Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1862-07-24
THE POLICY OF LENIENCY
PLAYED OUT.


Border States Delegation, assert that
"The leaders (of the rebellion) which
constitute what was previously known as
the States Rights party, and is much the
lesser class, seek to break down national
independence and set up State domination.
With them it is a war against Nationality.
The other class is fighting, as it supposes,
to maintain its rights of property and do
mestic safety, which it has been made to |
believe are assailed by this government,
This latter class are not unionists per Sc
they are SO only because they have been
made to believe that this administration is
inimical to their rights, and is making war
upon their institutions"
We do not question that by persistent
lying, a large class of Southern people,
constituting what is styled in the slave
holding vocabulary, "poor white trash"
has been made to believe that the adj
ministration of President Lincoln came
into power pledged to interfere with and
overthrow the institution of slavery. But
we do not think there is an intelligent
STAKEHOLDER in the South who ever hon
estly entertained such belief. We have
no doubt that every STAKEHOLDER who is in
arms against the Government, is dis
unionis per Sc. There is not one OF them
who honestly apprehended any unconsti-
tutional interference on the part OF Mi.
Lincoln with their domestic institutions.
1t is the inevitable, memorable antagon-
ism of free schools, free speech and free
press, TO slavery in all its forms,-the ST.
lent, but potent influences which flow
from enlightened moral sentiment, and
which are fostered by a free government
like ours,-that has alarmed the slave
holders for the safety of their barberous
insttution They are disunionists per Sc,
because they perceive, what allthe world
knows, that SLAVERY cannot permanently
exist in free Republic. 1t must GO
down if newspapers, tracts, and cheap
pamphlets, are made the daily food to the
souls of men. They are secessionists be-
cause they want a government which shall
directly foster the system of slavery, a;
the basis and ground work of their soci
nty,--a government which shall hedge
the accused system around with wal
of protection against the inroads of Chris
tan civilization. Deeming themselves t.
be already possessed of all the attributes
and conditions which constitute an arts
tocracy entitled to peculiar and exclusive
social and political privileges, they arr
determined no longer to lack the name
and actual habiliments, which our Demo
cratic Republic withholds. Upon tn
ruins of this Republic, the STAKEHOLDER
intend to build an oligarchic government
essentially despotc in its character. Th
"poor white trash will be deprived c
all political power,--the press will b
shackled the songs of free people wi
be committed to the Aames,-free school
will be prohbited-the press will spea
only the behests of the shareholders, an
the negro race will be kept in subjectio
by the tyrrany of arbitrary and inhuma
laws, enforced at the point of the bay(
nets of standing army.
We repeat again, therefore, that the il
telligent shareholders did not rebel becauS
they feared unconstitutional interference
with slavery, but simply because they b.
lieve tina. free government like our
fairly and uprightly administered, is in a
its main provisions standing rebuke
their system of enforced labor. The
have seeded not because they do not lii
the administration, for that is conditit
that admits of peaceable remedy; thu
have seeded because they do not like t
free government established by our fat
ers, and that is a condition that can
remedied only by revolutionl Why me-
we shut our eyes to fact SO palpable !?
But suppose it were as the BOrd
States Representatives claim, what me
can the President do to convince I
shareholders that he meditates no uncc
stitntinnaI intarfarnnna with their nr0n