Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1860-02-25
TIE TRUTH FEARLESSLY TOLD.


lawyer, and on account of these two qualfca-
tions he was selected to defend Stevens, one of
the Harpers Ferry captors on his trial for mur-
der, treason, &C., at Charlestown, Va. Although
Mr. SENNoTT is a democrat he does not deem
it necessary to abjure his manlness, get down
on his knees, and make a most humble apology
for having his residence in free State. He is
q lawyer who can be man and neither hate an
abolitionist nor craw-fsh to a Shareholder. Such
being the man we make the following extracts
from his closing argument in defence of Stew
ems which we know will be read with interest:
"But what produced abolition teaching and
gave it its wide spread efiectp will tell you.
1t was political rascality undertaking to put
down freedom of speech by force, and make
men help on the abolition movement who were
not then and who never will be abolitionists.-
Let me prove it gentlemen, by well-known his
torical facts. The mobbing Of abolitionsts by
their own fellow citizens had hardly ceased,
when few people petitioned Congress to abol-
ish slavery in the District, and also the internal
slave trade. The petitioners were then just as
inconsiderable as they bad been when first dis
persed and half-hanged, for they were the same
people who had experienced that treatment,
without being contented or improved by it.
And now, were they left unnoticed P-were
they quietly and sensibly sent about their busi-
nessP No, your Honor; no, Mr. Foreman. If
any quiet and sensible counsel had prevailed,
the politicians occupation was gone. The mis-
chief makers then in Congress seized it as a
godsend. They wanted something to twaddle
about, and they reached into the ark of our
covenant for their subject. They laid their dir
ty hands upon the sacred right of petition, be-
longing as a birthright to the sovereign people
of the United States. They broke up the hearth
stones Of the edifice of the Union to pelt away
a few of the poor tenants with the fragments,
and then affected surprise at the Indignation of
the owners. From that dilapidated house,
through Kansas, the road leads straight to Har-
per's Ferry, and this poor prisoner came in that
direction before you. Now, gentlemen, allow
me to give some information that l hope will
not displease you. If it does, EXCUSE it, for it
is true and presented from good motives. l
know the sentiments of the people where live.
] mean the people, not the politicians, who have
no sentiments that they are not ready to SELL
We are all sound on the slavery question; for
we all detest slavery-all of us. We cannot
help detesting it. But we ardently desire to
let it alone. 1t is your instituton--not ours,
thank God. Hands of--let it alone-mind
your own business, these are the expressions
that suit us to use when Northern men attempt
to meddle practically with YOU. But then we
have an institution which is ours, if not yours
it is freedom of speech, and we want you not
to meddle with that. 1t is not your business,
but mine, if | like to listen to, and do 90 to
hear my honored acquaintance, Wendell Phillips,
| or that ! am proud of the friendship of DIR. s.
| G. Howe or that admire the character of Will
liam Lloyd Garrison. 1t is true you cannot help
| yourselves, and | am glad you cannot interfere
about it; but it is an offense and an outrage for
| you even to try-so do not try. Let us alone
| hands off, if you please. Mind your own
business 1t is our turn now to cry out; and
however much we detest slavery, don't under
take to keep us from saying or thinking so,
J as long as we never meddle practically with YOU
and yours. That meddling, foolish men on both
| sides have undertaken to Interfere in practice
with what did not concern them at all, is the
cause of all our difficulties, from the hanging Of
William Lloyd Garrison down to the execution
of Captain John Brown and the trial of this
young man beside me-
And now, hear the determination of the young
men of the North. This meddling shall be
stopped. We number nearly one million of ac-
tual voters. We, mean, who habitually attend
to making money, and who commonly abstain
from voting We have hitherto cared nothing
for politicians or their gable; but this Harper's
Ferry affair would have awakened the dead. II
will not be many months before you will find
| us more conservative than will be agreeable to
you. 1t will be sad mistake of yours if you
! guage the sincerity of the North and East by
your knowledge Of the transparent hypocrisy of
the Union meetings. They are Union meetings,
indeed, where the political tradesman and the
trading politician unite to advertise their re-
spectiye wares and cheat you into paying for
them. Do not believe the sincerity of the slow
ly moving voters, because you understand the
motives of Mr. Caleb Cushing; and as for your
counsellor, Mr. O'Conor-he does your law busi-
ness, / am informed, and does it well-could
you not instruct him to stick to your law busi-
ness, and let the defense of slavery alone? 1t
is not singular that you wish Northern men to
! let YOU alone on that point, for whenever they
touch it, even as friends, they do you damage.
When Mr. OConor, reciting his argument in
the Lennon case to the New York tradesmen's
meeting tells us in your name that if slavery is
not morally right the Union ought not to endure,
he not only makes you doubt his patriotism,
and even his sincerity, but he gives up to Wen
dell Phillips more ground in one instant than
the Democratic party can recover for you in
twenty years. If slavery is not right, then the
Union cannot and ought not to endure! Great
God what more formidable postulate could the
devil himself require for our complete destruc-
tionP Why, this is the very thing we have been
trying to keep out of politics; it belongs to
ethics. Gentlemen, sin is not right, but the
Union can and ought to endure, for Providence
has seen fit TO leave the tares and the wheat
together until the harvest.
1t is exactly this illogical application of the
rules of theoretical ethics to the conduct Of
practical life that has always distinguished the
fanatic and ideologist from the man of sense
as completely as would a wing or fin. Do not,
therefore, trouble yourselves about the declara-
tions of these gentlemen. 1t is from very
different and far other source than the mouth
of professional politician, of any grade, that
you will ascertain what the earnest and thorough
ly awakened North will do with our part OF this
vast Inheritance which is yet, believe, an un-
divided portion. We have not attended to your
grievances before, because we really did not
stop to see if you had any. But now we are
ready to remedy some of the mischief by reso-
lutely overwhelming with the honors of private
life some of our ablest partsans, beginning with
the principal savers of the Union. Help us,
gentlemen, by good beginning on your side
Extend to us the right hand of brotherly love,
and in it hold out the gift of the life of Stevens
With this living proof of the magnanimity
of Virginia l could collect as many Uniommeet-
ings in the next two years as there are meeting
houses in the Northern States. And they would