The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1856-12-10

great liberty and protected by tho laws
ord usages Of the government they as.
sail, associations have been formed, in
some Of the States of individuals. who,
pretending TO seek only to prevent the
srread of the institution of slavery into
the present or future inchoate States Of
tic Union. are really innamed with de
sire to change the domestic institutions
of existing States To accomplish their
object, they dedicate themselves to the
odious task Of deprecinting the govern
mebt organization which stands in their
way, and of eliminating with indis.
criminate iuvoctive, not only the citizens
of particular States with whose laws they
find fault. but all others of their fel-
low.citizens throughout ;he country, who
do not participate with them in thoir
essults upou the Constitution, framed
and adopted by our fathers, and claiming
for the privileges it has secured and
the blessings it has conferred the steady
support ard grateful reverence of their
children. They seek M Object which
they well know to be a revolutionary
on". They are perfectly aware that the
change in relative condition of the
white and black races in the slavehold
ing States. which they would promotes is
beyond their lawful authority; that to
them it is foreign object; that it can.
not he effected by any peaceful mstru-
mentality of theirs that for them and
tie Stotcs Of which they are citizens,the
Only path to its accomplishment is
through burning cities, and ravaged
fields, and slaughtered populations, and
all there is most terrible in foreign, COM
rlicotcd with civil and scrvile war; and
that the first step in the attempt is the
forcibe disruption OF a conntry embrac-
ing in its broad bosom degree Of liber.
~ ard an amount ofudividual ami pub
lie prosperity, to which there is no par
allied in history and substituting in its
place hostile governments driven at once
and inevitably into mutual devastation
and fratricidal carnage, TRANSFORMER tho
now peaceful aud fclicitous brotherhood
into a yast permanent camp of armed
men. like the rival monarchies of Eurofe
and Asia Well knowing that such and
snch only, are the means and conscduen-
COS of their plans and purposes. they ell.
deavor to prepare the people Of the
United States for civil war by doing ov.
cry thing in their power to DEPRIVE the
Constitution and the laws of moral au-
thori'y. and to undermine the fabric of
the Union by appeals to passion aud sec
tional prejudice. by indoctrinating its
people with reciprocal hatred, and by
educating hem to sand face to face as
enemies, rather than shoulder to shoulder
as friends
It is bv the agency Of such nnwarran-
table interference. foreign and domestic,
that the minds Of many, otherwise good
citizens, have been so inflamed into the
PASSIONATE condemnation Of the domes-
tic institutions of the Southern States,
as at length to pass inscnsibly to almost
equally passionate hostility towards their
How citizers Of those States, and thus
finally to fall into temporary fellowship
with the avowod and active enemies of
the Constitution Ardently attached to
liberty in the abstract, they do not stop
to consider practically how the objects
they would attain can be accomplished,
nor to reflect that. even if tho evil were
so great as they deem it. they have no
remedy to apply, ard thot it can be only
aggravated by their violence and uncon
stitutional action A question which is
one of the most difficult of all the prob
lens of social institution, political econo'
my aud, ,statsmansbip they treat with un-
reasoning intemperance of thought and
language Extremes beget extremes
Violent attack from the n orth finds its
inevitable consequences in the growth of
spirit of angry defiance at the South
Thus is the progress Of events We had
reached that cOnsummation, w0ich the
voice of the people has now SO pointedly
rebuked, of the attempt of portion
Of the States, by sectional organization
and movement to nsurp the control Of
the Government of the United States.
confidently believe that the great
body of those, who inconsiderately took
this fatal step, are sincerely attached
to the Constitution and the Union.
They would upon deliboration, shrink
with unaffected horror from any con-
seious act of dismion or civil war. But
they have entered into path. which
leads nowhere, unless it be to civil war
aud disuhion. and which has no other
possible outlet. They have proceeded
thus far in that direction in consequence
Of the successive stages of their progress
having consisted OF series of secondary
issues, each Of which profossed to be can
fined within constitutional aud penceful |
limits but which attempted Indirectly !
what few men were willing to do directs
ly, that is, to act aegressively against
the constitutional rights of nearly one
half of the thirty.ona States. t
lu the long series of acts Of indirect !
aggression. the fest was tho strenuous !
agitation, by ciizeus Of tho Northern
States, in Congress and ont it, of the
question Of negro emancipation in the
Southern States. .,. e a. fr.t
The second stop in this path of evil
consisted of acts of people of the North,
ern States, and in several instances of
their governments, aimed to facilitate
the escape Of persons held in service in
The Southern States,ond to prevent their
extradition when reclaimed according to
Jaw and ia yirtue Of exnress DIoyisions |