The daily Green Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1861-1865, 1863-09-28

to fury, these same men hope themselves in
their turn, to bear rule. They will be will
ing, perhaps, 10 use the machinery of Con
stitutional Government Tor time, but thew
will be equally willing, to see il perish. Thew
wish only to drive the steeds, and it is a mat.
ter of unconcern to them whether or not the
coach aud the passengers are dashed in pieces
Every age has been infested with this stvle
OF men-demagogues corrupt, unprinciped,
decelttul appealing to the prejudices, and in
flaming the passions Of unthinking crowds
stirring up hatred between the poor and rich
declaiming against Government and Constitu.
tionai authority; and letting loose every wild
and greedy appetite In the name OF Liberty
that Liberty herself may be destroyed. These
men, and these alone, are the enemies amopg
ourselves whom we have to fear. They, and
they only, are the lovers Of despotsm, and
plotters to become despots They mean to
direct all things after the counsel Of their
own unrestrained will. This they can best
DO when all other restraint is broken off, aud
the most ungoveruable elements Of society are
IN play. Ignorance and crime are the ma.
terials they can work on best. Intimidation,
violence, and the rule OF mobs are their in
struments. The institutions, the settled order
Of society, are to be overturned; confusion
and license are to take their place. The end
Of it all is that they themselves are to be
the leaders, and to act their pleasure in the
midst Of the general uproar. There is no
other kind Of despotism that we shall ever
need to be afraid Of, or our children afterward,
for score oil generations. The evil will not
be wrought by the Constitutional Government
oVer-steppiDg its powers and using the ma
chinery of the law, with the consent of the
law-abid!ng and DEMONSTRATING classes to en-
slave and tetter the nation. 1t will be effect
ed, if at all, by the revolutionary action of
turbulent and ambitious men, supported by
the violence of all the ignorant and Iawless
portion OF our population. Or if any move.
ment toward the abrdgement OF popular lib
erty should ever proceed from the more IL.
telligent and really conservative ranks Of so.
ciety, and by the methods of the established
Government, 1t will only be after the most de-
cisive experience of anarchy and tumult has
demonstrated that there can be no other hope
for security and good order. In either case
the origin OF the dangers is all from one spot.
We do not believe that our Government is
to perish so. There is too much knowledge
and good sense and too much Christianity, wo
hope, among cur people to let it. But the
fact is not to be concealed, that the risk is
greater than we should once have supposed.
The war against the nation gives an opportu-
nifty. The slave despots Of the South are in nat
ural and fitting alliance with the mob despots
Of the North-the rulers Of the darkness of
this part of our world. What ruin they may
not work together in some evil hour, no one
can tell. This time on the week before the
riots, our brave soldiers did not fee from the
Gettysburg cemetery. We have no wish to
see the two tyrannies any nearer again to
common triumph.
AS 1t IS now, the weapons Of freedom are
near at hand for every one that will use them.
First of all, and for the time now present, the
business is to uphold the Government and all
Its laws, and to VISIT if need be, swift and
terrible vengeance upon whoever unlawiully
opposes them. Next to that and for the tu-
ture, we must strengthen and employ every
agency of government and of social life, and
every appliance of religion, to raise up into
light, and knowledge, and better disposition,
those who might otherwise do the mischief.
One Of these methods is to shoot the full-grown
despots the other is to train the young boys
so that they will never become SUCH There
is choice between them. But there are
times of peril when, if the first is not taken,
there will be no space left for the second.