Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1860-03-09
DEPARTURE FROM WISDOM AND VIRTUE.

plete departure from the wisdom and virtue
OF Its founders? Did ever the Government
OF a great empire, founded on the rights of
human labor, slide away so fast and so far.
ana moor itself so tenaciously on the basis of
capital, and that capital invested in laboring
men Did ever a free representative Legis-
lature, invested with powers so great and with
the guardianship of rights so important, of
trusts 30 sacred, of interests so precious, and
OF hopes at once so noble and 80 comprehen-
slve, surrender and renounce them all so IN
necessarily, so unwisely, so fatally, and so
lngloriously? If it be true, as every instinct
OF our nature. and every precept of political
experience teaches US, that
an fares the land. to fastening ills a prev,
Where wealth sccumulates and men decay"
then where in Ireland. in Italy, in Poland.
or IN Hungary, has any ruler prepared for a
generous and confiding people ~disappoint-
ments, disasters, and calamities equal to
those which the Government of the United
States holds now suspended over so large a
portion of the continent of North America?
AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE.
Citizens Of the United States in the sririt
Of this policy, suhverted the free Re ublic of
Nicaragua, and opened it to slavery and the
African slave trade, and held it in that con
dltlon waiting annexation to the United
States. until its sovereignty was restored by
a combination Of sister Republics exposed to
the same danger. and apprehensive of similar
suhversi N. Other citizens re-opened the
foreign slave trade in violation of our laws
and treaties and, after a suspension Of that
shameful traffic for fifty years, savage Afri-
cans have been once more landed on our
shores and distributed. unreclaimed and with
immunity, among our plantations.
ITS RESPONSIBILITY
For this policy. so far as the Government
has sanctioned il, the Democratic purity avows
Itself responsible. Everywhere complaint
again-t IL is denounced, and its opponents
prescribed. When Kansas was writing un-
der the wounds OF incipient, servlle war, be-
cause of her resistance, the Democratic press
deridingly said. "let her bleed" Official in
tegrity has been cause for rebuke and pun
ishment, when it resisted frauds desi med to
promote the extension OF slavery. Through
out the whole Republic there is not one
known di senter from that policy remaining
IN place. it within reach Of the executive
arm. Nor over the face of the whole world
is there to be found one representative of our
country who is n1tan a~pologist of the e1ten-
sion of slavery.
THE TWO VIEWS OF THE sYsTEN.
1t is in America that these things have
happened. In the nineteenth century, the
era Of the worlds greatest progress, and
while all nations but ourselves have been Ell
Their abridgng or altogether suppressing
commerce in men a: the very moment when
the Russian serf is emaucipat-d. and the
] Ga1--,A- $50 ~ Nj. -
the Ahyssinian savage are lifted up to free
dom by the successor Of Mohammed. The
world, predisposed IN our behalf by our early
devotion to the rights Of human nature, as
no nation ever before engaged its respect
and ~sympathies, asks, in wonder and amaze
ment, what all this Generalization means?
1t has an excuse better than the world can
imagine, better than we are generally aware
Of ourselves, a virtue 2 excuse. We have
loved not freedom so much less but the In
ion of our country 50 much more. We have
been made to believe. from time to time, that,
in a crisis, both Of these precious institutions
could not be saved together, and therefore
we have, from time to time, surrendered safe
guards of freedom TO propitiate the loyalty Of
capital and stay its hands from doing violence
TO the Union. The true state of the case,
however. ought not 10 be a mystery 10 our
selves. PrescIence, indeed, is not given to
statesmen but we are without excuse when
we tail to apprehend the logic OF current
events. Let parties, or the Government,
choose or do wnat they may, the people OF
the United States do not prefer wealth to
liberty, capital to labor, African slaves 10
white treemen, in the national Territories and
in tu ure States. That question has never
been distinctly recognized or acted on by
them. The Republican party embodies the
| popular protest and reaction against a policy
which has boon iastenad upon the nation by
'"~r"isa and which ITS reason and conscIence,
concurrlng with the reason and oonsoiance of
mankind, condemn.
HE CHOICE OF 4 NATION.
The choice Of the nation is now between
the Democratic party and the Republican
patty. Its principles and policy are, there
tore, justly and even necessarily Examined l
know of only one policy which it has adopt
ed or av1wed, namely the swing Of the
Territories of the United States, if possible.
ay constitutional and lawful means. from
b ing homes for slavery and pplvglmv.
Who, that considers where this nation ex-
ISIS. Of what races it is composed, in what
age OF the world it acts its part on the pub
lie stage, and what are its predominant in
"a ms tltAFAAHH anu EAlbAAIiNAANs
doubts that the Republican party can and
will, if unwaveriugly faithful to that policy,
and just and loya in all beside, carry 1t into
triumphant success? 70 doubt is to be I'M
certain whether civilization can improve or
Christianity save mankind.
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
| may. perhaps, infer from the necessity of
the case, that it will, in all courts and places,
=t,nA - rh1 f~a1l,ao - .-.,.l II r - I
press, and the constitutional rights Of free
men every where that it will favor the
speedy improveme t of the public domain bv
homestead laws, and will encourage mining.
manufacture and internal commerce. with
needful connection. between the Atlantic and
Pacific States-for all these are important
interests of freedom. For all the rest. the
national emergencies, not individual inhu-
encies, must determine, as society goes on,
the policy and character of the Republican
party. Already bearing its part in legisla-
ton and in treaties, it feels the necessity of
being practical in its care of the national life
and health. while it leaves metaphysical
speculation TO those who cultivate the emo
bling science of political philosophy.
wHAr IT ENCOUNTERS.
But in the midst of these subjects, or rath-
CT, OelOIc luLy lcdCHlnS Iucu, tue INepuOil-
can party encounters, unexpectedly, a new
and potential issue-one prior and therefore
paramount TO all others, one of national life
and death. Just as if so much had not been
already conceded ray, just as if nothing at
all had ever been conceded, to the interest of
invested In men, we hear menaces of
disunion, louder, more distinct, more en-
phatic than ever, with the cond ton annexed
that they shall be executed the moment that
a Republican Administration, though consti-
tutiOnally elected, shall assume the Govern
ment.
1 do not certainly know that the people
are prepared to call such an administration
to power. | know only, that through a sue
,ession of foods which never greatly excite,
and ebbs which never entirely discourage me,
the volume of Republicanism rises %continu-
higher and higher. They are probably
whose annrehensiOns admOnish them