True Democracy History Vindicated by Charles Henry Van Wyck
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Title:True democracy—history vindicated. Speech of Hon. C. H. Van Wyck, of New York. Delivered in the House of representatives, March 7, 1860.

Author:Van Wyck, Charles Henry, 1824-1895.

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Print Source:True democracy—history vindicated. Speech of Hon. C.

H. Van Wyck, of New York. Delivered in the House of representatives, March 7, 1860.

Van Wyck, Charles Henry, 1824-1895.

16 p. 24 cm.

[Washington,

Republican executive committee,

1860]

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E ODCMOR Y-HISTORY VINDICATED. A : 0: a; _0 0 d. H t..~,!t ~ ;S-P EECH OF

I. C. E. VAN:, OF NEW ORK. Delivered im the House of Representatives, March 7, 1860. V.Sf;S,zg 0 -7X* *vb floor, the ” Union might be wrecked from turt to: foundation stone,” and “the Conatitution torn in tatters.”

Then from the ruins of one, and the dismembered body of the other, you might erect tta confederacy cemented by the blood, watered by the tears, and strengthened by the groans of your bondmen; which would fill the measure of your avarice and feed the cravings of your amfbitioli. - - -

:nn Day after de, with the most vindictive Ianguikgl, hi e,-beein arraigned as gulilt~y of arson,, treason, and murder; so base was the charg, so unjust the imputation, we meet them with our weapons at rest.,: The gentleman from Louisiana, [Mr. DAVIDsonN, w’hose ambition at one time seemed to be u tethathe might appear in this Hall armed with a -4ogbxttet At n,::W hiveeh n the -22-d “I honestly believe that if you were tried before a jury of: conscientious men, a Jury of men who believe in a God of all justice and mercy and all intelligence, you would be found -guilty, as ac isbeforetfit, toallb teds of Brownan i aoia.’,: o Tahetr-whse beyen in:v Committ of the b Whole or the state: of:: the tUnion-a: o ar Mr. VAN

WYLIE said:: Mr. andthwaN es: Fo r many weeks Ie was a patieotn list, to sol thueh t speeches rom the lead-t ere of, ande rfto-easted dDeroratit p rlhyse the door -of this House, n a d Wh do they charge the Republic ans as agitators,s when the y themselves havea bir eb sound  ing thenote s ofadintyonouand preaaing ches for twhe’a p ebiyy see toe fimi rtv oof oneiane and tees of another section of a common country; of am raying faction against fac tion; ndfirst, to steel the heart against all sen wit ethemds s n ~l of the uicd,ade-Ta aegnlmandeirdty rsntt h itie3 of hauema n bd a then n erve the srm t} execW -isu:impulses,.: haggteasonaPnd,I Nrti’-and coun selling tyo Se> sbellien a nd resistance? to i: 0; W*;in,0
ecame to~hto the tagu occasioned fby: the~ Harper’s eryriot waa s ubidin.: In, the-discharge of what you call a~ pain,,tic. du.tyi>: you gathered together the elec lf a swtrife amE*s tba txrbulensetwn -th~e xpubi -mind.

—:;- ..T hei8X r-wh~-athered fora-momen-tacross a summer sky, thenro’ke in the sunshine and disti the rain drops,:youl: call back, and -Y w4 e of words andl Sea imapulse of . fssr$, IC -0 caimbers of your i Lygeiv Xo gelerse toXrma whereby you seek to send forth hurrieam a nd tempes~t to; potate the oaks and temples’ of, the Republic in one-4 common ruin. The~~~
toc,fWicnir had: been smothered, .and you seize the blidened fla beau rush forth, with the mua dam fitly of the suicide,‘and es eay: liup he:-es-of civil war.and~ fra : YQ glen~, and not John Bra, have unchaned t:;:;irlwind of angry passo and :bitta ave uubalred the thunder and I’

ng~;shaft, whereby you :O sogt+r1’ X er gthe people of &: great, Melon, Pat,in your own, 1anguage on th~is You talk of God, justie, andmercy, who hold, claiming by Divine;I authority, fou r milion htman beings in hopeless and irretribv agtnd trazes ltm e; free white mend o will. c eto sin hoann4 to your traffic in the bodies and s~ouls of Smen,.. and stigmatize as murderers and fits tho wh6ib-ilzl not applaud the crueltyt which’tramples upon all XVh~ attributes o the mind,; the affections of the heart gien by X: E Almighty to the ebil-dreia Of -His Lownr cheait I: That’same gentlemiande’sired to pheftmttle consideration of this House -one’of.John,:Bron? ‘ktieds let me urge him to extend, hil Iatnnet of curiosities and add one of the cha-ins and branding h iiroon o f his scoffle gang, of t he lash f iti whchthe backs of women and -cide -are scoure n then, to-thdem, a sleek, w-e f-0d-ohnd Ad wihuitk meat, ta7 to snuff in the air the track of the fleeing fugi~tiv,e; 1 Z, 4, 4-2 -3.3 “I t ,%

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2 let him present these as symbols, the one of Brown’s folly, and the others of his own hight type of civilization. From the deluge of Democratic speeches, I learn that the alpha and omega of your religionst and Democracy are.the divinity and benefits of human servitude. You are continually forcing this issue upon us. Said the Democratic Senlator, [Mr.

BIGLER,] a few weeks since, in the Senate Ohamber: ” From the hour I first came into political life, to the present day, I have never gone through a political campaign in which the rights of the South were not an important, if not thetleadilngissue.” inis u; : The leprosy of slavery is “in the warp an d woof” of your organization. When the D’emoeratic Convention, in 1856, endorsed the policy off Franklin Pierce in the destruction of the Missouri line and his Kansas forays, I became satis34d that its organization was in the hands of ttesave power, and that it w.as hereafter to be no .~4.- to extend slavery wherever the flag of the :ijon might float, and forgetful of its. nieat glories, had made allegiance to slavery propagandism the test of good fellowship. With many Democrats throughout the Union, I could no longer worship the divinity when the spirit had h fled. The system under which we had grown to be a great and happy people, which had been engrafted on the laws and policy of Democratic Administrations, and was entwined in the expressions of speech,and habitudes of thought, was stricken down by the rude hand of invasion. The first attack commenced in 1850, but in 1852 the Democratic Convention professed to check the invader; and while it did not propose to repair the breach, it promised to stay his destructive hand. And Pierce, in his inaugural, promised that he would cicatrize the wound, by an assur ance that no fresh incursions should be made. In 1854 the invader commenced sapping and mining, seized the outworks toppled thebattle ments to ithe ground, stormed ti str6ng fortress, - and obtained possession. The spirit of Democracy, thus driven from her own home, erected its standard; and while the glory of many achieve ments remained with the old organization, the fame and honor of its ancient faith gathered le gions of its former victorious armies, who believed’in Democracy because of its principles, and embracing the principles, assumed the name under which Jefferson triumphed. Could it be expected that we should sit quietly by and see the acts of every, Democratic Administration re buked; could we hold v political - fellowship with those who were willing to crucify the memory of Washington, Jeffers=, Madison, and Monroe; could we calmly witness the desecration which could say that the men who made the Constitu tion, and hewed outt the path which has led to glory, knew not its provisions, and understood not its spirit? -And because I refuse to unite in ti8s-unholy work-of -demolition,: and lay my bands on the uniform and-time-honored legl1a tion of three-fourths of a century; because I would not-unite isnthis assault upon the mem ory of the buried d~ead; bcanuse I would not rise at arid declare their legislation unjust, ucon stitutional, od Xwith: a4belition tendencies, am I to be reproached as4 an tipostate from Democracy? Sir, I would-arEther desert a political organization, than to turn itor to my own con scie nce, a nd be guilt of h tre ason to my own judgment. I questi on no man’s r ight t o wr ious or political views; but I demand, as jibe, th at when I profess the faith, I shall be recogf nised as a dhe ring to the policy, of the Democratic fa thers. The Christian may turn Jew or Mohammedan; but how.,would you stigmatize-o u: h e tinsist upon substituting the new doctrtes uider oWthe nam e bf the faith helabanddned 7 at ht e lirty-e loving Democrat ma y become a slavll propa-e gandist;- but how history judge his attempt to hide the enormities of his position under the - mantle of his an cient name, and rendezvoust 1is confederates in th.e temple Jefferson built, a nd Mid,‘onroei -and;Ja~i] n,. guarded with so much care? The patent of my Democraey fien the records of Democratic Administrations, and by it I stand or fall. As a Democrat, I believe slavery to be a crime against the laws of God and nature, violative of the instincts of a common humanity; that it de,grades the African, paralyzes the enCgies of the Anglo-Sax~n, prevents the fll developmerit of the resources of the country, and granting to the masses of the people bu t lit tle of mate ria l pros - perity and happiness. I believe that each State is supreme: in its own borders, uncontrolled byforeign power; at liberty to retain or revive relics of a barbarous, unchristian age, whether they be slavery or po lygamy. I; believe that the Territories belong to the people, and not-the States; and thtat theRepre sentatives of the people have the sole control and management thereof until they become States; and that Congress should protect them — rom 0ee~ : to retard their settlement or diminish their value; and, as the entire history of the world showsi aid-our own countiry of slavery is a mildew and blight, that Congress should keep free territory free during its terri torial condition, unless for any cause it dele gates such power to be exercised bY the people ‘therein,.-…., - I believe that slavery, is a local institution, existing entirely and sustained alone by virtue of the law of the: Sgate which creates it, not rec ognised as such beyond the State limits, only so far as the Constitution of th-e United States re gards the-right of each State to retake, and the obligation of sister States to return, fugitives from justice or labor., - Such, sir, is the platform of the Repub lican party. Does it not contain the recorded princiLples of the Democratic party, and of aU parties, i fr {om the adoption of the Constitution clown to .1847?7:; [Listen to.as resolution of the: gallant State of *Georgia, whose entire delegaion iok this: floor and in the;Senate make loudand at~or~us boasX that no man elected on the Republican gp~for

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shall ever be inaugurated President; On the 12th day of January, 175,- she said:: - To show the word that we are not influenced by any interested or contracted motives, but a general philanthropy for a/ mankind, of whatever language or complexion, we hereby declare our disapprobation and abhorrence of the unnatural practice of slavery in America a practice founded in injustice and cruelty, and highly dangerous to our liberties, debasing part of our fellow-creatures below men, and corrupting the virtue and morals of the rest, and is laying the basis of that liberty wecontend for upon a very wrong foundation. We therebfore resolve at all times to use our utmost endeavors for the manumission of our slaves in this colony, upon the most safe and equitable footing for the masters and themselves.”

