Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1860-03-10

punpoWuer plot, ana the salem Wltcncrait, ana
the New-York colonial negro plot, so now the
original actors were swiftly followed by another
and kindred class, who sought to prolong and
widen the public distress by attempting to di-
rect the Indignation which it had excited against
parties guiltless equally of completely and Of
sympathy with the offenders.
Posterity will decide in all the recent cases
where political responsibility for public disasters
must fall aud posterity will give little heed to
our Instructions. 1t was not until the gloomy
reign of DoMIrIAN had ended, and liberty and
virtue had found assured refuge under the sway
of the milder NERvA, that the historian arose
whose narrative of that period of tyranny and
terror has been accepted by mankind.
The Republican Party being thus vindicated
against the charge of hostility to the South,
which has been offered in excuse for the mena-
ces of demonstrations resistance in the event
of its success, | feel well assured that it will
sustain me in meeting them in the spirit of the
defender of the English Commonwealth;
"surely they that shall boast as we do to he a free nation,
and having the power, shall not also have the courage, { ore
move constitutionany every Governor, whether he he the SUI
preme or subordinate, may please their fancy with n ridicu-
ious and painted freedom, ut TO cozen babies, but are, indeed,
under tyranny and servitude, as wanting that power, which
is the root aud source Of all liberty, to dispose Of aud econ
omize in the land which God hath given them, Ms members Of
family in their own home and free inheritance. Without
which natural and essential power Of a free nation, though
bearing high their heads, they can, in due esteem, be thought
no better than slaves and vassals horn in The tenure and &C.
cupation Of another inheriting lord whose government, though
not illegal or intolerable, hangs On them as a lordly scourge,
not as a free government"
The Republican Party knows, as the whole
country will ultimately come to understand, that
the noblest objects of national life must perish,
if that life itself shall be lost, and therefore it
will accept the issue rendered. 1t will take up
the word Union, which others are so willing to
rcnounce, and, combining it with that other
glorious thought, Liberty, which has been its
inspiration so long, it will move firmly ONWARD,
with the motto inscribed on its banner, "UNIoN
and LIBERTY, come what may, in victory as in
defeat, in power as out Of power, now and for
ever"
II the Republican Party maintain the Union,
who, what party is to assail it? Only the Demo-
cratic Party, for there is no other. Will the
Democratic Party take up the assault? The
menaces of disunion are made, though not in
its name, yet in its behalf. 1t must avow or
dissavow them. Its silence, thus far, is portcn-
tous, but is not alarming. The effect of the
intimidation, if successful, would be to continue
the rule of the Democratic Party, though a
minority, by terror. 1t certainly ought to need
no more than this to secure the success of the
Republican Party, if, indeed, the time has come
when the Democratic Party must rule by terror,
instead of ruling through conceded public con-
hdence, then it is quite certain that it cannot be
dismissed from power too soon. Ruling on that
odious principle, it could not long save either
the Constitution or public liberty. But I shall
not believe the Democratic Party will consent
to stand in this position, though it does, through
the action of its representatives, seem to cover
and sustain those who threaten disunion. |
know the Democracy of the North. | know
them now in their waning strength. | do not
know a possible disunionist among them all. |
believe they-will be as faithful to the Union
now as they were in the by gone days when
their ranks were full, and their challenge to the
combat was always the war-cry of victory. But,
if it 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, il it be lack
ing in the one virtue of loyalty to the Union,
all its advantages will be unavailing and then
obnoxious as, through long-cherished and OBJ
stinate prejudices, the Republican Party is in
The capital States, yet even there it will advance
Ike an army with banners, winning the favor
ct the whole people, and it will be armed with
the national confidence and support, when it
shall be found the only party that defends and
maintains the integrity of the Union.
Those who seek to awaken the terrors of dis
union seem to me to have too hastily considered
the conditions under which they are to make
their attempt. Who believes that a Republican
administrator and Congress could practice ty-
ranny under Il Constitution which interposes SO
many checks as ours? Yet that tyranny must
not only be practiced, but must be intolerable,
and there must be no remaining hope for con-
.4ittttnpa1 ,al,,f I,r.,. f...11. .-.:.-.-. 800
find ground to 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 political
issues. They are competent to decide the issues
of to-day as they have been heretofore to decide
the issues Of other days. They can reconsider
hereafter and reverse, if need be the Judgment
they shall pronounce to-day, as they have more
than once reconsidered and reversed their iudg-
lnents in former times. 1t needs no revolution
to correct any error, or preyent any danger
under any circumstances.
Nor is any new or special cause for revolution
likely to occur under a Republican adminiStra.
ton. We are engaged in no new transaction.
not even in a new dispute. Our fathers under
upok a great work for themselves, for us, and
ffr our successors-to erect a Federal empire
whose arches shall span the North American
""H'iiSHb, uWN CiicSI TX rays VI tHc sul
throughout his whole passage from one to the
other of the great oceans. They erected thir.
teen of its columns all at once. These are STAN
ding now, the admiration of mankind. Then
successors added twenty more; even we who
are here have shaped and elevated three of that
twenty, and all these are as firm and as stead
fast as the first thirteen and more will yet be
necessary when we shall have rested from our
labors. Some among us prefer for these col
umes a composite material others the pure
white marble. Our fathers and our predecess
ors differed in the same way, and on the same
point. What execrations should we not all
unite in pronouncing or any statesman who
heretofore, from mere disappointment and dis,
gust at being overrulcd in his choice of materi.
os for any new COLUMN then to be quarried
should have laid violent hands on the imperfecr
structure and brought it down to the earth
there to remain a wreck, instead Of a citadel o
Il worlds best hopes,
! remain now in the opinion ! have uniform
ly expressed here and elsewhere, that thesl
nasty threats of disunion are so unnatural tina
they will find no hand to execute them. w,
are of one race, language, liberty, and faith
engaged, indeed, in varied industry; but even
that industry, so diversified, brings us int
more intimate relations with each other THAI
any other peoDle, however homogeneous an,