Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1856-05-28
AN ELOQUENT EXTRACT.
Yours, for humanity,
Aunt NANCY.

AN ELOQUENT EXTRACT.
Theodore Parker delivered an address
before the n. Y. American Anti Slavery
Society in the city of New York on the
9Th inst, on the pressnt crisis IN Anleri-
can Political ofairs-tLe ,rar of CAPITA
against la5Or-the attempts to ROB HE toork
ing millions faH share in tile public lands
Mr.. Parker's address closed thus:
Three hundred years ago our father.
in Europe were contending for liberty
Then it was freedom of conscience
which the progressive force of the peo
pie demanded. julius the Third Lad
just been Pope-who gave the Cardinal
ship vacated at his election TO the keep
er of his monkeys-and Paul w. sat il
his stead in st. Peters chair, and rep
resented in general for all Europe tn,
regressive power, while bloody Mary
and bloodier Philip sat on England,
thtone, and melted thereto by the Pom
tiff, smo.e at the rights of man. Tive
hundred years ago our fathers in the tive
Englands-Old and New-did grim bat
ting against monarchic despotism; on,
Charles slept in his bloody grave, anoth
er wandered through the elegant de,
baucherieS of the Continent, while Crom.
well and Milton made liberal England
abidingly famous and happy. One hun.
dred years ago other great battling fol
the rights of man was being begun. All
me! the strife is not ended. The ques.
ton laid ovet by our fathers is adjourned
10 US for settlement. 1t is the old ques.
liUn between the substance of man and
his accidents-labor and capital, the
people and class.
Shall the 350,OO0 shareholders own
all the 100000 square miles of terri
tory not yet made States, and drive all
Northern men away from it? or shall 1t
belong to the People? Shall this vast
area be like Arkansas and South Caro-
linia, or like Michigan and Connecticut?
That is the immediate question.
Shall Slavery spread over all the Uni
ted States and root out Freedom from
the land; or shall Freedom spread wide
her blessed boughs till the whole conf
nent is fed by her fruit, and lodged be
meath her arms, her very leaves for the
healing of the nations? That is the uL-
rIMATE question.
Now, it is for America to choose be-
tween these two alternatives, and choose
quick. For America? No, for the
North. You and 1 are to decide this
mighty question. take it the Anglo
Saxon will not forego his ethnologic in
stinct for Freedom and the historic habit
Of two thousand years; he will progress
ively tend to Christianity and Democra-
ey. He will put Slavery down, peacably
il he can, forcibly if he must.
We may now end this crime against
humanity by ballots; wait little, and
'nlY with sword and blood can this deep
and widening blot of shame be secured
put from the Continent. No election
since that first and unopposed Of Wash
ngton, has been SO important to Ameri-
n as this how before US. Once the ma.
ion chose between Aaron Burr and
Thomas Jefferson. When the cLoice is
Slavery and Freedom. will the
North choose wrong! Any railroad COM
oany may by accident elect knave for
but when he has been convic-
I'd for squandering their substance on
himself, and blowing up their engines,
lay, destroying their sons and daughters,
will the stockholders choose the swindler
brewer?
1 think we shall put slavery down 1
ave small doubt of that. But shall we
% it now and without tumult, or by and
y, with dreadful revelation, st. Do
,ingo massacres and the ghastly works
{ war
Shall America decide for wiekedness,
xtend the duk places of the earth, FILL $
up fuller with the habitations Of cru S
lty p? Then our ruin is certain--is also {
lst. The power of self rule which we |
re not fit for. will pass from our hands, i
nd the halter of vengeance will gripe |
ur neck, and America will lie there on |
he shore of the sea, one other victim c
Tho fell as the fool dieth. What ruin 7
would be? Come sway-I cannot