Men of Georgia, go by the graves of your fathers, renew your love of country, and recall your treasonable designs. The serious charges you make against us but react upon the memory of your ancestors. We stand this day on the Georgia resolutions of 1775. Such were the sentiments of all the patriots of the Revolution. Under their influence, your fathers-I mean your liberty-loving fathers, for I suppose the Tories of Georgia did not, even in that day, subscribe to the above resolutions-aided to achieve the freedom of our country. The desire of universal liberty warmed the heart of the American soldier; and, in the hope of its final establishment and full fruition, he sacrificed property and life. By men breathing such sentiments, the Constitution and Union were established; and now you say that the mere enunciation of the same principies must produce dissolution, anarchy, and a reign of terror. Washington said, in 1786: ” It being among my first wishes to see som, plan adopted by which slavery in this country may be abolished:by law. t Franklin, who lent the powers of a great soul to achieve our independence, and then brought the wisdom of a great mind to aid in construct ing a Constitution, became, almost immediately after its adoption, president of an Abolition so ciety.. Madison said: ” We have seen mere distinction of color made, in the most enlightened period of time,-a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over;ma” Mr. Henry said: “1 I deplore slavery with all the pity of humanity * I repeat again, it would rejoice my soul that every one of my fellow beings was emancipated.” Mr. Jefferson said: ” And with what execration should the statesman be load ed, who, permitting one half of the citizens thus to trample on the rights of the other, transforms those into despots and these into enemies. Indeed, I tremble for my country when I rest that God is just; that His justice:cannot steep, for ever. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate, than that these people are to be free. What a stupendous what an incomprehensible machine is man, who can endure toil, famine stripes, imprisonment and death itself, in vin dication of his own liberty, and the next moment be deaf to all those motives whose power supported him through his trials, and indict on his fellow-men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose l When the measure of their tears shall be full; when their groans shall have involved heaven itself in darkness, doubtless a God of justice will awaken to their distress, and, by diffusing light and liberality among their oppressors, or, at length, by His exterminating thun der, manifest His attention to the things of this world, and that they are not left to the guidance of a blind fatality.” c Dare you) now, believe these sentiments? Would you suffer a press in the Southern States to publish them? Would you allow a man, ex cept under pain of death, to read them in the ears of your slaves?

And must I be expatr“‘ted and disfranchised beeause I merely re-echo them?

Sir, these principles wer e born in the shock aof the Revolution, and were baptized in t he blood of your fathers nd mine on the battle-fieldaof ‘the North a nd South. In the light of so universal a sentiment o f universal liberty among th e patrio t fram ers of the Constittiion, will you say that the Declara tion of Independ ence is but’ “glittering gene ra lity? i Whe n the pillars of the Republic sha ll have crumbled in the dust; when he r libraries s hall have bee n sacked and burned; when a free p ress and free speech shall be dragged, as Hector, at the cha riot wheeds of -a slave oligarchy; when the-traditions of the the battle-fields of arms and opinions of the Revolution shall be forgotten by an unworthy posterit th e e, then tell them that the great Bill of Riyhts for all mankind waTs but a glitterin g generality. No, sir; our fathers threw it out, not as a wandering comet, to dazzle for a mo ment by its brilliant coruscationS, but as a:Sun, far above the mists and exhalationsofavarice and power, to shine upon and for all, to the re motest generations. Such sentiments were repeated by your, great men in Virginia in 1832, shortly after the slave insurrection at Southampton, when over sixty of your white persons were slain. They were then in convention, discussing the question of emanci pation; and when all the horrors of a servile war were fresh in their memories, your -Statesmen proposed to remedy the evil, not by the peniten tiary and gallows, but’by applying the principle of universal liberty.

SSuch were the opinions of Moore.Rives, Powell, Preston, Randolph, Mar shall, and a host of others. McDowell said: “, You may close upon his mind every avenue to: lnowl edge, and cloud it over with artificial night-yoke him to your labor as an ox. You may do this, and the idea that he was born to be free will survive it all; it is allied to’his hope of immortality; it is the ethereal part of his:nature, which op pssion cannot reach; it is a torch lit up in his soul by the had of the Deity, and never meant tbe egi’guishe by the hand of man. If gentlemen do not see or feelthis evil of slavery whilst the Federal Union lasts, they will see and fbel it when it is gone. We cannot correct the march of time, nor stop the current of events.” Among the number whothus spoke was Charles J. Faulkner, who lately has avowed so muc!4 of disunion, and been duly rewarded by an appoint ment at the hands of this slavery-controlled Ad ministration. The disunionist Faunkoer is wor thy a foreign appointment; while the disunion ists Phillips and Garrison would only be worthy of stripes and imprisonment. Disunion for slavery or for freedom are quite different things, Mr. Faulkner, on the 20th day of January, 1832, speaking of emancipation, said: - I shall reckon it among the proudest incidents of my life, that I have contributed my feeble aid t forward a revolution so grand and patriotic in its results. The people demand it. I have raised my voice for emnancipation. $‘c 03itax my lands;* vilify our country;* carry the sword of exEtermiatio throgh our now defenceless villages;* but spare us, I impl~ore ymu, spare us the curse of slavery, that bittereat drop froy the chalice of the destroying angel.” This he said while the soil of Virginia was yet moist with the blood of his muradered country men. ie.

furth~addted: “

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“Slaves are held, not by any law of nature, not b any cratic Administration approved, the Oregon bill, patent from God. Sir, I an gratified to perceive that no gen tleman has yet risen in this hall the avowed advocate of in which slavery was prohibited. It is said Mr.

slavery. The day has gone by when such a voice could be’ Polk approved the bill because the Territory lay listened to with patience orforbearance.”

north of 36~ 30’. That does not weaken the Men of Virginia, can you believe that such force of the argument that he recognised the opinions were uttered in the Old Dominion scarce existence of the power, from the fact of exer dirty years ago? Now, take down Helper; place cising it. The line of 36~ 30’, by its very terms, them side by side, and determine which is the only extended to the Louisiana purchase, and more treasonable and incendiary. How can you could not be applied to any other Territory, Un “rest o’ nights” while such sentiments are slum-less especially enacted.

It did not reach west bering in the debates and archives of your Com-of the Rocky Mountains; and when the South monwealth? Get some country squire to pro-insisted that the line, in 1847-‘48, should be ex nounce judgment, and commit them to the flames. tended to the Pacific, the very fact that they Formerly, the courts of nearly all your States urged an extension of the line by Congress is held that slavery was merely a right existing by an irresistible argument that they believed Con positive law of a municipal character, without gress had the power so to extend it. They foundation in the law of nature. claimed that, in the pir/t of the legislation of Congress, guided by the prevailing sentiment.’ 1820, the line should be extended to the Pacific. of the nation, exercised its power over free terri-They did not que8tion the power of Congress so. tory by prohibiting slavery. This was the uni-as they hoped to control its exercise. Hence, there versal action of Congress, unless it was restrained was no possible restraint on Mr. Polk from veto by the act of purchase or cession. In the terri-ing the Oregon bil, had he or his party believed tory ceded to the General Government by the Congress possessed no such power. Polk had Carolinas and Georgia, those States, in ceding, only to restrain legislation, not to undo, but to expressly did so on the condition that Congress keep from doing, in order to save the Constitu should not prohibit slavery therein. Those tion. States, which had but recently been discussing In 1854, the Democratic party believed, or the national Constitution, were presumed to be professed to believe, that Congress had no such well informed as to its spirit and provisions; and’-
power, and it had no hesitation in destroyig the mere fact of their restraining Congress was the work of the fathers.’ By way of episode, an acknowledgment on their part that Congress allow me to add that Mr.

Buchanan, at Lancas did have the right to exercise the power, and ter, November 23, 1819, offered a resolution that they desired to guard against it. When Louis-the Representatives in Congress are most ear iana was purchased, Napoleon, in the treaty of nestly ” rqquested to use their utmost endeavors, sale, provided that the rights of the inhabitants as members of the National Legislature, to pre should be protected; and one of those rights vent the extension of slavery in any of the Ter then existing was slavery. Congress however, ritories. or States which may be created by Con did interfere, and exercise a power over the Ter-gress.”

