The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1848-06-29
SPEECH OF JOHN VAN BUREN,,
DELIVERED AT
Geneseo, Livingston County,
JUNE 20, 1s4s.

JUNE ~, 1915.
ALBANY, June %, 1S4S
Ya'edictory to the Democraey--The Last Published
Speech Of Mr.. Fan Buren--The Last Sermon on
the Abolition Mount
transmit herewith detailed report Of the speech
delivered by John Van Buren, at Ge nsseo the 10th
instant. circumstances having changed, Mr.. Van
Buren, declared at Utica that he would make no more
speeches during the present campaign. This, there
FORE the last speech from the lips of the younger
Van Buren,, which the world will have opportunity
Of reading before the close of the political revolution
of lS4S Mr. Van Buren, spoke to the meeting, which
was composed Of several thousand persons follows
Fellow citxsns:-A convention Of the democrats Of
this county having invited to address you here to-
day. II gives great pleasure to comply with their
request A presidential election is about approaching
and the electors OF this State will shortly be called
upon to discharge the responsible trust, far as
devolves upon them Of eevating to the chief mags-
citizens Of this republic. The great question which
now agitates the public mind in connection with this
Of the United States that are now free Thomas Jeier
son. in drawing the declaration of ndepc in TO-
and In enumerating the expressions practced upon the
with having waged cruel against human nature
ITSELF violating ITS most sacred rights Of life and liberty
him. 7This piratical warfare, Che said) the oppro
brium Of nfdel powers the warfare Of the Christian
King Of Great Britain Determined to keep up market
where men should be bought and Sold he has prosti
tuted his negative for suppressing any legislative at
tempt to restrain this execrabls trac The language
stronger than used at that day by the same dis
tnuished man, as we'll as by George Washington,
Mason, and the other slaveholding patriots of the
rsvo luton in speaking of domestic Pavery itself with
the single exception that the foreign slave trade
an evil which our forefathers had 1t in their power
promptly SUPPRESS and therefore responsible for
the continuance oft, whilst domestic slavery was
condition forced upon by the mother country for
Time humanity and phiiant hropy to ameliorate and
extinguish Those who declared and established
our independence like those patriots who recently
overturned the French monarchy knew and felt
that the basis of true freedom the equal
suit consistently with tho condition Of the coun-
try, they - adopted the following policy. In
regard to tnS States where slavery existed it was
ment to escape from the evil The unsettled territory
north and west Of the Ohio, out of which 1t
to Virginia. This territory was ceded to the United
States immediately at the close of the revolution JEFF
of the grantors in the deed Of cosson
the following year he an ordinance cheers
by which 1t declared, that after 1900 slavery
Involuntary servitude, except as a punishment of
crime should exist In such territory, in the
States to be formed of it, Three years afterwards
an ordinance was passed. BY which slavery imme-
ordinance passed the Congress of tho confederation
unanimously, and rent to Virginia be ratified
by the Legislature Of that state it ratified al
most unanimously. The trainers of the constitution
at the time and place. authorized Congress after
1908 to prohibit the foreign trade This delay Of
concession wrung from the patriots Of Virgins and
the North, by the obstinacy of South Carolina snt
vsnton refused to come into the Union unless the
concession was made. The first Congress under the
constitution in $780, to remove all doubts Of the
validity of the ordnance of 1887 ratified by legis
lative act Edward Coles most estimable and intel
ligent citizen of Phadephiaa member of one of the
strongest and most influential families Of Virginia
private secretary to Mr. Madison during his Preside
Cyl and formerly Governor of the State Of Illinois
informs that the ordinance of 1887 actually
emancipated large number of slaves, who, at the
time Of its passage, found in the territory
composing the State Of Illinois So early as 1925 st.
lshed plan for the abolition Of slavery in that State
and in enforcing the proprety of such abolition he
described slavery as an evil thousand times greater
than all the others which Great Britain had subjected
us to- and from which Virginia must be- saved. or
her physical and prostraton would be inevitable
This glance at the early history of our country and at
the action of the patriots of the revolution satisfies
that the trainers of the constitution regarded sla
very AS moral, social and political CURSE that one
great object of the revolution to escape from it,
and that they intended to make and did make gov
ernment in which Congress should have power to pro-
hbit and abolish slavery in all the territories of the
United States; that they intended to form and did
form Union into which no more slave States should
come, and the members of which should. in good
faith proceed rapidly possible to rid themselves of
this whitening blight and their associates from the
reproach disgrace which its existence brought
the association and its The policy of the coun-
try from the revolution till recently, with the excep-
ton of the admission of Texas Louisiana and Florida
in all of which, in my Judgment slavery ought to have
been prohibited (cheers) confirms me in this belief
Out Of the Northwestern territory coded by Virginia.
have been formed the States of Ohio, Indiana Wiscon
sin, Illinois and Michigan. These five States contain
population Of between four aud five millions, and al
most exhaustless physical They formed
of part of the State Virginia. how remarka
bly, does the condition of Virginia, when contrasted
with theirs illustrate the effect of the Jeersonian
policy She stands still, retrogrades whilst any
Of them with its boundess energy resstsss progress
rapidly increasing population, either exceeds
obviously will outgrow the State from which it
dren, ana even believe that they have
sprung from such an exhausted mother exhausted
not in giving birth in nursing her children
but exhausted in lying still and looking at them grow
up after they born and weaned 1t is rs difficult
believe that such mother should have such child
rem, that the great apostle OF lbertyThomas JEFF
ferson--should have such refugee for disciple
Thomas Richie. daughter and cheers The policy
hat has produced great only in
troduced by Virginia. and brought into op
Grafton upon Virginia SOIL but until very recently
people OF every section of the United States When
Louisiana purchased slavery existed in that State
and its continuance was guaranteed by the treaty
of cession. At the time Of the Missouri compromise,
Congress abolished slavery in all the territory OF
Louisiana north of SO &c. SO late US 1885, the terri
tory Of Iowa was organised out Of this northern por
ton of Louisiana. and in the act for its organzat
slavery prohibited in said territory This was the
la exercise of power in Congress which has been
exercised since the foundation of the government
and which never, until recently, denied. The
territory of Oregon IL without government,
and its people been pettionng Congress for this
protection. New Mexico and California have been
conquered from Mexico the President declares that
they ours, to be surrendered and he
men Is Congress to organize territorial government
them These imperative duties remain unexe-
cuted in Congress in consequence Of the determine
ton of citizens Of the South that the territorial
shall not be framed to preserve the law Of free
dom. which Ia now the condition Of Oregon, New
Mexico and California. They deny to Congress. power
uphold freedom in the face of the repeated instances
in which Congress- by the aid and under the lead Of
Southern men, has abolished slavery In territories
ceded by slave State They claim n right to
20 into free country, under the flag Of the United
States and behind the of troops to overthrow
freedom and plant slavery there they not only
claim this tight, but they deny to their political
associates Of both political parties the right to enter
tain different opinion Important this question
make It test Of eligibility to Office they refused to
do at Syracuse Herkimerin thei. legislative adj
dresses and finally at Utica, in selecting delegates to
the national convention. Virginia. Georgia, Alabama,
south Carolina and Florida on tho other hand have
resolved that they will under political necessity
whatever, support candidate for President and Vice
President who dees not entertain their faith in regard