The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-11-08

ry shall not be extended or permitted in any
Territory outside of slave States. None among
us would change any constitutional right or
privilege now belonging to State allowing
Slavery within its limits; but we insist that no
such right or privilege shall be abused, to the
subversion of liberty in free States. Ohio Free
dom toiU not interfere ieih Kentucky Stare
Ty-Rentucky Stdrery must not interfere Icih
Ohio Freedom. Earnest applause.
If this be Abolitionism, then Washington,
Jefferson, Henry, Madison, Adams, Franklin,
aud a great host of patriots, of names only less
conspicuous than these, were Abolitionists. All
these illustrious men hated Slavery. Most of
them have left on record, to be transmitted from
generation to generation, their stern condem-
nation of the system. All of them longed for
the coming time in which the whole land should
be delivered by the constitutional action of the
National and State Governments, from this its
greatest curse. Where they stood, / stand
! What they felt, feel. What they abored to
accomplish, ] labor-but oh with what dispro-
! portionate energy aud ability-to accomplish
In the methods and by the rules also which
they observed, J aim 10 act-uot seeking or
expecting to interfere by national legislation,
or by the Legislation of any free State, with the
internal affairs of any slave State; but firmly
resolved to "resist the spread of Slavery" to
"oppose its existence in any national territory"
and to oppose also "the further increase of
slave Territory or slave States in this Repubi-
can Confederacy."
If this be Abolitionism, who Of you is not
an Abolitionist? But We well'know that the
charge of Abolitionism is always intended to
convey more than this. 1t is always designed
to impute rash, headlong zeal to get rid Of Sla.
very, by whatever means, fair or unfair, with
out regard to the Constitution, without respect
to the rights of the States, and in contempt OF
our obligations to the Union. In this sense,
certainly am not, and | think that none OF YOU,
my fellow-citizens, are Abolitionists. When,
therefore, you hear such a charge made against
me hereafter, treat it, beseech you, with the
contempt it merits.
REPUBLICANISM AND FUSION.
For myself owe no allegiance to any other
than the Republican organization. / am not q
member OF any other. | prescribe no man.
The rights of all my fellow-ctizens, native or
naturalized, are as dear to me as my own For
my associates on the State ticket dare voucb
also that they are governed by no narrow or
proscriptive ideas. Some of them-perhaps all
of them-are members of the American organ
ization, but they represent not the bigoted and
proscriptive spirit which can see no worth even
in any man born upon foreign SOIL and whose
| through
violence and bloodshed; but that liberal Amer
icanism, which makes principles and character
and not birthplace, the test of qualification for
citizenship, and which proposes to accord free
ly to all, wherever born, who are in heart Amer
leans, all the privileges of American citizens
| Whether | am mistaken is this or not, in one
thing / cannot be mistaken. The Americans
whom these gentlemen represent do at this mo-
ment unite in regarding Freedom and Reform
as the paramount objects Of political action at
this moment, and they do join with all who
outside of their organization, are willing to Join
with them in the attainment of these objects
IL IS not, am sure, an unreasonable expecta-
ton that men animated by such a spirit will so
revise their declaration of principles and policy
as to leave in them nothing Justly obnoxious 10
the charge OF proscriptiveness or intolerance
Let as unite now for the great objects of our
union, and generously and fearlessly trust the
future.
But what are our opponents, who denounce
us as Fusionists-who seek to hold us respon.
sible for the destruction of the ballot-boxes al
Cincinnati, and for the bloodshed at Louisville
who hurl at their fellow citizens throughout the
States such epithets as darklantern conspira
tors, midnight assassins, murderers of women
and children-what are they doing? Have
they not pet fusion Of their own? What says
the Cincinnati Enquirer, the principal Admin
istration paper of Southern Ohio, edited by the
United States Marshal for the Southern Dis
trict? Here is passage which find credited
: as doubt not correctly, to that print:
1.-THE Democrats en- nasse, the Old Line
Wings, the National Know Nothings, and Union.
loving men, will combine in one great mass
forgetting all distinction when the Union is in
danger, and, from the Ohio river to the great
Lakes, will charge Abolitionism with vigor and
spirit that will be irresistible and lead TO bril-
liant and annihilating victory"
This looks very much like fusion; and a
fusion, too, of most remarkable character
Democrats, Wings, and Know Nothings, are to
" combine" That great master Of language
Edmund Burke once said, "When bad men
combine, good men should unite" / do not
say that those VINO, according to the ERquirer
"will combine are bad men, but certainly the
editor is not very felicitous in Lis choice of ex
pressions. Then, what is the object Of the com
bination? 1t is to "charge Aboltionism. .
BY "Abolitionism," they mean Republicanism.
1t is to resist the union of the people for the
sake of Freedom, that the Democrats are to
combine with the Old Line Wings and Nation
al Know Nothings. Now, who are the Old
Line Wings? Why, those Wings who, unmind-
ful of the ideas of l776, and careless of the
great objects of the movement Of the people,
prefer to give aid and comfort to the party of
the Administration, rather than unite with The
great mass of their patriotic Wing brethren
upon the platform and in support Of the ticket
of the 18th July! Why, those members of the
American organization who prove by their ac-
ton that they prefer the triumph of the bitter
est foes aud most vehement denouncers Of the
Order, rather than the election Of a man who
stands shoulder to shoulder with nine-tenths of
its members in defence of its own declared prin-
ciple, that Freedom is national, and Slavery
local." Now, what is the bond of such a com
bination as this? What can it be but hostility
to the cardinal principle of the Republican
Union-resistance to the spread Of Slavery, and
| opposition to the aggressions of the Slave
Power? And in what an attitude DO the Ad-
ministraton advocates of such combination
present themselves to the people2 In the same
breath, almost, they call upon the naturalized
voters to come to the rescue Of Democracy
against the Know Nothings, and upon the Know
Nothings themselves-or rather upon the Pro
Slavery Know Nothings-the very men and the
only men in the American Order who insist on
the prescription of the foreign-born citizens,
and who, if anybody, are responsible for the
very violences which the Administration men
denounce-to come to the rescue of Democracy
against Republicanism! What wonderful con-