Does Mr. Buchanan occupy that posi ritories, by prohibiting the foreign and domestic tion to-day? He went a step further in behalf slave trade. 4

~~~~~slave trade. Rof freedom than the Republicans on this floor. From the ordinance of 1787, prohibiting Was Mr. Buchanan a murderer and traitor in slavery in the territory northwest of the Ohio, 1819? down to 1848, Congress, on eighteen different In 1810 afd 1828, the Supreme Court of the occasions, and during each Democatic Aminis-United Statesrecogn and iffirmed thisower tration, did, without interruption or rebuke, ex-of Congress under the Constitution. ereise the power of governing the Territories, Such is the uniform and concurrent historical, furnishing their officers, and retaining a negative legislative, and judicial history of this’ suibject, or approval upon the acts of respective Territo-down to 1848. At that time, the fruitful valleys rial Legislatures. In the case of Florida, Con-and rich mines of California aroused the lust of gress, five times, between 1823 and 1838, ap-gain and desire for power in the breast of the proved of, and eleven times, during the same pe-slaveholder. They sought a market on the Pariod, amended the laws of her Legislature. cific coast for their human merchandise, and were The people will not, if gentlemen on this floor avaricious for the control of that princely dodare, impugn the Democracy of Jackson. Du-main, and they knew their only way was through ring his Administration, in 1836, a law was and over the well-defined legislationof the counpassed, declaring “that no act of the Territorial try. They also knew the influence a few slave legislature incorporating any banking institu-owners would exercise; that less than three huntion, hereafter to be passed, shall have any force dred thousand controlled fifteen States of the or effect whatever until approved or confirmed Union, and they sought to take the arm of Con. by Congress.” Twice did Jackson arrest the gress between their unholy desires and the obLegislatures of Wisconsin and Floridain viola-jectof their ambition. Lewis Cass was easily tion of this law. This power was questioned in moulded to their purposes. In his famous Nichol1820, when Mr. Monroe (and all his Cabinet, son letter, which procured for him the title of with possibly the exception of Mr. Calhoun, a father of squatter sovereignty, he says: majority of whom were slaveholders) and his a I am strongly impressed with the opinion that a great Democratic Administration acknowledged the change has been going on in the public mind upon this subright, and approved its exercise. jectin my own as well as others.”

Even in 1848, Mr. Polk signed, and a Demo-Change from what? Clearly from the restrict

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ive policy of Congress. If squatter sovereignty had always been the faith of the party, there was no occasion for a change. In the same letter, he: declares the result of the change to -be,” leaving the people of the Territoies to regulate their internal concerns in their own way; they are just as capable of doing so as the people of the States.” This was to be the open-sesame for the extension of slavery on the Pacific coast. It was all the slave power demanded. Under it they expected to expand and conquer. But the swift current of events brought California into the Union before they could stake the hazard on the race; and this day we rejoice that, in the land of the setting sun, the clanking chains of oppression grate not with nature’s harmony, and her soil is not wet with the sweat and tears and blood of the slave. In 1847, the Northern Democracy did not doubt the constitutional right of Congress to prohibit slavery in the Territories, but claimed that Congress should not act upon the subject until the war with Mexicoa terminated, and it s hould be first ascertained-whether we were to acquire additional domain. The Legislatures of all the Democratic free States, save one, passed resolutions demanding that slavery should be prohibited in the Territories. At that tinme Lewis Cass was not nominated for thePresidency, and amid the. ” noise and confusion” of that session, the change had not commenced coming over” the spirit of his dream,” for in the Senate he nowhere denied the power of Congress, at the proper time, to restrict slavery. Daniel S. Dickinson, whose Democracy has never been questioned south of Mason and Dixon’s line, said in yonder Senate Chamber, on the 1st day of March, 1847-for he had not yet experienced a change of heart, although he shortly after became an anxious inquirer when he heard the blowing of the South wind: I would not have Off one single Word upon the subbject ofslavery; but it is due to the occasion that my views upon it should be fully understood. So far as I am advised or believe, the great mass of the people of the North entertain but one opinion on the subject, and that is the same which was entertained by many at the South. They regard the institution as a great moral and political evill,-and would that it had no existence. But being an institution of local sovereignty, they deny that such sovereignty, or its people, can justly claim the right to regard it as transitory, and to erett it in the territory of the United States without the authority of Congress, and they believe that Congress may pro hibit its introduction into the Territories while they remain such.”. Commenting upon the resolution of New York demanding a fundamentM{l provision restraining slavery’from:the eTerritories, he continued: lhe Territory contesplted’

igS Caifornia, which is now free, and if It is obtained by us it will be free until it is in corporated by us, and: can not become:sl;e ~rria. with out the’legislation of Congress i and’ii and by s uh legisa tion a fundamental article prolubiting slavery can be prop erly inserted. This resolution, then, instructs us that, when any territory shall be broughtiwithin our jurisdiction by the act of Congress, whatever that act may be, to insert in such: act a fundamental clause prohibiting slavtery 
and so I am: ready to vote, instruct or uninstruCted.” t But he was not willing to insert it in an appropriation bill. on the saime:day,; Hon.

Reverdy Joh-nsoni’ then al Whig Senato from fMaryland, now one of the leaders of the slavery-e~xtending Democracy, said: - 41 I believe, I have ever believed since I wat:capabtl of thought, that slavery is a great affliction to any-ount-y where it prevails; and so believing I can never vote for any measure calculated to enlarge’itiArea and to render moe permanent its duration; and above all, disguiset it as we may, if the laws of population shall not be changed by:Providence, or man’s nature shall not be changed, it is an institution sooner or later pregnant with fearful mischief. The opinion I hold upon this institution is not now for the first time formed or expressed by a Southern man. The history of our country proves this. At the period of the Declaration of our Independence, at the period of this Constitution, there was but one sentiment upon the subject among enlightened Southern statesmen. What I have said was,on every propar occasion, more forcibly said by them, and as foremost among them, Messrs. Jefferson and; Madison. Now, sir, do be r. Dickinson and his friend, and Mr. Johnson and his friend s, o ccupy th at i position? The Republican paretyis standing this day on the platform theyagave us in 1847, Were they muS derers and traitors? Why shouldh we be now? In s December, 1847, Mr. Dickin son began to bend before uothe South ern bla st, and he intr oduced a resolution in t he Sen a te ” That the true s pirit and meaning of the Constitution w ill be best observed, and the Confeder acy strengthened by leaving all questions concerning the domestic policy of the Territories to the Legislatures chosen by the people thereof.” I And in his speech on t he 12th day of January, 1848, he said: t d a The resolution declares that th e domestic poiccy of the people of a Territory shall be lef t wit h th em * a nd if th at power resides in Congress, as i s cont ended,” (Which he did not then deny,) ” it should be delegated to the p eo ple o f the Territory, and be exercised by the m.‘s’

For the benefit of con servative old-line Whigs, Mr. Webster said, August 12, 1848: We certa inly do not prevent them from going in to these Territories with what is, in gen er al law, called property., But thes t t s ae States have b y t heir local laws created a property in persons, and they cannot, carry their local lawswith them. Slavery is crea ted an d e xist s by a local law wcich is limited to a ertain section, and it is asked that Congress should establish a local law in other Territories to enable Southern Senators to carry their particular law with them. There is a belief prevailing that slave labor and free labor cannot exist together.

He had a letter from Mr. Maron, it: h. it is stWed at slave labor will ep free laborxd An irrepressible conflict older than SEW%ARD’ Rochester speech. I beg pardon for quoting Mr. Webster. I know the latter-day saints in the Democratic party, in this and the Senate Chamber, have lasely dis covered that the great expounder was mistaken about the Constitution, as were the fathers;and framers thereof. Only a few days ago,; n the Senate, Senator WmIGFisai: L id, “Why, sir, there was the, m o dist inguished: mn.thA’ country has ever seen, Daniel Webster, the great expounde of the Constitution, as he was called; anid I hazard the asser tion, that if terlewas a sitlgle thing about which he was more profoundly ignorant than any man in the United States; it was the Constitution of the United States.” For the benefit of that portion of the Democ racy who are now the Belf-constituted custodians of the memory and reputation of Henrvy.Clay, I commend his remarks in the Senate, fn i850: “So long as God allows the vital current to flow througt my veins, I Will ~never n0,never by’word or thought, :by’mind or-will, aid in admitting one rood of free territory to the everlasting curse of human bondage;.’ Were Webster famt Clay nlurderers and train tors 7? XThen why ares we?;4Thitrfaith ~ not our political creed. ]If we are deserving imprisen ment and death, then,: hyena-like, go: cast your harsh denunciations at their rifled graves, expose

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them to-political execration, and hang their bones from your gibbets in chains. In 1848, many Democrats did not experience the sudden conversion which overtook Lewis Cass, and the stone which was rejected at Philadelphia became the head of the corner at Buffalo, and was laid with great care by the Ludlows, the Van Burens, the Caggers, the Richmonds, and a host of others, among whom it would be disrespectful to omit my distinguished colleague, [Mr. JOHN COCHRANE.] I have not the honor of their political fellowship now, although I never deserted the principles they taught me. When my friend’s [Mr. JOHN COCHRANE] attention was called to the resolutions at Utica, he would none of it, but desired to meet at Philippi. Let him beware; for on that field may appear to him the ghost of the murdered Coesar. It Sight not have been at the base of Pompey’s pillar he stabbed the principles he so earnestly and eloquentlyand his followers believed honestly-professed; but they stood between him and the aim of his ambition. Did any Northern Democrat, Hunker or Barnburner, dream, in July, 1848, that neither Con-. gress nor the people could exclude slavery from the Territories? No, sir; not one. Greene G. Bronson, who, I believe, was never suspected by friend or foe of having any Abolition tendencies, the hardest granite in the quarry, receiving an invitation from Mr. John Cochrane to address a political meeting, most respectfully declined. In his letter he said: ” Slavery cannot exist where there is no positive law to uphold it. It is not necessary that it should be forbidden it is enough that it is not specially authorized. State laws have go extra-territorial authority; and a law of Virginia which makes a man a slave there, cannot make him a slave in New York, nor beyond the Rocky Mountains. If our Southern brethren wish to carry their slaves to Oregon, New Mexico, or California, they will be under the necessity of asking a law to warrant it; and it will then be intime f or the free States to resist the measure, as I cannot dibt theyp would with unwavering firmness. But if our Southern brethren should mtake the question, we shall have no choice buttomeet it; and then, whatever consequences may follow, I trust the people of the free States will give a’united voice against allowing slavery on a single foot of soil where it is not now authorized by law.” Do Mr. Bronson and his friends now maintain that position? This very day, the Republicans are occupying-that ground. Was he a murderer traitor-? Then why are we? In 1849, the Democratic party in the State of New York beoame a unit on substantially the basis of Mr. Bronson’slietter. The slave power soon forced them from it; and from the resolutions of the united Democracy in that State, the Republicans have compiled their political catechism. Thei compromise measures of 1850 were aequiesced in, for the reason that the Democratic Convention and Franklin Pierce assured us it was the last great finality; and as all our territory Was pro~vided for, the disturbing question could never arise. Scarcely had his pledge reached the extreme of the Union, when, like a shock of thunder in a clear Bky, the public mind was startled,with the cry of repeal of the Missouri line, and the sea of slavery agitation was again lashed into a furious foam. To feed the encroach ing spirit of aggression the Democratic part had to go mousing, back thirty years in order to find some law to repeal, to satisfy its insatiable desire. Congressional restrictions stood between the slave breeders and the golden shoresof -California, and. it receded at their command. The compromise line which your fathers and ours then planted as a barrier on which might break and rebound the dark and advancing wave of slavery, stood between them and the rolling prairies of Kansas and Nebraska. And the edict went forth for its demolition for n o othe r object than the spread of slavery. It lay within their reach, and they supposed would be an easy prey to their peculiar institution.