Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1854-07-27

latter times that, contrary. to Scripture, the
servant is greater than bis master am yet
TO learn whether the Legislature. OF Connecti-
laws as it IN its wisdom Thought best.
I The ,honoroable gentlemen has commented
upou SOM acts which the Legislatarc did not
enact, and upon some Which trey did, among
which he gave particular prominence to an
Is Act for the defence of liberty" This, in his
Judgment, conflicts with the Fugitive Act, for
the safety of which he is alarmed Now, sir,
| would not do the injustice to my honorable
colleague to compare myself with him in legal
science: but have given some attention to the
law to which he has taken exception, since |
saw it horaldcd through the country us "null;-
fication," and have not been able to discover
anything in it that needs to excite tie appre-
tensions of the most vigilant sentinels Of the
Fugitive Act. have consulted several eminent
civilians in relation to it, all OF whom have
assured Inc that it conflicts with no law of the
United States. And | think can safely chal-
lenge those who assert to the contrary to pro-
ducc the proof. ts
But, without OBTAINING the Senate on this
point, would here raise the question, whether,
under the Constitution of the United States.
Connecticut has not as much right to enact
laws for the protection Of the rights of her
people, as South Carolina mas to enact laws for
the destruction of the rights of her people
Whether freedom may not be protected under
the Constitution us well as slavery! Cannot
Connecticut be INDUCED little with the pryi-
lege OF protecting the rights and liberties of
her own people upon her own soil, when IL part
nf ham, lnoc bava
such asis furnished by prison-walls in certain
other States of this Union! Oh! Mr.. Presi-
DENT has it come to this, that VIC of the North
are all centralized, absorbed, melted down,
swallowed up, consolidated into this great, CEN
trial. uslrping Government, and the northern
States are mere appendages, shorn and rayless
satellites, to revolve around this all-absorbing
centre, in borrowed light! God forbid To
t. say true to her ancient fame, as the vigiia1 1t
champions Of State rights, and mindful Of her
grand historic eminence rs defender of liberty,
answers, No. feel somewhat as the great
friend OF America and liberty felt, when giving
voice to these words in the British Parliament
in l776: -' i.
81 reoic, that America has resisted. Three millions Of
po dead all the feelings If liberty voluntarily t.
submit to slavery, would have been fit instrument to make
slaves Of the rest" -r I.... t.Hi ..4..
So do rejoice that in the great conflict be-
tween Democracy and Despotism, now bagun
in good earnest, Connecticut has been 50 prompt
to take her position on the side Of freedom, and
to call upon us to restore this Government to
the old foundations on which her Ellsworth and
Sherman were so active in establishing it, and
separate it from slavery at once and forever.
She has done with all compromises with the
perfdious vioators and naughty containers OF
tae pablo faith, and now says, return to the
early policy Of the Government, that of dis
courasing, restricting, and diScoailt3nancins
slavery everywhere Gndcr its jurisdiction. She
calls upon us to discard the vile and contcmpti-
Die dogma that the Constitution OF the United
States is shield of slavery, or any-ws, coln-
t3nances that most cruel and terrific despotism
that has ev5r crashed humanity despotism
own body; Of husband to his own wife of Il
father to MS own child; which sells husband,
wife, and child, separate or together, in the
market places; which asserts chuttcl-slavery to
be Divine and Democratic institution, and
avowS It's bAs1 parp)se indefinitely to extend
and forever to perpetuate the terrific curso!
| thank God, sir, Connecticut is WASHING her
hands from this blood and calls upon us, in her
old voice of freedom, to cleanse tne Government
from its guilty participation in the diabolical
work of inslaveing and nnbrlting man. She
inyok,s US to disa5use the Constitution of the
miserable dosmas which shareholders have losted
into it, to serve their own nelurous purposes,
and restore 10 it the original construction in
which its illustrlous trainers conceived and es-
tablished it--not 50 much MS adm ,ting into it,
according to Madison, Sherman, and others, the
blasphenlous " idea that man can hold proper
tn in man. She invokes us to return to the
original policy OF this Government, as inaugu-
rated by Jefferson, and interdict slavery on
every rod of territory under its jurisdiction.
She would have lis see to it, that this Govern
mcnt, President, Judges, Congress and all be
great southern Syren, raised up from its low
dcbauchment, to virtue and lreedoih, yitalized
anew by the inspiring breath Of liberty, and re-
placed on the old foundations upon wnich the
great fathers established and lett it, there to be
resolntely and actively on the side of freedom.
1t is meet and proper that the State of Els
worth and Sherman, who would not admit slave
ny into the Constitution On any terms, the State
of Putnam and Hale, who fought herocally for
freedom, should speak out clearly at sach a
crisis, and call upon Us to tear off from this
Government the accurscd vampire Of slavery.
My honorable colleague has undertaken, for
the second OF third time, to prove the Missouri
compromise line unconstitutional. | will not
tax the patience of the Senate with any reply,
further than to offset the opinion of President
Monroe, together with those OF all his arrival
ed Cabinet, Calhoun, Crawford, Writ, and John
Z. Adams, against the argument and opinion
OF my honorable colleague.
have the happiness to agree withmy colleague
in the principle of popular sovereignty only we
chance to have opposite views in carrying it
out. He favored the Nebraska-Kansas Bill for
one great reason that opposed it. He regard
ed it as promotive of the principle of popular
details and tendencies, as subscribing the an
tasonistc principle of slavcholding sovereignty;
and every day Development since its passage,
has been confirming the correctness Of this view.
lie has also animadyerted on the Fugitive
Act, and lie is welcome to lis opinions upon
that subject. do not intend ever to be drawn
into a discussion of that measure. 1t might
have an awkward tendency toward pacifcation.
No, Mr.. President, am not the man to discuss
the Fugitive Act. will not do it. can never
cast so great an indignity upon the Constitu-
ton Of my country as to admit, by the remotest
implication, the possibility that it coald ken
mel such a Cerberean monster. Tell me not Of
the eonstitutionality of an Act which, by one
bound vaults over all the bullwarks of liberty
in all the States Of this Union and strikes down,
at one blow, the writ of HebedS Corpus, and tho
Right of Trial by Jury which commits the
great question of personal liberty, not to ju-
dicial trial, but to II summary process, before
a magistrate, appointed, not by the President
with the concurrence Of the Senate, but by the
Court which forbids the exercise Of Christian
charity towards the poor and perishing, under
severe penalties; which seeks to degrade man
below the beasts which perish, by accounting
him and his precious rights of too little value
to be entitled to a jury trial, less than $50;
which holds out the bride OF IL double fee to the
petty commissioner for looming II human being
q al, -, 81, al 81.