Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1860-03-08


sas. She might seize the new and smiling Ter
rltory by surprise, If only Congress would re-
move the barrier established in 1920. The con-
juncture was favorable. Clay and Webster, the
distinguished citizens whose unquestionable de-
votion TO the Union was manifested by their &C
quiescence in the compromise Of 1850, had gone
down already into their honored graves. The
labor States had dismissed many of their repre-
sentatives here for too great fidelity to freedom,
and too great distrust Of the efficacy of that new
bond of peace, and had replaced them with par
tisans who were only timid, but not unwilling.
The Democratic President and Congress heSitat-
ed, hat not long. They revised the last great
compromise, and found, with delighted surprise,
that it was 80 far from confirming the law Of
freedom of 1920, that on the other hand, it ex'
actly provided for the abrOgation of that vener-
ated statute; nay, that the compromise itself
actually killed the spirit of the Missouri law,
and devolved on Congress the duty of removing
the lifcless letter fr)m The national CODE The
deed was done. The new enactment not only
repealed the Missouri prohibition of slavery, but
il pronounced the people of Kansas and Nebras-
ka perfectly free to establish freedom or slavery
and pledged Congress to admit them in due time
as States, either of capital or of labor, into the
Union. The Wbig representatives OF the cap
ltal States, in an hour of strange bewilderment,
concurred; and the Wing party instantly went
down, never to rise again. Democrats seeded,
and stood aloof; the country was confounded /;
and, amid the perplexities OF the hour, Re-
publican party was seen gathering itself togeth-
er with much earnestness, but with little show
of organization. to rescue, il it were not now
too late, the cause Of freedom and labor, so I'M
expectedly and grievously imperiled in the Ter
rltories Of the United States
will not lnger over the sequel The nopu-
lar sovereignty of Kansas proved to be the State
sovereignty of Missouri, not only in the persons
OF the rulers, but even in the letter OF an arbi-
trary and cruel code The perfect freedom
proved to be hateful and intolerahle bondage.
From 1855 to 1862 Kansas, sustained and en-
Outraged only by the Republican party, has been
engaged in successive and ever varying struggles,
which have taxed all her virtue, wisdom, mod
GRAFTON, energies and resources, and often even
her physical strength and martial courage, to
save herself from being betrayed into the Union
as a slave State. Nebraska, though choosing
freedom, is, through the direct exercise Of the
Executive power overriding her own will held
US slave Territory ; and New Mexico has re-
lapsed voluntarily into the practice of slavery,
from which she had redeemed herself while she
yet remained part of the Mexican Republic.
Meantime, the Democratic party, advancing
from the ground of popular sovereignty as far
as that ground is from the ordinance of 1887,
now stands on the position that both territorial
governments and Congress are incompetent to
legisate against slavery Territories, the while !,
they are not only competent, but are obliged
when 1T is necessary, to legis'ate for its protec
tion there.
In this new and extreme position the Demo-
cratic party now masks itself behind the battery
OF the Supreme Court, as if it were possible
true construction of the Constitution, that the
-poWer OF deciding practically forever between
freedom and slavery in portion of the CONT
nent far exceeding all that IS yet organized,
should be renohnced by Congress, which alone
possesses any Legislative authority, and should
be assumed and exercised by Court which can
only take cogniEance OF the great question col.
laterally, in a private action between two indi-
viduas and which action the Constitution will
not suffer the Court to entertain, it it involves
twenty dollars of money, without the overriding
Intervention of a jury Of twelve good and law
full men of the neighborhood where the ltiga.
ton arises. The independent, ever renewed and
ever-recurring representative Parliament, Diet,
Congress, or Legislature, is the one chief, par.
amount, essential Indispensable institution in
Republic. Even liberty, guaranteed by organic
law, yet if it be held by -0ther tenure than the
guardian care OF such representative popular
assembly, is but precariously maintained, while
slavery, enforced by an irresponsible judicial tri-
bunal, is the completest possible development of
despOtism.
Mr. President, did ever the annals of any gov
eminent show more rapid or more complete de-
parture from the wisdom and virtue OF its found
ers2 Did ever the government of great en-
pire, 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
free representative Legislature, invested with
powers So great, and with the guardianship of
rights so important, of trusts 50 sacred, of ln-
terests so precious, and Of hopes at once 80 no.
BILE and go comprehensive, surrender and re,
nounce thom all SO unnecessarily, so unwisely,
so fatally, and SO ingoriously? If it be true,
as every instinct of our nature, and every pre-
cept of political experience teaches US, that
"Il fares the land, to fastening ills prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay"
then where in Ireland, in Italy, in Poland, or in
Hungary, has any ruler prepared for generous
and cOn6ding people, disappointments, disasters,
and calamites equal to those which the govern.
ment of the United States holds now suspended
over SO large portion of the continent of North
America?
Citizens of the United States, in the spirit OF
this policy, subverted the free Republic of Mo
aragua, and opened it to slavery and the Afri-
can slave trade, and held it in that condition
waiting annexation to the United States, until
its sovereignty was restored by q combination of