- - The sword that was to strike down the barrier to slavery was to be drawn from the scabbardq popular sovereignty. This new doctrine was the rallying ory f the Democracy of 1856, and waas endorsed in Mr. Buchanan’s letter of acceptane. Who then believed it was a myth, and mean - ingless? Were the Northern Democrats told that this new opinion was to be supplanted in less than four years, and that they must surrender at discretion, and recede ~from the position they honestly sustained?: a The South wad again beaten at her own game, ” for the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands; ” but the victory cost Northern freemen treasure and blood. The power she so much coveted passed from her reach, and, by theretribution of a wise Providence, she wag not allowed to reap the hopes of her folly and wickedness: “Like dead sea fruits, They turned to ashes on the lips.”

Twice had she struck down the monuments of the past t gratify her unholy lust for go -and power, and ttwi e was she prevented from reaching the crown. The South could have no rest while ordecai sat at the king’s gate; while t he prohibitory clause iguardesh f4reedom of the western plains; but she perished on-the gali ws erected for another. Freedom could not be overcome by all the power. of fraud, Of uajt it tion, and a willing Exeeutive; then she must be. bound and taken in the temple of justice, and throttled by a political decision. Calhoun and Buchanan, in the Senate of the United States, assumed it as a cardinal faith of the Democratic party, that one co ordinate department of the Government could not control the exercise of the other while acting in its proper sphere. When did South Carolina experience a baptism into this new love and undying allegiance to the merging of all department# of Government into the Judiciary? Has she forgotten that in her nullifying ordinance of 1832, she went so far as to prohilit any appeal, or the transmission of any records, from her State courts to the Supreme Court-of the United States, under pain of fine and imprisonment? Let me not be misunderstood; I yield to no nan in my devotion to the laws and judicial decisions; but I claim the Eight to seek the repeal of an unjust law, or the reversal of a daeision which shocks the humanity of the nation. This very hour, Virginia is waging an irrepressible Ia”

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7~ conflict in the Court of Appeals, in the State of New York, to nullify one of the humane laws of that State, so that slavery may be allowed the right, in diaece of State laws, to roam throughout the Union. And when Virginia, as she undoubtedly will, notwithstanding her clamor for State rights, carries the Lemmon case to the Supreme Court Of the:United Stats that court will sustain Virginia, and then atl the gState t whTl be slatv.

Even to - so outrageous a decision, we would not propose armed or factious resistance. We would obe it; but; at the same time, we would indulge th-h’ope that the awakening of the public mind, the arousing of a righteous indignation, would send some rays of light down into the subterranean vaults from whence Dred Scott decisions emanate; that the conscience and judgment of the court would see the folly and Wickedness, and reverse its own decisions. .We will obey the law, right or wrong’; but when we feel and believe it to be wrong, we must be-allowed an effort toa make it right. The records of the world show that the last and most insidious attacs-made on the rights of the people ehave been throubgh the Judiciary. How often has ” man looked for judgment and beheld oppression.”

The history of England is full of admonition. We cannot forget the Star Chamber and High Commission; With what avid ity English judges were ready to obey the be hests of English monarchs, whether to confiscate property or to sacrifice life. The divine right of kings received judicial acknowledgment from the judges of’ Charles I, and the right of Parliament to tax the American colonies was protected by the bench. What faith now are the followers of the Democratic party called upon to profess? Said Mr.

IVERSON, a few days sinue, in the Senate Chamber.: “I wish the Democratic party was purer and better than it is. I am a afraid it is becoming itself, if not Pt, at pouptibe.” On anothe r occasion:,. If But Ibolieve that the greater portion of the Northern Democratic party-those who belong to that organization in the Northern Statesare to-day as rotten as the Black Re public irs….’ A Corrupt, rotten-expressive adjectives. I make no such charges; but a dignified, venerable, gray-headed Democratic Senator thus solemnly arraigns the Northern Democracy. At a later day, to point his former speeches, he adds: “The large portion, if not the whole, of the Northern De mOcracy are unsm Il mean on the’question of Territorial rights; their position is quite as fatal to the rights of the Southern States as the Wilmot proviso itself.” It is for me to of any citizen to take his property, of:any kind-, including slaves, into the commonTerritories belonging equally to all the States of the Confederacy, and to have it protected there under the Federal Constitution. Neithe r Congress nor a Territorial Legislature. no r any human power, has any authority to annul o ar impair t hi s vested right.” I ask the Democratic party, where now is your popular sovereignty? Where the right o f the people of the Territoriesh? What will be come of that portion who were le aders of the adiceatl Barnburners? What a record will stare theay in the face I Free-sSilees in 1848, popular sovereittya men in 1856, denyers of bot h in 186o0. t When did you,Dgentlemen, first incorporate this article into your reed? sDid you believe itiwhen you begged fr om Congress theprivilege to retake: your slaves in the Territories? Did you believe it in 1854-‘55-‘56, when, at the sacrifice of much money and blood, you were d etermined to foreeslavery into Kansas? If the peoplei n h at Territory had no right to ex c lude slaver y, you would never have waged so cruel a nd unnatural a warfare. Why did you struggle, if the Constitu tionr s g a ve you all you couldobtain after a hard-fought vic tory? No, gentlem e n, you never believed it; not for one moment. It was not until -defeat stared you in’ the fate in Kans as, thatyou sougeht to arm yourself with a last and doubtful r esor. Withi n a few weeks, the Legislature o f Nebras ka b, by law, prohibited slavery the rein; and the willing tool of this Admiu istration vetoed the bill. The people of that Territory, now number ing some forty or fifty thous and, along whose rivers villagels and cities are springing u d if b y magi c, Whose prairies a re teem ing with the fruits of free and educa ted industry are told that they cannot frame th eir domestic institutions, even to keeping back “pthe bit ter wate that causeth the curse.” Only a few days since, the Legislature of Kan sas enacted alaw pro hibiting slaver y within th e Territory, and another pliant Administrations Q slavery Executive vetoes the bill; and that peo ple, who were-assured by-ti:Democrati -party on tias floor, a yeara y th eror at they had agoe and experience and n umbe rs suffic ient to a ssume ther rights and position of a sovereign State, if they would’only submi tfo Constitution reognising human bondage, are: now told that they ayse no inherent or delegated power to stop the: tread of the slave hunter. Yet what Democratic leaders, what Democratic organs, even in the free States, dare rebuke the insolence and spurn the outrage -? Possibly you-way turn ol us” and say, why do wo object; that we were opposed to the Nebraska bill? You told us, in. 1854, that the men ofthe North, in 1820, opposed the Missouri line; goants fed. Did that give you the right, when you wrenched all but that fkom us, to turn and steod that little also. And when, again, you drive us to the wall, and take all but the uncertain priv ilege of popular rights, and tell us we must wage the warfare on the soil of the T~rritories; and, while: we protest that you leave us so little, must; we quiettysubmit’ that you should finally come and despoil us even of that?,:: -Its -d fue to:truth to sy that, fin the circk of the Democratio -family, on thi Asubec there is .au irrepressible conflict now waging; they differs “nothing eoxteniuate, Nor set down aught in malice.)’

I only desire the Democracy two see to what indignities they must be subjected, if they manifest any unwillihgness to bow down and worship this black Jug.gernaut of slavery. Unsound, rotten, corrupt! To show that slavery propagandism controls the Democratic party, and is now moulding its destinies, only notice that Mr. Buchanan, in his late m essage, says: ‘I’ dially congratulate you upon the fnal settlement, by the Supreme -Court of the United: Sates, -of the question of “very in the Trrries. The rightbas been established

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8 about the meaning of the Constitution; quarrel about the Cincinnati platform, seeming to forget it was designed to have a Northern as well ass Southern exposure; and have a furious contest as to what has been decided by the Dred Scott decision. This organization will allow no toler ation of individual opinion on this slavery ques-. tion. You may claim it, as did Galileo and Wickliffe, at the risk of the anathemas of a re ligious despotism. See the political executions of thelast two years. No matter how humble the man, how unimportant his situation, if he suffered the least glimmer of antislavery senti ment he must be excluded from the pale of the party, as a warning to all others that a like re bellion should merit and receive a like fate. Pause for a moment, and see the positions Democratic leaders must assume in waging this unholy war -to extend slavery. Senator JzEyRa SON DAvis said, in Mississippi, in July last: ,, Thus, for a long period error scattered her seed broad cast, while reason, in over confidence, stood passive. The recnt free discussion by the press and on the forum have dispelled hdel s whch i obscared the mins of a genera ton, until even among ourselves it was more easy to find o pogth e thn te fr.” Alexander H. Stephens, the acknowledged leader of the Democracy on this floor during the at Congress, said in Georgia, in June last: “Negro slavery is but in Its infancy; it is a mereproblem of our Government; our fhers didnot saerand it. 1, grant that the public men of the Aout were o,e aainst it, but ey did not understnd it.” Negro slavery in its infancy I That fact must be consoling to those exceedingly pious gentle men who are claiming for African slavery a Di vine origin, from the curse denounced against Canaan in the frantic rage of Noah’s delirium. In its infancy I When gentlemen justify it be cause it has existed in all ages of the world. The gentleman from South Carolina, [Mr. KEITT,] on this floor, adds his testimony: ,c The sentiments which the great men of the Revolution entertained upon the qutf Verare c d 0e i r n o me. The institution had not been discussed; its character and capacities had not bee td besidesa, tht were iCued wi tit tienfeof the eAm’nys antdwereaffectd i,caeyurban ev ya r,pei by tite ~actoof the e le nrawt’

iena,,e. itt il su pnu,adw r ed The gentleman from VirginiairMr., SxTHi]

said: “The gentleman refers to the sentiments of distinguished revolutionary men, and asks me if I repudiate them. Sir, wy of thWe senimmcitd, of course, -I reiate many of am 8ew~ilrwi arefe anphilosephy a-Around ink” H As gentlemen daily pass through the:rotunda of this Capitol, do they ever pause:to consider the magnificent painting representing their Q fathers in Congress signing this, now viliftii ed Declaration of Independence? Why, sir, since the’world began, save. the band of Apostles’ gathered with Christ at the last supper, never has there been convened so grave, deliberate, and determined a body of men When you are: in the presence of the lifelike representation of your patriot-fathers, there must come down a withering rebuke from the silent canvas, reprovig your ingratitude and infidelity, in stigma-s tizing the work before them as abstractions and the frenzies of French encyclopedists. T -
