The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-07-19
Reported for the National Era.
THE SLAVERY QUESTION,
In its Precise Relation to American Politics.
Speech deIr1ed before Sta Convention Indidndpol
BY THE HON. G. W. JULIAN.
tCoNTINUED.l

The spread of our principles is the grand
object; and this, | insist, can best be done by
steadily and infexibly prosecuting high aim,
and trusting in the power of an honest exam
pie to bring the people ultimately to our stand
ard. When we saw, as we thought, the Wing
and Democratic parties passing away, and
proudly felt that these great bulwarks Of Sla-
very, mainly through our agency, were at last
about to be overthrow, we should have re-
membered that their disintegratiOn is one thing.
and the organization of their fragments into a,
nvw party, upvu brv~d anu welI-dvGrvd Issues,
is quite different thing. We should have re-
membered, in the language Of Whittier, that
the waster is the builder too; :" and that if the
people were not ready to lay hold of our funda-
mental doctrines, we could not fuse with them,
but must uphold our standard as the only means
of drawing them to US, or towards us. We
should have maintained our ground, and beck
oned the people to come up and possess it. in
stead of meanly deserving it ourselves for some
narrow issue, and then vainly expecting them
to advance beyond it. Instead of dying as an
independent organization, we should only have
agreed to cease our separate work, on cOndi-
ton of being translated into larger move
ment, first committed to the essential articles
of our faith.
This, sir, has been the fatal error of Free
Democrats, especially here in the West. The
truth is, our party has been tainted with an IN
healthy element from the beginning. Some
rather suspicious characters officiated at its
birth and baptism at Buffalo, in lS48. We
then took into our embrace many who were as
alien to our principles as light is to darkness,
or as Native Americanism is to Anti-Slavery
| fear we were swayed then, as we have some
times been since, by a measure of that expedi
ency which we had condemned in the old par
ties We were animated as much, perhaps, by
a desire to have the multitude go with US, as
by an overmastering fidelity to our cherished
convictions. AS party, there is some reason
to apprehend that we have never been soundly
converted. We are too much inclined to wor
ship success, and we decidedly prefer that it
should be immediate. We are not plenarily in
spired with that earnest, alltrusting faith, that
becomes the genuine disciples of the truth, and
that even gathers strength as the opposition to
it Increases. Our zeal too often blazes forth
by spasmodic fits, without any steadfast
fervent heat within to sustain it. We easily
grow disheartened at our numerical weakness
and the forces arrayed against us, forgetting
that the real power of q party, justly consider
ed, lies not in the numbers it can muster, but
in the truth it teaches, and the loyalty with
which it maintains it. In overlooking this fact,
we are led into perpetual temptations, and
blinded to the faith of duty. We are induced
to oyerrate the value Of present success, and
thus to achieve it, if we can, by the unscrupu-
lous acts of the politician. The martyr spirit
dies out in our ranks and as we descend, step
by step, to the level of other parties, and ap-
parently enlist them on our side, we lose our
distinctive character as Anti-Slavery men, and
with it our power to serve the cause, and thus
find our weakness in that which we foolishly
mistook for our strength. BY narrowing the
issue we had made with Slavery, and incorpora-
ting the new principle of hostility to Catholics
and foreigners, our movement, IN the opinion
of some, has grown immensely in numerical
power by incorporating the kindred and equal
" orthodox principle of hatred towards negroes,
still larger numbers might be enlisted. But, in
the mean time, what would be the fate of the
Anti-Slavery enterprise? Sir, with parties as
with individuals it is character that constitutes
real strength; and this must often be obtained
by the sacrifice of popularity and present sue
cess. Who has not witnessed the power Of one
bold, honest man, in making an unpopular
cause respected, and putting thousand ene-
mics to fiight2
Character is everything 1t is priceless; and
if a man so regards it, if he is willing to sacri-
fee all temporal honors and advantages, even
life ITSELF on the altar of his fidelity, he gives to
the world a testimony that is worth more to the
cause he espouses than any temporary success
could possibly be, achieved by compromise of
his integrity. He shows forth an example that
will be an everything fountain of inspiration
and strength. The real benefactors of our race
have not been world -minded calculators, who
prudently adapted themselves to current opin-
ions or practices, but bold and independent
spirits, who braved every form of peril and suf
fering in unfolding lofty ideal Of duty. The
world bears witness that they have succeeded,
in the highest sense of the term, and that the
kind Of influence men exert in favor of a cause
is far more important than the quantity of it.
Had the Free Democracy been inAexibly true
to its best ideas, had it maintained position
of immovable frmness, like rock in the sea
bidding defiance to winds and waves, what a
glorious tribute it would thus have offered to
the cause of Freedoml 1 cannot pretend to
say what its numbers would now have been,
but know that such an example must have