Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1855-07-27
From the Kentucky Statesman, July 1O.l
Son of Henry Clay on the Stump.

were in the city 1t had previously been announced
that Mr.. James B. Beck one of the most distinguish
ed and able lawyers in our city, and MI James b.
Clay, son of the Sage of Ashland, and owner of the
old family seat would address the people On the po
l,ical topics of the day. There great anxiety to
hear both gentlemen, and at the appointed hour the
court house was filled to overlooking.
Mr.. Beck spoke first He has always been whig,
though a man of ndepenG ent thought and action.
He spoke for two hours, and made one OF the most
able and efficient arguments against Know Nothing
ism that we have listened 10 during the present con-
test.
His speech, throughout, was powerful, argumenta-
tive, convincing, conclusive, and told with tremen
dOus effect upon his audience.
The next gentleman who took the stand was Mr..
James B Clay who, have already remarked,
the of the great statesman, and has succee led
to the paternal estate OF Ashland.
Mr.. Clay said that this was his first effort at
public speech, and nothing less than the profound
interest which he felt in the great questions at issue,
could induce him to appear on this occasion. Never
before had such extraordinary such alarming, such
novel questions been presented for the political con-
sideration of the American people. His apprehen-
sions aroused in view of them, and he sometimes
trembed for the fate Of his country. The idea that
this government to be taken into the keeping of
a secret, political, oath bound organization, which
set up unconstitutional .oaths, and the members
of which bound to each other by the most terri
bic obligations, was 10 him most alarming, and
should in his judgment, arouse the apprehensons of
every patriotic in the whole country.
Mr. Clay denied that the platform put forth by the
late Know Nothing convention at Philadelphia, was
the real platform of the party-party did call them,
said he; no, they not party in any proper &C.
ceptation of the term Parties have heretofore been
open, public and above board but this is a secret
oath bound, political organization which is seeking
after the political power of the country, by ways and
unknown to the law, and in pal pabe diregard
of the long establshed usages of the people and the
history of the government 1t sought political pow
er, not by open and fair means, but by plot
tings, by cabalistc pass words, by signs and grls
unknown to the people at large, and in palpable vo
lation of the whole spirit and genius of the govern
ment.
No, said he, the true platform of this extraordinary
organization is to be found in their oaths and ritual
There were to be found the things which they were
sworn 10 do and to carry OUT and looking into these
oaths and the ritual he found that their objects were
to strike at the citizens of foreign birth, the imm
grants from other countries, to distranchse, degrade
and disgrace them, by deprving them not only Of
the right Americanze themselves, but cutting them
off from the rights of hospitality and humanity
They also sought to distranchise and degrade anoth
er class OF our citizens, whether natve-born or for
eign. on account of their religious opinions in plain
violation of the constitution of the country, and
CARELESS of the plainest dictates of justice and hui
manity.
Mr.. Clay said that. rather than submit any ex-
tended remarks of his on these Subjects he had
chosen to collate the expressed and authentic opn-
ions of the old fathers of the republic and he read
extensively from the writings of Washington, of JEFF
ferson, of Madison, OF Jackson, of Quincy and of
others.
He concluded his happy effort BY saying that,
though the old whig party, with which he had al
ways acted, broken and dispersed, yet he ap-
reared there as one of the old rear guard of that
once powerful and great party and in that capacity
he protested against this new secret organizations
fraugh, with danger TO his country and its liberties
and he called upon all the old liners of the wing par
ty to join HIM in the protest.
Grafton of Edward Everett.
Edward Everett made fine Grafton at Dorchester,
in Massachusetts, the last anniversary of the 4h
Of July, 1rTo MANY or lts passages are Of UuHl-
handing eloquence one or two seem powerfully ap.
plicable to existing combinations and parties, while
others grossly unjus to the Mssourians. The
following is surprisingly fine:
On the 10Th of April the all-important blow was
struck-the blow which severed the faed chain whose
every link was boted by an act of Parliament, whose
every rivet closed up by order in council
which bound to the wake of Europe the brave bark
of youthful fortune destined henceorth and for.
ever to ride the waves aOne-the blow which sever
ed that fated chain struck The blow was struck
which will be felt in its consequences to ourselves
and the family of nations till the seventh seal is bro
ken upon the apocayptic volume of the history Of
empires The consummaon of four centuries was
completed. Tie lifelong hopes, the hear-sick visions
of Columbus poorly fulfilled in the ubiugation Of
the plumed tribes of few tropical islands, and the
distant glimpse of a continent, cruelty Knocked by
the letters placed upon his noble limbs by his own
mental. and which he carried with him into his grave
are at length more than fulfilled, whom the New
World OF his discovery put on the sovereign robes Of
her separate national existence and joined the great
panathenac procession of the natl ons. The wrong;
of generations redressed. The cup of humilia
/ tion drain IN fha nv old Dfec
and non. conformist victims of oppression oah
some prisons-.blasted fortunes--ips forbidden t.
open prayer-earth and water denied in their pleas
ant native and-the separations and SORROWS of exile
the sounding perils of the oceanthe scented hedge
gerows and vocal thckes of the old countrie ex
i changed for painless wilde mess ringing with TIT
war-whoop and cleaning with the scalping- knife
the secular insolence of colonial rule checked by
periodical recurrence 10 the public will-governor
appointed on the other side of the globe that knew
not Joseph-the patronizing disdain of undeIegate'
power-the legal contumely of foreign law, wantin.
the first element of obligation, the consent of tn
governed expressed by his authorized Representative
and at length the last unuterable and burning af
front and shame, mercenary soidlery encamped up
on the fair emlnences of our cities-ships- of wal
with springs their cables, moored in front of GU
crowded quays-artillery planted open-mouthed il
our prnc pal streets, at the doors of our houses
assembly their morning and evening salvos proclaim
ing 10 the rising and setting that the sub
jects and they the lords all these hideous phantom
of the long colonial night swept off by the first shar
volley on Lexington green.
J, 'WeIl might Samuel Adams exclaim, as he hear
D it ooh, what glorious morning is thisn glorious
: but is too often the case, with human glories
the germ and the fruit of sorrow, sancted with tear
i and sealed with blood Precious lives to be sac
rIfced great trals-public and private-to be endu
f red; eight years OF to desoate the land pa
: trot armies are to march with bloody feet over ice
" clad fields; a cloud of anxiety must hang over tn