Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1865-01-27

manhood with which God endowed them.
These will not keenly calculate whether
little more sacrifice is necessary in order to
endear them TO some party now in rebel
lion by which the ascendency Of their own
political associates may be hereafter Sc
cured. They may believe that for such |
an object no party in the North is in a
condition to make further expenditures for
such an object. That cours, has proved
very exhausting process, AMI the most ex-
travagant demand ever made in this di-
rection, being vote agains this amend
ment, if complied with will prove bootless,
and may much better be teclined. 1t is
by no means certain that the dominant
party of the South, when the repentant
rebels are again brought under the old flag,
will be of the malignant States right or Sc
cession stripe, and in that case the concili-
alton preferred here in behalf Of slavery
would prove stale and improbable. The
true Union men and the poor whites of the
South viii hereafter prove power that
will be heard from.
! A rebellion that fails leaves no place
/ for its leaders. These, if not basished by
Government, are driven into obsturity by
the people they have unworthily msguld-
ed.
However ready gentlemen may be to
welcome back such chiefs as Davis, Slidell,
and Mason, they will never have the op-
portunity, for these and all such as these
will be kept in strait jackets at home, or
lhty will more likely skulk away TO such
congenial courts as that of Maximikan j.
or Pedro III.
II it had not been for the disclosure of
the diabolical purpc Sc of slavery TO destroy
our Government, the people of the United
States would doubtless have tolerated the
institution wherever States choose to con.
tiuue, and shield it until the density o
: population should have made the soil toe
valuable to support anything but freemen
But since this disclosure we should be
towards, after having witnessed its power
+ for evil, after the countless treasure anc
priceless blood we have expended 10 the
struggle for our own preservation, if We
were to surrender our grip upon the throa
of the monster, and thus permit him to re-
cover strength to repeat the atrocities O
the last four years upon those who viii
succeed US. We owe 10 TO ourselves anr
the world to close up this quarrel SO tina
it can never be re-opened.
If it can be closed by CONSTITUTIONS
provision, what fairer mode can be de-
vised Certainly, rebel shareholders. who
have waged war of unexampled inhu
manity and ferocity to break the Consti
tuition, cannot complain that we should, by
peaceful and proper means, attempt tc
mend it.
II is sometimes asked whether the Con
, stitution as it was could have been adopted
| if il had been foreseen at the time al
, amendment like this would ever be pro
posed; aud in reply it might be asked, i
, the growth and the past and present histo
, ry OF slavery could have been foreseen
whether, in that case, the Constitution a
q it was could have been adopted? Thi
proves nothing, save that the world moves
and is not precisely in the condition nov
+ it was then. Then slavery was expecte'
q speedily to die out, and Madison, and man,
other Southern men in Congress, sought t
cripple it by taxing the introduction c
o slaves, which, under the Constitution
y could not be prohibited until 1908. Whe
;. 1903 arrived the law was already on th
: statute book to in,erdict the further intro
e duction of slaves at the first possible me
@ ment. We all know Madison, in draftin
: the Constitution, siudiousy avoided an
= words that would furnish to future genera
v tions evidence that slavery had ever es
I. i.ted in the Young Republic. He at lea,
r honestly looked forward to the time whe
d it would all disappear, leaving no blot bt
% hind. N body foresaw how it would di.
appear, and perhaps no one expected,
t. the hour OF its most colossal growth, an
+ protected by fresh and impregnable secur
,t lies, that it would commit suicide. Bl
a that is its fate. 1t leaped into the Re
10 Sea. and, Ike Pharaoh and bis host, it wi
d be drowned-a fate that would make ii
y morning stars of our Constitution sing f
n joy and shall any of us mourn and refui
at to be comforted
st To what end should slavery be contin,
ed? Manifestly only that one-half of {!
IN slave States may breed and sell their sla'
ID stock TO the other half. In one-half of d
of slave States that was the only way
he which slavery could be made productiy
a. | NAV be mistaken, but / believe this
n have been so; and il has been far fro
a. creditable to US as nation. / do not wi
r. to deprive any State of legitimate pre-
ss. periiy, and there is not one slave Sta
ey which, ten years after slavery shall ha
on been abolished, will not have more taxat
- Iocor<