Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1858-05-22
The Republican Party.
Committee.
May nth, 1858.

Democrats end Americans with the Republicans
in the House of Representatives for the defeat
of the bill forcing the Lecompton Constitution
upon Kansas. several of the presses that were
inimica to the Republicans during and since
the Presidential election have clamorcd loudly
for a reconstruction of the parties in opposition
10 the present administration. They have elabor-
ated the idea of new party to embrace all the
anti-Lecompton sentiment and strength of the
country, with platform broad enough for all
to stand upon and upon which all can act in uni
son. The New York Times suggests that the
Republicans in not listening tavorably to such
a proposed fusion have thrown away the best
chance for the success Of the opposition in the
next campaign.
Those who advocate such fusion seem to
forget that political parties cannot be manufac-
tured to erder They are not made but are the
spontaneous, natural growth of circumstances
and condtions--of the political necessities of
the times The ideas of the times are its soil
the spirit of the times its atmosphere. These
are its clements, and when it is no longer in
harmony Will lllCSt IL ulSN vi iNoSh' ~ my
sometimes be bent from its normal direction
without destroying altogether its vitality; but
even that is not salutary. We see its effect IN
the present misshapen, gnarled, knotted crack
ed and heart-rotten condition of the democrat
ic party. The attempt to bend any party, when
once self-rooted, out of its naturalgrowth is apt
to prove mischief but the attempt to hew out
a new party, and make it take root by any ex-
ternal appliance, is sure to prove an absurdity.
The idea that new party can be created out
of the incongruouS materials embraced in the
union of Republicans, Americans and anti-Le-
compton democrats, seems to us TO he absurd.
The grounds upon which the last named class
of politicians separated themselves from the adj
ministraton is much too limited to afford any
well grounded hope for their future. If the
American party as now constructed desire to
act efficiently in staying the Entertainments Of
Slavery they must at once and entirely discard
the platform upon which they stood in 1856.
To all of these as well as to those Republicans
who have great faith in the saving efficacy of
such union, we commend the following, which
we heartily endorse from the New York Com-
ie, q Enquirer:
Now the sooner our friends learn to alprc-
cate this one great fact the bttter. The con-
trolling necessity Of the times is to settle ohat
stall be the policy Of The Federal Government
toeard Slarery, and that question must be DEF
INIrELY settled before the Republican party can
possibly gire place to any other organization.
1t is idle and foolish for any one to blind him
self to this manifest TRUTH or to imagine that
because a particular case has been or will soon
be settled, like that Of Kansas, the policy itself
- is no longer in question. 1t sperfectly certain
that the bearings of this slavery question have
greatly changed within the last few years. The
leading minds of the South are thoroughly per-
vade6 with the belief that growth and expan-
sion are necessary to the wSil-beilg Of the in
stitution, and that the internal Influences which
operate against this can never be overcome, ex-
cept by the positire aetire interference of the
Federal Government in its favor And we con-
fcss this idea is not altogether without reason.
All history shows that there is nothing so favor
able to the life and vigor of any organization,
either in Church or State, as an outreaching ag-
gressye habit of action, and that the natural eff
feet of confinement and passiyity is to bring on
decay. And again there is the fact that slavery
every year finds it more difficult to expand be-
cause of the growing preponderance of free la
Dor. There is a nerve, a will, an energy, pow
er of adaptation in free labor that give it an i'm
MI. tl,n NNestn
the struggle for new felds-an advantage which
must assuredly tell decisvely against the latter
unless the Federal government comes to aid
with its immense resources. And here is tht
point Shall the Feieral Goreynmem pe,ra7
its pOioers for the 6etoqf Of Slacery, or not
The Southern leaders demand it;-shau IL be
allowed? The Democratic party SAYS Yes. The
Republican party says No. And it is not pos
sibe that there should be an intermediate an
swer.
1t is here and here only that the actual liv.
ing issue lies Shall the national policy becom,
pro-Slapey? Franklin Pierce yielded to South
ern pressure, and did all he could to make it 80
James Buchanan has yielded to Southern pres
sure, and in like manner does all that he can t,
make it so. Both are Northern men, The ON,
came into power as the peculiar exponent of thu
Compromise of 1850, and bound himself by tn
most solemn pledges to take no new stand i.
relation to Slavery and yet, before his term wa
quarter through, was constrained to lend him
self to the base work of breaking up the Mis-
souri, Compromise, which had stood respected
and inyiolate for generation, and of forcin!
Slavery, by every possible executive appliance
into the region which that Compromise protect
ed. The other came into power, because h
was found with hands clear of that guilt, am
for time he evinced disposition to treat X an
sas justly and impartially and yet, before ever
his first Congress had met, he was brought t,
the disgrace of recanting his own language, anc
repudiating his own officials, and of adopting
in behalf of Slavery a course of action toward
Kapsas as much worse than that of his prede
cessor as corruption is meaner than intimidation
and trickery meaner than violence. That was
prodigious power which thus subjugated thes
two Presidents, and pressed them like very slave