The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-09-15
THE REPU BLIC.
SPEECH OF JUDGE CONRAD,
fit the Hurrisburgh Mass Conventaon.


| am proud of my native State for many things
for her patriotism and power, for her glorious past
her mighty future-but for nothing more than for
her honest gratitude to our national benefactors
from Washington down to Scott and it is with no
ordinary exultaion, therefore, that greet and con-
graduate you on this proof that the sons of the
Keystone are as ready to reward great deeds as to
achieve them; and that, if the bosom Of her hills
has iron for our countrys foes, their brows are
rich in laurels for her champions.
Before assembled this stand, a respectable citizen
said to me, "f you address US, forget that you are
Wing, and tell us, all party considerations aside,
tohy you ask us To vote for Gen. Scott" Forget
that am Wing! When can forget that Frank
I'm and Jefferson, Washington and Clay, were
Wings, when can forget that it is a distinction
baptized in the pure blood Of the revolution, and
hallowed by the genius and patriotism of our
country's nobles spirits when can forget that its
principles the vital air which liberty breathes,
and that its policy is the palladium of the Union and
glory of my country; when my reason forgets its
inmost convictions and my heart its hottest duties !;
when, in short, my right hsnd forgets its cunning
then, in that startess midnight Of the mind, may
forget that am Wing; but till then, never. II
is the political faith of truth and right, faith glo
rous alike in victory or defeat, in good report or
evil report. l have given it my youth and man.
hood; my health, hope and fortune; and having
thus long lived in it and for it, will, if Providence
vouchsafes me an uncouded reason, die by it.
But | am also Democrat, for Democratic
Wing is the best of Democrats and, respecting the
sincerity of the masses that constitute the party to
which am opposed, willingly comply with the
request to state ,Dhy ask your votes for General
Scott. For | do ask them, earnestly ask them,
believing that your dearest rights and interests are
involved in your action. | will speak frankly and
plainly, and trust that you will hear me without
prejudice, and decide, not for faction, but for the
right for public justice, and public gratitude. -
| first ask your votes for Winfield Scott, because
you are compelled to choose between him and
Franklin Pierce. There is no other choice. To
vote for third candidate is the suicide of suffrage
1t is to nulfy privilege and to skulk duty it is
neutrality, and the neutrality of freeman is the
crime of slave. / hold that Franklin Pierce is
not only inferior-how inferior ITO Gen. Scott,
but that he is, per Sc and positively, unfit for the
Presidency. Hear my reasons: -.. ~.
One of the most vital of the liberties Of the peo-
ple-one bought with blood, sancti6ed by time,
aud secured by charter-is the Right Of Peiition-a
right inestimable to us and formidable to tyrants
only" No freeman would brook its abatement in
the weight of hair. It was cheapiy bought, and
would be cheapy preserved, with an ocean Of blood
Yet Franklin Pierce, by his vote in Congress,
denied and sought to destroy that right. Therefore
he is unfit.
Equal in sacredness to that neutrality-suspicious. to
all else-is Religious, Freedom; the right to worship
God without kneeing in letters. Franklin Pierce
is the leader Of the party in New Hampshire which
denies that freedom to portion of her people-no
matter what portion-denies it by constitutional
enactment. That party controlled the question
Franklin Pierce controlled that party; but he
| neither exerted that power, nor, when occasion
offered, opened his lips, in or out of the conyen-
ton, to utter word, one poor word, for the most
| sacred Of human rights trampled down at, aye,
under, his very feet. He is, therefore, unfit; and
to reward him would be to share his crime. ,
c. l.
platform of principles the most odious and des-
iructive. (Here some of the over-crowded benches
| fell, creating a momentary confusion) That fall
is omnous of the fate of his platform and his
party-frst crash, (applause,) and the shouts of
an exultng people. He is unfit, also, because he
is allied, at the South, with the rankest and most
arrogant foes of the Union; men who would tear
the Constitution into shreds, and Irvine those shreds
into thongs for slaves; and associated, at the
North, with plant and hungry horde, ready to
kiss those thongs, or to wear them, if the majesty
of the South deign but to give them kick or cast
them copper. w. ..
But, more than all, is he unfit because he takes a
nomination made in fraud, and in defiance of the
known will of the party constituency represented,
or rather betrayed; monstrous and measureless
outrage upon the republican principle. That nomi-
nation was made, not merely NOTWITHSTANDING
Pierce was inferior to the eminent statesmen sus-
gested by the people, but BECAUSE he was thus
inferior; That ineriority being his sole merit and
their sole motive. What else can be pretended
True, he is urged as hero; but his military
achievements, what are they' Nothing. He is
| commended, also, as statesman but what are
his civil triumphs? Nothing. In war, what bat
| tie did he VIM None In peace, what principle
has he illustrated None. What measure did
he carry in Congress- Again, none. What work
brated Rochester displayed his ingenuity by a
poem on nothing;'' the Locofoco Convention
adopted the same subject. His history is blank,
his exploits dream, his claim shadow. Nothing
constitutes his career nothing warranted his nomi-
nation, nothing can effect his election; for, his
merits are nothing, nothing can come of nothing.
regard this contemptuous trfng with SO sacred
a duty rs full of fearful peril. Our Government
can survive earthquakes from below and torrents
of fire from above-any thing but selfconempt.
To degrade the Presidency, that most august OF
human trusts, is crime without an equal, iesa
majesias treason against the life and honor Of the
Republic Its effect, il not its object, is to deprive
the Constitution of its guardians, by driving the
gifted and patriotic into retirement or exile and 10
| debase the highest Office to the lowest ends, by
placing it in the hands Of an imbecie and obscure
tool of faction-some insidious Juanus of the DO
litical pretoran band. Wo to the land where
such PROCLAMATION can, with impunity, be attempt
ed. But have no fear. The orb that rose in
1776, and has flooded the world with its radiance.
The dignity that was occupied by Washington is
still hallowed in the eyes and hearts of the people
when it ceases to be, freedom will cease to be.
The triumphs of Scott have ever urisen, not from
the weakness of his enemy, for he has always had
"foemen worthy of his steel, }" but from his own
superior genius and valor. So be it now; for I
would rather dwell on his claims than his rivals
deficiencies. Why should we vote for Gen. Scott :
will answer.
Some fory-fve years since, youthful student
sat in the office of sage of the Old Dominion, B.
Watkins Leigh, and pondered on the condition of
his country and the duty that he owed her. The
times were out Of joint. The nations seemed
loosened from their moorings, and were driven and
clashing on the waves of an almost universal war,
like icebergs in polar tempest. Our own bright
and did not escape the storm. Her flag had been
outraged on every sea; her sons dragged into sla-
very, and even forced to raise paricidal arm
against their country. War was inevitable, and
at fearful oddsa war not only for honor and free
dom, but for existence itself Was it well that he,
that gifted student, every pulse of whose heart beat
for his country, should nurse her schemes of tram
quill ambition when such peril and such duty
okod NJ bic -