Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1856-12-15

hon. JOSHUA R. CIDDINGS.
Del.rsssd in the House Of Representatives. Of the
United states Dec. 10, 1856
THE question being on the adoption of resolution
p5irt fifteen thousand copies Of the Presidents Msssage
Mr.. Giddings-Mr. Speaker One thing
is established by our current political history,
that is, that we are destined to continue the
agitation of the great question which, accord
ing to all past annals, has agitated the world.
The rights of man are still the themes of dis
eussiou. From the time when the barons of
England, under King John, at the point of the
sword, extorted from the British Crown con-
cessions to the rights OF the people, that ques-
ton has continued to occupy the attention of
their descendants. When our American faith
ers felt the hand of oppression; when they
saw that injustice was done to these thirteen
colonies when those colonies united i'll re-
sistance to the enforcement of British power
when Americans met Englishmen upon the
fields of Lexington, and Concord, and Bun
ker Hill; when American and British blood
flowed together upon those fields, the civiliz-
ed world, the Christian world, demanded the
cause why men, believing in the same reli-
gion, speaking the same language, trusting in
the same God, we've thus butehering each 9th.
er upon those fields of bloody conflict TWAS
a pertinent inqury-one which the Cont.
mental Congress held to be important. Then
South Carolina and Massachusetts, Georgia
and Connecticut, counselled together, and
made answer with united voice.
The reason for their going into that seven
years struggle was placed i'll letters Of living
light before the world, written by the inspired
pen of Jefferson. Is the member from South
Carolina Mr.. Keittl who has just resumed
his seat-prepared to stand by the solemn de-
clai atoms made OH that suspicious occasion
The Republican party have responded TO this
question; they have re-stirIned those prin-
ciples, the great, the immortal, the heaven
born truths then proclaimed, that all men are.
by their Creator, endowed with certain mali
enable rghts-among which are lie, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. These rights
came from our Creator, not from the Presi-
dent, nor from Congress, but from the Om-
nipotent mind. On this great undying pin
ciple they based their vindicaton before the
civilized world. Is the member from South
Carolina ready to stand by them If he is
not present, ask any member of the Demo-
cratic party, North or South, whether that
party is ready to stand by these doctrines?
pause for an answer. l hear no reply. But,
sir, such is the response which l always get
TO my well defined interrogatories. Men from
the South unequivocally deny this truth =
in the affirmative. There they sit. If they
were to answer in the negative, they would
be cast off by their constituents if in the al
hrmatiye, they will be Iepudiated by the
South. Thus they vibrate between heaven
and hell, uncertain in which they will land.
Laughter. From my soul IL pity them
pity any man who dares not avow honestly
the sentiments which God has implanted in
his bosom.
The self evident truth that all men are Gre
ated with the inalienable right to life, liberty,
and the pursuit Of happiness, was, in the 9TH
er wing of the Capitol, by leading member
OF that party, pronounced to be i" self ecident
Ae." There the members of the Democratic
party sit in silence, giving their tacit consent
to the correctness of this sentiment, which
regard as nothing less than libel upon those
patriot fathers around whose names the glo-
rlous recollections of our early history now
cluster. In this Hall we had, during the last
session, long argument from the gentleman
from Geogia Mr.. Stephens), TO the effect that
Slavery was an institution sanctioned of Heav-
en-, and established by the Almighty. Abra-
ham was referred to as the manifestation of
the wih of God, and declared 10 be slave
holder and slave-dealer. At the same time
another distinguished individual was pro.
claiming in the Far West, among the noun
.ei'ts VI OeoeiSt. uha' poiySaihy was aiso an
institution OF God Brigham Young, with
his rehnue OF threescore wives, vindicated his
doctrines by precisely the same arguments:
lie referred to Abraham also. Both ne ana
the gentleman from Georgia with crest gusto
appealed to the civilized world, saying, "Have
we not Abraham to our father!' (Laughter')
II Abraham be good authority in one case he
ought to be in the other.
refer to this point now to show that the
gentlemen from Georgia insists that God he's
endowed the Shareholder with the right to
held ms feliowmen in degrading bondage
that he has consigned one portion OF man
KIND to painful servitude instead OF liberty.
Our fathers. in the Declaration OF indie
pendenee, laid down their doctrines so plain
that the wayfaring man cannot err therein
They having asserted the right of all men to
life, liberty aud happiness, the trainers of the
Constitution took up the subject where the pa.
tnots Of '76 left it, and ordained in the most
explicit language that ''no persen shall be de-
prived of life, liberty or property, without due
process of law" They intended to secure
every individual under Federal jurisdiction in
the rights proclaimed in the Declaration of
Independence. There was no exemption OF
colored men. They SAID alt men, embracing