Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1855-04-19
For the Green Mountain Freeman,

DEAR SIR You are no doubt aware, that our
former detractoru have tackled, andare now sail
ing in the wake of our gallant ship. "Free
Soil, Free Labor and Free Men" And why this
sudden and unexpected change, but because ne
ccssty required it,-seeing nothing in their for
mer course but shoals breakers, and engulphing
waves Now, getting on the right side at last,
they claim patronage for their local news which
they have measurably lost Meanwhile the peo-
pie arc weary Of these partisan guides, who
thought of nothing SO much as victory over
powerful rival at any and every expense, and to
this source we trace the mal-administration of
our General Government for the last twenty-five
years. But new era has dawned ON our be-
logged and benlghted land. Hitherto Slavery,
with the honorable exception of the admission ef
California, has had everything its own way, and
for that exception, Kansas, now free, must be
doomed to witness all the horrors incident to
laws authorizing the barter, sale, and consequent
mal-treatment of men, women and children, and
that too without the protection of common law
My countrymen, what mass of human suffer
ing is here contemplated in all time to come !
And here IT would seem that the stoutest heart
would relent but no, majority of our sage
rulers have decreed it, most Of whom too are
professed Democrats, And, sir, all this array of
defunctDemocracy in high places has not yet
had the effect to break the gordian knot of party
ties, although they are fast sundering. The
Southern delegation was awed, and some of them
demonstrated against this doubtful experiment
the mass of the New England clergy, laymen
and citizens petitoncd, and their representatives
protested 81 but all to no purpose. Led on by
fiery and restless spirits at the North-of Demo-
cratic mould-the deed was done And what O
fall was that, my countrymen! The laad was
shrouded in mourning at the dark deed
But the poignancy, however great, cannot now
be mitigated from the fact that your own
hands, blinded as you were by party ties, con-
tributed to the deed. Aud can We once suppose
that experience will be lost upon you That you
will still follow your blind leaders to the bosom
of destruction!
Let me ask what is the result of all this =
Why, tho illegal introduction of Slaveholding
voters into Kanzas-if newspaper reports are
true-and why not true if such voters can be
backed by Government patronage! If Govern.
ment will not protect the right Of franchise, it
must 60 down unless protected by the people
and if it goes down, Absolutism is established on
its ruins. and Slavery is the common lot of ALL
10 prevent this catastrophe, let the franchise
in Kansas be protected, tany and every hazard
for it will come to that at last To prevent The
effason of blood, let our Slavery-extension nd.
ministration be changed, and better substitu.
ted Let the Fugitive Slave Bill be modified
and brought back to constitutional limits. LIE,
the Missouri Compromise be restored, and tbi,
only can be done by the measure last named
They disclaim all right to legislate on Slavery
and still are trying to push it into Kansas, the
Island of Cuba, if not the South Americas
provinces. And this is termed" American;sh I,
and this cannot but attach reproach to our fac
in every sea, and will draw after it its meritet
end. Slavery in itself is weak, and it requires
protection from free commonwealth. TAX,
away that protection and it totters to its fall
Which of the twain, then, is responsible for it
onlinuauce! We say tho free Is not the par