Juliet signal. [volume] (Juliet [i.e. Joliet], Ill.) 1844-1???, 1848-10-03
REMARKS OF
8. wv. RANDALL
AT MEETING HELD AT NAPERvILLE,
ON THE 25th SEPTEMBER, 1913.

Mr. Chairman and Felloc- Citizens:
can hardly account for the simuItane.
4 Gus call that has been made upon me by
this meeting. | have understood it was
called as "Free SoiI'' meeting. came
here to listen in silence, and | cannot
better explaih the position in which find
myself than to bring to your minds an
anecdote which | think l may appropri-
ately borrow for the occasion. | speak
of the incident slid TO have occurred in
olden time, when preacher had aroused
his hearers to sobs and tears, excepting a
single individual. who with eye unmoved
looked calmly on, till some one inquired
why he was unmoved. "Why," said he,
81 do not belong in this Parish!" and SO
find il with your humble servant. Yet,
| ifthere is desire in the midst of this
congregation of Free Sellers, to hear a
Live Cass man, will lend myself few
moments to your qualification.
do not know that can more readily
fit system ofremarks to my present train
of thought, than to follow the able gen.
tleman who has just closed, little way
in his devious course. He commenced
by telling US that slavery, beginning with
but feeble force and narrow territory,
had sPead its grasping manacles, till now
it had fifteen states of this Union, and if
we did not put forth herculean effort
and arrest it here, we would soon be
overwhelmed with its monstrous power.
| cannot believe my friend would wilfully
falsify the history of our country, and yet
he seems to have permitted his zeal to
lead him greatly astraY. / will pause
here to state fact in history, and request
my friend who has just taken his seat, or
you free sellers who have called upon me
to address you to correct me if misstate
in any particular. l here state the TACT
from the records Of history-from the liv-
ing annals of this country, that at the FOR
nation of this Union under the present
constitution, there was but single free
State. That the clanking chain the
blacks wore, was to be heard in twelve
out of the thirteen states which had then
just emerged from the American Revolu.
ton. And state to you another fact
that, commencing in the far east, the
shackles of the slave had gradually fell
free state after free state, emerged from
its slave habiliments, until now we have
fifteen states in which the chains of the
slave are banished forever. Is this start
ling or alarming to your fears? Does
this call upon you to rear up sectional
geographical party, and sunder the kind.
ly feelings which should animate the
hearts of all towards each other? But
will tell you more. The progress of free
dom beginning towards the rising of the
sun, was rapidly advancing Southwark
Virginia had come within two votes of
abolishing it in her wide dominions- Del
aware and Maryland were evidently fol-
lowing in her footsteps-when the cry Of
the fanatic of the neutrality-suspicious. that
its progress was not more rapid--disturb-
! ed the equanimity of the south. 1t was
northern fanaticism that excited their fears
| of nsurrection-that aroused their chival.
ry in defence Of what they considered
their rights--and from the moment you
heard that mad scream, the rivets Of the
slave were frightened, and now, for fifteen
years past, they have tried moral suasion
and political suasion, and yet not one foot
further has the progress of freedom ad-
Vanced. NowI ask mEfriend-I appeal
to you of this meeting, if have not truly
stated the history of our country?
MIR. Farnswortb desired to explain that
though he was frank to admit that slavery
nominally existed in all the states but one
at the adoption of the constitution, yet
there were comparatively few slaves then,
and they had increased from one hundred
aud fifty thousand 10 three millions.
Mr.. Randall continued. That is the
abolition doctrine. which l am not here
now to debate. From this day hence
forth, no man can any longer take up the
cudgels against the abolitionists. They
are defunct people-gone down TO
strange grave-swaIlowed up, soul, body
and breaches, by Martin Van Buren,. The
increase OF slavery is no longer the theme
of the pathetic few. We are now in pur.
suit of free SOIL" that new. tangled rally.
ing term, and | was proceeding to show
that Stree soil' had prospered the best,
where the people when slavery existed,
were left to deal with it themselves. And
have not proved this to the satisfaction
of any reasonable man? Then where
the necessity of arraying the north against
the south-the east against the west, or the
centre against the extremities. My friends,
ifthere is any one thing connected with the
glorious advancement of our country, that
fills me with melancholy forebodings, il
is to observe that the great and sacred
voice of our revolutionary fathers, whose
ashes now repcse in the dust beneath us.
has lost its potency for good. A few
years since, no man could read the sol.
emn appeals of Washington, against
sectional divisions and geographical feel
ings, without being moved with its solemn
importance. Now those profound pre-.