Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1855-08-23

ian, on The Slavery Question Here is
specimen of its quality -
. . That our movement is not understood,
not uniformly referred to the grand principle
that undertakes it, seems quite evident from
the want of any deep and prevailing convlc-
ton of the wrongfulDess Of slavery, among
the people of the free States.
Our adherence of the institution is from
our lips, and not from the heart. We do not
hate it with an earnest and robust hatred.
that goes on into deeds. but with sickly and
superficial aversion, that leads to no result,
unless it be to debauch the cousciences. We
hate the negro with practical vengeance. 1t
is no counterfeit, no mere disguise, bat q
blighting, scathing ever-present hatred, under
which the colored race wither and is consum-
ed in our midst. Ask the people of Indiana
if they hate slavery, and they will point you
to their constitution and laws forbidding col.
ored men from coming into the State, denying
those who are in the right of suffrage, taxing
them to support the government whilst ref1s-
ing them any share in the school fund, for
bidding them to testify in our courts and
even questioning their right to travel on our
railways. Ask the people of Illinois the
same question, and they will point to still
blacker code than that Of their adjoining
neighbor. Do the people of Ohio hate slav-
cry! The General School Board of the chief
city of the State recently sanctioned the ex.
clusion OF whifc lad from one of their schools,
because one thrty-second part of the blood in
his veins was understood to be of African ex-
traction Sir, the lamentable trnth is, that
the unchristian spirit of caste is the dominant
spirit in the religious, political and social in-
stitutions of non-slave-holding States. Has
not every saveholdmg outrage that has ever
yet aroused people been quite summarily fol-
lowed by quiet acquiescences And would
this be so, if there were any deep central fire
Of Anti-Slavery hatred burning in the hearts 2
Does it not prove much of our animosity
against slavery to be frothy and esanescent
sentiment nursed into life by our politicians,
and thrown on the surface by temporary
swell of popularity?
Nor can l regard the late Ant-Nebraska
excitement as proceeding from any more radi-
cal and healthy conviction. 1t seems to be
prudently following in the line Of its precc-
dents. The more sanguine among US, | am
aware, have regarded the repeal Of the Mis-
souri, Compromise as a Godsend. They have
argued that Northern endurance, already
taxed to the utmost, would sink under such
weight that the Slave Power would thus dig
its own grave; and that wicked institutions
must always grow to their full stature, and
display all their inherent cnormity, before
men will earnestly engage in their overthrow.
confess l cannot feel encouraged by this line
of argument. 1t has favored our anti-slav-
cry dishes on other occasions, when the Slave
interest has trampled down our rights. 1t
has no just application to the contest between
the free and the Slave States; for, if it be
true that our acquiescense in one scheme of
aggression emboldens the South to concoct
one still more fragrant and alarming it is like
wise true that it prepares the North to sub
NIT to it. The enormity Of slavery is lost
upon us, when displayed by such process.
Not submission to despotism, but resistance,
is the true method of deliverahce from it.
We need have no fear that the devilish attri
butes of slavery will not be exhibited, with
out any guilty help from us. The Nebraska
. and Kansas act Of 1855 is natural fruit of
, the Compromise measure of 1850, and is in
no respect more fagitious in principle. 1t is
not sprout from Dauiel Websters grave.
The anti-5lavery sentiment that submitted
to the former will acquiesce in the latter.
Indeed, the very ground on which this new
outrage has been generally opposed, proves
d our repugnance to slavery to be shallow and
: insinsere. The popular argument against il
e has been it's breach of an ancient and solemn
9 compact, made for the security of freedom
y north of the parallel OF 36deg. 30min. Of
u north latitude Sir, a thoroughly baptized
anti-savery people would have lost sight Of
u any bargain with Slavery in its unhallowed
" conspiracy to blast an empire by its withereG
power. l oppose slavery upon principle.
). hold it to be wrong in principle, for one mar
> to be the owner of another, to deny him 6
= fair days wages for fair days work. to rot
u him of the hottest ties of life, and sell him OF
y the auction-block as chattIe, to take from
, him the Bible, and close against him the av
enues of knowledge, to annihilate the institu
ton Of marriage, and spread licentiousnes
and crime over the land This | regard a,
. utterably wicked, independent of any com
' pact, or compromise, by which Slavery and
Freedom may have assumed to dispose Of
= their possessions according to certain geo
Il graphical lines. Hence hate slavery where
;. ever | can find it, from the North pole down
: to the thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes
North latitude; and when l get there l q
:, On hating it all around the globe, wherever
- can trace its Shiny footsteps. I confess
y have not yet mastered the slippery philosoph,
: by which some men loathe and execrate it OF
:, the North side Of the perpendicular line, an,
! then transGgure it into all blessedness an,
-, =, beauty by the magic of mere parallel o
- latitude. This cheap and popular method o
= hating slavery geographically may do for al
- Anti-Nebraska man, but it will not do for al
10 Anti-!Siauery man. 1t may accord with tn,
y frigid temper and technical ethics of mer
y politician, or the doug htace, but it will no
~ satisfy the deep, iervent, uncOmpromsin,
~ spirit of the Aboitionist. Opposition t.
, =, slavery, as an outrage upon man and a Grim
y. against God, as an evil essentially Internal il
az az its very nature-this alone will avail us il
=, ~ any bona .fdc encounter with our Souther
~ masters; and this, | regret to say has no
" been the controlling element in the late popu
W lar demonstrations in the Northern States.
lis