fo:i’r; S;..0o-Sir, such impiety needs aoniy the rebuke of silence. Where are the Danites who assassinate nen ff they are suspected of slandering the:his-t tory ofa the South? Who now a re the cold blooded slanderers of you r histor y and the mem ory of your great men? Why not seize your canes, and clutch your knives, and drive such men from your borders? - Has it come to. thii Mthe sol emn Denclaration of your own fathers you call generalities and ab stractions-their well-settled principles of fr dom you stigmatize as delusions-,their estab lished policy -and laws y ou reb uke, under th e in solent arrogance that t he public amern of the South- ” did not und erstand the siystem -of negro slavery;.” and this in face of the fact that for years they had been struggling against the des potism of royalty to suppress slavery and the slave trade….. You have a right to change your views and condemn your fathers. We have a right to,par sue their policy and venerate their memories. For this, you may reproach and proscribe, and deprive us-of all participation in the administra tion of this Government; yet you cannot control us by threats of danger or blandishments of power. For us, “.Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abi:-Ezer?” Do you ever reflect upon the treason of your insane threats? Said the, member from Sut Carolina, [Mr. KRITT:] “The South will resist, to the overthrow of the G;oven ment, the ascendancy of the Republican party. Should the Republican party succeed at the next Presidential election, my advice to the South is, to snap the cords of the USA at one and forever.” - Said the member from Mississippi, [Mr. DA vis:] “The Black Republicans-showed their organized rebellion when they presented Fremont as a sectional -cadidate for the Presidency, as a representative of’their system of free labor in opposition to our system of slaw labor.;:Against that rebellion we intend to act, we mean to put it down, even if we have to do it with the bayonet.

- Gentlemen of the Republican, party, I warn you; present your sectional candidate for 1860, elect him as a representative of your tion into pieces.”” i Sir, craze your brain, nerve yourarm, pr eip itate this issue upon us, and we are reap Northern fathers were told by an English officer, “Disperse, ye rebels; throw down your arms, and disperse.” Their answer, if necessary, shall be our answer. He con:tuin;ed.“a:A “I, to-day, have more afectiontfor an Englisman thba a Black Republican.” Quite likely.

Many of the men in the South, during the Revolution, experienced the same thrill of joy in loving a British red-coat, or a Hessian child-butcher, better than an American patriot or a colonial rebel. You also threaten to dissolve The Union in case another demand is not complied with., The member from Georgia [Mr. CS.WvORD] said; ,, We have now four mill’o slaavesf In some twe-fve yearly hence we’will have eight million. We demand expansion. We will have expagsion, in spite of’the Republican party.”…. a< < The member from Mississippi [Mr. SINLro~]. “: We hare now four-million Os Save fifteen States; we will, in fifty years from now, havre sixteen million.’ ~t I: tell you the institution of slavery-musta be suastaiatsli,T Yes,

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9i l h “I have no gloom. forebodings over the dissolution of the Union; politicians could not dissolve it, if they would; and would not, if they could. It will live on, sir,long after we are laid in the dust. Pillar after pillar shall strengthen and adorn the edifice, while others, the venerable and gray headed, who are yet unborn, shall occupy these seats, and these walls echo to their voice.” Why will you’ not, then, heed the counsel of :the statesmen of the past and present? You profess much sympathy for the free labQoWs of the North, and brand them as white’.ves.

Take within your sympathies the free whit of the South, and unite with us to give them free homes in the West. Insist not upon your ex pansion theory, nor plant on that virgin soil a servitude which will disgrace them; for your own people feel more keenly than we, that, “The badge of the slave is the scorn of the free.” Charge not upon us the folly of your weak ness. Envy not the North. You possess now more than half the Union, to the exclusion of Northern freemen; with a climate genial, to nur ture the fruits of the tropics, and a soil rivalling that of the Nile in richness. Saving the blight of slavery, “among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion;” while the North wrestles with the waterfall, digs into the mountains, struggles with the quarry, and cultivates,. here and there, a fruitful valley. Be content to let slavery wear itself out on your own soil. You may suffer plagues and pestilence;. you may harden your hearts, as did Pharaoh; but in God’s own time He will bid you “let the people hgo;” and He will lead them to a land of rest. You say the slave, in many cases, kisses the hand that smites him, and prefers his yoke to freedom. So did the Israelites, even when the Lord was their pillar of cloud by day and fire by night; for in the wilderness they hankered for lthe yokes and flesh-pots of Egypt. Ages of oppression will destroy the ability and inclination to reSist…,… “Prolonged endurance tames the.”

‘ -Byronmakes Bonnivard, the brave prisonerof Chi,Uon, to say: “It was, at length, the same to ane,w Fettered or fetterless to be. I learned to love despair. My very Chains and I grew fhends; So much a long communion tends To make us what we are.” Gentlemen talk about the brute forc: of majoritie,i and i deeiare they will’ not submit. We a reNow told,:- Dare you but exercise the right “frfieemen, in a clear and constitutional mode; elect for President a man -of your choice, and believe in the teachings of-all parties down to I848, and’ the dogs of,war’ shall be; let loose upon r you.” Already yu are making-ppropriations of thousands to build arsenals, to purchase arms, and are now mustering foe, as you say, to threaten and coerce the North. You may bind in chains the body of surslae; you may-subject him-to the lash~ and: imprisonment; butwhen in the insolence of long, enjoyed: power,I you seek tof coerce idividual~Opinion an~ po~liti cal &etlon by craven-threats, did te.~yk~s we would deserve to be slaves. 0…:;0: “d Must I give way androom to yotu rash choler? i T

Sahall I be frightened when a madman stares”’ sir; we will expand this institu tion we -d o no t int end to be conied within o ur present limits an d there are not men enough in all your borders to coerce three million armed men m the South.” - - Have you, gentlemen, made -any tcalclation w here you will expand your institution when you have withdrawn from the oUnion-?: Have you thse madness and f ollyr to beli ev e th Vyou could wrest it from the States who reta in theteirn allegiance to th e Cnonstitution and Government? There is yet another plank-in this modern Dem oceratic platform. Mr. KmITT adds: tit t also incontrovertible that a ll t he inhabitants of at State cannot be educated e th e ordinance of God condemns mankind to laboir, ad ce rtain menial occupations a re incom pafible with mental cultivation.” Does the slaveholder yimpiously claim to be anve m an kind, so as to beh beyond the reach of the ordnance of God?

Are you so privileged and exalted an order, that: you a re n ot required to yield allegiance to that ordinance? You insist Canaan sha ll be kept under the cur se of excited Noah. By what right do yo u endeavor to skulk from the ordinance, given by the Almighty him self; “in sorrow saltslt You eat of it all the davs of thy iire ie in tlhee swea t of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou-re turn unto t he ground?” Thipsexplains the hostility of S outhern Deio-p racy to free men, free labor, and free schools. ,Freemen-labo ringsmen of t he North-and, if iti e asonable, o f the South, are y ou willing to aid in extendinginto he common Territories a system whose corner-stone is the ignorance of the people, and which will establish the policy that labor a is incompatible with mental cultivati0n?“‘I: Must the: honest’hearted laborer, as he reads the record, of science, history, and government, in a free press, and: around I whose humble fireside, after the toil and sweat of the day, from -the various libraries of the land, are poured out the tre.ures of all ages; and in the:id:ofhis cM~il>f there be a dia0, -iit willbe pe bya education, and finally shtine in: his country’s hisWry;gis Abe h -bo told that;men c ultifi’ou’ is incompatible with labor? -: And you nIow declare, in case this system of oppression and ignorance be not expanded, you will sever e ty Fe that b inds the Anion, iYu flay you hae-toed thefot layo-t h vision of a seer, to reach far down through coming time, and see all the horrors of such an event? They will not end in decades, centuries, or cycles., If you force dissolution upon us, we can only -If it were done, when’ti done, then,‘twere well = It were done quickly.,) :,.On this.,subject, how appropriate to-day is the language of Lewis CMsa. d.’

Dani elS. Dickinson on Ihe lst day of March, 1847, in the Senate Ohamber.

Said the former, rPeaking of disse,, lution:’ f That word hau got to be quite an:onnoein Sir iaa does not:inspire the least draw l. I relogish it as an old-acq~n, Changt!gfp:ti to time its drapery, but still preserving its Mentity. Our ctonsfitenif, the’ American pedpte,x wil take~ ear-e of us and; X*e Acris,fn o, an-d they will s1 aecareof the: Unloa:, gardz it fro ay ly The latter said::

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10 mously inserted; the former being thought to express the condition of slaves,i and the latter the obligations of free persons. The term le gally” was yerased, because it was thoughst equivi ocal, andy favorin g the idea that slavery was legal iny a moral, view, and ” under the lawe s thereof i substituted. Why, then, should we-adv eit what our fathers: never conce ded? The C on stituti on w hmerely recognises the ri ght of tch State, and the obligations of sister States, to re s tore her fugitives, whe ther fr om service oro hasr tice; and as by this pr ovision i t did no t pretend to designate what might or mi ght not be crirmes le aving that with each Dstate,e; any State miht make a new cand additiona l enumeratson of crimes, and have’ he rig hts res pect ed under these provision So the Constitution did not legalize and sanction existing forms of labor, any fartheyo th an protecting each Stateole her asysttems of labor, Whatever they might b e;- and should Eo* forms of labor be introduced in af State, ethe would be protected in the rendition provision, and the Constitutia on not be chan rgeable with the frlTy or wisdom of existing or new fiorms of labor. The white men of the Ntes are.nowlexcluded from fifte e n slaex at e hs i tte dof the Union; ul they are driven - from your borde tmply bega’ they exercise the right of thought and speech. Such as South Carolina, Georgia, and Kentcky, are, you soughtto make C~ifornia, Oregon,,am Kansas. Wiie you claim the right to carry tnt 0 the common Termtories your slaves, anrd the 1EmIl law which creates then;,: and the public opinion which Sus’tains it, you deny to the men of the North the right to take what is dearer to them than proeity-their principles. You deny thl’e the free Ate of he mails; you exercise a cen ship of the’pressetand inquisition of indiidual thought, more revolting than-a Russian despdt~jz,’ Hfven~he~re, in the calmness of deliberation, of Missouri, where the bonds of slavery are weak ening and dissolving, rhee ~sit’m Fa eis puffit the dark’wvave to/the r..tei:lr.

ANDERSON,] acid: -: “I now predict that, unless a revolution shall Sake ple in the public sentiment of th, North, of which I have nowno hope,:within the next twelve-,jontbh, eommn from the section of he Union witl:he permitted to travel through the Southern States, unless he brings with him evideice Ofcin ser’aive feelings and sentiments towards me, peop e or *e Southr and its domestic institutions.” These, sir, are the liberal principles of tiat party which knows no North, no South, no East, no West, and is self-boasting in the virtues of a great nationality, and clamorous over the ict that Fremont had’ no elector/l votes in the fifteen States whLre just such i tolernce as ]bs Been thundered in our ears dominates over sll. Re move the despotism of opinion and anarchy of violence frome your owri people, an d an unfettered judgment in yWar 0.wn States would raid thousands around the-standard of free labor, free schools, and-free soil. See the tonce pl~roud: State of Virginia, laying her hands on tleai s, ~s3, a’ ‘authorizing some-prejudicedyuslk’toa Ast in jdgment and condemn to the flames all publicatios -that excite his ire. And this, beyond All%hings, We meet you in no unkind spirit. We desire that no “son of man” should ” prophesy against the forest of the’ South field.” We are glad thatth you are commencing to live on your own account; that is the true wealth of nations.‘We are gratified that you are weaving your 97Wn garments-; it is true they look a little rougheat present, but persevere.

