Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1858-05-21

Gratis, let us make unto ourselves a new
party" SO say some Of our contemporaries.
North and South, who have heretofore OPP
posed the Administration and yet made no
terms with the Republicans Well, so far as
regards ourselves, we listen with all respect
for our relations with these journals were
once of the most congenial character. But
we arc obliged to reply, that we have no con
/ fdoncc whatever in any scheme for the recon-
struction of parties. The idea is an essen
/ tal fallacy. What Sir James Macintosh SAID
| of Governments, is just as true OF parties
/ They are not made but grow. You may as
well undertake to manufacture an oak tree,
as endeavor to carve out voritable living and
sclf-sustaining political party Such an or
/ gonization, if it have any vitality at all. is a
spontaneous, VIC may say an inevitable, out
| growth of the necessities Of the times. The
| ideas Of the times are its soil; the spirit OF
/ the times its atmosphere. These are its ele-
ments, and when it is no longer in harmony
with these it dies Of itself, just as the old
/ WING party died We admit that party may
/ be bent by the art Of man. from its normal
direction, and that too great way, without
destroying its vitality: but even that is not
salutary We see its effect in the present
misshapeu, gnarled, knotted, cracked, and
]
party. The attempt to bend any party, when
once self-rooted out Of its natural growth is
I apt to prove mischief but the attempt to
/ hew ont a new party, and make it take root
/ by any external appliance, is sure to prove an
/ absurdity.
Now the sooner our friends learn TO APP
/ prcciate this one great fact the better. The
copfroiipg necessity of The times is to settle rhat
I shall be The policg of He Federal Government
iorards Siarcrg and that question must be
DEFINIrrvELY settled before the Republican
/ party can possibly gire place 10 any other or
/ gqni-aiiop. IL is idle and foolish for any one
/ to blind himself to this manifest truth, or TO
imagine that because particular case has
/ been or will soon be settled like that of Kan
sas, the policy itself is no longer in question.
/ IL is perfectly certain that the bearings Of
/ this slavery question have greatly changed
within the last few years. The leading minds
/ of the South are thoroughly prevailed with
/ the belief that growth and expansion are nee
cssary to the we'll being of the institution.
and that the natural influences which operate
against this can never be overcome, except by
the positice artire interference of the Federal
Government in its favor. And we confess
this idea is not altogether without reason.
1 All history shows that there is nothing so
favorable to the life and yigor of any organi-
zaton, either i'm Church or State, as an out
reaching aggressive habit of action, and that
the natural effect of confinement and passyty
is TO bring on decay. And again there is the
fact that slavery every year finds it more diff
fcult 20 expand because of the growing pre-
pondcrcnce of free labor There is nerve,
will, an encrgy a power of adaptation in
free labor that give AN immense advantage
over the opposite system i'm the struggle for
new hclds-an advantage which must assured
ly tell dccisyciy against the latter unless the
Federal government comes 20 aid with its inn
mensc resources And here is the point.
Shall he Fe3srl Gotcramept perrer' rs pow-
ors for tie bcioof ~ S'arsrB or potP The
southern leaders demand it shall Il Be al
iored The Democratic party says Yes.
The Republican party says No. And it is
not possible that there should be an interme-
diato answer.
II is here and here only that the actual
living issue lies Shall he National poiicv be-.
come pro- Slacery2 Franklin Pierce yielded
to southern pressure, and did all that hC
could to make it so. James Buchanan has
yielded to Southern pressure, and in Xix,
manner does all that be can to make it so
Both are Northern mon. The one came into
power as the peculiar exponent Of the Com
promise Of 1850, and bound himself by Tia,
most solemn pledges TO take no new stand il
relation to Slavery, and yet. before his tern
was quarter through, was constrained {,
lend himself 20 the base work of breaking ~
the Missouri Compromise, which had stoo,
respected and inviolato for a generation, anC
of forcing Slavery, by every possible execu
tive appliance, into the region which thai
Compromise protected The other came into
power, because he was found with hands clcai
of that guilt, and for a time he cyiuced q dis
, position to treat Kansas justly and impartial
ly; and yet, before even his first Congress.
had met, he was brought to the disgrace o.
: recanting his own language, and rcpudiatng
his own officials, and of adopting, in behalf
of Slavery, course of action towards Kan
sas as much worse than that of his predecos-
f sor as corruption is mcaner than intimidation
q and trickory meancr than violence That was
prodigious power which thus subjugatcd
these two Presidents, and pressed them like
very slaves into its service 1t was to put an
end to this Federal subseryiency that the Re
publican party sprung into existence, and
nothing on earth is more certain than that the
: Republican party will continue, until this
work Is edectually and defnitvely accom-
plished. If it be indeed true that Slavery
must suuer ana eventually die unless the
, Federal Government forsake its old paths and
old standards Of duty to devote itself spa-
, cally TO its interests and prostitute every fac
ulty to its service, then SO much the worse
e for Slavery. There is nothing in that insti-
tuition, nor, we may say in any other, that
y Iustites the porversion of the Constitution
and the debasement of the Government. in
order to strengthen and preserve it, If
the Slave Power would be content with sim
pie inaction on the part of the Fede. al Gov
ornment there would be no further occasion
for controversy with it. Even that portion
OF the Republican party which regards it to
be the right of Congress to interfere against
the further creation Of Slave States, would
yet have no inducemont to insist upon the ex-
ercise of that right for free immigration and
hee labor acting upon the basis of Popular
Sovereignty, are of themselves amply able TO
convert every Territory into a free State, if
left to their own energies. They need no
Federal help, but they do need to be EXEMPT
from Federal opposition and persecution. And
1T IS that exemption which the Republican
party intend hereafter to secure, as well as
keep the Federal government, in all other