Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1860-02-24
EXPANSION OF THE EVIL.

. ~ tliS pICStlll llilt.
: EXPANSION OF THE EVIL.
Sir, this expansive growth of the insti
tntion of African slavery, this development
of the slave power, during the past seven
ty years, have wrought wonderful change
a complete revolution in the sentiments and
opinions of the public men who control the
councils of America. What contrast be-
tween slavery in America in 1889 and
slavery in America in 1901 Then it was
weak; now it is strong. Then its influence
over the nation was impotent; now it holds
the government in its iron grasp. Then
the public men who dictated the policy Of
the government deemed il to be moral, So
cial and political evil, which humanity and
religion deplored now 1t is regarded by
the men who control the government as a
positive good, benficent system, "a great
moral, in the words of the Senator from
Mississippi, (Mr. Brown,) social and polit-
ical blessing; blessing to the master and
a blessing to the slave" Then to prohibit
it in the Territories was deemed alike the
right and duty of the government now,
the avowed doctrine of the Administration
of the government is, that the Shareholders
have right to carry their slaves as prop
erty into the Territories, and hold them
there as property by virtue of the Consti-
tuition, and that ''neither Congress nor the
Territorial Legislature, nor any human
power has authority TO annul or impair that
vested right" Then, TO cherish, as a liv-
ing faith, the creed that "all men are Gre
ated equal;" to believe slavery to be an
evil; to believe with Henry that IA time
would come to abolish the lamentable evil !"
and with Jefferson that nothing is more
certainly written in the book of fate than
that this people shall be free" brought nei-
ther prescription from power, nor indigni-
ties from the people; now these sentiments
bring upon the public man the prescription
from power, the ridicule and reproach of
presses in the interest of power, and sub
ject the American citizens, whose rights
are guarded by constitutional guarantees,
in the slave States 10 the insults and de-
grading indignities of lawless and brutal
mobs, maddened by the fanaticism of slave
ry, to arrests, imprisonments, fines, and
banishment. Then, the people of America
eonfided their new government TO the guar
diansliP and guidance of statesmen, known
/ by their acts and recorded opinions TO be un-
alterably opposed TO the slave trade, TO the
perpetuity of slavery, to its expansion into
the vast empire of the Northwest now,
the public men of America, who inherit the
sentiments and opinions of Washington,
jefferson, Madison, Adams, Jay, Hamilton,
and their illustrious compeers, who would
consecrate the Territorial possessions Of
the Republic TO free institutions for all, are
admonished,i in these Chambers, that they will
not be permitted, in the slave States, TO
avow their sentiments, or to advocate to the
election of the Presidency in 1S60,of a
candidate representing their policy; aye.
that the election of such candidate will
cause the dissolution of the Union.
WHAT IT CoMPELs PUBLIC MEN TO DO.
The slave power compels public men,
nurtured and reared amidst the influences
of free institutions, TO hasten with alacrity
10 disavow past sentiments and opinions, TO
accept the dogmas of the slave propaganda,
and to join in hunting down old comrades.
That power has established in the slave
States relentless despotism over the free
dom of speech and of the press, and of
correspondence through the mails. That
power will not permit American citizens
to entertain, utter, print, or circulate, senti-
ments and opinions concerning slavery
which were avowed by jefferson, Henry,
Mason, and the great men of Virginia of
the revolutionary era, or even by Mellow
ell, Summers, and Randolph, in the Con-
NeDtlOn OF lOtO. ne AmeflCau CluZeH,
living under "A Constitution which guaran-
tees free speech holds that right subject to
arbitrary laws or to the lawless acts of bru-
tai mobs. George Fitzhugh, one of the apos-
ties of slavery, and author of the work on
"THE FAILURE OF FREE SOCIETY" in
which he avows the doctrine that slavery,
BLACK OR WHITE, is right and necessary"
now declares with regard 10 tie "right of
private Judgment, freedom of the press,
and freedom of religion" that "the South
takes care to trammel these sterner rights
(so-called) quite as efficiently. by an ans
tere public opinion, as Louis Napoleon
does by law or by mere volition " that 1--WE
propose to deter men from applying the axe
to the root of our Southern institutions,
(that is, by discussion or recurring TO 'fun-
damental principles,) first by moral suasion
or monition, next by tar and feathers, and,
that failing, by the halter"
HUMLIATISG SPECTACLE.
Sir, what humiliating spectacle does the
Republic now present to the gaze of man.