The Ohio star. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1830-1854, 1854-02-15
THE NEBRASKA BILL.

In SENArE-Monday, January 3oth. 1854.
% FIRST SPEECH OF MR. CHASE. @
Mr.. Douglass assailed the address to the peo-
pie, issued by Mr.. Chase. Mr.. Sumner aud 9th
thers and INDUCED in coarse and vulgar personal
tiles against Mr.. Chase, and endeavored to excite
abolition odium against him. After Mr..
Douglass had concluded, Mr.. Chase arose and
spoke follows:
Mr.. CHAsE-Mr. President, had some ipti-
nation. coming to the Senate Chamber thi, morn
ing. of the diatrbe which the Senator from Illinois
MIR. Douglass has now pronounced. / was
aware that an assault was to be made upon u.s.
WE'LL sir, the assault has been made. The Sena-
tor has paraded his battery he has fired his guns
we have heard the noise; we are in the midst of
the smoke; but nobody is hurt. We are still
here's we yet survive, and doubt not we shall
long survive all such attacks that which he has
now been pleased to make.
Mr.. President, the Senator firm Illinois charges
that the address, upon which he has been pleased
to comment in terms which befit any other place
than the Senate Chamber-however low that
place may be-was concected in what he chooses
to call an Abolition caucus. held upon Sunday.
Aye, sir, with a generosity peculiarly his own, he
has availed himself of a mere error of date, and
piously holds up to public reprobation the gentle
men who have signed that address as violating the
sacredness of the Sabbath day--that day for which
he cherishes, doubtless, peculiar reverence.
| And yet, at the very moment of making this
CHARGE he refutes it by another asserting that this
very appeal was printed in the New York Times,
and other New York papers, on the Monday
morning following that very Sunday. Did he not
know that it was impossible that the document
could have been prepared and signed here on Sun
day. and published in New York on Monday
morning
Well, sir. the Senator further charges that q
false statement has been put forth in connection
with this address. That false statement as he
alleges, was this that the appeal was signed by
majority of the members from the State of Ohio
He thinks chat the design was to catch some
.'soft footed Democrats" Soft footed Demo
Gratis J" Aye, that is the phrase by which hs
chooses to mark all Democrats who will vote
against this bill. l trust he will find that sucl
Democrats are little more numerous than ht
seems now to imagine. lido not know how many
there may be. I pass that. What have now
to deal with is the Senator's charge, and that
pronounce utterly groundless.
The simple facts are these: The appeal wa!
prepared upon consultation among the Indepen
dent Democrats who signed il. 1t was after
wards suggested that it should be signed by the
Senators and number of the Representative
from Ohio, and sent forth as an address to the
People of that State. 1t was signed by my col
league and myself, with that view; but some
alterations being required by certain Representa-
tives, which could not be made without inconveni
ent delay, it was determined to issue the docu
ment, with the signatures only of the gentlemen
by whom it was originated, and in the form origi
nally proposed, as an appeal to the whole country
This is the plain story. The address bears n,
signatures other than those of the Independent
"the Abolition confederates." By no one o
them was it ever represented to be otherwise
signed. Some gentlemen connected with th
press however, hearing of the purpose that
should be signed by more or less of the delegation
from Ohio, have sent it abroad with statemeu
that it was thus signed in fact. l have a note il
my hand, which the corresponding editor in thi
city of the .Ne,0 York Times has just sent m
from the reporters gallery, in which he state
how the mistaken statement went into that paper
will not trouble the Senate with the reading G
it, but will send it to the reporter, to be printe
with these remarks. My colleague is in his seat
and knows the truth of what speak,
! Mr.. WApE.-Mr. President, heard the 40
/ dress half read and, juding of its qual'ty oy u
sample, signed it. Judging it by thar Sample
and by what has been made known oy the eene
tor from Illinois, I now endorse every woio Oh !
for believe it is perfectly true and correct.
} was issued without my signature, for the reason
assigned by my colleague