The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1844-06-07

franchise is the soul of our republic, and the free
mans boast Let it be supported, and It will sup
port all the rest; all will be safe. The solemn
ty of the legal and judicial oath Is the sheetancho
of all our moral religious, and
Let corruption pollute the b,ot-box, and perjury
corrupt the sacred sanctuary Of TRUTH and all is lost
Our institutions, political, moral, and religious
will all sink together and the offspring will be as il
was in the French Revolution. Your Legislative
halls will present but scenes of butchery Plunder
murder, and arson, will be but legahzed crimes
And too, as in the French revolution, your Sab
bath will be changed to decade, and the house OF
God to stable. The word Of God and your reveal
FED religion will be paraded through your streets on
an ass, in contemptuous ridicule, and consumed
ON bonfres. Your Redeemer will be postponed to
murderer, and your Maker to prostitute, styled
the goddess of Reason. Your judiciary will be
converted into triumvirate; your seats of justice
into guillotine, and your fields will be drenched
inblood These, sir, will gil the measures of such
inqu,ty, such frauds, such perjury, and such trea-
son, as were practsed in 1910, If persisted in up-
checked aud unrestrained.
The passage of this bill will destroy the tempta
ton and the means to perpetrate such violence
Let the whirlwinds and tempests of party spirit and
party passion mountain high; the safety of the
republic, the purity of the ballot box, and the secu
rity of our free institutions, will not be drawn into
the vortex and wreck of ruin. Can we not lay
aside all patty feelings for this time and on this oc-
nJoo, in of hic
measure? Now is the time-now is the day. We
are on the eve of another presidential election,
which will elicit every feeling and every corrupt
passion which party strife can engender; and is there
not danger that the same scenes Of 1910 will be act
ed over' Is there not danger that our moral, our
political, free, and our religious institutions
may receive another shock, which may palsy them
beyond recovery?
Sir, my heart is fixed and set on the passage of
this bill; and feel as though have right to ap.
peal to the patriotism of this House for its support;
and ifI had the voice of thunder, would extend
that appeal to the remotest parts Of this Union.
would awaken the attention of every patriot, ofev.
cry lover of human liberty, and of our free instu.
tons and their duration, to the support of this
ure. Iwould invoke him, in the name of human
liberty, and on behalf ofhis free institutions, by
which he expects to perpetuate that liberty; in the
name of that majesty which is his, by the rights Of
freeman, to send forth his voice to this hall. and
demand, and command his representative to sup.
port this bill-to make this bill law of this land
Iwould extend that appeal, too, to every press,
the potent engine ofhuman liberty, and the terror
OF crowned heads. would ask them to raise the
strong arm and the loud voice in favor of this bill
would say to them, now is the time, and this is
the occasion, which demand that influence which is
theirs. l would ask that same influence in behalf
and in support ofthis measure, which has demol.
ished thrones, torn crowns from the heads of des-
pots, broken crosiers, and redeemed nations.