Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1861-02-28

for while Russia is seeking to free her slaves.
the slave states are continuing ingenious COM
promises and cunning expedcnts for holding on
to theirs. Their government would be short
lived military despotsm under which freedom
of speech would be treason and Inanlness a
crime.
But it is idle 10 talk of what kind of govern
mert the slave states would set up if they were
separated from us for they could set up no
government at all. They would fall into a state
of anarchy like Mexico. To suppose that new
government could be set up at the present day.
in the midst of christendom, on the ruins of
justice and humanity, is to suppose that human
Will and cunning can transcend the powers Of
christian religion-tha great social revolution,
which, beginning eighteen centuries ago, is still
going on with its mighty sweep. leveng all in
situtons of man opposed to its progress, and
crushing with inevitable force all obstacles in
its way. 1t is to suppose that the corrupt patri-
archal systems of Asia, like the camels of
Arabia, could be transferred to this continent,
and here, amidst the christianizing influences of
the age, be made to flourish as they did in the
earlier stages of human society in the deserts
of the East. The secession of the slave states
would result in a violent social revolution, not
in a mere political one the lowest elements of
society would be moved, and the African with
whose blood there now mngles some of the
best of our own, would arouse. and, virdcatng
the declaration of our fathers, would assert and
prove that the rights of man are no mere fable
The slave states are not in the possession of
the elements necessary to an independent ma
tiona existence. They have no navy, no ships,
no ship builders or mariners. And if they had
these are the things of liberty which no despot-
ism can WELD without self destruction. They
have no self-sustainlng system of agriculture,
no extended commerce. nor the mechanic arts !;
and long before these could be established, they
would fall into hopeless and inextricabe contn-
sion for where violence to man is the ruling
principle, there can be no trust or confidence
between fellow men. And let us, indeed, sup
pose that the slave states do possess the ele-
ments of an independent existence. then from
this fact alone there would be Just so many ten
denotes within them to bring them back again
to that freedom from which they now threaten
to secede. The antagonism between their So
cial and political tendencies would alone be as
great a source of discord within thrm, as there
now arises within the Union from the contem-
poraneous existence of slavery and freedom.-
The slave states talk of independence and con-
federacy Why, even now, they cannot extend
the most common rights of hospitality to the
free men who come or live among them. They
could not even project the visitation of an angel
for they are forced to look upon free man
entering their society as they would upon one
who should visit them while in magazine of
loose powder with open fire in his hands. What
nation treating with confederacy of slave states
would consent to have its black sailors lmpris-
oned for mere Safe-keeping?
Of all the weaknesses there is none great
as that which arises from violence done to moral
principle; and there is perhaps no respectable
nation in christendom where moral principle is
so little regarded in political matters as it is
with us. Like that heathcn Republic which
arose, hourished and went TO decay before the
time of Christ, we seem to think that cor pop
mi Uor dei-that the voice of the people is the
voice of God. We seem to think that the will
of the majority is all powerful, and that it can
override even the immutable principles OF
the moral world. We often hear politicians
of respectable standing declare that the peo-
pie have power not only to introduce slave
ry into a new territory where it never existed
before, but to establish it within the limits
of an old state. In Pennsylvania. for instance
they say that the people could, if they wished
so to do, establish and institute slavery poyga-
my, theft, murder, adultery, wi!ful desecration
of the Sabbath, or any other infringement Of
the moral law We admit that the people may
have the power or the will to do this but they
have not the mOral power to do it; and if Their
will should so far triumph over reason, it would
result only in the destruction of all governmen,
and all institutions. Slave and master would
go down together to a common ruin, and socie
tv would relapse into chaos. There is no pow
er on earth that has the right to institute slavery
1t is an evil originating in the over greed o
gain, and is as destructive to the good of socie
ty as the annihilation of the principle of gray
tation or any other leading physical law woult
L,t hal h.,,, Of : ha AL Anf
it is incompatible with just economy in tho
distribution of lands fol modern uses, as it il
with the moral law. 1t requires too much lane
for its awkward, bungling kind of labor-mort
than the necessities of the present day caI
spare. Four millions of slaves and eight mil
lions of whitcs-many of whom from pride an(
poverty are condemned to a drone's life, occup,
an amount of land equal, almost, to that whcl
is covered by twenty millions of toiling, ACTIVE
freemen and the disparity is becoming ever,
day greater Next to a savage or nomad stat
of society, slavery requires the most land ant
altogether too much for the prevailing structur
of modern society.
We often hear slavery connected with cotton
as if cotton could not be raised without slavery
! whereas in fact more cotton could be produce,
| BY free labor than by slave labor, and the de
! mand for cotton is growing more rapidly thai
can be met by unskilled slave labor. No ma
terial advantage can be permanently attained a
the expense of moral principle. Free labor a
well as the demand of the world for cotto
claim that cotton lands should be thrown ope
to competition. They are held by species G
monopoly that is abhorrent to the fundamenta
! principles of our government. Seventy thou
sand men, ii is said, free men in want of EN-
ployment, offered themselves at our recruitin
rendezvous last year, for enlistment into ou