Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1860-03-09

I know the Democracy OF the North |
know them now in their waning strength
I do not know a possible disunionist among
them all. 1 believe they will be as faithful
to the Union now as they were in the by z me
DAYS when their ranks were full, and their
challenge to the combat was always
the war-cry of victory. But if lit shall prove
otherwise, then the world will all the sooner
know that every party in this country must
stand on Union ground; that the American
people will sustain no party that IS not
capable of making a sacrifice of its ambition
on the altar of the country; that although a
party may have never so much of prestige,
and never such traditional merit, yet, II 1t be
lacking in the one virtue of loyalty to the
Union. all its advantages will be u%navaillng;
and then obnoxious as, through long
cherished and obstinate %preiudices, the Re
publican party is in the capital States, ye'
even there it will advance like an army with
banners, winning the favor of the whole
people, and it will be armed with the ma
tinnal confidence and support, when it shall
be found the only party that defends and
maintains the integrity of the Union.
THE UNION TERROR ELECTORS.
Those who seek to awaken the terrors OF
disunion seem to me to have too hastily con-
sidered the conditions under which they are
to make their attempt. Who believes that a
Republican administration and Congress
could practice tyranny under a Constitution
which imposes so many checks as Ours2 Yet
that TYRANNY must not only be practiced but
must be intolerable, and there must be no
remaining hope for constitutional relief be
ca (oroiblo raei.topna oap find .rrounI p
stand on anywhere.
The people of the United States, acting in
conformity with the Constitution are the SUI
preme tribunal to try and determine all po-
litical issues. They are as competent 10
decide the issues of to-day as they have here
tofore to decide the issues of other days. T-ey
can reconsider hereafter and reverse, if need
be. the Judgment they shall pronounce TO-
day, as they have more than once recon-i--
cred and reversed their judgments in former
times. 1t needs no revolution to correct any
error, or prevent any danger under any CIR
c~umstancas
Nor is any new or special cause for revnlu-
ton likely to occur under a Republican nd
ministration. We are engaged in no new
transaction, not even in a new dispute. Our
fathers undertook a great work for the i-
selves, f r us and for our successOrs-to erect
a free and federal empire, whose arches shall
span the North American continent, and re-
feet the rays Of the sun throughout his
whole passage from one to the other of the
great oceans. They erected thirteen Of is
columns all at once. These are standing now,
the admiration Of mankind. Their success
Ors added twenty more; even we who are
here have shaped and elevated three of that
twenty. and all these are az firm and steadtast
as the first thirteen and more will vet be
necessary when we shall have rested from our
laborS. Some among US prefer for these col
umns a composite material others the pure
white marble. Our fathers and our prede-
cessors differed in the same way, and on the
same point. What execratlOns should We
not all unite in ~pronouncing on any states
man who heretofore, from mere %disappoInt-
ment and disgust at being overruled in his
choice of materials for any new column then
to be quarried. should have laid violent hands
on the imperfect structure and brought it
down to the earth, there TO remain a wreck,
THE FOLLY OF DIsUSIoN THREATS.
l remain now in the opinion l have uni
formly expressed here and elsewhere, that
these hasty threats of disuniOn are 50 I'M
natural that they will find no hand to ex-
ecute them. We are of one race. language.
liberty, and faith; engaged. indeed, in varied
industry: but even that industry, 50 diversi-
fed, brings us into more intimate relations
with each other than any other people, how
ever homogeneous and though living under
a consolidated Government. ever maintlined
We languish throughout, if one joint of our
Federal frame is smitten; while it Is certain
that a part discovered must perish. You
may refine as you please about the structure
of the Government, and say that is a CON
pact, and that a breach, by one of the
States or by Congress, Of any one article,
absolves all the members from allegiance.
and that the States may separate when they
have, OF fancy they have, cause for war.
p. nee try to subvo~t IT, and YOU Will find
that 1t Is a Government Of %
whole peOPle-as individuals. as
well as a compact Of States that every
individual member of the body-politic Is c1n-
scious Of his in crest and power in it. and
knows thai he will be helpless. power
less, hopeless, when it shall have gone down.
Mank,ni have a natural right, a natural
and a natural capacity Tor self
-'ft q lAuFll anu Nlltlr d0 n-AFs LiFN arr
sufficiently ripened by culture, they will and
must have seli-government, and no other.
THE CONSTITUTION M ITS MECHANISM
The trainers Of our Constitution, with a
that surpassed ali previous under
standing among men, adapted 1t to these in
herent elements Of human nature. He
strangely, blindly misunderstandS the anat
Omy of the great system who thinks that its
only bonds, or even its strongest ligameutS.
are the written compact or even the multi
piled and thoroughly ramifed roads and thor
)ughtares Of trade, commerce and social in
5ercourse. These are strong indeed, but its
instruments Of cohesion-those
render it inseparable and in
iivisible-are the millions Of fbers of
Millions of contented, happy human hearts.
by their affections, their ambitions.
md their best hopes equally the high and the
ow, the rich and the poor, the wise and I'M
wise, the learned and the |untutOred, even
he good and the bad, to a Government, the
irst, the last, and the only such one that has
ver existed, which takes equal heed always |
# their wants, their wishes. and their opin-
ms: and appeals to them all, individually.
nee in a year, or in two years, or at least in
our years, for their expressed consent and
enewal, without which it must cease. No.
% where you will and to what class you NAV.
commissions for your fatal service IN n
and and your bounty counted by the hun
red or the thousand pieces of silver in the
Their, a thousand r~esisters will rise up for
very recruit you can engage. On the banks
qually Of the st. Lawrence and of the Rio
on the Atlantic and the Pacific
oasis, on the shores of the Cult of Mexico
nd in the dells OF the Rocky Mountains,
mong the fishermen on the banks of New
oundland, the weavers and spinners OF Mas
achusetts, the stevedores of New York, the
liners of Pennsylvania, Pixies Peak. and
alifornia. the wheat-growers ofIndiana, the
otton and sugar planters on the Mississippi,
mong the voluntary citizens OF every other
md not less than the native born, the Chris
an and the Jew, among the Indians on the
the contumacious MormOns in Des-
tie Africans free, the Africans IN bond
&c, the inmates of hospitals and a~lms-houses,
nd even the criminals in the penitentiaries,
,hearse the story of your wrongs and their