The daily Green Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1861-1865, 1861-08-28
Mlisfellanp.
The Folly of Fools.

The following on the folly of the South we
take from the Northern Independent.
The old maxim whom the gods will to
destroy, they first make mad was never
more fully exempli6ed than in tho present
shareholders rebellion. Not satisfied with
enjoying all the rights and immunities which
were fairly theirs under the Constitution,
they set themselves to break down the Union,
in order to reap from its destruction, an un-
bounded license for the peculiar institution.
This brilliant exploit of the slaveocrats has
resulted in planting on the soil Of Virginia
the only considerable slave. growing and slave
exporting State of the Union-an anti sla-
very army Of hundred thousand men, to be
augmented indefinitely, as the necessities of
the war shall demand Not only so, but the
non-saveholding and non-rebelling part of
this modern Congo, has been stimulated to
great activity in the cause Of freedom. Wes-
tern Virginia has arisen almost en- maSse to
the Union, and to help crush out the con-
spiracy. new set Of State officers has been
substituted for tho old ones, and at least, one
! half of the State is now heartily supporting
the Government. Thus has this most insane
tilt of the Union, already cost tho slave-hol-
ders, one half their tavorite State, and mar
shallcd an invincible army against them in
the other half What but judicial blindness
could have indutccd hese lovers of oppression
to risk such collision in such place ?
Did you not know that Northern army
once organized on the slavery question, and
once fixed within their territory, would ney-
er leave till victory crowned their banners
Had not God abandoned them to destruction
they never would have bundered in this eg-
gregious manner. 1t is possible that in tho
beginning, the whole thing was hidden from
their eyes. Long accustomed to have all
their demands complied with as the result
either of intrigue or menace, they had no
expectation OF meeting a formidable armed
resistance. Had Mr.. Buchanan remained
in office, or Mr.. Lincoln been doughfacc,
the game Of secession would in all probability
have been played out without bloodshed
But for the exceedingly fortunate circum,
stance that We have a President who dare
employ force against treason, we should
still be propitiating the rebels with new com.
promises, or tamely acquiescing in their YAH
dal attempts As it is, they have drawn up.
on themselves controversy which in form
and manner and place, must necessarily be
their ruin. Had they intended to arouse
the North to one vast act of exterminatine
wrath against slavery, they could not have
done it more ehcctuaiy. A battle for free
dom on the soil of Virginia, is, indeed a
death. spasm to slavery. To raise such an
issue there, was to awaken eternally hostile
clements, and cut off the sources OF slavery
at the fountain head.
Nor is this result by any means confined
to Virginia. In four States at least--Mary
land, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee
similar state Of things exist, and the speedy
abolition of slavery is inevitable. Nothing
is more certain than a complete Union tri
umph in all these States. In the first three
of them even now, there is much organized
opposition-none we believe except in Mis-
souri-,and that we judge will soon be extin.
guished under the new State administration
and tho vigorous Generals there in com
maud. On the whole, it is clear that Provi
dcnce is against the shareholders. The wal
which they have so wickedly provoked, vii
first reveal their dcpravity to the everlasting
adherence of mankind, and then sweep them
into oblivion.