Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-02-13
South Carolina and Vermont.


fought in he confederate army through
the war OF the rebellion, was subsequent
ly superintendent of the South Carolina
State prison. and is now serving his fifth
term in Congress, made a fire-eating
speech. In the course of this after assert
ing the rightfulness OF secession. and re-
hearsing 1.-The irfamy, rufiiapism, coward
ice, destruction, desolation and damna-
ton of Shermsn's march to the sea. he
defended the constitution of South Caro-
lima, with its publication of the fourteen IN
amendment of tie constitution Of thc
United States, and its Acknowledgement Of
colored voters. cs an abso lutely fair and
impartial document. He went further and
undertook to make out that the laws Of
most of the Northern States had been
more oppressive of the blacks than the
laws of South Carolina. To sustain this
reckless proposition he CT some one for
him. had ransacked the cid statute books
of various northern States of fifty, sixty,
seventy and eighty years ago, and had
negroes. Thus Massachusetts had, it
seems, in 1914, a law firing ministers who
should marry lacks to whites, and pun
ishing without a jury tIial any negro who
should strike amy person of the English
or other Christian natCn." In Rhode
Island eighty years ago colored persons
we're forbidden to keep taverns, liquor
shops and alehCuses. In the laws of In
diana. Illinois and other northern States
largely settled by men from slavcholding
States, it vas of course not very hard by
cling back far enough t. find sections dis
eliminating against negroes.
Coming to Vermont Mr.. Talbert, quoting
from some compilation not named, said:
Then ir Vermont only whites are allowed
to serve in the militia. This provision
continued in the revision of 1910 and the
revision of 1850 and left out in the revision
of lS7O'
What are the facts obout this matter
They are that the original militia laws of
Vermont while it was an independent
commonwealth did not contain the word
white" or any alusion to color After
Vermont was admitted to the Union. the
legislature made the state law conform
to the United States statute of Nay s.
179". which provided that "all abc-bodod
white male citizens between the ages of
eighteen and forty-f,e years, not exempt
ed from serving in the militia by the laws
Of the United States or Ct the several
States shall he subject to military duty"
This continued to be the wording of the
clause, until 1861. when the outbreak OF
the Southern rebellion caused some
changes in the laws of the United States
ard of the Northern States.
1t is to be noted, however. that during
the period in which Vermont obeyed and
made her law conform to the United
States statute, the clause in question had
practical reference not to those who
sEoud be "allowed" but TO those who
should be required to serve in the militia
The NermOnteIs have volunteered freely
to do military duty in every war from
that Of the Revolution to the pres ent time,
the war with Me xico alone excepted; nut
have never ons;dered it a great privilege
to provide themselves, as Of old. each with
"a well-fiXed frelock with a barrel not less
ii
or tomahawk." "A "powderhorn pound Of
powder and six flints." ard to turn out
herewith to militia drills and musters
The few able-hcdied cooYed men in the
State were no doubt glad to be relieved
OF compulsory military duty in the militia
duty with the judges, clcrgymen, doctors,
teachers and students in colleges, firenen
Eiliers ana lakers. In time the word white
went out OF the law and has never &c
appeared in that or any other Vermont
statute.
If Mr. .Taltcrt wishes to compare the
general body of the statutes of South Car
clina, before ard since the war, with those
of Vermont, We do not know why any
Ncnnonter should shrink from the COM
rarson. 1t would be to compare laws
which permitted the South Carolina plant
ers to sell their infant chilircn from the
breasts of their colored mothers; which
lcgalized the selling of vrtuous girls of all
shades of color from black to az white rs
their owners, TO tho keepers OF houses of
ILL., fame; which to this day make the
slightest faint of colored blood a cause for
excluding men, women ana children from
the churches, schools, hotels. cars and
household service other than menia,
which virtually exclude from the polls the
mass of colored men as fully entitled to
vote under the constitution of the United
States as any white man-to compare
these with the first clause of Vermont's
first bill of rights, adopted in TIT, which
declared all men to be born equally free
and forbade human slavery; with the
emission from the Vermont statutes from
that tire to this Ct any test depending
on the color CT mans skin, with the
single exception CT the militia law above
noted; with the personal liberty" laws OF
Vermont of 1A3. 1850 and 1888, which pro
vided heavy penalties of fine and impris
onment for any offi'er or citizen of Yer
mont who should arrest CT assist in the
arrest Of any fugitive slave; with all the
laws and customs Ct a State which hal
always been as free as the air of hei
mOuutains--lIeo from all roscrintiou IN