Republican vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1857, 1857-01-03

THE PRESIDENTS MESSAGE.
SPEECH OF HON. JOHN LETCHER
OF VIRGINIA,
In the House of representatives,


In the House of Representatives.,
December II, 1856.
On the question of referring the Presi-
dents message to the Committee of the
Whole on the state of tue Union and the
printing ten thousand copies thereof.
Mr. LETCHER said
Mr. Speaker do not propose to engage
in the discussion of those questions of poll
cy which have been examined by the gen
tleman from Kentucky, Mr. II Marshall,
and the gentleman from South Carolina,
MIR. Orr propose to correct the histo-
~ as furnished by the gentlemanfrom Ohio,
j Mr. Sherman, and also the history relating
to slavery agitation, as furnished by the
venerable gentleman from Ohio, who sits
over in the corner in ''Sleepy Hollow, Mr.
Giddings.
We have been told by the gentleman on the
other side of the House that the Democratic
party are responsible for the continual agi-
tation of the slavery question that they
have introduced it and kept it up in this Hall
session after session and that to that party
is attributable to the constant ferment and
ill-feeling between the North and the South
on this question.
| have been here for six sessions. inclu-
ding the present, and it is due to the
truth Of history to say, that at the opening
of each session the elder gentleman from
Ohio Mr. Giddings] has been the first OH
almost every occasion, to introduce this
subject into the debates OF the House. He
has made regular annual speeches upon the
Presidents Message, at each one Of these
sessions, il | am not greatly mistaken, and
has undertaken to give his views very much
at length in each and all of those speeches,
upon the slavery question: and the final dis
position which, in his opinion, was to be
made of it.
When tla gentleman from Mississippi,
Mr.. BENNETT, on yesterday, had read at
the Clerks desk paragraph purporting to
have been extracted from the speech of the
gentleman from Ohio. he was asked wheth-
er he had ever uttered those or similar SEN
timents in this Hall in debate. | under
stood him to say, not that he had never ut
tered those sentiments, but that he had nc
recollection of having uttered them.
| have here a published volume of the
speeches Of the gentleman from Ohio, which
] found in the public library; and propose
to call attention to two or three passages in
several Of those speeches, for the purpose of
showing that, if the gentleman did net use
the Identical language embodied in the en-
tract then read, he has at least uttered the
sane idea, and, in some instances the pre-
else words In his speech in this Haliupo
tile Joint occupation of Oregon pages
ia9, 10, lad he gentleaaa reported -
saying
Last year, our southern friends express
cd great anxiety for Texas aud the achole
of Oregon Thcy now see difficulties be-
fore them dangers present themselves to
the further pursuit of their plan of terri
torial aggrandizement. They have sudden
ly called to mind the declaration of British
statesman, that "A war with the United
States will be war of emancipation =
They see in prospect the black regiments
OF the British West India Islands landing
among them, and their slaves focIing to the
enemys standard Servile instructions
torment their imaginations rapine, blood
and murder dance before their atlrghted
visions. They are now seen in every part
of the Hall, calling on Wings and Demo
Gratis to save them from the dreadful eonse-
quences Of their own policy Well, sir, |
reply to them, this is your policy, not ours
yoa nave forced us into it against our will
and utmost opposition you have prepared
the poisoned chalice, and we will press it to
your lips until you swallow the very dregs.
Il would not be understood as desiring
Ia Int
ern gentlemen that there are hundreds of
thousands Of honest and patriotic men who
will laugh at your calamity and will mock
when your fear cometh. If blood and mas
saere shonld mark the struggle for liberty
of those who for ages have been oppressed
and degraded my prayer to the God of llea-
ven shall be, that justice, stern, auyietdtng
justice, may be awarded to both master and
slave. desire that every human being
may enjoy the rights with which the God OF
nature has endowed him. If those rights
can be regained BY the down troddon sons
of Africa in our southern States, by quiet
and peaceful means, | hope they will pursue
such peaceful measures. But, if they can
not regain their God-eiven rights by peace
+ tnl measures, nevertheless hope they will
: regain thea; and, ii blood be shed, should
certainly hope that it might be the blood of
those who stand between them and freedom,
and not the blood Of those who have long
been robbed of their wives and children,
and all they hold dear in life"
Here are passages in Il speech delivered
many years ago in this Hail, which embody
every exceptionable idea embraced in the
extract which was read yesterday by the
gentleman from Mississippi Mr.. Bennett,
aud about which the recollection of the
gentleman from Ohio was so much at fault
find in this same book other references
to which | desire to call attention, for the
purpose of showing that these views have
been again and again repeated by the gen
tleman from Ohio. In addressing his pray
ers to the Throne of Grace, as he says he
has repeatedly done, he has never asked
God to avert the calamity Of servile insur-
rection from his country, or save southern
men, their families and homes, from blood
shed, rapine and murder.
On the 453d page ofthis book, in speech
headed "Agitation of the Slave Question, +"
the gentleman said:
1.-The people of Boston did not see fit
to interfere between the Administration
and the negroes Of that city. In the name
u \ Al