Litchfield enquirer., 1844-10-03
From the Boston atlas.
SPEECH OF THE
Hon. GASSEUS M. CLAY.

| The following is the admirable, eloquent, and
highly effective Speech, delivered by the Hon
CAssIUs M. CLAY, of Kentucky, at the fremont
Temple on the evening of the 10th inst. after the
adjournment of the great Convention on Boston
Common.
1t would be ungrateful in me to affect to be in
sensible to the respect and enthusiasm with which
| have been received here, elsewhere, in the
whole North, yet my qualification is diminished by
the reflection that cannot point to any achieve
ment of my own-any great public service which
deserves so much distinction as You are pleased to
bestow upon me. Still, If hXedness of purpose,
an ardent love Of country, and fearless advocacy
of truth are worthy of consideration, l trust may
prove not altogether undeserving your generous
confidence. stand here under very peculiar cir
cumstances. Having been ever true to the Wing
cause, from my earliest manhood down to the pre-
sent hour, l find myself denounced by leading
Wings as ultra in my opinions. l owe the Wings
nothing-once having possessed their confidence
and support, because l would not submit my con-
science and my reason to their will have been by
them, at least by portion ofthem, joined by the
Democratic party, prescribed forever. 1t is I'M
necessary to say that from the Democratic party
meet with no favor. l myself am, then, only re-
sponsible for myself. know too well that am
denounced at the South as an enemy Of my country
l know also who they are that pursue me with in
eXorable malice, which neither time nor distance,
person, can satlate. To the pro-slavery party
Of the South owe nothing--no--not my life once
more now, as heretofore, scorn their wrath and
defy their power. l appeal from the 81 495 slave
holders, to the 100000 free ,rite la6orers of my
own loved State. Yes, to Kentucky, place of my
nativity, home of my boyhood, the early and fond
associations of childhood, and more muture age,
owe my first and lasting allegiance-there l shall
ever live and there shall repose in death. To my
country, to posterty to God, l look for slow com
ing justice and ultimate judgment
Shall repeat that the present crisis is the most
eventful in the annals of our history. 1t is the
same great struggle, which from time immemorial
down to the present hour, has never ceased be-
tween liberty and slavery. In the language of Mr.
Choate, the question is not how We shall be gov
erned only, but who shall govern: 1t is the same
issue which the colonies of America, in seventeen
hundred and seventy made with the tyrannical
parliament of Britain, except that now we are call
ed upon not only to vndicate the right that taxa
| ton and representation should be equal and inse-
parable, but to stand by, or forever lose many Of
those great safeguards of liberty which we enjoyed
under the British rule. Mr.. Webster has asked to-
day, "where. out of America, save in England, ex-
st trial by jury. free press public assemblies the
right Of free discussion and the habeas corpus act !"
I ask you, where but in England do they exist
do they exist here ?-no, you know too we'll they
do not. These great bulwarks of human liberty
founded on the blood and unspeakable woe of the
sacrifice to the vindcation Of the eternal principles
of right and truth, are now trampled under foot by
the despotic pro-slavery party of this republic
Yes, it is to slavery and to the temporislng policy
Of our fathers, owing, that the war of '76 was in
complete, and that we are now called upon in 1874
once more to fight TIE battle Of liberty, will not
reproach our illusrious sres, detract from their
glorious fame; they did more, by the American re-
violation and the constitution of the United States,
to establish the cause of human freedom, than any
other men whose deeds illustrate the annals OF the
world still sad experience has too well proved to
U.s. that they left much undone, and the permission
Of slavery in the United States government has we'll
nigh left nothing of our original franchises Let
us look the evil boldly in the face; and lift he not
already too late, retrace our steps, and be yet saved
from ruin. 1t cannot be denied that the whole
people Of the Union were particeps criminis in the
establishment OF slavery; when they allowed the
importation of slaves up to 1903; when the North
agreed to return slaves to the South; and allowed
three votes for every FIVE slaves in the federal re-
presentation. Yes, if they did not use the word
slave they meant it--they meant what they said
if they did not say all they meant On the other
hand, deny, now and forever, that there was any
sacred and inyiolable compromise between slavery
anil liberty. Adams and Sherman and Morris, and
others of the North, and Madison and Jefferson and
the immortal Washington, and others Of the South
yes all, with few exceptions, of the llustrious
founders of the constitution, were opposed to sa-
vefy--and all-all, every that voted for the
constitution, agreed that all alliance with slavery
SO far expressed in the three clauses named, the
only in the constitution on that subject should
cease whenever three-fourths of the States should
toiU its fall. The only compromise in the con-
sttution is that every State, small as well large,
shall forever have two senators; all other clauses
of the constitution but this may be changed in
cordancc with the express permission Of the in
strument itself. And since the object of the Union.
in its preamble, to establish justice and per-
petuate liberty-then, it is not only the right but
the memorable duty of this great republic TO purge
the constitution Of these clauses, which blot its fair
escutcheon, and make its great fabric indeed the
temple of the free. The National Government has
no power over slavery in the slave States, because
none was given it by these then Independent sove-
reignties. Let each State act its responsibility
looking to its own interests, to conscience, and
TO God. Island By the cOnstitutivn-yes, NTH my
| life ItCiU defend ii. But as the General Govern
ment has no power to abolish slavery, SO it has no
power to make savcry-and the admission Of slave
States into this Union declare TO be unconstitu-
tional-and the permission Of sloUeyy in its estaJ.
iishment Within the District Of Columbia and in
the Territories of the Union, slavery does not con-
stitutionally exist. For the 9Th article of the
amendments says expressly that " no person shall
process Of law"-which means " thout some crime
committed, and ascertaned, and punished by law.
Then if Congress cannot make slave, she cannot
| allow new State TO do it--she cannot transfer to
others more powers than she has hcrself-the agent
cannot do more than the principal-thcn she can
not permit slavery in States or Territories or any
other place where she has sovereign and uncon-
trolled power. Nor ca3 the miserable pretence be
set up, that blacks are not So PERSONS" for slaves
are called 9personS" in every clause where they
are alluded TO in the Constitution. And if A. B.