Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1855-10-26

provinces OF East Florida and West Florida
which lay adjacent to the Slave States.--
They fell TO the United States by an easy
purchase, aud the privileged class with due
diligence procured their organization 40
state and i,s admission into the Union. The
spell OF territorial aggrandizemeut had fal-
len on the United States Of America, and
simultaneously the spell Of dissolution had
had fallen on the United States Of Mexico.
The priviledged class on our side Of the
border enterd Texas, established Slavery
there in violation Of Mexican laws, detach.
ed that territory from Mexico, and organ
lied It az an independent sovereign State.
Texas, thus independent and sovereign
sought annexation TO the United States. 10
the very hour when the virtue of sufficient
number Of the nupreviledged classes was
I giving way TO effect constitutional annex
alton OF Texas, the President Of the United
States. with a senate not less subseryient to
the privileged class. executed a coup de
etai by which that State unawfully, and in
defiance OF all precedent, came INTO the
Union under a covenant stpulating that
Tour new slave States nigh, be created out
Of its territory and admitted as Slave States,
while. by solemn mockery, en- inconsider-
able fragment that lay north of 36 deg. 30
min was Internationally dedicatcd 10 Free
dom. There remained no other new terri
tory within the United States, and 40 by this
strange partition Of Texas there was third
final settlernen, Of tie pretensions of the
! privileged class: and il WIS aequiesced iu
/ by the unpriviedged class who thought
/ themselves secure IN the old Northwest
/ Territory by the Ordinance Of 1857, and
| equally safe in Kansas and Nebraska by the
Missouri Compromise.
The public repose that followed the an
nexation of Texas was of short duration.---
Mexico resented that ofiense war ensued,
and terminated IN the transfer of the entire
northern portion of Mexico 10 the United
States The Mexican municipal laws for
babe Slavery everywhere. and the new pos
sessions were under that law. Not whit
the less for that reason did the privileged
class demand either an equal partition, or
that the whole should be opened to their
colonization with slaves. The House Of
Repre- natives resisted these professionals
IT had resisted similar ones before but the
Senate seconded the privileged class with
its accustomed zeal. So Congress was d.
vided and failed to organize civil govern
ments for the newly acquired Mexican ter
rtories, and they were left under martial
law. The question raised By the privileged
class went down to the electors. The peo-
Pile promotly filed the House of Represent
tatives with majority sterny Opened TO the
extension of Slavery the breadth of sim
gle square mile. They increased the force
of the unprivileged class in the Senate,
while they call to the presidency General
| Taylor, who although himself stakeholder.
was committed TO non-in,ervention on the
question in Congress and to execute faithful
T..
should adopt. Under these circumstances
California and New Mexico, youthful COM
munties, practically free from Slavery and
interrupted by the seductions of the privil-
eyed class of It's political organs, fastened
to establish constitutions and apply for admis-
sion as Free States, while the eccentric pop
ulation of Deseret, INDUCING latitudinarian
principles equally in matters of religion and
of politics, prayed to be received into the
Union as a State or rs Territory, and with
or without Slavery as Congress should pre-
scribe. The privileged class demonstrated,
and seditious movement was organized in
their beholf in the slaveholding States to
overawe Congress, If possible, and TO innug-
urate revolution II their menaces failed. You
controversy. How eminent men yielded 10
, the menaces without waiting for the revolu-
ton, and projected and rendered to the priv
LEGGED class new compromise, modelled
after the already time-honored compromise
of 1870. You all know how firmly, notwith-
standing this detection of leaders, honored
and beloved, the House of Representative
and even The Senate repelled the compro-
mise, and how firmly the unpriyileged class
Of freemen throughout tho Union demanded
the unqualified and unconditional admission
Of California into the Union, and refused to
a,oi any further territories 10 the privileged
class for the extension Of the system of hu-
man bondage, You all remember, too. how
IN critical hour the President sckened and
died, aud how the henr,s of Congress and Of
all the people sorrowed at his grave, and
ihenceforward all was lost You remember
how the provisional successor of that lament
ed President with ominous haste accepted
Z the resignation OF his cabinet and committed
the seals to a new one pledged like himself
to the adoption Of the compromise, which the
people had condemned, and how at last after
a painful struggle its adoption was effected.I
thInk.also, that you have not thus soon forgot
ten the terms OF that compromise, the fourth
final and everlasting settlement of the con-
fiici between the privileged and the unpr.vil-
eyed classes of this Republic. You have
not forgotten how the ordinance Of 1887,
which excluded Slavery from the region
northwest of the Ohio, was left to stand as
an institution too sacred to be even question:
ed How the Missouri compromise which
extended that ordnance across the Mississ-
ippl, and over all Kansas and Nebraska, was
made al once the authority, precedent and
formula of the new compromise, and even
declared to be an irrepealable law forever
How California, which refused to become
slave State, was grudglngly admitted into
the Union rs a free one. How the hateful
and dstesIabe slave auctions were banshed
from under the caves Of the capitol, quite
across to the opposite bank of the Potomac
river. And how in consideration of these
magnanimous and vast concessions made by
the privileged class, It WIS stipulated that
Slavery should be continued in the District
of Columbia as long as the privileged class
should require its continuance.
Nov Mvxico, with her free constitution,
was superciliously remanded to her native
mountains, while without hearing, her an
cIent and free territory was dsmembered,
and lie iairest part transferred to Texas,
with the addition ften millions of dollars, to
win ts acceptance by that defiant privileged
state. You remember how il WAS solemnly
stipulated that Utah and New Mexico, 1.-THE
shareholders could corrupt then, should come
into the Union, In due time, as sayeholding
States (; and, finally how the privileged class,
so highly offended and cxasPerated, were
brought to accept this compromise on their
part, by rcenactment OF tue then obsolete
fugitive slave Law OF l7.ri, with the addition
of the revolving features Of an attempted sus-
pension Of the habeas corpus an absolute
prohibition of the trial by jury an effective
repeal OF vital rules of procedure and evil
dence, and the substitution of commissioners
ia place of courts of justice, in derogation of
the Constitution. You all remember how
laborionsiy aud SYSTEMATICALLY this compro-
mise was assoc lated with the time honored
forms and solemnities Of the Missouri COM
promise how II was declared not the result
ormere ordinary legislation, but contract
with mutual equivalents by the privileged
with tho unprvieged classes, irrepealsble
and even unavoidable without psrlidy and