Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1860-03-09
You say that the Republican party is a Sec

tional sway than for you to bear ours? Is
1t unreasonable that for once we should alter
nate? But is the Republican party section
al? Not unless the Democratic party is. The
Republican party prevails in the House of
Representatives sometimes the Democratic
PARTY in the Senate ALWAYS. Which of the
two is the most proscriptive? Come, if you
will, into the free States, into the State of
New York, anywhere from Lake Erie to Sag
Harbor, among my ~neighbors in the Owasco
Valley, hold your conventions, nominate
your candidates, address the people, submit
to them, fully, earnestly, eloquently, all
your complaints and grievances of northern
disloyalty, oppression, perfdy keep nothing
back, speak just as freely and as loudly there
as you do here you will have hospitable
welcomes, and approaching a offences, with
ballot-boxes open for all the votes you can
win. Are you less sectional than this? E1-
tend to US the same privileges, and | will
engage that you will very soon have in the
South as many Republicans as we have Dem
Ocrats in the North. There is, however, a
better test of nationality than the accidental
location of parties. Our policy of labor in
the Territories was n t sectional IN the first
forty years of the Republic. It's nature in
heres. II will be NATIONAL again, during the
thirl forty We rs, and forever afterwards. II
is not wise and benafc4nt fnr us alone or in
iurinus to you alone. It's effects are equal,
and the same Tor us all.
WHAT THE REPUBLICANS ARE ACCUSED OF.
You accuse the Republican party of ulteri-
or and secret designs. How can a party that
counts its votes in this land Of Tree speech and
free pr IS by the hundreds Of thousands, have
any secret designs? Who is the coniurer,
and where are the hidden springs by which
he can control its uncongregated and widely
dispersed masses and direct them TO objects
unseen and purposes unavowed? But what
are these hidden purposes? You name only
one. That one is to introduce negro equal
ity among you. Suppose we had the po wer
to change your social system what warrant
have you for supposing that we should carry
negro equality among you? We know, and we
will show you if you will only give heed that
what our system Of labor works out, wherever
It works out anyt2ing,i is the equality of white
men. The lahorer in the free States, no
matter how humble his occupation, is a
white man, and he is politically the equal
of his employer. Eighteen of our thirty
three States are free labor States. There
thew are Maine, New Hampshire. Massa
chusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island. Con-
nectlcut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsvl-
vania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana,
Wisconsin, Minnesota. Iowa, California and
Oregon. | do not array them in contrast
with the capital states. am no a%ssailant
Of States. All Of the States are parcels Of
my own ccuntry-the best of them not so
wise and great as | am sure it will hereafter
be; the State least developed and perfected
among them all Is wiser and better than any
foreign State | know. l. it then in any,
and in which of the States | have named
that negro equality ofends the white mans
pride? Throughout the wide world, where
Is the State where class and caste are so
utterly extir guished as they are in each
md every one of them? Let the European
immigrant, who avoids the African as if his
skin cxhaled contagion, answer. You find
hun always in the State where labor Is ever
free. Did Washington, letters n and Henry.
when they iuIplored you to %relinquIsh your
system and accept the one we have adopted,
propose TO sink You down to the level Of the
African, OF was it their desire to exalt all
white men to a common political elevation ?
LITTLE PLAIN TALK.
But We DO not seek to force, OF even to in
trudc, our system On you. We are excluded
justly, wisely, and contentedly, from all po-
itlcLl power and responsibility in your capt.
tai States. You are sovereign on the sub
ject # slavery within your own bord, rs, as
we are IN the SAME subject within our b0r-
ders. IL is well and wisely arranged. Use
your authority 10 maintain what system you
pleas. We are not distrustful of the result.
W e have wisely, as We think, exercised ours
to protect and perfect the manhood Of the
member, of the State. The whole sovereign
" upon Il mestic concerns within the Union
Is divided between Us by unmistakable bonn
You have fifteen distinct parts we
parts. equally distinct. Each must
Toe in"'noAIned in order that the whole NAV
be preserved. If ours shan ne ussanvd, ~;.G
lu"i "''"ont. by any enemy, or for any
caueA, and we slan la We wood we shall ex-
pect You TO defend 1t. It yours shall be 50
assailed, in the emergency, no matter what
the cause IT the pretext, OF who the foe. we
shall defend your sovereignty as the eouiva-
lent Of our own. We cannot, indeed. accept
yoar s,st m of capital OF ethics. That would
be to surrender and subvert our own, which
we esteem to be better. Besides, if we could.
what need for anv division into States at all?
You are equally at liberty to reject our sys-
TEN and It's ethics, and u maintain the SUI
periority of your own by all the forces of
persuasion and argument. Wemust, indeed.
mutually discuss both systems. All the
discusses all system. Especially must
we discuss them since We have u decide as a
which of the two we ought to ingraft
IN the new and future States growing mp in
the great public domain. Discussion then
unavoidable, what could be more wise
than to conduct it with mutual liberation
and in a fraternal spirit?
You complain that Republicans discourse
boldly and directly, when they express
with confidence their belief that the system
# labor will, in the end, be universally ac-
in the capital States, acting for them
and in conformity with their own
Constitutions, while they sanction too unre-
books designed to advocate emanci-
)ation. But surely you can hardly expect
he Federal Government or the political par
les 70 maintain a censorship of the press or
t debate. The theory Of our system is, that
rrOr of opinion may in all cases safely be
where reason is left free to combat
Will it be claimed that more of modera-
ion and tenderness in debate are exhibited on
our side of the great argument than our own?
We all learned our polemics, as well as our
principles from a common master. We are
ure that we do not, on our side, exceed his
sssons and example. Thomas Jefferson ad-
ressed DR.. Price, an Englishman, concern
* his treatise on emancipation in America,
1 this fashion
"Southward Of the Chesapeake, your book will
nd but few readers concurring with it in senti-
on the subject Of slavery. From the mouth
the head of the Chesapeake, the bulk of the peo-
Ie will approve it in theory, ana it will find q
.specta bic minority ready to adopt it in practice;
minority which for weight and worth Of charac-
r, preponderates against the greater number who
ave not the courage to divest their families of a
-operty which, however, keeps their consciences
1quiet. Northward Of the Chesapeake, you may
nd here and there an opponent to your doctrine,
you may find here and there a robber or muir
,rer; but in no greater number"
This [Virginial is the next State 10 which we
ay turn our eyes for the interesting spectacle of
stice in conflict with avarice and oppression-a
nfict where the sacred side is gaining daily new
cruits from the influx into Office of young men,
own and growing up
Be not, then discouraged. What you have writ
n will do a great deal of good; and could you
II