Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1860-02-24
THE DISUNION FOLLY.
SPEECH OF
HON. HENRY WILSON,

'ho hePuouc ehtereu the lamliy OF nations
1t proclaimed 10 kings and princes, to no,
bles and privileged classes, to toiling free.
men and lowly bondmen, the equality o!
man. Passing now through the eighty
fourth year of national life, America pre-
sents to the gaze of nations the humiliating
and saddening spectacle of a Republic
which began its independent existence by
the PRONUNCIATION of bill of rights as old
as creation and as wide as humanity, dis
racted by angry and discordant discussions
upon issues growing out of the bondage Of
four millions of men.
THE SLAVERY QUESTION.
Slavery in America-our connections
with il, and relations TO it, the obligations
those connections and relations impose up
on US as men, as citizens of the States OF
the United States-make the issues of the
age, the transcendant magnitude Of which
command the profoundest attention of the
country. In the crowded city and the
lonely dwelling, the public press and the
Judicial tribunal, the hall Of legislation and
the temple of the living God-everywhere
goes on the irrepressible conflict be-
tween the sublime creed Of the charter of
independence and the aggressive spirit of
slavery between the institutions of free
dom our fathers founded and the system Of
bondage which now darkens the land, cast
ing its baleful shadows over the republic,
obscuring its lustre and marring its SYM
metry and beauty.
Within fifteen States of this democratic
Republic, which commenced its career by
uttering the ideas of equality and liberty
that live in the throbbing hearts of the toll
ing masses, and nurse even the wavering
hopes of hapless bondmen amid the thick
gloom of rayless oppression, more than
four million human beings, made in the i'm
! age of God, are held in perpetual bondage.
! BY inexorabIe laws sanctioned by the mer-
ciless force of public opinion, these millions
are denied the right of manhood, and de-
graded 10 the abject condition of chattel-
| hood. To them, the hallowed relations of
husband and wife, parent and child, are
held not by the sacred rights Of a common
humanity but by the will of masters. The
laws, the customs, the public opinion which
L.. tba III
of humanity down TO the degradation of
ohsttels. have founded and developed a
privileged class which now controls the
slayeholdng States. This class now rules
these fifteen States, abrogating, in support
of its interests, the inborn, inbred, constitu-
tional right Of freedom of speech and free
dom of the press, In these States the
power of this class is overshadowing, re-
sstless, complete.
THE SLAVE PoWER AND WHAT 1T HAS
DONE.
Over the Federal Government this class,
this slave power, has achieved dominion.
The slave power this day holds the Nation
al Government, in all its departments, in
absolute subjugation. In this Chamber,
where sit the representatives of sovereign
Commonwealth, that power retains unbro-
ken sway. That power bids the Supreme
Court utter its DEGREES, and that high tri-
bunal obeys its imperative commands. That
power holds the President in the hollow of
its hand, compelling him to declare that
" slavery exists in Kansas by virtue of the
Constitution !" that the master has the
right TO take his slave into the Territories
as property, and have it protected there
under the Federal constitution +" that
"neither Congress nor the Territorial Leg
islature, nor any human power, has any au-
thority to annul OR impair this vested right"
That power summoned the aspiring Vice
President to his own Kentucky, to give his
assurances "that this constitutional right
exists (" that 1--WE must hold TO this princi-
pie, we must stand by it J" and IF it can
not be enforced for want of proper legisla-
ton to enforce it, sufficient legislation must
be passed or our Government is a failure"
That power lays its iron hand upon the
representatives of free and proud Common
wealths in this Chamber and in the other,
compelling them to disavow their own re-
corded opinions, to accept the monstrous
dogma, that "neither Congress, nor Ter
riloral Legislature, nor any human power
has any authority to annul or impair the
vested right" of the master TO have his
slave protected as property in the Terrific
ries under the Federal Constitution. Well
might the Vice President, in view of the
recent triumphs and the imperial sway of
the slave power, proudly say to the men of
his native Kentucky, ave stand in good
position 1--WE have the Executive; we
have the laws; we have the courts; and
that is great advance from where we
stood ten years agol"
The Senator here gave sketch Of the
progress of slavery in this country, begin
ming with the first importation of slaves at