Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1855-12-06
Observation-Disclosures AND MODERN.

Observation-Disclosures AND MODERN.
The Democracy of our fathers was early de-
veloped in the Writings of Franklin, the Notes
on Virginia, the Resolutions of the Mecklen-
burgh Conseation, the Letters of Washington,
Morris, the 0tises. Adamses, and others. Mans
right TO self-government was not more early
developed in the minds of the fathers Of the
Revolution, than were the principles Of mans
equality of rights under the laws, The minds
of the people of the Colonies were deeply i'm
bued with that religious sense which was the
cause of their migration and settlement here
fleeing as they did from the prosecutions of the
Old World, wonderfully and ardently impressed
in their Utmost hearts with the glorious truths
che {" great Redeemer taught" Of mans indi-
vidual responsibility to his Maker for his relig-
ious notions and belief. 1t is singular fact, in
the history of the modern development of the
principles of the only true religion, after long
ages of declsnsion and apostacy, under the tyr
amy and bigotry of d" all-conquering Rome"
that 1t should be left to the prosecuted Quakers
in England to disclose the true relations of man
to his Maker,-that the religion Of Jesus, to be
efectual, rs not dependant on the external aids
of State, or Church, or Priest THAT this reli-
gion was addressed, not to Masses congrega-
lions, or aggiomerated numbers, but to the iso'
lated Individual duties of each intelligent hu
man being to the God who made him,-that
though Noah, job or Daniel, those three right
eous persons, were present, they could save
neither son nor daughter. These individual du-
ties of man to his Maker being established, the
individual duties, rights and obligations of man
to his fellow-men, would seem to follow, as
necessary eorollary.
The true doctrine of mans equality, brother
hood, duties and obligations was first spread out
before the mind in the Gospels Of him who
taught " as never man taught; " and hence our
fathers, in the fullness of their hearts, and while
writhing under oppression. had little else to DO
but to spread them out in the heartfelt and
glowing language Of the Declaration of indie
pendence How beautiful the thought, that the
free American, through all coming time, with
exulting pride, may point to that Declaration
as the first great Bill of Rights ever placed upon
the records Of human action,-that the greatest
efforts of the wisest men of the wisest nations
and ages, are but dim in the full effulgence Of
it's beams,-that Magma Charta, 80 much
boosted was but the appearing Of some of the
individual rights which the monarch had cloven
down; while here are unfolded the duties Of
man to himself, to his fellow-men, and to gov
eminent of his own creation
And this was the Democracy Of the fathers.
But where are we now, and what is the Democ-
racy Of our day! Our fathers were human,
and as such frail and in the organization Of
their government they left blot, and that blot
was slavery. They did not dream it was blot.
They thought it an inconsiderable evil which
the love Of Freedom might soon eradicate. 1t
was an evil which had then no powerful interest
in the STAKEHOLDER to sustain it. Indeed, the
net prosas of the plantation were everywhere
uncomfortable, the cupidlty of man was no
where enlisted to sustain, much less to extend,
it. Hence the almost unanimous ordinance of
1887 And in the strong judgment of many IL
Southern patriot, the very principles of the gov
eminent would soon cripple, and finally eradi-
cate, its deadly and more than miasmatic inau-
ence upon tie freedom aud morality Of the
country But now that cloud, not larger than
q mans hand to the eye of the prophet of old,
has overspread the Whole political and moral
heavens, and good men quail before it, and flee
from it, as they would from the Pc thence.
Time and language would both fail US to de-
pict the monstrous horrors of this accursed sys-
tenn of human bondage. But let US reflect for
d moment upon the awful responsibilities of our
prosperous but guilty nation in view of the as
founding fact that t,oenty thousand human be-
ings, by being over-worked and under-fed, and
by the almost internal cruelties Slavery inaicts
upon its victims, are annually slaughtered and
prematurely sent to their graves, to appease this
Meloch of human pride and cupidity-a sacri-
fee before which the barbar;ties of Juggernaut
must sink into insigniacance; because the one
is thechild Of ign ORANGE, bigotry and barbarism
the other, of civilization, intelligence aud av.
arice. Tell ye your children Of it," says the
prophet Joel, d" let your children tell their chill
dren, and their children another generation.
1t is claimed at the South that Democracy il
the natural ally of Slavery. If SO, it must be
some spurious article, and not that Christian
Demo cracyo of the patriot fathers Oh, Re-
ligion said the French philosopher, a. how
many crimes are perpetrated in thy name!" II
must be Democracy that knows no patriotism
no loUe Of country, or Of race. 1t is Democ
racy that would send the blasting rapacity o.
this all devouring curse over territory larger
than is now embraced within the limits Of
the thirty one States Of this Union. It must bt
modern Democracy,-it must be the Democracy
of this Administration which would spread thai
giant wrong over the yet unnumbered acres o
those vast prolific plains, which, if now uhde
proper cultivation, might spread bounteou
table for one-half the millions of the human
race. And this is the Democracy of the time,
in which we happen to live
What, then, is heduty of the American cit
lien, who loves his country, and the true prin
oiples of its government, in view of the pros
pect before us' Liberty and Slavery canho
exist together for another quarter ola century
Even without any special intervention Of tn
Almighty in faver of the oppressed, we must b
oil freemen or all slaves before that day t
those who believe in experimenting Provi
dence, we would say that God never suHere