The daily union. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1845-1857, 1855-10-23
SPEECH OF MR.. SEWARD, AT THE REPUBLICAN
MEETING At ALBANY ON THE 18th INSTANT.

MEETING AT ALBANY ON THE 18th INSTANT.
Hail 10 the capital of New York; Venerable for its
tiquity and yet distinguished for i1 loyalty 10 progress
liberty and Union. This capital is dear to II has
than sent abroad with honorable functions
and those adverse which have happened TO
me they happen to all representative men, II has
never failed receive at home again with sympathy
and kindness Douby honored be the banner OF the stars
and stripes which here takes its highest sgncance as
the halls where equal representatives make the
laws which regulate the lives OF equal freemen Honored
be the statue Of Justice that surounts the dome above m
Blind that she may not through either passion or peu
dice discriminate between the rich and the poor the Pro-
testat and Catholic the natiyeborn and the exotic the
freeman and him whose liberties have been cloyen down.
and weighing with exact balance the rights OF al classes
and all races of men. Old familiar echoes greet my
from beneath these embowered roothe voices OF the
pences of and Van Rensselaer, and Van Veghten,
OF the genial Tompkns OF Clinton the great and the elder
Clinton Of King and Hamilton, of Jay the pure and be-
nevoen and Schuyler the gallant and infexble The
air fingers around these arches brahes utterance of
moral SOCIAL and Of physical enterprise and OF unconquer
able freedom.
You, old tried familiar friends ask my counsel whether
to cling yet longer to traditional controversies aud to dis
solving parties, rise at to nober aims with
and energetic associations do not wonder your
suspense do censure caution or even midy Tickle
in political associations is weakness and precpitan-
cy in public action is crime Considered by ITSELF 1t is
unfortunate be obliged to separate from old party
and institute The may exhibit more
enthusiasm for time but il must also for time lack
heon and discipline The names OF parties generally
arbitrary and not at all indicative of their characters
purposes generous will, nevertheless cling, as If
lying cry for himself and his compatriots.
The great question before however is to be decided
by feeling but under the counses of and patr
osm 1t the last injunction given by the last OF
the revolutionary Congresses the American people,
TO forget that the of America had always been and
that it must continue to be- the of human
ure The question: them what is the 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 nalicnable rights Of all
men, and therefore necessarily became republic Other
governments founded the ancient principle of the inc
quality of men, by force of equal necessity,
ches arstocraces Whenever either of these kinds Of
governments loses by lapse Of time and change of circum
stances its elementary principle whether of equality or in
equality, thenceforward it takes rapid and irresistible
towards reorganization of the opposite kind No
one here elsewhere. is dsoyal his country
mankind as to be willing to republican system fail
Aagree thatn every and throughout all hazards arts
tocracy must be abhorred and avoided and republican in
situations must be defended and preserved.
Think it not strange or extravsgant when say that
arocraey has already arisen here and that it already
in any country where there privileged class and
special foundation which such class could permanent
~ stand On the contrary every State, however republic
can Its constitution be- is to become asoc
racy sooner or later if it has privileged class standing
rny ON an enduring special foundations and if that class
Is continually growing stronger and stronger and the un-
privileged classes continually growing weaker and weaker
1t is not at ell essential to privileged that II
on feudal tenures military command eccesiast
cal authority that its rights be hereditary that
ii be distinguished by titles honor 1t may be even the
more insdions and the dangerous for lacking all
these things because it will be less obnoxious to popular
hostility
privileged class has existed in this country from an
early period OF its settlement Shareholders constitute
that class They have special foundation which to
sand-namely personal dominion slaves Conscience
and sound policy forbid all men alike from holding slaves
but some citizens disregard the injunction Some of the
States enforce the inhibition other States neglect
y Sc 10 enforce It, In each of the States there three
hundred and fifty thousand citizens who avail themselves
OF this peculiar indulgence and those protected by the
laws Of these States constitute privileged class They
no rta phap
the system of slavery peculiar institution
The spirit of the revolutionary age was adverse tc that
privileged class America and Europe firmly engaged
then IN prosecuting what expected TO be speedy
pete and universal abolition Of African slavery Nearly
all the privileged classes admitted that slavery perma
nent system ndefcnsible, and favored s removal
They asked only what seemed by unreasonable
some securities against sudden RASH and violent reno
val OF the evil Under these circumstances the most
decided opponents OF slavery consented provisions
OF the federal constitution which inconsistent with
the stern logic OF equality that pervaded all its other parts
and peryaded the whole of the declaration of American
independence which the constitution itself based
We not to the fathers for these concessions
they had union Of the States create and to their ar
dent and minds the voluntary removal of slavery
by the action of the several States themselves without fed
hand.
These provisions of the constitution were
First That the foreign slave trade should not be abo
ished before 1903.
Second That any law regulation which any State
might establish in favor of freedom should not impair the
legal remedy then supposed to exist by common law for
-
lhe feeapture by legal in such State of gtye
irom labor or service escaping from other States.
Third That threcfhs of all slaves should be counted
an setting the basis Of representation in the several States
hese three concessions which in themselves very
limited and almost harmless all that the fathers
scionsly made to the privileged class.
but privileged CLASSES always know well how to improve
even any indirect advantages which the constitution
laws OF country Afford Such indirect advantages they
acquired from two other provisions of the constitution
ls that provision which makes the State authority indie
pendent and sovereign in municipal affairs slavery being
Understood TO be purely municipal in its nature That
provision which, out of tenderness the small States
gives pem representation in the Senate equal that of
the largest State Freedom builds great States; slavery
maltples small States, and dwarfs great ones.
Thus we see that the American Shareholders prvi-
ton and that they protected in their advantages by
the organic laws.
might show prtor that privileged class thus estab-
shed on an exceptional principle that wrong in itself
and antagonistc to the principle OF the
ernmen must necessarily be dangerous if it be suffered
expand and aggrondze ITSELF But nnhappily not
LEFT to the necessity of reSorng speculation
country during the reaction against revolutionary prn-
ciples which necessarily attended the reorganization Of
government; and it was set back still efectuay by
the CONSERVATION which followed the disastrous failure of
the ist republic in France The privileged promptly
awaited themselves of the advantages which the cons-
ton afforded to forty themselves in the federal govern
men The federal acts directed against tho privileged
class were the abolition OF the foreign slave trade aer
1908 aud the eternal prohibition OF slavery in the broad
bank OF the Ohio to the eastern shore of the Mississippi
Even the passage Of that ordinance was by its silence
sumed to imply right the part of the privileged class
TO coionlze with slaves the region lying Ohio