The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1855-10-27
Speech of Gov. Seward,
AT THE REPUBLICAN MEETING AT ALBANY,
T ON FRIDAY EVENING. OCTOBER IL.

ON FRIDAY EVENING. OCTOBER IL.
Hail to the capital of New York! Nener-
able for its antiquity, and yet distinguished
for its loyalty to Progress, Liberty and
Union. This capital is dear to me. 1t has
more than once sent NE abroad with honor
able functions, and even in those adverse sea-
sons which have happened to me, as they
must happen to all representative men, 1t has
never failed to receive me at home again with
sympathy and kindness. DOubly honOred
lie the banner of the stars and stripes which
here takes on its highest significance as It
waves over the halls where equal represen-
tatives make the laws which regulate the
lives of equal freemen. Honored be the
statue OF Justice that surmounts the dome
above us! Blind. that she may not through
either passion or prejudice discriminate be-
tween the rich and the poor, the protestant
and the catholic the native-borh and the
exotic, the freeman and him whose liberties
have been cloven down, and weighing with
exact balance the rights of all classes and all
races of men. Old familiar echoes greet my
ear from beneath these uncovered roofs
The voices of Spencers, of Kent and Van
Rensselaer, and Van Veghten, of the genial
Tompkins, of Clinton the great and the elder
Clinton, Of King and Hamilton, of Jay the
pure ard benevolent, and Schuyler, the gal
liant and inflexible The very air that lin
gers around these arches breathes utterances
of moral, social and physical enterprise and
of unconquerable freedom.
You, old, tried, familiar friends ask my
counsel whether to clii.g yet longer to tradi-
t;onal controversies and to dissOlNihg parties,
or to rise at once to nobler aims and with
new and more energetic associations! 1 do
not wonder at your suspense, nor do cen
sure caution or even timidity. Fickleness
in political associations is a weakness, and
precipitancy in public action is a crime. Con-
sidered by itself it is unfortunate to be Oh
liged to separate from an old party and to
institute a new one. The new one may ex-
hibit more enthusiasm fora while but it must
also for time lack cohesion and discipline.
The names of parties are generally arbitrary
and not at all indicative of their characters
or purposes. A generous man will, never
shesess, cling, as if it were family altar, to
himself and his compatriots.
The great question before lis, however, is
to be decided hot by feeling, but under the
counsels of reason and patriotism. 1t was
the last injunction given by the last one of
tHC COuS1CScCS W CilC AiICIlNdl
people, never to forget that the cause of
ever continue to be the caMse cf human ma
turc. The question then is, what is the
course dictated to us by our love Of country
and of humanity
The nation was founded on the simple and
practically new principle of the equal and
inalienable rights of all men, and therefore
it necessarily became republic. Other gov
crnments, founded on tie ancient principle
of the inequality of men, arc by force of an
equal necessity monarchies or ar'istocracics.
| Whenever either of these kinds of govern
ments loses by lapse of time and change of
circumstances its elementary principle, whe-
Their of equality or inequality, thenceforward
it takes rapid and irresistible course to-
ward reorganization of the opposite kind.
No one here or elsewhere is so disloyal to
his country or tie mankind as to he willing
to sec cur republican system fall All agree
, that in csery case and tslco,lghoutall hazards
aristoc.rcy must te ;.hho:ied and avoided,
and republican institutions must be defended
and preserved.
| Think it not strange Or cXtfayaeant when
/ | say that an aristocracy has already arisen
! here, and that it is already undermining the
! III
any country where there was no privileged
class and TO special foundation Oh which
s,mh class could permanently stand Oh
! the contrary, livery state. Ecwevcr Repuhl;-
can its Constitution ,nay be, is sure to be-
come IN arisioc,s,.y sooner or later, if it has
a privileged class standing FIRMLY on an en-
during special foundation and if that class
is continually growing stronger and stronger,
and the unprivileged classes continually
growing weaker and weaker, it is not at all
essential to privileged class that it fest o.,
feudal tenures, or on military command, or
on ecclesiastical authority, or that its rights
be hereditary, or even that it be distinguish
ed by titles of honor. 1t may be eSen the
more insidious and the more dangerous for
lacking all these things, because it will be
less obnoxious to popular hostility.
A privileged class has existed in this coun-
try from an early period of its settlement.
Shareholders constitute that class. They
have special foundation on which to stand.
namely, personal dominion over slaves. Con-
science and sound policy forbid all men alike
from holding slaves, but some citizens disre-
gard the injunction. Some of the States en-
force the inhibition; other States neglect or
refuse to enforce it. In each of the States
there are three hundred and fifty thousand
citizens who avail themselves of this pecu-
liar indulgence, and those protected by tie
laws of these States constitute a 1rvileged
Class. They confess themselves to be such
class when they designate tie system of
Slavery as Il peculiar institution.
! The spirit Of the revolutionary age was
adverse to that privileged class. America
and Europe were firmly engaged then in pro-
scouting what was expected to be speedy,
complete and universal abolition of African
Slavery. Nearly all tie privileged classes
admitted that Slavery as d permanent system
was indefensible, aid favored its removal.
They asked only what seemed by no means
unreasonable, some securities against a sud-
den, rash and violent removal of the evil.
Under these circumstances even the most
decided opponents of Slavery consented to
some provisions of the Federal constitution,
which were inconsistent with the stern logic
of equality that pervaded all its other parts,
and pervaded the whole of the Declaration
Of American Independence, on which the
Constitution itself was based. We are not
to censure the fathers for these concessions !;
they had a union of the States to create, and
to their ardent and generous minds the vol
untary removal of Slavery by the action of
the several States themselves, without federal
interference seemed not only certain but
close at hand.
These provisions Of the Constitution were.
Frst-That that the foreign slavc-trade