Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1858-08-06
WHY WE DO NOT OWN FRAZER's
RIVER.

XIV Eh.
Amid the exultations which greet the dis
coveries of gold at Frazcr's River arc mingled
some very natural regrets that the said gold
belongs to Queen Vctoria's dominion instead
Of our own.
Queen Victoria derives her title to it,
whether well or i'll founded through the Dem
ocratc Party Of the United States Every
bodyremembers the vocierous brag of Fifty
four forty or fight" with which President
Polk's Administration was ushered in The
boundary between us and the British Posses
sions was then unsettled, and the country was
assured by the proclamation Of Democratic
presses and politicians that the treaty about
to be made should secure us all the territory
up to the line of 81 deg. 40 min, or else we
should try the virtue of "force and arms TO
compel Great Britain to acccde to that line.
But in this case, as in that Of Kansas, our
financial policy, and others "too numerous to
mention, Democratic profession proved to be
vary different from Democratic practice. The
brag served to carry elections, and then came
the backing down" Not only did we not
get "Filty-Four Forty nor Fight, but We
submitted to take only up to 40 deg, and to
give up all claim 20 Nancouyer's Island, even
as far south as 48.
Thus it happened that Frazer's River, with
all lbs appurtenant "bars, "placcrs, "gulch-
os, mines and other repositories of golden
wealth, which are in the latitude of 40 -,
fell into the hands Of our British neighbors,
and the new Gold Colony to be founded
there will enrich the Golfers Of the Chancellor
of the Exchequor instead Of those of the
Treasury.
Either our claim Of 54:lO was just. or it
was unjust. If it was unjust, the Admins
tration had no business TO make it. If it was
just, they ought never to have backed out OF
it. Imagine what maediction and railing and
storming at the cowardly british Wings
would have graccd the columns Of our Dem
ocratia contemporaries just now, had it been
an Administration Of opposing political opin-
ions which made this unlucky concession
But as it is, they find silence in regard to the
past history of Fraze S River. as convenient
as it is xpressiyc.-AJany Ere Journal.
~ Tho St. Louis Democrat iudulgcs in a
practical talk with those timd good peo-
Pile who sag they wish Slavery we're banishod
from Missouri, but cant see how that re-
suit is to be obtained Hear the Democrat
"How can it be done, both without agita-
ton and without embarrassment; We reply
that the solution flows naturally from our
pas. history as a State, and our relation to
the large migrations which are looking to the
West for new homes. The census of the last
five years disclosos that the advent Of free la
Dor in whatever counties of Missouri it has
settled, has in so far banished Slavery. We
have illustrated this fact so often that it is
scarcely necessary to repeat it. 1t is in
stanced with remarkable clcarncss in this very
County of ST. Louis Ten years ago half the
labor performed here was done by slave hands
in the field and in the factory Now, free a-
Dor occupies all the workshops, throng, every
avenue of city employment, while the largest
farms in the county arc harvested exclusively
by white hands and there is reason in this
Slave labor cannot stand in the presence of
free labor, and the increase Of the latter IS
marked by corresponding decrease in the
former. In Gasconadc the influx of free pop
ulation has reduced the number of slaves one
half since 1852. In Cole County the same
result has been seen to follow. Ninoty-fye
counties show its relative disappearance in
enumerating populations. Thus its presence
has diminished the slavo system in large
portion Of the State already, and its future in
fuonco, if encouraged, upheld, legislatcd for,
and not against, will Danish it entirely from
the whole State in very few years. We
thus nd ourselves OF a pernicious incubus up
on the prosperity Of our own people, while
we supply the fields Of industry with a ten
fold more effective force. There is no social
arrangement; for substituted skilled labor
with its intelligence, its machinery and its
nerve, preceded the departure of the blight
ing. decaying. scrNile system. There is no
agitation, or at least there need be nope for
no attack is made upon vested rights as
chiefly the appliances Of great movements of
population are used to accomplish radical
changes in our domestic economy. This is
the practical tgorLipg and as we speak to prac-
teal men, We ask them to consider its worth
State policy, relieved Of the trash and
nonsense and falschood that opponents seek to
throw asound the whole matter
I,S- The Chicago Tribune has a correspon-
dent travelling through Central Minnesota,
who thus writes:
"A great deal Of the country through which
we passed near Anoka is owned by parties
living East; and sometimes several miles in
tcrvene between one house and another
This land was bought up some six years ago
by spectators, and the consequence is that
not tenth part Of it is settled and cultiyat-
ed, Why do not the people memorable