Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1863-08-25
Mr.. RedfiAld's Record.

have Joined in its assaults, will publish the plat
form upon which Mr.. Red6eld was candidate Tor
the Office OF Governor, and not substitute another,
as il has DONE and also publish the wtob article
whose authorship it attributes to him, and will
then publish bis speech of one week ago last Sat-
urday wherein will appear Inconsistencies, II there
are any in bis course, it will then show dispo-
sition to treat the matter fairly.
The real point that Mr. r. relies upon to prove
that we falsely stated bis position, is that We
did not copy the whole Of the platform upon
which bis party stood at that time, nor the whole
Of the article which he then wrote for The FREE
MAN. We quoted, however, complete and indie
pendent paragraphs, and consecutive a1d entire
resolutions; and so fat as we could then, or can
now see, the views Of Mr.. Redfed and his plat
form as stated by US, were not made to depend
upon anything we omitted. We should very
cheerfuly have printed the whole, then, had our
space permitted, and we would print it now, in
Guiding his speech at the Convention here on the
at oil pertinent to the inquiry whether Mr.. Rs.
views respecting slavery have not changed since
1851.
Mr.. II. evidently sees that his present position
on the question Of slavery and bis sympatbies and
arguments respecting it, are utterly at variance
with his position when Free Soil candidate for
Governor, and he attempts to avoid the charge
Of inconsistency, by raising an mmaterial issue.
He says now,
The whole scope and spirit Of the article, (the
one in the FREEMAN in 1851 was to impress
Constitutional duty that the Constitution was
the Palladium Of Libery"i that it must be
obeyed y" that it must have our entire ale
glance y; that +" having offered to it our allegi-
ance we demand, in turn, that it shall fulfill its e-
climate functions that slavery could engiait
no new dogmas upon the Constitution to foster its
peculiar interest, nor could the antagonists Of
slavery revoutionize an established government
for the purpose Of its erlapaion that " the Con-
stiution needs no physic Let It's functions have
full play, and its action healthy -" there are
too many political nostrums, there are too many
political gamblers"
his is an ovsslve and disingenuous plea, smack
ing more Of the lawyers brief than Of the state.
mans logic and with all due respect for Mr.. X.
we must decline to accept this CONNIE ntary upon
the political gospel he preached twelve years ago.
His text and the body Of bis discourse were then
Liberty TO all His argument was against slavery
10 be sure, he affirmed bis allegiance to the Con-
stitution and the Union, but it was a Constitution
which be said was ordained and established to
secure the blessings of liberty u; and, he added,
if the midew of African slavery shall ever ROT
away the ligaments that bind this Union together,
the last dropof warm blood circulating in the
veins of American freemen will be found upon
FREE SOIL. He also said I" The Union must
be preserved. The Constitution must not be
shackled. FREEDOM MUST BE NArIoNALIzED.
SLAVERY MUST BIZ LOCALIZED We take no steps
backwards. The times demand men for official
station, magneiized with the spirit OF Consiitit-
ionai freedom, and true as the needle and who
can by no stress Of circumstances be unmagnet.
ized. This shall be our course. Others may de-
sert us, but we shall not desert our principles.
The italics and small capitals in the above quota
tons are Mr.. Redfelds, and plainly enough indi.
cate what was then his polar star. He then was
lighting against slavery and for freedom ard no
ingenuity can torture his language into any other
meaning.
MIR. Red6eld did indeed, as he now says, then
give in bis adhesion TO the Constitution. But be
called it "the Old Compass whose pOigiiyis free
dom, the chart Of former patriots who built the
ship and knew its capacity, with which they have
nayigated that glorious old vessel amid all the
storms Of State safely into harbor." Liberty :"
was then the magnetic power in that Constitution
to which he confessed himself irresisbly attracted.
He eulogzed Thomas jefferson Ordinance of
Freedom, which made the great Northwest ire
yocably free soil 1t was because the Constitution
was ordained to secure the blessings Of LIBERTY,
that he took pleasure in declaring bis allegiance
to Il. And the Convention that nominated him,
to take the place Of Mr.. Peck who held opposite
views Of the Constitution, said in a resolution
awe discover but one distinctive feature of the
Wing party in its present phase, as Swallowed by
the present admlnistration. fidelity 10 slavery
and the maintenance OF its supremacy and inpio
| ldbiity we shall therefore oppose the Whig par
" as to principles, it noto processes none"
Can Mr. Red6eld with any justice now say that
he was then only insisting on fidelity TO the Con.
stitutionP Was he not rather urging fidelity TO
Liberty, and employing bis rhetoric, his learning,
bis logic, in the work of showing that in thus be-
ing faithful to Liberty he was obeying the Consii.
tuition both in the spirit and in the letter; that
he was thus stripping the Constitution of the pro-
slavery rubbish of commentators, and taking its
pure and simple text of freedom as the fathers
made it, that he was taking the Old Compass
from the disturbing influences of gambling, pro-
slavery politicians, and restoring it to its true
polarity (which is freedom'p What would he
have said twelve years ago, il an adversary had
attempted then to expound his text as he ex-
pounds it nowP
But Mr.. r., evidently conscious Of the utter and
rreconcilable hostility between his views now and
in 1851, attempts TO justify his abandonment Of
the truths he then taught, by quoting the bred
Scott decision as an " authoritative adjudication
Of the questions which be debated when formerly
candidate for Governor. But Mr.. Redield the
said the cause Of the agitation " in the country,
and the danger of disuuion, was from "Negro
SlayerY.h Does be now hold that n decisinn Of