Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1860-01-05
The Message.

tatlves of the United States the 9th ult. APP
pears in our paper this week 1t Is lengthy,
but we hope it will Be read by every lover of
our common country. the Constitution and the
Union, that it may be seen to what degree of
abasement it is possible for Democratic Presi-
dent to go, in humiliatlng himself to become
an apologst for American Slavery, the worst
form of human tyranny. The message "Opens
with presidential view of the affair at Harper's
Ferry The President does not anticipate there
from any danger to the Union, and in this re-
spect agrees IN opinion with all sensible men
but when he attempts to charge upon the Re-
publican party, the PRONUNCIATION Of doctrines
subversive of the Constitution, and the Union,
ne knows that he utters a bare faced, and out
rageous libel upon what is now the only party
that is true to the Constitution and the Union.
Certainly such u libel o"ght not to have been
published by him who in the next breath utters
such a daring disunIon sentiment as this
However great may have been the political
advantages resulting from the Union to every
portion of our common country, these will all
prove as nothing should the time ever arrive
when they cannot be enjoyed without serious
danger to the personal safety of the people of
fifteen members of the confederacy. If the
peace of the domestic freslde throughout these
States should ever be invaded-if the mothers
OF families within this extensive region should
not be able to retire to rest at night without
suffering dreadful apprehensons Of what may
be their own fate and that of their childrer be.
fore morning-it would be vain to recount to
such people the political benefits which result
to them from the Union.
All Of which means nothing more nor less
than this, s. that if the time ever comes when
this free government shall cease to protect and
uphold and guard and watch over, with the
federal treasury and the federal bayonets, the
inhuman institution of American Slavery, the
States which think proper to peril their peace,
put at hazard their lives, and sleep under the
constant nightmare of the peculiar system,
will be fully justified in quitting the Union"
And who can but admire the frankness of the
Chief Magistrate Of the United States, the
first Officer Of the Nation that owes it's existence
to the rebellious, liberty. loving men Of the Rev
olution, when he so broadly intimates that' the
political advantages resulting from the Union
to every portion Of our common Country"
are absolutely nothing when compared to the
blessed system of Slavery Mr.. Buchanan says,
almost In terms that VIII, N these political
pfnO nd tbo 10 ,,f fbn
Oiigarchy conflict, the +" advantages are to be
counted as nothing, Slavery everything. We
trust the annals of our Government will not be
soon again disgraced by such reasonable SEN
timent from the pen OF any /" old public func-
tionary."
The Presidents cordial congratulations over
the g final settlement by the Supreme Court of
the United States of the question Of Slavery in
the Territories" are quite the coolest thing of
the week here,-oven with the mercury forty
degrees below zero. These congratulations are
uttered in chuckling, SC f-complacent sort of
manner, and thrust upon Congress IN an unnec-
essary and impertinent way, that renders them
simply an insult There is nothing whatever
in respect to the state Of the country, commu-
nicated in the message which the decision of
the Court-whatever 1t may be-affects in any
way. There was not the remotest occasion for
throwing this fire. brand into Congress, and if
the bred Scott decision shouldagain get handled
numerically by the representatives of the PEG,
Pile, the Pro'Slavery, dsunion party that now
hold the purse and the sword at Washington,
may thank their g old public functionary," and
nobody else The alluslon to that decision, and
the Presidential commentary and illustrative
exegesis upon the text are further peculiarly i'm
pudent, as the President is not the adviser of
Congress respecting Constitutional law, but
in that department, Congress is as independent
of him as he is of Congress And did Bu-
chanan think the bred Scott decision needed
his endorsement to make it current? IF SO, we
assure him that the paper was very poor at first,
and with his name on the back Of it, it is not
worth a copper.
The President having thus carried Slavery
into all the Territories, next turns his attention
to that crime against human nature itself-the
African Slave Trade. Here it might be SUP
posed an I" old public functionary" would
have ample scope and verge enough for his
rhetoric and his denunciations, But note how
gingcrly he speaks of the violations of the laws
against this trade land of the verdicts of acquitta
by Southern juries of those engaged in this in
fernal traffic. He dismisses these prosecutions,
in which the juries VIGOROUSLY went against