The Washington union., 1857-06-12
SPEECH OF DIR. w. f. sHERRoD,
on INDIANA,
Dsliesrod al Fesoasle, Va, Nay IL, 1851
rHF NAnoNAL pEMoCRACY.

friendly that have been and forever will be- dgueT
reotyped upon the most pleasant memories OF my HE
There were Others too dear alike TO yon and 10 me- for
whom the eye seeks in vain among your gathering multi
tudes and the Joy Of this reunion is mingled with
vocele for the dead The cares and pleasures OF
boyhood come crowdng back upon me the voices 70
which my heart was won't echo heard again and
it almost though l had bridged the gull OF
yearsas though | had come out OF the busy present.
and stood communng with the mighty past. IL Is well
for the word-weary wanderer to pause awhile in such
resting place it is well for that sometimes
able to turn from the dusty highways of experience and
toll into the owery gardens Of youth and happiness
have been pilgrim of many journeys, and crusader OF
many enterprises but let my presence and my pride to-
day be my best evidence that | have carried with me
the most grateful recollccons OF this place and OF this
people.
At this moment ali feelings are tempered, and all
thoughts subdued He who could at such a time
permit himself TO be swayed by political enmities would
be less than human Perhaps, then, il is fitting
sion to discharge in calm and conscientious manner
calm, conscientious duty As returned solderamong
his comrades, democrat among democrats, man
among Haa, will speak to you.
The hot rush of the is over the marches and
eounteachcs of opposing parties have ceased for four
years the Union is safe. How these four years be
better employed than in correcting the evils OF the past
and strengthening the defenees of the futurei
have come to you from the battle and triumph Of de-
mocracy in the Northwest The supporters of that
SCARED with honorable wounds, but they have left
behind them unblemished record. Never their
backs turned TO the foe You at the South have but
a faint conception of the dangers through which the
northern democracy passed of the opposition against
which it struggled.
Never from the time of the Hartford Convention and
the days of the alien and sedton laws there creed
foul in its construction horrible in its e
fects than that of the back-repubcan faction. Abo
tionism had assumed name and had accepted the
decayed and putrid elements of all old parties The
Territories of the Union afforded tempting pretext
Black republcanism did something than appeal
to the antislayey sentiment of the North it operated
upon the selfish feelings of the masses 1t said TO them:
uhn fiti thippt
pestiental air of factories and workshopsor you who
throw away your labor and your lives in the culture of
ungratefu fields, behold how beautiful these west
em Territories-behold their fertility and their bound
less How well adapted they to your
wants Why is it that the government does not give
them to YOU and to your children Why they not
dedicated forever to free labor Ii is because there
lists at the South oligarchy and arstocracy, that
seeks to wret from you these lands and devote them to
eternal slavery. Let rise in strength, cried
they against this oigarchy let us tranpe down this
aristocrcy under feet let acknowledge union
with shareholders ~
Such the employed to set fire the north
populace, and To stir up that excitement which
nearly destroyed the country. The black-republican
leaders declared that the democratic party sold the
shareholders Of the South and that It's only principle
principle Of slavery extension They said that ii James
Buchanan should be elected Kansas would certainly he
slave State and that in the event of his defeat that Ter
ritoy would certainly be free They asserted that
slavery had gradually encroached upon free territory
while the truth that not inch of free territory had
millions of acres had been given to free labor
They pretended Chat the slave power in Congress had been
constantly gaining strength while the truth was, that it
had been constantly losing it. They told that the
legislation OF the country had been chiefly for the benefit
of the South while the truth was that twothrds of it
had been for the benefit of the North They declared
that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise the
of all the troubles Kansas while the truth was that
those troubles originated entirely in abolition reckless
ness and could all have been prevented without the
toation of the Missouri Compromise They said further
that the South would not only grasp the Territories but
was filed with the design of conquering back the free
States to slavery and of extending its institutions
the whole continent.
'Some watchword for the fight
Must vindicate the wrong, and warp the right
Religion, freedom, vengeance-what you will
word Is enough to set man TO kill u
In this freedom was the specious vatchword and
religion was made the instrument of imaginary
geance From thousand pupits rang the denunciatons
against democracy Slavery painted in the roesque
descriptions Of mad ncendiares, a novel dance of
death in which the master stood like fensh spectre
driving his victims through continued round of
misery. Christianity called to the rescue; and
while politicians in secret meetings busy in deyisng
earthly punishments for the democrat preachers in their
churches invoking upon his head the thunders of
heaven. Presses suborned--mobs were bought up
to commit acts of violence All that gold treachery
or falsehood could do was done by black repubcanis
History perverted base and covert conspracies
formed and the nobest synpathes of the human heart
used as the tools of low and venal ambition. 1t
was rabes-it was mania and the spread of the
moral plague without parallel in the record of cpl
denies.
The chiefs OF this dangerous movement-the wretches
who poisoned the fountains of public informaonwere
well known to They the broken down hacks of
party-the who had been lingering for half cen
try around the doors of Office and knocking in
admittance All that had been worst and virulent
in old whiggeryal that had been most unsafe and dis
corant in democracy to make up the leadership OF
the new faction Those who We're parials in politics
those whose very touch contagon-those who were
not deemed worthy to in the ranks OF any honor
hle armyreceved high commissions and found eongenial
comrades in the blackrepublican organization II there
be sin that is darker and deeper and more damnng
than all othesa sin that be exenuated by cir
cumstance, and redeemed by pentence--a sin over
which the angel of mercy fobears weept is the
sin of him who consciously and wilfuly peryerts to evil
ends the powers an5 energies of great people. Ap-
plause
1t is for this that arragn black republicansn be-
1t committed crime against truth crime against
reason and crime against popular confidence. have
often wondered in glancng the list of traitors
whether there amongst them ALL enough of wisdom
to constitute statesman enough Of honesty to fit
soul for trial at the judgment bar of God
Foot to foot and shoulder to shoulder, dauntcd by
assault and moved by dicule still carrying the flag
and keeping step to the music of the Union marched
the unhroken phalanx of the northern democracy What
we lacked in numbers made up in rmness There was
no holiday-work On the side were blind zeal and
furious enthusiasm the other, calm consciousness
right and determination TO abide the consequences On
the side intolerance ON the other, Justice
On the side the scattered remnants of a
hundred defeats, grown desperate in their hatred :