Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1857-09-17
Judge warden,s speech.

Judge Warden,s Speech.
A large and enthusiastic crowd gathered
at the Melodeofr last evening to welcome
and hear Judge Warden, of Columbus
The Judge, since his boyhood, has been an
ardent supporter of the Democratic party,
and has received again and again, Offices
of trust from that party, showing that he
ever has been considered fayorite soldier
in that army. But the endorsement by the
last State Convention, OF the odious Dred
Scott decision, drove Judge w. from the
ranks of the Democracy, and now he does
battle in the Republican army of freedom.
1t is due to Judge w. 10 say that he has
never been supporter of the Kansas-Ne-
braska bill, AT the time of its passage he
was invited to address Democratic meet
ing at Columbus, in support of that bill,
but after thorough investigation of its
principles and details he declined the task
Still, even then he did not break away from
the party to which he had been attached,
believing that all the professions of that
party in favor of freedom. all its opposition
to the naturalization of slavery, all its res
olutions in favor of the Wilmot Proviso,
all the denunciations Of the Democratic
press against the slavery features of the
compromise law of 1850, were honest and
sincere, and that yet the Democratic party
would show itself as the acting opponent,
as well as the resolving opponent of the
extention of slavery. The Judge, too, had
been taught by his party to think the Cen
stitution TO be "higher law" and had been
taught to resist any legislative enactment,
any judicial decision which controvened
that ''higher law" That was in the brave
and courageous days of the Democratic
party, but when he now saw that the Dem
ocratic party of Ohio, not silently acquies-
cling in the odious decision of the United
States Supreme Court, which gives every
territory to slavery as constitutional right
but actually folding its arms across its
breast, rolling up its eyes, and cowardly
and slavishly endorsing that decision, hu-
manity and freedom could no longer hope
anything from such an abject party, and
he left it. No alternative was left. Eth
er he must adhere to the Democratic doc
trines as taught first by Jefferson, and as
avowed in Ohio for years by his party, and
leave the party organization, or he must ad-
here to the party organization and desert
its principles.
Judge Warden reviewed, step by step,
the anti-slavery history of the Democracy
of Ohio. He went back to the days of its
integrity, when the advocates of Calhoun
ism, in the ranks Of the Democracy, were
an insignificant clique in the Southwest
county of Ohio; to those days when the
rank and file openly avowed opposition to
slavery in every form; when the bright par
ticular motto was freedom of conscience
In Minute and mastery manner, the
Judge traced the course of the party down
to this day. He showed when and where
it endorsed the Wilmot Proviso; he quo
ted the anti-slayery language of Governor
Reuben Wood; he showed when and where
that language had been approved by the
party; he told how David T. Disney on
the floor of Congress, voted for the Wilmot
Proviso because so instructed by his con-
stituents; he showed how the party had
refused to acquisce in the odious features
of the Fugitive Slave Law. The Jud ge
proved an anti-slavery record for the Dem
ocracy of Ohio, which we could not have
believed were not the proof before our eyes
in the shape of State platforms, speeches
of its candidates, and column upon column
from its newspapers.
The present position of the party in Ohio
was most forcibly given. Its complete en-
dorsement of the bred Scott decision gives
the Lie to every previous profession in favor
Of freedom, and yields up all to slavery
power. This decision falcifes the law of
nature even as recorded in Blackstone; it
contradicts the law as laid down by Chief
Justice Marshall, and by the Supreme Court
of the United States over and over again.
Judge Warden was most happy, yet
scorching in his allusion to the great fraud
perpetrated by Mr.. Buchanan, in the utter
deception which he has been guilty of to-
wards the North. Judge w. and host
of other Democrats advocated the the NOM
ination by the party of Mr.. Buchanan, in
tending thus to condemn the imbecility of
Franklin Pierce, and the treachery of
Stephen A. Douglas. Not that there was
much hope for from Mr.. Bucbanan-h
antecedents, and life long estrangment
from the humanizing influences of social
life forbid that-but it was supposed that
he would not be utterly regardless of the
views of his Northern friends, whom he
knew to hold to the doctrine that Congress
has right to control the territories. Yet
how basely has Mr.. Buchanan betrayed the
North, can be seen in his late letter in
which, he not only denies the right of Con-
gress to control the territories, but openly
ayows the monstrous doctrine that slavery
now exists in Kansas, under the Constitu-
ton of the United States, and 1t IS q mys-
terry hosu such doctrine could eUer haze
been doubted.
We cannot follow Judge Warden thro'
his speech, and least of all can we give
those shouts of eloquehce which again and
again thrilled the house, and called down
most enthusiastic bursts of applause. We
wish We could give our readers one
glimpse of the picture Judge Warden drew
before the audience in his illustration of
slavery as an abstraction. 1t was the
scene in Cincinnati, in which fugitive
slave stabbed that catcher of stray human
cattle, Marshal Elliott, and in which the
slave himself received his death wound;
the wretched black wife, kissing the sable
check of her husband, and calling upon
God to let them die together. That