Vermont Watchman And State Journal

A Hardened Sinner.-Benjamin F. Butler in the course of his speech at Buffalo said-" I am not here to undo or un-say any thing I have ever before done or said." He has always been a locofoco manager and contriver, always been in office --always a supporter of Van Buren and a confirmed dough face How can a Whig coalesce with a locofoco who refuses to give one inch, but demands of whigs that they must come over to him!

Benjamin F. Butler was always Mr. Van Bu-ren's man for all work, a smart, smooth, sanctimo-nious, slippery fellow. He made the Van Buren platform at Buffalo-and it is a cunningly devis-ed work. After half a dozen prefatory pream-bles and resolutions, the pith of the matter ap-pears-thus :

" Resolved, That it is the duty of the Federal Government to relieve itself from all responsi-bility for the existence or continuance of slave-ry wherever that government possessed constitution-al authority to legislate on that subject, and is thus responsible for its existence."

So the fatal door of constitutional scruples is left wide open to Mr. Van Buren, and King Ve-to may still ride at his free will over both Con gress and the people. Now is it not utterly in vain that Mr. Ben. Butler goes on declaiming through a half a dozen more resolutions against any more slave territory or slave States, and in favor of prohibiting slavery in territory now free? What if, by a repetition of the Texas trick, sla-very is quietly slipped into the new territory be. fore another session of Congress, or before the session of Dec. 1849, -all without Congression-al responsibility: is there any guarantee that Mr. Van Buren will not hold that Congress has no power to oust it?-or if it has the power, that he will not veto abolition from motives of expedi. ency, precisely as he pledged himself as to the District? In his letter of 20th of June last, the interdiction of slavery is the burden of his ar-gument-not abolition; and "interdiction" sim: ply is the burden of Benj. F. Butler's resolutions. Ben, too, is not to unsay or undo any thing he has ever before said or done; and so, like Mr. Van Buren on the 20th of July last. he may be for the Veto still! Ben was for the Veto in '36.

Now let us take another of Ben's slippery res. olulions, made to wheedle the land reformers:

" Resolved, That the free grant to actual set-tlers, in consideration of the expenses incurred in making settlements in the wilderness, which are usually fully equal to their actual cost, and the public benefit resulting therefrom, of reason-able portions of the public lands, under suitable limitations, is a wise and just measure of public policy, which will promote, in various ways, the interests of all the states of this Union :"

How nice! Out of "reasonable portions of the public lands, under suitable limitations," ev-ery poor emigrant is to have a farm, isn't he—all for nothing; and the free soil folks are all going to pledge themselves to go for this free di-vision of land, are they not? But let us see: Ben has worked up the expectations of the poor emigrant to fever heat-and thus ends the reso. lution with a flood of the coldest sort of water: —"and we therefore recommend it to the fa-vorable consideration of the American people!" So the land reformers and poor emigrants are dismissed with a very polite and very general letter of recommendation to no party in partic-ular, and " the American people in general."— The free soilers are not exactly for free soil af-ter all-to poor white folks.

There are other instances of Ben's careful guardianship over Mr. Van Buren, so as not to be too strongly committed: for instance, "the abolition of all unnecessary offices,"-all civil of ficers are to be elected by the people, " so far as the same may be practicable"-and Congress must go for internal improvements, " in the exer-cise of its constitutional power, to provide there for :" but we remark especially this:

"Resolved, That the obligations of honor & pa-triotism require the earliest practicable payment of the national debt; and we are therefore in fa-vor of such a tariff of duties as will raise reven-ue adequate to defray the necessary expenses of the federal government, and to pay annual in-stallments of our debt and the interest thereon"

Here is all we find in behalf of " Free labor" -that is, the old locofoco notion of a revenue tariff, which was harped upon all through the ad-ministration of Mr. Van Buren, and at last had its realization in the Free Trade British Tariff of '46, under the operation of which, the coun-try is now groaning under a monstrous debt for British goods, while our own products of the soil, the work shops and the factories, are running down to the very lowest point.

The doctrine of Protection To Free La-bor found no response at Buffalo: Free Soil is dismissed with a letter of recommendation, and Slavery is entrusted to Martin Van Buren's nice constitutional scruples and rather loose notions of expediency. Such is Ben. Butler's platform. Nobody who knows him will wonder that it clo-ses with the following clincher:

" Resolved, That we inscribe on our banner, "FREE SOIL, FREE SPEECH, FREE LA-BOR, AND FREE MEN," and under it will fight on and fight ever, until a triumphant victo-ry shall reward our exertions."

There may be some sincerity in Ben's anxiety for the "REWARD OF HIS EXERTIONS!" from the time that he was managing a swindling Bank at Sandy Hill down to the present, he has always had a lion's share of spoils: but as to " free soil, free speech, free labor and free men," we think he cares just about as much now as he did when defending slavery, burning abolition newspapers, resisting the right of petition and preaching free trade. Mr. Van Buren knew his man when he selected Ben Butler to soap the Liberty party and- swallow it.

The Van Buren Party.

Hitherto the political abolitionists in Vermont have been known as the third party, or Liberty party. Since the leaders have been caught in the New-York fox-trap, and submitted to wear a chain and collar marked " Martin Van Buren," we choose to designate all who follow them as the Van Buren Party.

The object of the Van Buren Party.

-The following paragraph is from a Van Buren address:

" We, it is true, desire to effect a combined action of all who are opposed to the extension of slavery to free territory, but we do not desire 'o merge the true democratic party ei ther with Whigs or Abolitionists. We do not desire to in-terfere with slavery in the States, nor are we the advocates of Whig measures. OUR OBJECT IS TO PRESERVE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND ITS PRINCIPLES FROM DESTRUCTION."

All Whigs and abolitionists, who wish to be sucked into a scheme to defeat Whig measures and preserve locofocoism from destruction, can of course consistently support Mr. Van Buren. If they have any doubt about it, let them read the following from Van Buren himself-an ex. tract from his letter to the land reformers, written a few weeks ago:

"The Utica Convention, chiefly composed of men and the descendants of men who have been my political associates and fast friends from the commencement to the termination of my political career, believing that the use of my name as a candidate for the Presidency was essential to the proper sup-port of their principles, and the maintenance of that inde-pendent position to which they have been driven by the in-justice of others, to assume, asserted and assumed the right of so employing it. That they could, under existing cir. cumstances, do this without exposing their fidelity to their old associates in politics to just impeachment, no candid mind, well informed upon this subject, will deny, and I understand them too well to question the good faith of their proceeding."

The Buffalo Convention invited John Van Buren to take the stump for his father.— N. B.-John has declared that "the first article of his creed is to defeat the Whigs."