Montpelier (VT) Christian Messenger, "Non-Interference with Slavery," June 6, 1861

   NON-INTERFERENCE WITH SLAVERY.––The idea that Northern troops are to act as slave police for the South, is thus referred to by the Congregational Herald:

   In their insane fury the Southern leaders have rushed madly into this war, and must abide the consequences. They have applied the torch to their own magazine, and if it explodes, they and not we are responsible.–– For years they have been preaching to us the doctrine of non-interference with their peculiar institution; non-intervention has been their cry; let us alone to buy and sell and work and flog our own niggers in our own way; hands off, ye Northern clowns and caitiffs, ye rail-splitters and clock-peddlers of the free States. Do you attend to your business, and we will attend to ours.–– Now we have always thought this was the true doctrine, as far as regards any direct interference with Slavery where it exists, and we think so still. We go for non-interference with Slavery in any form. If the slaves rise, and one universal stampede occurs, it is not our business certainly to put it down.––We shall have enough to do in re-capturing our own forts and arsenals, without assisting in the recovery of fugitive negroes. The first gun fired at Fort Sumter put an end, and we trust a final end, to all that nonsense.