Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1855-08-30


briefly state |, Hon. s. p Chase was intr
duced to the audience by John G. Groom, Esq.
and was warmly welcomed.
HON. s. p. CHASE'S SPEECH.
Mr. Chase. after happy allusion to the
Kind manner in which his appearance wGs
welcomed, said that in the South, where won.
derlul developments OF nature and freaks
sometimes beside natural ones, there was
once negro baby horn with strange bumps
on its head, and with cloven feet and other
monstrosities, 50, perhaps, they had expected
to see some SUI h wonder to-day, for he had
been called woody head an ubolitionistssnd
every thing that was monstrous and repnl.
sye. They could now look at him and see
If his personal appearance gave any counte.
nance to any of these ISLANDERS.
He stood before them the representative oi
a platform of principles formed by Conven.
ton as fair. as honest, MS open and candid as
any that ever assembled in Ohio, and that
Convention had full opportunity to know his
history and his principles. But these were
not ISLANDERS against me so much as again
their cause. He stood there that dav precise.
( ly where Jefferson and Madison an. Wash
ngton stood in the days that tried mems souls
and before it he'd become reproach in Amer.
lea to be lover OF freedom.
[ In regard to the Constitution of the Uni
ted States in no respect, either by word or act
would he trench upon any Of its provisions,
| In regard to this great Union, of which
Ohio was so distinguished IN tmber, he had
civ ays felt that if there was anv one thing
great and magnificent above others,and which
promised glorious results, it was the contn-
uance of that Union. He felt as he had said
! in the Senate, that we were in the habit OF
| looking at it as at the buc arch of the
Heavens--as something that never could de-
cay or fall. He believed no parricidal hand
would ever be found in Ohio, raised sfor its
destruction. He desired that it should con-
! tinue forever the guardian of our domestic re-
! pose, and that it should, with the powers del
egated by the Constitution remain to accom-
pish the great purposes for which it was
formed-should endure for the perpetuity and
Advancement OF human liberty.
| These were his general principles, but they
desired at this time something more particu-
lar. He would give it.
The Convention by which he was nomn-
ated had declared its opposition to the exten.
sion of slavery 1t desired to prevent
the admission Of more slave States, and thus
arres. the increase Of the slave power. On
this question this was all he had to ask. The
territory outside the limits of the present
slave States was all he proposed to interfere
with. ---...
| Within the limits every State has the or
dering of its domestic institutions as it might
see fit We had no control over the people
of Kentucky in this respect. If they chose
to have slavery ana we thought it wrong, we
had a right to think so and to say so, but no
more right to interfere with it than with their
laws for the establishment Of State Banks or
any other State laws. ...
The platform on which he stood, was this,
"that slavery was local in its character and
dependant on the municipal laT Of the country
where it was established" This was the
language OF Judge Mclean, Hewa no admi-
rer of the insiitution-he had never known
| but few who we're. He held that outside the
State limit there was no power to establish
slavery. That its establishment there, was
q wrong, especial, in the territory, free by
our laws and by the laws of the county from
which it was obtained
He then read from book printed in 1898.
extracts from the speeches of Mr. Pinckney
the lawyer, orator senator and ambassador
of his day--delivered in the Legislature OF
Maryla One OF these extracts enumora-
ting the evil of slavery and the Inconsistency
Of retaining it in Maryland, closed with the
sentence; Elm the name of God, should we
not attempt to wipe away this stgmap-
He reads from Mr.. Pinckney's speeches, be-
cause he gave voice to the sentiments of the
great men of his time, of Henry, OF Jefferson
of Washington. Another of these extracts
was: "Wherefore should we confine censurf
to our ancestOrs--,hey scattered the seed o
slavery--we promote its grOwtl-we enlarge
invigorate and confirm it," Jefferson hat
said there was nothing so "denr to his hear
as universal emancipation" These were thu
sentiments OF the people at that time--th'
A ling period Now see the fruit that ha
been brought forth
He then alluded to Mr. Jei1erson's plan 70
excluding slavery from all the territories
Mr.. Jefferson's had been thought to be ina
OF some sense, although On thia great subject
the Democracy of orr day differed with him
yet he believed it possible, that postert
might after all pronounce Mr.. Jefferson, a
great n man, as Franklin Pierce or Stephe
A. Douglas.
This plan of Mr.. Jefferson. had a majorit
oftwo or one, OF the states represented, an
three to one of the delegates present, br
failed because it could not comply with tn
s. constitutional provision, which required IA
the States to be represented. If an abser
member from New Jersey, had been PreSel
= on that day the subject of slavery would hav
G, been settled forever.
. Three years after when convention mi
to frame a Constitution, the Slave States d.
manded some security. that the question
slavery within their limits, should be left
r. themselves. They demanded this guarantt
because they felt that without it, Congre
" would pass general act for the abolitipn
ri slavery and that Virginia might not be reat
l. FOR emancipation, as soon as Maryla I'd. oI
ed South Carolir not as soon as Virginia, ,hcr