Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1861-02-07

about so material question as the introduction
of Slavery. All those considerations appear 10
have been overlooked, and we are told that the
Union must be dissolved if VIC refuse to put in
the Constitution pledge that we will protect
Slavery in the Statas of Sonora, or Coahuila.
or chihuahua, or New Leon-when we get
themP In order to comprehend how this pro-
ceedng will look to strangers, let me suppose
that the British Parliament were 10 entertain
the question what sort of organic law they
should enact respecting the labor to be employ
ed in the gold region of America south of the
forty -ninth parallel, hereafter to be acquired
Should not we regard it pretty comical sort
OF presumption. But if we should be further
informed that Scotland had become fixed in its
determination to break up the Union, because
Great Britain declined to consider this subject,
what would then be our amazementP Yet |
see but little difference between this picture and
that which we present ourselves when we fall to
quarrelling about the way we shall dispose Of
our neighbors' property at a time when there is
no particular prospect of getting it at ALL
Have we not got difficult problems enough to
solve within our present enormous geographic
cal limits to save us the necessity of puzzling
our brains with others that are Without can
scarce suppress smile at this idea of "Terrlto-
ry hereafter to be acquired" even amid all the
painful realities of the immediate struggle. Is
it not, ask you, Mr.. Speaker an abstraction
more extraordinary than all the rest?
The third and last of the causes of grievance
is, perhaps, the most singular of all. 1t at
taches itself to no act of commission whatever,
but is mere apprehension of what may be done
hereafter 1t is said that the party which has
now succeeded in the popular election has in
creased in numbers with great rapidity, and
that it shows itself so animated by hostility
to Slavery as to render all reliance upon its
present profession of moderation utterly iluso-
ry. The case, then, stands thus-we are to dis
solve the Union, not about reality, but from q
fear What can this be so? The chivarous
State of South Carolina frightened! The brave
Ancient Dominion stricken with panic The
vigorous State of Georgia in dismay And all
, for what? Not on account of the Chicago
{ platform, the only authorized exposition of the
2 policy of the successful party. No, that is not
complained of as dangerous. The terror comes
= from the alarming language of particular in
diyiduals. Mr.. such one had said so and so
= in speech; another gentleman, an editor, had
n written so and so in his newspaper Mr.. Sena-
tor Seward had spoken somewhere of an "irre-
pressible conflict" and of invasion designed at
: some time or other upon Slavery so by way Of
proving him false prophet and themselves a:
wise remonstrants, suppose the aggrieved par
ties propose no longer to attempt to repress the
Conflict" but rather to invite invasion in goot
{ earnest by beginning it themselves. So Mr.
! Lincoln, our President elect, is charged will
having said in Illinois, some time ago, 'that {
J crisis would be reached and passed." And h
: had been so bold as to quote the words of al
!, authority before whose name all Christian ma
;. tons bow: "a house divided against tsel
u cannot stand" Whereupon the complainant
y proceed to disprove the propositions by imme
II !, diately bringing on a crisis, and, instead o
1t waiting for the house to fall, by setting vigor
!, ousy to work to pull it down about our ears
Is And all this from fear lest these prediction
)! should be verified hereafter.