After the lapse of years (probably not your time, but your posterity will see it,) science will render you much aid. All arts are rude among a people which is just assuming independence of its neighbors. t You cannot expect the advantages of machinery, until some Yankees go down and e’xplain the mode and manner of its use; for now, in your great rage and passport system, the’ tyranny of travel is exceedingly irksome in your empire, especially to the Yankee who is at all fond of the free use of his limbs; so you will have to forego the advantages of machinery a time longer. I see by one of your papers, that when you learn to -make shoe pegs, then your brogans you will no longer import from the North;- all you want now is toleration and industry to make you a great nation. This is well enough, but for your frightful gasconade. You declare, that should a Republican President b e elected, he can never be inaugurated in this Capitol. How will you prevent it? I judge from your military preparationyou mean force. Where will you get your gunpowder? You make none, south of Delaware. Where will you get your fire-arms? South of Mason and Dixon’s line you manufacture none in all your borders. Can you retain it now, by force?: If so, you will do infinitely better than you did in’

1814. The Eng-N lish then,,without any far-, could have crowned a king in your Capitol. They drove five thousand of your men from Bladensburg; and although you knew the design of the enemy was to invade and bun you retreated, and stoppeld nowt to tr. a gun in its defence. I impugn not your.courage, nor reflect upon your motives; I but hazard the olinion that, had the Capitol stood amid the rocks of New England or the roiiugh hills of the North, five thousand of h er ye omanry would hav e s truck, and, if necessary, perished, in its defence. Since that time, some of your peqple have been very solicitous about the Yarchoi You know Governor Wise, in 1856, had Fremont been elected President.,a was prepared to march with one hundred the sand men to the Capitol, and eize the archives; but some persons very wickedy tsg-gested that it might b the treasury he was aft. ~

Impossible I who ever alleged that a Southern Democrat was actuated by mercenary motives? You say you will magnanim uly -withhold the blow, if we will consent that the Constitution r eQgnies property in man, and the corresponding’rght to take it into all the Territories of the Union. That we:ne-ver can do,;for our fathers; never did, but guarded carefully aganst any sudh,mEpic&-. tion. M Sadison $apid:,~ he Boulk not colase that the cXntitsti^[ should reossgnise the ilea of property in man.” ~:’.A X In the Constitution, ttewo,,, “servitude,:’ bras stricken out, and the word “service” unani

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it shows the outrage and enormity of the system, which cannot be sustained, except upon the destruetion of all those rights which should be the boast of a free people. A few years ado, a half-naturalized Hungarian was seized in Smyrna by Austria, and claimed ag a criminal against her laws. This nation was aroused, and American cannon would have echo-. ed along the classic shores of the Mediterranean, and American blood crimsoned her waters, had a hair of Martin Koszta’s head been injured. Mr.

Buchanan is begging for the army and navy to redress the rights of American citizens in Mexico; and Central America; yet here, within the States, uppon the citizens thereof, outrages are committed which should mantle the cheeks of barbarisms with shame, and no lamentation comes from the solicitous Executive. This system of outrage, this reign of terror, you seek to extend over all the land. You charge upon the North an occasional outbreak of disorder, for which the guilty are duly punished, while your own people violate the laws of your State and the natural rights of the white man, condemning him without trial, and inflicting barbarous punishment without judicial judgment and se ntence. Some men oISouth Carolina arrested a free white laborer, mobbed him in: the streets of their city, subjected him to stripes athoiniolaio the hands of a sla,all in violation of the l aws of the State. You may boast of your c hivalry, but such men are dastards, whom it would’ be base flattery to call cowards.’” The slave trader lands a cargo of merchandise from Africa, and your juries refuse to puniAsh the pirate. A few months ago, a woman Ath a sick child was driven from a village of Georgia, because she had written to her friends at the North her impresions about slavery. A whole community, the;Bereans, were-exiled- from, the soil of lKentucky for no crime; they were only obnoxious in entertaWiugt hop’mions laimed -by-Washington and Jefferson. Are such the men you propose arming to seize the Capitol and archives? Rest assured, -braver men than they fled from the British in 1814. Mr. CRAWFORD. The gentleman” Mr. VAN WYCK. The gentleman must excuse me. ,Mr. CRAWFORD. The gentleman has stated; as a factV Mr. VAN WYCK. The: gentleman must excuse me. Mr. CRAWFORD. I understand the gentleman to state as a fa t that a woman was driven from Georgia with a sick child. I desire to say that I never heard of it before; it is news to me, and I do not believe a word of it. Mr. VAN WYCX.

The gentleman does not read the papers, then; that is9 all I have to answser. V Mr.: CRAWFORD. Will1 the gentleman give 3fr. VAN WYCK. I will-furnish it some other: tlime,: M~r. CRAWFORD}. Then you have no authority with you. Mr. BINGHAM. - He says he hpa it not. here. Mr. VAN WYCK. Your despotismais as g~lling upon the whites as the blacks. Slaver must prescribe what books they shall read. Yourpopulation is about eight million; yet you control their d estinies and compel their opinions. How manyw men from the South on this floor a re non-slaveholders? How many in the Senate, and among th e for eig n appointments? -Your soil was inv ade d by Brown an d a few followers, and Virginia is convulsed from centre t;o circumference. In violation of all law, your citizens were-shot down, and you i had a eright to feel obte “band indignant. Governo r Wise hea ded the Virginia militia; the Federal Exe cutive s ent sixteen marines, who captured Browno-about the same number, I believe, Jac kso n sent Ain 1832, to conquer South Carolina, and place h er in he r pro per orbit in the politica l he avens. Innocent women and chil dren were mu rdered in Kyansas; her v irgin s oil was moistened with the blood of Free-State men, and the ligh t of her bur ning dwellings flamed against She midnight sky.

The Executive was im plored; but Pierce, upon looking e th rugh the Constitution, could find sno au thority to interfere;, and the darkest page of our history w as written in blood. A slave gets loose, a nd is commit ting graned larceny by run ning a way with himsel f; no neessity for onsultation then; the lightning flashes the message to use th e l an d and naval fore to restore the fieeing fugitive, an the m court-house of a free Commonwealth is surrounded w by baye - nrets: and chains. Your homes in Virginia were invaded; we regret and sympat hize-w ith g you but have you no regrets or sympathies for the homer yrs, justa s acr ed as yours invaded in Africa? Had you tears for the children that were render ed fatherless, and the w ives widowed and driven shnelterless, upon the open prairie in,Kansas, by men having no claim to manhood but the n ame? chi-d You reproach the North because, while we condemn the crime, we admire the noble qual’, ties of manhood which Brown possessed. Your own Wise did:as mch b he-said hewI ” brave} honest, and sincere;” and is it no cacse of regret that such noble traits should be wasted in a reckless enterprise?

You think it impossible that the man can be separated from the crime. Do you not remember, in the. dark-st hour of the Revolution, when almoSt aH-was lost but courage and hope, the young, the brave, and accomplished English officer descended to the character of a spy,.aid, through Arnold’s ,treache’y,‘well-nigh eclipsed, the rising sun of our independence? Can the mind conceive a greater crimie, not only against America, but freedom and the world? 7 - He was arrested, tried, and eecuted; and notwithstanding the enormity of the offence, Was higtoa and his generals, and the American people, sympath-ized -with the heroic bearing; arnd gsllant aiddes of the criminal; they~ overlooked the sopy, Sand thotught of the grand Aobility Of his; manhood; and, had it notcheen for the ex:igency of the public service, would gladly have pardoned th/e offender.

And -at this dfay,n American childl I

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12 reads the history of his country, but drops a tear on the page which records the fate of Andre. You ask the men who are born amid the. free institutions of the North, where repose is given to their cradled hours in songs of universal liberty, whose limbs are strengthened by the air from the bold mountains, and whose hearts are warmed to all mankind by the lessons of the Revolution and the teachings of the Saviour, to restrain their antislavery sentiments, and believe, with you, that slavery is a Divine institution. Never, sir; never. There is no attribute of the Almighty, no, command of His word, no spirit of His gospel, that can tolerate such a sentiment. “Ye: hall not respect persons in judgm ent; ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be afraid of the face of man; ” was among the bill of rights God gave to the orewish people. “A,. new command give I unto you, that ye love one another; whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them,” was the great charter for man’s guidance, given by the Saviour to both Jew and Gentile; to all the world. A necessary corollary of these great principles led, in many years, to the enunciation, in the Declaration of American Independence, that all menare created equal, and that each has an inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. While you eclipse the mind and dwarffhe soul, you concede to the slave both, in prohibiting to him all means of knowledge by reading, and admitting him to be subject to the saving power of the atonement; you say that slavery is a great missionary institution, redeeming from heathenism and converting to Christianity; you say that slaves become Christian men; that the Bible teaches slavery. Why, then, do you not allow them to read that Bible, so they may comfort the unfulfilled longings of their souls by a full realizationihat t’leir16t is th,el-w. and ” thus saith the Lord” has enjoined it? The distinguished gentleman from South Carolina, [Mr. KEITT,]

after arrogating to the South all the glory of arts, and arms, and literature, acquired by the nation, then adds, speaking of the North: should malign the Northern patriots of the Rev. olution. Sir, I will indulge in no unkind remark to wound the feelings of any an on; but the charge m ust be me t, and historyvipndicated, letthe con sequences fall where and as the y may. One other gentlema n spok e of Massachu setts burning witches in the ancient times. Does he: not know that yo ur own peopl e burn slaves at the s take, and it seems to a waken no horror in your minds? Mr. DAVIS, of Mississippi, (interrupting.) I pronounce the gentleman a liar and scoundrel. t pronounce the gentleman’s assertion false-utt terly false. seek tocN W iYCa o-My time is short and Vi hop not to be interrupted. Mr. DAVIS, of Mississippi. You have no right> to utter such -foul and false sl anders. - Mr. GARTR-ELL. I rise to a point of order. It is, that n o m ember upon th is floor has a right to libel the people of any section of this country, a nd then deny to the RepresentatiVesef thaat people the right to reply. I pronounce t h e as sertion made by the gentleman fal se and un founded. [Cries of “Order I”

on: the Republi can side.] l.r. VAN wYCK.. I have heard such words before, and I am not to be disturbed or interfered with by any blustering of that sort. I am not here to libel any part of the Union. Mr. DAVIS, of Mississippi. Will you go.out side of the District of Columbia, and.

test,hs question of personal courage with any Southern man? Mr. VAN WYCK.

I travel anywhere, and without fear of any one. For.the first eight weeks of this session,; you stood upon this floor continually libelling the Wiorth andthe people-of the free States, charging them with treason, and all manner of crimes, and now you are thrown. gat at; wh*ea I tell;-you::-^ R.f cts.: Mr. DAVIS, of Mississippi. Mr. Chairman The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from New York cannot be interrupted, except by a pointef order; and the: Chair appeals to gentlemen of the Committee not to violate the rules of the House. The Chair trusts they will not do so. Mr.

DAVIS, of Mississippi. I shall observe them, sir, if others do; but I certainly will not permit Southern people to be slandered. Mr. VAN WYCK.

