Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1860-12-28
Shall we Compromise with the Seeding States :

misses are not only allowable, but duty.
So when the interests of different sections
of the country are conflicting, it is the
right and duty of those different sections
to yield their individual interests, so that
each section shall be equally respected;
and the integrity of the body polite re-
main unimpaired This is patriotism,
for patriotism is nothing more or less than
the sacrifice of individual interests for the
public good.
This right of concession must, however,
be confined to those things which we have
right to yield. If in times of great ma
tional danger, man gives up his proper
ty for the benefit of the State, he does a
patriotic act and one for which he is al
ways respected and admired. But, if in
stead of sacrificing his own property for
the public good he steals his neighbours
goods and offers them for the public ben
eft, he deserves only contempt.
So in times of national turmoil and con-
fict like the present, it is our duty to
yield our personal interests, so far as we
can, for the general good but to sacrifice
our principle and to compromise truth and
justice, is wicked.
IF the secessionists made no further de-
mand on us than to forego some matters
of public policy which are favorable to us
from purely local motives, we ought to
concede and compromise rather than jecp-
ardize the peace and prosperity of the
Union by our obstinacy. But when they
ask us to abandon principles which we
have advocated for the sake Of the right,
they demand of us a compromise we have
no right to make.
When the question was protection or
no protection, and high tariff was wealth
to New England and ruin to South Caro-
lima, then it was right and patriotic for
the different sections to compromise on
some policy not ruinous, but yet not
wholly satisfactory to either. But now,
when the question is liberty or slavery,
and the determination we now make is to
be made not for ourselves only, but to set
tie the future condition of the faircst por-
ton of our territory for all coming time,
they call on us for the surrender of prin-
ciples that are not ours to surrender.
The Republican party has for its object
the establishment of principles that are
not local. The North has no more inter-
est in their success than the South or
West. 1t stands opposed to the further
extension of slavery. because that extern
sion is intrinsically wrong, and because it
is ruinous to the territories themselves
and to the best interests of a free country.
Suppose that, instead of South Carolina,
Utah should now secede, and the demand
should be that the constitution be so
amended as to guarantee the institution OF
polygamy to all the latter-day saints,
wherever they choose to establish their
harcms would it be our right or duty to
make such compromise for the sake of
peace and harmony? In such cases CON-
promises are wicked. If we could by CON-
promises and publications stave off the
issue and shirk the responsibility on some
other shoulders, that issue must come and
that responsibility must be met by some
one, The longer it is postponed, the more
serious it becomes.
There are crises in the history of every
nation where a single determination molds
that national character for subsequent
ages. In such crises, weakness is crime,
and they who have charge of affairs, have
on them responsibility which they must
not disregard
Such crisis has now happened It
came once before, but was postponed by
truces and compromises, and now comes
back upon us more threatening than be-
fore.
The issue now is, whether the will of
the majority of the people fairly and
legitimately expressed, shall be set aside
at the caprice of factious and defeated
minority. No other time is better for the
determination Of that issue than the
present. If the election of any man for
President or the success of any party in a
legitimate Way. is cause for revolution. wo