The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1856-07-16
Free Speech and Free Men.

freedom of thought. with Truth left free
to combat error, all over these free,
enlightened and glorious republics, it
is yet an incongruous and melancholy
fact that the tendency in these latter
times, every where, is to absorb al in
dividuality and to suppress every thing
like personal independence of thought
and of action. One Of the most mark
ed and notable instances OF the truth
of this statement is found in the pei5e'
cution of Mr.. Underwood of Virginia.
Living in a slave community, and hav-
ing deep personal interest, as clti|
zen of that community, he had watch
ed the workings of the slave system,
and had arrived at the conclusion that
the best interests of his state demand
ed course of action calculated to
check its further extension. Enter
tanning these views he thought proper
to attend the Philadelphia Convention,
where he spoke manlully but inoffen~
sively, the convictions of his Judgment
For this, he is threatened with person
al violence and is warned not to return
to his home. lie was obliged to send
for his family and is now an exile from
his state. a venerable Bishop of the
Episcopal Church i'll the same state,
had the temerity, in administering the
sacred rites of tho church to address
the sable communicates around the al
tar, as men and as christians, and not
as slaves and chattcls. Forthwith a
paper at Richmond, holds him up for
condemnation, and suggests his forci-
bic exclusion from the State.
The settled design Of these " DEM
ocrats " is apparently to erect given
standard, to when all must bow,-a
Procrustes bed on which all must be
laid, and either be stretched out or cut
of to meet the requirements Of the
rule.
There can be no doubt that Slavery
is accountable for much of this despot-
ic tendency, and in the cases we have
mentioned, as well as in many others,
is its root and origin.
But the intolerance of the Ameri-
can people is too deep seated and
broad, to confnc itself to one side or
the other of single subject. No mat
ter what may be the subject in agita-
ton, an invisible public opinion over
rides and brushes the convictions Of
private judgment and the expression
of individual thought. All must bend
to the new born god of the day, or be
broken before it. A caucus of inter-
ested men, with whom politics is bus
mess, lays down the platform and
mounts the candidates. The former
is the rule of the party or the Gov
eminent, while the, latter, as in the
case of Mr.. Buchanan, are absorbed,
suppressed and merged into the plat
form. Mr.. Buchanan has eyes but
sees not, ears but hears not. He is nc
longer Mr.. Buchanan, but Platform
over which party strides to power. i
this is true of the candidate, how much
more is it of the masses. These, like
the frogs in the fable, must take fol
King, whatever Jupiter Caucus may
send. No matter what individuals
may think, they must suppress thought
and in the elegant language Of the
day, must 60 it blind :" indepen
dence is exclusion, individuality il
treachery. The result is, as Mr.. Ben
ton has we'll said, the people of THU
country have as little to do in electint
their Presidents, as the people o
France have in regulating the success
sion.
When it is considered that the VIC
lent and ultra men of all parties ar,
most likely to succeed in all conven
tions, the danger Of this sort of thinl