The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-11-20

lOrcc! Am now unucrstOOu! lnOuHht Ih"V
this old lie of "blood and murder " had been
buried here, with the honors of war, below the
hope of resurrection treat with contempt
the infinite scoundrelIsm ofts attempted revival
Citizens of Fayette, ! am the same man who
years ago was honored with your confidence.
ask once more your suffrages. You know
that have honestly struggled for the right
the prosperity the happiness, the safety the
liberty, of this my native Commonwealth
have discharged my duty. Set upon whilst
PROSTATE on bed of sickness, Il speak not In
reproach, but as history and my press removed
into Il distant State, illuminated in my cfiarac-
ter, put under the social ban and political pro-
scription wasted in my property, two years
absent from home and family in the Mexican
wartime months prisoner, though bringing
back none of the laurels of battle yet ever sub
jiect to hunger, thirst sickness and DEATH
lifted up my voice in defence of the Liberties OF
the people Once more cut down by mob,
escaping with life as it were by miracle, | trust
by the Providence of God, amidst the discussion
of friends and threats of personal violence from
enemies | again 60 forth through this whole
| Commonwealth, and tell them that their
Liberties are threatened, and that the issue is
trhether IRE ourselves shall be treemen or StdreS!
Perhaps, after next August you may never
again be called upon to deliberate upon that
awful issue. Treason is already ayowed-dissO-
luton OF these States is demanded-the cannon
are moulded Whilst | am now speaking,
armed men are mastering in the field Amidst
arms constitutions and laws are silent. What
will you dol Are you ready for the slave EN-
pire of the South Have you grown tired OF
these republican institutions, which in ii hall
century have bull. you up from insignificant
provinces to the first rank among the nations
of the world? Do you seek more security fol
life, liberty, and property, than the stars and
stripes watered with the blood of patriots give
YOU, by sea and shore resting under its ample
folds?
All are you in love with despotism? VIII
you 90 back to the cast-of rags of past cen
turtles, returning rs dog to his vomt =! VIII
you fraternize with Russia! Behold her thou
sand exiles, whose crime is the aspiration to be
frce-chilled by the frozen SHOWS of Siberia
but colder yet at heart--outlawed suffering
dying-miserable in life but yet more misera-
Die in death. say they. in the reflection that
their memory shan g,,rosd and chat there shai
be no record Of their live 7tN"c ~ ,y'a-h the
i,i--- :. ~..o., lses.aag, ,ne,r 5shes anwaset4.
with the tears of friendship or kindred forever
Are you in love with that? VIII you 90 to
Austria, and see a whole people of gallant
spirits reduced to slavery and national extinc-
tion-her defenders put to the sword to torture,
and to exle-and the wives and daughters OF
patriots driven nude through populous cities,
and scourged with rods and dying with shame
Are you in love with that Will you 90 to
Turkey, and rest with Lamartine under the
shade of pyramid in the desert! And "upon
| l.nL L. tIo@ 40
of the SOULS Of thirty thousand Servians, built
up IN sand and lime" monument of terror
eternal to those who like them aspire to be
free Are ysu in love with that Will you
20 10 those Bastiles and prison houses which
| have been opened up in their secret depths, by
modern revolutions in Europe, to the gaze of
| men, i'm whose vaults of "ever-during damp"
lie not only the bleaching bones of men, but the
long and silken locks of women, and the skele-
tons of babes who perish in one common ruin
for conscience sake! Have you forgotten the
terror and woe which have spread like Gimme
ran darkness over all the earth-the great
spirits who in all ages have gone up to the
scaffold and lannon's mouth, that you might
be free? And will you now begin talking
about your slave empire in the South Con
gress has become an ant-slayery debating so
ciety!" And will you be able to crush liberty
of speech and the press them VIII you not
see that when the liberty of speech and the
press is gone all liberty is gone?
"When the fugitive slave law is repealed
then will the time have come for the State of
Kentucky to go with the South for the dssolu-
ton of the Unionl" Indeed! viii you have
more slaves returned when the Union is dissov-
ed! England returns no slaves now. VIII
you venture to lay your hand upon her lion
crest when she is backed by fifteen millions
more of irecmen, who change place in the array
| OF arms! Wlll there be more security for YOUR
, remaining slaves. when the line of freedom is
moved down from the frozen lakes to the Ohio
river! Are you mad Will You, with five
| hundred thousand masters on one side and
| three millions of slaves and five millions of
| white labOrers reduced to like seryitude on
| the other, appeal from the reason and con-
| sciences OF men to the sword Will you look
abroad for help! From the frozen ocean of
the North, to the stormy capes of the far South,
| therc runs through two continents consolida-
| ted phalanx of nations, who have sworn that
| slave States are the outlaws of nations From
| all the leading nations of Europe comes n voice
| IN the literature, in the political avowals in the
consciences, in the armies, and in the navies--
wen have no more OF slavery" anathcma
sit ~
No; you cannot if you would succeeds From
the earliest ages to the present times, the liber-
| ties OF men have been more and more establish
ed Nations have become more and more free
more and more have the civil rights of individu-
al men been established 10y law, and more and
more rs recognised the fraternity and equality
| of man in the eyes of God
II you are indeed wise, and of that Saxon
| blood of which You boast the best, you will fol-
low the example OF England, from whom you
draw your descent When the millions of
laborers cried ont for cheap bread instead of
answering them with cannon shot and the
bayonet, she repealed the tariff upon provisions,
and yielded the monopoly which her ruling
arlstocracy enjoyed When the great princ-
pies OF God-given equality had taken hold of
the hearts of eight millions of lrishmen, instead
OF appealing to the sword, she passed the Irish
Catholic Emancipation bill, by which Protestant
and Catholic enjoy equal religious liberties!
And to-day England stands, perhaps, firmer in
the affections OF her subjects than ever before
in her history.
Is France the example you would follow!
Then read in her your own fate! There you
saw Louis Philippe one of the coolest and wi
sest OF men. with public and private means be-
yond any monarch Of his times and he too,
would appeal to hcbayonet And he arrayed
around Paris three hundred thousand armed
men and the cannon and the musket pointed
upon every street and upon every workshop.
But the French people remembered the tyran-
MES of the past; they had felt the Divine inspira-
tons of liberty, equality and fraternity and
through the press the telegraph, and the quick
communication of ideas the soldiers and the
people sympathized--apd from million of
souls came the anthen5 terrible only to ty-
rants: -
"Arisc-arise-yc brave.
The avenging sword unshcath,
March on-march On--all hearts resolved