Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1855-09-06

Perhaps the best exponent of the principles
OF the Republican Party of the whole country
is Hon. Salmon P. Chase. of Ohio. We copy the
following speech which he recently made at
Circleville, from the Cincinnati Gazette, and
I'VE ask if there is any thing in it which North
ern men cannot or ought not to assent to
:" Mr. Chase, after happy allusion to the
kind manner in which be was welcomed, said
he stood there that day precisely where JeAer-
son and Madison and Washington stood in the
days that tried men 8 souls, and before it had
become a reproach in America to be lover of
Freedom.
In regard to the Constitution of the United
States in no respect, either by word or act or
or deed, would he trench upon any of its pro.
visions :
In regard to this great Union, of which Ohio
10 90 distinguished member, he had always felt
that if there was any one thing great and mag
ni6cent above others, and which promised glo-
rious results, it was the continuance Of that
Union. He felt as he had said in the Senate,
that we were in the habit of looking at it as at
the blue arch Of the Heavens-as something
chat could never decay or fall. He believed no
parricidal hand would ever be found in Ohio,
raised for its destruction. He desired that it
should continue forever the guardian of our do
nestle repose, and that it should, with the pow
,ers delegated be the Constitution, remain to
accomplish the great purposes for which it was
formed--should endure for the perpetuity and
advancement of human liberty.
These were his principles, but they desired at
this time something more particular. lie would
,givsit.
The convention by which he was nominated
had declared its opposition to the extension Of
slavery. 1t desired to prevent the ADMISSION Of
more Slave States, and thus arrest the increase
of the slave power. On this question this was
all be had to ask. The territory outside the
limits of the present Slave States was all he
proposed to interfere with.
Within State limits every State has the Or
dering of its domestic institutions as it might
see 6t. We had no control over the people of
Kentucky in thisrespeot. If they chose to have
slavery and they thought it wrong, we had q
right to think so and to say SO. but no more
right To interfere with it than with their laws
for the establishment of State Banks or any
other State laws.
The platform on which he stood was this,
" that slavery was local in its character, and
dependent on the municipal law of the country
where it was established" This was the Ian
s.gnge Of Judge Mclean. He was no admirer
sof that inStitu tion-he had never known but
few who were. He held that outside the State
llmitsthere. was no power to establish slavery.
That lie establishment there was wrong, es-
pecially in territory, free by our laws and by
the laws of the county from which it was OBJ
tanned.
He then read from book printed in 1898,
extracts from, the speeches Of Mr.. pinckney--
,ths law-ahiaing Senator and ambassador Of his
tday-delivered m,the Legislature Of Maryland.
One OF these extracts enumerating the evils Of
slavery and the Inconsistency Of retaining it in
Maryland, closes with the sentence: tin the
name OF God, should we not attempt to wipe
away this stigma!" He read from Mr. Pnck.
y'sspeeohes. because he gave voice to the SEN
tipents Of the great men Of his time, of Henry
ry, of Jefferson, of Washington. Another Of
these extracts was {: Wherefore should VIZ
confne censure to our ancestors-they scattered
the seeds OF slavery-we promote it's growth
we enlarge, invigorate, confirm it," Jefferson
had said there was nothing 80 "dear to hit
heart as universal emancipation. These were
the sentiments of the people at that time-the
filling period. Now see the fruit that has beer
brought forth.
He then alluded 10 Mr.. JeHerson's plan fol-
excluding slavery from all the territories. Mr.
Jefferson had been thought to be man of some
sense, although on this great subject, the De.
mocracy Of our day differed with him vet he
believed 1t possible, hat posterity might after
all pronounce him as great man as Franklin
Pierce or Stephen A. Douglas.
This plan Of Mr.. Jefferson had majority OIL
two to one Of the delegates present, but failed
because it could not comply with the constitu
tiaRal provision, which required all the State,
be represented. If an absent member from New
Jersey had been present on that day, the subject
of Slavery would have been settled forever.
Three years after, when convention met tc
frame Constitution, the slave States demanded
some security. that the question Of slavery with
in their own limits, should be- left to themselves