Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1854-07-29
CASIUS M. CLAY IN IOWA.

DbNLiNoloNb cuiJ ~, iCc1'
Dear Marius. -Ycstcrday was an unusual day
bore, Mr.. Clay from a box in front of his hotel
and (being driven thence by a shower in the mar
kot house, dispensed for two hours or more burn
ing words to the democrats of Iowa"
An old farmer, covered with the rust Of time
and Of our sadly blighted wheatfelds in introducing
him to the citizens said, or might have said
Fellow citizens: we arc here to-day with anxious
minds and fearful hearts. We have come to con-
slider an extreme and alarming case of disease
Less than an hundred years ago the patient now
before us first saw the light. A congcntital defect.
'%deformity or disease, was detected. Tho venerable
ladies of ever blessed memory then present were
in doubt and trouble about it. Some said anpu-
tate; others, no, "as the child advances this ugly
tumOr will be thrown off by tho vigor of a sound
constitution and q healthy life" so they decided to
treat it with the emollients of compromise and the
pallIatives of concession. But alas! this non-he-
role practice did but serve
ITO skin and film the ulcerous place
While rank corruption running all within,
And hero we are to day, fearing speedy dissolu-
toni Why fear it? Is not death of ehete and
worthless things a law of progress? Let the
Union perish, let tho Constitution die, and bury
them deeper than plummet ever sounded, and
from the dust and corruption of that grave, let n
new and better order of things arise. Here with
some words commendatory te the principal speaker,
this inter. ocutor retired.
Mr.. Clay was as usual methodical, pungent and
honest to his convictions. Ho rehearsed in the
ears of the Democracy" the acts of the general
Government which he contended were the acts OF
each and every one of the constituents of the great
democratic party and of none other, from the be-
ginning hitherto. lie recited the struggles in his
own State for freedom of speech, of the press, for
the promotion of popular education, and exhibited
the slave power always resisting and generally
overbearing and crushing down by force or fraud
the rights of the masses. One right, that of free
speech has been indicated. Thanks. to bowie
knives and pistols, a man may speak some truth in
kentucky, if he has friends enough, and they we'll
enough armed, and resolute enough to intimidate
the Shareholders. (Applause.) The great part of
his speech was historical. He tainted the Demo-
Gratis with each Of the long, sad series Of aggressons
Of tho Slave Power, from the raid against the Sem
fnolos, which he truly said, was to reclaim fugitives,
and nothing else, to the Nebraska outrage of to-day,
and aftor n lucid account of each act, and the ex-
penso upon the National Treasury, he a0ked the
Democrats Of Iowa, why did you do iii" BE
cause said he, your masters and mine, the four
hundred thousand Shareholders, moro ~despotic and
more powerful than tho Autocrat of Russia, Ladc
you do it, and you dared not disobey them"
The questions now to be decided are,
Is slaeery national, to 60 wherever the L. S. flag
goes, to be protected and defended there by your
blood and treasure, as hold the four hundred thou
sand? Or,
Is freedom nationals: slavery the creature Of
local law? The latter view was advocated by Mr..
Clay. OF course, the Constitution and the Union
ut all hazards to be preserved by the instrumentality
of the L~alotGor, or if that won't do, the cartridge
Dor, for they are alike. lie cxhorted with great
feeling the fierce and untcrrifcd Democracy of Iowa,
TO como up to the help Of the weak against the
mighty. If you refuse to help us now, and by the
means thus indicated, the heel of the Slave Power
is Oh my neck, and yours, and those of cur chill
dren, and much more in the same strain.
The points of Mr.. Clay's discourse which elected
applause were, i'll almost every instance, where
aliusion was made to violence as the best and only
means of meeting the arrogance of the expressing
and insulting power.
His moro honied words were for the Wings. The
attendance was large, quiet and manly no clerical
face seen in the crowd. He goes next to Davenport,
Iowa. Ed.