Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1861-12-19
GIN. RUTLERS EXPEDITION.
Proclamation Extraordinary by Brig
General EShetps.

! The steamship Constitution. which left
Boston Nov 21st, with the Twenty-sixlh
Massachusetts,. and the Ninth Connecticut
regiments, composing a part of Gen. But
Icr's division, arrived at Fortress Monroe
on Saturday. The troops were landed on
Ship Island, Mississippi, on the 4th inst,
, BY some rebel cleaners captured by our
| feet A telegram from Baltimore repre-
sented that Brigadier. Gen. Phelps lad is
sued proclamation to tho loyal citizens
of the Southeast, which was strongly anti
slavery in tone. Since, we have received
the proclamation in full. A good deal has
been done by our Generals in the proc
lamation" line, but Gen. Phelps proclaim
alton may be said to beat them all. The
| proclamation would occupy over column
in our paper, and is, from the beginning
70 the close, an expression OF Phelps views
OF slavery, as a social and political insti-
tuition. After telling the citizens OF the
Southeast, that he is among them a.
military officer ofthe government, and that
il il proper he should state to them the
motive; and principles by which his COM
mand would be governed, he proceeds to
! ing -
We believe that every State that has
been admitted a. a slave State into the
| Union since the adoption Of the Constitu-
| ton has been so admitted in direct viola
tion of that Constitution
We believe that the slave State which
existed a. such at the adoption OF our
Constitution are, by becoming parties TO
shat compact, under the highest obligations
Of honor and morality to abolish slavery"
. He next goes into an argument to prove
that slavery is a monopoly, aud that all
monopOles are iriuriou- 20 competition.
He say, the free labor OF the North has
need OF more territory for expansion, and
that slavery virtually exclude such labor
| from the Southern States lie goe- on -
| Slavery, from the condition of a uni
versally recognized social and moral evil,
has become at length political institution,
demanding political recognition. 1t de-
mands rights to the exclusion and annihIl-
alton Cf those rights which are insured 10
Us by the Constitution and VIZ must
! choose between them which We will have,
for we cannot have both.
The Constitution va, made for Tree
men. and not for slave. Slavery a, a
social evil might for q time be- tolerated
and endured, but a. a political institution
| it become- inperious and exacting, con-
trolling, like a dread necessity, all whom
circumstance, have compelled To live un-
! der it, sway, hampering their action, and
thus impeding our national progress
| Next, he gives the citizens OF the South
ives; little touch Of history -
"By reverting to the history of the past,
. We find that one OF tho most destructive
wars an record, that OF the French Revo-
lHton, was originated 10 the attempt TO
give political character TO an institution
which was not susceptible Of political
| character.
The church, by being endowed with
! political power, with It's converts, its i'm
me-se landed wealth, it, associations, sec
ret and open, Decamc the ruling power Of
the State, and thu, occa,ioncd a war of
more strife and bloodshed, probably, than
any other war which has desolated the
earth. Slavery Is still le-s susceptible of
| political character than was the church.
II Is a. hit, at this moment for the lumber
| room OF the past, a was. in 1898, the
monastery, the landed wealth, the exclu-
sive privilege. DC, of the Catholic church
| in France.
1t behoOveS u 10 consider, ~ a self-gov-
ernIng people, bred and reared and prac-
ticed in the habits of self-government,
| whether we cannot, whether we ought not,
to revolusionize slavery out OF existence,
without the necessity of a conflict of arms
ike that of the French revolution.
Indeed, W. feel assured that the mo-
ment slavery IS abolished, from that mo
ment our Southern men. every ten of
whom have probably seven relatives in
the North--would begin to emerge from
hateful delirium. From that moment.
relieved from imaginary terrors, their days
become happy, and their nights peaceful
and free from alarm ;the aggregate amount
of labor under the new stimulus OF fair
competition becomes greater day by day
property rises in value, invigorating infiu-
ences succeed to stagnation, degeneracy
and decay, and union, harmony, and peace
to which we have 50 long been strang
ers - become restored, and bind US again
in the bonds of friendship and amity, as
when we first began our national career
under our glorious government Of 1889"
Following this, an appeal is made to the
white laborers of the South. They are
asked If thew will bind their necks to the