Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1855-02-15
MONTPELIER
Thursday Morning, February Is, 1855.
THE puCTRINE OF INSTRUCTIONS
AGAIN VIOLATED.

THE pOCTRINE OF INSTRUCTIONS
AGAIN VIOLATED.
The doctrine of instructions has ever and
most justly been held as great cardinal princi-
pie Of Democracy land moments reflection
should teach any one the imperative necessity
for the strictest observance of this leading and
distinctive feature of the old democratic creed
Were the representative permitted to set at
naught, or disregard the will of those who elect
him, and whose agent only he is, the most indis-
pensable safeguard to a republican, form of gov
eminent would be at once and forever swept
away. The people would be left voiceless and
helpless; and for aught they could do, short of
revolution, their republic might be subverted,
and a monarchy be erected on its ruins during
the terms of office Of their false and traitorous
representatives. And it is for this reason, as
well as for the great breach of trust involved,
ard the great moral wrong done by violation
of instructions, that the observance of the doc
trine has been held SO sacred by the democratic
fathers, and its violation even up to to the pres
-ent year, been 80 signally visited by the demo-
cratic party with all the punishment which a
loss of place, and political oblivion could inAict
On the faithless ohsnder. When John Quincy
Adams, in his inaugural address, as President
of the United States, in 1924, uttered the senti-
ment, that 'the arm of the representative should
never be palsied by the will of the constituent"
the whole democratic South broke out in denun-
Citations Of that 1uckless passage in his address,
and pronounced him an apostate, instead Of the
convert he had professed himself to the demo
cratic creed, and demanded, as they finally ell
fected, his political immolaton for the disposition
he had eyinced to repudiate the great doctrine
of instructions, and interpolate Federal tenet
in its place. And 50 has every violation Of this
doctrine by the pretenders to democracy been
viewed and visited by that party till its fatal
mistep in 1852 in putting itself under the con
troll of the Slave Power of the South. Since
then, the downward course of that party, as
might we'll have been expected, has been palpa-
Bile and rapid. 1t has seen its old bulwarks of
principle, one after another assaulted and
swept away by its apostate leaders, and by the
administration it had put into power. 1t first
saw the freedom of speech, and of the press, as
sailed and interdicted, in the Baltimore platform,
and it acquiesced. 1t next saw the old Federal
doctrine of constructive treason revived, or at
tempted to be revived, by the officials of its ad-
ministrAtion, in their action under the Fugitive
Slave Law and it still held its peace. And now,
to crown all it has seen, within the last year the
sacred doctrine of instructions, almost the last
remaining distinctive principle of its old creed
distegarded and repudiated by its tallest leaders
without raising single note Of remonstance /!
Last spring Senator Toucey openly put at def
ance the instructions of his Legislature; and
yeti not an administration press in the Union
called him to account, or even questioned the
propriety of tho act And the last mails bring
us the speech Of Lewis Cass, conCessedly one of
the great leaders of his party, and pillars of the
administration, in which speech he boldly open
ly and shamelessly, declares his intention to
disobey the pointed and almost unanimous in
ssStructions which had just been sent by the Leg
islature of Michigan, directing him and his col
leagues as follows -
" Resolued, That our Senators in Congress be,
and that they are hereby instructed, and our
Representatives requested, to vote for and use
their best exertions to procure the passage of an
Act of Congress that shall prohibit the introduce
ton or existence Of slavery in any of the terri
tories of the United States, and especially in
Kanzas and Nebraska, and to introduce without
delay, o bill for this latter purpose
Resolved, That the Act of Congress of 1850,
known as the Fugitive Slave Law ,wasin the opin-
ion Of the people of this State, an unnecessary
measure; that it contains provisions of doubtful
constitutionality ; that the mode of proceeding
under it is harsh, unjust, and repugnant to the
moral sense Of the people of the States, cruel
and despotic toward the person claimed us IA flu
gitive, and that we are in favor of its immedi-
ate repeal.
Resolved, That our Senators in Congress be,
and that they are hereby instructed, and oar
Representatives requested to use their best cx-
ertions to procure the immediate repeal Of the
act of 1850, known as the Fugitive Slave Law. ~
NOW, WHO is there 50 blind as not TO see, ana
who SO bold as to deny, the fatally pcrverting
influence Of slavery on the politics of the coun-
try. Who so bold as to deny its chief instru-
mentality in the overthrow of the Wing party I!
and so bold and reckless as to longer deny that
it has subverted and overridden every great
principle of the Democratic party, which dis
tinguished it from the party of Adams and
Hamilton! Stand forth, therefore, ye defend
ers of the present administration, and either ad-
NIT that it has no further claims to be called
democratic, Or at once repudiate the acts we
have named-especially those of Isaac Toucey
and Lewis Cass, which you we'll know to be a
dagrant violation of the first principles, and an
outrage in the very name of democracy.