Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1855-10-19
From the New York Evening Post.
Senator Stewards Plea for IA Republican
Party.


At the Albany meeting, Friday night, Sem
ator Seward made an elaborate speech, de-
signed to show that the country had been, for
twenty years, and still is, under the control of
a privileged class--the Shareholders. After
tracing the growth of their power, and reca-
pitulating the most intolerabIe excuses Of
which they have been guilty during the last
three or four administrations, he proceeds to
set forth his reasons for joining the Republi-
can party. We give this portion of his speech
entire as it is destined to have a more inpor-
tant bearing upon the politics of the country
than anything that has fallen from the Sena.
tors lips i'll long time
The change that has become at last so
necessary is as easy to be made as it is neces-
sary. The whole number of shareholders is
only $4,000, one hundreth part of the entire
population of the country. If you add their
parents, children, immediate relatives, and de-
pendents, they are two millions-one fifteenth
part of the American people. Slavery is not,
and never can be, perpetual. 1t will be over.
thrown, either peacefully and lawfully under
this constitution, or it will work the subver.
sion of the constitution together with its own
overthrow. Then the shareholders would per.
ish in the struggle. The change can now be
made without violence, and by the agency of
the ballot box. The temper of the nation is
just liberal, forbearins. 1t will contribute
any money and endure any sacrifice to effect
this great and important change indeed, it is
half made already. The House of Represen.
tatives is already yours, as it always must be
when you choose to have it. The Senate of
the United States is equally within your pow
er if you only will persistently for two years
to have it. Notwithstanding all the wrong
that has been done, not another slave State
can come into the Union. Make only year,
constant, decisive effort, and you can deter.
mine what States shall be admitted.
The will exists because the evil has become
lntolerable, and the necessity of a remedy is
universally acknowledged. What, then, is
wanted? Organization organization moth
ing but organization.
Shall we organizer Why not Can we
maintain the revolution SO auspciously begun
without organization Certainly not. Are
you apprehensive of failure because the revo-
luton is not everywhere and at all times
equally successful Was there ever revolu-
ton that was equally successful at all times
and everywhere? DO you say that you can
not abolish Slavery in the privileged States
We have no need, no purpose, no constitu-
tional power, no duty to do SO. Providence
has devolved that duty on others, and the Or
ganlc law leaves it wisely to them. We have
power to prevent the extension OF Slavery in
the territories of the Union, and that is
enough. Do you doubt that power? Did
not the statesmen of 1887 know the bounds of
constitutional powers Somebody has NUM-
cpal power on the unorganized territories in
the Union. Who is it, 1t is not any foreign
State. 1t is not any of the American States.
1t is not the people in the territories. 1t is
the Congress Of the whole United States, and
their power there is supreme.
Are you afraid that the privileged class will
not submit The privileged class are human
and they are wise. They know just as well
how to submit to just authority, firmly and
constitutionally exercised, as they do how to
extort unequal concessions by terror from
timid men. Can the privileged class live
without Union any better than you can -
They would not remain and wTangle with you
vn hour if they could do so. Can they ever
hope to obtain another Union so favorable to
them as this one, if this should be oyerthrowni
viii they destroy themselves, that they may
simply do harm TO you Did ever any privi-
legged class commit such absurd suicide us thisi
Are you alone the keepers of the Union -.
Have not the privileged class interests as great
to maintain in the Union, and are their OBJ
legations to maintain it different from your
own
How shall we organizes The OWL is q ma
tional one. The power, and the influence
and the organization Of the privileged class,
peryade all parts Of the Union. 1t knows no
North, 10 South, no East, noaWest. 1t is
stronger to-day on the Bay Of san Francisco
surrounded by freemon, than it is on the
Chesapeake Bay, surrounded by slaves. 1t is
not sectional, but national contest on which
we have entered. Our organization, there
fore, must BIO n national one. The means of