Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1856-04-17
lebate about Slavery, which has become for YOU

debate about Slavery, which has become for YOU.
lntoerable. Is it not time to relinquish that
hope! You have exhausted the virtue for that
purpose, that resided in compacts and platforms,
In the suppression Of the right of petition and
An arbitrary parliamentary laws, and in abnega
tlon OF federal authority over the subject of
Slavery within the National Territories Will
you even then end the debate by binding Kansas
with chains, for the safety of Slavery in Missou-
II Even then you must give over Utah te
Slavery, to make it secure and permanent in
Kansas and you must give ever Oregon and
Washington to both Polygamy and Slavery, so
as to guaranty equally the one and the other of
those peculiar domestic institutions in Utah :;
and so you must 60 on, sacrificing on the shrine
of peace Territory after Territory, until the pre-
vailing nationality of freedom and of virtue
shall be lost, and the vicious anomalies, which
you have hitherto vainly hoped Almighty Wis
dom would remove from among YOU without
your own concurrence, shall become the con-
trolling clements in the Republic. He who
found river in his path, and sat down to wait
tor the flood to pass away was not more unwise
than he who expects the agitation of Slavery to
bosom of mankind.
hC oolCuulty vi tuo OCChnlOu uIbNo ONCI Jul
heads that cloud of disunion, which always
arises whenever the subject of Slavery is agi-
tated. Still, the debate goes on, more ardently,
earnestly, and angrily, than ever before. 1t
employs now not merely logic, reproach, men
ace, retort, and defiance, but sabres, rifles, and
cannon. Do you look through this incipient
war quite to the end, and see there peace, quiet,
and harmony, ON the subject of Slavery! If so,
pray enlighten me, and show me how long the
AWAY is which leads to that repose. The free
States are loyal, and they always will remain SO.
Their foothold on this Continent is firm and
sure. Their ability to maintain themselves, un-
aided, under the present Constitution, is estab
lished The slave States, ALSO have been loyal
hitherto, and hope and trust they ever may
remain 80. But if disunion could ever come, il
would come in the form of secession Of the
slaseholdng States and it would come, then
when the slaveholding power. which is already
firmly established on the Gulf of Mexico anC
extends thousand miles northward along boil
banks of the Mississippi, should have fixed it,
graphing irons upon the fountains of the Mis-
souri, and the slopes of the Rocky Mountains
Then that power would either be ntolerably
supreme in the Republic, or it would strike fol
independence or exclusive domination. Their
the free States and Slave States of the Atlantic
divided and warning with each other, would dis
gust tho free States of the Pacific, and the.
would have abundant cause and justification TO
Withdrawing from Union productive no longe
of peace, safety, and liberty to themselves, an
no longer holding up the cherished hopes o
mankind.
Mr. President, the Continental Congress O
1887, on resiguing the trust, which it had dis
charged with signal fidelity, into the hands o
the authorities elected under the new Consttu
ton, and in taking leave Of their constituents
addressed to the people of the United State
this memorable injunction Let it never b
forgotten, that the cause of the United State
has always been the cause of human nature
Let US recall that precious montion; let US ex
anime the ways which we have pursued hithci
to, under the light thrown upon them by tina
instruction We shall find, in doing SO, tina
we have forgotten moral right, in the pursuit
material greatness, and we shall cease hence
forth from practicing upon ourselves the misel
able delusion, that we can safely extend Empire
when we shall have become reckless of the Of
legations of eternal Justice, and faithiess to tt
interests of Universal Freedom