Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1856-12-25
GBe qatIgg SPY,
DEFENSE OF raE REPUBLICAN PARTY.
SPEECH OF HON. HENRY WILSON
OF MASSACHUSETTS,
PRESID rs MESSAGE.
Delivered Dec. Is,h. ia the U. s. Senate.
(RepJted fer the Boston Traveller by their speciaCor
respondent at Washington.)

Mr.. President In the memorable debate
of $780, on Foote'S resolution, Mr.. Webster,
in that speech which won for him the proud
fame Of the ablest defender of the Censtitu.
ton, spoke of the ordinance of 1887 as mea.
sure of great foresight and wisdom, which had
laid the interdict against personal servitude
over the region northwest Of the Ohio while
it was yet wilderness, deeper than all local
laws or local constitutions. ave are accus-
toned" said he, "to praise the law-givers of
antiquity; we help to perpetuate the fame of
Scion and Lycurgus; but doubt whether
one single law of any law-giver, ancient or
modern, has produced effects of more distinct,
marked or lasting character than the ordinance
of 1881" This tribute to the browning work
of the old Congress of the Confederation
brought upon him and upon his section of the
Union, the accusation of making an onset
upon the South, of interfering with their do
nestle institutions; of ehdangering the rele-
ton of master and slave. Gen. Hayne, his
distinguished opponent, who fought then the
first great battle of Notification, under the
eye of his great leader, Mr.. Calhoun, who
then presided over the Senate, brought these
accusations into the Senate, and hurled them
against Mr.. Webster and against the people of
the North. Mr.. Webster met these accuse.
tons, these unjust approaches, with prompt
surprise that these should be brought into the
Senate, he said:
81 know full we'll that it Is, and has been,
the settled policy of some persons in the
South, for years, to represent the people of
the North as disposed to interfere with them
in their own exclusive and peculiar concerns.
When 1t became necessary, or was thought so
by some political persons, to find an encour-
aging ground for the exclusion of Northern
men from confidence and from lead in the af-
fairs of the. Republic, then, andJnot till then,
the cry was raised and the feeling industri.
ously exerted, that the influence of Northern
men in the public counsels would endanger
the relations of master and slave. This is
delicate and sensitive point in Southern feel /.
ing and of late years it has always been
touched, and generally with effect, whenever
the object has been to unite the South against
Northern men or Northern measures. This
feeling, always carefully kept alive, and main.
tanned at too intense a heat to admit discrimi-
nation or reflection, is lever of great power
| in our political machine. 1t moves vast bod
| les, and gives to them one and the same di-
rection. But il is without adeq uate cause
| and the suspicion which it excites is wholly
| groundles9. There is not. and never has been,
disposition in the North to interfere with
these interests of the South. Such interfer-
| enee has never been supposed to be within
| the power of the government; nor has it been
in any way attempted. The slavery of the
South has always been regarded as a matter of
domestic policy, left within the States them
selves, and with which the Federal govern
ment had nothing to do
The motive, Mr.. President, for these I'M
just accusations ''of some persons in the
South against people of the North, is here
already stated by Mr.. Webster. That motive
has continued to animate this class of persons
to this day. 1t is even now stronger than
when it prompted the arraignment of Mr..
Webster for his eulogium Of the Ordinance of
| 1857. The g sensitive point in Southern feel
ing" has been carefully kept alive sand
maintained at too intense a heat to admit dis
elimination or reflection" Nor were there
wanting in 1880, Northern men, to echo the
words and join in the cry against the people
Of the North. If Mr.. Webster. for simple
and beautiful tribute to tine benefcent effects
of the Ordinance of 1887, was assaulted on this
floor, in 1880, by one of the most accom-
plished statesmen of the South; if there were
found Northern men ready to echo his words,
surely the men who now vote to apply the
principle of that great ordinance to the vast
territorial possessions Of the Republic, cannot
hope to escape the misrepresentation, censure,
and reproach of Southern men who see in the
expansion of Freedom the signs of their wan
ing power, or of that class OF Northern men
who
t;rA bo5