Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-08-24
GBs aallp Sq9,
MONDAY, AUGUST "a, 1857.
Mr.. Banks. Position.

Mr.. BRuks's Position
The only point on which Mr.. Goodrich seems
to make any headway, in his ten.column effort
TO disprove the soundness Of Mr.. Banks's posi-
ton or antecedents on the slavery question, is
in his alleged quotation of Mr.. B s Wall street
speech, in which it is charged that the latter en-
dorsed the compromise measures of 1850, Fugi-
tive Slave Law and ALL Now, person OF MI.
Goodrich's experience should have possessed the
wisdom. before giving quotation from speech
n so important a mstter-esPeelally when the
sentiment imputed in the quotation IS SO much
in opposition to the position assumed by the
same speaker, in all his other communications
with the public = to ascertain to certainty,
beforehand. whether the words quoted were
the actual words used by Mr. Banks, in his
speech, or conveyed his real ing. No one
knows better than MIR. Goodrich himself, as the
Boston Traveller well suggests, that there is Of
tentimes wide difference between a printed
report of speech, made in hurry, and that
speech itself. He has had better luck than most
men. if he has never been made do.hse language
that he never dreamed of employing"
The idea conveyed in Mr.. Bankss Wall street
speech was not, as CHARGED by Mr.. Goodrich
sanction of the compromise measures of 1850,
but only of that portion of them which sanction
ed and endorsed the compromise of 1920. The
object Of this argument was, of course, to take
away from the advocates of the Nebraska bill the
pretense of opposition raised by Douglas and his
coadiutors to the Missouri Compromise as being
necessitously obligated to repeal the latter, by
the legislation Of 1850, when, as Mr.. Banks
showed the compromises of 1850, bad as they
were in other respects, re-endorsed the prohibi-
tory portion of the compromise of 1920. The
following is what Mr.. Banks said, in his speech
referred to, according to the authorized report,
published at the time-p Is;
Il call your attention to this great act of
wrong--the repeal of the Missouri Compromise
act Of 1920 endorsed as it was by the act of 1850
and sanctioned by the people of the whole coun-
try, in Congress and out of Congress, without
exception OF State or community. 1t was sane
toned by every man in public and in private life
as late as 1858. In December, 1858, fellow citi-
zens, say it without fear of contradiction or
question, and knowing that my words will go
through your press to every part of the CONT
nent, there was not Of the 100000 600 of
people then living in the country who had utter
ed an audible word against the existence con-
tnuance of the compromise line of 1870. Not
one; not even Mr.. Douglas. A voice Three
groans for Douglas. No, never mind about
him. Even Mr.. Douglas, in December, 1858,
made report on a billawhich proposed to repeal
the Missouri act OF 1920, IN which he declared, in
explicit terms, that the repeal Of the Missouri
Compromise would be violation of the measures
of $50, and would open up again the great .agi-
tation which had been SO happily settled by chat
measure"
And again, in the next page, Mr.. Banks says
of the Republican party, that 1--WE stand distinct
ly on the proposition that tn prohibition aoAich
care peace to the country IN 1920 and aoIich ,oas
recognised by the acts of 1850, shallbe made good
to the people Of the United States" Here,
plainly, is only a sanction of so much of the
promises of 1850 as re-endorsed the prohibition
of 1920 The admission of California with free
constitution was part of the so-called ''compro-
misses OF $780, but of course every Free Soiler
ardently favored that measure with Seward, Hale,
Chase, and others, without diminishing in the
least degree his detestation of the infamous Flu
gitve Slave act, and other iniquitous features of
that compromise" Judge Mr.. Banks by what
he actually says, not by what may be imputed to
him in imperfect reports of his speeches.
That Mr.. Banks goes the whole length of the
Philadelphia platform, in opposition to the ex-
tension of slavery, by favoring its prohibition
from all the national territories, by Congressional
enactment, we have only to quote his repeated
recorded declarations. In his letter accepting the
Republican nomination for Governor, he speaks
with an emphasis and distnctness which should
forever remove all cavil or doubt from Mr.. Good
rich, or any one else, to his position. Mr.
Banks says -" believe that the Constitution
conters upon Congress sovereign potosr ouer the
territories of the United States, for their govern.
en and thGt, IN the exercise of its authority, ii
as its duty to prohibit staUery and pOlygamy there
IN" This covers the whole ground, and should
be satisfactory to every one.
To show how Mr.. Banks stood, three years
ago, when nominated for reelection to Congress
for a second term, by the people of his district
by the Democrats, Republicans, and Ameri.
cans, successfully, on the issue of sustaining
him in his course in opposing the Nebraska bill
we give the following substance of his remarks i'll
the Democratic nominating convention of his dis.
trict at South Reading, in October, 1854:
"He had ever advocated freedom for individu
ais and liberty for the nation. fGreat applause,
When slavery was introduced into Congress, he
troduce the subject in any FORM but when it was
INTRODUCED, said he, Il stood up for the North and
liberty [Applause. As a Massachusetts man,
he felt thai he had right to speak for the North
and for freedom, and he never would have shown
his face at home had he feared to do what he
could against the passage Of the Nebraska bill.
He was still opposed to the bill, he never yielded
to it, and before God he never would. Immense
cheering. na
be was against the measure and everything
flowing from it, so far as slavery was concerned.
Whenever and however the question of slavery
should be introduced, he should stand for the
North and liberty. He was for the equal rights
OF the North as well of those Of the South
and should he be elected, upon this question, he
would stand ever by what he believed to be the
opinion Of the people of his district. He had
separated rreSocably from the friends Of the Ne.
braska bill, as far as that measure was concerned
He was emphatically against it now and should
always oppose it, These principles, he said Top
position to slavery, would be the guiding lights
Of his life, and he should never shrink from
them"
DANGEROUS CoUNTERFEITs. - The public
should be on their guard against the new coun
terfet IS bills Of the Lee Bank, which have beer
SO extensively circulated in some quarters. The
safest way for those who are not good judges o
bills, will be TO refuse the fves purporting to b.
that bank, altogether. The counterfeits have {
red tint, and by that are readily distinguished
from the true bills, but new issue may be made
from the same plate, with the true colored paper
49, n-sr. - ~