If gentlemen are so sensitive in regard to their own feelings, I ask them to be as sensitive also to the feelings of others. If they were, we would:pot have had such wholesale denunciations of the people of the North as .we had during, the first eight weeks of this sea’ sion. Massachusetts has able sons to defend her rep. utation,; but I do know she was the first to light the flames of the Revoiution, and I believe she will be the last to desertf the watch-fires.ofthe Union. The eloquertt gentleman firom Virginia,; [Mr. BO?-ELER,] i-ihis endeavor to asteb an Unkind imputation on the North, in’ my 3j~dgent m~isconceivedi history. when he: Efsd/Vi~ahfn 1775, sent succor to Massachusetts. There.was? no narrow sectionalism in those days. W~hen the militia of his native county marched to Mast~ - What achievements of arms have illustrated their escutcheons?

Sir, if aNorthel army should come down to subjugate the South,: it will be the first one in our history that encad ped on’Southern soil. Will it come-n ow, when it did not -come in the trials of the Revolution? In 1781, when all the forces of the British were gathering upon the soil of Virginia, what help had she’fom the North.?.’. The gentleman is evidently alarmed at his own shadow. Sir, it has never been thought or-intimated that we are-to subjugate the,South. “What achievements of arms have illustrated their escutcheons?” lEas the gentleman forgotten the battle-fields of the Revolution and th e war of 1812? I will not charge that he willingly seeks to cast t an i mputaetion o n the patriotism and courage of our fathers. WhileI4 honor the memory of his ancestors, Iwould rescuelthat of my own from unjust aspersions,* and-hurmpback the calumny in’the: face of. its author. I regret that, in the blindness. of fanatici/m and a reckless sectionality, the.distinguished gentleman

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the coast, and their tory countrymen at the hearthstone. The greatest cruelty and spoliation you suffer ed was at the hands of your native tories, and from-threats of rebellion and violence. I con clude their descendants are numerous on that soil. With their blood, seem to have descended their principles. But your brave men and women of the Revolution we can never forget. You may proscribe, imprison, and subject to stripes, our countrymen; distract and divide this great Con fe deracy; divorce yourselves from us with all the bitter, burning passions of brotherly hate; yet the memory of your dashing Marion and im petuous Sumter, the heroism of your women at Charleston, will be cherished as long as freedom has a shrine in the hearts of the American people. Would Washington, the son of Virginia, see his mother in jeopardy, and not rush to her re lief?

In 1781, when Cornwallis appeared in Virginia, although Clinton had a large fleet in the bay and a large army in the city of New York, with brave impetuosity he marched his Northern army, composed of men of all sections of the Union, and, with their tents, they “en camped on Southern soil;” and the evening of the 18th day of October, 1781, drew its mantle over the mangled and lifeless Northern soldier on the field of Yorktown.

Virginia’s visit “had been returned,” and the evidences were the bones left whitening on your sunny plains. Will gen tlemen talk of Northern courage? Where were fought the batt les of 1812, 1813, a nd 1814? Whence came the sea men that humbled the proud navy of England, and gave us distinction on the seas? It is true, you had your splendid victory at New Orleans; but that did not con quer a peace, for the treaty was signed before that battle was fought. Still, that did not de tract from the glory of Jackson, or the valor of his troops. In, all our wars, the North and the South conjointly achieved the victory, and are equally entitled to the glory. Sir, in reading of the men of the Revolution, I have not been-wont to limit their patriotism by State lines, or estimate their valor by the country where born. Whether the rough blasts of the North hardened their frames, or a South ern sun quickened their blood, to me, whether from the North or South, like the men whom Zebah slew at Tabor, ” each one resembled the children of a king.” Notwithstanding he now claims for the South all the glory of the past, the same distinguished gentleman, in his own State, in 1856, lamenting that South Carolina had no history, said: “Where is your history? It is yet in tradition. ahe struggle is coming, the future is gloomy and lowering, and I cannot tell what it will bring forth. Now is the time. Every memorable people, at all times, have had a history written on their monuments, on their pyramids, or in books. South Carolina has none. A few years ago, your greatest man died. The nation mourned, and Clay and Webster strewed flowers upon his tomb. Finally, he came in a~ ship clothed in crape; the State mourned, but no monumlent rises-to mark his fame.” Such was the moulrnful condition of Southi Carolina, as faithfully portrayed -byr one f Blur most -eloquent and earnest defenders. Why had sachuusetts, it was to fight the battles of Virginia; it was to vindicate the rights and strike down the enemies of; Virginia. The: ba ttle for your rights, gentlemen, was fou ght on Northern soil; your homes, for a long -while, were untouched by the foreign invader; f or many years, you r build ings were left-free from er o the torch of the Hessian incend iaries, your women from indignities, and y our helplesstchildren from a cruel death. All this was sustained in the No r th; her com merce dismantled, h er fields laid w aste, he r towns and villages sacked and burned, her unoffending children and women mas sacred.

Could the tnen of the So ut h do less th an rush to the aid of their own caue b sori Bcuse, by succoring Massachuse tts? The impulse of freedom was equally strong in Virgnia -and Massachusetts; i t was the cauNe of the U
nite d Molonieo,l but Massachusetts, then, as now, for her hatr ed of tyranny, w as specially designated as tthe victim, ad led the van in free dovm’S army. Your fathers were not the men to repose in listless inactivity; and, having no en emy at home to f ight, they were willing to spill their blood and lay their bo ne s on the cold hills o f the North.

Let him be anathema, maranatha, who is not willing to do justice to you an d them. The glory ofhe e men of the Revolu tion, from w hateve r section, belo ngs not to the North or the S outh. It is a union of glory which can never be dissolved. It bel ong s to the world, wherever Liberty is worshipped, and,Freedom receive s the incense of her struggl ing millions.

Sir, no en mity, howe ver malignant, can blacken their mem ory. T hey a re as far above your reach as the bold and hea iten-defying eagle is above the earth crawling and hissing serpent. You boast, and you have: a right to boast, that you gave us a Wash ing ton; and, like Moses of old, he led our armies to the promised land; but his Joshuas and Aarons he gathered from the North. Because you gave -us a Washington, and his bones rest on Southern soil, we mean to p re serve the Union forever. Mo unt V ernon and Monticello shall long be the -rMeeia-and Medinaa of Ithe Northern pilgri im. Washington was clothed with absolute power over the army. When he thought you wanted a general, he sent you Lincoln, then Gates. At Camden, you had a sufficiency of troops. Your army numbered four thousand, and the enemy two thousand; yet you were overborne. I would scorn to charge it to a lack of courage. Then he sent the old Quaker of Rhode Island, General Greene, and he saved the men of Cdrolina. After the attack: on Charleston, in 1776, you were free from a foreign foe until 1779. Then the enemy removed a part of his forces to the South, because he expected sympathy and succor from the Carolinas and Georgia, on account of the great number of tories in those States; and he did receive it. At the battle of King’s Mountain, in the enemoy’s ranks of fifteen hundred, probably-thirteen hundred were Carolina and Georgia tories;- hence the opening ofra new seat of war in the South. tI speak not-to your injry. No country ever produced truxer, braver patriots, than -the Carolinas: and Georgia. They hfad Ea stern conflict.. They had to fight the Engl’~h on xt. L’i : 1.

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dangers in battle. Your knowledge of history will teach you that the most unconquerable ,,bravery comes from the toold: climates, and rough regions of northern countries. Again I ask, hy do gentlemen thus talk? Mark the first-and Secondl wars with England. Go homes anud ask the remnant of the gallant Palmett0 regiment, who received the shock of battle on the plains of Mexico, where stood the New York volunteers, who, with them side by side, were in the thickest of the fight, at Churubusco, Cerro Gordo, and Chepultepec; and, when your gallant Butlers fell at the head of the regiments of my State salud yours, Northern warriors joined yours to carry him from the field, and regret that one so brave had fallen? Ask your own regiment what they thi~nk-ofNorthern bravery. ’ In the history of the country you provoked and incited a controversy in which you met, Northern bravery face to face on the plains of Kansas, and you quailed before it and fled. Askyour borderruffian banditti what they think of Northern courage? After the fight at Ossawatomie, where Brown received his cognomen, your men cowered at the very thought of meeting the stern freemen of the North, sustained by right, in battle array, and they made a precipitate flight, not waiting for the morning dawn, in spite of just such vaunts and boasts as you daily make on the floor of this House. Talk no more of Northern courage. You have felt their steel and’seen their metal. They went not to meet in bloody strife, but to carve them out homes and fortunes amid those boundless prairies; but you met them as. enemies, hedged up your highways, prevented their pas sage over your rivers by cannon, and compelled them to toil with arms in the furrow; “for the builders, every one, had his sword girded by his side, and so builded, and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared.” Sir, these men went as men of peace: “They crossed the prairies asvf vuf-; _ Our fathers crossed the sea, To make the West, as they the East, The homestead of the free.” But, sir, while bravery is an instinct, true courage is the result of an educated head and disciplined breast; not to delight in the exhi bition of physical ferocity, for mere gratification or personal resentment, but courageous from principle, to resist aggression and defend the right, at all hazard and every sacrifice.

Gentlemen have rebuked the great State which, in part, I represent. Sir, she needs no defence at my hands. Unlike South Carolina, she has a history written in books; also in the blood of her fathers, and the battle-fields of the Revolution and the second war; upon her monuments and her squeducts; in all her industrial, commercial, mechanical, manufacturing, benevolent, and edu cational enterprises. It is written upon her mountain sides; by the banks of her rivers, and upon her fiowing streams; in her thousands of miles of telegraph, railroad, and canal na,iga stion; in her commerce, that whitns every sea, eand floats the stars and stripes i~p(

Srt of r the wide, wide world. When did she Mer heei South Carolina no history? Why had Calhoun no monument? You will find a ready answer in the acts and declarations of your fathers. Now, such as South Carolina is, do you wish to make the States hereafter to be added to the Uinion? Do you wish to entail upon them an inheritance which, in after years, will compel from one of her sons so mournful a eulogium? G e ntlemen on this floor here have been dolorous in thei r lamentations as to the h eavy burdens they have suffered since the adoptio n of the Constitution, and that they have now become insupportable, and they have not the philosophy to say they can -Rather bear th ose ills they have, As we have had Democratic Administrations most of the time of their oppression, now, in order to relieve the miseries, real or imaginary, I k now of no o the r remedy but a change of rulers; and for their sakes we must make a vigorous effort to restore the Republic to the principles of Madison and Jefferson, so that their troubled spirits may find rest. You know a certain remnant of Northern Democracy is a faithful ally. It has bent and bowed at your command. No doubt the old Free-Soil leaders believe as they did in 1848; but you must now allow them to assume any disguise, adhere to any standard, if they can only be campfollowers of a victorious legion. But you are determined, if they enter the Charleston Convention, it must not be erect and with banners flying, but as the serpent when he entered the garden. You mean that the only entrance shall be through a ” hole in the wall;” but when they enter, they will find ” greater abominations ” than appeared in Ezekiel’s vision. They will find 11 that the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.” Treat them ki -fr-4”y-tt” l mte speech of Ashdod,” and will have to lisp, for they’ not frame to pronounce” your shibboleth. You taunt us with cowardice; that we have not the courage to do as Brown did. May it long be our boast, as it is now our pride, that we have not the courage to do wrong. “I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more, is none.” Why this boast of courage? Are you not aware that bravery is an instinct of the man and brute creation? You see it in the gentle wren and the bold eagle, in the tiniest insect and the king of the forest, in all nations, in every age of the world, in all climates, and under all forms of society. You never heard of a nation lacking bravery. It is not the result of education or re ligion; but the nearer you reach the barbarian and uncivilized, the stronger the instinct, the more stubborn the bravery, the greater indiffer ence to torture and death.

