Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1862-03-21

tution, pure and undenled. we challenge |
the Sentinel TO produce it. The Constitu- |
ton was made in the interests of justice and |
liberty, not in those of injustice and slavery |
however much it has been perverted to
serve the latter.
THE SENTINEL ON THE MESSAGE.
Il has been of late the cue of the Sentinel
to give the Administration to some extent its
valuable support, on the assumption that
Mr. Lincoln had turned his back on all the
principles of his party. In view Of this, We
have been curious to see how it would re-
ceive the Presidents recent message. Its
treatment of it is characteristic. 1t first
grossly perverts it, then approves its phi
lanthropic spirit hopes the measure re-
commended will be adopted ST found con-
stltutional, practicable and expedient,' and
then proceeds to arguet hat it is neither con-
stitutional, practicable nor ezpedient. OF
course it mingles IN its discourse a full
measure of its customary sneers and charges
against all opponents of slavery, under the
comprehensive terms of " abOlitionists' and
negro philanthropists.
We say it perrerfs the message. The
Sentinel says
=. 1t recognizes. first of all, the existence
and rights OF property in slaves, and pro
poses in case the masters will yield up these
admitted rights and part with their pro-
perry. to compensate them for its loss.
Not proposition of the sort is to be found
in the message. Here is the resolution
which the President recommends Congress
to pass:
R,,aiuel, That the United states ought to CO.
| operate with any State which may adopt gradual
| adjustment Of Slavery, giving TO such State Pc
cunisry aid, to be used by such State in its lscre
tion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public
and private, produced BY such change OF system.
Not word is said or hint given that he
recognizes the right Of property in man. lie
leaves the people OF any State which may
adopt gradual abolition of slavery, to con
s'der slaves in what light they may please,
and the State authority 10 Use the pecuniary
aid which Congress may give it as ''com-
pensation for the inconvenience produced by
such change of system" IN any way 1t
shall please.
The Senfnei asks
Does this please the Abolitionists, who have
always denied the very existence of property in
slaves, and asserted the sh-oute and unconditional
| right Of the slaves to tLsir own services and TO
their personal freedom, and that hence that there
nothing to be paid to their masters for freeing
them? Are aboIitiouis;s willing now to admit
that slaves property, and subject to the legal
incidents of property
Nobody denies that, in South Carolina
slaves are called properly, and treated as
property by the courts, just as much as
horses and swine are, and that there they
are subject to 1.-THE legal incidents of proper
ty." But millions in every christian land
deny that this is in accordance with natural
and Divine law.
But says the SEnrsl, further
"The message, again, recognizes the exclusive
right OF the states TO deal with the question Of
emancipation that if they choose TO accept the
profre ed pecunisry aid, we'll and good; that if
otherwise, then there is end of the matter and
we have have nothing further To do with it,"
The message ssys nothing of the sort. 1t
says eff the proposition contained in there-
solution does not meet the approval of Con-
gresS and the country, there Is the end
that is of the proposition Not the remJtest
hint is there that 1t is "the exclusive right of
tie States to deal with the question Of eman-
cipatiUn." He says the pTopo sition does not
set Up a dam of right by Federal authority
to interfere with slavery within state limits
but whether in any contingency the Govern
ment OF the United S ats may or will take the
business Of emancipation into its own hands,
is neither asserted nor denied The President
leaves the States free to accept or refuse his
propoSition-and if they refuse, to take their
chance in whatever the future incidents of
the war may bring.
But the o0HstitutI0ndliiy of the measure
proposed Is one OF grave doubt, says the
Sentinel, and it warns our Senators and Re-
presentatives in Congress to "think twice
before they 20 into such an expensive and
doubtful business as voting to "lay tax of
from two to four hundred per cent on the
Grand List of Vermont to pay the slave
owners Of Maryland, Virginia and other
border states for setting their slaves Free
Moreover the immense cost of the measure
1.-THE Sentinel reckOns the average price of
slaves, infants and aged, sick and well, feeble
and strong at q thousand dollars piece-three
times at least what slave-dealer would put it
att would be SO great that the Sentinel doubts
whether it would be practicable.
Still further, it doubts whether. il consti-
tutional and practicable, it would be eIpe-
dient-whether the slaves, their masters, and
the country generally, would be bettered by
the emancipation Of the slaves. To have
such ga mixed state of society," it considers
would be "very undesirable for the whites
The nurture, the reader will notice, is al
ready there. The undesirableness which
troubles the Sentinel, lies wholly in the fact
that under the new arrangement, the whites
would not be able to buy and sell the blacks
and nulattoes, to make them work without
pay, to maltreat them to any extent, and
even to kill them. without the testimony of
blacks or mulattoes being allowed in Court