The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-10-31
CITY, SUNDAY. OCTOBER 81, 1855
uR. sEWARD ON THE STUMP.
SPEECH DELIVERED AT ROCHESTER OCTOBER rs,

SPEECH DELIVERED AT ROCHESTER,, OCTOBER 25,
El .l 81 aIa- IF &H 1858. "a fi2 amts
49,. [Ertracsl afaa
FELLow-crrzEss The unmistakabe outbreaks of zeal
which occur all around show that you earnest
menand such man am Let us, therefore, at least
for time, pass by all secondary and collateral questions
whether Of personal general nature and consider the
main subject Of the present canvass, The democratic
party, or-to speak more accuratelythe party which
that attractive name is in possession OF the federal
government The republicans propose to dislodge that
party and dismiss 1t from its high trust.
Our country is a theatre which exhibits in full opera
tion, two radically different political sysemsthe
resting the basis of seryle labor the other on
the basis of voluntary labor of freemen Nifi W l3s
The laboreB who enslaved all negroes or per
sons more or less purely of African derivation. But this
is only accidental The principle Of the system is that
labor, in every society by whosoever performed is
cessariy unintelectua groveng and base and that the
aborer equally for his good and for the welfare Of
the State, ought to be ensaved The white laboring
man, whether native or foreigner is not ensayed only
because he cannot as yet be reduced to bondage
The great meoration of human society which modern
times exhibit is mainly due TO the substitution of the sys
tenn of voluntary labor for the old Of sere labor
which has already taken place. o o Tho slave
system is not only intolerant, unjust and inhuman
wards the aborer whom only because he Is laborer il
loads down with chains and converts into merchandise
but scarcely less SO to the freeman to whom, only be-
he is laborer from necessity ii denies facilities
employment, and whom it expes from the community
because it cannot ensaye and convert him into merchan
disc also o In States where the slave system
prevails, the masters directly indirectly secure all
political power, and constitute ruling arstocracy In
the States where the free labor system prevails universal
suffrage necessarily obtains and the State inevitably be-
comes, sooner or later, republic or democracy.
Russia yet maintains slavery, and is despotism Most
of the other European States have abolished slavery and
adopted the system of free labor was the antagonis
tic political tendencies Of the two systems which the first
Napoleon contemplating when he predicted that Eu
all alJr n
lican Never did human sagacty utter pregnant
truth. The two systems at perceived be in
congruous. But they more than incongruous they
incompatible They never have permanently existed
together in country, and they II would
be easy to demonstrate this impossibity the ire
concilable contrast between their great principles and
characteristics But the experience Of mankind has
ousively established it, Slavery, have already init
mated existed in every State in Europe Free labor has
suppaned it everywhere except in Russia and Turkey
State necessities developed in modern times, and now
obging those two nations to encourage and employ
free labor and already, despotc they are find them
engaged in abolishing slavery.
# ei4 o . af
Hitherto the two systems have existed in different
States, but side by side, within the American Union
This has happened because the Union is confederation
of States But in another aspect the United States con
stitute only nation Increase of population which
filling the States out to their very borders together
with new and extended network of railroads and other
avenues and an internal commerce which daily becomes
moro intimate, is rapidly bringing the States into high
and perfect social unity consolidation Th-s
these antagonsc systems continually coming into
closer contact, and collision results. r. So
Shall tell you what this collision means They who
think that it is accidental unnecessary work of In
tcested fanatca agitator and therefore ephemera
mistake the case altogether 1t is mpressble conflict
between opposing and enduring forces and IL means that
the United States must and WILL sooner or later become
either entirely slaveholdng nation or entirely free
labor nation Either the cotton and rice fields Of South
Carolina and the sugar plantations of Louisiana will
II free labO C,ar rJaston
New Orleans become marts for legitimate merchandise
alone else the rye fields and wheat fields of Masachu
sets and New York must again be surrendered by their
farmers to slave culture and TO the production of slaves
and Boston and New York become markets for
trade in the bodies and souls of 1t the failure to
apprehend this great truth that induces many usc
cessful attempts at final compromise between the slave
and free States and it is the existence Of this great fact
that renders all such pretended compromises when made
vain and ephemeral. . "'
The fathers knew that the two systems could not en-
dure within the Union, and expected that within short
period slavery would disappear forever Moreover in
order that these notifications might not altogether de-
feat their grand design of republic maintaining univer-
sal equality they provided that two thirds of the States
might amend the constitution. o o II these States |
to again become universally saveholding, / do not
pretend to say with what violations of the constitution
that end shall be accomplished. On the other hand |
while do confidently believe and hope that my country
will yet become land of universal freedom, do not
expect that it will be made otherwise than through
the action of the several States cooperating with the
federal government and all acting in strict conformity
with their respective constitutions
The strife and contentious concerning slavery which
gently disposed persons habtuay deprecate is moth
ing more than the ripening of the conflict which the
fathers themselves not only thus regarded with favor
but which they may be said to have instituted. .s
1t not to be denied however that thus the course
Of that contest has not been according their humane
antcpatons and wishes In the field of federal politics.
slavery deriving unlookedfor advantages from CONNER
ca changes and energies and unforeseen from the acii
ties of combination between members of the sayehod
ing class and between that class and other property classes
early rallied, and has at length made stand not
merely to retain its original defensive position but to
tend its sway throughout the whole Union 1t is GER
tain that the slayeholdng class of American citizens in
ulge this high ambition, and that they derive eneour-
agement for it from the rapid and effective political sue
cesses which they have already obtained ss.,ss#l
O
When the free States shall be sufficiently emorazed
tolerate these designs they reasonably conclude that
slavery will be accepted by those States themselves
shall not stop to show how speedy how complete would
e the ruin which the accomplishment of these slave
holding schemes would bring upon the country For one
should not remain in the country to test the sad ex
pertinent. Having spent my manhood, though not my
whole life in free State, arstocacy of any kind
much less an arsocracy of Shareholders shall ever make
he laws of the land in which shall be content 20 live
You will tell that these fears are extravagan and
himerical. answer they so but they are 30 only
the designs Of the Shareholders aud can be
defeated But it Is only the possibility OF defeat that
cndc them They cannot be defeated by inactivity
There is no escape from them compatible with non