See the Goths and Vandals, as they poured out of the cold and gloomy recesses of the North, and overran the polished Roman Empire. See the Russian heart sand unyielding before the scientce-directed mis tes of the Allies. See the North American _~age,:with soul unsbdued, redy to brave ~11 i. ‘.: I.” :: I.;

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tate to respond to the-demands of her country, whether the call was for treasure or blood? The craven, traitorous notes of disunion are never heard in her borders, from the Canada frontier to the valley of the Susquehanna, from the inland .seas to the crested waves of the Atlantic.

Let me speak of my own people the district I more immediately represent.

In the days of the Revolution, her soil was pressed with the foot of the invader, and her women and children felt the knife and tomahawk and merciless barbarities of savage warfare. Through the valley of the Mamakating and by the mountains of “6 mammoh came, the.foe the monstr A te With all: his howling. desolating ba”,-” On the evergreen mountains and by t he ncrystal streams of Sullivan, and in the valleys of Orange, rest:the bones of those who nobly fought and fell. The graves of those brave men have never been violated by the steps of the disunionist, or their long repose disturbed by the sound of rebellion. In that district still stands the old mansion occupied by Washington; in it the same chair in which he sat, and the same table on which he wrote his celebrated answer to the mutinous letter of Armstrong, and presented to the world the spectacle of an army “victorious over its enemies, victorious over itself.” On the same spot, too, he disbanded his grand army. You reproach us because we will not do the menial service of hunting down your runaway slaves. There is not a man on this floor,of your own number, who would thus demean his manhood or disgrace his nobility. In my district, there may be two or three men who believe with you that siavery’ls a Divine-institution, and ought to be extended. There are none whQo would resist the execution of your fugitive slave law; but I am frank and proud to tell you, I do not believe there is one who would place his hand upon the heaving breast of the leeihg fugitive who is panting for liberty as the hart panteth for the t ~~of ,- dt-houg Otlis pbe7 s09ymbols oflgthmfoplctopaetemtedrvn ownership, in the brand of the master on his cheek, the rust of the iron on his limbs, and the scars of the lash on his back. No, sir; I rejoice that there is not one who, if he gave him a cup of cold water, would not feel that he could claim the blessing, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Not one who, if asked for bread, would give him a stone; if asked for a fish, would give him a serpent. Because we do this, you say we are:no longer Democrats. The people of the North can read and think; they are in a land of churches and free schools. When Pierce,:in less than two years after his election, betrayed the Democracy into the hands of the slave trader, the people of his native New Hampshire-then and now as firm in Democracy as her granite hills are by the sounding sea’desert d the organization and rebuked his power. IA less than two years after Buchanan is elected-and, outdoing Pierce, is willing to sell for less than thirty pieces of silver the constitutional rights of a free people into the hands of a despotic oligarchy-the people of his native Pennsylvania, now and pthen true to the principles bequeathed by Jefferson and Madison, seize thehand of the assassin of the asrrt [r ights -of the people. And the Devmouracyf the oth e Nort are firmly planted upon the ancient w fith, that freedom is more desirable than servitude.’ The remote East, from New, Hampshire, stretches forth her arms, and receives a welcome from the far West, even from the young sister which is nestled am-id the head-waters of the Mississippi, and greet each Other over the Keystone Of the Union-” a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.” The honorable-member from South Carolina, -[Mr.;ASHORBI] in his speech on Thursday last, in an eloquent and glowing description of the South, presented to our imaginations an array of greater proportions than the grand, army Napo.

leon led to Moscow. They will probably take counsel of prudence, and remain at home; they might find a Russian winter in their path. Does the gentleman, candid and frank as I know him to be, forget that portion of history which assures him that many good men in the South dreaded rebellion against England in consequence of the insecurity that would follow to slave property? that this system of bondage prevented his people from bestowing the full measure of their abilities to the cause of Independence? that two of the serious defeats you suffered in the South were in consequence of your chattels suddenly converting themselves into sentient beings, and leading the enemy.-upon your armies? Are not the obstacles which your fathers encountered increasing every year, not only from the addition of numbers, but the intelligence which you say you are implanting in their minds? Will the slaves quietly stay at home and work, while the kindhearted patriarchs are engaged in the easy task of chastising the’- heathen round about? ” Look at the rigors of your fugitive slave law-the cruelties of your statutes the jails in your own cities filled with slaves when: you are about transporting them from place to place-the mother driving the cold steel to the heart of her offspring, rather than their limbs should be chafed with the chains of endless bondage-see within the very shadow of this Capitol, while the Representatives of a great and free people are deliberating, innocent, guiltless human beings driven, chained in gangs, guarded by armed men, and-then answer the question. Or will you do as did good old Abraham-whose patriarchal system you so much venerate-when he heard Lot was taken captive, ” armed his trained servants born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.” Try it; marshal your black regiments-your trained servants; *ou must be satisfied it is a Divine arrangement. You claim the attachment of your slaves; they certainly ought to love as did the trained servants of Abraham. -You boast to have taken them into the covenant and circumcised them in the net faith. I will not contempla~te the collision of arms and banquet of blood to which you invite is, for I I0believe it; to be the aim of civ~ilizat1ion amission of Christianity to teach -: I I .1’

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cannot stay the advancing column. Throw in your lot with theirs, and it will be a “llight thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees;” but you have not the supernatural -lower neither would your unholy designs deserve tb*ntmighty aid which would “let the shadow returubk ward.” When you force this issue upon your own people, they will not move alone, but the spirit .of him who was cradled in South Carolina and entombed in Tennessee will lead their hoe. Whell you raise the parricidal arm to staby he liberties of your country, you will hear the voic of the great Jackson, warning you now, as he did South Carolina in 1832, when he ssid: a d then aVl,:-hrr~a; d~~ Union we will dissolve; this picture’of Ipaca prosperity we will defaice; this free intercourse we will interrupt; these fertile fields we will deluge in blood the protection of that glorious flag we will renounce the very name of Americans we discard. And for what, mistaken men hat do you -throw-away theseinmbl/ blessingsei object;ti disunion; but be not deceiv ed by un armed force is treason. Tell them that, compared to disunion all other evils are light, because that brings with it an accumulation of all; declare that you will never take the field unless the star-spangled banner of your country shall fuoat over you; that you will not be stigmatized when dead, and dishonored and scorned while you live, as the authors of the first attack on the Constitution-of your country.: -shat right is more than might, And justice more than mail.”

SIr, I desire not, I will not, suffer myself to institute’ comparison between the North and the South, but when gentlemen talk of armies of five hundred thousand to control opinion in the North, it must be they are talking to amuse our fancy; -they certainly are not weak enough to suppose they can excite our fears. If a book of two hundred pages convulses your empire,+ and is so deadly a spark in your dangerous magazine; if John Brown and twenty followers could frighten your brave men, and make your women nervous, as one of your Virginia lawyers said in the late State trials in that State, do not deceive yourselves by any delusiou Ch, hab annihilate eighteen million freemen. Gentlemen tell us, in certain contingencies they will dissolve the Union. However much you desire it, whatever of power and influence the “Gulf squadron away may bring to bear upon that issue, neither you nor your children’s children will witness that gloomy event. I’ There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats.” When you undertake such treason, there will be a Palmetto regiment to stand by New York, to save the ark of the covenant. We cannot surrender our principles atyour dictation. We prefer an anarchy of opinion to an order like the order of Warsaw, founded on despotism. “Peace, and at such a time!“1 No, sirs; you will long have to march to the music of the Union; that music which is everywhere uprising, from the fields where labor is repaid, and the workshops where industry is rewarded; from the machinery which, through the instrumentality of steam, is doing the bidding of man; from the gigantic steamers that plow our rivers and lakes; from the buzz of thec electric telegraph; and the scream of the iron horse. We are bound together by a common language, a common religion, Ond a common destiny..ajor.tii-eC- *- - f,__:d of the nation. You cannot, you dare not, resist. We threaten not with bayonet, revolver, and bowie knife, but with the silent ballot, “Which executes a freeman’s will, As lightning does the will of God.” Your own people would rebuke your mad ambition. Their arm of power would be raised, and, the voice of prayer ascend to spare us the curse of a ruptured brotherhood. They would suffer you to commit no such treason against human hope. They never would indulge you in the agricultural pursuit of which so flippantly you have spoken, “to run a burning plowshare over the foundations of the Republic.” The weal or woe of nations is in the hands of the American people, and they never will betray their trust. Their progress is onward; their aim is upward. Your blind and reckless infatuation “Sail on, 0 Union, strong and great; Humanity, with all its fears, With all the hope of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate I We know what master laid thy keel, What workmen wroughtt hy ribs of steele Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, What anvils rang, what hammers beat, In what a forge and what a heat Were shaped the anchors of thy hope! Fear not each sudden sound and shock; ‘Tis of the wave, and not the rock; ‘t,. but the flapping of the sai[4 And not a rent made by the gale! In spite of rock and tempest’s roar, in spite of false lights on the shore, Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea; Our hearts, our hopes, are aU with thee!” PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860.

REPUBLICAN EXECUTIVE CONGRSSIONAL COMMITEE. Hon. Preston King, N.Y., (Chairman,) J. W. Grimes, Iowa, L. F. S. Foster, Conn., on the part of the Senate; Hon. F: B. Washburne, Ilinois, John Covode, Penn., (Treasurer,) E.

G. Spaulding, N. Y., J. B Alley, Mass., David Kilgore, Ind. J. L. N.

Stratton, N.J., on the part of the House of Representatives. During the Presidential Campaign, Speeches and Documents will be supplied at the following redeprics: Eight pages, per 100, 50 cents; sixteen paes per 100, $1.00; twenty-four pages per 100 $1 50 Address either of the above Committee.‘EORGE HARRIGTON, Sr. 116 Not only guided by the Ispirit and pro admonition of Jackson,.but,. arming them with the ancient seal of Virginia representing Virtue as their tutelary genius, robed in the drapery of an Amazon resting one hand: lier lance holding with the other a, sworct, trampling upon Tyranny under the figure of a prostrate man, having near him a crown fallen from his head, and bearing in one hand a broken chain, and in the other a scourge, while.beneath the word Virzinial is xnscribpd,s’w 8emper. ty ni,s; under this sikn the d, rch-. and marchtoconquer. Then,fromamongthetribes of Your Own lDeO le, you would see 11 the shadow be they w o w Iould, mo d to’ Duasinaue; ” it would be,,the-v who would furnish the Maoduffs to’meet you on’the field. I. ii .

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