du.
~ had-iallen upon him to defend the State Of
which he was, a representative. lie regretted
tnat ms predecessor was not here to discharge
that duty rather than himself. This memorial
was signed by oyer twenty-one hundred men Of
Boston. Its slgners were the bone and sinew Of
the active business men of that city. lie saw
nothing in their petition either extraordinary o,
wrong. They simply asked for the repeal 81 an
act OF Congress only four years old which acl
was In addition TO the one which had been in
iorcc over fifty years. Was there treason in
this! Was it treason to ask Congress to reneal