Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1859-12-08
TERMS ie1,60 strictly fn advance
EhMS, Sa,OO at the years snd.

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where the natural rights eff man are annulled,
where his energies are crushed by tyranny,
where the fruits of his industry are wrested
from him, where there ia no security of life or
properly, and the people cannot rise under the
accumulated ills of bad government. In vain
then may the skies be fair, and the spontaneous
earth bring forth whatever is needed for sus-
ienance. We live under a Constitution and
form OF government, the mildest. the freest,
and the most liberal yet known to the world
under laws which protect alike the strongest
and the weakest citizen we are restricted in
no natural rights which belong to the ndivid-
ual, except in those resigned by common con-
sent for the security of all, for the permansnce
OF the social and political compact Here are
ho hoary, feudal abusive customs 90 difficult
to shake off, and which cling as with the clench
OF death to the outskirts of the highest civl-
zatIon mo relics of old ane harbarous codes;
no generally confessed abomnat;ons which re-
main upon our Statute Books for the crude or
violent projects of Reform Weare subject to no
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ation nor are we taxed unjus,ly, aud withou.
representation, as we used to complain.
Here are no castes, and orders, and arbitra.
ry distinctions in society, which hand down
exclusive privileges forever to worn-out, imbe-
se races, while they shut the gates of hope
upon the aspirations of high intellect and
of noble energy, The most honorable place
in the gift of this people is open with
fairest chances to the humblest youth who
drives the plough. This makes our atmosphere
more blithe and bracing than that of other
lands, as mountain airs are better than the
exhalation of Pontine marshes This sends
glow to the cheek of every young man as he
starts off in the morning of life gives dignity
to every father of a family, and enkindes the
hopes of ambition in the heart Of every proud
mother. Here religious federation is unbound
ed, no check is given to the fteedom of opin-
len, we worship God in what form we choose,
according to the dictates of our conscences we
are forced to pay no unwil ing tribute to es-
tablished Religion, and without enumerating
farther, it is scarce possible to think of any
elements of civil or political freedom which are
not already ours. In negative view if we re-
, gard our exemption from ills and our immuni-
ties alone, it is no wonder that our shores are
the refuge for every nation, and that the success
of our institutions should be the last hope of
. the oppressed.
Our positive advantages are still greater, yet
in the unequalled fields presented here to hui
man enterprise, in the vast resources yet to be
explored, in the mines from which the ore is
yet undigged, and in the glorious plains whore
the reapers' scythe has not yet flashed, in all
the wealth which Is to be garnered in, we do
, not place our trust either for the continuance
of those things already mentioned, or for our
stability as nation. We should rather see
cause of alarm, for there is something dreadful
, in privilege. How dreadful is this place
though we should regard our country as an
earthly Paradise. The applications of science
alone have developed an amount of physical
power and material means almost too much for
the age without additional moral safeguards
f But it is the growing policy, we believe, Of
every State in our confederacy, and it is the
, settled policy of this, to make the blessings of
education free to all her children, to rich and
, poor alike, free as the common air other
wise as is evident to the Statesman and the
Christian, our development must over weigh US
into ruin, and our sudden ripeness tend to as
quick decay. Only so shall luxury not tend to
vice, liberty not degenerate into insubordina-
ton, free speech and free press into ntolerable
licentou sness, the right of suffrage be not unfit
for use, The chance 10 rise, the opportunities of
power be seized upon by proaigates, or help on
, the Vaccinations Of selfish and abandoned men.
1t is source of additional gratitude then,
, that where the danger is in exact proportion to
1 the means of power, and gigantic forces SO sud
IDENTIFY entrusted to our inexperienced hands,
we have in the genera intellge nee of the peo.
i pie, in the extent Of popular education, and in
the improved systems by which it is carried on
f, the grounds of hope for the permanence of our
e free institutions. When ignorance shall have
}, been banished, when every child can read
q when every home shall be an institution Of
g learning, and all the humanizing graces shall
= follow in the train Of letters, we say not that
the peril will be past that the passions of men
i will be subdued, that unhaowed ambition will
not be rife, or that the struggle for place will
not endanger the dignity of each high office !;
q vet there will be a moral power in the welled-
ia ucated masses to guard our rights, TO check the
maneuvres of corrupt politicians and We may
, hope for a race of statesmen more like those of
. earlier days 10 educate the people is to
swee,eu and purity the very well spring of ma
"a tional le This alone can accomplish the re-
"a iormatory ends too often in vain sought by leg
), islation by the enactment Of laws which lie as
). dead letters on the Statute Books the constant
=. discussion of which is an enormous tax upon
0 the treasury, and the neglect of which engen.
:. ders contempt for universal law and order We
. can at the best but indferently cut off the di-
# ysrsi6ed streams aud sources of unkindness
/, which ooze up every where, while the fountain
s of pollution gushes out with full strong head.
}, But we must go farther still for while in
telhgencce is the best earthly safeguard of all
which is most dearly priced in human rights,
"a and stable governmental may itself be dangerous
Is according to its very depth or very shallowness,
.s unless imbued with holy spirit The first in
y tellectual advances of nation in the sudden
,e opeuing of means of information, and of ac-
> ouriur knowledge, in the freedom and range
I'd given to thought and opinion, taken in counec-
: ton with the projects Of dreamers. and the
d lashness Of novites, may be as fraught with