Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1860-01-26
Have we a Right to be Republicans

troll of the national government, after having
in vain attempted to reason the Republicans out
of their faith, turn round at last and say to us,
" You haveno right to hold and express an opin
ion that slavery is an evil and its removal by
"peaceable, Constitutional means, an end wor-
I" thy the snblimest efforts of statesmen. The
=" Constitution requires and perpetually guar
" antics, the existence Of this type of indus
" try, and it is treason to the Constitution and
the Union to say one word against it," This
is substantially the objection that is made
against Mr.. Sherman as candidate for Speaker
of the National House of Representatives. One,
Clark of Missouri, gave this objection its first
embodiment there, by introducing a resolution
that no one who endorsed and approved Help
ers " Impending Crisis, "a book addressed by a
non-slaveholder, South, to other non -slavohold-
ers, showing The evil and the sin of Slavery
was fit to be Speaker. A few days ago, con-
ference committee, composed Of Democrats,
South Americans, and one antiLecomptonite,
(Horace F. Clark met in secret concIave, and
agreed upon the following to be offered as
substitute for Clark's resolution
Whereas The agitation of the Slavery ques-
ton is productive of no good but of evil to the
whole country, its further discussion ought to
to be discountenanced by the whole House,
therefore
RESOLVED, That no man who has recommended
and still insists on and docs not now disown the
doctrines expressed In the extracts which have
been read from Helpers Impending Crisis, and
WHO'S not opposed to the further agitation of the
Slavery question, is fit to be Speaker of this
House.
The declaration of the resolution, is simply
that no Republican is fit to be Speaker; for no
man can be Republican who is, in the sense of
that resolution, opposed to the further agita-
ton of the Slavery question" The resolution
simply means, that no man who opens his mouth
against the demands of the South respecting
Slavery, is fit to De Speaker. This is without
doubt, going to the root of the Republican par
ty, because, if Republican has no right to be
Speaker at Washington, he has no right to vote
at home-both of these rights resting upon pref
ty much tie same constitutional principles, as
far as politics are concerned-and-if he has no
right to vote at home, Of what use is a Repub.
lican party? But let us see for moment about
our right to be Republicans.
The Republican party came into existence as
the peculiar champion of free soil and free labor,
and at the very first, made official proclamatlons
that it would resist, in every constitutional way,
the spread of Slavery. 1t owes its very life to
the passage of the infamous Kansas Nebraska
bill, by which the door of "agtation of the
Slavery question" was thrown wide open, ON
inously grating harsh thunder as it turned upon
its hinges. The party has ever since, in consti-
tutional and legal ways, and in no other, advo-
Gated, voted for and advanced its principles OF
course the foundation upon which its opposition
to Slavery rests, and upon which its superstruc-
ture has been reared, is that Slavery is morally
and politically an evil, blight, sin and a
crime. 1t believes that the country will be in
fnitely better off in all its resources, in eyerv
type of its myriad-handedi industry, in every de-
partment of the government, when men and
women shall no more be held in Slavery under
the flag of free Republic. 1t recognizes the
right which, according to the theory of thg gov
eminent, every State has to curse itself with the
evil of negro slavery. But it does not believe
that such right belonging to any State, affects
in any way the inherent and essential character
of slavery, or gives it at ALL position too high
for criticism, or too sacred for condemnation. It
believes that slavery itself, the forcble depriva-
tion of one mans liberty, by another man, for
no reason except that the oppressor is white, and
the oppressed has darker skin, can never be
made absolutely right by any constitution, or
any law, and that, therefore, those guarantees
are of no binding force beyond the mere letter
of the compact that they rightfully prevent
any legislative enactment of the Congress from
intermeddling with slavery in the State, but by
no means bind the conscience of the nation
They hold that slavery is recognized in the con-
stituton as an existing institution, but that no
where in that instrument is is characterized as a
just, orbenifcent, or benign "typeo OF industry -
that by the trainers of the government it was
regarded as an evil to be endured for time, and
not as blessed instrument Of civilization and
liberty to be commended to the especial care and
nursing of every friend of humanity; that while
that sacred compact was framed for the especial
object of securing the blessings of liberty" it
carefully avoided the mention Of the word