Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1855-08-03

Thus the South seems resolved to cut itself i
nj wholly from all the sympathes and hopes
Of Christendom to sever itself deliberately |
from all political and from all christian l
She has not only turned aside
from the common aims of civilization and
but turned back and rc-procaimcd
with superadded ignominy the most atrocious
md shameless doctrines and purposes which
savage and half civilized men have ever dared
to avow and to cherish--doctrine and
purposes which it has been the hope of Chris
tianity and human culture otherwise well
nigh accomplished) to eradicate and defeat.
And these doctrines are boosted of, and
gloricd in, and thrust impudcntly forward
into the faces of those to whom they are an
insult and an abomination. So long as the
mind of the Southern States was supposed to
he expressed by their public men of the last
generation, they were looked upon as brave
leope struggling under difficulties which they |
would eventually overcome. They were be-
lieved to be instinct with true and vigorous
life which would soon throw of the superb
cial disease that annoyed it. While such |
opinions and such hopes prevailed, and were |
expressed by themselves, they lacked nowhere |
sympathy, apologists and defenders.
But now, most unhappily, to the triumph !
Of their enemies, the grief and shame Of their |
friends, and the indignation Of mankind what
was an accidental reproach, they have
adopted as their own iniamy the worst pur-
poses that few imputed to them they have
openly avowed and all which comes within
their jurisdiction, which fails to approve and
promote what their doctrines demand is a
declared enemy, and is subject to " the
statutes" or the revolver All this, more
over, they do as Christians, and because they
are Christians, and proclaim all the rest Of
Christendom to be infdcl and apostate
from the faith. For that gospel which is the
power of God and the wisdom Of God, which
has always proved itself able to elevate to
civilization and manhood the most savage
and imbruted tribes Of the human race, and
which they are, as Christians, expressly com
manded to employ for that purpose, they have
dared, in the face of heaven, and in the name
Of God, to substitute, and declare more eff
eient, the sure merc,eS Of slarorY,' and The
wHrr' Having, by such altered professions
and avowals, become the opprobium of Chris
tianity, the scoff of inidelity the impediment
Of human advancement, what feelings ought
they to expect now to awaken i'll the minds of
rnen' What do they-but the indignation,
the contempt, the pity, of the civilized world
Has the South considered what it is to stand
Ill 81 cd
severed from all sacred sympathies, cut off
from the root and common life of Christcn-
DOM
No individual can long withstand the deen
though silent contempt of the whole commu
nifty in which he resides The consciousness
of holding such relation will paralyze the
.toutest heart. Yet such nearly, except that
the feeling is not silent, is the position Of the
South in the community Of the civilized
world. That she is conscious of 1t is suffi-
GENTLY manifest by her attempts to strengthen
and defend and Justify herself in it. But the
South ought to be aware that, SO far from
alternating her position by unblushing self
justification; by proclaiming the duty of en-
shaving men, and the beauties and joys of
slavery by the promise of a new slave lite
nature and art, important to the world at
large these, before all else, it is which
constitute the head and front of her offend
ing, and that all her efforts in this direction
will serve only to deepen the indigna ton
already concentrated upon her.
But this is not all Hitherto slavery has
been considered peculiar, sort of pecuhun
Of the Stare States, spoken of as such by
Shareholders themselves. 1t was private
accidental local, temporary. 1t was mis-
fortune, an evil, curse But it was theirs
to manage, theirs was the responsibility,
theirs the consequences Now, on the con-
trary, slavery is no longer, or ought not to
be, peculiar, partial, local: but general. 1t
is no longer accidental, temporary ; but
essential to the perfect form of Society. and
Of course permanent. 1t ought to prevail
everywhere, certainly wherever it can be
made 'proftaJle.' That is, it ought to be
unrostrained, a frce-to-roam slavery wherever
it chooses to go. Accordingly the South has
proclaimed itself its champion, defender be-
fore the world propagator. And suiting
the action to the word, has turned il out
from its enclosures, and is ready to spread
and defend it not with warlike words merely,
not only with Saracenic zeal, hut otherwise
after very Saracenic fashion. What now
is the relation Of the outside world, into
which slavery is extending itself, TO this new
position, and these new pretensions Of it /:
May the South still say, hands off slavery
is ours and not yours please do not inter-
meddle with our peculiar institution
fam chooses to be the possessor of by
snas or other foul md ferocious beasts so
long as they are safely ENGAGED they are his
to keep but if once let loose they are every
mans TO destroy. If slavery attacks the
free world, the world may of right defend
itself against its iucursions. as Putnam de-
Tended himself against the depredations of
the wolf But ifthe justly awakened wrath of
freemen does not spear the monster in its
den, most assuredly they will confne him
within it. Has the South considered well
the natural and necessary consequences Of be
ing shut up with its slaves THE frequent
and hab,tudi instructions" as in Greece -
tho wholesale slaughterngs feelings TO wild
1easts, or highways, for hundreds Of miles,
lined.with gibbeted slaves as in Italy the
chivalry employed at intervals in hunting and
shooting down the boldest, strongest, and
TOO numerous Helots, as in Sparta or what
they fear still more, the fate Of Chios, and Of
St. Domingo Yes the South has considered
these things Hence, in part, its sudden
conversion to "anOther pOSuel - and its reli l.