Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-01-27
Speech or Rev. =. ". EIisxIrsou M tIe / =

Ladies and Gentlemen 81 heard almost every
word that was spoken in this hall this morning
with pleasure, until Mr.. Garrison stood here to
thank anybody for coming to this platform, or to
say to anybody that it should be recognized and
honOred as an act of courage. Mr. President. if
such tributes are to be paid beg leave, once for
all, to rennnnce my share of them. 1t is honor
| enough to stand upon this platform at all, to
speak for the cause We advocate to-day, and if
! there really dangers around us, itwould be a
/ thing to be still more grateful for. desire 10
have it distinctly understood, for one, that I en-
dorse the brave words of Oliver johnson ''The
cause owes me nothing. but owe everything TO
| the cause" When think of all that have been
able 10 learn from colleges and professors and tu-
tors, and compare it with what the radical aboli
tioniss have taught me, the first seems too light
| thing TO weigh in the balance at all. These
men whom you deride, friends, as fanatics and as
| fools, do you know that these men are the educG-
| tors of you and and your children and do you
| know that the time will come when Worcester
| will look back upon this Disunion Convention as
the pToudest spot in her history since the night
| when George Thompson, driven out Of the first
| Cradle of Liberty in Boston, came to this second
! Cradle of Liberty, here in City Hall, and made it
rock as itnever rocked before (Applause)
| We have come here to-day, Mr. Chairman, with
very different views on the subject we meet to
| discuss-with various antecedents, and various
| habits of mind. Some of men who have
not voted for years Others men who have never
failed to vote when they had chance, and only
regretted that the chances were not more frequen;
| some have come, like Mr. Garrison, believing
| the Constitution to be pro slavery from begin.
ming to end; others, like yourself sir, (Dr.
| Manu- believing it to be as thoroughly anti
slavery and yet others, like myself, believing it
| to be both Of these things, and some things more
| being indeed, as to slavery, what Mr. Bird be-
| ieves the Philadelphia platform was meant to
be, for he says of that, as Taleyrand said Of the
| French Constitution 1t means nothing and
| can mean nothing, for made it myself, on pur-
| pose" Oaughter) Sir, there is no common
| creed among us who stand here to-day, except on
the subject of anti slavery, to which rejoice to
| have devoted our hearts and lives, and which we
follow into disunion because it leads there,
| day. No one OF us can enumerate all the csuses,
| that, gradually working on our minds, have
/ brought us to this clear vision at last, which
| shows us the nations danger and the nations
| salvation. But know myself that even when
/ took part in issuing that call, l did not
| appreciate, l now do, the Importance of
| the movement. did not know how near the
people OF Massachusetts are to disunion. | did
not know until heard the weak reasonings by
which they try to shelter themselves against it,
| did not know until then how thin the soil was
| growing beneath our feet, and how soon those of
| us who thought ourselves safest would be likely
to break through the crust, and GO crumbling
into disunion, with friend here, the senior ed
itor of the Spy at the head. daughter and APP
plause.)
Mr.. Chairman, if had felt careless or needless
| upon this matter-if had dstrusted the instinct
IF had doubted the policy-if had ignored
the facts that drive us to this position they would
all have been driven back into my soul. revived
there forever by one hour that spent last week in
the Athen@um He'll N Boston, with the wreck of
| what was once Charles Sumner When l stood
| before that noble form, once so strong and state
| ly now, even after months of conyaleseence, so
| weak and totterng-when l heard the heroic
| tones OF that unchanged voice, and saw the light
/ ming from those unblending eyes, but remembered
| that there might never again be physical force
enough tor those superb powers to clothe them
selves In their native elOquence-when l
what Charles Sumner was longing to be, and what
he was, o, then that stately form became an altar
for me- an altar with live Goals from heaven upon
1t, on which | could pledge myself once and for
evermore to an eteShal against slavery
(Lond applause.)
Mr.. President, there many weaknesses to
which the best of us are subject, and is, that
OF believing that men will say after election what
they said before l do not indulge that weakness
very freely now; but when think of the confess
sons made by the Republican party three months
ago, and the positions of the men who now lead
the craftsmanship of the free States, why, say
there is nothing more necessary for our dis
union arguments, than to take the scat.
tered sentences of these men, and put them
one by one together. The whole argument
lies in a nutshell Again and again has it been
stated by Republican orators and presses, that
deed be necessary. Again and again has the
picture been drawn of possible horrors and evils
yet to be endured, the end of which might be this.
Mr.. Banks mmortalized himself, if he is destined
to Immortality at all, by that one sentence, in
which he offered, in certain contingency, to
let the Union slide. Well, all we have come
here to-day for, is, to see whether the time has
not come to let the contingency slide. (Applause)
Has it come !? The contingency this -
when all political efforts fail--when the North
fhp pf1t ie doll
ed over, bound hand and foot, to the Shareholders
then at last comes the period of disunion.'
How is it nows Take the confessions of these
very men-their statements, public and private,
their explanations, their predictions-and we
have all we need for the other premss of our ar
gument. Again and again did the same Repub.
lean presses and orators volunteer the confession,
in the words of the New York TanaeS that the
election of Fremont was the last hope OF free.
dom. These, you say perhaps, public
statements aud, after election, of course, we ad-
init that our orators, like the other orators may
sometimes have spoken for effect. Did the same
men speak only for effect, when, in private
sultation with personal and polItical friends they
made the same admissions ? Every gentleman
OF the Republican party here, has heard it adj
mitted in conversation among Republicans, be-
fore election, that in of defeat this time, it
would be scarcely possible for the partyto rally
cessfuly again. Henry Wilson himself told me
that, in Washington St, in the city of Boston,
year ago this last summer have heard from high
authority that few weeks before the election
Mr.. Banks said to his friends, This election de-
cides the politics of the country for the next
thirty years And yet you talk about the Re-
| publican party rallying in 1860 Do you know
| more aboutit than Henry Wilson +? Are you bet.
ter judges Of statistics than Mr.. Speaker Banks
| If you say those men have been wrong before
and may be wrong now, ask yourselves if they
have ever moderated the strength of the party
to which they belong
More than this, are you not aware, those of you
who profess to know all about the pulling of the
wires that the recent condition of the parties at
| the Presidential election, instead Of being any
| thing strange, unexpected, contrary to all the
dreams of the Democratic party and of the South,
| battling all their calculations, and frightening
| their wits out of them ;--instead of this, was a
thing expected, predicted. calculated upon by the
Democratic party four years ago? II you do not
| know it, | do. If there is a Democrat who was
| not aware of the fact, let me tell him that his
| leaders are shrewder men than their Republican
compatriots give them credit for being About
the time of the election Of Gen. Pierce, hap
| pened to be in conversation with gentleman
who is now a Senator ,of the United States He
| had just come from conversation with leading
| Democratic politicians, the chosen advisers Of
| President Pierce, who had met together in New
Hampshire, to map out the future policy of the
administration And what was that policy? To
identity the Democratic party with the South,
ane take the consequences. 1t is the only
source Of political power these men reasoned,
| and they reasoned from experience. We must
| have the South on our side if we have that, we
can risk everything We may lose the North
| somebody suggested Every likely we shall lose
| it, was the answer. We may lose every North
ern State the remarkable statement that