Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1850-12-07
8 elections.
ThOmpsOn'S Fancull Hall Speech.

II was not deeply conscious that in all
that concerns the character, prosperity, and
future greatness of this country felt a warm
and friendly interest, should deem myself
unworthy of the honor and privilege now
enjoy; and the thought that | was abusing
your kindness and betraying your confidence
would deprive me Of all power of address,
ing you on such an occasion.
But painfully as l feel my inability TO
speak to you in manner worthy of this
place and Of this audience, can, as far az
my motives are concerned, and the objects
which have in view IN visiting this country
are in question, look calmly upon the thou
sands OF living beings before me, and upon
the countenances of the illustrious dead be-
hind me, and say am not unworthy to stand
before an assembly of the citizens of the
United States, free man among free men.
From my youth upward have cherished
sentiments of the profoundest admiration for
the names and deeds of your venerated pat
riots. My delight has been to live with YOU
as people, through all the events that have
made you great nation. The indicators
OF your rights among my own countrymen
have been the objects of my idolatry. !
have justified your revolutionary struggle
have exulted in the conquest aud mainte-
nance of your independence. have pray
ed for the perpetuity of your institutions,
and can and do tonight thank God that, for
more thnn three score years and ten, You
have furnished to the nations of the earth
the lesson and the example that il is alike
the duty, the prerogatlve aud the glory of
men to govern themselves.
Though born in another country, under n
monarclical Government, | have neverthe-
less lnbored TO promhlgate those truths upon
which your own liberty and independence
are based. have ever maintained that the
people were the only Legitimate source of all
governing power, while I held that Govern
mente SIRE of divine origin, since. wifbnlt.
inw, the Universe would reinpse into chnos.
bave maintained equally the divine right of
the people TO choose for themselves the form
of Government under which they would
live, and to elect the persons by whom the
laws should be administered.
Echoing the doctrine held by those who,
though dead yet speak to you from the can
vas on these walls, have through evil and
good report asserted that taxation without
representation is tyranny, aud have inter-
preted representation TO mean the right of
every man, unstained by crime, to have
vote in the election of the makers of the
laws.
My idea of popular representative as
sembly has always been, that it should be
the express image of the mind aud will of
the people that it should not only, in the
first instance, he called into being by the
votes of The people, and Of the entire peo-
pie, but that its representative character
should be preserved, by quickly recurring
dissolutions; that its several parts should be
resolved into the elements from which they
sprung, and that il should be constructed by
the people, and so be an everything and Vi
tal emanation from the people, embodying
not only their past, but their present senti-
ments and wishes on all matters touching
their interests aud their rights.
When pointed TO the errors and excuses
committed by the people, have ever de-
clared my preference for house elected un-
der the phrenzied excitement of the hour, to
one destitute of contact and sympathy with
the great body Of the community.
With these views, and having at the same
time unfaltering faith in the ultimate triumph
Of the intelligent and well directed moral
power Of the people, my mission has been
labor among the masses.
At the beginning of my brief career as a
public man i identified myself voluntarily,
wholly, inseparably and forever with the
the interests Of the classes, but always, as /
understand it, the welfare of the many, and
the rights of the millions. Whatever of in
huence and position have gained in my
own country, owe to the confidence and
support of the people, aud have sought to
manifest my appreciation of their good will,
and my sense of responsibility and duty, by
employing any additional ability so obtain
cd to the advancement of the peoples cause
Sent by the people into the Senate, have
voted for every measure calculated to dimin-
ish their bnrthens, emancipate their industry,
remove the Instructions in their way to the
attainment of cheap knowledge, incite them
to virtue and energy, and to perseverance,
enlarge their constitutional liberty, and give
them the power of exercising controlling
influence on the Government of the vast
Empire to which they belong, and in the re-
sources of which they have a right to par
ticipate.
Judge then with what satisfaction ! find
myself in country, where the principles
have labored to make known and apply, are
established, and with one unhappy excep-
ton carried out. Judge what my Joy must
be 10 find that in proportion as those princi-
pies have beon faithfully and impariially act