Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1860-09-14

suppression OF tie african siSY trade, ana
uu Fl c,u4l exclusion Of slavery from the
terri torres, So that all the new and futur'
States. may surely he Free States. The South
o., not satisfied Its masses ty whatever
n-aue. and at whatever cost. desire the es-
adjustment aud protection OF slavery IN tie
Territories, SD thar none If tie new Sta es
slay t4u tu teeome slave States.
Solid, enduring and constant parties inspired
10y ,.,- .oI country. reverence for virtue and
deviation 10 human liberty. bold thr'r
conceptions OF measures, moderate lu success
auI rtsuluta turoughou rrverSts, are essential
To-, r. .ctyr and benctc-nt administration IN
every uer Safe. UuuniniJy even in wise Jus
4nl necessary policy. can never he expected
90 any country. ali at once, and without
t.oI. ugh debate and earnest conflicts ot
oIiuion. Ali public movements are therefore
undertaken and prosecuted through the
agencies, not of individuals, but OF parties,
regulated. excited ana m Jderated, Gs occasion
may require, by their representatives. lie
who proposes means so lmprdctlcable that he
wins no party 10 their support, may be
puiluuthTJpist, bat be cannot br a statesman
and even wnen the leader in administration
is thus sustained, be is, although never So
earnest OF wise, every where and at all times
Inefficient and imbeclle, just in the degree
that the party on which be depends, is in
constant, vac.llating, timid OF capricious.
What has become OF the several political
parties which have dourished within your
lime and mine? That daShing, unterrlted,
defiant party, whose irresistible legions
carried the honest and intrepid hero Of New
Orleans on their shields, through 50 many
civil encounters; that generous, though not
unTreiudiecd Wing party, which. apprehcn-
sivc OF perpetual danger from too radical
policies Ul administration - often with
uuabatcd chIvalry and enthusiasm, magically
recon binedits bruised and scattered columns,
even when a capricious fortune had turned
It's rare and hard-won triumphs into defeats
moro disastrous than the field fights which 1t
had lost the recent American party, that
spranC at ono bound from ten thousand dark
chambers and which seemed only yesterday at
tho very point Of carrying the Government
by C0up de main. All these parties, that
tor brief periods seemed 50 strong aud IN
changing, have parished, leaving no deep
impression On the history Of the country they
aimed to direct and rule forever, The DEM
ocratic uarty, too, that has clothed itself So
complacently with the pleasant traditions OF
all preceding parties, and combined go tell-
cltously the most popular OF our national
svmrathies with the most inveterate and
repulsive Of our conservative interests, that
has won the South so dexterously, by stimu-
lating its mad 1est mbiton, and yet has held
the North so ously and so long, by
awakening Is widest and most demorallzlng
fears-what ia its condition 1t Is distin
guished in fortune from its extinguished
rivals only by the circumstance that both
portions of Its crew, divided as the hulk
breaks into two not unequal parts, retain
sufficient energy in their despair to seize on
the drifting wrecks Of other parties, and
by cunning though hopeless carpentry, to
frame wretched and rlckety RATS on which
to sustain themselves for one dark night more
on the tempestuous sea of national politics.
! All these parties, it is now manifest, were
/ organized not specially to establish justice
! and maintain freedom and equality among an
| honest, Jealous, and liberty loving people,
! but 10 achieve some material public advdnt-
age of temporary lm portance, or TO secure the
| advancement of some chief to whose discre-
ton, as if the Government were an elective
| Despotism instead of d Republic, the distrIou-
ton of its patronage and the direction OF It's
affairs should be implicitly confded. They
| did, indeed, cut of respect or fear of generous
reforms, often affect to express elevated prln-
ciples and generous sentiments in their care
fully elaborated creeds; but these creeds,
nevertheless, even when not ambiguously
EXPRESSED, were from time to time revised and
qualified and modified, 50 that at last the
interpreter5 who alone had them BY heart,
and were able to repeat them, were found
perverting the Constitution in its most
uneQuivocal parts, and most palpable mean
ing, rejecting the Declaration of Independ-
once, and stultitying the founders of the
Republic. The parties. thus constituted
dependent not on any national or even on any
natural sentiment, but on mere discipline toi
their cohesion, and coming at last through
constant Generalization, 70 assume that
capital ana not labT, property and not
liberty, is the great interest of every people
and that religion, conversant only with thf
relations Of men to an unseen world ane
future world, must be abjured in then
conduct towards each other on earth. hav'
finally discarded Justice and humanity trou
their systems, broken up nearly all the exist
ing combinations for spiritual ends. ant
attempted to conduct the affairs of Govern
mert on principles equally In violation OF tn
Constitution and of the eternal laws OF God
Providence for the regulation OF the Universe
y Mr.. Seward proceeds to mark the tim
when our national departure from the an