Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1860-12-22

which can BE- instituted by law, instead of being
something against which law is always drec-
ted THAT slavery, adultery, OF any other act
prohibited by the moral code, can be erected
into an institution by man.
1t has taught US that the Government of the
United States, which was expressly designed for
the securing Of liberty to the governed, could
grant to new territory the right to create eight
statc-senators and as many slve-reprcsenta-
tiyes as future population would warrant.
1t has sicnced us MS to the right of Congress
to stop the slave-tradc between he states of the
Union and to abolish it in the District and IT,
the territories.
But such monstrous teachings and absurdi-
tics as these will no longer sati,fy the convio.
tiOns nor impose upon the cralulty or mag
nauimity of the people of the free states. Cum
ming is falling; and now the list resource of
the slave-powcr is to threaten md intimdatc
1t still has Congress and the Supreme Court
within its grasp, and by dint of threats of dis
solution it hopes to gain the next president +;
70! it well knows that every year its subjection
to freedom is delayed the more difficult will
that subjection become and the more easy it
would be to hurry the slave states into Il rebel
lion. We should he cautious bow we let our
selves be governed by our fears. Once submit
to tha. kind of control, and an ultimate con-
ilict of arms would become inevitable. If we
have to yield always to our fears. it would be
more than the consequences of Il revolution !;
for already our government is but a few de-
grccs removed from anarchy.
Who, for instance, would credit it, that
government of cheap salaries like ours, in the
midst of profound peace and universal pro-
priety, could be SO plunged into debt and dis
turbed finances us ours ? Life is not secure in
lapf,, of thn pit, aud
and a president, the representative Of the SOW
ercigniy of thirty millions of peope appointed
to do and not to talk, stoops from his high po-
silion and clamors through long message like
any stump orator, about danger to the country !
The slave power has always played upon our
fears; and now, at last, that policy is its only
resource. Never has it presented any higher
and generous motive as the main spring OF ac-
ton to those whom it has ruled but it has al
ways sought to stultify us through our fears.
As the highwayman controls his victim by pre-
senting the pistol to his breast, so the slave
power has managed the body polite by threats
Of dissolution and death. 1t ha, so pqralyzed
us through our fears that we seem on tAe point
of losing our manhood and our birth right and
are cravenly unwilling to fight seven years to
maintain what ii costs us seven years to gain.
But let US look at the object which is so Sc
duously addressed to our fears let us strip the
mark from it and see what it is. Five Cotton
States threaten TO rebel against the Republican
form of government. 1t is but twelve years
since that war was closed which had ior its
purpose the acquisition Of territory this was
sustained by the democratic vote Of the coun-
try; it was gloriiea and illustrated vita pro-
fusion of military honors 10y the slaye-power
and is it possible-is il probable that the democ-
racy aud the slaye-power are ready So soon to
djsannex territory. If the democracy engaged
in a war to gain territory, will they hesitate to
enter into "A war to keep it? The demand for
Cotton is growing faster than sl,ye-labor can
meet; its cultivation requires the skill and en-
:erprise of free labor. Seventy thousand la
boring men-votcrS, were turned away from our
recruiting rendezvous las, year unensted.
VIII such men as these with votes in their hands,
and the spirit of John Brown at their head, 90
without employment when q ie" Africans are
waiiowing IN abundance' No; they the COM
mercial world, civilization, morality, and even
the safety of our Southern bretheren th,m-
selves, all demand a firm ard decided course of
policy at the present junc,u.e To compromise
with danger is but to bring upon us the con-
sequences which we dread. To cave Southern
matrons to the protection of South Carolina
Chivalry would be what these matrons would
least desire. To refuse them the protection
which firm, generous and untimdated govern
ment would afford against the rebellion of Cot
ton States on the one hand and Slavc-inSurrCc-
ton on the other, would be crud and unmanly.
Southern matrons would have as little to hope
from timid Northerncrs as they have from the
arrogant braggart men of the South.
Yours truly, J. w. i.