Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1859-11-12

\ correspondent of the y. y. Tribune has
the following very appropriate and truthful re-
marAs:-
There is at present much alarm, true or af-
fccted, it, respect to the recent transaction at
lIarper's Ferry. There may be question how
ever, whether the real doHger is seen and ap-
pretended as it ought to be- 1t may take some
words to explain this. There is in this country
most peculiar institution. to say the least, of
questionable morality. There are some good
reasons for regarding it as a serious political
evil Even when acknowledged to be local. and
claiming to be let alone on that very ground, it
was still regarded, and justly regarded, as hav
ing more or less bearing upon the neral
welfare. Since thence it has passed those bounds
and claims to be national. 1t demands in
troduction as matter of right, into every new
Territory, and protection there, irrespective of
any national or local legislation to the contrary.
1t claims to be a good, per Sc, and not an evil,
although history shows that it has destroyed
every nation that has ever cherished it. \ power
connected with it, and drawing its own strength
from it, has. undcniably, for many long years
controlled the Administration, the legislation,
and at last obtained full possession of the ju-
| dietary of the nation. This institution has con-
nccted with it certain most vital and inseparable
/ consequences. 1t carries in its train, wherever
introduced, evils other than the great and pri-
mary evil In every new Territory or State into
which it comes this comes along with it-a gross
inequality of political representation, injuriou:
to other members of the confederacy. There
comes with it, inevitably just that state of in
security, and that consequent peril which ha
been lately brought to the public notice in Sc
striking manner.
1t as admitted BY its very advocates that ever,
new community in which this institution is per
mitted to get footing places itself, and all it
future interests, over a smothered political vol
cano. Undeniablc facts have proved that il
such community, too, there can be no free dis
cussion, no free press, no free church. All thl
goes in its train; and all this shows how exten
sive are its bearings, and what interest attache
to it, not only in the localities where it is social
cherished, but in the remotest parts of the Uni
ted Nation. 1t has other consequences, NOR
indirect, indeed, but none the less deeply affect
ing the political rights of other members of tn
confederacy. 1t claims that what it calls pro-
erty, though it be by the common consent
. mankind unnatural property, shall be propert
erery,ohere, while what other States make cit
f zenship shall be citizenship norhere out Of sue
/ States. In other words. that the one thin
though the lo,cer thing in its best aspect thoug
unnatural in this particular species, though d.
e signedly left unmentioned in the Constitution
t shall be NATIONAL while the higher thing, ctize
# ship, though expressly mentioned and protectt
/ therein, shall not be national at all. The ms
S whom Georgia makes STARE may be carried
:, slave, and held as slave in Nebraska; Il
= man-the same man it may be-whom Vermo
= makes citizen, cannot go as a citizen into Il
n same common territory. Such confusion h
l. it introduced into fundamental political idea
e and for such paradoxcs has this Slave Pow
e succeeded in obtaining the sanction of the ]
y dietary which itself has imposed upon the n
tion.
" Now, in this fair and undeniable statemei
" we have used no railing terms; we have so
III nothing of its domestic immortality, or the sta
h ling fact that it shuts out four millions of M
ly yes, men, sons of Adam and human brotht
of Christ-from the most common rights of h
st manity. Our argument is satisfied with its /
l. tional bearings, and the peryasion of ideas
Or has introduced, aud seeks 10 render pormane