Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1859-11-10

were torpid, but when seventeen men attacked
sovereign State, then Maryland arms, and
Virginia arms, and the United States Govern
ment arms, and they three rush against seven
teen men
Travellers tell us that the Geysers of iceland
those singular boiling springs of the North
may be transported with fury by plucking up
handful of grass or turf, and throwing them in
to the springs. The hot springs of Virginia ara
of the same kind A handful of men was
thrown into them, and what boiling there has
beeni
But, meanwhile, no one can fail to see that
this poor, chid-bere old man, is the manifest
of them ALL Bold, unAnching, honest with
out deceit or dodge, refusing to take technical
advantages of any sort but openly ayowing his
principles and motives, gloryIng in them, IN
danger and death, as much as when in security
that wounded old father is the most remarkabl
figure in this whole drama. The Governor the
officers of the State, and all the attJrneys are
pigmies compared to him.
deplorc his misiortuncs. symathize with
his sorrows. mourn the hiding or obscura.
ton of his reason. disapprove Of his mad and
feeble schemes. shrink from the folly of the
bloody foray, and shrink, likewise, from all
| JD6 uHIlCIputiOHb vi tlItt DlOOubIlcQ
which, doubtless, ere long, will follow-for
when was cowardice ev:rmagnanimous? They
will kill the man, not f or treason, but for prov
ing them towards
By-and-by, when, men look back and 500
without prejudice that whole scene, they will
not be able to avoid saying. What must be
the measure of. manhood in scene where a
crazed old man stood head and shoulders above
| Al L., Ill H.. ,Iolo I.
average citizenship when lunatic is hero?"
One word more, and that is as to the insecure
ty of those States that carry powder as their
chief cargo. Do you suppose that if tidngs
had come to New York that the United States
Armory in Springfield had been seized by seven
teen men, New Haven and Hartford, and SIAM
ford and Worcester, and New York land Boston,
and Albany, would have been thrown into
fever and panic in consequence of the event?
We scarcely should have read the papers to see
what became of it We should have thought
that it was a matter which the Springfield peo-
pie could manage. The thought of danger
would not have entered into our heads. There
would not have been any danger But in q
State where there is such infammable stuff
as Slavery, there as danger, and the people of
the South know it and they cannot help it.
40 not Dldlne tneln sO HiucH lOr DelnS AFRAID
there Is cause for fear where they have such
population as they have down at the bottom of
society, But what must be the nature of State
and domestic institutions which keep brave men
at the point Of fear all their life long?
| do not propose, at this time, to express my
opinion upon the general subject of Slavery. I
have elsewhere, and often, deliberately uttered
my testimony Reflection and experience only
confirm my judgment of its Unreasonable evils.
1t is double-cdged evil, that cuts both ways,
wounding master and slave; a pest to good
morals; consumption ofthe industrial virtues ;
burden upon society, in its commercial and
whole economic arrangements; political
anomaly, nuisance, and a cause of inevitable
degradation in religious ideas, feelings and
! institutions. All other causes of friction, put
together, derived from the weakness or the
wckedness of men, are not half 80 mischievous
to our land as is this gigantic evil.
But it exists in our land, with broad spread
and long-continued hold. The extent of our
duties toward the slave and toward the master,
isanother and separate question. Our views
upon the nature Of Slavery may be right, and
our views of our duty toward it may wrong.
At this time it is peculiarly necessary that all
good men should be divinely led to act with
prudence and efficient wisdom.