Year: 1860

The fact that proposition has been made in the |
Vermont Legislature to repeal the Personal Liberty
bill of that State has given great comfort and con-
ISOLATION to the few hopeful people of the South
who still believe that the Union may be preserved
1t is very true such proposition made in the
Vermont Legislature. It was reported from
special committee, and advocated, as we learn
from the public journals of the day, with uncom-
mon ability and eloquence. But what was its fate F?
In the whole Legislature Of Vermont it received
but heen1y.tiUe UOtes The Legislature of that
State, we believe, consists of over one hundred
members. Less than one-fourth of the number
have expressed willingness to repeal the most
disgraceful statute ever enacted by legislative
assembly, statute inficting fine and imprisonment
upon citizen who goes to reclaim his property,
and law directly nullifying plain and distinct
provision of the Federal Constitution. Truly so far
as Vermont is concerned, {" the tide is turningn
with a vengeaneei


There is another tide turning, however, which
promises to bear upon its surface much more of
benefit to the South than the repeal of all the Per-
sonal Liberty bills ever enacted. By our tele-
graphic report yesterday 1t will be seen that the
flow of gold from New York to the South has COM
menced, and that about one million of dollars have
| been sent since last Saturday. Here is a turning
of the tide worth talking about. The South no
| more buys the manufactures Of the North-and the
| consequence is our cotton, our tobacco and
sugar are not exchanged for Northern manufac-
| tures, but must be paid for in gold. Our cotton
| must be had, by the people of New York, either
for themselves or their European correspondents
| and there will be much more gold flowing in this
direction, almost constant stream of it, in fact,
before all their wants in this respect will be sup
| Piled This s the sort of tide We like to see turn
| ing and none Of your humbug repeas of Personal
| Liberty bills, which, even II accomplished, would
be dictated solely by fear, and not by patriotism
| The tide seems to be turning in other respects
| also. The other day the Abolitionists Of Boston
met to celebrate the anniversary of the hanging Of
| John Brown In the midst of their diabolical
saturnaIia there was rush upon them by the cti-
zens, who took possession Of the meeting, drove
the sympathetic John Brown msereants from the
house, and passed resolutions that the old traitor
was rightly hung. So, also, the clamor of dis


charged operatives from the factories, hungry for


bread and perfshing with cold, indicates turn of


the tide in another quarter. Only that all this


comes too late there might be some hope Of a re-


vulsion in public sentiment which would lead to a


restoration Of peace between the two sections


But we find that the tide is turning in the right d.


rection only in those sections where suffering and


want will be the consequences of Southern with


drawal' from the Union. Massachusetts,, which


lives by her manufacturing and shipping pursuits


is the first to feel the approach of danger to those


interests; and her people break up John Brown
meeting three weeks after having elected to thu


Gubernatorial chair, by an overwhelming majority
| man who endorsed John Brown in a publ


speech and said that T. he was right" But Yer


mont, with no shipping and few manufactures


r6endorses her Personal Liberty bill, and boldl


announces to the world that she intends to cor
i tinue to set at defiance the Constitution and tn
| laws of the country. .a.- ~#m


All this only goes to show that it is mainly sci


interest, and not patriotism, which has caused til


tide to turn in the right direction, even where sue


is the case. We want no such turning of the It'd
. as that. We want Personal Liberty bills n


peaIed, when they are repealed from fear th


South will seeede, and the material interests of ii
ID North will suffer. Unless they can repeal thel


upon high principles Of patriotism, upon hone
IS convictions of their infamous and unconstitution
character let them stand upon their statute bool
Y forever. Unless John Brown meetings l


broken up, and John Brown candidates for Go
o ernor defeated, upon the broad principle that it


wrong to send emissaries to the South to cut O.
10 throats and burn our dwellings, and not upon pri


ciples of fear, it makes little difference to Il
South whether such things are done or not. II Il


tide will turn, from the influence of PATRIOTS
=, alone, the event will be hailed with satisfaction
at the entire South. A forced and unnatural reyo
on ton only makes the matter worse. Let not t
sg South be deceived by the delusve idea that the
y is really any change in the sentiment Of vast n
rs iority Of the Northern people.