Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1855-03-10

sure do not always find burning in The hearts
Of all with whom il is my duty to act in her
Councils. But, Sir, shudder when think
that this development, this extension, this aR-
grandizemeni, and this accumulation Of glory,
are going on firmly, steadily, and crushinqly,
at the expense Of these noble, independent
States that the majestic dome, while il spreads
itself more widely end crects itself higher aud
higher, Is pressing into crumbliug fragments
the pliers which constitute It's true and just
support.
Sir, we have had, on this occasion, as we al
ways have on painful occasions Of shis kind,
pathetic allusions TO the safety Of this Federal
Union. And these illusions have been ad-
dressed to me, although have hitherto been
content to be silent listener to this debate
What do you think must be the feelings Of
man, himself Representative Of three mill
lions, one-eiphih of your whole peoplo--a Rep
resentaiiye Of one-sixih Of all the freemen in
the Republic Representative Of even larger
proportion of the whole wealth Of the country
"A Representative Of your whole concentrated
Commerce-when he finds himself surrounded
by men who think iha, community so numer-
Gus and 50 intelligent, and enjoying such wealth
and cherishing such interests, are so far habit
ually blinded by passion as TO be disloyal 10
the Union on which all their safety depends
Str, almost forgot my customary federation,
when ] see around me men who know how the
interests and affections OF their own homes
cluster and en,wno themselves with every fibre
Of their own hearts, and who yet seem to for
get that those interests and affections are the
offspring Of humanity itself, and therefore com
mon 10 all men, aud suppose that il is treason
against the country TO protest against the OPP
preston of any one of its many and various
masses and races.
warn you, Senators, that YOU are saving
this Union at a fearful cost. This is Re-
publican Goyernment--the first and only one
that has ever been widely and permanently sue
cessful. Every man in this country, every
man in Christendom, who knows anything Of
the philosophy Of Government, knows that this
Republic has been thus successful, only by
reason of the stability, strength, and greatness,
of the individual States. You are saving the
Union of those States, by sapping and under
mining the columns on which it rests You
reply to all this, that there is a newly deyel-
oped necessity for this act OF Federal aggran-
dizemeut. There is no such new necessity
whatever The Conrts of the several States
have exercised their concurrent jurisdiction over
officers and agents Of the United States for a
period Of sixty years, in cases which involved
life, liberty. property, commerce, peace, and
war, subject to supervision by the supreme tri-
bunzls Of the Union, and while individual
rights have been mainiained, the public peace
has been everywhere preserved, and the public
safety has never received wound. During
all that time, there has never been an agent or
apologst Of the Federal power, so apprehen-
sve for the public safety as 10 propose the
measure which is now before US. There has
never been time when such a proposition
would have been received with favor There
have indeed been disconienis, but they have
been local and transient. Such discontents are
incident to free society everywhere. and they
are inevitable here. 1t is through the working
of such diseonienis that free communities, act
ing by constitutional means, aud within consti-
tnlional restraints, work out the reformation Of
errors, the correction Of abuses, and the ad-
vaneenent Of society An that has happened
is change Of the scene of these dscontents,
resulting from change in the geographical
direction which the action of the Federal Gov
eminent takes. Heretofore the murmurs of
discomfort came from the South. Now, the
breeze which bears them sets in from the
North. When the wind blew from a Sonih-
ern quarter, the rights Of the citizens were
not SAG without the inlerposition of the State
tribunals. Now when it comes from an cp-
posiie point Of the compass, Senator from
Connecticut (Mr Toucey) requires Congress to
prohibit that interposiiion, and TO arm the
Federal Government with new and portentous
power.
Mr. President, all this trouble arises out Of
the Fugitive Slave Law. The transaction In
which we are engaged is by no means the first
act Of a new drama. You began here, in 1898,
to extend into The Free States, by the exercise
Of the Federal power, the war Of races--ihe
war of the master against the slave. The
Fugitive Slave Law which was then passed be-
came obsolete. Though no great inconven-
ience was sustained, the pride Of the slave
holding power was wounded. In 1850 you
passed new Fugitive Slave Law, and connect
ed it with measures designed to extend the ter
ritorial jurisdiction Of the United States over
new regions, without inhibiting Slavery. =
You were told at that time -as distinctly as
you are told tonight, that your new law could
not be executed, and would become obsolete
that the failure of the old law had resulted,
not from its want Of stringency, but from its
too great stringency You were told then, as
distinctly as you are now told, that your new
law, with all its terrurs, would fail, because,
like the old law. and more than the old law, it
lacked the elements to command the consent
and approval Of the consciences, the sympathies
and the judgments of free people.
The new law, however, was adopted in de-
fance Of our protest, that il was an act of Fed
eral usurpaiion, that it virtually suspended the
writ of habeds corpus, that it unconstitulionally
denied trial by jury, and that it virtually COM
manded a judgment Of perpetual Slavery to be
summarily rendered upon er parte evidence,
which the party accused was not allowed 10 re-
fuie in the due and ordinary course of the com
mon law. You adopted new and oppressive