Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1856-04-12

Gus classes, for the most part, TO simple apri
cultural labor, does moi stipulaie, and scarcel
admits Of that variety and magniicence o
product, which is the mark Of high physical
development, whilst il is still more deficient ir
the means of intellectual and moral progress
Its superior class often attains the most eleva.
ted point, both Of character and culture, but il,
masses. with here and there an individual ex
cepiion, cannot rise above the lowest level.
All this, however, needs no proiracied dis
cnssion. Do not the nine hundred and ninety
nine men, out Of every thousand, at the North
yea, more than that--honesily believe. that
a free society is, in every sense preferable to
a slave socieiyi Are there not thousands up.
on thousands at the south, who believe tho
same thing, who openly confess the suPericri-
iy Of the former, and justify the continuation
Of the latter solely upon the ground, that il
was an unavoidable inheritance, Of which il is
now difficult. il not impossible, 10 get relieved
We have ourselves couversed with many such
men we could cite, il we liked, from books,
innumerable such opinions but, indeed. this
view is so almost universal, that we need be at
! no pains to prove its existence.
We ought, perhaps, to except few souih-
erD Spectators, who, following the lead of Mr.
Calhoun, have, not only asserted that slavery
is positive good, and fnaliiy, but who pro-
fess to have discovered the most alarming
weaknesses in free society. They see in it a
thousand elements Of evil--in the relation OF
labor and capital, future war between the
rich and Poor-in its excilabilily, the seeds Of
n desoating fanaiicism, and in lis party vio-
lences, most speedy anarchy. Poor fellows,
were there ever theories more excessively shall
low
No observant man is, Of course, nsensbe Of
the many lingering defects and evils of our free
society. II he have studied il INFINITELY, he
will not regard it as by any means perfect or
final bot, on The comparison Of il with other
societies, and after every abatement, he will
come TO quite positive conclusion, that it con-
tains facilities for reaching every imaginable,
future as well as present, social excellence
greater than any olher that now exists. Ia
ken as 10 the general result, he will see, that
the civilization Of our free states is moi only
considerably in advance Of that Of any other
part Of the globe, but is Of such spirit and
structure that il vii continue. for many years
yet, 10 keep in advance. What civilization
can be named its superior That Of Turkey,
Russia. Italy, Austria, Spain--ihe simple sue-
gesiion is lDdierous Outside of England,
France, aud the north Of Germany, which sur
pass US in certain special aspects, there are no
nations to be named on the same day with New
England, the northern middle states, and the
seiilcd parts of the West. We do not mean
that these have actually achieved al the finer
social results Of European life hu, thai,
apart from their own peculiar atiainmenis,
they are in a cgndirion to appropriate tho high
est existing social culture. Without sacri6c-
ing their characteristic virtues, they are rapid
ly adapting the best refinement of Others
Nowhere else do literature and art spread so
widely among the people; and nowhere else is
domestic life so readily blending the genialiies
and graces Of intercourse (before impossible 10
its newness and rawncss) with that purity,
which il always had and still retains
The forms Of our free society, being alike
flexible and fixed, preserve the security Of law,
while they give ample scope to the movements
Of progress. That dissolution especially which
the aforesaid specnlators foDdly predict for it,
10 consequence of its fanaiicislns and iurbulen-
ces, is an event the most remote for its very
freedom is lis defense and the errors which
arise in il, like the vapors Of The night, are dis
sipaied in The morning by The light of free dis
cussion. When the mind is exempted from
compressive restraints, its natural activity is
displayed in novel schemes Of thought as well
as in mechanical contTiyance projects OF re-
form Of all kinds are as inseparable from ii as
business enterprise and like rich soil which
produces the best fruits, il also abounds in plen
tiful crops of weeds. All the excitements Of
il, however, all It's ishs and vagaries are scarce
ly felt as evils. Beyond the temporary fer
ment they OCCASION no one is the worse for
them, while these ferments may be themselves
regarded as the outlets of irritation that would
otherwise be deep and dangerous. 1t is the
forced suppression Of social energies, and not
the ventilation Of them, which leads to pernic-
ious revolls. For this reason, besides, we
have no fear of the imputed awlessness OF free
socieiy-a danger 10 which. in its peculiar con
siitulion, slaye-soeieiy seems 10 US far more ex-
posed. DR.. Arnold somewhere remarks with
profound wisdom, that 'lhe age Of chiyalry,
whose departure Burke so much regretted, was
the natural parent Of that age Of Jacobinism
which he so moch abhored." He explains
that both breathe a spiri; Of hostility to order,
encouraging men to look upon themselves as
independent of their fellows, and culliyating a
proud and selfish idolatry of what belongs 10
themselves individually, whether il DO personal
honor o. personal glory, as in the one form Of
the disease, or personal liberty and equity, as
in The other. Both lead to what Bacon calls
L.. Il. 4. -
the general body. True as this is of genu-
inc chivalry, it is still more true of that spuri-
Gus sort which springs out of slavery, and
which breeds a naughty, insoent, and irritable
lf-conceit-iniraclable 10 law and disdaining
social subordination. It is in southern society
consequently, that personal and mobocraiic vo-
lence is riiest-it is there that schemes Of fill
buslerism are principally engendered--an there
that the threat Of taking mp arms against the
Union is favoriie method OF discussion.
In the elements of stability as well as Of
prosperity, then, the social organization Of The