Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1874-05-15

conceded the right OF anybody to inquire
into the results Of the law; have always
been willing to discuss it, in the light of its
results: and have always gone upon the
theory that by it, results it must justified
1t was enacted as practical matter. As a
practical help - temperance it is sustained
by the people of Vermont We certainly
have never claimed perfection for it; and
though we are very well aware, as is the
Advertiser, that there Is no such thing a;
disturbing it, in the existing hold it has on
the people, we, for one. have been and are
ready to abandon it. for any measure which
shall, on the whole, give good promise OF
better results in the interest of temperance,
law and order.
The Advertiser reminds Us that right is
not always on the side Of the majority; and
that in the famous Baxter campaign, we
both were members Of an active. in
defatirab,e minority" We believe, by the
wav. that we came out of that campaign
with the majority On our side, however it
was when we went in Bat this is all wide
oft the point. The Advertiser undertook to say
that it L, the general feeling that the law is
unjust" We pointed, in proof of the error
Of this assumption, 10 the unvarying sup
port given to the law for twenty-five years,
by the people Of Vermont Was it flair
and candid" in the Adrri,ser to conceal
from its readers the Use We made of this,
and to allow thea to suppose that we were
arguing that the Law must be right
because sustained by the majority? 1t
IS fair, We take it, to point to i'm
mense maorties in favor of a law.
and to the pltiable failure of the most con
certel and earnest attempt, to upset law,
a. evidence of the general feeling" Or
does the Advertiser maintain that the peo-
pleof Vermont have sustained this law, un.
der constant discussion, for almost a gener-
alton, knowing and feeling it to be unjust.
WORTHLESS. and wicked?" Are the men of
Vermont who support the law, fools, or
kna,eS. in the Advertisers estimation
We do not insist that our St. Adams
frienl-who knows that we like to agree
with him when We can-shall answer that
question: but will he tell Us, what, if any,
thing, he wouldlke to see substituted for
the existing liquor law ofVermont.
Hon. Robert b. Elliott. NJ. C., Overhauled.
DEFENCE OF The MEMORY OF DANIEL WEBSTER.
To- the Editor Of the Free Press and Times.
Mr. Elliott, in the peroration Of his eulogy
on Mr.. Sumner, published in the FREE Pass
of last week, calls attention to striking con-
trasts in what Mr.. Sumner was permitted
to see. In all the eyentful life of the dis
tinguished Senator he never saw any thing
more strange and remarkable than his
eulogi,t furnished in this peroration. y
Representative IN Congress from South Caro-
Ina, successor Of John c. Calhoun. chGrg-
ing Daniel Webster ,rifh Tie crlne Of mperii-
Ing the Union
Really, Mr.. Editor, Is it not time that
this style of remark was done with? Mr..
Webster, who loved the Union with n
PASSIONATE lhNt. W az @IuEtt ~ utltuu IL
with all the strength Of his great intellect,
and whose words have been watch-words
and in aspiration to all friends Of the Union,
criminally putting that Union in peril
How? When? Where? viii Mr. Elliott
or any other one name the place and the act.
Doubtless the reply would be "In the
9Th Of March speech, and in the matter of
the fugitive slave law" How many of
those, who, in these days, lippantly assail
Mr. Webster have carefully read that eth of
March speech with comprehension of the
times and the circumstances in which it
was delivered? Among all the speeches of
that great man, not one was made more
thoroughly in the interests Of the Union or
with an eye more single to its preservation,
than that much abused, much misappre-
hended speech of the It'll of March, 1850. |
In none, believe, was he truer to the
deepest convictions Of his soul, in
none made a more complete sacrifice
OF himself for the general welfare than in |
that. He comprehended the perils very |
clearly. He meant to pat himself on |
grounds where he could defend the Union |
TO the last. and be did it. In that terrible
winter preceding the rebellion. when dis
union was becoming a fact, and civil war
was at our doors, not a few of the leading
men of the country, such as
William II. Seward and Charles Francis
Adams, were ready to propose terms of re-
runci.latiOn, substantially the same as those
'1ccated by Mr.. Webster in that speech.
The fugitive slave law was enacted after
Mr. Webster lett the Senate and had entered
Mr. Fillmore's Cabinet Many of its proviS-
lois he did not like, and before he left the
Senate he proposed a substitute for it. But
he believed, "a every candid man must con-
cede, that the constitution contemplated
such a law and made provision for it that
the South could cain 1t As constitutional
right. lie believed the law enacted. not
it, obnoxious features. was
In this opinion the best
judicial minds of the country cOncurred.
y law he insisted that. like all laws, it
must be enforced, until repealed OF modified.
Did lac err in this ? May the officers of law
.hu,>e what laws they will enforce and what
hey will not? \ private citizen may make
us election to obey OF take the consequences
II disobedlence. 10 the law officers. so far
: their execution is concerned, all laws are
like. All must be enforced, or govern
neut l. at an end.
In all tins Mr.. Webster meant to give the
outh all it could constitutionally claim.
lie saw the perils of the Union as few men
id. As carly as ISIS, he became aware of
deliberate design on the part of leading
icr OF the South to break up the Union and J
>tablish Il Southern confederacy. To
The ~ ~. 4 |
ne States perpetual became the grand co D.
-olling purpose of his subsequent life. I'm
er the Inspiration of this purpose he made
bat greatest of speeches, his reply to Mr..
ayne, in 1880. His 18th OF March speech,
I'd his whole course subsequent to that
'eech were in the interests of that one
rand purpOse-the preservation of the
MON. lie meant to silence all constitu-
Onal complaints from the South and put I
imself on ground where the whole North, ,
here every friend of the Union, could take
stand and Gefend it. where, if the conflict
anne. the issues should be clear and {
stinct. the fault all and obviously |
it'll the South. The first battles of the
MON and the first victories were in the
cna of debate in the Senate Chamber apd
lore the Supreme Court-battles and vic /
rieS rs vital and important to the Union t
lHo>e NJ hettA >Dnrg ana App0na- | c
Y. In all these, Daniel Webster was the a
ader and champion. Since Washington, Il
e nation has had no greater beneflctor ,
an he.
Slavery was obnoxious to every sentiment
his soul. But it was here, hedged about r
! constitutional guarantees. He would do
thing by violence. Where a practical n
ing was to be done to prevent the spread Fl
1t he would do it, but he had no sympa- n
y with mere theorists and extremists. lie :
lleyed the power of the gospel and the IL
ogress of events would ultimately extin- a
lish the institution and set every slave c.
&c. The grand motto of his life was !.
Liberty and Union" To charge man *
th such record with the crime of &" i'm IL
rilling the Union," one must have read
story with inverted vision. wonder the +,
ais of Faneuil Hall did not reply with a
IS to such words in that Old Cradle of Sc
hartx | n.