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


Ial mobs, of the indignities perpetrated up
on freemen, guilty Of no crime, unless it b,
a crime, in 1860, TO cling to the opinions o
the fathers of the Republic. The Post OF
flee Department, the Postmaster Genera
tells us, "pervades every channel of com
merce and every theatre of human enter
prise; and while visiting as it does kindl,
every fireside, mingles with the throbbing,
of almost every heart in the land. In the
amplitude Of lis benefcence, it ministers tc
all climes and creeds and pursuits, with the
same eager readiness and with equal full.
ness and fidelity" This Post Office De.
partment, in nearly half the States, is
at the mercy of the stupidity or preju.
dice OF postmasters, maddened by slavery
fanaticism, and the correspondence of the
people and the public journals may be ex.
amined, seized and destroyed by these sen.
sors of despotism; and this may be and is
done under the open sanction of the Ad.
ministration. Families are banished from
| their hearts and homes. Free colored men
are forced TO break the holy ties of kindred
seek homes among strangers, or be doomed
to perpetual slavery, by laws which "pro-
pose" in the words of Judge Catron, OF the
Supreme Court, "to commit an outrage, 10
pe'Pet"dte an oppression and cyuelty."-
Surely there is no country in Cbristendom
no, not one-where the freemen of the
United States are exposed to such insults,
such indisnities, such lawless oppression,
as in the slaveholding States of this Demo-
cratic Republic. The President calls our
attention to the outrages perpetrated upon
American citizens in Mexico. There is,
sir, more security for the citizens of Massa-
chusets for the eighteen million people of
the North, in revolutionary Mexico, rent
and torn by civil war than in the slavehold-
ing States. More insults. indignities and
outrages, have been heaped upon freemen
in the slave States, during the past one
hundred days, than have been perpetrated
upon American citizens in Mexico during
all the changes and revolutions and civil
strifes which have marked the forty years
of her independent existence.
! THE CHANGE OF POLICY WHICH 1T HAS
BROUGHT ABOUT.
Mr.. President, the statesmen ofthe South
in this Chamber and in the other wing oi
the Capitol, frankly admit that a revolution
concerning slavery has been wrought in the
public sentiment Of the slaveholding States
/ This admitted revolution in the sentiment:
of the people of the South has wrought the
change in the policy Of the Slave States
and of the national Government now SO
Enthusiastically manifest. How did the slave
holding class-a mere handful of men in
this nation of twenty-six million freemen-
work this change in the policy of the ma
ton; change which the sense Of Justice,
the love of liberty, the humane and Chris
tan sentiments of the age, condemn How
did this small, and so far as numbers are
concerned, Insignificant class of slavehold-
ers, achieve over the councils Of Republi-
can America an influence so potential?
This slaveholding class, which shapes
and fashions at its pleasure the policy of
the General Government, was borne into
power by the Democratic party and is at
this day upheld in power by the Democrat
ic party. Acquiring the ascendency in the
Democratic party, this privileged class has
imposed its hateful dogmas upon that party,
compelling it to carry its flag, TO fight its
battles, and to bear the crushing burden of
its crimes against the rights of human ma
ture. Democrats of the free States, men
born under the inspiring influence of free
institutions, taught in free schools, instruct
ed in free churches, have during the last
fifteen years, borne the banners of slavery
extension, and often ingloriously fallen un-
ueI lHC COhSuHihS Nidth VI " "'S'ioy Su ohN
indignant people. The Democracy of the
North is as much the instrument of the
slave power for extending, uPholding, and
perpetuating human slavery in America, as
is the army of the Emperor of Austria in
maintaining the despotic rule in Hungary
and Yenitia.
TSenator Wilson here sketches the in
consistencies of the Democratic policy to-
wards slavery in the Territories during
the last ten years. The exposition, though
graphic, may be omitted without i'm
pairing the force Of the main argument.
The slave power requires the abandon
ment of the doctrine that the people of
Territory can legislate against slavery, and
the acceptance of the dogma that the Con-
stitution protects slavery in the Territories
and the leaders of the Democracy of the
North in this Chamber, with two or three
exceptions, accept this new creed, which
makes every foot of the Territories of the
Republic slave soil. The ACKNOWLEDGED
chiefs of the slave powers are demanding
national slave code for the Territories; and
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