Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1860-03-09


great fidelity to freedom, and too great dis
trust Of the efficacy Of that new bond Of piece,
and had replaced them with partisans who
were only tmid, but not unwilling. The
Democratic President and Congress hesitated,
but not long. They revised the last great
compromise. and found, with delighted sur
prise, that it was so far from confirming the
law of freedom Of 500, that on the other hand,
it exactly provided for the abrogation of that
venerated statute nay that the compromise
itself actually killed the spirit Of the Missouri
law, and devolved on Congress the duty OF
removing the lifeless letter from the national
code The deed was done. The new enact
ment not only repealed the Missouri prohibi-
ton of slavery, but it pronounced the people
Of Kansas and Nebraska perfectly free to es-
tablshed freedom or slavery; and pledged
Congress to admit them in due time as States,
either of capital or Of labor into the Union
The whig representatives of the capital States,
in an hour of strange bewilderment, concur
red and the Whig party instantly went down,
never to rise again. Democrats seeded, and
stood aloof; the country was conioundcd
and, amid the perplexites of the hour, Re
publican party was seen gathering itself to-
gether with much earnestness, but with little
show of organization to rescue, if it were not
now too late, the cause Of freedom and labor
so unexpectedly and grievously impor.led in
the Territories Of the United States.
THE SEQUEL.
will not lingor over the sequel. The
popular sovereignty Of Kansas proved to be
the State sovereignty Of Missouri, not only in
the persons of the rulers, but even in the let
ter Of an arbitrary and cruel code. The per-
feet freedom prove to be hateful and intol-
erable bondage. From 1855 to 1860, Kansas,
sustained aud encouraged only by the Repub-
lican party, has been engaged in successive,
and e,er-yarying struggles, which have taxed
all her virtue, wisdom, moderation, energies,
and resources, and often even her physical
strength and martial courage, TO save herself
from being betrayed into the Union as slave
State. Nebraska, though choosing freedom,
is through the direct exercise If the EXccu-
tive power, overriding her own will, held as
a slave Territory and New Mexico has re-
apsed voluntarily into the practice of slavery,
from which she had redeemed herself while
she yet remained part Of the Mexican Re-
public. Meantime the Democratic party, adj
yanciug from the ground Of popular sovereign
ty as far as that ground is from the ordinance
of 1857. now stands on the position that both
territorial governments and Congress arc in
competent to legislate against slavery in the
Territories while they are not only competent
but are obliged when it is necessary, to leg
islate for its protection there.
NOW THE pENocRArrc PATTY MASKS ITSELF.
In this now and extreme position the De-
mocratc party now masks Itself behind the
battery of the Supreme Court, as if it were
possible a true construction of the Constitu-
linn that the mower Of deciding practically
f,roy..r be,,yeon freodorn and slavery in a nor
tion Of the continent far exceeding all that is
vet organized should be renounced bv Con-
gross which alone nossesses any legislative
authority and should be assumed and exer-
cised by a court which can only take cogni-
zance of the great question colatterally. in a
private action between individuals. and which
action the Constitution will not suffer the
court to entertain. if it involves twenty dol
lars of money. without the overriding inter
! yention of a Jury Of twelve good and lawful
men of the neighborhood where the litigation
/ arises. The independent, ever-renewod, and
'o,r oo,r,;,,, ro,,rosort,tiye Porl;arror+ III;
81 Cor,ross or Teg;slature il tho ono chief
, Daramovnt. essential. INDISPENSABLE institution
IN Rennblic Even libertv. ouaranteed Inv
I, organic law vet il he held bv other tenure
, than the Guardian care Of sucb a representa-
tive nOuular assembly, / but uroCarIOus lY
maintained. while slavery. enforced by an ir.
responsible judicial tribunal, is the complet-
est possible development OF despotism'
DEPARTURE FROM WISDOM AND VIRTUE.
Mr.. President did ever the annals of
anv Government show more rapid or
more complete departure from the wisdom
and virtue of its founders. Did ever the
Government of great empire, founded on
the rights of human labor, slide away so fast
and SO far, and moor itself SO tenaciously on
the basis of capital, and that capital invested
in laboring men. Did ever a free represen-
tatiye Legislature, invested with powers so
great. and with the guardianship of rights so
important of trusts so sacred. of interests so
precious. and of hopes at once so noble and so
. comprehensive, surrender and renOuncc them
all so unnecessarily, so unwisely, so fatally,
and so ingloriouslys If it be true, every
instinct of our nature. and every precept po-
ltical experience teaches us, that
ON fares the land to fastening ills a prey.
Where wealth aoeumulates and men decay
then where in Ireland, in Italy, in Poland, or
in Hungary, has any ruler prepared for gem
I, erous and conhding people disappolntments,
disasters, and calamites equal to those which
the Government of the United States holds
aN