Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1865-05-02
The Barbarism Of Slavery.

lne numerous pistol Which th0L 10 dealh our
noble president, were moved, controlled and gov.
erned by more than an individual will. There
are few crimes OF startling magnitude that are not
the Legitimate harvest Of seed long before sown.
Giant offenders are not the growth Of a day; great
offences 90 back sometimes through many years
for their moving causes. The treason that hl.
wrought such evil in the republic is much older
than the fire upon fort SUMTER older than the
election Of President Lincoln older than most
men in active lfe The poison in the blood which
at last showed itself in the eruption of rebellion,
had been gathering strength for more than half
century, and all the violence Of treason, starving,
manglng numbering It's innocent and helpless
victims, is not alone .ha fruit Of this war, or "
the passions which the war has engendered but
is the revolving, hdeous, deyilish ougrow.h Of
the system Of slavery The war has given slavery
larger opportunity to exhibit It's nature, and has
kept It's birbarous wckedness more constantly
before tho eyes of all who we're not wlfuly blind
but it has developed no new traits Of character 10
the slaveholder Whipping, torture, murder
were always the necessary incidents Of an nsti-
tuition that put thu person and life Of the slave in
the unlimited power Of the masters and it was
but natural that Shareholders when rebels should
treat their prisoners as they did their slaves
Their ferocty is the child Of their civilization,
their cruelty is bit an instrument Of their OPP
preston. Slavery knows no law but ioence,
force, might it can exist only where these are the
supreme law. The assassin's pistol, the murder
ers b)sie knife, tb rack, the whip and the blood.
houlds, ne the symbols Of Is system Of order
and government. Justice at the South never held
an even balance, but the mailed hand Of oppression
was always heavy in the scale always out-weghed
that the men who were not restrained from rebel
ling against government which had denied them
none Of their rights, should, in the prosecution
Of their treason, stop at no crime which has ever
dsgraced humanity or shocked the civilized world.
Brutal passionate, bafblrous by the necessities
OF the system they cherished, taught by i. that
a docile, uneduc4ted, broken-heaued race could
be cowed and terrified into subsection to their
despotic power it was but natural that they should
wreak their enraged and mnlgn passions upon the
defenders Of the government they assiiled, as
they had been in the habit Of doing toward the
noifensiye and helpless race whose nccks had been
for century under their iron heels. Libbey Pr
son, Andersonville, Font Pillow, Fort Wagner,
have only witnessed on a somewhat larger scale
the atrocious crueltes which slavery alone makes
possible and of which Shareholders and the slave
pens of the South, il they could furnish true
record Of the btutalities which they have for
years witnessed, would make history at which
hum nifty would everywhere shudder, record Of
revolving torture, Of inhuman crimes and the
rebellion has only ADDED iue, to this madness Of
lawlessness and wick, dntss, til it burns in Q
hercer flame in the eyes T the world.
The murder Of President Lincoln is only one
exhibition Of this savage violence e sllvry A
free people, accustomed to the restraints OF law
aud order, and unused to the nsoleut arrogance,
and he fierce and angry passions which are the
natural growth Of tyranny which governs by
the drivers lash and bludgeon, could not have
produced John Wilkes Booth lie is the egll
mate offspring Of the ciyiz lion Of South Carolina,
and was educated in toe same school as Preston
Brooks he belongs by nature, by education, by
habit, by tempe, to that Infamous eh,vilry which
applauded the oOwardly assault on Charles sum.
ner in the Senate Chamber OF the United States,
and which for years, while enjoying every pr vi
i, &c which The government could heslow, was
conspirlrg lis o'er,hrow,--lke the villain who
takes advantage Of the hospitality of 'rieud to
work the ruin OF his household lie was,of course
an ardent symplihIz-r with every exhibition OF
treason, devoted admirer of the system OF OPP
preston which ruled the South. lie initiated the
character, the dispositions, tie t.mpela.eut of
that rtbelious people, aad he drew the inspiration
Of his gigantic wickedGess from that fountain from
which every crime legiDimalely flows. He knew
the traitors, and believed they would einonize
him for is act, as he had right to believe from
all their past and recent history. And every slave
holder who is not row loyal man or in fear Of
the national power in It's yis,ations OF ielributiye
justice, would Mss the bloody hand OF the assassin,
and battle 1t in the tears OF an ovrltjnlug grsli.
tude Ii slavery were To- ay as strong and d, liant
as It was fur years ago, Booth the assassin might
Rave had a triumphol march aud procession from
Richmond to New Orelus, cowned everywhere
as champion and cunquetor, and be prestn ed
With pistols as was Is oJkS with canes, until his
armofy Of mufderous weapons should b. Gdl.
ThS.ls 10 txlggerati u. The history ofs4yery
prevou, to the rebellion as well as its re nd
sInca, proves Every ol re in he indie mJul
Slavery can I've oub by yole ce and fraud It
is itself gg'nue wrong, and ha, ptrpetuitcd is
existence Only by terrorism, violence aud murder.
Wrong does not appel to the aw FIR pro,,c ION.
does not appeal to the people for immunity 1t
addresses Itself to tie lusls, the eupidit, AMI the
fears Of men. |, makes it unsafe to oppos or
s"dl it, This is its only defense and ref ge.
And Both was only giving startling instance
Of the method BY which sAvsp hisever attempted
to rule when duvea to the wall, when he struck
down the head OF the republic /, plotted The
death Of the republic nd failed. Ia is fierce,
expiring agony II struck At the life Of President
Lincoln and succeeded. 1t could not defeat the
ehoce o. the people by war, aud according to il,
nature its next res'rt is assassination. BY the